So why did we vote to leave the European Union ? You can answer for yourself if you voted LEAVE or you can guess about the reasons if you voted REMAIN.
But the real answer is one that’s not been much talked about. The real answer is that you were asked to vote by David Cameron. Simple really, isn’t it? Nothing is that easy, as you should know.
The background to the EU vote has everything to do with Conservative insecurity and David Cameron’s stupidity both before, during, and after the referendum. Faced with a collapse of their vote during an election and
constant disruption in the party, Cameron thought giving the promise of an EU referendum worth the risk. That is the background; no consideration to what the public might want, except those of them wanting it so bad they would be willing to leave the party to join another. Let me say here, I’m giving no credit to Ukip or Farage as they are as responsible for us leaving the EU as my postman is for my bills.
The delivery of the referendum was a car crash on a massive scale. I understand David Cameron personally stepped in to stop what really amounts for the Tories as disaster recovery. Not one file, not one sheet of paper, and not one sentence was given to how we would leave the EU, should the vote go against the government. In terms of proper governance, this is a failure of epic proportions and Cameron has gotten away with this insult
to the British public scot free and, in time, will gladly accept his knighthood and place in the House of Lords.
So the event itself, this turned in to a cat fight, slanging match, pub scrap, war of words, or indeed war of lies, but during all this mud-slinging, again, not one line was given to how we would leave the EU. Yes, we were told lots of things about keeping the free market, giving £350m to the NHS, etc., etc., but compared to the real process we were left bewildered, and still are, almost a year after the vote.
And this is where Theresa May entered our story, to play her part in this disgusting fraud.
Now let’s for one minute think of our membership of the common market as a simple club. So you have been a member of the club for many years, enjoyed all its benefits and, for the most part, enjoyed being part of the club – after all, the club is made up of your near neighbours, why wouldn’t you be friendly to them?
But one day you wake up and think, I want to leave the club. Nothing is stopping you if that’s what you want to do. So you let the club know and they remind you of a few things: you agreed to help finance a mini-van for the club and for the past few years you have been paying your share of that project, and the club helped you finance some equipment you couldn’t afford yourself.
What do you do? Do you:
A) Try to work out a satisfactory agreement, accepting you brought this on yourself, and leaving on terms that will not harm the club too much, but terms that mean you can still be friends with the club members and perhaps still be invited to weddings etc.
Or
B) Do you create a big fuss, telling the club members you owe them nothing and demand to keep your equipment, while slagging the club off to everyone who will listen.
Clearly any sensible, rational person would choose the first option or something similar. Yet Theresa May has instead made Europe our enemies and turned our leaving into another dog fight. Yet again, we are offered no
details at all, just stern words and finger-wagging. We must send our best finger-wagger to the negotiations. No regard for leaving on good terms. I think it’s called burning our bridges.
This is another fraud on the public. There is no good or bad exit of the EU. Conservative attitudes will make our future worse because our future standing in the world, the way we deal with other countries, really really matters. And it’s not all about money We should make every attempt to leave the EU calmly and carefully, giving time to both our needs, and Europe’s needs, to remain stable. For if Europe falls into trouble it affects the UK.
So how should we leave the EU ? Well, ask any school child over the age of ten and they will tell you the best way to approach any project of size is to break it up into logical parts. Most people who voted leave want self-determination. Fine, we can move all the laws over and agree a way that will happen. I see no real issue there and certainly no need to think we need to go to war.
So we work on that and other issues, like whether joint projects with the EU can continue. Yes, we can continue to fund areas of the EU like space, science and other research projects; these, after all, benefit us and removing ourselves from them means incurring the extra costs of doing things alone or dropping important research.
Most importantly we need to treat EU citizens as humans, not bargaining chips. It may seem reasonable to some, during war to hold people hostage but in peace time our friends should be given some civil consideration.
Once again, this stance by Theresa May will backfire on us, we should be looking to make friends, not lose them, in a very dangerous world and threatening our closest nations is not good. Not good at all.
These people working here legally should be given what amounts to a UK passport, but naturally one that allows them to come and go within the EU. The EU can give the same to our people. Should we feel we need to
reduce the size, we could offer to buy this passport back later.
But through all of this, we should be talking as friends, and hope to stay friends after. The conservatives really have made a mess of this. Putting their own needs ahead of the British people, this will cause problems for years to come and could affect our trading relationships worldwide for generations. This at a time when trade agreements mean the most.
The point about trade agreements is they are not really about trade, they are about one side getting something form their other which it might not want to give. India for example want more of their citizens being able to come to the UK to work and study. But more importantly countries with suspect human rights records may want arms or training to control their own citizens or worse.
