52% of the country are not dimwitted racists and xenophobes; yet given the rise in hate crimes and the fact that nearly two weeks after the vote to leave people are still peddling the same truly laughable and almost deliberately obtuse 'facts' - such as 'Taking back control', 'Ridding ourselves of unelected European bureaucrats', 'Saving £350 million a week which can go straight to the NHS', 'Turkey will be joining the EU' and 'Policing our own borders' - and completely refusing to even acknowledge the logical and at times utterly truthful counter-arguments, you would think there were.
Let's look at those Brexiteer's claims:
Take Back Control - let's look at this now. The PM has resigned. There is a leadership battle, which will determine the new PM, decided by the Tories. Not undemocratic, but not the country's decision. 'Control' might mean anything at the moment, but there seems a distinct lack of it and the party in charge are fundamentally split down the middle, campaigned against each other, showed bitterness and hatred laced with lies towards supposed colleagues. Some control, huh?
£350 million saved redirected to the NHS - this has already been denied despite being the slogan on the battle bus and a big reason still given by people who voted out. The stock market lost a lot of money during the first two weeks, it has rallied, but the amount we lost, as a country, was 8 years worth of net contributions to the EU - in one fell swoop; bingo; just like that - no bureaucracy, no EU interference, this was your country 'taking back control' and allowing your money, thanks to you, to disappear.
Ridding ourselves of unelected European Bureaucrats - these will be the elected MEPs that all people get to vote for every four years (but don't often choose to); not 'unelected' at all. The fact that the UK population's mistrust of the EU meant that a lot of MEPs were UKIP people meant that your elected MEPs did more to prevent good EU regulations than it ever did to stop bad ones. The fact that the UK has a House of Lords - a lot of unelected bureaucrats (often loaded with left or right leaning peers) to help bolster a struggling government is not undemocratic in the slightest. Is it? Eh?
Turkey - In or Out? - The British, like the 27 other EU states, had a veto and the EU wasn't unanimous, it was everyone or nothing. One of those 28 countries say NO and the other 27 had to respect and abide by that veto. The UK opposed Turkey's entry, as did SEVEN other EU states - when asked - yes, the situation is more complicated than that, but as a result of us coming out, we'll be negotiating with the EU on the same level as Turkey, but they've offered to take 2 million refuges back, we're having 20,000. Turkey will probably get the same EU trade deals as the rest without a vote. We won't and we won't get a vote. While we wouldn't have voted for Turkey in the UK the turkeys voted for Christmas - huzzah for us and our infinite wisdom.
Policing our Own Borders - won't it be good to go to the airport again, or ports, or the Chunnel and see British Customs and Excise guards rather than all of them... um foreign, er, border, er... Okay, the new points-based system for migrants will certainly slow the slew of damned foreigners - except almost twice as many non-EU migrants came to work here last year, many from Africa with little or no skills; so a points-based system is always going to be better for all concerned. Let's start right now. I have a friend from Uzbekistan who plays the spoons...
I also hear people talking about ridiculous things from straight bananas to fishing restrictions. I for one will be pleased to see bent bananas back in the shops; I've been thoroughly cheesed off with all the round, oblong and square bananas thrust on me by pirate banana growers in Bulgaria; as for those fishing restrictions; damn those EU people from preventing the bulk of the rest of the fishing industry from going under in the 1980s. If those bureaucrats hadn't stopped our overzealous fisherman from landing just about anything that moved, North Atlantic cod could have been extinct in these waters by now and subsequently haddock and other fish of that ilk because of relentless over-fishing.
Imagine a brain like a Möbius strip. You say state a 'fact'; it's proved wrong, so you say state another, that is proved wrong, so you say another. When that is proved wrong you start with your first 'fact' and repeat ad nauseum. Or, in the case of many out there, you'll get a variation of 'I don't care what it costs I just wanted my country back!' which, if you ask them where it went you get don't get a laugh, you get the objections wheeled out again, with louder voices and gritted teeth. Ask any of these people to tell you of one incident in the last 12 months where the EU has worsened their lives to their knowledge and the amount of blank stares or dumbfounded looks is enough to realise that the final legacy of Margaret Thatcher is here at last - not the leaving of the EU, but the total obsession with 'self'. The biggest protest vote against her and the subsequent 35 years that followed her initial election will ultimately hand the people the thing they thought they were voting against - the elite.
How about this for irony and a measurement of just how unintelligent the voting public has become. In 2015, the electorate kicked the crap out of the LibDems. They weren't the party responsible for the austerity, they might even have tempered it, yet the Tories and the press managed to make you believe that the mess we were in was because of the Cleggster and his band of uncaring Liberal bastards. Twelve months later and the same thing has been achieved again in incredibly similar ways; you were told the EU was responsible for all our woes and despite everything you know telling you it was a lie, you've always had an inward distrust of the EU so it must be right and you don't understand politics much anyhow...
Just so you understand that everything you voted for will, like a general election, not happen and again you will only have yourselves to blame except you won't get to try again in five years.
The final irony is that because the Tories were literally 'all over the place' and the establishment couldn't keep a lid on it, it required the Labour Party to implode; to do enough to keep the Tories from all of the front pages and all of the headlines. The Tories can't run themselves, let's make sure the people don't lurch to Corbyn. Have we got enough dirt on all those Blairites to keep Jezza busy?
People need to start thinking for themselves is no longer enough of an excuse or directive, because it's clear that many of us can't (or won't). We have become blinded by trivia, lost in vitriol and we're starting to lash out and this is the fault of 35 years of governmental neglect towards the majority of the people.
There will never be as big a turn out of voters again in my lifetime; I believe they've made their mistake and I hope we all don't live (and die) to regret it. Politicians have to start thinking about the future and ensuring that the population born post-Brexit isn't riven with the ignorance, hate and disdain they have nurtured for so long to get us to this place.
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