Imagine, just for a bit, that I weighed up all the arguments; ignored both the 'Unicorn speak' and 'Project Fear' and came up with the conclusion that Britain would probably be better off outside the European Union, because it would give the country the opportunity to trade all over the world, change the way countries trade with each other and unify the people in the belief that national economics would prove considerably more beneficial, especially over a short-term period, in the current climate. Imagine this (because all the sound bite reasons were either of the country's own making or were not managed well by whatever government was in power - this time they're all to blame).
Right. I voted Leave. The result went my way and I felt like the people of Britain had spoken to the government and said, 'We want change!'
Over two years down the line and how do I feel about the current situation? Do I want a Hard or a Soft Brexit? Do I believe the continuous Project Fear stories suggesting we'll starve to death within a fortnight? Will there be job losses; power outages and less choice in the supermarkets? Was there any change? Do I care?
If I did my research, I will have noted that the 28 countries in the EU have a say in my countries fate, only two of them have bigger economies than mine, so we should be in a good position and if we haven't we should be able to join another trade organisation under our own conditions. There would be an element of arrogance in my position, but you can never understate the importance the UK has in the world. And maybe that might be where level-headed come unstuck. Hasn't the UK's sense of importance been the sticking point in all negotiations? As a conscientious Leaver, I know the UK is a big market and anyone would fancy getting 'some of that', so what's the problem extricating from one and setting up the others, like any business arrangement?
In my assurance that a Leave vote would be good for the UK, did I ever, for a second, consider what the reaction of our mutual trade club might be when one of the biggest members pulls up sticks and goes it alone? Would I have even cared? Would I be concerned that there appears to be some stock in serious rumours that the government has serious concerns about a hard Brexit to the point there's stockpiling notices being prepared? Where are we going to get the 60% of all the food we consume on April 1st, 2019?
My main argument as a Remainer before the referendum was to forget all the hysteria and to look at how leaving the EU would affect YOU and many times I did this by asking how the EU has adversely affected YOU? The weird thing is 95% of the arguments thrown up by Leavers - whether it affected them or not - have been largely disproved and yet, as we know, they, almost to a man, have a stubborn determination not to be shown they might have been conned. Being conned is a sign of weakness and in the 21st century world of social media, weakness is for snowflakes and less-than-real-men.
Whatever way I'd voted, I reckon I'd feel pretty much the way I do at the moment, maybe to different degrees of bemusement. Brexit ministers are queuing up to leave and even some of the real nutjobs who want Brexit at any cost must have realised by now that if the key men in the lie that was Brexit (Leave or Remain) have jumped the listing ship... That must tell you that either Theresa May is either trying to make the best of a bad deal or is in bed with those pesky EU bureaucrats in a deal that keeps us in their free trade union. Or it could be that the likes of Davis and Johnson want as far away from the shambles as possible so they can relaunch their careers on the back of Brexit's failure, in the knowledge that nothing they say or have said will mean a jot in our post-truth world.
This might sound patronising, but it really isn't. If you voted Leave with your heart or because of reasons that didn't affect you, or if you voted Leave for immigration, sovereignty and control, then there's a good chance that you've simply given up being remotely interested in it unless it doesn't happen and those of you trying to follow proceedings can rest assured that those of us who knew exactly what this would eventually involve and still believe we'll be doing grave self-harm to ourselves and future generations, also haven't got a real clue what's going on, apart from outlandish conspiracy theories, or as we like to call them, theories. In 2018 very little is outlandish and you need to expect the unexpected.
If I'd voted Leave, I'd be wondering if it would be easier to get what we want by staying in the EU and showing them how the UK and many other EU countries want fundamental changes to way the United States of Europe is run and how it deals with issues pertaining to sovereign states. The major European powers need to realise that neoliberalism is no longer working; Europe is becoming a simple 4-4-2 formation, while the rest of the world is perfecting their 4-3-3 or 3-5-2 formations and the scary thing is a lot of the rest of the world is now run by terrifying people with unpleasant right wing ideologies.
If I voted Leave, I'd be standing up to my fellow vote Leavers and point out to them that in the first quarter of 2018 as many as 77,000 EU citizens moved to this country and I'd want them to not be satisfied. I'd want them to be frothing at the mouth about too many of them, coming over here, etc etc and then I'd tell them that over 250,000 non-EU citizens moved to this country in the same period and while the rest of the world is a big place, it has always outnumbered Europeans coming to the UK. I'd want them to ask themselves what makes an EU citizen worse than an African, a Philippine, Indians, Pakistanis, South Americans, Arabs, Japanese, Chinese, Australian or Americans? Many of these have freedom of movement because of Commonwealth ties. Are none of them coming to steal your job or put a strain on services? To take it to an extreme - some of you don't like Trump but you'd buy his goods, chlorinated chickens and all.
Vote Leave committed electoral fraud. The PM keeps banging on about the Will of the People based on 52% of the 72% who voted and based on a simple yes or no question we've decided that it has to be an acrimonious divorce, but no one wants to handle it. If nothing else, isn't it time someone from the government put themselves up to answer questions, truthfully. To tell the people what the score is and how bad is it likely to get before it gets better? And if Brexit really is the biggest peacetime threat to the face the UK since the war, then why is it being handled by one political party? Why isn't this being handled by all of them, jointly, in the interests of the kingdom?
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