I count myself very lucky to have lived in a varied and open society for the last forty years. It was something I took for granted and honestly believed that this was the only way for the future. But there are talks of walls going up all over the place – real ones with bricks and wire, and notional ones with laws and statutes.
On this auspicious day, how did we get here? It all began in 2011 with the Fixed Term Parliament Act which enshrined in employment the lowest calibre of politicians that this country has seen for…(fill in your own timescale). The House of Commons filled with the talentless, their privileged background being no guarantee of any suitability for the job they had chosen for themselves. This is directly why we still have in place possibly the worst Prime Minister it is possible to conjure from these haughty ranks. (How many times do you hear commentators say that under normal circumstances the PM would have resigned etc? )
And the Empirists danced with glee. They could see the Bullingdon Boys were hapless careerists and set about their game. Removing the UK from the EU. The Tory Government has been in power for the majority of the last 40 years and as a consequence our relationship with Europe has always been tense. The result of the Empirists chasing the fading dream of bygone halcyon days. And so the game was on. Cameron called a Referendum despite Angela Merkel telling him he didn’t need to – we could talk, she said.
His legacy was to leave the unholiest of messes. A country split by ideology, values and more seriously, violence. Remember Jo Cox- and now we have the far-right calling Tory Remainers Nazis. Unbelievable.
A way out would be to have another Referendum fortified by more facts than rhetoric. But that has been ruled out by Theresa May and others saying that it would undermine our democracy. It has been shown that the Leave campaign told lies and broke the law to win in 2016. But no new Referendum, in the name of Democracy. Go figure.
The UK is now a jaw-dropping wonder across the World.
And so to our current PM, whose judgement is so flawed that it beggars belief, and whose only armour is her arrogance. As Home Secretary she oversaw the reduction in police numbers so that today we have a real murder and knife crime problem causing a great deal of concern.
She authorised the driving of vans around London calling for immigrants to leave the UK.
The signal this sends for racist sympathies in our society is obvious.
When she took over from the Humming Cameron she immediately wrote into law the leaving date of 29th March 2019. Then called a General Election. Surely the wrong way round. She refused to be interviewed on radio, as per previous elections and candidates for the top job. She refused to take part in the Leaders Debate. She refused any exposure to the public unless it was meticulously choreographed. Her only campaign line was “Brexit means Brexit”. She lost her majority. Idiot.
When she visited the site of the horrific Grenfell Tower disaster she refused to meet shaken residents. Arrogance personified.
And so, after repeatedly saying that it is her deal or no deal, and seeing that the Parliamentary vote is in danger, she opens up dialogue with Labour MPs two years after starting this process. Gobsmackingly inept. If this agreement with the EU is for the whole of the country why hadn’t there been more cross-party dialogue ? In truth, it’s really about her attempt to go down in history as the PM who led the UK out of the EU to glory. Instead, she will be remembered for her arrogance and incompetence.
Labour have been little better, playing a game of chess with the whole process, and only lately coming clean. JC wants out of Europe too.
The UK has decided to change its Constitution on a 52/48 split. It is no wonder that there’s trouble as 16.5 million voters, not to mention the 11 million who didn’t vote, wonder where their Leader is in this Cabal of the Talentless.
It is not a second Referendum that would undermine our democracy. It is this farce that will make the Electorate wonder what the point is.
(I acknowledge the copyright of the images used. Thank you for making this process bearable.)
singlemaltmonkey 
From what we see via the media, the whole process looks akin to a second rate farce. We can only hope that good old English commonsense will prevail
At the moment there is the political equivalent of Morris Dancing going on, waving sticks and jingling bells. There are a lot of Old Stagers here on both sides who are stunned at what is happening. Time for some serious finger-wagging.
Insightful article, why do politicians around the world act with such ignorance and then cover it with arrogance?
I guess we’ve all come across people like that, Mal, but it’s a tragedy when they are playing with peoples lives and livelihoods. We’re being stitched up. (And Putin is laughing down his sleeve. He needs a destabilised Europe on his doorstep so that he can carry on annexing regions if he wants to.) I’m going to have to think of something funny for my next post. 🙂
Al, re “The UK is now a jaw-dropping wonder across the World.” you lot have nuthin’ on us here across the pond. We are right there with you as paragons of the aware being overruled by the stupid. And since no one here wants to do anything about our greatest threat, global warming, the stupid are going to take us all down unless… continue…
…unless… dead right… we must fight on…