Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Too stupid to know when you have lost the war, Scotland’s supposed political and academic elite make fresh call to halt Brexit, the loathing of respecting the result just drips off a letter to the press, there is no going back on ‘direct democracy’, the people have spoken
















Dear All

How valuable is your opinion?

To you, it is pretty important, but to others, it is less so, have you noticed that there is a tendency in our society that certain people’s opinions seem to be valued more than others, as their status gives them some kind of alleged special insight.

If you are an ordinary joe blogs then you are pretty much deemed not to have special insight, in fact you are considered stupid, someone who is to be ‘managed’ because in reality, you can’t be trusted to think for yourself.

This is the arrogance of the political and academic elite; you call it the ‘old boys’ network’ or the ‘glass ceiling’.

The press seem to have subscribed to this idea as they seek to shape public opinion, because in many ways they also think that you as an ordinary punter can’t think for yourselves either, you need their help.

The migrant crisis was the straw that ‘broke the camel’s back’ with British people, it showed clearly that the uncaring, unelected political elite of the EU held the ordinary people of Europe in such utter contempt, it had to be fought against. The situation in Europe may not be getting the same coverage as before, but the bulk of the problems are ongoing.


This story is interesting, it is interesting because it brings down the migrant crisis to a personal level; how it impacts a community and the aftermath.  Vincenzo Lionetto Civa, mayor of Castel'Umberto in Sicily, led a revolt to prevent a few dozen new migrant arrivals from taking up residence in an abandoned hotel Tensions over migration are running high in Italy, and are expected to get worse. There will be violence; the slide towards this is already in motion. I can see a time were European countries will become not just politically unstable but also in terms of social cohesion. If the EU army goes ahead, these people will be used to suppress internal dissent. From these circumstances will come the real slide undoubtedly towards civil war, and all that goes with it, domestic terrorism will be the new threat that develops in future years in Europe!

The Brexit vote was a game changer in British political history as it showed that ‘direct democracy’, the ‘will of the people’ mattered, the result shocked some people but not me. I knew that Britain’s time as a member of the EU had passed its sell by date. The EU had become not an instrument of European unity as parroted by the elites but an instrument of oppression which tolerated no dissent from ‘mere’ member states or their peoples.

The problem is that post result, the losing side haven’t bought into the concept, Britain is leaving the European Union ….. totally. There is no way back, there is no second vote, there is no scenario which will magic the result into never have happened. There is no EU now as far as the people of Britain are concerned; the ‘event’ is over. To see scores of Scotland’s most high- profile academics and politicians calling for last year’s Brexit vote to be overturned is pitiful, it also shows graphically what passes for self interest, denial of the democratic process and greed. The political and academic elite did rather well out of the EU, they were bought off rather cheap, cheap in comparison to their level of support. The EU was rather good at ‘buying’ support in member states of the political and academic elite.

The fig leaf to cover the anti democratic stance is wrapped in fake concern, citing “its disastrous consequences”, to that a gang from the worlds of politics, business, academia and the arts have signed a letter to the press which is said to be breaking a fragile consensus accepting the referendum.

Bollocks!

There wasn’t a fragile consensus accepting the referendum ever, to speak in those terms is pretty much disingenuous, we have people like rent a mouth former Labour first minister Henry McLeish; his Liberal Democrat deputy Jim Wallace; deadbeat SNP MEP Alyn Smith; and former Tory MEP Struan Stevenson who aren’t the future, they are the past, their time has come and gone!

If you add in the rest of the gang which is said to be a Who’s Who of Scotland’s intellectual elite, including historians Sir Tom Devine and Chris Smout; former chief medical officer Sir Harry Burns; scientist and Edinburgh University vice-principal Anne Glover; distinguished international jurist Sir David Edward; businessman and diplomat Lord John Kerr; and trade union leader Grahame Smith.

It all adds up to 11 people, plus the rest who were daft enough to fight a battle already fought and lost. After doing Brexit in Glasgow, I stepped away; my job was to get enough votes to add to the total for a win. The Leave Campaign wasn’t perfect by any means but on the ground, a small group of people across Scotland managed to pull off a remarkable result, short of money, short of people and short of time, and despite all this, Scotland delivered a million votes to add to the Brexit pot which helped take Britain out of the 40 plus years of membership.

The Brexit talks are still at the phoney war stage as much as I can tell, but already  Dominic Cummings, the former Vote Leave campaign chief isn’t happy he, unleashed a tirade of criticism on Twitter against the Brexit Secretary. David Davis was branded him “thick as mince, lazy as a toad and vain as Narcissus”. Perhaps Davis needs more help or perhaps the political tree needs shaken up and he needs replaced. The laugh in my opinion is the continued fake growing concern at home and abroad the UK economy is already suffering from crippling uncertainty over its future relationship with its biggest trading partner.

There isn’t uncertainty about a future relationship because in the end, the people with the money will ensure that the political elite ‘fix’ the problem, you see the real leaders of the world aren’t in politics, they are in business.

This part of their letter you will find amusing:

“We see our society, economy and politics becoming ever more undermined due to the impact of Brexit. We recognise a narrow majority voted to leave the European Union, but the disastrous consequences are now becoming ever clearer – every day. Even before the UK has left the EU, we face falling living standards, rising inflation, slowing growth and lower productivity. In a democracy, it is always possible to think again and choose a different direction. We need to think again about Brexit, to have a UK-wide debate about calling a halt to the process and changing our minds.”

This sums up rather nicely the arrogance of the political elite, they are the ones who got it wrong, they are the ones who are out of step, as to their doom and gloom by saying, “we face falling living standards, rising inflation, slowing growth and lower productivity”.

Did any of this never happen while in the EU?

Every working class person has seen a fall in their living standards under the EU, we have been robbed of a decent rate of interest of our savings in the bank, we have seen the rise of food banks, we have seen unemployment, we have seen breakdown in social cohesion. Maybe the rich politicians and academics living in their ivory towers have been shielded by public money from the taxpayer but the rest of us, the ordinary people have suffered greatly.

Their real concern is for their financial self interest.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Exiting the European Union said:

“In one of the biggest democratic exercises in our history, the British people voted to leave the European Union. The Government is committed to delivering on that mandate, by building a new deep and special partnership with our closest allies and neighbours in Europe”.

The game is over; the new challenge is to be global Britain again, to forge closer links with the Commonwealth.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

6 comments:

THE INVISIBLE MAN said...

Very interesting, George. I think the migrant crisis changed your mind then too?

People had been grumbling about the EU for years but leaving it always seemed about as likely as growing turnips on the moon. However, the migrant crisis did change everything. Even though I voted remain, I decided to learn from that and accept the result. So many of my left-wing friends are in denial about the vote, even thinking that Corbyn would save Britain's EU membership, when the 2017 manifesto categorically states that Labour accepts the vote. They even raged about reconnecting with the Commonwealth because of the imperialist past, as if the plan is to rebuild said Empire as it once was in 1900, which is of course nonsense.

In general, it seems that what needs to happen is for Britain to build a new arrangement. True, leaving the common market would cause potential tariffs for us, but we'd have no tariff with anywhere else in the world. At the end of the day, we need to sort something out that works for us, just like Norway and Switzerland have done so.

Remaining in the EU is impossible, there's no turning back.

G Laird said...

Hi AL C

The migrant crisis was bad enough but the real kicker was the response to it by Merkel and the EU, that was the tipping point, not just in the Uk by elsewhere in places like Hungary and Poland.

For democracy to work, it cannot be subject to threats.

George

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