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
Very interesting, George. I think the migrant crisis changed your mind then too?
ReplyDeletePeople 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.
Hi AL C
ReplyDeleteThe 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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