Gavin Esler

37% does not make a democracy. People who think 50%+1 is relevant in anything don't understand democracy in anything more than children’s terms. A crooked referendum, campaigned for with tons of lies and bullshit, for the benefit of a bunch of tax-dodging wankers. If that's democracy, screw that. Where's the 350 million quid a week the English were promised, eh? What happened to “they need us more'n we need them?” They were all lies to begin with, there's truth. And a referendum that was set up as advisory is an exceedingly stupid way to make a radical change to the very fabric of the nations. For democracy to function, one needs an informed and intelligent citizenry, not a bunch of propaganda-stuffed sheep. I'll bet you won't get many Brexiteers in the English car industry / fishing industry, etc., admitting that they actually voted for Brexit nowadays! Talk about turkeys voting for Xmas - well they got what they voted for -- same as the idiots who 'lent' their vote to the Con Men to 'Get Brexit Dun'! I was reading about people dying of COVID in the US who insisted that they weren't cos Trump had told them it was a hoax. I think that is a parallel for this. Because Brexit was sold with the meta-lie: don't believe anything that casts doubt on it, it is all Project Fear, it will be hard (as it is for most humans) for the Brexit supporters to admit they were profoundly wrong, that they were conned and lied to on industrial scale. And that sovereignty is nonsense compared with power and Brexit traded most of our economic and political power away for the sovereignty nonsense. And of course the above article does say much about the Finance and service sectors which are well and truly devastated because we did nothing to trade concessions on their behalf in return for concessions on traded goods in which the EU has a positive balance to lose. And of course the reason the negotiations went so badly is that the government are Brexit fundamentalists blind to UK interests. Because of Brexiters shortsighted stupidity the Brits have been lumbered with a totally incompetent government.

Some UK people I know like to talk about Norway and Switzerland. Good grief!! The Switzerland model was not on offer! Regarding Norway, Mr. Schäuble, the then finance minister in Germany argued before the ref, that it wouldn't make sense for the UK to leave the EU but remain bound by its rules (eh eh). I guess he had a clearer view on the political realities in the UK than I gave him credit for at the time. The Deal the UK got, is the best, there is to have under the red lines of the Brexiteers and the frame work of Single Market. All of this has been predicted of course by those, who had a little knowledge of the treaties and workings of the EU, by trade groups or some specialists, dealing with the single market. The next time, please read the fine print, before you set fire to the building. Freedom of movement was what they wanted the end of. Norway not only has free movement but it is in Schengen as well. Let`s not re-write history. Vote leave was 100% clear about wanting to "control borders". Norway is the opposite. There was never any cake.

The damage to the UK is because the UK left the Single Market. The UK, more than any other EU country, drove the creation of the Single Market. Stupid, ah? ROFL!… (mehr)