I’m not one
for posting political views on my blog, but sometimes things just need to be said.
I must
admit, I have had my reservations about a People’s Vote. For one thing, if one
is ever held soon, it is more than likely to widen the deepening social and
political divide in Britain caused in the wake of the 2016 Brexit referendum. Nevertheless
I will be supporting those who are marching in London this weekend to demand a
People’s Vote. I do so on the grounds of the democratic premise of the 2016 referendum
being fundamentally flawed. To put it plain and simple: I, along with hundreds
of thousands of other UK citizens living in the EU, were denied a vote in a
plebiscite that directly affected our rights. These rights, over which we had
no say, are now being trashed before our very eyes: that isn’t how democracy is
supposed to work.
If media
reports are to be believed this shambolic, laughing stock of a Tory government
is now earnestly mitigating for a no-deal Brexit, a situation that would leave
my country crashing out of a political union which has enabled it to prosper
economically and culturally for four decades and – more than anything - has helped keep the peace on a turbulent
continent for an unprecedented 70 years.
At the time
of the referendum, many of those who now sit at the cabinet table and are personally
responsible for the unfolding fiasco scoffed at ‘remoaners’, the harbingers of
doom and gloom. They called it Project Fear. Amongst other things, they told us
we didn’t need experts, we would hold all the cards in the withdrawal negotiations,
and assured us that concluding a free trade deal with our European partners
(sic) would be the easiest thing in history: German car manufacturers and Prosecco
growers would see to that.
Well, what
a surprise: Project Fear is rapidly becoming Project Reality.
I do not
believe the option of a no-deal featured on the original ballot paper – at any
rate, I can’t recall it being mentioned during the campaign. As it happens, I
never saw the ballot paper anyway, because it wasn’t sent to me or to the other
1.2 million UK citizens living on the continent who stand to have their rights
swept away by a no-deal Brexit. Mrs May has said that “asking the question all
over again would be a gross betrayal of our democracy”. Well, Mrs May, I can
tell you it was a gross betrayal to be denied a vote in the first place. It was
a gross betrayal to promise from the very start of negotiations that our rights
would be protected, only to be later used as bargaining chips. Abandoned in
the referendum, we have now been well and truly hung out to dry.
Incredibly,
the government has already published over 100 guidance papers on how to prepare
for a no-deal Brexit and yet not a single one of them refers to citizens’ rights.
This
current rabble in power doesn’t show any signs of listening. They don’t even
listen to themselves. Fed by a frenzied Europhobic media, much of the country seems
to be suffering from a delusional take-back-control, will-of-the-people,
brexit-means-brexit psychosis that no medication seems capable of curing. Hopefully
the thousands attending the march, including many citizens from abroad, denied
the vote in the referendum, will be making their voices heard. I wish everyone
on the march this weekend a safe and successful day.
Previous
thoughts on Brexit: I want my Identity back
