Many of the most criminal political minds of the past generations have claimed to be an expression of the "will of the people"... The will of the people, that is, as interpreted by themselves. Most authoritarian rulers: Napoleon III, Mussolini, Hitler, have called referendums in order to claim some spurious popular support for the actions they had already determined upon.
The problem with the June 2016 European Union was that the question was actually insufficiently clear. To leave the EU was actually a vast set of choices, not one specific choice. Danial Hannan, once of faces of Vote Leave was quite clear that leaving the EU did NOT mean leaving the Single Market: “There is a free trade zone stretching all the way from Iceland to the Russian border. We will still be part of it after we Vote Leave.” He declared: “Absolutely nobody is talking about threatening our place in the single market.”
The problem was that this relatively moderate position was almost immediately outflanked by the position of Jacob Rees Mogg and other Conservatives who were equally determined that "Brexit means Brexit", in other words the complete severing of all ties between the EU and the UK.
The Conservative civil war on Brexit has been the single most destructive political dispute in my lifetime. The Extremists will not compromise with anyone, and they are so determined to have their way that they threaten violence: the laughable Mr. Farage threatens to "pick up a rifle".
So these extreme right wing figures, in the pay of Russia, claim to be patriots while systematically trashing the political rules of our country and even common decency. Farage, Rees Mogg, Johnson are all guilty men, and in the face of the current crisis, it is equally clear that they must be stopped. I would advocate an EFTA based compromise to avoid the damage we will face before we rejoin, but in the face of the arrogant intransigence of the Brexit crew, I find that I am even more determined to get a People's Vote and crush those who have been so utterly irresponsible with the UK's economy and its political culture.
The problem with the June 2016 European Union was that the question was actually insufficiently clear. To leave the EU was actually a vast set of choices, not one specific choice. Danial Hannan, once of faces of Vote Leave was quite clear that leaving the EU did NOT mean leaving the Single Market: “There is a free trade zone stretching all the way from Iceland to the Russian border. We will still be part of it after we Vote Leave.” He declared: “Absolutely nobody is talking about threatening our place in the single market.”
The problem was that this relatively moderate position was almost immediately outflanked by the position of Jacob Rees Mogg and other Conservatives who were equally determined that "Brexit means Brexit", in other words the complete severing of all ties between the EU and the UK.
The Conservative civil war on Brexit has been the single most destructive political dispute in my lifetime. The Extremists will not compromise with anyone, and they are so determined to have their way that they threaten violence: the laughable Mr. Farage threatens to "pick up a rifle".
So these extreme right wing figures, in the pay of Russia, claim to be patriots while systematically trashing the political rules of our country and even common decency. Farage, Rees Mogg, Johnson are all guilty men, and in the face of the current crisis, it is equally clear that they must be stopped. I would advocate an EFTA based compromise to avoid the damage we will face before we rejoin, but in the face of the arrogant intransigence of the Brexit crew, I find that I am even more determined to get a People's Vote and crush those who have been so utterly irresponsible with the UK's economy and its political culture.
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