And then the final absurdity, Nigel Farage’s suggestion that he was warming to the idea of a second referendum... As many commentators have pointed out, this is most obviously understood in terms of Farage’s desire to be back in the limelight and to reprise what no doubt he considers his finest hour.
But I think there is something deeper here than Farage’s ego. There is a significant strand of Brexiter thinking, exemplified by Farage, which is besotted with a self-pitying sense of victimhood. For these people, winning the Referendum was actually a catastrophe, taking away their victim status and requiring them to do something quite hateful to them: to take responsibility for delivering what they said they wanted and which they claimed would be easy. It is that which accounts for the way that since the Referendum they have continually acted as if they were still fighting it. And, more profoundly, it directly feeds into talking about Brexit as if Britain were being forced out of the EU on ‘punitive’ terms, thus perpetuating a sense of victimhood.
The problem is they believe simultaneously that Britain is greater and more powerful than the EU and that the EU is more evil and more powerful than Britain. They think it should be easy for Britain, the great and plucky underdog, to escape the clutches of the great and ineffectual tyranny of the EU that's both more and less powerful than they are and also hates them but loves them at the same time. It's a nonsensical paradox because human brains don't always follow the rules of logic.
http://chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-week-that-brexit-plumbed-new-depths.html
Nasty stinky remainers! We hates them!
ReplyDeleteThat's a great point... what when they will realise (and many already are) everything they blamed wasn't at fault... and that we will end up being considerably worse than we are...
ReplyDeleteOf course they will not be to blame, only politicians delivering the wrong kind of brexit (and Farage is already putting his hands forward)
Call his bluff. Overturn Brexit.
ReplyDeleteAdam Black we could overturn brexit - but we shouldn't, not until the largest majority of people is convinced it is a mistake. Otherwise we will be left with a cancer inside our country.
ReplyDeletePiero FilippIN I disagree.
ReplyDeleteThe EU had no trouble having other countries redo pleibicites. Multiple times.
The mistake Brittain made was in the premise of the Brexit election, in the first place. ( Which is screamingly obvious after the fact)
It violated a number of basic and fundamental principles of Constitutional Democracy.
The idea that massive Constitutional Changes should occur over a simple majority vote, **1 times only* , is a farce.*
You are still thinking with Remainer Failure logic. I.e. Brexit isn't real. Elections shouldn't have consequences. They can be used instead to 'teach lessons' .
Shake that noise off.
This is just the Chaos Asses like Nigel Farage injected into your your body politic.
That's literally what Nigel wants you to believe.
Maybe it's too much to ask you to stop thinking like a Good Brit. You need to shake that off. And Fast. Or the only ones who will be taught a lesson is you. You can't deal with nihilists and chaos mavens, by being good little , predictable ,Ladies and Gents.
He hacked your state system.
Shit I wouldn't even be lecturing you if I didn't have much more faith in Brits to grab the reins of their political system, much easier than it is for Americans.
( We've got Donald Trump perpetual Gerrymandering, Electoral College lie, Corporations are People, Money is speech , No Constitutional Right to Vote .. .)
Farage understands your system is easier to grasp as a whole and is Willing to do it. He's so sure of it, he's willing to do it a second time.
That's your chance to instill Constitutional Safeguards into the process ( examples like Letting a combined Scotland + Wales + Ne Ireland Vote Veto any Leave. Or requiring 3 leaves votes + Parliament in 5 years etc. Or Requiring the NHS be fully funded after any leave or Aristocratic Holdings be sold to fund it
( That poison pill will force any Leave Bill to Have Royal Assent. Don't expect it ) .Damn Get creative.
Any logical process that makes Brexiters have a real full process, thought through in advance where they must put up or shut up, will lose.
A second Vote is the chance to do what should have been done right , the first time.
( Then these lessons can be applied, the next time Scotland wants another Independence pleibicites. Dodging Disaster Elections is no way to run a country )
Considering the reputation Britain has for creatively Blocking EU integration for decades, I don't know why it didn't apply these lessons at home.
That's my mostly uninformed American opinion. You get a chance to fix this, grap it. Don't let go.