Regular readers know I have largely steered clear of discussing Brexit for the three years its possibility then prospect has dominated the UK political agenda. I used to be enthusiastically pro-EU, as part of my general outlook of supporting international law and organisations. I was however shocked, deeply, by the enthusiastic support of all three institutional strands – council, commission and parliament – for the appalling Francoist paramilitary violence in Catalonia, and decided that the EU is no longer an institution I can support.
The increasingly illiberal developments of the EU’s Third Pillar – including the abuse of arrest warrant procedure against Julian Assange and the internationalising of “Prevent” style Islamophobia – had already increasingly been worrying me. My reservations about the EU are therefore different to those of many. I particularly bemoan the loss of Freedom of Movement which I believe to have been one of the greatest achievements of civilisation in my lifetime. I remain incensed at the success of the elite in conning the deprived that their poverty is caused by immigrants, whereas it is caused by massive inequality of wealth.
So I am conflicted on Brexit, but on balance would prefer to leave but stay part of the single market, thus retaining freedom of movement. My personal preferences aside, there is plainly a huge majority against leaving the EU in Scotland, so for Scotland to leave the EU at all at present would be wrong. It is my profound hope that the SNP will find the courage shortly to move on towards Independence.
Having a nuanced view on Brexit is not in the least fashionable at the moment, when the media are whipping up a climate of extreme division. It is very plain that Tony Blair and the Blairites see Brexit, and the growing stock of the People’s Vote campaign, as a rehabilitation opportunity for discredited war criminals – war criminals who have to date avoided punishment. That the Blairites succeed in smuggling themselves back into political power via the People’s Vote campaign is the biggest danger in the entire process.
Tony Blair yesterday made a speech on the People’s Vote platform at the Royal Academy, widely reported. Who exactly is running the People’s Vote and why are they giving a platform to Tony Blair? Three days ago it was Margaret Beckett representing the People’s Vote, and on Newsnight last week Peter Mandelson. It is like plunging into a recurring nightmare. Today we have a completely deranged – even by Nick Cohen’s standards – attack on Jeremy Corbyn in the Guardian/Observer, on this issue. And on Marr we had the deeply odious Chuka Umunna.
The major reason that Remain lost the referendum campaign in England and Wales is that the Remain campaign was fronted by the most detested and discredited politicians in the UK: Blair, Brown, Cameron, Clegg, Mandelson, Osborne, and Kinnock and Straw jr. There is nothing these people could propose which would not be rejected out of hand by huge numbers, just at the sight of them.
The question arises, who are “the People’s Vote” and who agreed that Tony Blair speaks for them? My strong belief is that a large majority of the 700,000 who marched through London would regard Blair as a war criminal and be horrified. Plainly, the People’s Vote does not in any sense belong to the People as a campaign but is being controlled by the New Labour war criminal elite, who see it as a chance to redeem their loss of political power.
My disinterested advice to Remain supporters, if they wish to win a second referendum, is for “the People” to wrest control of “the People’s Vote” from the self-appointed war criminal friendly clique currently running it, to ditch the war criminals and to lead with Caroline Lucas. If the People’s Vote is really – as it seems to be – the Blair Bandwagon, it will crash into the buffers of entirely well-merited public distrust.
England and Wales voted for Brexit 53.3% to 46.7%. I do wish Sturgeon would accept – as every genuine believer in Scottish Independence should accept – that the vote in England and Wales is no business of us here in Scotland, and leave the English and Welsh to it. Sturgeon should be working for nothing else but Scottish Independence, which is the way to honour Scotland’s clear vote to Remain.
Scotland MAJOR EMERGENCY: Lorries overturn on ferry at Cairnryan in atrocious weather
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1060517/scotland-news-cairnryan-ferry-bad-weather
Theresa is now being( for the time being) backed by Jacob, Boris, Andrea, Liam, Michael and others,
as the government goes full-throttle for Cliff-Edge-Brexit planning.
There will be no second referendum, there may be a ( brought forward ) general election, if J.C. presses the point, which he probably will not.
The choice will be Teresa’s Way of Cliff-Edge-Brexit, parliament is not going to get any meaningful vote because they are overwhelmingly Remainers and the people have spoken.
Craig
The following may be of interest:
The People’s Vote campaign is proposing a referendum, which Remain is guaranteed to win
http://david-morrison.org.uk/eu/remain-win-guaranteed.htm
You may not believe this but it is true – the People’s Vote campaign is proposing a referendum, which Remain is guaranteed to win.
The campaign wants a referendum that gives voters a choice between “Theresa May’s deal” and “remaining in the EU” (see BBC report here). So, if they get their way, there will be a referendum with the two options:
(1) Leave under Prime Minister May’s Deal
(2) Remain
You don’t need to be an expert in psephology to work out that Remain will win that contest easily, for the simple reason that a large number of Brexiteers are opposed to the Prime Minister’s Deal and would never vote for it.
If such a referendum did take place, the net effect would be to overturn the result of the June 2016 referendum by holding a second referendum that Remain would inevitably win.
Regards
David Morrison
17 December 2018
Really – so Brexiteers would be given option of May’s current unacceptable deal or to vote for Tony Blair’s Remain scheme?
Recipe for civll unrest.
Mrs. Theresa May has repeatedly said, there will not be another Referendum, the people have already been asked and have said they want to leave the E.U.
She is safe for one more year.
Therefore there will not be a peoples Vote because we are leaving in ten weeks, with no deal.
@michael norton
That’s the way it looks. What happens to the Irish border in the event of No Deal?
Blunderbus, they almost do not care about Ireland.
The Irish and the E.U. will have to sort it out, after the United Kingdom has left the E.U.
29 March 2019, 11:00 pm GMT
David Morrison
December 18, 2018 at 12:15
Who are you channeling then? The Ghost of Norman Reddaway.It won`t work this time.
Blair on the Andrew Marr Show a few weeks ago said the questions should be:
a/ PMs deal.
b/Boris hard Brexit No Deal (how Blair put it )
c/ Remain.
Which is a rerun of 2016 isn’t it ? but with confusion added. Probably would be boycotted by many.
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Why listen? Marr is long discredited.
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Chomsky interview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLcpcytUnWU&app=desktop
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Ah Mr Morrison you do realise that a referendum requires an Act of Parliament to be passed first?
It then needs approval by the HoL?
Etc.
Before it is ennacted and the date for a tediumrendum is set and the question approved by the Government – that means Caninet?
Think you can get it done in 100 days?
Have you got the dirty dozen TORY MPs that would vote AGAINST their own party to even get that past the first fence??
It would be a lot faster to get a GE and manifesto commitment to achieve what you want and pause A50 while we see if the country elects a government that promises to deliver it.
All else is gas-lighting..
Apparently the police are demonstrating in Paris today, they are fed up, what with all the extra intimidation they have to hand out to the
Citoyens and not enough pay rises.
The Yellow Jackets are getting some response from Emmanuel Macron, they now want the right to have a referendum on Frexit.
“black day for the police”
https://www.france24.com/en/20181219-long-queues-paris-airport-french-police-go-slow-down-protest-yellow-vest
Overwhelmed by Yellow Vest protests, French police launch ‘slow-down strike’
The protest was triggered by a €62 million cut in the national police budget, ordered by Emmanuel Macron.
It has been said by Mrs. May’s government, that if Brexit is not delivered, we can expect similar Yellow Jackets riots in the U.K.
I believe there may well be riots, regardless of whether we leave the EU or not.
Even If Brexit is delivered, I can’t see any prospect of harmony and stability in the UK until the super rich neo-con sociopaths are neutered – and that’s not going to happen while their journalist sycophants in the ‘mainstream media” persist in their mendacious, attacks on people who genuinely support efforts towards more equality and a much fairer society.
There are some bad people out there and some of them are extremely rich and powerful. What I would like to see is a society that suddenly decides that it is no longer cool to be super-rich and controlling, that being super-rich is naff – something to be ridiculed.
I would like to see a society that recognises our security services as being largely composed of a bunch of over-grown school children playing vicious games with ordinary people’s lives.
I would like to see the BBC sued for their continuous misrepresentation of facts and breach of their charter which obliges them to remain unbiased and neutral in their broadcasting output.
I’m a bit bloody annoyed, actually.
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Health warning re ‘innet’ toxicity. . . . .
https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/your-online-secrets/201409/internet-trolls-are-narcissists-psychopaths-and-sadists
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The MSM studios and pages are now transformed into cemeteries for the neo-con walking dead in search of rebirth. I generally have a screen on all day in the background and it is an endless stream of the should be forgotten sharing their ‘wisdom’ and basking in the sun they thought had abandoned them. Advisers to Tony Blair and safe seaters who are past their promotion date but sit on safe seats and top up their expenses and unearned incomes with studio appearances. Biddable and without shame.
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K _ Great comment. So true. What lickspittles they are!!
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I note your reference to 911 and would ask you to have a look at a recently published book “911 Unmasked” which has been 7 years in the making and looks at the original and official investigations. Also on you tube you should take a look at Explosive Evidence by Architects and engineers for 911 truth.
I hate the term people’s vote. It is so dishonest. Call it what it is, a referendum. I’m not particularly bothered as to whether we have one but agree that if it’s fronted by Blair, it’s not likely to be a success.
The People’s Vote is being proposed entirely by Remainers.
Brexiteers do not need another vote because they had a vote and won it by a huge margin.
Huge margin? I wouldn’t call it huge. I seem to remember that Farage said he would want a re-run if the Remainers had won with a similar margin.
The fact is that the referendum was badly tainted by a pack of lies, mainly on the Brexit side and there is still the alleged fraudulent funding and promoting of Brexit to consider.
Leave = 17,410,742
Remain = 16,141,241
so about one and a third million more people voted Leave than voted Stay