Sure. But the thing about democracy is sometimes people vote for stupid things based on false pretenses, but they still get it. David Cameron is probably the biggest idiot in politics these days, and it was a vote that probably shouldn’t have even happened except that he looked at the US and said “you know what our party needs? A southern strategy!”, but it happened, 17 million people voted, and you can’t pretend to be a democracy if you don’t at least attempt to pay attention to what people vote for.
There are still plausible events that could lead to the UK not withdrawing, but simply having a do-over vote immediately doesn’t seem like one of them.
I think the government hopes that someone will appear with a magical solution to get them out of the hole they have created. If they can get delayed by legal challenges until late in 2017 there will be new French and German governments and things may have changed.
I agree with almost all of your post, except that if this vote reduces the strategic importance of England and Wales, it will have had beneficial results. No more nukes, no more Middle East interference, no F-35s, a bigger Benelux. It would be an improvemernt.
Keep kicking it down the road until everyone forgets?
They don’t want to trigger it, but can’t sit in limbo, can they?
Maybe a new General Election after May wins? Do some informal negotiation, issue a statement saying that to keep entry into the single market, basically nothing can change re: freedom of movement and UK contributions to EU budget, so there’s no real change except a reduced say in things, so what’s the point of doing that, we already have a deal better than Norway, so why fight for Norway’s? here’s an election, go vote UKIP if you want to revert to WTO rules and complete isolation.
Good point. Although I can see the new management of the UK still clinging desperately to nukes and F-35s – whatever the cost to social programs – and being up for participating in any new ‘nation-building’ adventure that President Trump may propose to them, in a desperate bid to prove that Britain is still “relevant”. Think of it as a national mid-life crisis, with Trident and the F-35 as substitutes for a little red sports car and a leather jacket.
Your politicians are in general more intelligent than our politicians. It amuses me when Farage (left school at 16, found job by daddy) complains MEPs have never had proper jobs, but it is still very unusual for UK politicians to have further degrees in a relevant subject - no enarchs for instance. There is a joke which has some relevance, that people go to Oxford who want to run the country, and people who go to Cambridge don’t care who runs the country so long as they have interesting jobs. A quick look at top politicians who have first degrees only, from Oxford, is quite illuminating.
The French and Germans have known for a long time that some Oxford-educated tosser, probably also from Eton, would casually do something moronic where the EU was concerned. I cross my fingers, hope we get May - who is uncharismatic and hardworking - and that she gets on with Merkel who in some ways resembles her. But our electorate is so stupid we may yet get a right wing airhead.
We have the same thing here in the US, and it serves the very same purpose. Some petitioners are lucky enough to be acknowledged by the President. Mostly, not.
Godwin’s law prevails within less than 20 comments. The image does make me wonder if Hitler had no mustache but was simply always wearing a personal microphone.
uh, what “new” information are you talking about? the UK had been part of the EU for over fifteen years. you do realize that most “leave” voters had no idea what the EU is, right? they voted the way they did mostly out of anger and spite, as well as willful ignorance, and they got what they asked for.
The discovery that the Leave politicians were acting in bad faith and that no one on the Leave side had any concrete plans beyond the referendum. You know, those tiny insignificant details that caused Farage to resign and Boris to bail out on running for PM.
I note you said nothing about one’s right or lack thereof to correct one’s mistakes. Let’s accept your statement that they were wilfully ignorant. Are they now forever barred from informing themselves and acting from a more informed position?
“Euro oligarchs”
Do you have a clue - the faintest clue - of how the EU works?
If you want an oligarchy, look at England which is run by around 100 families that have been doing it for a long time. As D N Adams observed in HHGG, your choice is between one lizard and another. Look what happens when someone outside tries to muscle in - like Corbyn.
And kicking the banks and the City? You could have had exactly the same effect closer to home simply by putting your money in a pile and setting light to it, then demolishing a quarter of your house.
I do try to avoid abuse, but words fail me. You* were conned. You were conned by Farage, you were conned by Murdoch, you were conned by Dacre and you were conned by Desmond. You voted for the abolition of the minimum wage, the privatisation of the health service, cuts in benefits, the decay of the North, and a further transfer of money to the rich. You voted to increase centralisation on the South-East, which Brussels was trying to reduce.You were stirred up to unthinking emotion by talk of “sovereignty” as if anybody would let you near any kind of power. You voted for an imaginary Great Britain, for intolerance, small mindedness, and low level repression.
During the period of Athenian democracy the Athenians lost a sea battle. So with great intelligence they held a referendum and voted to execute all the commanders. Next day they realised they had just lost their most experienced captains. If you read Aristophanes you’ll see how in his plays, like The Wasps, he exposes the weakness of democracy - that stupid, unreflective people get a vote.
Well, it’s going to be Wild Geese time for our younger generation. Thanks a bundle. Assholes…
*This is a generic you, I have no idea where you personally fit on this scale of idiocracy.
