{"id":320,"date":"2017-03-18T11:17:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-18T11:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pagan-gerbil.net\/?p=320"},"modified":"2017-03-18T11:17:00","modified_gmt":"2017-03-18T11:17:00","slug":"brexit-why-im-marching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pagan-gerbil.net\/?p=320","title":{"rendered":"Brexit – Why I’m Marching"},"content":{"rendered":"

Warning: unedited stream of consciousness.<\/em><\/p>\n

Next Saturday, I\u2019ll be attending a protest march in London. I know the government won\u2019t listen, I know that nothing will change. Sometimes protests make change happen \u2013 not very often though.<\/p>\n

So why march?<\/p>\n

Well, there\u2019s not much I can do to stop Brexit. My local MP defied Labour\u2019s three-line whip to vote against the bill (which I appreciate, greatly) and any reasoned arguments against Brexit are met with \u201cbut we\u2019re going to get the best deal.\u201d A march will show that this is an unconvincing argument.<\/p>\n

The 48% who voted to Remain in the EU are not just being ignored, but completely silenced. They\u2019re already being made scapegoats by some Brexit supporters \u2013 the pound is weak because we\u2019re \u2018talking down Britain\u2019. If Brexit isn\u2019t a success, they say, it won\u2019t be because it was a terrible idea, or even a good idea poorly implemented, the blame is already being laid at the feet of \u2018Remoaners\u2019 for not uniting or trying to make the best of it.<\/p>\n

That argument has a small ring of truth. I know small business owners, technical professionals, skilled and educated people who are looking at emigrating because of the government\u2019s course before Brexit hits properly. If what I can see in my own bubble is representative, then these \u2018Remoaners\u2019 will inflict some small economic harm on the UK by leaving. Then again, it could be argued that they are taking back individual control and leaving an undemocratic union rather than trying to make the best of it. Which 52% of the country also decided was the right course to take.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s attitude towards Scotland is absolutely astonishing too. I wouldn\u2019t believe it if I read it in a book \u2013 it has an air of Douglas Adams to it. Telling people that leaving our biggest trade partner to go it alone is guaranteed to be a success, but telling Scotland they can\u2019t afford to go it alone? Trying to explain that it would be irresponsible to have a referendum when the final relationship isn\u2019t clear? The thing that swung the first Scottish referendum was membership of the EU. Now they\u2019re guaranteed to lose membership of the EU, but when independent they have a chance to re-join it. And as a small economy in the union, they will see investment to accelerate their own independent growth and success, like we\u2019ve seen with other new members. I don\u2019t think Scottish Independence will be good for the UK. But I think Scottish Independence with EU membership will be better for Scotland than UK membership without the EU, and even that will be better than Scottish Independence without the EU. So it\u2019s a gamble, but seems quite a safe gamble. I can\u2019t see any reason they wouldn\u2019t get into the EU fairly quickly after independence, other than the border issue. But Northern Ireland will already have set an example there.<\/p>\n

I think we will either have Freedom of Movement with the EU (and riots from the 52%), or there will be some sort of a border in Ireland. I can\u2019t see it going any other way. You can\u2019t put up a border between Northern Ireland and the UK (it\u2019ll be like having your passport checked to go to Wales). When I was young, \u2018terrorist\u2019 meant \u2018IRA\u2019 in any news story I heard. Since then, things have settled down a lot. Borders could start to unwind that process.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t see the benefit in Brexit. We will be throwing away our trade deals (made by a strong economy with 20+ other large states to form a powerful negotiating bloc) to make new ones, as a single state with a weak currency.<\/p>\n

The Leave campaign, and the Conservative manifesto, promised that we would stay in the Single Market. Leaving that would be completely nuts. We are going to lose many large businesses as they flee to Ireland, France or Germany. The government\u2019s current course is like (and I steal this from someone else, I can\u2019t remember who though) Remain won 52% and told the country that it was therefore the will of the people and a clear mandate to drop the pound and join the Euro. And then trying to tell 48% of the population to \u2018just get over it\u2019. And the leader of the opposition bullying their party to support this plan, then trying to pretend that they really oppose it.<\/p>\n

The whole Brexit situation is aggravating, and I\u2019m not even going to go into the whole Parliament-vote final deal stuff. The government is crazy. The country is doomed. And it won\u2019t be my fault, I didn\u2019t vote for it and I\u2019m not trying to sabotage it. If there\u2019s even anything I can do to make it work, I\u2019ll do it because I don\u2019t want everything to collapse more than it already has. But if me saying \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s a good idea\u2026\u201d on my private Facebook or a blog no-one reads is enough to derail the Brexit plans, then maybe Brexit isn\u2019t the guaranteed success it\u2019s being promised as.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m going to go to this march and be counted and show that it\u2019s not just a small minority who lost the vote. The half of the population who lost still feel very strongly, and deserve to have their concerns answered properly. Being told \u201cwe\u2019re going to get the best deal\u201d isn\u2019t very convincing. Other countries have no obligation to give us a good deal. We need answers, we need a plan, and we need to be treated fairly \u2013 when Brexit fails, it won\u2019t be the fault of the people who voted against it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Warning: unedited stream of consciousness. Next Saturday, I\u2019ll be attending a protest march in London. I know the government won\u2019t listen, I know that nothing will change. Sometimes protests make change happen \u2013 not very often though. So why march? Well, there\u2019s not much I can do to stop Brexit. My local MP defied Labour\u2019s … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Brexit – Why I’m Marching”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[192,11,12],"series":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pagan-gerbil.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pagan-gerbil.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pagan-gerbil.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pagan-gerbil.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pagan-gerbil.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pagan-gerbil.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pagan-gerbil.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pagan-gerbil.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pagan-gerbil.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=320"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pagan-gerbil.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fseries&post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}