This time 2 years ago, cometh the hour, Boris was the man with an 89 seat majority, a mandate to get Brexit done, and indeed he did.
How has that gone for Britain, Northern Ireland and Gibraltar? Scores out of 10?
Can we give negative numbers? What a pile of shite.
Full disclosure: I voted for Brexit. Why?
A good axiom is, if anyone ever tries to tell you Brexit was about immigration, they probably voted Remain.
The reasons I voted leave, most important first, were:
- Primacy of Common Law, with its emphasis on “everything being legal unless explicitly stated as not”; the opposite to the Napoleonic Code,
- Democracy; a return to knowing who writes your laws and the ability to fire them,
- An ability to negotiate trade with the Commonwealth,
- Control of our borders. Note; not closing our borders, just deciding who can cross them.
Law: Two years on, we have an Online Harms bill likely to be passed into law, the draft of which has outlived 4 Prime Ministers so far. This bill will introduce concepts such as outsourcing the policing of “Legal but harmful” content to the big tech companies.
Seriously, “legal but harmful” is in a law? So that content is now illegal then, presumably? Orwell wouldn’t have even written that.
Democracy: The democratically-elected government took away more citizens’ rights and quicker than in two world wars. And how did Her Majesty’s Opposition do during the Covid lockdowns to hold the government to account? “Harder and earlier”, seemed to be their main idea. Thanks guys.
Trade: We’ve signed some trade deals. We’ve also royally fucked up our economy in the meanwhile by wetting the bed over Covid. No, “everyone else did too” isn’t an excuse.
Immigration: 46,000 people crossed the Channel in little boats last year. Forty six thousand. That’s getting into Dunkirk flotilla territory.
You cannot in all seriousness consider the UK a sovereign nation if it can’t prevent 46,000 people landing uninvited on its beaches in a year.
It’s a sold out football stadium travelling in Zodiacs. Fuck me, Zodiac probably made as much easy money as Pfizer last year.
The only explanation is that the UK government is not trying to stop these boats. 46,000 is far beyond incompetence as the excuse.
Bill’s Opinion
Historians will look back at this period and have to do a double take when they realise which party was in power for the last 12 years.
The Conservatives used to be the party of law and order, low tax, small government, fiscal responsibility, controlled immigration, and home ownership. Say those characteristics out loud now without laughing.
They have taken the social contract and burned it on a pile of Bank of England printed Monopoly money.
In an alternate universe, Brexit could have seen company tax rates abolished, free ports established just off the coast of Europe, and virtual services sold to the globe. The UK could be Singapore in the eastern Atlantic today if the political will was there.
What a wasted opportunity. The Conservative Party should never be trusted with government again. They’ve shown themselves to be pathologically lacking in character, courage, self-confidence and integrity. What little they have left to offer is corrupt deals for crony mates.
Salt the ground.