Never give up
Whether we like it or not, democracy will be delivered on 31st Jan 2020.
This is a good thing, in some way, because if there had been a people's vote or anything else, we'd have never heard the end of it.
Leavers will however have to accept that democracy is a process and the fight for renewed EU membership for the UK will begin on that day, and for some of us - never end.
In the meanwhile the EU will be able to move, at pace, towards a fully democratic federal model, Euro stabilisation and further harmonisation among the key objectives.
It will take many years, but I believe day to day realities will slowly convince an ever growing section of the public that leaving was a bad idea. Not necessarily closures of manufacturing industries e.g. Land Rover or Airbus - these can easily be spun or disregarded, but more personal experiences:
- Not being permitted to travel and missing a holiday for having less than 6 months remaining on your passport
- The friend with a new Irish passport (who maybe voted brexit!) breezing through control, and others (maybe who abstained in the Referendum) having to wait in the non-EU line and be asked the purpose of their visit.
- The uncle who finds he need over 50K euro in the bank in cash to retire to Spain (Add another 350 Euro per month on top for Private Medical care)
- The couple who buy a holiday villa but then realise can't spend more than 3 months in any 6 in it.
- The phone left on roaming which hits a £50 bill
- Being caught and fined for bringing back three bottles of "tax free" vodka.
A lot, of course, depends on Boris' Brexit deal... He may opt for a softer-brexit in the end - but this then leads back to the UK being a "rule-taker" and pretty much the point of brexit bar the anti-immigrant vote.
- The xenophobes will be sadly disappointed when they see more brown people, not less over the coming years - the demographic necessity of the UK's ageing population means there is simply no alternative but to have more immigrants, and just wait until the next Abu Hamza-type case and they realise the ECHR is not the ECJ (oh dear!)
For me, it will be a very sad day, and the begining of a terrific amount of bureaucracy no doubt. But we can continue living as immigrants on the continent and won't have to go back to "Prison Island" as I am now calling it, any time soon - as long as we can continue to support ourselves.
I will leave the last word to Tony Benn...
(Yes was a euro-skeptic... the feelings however are mutual, and we must continue to argue for what we believe)
This is a good thing, in some way, because if there had been a people's vote or anything else, we'd have never heard the end of it.
Leavers will however have to accept that democracy is a process and the fight for renewed EU membership for the UK will begin on that day, and for some of us - never end.
In the meanwhile the EU will be able to move, at pace, towards a fully democratic federal model, Euro stabilisation and further harmonisation among the key objectives.
It will take many years, but I believe day to day realities will slowly convince an ever growing section of the public that leaving was a bad idea. Not necessarily closures of manufacturing industries e.g. Land Rover or Airbus - these can easily be spun or disregarded, but more personal experiences:
- Not being permitted to travel and missing a holiday for having less than 6 months remaining on your passport
- The friend with a new Irish passport (who maybe voted brexit!) breezing through control, and others (maybe who abstained in the Referendum) having to wait in the non-EU line and be asked the purpose of their visit.
- The uncle who finds he need over 50K euro in the bank in cash to retire to Spain (Add another 350 Euro per month on top for Private Medical care)
- The couple who buy a holiday villa but then realise can't spend more than 3 months in any 6 in it.
- The phone left on roaming which hits a £50 bill
- Being caught and fined for bringing back three bottles of "tax free" vodka.
A lot, of course, depends on Boris' Brexit deal... He may opt for a softer-brexit in the end - but this then leads back to the UK being a "rule-taker" and pretty much the point of brexit bar the anti-immigrant vote.
- The xenophobes will be sadly disappointed when they see more brown people, not less over the coming years - the demographic necessity of the UK's ageing population means there is simply no alternative but to have more immigrants, and just wait until the next Abu Hamza-type case and they realise the ECHR is not the ECJ (oh dear!)
For me, it will be a very sad day, and the begining of a terrific amount of bureaucracy no doubt. But we can continue living as immigrants on the continent and won't have to go back to "Prison Island" as I am now calling it, any time soon - as long as we can continue to support ourselves.
I will leave the last word to Tony Benn...
(Yes was a euro-skeptic... the feelings however are mutual, and we must continue to argue for what we believe)
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