This is a brilliant and original take on the democracy deficit of half -Brexit. Hilarious and heartfelt. I voted to remain though I was convicted having worked as a lobbyist in Brussels throughout the early/mid noughties. I saw the complacent, ineffient gravy train in action. Now after watching the way in which remoaners have acted, I will vote to leave in a future vote. I have also fully transitioned from being a socialist to being a libertarian because that and moral conservatives seem to be the only people who care about being ruled by plutocrats and panic merchants.
Thank you so much, you’re very kind to say that. I shudder to imagine what you saw in Brussels. I think a lot of free thinkers and libertarians come from the left. We take socialism at its word when it claims it wants to empower, what we used to call, ‘working class’ people. But when the opposite turns out to be the case, we start to look elsewhere. Best to you, and thanks for your comment.
Came here from the comment you left under a Spiked article. A very enjoyable read and I love the Playstation analogy. I also agree that the main reason to vote Leave was the principle that the UK should be governed by the UK government and that reason is just as valid now even if the current government are completely useless.
Thanks so much Chris. Yes, the technocrats can only see Brexit in terms of trade or GDP growth etc, never in terms of something as gauche and ‘low status’ as patriotism or sovereignty. At least we can potentially vote out a terrible UK government, looking at you Rishi Sunak, but we only ever had one opportunity to vote out the EU. I’m a huge Spiked fan, I don’t always agree with them, but I find their commitment to Free Speech inspirational. Thanks for your time and your comment. Best to you.
Very rarely do I read anything that makes me genuinely laugh out loud, but this article did. It was going well until the paragraph where the parents go, "Games?? What do you mean games? There are no games.", at which point it became, for me, a minor comedy masterpiece. I love a good analogy (and yours is better described as a parable, I think), and as a Leave voter my own for the way Brexit has panned out is that it's a bit like claiming, the day after moving house, that the move was a bad idea because all your stuff is in boxes. I got here via your more recent Block Vote article, and am now a subscriber. Looking forward very much to reading your other articles.
I understand that my tone is not one that you would employ. However, as a policy economist who has worked for many different governments around the world, and - yes - the European Commission as well, over a forty year period, I find the usual Remainer comments and attitudes frustrating. These people have closed minds, usually based on the "I'm alright, Jack" approach, so why change anything? For the record, I have been monitoring and analysing EEC/EU policy since 1970, before the UK even joined. Yes, I had time off on other things in the 80s but I am basically soaked in EU policy, for my sins. And I would endorse your point that the Brexit vote was all about democracy, something which most of those in power or most of the comfortably off do not give a fig for. The same attitude can be found in the European Commission and their Delegations around the world.
I share that frustration, especially when arguments, about sovereignty, culture and heritage are reduced to ‘Yes but * I* had to wait ten minutes longer in the airport. And also you’re a racist’.
But I’m happy if people can discuss their differences of opinion here in good faith. Once again I really appreciate you taking the time to read and comment Jos. All the best.
Have you considered the possibility that there are no Brexit games available?
The 2 important issues you described:
1) Immigration, every Brexiteer out there claims they voted to control immigration, others claim they voted to reduce immigration, others to reduce immigration down to zero. Which one is it? Because the first has been achieved. We have the lowest amount of illegal migrants in Europe, and the lowest amount of asylum-seekers. 99% of immigrants coming now, come with a VISA. Is that not what Brexiteers wanted? Or did they want something that is not actually achievable?
2) Trade deals, do you really believe that there are amazing possibilities for trade deals which the "incompetents" simply do not take? Would you not even entertain the possibility that Britain has little to offer and little to haggle with and as such whatever trade deal agreed would be to our disadvantage? Were you not already aware that the US would not offer one to the UK and if and when it does, it will be 20 times more one-sided than the EU one?
3) When you lose a 1/4 of your trade intensity by raising trade barriers with all your neighbours, your GDP goes down, taxes need to go up to make up for the slack. These are very basic economics that no single Brexiteer ever conceived or treated as a possibility. Project Fear/Project Real.
You do not need to concoct a conspiracy to accept the reality of basic economics.
Thanks for your comment Noemon. Much appreciated. I think you mean ‘gains’ no ‘games’ so I’ll go with that. 1.) I’m an out there Brexiteer and I don’t claim to have voted to reduce immigration. My reasons for voting Brexit are clearly laid out at the end of the article. And they don’t include immigration. In fact I hardly mention immigration in the piece. Maybe you’re more bothered by it than me. Don’t know. 2.)Nope. I don’t. Never said there were ‘amazing’ trade deals out there. There might be. I don’t know. I just said our government had failed to sign any of any significance. I do think Britain has a lot to offer, maybe less so right now, with corporation tax heading to 25%. But generally with our culture, language and geographical position, and much more, yes, our country clearly does have much to offer foreign investors. 3.) You claim to know a lot about ‘every single Brexiteer,’ their thoughts and their motives. I’d humbly suggest maybe that’s a teeny tiny bit presumptuous. I don’t think most people voted Brexit because they thought it would boost GDP, at least the polling doesn’t suggest they did. I think most people’s motives revolved around some concept of preserving Britain as a nation state. That is reflected in the polling, what actual people said, rather than motives ascribed to them by others. I’ve only just seen the bit where you say I’m ‘concocting a conspiracy’. I’m not, I’m expressing an opinion, albeit through a hopefully amusing metaphor. (Maybe not amusing to you. OK. No problem) But I don’t think dismissing people with a different perspective to you as conspiracists is always helpful. Thanks again for taking the time to comment. All the best.
I make no presumptions about why Brexiteers voted for Brexit other than the ones that you yourself put down on digital paper:
You wrote:
"Immigration, one of the top two reasons voters wanted to leave, has actually increased. No significant trade deals have been done. (Sorry digital trade deal with Singapore, you do not count.)"
Now you judge me as "presumptuous" for addressing your top 2 reasons.
Corporation tax going at 25% is a serious problem especially for me owning a company with 57 employees, but that has very little to do with trade-deals, in fact if anything it is possibly more helpful to make them now than with 19%. If you follow trade-deal negotiations, they largely focus on "level-playing fields" when it comes to tax.
For trade-deals to work on one's benefit, that entity has to be able to negotiate from a position of strength when it comes to market access and specialised products.
Britain has a relatively small internal market, and no global-beating products for offer that someone can not get elsewhere. Culture and language again play very little role as both of these as commodities are already accessible in the global market in terms of music, films, etcetera. It's not like India or Japan are going to rush to give us access to their markets just to gain the ability to download Ed Sheeran, or to import our turnips.
The one product we have, .ie Astrazeneca, is now moving to Ireland, along with anyone else that can.
This is as much obvious today as it was back in 2016, at least for those of us who try to keep our heads above the water as much as we can.
I'm sorry but there is no conspiracy to make Brexit fail. It has failed because there was never any other alternative for it. Especially the hard-Brexit that even Farage was warning against during the Brexit campaign. Later he went down the rabbit hole just like every other politician who is out to give the plebs the cake they are demanding, but that is another story.
You don't seem to understand economic or democracy at all. International trade is not based on geographical proximity but on different patterns of resources and costs. Some trade with neighbours will make sense but the growth in trade comes from having a different cost and resource base. UK trade with the EU was becoming relatively LESS important even from 1999: growth in trade with the rest of the world was growing faster than EU trade despite all the supposed advantages of proximity, tariff free access and the much increased size of the EU. Also, what are these increases in trade barriers with the EU since Brexit? There were petulant delays imposed by the French at border posts but this is not the first time the French have behaved like spoiled children - they did this even when we were EU members. The French just resent losing access to our €17,000 million annual donation much of which went to supporting their farmers. (Oh yes, no mention ever made of that saving, is there?). And just who benefits from intra EU trade? You think it is a one way street. Have we really been the recipients of free EU goods for 50 years?
I won't suggest you go back to school or even open a few text books, because people like you are incapable of taking in anything which does not accord with your prejudices.. Unfortunately, the country's public sector and governing class are just like you, and if you want an explanation of why the benefits from Brexit have not been realised, just look at yourself and your fellow travellers. You are all completely contemptible.
Hi Jos. Not a lot I disagree with in your comment. And thanks so much for taking the time to read the piece. I’d just say I try to keep things pretty civil on here. I’ve pretty much abandoned Twitter because of all the name calling and I’d rather not import it here. Im lucky enough to have a vibrant friendly comment community. I’d like to keep it that way. Thanks again for your comment. And hope to see you here again. Best LSO
Thanks for your comment Alf. Appreciate it. But he isn’t. He says he is, (just like Keir Starmer), but nothing he has actually done, or plans to do, would give that impression. He wants the Brexiteers’ votes, and to hold his useless party together, but I doubt very much he wants Brexit.
This is a brilliant and original take on the democracy deficit of half -Brexit. Hilarious and heartfelt. I voted to remain though I was convicted having worked as a lobbyist in Brussels throughout the early/mid noughties. I saw the complacent, ineffient gravy train in action. Now after watching the way in which remoaners have acted, I will vote to leave in a future vote. I have also fully transitioned from being a socialist to being a libertarian because that and moral conservatives seem to be the only people who care about being ruled by plutocrats and panic merchants.
Thank you so much, you’re very kind to say that. I shudder to imagine what you saw in Brussels. I think a lot of free thinkers and libertarians come from the left. We take socialism at its word when it claims it wants to empower, what we used to call, ‘working class’ people. But when the opposite turns out to be the case, we start to look elsewhere. Best to you, and thanks for your comment.
Came here from the comment you left under a Spiked article. A very enjoyable read and I love the Playstation analogy. I also agree that the main reason to vote Leave was the principle that the UK should be governed by the UK government and that reason is just as valid now even if the current government are completely useless.
Thanks so much Chris. Yes, the technocrats can only see Brexit in terms of trade or GDP growth etc, never in terms of something as gauche and ‘low status’ as patriotism or sovereignty. At least we can potentially vote out a terrible UK government, looking at you Rishi Sunak, but we only ever had one opportunity to vote out the EU. I’m a huge Spiked fan, I don’t always agree with them, but I find their commitment to Free Speech inspirational. Thanks for your time and your comment. Best to you.
Very rarely do I read anything that makes me genuinely laugh out loud, but this article did. It was going well until the paragraph where the parents go, "Games?? What do you mean games? There are no games.", at which point it became, for me, a minor comedy masterpiece. I love a good analogy (and yours is better described as a parable, I think), and as a Leave voter my own for the way Brexit has panned out is that it's a bit like claiming, the day after moving house, that the move was a bad idea because all your stuff is in boxes. I got here via your more recent Block Vote article, and am now a subscriber. Looking forward very much to reading your other articles.
Thank you very much patrocles that’s incredible kind of you. And thanks for subscribing.
Brilliant. Nailed it completely.
Thanks Ian!
I understand that my tone is not one that you would employ. However, as a policy economist who has worked for many different governments around the world, and - yes - the European Commission as well, over a forty year period, I find the usual Remainer comments and attitudes frustrating. These people have closed minds, usually based on the "I'm alright, Jack" approach, so why change anything? For the record, I have been monitoring and analysing EEC/EU policy since 1970, before the UK even joined. Yes, I had time off on other things in the 80s but I am basically soaked in EU policy, for my sins. And I would endorse your point that the Brexit vote was all about democracy, something which most of those in power or most of the comfortably off do not give a fig for. The same attitude can be found in the European Commission and their Delegations around the world.
I share that frustration, especially when arguments, about sovereignty, culture and heritage are reduced to ‘Yes but * I* had to wait ten minutes longer in the airport. And also you’re a racist’.
But I’m happy if people can discuss their differences of opinion here in good faith. Once again I really appreciate you taking the time to read and comment Jos. All the best.
Have you considered the possibility that there are no Brexit games available?
The 2 important issues you described:
1) Immigration, every Brexiteer out there claims they voted to control immigration, others claim they voted to reduce immigration, others to reduce immigration down to zero. Which one is it? Because the first has been achieved. We have the lowest amount of illegal migrants in Europe, and the lowest amount of asylum-seekers. 99% of immigrants coming now, come with a VISA. Is that not what Brexiteers wanted? Or did they want something that is not actually achievable?
2) Trade deals, do you really believe that there are amazing possibilities for trade deals which the "incompetents" simply do not take? Would you not even entertain the possibility that Britain has little to offer and little to haggle with and as such whatever trade deal agreed would be to our disadvantage? Were you not already aware that the US would not offer one to the UK and if and when it does, it will be 20 times more one-sided than the EU one?
3) When you lose a 1/4 of your trade intensity by raising trade barriers with all your neighbours, your GDP goes down, taxes need to go up to make up for the slack. These are very basic economics that no single Brexiteer ever conceived or treated as a possibility. Project Fear/Project Real.
You do not need to concoct a conspiracy to accept the reality of basic economics.
Asking for PS8 games that do not actually exist.
Thanks for your comment Noemon. Much appreciated. I think you mean ‘gains’ no ‘games’ so I’ll go with that. 1.) I’m an out there Brexiteer and I don’t claim to have voted to reduce immigration. My reasons for voting Brexit are clearly laid out at the end of the article. And they don’t include immigration. In fact I hardly mention immigration in the piece. Maybe you’re more bothered by it than me. Don’t know. 2.)Nope. I don’t. Never said there were ‘amazing’ trade deals out there. There might be. I don’t know. I just said our government had failed to sign any of any significance. I do think Britain has a lot to offer, maybe less so right now, with corporation tax heading to 25%. But generally with our culture, language and geographical position, and much more, yes, our country clearly does have much to offer foreign investors. 3.) You claim to know a lot about ‘every single Brexiteer,’ their thoughts and their motives. I’d humbly suggest maybe that’s a teeny tiny bit presumptuous. I don’t think most people voted Brexit because they thought it would boost GDP, at least the polling doesn’t suggest they did. I think most people’s motives revolved around some concept of preserving Britain as a nation state. That is reflected in the polling, what actual people said, rather than motives ascribed to them by others. I’ve only just seen the bit where you say I’m ‘concocting a conspiracy’. I’m not, I’m expressing an opinion, albeit through a hopefully amusing metaphor. (Maybe not amusing to you. OK. No problem) But I don’t think dismissing people with a different perspective to you as conspiracists is always helpful. Thanks again for taking the time to comment. All the best.
Hey Dominic,
I make no presumptions about why Brexiteers voted for Brexit other than the ones that you yourself put down on digital paper:
You wrote:
"Immigration, one of the top two reasons voters wanted to leave, has actually increased. No significant trade deals have been done. (Sorry digital trade deal with Singapore, you do not count.)"
Now you judge me as "presumptuous" for addressing your top 2 reasons.
Corporation tax going at 25% is a serious problem especially for me owning a company with 57 employees, but that has very little to do with trade-deals, in fact if anything it is possibly more helpful to make them now than with 19%. If you follow trade-deal negotiations, they largely focus on "level-playing fields" when it comes to tax.
For trade-deals to work on one's benefit, that entity has to be able to negotiate from a position of strength when it comes to market access and specialised products.
Britain has a relatively small internal market, and no global-beating products for offer that someone can not get elsewhere. Culture and language again play very little role as both of these as commodities are already accessible in the global market in terms of music, films, etcetera. It's not like India or Japan are going to rush to give us access to their markets just to gain the ability to download Ed Sheeran, or to import our turnips.
The one product we have, .ie Astrazeneca, is now moving to Ireland, along with anyone else that can.
This is as much obvious today as it was back in 2016, at least for those of us who try to keep our heads above the water as much as we can.
I'm sorry but there is no conspiracy to make Brexit fail. It has failed because there was never any other alternative for it. Especially the hard-Brexit that even Farage was warning against during the Brexit campaign. Later he went down the rabbit hole just like every other politician who is out to give the plebs the cake they are demanding, but that is another story.
You don't seem to understand economic or democracy at all. International trade is not based on geographical proximity but on different patterns of resources and costs. Some trade with neighbours will make sense but the growth in trade comes from having a different cost and resource base. UK trade with the EU was becoming relatively LESS important even from 1999: growth in trade with the rest of the world was growing faster than EU trade despite all the supposed advantages of proximity, tariff free access and the much increased size of the EU. Also, what are these increases in trade barriers with the EU since Brexit? There were petulant delays imposed by the French at border posts but this is not the first time the French have behaved like spoiled children - they did this even when we were EU members. The French just resent losing access to our €17,000 million annual donation much of which went to supporting their farmers. (Oh yes, no mention ever made of that saving, is there?). And just who benefits from intra EU trade? You think it is a one way street. Have we really been the recipients of free EU goods for 50 years?
I won't suggest you go back to school or even open a few text books, because people like you are incapable of taking in anything which does not accord with your prejudices.. Unfortunately, the country's public sector and governing class are just like you, and if you want an explanation of why the benefits from Brexit have not been realised, just look at yourself and your fellow travellers. You are all completely contemptible.
Hi Jos. Not a lot I disagree with in your comment. And thanks so much for taking the time to read the piece. I’d just say I try to keep things pretty civil on here. I’ve pretty much abandoned Twitter because of all the name calling and I’d rather not import it here. Im lucky enough to have a vibrant friendly comment community. I’d like to keep it that way. Thanks again for your comment. And hope to see you here again. Best LSO
"One big reason Brexit is such a disaster is that no one with any power wants it to succeed" - The Prime Minister is a committed Brexiter.
Thanks for your comment Alf. Appreciate it. But he isn’t. He says he is, (just like Keir Starmer), but nothing he has actually done, or plans to do, would give that impression. He wants the Brexiteers’ votes, and to hold his useless party together, but I doubt very much he wants Brexit.
Who told you that? He is not even a committed Briton.