Pupils seeking examples of irony for their Higher English prelims should forsake Shakespeare and read Tim Shipman’s book , ‘All Out War’; it is a Brexit tale that deftly describes the deals, betrayals and broken promises that laid low much of the recognisable, political class in Britain. On the negative side, it is overly London-centric and as the tv coverage of the count painfully revealed, powerful forces outside of the Metropolis would shape the future of these islands in brutal fashion.
The Nissan car plant is the single most important employer in NE England with about 34 000 jobs dependent on it. It was established to manufacture motors for sale in the Single Market, including Britain. The whole British motor industry, all foreign owned, including Rolls Royce, shares the same aim. Sunderland voted by 61% to leave the EU. Securing our borders and limiting immigration were the principal reasons for their decision to support LEAVE; it may not have occurred to the electorate that their main employer was an economic migrant. The Government has stuffed Nissan’s mouth with silver to prevent relocation ; the official announcement merely said that they had given the Japanese giant guarantees. We know what they mean.
David Cameron lost the vote by 4% and resigned at 7.00am the following morning. The DUP urged voters in the Six Counties to vote LEAVE but lost 56% to 44 %. However, Arlene and her colleagues simulated victory because of the result on the ‘mainland’. Irony is not a new phenomenon in unionist politics. We remember the DUP founder, Ian Paisley, leading a band of uber-loyalists in an attack on the Queen’s representative, the Governor, Lord Erskine. In recent times, the PSNI (responsible for upholding the Queen’s law) were repeatedly and violently attacked by the Twaddell Camp mob. The DUP admittedly is not over-endowed with political nous or perceptive intelligence but even those backwoods foragers must be privately alarmed at the scale of their defeat and the reported haste with which many young unionists have sought to acquire Irish Passports in the wake of the result. Worse still, it has ignited talk of a United Ireland, not just in Dublin but in London too, it seems.
Following the rout of Labour in Scotland at the last Election, Tory leader, Ruth Davidson, became the darling of the anti-nationalist press. She stood shoulder-to-shoulder with David Cameron on the REMAIN side and was a speaker in one of the televised debates. She savaged Gove and Johnson for their part in the support of UKIP and professed her undying belief in the importance of access to the Single Market. All changed, changed utterly on June 23rd and now the ambitious Ruth is fully supportive of new Prime Minister , May who believes that trade outside of Europe is the new Nirvana and will put the ‘Great’ back into Britain.
Boris Johnson desperately wanted to succeed Cameron and his key strategy was to keep the Brexiteers in the Party happy, safe in the knowledge that they would lose but he would have been seen to have done his bit. Fate and the latter day Cassius, Michael Gove, put the boot into any prime ministerial ambitions that he may have nursed. May appointed him to her cabinet on ‘the better in the tent’ law of politics and he knows that he is easily disposable.
The UK is facing lower growth, higher inflation, falling wages, more borrowing , less trade and greater debt. That it should come to this. And then there’s Trump.
It’s no laughing matter.
I would have to agree with you John, that Boris Johnson was indeed most likely thinking more about being PM still within the EU post brexit and using the vote to pressure the EU into making the reforms the UK have been pushing for some time and have been getting nowhere on.
And you are absolutely right that it is no laughing matter, it never was and worse still that the problem still isn’t being acknowledged never mind addressed.
Neither side took the root causes of the problems seriously and the remain camp still don’t seem to acknowledge there is a problem to begin with.
The old brow beating, scaremongering and terror tactics that were successful in quelling the Scottish drive for independence quite simply didn’t work on the English and calling ordinary decent people racists only seems to get their backs up and dig their heels in from what I can see.
It seems many people are still putting it down to anti immigration, racism, xenophobia and to some downright fascism.
That is not what I hear but I am well used with the same thing from unionists here, they hear only what they want to hear.
My dear old dad God rest him used to say, there is none so blind as those who don’t wish to see, and none so deaf as those who do not wish to hear.
If you seriously believe that 61% of Sunderland suddenly turned into racists then I think you need your head examined.
I may well need my head examined, Jessica, as you suggest but I never implied that 61% of the Sunderland voters were racists. What is beyond doubt , however, is that throughout the Referendum Campaign that they were subjected to a deluge of racist misinformation from the popular press and the UKIP platform. We will not forget the Naxi style poster unveiled by the foul Farage on the penultimate day. The voters individually may not be racists but it would be totally disingenuous to imagine that xenophobia and racism were not prime influences in the conduct of the Referendum.
I will leave it up to the people of Sunderland as to whether pr not they feel it was implied.
I would suspect they could very well be forgiven for feeling as though it was very much implied.
There was a great deal of misinformation on both sides. Would you accept the possibility that the result was not down to UKIPs xenophobic and racist conduct so much as real and valid discontent among the population.
Your support for the sensitivity of BREXIT voters is truly moving. The discontent you raise is found often to be unjustified in the light of close examination of the contribution made by the immigrant population to the UK economy.
It is still unclear to me what you feel is the focus of my discontent John, but I also understand it is difficult to successfully express your views on a blog so I will try my best to explain my own thinking.
First of all, I assure you that I do understand your concerns over the negative aspects of brexit and I agree with you 100% that UKIP behaved appallingly, their campaign was indeed often filled with xenophobic, racist and anti immigration diatribe which I find just as distasteful as you and many others clearly do.
The bit I think you are missing and the same mistake that is being made in Ireland today, is that UKIP did not actually bring this about but rather they tapped into a growing mood within the population of these islands, which is being replicated all over Europe, which has been bubbling under the surface over many, many years and is about to explode all over Europe in a way that will make brexit pale into insignificance – and they took credit for the result.
The majority of people on both of these islands are very warm and welcoming, pro immigration and tolerant towards cultural diversity within our society.
I am very well aware of the positive contribution made by the immigrant population in Ireland so I am under no illusion that the same applies in the UK.
In fact I don’t think you are doing them enough justice to limit the positive contribution they make, solely to the economy.
In my own case, it was a Nigerian doctor who saved my life in difficult surgery. If it wasn’t for immigration I would not be alive today to torture everyone on this site, 🙂
At the same time, where there are deep divisions within society, where there is a refusal to integrate, respect and tolerate the social structures within communities, then human nature kicks in and as Harry will confirm, we human beings are social animals and we will defend the social structures we need to thrive and survive in.
I think many of us in Ireland understand these problems very well.
Poorly thought out EU regulations have caused many divisions, both socially and economically throughout the EU.
These are not limited to immigration but as that appears to be your biggest reason for supporting the EU, if you were willing to undertake a similar close examination of the impact of the immigrant population within society which is replicated over many disparate nations throughout the EU, I think you will find that while in principle migration has been initially positive throughout, the sheer scale and lack of control has resulted in further divisions within society.
People find themselves working in low paid factory jobs, with various groups of immigrants in separate groups speaking in their own languages and failing to make any effort to integrate but rather stick to their own groups. As the most vulnerable group, employment legislation which protects the most vulnerable comes down more heavily on employers and this has resulted in perceived special and better treatment for immigrants who then milk the system making people feel unwelcome and second class in their own communities.
Allowing nations to accept immigrants based on the skills and contributing factors, not least their willingness to learn the language and integrate into the society of the nation they are being welcomed by and to undergo security checks so no undesirables are allowed in such as paedophiles, rapists, murderers etc….
would take a lot longer to form a new super state but would be far less likely to cause divisions and unrest.
Had this happened, the rise of the far right would never have happened.
I should also add that the UK has been pushing for this for some time, as well as the dropping of the EU super state and extension of the single market to include all commonwealth nations which would mean immigrants from more countries than only the EU privileged club.
In fact, this makes the EU itself racist and discriminatory as a far greater contribution has been made by the immigrant population from outside of the EU, in particular within key areas such as the health services. Yet to satisfy cheap labour for corporate employers, rapists, murderers and paedophiles could be allowed unchecked access to my community and to live next door to my children ahead of educated Indian or African doctors with essentials skills much needed and valued in our society.
The reality is, voting for brexit was never going to stop immigration, it was only ever going to control it and open it to further afield than EU nations only and in particular more English speaking nations.
The truth in my eyes is that the EU rejected this as it would have made Britain the strongest nation and with more English speaking countries within it, would have switched the balance of power within the EU state.
The title of today’s blog did two things for at least one reader, JP: it brought to mind another trio (Marxists, this time) while containing within a glimmer of yet another limerick. As if one Limerick wasn’t enough.
THE TO and FRO TRIO
‘Whither Arlene, Ruth and Boris?’ is vergin
On axing the three to see a Tree Surgeon
Ole Dr.Groucho
Was no sloucho
He knew Boris way before he was a Euro virgin.