23rd June 2016 - Independence Day
2016 was a bad year. Not many things i want to remember the year for, Byron did well in his GCSEs but not much else apart from Brexit. I hadn’t really expected it, no one did, it wasn’t really in the script. Everything was against it happening. The Establishment had been out in force, bullying anyone who was stupid enough to not listen to the ‘experts’. Throwing around terms like racists and ‘Little Englanders’ even though there was no basis for even considering these as there was no race issue and the UK rather than England was voting. The accepted wisdom was that it would never happen and that it was ‘stupid’ to vote Leave even though I had never heard any decent argument for it.
I never had any doubt. The Common Market made sense and was broadly a good idea to give Europe some easy ‘unity’. Although it was falsely sold to us in the seventies and became something that no one would vote for, everyone admits desperately needs reform and is going in the wrong direction relentlessly. However everything I ever heard about the EU reinforced the view that it was an ever-more failing institution, only existing for its own benefit. The opportunity to have a vote on what we got rather than what we had been promised was finally going to be given to us. I had no doubt how I felt but was amazed but how many seemed to ‘Love EU’ without knowing why. I would ask, but I never got any answer really, just vague ideas about being ‘better off’ that always struck me as somewhat incompatible with the generally left-wing narrative that seemed to accompany this justification. Ultimately I think it was years of brainwashing, a total lack of imagination, wit or bravery and a simple laziness to consider any change versus the status quo. I think whilst this blind devotion is definitely the disease of the majority of remainers I later started to feel that there was actually something far more sinister under the surface.
In the months of debate leading up to the vote the well-argued and details points put forward to leave were only countered by derision, economic warnings from experts and ‘Project Fear’. There’s no doubt that the few who were doing well, big business and institutions not touched by the effects of mass, unchecked immigration and the total transformation of British Life could quite happily find reason not to rock the boat. The arguments were laid out at great length on both sides with the Remain side having everything very much in it’s favour. Not least the 9 million UKP booklet printed in Germany and promising the vote would be respected and acted upon which we later learned was another of the lies we were to be told. Whilst Nigel Farage was no doubt the architect of Brexit he was marginalized and seen as being ‘toxic’ by Vote Leave. However they were the ones to put the £350m could be spent on the NHS message on the bus that was later widely cited as the ‘lie’ that everyone stupidly believed. This was never said of course. The number was explained and only required the grasping of net and gross to understand it clearly. Why no one ever thought why any payment was necessary rather than quibble over understanding the amount I could never fully grasp. Project Fear however promised no less than an emergency budget, the biggest ever recession and World War III. None of which were delivered on time and although just about anything ‘iffy’ that has happened has been blamed on Brexit since, should any of these ever come to pass it will be something other than Brexit that was their cause. The exchange rate did adjust, far less than predicted, although this was used both as a justification of Brexit-fear and also an excuse for the subsequent economic boom that widely rated the UK as the World’s best performing economy in the 9 months and counting after Brexit. Big business had tried to stifle the ordinary people, the most disgusting embodiment of which was the merchant-bank-sponsored, foul mouthed rants of Geldof against the ordinary British fishermen on the Thames and the ill-conceived and demeaning ‘queue’ interjection by President Obama. The Establishment was rattled and it showed.
The night was amongst the most exciting of my life. Farage seemed to concede a harrow defeat straight after the polls had closed but the early results offered me immediate hope - most significantly the comfortable victory in Sunderland. More followed and before midnight I dared to believe the fairytale would come true. My plans to sleep went straight out of the window and I didn’t have a wink of sleep. The excitement grew and was capped off with Farage announcing victory for the ‘good, decent people’ and a new Independence Day in the early hours. Dimbleby admitted defeat and the day dawned on a new United Kingdom I thought I would never see again. I was physically elated the same way you are when your team wins a trophy, you become a dad or something of that magnitude. It was simply amazing and a massive, historical moment. A huge victory and justification of democracy against the odds. The quiet, informed majority had won. It felt great. I honestly thought the UK had ‘gone’. I had left the country a dozen years earlier because I thought it was doomed. I was so happy to have underestimated the Brits. I hope it ultimately saves not only us, but the whole of Europe from the EU machine.
I could just about have voted, but I didn’t. It wasn’t very easy to organize and what difference would my vote make anyway? I was very vocal in my support for Brexit but I didn’t vote for it, or Trump later in the year although in that case he was not my preference in any case in that Hobson’s Choice.
The morning didn’t only bring a new, free UK but also the slipping of the mask and a nastier side of people I really couldn’t imagine existed. To me entirely incompatible with the ‘nice’ facia presented. Now, uniformly the script was one of bitter defeat, denial and a barrage of insults from the vast majority of the ‘remoaners’. Anyone who supported Brexit was now openly called out as stupid, selfish and racist without there being any intellectually sustainable argument for this view beyond the vague idea that the few nasty people might have voted out simply to annoy the status quo. I am sure there were nasty, evil people that would be found on both sides - after the result though it was hard to see the wood for the trees. The bile was very much in one direction and with very little thought to back it up. A truly knee jerk reaction in every sense of the word.
In many ways the referendum was great. It was discussed exhaustively for as long as anyone could ever have wished. Although we were all bored with it we never heard about Article 50 or that it was only ‘advisory’. These were to follow… We also didn’t realize just how lose many people’s idea of respect for democracy would be or how low the bar was set to face being called something as heinous as a racist in such a modern, progressive society. Much of what was to follow only goes on to amaze and disappoint me further but more of that later. The thing we all agreed on is that Brexit was an issue that divided the country pretty much straight down the middle.
I never had any doubt. The Common Market made sense and was broadly a good idea to give Europe some easy ‘unity’. Although it was falsely sold to us in the seventies and became something that no one would vote for, everyone admits desperately needs reform and is going in the wrong direction relentlessly. However everything I ever heard about the EU reinforced the view that it was an ever-more failing institution, only existing for its own benefit. The opportunity to have a vote on what we got rather than what we had been promised was finally going to be given to us. I had no doubt how I felt but was amazed but how many seemed to ‘Love EU’ without knowing why. I would ask, but I never got any answer really, just vague ideas about being ‘better off’ that always struck me as somewhat incompatible with the generally left-wing narrative that seemed to accompany this justification. Ultimately I think it was years of brainwashing, a total lack of imagination, wit or bravery and a simple laziness to consider any change versus the status quo. I think whilst this blind devotion is definitely the disease of the majority of remainers I later started to feel that there was actually something far more sinister under the surface.
In the months of debate leading up to the vote the well-argued and details points put forward to leave were only countered by derision, economic warnings from experts and ‘Project Fear’. There’s no doubt that the few who were doing well, big business and institutions not touched by the effects of mass, unchecked immigration and the total transformation of British Life could quite happily find reason not to rock the boat. The arguments were laid out at great length on both sides with the Remain side having everything very much in it’s favour. Not least the 9 million UKP booklet printed in Germany and promising the vote would be respected and acted upon which we later learned was another of the lies we were to be told. Whilst Nigel Farage was no doubt the architect of Brexit he was marginalized and seen as being ‘toxic’ by Vote Leave. However they were the ones to put the £350m could be spent on the NHS message on the bus that was later widely cited as the ‘lie’ that everyone stupidly believed. This was never said of course. The number was explained and only required the grasping of net and gross to understand it clearly. Why no one ever thought why any payment was necessary rather than quibble over understanding the amount I could never fully grasp. Project Fear however promised no less than an emergency budget, the biggest ever recession and World War III. None of which were delivered on time and although just about anything ‘iffy’ that has happened has been blamed on Brexit since, should any of these ever come to pass it will be something other than Brexit that was their cause. The exchange rate did adjust, far less than predicted, although this was used both as a justification of Brexit-fear and also an excuse for the subsequent economic boom that widely rated the UK as the World’s best performing economy in the 9 months and counting after Brexit. Big business had tried to stifle the ordinary people, the most disgusting embodiment of which was the merchant-bank-sponsored, foul mouthed rants of Geldof against the ordinary British fishermen on the Thames and the ill-conceived and demeaning ‘queue’ interjection by President Obama. The Establishment was rattled and it showed.
The night was amongst the most exciting of my life. Farage seemed to concede a harrow defeat straight after the polls had closed but the early results offered me immediate hope - most significantly the comfortable victory in Sunderland. More followed and before midnight I dared to believe the fairytale would come true. My plans to sleep went straight out of the window and I didn’t have a wink of sleep. The excitement grew and was capped off with Farage announcing victory for the ‘good, decent people’ and a new Independence Day in the early hours. Dimbleby admitted defeat and the day dawned on a new United Kingdom I thought I would never see again. I was physically elated the same way you are when your team wins a trophy, you become a dad or something of that magnitude. It was simply amazing and a massive, historical moment. A huge victory and justification of democracy against the odds. The quiet, informed majority had won. It felt great. I honestly thought the UK had ‘gone’. I had left the country a dozen years earlier because I thought it was doomed. I was so happy to have underestimated the Brits. I hope it ultimately saves not only us, but the whole of Europe from the EU machine.
I could just about have voted, but I didn’t. It wasn’t very easy to organize and what difference would my vote make anyway? I was very vocal in my support for Brexit but I didn’t vote for it, or Trump later in the year although in that case he was not my preference in any case in that Hobson’s Choice.
The morning didn’t only bring a new, free UK but also the slipping of the mask and a nastier side of people I really couldn’t imagine existed. To me entirely incompatible with the ‘nice’ facia presented. Now, uniformly the script was one of bitter defeat, denial and a barrage of insults from the vast majority of the ‘remoaners’. Anyone who supported Brexit was now openly called out as stupid, selfish and racist without there being any intellectually sustainable argument for this view beyond the vague idea that the few nasty people might have voted out simply to annoy the status quo. I am sure there were nasty, evil people that would be found on both sides - after the result though it was hard to see the wood for the trees. The bile was very much in one direction and with very little thought to back it up. A truly knee jerk reaction in every sense of the word.
In many ways the referendum was great. It was discussed exhaustively for as long as anyone could ever have wished. Although we were all bored with it we never heard about Article 50 or that it was only ‘advisory’. These were to follow… We also didn’t realize just how lose many people’s idea of respect for democracy would be or how low the bar was set to face being called something as heinous as a racist in such a modern, progressive society. Much of what was to follow only goes on to amaze and disappoint me further but more of that later. The thing we all agreed on is that Brexit was an issue that divided the country pretty much straight down the middle.