Personally, I’ve long given up seeking to persuade committed Brexiteers to recognise that there’s a new and brighter future in prospect for the UK if we remain in the EU, while concurrently helping to lead its future development and working to improve our currently inept political system in Westminster.
Before David Cameron reached his party-politically-obsessed decision that holding an EU Referendum might be marginally helpful for his Conservative Party in terms of winning back a few Conservative votes from UKIP, EU membership didn’t even register in any lists of the top ten issues affecting the lives of real people in the UK.
Indeed, real issues locally in 2016 typically encompassed things like access to housing, healthcare, social care, welfare, policing, sundry other public services, etc – all of which are exclusively the responsibility of Westminster, not Brussels.
However Brexiteers, like John Hayes MP, still continue to maintain their unshakeable belief in their alleged, unsubstantiated benefits of Brexit. For Brexiteers, belief in Brexit trumps all provable facts, evidence, logic, expertise, etc.
However, since 2016, life is continuing to move forward and all the grandiose promises made by Brexiteers in 2016, such as “the exact same benefits”, “the easiest trade deal in human history”, “we can have our cake and eat it”, “sunlit uplands of prosperity”, etc, all now lie in tatters.
Let me give readers just one, simple but seemingly miniscule example of what leaving the EU will mean for manufacturers in the UK.
The latest news today, spreading across Europe, is that “European businesses (are being) advised to avoid using British parts ahead of Brexit” – see https://bit.ly/2xNbUY7.
What on earth is new or, in any sense, unexpected about this advice? Do voters still not understand how the EU Single Market and Customs Union work for the benefit of the UK economy?
So, people locally now have a very clear choice to make.
Do they wish to gamble their futures and the futures of their children and generations to come on the unsubstantiated promises made by Brexiteers in 2016?
Or, alternatively, might they be willing to invest a little bit of time learning about the new and brighter future on offer to everyone across the UK if we remain in the EU and its Single Market and Customs Union?
I’d be happy to run briefing sessions locally or online, if anyone is interested.
Alan Meekings
via email
