“It takes a big man to admit he was wrong.” Obviously referring to integrity and ethically. Now when it comes to Brexit, perhaps intentionally, this is thrown high into the air.
Politicians have a mixed track record in this regard. Never more so than in the claims made by Leavers re the wonderful future that the UK will enjoy if we are not part of the EU. We will be able to swan around the world trading, to huge UK advantage, with ‘inferior’ nations on whatever terms we decide upon.
The NHS will have so much extra money each week they will struggle spending it all! Oh, and anyone who tried to have a proper, rational discussion were scare- and fearmongers, telling lies.
We were also told that ‘foreigners’ in the UK were all scroungers, cost us millions of pounds a year, adding nothing to the country, when in fact they are net contributors to our economy.
Without doubt this had a huge influence on the way the referendum vote went. Nor did we know at the time that a group of very rich, powerful people were using what may be proved to be close to illegal methods to influence the people of the UK to vote leave. It suits them as they expect that rules which benefit us all and help to keep us safer in every respect, will be substantially weakened, to their financial advantage.
If we want a safer, fairer world we need to have strong ties with allies and be at the heart of the EU using our position to influence matters and if we truly are the nation that we think we are we will be able to do this. We will not do it by pretending to be something we are not.
If is not defeatist to accept that whilst we have so much of which we can be justifiably proud, we are no longer capable of dominating (even if we wanted to), a large part of the rest of the world.
We actually need to be part of a much larger grouping for a great many reasons, not only trade. If anyone thinks the UK, on its own, has the power and influence to stand up to the real superpowers of the world then they are seriously deluding themselves but that is what the pedlars of the mountains of lies prior to the vote persuaded many people to believe.
The likely objective of the group of rich, powerful people (including some politicians) appears not to be to benefit the future of the people of the UK but to further their own ambitions.
But the UK’s future is involved here, especially the future of millions of young people who are in imminent danger of being set afloat on an unknown sea without a life jacket.
How will people like it when Zero Hours contracts become more the norm rather than the exception? How will people like it when workplace safety and rights are whittled down? How will people like it when they finally realise that the promised simplicity of leaving the EU and the immediate massive benefits of being a ‘small’ unattached country were just an illusion (or would lie be more accurate?) as the years go by? Or am I just another scaremonger?
Many leavers may now have come to, or are rapidly coming to, the conclusion that the pre-vote promise of milk and honey for everyone is highly likely to be replaced by deep water and clinging mud (but without ‘the foreigners’).
But if someone is persuaded to take a certain route only to find that it is leading elsewhere than they had been led to believe, and an incredibly dangerous chasm is in the way, their intelligence should tell them two things at least – firstly that they have been told the wrong route initially and secondly they should no longer follow the false route.
‘Betrayal of the people’ is a phrase trotted out frequently. Who ‘betrayed’ who? An Oxford Dictionary definition of ‘betray’ includes to lead astray.
If I deliberately influence a person to act in a certain way knowing the basis of my influence is false, then I lead them astray; I have betrayed them.
To provide better information to enable them to have the opportunity to make a more reasoned decision which may result in them casting a vote differently does not betray anyone.
More does it empower them to truly exercise their democratic right to base their decisions on truthful, accurate information.
Those who betrayed the people are those who freely peddled false information prior to the referendum and we should never forget that.
I sometimes ask myself why I am sufficiently concerned to spend my limited time writing this letter.
By the time the full disastrous effects of the UK leaving the EU (if it happens), are felt I will probably be long dead (I am over 80) but the future of those who will follow me is worth fighting for.
Don’t let a bunch of cold, greedy businessmen and some self-seeking ultra ambitious politicians take your future.
G Ogden
Surfleet
