I believe that reality's gone, disillusion's real...

I've not written about politics in this blog for a while. It's been getting me down and I've been paying less attention to it and more attention to things that make me happy, such as wrestling or pictures of cats on the internet.

I've been quite disillusioned since the EU Referendum. Since before it, really. And since it too. I have always tried to have faith that those in positions of power have our best interests at heart. Even though some of the things they do suck, I know they have to make hard decisions and always tried to convince myself that they were doing the best they can for the country as a whole.

And then comes along Boris and his big bus of lies to wipe away my faith in a few words.

We knew it was all lies at the time. But still they peddled it because not everyone will realise they are lies.

It was admitted shortly after the result was announced that they knew they were lies. And yet nothing has happened. It seems that you are able to openly lie in an election campaign, admit that you openly lied and suffer no repercussions.

Regardless of which way you voted, this is unacceptable behaviour. This has made me disillusioned.

Prior to the vote, both sides were getting into unacceptable personal and vitriolic attacks on the other side. These have continued ever since. The tweet below from one of my favourite comedians earlier today got a lot of abusive responses.

Yet it makes an important point. Several important points, even, in under 140 characters. The idea that a democratic majority can be ignored would lead me to be more disillusioned in the electoral system. 

Even though it's not what I want. Even though I think people may have been misled into voting to leave. Even though I think it will be worse for the country to go with the majority vote, we can't ignore the fact that the majority voted to leave.

Yet the size of the opposition to it is immense. 16.1 million people is not insignificant in any way. If it had been a more significant divide, then I think it would be easier to accept. 16 million people is just such a staggeringly large number that I think everyone's views should be taken into account in some way. But then I think we should have proportional representation as well. The system just isn't what I want it to be. 

Another reason I think we need to be more careful around this issue is that some people don't know what they voted for. The guy on the radio who couldn't name a single law that he wants repealed is perhaps an extreme example. Even if we assume that everyone who voted to leave knew all the ins and outs of EU laws and regulations, the problem is that we still don't actually know what leaving the EU looks like.

If there had been a clear plan of exactly what leaving would be then we would have been able to vote on two options for which we had full information. We knew what remaining looked like, but leave was a lot of vague promises of a brighter future when the reality is that there is no way that they will all be able to be fulfilled.

This abusiveness and the fact that we are being dragged into something without our eyes open has made me disillusioned.

The fallout from the vote has been getting worse and worse as time goes on. The pound dropping to record lows means that people will be unable to afford to go on holiday. The announcement today about Marmite shortages might seem comical at the moment.

The tweet above made me almost chuckle. I don't LOL much at the internet but this almost managed it. People have been making jokes about hoarding Marmite or putting it on eBay for £500. The problem is that this is likely to be the first of a number of products that will become unaffordable or no longer stocked in Britain when companies start pulling out or raising prices. It might be luxuries or something you don't need or want at first, but I'm worried it will start to get to more essential items over time. This has made me disillusioned.

One thing that has upset me is that the percentage of the electorate who voted to leave the EU (52% of a 72% turnout = 37% of the total electorate) is less than a trade union needs to hold a legitimate strike under the latest legislation that the Conservative government enacted (requiring 40% of the total electorate to vote in favour). This therefore makes it easier to leave the European Union than to have legal strike action. This discrepancy, and the attack on workers rights, has made me disillusioned.

The fact that they left immediately fell into infighting and a leadership contest, rather than banding together to try to stand up for workers rights, to get the best possible outcome in the negotiations and to form a coalition that could unseat the tories at the next election has made me disillusioned.

I like to think that people are trying to do the best thing but it is sometimes difficult to keep telling myself that.




Something to Believe In
The Offspring

I believe that reality's gone
Disillusion's real
I believe that morality's gone
And there's nothing to feel
If you take the sacred things
The things that we hold dear
Empty promise is all you'll find
So give me something

Something to believe in [x4]

I believe in a changing of the guard
Put our feet on the ground
See it happen in your own backyard
Everything breaks down
Do you accept what you are told
Without even thinking
Throw it all and make your own
And give me something

Something to believe in [x4]

Where they lead
You will follow
Well I guess that's just the way it goes
And if you look away
You'll be doing what they say
And if you look alive
You'll be singled out and tried
If you take home anything
Let it be your will to think
The more cynical you become
The better off you'll be

Something to believe in [x8]

Why I am voting to Bremain

There are a few things that have worried me about the EU referendum a week today.

The first is that whatever the outcome, we will end up with a divided nation. It looks like the result will be roughly 50/50, so whichever side wins, half of the country will be dissatisfied. 

Whilst the Scottish independence reference had a similar split and there doesn't seem to have been any underlying unrest in the country, there is still constant talk about a second independence referendum. So, if next week the country votes to remain (especially if by a small margin), I can imagine there will be number of calls over the next few months or years for another referendum. 

The issues with the EU referendum are also a lot more emotionally charged than those for the Scottish independence referendum. That was largely about taking control over the political decisions made in the country because they didn't like those being made in Westminster.

The EU referendum can be seen at it's core as the same - that the leave side are asking to take back the control over political decisions from Brussels - however there are a number of issues, predominantly around immigration and the effect that has on communities who are struggling for housing and jobs, which were major issues during the Scottish referendum. These issues will still be there if there is a vote to Remain, and will continue to provide tension in these communities.

Another reason I am worried is that I personally have been quite stressed thinking about it and weighing up all the arguments to decide which way to vote. We elect politicians to be knowledgeable and clued up on things so that they can make our decisions for us. Whilst a referendum is a very democratic process which - at heart - I approve of, it is difficult to argue that all the people who will be voting will be fully knowledgeable about the consequences of which way they are voting.

Part of the reason for this is that there has been a lot of speculation, estimates and sometimes lies on both sides of the argument. The reason for this is that no one can tell the future. And the discussions that I have seen have not been fully reasoned. They have been people putting their side across. There has not been any proper discussion which would have helped to evolve our understanding. There has largely just been dogmatic claims.

MPs and the public have a significantly different view on the matter. Whilst the public are close to 50/50, only 25% of MPs are supporting the leave campaign. The referendum came around largely to try to appease Conservative back benchers and keep the party intact, as well as to attempt to fend off a threat from UKIP. Cameron in my view has risked the future of our country for self-gain. Although, looking at the election results, the two main parties who were offering a referendum, or wanted to leave gained almost half of the vote (Conservatives 36.8%, UKIP 12.7% - a total of 49.5%) and so I'm not sure why some people were surprised at how close the referendum vote was looking to be.

The only other referendum that I have been eligible to vote in, the Alternative Vote referendum. My take on that was that people voted for the status quo. It is too risky to make a leap and vote for massive change. The same sort of argument has been used by the conservatives in last year's election, and Dubya in America - "don't change horses midstream" although the EU referendum has a lot of people willing to make that leap into the dark.

The AV referendum upset me. It would have increased the amount of democracy we have. Not by a large amount, but partially. It wouldn't have been as much of a change as proportional representation, which I am still hopeful we will have in my lifetime, but it would have been a step in the right direction.  The EU referendum has a larger number of people willing to take the risk of change, particularly among the older generation.

So, after this preamble, I need to decide how I am going to vote. I was unsure at first, but several factors have persuaded me to go for Bremaining. 

Initially, I was basing my decision on which side had the least idiots backing it. This was easily remain as despite Cameron and Osborne backing it, they were easily outweighed by Farridge, Johnson, Gove, IDS and co. in terms of buffoonery, incompetence and being self-serving.

I have then evolved to making a decision about what level I want to be governed at, and what I think is best for everyone and not just the people of Britain. My belief is that borders are largely arbitrary, based on historical wars. It is better, in my opinion, for the people of Europe to be united as one, rather than divided, and therefore I favour a Europe-wide government.

Whilst I do believe that some issues are best decided at a local level, to allow specific local needs to be fulfilled, we still have this under an EU government as we have national government, along with county, local and parish councils which should (in theory) be able to tailor the government of the country to specific local requirements.

I consider myself to be left-wing, and my beliefs are that we should govern in the interests of all, not the interests of the few. Obviously, others will have different opinions on this, and that can be seen in the split of the voting in the last general election as well as beliefs on the welfare state.

My view is that rather than being upset that we pay more to the EU than we get back, we should celebrate the fact that we are helping raise the minimum level of quality of life in other countries rather than we are creating a bigger divide. This is in line with my beliefs on the welfare state and how we should lift everyone up rather than creating a bigger divide by moving the wealth upwards.

One bonus of my stance is that overall the EU government is likely to be central overall, when you combine all parties from the left and the right, and therefore they are more likely to keep any extreme national government in check.

Conservatives such as Michael Gove have been claiming that they will spend all the money that they "reclaim" from the EU on our public services. This is despite spending the last 6 years cutting them in favour of tax breaks for the rich. It made me quite nauseous when he was putting this opinion forward on Question Time last night.

I think the deciding factor for me is that my opinions are more in line with those from the EU. I trust more a government that came up with workers rights than one which has been systematically dismantling the welfare state and destroying the NHS. Therefore I would prefer to be governed by Europe.