In theory I ought to like Independent MPs. In practice they are often cranks. So strong is this correlation that I begin to suspect that there might be causation involved. Perhaps the bites on the neck that the party Whips administer to all MPs weekly under the pretence that it is an “old Parliamentary tradition” actually transfer a dose of sanity serum. Without that saving vampiroid saliva, the derangement to which everyone in Westminster eventually succumbs comes all the sooner.
Philip Hammond, former Conservative Chancellor and current backbench Independent Conspiracist has claimed in the Times that
… he is backed by speculators who have bet billions on a hard Brexit — and there is only one outcome that works for them: a crash-out no-deal Brexit that sends the currency tumbling and inflation soaring. So they, at least, will be reassured to see no evidence at all that his government has seriously pursued a deliverable deal; still less that it has been pursuing a deal that could get us out by October 31. The time available means that the only deal with any prospect of delivering that outcome is the deal that they have already rejected and that many of them have voted against.
There is an excellent fact-filled response to this nonsense by Frances Coppola writing in Forbes: The Mythical Bets On No-Deal Brexit.
Anyone who believes a word that comes out of Phillip Hammond’s mouth is a fool who deserves to be fool.
Hopefully, the shenanigans of his treason, dodgy re-selection and then ousting from the Tories will be enough to convince his constituents to vote for someone else this time around.
Then we can let Mr. Hammond slip into the oblivion that he most certainly deserves. Ideally, prior to his trial for Treason next year.
All remainers are mad.
Meanwhile, his successor is promosing billions of pounds of extra spending, more effing roadworks to clog up the roads for years and outbidding Corbyn on a minimum wage. The Maybot may be out of office, but her gut socialism remains the guiding star.
I am delighted to hear that there are some sane remainers out there, it’s just that I haven’t met any. Neither online nor in real life. They are ALL hysterical. They ALL say demonstrably stupid things and they are ALL quite beyond reason.
Phineas (30th September 2019 at 8:23 pm), I would probably call people such as you describe remoaners, not remainers. Some third of the country voted ‘Remain’. I hope you do not find every third person you meet is hysterical, demonstrably stupid and quite beyond reason. Are remainers leaving remoaners? notes a couple of straws in the wind suggesting that the very real hysteria, demonstrable stupidity and unreason of remoaners is causing many who voted remain in 2016 to join us in thinking Brexit should now just be done, not more delayed. I hope so; given the strength of remoaners in the deep state, sane remainers may be an important constituency for us.
Some of my friends (and relatives) voted remain.
Most of them have always accepted their side of the argument lost and now wish that we’d just get on and leave.
Sadly, the rest of them are, three years on, still clinging to conspiracy theories about why Leave won, such as the Hammond one, and the Terry Christian one about media moguls off-shore tax havens(?!).
They are definitely ‘remoaners’: for the sake of my mental health they are no longer my friends. (the remoaner relatives are off the Xmas card list)
Niall,
You keep bringing this up in other comments on other blogs that “only 1/3 of the country voted leave/remain”. No. Over half of those who were concerned about the direction the country was going voted that they wanted to change course.
Typically in the UK, General Elections are voted on a turn out of somewhere between 35% to 40% (and the 40% mark is unusual) of the registered electorate. Over 60% of the registered electorate voted on Brexit, which is remarkable and shows the strength of the feeling.
As for not every remainer is a hysterical, demonstrably stupid and quite beyond reason remainer and amount to 1/3 of the population, then I would ask you to examine (perhaps draw up a table, construct a graph or whatever you want to show the result) of which faction is taking the government to court, raising injunctions, blocking votes on this, demanding votes on that, introducing legislation (the Benn Act, for example) to delay, obstruct and prevent Brexit. Answers on the back of a postcard to the usual address as thet say in the UK.
If we are to accept that your argument then EVERY SINGLE GOVERNMENT that has ever been elected in the UK is illegitimate as X% of the population (voting for the opposition and those who were not bothered enough to vote) did not vote for them. As a “for example” Tony Blairs Government garnered about (from memory) 25% of the registered electorate vote to win the general election. I would greatly like to see that result overthrown but then we are in the same situation as the USA at the moment where the Democrats are trying to reverse the 2016 election result.
For democracy to work, the losers must accept the result, no matter how distasteful. This, I would say, is certainly not happening with Brexit although if the result had been to remain, they would have been quite happy not to rock the boat.
Duncan S: “Most of them have always accepted their side of the argument lost and now wish that we’d just get on and leave.
That matches what I hear from my statistically insignificant sample of UK citizens. The ones who thought that separation from the EU was a bad choice still think that way. However, they are fed up with the endless farce in Westminster and just want to get Brexit done and move on.
The other thing that jumps out from conversations is that both Leave and Remain meant a range of different things to people who voted for them; there are significant divisions within both those camps. It seems that the only thing on which the people I hear from are united is their growing contempt for Westminster politicians — which rather reinforces the view of those who chose not to vote because they had as little confidence in Westminster as they did in Brussels.
A few of the Leavers recognize the irony that they are trying so hard to get power back from Brussels and give it to a group in Westminster in which they now have no confidence. They seem to hope that there will indeed be a Great Realignment where the current remote metropolitan Oxbridge clique will be swept away by a tide of righteous indignation and a new & better species of MP will take the stage.
Hearing that kind of hopeful thinking reminds me of the scene from the movie Doctor Shivago where revolutionaries are singing a protest song outside the hall where a group of Russian nobility are partying it up. A sophisticated Czarist brings the house down by observing: “Maybe they will sing in tune after the Revolution”.
Which is what I find so distasteful about those who not only voted Remain but push the various arguments such as “Only 38% of the electorate voted for Leave” (by implication those who voted for Remain AND those who chose not to vote were included on the obvious, but unspoken 62%)
The difference as I see it between the Remainers (or Soft Remain) and the Remoaners (or Hard Remain) is that the Soft Remainers might have had issues with the EU, but they saw it as the status quo and recognised that the economic and political fallout of leaving might not be justified in the long term. I think that is a perfectly valid point-of-view certainly from my Hard Leave perspective I can’t say my side have exemplified themselves on this point (regardless of the treason from Grieve, Hammond, Letwin et al)
The Remoaners in my view are those who refuse to accept that Leave won and characterising referendum as Lost because the stupid racist bigots of the electorate were lied to by Boris over the advertising on a bus…or something.
Regardless of why they think this way is irrelevant, you’re essentially trying to diagnose mental problems (since they are effectively indulging in fantasy and conspiracy theories to evade reality). You need to cut such people out of your day-to-day lives as much as possible, simply because they are bad for you, like a form of cancer.
As for the traitors against country like elected MP’s who campaigned on the manifesto commitment of implementing the results of the referendum. They need to face the electorate without the protection of the parties they have repudiated or resign. The chances that their constituents will agree with them are slim-to-none.
Those who have conspired with foreign governments (including the EU) to frustrate BRExit should be prosecuted for treason (or at the very least, treachery).
This is not some Ecksian type purge (although god knows that is justified by their behaviour) or political retribution by the winners against the losers, but a necessary act of “pour encourager les autres” to prevent future destabilisation of the country.
It’s pretty clear that this is just yet another convoluted oblique and devious “Project Fear” missile.
The message is “vote for the surrender treaty, or horrid evil mean foreigners will make a fortune! In fact worse, AMERICANS, in fact even worse than that, HEDGE FUNDS.”
The people this is aimed at mostly have no idea what a hedge fund is, but they know it’s evil.
Phil I have never said that and did not say it above. I noted that roughly one-third of the populace voted Remain – and therefore roughly one-third of the voting-age people any of us randomly meet will have voted Remain. (More voted Leave and some did not vote.)
You are perhaps confusing me with Gavin Longmuir, who IIRC has sometimes said that, and to whom I have several times commented in dissent – occasionally rather caustically.
My comment merely notes that – happily – the remoaners, whose cheating tactics you note, are only a subset of the remainers, many of whom are now bored with project fear and sceptical of its wilder claims, and accept that the side that won should be allowed to get on with it.
Your general point about electoral turnouts is correct -and one I never questioned.
The general argument (IIRC) was that only 37% of the electorate voted for Leave (the others being those voting Remain and those not voting), but if you don’t vote then you are opting out of the process.
Never understood the rationale of the people that count the non-voters as “Not voting for Leave”. Lowest kind of bad loser in my book, but that’s Remoaners for you.
I will be glad when BRExit is done so that we can move on. Even as a Hard BRExiteer going back decades I’ve grown weary of the ongoing mouth flapping. We won. FFS! Let’s get it finished and move onto something actually productive.