I voted Leave in the EU referendum – for a number of different reasons.
I’m becoming increasingly worried, however, that we now face the possibility of a relatively small number of our population, ie, the Tory party membership, deciding the fate of Brexit and the future of the country via their current leadership ballot.
These people are not representative of the country as a whole – and I’d say the same were it a Labour Party contest.
If Boris Johnson wins, he will take us out of the EU on Thursday 31 October – possibly with no deal.
While no deal may be acceptable, and safe, for older people like myself, it could spell economic hardship and difficulty for younger people who are already struggling under austerity and ever-rising housing costs.
It could also mean disaster for those “just about managing”.
This is complete madness and is why Hove MP Peter Kyle’s amendment to the EU withdrawal bill – known as the Kyle/Wilson amendment – was eminently sensible.
It recognised that the government had negotiated what they saw as the best deal in the circumstances but then wanted this put to a binding confirmatory vote.
If the deal proved acceptable to a majority of the electorate then it would pass into law with no return to Parliament.
If, however, it was rejected then we would remain in the EU.
This satisfied both sides of the EU debate as it recognised the referendum result but gave people the chance to scrutinise and understand the deal itself.
That Boris Johnson and Tory party members now hold the fate of the country in their hands is nothing short of a national calamity.
Peter Atkinson is a Labour councillor for North Portslade on Brighton and Hove City Council.
Cllr Atkinson does not tell us the “number of different reasons” for his voting Leave (which, er, leaves us to infer that he wanted to be in keeping with his area’s voters). He should have looked further and realised that Labour’s shilly-shallying is out of kilter with am increasing number of those now able to vote for the first time and these palpably realise that their future – and the planet’s – depends upon a cohesive Europe.
Leavers for the most part voted for reasons they believed in, however from the many conversations I have had with those that voted Leave, the majority voted for reasons entirely within the remit and control of the UK Government of both Red and Blue variety over the years!
Couple that with a fundamental misunderstanding of how the EU actually works (yes the EU President is elected by REPRESENTATIVES ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE of the constituent member states, including us for now, and he/she only proposes legislation which is considered and voted on the the EU parliament) perpetrated by populist right wing newspapers controlled by a few tax exile/non resident BILLIONAIRES with an interest in selling the most newspapers!
“Taking back control” of our borders… Have these people never passed through Passport control at an airport? Also, since the Maastricht Treaty of 1993, WE (the UK) have had the ability to send back any EU national who isn’t working after 3 months or not working & unable to support themselves financially, FACT, but interestingly the UK Govt in it’s wisdom decided they wouldn’t implement this piece of EU legislation here in the UK!
Now, many more (which we control fully) people are coming from OUTSIDE the EU, another FACT!
Perhaps it’s time politicians stopped Brexit which is a sympton not a cause, of the problems facing the UK (Northern powerhouse… What happened to that?) and left behind areas, which successive Governments haven’s addressed with their short term policies to please voters until the next election.
Stop Brexit, when EVERY government report and nearly every independent observer (minus the b.s. Brexiteer MPs who don’t understand facts, or that “Dover is quite important” (D. Raab) for the transport of goods (No s**t Sherlock!) says it will be a total catastrophe reducing tax receipts by between £90 billion and £119 billion over the next 10 years for the UK exchequer.
Finally, to all the selfish oldies (not all of them as only c.60% voted Leave), you’ve had your lives, got your gold plated pensions, and have houses bought and paid for, WE, the young, can’t even afford a house in somewhere we don’t want to live, and WE are EUROPEAN, and NOT isolationist like you.
Stop stealing our future’s.