I am that person you talk about being condescended to. I grew up and live in a red wall seat they’re desperately trying to stop going Turquoise or Light blue or whatever colour it is, I have a first class degree from a Russell Group University and I work for a business that was fundamentally affected - both positively and negatively - by Brexit. And I struggle desperately to find a political home these days.
Really interesting take - it hadn't occurred to me before to think about both the Brexiter & Remainer elites as being completely out of touch with real world concerns but it's so obvious when one does.
One skill of the Brexiters was always to paint themselves with their fingers on the public pulse but more importantly to paint their opponents as out of touch. The constant evocation of "the will of the people", supported by a cheerleading press, and with a BBC compromised at the top by politically appointed fellow travellers (together with a general culture of fearfulness of annoying incumbent governments that goes back at least as far as David Kelly) massively reinforced that.
I'd quite forgotten the sheer effort it took to attempt a balanced understanding in those torrid times.
Are you familiar with the Ventotene Manifesto, written by Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi on the island of Ventotene during the WW2 which explains why a European federation with shared institutions and shared sovereignty is the only answer to the need for peace in Europe? It's clear that shared sovereignty is the only way forward for an impoverished state like UK, and I'm surprised that you would see Brussels as an attempt at empire. Read Timothy Snyder on this, the EU is a post imperial power but for it to continue to be successful it needs to become a full federation and at the very least eliminate the veto of individual states in the European Council.
Next time you're in Brussels come to the European Parliament and think about how much progress we've made since 1945, a time of peace and the creation of institutions to prevent the possibility of war between our countries in the future. I am (or was) a proud Brit but my heart swells with pride at being a European citizen when I hear the Ode to Joy played celebrations of Europe around the (sadly only) 27 member states. I still haven't been to Ventotene but I hope to get there before I die!
To learn more about European federalismo you could start with some of the great British federalists like Lord Lothian, who Altiero Spinelli read and was inspired by when he was imprisoned on Ventotene.
Politicians should start to openly speak about the federal path that Europe should and must take, European citizens are 'unknowingly' federalists, they demand more and more competences to be handed over to Brussels, covid forced the EU into having a quasy federal health agency, so did the war in Ukraine and ralations with our former BFF are doing the same regarding defence, luring academics from Trump's US to Europe is proving a challenging issue without a federal education agency.
Step by step Europe is heading to what it needs to become fit for purpose, a federal entity.
Bang on Lewis. Quite why we listen to those who got spectacularly wrong allay time on this and who continue to do so is a mystery. Except they are backed to the hilt by right wing media come what may. So I guess it’s not. Why listen to Farage etc when the CBI and hundreds of other British businesses are lauding this deal which will make life measurably better for our population with easier exports and imports and therefore cheaper goods for one thing? I don’t : )
Brexit was a "vibes" competition...which endorsed " vibes" for an even more perilous, for the west, presidential contest ... both of which were and are staffed by mutually supporting ANTI democratic forces.
The similarity between MPs hounded out of parliament and into line in the GOP is stark.
I don't like the idea of extreme brexit and extreme remain... that is a Putinist binary... I support Briturn to keep VE day every day..the EU is that vehicle...warts an' all...
Ultimately Putin needs a Reform government... that tells you all you need to know about Brexit.
I am that person you talk about being condescended to. I grew up and live in a red wall seat they’re desperately trying to stop going Turquoise or Light blue or whatever colour it is, I have a first class degree from a Russell Group University and I work for a business that was fundamentally affected - both positively and negatively - by Brexit. And I struggle desperately to find a political home these days.
Really interesting take - it hadn't occurred to me before to think about both the Brexiter & Remainer elites as being completely out of touch with real world concerns but it's so obvious when one does.
One skill of the Brexiters was always to paint themselves with their fingers on the public pulse but more importantly to paint their opponents as out of touch. The constant evocation of "the will of the people", supported by a cheerleading press, and with a BBC compromised at the top by politically appointed fellow travellers (together with a general culture of fearfulness of annoying incumbent governments that goes back at least as far as David Kelly) massively reinforced that.
I'd quite forgotten the sheer effort it took to attempt a balanced understanding in those torrid times.
Are you familiar with the Ventotene Manifesto, written by Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi on the island of Ventotene during the WW2 which explains why a European federation with shared institutions and shared sovereignty is the only answer to the need for peace in Europe? It's clear that shared sovereignty is the only way forward for an impoverished state like UK, and I'm surprised that you would see Brussels as an attempt at empire. Read Timothy Snyder on this, the EU is a post imperial power but for it to continue to be successful it needs to become a full federation and at the very least eliminate the veto of individual states in the European Council.
Next time you're in Brussels come to the European Parliament and think about how much progress we've made since 1945, a time of peace and the creation of institutions to prevent the possibility of war between our countries in the future. I am (or was) a proud Brit but my heart swells with pride at being a European citizen when I hear the Ode to Joy played celebrations of Europe around the (sadly only) 27 member states. I still haven't been to Ventotene but I hope to get there before I die!
To learn more about European federalismo you could start with some of the great British federalists like Lord Lothian, who Altiero Spinelli read and was inspired by when he was imprisoned on Ventotene.
Politicians should start to openly speak about the federal path that Europe should and must take, European citizens are 'unknowingly' federalists, they demand more and more competences to be handed over to Brussels, covid forced the EU into having a quasy federal health agency, so did the war in Ukraine and ralations with our former BFF are doing the same regarding defence, luring academics from Trump's US to Europe is proving a challenging issue without a federal education agency.
Step by step Europe is heading to what it needs to become fit for purpose, a federal entity.
Why not recognise and accept reality?
https://davekeating.substack.com/p/federalise-or-die?utm_source=multiple-personal-recommendations-email&utm_medium=email&triedRedirect=true
“Both liberal and illiberal metropolitan elites are deeply unrepresentative of the public, and it’s only the liberal ones who know it.”
One of the most quotable - and accurate - sentences I’ve read in years.
Bang on Lewis. Quite why we listen to those who got spectacularly wrong allay time on this and who continue to do so is a mystery. Except they are backed to the hilt by right wing media come what may. So I guess it’s not. Why listen to Farage etc when the CBI and hundreds of other British businesses are lauding this deal which will make life measurably better for our population with easier exports and imports and therefore cheaper goods for one thing? I don’t : )
Yes, more sovereignty, but much less power. And you're right, government needs to big up this agreement, and constantly promote it.
Started well there Lewis... but then.. I dunno..
Brexit was a "vibes" competition...which endorsed " vibes" for an even more perilous, for the west, presidential contest ... both of which were and are staffed by mutually supporting ANTI democratic forces.
The similarity between MPs hounded out of parliament and into line in the GOP is stark.
I don't like the idea of extreme brexit and extreme remain... that is a Putinist binary... I support Briturn to keep VE day every day..the EU is that vehicle...warts an' all...
Ultimately Putin needs a Reform government... that tells you all you need to know about Brexit.
My problem is I object to a man who is clearly sociopathic being PM
No empathy
No sense of humour.
No inner life (doesn't read, do art/music)
Bristles when challenged
Hates being laughed at (viz. TV audience at his “Son of a toolmaker” spiel) – which he has not repeated since
Pathological liar. As confirmed by a former SPAD
Refuses to take responsibility for things that happened on his watch.
No soul. Look into his eyes. Nothing there. The eyes are where we see another.
May have read it incorrectly, but came away believing I should vote
reform to support those that voted leave.