Sunday 4 September 2016

This is the Brexit I voted for


Today, news will start to sink in that Brexit means whatever Mrs May says it means. And given that she is tempered by reality in ways that the Tory right are not, that will mean that she has to take the views of Japan into serious consideration.

What that means in practice is no radical changes to freedom of movement, no pointless Australian points based system, definitely no £350m a week for the NHS - and absolutely no bonfire of regulation. And this prompts a whole lotta moaning.


And it's gets worse:


But away with such sanctimony. Along with many other Brexit blogs, we were the first to say that there would be no cash bonanza nor would there be a bonfire of regulation. In fact when it comes to the regulation issues the remainer hacks are still trailing in our wake - and have yet to realise why a preferential deal with the USA is not actually that important. It will take them some months to catch up.

Moreover, a cursory glance at the Ashcroft polling shows that people did not in the main vote to control immigration - and further polling shows that the utterances of politicians made no real difference to their voting intention.

It should also be noted that those making the £350m claim were Vote Leave - a campaign of Toryboys with no track record in Euroscepticism appointed by the Electoral Commission without consultation - to the disgust of many grassroots activists. Myself included.

All in all Mrs May has no obligation to honour the promises of Vote Leave. She has no mandate for a hard Brexit and she has no real political need to shut down freedom of movement. She has a mandate to do the one thing the majority of people voted for. That thing expressed quite clearly on the ballot paper above. Leave the EU.

All we need do is look at the general election results if there is any doubt. Ukip ran a strongly negative campaign on an anti-immigration ticket. They halved their representation in parliament and failed to break through the glass ceiling of appeal. They scored 14% and their vote share has been collapsing ever since and their local support is peeling away in droves. Now that we are leaving the EU many are moving back to their natural party alignments - and for Eurosceptics, that's the Tories.

The notion that the legitimacy of Brexit pivots on Mrs May's ability to limit immigration is a media construct pushed by shit-stirring hacks who would love nothing more than to derail Brexit. It's not going to work. Like it or not the people did know what they were voting for, little is going to change their minds and Brexit is going to happen. Claims that "this is not the Brexit you voted for" won't wash.

Claims that Brexit is somehow deligitimised by not living up to the claims of Vote Leave is a dishonest ploy - and it's one that ultimately underscores why people voted to leave. In the end it was always the least repellent side that was going to win. In this estimation nearly everybody thinks Farage went to far with the "breaking point" poster and virtually nobody can identify a Vote Leave claim other than the fraudulent £350m figure. In spite of that, Remain still managed to lose. Why? Because they're still worse. Smug, condescending, dishonest and quite a bit stupid.

Since the referendum we've seen marches, protests, dishonest media narratives and every connivance imaginable to make claim that Brits voted for something other than Brexit. And that is why I would now welcome a second referendum. I would take great pleasure in watching the losers lose yet again. As far as lies go, the transparent lie of £350m week extra for the NHS pales in comparison to the web of sneering and deceit from the remainers. Even in the final analysis they still don't know why they lost - and that is why they would lose time after time. If they want to go again, I'm more than happy to increase the majority for leavers.

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