John Vincent

There’s so much to indicate what’s going wrong that I’m amazed people are not making more noise.  Pound down, inflation up, pay going nowhere, companies moving off-shore and a trade secretary eulogising about selling sunglasses to the world.  I know it’s the annual silly season but these are real and not imaginary events.  If we don’t take heed of such indicators then further troubles will results with certainty.

Last night, travelling back from Victoria station, I couldn’t help but overhear a conversation that made me think that we are living in strange times as a dangerous passivity has swept over the nation.

To my side there were two well-dressed couples probably in their early 60s.  I am guessing that they had been meeting friends at a nice London restaurant for the evening.  Conversation ranged from what their friends were doing to the local church.  Then politics came up.  Loudly one of the men said: “no one is going to invest while we have an unstable Government”.  That struck me.  Here we have a sample of prosperous middle England strongly voicing the opinion that the current Conservative Government is going nowhere.  It’s like people know the Government is failing but they are sitting on their hands waiting for better times.  It’s almost as if middle England has gone into stasis.

Another interesting meeting, I had last night was talking to a young Spanish student at the Proms.  He was from Madrid but had been taking advantage of the Erasmus Programme studying maths at Warwick.  The Erasmus Programme is European funding, offering university students a possibility of studying at European universities.  He spoke some German and was an amateur musician.  I couldn’t help but think how insane it would be to make it difficult for young people, like him, to study in the UK.

The mindless insanity of Brexit continues.  Day-after-day examples show just how wrong the direction we are headed continues to be.  Yet, public inaction is the response to the confusion presented by the present Government.  There ought to be a huge outcry calling for Mrs May to go.  Where is it?

I don’t believe the story that many of those we voted Remain have come around to the idea of Brexit.   What I do think has happened is a lot of people have been turned off the whole debate because of the crude conduct of a great number of Brexit advocates.  There’s the unfortunate “it will be all right on the night” thinking too.   Somewhat because we haven’t been accustomed to extreme politics in Britain there’s an underlying assumption that however crazy the talking, sound, solid and sober people in the background will work it out.  The reality is that assumption no longer stands.

The Leave campaign know what they did. They were singularly cynical about the campaign they ran. Except for the master manipulators most of those who did vote for Brexit had no idea what it meant.

However, in all 48 million did not vote for Brexit.  It’s the future of the whole Country that we should be thinking about and not appeasing the few.  That’s the difference between real democracy and mob rule.

It’s now important to campaign for a reversal of this ill-fated path.   Failure to do so is almost unthinkable.  Young people, now coming of age will be the ones writing the history books.  That story can be one of a new dark age or a brighter internationalist era.  The choice is ours.  As one great, European leader once said: “This is not yet the end … … but it may be the end of the beginning”.

Beginning to awaken to the fact that Europe is better together.

Farce, insanity and slapstick, they have it all.  But what they have in spades is confusion.  Keir Starmer says one thing then Jeremy Corbyn says something else.  The Trade Unions mumble in the background.  A chorus of different voices sound off in every different direction.  Its near on impossible to figure out exactly what policy the British Labour Party has on Brexit.  Just taking one part of the debate around the Single Market and within ten minutes you’ll be totally confused.

Since colourful metaphors seem to be the order of the day and trade is at the heart of many discussions, here’s a maritime one.  Yes, a storm is raging and the Conservatives are the dangerous navigators who are pointing the ship of State towards the rocks but Labour are the wreckers on the beech who are luring the ship to its doom.

I have no care for the Labour Party but I do wish they would get their act together.  They need to look in the mirror and ask themselves the question: what is it we stand for?  It matters for future generations what happens over the next months.  If the Government goes for the most extreme form of Brexit then the outcome will severely impact everyone.  Now, it maybe that the Labour Party fully intends to continue to ally itself with the Conservatives.  They are even receiving warm praise from UKIP.  I call that insane but it’s their choice and they had better be clear about it.  In such a case millions of progressive British people are being betrayed.

One definition of “stupid” is to keep doing the same thing but, at the same time, expect a different outcome[1].  There’s a time when change is not just desirable but necessary without delay.

On the backfoot, the defensive stand being taken by Brexiters is now a simplistic yell of – stop being negative – be negative about climate change – be negative about media bias but don’t be negative about a failing pet political project.  Social media is full to the brim with this chanting.

The insistence that everyone should be positive about the gloomy daily diet of Brexit news is repeated constantly.  At the same time, it’s no real surprises that the latest official data on the UK economy shows bad news.  This is a familiar story as there have been plenty of warnings about gathering storm clouds.  Many have been prompted to take contingency measures or hunker down.

Now, the messengers are being targeted for sounding their warnings.  Somehow speaking clearly, calmly and objectively is equated with being unpatriotic.  The Brexiters formula is that, on all occasions, people should smile and be upbeat regardless of the impact of this self-imposed calamity.  To not do so is to let the side down or to support a, so called, “enemy”.  The wise know that the cold reality is that shutting our eyes to negative information doesn’t make it go away.

My response to this thoughtlessness is in aeronautical terms.  If a warning system is telling us to take emergency actions then it’s imperative that it be taken.  No delay.  Now is the time to change.  There are far too many who have ignored warnings and as a result are not here to tell the tale.  Exit Brexit without delay.

[1] “Stupidity is doing same thing and expecting different results” said by Einstein.

There’s some good news.  It’s not often that can be said in this rather peculiar time.

There’s some bad news too.  So, let’s go with the bad news first.  It occurs to me that an enormous amount has been written about Brexit but little of what’s written is getting any traction in turning around the ridiculous situation we find ourselves in.  It’s assumed that the rift between IN or OUT, Remain or Leave, Pro or Anti is unbridgeable.  However, day-after-day, people are leaping over that rift and regretting their vote to leave the European Union but, now, not much is changing.  I want to add one more reason why people need to take that leap forward and reject Brexit.  The reason comes in this shape and it has much to do with my experience with rules and regulations.

Whatever you do in life things go wrong.  Accidents happen.  Errors get made.  Failure occurs.  It really doesn’t matter if you come from the left, right or centre of politics.  Stuff happens and one of our expectations is that Governments, wherever they are, will fix problem stuff.  You might say; what the point of them if they don’t?

What’s concerning and dangerous about the current Brexit obsessed Government has hit us before.  It’s the phenomena that is so easy to see in hindsight but difficult to see when it’s happening.  It’s often called; groupthink.  Laws get made, regulation get amended and decisions get taken in a way that doesn’t consider the impact.  That’s where we are today and its really is bad news.

Next for the good news.  I welcome Vince Cable as the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the UK.  There’s a huge gaping gap right at the heart of British politics.  A massive vacant spot to occupy.  The right is in its fox hole.  The left is up on the barricades.  Nobody is addressing the clear majority of sane, sober and honest people who just want the best for their community and their Country.  The good news is that there’s an opportunity to offer an alternative to the blind groupthink of the extremes of left and right.  A positive, progressive internationalist centre ground Party will go far.