AIBU to think the pro-Brexit rally encapsulated the problems with Brexit

[twofingerstoEverything]

Last night's London rally seemed to me to encapsulate the basic problem with Brexit: lots of different groups from the rational and reasonable to the racist thugs, They can't even agree with each other what Brexit is, what type of Brexit they want, and have no common ground beyond wanting to leave. No wonder we're in a position of stalemate.

[SlackerMum1]

Very true. It’s the problem with trying to answer a complex question with a referendum. They only really work when there is a binary answer - independent or not, legal or not - so it doesn’t matter why people voted one way or another because the outcome is the same. A big national campaign by definition is about building a broad coalition - so in this case right from people who were primarily wanting to reduce immigration and protect local jobs to people who want to throw open the economy for a global free for all. You can’t deliver for both, and that’s before you get into the fact it has to be negotiated with another party.

[twofingerstoEverything]

If only David Cameron had engaged his brain.

[Windowsareforcheaters]

There were actually several rally's....

Like you say OP it explains a lot.

[Windowsareforcheaters]

Rallys no apostrophe needed for a plural.

Bastard autocorrect.

[twofingerstoEverything]

Also, the Leave campaign more or less said everything and anything was possible, encouraging a variety of beliefs and resulting in a range of ideal Brexit scenarios in people's minds. 'You want Brexit to look like this...?' You can have it!
The problem is all those ideal Brexits are not compatible with each other.

[Absolutepowercorrupts]

Of course the only thing they have in common is wanting to leave. As far as I remember that's what the question was. Leave or Remain. No other options were given.
Rallies is the plural of rally, that's why there was an aberrant apostrophe

[twofingerstoEverything]

Of course the only thing they have in common is wanting to leave.
Yes, but the point I'm making is that 'leaving' took a different shape and form in most leave voters' heads. I know most leavers are now pretending that 'no deal' was always the intention, but this is simply not borne out by the evidence, ie. what was said in the referendum campaign when a number of alternative possibilities was mooted.

[Windowsareforcheaters]

Rallies is the plural of rally, that's why there was an aberrant apostrophe

My humiliation is complete

I do actually know that.

[WillGymForPizza]

I did have a good laugh at all the flag waving dregs singing Rule Britannia at Yaxley-Lennon's rally. It was like a pound shop version of Last Night of the Proms.

[Cattenberg]

What were the US flags in the crmeant to symbolise? Were they representing American expats, or do Leavers tend to be pro-American?

[Cattenberg]

*crowd meant

[Alsohuman]

Trump has said he's waiting for us, heaven help us. Guess the US flags were about that.

[FizzyGreenWater]

Yep, this is what you get from a referendum to answer this kind of question, and this is what you get when you run a campaign which is basically the Child Catcher's van pre-reveal!

Free everything to everyone, you can have it all = baying cheated mob two years down the line.

[twofingerstoEverything]

What were the US flags in the crowd to symbolise? Were they representing American expats, or do Leavers tend to be pro-American?
I think some of them tend to be pro-Trump. Leave social media pages yesterday were full of 'drain the swamp' type rhetoric.

[LakieLady]

There was a woman wearing a Trump baseball cap and a Union Jack as a cloak. She may have been Anglo-American, I guess.

I particularly liked the man carrying a placard on what looked corrugated cardboard ripped from a box, with the slogan "beer and fags" in big letters emblazoned on it.

[twofingerstoEverything]

Ha ha! I missed that one! What do we want? Beer and fags! When do we want it...?

[Bornfreebutinchains]

I wondered what the beer and fags meant as well

Fizzy. I usually agree with everything you say on MN
But this time, I see the EU as the child catchers van... luring us in with ever closer union...

[Abra1de]

TBH my views for wanting to remain aren’t everyone’s, either.

I definitely didn’t want a federal Europe or a European army, for instance.

I think the EU is a somewhat flawed institution, but staying inside it was better than leaving.

Other people are more positive about it.

[tessieandoz]

" flag waving dregs " ?

[InfiniteSheldon]

Read your posts back to yourself your patronising superiority encapsulates perfectly why you.lost and can't understand why

[Caztonette]

There was one point that really encapsulated it for me.

When the votes on MV3 were announced, some of the crowd cheered (because that Brexit wasn't a 'real Brexit'). Others reacted angrily, calling MPs who didn't vote for the Deal 'traitors'.

Even amongst the hard-core that attended yesterday, there were polarized opinions on what Brexit was.

But they'll still have the nerve to keep telling us that Brexit means Brexit.

[WillGymForPizza]

I think 'dregs' is fairly accurate description for anyone who wants to listen to Yaxley-Lennon's hate filled, racist bile tessie. He doesn't give a toss about Brexit or the EU, he's using it to fuel his own nasty agenda.

[Random18]

Why the Union Jacks though?
When leaving the WU, especially if it’s the No deal they all seem to want, means the break up of the uk.

just don’t get it.

[Random18]

*leaving the EU

[twofingerstoEverything]

" flag waving dregs " ?
tessie, that's the point of this thread really. Most Brexit voters are NOT like this, but yesterday's rally included people like Yaxley-Lennon, who used the stage to scream himself hoarse about Syrians.... I doubt the majority of leave voters would support his views on this, hence my OP. None of the leave 'factions' seem able to agree with each other and we see this reflected in parliament. I was at the remain march and people there were clearly united - which is probably why they can muster the numbers - whereas yesterday's rally/rallies really exposed deep divisions in the leavers. I think this is a massive problem and is getting in the way of finding a workable solution. Don't you?