An open letter to leavers

[LoveInTokyo]

Dear Leavers

I’m sorry that David Cameron offered us a referendum and promised to respect the outcome, whatever it was.

Unfortunately, he was fucking with you.

He promised that referendum when he didn’t think he stood a cat’s chance in hell of getting a majority, and never thought he’d actually have to deliver on it. When he got his surprise majority, he made a big show of going to Brussels and pretending to negotiate with the EU to get us a “better deal”. Unfortunately, he already knew perfectly well that the UK already had a better deal than any other country in the EU, and that they were not going to bend over backwards to get us to stay. So he made a big show of negotiating and then tried to pretend that he had done something meaningful. He then went through the motions of holding a referendum, half-heartedly campaigning to remain. He did absolutely no contingency planning, partly because he never believed that leave would actually win, and partly because he already knew that he had no intention of staying to deal with the fallout if they did. That’s why he resigned the day after the referendum and waltzed off, whistling a merry tune.

He played a high risk game of poker with our money, and lost.

I understand that many of you feel defensive about your decision and dislike being labelled “thick” by angry remainers. As a remainer myself, I feel saddened and frustrated that none of you seem able to articulate any benefits that will actually come out of Brexit. But at this stage, I would quite happily accept that there will be no benefits, and settle for damage limitation. Unfortunately none of you seem able to explain how we limit the damage either.

We cannot leave the single market and customs union without there being a hard border in Ireland, which will put people’s lives at risk. We cannot leave the single market and customs union without severely damaging most sectors of the economy, which would cause untold hardship for millions of people living in the UK. I realise that remaining in the single market and customs union would make leaving the EU pointless, but it is the only way to limit the damage.

The government has made almost no progress towards getting a workable deal in place, and time is running out. We don’t have the infrastructure in place to ensure that supply chains of essential food and medicine will not be disrupted after Brexit day. We don’t have a plan to ensure that planes will still be able to take off and land, or that satnav will still work. We do not have any trade deals lined up. We simply do not have time to do any of these things.

Dear leavers, you do not have solutions to any of these problems, and more importantly, neither do Theresa May, Boris Johnson, David Davis, Liam Fox, Nigel Farage, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Andrea Leadsom, Daniel Hannan, Jeremy Corbyn, Kate Hoey or any of the people who claim to think Brexit is the right choice for the UK.

A no-deal Brexit is unthinkable. It is not an option.

I realise that many of you will feel betrayed if we do not get the kind of Brexit you want. But to be honest, you’re going to feel betrayed even if you do get the kind of Brexit you want, because it will be unimaginably shit. This is not "project fear", it is "project reality".

The government has a duty to act in the best interests of the country as a whole. It’s not good enough to lay the blame at David Cameron’s door and say he held the referendum so we have to respect the vote. David Cameron has been out of office for two years. It is now plainer than ever that leaving the EU is a terrible idea, and there is still time to put the brakes on and not go through with it. If the government goes through with this when they could put a stop to it, they cannot continue to blame David Cameron and claim that their hands were tied. They are not.

It is time for Theresa May to do the decent thing and say, “I’m sorry, I know it’s what the people voted for, but it simply can’t be done without causing a totally unacceptable amount of harm to the country. And I have a duty of care towards everyone, not just the 51.8% who voted leave.”

Or were they just expected to suck it all up when it came to the decisions their parents/grandparents made?

Yet Leavers have no hesitation of telling the present youth that this is exactly what they must do. "We're leaving", 'That's democracy" "Suck it up.", are just some of the statements made. Yet Grease-Smug expects it to be 50 years before we know leaving is a success. That's not one generation who will have had no say, it's two.

Leaving the EU will force the UK to deal with these 'issues'. We will have to train our own doctors and nurses, plumbers and electricians, fruit pickers and care workers if we need them.

Will it? Maybe if a Civil War breaks out. Otherwise, we will do what we did before, we will recruit citizens from the rest of the world to do the jobs that we either don't want to do or can no longer physically do with an aging population.

It works both ways. We leave or remain and either way today's under 18s and future generations still have to suck it up just like the younger generations did, whatever their view, from 1973 until now.

Some do. I chose to go abroad rather than staying in Brexit Britain. Good for you

I didn't vote for my MEP. Does that mean I can throw a hissy fit about what he voted for within the European Union? Or is that democracy for you?

Leaving the EU will force the UK to deal with these 'issues'

Oh ha fucking ha. This needs to be framed.

BJ, Farage and JRM want to leave the EU so we don't have to deal with these issues. The poverty, the poor funding in the NHS, the abandonment of Wales and Cornwall all this will be much, much worse.

All the red tape that saves lives will be gone, the race to the bottom will accelerate, you will look back on the time in the EU as the halcyon days. In 50 years time you might see some benefit or you might not.

The far left want to leave the EU because they think the situation will get so bad it will cause a revolution.

You've been well and truly had if you think the Tory Brexit supporters give a flying fuck about the poor and the dispossessed.

Cobblersandhogwash that’s how I thought 40 years ago, these clueless clowns that are voted in time and time again.
Democracy can’t and will not work if every decision is objected against, nothing would ever get done, how can we change a decision before it has been carried out ?

LikeIDo1 in a direct democracy you get to vote on individual issues. You might get hypothecated taxes where you choose where your taxes go.

We do not live in that kind of democracy. Your arguments are arguments for constitutional change not for leaving the EU.

You don't feel your individual views are taken into account - they aren't in a First Past the Post electoral system.

You make some arguments that have merit in relation to wholesale constitutional change but this is not the fault of the EU.

If your toilet breaks you don't call the electrician.

Whiny bad losers saying "Best of three?"

Is this a new TV Quiz?

Surely that argument stands across the board though? Individual views are not taken into account whether that's voting for a new political party to be in power, a new MEP or a vote to leave the EU. The majority of votes will win, not individual opinions so there will always be a body of people who are miffed the other side "won."

Under a more proportional electoral system you would (depending on the system) be able to select Conservative MPs by order of preference. So if you were anti EU you vote for a Tory MP who more accurately reflects your views by putting them first.

In many other systems there are coalitions which are more representative of how the votes were cast. No system is ideal but FPTP is the least reflective of individual views.

Again, all this is an argument for constitutional reform not leaving the EU.

Last train east I am a whining remainer, are you looking forward to the sunny uplands" of Brexit. Is is everything you dreamed of civil unrest, foot shortages and no NHS.

I wonder how history will judge you, as I think many who voted leave will become quieter and quieter

All the red tape that saves lives will be gone, the race to the bottom will accelerate You do not believe the UK should be sovereign then?

So the UK is allowed to do whatever it wants as long as it does what it is told by the EU. No, we will decide what red tape the UK has or doesn't have, not foreign countries.

If you think it will be a race to the bottom after Brexit then vote in a government that will introduce whatever red tape you want. Don't expect foreign countries to impose it on us. Democracy.

U.K. parliament is sovereign. It always has been. We are subject to EU law and international law, we will still be subject to international law and international courts when we leave the EU.

The EU has not imposed anything because......democracy.

We elect MEPs and our elected government has representatives on the Council of Ministers.

I voted Remain but my god the tone of condescension in some of these posts make despair. Especially the 'bye bye farmers' line.

@rosstac then how did we become the world's 5th largest economy? Is that a coincidence?

If we want to sell anything, anything , into the EU, we will have to abide by its regulations red tape

Only difference will be that we no longer have any influence on those regulations

Oh well, I suppose we can live and not trade in glorious isolation

After all, the rules don't apply to us.

You probably don't even realise that you don't vote for 'an MEP'. I put two into the EU Parliament, Farage thank God isn't one I personally put there.

So the UK is allowed to do whatever it wants as long as it does what it is told by the EU. No, we will decide what red tape the UK has or doesn't have, not foreign countries

Jeezus! the EU doesnt "tell us" anything, we are on the various committees, we ve vetos and opt outs, such as Junior Doc's working hours and WTD or extra time to clean up beaches and before you say we should be allowed to pour shit onto Skeggie beach, that same shit will get washed up in Holland.

Your faith in our politicians is rather touching, given how they ve treated the disabled over the last few years, with ATOS and PIP and under funded the NHS, not too mention allowing Director pay to increase 20 fold where ours goes up ... oh hang on, it s fallen!

Scotland, since the last EU Parliament elections, to its eternal shame, has to suffer the execrable David Coburn as one of its 6 MEPs

He is the only UKIP member to have been elected in any capacity in Scotland ever

He only got in because the LibDem vote collapsed and under the d'Hondt system, there weren't quite enough votes for 3 SNP MEPs, so he got in as "last man standing"

Just leaving this here

www.ft.com/content/2ec71ab4-688a-11e7-8526-7b38dcaef614

I think it's behinda pay wall.

Google the exact title and click through on the result.

But don't let on that I suggested it

Were the younger generations asked to join a committee? As in those who aren't old enough to have voted in the early- mid 1970s? Or were they just expected to suck it all up when it came to the decisions their parents/grandparents made?

This would be a great argument were it not for the fact that broadly speaking it was the people who weren't old enough to vote in 1975 who voted to remain and those who were old enough to vote in 1975 who voted leave.

Those younger generations are being told to suck it up by their parents and grandparents who want to leave the EU when they don't.