This isn’t intended to try and muscle in on your voting (assuming you are; it’s very trendy) intentions, really the outcome will make little difference to my day-to-day life so I approach the subject with relative ambivalence. I have however found the whole debate very interesting to follow. Most people have opinions on how they want the vote to go but not that many of them can actually tell you why. Further to that, if you look online for ‘facts’ about the situation, you’ll then find another website to say the facts you found aren’t actually facts as a matter of fact etc etc. The whole thing has become a little tedious across social media but it’s with an ephemeral smile I say “well at least people are talking about it”.
2 days left before the vote and still the polls very much hang in the balance. Not that polls are always reliable, as stricken Millibabes will tell you, but they are something of an indicator. Leave surged quite a bit over a week ago and a lot of folk got rather nervous. Historically however, the underdog has often gained momentum a week before the actual vote comes into play, only to lose a little more ground days before. Which is more or less what has happened verbatim, although you’d be hard pushed to find anyone who says Remain truly have a comfortable lead. The switch seemed to happen after Jo Cox’s murder and I think it’d be churlish to suggest this didn’t have an affect on things. I’m pretty sure Big David Icke is swigging a warm can of 9 percent lager saying it was a “false flag event by the establishment!!!!”, but I’m not so sure to be honest. Crucially, it WAS a terrorist incident (literally by definition) and the bloke probably was an absolute nutter; these concepts aren’t mutually exclusive. What was intriguing about this situation was the sudden role reversal. So for example, when there has been a terrorist attack by a Mulsim we’ve had people – mostly on the Left – saying “Fuck sake, you can’t label every Muslim a terrorist you fascist shithouse” with the usual reply coming from someone masturbating underneath a copy of The Daily Mail shouting “IT’S THEIR EXTREMIST IDEOLOGY”. Whereas in this instance, we have ‘Geezer Jay’ in his Harrington polo saying “Look, not all Britain First supporters are violent like that” to which the blue-haired pansexual vegan replies “IT’S THEIR EXTREMIST IDEOLOGY”. It’s a hyperbolic example I’ve volleyed toward you there but I think you see my point. A lot of people become hypocritical overnight.
Anyway, I digress. So just like the Jo Cox imbroglio, the EU debate has become (mostly) Left vs Right. It is a very reductive way of looking at things but for the most part – particularly on Satan’s own social media – applicable. The arguments have been quite nauseating and some of the shite people are putting on Facebook about it makes me want to do an Earth referendum and fuck off to the moon. One in particular (it’s a pro-Remain one) really bugged me. It’s a picture of famous of people who are voting In and Out. The “In Crowd” includes: Stephen Hawking, Jo fucking Brand (why?), Obama, Brian Blessed (?) and a few others of similar ilk. The “Out Crowd” depicted: Nick Griffin, Donald Trump, Rupert Murdoch and many other unsavoury types. This has been backed up by the rhetoric of “does Farage have YOUR best interests at heart?” Honestly, no he probably doesn’t. He probably wants Remain to win in all honesty otherwise he becomes superfluous to British politics. By the same token, The heads of JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs want to remain also. You know, those scrupulous bankers no one liked a couple of months ago. The way other people are voting should have no bearing on your vote; your vote is yours and you should use it as such.
And what of the main arguments about staying or going? I’ve not seen much from either campaign to dismiss the ideas of the other to be honest. The Leave group have bemoaned the lack of lucid democracy amongst the EU ranks but I’ve not seen much in the way of a counter-argument. Remain have said you don’t have an *actual* plan for if we do leave, just some rough ideas and that’s also quite true. The economic argument is similarly onerous. The Treasury (who modify their expectations for the economy all the fucking time) say it’ll be really super-duper bad as do all these economic experts who didn’t see the 2008 crash coming. There seems a handful of folk who think floating out of the EU dream will eventually lead us into an economic utopia where we all spunk bank notes out and put other currencies in headlocks for fun. As with most arguments around this, I suspect both are drenched in hyperbole but I’m not nearly qualified enough to argument points for or against here, but I will say the UK is (statistically, anyway) doing quite OK for itself as things are. The best analogy I can think of here (because I loathe trying to riddle in fact) is that you’re in bed and it’s quite hot. You’ll probably be able to sleep in this heat anyway but you could open the window a crack and let the cool air in. You’ve no idea how hot or cold it is outside though, plus – fuck – it could be raining. There could be swamp people out there, or something. Maybe opening that window will bring “the fall of Western civilisation” (an actual quote from someone within the EU, I forget the chap’s name) or maybe it’ll be just right – third porridge syndrome.
The other big talking point is Farage’s safety word: immigration. I’ve been living in London a while now and since then the whole debate has stopped meaning anything to me. Am I against the idea of being able to limit the number of people coming to your country? Not really. Do I really think how we have it at the moment is particularly detrimental? Not really. Not to say being for/against the way the EU allows migration into the country is a redundant point, because it really isn’t. I’m just not arsed about it really. Some foreign people are proper bastards, some British people are proper bastards. Ultimately, people are bastards but the key is to remember that people as a whole have problems and not secluded groups of them. Spray that on a fucking wall, Banksy.
Thus far I may appear to be sitting on the fence about everything but I do have opinions, I promise. Initially, I looked at the EU in an existential manner. I don’t particularly like a political union of 28 countries where there is such amazing disparity between economic standing and cultural differences. That sort of thing – in my eyes – can only last so much longer and I’m of the opinion the EU won’t be around in 15 years time. As I’ve written before: the Greek issue will come back, the refugee crisis is still happening, Brexit may or may not happen, Spain is having its own independence issues and the idea of Turkey being able to join (I know, anyone can veto it but our own PM keeps refusing to rule it out so…) are all things that will cause further friction within the EU. With further pressure no doubt to be applied from Russia as soon as it sees any type of weakness within, then I just think there will be more countries looking to pull out and do their own thing. With the polls here in the UK being so close, I have been quite alarmed that the EU haven’t said “look, we’ll maybe budge on X,Y or Z, let’s have more talks” just to quiet the hysteria down (but in one of their silly European languages instead). My opinion has always been that they’re an intransigent organisation that will very much stick to its goal at hand – which would appear to be some sort of singular state for Europe. People like their British identity and I think they’re within their right to be concerned by that. Further to that point, the vote to remain has been pushed as the vote to keep the status-quo. Is it though? That’s to suggest nothing further will change within the EU and given past vagary within politics I can’t quite believe that to be the case. Change can of course be good though. A lot of people I know have raised the fact that the UK has been outvoted many, many times on EU decisions and varying laws. In principle, that doesn’t sound great but if you can personally tell me which 5 of those decisions you’ve been against then I will give you a medal and write “well, fancy that” across my forehead.
I think part of this shows a global change in politics. People see the EU as ‘establishment’ and seem to be rallying against it more than ever. That’s why Trump has had so much success in the US; he wasn’t born into politics. There’s a disillusionment growing amongst the proles that transcends this one debate. The Man never really had much faith but there was a blind loyalty to him, I’m keen to see how things pan out over the next few years. Etonian types may well remain at the helm of politics but there’s every chance that could start to titter away, if only slightly more than it already has.
I don’t know, it just seems so many people are just talking so much shite (aware of irony here, thank you) about this whole thing that it’s made me less and less passionate about it all. You need to look at your personal situation and how that might change. To begin with, I wanted out. Purely because I don’t know who Juncker is or why he has some sort of say over my laws, but I didn’t elect him. I do still have some feeling like that toward the EU now and have to remind myself they aren’t a gang of iniquitous ghouls out plotting my demise. They’ve done some alright stuff as well, especially in the north of England (it definitely exists). Do I think membership costs too much? Pfft, maybe – it’s difficult to measure really. Plus for all this chat of that being “money that could be spent on the NHS”, well we have money that could be spent on it now but we use it elsewhere so I’m not totally inclined to believe that’ll be the case. It really depends how much you’d trust the Gov in an out situation (you’d assume Boris would become PM – possibly why he is championing the Leave team – as Cameron would really have to step down). One of the key points for me though, was remembering I have friends who retain EU passports and live in the UK with their family. Despite being somewhat anti-EU and thinking we’d most likely be fine outside of it, I’m not entirely sure I could prioritise that above potentially displacing the family of friends. I’m assured by pro-Leave types that they’ll be given visas or whatever but there’s nothing in place to say that’s for sure (I don’t think, anyway). What’s more, I think there’s potential for hostility to brew against Europeans with a Brexit and that’s not something I’m willing to risk. None of you asked for my stance but that’s it: I’m not overly fond of this house but I don’t think I want the hassle and risk of moving home right now.
abattoirofthurrock 