BY SAM WHITE
One of the false charges levelled at Leave voters is that Brexit is an act of self-harm. That whatever reasons a person might have for voting to escape from the European Union, the amount of damage caused will always outweigh the benefits.
But from where I stand, the only masochistic inclinations come from hardcore Remainers themselves, as they attempt to hinder or halt a clean, well executed departure.
As they snipe and circle in a constant, bad tempered performance, drawing attention to their own discontent like hormonal adolescents, it becomes clear that they’ll try every trick at their disposal to oppose democracy.
An already impatient Leave camp is being made twitchy by the Remain contingent’s obstructive posturing, but can the Europhiles do any real damage?
The most vocal Remainers are so entrenched and irrational that they’ve actually shifted general opinion toward the very thing they’ve spent the past few months ardently demonising: a hard Brexit.
There are Leave supporters who’ve consistently argued that the only real Brexit is hard Brexit, and Remain have unwittingly reinforced this view. In fact, the idea of simply repealing the 1972 European Communities Act and walking nonchalantly away as if we’ve never heard of Article 50 now has a certain nihilistic, up-yours attraction. It’s the kind of thing Sid Vicious would do if he was in charge. Not so much a hard Brexit as a brick to the face Brexit.
That might give credibility to the charges of self harm though, and it’s unlikely our politicians would have the poised recklessness to pull it off. Instead, given the space to play smart, our negotiators would do best to take that most composedly British of approaches, and play the long game.
And were we united behind Brexit, they could do that.
However, with Remain jabbering and poking in the background like irritating, spoiled children, the considered approach becomes less attractive. What Brexiteer would feel comfortable with such a cautious route now, in the knowledge that amoral Remainers would have more time to subvert the plan?
Suddenly we’re a little less Roger Moore, and a bit more like John Cleese in Clockwise—quite prepared to steal a Porsche while dressed as a monk, as we race to trigger Article 50 before the entire glorious achievement can be stolen from us.
The upshot is that as time goes by and the Remain crowd stay as unreasonable as ever, the safest option, to ensure that we really do leave for good, is to get out quickly and completely, whatever it takes. And the nudge toward such thinking comes not from any external pressures, but from the internal threat of the Remain saboteurs themselves—those who least want to take that course.
There’s no reason Britain can’t make a success of any style of Brexit, but it’s certainly not ideal that our hand is being forced by undemocratic elitists, and those elements of the media who turn into intellectually stunted dullards when attempting to get a handle on EU antipathy. (“Duh, shall we go with the racist angle again?”)
Something these anti-democrats can never get their heads around is patriotism. The idea that a citizenry could be willing to risk a short-term financial hit in order to secure priceless, permanent sovereignty is apparently unfathomable.
They also have difficulty reconciling national integrity with being an outward looking, internationally-minded country, but of course there is no conflict between these things. Right now it’s the EU that appears stagnant and insular, while an independent, agile Britain looks fresh and ready to do business.
Perhaps it’s this intractable refusal to consider the value of nation states—in their most inclusive and forward thinking colours—that holds the Remainers back.
But that’s their problem. They’ve had almost half a year, and deserve no sympathy if they can still neither adjust to change, nor make the effort to understand an alternative point of view. All we must now ensure is that their regressive tendencies are not allowed to affect our democratic choice.
Sam White writes for Country Squire Magazine. Other Sam White articles can be found by using the search box below (just type in Sam White) and also by looking here.
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Exactly WHAT Sovereignty are you alluding to? The Sovereignty to protect and maintain our non-existent industries perhaps? The Sovereignty to prevent our Banks and Financial Institutions from leaving our shores and setting up “abroad” maybe? The Sovereignty to dissuade air-born diseases and bird-carried viruses from entering our air-space? The Sovereignty to tell a Russian Fleet they cannot sail through our territorial waters? The Sovereignty to stop Multi-nationals and Global Corporations from closing their UK based businesses and sacking all their workers?
Maybe you mean the Sovereignty to keep furriners out of our streets and pubs? And Hospital wards, and Public Transport systems, and Refuse Collection and Crop Harvesting? Or that notion of which Laws we can operate and when? The Sovereignty to allow Employers to apply the harshest working conditions they can get away with, or the levels of danger we are prepared to submit our children to? Or the safety of our drinking water and the amount of Foreign-generated electricity we permit into our Grid? Is it THAT kind of Sovereignty you are so desperate to regain? How about repatriating all the Football Clubs now owned by Furrin Gangsters and Mobsters? Or the Newspapers and Media outlets that are in the hands of hostile powers? What about that Sun, huh? Or The Daily Heil Hitler? You could do a Mugabe and nationalise all the properties owned by Chinese. Arab, Russian Dictators and Arms Dealers. Solve the housing shortage by grabbing all those Scottish Hunting Estates and Welsh Mountains. Sovereignty? Britain has not been Sovereign since Lend Lease and never will be again.
So Good luck celebrating Independence Day – what are you gonna tell The World Bank, IMF, WTO, UN Security Council, WHO, International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court, International Seabed Authority, NATO, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, United Nations General Assembly, to name just a few and to which the UK has obligations or has signed treaties and acceptances of their jurisdiction.
Perhaps you would prefer that Little England scraps ALL it’s International Treaties, Charters to which it is a signatory and helped establish, Laws it has helped to make to protect the Planet and it’s peoples, and just tells the rest of the World to Eff Off. Well, with the track record now established I doubt very much that ANYONE else wil be keen on making agreements with you ever again. They’ll never know when you’ll throw a hissy-fit and chuck it all on the Bonfire of the Vanities.
The only thing you have that is priceless is your ignorance and arrogance.
Sam White dismisses Remain voters with genuine concerns about the terms of Brexit as “undemocratic”. To expect the 48% to shut up and go away is hardly democratic. It is in fact the tyranny of a slim majority. As to the point about a “short term financial hit”. How does White know it will be short term? Is he one of those experts his Brexit friends despise? Of course whatever “hit” is taken, it will not be Gove, Farage , Johnson or their Country Squire cheerleader Sam White who will suffer.
“. . . Thus, you are right to be puzzled. While the media and politicians prattle about irrelevancies, the core issues – of vital interest to the UK and the EU – are simply not being addressed. We are looking down the nose of disaster.” – Dr Richard North, in reply to me, today on his article “Brexit: a government of voices”
oh I am quite familiar with the writings of Richard North thanks. He seems to be getting a little frantic now about the rather dismal way things are going, it appears that after sowing the wind reaping the whirlwind isn’t so much fun. I have to say if the government was taking his flexcit plan seriously I would be a lot more confident about the outcome, it is flawed (and goes a bit nuts at the end with the local feudalism aspiration) but thought has gone into it.
I have no vested interest in the bad behaviour of other nations, although I condemn them equally. My concern and opprobrium is directed at the country of my birth. Those rose-tinted glasses of yours are giving you a view of reality that exceeds even the most optimistic and charitable stance that can be taken of Little England.
For sure there are individuals who have maintained a sense of honour and decency, of care for all rather than a few, who have kept faith with the commitments we made and hold the future of Europe to be more important than mere petty self-interest. However, they are being told that this is “Unpatriotic” they should “shut up or leave” that their opinions and fears are irrelevant and meaningless. Even by their own Prime Minister and her lackeys.
Have you heard the news about farmers warnings over the crops that are being left to rot because the pickers have fled home? Have you heard the reports and seen the videos that I have watched showing Blackshirts hunting for foreigners or those who just LOOK foreign. Have you read the stories of those being attacked by supposed “normal” citizens? Check out “Worrying Signs” on Facebook.
Even Jesus condemned the money-changers and threw them out of the Temple. Even he knew when forgiveness of those unwilling to reform was not a viable option. Why should I afford to those who betray all I hold dear the understanding and compassion they refuse even to their own countrymen? If a rabid dog comes into your garden do you stroke it and offer it water? If a bull rampages through your streets do you stand in front of it and tell it to calm down? If a madman wielding a machete threatens those you love do you offer him a cigarette and a pint and a man-to-man chat?
The depths of depravity, of venality, of selfishness and frankly cowardice far exceed what few qualities remain in the English psyche. There weren’t that many left anyway and now they have abandoned any ideals that might once have been called typically English. Assuming the charitable view that there were any to begin with. Individuals do not determine the character of a nation. It is the collective consciousness and conscience of a populace that determines the values of the nation. England has shown it has no conscience and it’s consciousness is at the level of a Dead English Oak Tree.
I will not forgive the damage done, nor those that perpetrated this act of treachery. I do not hate my countrymen, I hate what they have done and the reasons they give for doing so. I am more shamed by them and afraid for the future of the children they so recklessly and cavalierly betrayed. For that alone they deserve the utmost condemnation.
I wonder what your rose-tinted glasses would show you if you were in danger and all you met were Pharisees and Sadducees and money-changers too busy to stop and help.
Exactly WHAT part of UK sovereignty have you taken back, Sam White?
You argue that ceding authority to EU institutions damages our Sovereignty. So Good luck celebrating Independence Day – what are you gonna tell The World Bank, IMF, WTO, UN Security Council, WHO, International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court, International Seabed Authority, NATO, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, United Nations General Assembly, to name just a few and to which the UK has obligations or has signed treaties and acceptances of their jurisdiction.
So Sam – in your little rose-tinted view of the world what are YOU gonna do about THEM? Tell me pray, how does cutting yourself off from the friends and neighbours that welcomed us even when they KNEW we were a bunch of whinging, whining, gimme gimme gimmees, benefit these islands?
More to the point, when are YOU going to start doing your homework and making amends for the damage you and yours have done, not only to our reputation, but to the next generation you have condemned to poverty and more ignorance like yours and all those yet to come who will curse your names into eternity?
So here is a link to a BBC Radio 4 program that SHOULD chill your blood.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07mythq
You Little Englanders think you can go it alone. You believe the once mighty British Empire can stand up for itself against all comers. You don’t need anyone else’s help and you don’t want to be helpful to anyone else either. Just want to be selfish, self-opinionated, self-centred, self-aggrandising, self-serving, self-reliant savages that Britons always have been.
So, here’s a little history lesson. 3 times in the last 100 and a bit years the UK has had to face aggression from foreign states. 3 times we were not prepared or willing to accept the obvious threats staring us in the face and 3 times we paid a heavy price for our arrogance, stupidity and lack of awareness. Each time the writing was on the wall, the signs were obvious to a blind man, and each time the danger was ignored because “we were BRITISH and no one would DARE to threaten US”. Each time we paid for our hubris in blood and treasure.
The main reason for our loss of Empire was that WWII drained our treasury dry and we could no longer afford to maintain our control over half the globe. When I was born I received my Ration Card which was STILL a legal requirement. The threats have not gone away because we now have You Tube and Twitter and foreign holidays and Global Trade. In fact the threats to our existence, not just as a Nation, or a Country or even a species are greater now than at any time in the history of Mankind.
The very nature of our place on this planet lies in jeopardy from all sides, from the expansionism of Putin’s New Russian Empire, Climate Change and Global Warming, International Global Terrorism, scarcity of natural resources like food, energy and clean water, pandemic viruses that attack even our capacity to reproduce. And YOU think YOU can go it alone!!!! YOU are the ONLY Nation that matters, YOUR petty little ideas of superiority, of WHITE BRITISHNESS, of Rule Britannia are all that matters in this dangerous, unpredictable, chaos-driven world. You alone can resist the forces of tyranny, of terror, of floods and droughts, of Zika virus and Ebola, of madmen and Corporate greed. Just wave your little flags and all the bogeymen will run away.
What will you do when the Russians drop in for tea? The do love their tea and also invading other countries. Don’t think it will happen? Why not? They’ve already occupied half of Europe in the last Century and now they are at it again with troops massed on the borders with Belarus and Ukraine. “So what?” you say. “Who cares about bloody foreigners?”. Well, dear narrow-minded xenophobes, the next nation on their list is Poland. “Oh” I hear you say. “Fuck the Poles, coming over here and taking our jobs. Serve them right.” But next is Germany.
Just take half an hour of your so important lives to find out what is REALLY going on in Europe. Even Obama is worried and Trump is NOT. Doesn’t that tell you SOMETNING? Just Listen and maybe learn something other than the football results from all those Clubs that are no longer owned by the British.
. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07mythq
Have you EVER looked at a map of Europe? Do you have the slightest inkling of how close the UK IS to Germany? Only 11 hours away by road. Are your little beer-soaked minds capable of appreciating the strategic value of this Island to a force seeking to conquer Europe? Can you for a minute conceive of WHY Russia would WANT to invade us? And what do you think you could do about it? Maybe Nuke them with the missiles that don’t work? Or sink their ships with our remaining 25 warships? (Strength – 1939 – 433 ships and we still almost lost the Battle of the Atlantic) Or shoot their planes down with the handful of operational fighter jets we still have? Has a single one of you seen the reports of Russia’s new Stealth Plane? Who you gonna call when the bombs start falling? Ghost-busters? The Salvation Army?
World War Two started because WE said it couldn’t happen. WWI was “The War to End All Wars” there would never be another one. Until there WAS! Nobody thought Argentina would invade the Falklands, until they DID! The idea of war in Europe was inconceivable until the Baltics blew up. Remember Sarajevo? It’s only 20 years ago!
What will you do when our farmland can no longer grow the little food it does? Do you have ANY idea of how bad flooding has become this last century?
Maybe you should have a look at reality rather than contemplating your navel-fluff.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_disasters_in_Great_Britain_and_Ireland
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/uk-weather-why-the-recent-devastating-floods-will-become-the-new-normal-a6793291.html
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/11/englands-floods-everything-you-need-to-know
We are already incapable of feeding ourselves. Most of our food is IMPORTED. FROM EUROPE. Do any of you Economics “non-experts” know the effect of a falling pound on imports?
So, how are you going to handle all this Little England? Pull up the drawbridge, stick your fingers in your ears and sing “la-la-la-la” until all the nasties have gone away? Fucking pathetic. You deserve ALL that is coming to you. Don’t complain and cry “but nobody told us it would be like this” Because WE DID!!
Of Course it is biased towards remain.
It’s the only course one can call really sane.
To be a whinger and continually moan
Is the mark of those who want to be alone.
So go to bed and sleep by yourself
While the rest of Europe gathers up all the wealth.
And when the wolf comes and knocks at your door
Your one-time friends will hear you no more.
Bye Bye Losers, you won.
Mr Hazelwood,
The attitude to take to one nation that has done things wrong, is the same as to take to all nations that have done wrong – which is all of them. And that attitude is love and appreciation for what is best in them and working to inspire them to reach such heights going forward. And all of them do have heights of goodness as well as depths of depravity in their past and present.
That great moral teaching you uttered “Love Thy Neighbour as Thyself” points to this. And I do not need to point out that as a Frenchman, you’ll find the English to be your neighbours.
I only wish you could raise to the level of your best self, the man who quotes Jesus and says: “It is about cooperation not confrontation, mutual respect not bigotry, striving for a world that supports us all”, when you consider the English and England.
Instead, abandoning all that virtue, you call for their punishment, isolation and suffering. You long for them to be “isolated, abandoned and alone”.
Your comments show some good common sense contempt for political machination and swindling through to delightful calls to virtuous action. But all that is for naught as they are rendered low by a bitter, mean spirited call for vengeance and hatred for a country of over sixty million people.
You talk a good game about wanting people to be able to escape before Mrs May walls them in with capital controls and exit visa. But unlike Mrs May you have actively called for walls to fence the English in: ” a Pan-Gaelic Union and build walls to keep the English from ever again contaminating Europe”. And so, your hatred is contorting and twisting your mind to the most unbelievable position of accusing others of doing, exactly what you hope to see done.
You have become what you decry: a hate monger and a bigot. It is sad to see a man show such goodness and then chuck it all out in the space of paragraphs.
Again, I strongly advise you up anchor and sail away from England and the English and live happily in France. Avoid commenting, tweeting or reading English sources. Just go forth and be a happy Frenchman. Nobody needs all your hate. Especially you.
N.B: this comment is a reply to Mr. Hazlewood’s reply to me, but I cannot find a reply button on that comment so I replied to my original response instead.
I’d be interested in knowing what OTHER attitude WOULD be appropriate for a Nation that spent centuries building an Empire based on the invasion and oppression of half the peoples of the world, stripped them of their natural resources, virtually bankrupted them and used their populations as cannon fodder in successive wars of conquest only to impose the worst possible arrangements for their “Independence” after bleeding them dry and abandoning them to turmoil, decades of disruption and internecine strife, because it could no longer afford the cost of maintaining the links that at least held them in a semblance of order.
Am I seeing a pattern here? Take what you can but when statesmanship, integrity, honour and commitment to ideals that go beyond mere petty self-interest are required then run for the hills as fast as you can, don’t look back to see who has fallen, don’t stop to pick up stragglers, just run and grab what you can in the process.
This is not about ONE Englishman’s dissillusion with his homeland. This is about facing the realities of a hostile world that is rapidly spiralling down to annihilation and being a grown up that sees beyond the next episode of Great British Bake-Off or Eastenders and cares enough about the future of ALL humanity to pitch in and protect what has been built, albeit imperfectly, over the last 60-70 years.
This is about “Love Thy Neighbour as Thyself” not “To the Mighty go the Spoils”. It is about cooperation not confrontation, mutual respect not bigotry, striving for a world that supports us all not one in which the Uber-Fuhrers grab all they can hold and more JUST to stop others having it.
It is also about honesty and integrity in Public Office. One of the reasons I resigned from politics was because I was sickened by the infighting, backstabbing and rush to climb the greasy pole trampling on the heads of others to get there. A system that treats the populace as feeders at a pigs-trough, tipping a mash of lies, innuendo, Nationalism, blatant hysteria, false assumptions and pleas to self-interest cannot be surprised when the pigs start ramapaging through the countryside tearing up everything in their path.
I agree with one point you made. It IS a waste of my emotion, energy, time and intellect to bother with England any more. They have made their beds, they must lie in them. My only concern now is for those whose life-chances have been blighted and for a Europe threatened by invasion from the East. I’d be interested in seeing how much “SOVEREIGNTY” you will exercise when Putin comes sailing down the coast AGAIN.
My advise to those who want to keep a sense of hope alive is to leave now, before May introduces Exit Visas and Currency Controls.
Mr Hazlewood,
It is not good to see an Englishman so filled with hate and loathing for his country and its people. And with a family that worked for the country for 400 years (what were they doing before that?) it is a shame it has come to this.
I think you are making the right move in becoming French. England, is clearly not for you any more*. But I think the departure should be more than physical. Nobody, not you and not those remaining in the United Kingdom benefit from your ranting about English ‘treachery and betrayal’ or their being ‘Xenophobic, uncivilised, self-seeking and self-serving, narrow minded and narrow of outlook, delusional and demeaning’. Such bitterness and bigotry is best avoided, and more for yourself than anyone else.
So, my advice: stop reading English websites. Stop commenting in English conversations. France is a fine country with a rich and deep culture and tradition. Embrace it and leave those you hate behind. Who knows, fully immersed you might even begin to feel ‘especially French’ and so build a life there that is properly integrated into the community. Rather than just using them as a handy escape hatch.
* If you can reconcile yourself to England and the English once more: great! But your comment suggests this will not be possible.
Was this one of BoJos “secret scribings”? “The Three Beuxiters”, a tale of confusion, diffusion and illusion as they battle for a negotiating position with that mythic maiden of EU, opening at a Trumparama outdoor cinema near you on the 1st April 2017…
You’re Polly Toynbee, aren’t you?
Yes, lots of families have more than one country to be patriotic to — trouble is, many of them are not EU countries. I, myself, have cousins and siblings in places as far apart as Australia and Canada.
So what?
No such thing as a soft Brexit? Not so, we can use EEA membership as a transitional phase. Richard North has been making this point for years. See, eureferendum.com
Please stop lecturing us leavers when you aren’t even familiar with our ideas or arguments.
Personally, as an ardent and committed Internationalist and European whose background includes Candidate for Public Office as a Tory Party Treasurer and with my family’s 400 year long seat in the Lords, I cannot wait for Little England to take their ball and run away home. I am sick to my back teeth of English Exceptionalism, of the constant moaning and whining and demands to be treated better than anyone else, just because we USED to be a World Power on the back of the theft and conquest of other SOVEREIGN nation states who sovereignty we didn’t care a toss for.
I can’t wait to see the ignorant, self-centred, bigoted and boorish Little Englanders get what they TRULY deserve. My only hope is that those still with some integrity and a view towards something other than narrow self-interest manage to escape from that Septic Isle before May locks the gates, imposes Currency Restrictions and EMIGRATION visas.
Tony Blair made be ashamed to be British, Gordon Brown made me scared to be British, David Cameron made me ashamed to be an Englishman and Brexit has made me thankful that I escaped when I did.
David Davis – the Dilbert Par Excellence.
I was in favour of Scotland remaining a key and important part of the UK. I did not want to see the Union dismantled. Now I do. I want to see the hubris and arrogance punished. I want to see England (and Wales if they insist on suicide) isolated, abandoned and alone.
It is time the English tasted the fruits of their treachery and betrayal of friends and allies. This referendum has unleashed and revealed England for what it is. Xenophobic, uncivilised, self-seeking and self-serving, narrow minded and narrow of outlook, delusional and demeaning of others.
I am seeking citizenship of France, not because I feel especially French but because I am ashamed to have a British Passport. I recoil at revealing my nationality. I am disgusted to be associated with Farage, Gove, Johnson and May as well as those BlackShirts and bigots who now represent the Land of Hope and Glory. The Land of Despair and Obloquy would be more accurate.
I feel sorry for my countrymen and women who did not choose the path of retreat. I am dismayed at the opportunities snatched from the hands of the next generation. But most of all I am angry, furious, livid that the country my family served for 400 years has betrayed it’s principals and torn up the treaties it has made, deepened the threat facing Europe and increased the danger of continental war yet again.
I hope that Scotland, Northern Ireland and Eire and maybe even Cornwall can form a Pan-Gaelic Union and build walls to keep the English from ever again contaminating Europe with it’s moaning and griping and self-interested pleading.
ah, “just say no”, cracking advice for Zammo, but not so much when we are talking about sovereign debt liabilities. Sending a gunboat is the traditional method, yes, but I think the modern fashion is a bit more economically brutal. Might not be a brilliant time to have a large mortgage. There will be consequences advienne que pourra, as the French say.
Spanish
People trade. Businesses trade. Governments interfere. Whenever and however UK leaves EU commerce will continue on whatever terms are available. Once UK resiles from any EU Treaty obligations it will no longer be a treaty member or responsible for past EU debts. How, precisely, would the EU collect any claimed ancient fees? Issue a writ? Send a gunboat?
As EU’s largest local customer the UK is hardly a supplicant. Just say no is good advice in so many areas.
As the French so succinctly put it – Que sera, sera.
Something the leavers fail to appreciate is that a lot of families have more than one country to be patriotic to. Their intractable refusal to appreciate the value of being part of something bigger is holding them back. In reality, we are all on both sides coming to the same conclusion at different speeds. There is no such thing as a soft Brexit. The next thing that the leavers will catch up on is that there is no such thing as a transition to WTO rules. There is nowhere to write it down. Trade agreements often have transitional arangements built in, that might be separate provisions that turn on at different times, or quotas that enlarge, or tariffs that drop or whatever. The point is that these transitional arrangements are written in to the destination agreement. If we move to WTO rules then there is no destination agreement and nowhere to write down any phased elements. They can’t be written as an off ramp in the EU treaties because we won’t be a party to those after the two years.
The other thing that the leavers will eventually notice is that there is a bloody great big pending liability we need to settle that has been rolling forward in the accounts under the Reste á Liquider heading. We are a part owner of that liability (and others like pensions and I think a nuke decommissioning fund) and we can’t walk away from it. We stay and it rolls forward (and everyone stares at it in horror for a minute and decides not to do anything for another year), or we leave and we pay our bill.
Pleased to see that my “smoother elder brother” Sir Roger gets a mention. Perhaps we should honour John Cleese by renaming the “Breuxit Ministry”, the “Ministry Of Silly Walks”, I am convinced that the Pythons could have brilliantly satirised Davis, Foxy and BJ. I am saddened to see DD, whom I have always respected, part of a mediocre, discordant trio, rather than as a soloist hitting some high notes. I am 70, if I am still around in 2030, I suspect that we will still be “negotiating” because of this damaging, debilitating EU Referendum “sideshow”…
Very good. Bearing in mind the 48% is nearly half the country, we should try not to rattle the 48 too much! But agree with all the above.
I am a Remainer. I moan a bit. But am now resigned to the fact we should just get on with it.
“Something these anti-democrats can never get their heads around is patriotism. The idea that a citizenry could be willing to risk a short-term financial hit in order to secure priceless, permanent sovereignty is apparently unfathomable.”
In a nutshell. Well put.