A phrase arising to the lips of judges who are improperly addressed, or who are addressed by advocates improperly dressed..or, horror of horrors… a combination of both.
A High Court judge – his Lordship – does not relish being addressed as ‘Your Honour’ and certainly not if the person so addressing them is not in appropriate court dress – or in a variant of court dress which, while possibly fashionable, has not been blessed by the custom of ages.
Quaint, you might think…but it is an attitude not confined to the courts.
Brexit and the American Presidential election have made it clear that those not observing the norms cannot be heard…well, at least, not with respect for their views.
When at school, we were taught that we must make – and appreciate on the part of our opponent – a reasoned argument.
Fine…we were taught logic, we appreciated the breadth of the English language and we could cite backing for our views. We knew how to debate within the norms.
Work taught me that people could make a case without those refinements, from their experience, from their own vocabulary – and from their sense of justice.
It was the job of the professional to put that case into the Procrustean bed of the law, to allow it to be heard with a chance of success.
The Procrustean bed seems to have expanded in recent years, to include political expression – as reflected in the media.
I should here declare an interest.
Had I been eligible, I would have voted for the U.K. to leave the European Union.
Thus, according to the ‘bien pensant’ media I am an ignorant racist.
It is not acceptable to say that you do not conform to the comfortable ‘bien pensant’ way of thought: the way of thought of those who live a life divorced from need, from insecurity, from hope destroyed, who have no empathy with those whose experience tells them that the current system has nothing to offer them or their children.
The lesson from Brexit and from the downfall of Clinton is that we should learn to listen to each other, to take each others’ concerns seriously, even if those concerns are couched in a language or in a fashion which appears to us to be improperly dressed.
But I’m not holding my breath.
Addendum…somewhat foul mouthed, but heartfelt.
The Venomous Bead 
I think the holding of breath in a case like this will serve nothing.
And I do believe that after the initial rantings and outrage, even outpouring of grief (yes, some people say they *are* grieving,,), some people will listen more attentively to others and will make a greater effort to address the hideous gaps in our collective understanding of each other.
But it will take time. At least four years!
It must happen if there is to be anything recognisable as a society in the future.
With hindsight I think Bernie Sanders is going to be viewed as the great president the US never had, and the Democrats brought the situation on themselves by unwittingly and condescendingly dividing the party on generational grounds and opting for the same old same old rather than the bold. I still disagree with you that Brexit was the right choice, but I agree that one of the positives is that it will shake up those of us who vote to stay to recognise that we and virtually all our friends and most of our acquaintances are the educated, privileged, lucky establishment figures that the Brexiters wanted to kick and we’d better be prepared to build some bridges. I don’t feel nearly rich enough to be an establishment figure, but there you go — these things are all relative and about perceptions.
I think that Saunders should have been the candidate..but he was handicapped – as is anyone outside the mainstream – by the stranglehold that the political parties have on the system so that he had to depend on the Democrats to get a hearing at all.
I’m not sure if he would have beaten Trump…he might be to the right of Harold Wilson but that seems to be enough to have him labeled as a communist in the U.S. context and he – like the Democrats – seems wedded to a policy of a coalition of minorities, rather than a class based broad message.
We should all be asking ourselves why there was the urge to lash out in the U.K. and in the U.S.A. – and the answer is pretty obvious. Rotting economies, poor public services and initiatives narrowly rather than broadly based. These are not going to be amended unless we unite to change things.
‘Reasonable?’
‘Listen?’
What sort of attitude is that?
I think it’s going to take a new conversation. (Look, I’m commenting twice! This is obviously a big deal for me.) Manufacturing jobs are gone, not even to China, often just gone. Many lower-skilled jobs have been automated. There are new service jobs but not enough. We have to talk about what we are going to do with all the surplus people. We can create more jobs – anyone here for hiring more teachers? – but I doubt that we can create enough. So what do we do? How do we take money from the people and corporations who have too much and get it back into the pockets of people who live on the financial margins? How do we turn the conversation away from dubious email practices and toward dubious tax loopholes? We need structural change that takes into account the changed nature of work. It’s not easy to figure out. It doesn’t lend itself to easy slogans or blaming the other to get out of having a serious discussion. Honestly, I don’t know that it can happen in the current political climate.
bizyella, yes, there is the conundrum.
Touch the rich and their money supply and the bleats about freedom rise to the heavens.
But when it is fine to be draconian toward people who have been thrown out of work it is fine to employ some sauce for the gander.
Restrict them with a tax code which penalises most of the underhand tricks used to filch money from the public purse – and, above all, don’t let them get their hands on public assets.
Tynecastle, thanks for the slap on the wrist…whatever was I thinking of…
Interesting point of view. I am more inclined to agree with you about Brexit than about Trump’s election. I like the idea of the EU but I think it has been so badly managed that I can understand why folks would just want out. I think it is sad that folks so often cited immigration as their reason — yes, that does make them racist — when Britain was always outside the Schengen zone, so the argument didn’t apply. As I say, sheer mismanagement would be reason enough for me. I’m a little surprised that Greece has not repudiated their debt and left the EU. To me, that would make some sense.
In the case of Trump, I guess I would look at it in a more cynical way, that poor people bribe the authorities on an as-needed basis. Rich people just buy the legislature and are done with it. In the States there is a lot of money sloshing around, so they bought the media, too, and a few other things. By the time Trump came along, outplayed the likes of the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch on their own turf, his supporters had been primed to believe him. Also they had been primed to blame every problem on the Democrats; remember in the States we really only have two parties.
I think people were angry for the right reasons, the ones you cite. I think they chose the wrong target.
Trump presents himself as successful but has declared bankruptcy six times. His companies were built on scams, for which he is being sued right now, and on not paying his bills when it didn’t suit him. How is that good for the little guy? How is toleration of Trump-style sexual predation good for any woman’s career? How is trading out wives like they are used cars good for building strong families? He lives in a fancy apartment while his supporters pay his share of the tax bill — he brags about it and they cheer for him? I could go on but you get the point. Trump has a history of not being what he says he is and of not caring about the people who fit his supporters’ overall demographic. What Trump’s supporters want is not what they are going to get from him.
Trump is not an outsider; he is the petty, mean-spirited face of the establishment. A good outsider would have been Bernie Sanders, if his proposals had penciled. Sanders is a good guy. And I’d vote for Ivanka before I’d vote for her dad.
It is not enough to blame the media. Anyone should be able to see that Democrats delivered Medicare and Obamacare — hey, it’s named after him. They should be able to see that Fox News was against the health care laws but they passed anyway and hey, now poor folks can afford to see a doctor. Anyone paying attention would see that Clinton has spent her career in public service working for families and especially for children.
We don’t have comprehensive maternity leave in the States. Clinton fought for a program that would give that right, a program much better than the one Ivanka made her dad propose. She also fought for starting kids to school earlier; if you were struggling to juggle career and family, wouldn’t it be nice to take a little time after the baby is born and then to know that when you go back to work you will have someone responsible to care for your kids? So why don’t people vote for the person who wants to help them out in that way? Will Trump even fight to get his daughter’s proposal turned into legislation, then passed? Does he even know how to do that?
So what’s the deal? Are peoples’ powers of analysis really so weak? This current crop of Republicans have not and will not work for income equality; that has been demonstrated. So why are they not being held accountable?Not all of Trump’s supporters are racist or sexist but you know, a vote here, a vote there, it adds up. And last time I could bear to look, Clinton had won the popular vote; she just didn’t win the electoral college, a system that should have been scrapped long ago.
Anyway, by now I may have gone on longer than your original post. Bottom line is, how is it that people can vote against their own best interest, time and time again?
As Susan Walter (above) says, a great deal is about perception and I just wonder whether the perception is that U.S. society is no longer a melting pot but a collection of special interest groups identified by sexual identity, race and religion and whether those who voted for Trump feel that they – conventional Americans if I might put it like that – have sunk below the political horizon.
The Democrats put up a lousy candidate…whatever her record her campaign message was one of ‘look what I’ve done for you’ which tends to rouse the counter idea – ‘and what have you done for yourself and your friends’.
And as for the idea of voting for her because it was time to elect a woman as President….has the legacy of Thatcher been forgotten?
In G.B. we are used to parties with minority support coming to power…there’s another system which should be changed, but until we break the stranglehold of the main parties it won’t happen.
The arguments I heard about immigration re Brexit concerned employment, not race. Employers going for cheap labour, because they could.
As for voting against one’s best interest – I could be wrong but when you feel at the end of your tether, lashing out is often the first reflex.
Helen, the unemployment rate in the US is low, relative to France, where I live. The French haven’t elected Le Pen yet and she doesn’t look set to win in the next election, either. So there is something different going on in the States.
I agree with the sentiment in your last statement. However I think many people in the States feel at the end of their tether because they have been coached to do so. Just look at the Fox News — in the Red States, that’s all a lot of people watch — treatment of the health care law. They fought it. Then when it passed they argued for ways to avoid implementing it. Then when people overwhelmingly signed up for it and liked the program, they still didn’t say anything good about it. If the only analysis you hear is negativity laced with lies (Trump was a big supporter of the birther conspiracy) you are likely to have a negative attitude. Depressed and angry people don’t see the options available to them. Trump played on that. He made people more angry, encouraged them to lash out when a less extreme response might actually lead to a solution.
My point remains. People are feeling a pinch caused by Republican party policies, the ones that have Trump’s supporters pay a third of their income in taxes while he pays zero. These policies pay companies to go offshore — it’s a deductible business expense, after all — while they cut welfare benefits. Gingrich, Trump and the rest put up a major “mad as hell” smokescreen. Then behind it they do the deals that benefit their very definitely establishment friends, not the little guys shouting “lock her up!” It’s a scam, plain and simple. That too many folks don’t see this only ensures that this way of campaigning and governing will continue. These guys at the financial edge, that you and I both feel sympathy for, will find themselves with no tether left and they won’t understand why.
I’ve been looking at the analysis of the vote….seems as though the poor votedf Clinton and the next up the ladder voted trump – to paint things with a broad brush. So are we looking at people whose expectations of climbing the ladder have been thwarted by the erosion of the middle class?
Sounds like a good analysis to me.
I am also surprised Greece didn’t leave. No money I guess?
But I think they got a very poor deal.
As Helen says, it’s not immigration per se, it’s the impact on the labour market. People working for £40 a day when someone was earning £100 for 12 hours?
People living in caravans, gangers running a job, creaming off the profit, and the workers sending money back to Eastern Europe.
Why does that make people racist to oppose loss of jobs for people who have worked in those sectors (agriculture, construction) when someone else is undercutting the rate?
Trump hasn’t declared bankruptcy. He has been declared bankrupt. He has said that he plays the bankruptcy laws.
Sanders? Also sexist.
Yes, he made it plain that he was playing the game and in one of the debates asked Clinton why he had nothing to change the law in that respect.
Whoops: for he read she…sticky key.
Your blog. You can edit 🙂
Well, yes and no. Those are all fair points. But I think it is also fair to point out that when you “work the bankruptcy laws,” as Trump euphemistically puts it, one thing you do is not pay people. They did the job and Trump sat in his gilded apartment and did not pay them. Sending remittance money is bad but not paying the plumber is okay? Obviously I think otherwise.
I think it is useful to look at what actually happens when, say Trump pays zero taxes. Yes it’s legal but is it fair that I pay more than he does to, say, keep his street lights on? And will Trump try to make the rules more fair? We shall see.
Also, there are simply fewer jobs to go around. Look how many people a simple cash machine puts out of work. Those jobs didn’t go to Bangalore. They are no more, full stop. Robots build the cash machine and we sit around saying what, that immigrants took that teller job? It’s a structural shift, that’s all. We need to acknowledge that this shift is a universal phenomenon. Then we need to figure out what to do about it.
I think this last might be the central issue. Long ago factories were created. Instead of people being exploited in the fields, they moved to the cities and were exploited there. Just as unions came into their own and fairness was starting to erupt, robots crept in and computers made machines pretty smart. Union workers were put out of work. We could vilify the robots but does anyone really want those mind-numbing jobs? So now where do people go? How do they stay fed, housed and all? I have no answer; agriculture has been automated, too, so no point going back to the fields. So really, what do we do?
One can easily see why many reasonable and decent people voted for Brexit. I can totally understand my good friends who felt they were doing the right thing for the country they love.
What you might miss, Helen, through not living in the UK, is the constant drip of bigotry, jeering, rudeness, abuse and fascist threats associated with Brexit, and the type of people who are most enthusiastically protecting and promoting it now. The Leave campaign was heavily supported by wealthy individuals, hedge funds, etc.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36033481 and so there is a lot of money to be made for some, from Brexit. We now see some of the rich and influential openly lying and trampling on Britain’s traditions of fairness and justice, and deliberately lying and stirring up division among the bigoted and ignorant.
It is a first for me to see even an ambitious politician criticising the rule of law in Britain, but government minister Sajid Javid openly complained about the recent ruling that it is unconstitutional for Mrs. May to trigger Article 50 all by herself without the backing of MPs. Javid and others are pretending they are nobly fighting for “democracy” against the judges with their wish to allow May a free hand. Claims are made that The People clearly voted to give up parliamentary control of the Leave process at the referendum. Dissent is being stirred up against those evil folk trying to frustrate the supposed will of the people. One sometimes wishes Orwell were here to comment. You might also have missed Jacob Rees-Mogg suggesting kicking out peers that disagree with them and replacing them with new peers who will back the government, in what we ordinary folk call “Mugabe style governance”.
So it is really more a matter of the company one keeps. I just don’t feel like hitching my star to people like this, and even less to “Trump’s sidekick” (as he was recently described in a US magazine) Nigel Farage.
Please understand that I’m not criticising your support for Brexit, I’m only talking about my disquiet at the type of people who are keenest on it right now. As Groucho Marx famously said – !!
No, I read the press and I think that the people who claimed to represent the people seeking to leave the E.U. represent only themselves, serving,as you say, their own interests.
I was in England just before the referendum and again in August and the people I came across felt let down and excluded from any part of decision making: they were worried about the loss of jobs to people willing to work for less than a wage sufficient to provide for a family and they were jolly fed up with ‘project fear’ and the moralising of people who, they felt, despised them. Racist they were not.
By August they were already expecting that their wishes would be – at best – watered down and, more likely, that the whole process would be mishandled by incompetent politicians.
The attacks on the judges are beyond belief – though with his recorded views I feel that one of them should have excluded himself despite the perceived need to provide a strong court in an important case.
Rees Mogg needs to take a powder…but packing the Lords is hardly new….
I don’t hitch my star to anyone: it is possible to hold a view and to argue it without being tarred with the same brush as Farage.
What you might miss are the working class problems. How about the Bulgarians who have a 40 hour week job on the council,and want £200 a day on the black at the weekend? P
Wake up.
Our attitudes were taught in the last century, where logical thinking was expected of us. I think we are both out of date as logic seems to have flown the nest in the 21st century.
All touchy feely now…not forgetting being offended.
Crumbs if I had a hot dinner for every time I had felt offended I would weigh even more than I do now…
Kudos to you for your honesty. I read a very good article this morning about the lessons to be drawn from being on the “losing” side – starting with the fact that one’s opinion might not be the one that is accepted by the majority.
I have yet to discuss with a Brexiteer about the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. The UK population was asked to vote about leaving or remaining, but not how it should be done. Parliament is a necessary democratic step in giving the UK electorate that choice.
I’ve been exchanging mails with a friend in the States, the only one of my friends who has (to my knowledge) voted Trump. I am trying to work out how she sees his election as being God’s answer to her fervent prayers. I am also trying to get her to explain how any God could have “supported” a candidate who has apparently broken every rule in the book. She replied that God guided her vote. All these rambling is to say that the reasons people vote aren’t always logical to others.
While I think that there is a reasonable argument supporting the use of the prerogative powers in this case, as I think that same should be completely abolished I quite agree that Parliament must be involved – though given the views of a number of M.P.s I can see why Brexit supporters would be worried about sabotage.
Easier for your friend to say that she had divine guidance then to come out and say that she came to the conclusion herself, given the stigma attached to voting either for Trump – which I wouldn’t have done – and Brexit, which I would.
“Work taught me that people could make a case without those refinements, from their experience, from their own vocabulary – and from their sense of justice.” What you said there, the voice of reason. Another excellent thought provoking post as I reflect in the aftermath of all that’s happening up north.
I am very tired of the contempt shown in the media for ordinary people…differing experiences tend to lead to differing conclusions, after all.
Both Brexit and the Presidential Election here in the US are born of the same broken rib. From where I am sitting (and ironically I would say that I am better qualified to comment on this election than on Brexit since I have had the privilige of watching the proceedings at first hand for a year) the issue is quite simple. There are masses and masses of people who have NOTHING and who believe they should have something. Just the right to earn an honest wage and support their families. Sitting in Couch Liberal Massachusetts (one of the most entitled states in the Union) I only have to drive 25 minutes west to Worcester (the second biggest town after Boston) to witness the starving homeless and they are not immigrants (by which I mean they are not Hispanics or any other stereotypical face that people conjur when the word immigrant is used), they are not drug abusers nor alcoholics, they are people who can’t find work because they don’t have an address and they can’t get an address because they don’t have work. The same is true in Britain. The same is true in France. That is the issue, pure and simple. These people feel that minorities, be they minorities by dint of race, sex, sexuality or handicap have a better deal and it is hard to argue when they have no deal at all. White males in rural areas are in large part responsible for the vote for Trump, we are told. So how on earth did Clinton overlook them all? How could she, who has made a career out of championing human rights, overlook them or why did they feel overlooked? The vote has been made. The world needs to stop leaping around hysterically and put its efforts behind trying to help the man elected who says he wants to unify this country. Help not hinder by throwing more and more rocks. Throwing rocks does not help. Neither will protesting. It is as it is and if this country wants to be the leader of the free world it needs to be fixed. And whether we like it or not, this is a powerful nation and we all have a vested interest in its success. The majority have said this is what they want so bluddy well respect them. Of course I understand that many feel angry – it would have been the same had the boot been on the other foot. But open your eyes. The American Dream is a nightmare for many who simply want to work and there is no work because entire industries have decamped to Mexico or China. Trump won’t deliver on most of his promises (what person seeking high office ever has?) but it would be good to feel that he might be allowed to find a way of making the playing feel fairer and actually create the great big melting pot we are told this place is when in fact it is fractured and divided and getting more so. By the way, as a feminist and great grand-daughter of a suffragette extraordinare, I believe in equal opportunities. I believe that if I am the best person for the job I should get the job, I do not believe I should have enhanced opportunity because I am a woman. This glass ceiling remains intact because Mrs Clinton for multiple reasons is neither liked nor trusted. I firmly believe that should the right woman have the opportunity to run in a future election, she will cruise home.
I agree, the right woman will indeed romp home – but how the right woman is to emerge given the current party system is beyond me.
I hope that Trump will try to unite the country…I hope he will find policies that return employment at proper wages to the areas now desolate.
Given the rumours of some of his appointments I worry, though.
I saw some of the demonstrations…here come the spoilt, entitled brats, whining because they lost. if they have ever heard of Joe Hill they should do as he suggested – organise: but organise to build a new, inclusive political force, not to perpetuate the party system which has let the U.S down so badly.
There’s a terrific amount of support for Michelle Obama from what I’ve heard although Barack has said she’ll never stand. She would be the woman I’d back however.
Not me, however good she might be…not another dynasty in politics!
I agree wholeheartedly with everything you have said. Joe Hill had it right but I doubt that any of the demonstrators are taking the time to consider the wisdom of others. Who knows what will happen but it is time for the entitled to try and understand the other point of view and reach out to them. Only then, only when both sides try and see the other perspective is there any chance that the country can unite let alone will. As for his appointments …. I hope he is taking advice, serious advice from others because if he goes only with those that support him he is dead in the water. He needs to do as Reagan did and appoint someone as his chief of staff who historically has challenged him. That was a masterly stroke …. and I was not a fan of Reagan for the record.
Now we are hearing that is is an education divide…in which case we need a thorough overhaul of education. An education for all which teaches children what they need to be independent – a thorough grounding in the basic skills and an inculcation of the values needed to live with others….an education which is free.
Back to Saunders, then…
I supported Bernie and he has it right, there is no doubt. Education is where it all starts which is what made it all the more frustrating that the question on the ballot here in Massachusetts to allow up to 12 more Public Charter Schools (all to be in inner cities where schools are failing) was overturned as a direct result of propaganda by the Teachers Unions implying erroneously that schools in the wealthier suburbs would lose out. I despair. But it is certainly true that what needs to happen is that EVERYONE has a chance to be educated well.
Dangerous though, isn’t it…letting the lower orders access opportunity…might upset a few institutional apple carts when they find they have a voice and the means to make it heard.
The only useful thing that Trump has said is he would get rid of Mugabe! Problem is he now has so much better things to think about that speech will be forgotten. His sons will still enjoy going in that direction and shooting wild life just for the fun of it !!!!!!!!!
Personally I think Brexit is a disaster and we are still not sure in what position it is going to leave us re pensions and health. Could be a couple of years before we get any answers, hopefully it will not hit our pocket as hard as we expect. I hope it works out well for everyone but only time will tell.
Hope you are both well which is more important than either of the above subjects. Diane
Perhaps they could shoot Mugabe…now there’s head to put up on the wall…
Yes, living in France as you do the uncertainty is indeed a worry an not helped by politicians posturing rather than getting on with things. I do hope for the best for you both.
The slump in the pound was not very welcome in this quarter either…but we’ve been through it before with the ERM so I suppose we’ll survive.
Leo is not in the best of form…but he keeps going while he can. Very envious of your trip to RSA!
Sorry to hear that Leo is not doing so well, please wish him all the best from us both.
Thank you both. He would love to see Africa again…but it seems that long – and even short – journeys are a thing of the past.
I’m a total fence-sitter about Brexit, mainly because I couldn’t vote and I could appreciate both sides of the argument. However, I can quite understand why people voted to leave, and I understand why people voted for Trump.
One of the best analysis of the Trump vote I’ve read comes from Patrick Caddell here:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/11/07/patrick-caddell-real-election-surprise-uprising-american-people.html
It starts:
“For more than two years the American people, in a great majority, from left to right, have been in revolt against the political class and the financial elites in America. It is a revolt with historic parallels, most closely resembling the Jacksonian revolution of the 1820s. It is an uprising. It is a peaceful uprising of a people who see a country in decline and see nothing but failure in the performance of their leadership institutions. And they have signaled their intent to take back their country and to reclaim their sovereignty.
Unfortunately, the analysts, the pollsters and most importantly the commentariat of the political class have never understood, and in fact are psychologically incapable of understanding what is happening. And for the entire cycle of this presidential campaign they have failed to grasp what was happening before their eyes – for it runs counter to everything they believe about themselves.
In truth, they are suffering from cognitive dissonance believing in their righteous superiority and are not capable of realizing that it is they who have become the adversary of the American people. And therefore they have been wrong, in this entire election cycle, every step of the way.”
Ordinary people do not want the New World Order of globalisation, poverty for the masses and a super rich elite, and since they can, they are making their views be heard.
Looking more closely at the analysis of the votes, it seems it was middle white America which was in revolt – always more dangerous for the powerful than the poor.
Had I been entitled to vote I would have opted to remain. I simply loathe the thought of being trapped on a small irrelevant bit of land at the Northern edge of Europe, inward looking, xenophobic and willing to swallow a whole array of lies without a subsequent murmur. Neither side listened to the other, deceit, false prophecies, mud-slinging were the order of the proceedings.
It says much that the Leavers were predominantly the older generation, whereas the young weep over their lost opportunities to help build a vibrant and hopeful new world for themselves.
That lies were peddled is indubitable…whether people who voted Leave believed them is another.kettle of fish.
That there was no real debate is also the case..both sets of leaders having such contempt for the voters that it was not thought necessary to give reasoned argument.
I don’t understand how you feel trapped.by the Brexit vote….I often feel limited by other factors – the unwillingness of knees to bend, husband’s illness pulling in the horizons -…but until the frontiers are closed at Dover movement is still possible by showing a passport.
As for the bewailing young….they have every chance to build a future as did our generation; just differently.
While not going so far as to ban imports – on the model of Sirimavo Bandaranaike – it might be no bad idea to turn their minds to helping Britain produce, rather than consume.
I am extremely tired of being painted as a thick ignorant (repetition gives emphasis) racist fascist Farage/Johno supporter. And told by a former schoolfriend that Brexiters should be hung from lamp posts.
I voted for Brexit for a number of reasons. Primarily, I don’t think Europe has Britain’s best interests at heart and half of the legislation is not worth the paper it is written on. I worked on some of it. Have you seen the crazy story about the woman who was denied the Tesco parking voucher due to EU leg?
I voted for Brexit because I see the working classes being ever more downtrodden as greedy bosses pull in cheaper labour. Simple as that.
I voted for Brexit because I believe in British sovereignty.
I voted for Brexit, because yes, the political elite did need a kick up the arse.
I voted for Brexit knowing it would adversely affect me. But I put my principles first.
Yes, principles before pelf.
Indeed, it’s a big mistake to write off your opponents as if their views are totally insane/bigoted/ignorant etc. Many of those voting for the UK to leave the EU were middle-class and well-educated and clearly had thought about the issue very carefully. To dismiss their opinions with blind hatred and contempt is idiotic and achieves nothing. Only a serious dialogue between the two sides will produce a sensible way forward.
Where does this contempt come from? Where is the courtesy of letting the other chap have his say uninterrupted – let alone abusing him without offering a counter argument.
We shall all have to wait and see how theTrump presidency turns out – unmitigated disaster or roaing success.
As for Brexit, I voted to Remain as I felt that Leave was too much of a step into the unknown and that is exactly what it is proving to be. We appear to be in free fall with a government who do not have a clue what they are doing or even what they want or need to do.
Recently I have been having problems leaving comments on you blog. What ever the problem, it now seems to have resolved itself.
I’m sorry that you have had problems…something I had not realised. No doubt down to the nerds at WordPress changing something that did not need to be changed…
Yes, the weak link of Brexit was always going to be the incompetence of the politicians and the sheer lack of will to implement the results of the referendum, but I would still have voted to Leave for all that as i consider the EU to be an organisation out of control.
As for Trump….hard to see what is going on given the press campaign to denigrate him…perhaps they should stick to proper journalism.