Respecting
the Will of the People, is the nastiest political
euphemism going and it is vomited up daily by Brexiteers and even politicians
who voted Remain and know this is a disaster.
Satirists in the US are complaining they have a weak, senile, nazi at the helm. Here in the UK, we have no one driving this tug.
The offending phrase is worse than ‘let me be clear about this’ which occurs just before MPs
prevaricate and muddy the waters. It is worse than ‘I wouldn’t insult the intelligence of the British people’ just as
they do that very thing. It is worse than going all dreamy eyed when talking
about our ‘friends and allies’ while
alienating those very countries. It is marginally worse even than the phrase ‘taking back our borders’ when pretty
much anything worth building a border around – all the family silver – was sold
off between 1982 (first public utility sale of The Docks Transport Board under Thatcher) and 2013 (last major sell-off -
Royal Mail – thanks Vince Cable – undersold by £190m).
Many voters were lured in by the jingoism and
xenophobic rhetoric, entirely missing the point that what the big hitters of
the Leave Campaigns were actually slavering over was total de-regulation at a
level thatcher could only dream of, the obliteration of all those pesky workers’
rights and environmental protections that stand in the way of profit.
The utter delinquency of the phrase ‘Respecting
the Will of the People’ which is trotted out, ad infinitum, as an
argument against holding a second referendum, is that it means the double opposite of what it says.
a. The
‘will of the people’ has palpably altered now folk know the extent to which
they were lied to and catastrophic reality is staring them in the face.
b. If
the Will of the people is to be respected with regard to the above point, a
full second referendum is not just common sense it is a democratic imperative.
*
Thanks hugely to everyone who came to my gig last
night. It was very, very much appreciated. This will be my last post this side
of 2019 but if there are any good video clips I will try post them. Meanwhile –
don’t forget to put one of my books on your Christmas list.