Tuesday 6 November 2018

If you don't engage in politics, you're the reason for this mess

Source: CBS News

I try to litter my Facebook posts with a variety of items from very many fields of life, but the one area that gets the least number of reactions is that of politics. Is it because politics turns people cold? Is it because politics brings them out of their comfort zone? Is it because they're just not interested? Or is it because people feel they don't know enough about it to want to contribute?




I think the answer to all those questions is "yes". And I truly think anyone who didn't vote or at least make some indent in the situation in their home countries should bear some if not a large part of the blame for the ills befalling it.

You go to the hospital with a broken arm and you wait 6 hours to be seen.
Don't complain if you don't engage in politics.

Your children's school is overcrowded and their academic achievements are being eroded.
Don't complain if you don't engage in politics.

The local streets are full of damaged roads and dangerous pavements that have caused a number of accidents.
Don't complain if you don't engage in politics.

You can no longer afford to buy a house in your area because the local council has sold all the available building land to developers who are only interested in erecting top-end housing.
Don't complain if you don't engage in politics. 

Your city centre is now bereft of shops as rents have become too high for small businesses like butchers, shoe repairers and greengrocers. All that's left are estate agents, charity shops and boarded-up windows.
Don't complain if you don't engage in politics.

Your local forest is being prepared for destruction to make way for a company involved in the extraction of fossil fuels from the ground there.
Don't complain if you don't engage in politics.

The seaside resort you used to go to in happier times is now a run-down shell of itself, riddled with drugs and prostitution, where kids as young as 11 are engaging in petty crime and sedition.
Don't complain if you don't engage in politics. 

Your salary has stagnated and prices continue to rise to the point where certain things you took for granted are becoming difficult to afford.
Don't complain if you don't engage in politics. 

You were asked by the Prime Minister to vote in a referendum to stay or leave the EU. You have no idea what the EU does, you don't spend a few moments looking it up on the Internet and in the end you don't vote. Then you lose your job as you don't want to move to Frankfurt.
Don't complain if you don't engage in politics.

Then...

People with dangerous ideas have taken over the government of your country:

  • they want to return any immigrants, no matter how well they have integrated; 
  • they want benefits only for locals; 
  • they discriminate against gays, minorities, women, the under-25s, the over-65s and those with physical and mental impairments; 
  • they want to bring in draconian punishments for even minor offences; 
  • they want to remove the country from any altruistic agreements with other nations; 
  • they want to double spending on weapons and halve spending on education and healthcare; 
  • they want to make military service compulsory; 
  • they want to remove protections to the environment to make extraction of resources in protected areas easier; 
  • they want to remove the financial safety net that has been the difference between your being able to remain living in the area where you were raised to forcing you to move hundreds of miles away;
  • they want to be able to check on your online activities whenever they feel like it;
  • they consider those who disagree with their ideas to be dangerous subversives and are placed under surveillance.

But you don't engage in politics, so don't complain if any of these things affect you.

There is nothing a politician likes more than indifference and ignorance of the issues. It means they can run roughshod all over you and know they can get away with it. They know they can carry out all kinds of nefarious activities, and even if they end up in the press, they have a good chance they'll get away with it.

Don't let this happen. 

Inquire. Engage. Vote. 

INQUIRE:
Look into issues that affect you and the world around you, whether it be public transport, health, nature, or the current government and its activities, and react appropriately to injustices.

ENGAGE:
Do something positive to change things for the better, whether it be writing to your local representative, taking part in a protest, delivering leaflets for your cause or writing blogs.

VOTE:
If you don't vote, you don't make your choice, so don't be surprised when things either don't change or get worse.

Sunday 21 October 2018

The Samhain Pagan tradition is a time to reflect on human impact on our planet


Samhain - pronounced sáwin - is the Pagan festival that takes place at some point around the end of October and beginning of November, and is often mixed up with Halloween. Although it is pretty certain Samhain spawned Halloween, the difference between the two is on one hand very different, and on the other hand strikingly similar. The Samhain tradition is a celebratory rite where we reflect on those who went before us, and where the curtain between the afterlife and this life is very thin, meaning there may be some overlapping of the two worlds. We also spend time contemplating our own lives. The deep autumn is an important time to understand who we are and where we are going; to remember why we are here and try to reach out to our ancestors for guidance. Understanding the past helps enormously in identifying our current paths. Halloween, as we shall read, is very far from this.

Paganism is, for want of a better metaphor, a very broad church. There are lots of weird Pagans as well as a lot of serious ones, which means we are often targets of derision by those from what we might call the established faiths. There are no real Pagan denominations as such, like in the Christian or Muslim traditions; they are more like independent franchises without the fiscal aspect, although everyone has the same goal: to see the divine in our surroundings, and to revere and protect it.

The divine is very easy to come across in our eyes: the similarly pentacular features of many flowers; the soughing of the trees in the wind; the tides of the sea; the passing of the moon overhead and the shadows it casts; the smallest insect and the largest mammal and everything in-between; the shooting stars and the spinning planets; the incredible detail on the wing of a butterfly; the majesty of bees going about their daily work. The list goes on.

Samhain is the time of year when we witness the dying of the summer flora and fauna, and the retreat of vernal fecundity to its winter sleep, ready for the spring awakening. How do Pagans celebrate Samhain? Any way they choose, but some things remain fixed: a meal to celebrate the harvest; a fire to summon the spirits; a walk in nature (clothes are optional, depending on the time of day/night and the location); an altar with some of the features of this time of year (e.g. the skull of a wild beast, pumpkins, brown leaves or nuts) and the remembrance of those who went before us.

Why are standing stones so important to us? Because they are the permanent legacy of our forebears. One thing we have in common with our pre-Christian ancestors is the marking of the seasons and celebration of the life-cycle of the Earth. Many standing stone circles are calendars, marking the time of year. In spring, the Earth is like a youthful girl, evident in the retreat of the snow and the arrival of hatchlings, calves, lambs, cubs, seedlings and all other forms of life. She blooms into full fertility by June, where the abundance of food and fecundity is all around us. By mid-August, the Lady gives us our harvest before her fertility ends. In autumn she recedes into her grand old age, and in winter she becomes the old crone before once again dying in midwinter, allowing a new life-cycle to begin.

We are reminded of our own mission on Earth: to live, die, and live again - we can never reappear, but we can make sure life continues to do so once we have long gone. This is why I have planted a great number of trees in my garden: they, or their saplings, will live on after me, but they will also allow the birds, insects and other flora to thrive.

Our mission to maximise our efforts to spread the positive effects of nature is misinterpreted by climate deniers or sceptics as needless do-goodery. In fact, what we are doing has absolutely no bearing on the climate change debate at all: we do it anyway, because it is the right thing to do. The recent extremification of weather phenomena is worrying for us all, especially with the recent UN report that gives us a little over a decade to sort it all out before it's too late.

What is disappointing, though, is the attitude of various politicians following an agenda either dictated by their voter base or their party's biggest sponsors. I find it abhorrent that, despite the overwhelming evidence, nay proof, there are people who choose to ignore the situation for their own financial or ideological gain.

If you want to know what is driving current politics, just follow the money. If you want to know our future, take a look at the past. And let us be honest here: it does not look very good. Samhain is a time to put our flora to sleep and help them survive the winter.

As I touched on at the beginning, Samhain often gets bundled together with Halloween. The former is a commemoration of the past, the latter is a commercialised corruption of it, which has, like all other Pagan festivals, been subsumed by Christianity and/or popular culture. Halloween is a shadow of Samhain. It has in fact become the total opposite. Samhain is about remembering those who went before us, lighting fires and sitting in quiet contemplation as befitting this time of year.

Halloween, conversely, is making loud noises, disturbing the peace, and dressing up in scary costumes. Although the spiritual aspect of Samhain spawned Halloween, it was far easier to turn it into a money-making racket as a prelude to Christmas. This is, of course, a total fabrication of the original. Many Pagan festivals have turned into corruptions of the originals, mainly by the Catholic Church - Easter, Christmas and Midsummer's (St John's) Day being just three. The Catholic Church always had an ulterior motive in wanting to do away with Paganism, so it came up with ways to distract the people.

In order to vilify Pagans, and bring people into their "flock", they used the same fake-news-style tactic that is used today - take their symbols and turn them into socially unacceptable things. For example, why does the devil have a red face? Why are horns and pitchforks associated with Satan? Could it be that people from the country, farmers who obviously used agricultural implements, were more likely to be Pagan and have ruddy-red faces from the cold wind, and place horned animal skulls outside their doors to ward off evil spirits? Why did St Patrick kill all the snakes in Ireland? Could it be that the snake, the symbol of Paganism in his day, was a way to use a euphemism to say that he killed all the Pagans?

Anyone, whether from a Christian denomination or not, who dares say we are satanic should do a little more reading, as equating us with evil is like saying apples must be alien because they're green. It says more about the naïvety of their flock to believe everything fed to them by their elders than it does about us.

Finally, I will not be celebrating Halloween this year, not because of any irrational fear of some so-called Satan fellow, but because it is not who we are.

Tuesday 18 September 2018

Imagine if Leave lost and we imposed a hard Remain - there would be anarchy

Let me take you back two years and three months to the time immediately before the Brexit referendum. The Leave campaign promised we would remain in the Single Market and Customs Union for the sake of business. Things would more or less remain the same. The Brexit deal would be signed and sealed in one afternoon. There would be more money for schools and hospitals, and the mainland would still be there to carry on visiting and trading with.

Fast-forward those twenty-six months, and now those same people are putting severe pressure on the PM to leave everything, which will most probably cause us to become more of a vassal state to the US than we ever were to the EU. They harp on about the "will of the people" and "they've had their say, there should be no more Brexit referenda," conveniently forgetting that the reason we have elections every couple of years or so is precisely to reflect the mood of the people at that time.

So let's see what life would be like if the tables were turned and the British government implemented a hard Remain...

It's the twenty-fourth of June in the Year of Our Lord, two thousand and sixteen. The people have spoken and it's a resounding victory for Remain. 52% of the electorate, a sizeable and clear majority [not, obviously!], have voted to remain in the EU.

David Cameron is delighted, and begins immediate negotiations to take the UK into Schengen and the Eurozone. By 2020, the British Pound will be obsolete, and the only monarchy in the Commonwealth where the Queen's head doesn't appear on the currency will be her own.

The gutter press, though, protests. "DON'T TAKE US INTO THE EURO", clamours the Daily Mail. The Guardian shoots back with images of Leavers including Michael Gove and Jacob Rees-Mogg under the headline "ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE" for pleading with the PM not to join the Euro.

Remainers take to the readers' comments sections to have a good old-fashioned pitchfork and fire-on-a-stick fight over the direction of the country. They want Boris ostracised and EU flags to replace the Union Jack everywhere except on government buildings.

People like that Wetherspoon's guy and that Dyson fellow are routinely attacked on social media by hordes of Remainers, branding them all kinds of nasty names. Audiences on the BBC's political panel shows like Question Time constantly heckle the few famous guests who still dare to say they are Leavers. Katie Hopkins leaves the country to go and live in Alabama [in the end, there are pros to everything] and receives a slap on the face by several Remainers who showed up to the airport to make sure she left.

Those on the Leave side continue to campaign, saying the vote was close and there should be some compromise, rather than this total sell-out to the EU. Remainers heckle them, especially on social media saying "we won, you lost, get over it", and other cheap slogans to that effect. Leavers say "but we were told if Remain won, we would just carry on as normal, not join the euro and Schengen. We've been lied to!" Remainers say, "we knew what we were voting for", as if that was their original intention. Despite all the archived articles in newspapers and on TV, Remainers insist that was the plan all along.

Of course, this is never going to happen. Why not? Because those on the Remain side are far less vitriolic, caustic, venomous, spiteful, malicious, whatever your description, than a lot of those on the Leave side. Why so? Because, having been a member of a very large social media group actively trying to counter Brexit, I have noticed one thing: all 60,000 members are civil, decent and friendly. And being too "nice" may actually be their weakness.

It is absurd to think that the Remain half of the country would act in this way. Which is why I question a lot of the vitriol on the Leave side. It is astounding how much hate has built up when reading readers' replies in the Daily Mail and the Express. Where does all that aggression come from?

I think it stems from many different places:

  • Many people don't know why the UK gives money to the EU and think it's a waste. 
What they don't realise is that that money is 1% of every country's national spending, and a lot of it is spent doing local projects. The UK, having nine of the most deprived areas in the EU, the money gets re-invested in areas which the UK government would not consider touching.
  • A great number of people are conned daily into believing they are being ruled by Brussels. 
This is an absurd notion, but one that has a lot of support from the newspapers. Many newspaper owners, living overseas or in tax havens, have alternative agendas and don't like the idea that the EU is interfering in their tax affairs, so they cook up all types of stories and twist reality to make it seem like the EU is a left-wing dictatorship. They have been doing this for years. The link to the left here highlights the abominable abuse levelled at Brussels for the last 30-odd years.
  • Too many people found themselves excluded from the benefits of economic development
Successive British governments have done little to improve the lives of a lot of people in poor areas, and more and more people have slipped below the poverty line without having been given the chance to improve and develop. Wages have declined, prices have risen, working conditions have stagnated or receded, property prices have become prohibitively expensive, and healthy food like fruit or meat is a luxury. A lot of these people voted to leave the EU to give the government a kick where it hurts, but in fact, they have hurt themselves the most.
  • Apathy and ignorance
A great deal of the public have entered a kind of limbo world where they are happy with their lot in life (modest living, decent social life, car, a couple of holidays, maybe kids). Things like Brexit are at best a distraction, at worst an annoyance. They maybe voted in the referendum, but did so based on the last story they read and whether it was positive or negative. They don't really care either way because they only go abroad for a couple of weeks a year, don't need EU funding, and have routines that don't matter whether they care about the EU or not. When the Lambrusco price goes up a quarter, they might start wishing they had paid attention over the last 3 years.


What to do about this?
Recently, one member said he thought we should "start getting a bit French about the whole thing", which is not a bad description of where we are today: just half a year away from B-Day, and a whole raft of warnings concerning the UK's preparedness for the eventuality of no deal should be bringing the good people of Britain out on to the streets, but they are a sedate, passive kind of folk; that's why successive governments have been able to make them swallow all kinds of bad measures à la boiling frog.

Getting a bit more active in the streets, more frequently and more aggressively, would be quite a feat for the people of Britain to carry out. There are two reasons for this: firstly, most demonstrations take place on weekends unless they're strikes, because they are busy at work, and because of the British propensity to associate leave from work with bad performance, any time off is precious. Secondly, most British people don't really care enough to be out every day on the streets protesting, as they have jobs and livelihoods that are indispensable to them and they prize their private life more than they care about which people govern them.

In countries like Romania, where there have been great upheavals in recent times, whole swathes of people have been out on the streets for days, sometimes weeks, on end. The constitutional and democratic state of the country there is fragile and still in its infancy compared to that of the UK, whose institutions go back centuries. For that reason, British people still trust in the procedures and processes that flag up threats to democracy. But considering the fraudulent manner by which the Leave campaign won the 2016 referendum, all the evidence against them, and the reams of papers proving collusion with foreign hostile forces, the clamour to bring the perpetrators to justice, let alone annul the result, is unsettlingly quiet.

Why is nobody on the streets? Why are people not angry? Why does it seem that the press is more concerned with Jeremy Corbyn's views on Israel and Palestine than the crooks who are trying to take over the country by stealth? Smoke and mirrors, it seems. Keep the spotlight off the bad news of Brexit just until B-Day, then all hell can break loose if necessary. These gangsters, who have friends in Trump's White House and in Putin's Kremlin, as well as with Salvini in Rome, Orbán in Budapest and Kaczyński in Warsaw, not forgetting the AfD in Germany, the Front National in France, and Geert Wilders's PVV in the Netherlands, are without doubt trying to build a coalition of strong-in-the-arm factions to take on their enemies, the so-called liberal elite.

They hate the tolerance we have garnered over the last few decades. They despise the idea of legal same-sex marriage, multi-coloured neighbourhoods, high standards in areas like food hygiene, the environment and healthcare, and seek to deregulate it all in order to sell to the highest bidder for profit and to the detriment of the little guy. So they created a word for these people: every time someone defends liberal values in public, these people accuse them of being a snowflake.

And herein lies the most basic of all the paradoxes - it's the little guy that put these people in charge in the first place. It's always the little guy who holds all the cards, but no awareness of this superpower. That's why the ones at the top try so hard to garner their support. Look at the crowds cheering Trump at his rallies - with all due respect, they are generally out-of-town, poor, religious, uneducated, or all four. The rallies have taken place in locations like Youngstown Ohio, Huntsville Alabama, and Duluth Minnesota. Their lives have never taken off and they want someone to blame. Along comes the demagogue and sweeps up their votes, even though they'll never see an improvement in their own lives.

Look at the areas that voted for Brexit in large numbers: run-down seaside towns like Redcar, Blackpool and Clacton; post-industrial towns like Stoke-on-Trent, Wolverhampton and Burnley. These are also places where the population has largely been forgotten. So these are prime places for the demagogue to ply his trade. This is where change is going to be instigated, but where nothing will ever be better for those people without firm action by the government of the day.

I am not sneering at these people, in fact I have a lot in common with them. I also spent years living from day to day without any sign of advancement in my life. I had little positiveness in my life and I was often two meals from starvation. I know what it is like down there. I grasped at anything I could that had a positive element to it, whether a potential job offer from a dodgy agency, or even a good write-up in the daily horoscope. Anything at all. So I can also understand when a person with good rhetorical skills can articulate the frustrations of the poor to the nation. The poor and downcast are so desperate that they will latch on to anything that promises to bring them out of their misery, even if it is obviously a lie. Those running the Leave campaign were very aware of that, the Remain campaign focused mainly on the negative implications of leaving without trying to demonstrate all the good that the EU does.

So if Brexit were cancelled: what would happen in the country?

I personally think the following:
10% of people would be very angry indeed, and would provoke protests and riots.
25% would be upset for a week before returning to normal.
65% would be very glad that this was no longer filling their news feeds every day

But 100% would be livid that the government put the country through such a waste of time and money, and for what? To settle an internal dispute in the Conservative Party. I would hope this débâcle would split the main two parties enough to cause them to break apart, so that we would have four or five main parties, and we can eliminate that stupid First Past The Post "system" for good.

We can live in hope...


Sunday 9 September 2018

The EU is the carrier of my identity now, and I will fight anyone who wants to take that away from me

Yesterday evening, as I settled down to watch TV (yes, it's a Saturday night, but I don't need thrills right now), I was lucky enough to behold that glorious end to the summer season of classical music on the BBC that we all know as the Proms. 

The Last Night of the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall has a splendidly rousing finale which encompasses all that is good about being British: the spectators are not expected to be quiet, in fact they bring tooters and crackers with them; the lead violinist in the orchestra is, at times, allowed to go off-key during solos; the conductor gives a speech where he/she mercilessly mocks the audience; there are crowds gathered in four other concert locations in the UK which are also incorporated into the event, and everyone waves a flag.

It is the most patriotic outpouring of emotion you will ever see. It is like a cross between the Vienna New Year concert and a Six Nations Rugby match where everyone in the crowd is on the same side. The songs are fervently steeped in British history and culture and anyone who claims to be British should know the words to them: Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, known as Land of Hope and Glory; Hubert Parry's Jerusalem; Fantasia on British Sea Songs arranged by Sir Henry Wood (during which it is a custom for the audience to pass around packets of tissues during the section known as Tom Bowling), which contains the Sailor's Hornpipe, when the audience bobs up and down, and ends with Rule, Britannia!, which witnesses an extraordinary display by the soloist, who is expected to do something either amusing or spectacular with his/her outfit. It never fails to please each year. It finishes with God Save The Queen in an arrangement by Benjamin Britten, which I think is better than the original, and everyone sings Auld Lang Syne to finish the night off holding hands.

It is the night of the year when we can see everything good about Britain: the artistic talent of its musicians and singers; the rebellious yet good-natured demeanour of many of its denizens, and the depth of affection that people hold for the little wind-swept island off the coast of Europe that once really did rule the waves. The season has taken place 125 times, and is a direct link to the days of Empire, yet the people who attend the concert are open-minded and cultured internationalists who understand Britain's place in the world, which is the reason why for the last three years, there has been a steady increment in the number of EU flags that have appeared at the Last Night finale. In fact, last night, the blue and yellow more or less outdid the Union Jack. So much so, it made the Daily Express explode with rage:

A cut-out from my anti-Brexit group Facebook feed

Oh but it REALLY infuriated the Brextremists on the readers' replies section:

The Express reported that one very disgruntled Twit(ter user) wrote: (1) "Is there anything as weak, as petty or as demeaning to our nation as the waving of EU flags during Last Night of the Proms? Those flags should be burned, along with all other symbols of degeneracy and the power of finance."

A reader called Dave77 said, (2) "Waving a much detested FOREIGN FLAG is the 100% epitome of being a TRAITOR, when you are celebrating a genuine BRITISH FESTIVAL"

The same bozo said in a later post: (3) "I truly have never heard of one single person that was PROUD to be a member of the much detested EU --That could only happen if your ancestry is somewhat diluted in a European fashion maybe."

And finally, this splendid self-own by someone who goes by the name Henpecked: (4) "The remoaners and all this EU flag waving reminds me of 1930s Germany where a certain party rode rough shod over democracy by sheer force of obsession and numbers.
We must not let democracy be defeated by this shabby lot, democracy must always win."

Well I would like to reply personally to all of these "points" raised (if one can call them that):

(1) Firstly, the Twit - actually, my friend, the very reason people feel they should wave them is because they don't like petty parochials like you who can't see the difference between patriotism and nationalism. The ability to wave EU flags at a British event is in fact a sign of open-mindedness and openness to the world, which is what your idol, Liam Fox, is constantly seeking. He, though, makes you think you need to leave an international organisation in order to be more global, and you lot fall for it.

You know, you can go ahead and burn the EU flag if you like - you think it will trigger us in the same way setting fire to a Union Jack would trigger you. Well it won't, because we're not actually the ones who are highly-strung. The EU flag is not a symbol of degeneracy and the power of finance. To me, it is a very personal symbol of belonging.

Churchill himself said, "We hope to see a Europe where men of every country will think of being a European as of belonging to their native land, and... wherever they go in this wide domain... will truly feel, ‘Here I am at home.'" And that's how I feel. Just because your only foray into mainland Europe is to go and do British things on the Costa Del Sol for a fortnight a year, things you wouldn't do at home, like eat a Full English breakfast every day or sing insulting songs to non-British passers-by (although maybe you would), it doesn't mean you have to spoil it for the rest of us - those millions who have made their home in another EU country and are happily settled and integrated there.

(2) and (3) Well Dave, I have news for you: I see Europe totally differently to you. You have never met one person who is proud to be a member of the EU because of the small-town circles you go around in. From the very little information I have gained from your "effort" on the Express thread, it is easy to suppose that you haven't spent too long in the company of more internationally-minded people.

The EU flag is not a foreign flag; it is the flag that represents 28 countries in Europe living side-by-side in peace, and that includes the UK (still). In fact, to me, nobody and nothing is foreign unless he/she/it makes a great effort to denigrate anyone not like them. For me, when I talk about "the north", I mean areas on the Baltic or North Sea, and when I talk about "the south", I mean those on the Mediterranean. I don't get infuriated if someone comes to my town and carries on with their own way of life, because it's perfectly normal. 

I doubt you go to Torremolinos and speak Spanish and eat pinchitos at a chiringuito, so why should a Pole speak English, drink Tetley's and go for a ride to the garden centre on Sundays? In fact, at home, I have BBC as standard TV channel (I have watched German TV for about 5 hours of the ten years I have been here) and drink Marks & Spencer tea. Integration is not what you think - it is the ability to see others as human beings, speak the local language, and not enforce your customs on them.

As for calling the attendees at the Proms traitors, that is really very weak. The fact is, the vast majority of reasonably-minded, balanced people find Brexit to be a betrayal in itself. It is seen by them as a regression of the United Kingdom into a much diminished shadow of its former self. The problems causing people to vote to leave the EU are mainly inflicted on the people by the British government, and it will only get worse when the EU is not there to act as a conscience.

(4) How wrong you are, Henpecked: it is the other way round. We see Brexit as a landgrab by dark and anti-democratic forces. Have you ever wondered why Brexit is being bankrolled by extremely rich businessmen? Because they care not one bit about the ordinary man or woman in the street. They will earn vast amounts of money by pulling the country out of the EU, and to make it happen, they will go to any length. But the best way to make it happen is to recruit the working man. Every revolution has been won by gaining the support of the working man, and every time the working man falls for the trick of the ringleader, which is to curtail his freedoms and get rich off the worker's back. You know the film The Producers, where the writers of a Broadway musical want to make a flop because they'll earn a lot of money out of it? That's really what Jacob Rees-Mogg and his ilk are up to. And you can't see it. 

I am sure you are one of those people that if the EU eradicated plastic pollution from our seas, you'd be moaning about how "Brussels" is taking away your right to drink tea in a plastic cup, even if you don't. In fact, you complain about everything the EU does, even if it is for the common good. 

No, it is not a panacea or an answer to every problem, but it is the best we have, and we should help it to grow, not attack it for everything it does to help.

So finally, I would like to let you know that there is someone here who is proud to call himself a European, and I know a great deal more people like me. Maybe, Dave, it's the circles I go around in...

Sunday 29 July 2018

We have been fooled by alt-right politicians and the media. It’s time for the silent majority to take a stand.

                                                                                                                                                            Source: AFP / Justin Tallis

Look around you and you will notice very little positive news. It does exist, of course: there is water on Mars; a Thai youth football team was rescued using innovative techniques despite the odds against them; the Duchess of Sussex will probably wear something stunning to a public event some time soon. None of these are political issues, of course. In this field, things seem to be in utter meltdown. Everywhere.


Theresa May’s hijacking of Brexit. Trump’s infallibility despite overwhelming evidence he’s more than likely a big-time crook and a sleazy pervert. Viktor Orbán and his illiberal democracy. Poland’s PiS party taking away citizens’ rights. Spain’s unjustifiably rough treatment of Catalan separatists. Putin infiltrating Western democracy, to the extent he was able to poison a few civilians in the English countryside. But most of all, a large number of ordinary people who either don’t believe these things are actually happening, or worse, don’t wish to know about them because they’ll just make them have to do something that will require time and effort away from their busy lives.

People often try to remain superficially indifferent in order not to get press-ganged into something they are reluctant to do, like make a stand against injustice or read up on important issues, when they could be buying that ultra-important pair of boots on Amazon, or giving the dog a haircut. Others don't want to stick their heads above the parapet in case they have trouble further down the line. Yes, we all hate being accosted on the streets by clipboard warriors. I'm not talking about that. 

But...

Right now, we are about to go into a period of immeasurable darkness once again, and what are people doing about it? They're polishing their driveways or mowing the carpets. They're doing anything except confronting the most important issue facing our civilisation since 1936. The current coordinated effort by ruthless individuals like Aaron Banks, or Steve Bannon and his band of merry men and women to smash Western democracy and install right-wing regimes should be blasted all over the media in the same way the Cuban Missile Crisis was back in the sixties.

But it isn't. 

And the reasons are simple: firstly, people would be utterly petrified. Secondly, many news outlets are party to this invasion. And thirdly, people are more interested in things that are harmless, fun, or that raise anger and prejudice, which is why the newspapers contain stories of violent lesbians, immigrant sex predators, Polish thieves or Mexican murderers. Of course, none of ours acts remotely in that way, do they? Noooo... 

These headlines stand out because they are done by people who aren't in your tribe. The fact is, most of the homosexual people I know are virtually incapable of violence; all the immigrants that I know are more likely to offer me a drink and a chat; all Polish people I know are hard-working, efficient and cerebral, and I know a couple of Mexicans, and they're pretty chilled out dudes. The fact of the matter is, right-wingers, and by that I mean people in the alt-right movement will say "if we can make a few in those enemy groups out to be wicked people, we can fool some in our society that the rest are like that too." 

The alt-right is pushing hard against the new 21st-century norms and standards that most of us take for granted as a society, such as women's reproductive rights, choice of gender and sexuality, freedom of movement of goods and people within a trading bloc such as the EU, international programmes such as Erasmus, acceptance of climate change, and I am almost convinced that they are experimenting with wacko ideas such as the flat earthers and creationists to see how far they can push people's gullibility. 

Dividing society down very strong, defined lines of demarcation is one of the steps on the road to aggressively marginalising their enemies. Once they have cordoned them off, no matter how large their numbers are in comparison, they can try to gain power through promising certain positive measures that many will benefit from (see the PiS party's rollout of childcare payments in Poland). Then, after they have gained power, they can execute the other things in their manifestos where yes, they carry out what they said they would, but on the side introduce marginalising or restricting measures on their ideological opposites, such as gay people in Russia, or pro-choicers in some parts of the US. They may also try to manipulate the judiciary so that their policies are more easily enshrined in law, sometimes for generations to come.

If you think my opinions are unthinkable, I advise you to check out the current situation in Poland and Hungary. Their spinmasters will say that these are necessary measures to do with the security of the people, but it is more to do with the implementation of their nefarious ideology.

And in all this, the moderate people sit back, content with their twice-yearly holidays, TV packages, family cars and visits to the park. They want life to carry on for them, so they sit there pretending not to notice. Many of them will have voted for all types of parties and both sides of the 2016 Brexit referendum. It's not about one side or another, it's about the silent majority. It is these people that need to be engaged the most, as it is these people that will decide if the nasty guys get in or not.

Think about it: how many decent folk do you know (you know the type: friendly, upstanding, clever, etc.) but wore MAGA caps or stuck a Leave.EU banner in their windows? Many of them voted for Trump mainly because they couldn't stand the thought of Hillary in the White House; many voted Brexit because they felt excluded from society; and that's fair enough. But a lot of them were bombarded with propaganda on immigrants stealing jobs, property and children. They were conned into thinking a darker skin colour is a sure sign of a troublemaker. In the Brexit referendum, there was a twist in the tail: apparently, the full hospitals, blocked roads, lack of affordable housing and overcrowded schools were due to too many foreigners, and nothing to do with government under-investment over many decades.

And this is where we find ourselves today - in this ideological battle between right-wing rule breakers and fair-minded folk. It is not too late to halt this criminal ideological takeover of our society: we can get out the message to more decent, ordinary folk who vote certain ways out of tradition or class rather than for justice. I mean, it is still incredible how many people still want to vote Tory, despite their total mismanagement of the country and the Brexit process. Surely, these people can be persuaded to vote for another party. 

We need to halt the rush backwards towards the intolerance and prejudices of the past, and we need to start now. We need to push people's buttons to make them see we are being manipulated into a new era of segregation and fear. The reality is that we have never been more prosperous or contented than now, but it does not feel like that, because it's not in the interests of the alt-right and their friends in the media to portray it so. The alt-right needs to spread misery and doom, and that is what sells newspapers, so they leech off each other.

In order to stop this, we need to look at several aspects: firstly, who is subsidising all this activity, and why? Secondly, just how many fake profiles are there on niche Facebook groups, or the comments section of newspapers, spouting all kinds of aggressive nonsense to make out that there are so many more people out there with the same intolerant views? And thirdly, how can we make a difference in fighting back? 

I have myself come up against a neo-fascist recently on Facebook, and it wasn't pretty. When I challenged his views, he accused me of being weak-willed and lacking in coherence (if anyone knows me, they know that is exactly the opposite of what I am). This was despite me banging on vehemently for long, sweeping paragraphs about why he was wrong in every single syllable of his nonsense. I provided evidence and links too. But no, it was dismissed with a figurative sweep of his hands, and a literal one over the "block user" option on his Facebook profile. Just before he did, like some super-villain getting a rush by telling his victim how he's going to kill him, he announced he was going to block me, so I had a millisecond to react, and I managed to accuse him of being a coward because he didn't want to debate.

What happened there was what is happening everywhere at the moment. The Orwellian 2 + 2 = 5 dogma is well and truly alive in these people: it is the twisting of everything to the benefit of the lie. The fact he was the one who more or less called me a snowflake, and yet it was he who blocked me out of unwillingness to have his views challenged, demonstrates a fragility, vanity and feebleness in the minds of these people that can be used against them. By assuring you hold the truth, and enough of your allies rally round you, you can defeat these guys. But here is the catch: nearly nobody will. 

I recently had a guy living below me whose premise on this Earth was to get through life without making too much of a ripple. Even if he saw an injustice, he kept out of it. He told me of his "triumphs" at escaping from having to deal with thugs and drug pushers at a bar he used to work in. He disapproved of my outspokenness, not that I took heed of that. These people need to be railed against for their utter refusal to stand up and be counted in these, the most programmatic of days. We cannot afford to just give up and let the alt-right overrun us. We need to give them a good shake to awaken their spirits and get them motivated to do something, even if it is to put their X on a ballot sheet every 4 or 5 years somewhere other than their default choice.

Just remember what John Stuart Mill said: "Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing." 

Wednesday 23 May 2018

Want to call me a snowflake? Go ahead, creep, you're dying out anyhow.

I've been reading a lot of total BS recently. There are some real creepy people out there. So many nasty, mealy-mouthed cynics who hide behind a computer screen and an anonymous profile, spouting off any old opinionated guff that they think will offend their opponents, who are just ordinary people with middle-of-the-road ideals. But they're in for a shock. Most reasonable people I know are thick-skinned and mature, whereas some of the right-wingers I know take offence at the smallest thing, even down to being posed a relevant question that they don't like. And they call us the snowflakes!


I don't know what it is about certain conservatives and their sensitivities, but they seem to think it's OK for them to spout off insensitive and (let's be honest) immature nonsense on anything they deem a target. For example, readers on a certain right-wing online newspaper (yes, I read it - got to know what the enemy is doing!) who thought the address by Bishop Michael Curry at Harry and Meghan's wedding was either boring, manic, inappropriate, untrue or just pandering to liberal ideology. One reader wrote, "I bet his wife beats him. He might as well transition now. He's not a real man anyway". Another poster said "he used the pulpit to fulfil his own self-esteem issues. Sickening." Someone agreed, saying "Why did he think he did not have to stick to his allotted 5 minutes? Outrageous!"

Anyhow, all throughout that newspaper's website, those who disagree with their vitriolic rhetoric are truly savaged. There is rarely a sensible disagreement between readers. And most of the time it is these creepy individuals who seem to revel in spouting unfriendly remarks at those they don't like (friends of the LGBTQ community, supporters of sexual equality, gun control activists, believers in climate change, advocates of free health care, etc.). I mean, it's OK to disagree, it's OK not to like what the other one says or does, but there is no need to really be so mean and abusive.

When this is pointed out, they cry "snowflake!" Well no. Actually, it is they who fear the enemy more than the enemy fears them. That is why they attack so hard. They are slowly dwindling in numbers, while the new generation is on the rise. I have seen some remarkable things in the new generation that I think will change the political landscape, as long as the lunatics don't get us all blown up. There will be less chance of a war; there will be less nationalism and fence-building; there will be more diversity in society as we see more barriers broken down; there will be less ideology of any kind, both religious or political; but most of all, many of the world's problems will be solved by a simple question: "why the hell is this still an issue?"

Change is coming, and this current wave of nastiness from the right is their last hurrah, a little like a sea monster who refuses to die after being fatally harpooned, and chooses to attack hard while it still has some breath. Now, when I say right-wingers, I shouldn't leave out left-wingers, or should I say left-whingers, as they're also a right royal pain in the jacksie. Extreme left-wingers of the rioting, property-hating mask-wearing variety, though, will slowly die off of their own accord once the new generation establishes itself more in society. We need to take care of the biggest obstacle to peace: those on the far-right who seem to be gaining in numbers.

We need proper controls over extremist rhetoric, no matter which side of the political spectrum it comes. We need to balance freedom of speech with freedom to live without fear of being attacked, whether online or in reality, whether with words or with fists or with weapons. We need the reasonable, but silent, majority to take a stand. That will not happen unless things get out of control. So it is up to the rest of us, those who actively stand up to injustice and intolerance wherever we see it, and look it squarely in the eye. Change did not happen because people chose to ignore the problem.

Friday 6 April 2018

What has the EU ever done for us?



I am a proud member of The 48%, a Facebook group that aims to assist in the coordination of efforts to reverse Brexit, or at the very least lobby to reapply to the EU after leaving. The advantage of reapplying after leaving is there will have to be a period of time for British Quitters to understand how cold it is out there outside of the family. The added advantage of leaving and re-entering is that the UK and its people will probably be more engaged in the EU than it is now or has been for the last 45 years. There will be some glitches to iron out, like Spanish reticence to let the UK back in without a deal on Gibraltar, and the new rule that all new member states have to promise to join the euro and Schengen. But I'm sure it'll be OK in the long run.

Anyhow, Mr Paul Cawthorne has come up with a splendid list of reasons to stay. This is from a post of his:

100 BENEFITS FOR THE UK OF EU MEMBERSHIP
Why are we leaving the EU?
Can any Brexiteers come up with 100 good reasons for Brexit? Here are 100 reasons against...

1. Membership of the world’s largest trading bloc with over 500 million consumers, representing 23% of global GDP
2. The UK has greater global influence as a member of the EU
3. The EU provides a counterweight to the global power of the US, Russia and China
4. With Trump in the White House the UK’s strongest natural allies are France, Germany and our other West European neighbours
5. Tariff-free trade within the EU
6. The abolition of non-tariff barriers (quotas, subsidies, administrative rules etc.) among members
7. Participation in free trade agreements with Japan and Canada as an EU member
8. The EU accounts for 44% of all UK exports of goods and services
9. The EU accounts for 53% of all UK imports of goods and services
10. Cheaper food and alcohol imports from continental Europe
11. As a member of the EU the UK maintains a say in the shaping of the rules governing its trade with its European partners
12. 3.1 million jobs in the UK are directly linked to exports to the EU
13. Free movement of labour has helped UK firms plug skills gaps (translators, doctors, plumbers)
14. Free movement of labour has helped address shortages of unskilled workers (fruit picking, catering)
15. The Single Market has brought the best continental footballers to the Premier League
16. The EU accounts for 47% of the UK’s stock of inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), worth over $1.2 trillion.
17. Access to the EU Single Market has helped attract investment into the UK from outside the EU
18. No paperwork or customs for UK exports throughout the single market
19. Price transparency and removal of commissions on currency transactions across the Eurozone
20. FDI into the UK has effectively doubled since the creation of the EU Single Market
21. The UK’s net contribution to the EU budget is around €7.3bn, or 0.4% of GDP (less than an eighth of the UK’s defence spending)
22. No time consuming border checks for travellers (apart from in the UK)
23. The City of London, as a global financial hub, has acted as a bridge between foreign business and the EU
24. British banks and insurance companies have been able to operate freely across the EU
25. Cornwall receives up to £750 million per year from the EU Social Fund (ESF)
26. Structural funding for areas of the UK hit by industrial decline (South Wales, Yorkshire)
27. Support for rural areas under the European Agricultural Fund for Regional Development (EAFRD)
28. EU funding for infrastructure projects in the UK including £122 million for the “Midlands engine” project
29. Financial support from the EU for over 3000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the UK
30. EU funding for the British film industry
31. EU funding for British theatre, music and dance
32. EU funding for British sport, including football apprenticeships, tennis and rugby league
33. Glasgow (1990) and Liverpool (2008) benefitted from being European capitals of culture, stimulating their local economies
34. EU competition laws protect consumers by combatting monopolistic business practices
35. Strict controls on the operations of Multinational Corporations (MNCs) in the EU
36. Human Rights protected under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights
37. The death penalty can never be reintroduced as it is incompatible with EU membership
38. Minority languages such as Welsh and Irish are recognized and protected under EU law
39. The right to reside in any EU member state
40. The freedom to work in 28 countries without visa and immigration restrictions
41. The mutual recognition of professional qualifications has facilitated the free movement of engineers, teachers and doctors across the EU
42. The mutual recognition of educational diplomas
43. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) has standardized assessment of language proficiency across the EU
44. The freedom to study in 28 countries (many EU universities teach courses in English and charge lower fees than in the UK)
45. The Erasmus programme of university exchanges (benefitting 16000 UK students a year)
46. The freedom to set up a business in 28 countries
47. The ability to retire in any member state
48. Pension transferability
49. The right to vote in local and European Parliamentary elections if resident in any member state
50. EU laws making it easier for British people to buy property on the continent
51. The right to receive emergency healthcare in any member state (EHIC card)
52. Consular protection from any EU embassy outside the EU
53. The EU has played a leading role in combating global warming (Paris 2015 climate change conference)
54. Common EU greenhouse gas emissions targets (19% reduction from 1990 to 2015)
55. Improvements in air quality (significant reductions in sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides) as a result of EU legislation
56. Reductions in sewage emissions
57. Improvements in the quality of beaches and bathing water
58. EU standards on the quality of drinking water
59. Restrictions on landfill dumping
60. EU targets for recycling
61. Common EU regulations on the transportation and disposal of toxic waste
62. The implementation of EU policies to reduce noise pollution in urban areas
63. EU policies have stimulated offshore wind farms
64. Strict safety standards for cars, buses and trucks
65. Protection of endangered species and habitats (EU Natura 2000 network)
66. Strict ban on animal testing in the cosmetics industry
67. Membership of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) which monitors the quality and safety of medicines (until recently located in London)
68. 13% of EU budget earmarked for scientific research and innovation
69. The UK receives £730 million a year in EU funding for research
70. EU funding for UK universities
71. Cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy as a member of Euratom
72. Minimum paid annual leave and time off work (Working Time Directive)
73. Equal pay between men and women enshrined in European law since 1957
74. The right to work no more than 48 hours a week without paid overtime
75. Minimum guaranteed maternity leave of 14 weeks for pregnant women
76. Rights to a minimum 18 weeks of parental leave after child birth
77. EU anti-discrimination laws governing age, religion and sexual orientation
78. EU rules governing health and safety at work
79. The rights to collective bargaining and trade union membership are enshrined in EU employment law
80. The UK enjoys an opt out from the single currency and maintains full control of its borders as a non-member of the Schengen area
81. Since 1985 the UK has received a budget rebate equivalent to 66% of its net contribution to the EU budget
82. EU cross-country coordination offers greater protection from terrorists, pedophiles, people traffickers and cyber-crime
83. The European common arrest warrant
84. Europe-wide patent and copyright protection
85. EU consumer protection laws concerning transparency and product guarantees of quality and safety
86. Improved food labelling
87. A ban on growth hormones and other harmful food additives
88. Cheaper air travel due to EU competition laws
89. Common EU air passenger rights
90. Deregulation of the European energy market has increased consumer choice and lowered prices
91. Mutual recognition of the common European driving licence
92. The introduction of the European pet passport
93. The abolition of mobile telephone roaming charges
94. The EU acts as a guarantor of the Irish Good Friday Agreement
95. A frictionless Irish border
96. The EU acts as a guarantor of the special status of Gibraltar
97. The EU helped support and maintain democracy in Spain, Portugal and Greece from the 1970s and these countries have become major destinations for British tourists
98. EU membership has helped facilitate intercultural dialogue
99. UK membership of the EU has promoted the use of the English language which has replaced French as the EU’s lingua franca
100. The EU has helped maintain peace in Europe for over 60 years

To this end, Andy Bodle has begun compiling a list of reasons given by Leavers, gathered from Twitter, Facebook, comment threads, discussion forums and friends.
Here is his page: 
https://extranewsfeed.com/50-dumb-fuck-reasons-for-leaving-the-eu-66a40c72c1da
1. “To reduce the length of the political food chain and bring democracy back within clearly defined borders of control.” (James Jackson, Medium)

2. “Because of all the EU laws that we have no say in.”
3. “As a protest vote.”
4. “Because I want it to be a close result.”
5. “It [Sunderland] already is [a giant jobcentre]. That’s why I voted Leave, to put everyone else in the shit like us.” (Twitter)
6. “To stick it to the toffs.”
7. “To give Cameron a bloody nose.” (Express website)
8. “To give Cameron a better negotiating position.”
9. “Because the EU closed the coalmines.”
10. “Because I thought we had been in long enough.”
11. “Because I had the hump.”
12. “Because now our lads will get out of prison, ‘cos there will be jobs for them.”
13. “The main reason I voted out was because the EU parliament aren’t elected representatives. The second is, they pass laws that affect us, but we aren’t given a say. Third, we need to sort our own house out” (Joanne, Facebook, giving exactly the same — factually wrong — reason in three different ways)
14. “Because I felt uncomfortable when a group of brown people got on the bus the other day.” (Family member)
15. “Because the EU made them change Marathons to Snickers.” [That decision was taken by Mars, not the EU.]
16. “Because they banned our bendy bananas.” (Express website) [The EU introduced a law stipulating that bananas should be given different classifications depending on their curvature. No fruit was ever banned, just classified differently.]
17. “Because fishermen now won’t have to throw fish back in the water and Muslim women will no longer be told by their husbands not to wear make-up.” (Caller to LBC) [The exact effect of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU will have on fishing waters and quotas must wait until nenotiations are complete, but we will still need agreements with out neighbours, and limits to prevent overfishing, which our neighbours will probably wish to remain broadly the same.]
18. “Because I’ve lived here all my life and when I was growing up, that street over there was filled with shops.” (TV documentary)
19. “To stop the Muslims immigrating here.” [Migration is unrestricted within the EU. But individual nations are responsible for setting their own limits on immigration from non-EU countries, such as those where the majority of citizens are Muslims. Leaving the EU will have no direct effect on the number of Muslims coming to the UK.]
20. “Because I want our old lightbulbs back!” [The EU has placed restrictions on the sale of old-style incandescent light bulbs in a bid to reduce energy wastage and slow global warming.]
21. “Because vaccines should not be mandatory.” [The EU has never passed any law making vaccination mandatory, even though vaccination is widely regarded as being a pretty good idea. Some European countries have done so of their own volition.]
22. “Because the Queen said.” (Pro-Brexit Facebook group)
23. “Because we should not be signing up to TTIP.” [TTIP is a trade deal between EU and America, which the EU has just put on hold. After the UK leaves the EU, most commentators believe it will sign up to a similar deal with the US, probably with fewer checks and balances.]
24. “Because we are like Germany, and Germany isn’t in the EU.” [Germany was a founding member of the EU.]
25. “Because the country is full.”
26. “To annoy my wife.”
27. “It will be an adventure!”
28. “Because the value of the euro is going to go down.” [Even if it were true, this would not have a marked effect on the UK’s economy. Since the vote, sterling is down 18% against the dollar and 15% against the euro.]
29. “So that I can get cheap photovoltaic panels from China.”
30. “Because otherwise, 7 million Turks will come over here.” (Caller to LBC radio station) [Turkey would never have been able to join the EU so long as Britain used its veto.]
31. “Because I am fed up with being ruled by unelected bureaucrats.” [The EU parliament is directly elected in regular European elections. The European commission —essentially the union’s civil service — recruits its own members.]
32. “Because I didn’t want my sons to have to join a European army.” [The EU would never have formed an army so long as Britain exercised its veto. Even if it did, conscription would be a political and practical impossibility.]
33. “Because there’s too many Pakistan [sic] people in Glasgow.” [I repeat: EU membership has no bearing on immigration from outside the EU.]
34. “Because it takes more than 5 litres of water to flush my shit away.”
35. “Because EU taxes are making our petrol more expensive than everywhere else in Europe.” [No, those would be taxes imposed by the UK’s government. The EU plays no part in setting national tax rates.]
36. “To send them women in the headscarves back home. One of them stole my mother’s purse.”
37. “Because I don’t like what the EU is doing to Africa.”
38. “Because I’m scared of black people. They’re so physical.” (Mother-in-law of member of Facebook group) [The mechanism by which leaving the EU will rid the UK of black people is unclear.]
39. “I don’t want to send money to Greece. I don’t care about Greece.”
40. “Because the EU does nothing for us.” [Estimates of the value of EU membership to the UK vary from £31bn to £92bn per year.]
41. “Because the EU has devoted 26,911 words to the regulation of cabbages.” [Seems quite a minor thing to sacrifice 10% of your pay packet for, but in any case, it’s bollocks. There are at present zero words in EU legislation specifically governing the production or sale of cabbages.]
42. “Because our prisons are full of Polish rapists.” [As of March 2016, there were 965 Polish nationals in British prisons. That’s out of a total Polish population of just over 800,000 — so 0.12% of all Poles here are convicted criminals. The total number of prisoners is around 95,000; about 0.14% of the population as a whole. I can’t find any figures broken down into both ethnicity and crime.]
43. “Because the roads in Oxfordshire are full of potholes.” [Technically, such matters fall within the local council’s purview.]
44. “Because the EU is anti-semitic.”
45. “So that we can go back to the way Britain was in the 50s.”
46. “Because they sold off the water, gas and electricity.” [Once again, that would be the work of the UK government, not the EU.]
47. “Because I couldn’t decide, and my boyfriend voted Remain.”
48. “Because schools are no longer allowed to hold nativity plays in case they offend Muslims.” [Utter crap.]
49. “Because the EU spent £13m on art last year.”
50. “Because they never vote for us in Eurovision.”
51. “Because if we stop all the immigrants using the NHS, it will work properly again.”
52. “So we don’t have to queue at the doctor’s.” [There is no clear consensus on the impact of immigration on the health service. Undoubtedly, more people in a country means more people to treat. But it is widely agreed that migrants to the UK are on average younger and healthier than the local population, that inward migration is good for the economy, which gives us more money to spend on the NHS, and that without migrant workers — 24% of doctors and 12% of nurses were not born in the UK — the health service would collapse. Besides, the ageing resident population is by far the biggest strain on health services.]
53. “Because I want a more powerful hoover.” (via Facebook group)
54. “Because the EU is going to ban toasters, and I love toast.” (BBC interviewee) [The EU has never threatened to ban toasters. It is, however, considering a limit on the amount of energy that household appliances can use, in a bid to reduce the effect on the environment.]
55. “So we can have our electrical sockets low down by the skirting rather than have to put them little higher up the wall.”
56. “Because they are building houses for Filipinos and it’s blocking the view from my kitchen window.”
57. “Because I don’t understand politics. This is what my friends suggested.”
58. “Because there’s too much traffic in Sittingbourne.”
59.”Because they tell me I need scaffolding to clean my guttering.” [Really not sure where this information came from.]
60. “Because I fancied a change.” (Caller to Radio 4 programme)
61. “My uncle voted Leave because his sister told him to.”
62. “Because the European Parliament building is the same shape as the Tower of Babel, which is anti-Christ.” (Facebook group’s family member)
63. “So all the fucking Chinks will leave.”
64. “Because the ensuing recession is going to bring house prices down, and I can’t afford to buy a house.”
65. “Because I want to buy sweets in ounces, not grammes.” [The UK adopted the metric system before entering the then European Economic Community. In any case, there’s nothing stopping shops selling things in imperial measures as well as metric.]
66. “Because they don’t pay for NHS prescriptions in Wales and Scotland, and that’s not fair.” (Manchester resident, in TV interview) [Again, nothing to do with the EU.]
67. “So that I don’t have to pay the bedroom tax.” [The bedroom tax was imposed not by the EU, but by … oh, can’t you guess by now?]
68. “Because I’m fed up of the French burning our lamb.” (Frank, Twitter)
69. “Because I want to use my teabag twice and the EU won’t let me.” (Aunt of friend of commenter) [This was another falsehood peddled by Boris Johnson.]