Five Baseless Reasons for Brexit

Boris Johnson in a London street. Behind him a man holds a poster that reads Brexit Now - freedom, independence, identity, democracy, soverignty

I’m in that group of people who see Brexit as an act of self-harm. A delusional, economy-wrecking, reality-denying, friend-insulting, diplomatic catastrophe with no up sides. As such, I struggle, daily, to understand the thinking of those on the other side of the divide as, I assume, they must do in my direction. I have done my best to remove all emotion and come up with a list of benefits of Brexit.

I can find none. Not a single “this, at least, will be better.”

Therefore I struggle to see why anyone supports it. Like many remainers, I have friends - dear, good friends – who voted leave and still, I would say despite all evidence in front of them, still think Brexit is in some way a good thing.

In that sense, this picture that illustrates the story of Boris about to become Prime Minister, is helpful. A poster lists what the holder sees as the reasons for Brexit. Let’s see:

Freedom.
Freedom from what? Seriously, in what way are UK citizens not ‘free’? I can own property. I can work, I can play, I can marry who I like, my communication is not censored, my speech is not curtailed except by social mores that I follow by choice. I get to vote too. OK, living in a rock solid safe parliamentary seat, all voting is essentially pointless, but I do have a vote at two levels of local government, national and European. Talk to the Uyghurs, or the people of the ruined states of Venezuela, Syria or Sudan and tell them we’re not ‘free.’
Independence
You mean isolation. That makes you weaker, not stronger.
Identity
That’s always a personal issue and people choose to identify themselves in different ways. ‘Asian-British’, Scottish, English, gay man, trans-gender woman, black-British, white British, and so on. And most of us are clear on our own identity. Mine is European. And it’s being taken away entirely against my will.
Democracy
Really? We recently elected a new European Parliament. Our (elected) Prime Minster sat down with her 27 (elected) counterparts and proposed a bunch of new people for the top European jobs. They were approved by the elected parliament. Compare that with the appointment of Mark Sedwill – as Cabinet Secretary, arguably the most powerful individual in the country.
Sovereignty
We can leave the EU. We can leave NATO, we can do whatever we want. Britain is a sovereign nation, whether we actually leave or remain in any international organisation or treaty is a matter of choice.

So, unsurprisingly, I don’t see a single one of poster-man’s statements as carrying any weight.

As for the lying, self-serving, philandering, half-wit in the middle of the picture, few people are as unfit for the office of Prime Minister. Sadly, the current Leader of the Opposition is one of those few, hence the dreadful state we find ourselves in.

Miss Swinson, as the only UK national leader fit for the office of Prime Minister – I wish you all success in your mighty task. Time for me to re-join your party after 9 years of being away.

Jo Swinson giving her acceptance speech after being elected leader of the Liberal Democrats, 2019-07-22