The Will of the People.... A Heroic term but a term that to me reflects something rather like a character from Charlie and the Chocolate factory ... "I Will have that Chocolate ... NOW !!!" ... Give me ! We Will Rise Up ! (from more heroic battles) ... I Will I Will I Will (stamps feet)
Well The Will of this person is that I Wish that people had properly educated themselves before this Referendum Vote. I wish we had kept in touch more with the goings on of the European Parliament. I wish our MEPs had been more pro-active and kept us informed. For example one of our local MEPs is I think the longest standing one in Parliament. I was in the audience at a radio show on which he was a panellist and he did seem very good. But I have not seen a single article from him in public or in the local paper etc since. Nothing. Why was he not more pro-active in trying to get the public more informed about the benefits of Europe ?
Now there are many benefits. I personally did in fact work for a brief while for the European Union. I gave talks and demonstrated how to use a particular database which daily has Tenders available - Tenders Electronic Daily - TED. I gave talks to Small and Medium Enterprises to show them how to search the database and find relevant Tenders to bid for. Again these are the hidden opportunities in the EU - contracts that were won that the general public probably never heard about, but it is just another of the positive benefits.
So... the Will of the People or at least of the 37% who voted ... or the 25% of people - not sure if that even includes EU citizens in the UK who didn't have the vote or many UK people who live and work abroad who didn't get the vote ... anyway the Will of the People .... apparently is to leave the EU.
Now many of these people were attracted by tabloid headlines. Tabloids that are all owned by rich billionaires who do not live in the UK. They tuned in to anti immigrant sentimentality. They tuned into desperate people who have experienced the overstretched NHS and who appreciate our NHS and believed the carefully worded "Brexit Bus", that the money would go to the NHS. Now firstly the maths was wrong - it was never 350m (see my Page about this ....) it was much less. Now secondly this money does bring us many untold benefits which we will now lose - for example access to a single market, cross EUropean science research etc .... but ... assuming we do come out and the figures of 130million is saved a week. No way is it all going to go to the NHS - and you will see that the bus does not exactly say that - people just believed what those "clever manipulators" wanted them to believe - jargon - slogans.... and they fell into the slick trap set by those clever millionaires, most of whom have dual nationality .... funny that !
And getting on to Democracy ... thats another of their refrains - "ITS THE DEMOCRATIC WILL OF THE PEOPLE" ... this is the more than monosyllabic "educated" version of the refrain ... this will definitely win the argument - who could argue with democracy ?
it literally does mean People Power ! Power to the People !
But ... and here's the but ... in Greece, although people did finally get a vote - or at least some did ! they elected a representative to the forum... they elected a person like our parliamentarian. And the leadership of this group changed too so it was not too much time for one person in power. ie the European Parliament has this model.
But ... the UK is not really following democracy as :
- Firstly Our Government is not elected by PR - so is unrepresentative - we have a government that was elected by only 36.9% of the electorate. Yet got over 50% of the seats - see -http://greatideasworld.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/libdems-middle-needs-voice-or-we-will.html
- Secondly even those voting Conservative voted for a party that was led by David Cameron - but he resigned after the EU vote and now we have Theresa May - who appears to be only slightly less extreme than Angela Leadsom might have been ! But certainly was not the leader at the General Election.
- Thirdly we are now following by the word the result of a Referendum - an advisory referendum. And a referendum with too narrow a winning margin and with no required minimum turnout.
- But in my opinion this referendum was based on lies and untruths and also characterised by people not looking properly into issues.
- Fourthly and disappointingly it also seemed to become about immigration and I have yet to hear the government condemn any personal attacks strongly etc. We are currently still in the EU and EU citizens are fully legitimately able to live here. And should not be harassed. As an aside I will say that some other European countries appear to insist you should be able to support yourself in order to live there - I do wonder why the UK didn't do this ...Theresa May's old department?!?
WE ARE EU CITIZENS - WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO LIVE AND WORK ACROSS THE EU - THEY SURELY DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO TAKE AWAY OUR RIGHTS. MANY ARE CURRENTLY WORKING IN EUROPE WITH THESE RIGHTS AND OUR YOUNG FOLK NOW ASSUME THAT WORKING IN EUROPE IS A NATURAL PART OF THEIR CAREERS AND MAY EVEN BE WHERE THEY WILL SETTLE DOWN.
THAT IS THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE - ITS POSSIBLY THE WILL OF 63% OF VOTERS - THOSE WHO DID NOT VOTE FOR BREXIT !
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