Very interesting stuff - what a disaster the whole thing is. We should never have been taken out of the EU based on an advisory Referendum - something which many used as a protest vote against a whole lot of things unrelated to the EU.
https://www.byline.com/column/67/article/1613
EU citizenship Petition and Guy Verhofstadt
Please sign the petition if, like me, you value your EU citizenship.
And watch Guy Verhofstadt telling Nigel Farage a few home truths - you do wonder how much damage Nigel Farage has caused to eg Fishing over the years ....
https://www.change.org/p/eu-offer-european-citizenship-to-uk-citizens/u/20095460?utm_medium=email&utm_source=62491&utm_campaign=petition_update&sfmc_tk=NkcySmjAj36AUNt6IODO%2ffriRCbKnJW0jIQk6kappHszNiI96uu92habVvXV6Fnz
And watch Guy Verhofstadt telling Nigel Farage a few home truths - you do wonder how much damage Nigel Farage has caused to eg Fishing over the years ....
https://www.change.org/p/eu-offer-european-citizenship-to-uk-citizens/u/20095460?utm_medium=email&utm_source=62491&utm_campaign=petition_update&sfmc_tk=NkcySmjAj36AUNt6IODO%2ffriRCbKnJW0jIQk6kappHszNiI96uu92habVvXV6Fnz
The EU March in Edinburgh - 25th March 2017 - 60th Anniversary of Treaty of Rome
I set off early for Edinburgh, heading to the EU March. It was going to be a stunning sunny day. Thankfully the coffee stall at our local station in Glasgow was open so I was able to get a coffee for the one and a half hour journey ! Very civilised !
During the start of the journey I could hear two young guys who were sitting opposite me, who were talking about their various projects they were involved with. One of them was on the local Railway forum and the other was talking about his degree where instead of taking one module, they instead work with students from across year groups to look at the impact of their engineering projects on the environment and on European citizens etc. An EU Project ! All these little things that we could lose.
Anyway I got to Edinburgh and met up with the group from the North East of England who I had met previously. We then eventually left Waverley station and headed up to the start of the March at the end of Princes Street at Waterloo Place. We would walk from there, up past Calton Hill where the Scottish Parliament was going to be at one point, then walking onwards with views of Arthur's Seat, and then finishing up down at the Scottish Parliament. We sat there or stood there in the sun listening to some excellent talks from a variety of people.
I met a woman who works as a translator and who may have to move abroad if Brexit happens as most of her work is in Euros and she expects she may have to move. I met an astrophysicist who has now had to put on hold a project to create a solar observatory in Europe, as things are now so uncertain with regards to whether people can be employed or will have citizenship abroad etc. How sad is that - these are concrete victims of Brexit and it hasn't even happened yet ! I met a scientist who comes from mainland Europe but is working and living in a University in the North of England who assured me that quite a number of her colleagues are seriously contemplating moving to Scotland ! I met some French people and lots of other lovely and interesting people from all over the UK and abroad. I heard from a German scientist all about her work on the environment. It sounded interesting. And she explained how Germany has the equivalent differences as the UK or France does - a sort of North / South divide. Always interesting to hear new things ! Two SNP "Yes" supporters were speaking French to a French lady next to me ! I also met up again with the Perth for EU group. (I used to live in Perth !) They have a thriving Remain in EU group based in Perth.
The speakers were from a variety of political backgrounds and other backgrounds. They started by thanking the police who had kept us safe en route. And remembering the events in London.
Things then proceeded, and in typical British style someone started their speech - "We must Remain in the EU - its brought us peace, prosperity .... and .... and " (stutter) - someone in crowd shouts "cheese" !!
Then a return to fluency ! We heard from a rebellious Labour group who have not been listened to by Jeremy Corbyn, but number 5,000 Labour party members who support Remain and had signed a letter to Jeremy, with no response ! One speaker had lived in Berlin just after the second world war and was reminding us how the European Union had kept a peaceful Europe, and he was reminding us how it is not difficult to slip into a non peaceful situation. Most of the individual country flags have been involved in something disreputable over time, but the European flag of yellow stars on the blue background had only presided over peace. We heard from a retired Edinburgh judge (born in Perth !), David Edward who was a former Judge of the Court of Justice of the European Communities, working on panels with colleagues from Finland, France etc. ( And we heard from Joanna Cherry of the SNP who had been taught law by this judge 30 years ago in Edinburgh ! We heard about the lack of any response from Theresa May from the large White Paper of questions from the Scottish Government. Scotland has been given tax raising powers, yet now the method of controlling their economy in the way they see best has been taken away from them. Oh yes and from another speaker, another slightly amusing correction when someone listed all the "industries" Scotland is good at and which prosper in the EU - finance, IT, farming, food and drink etc were listed - but they forgot science - that was shouted out from the crowd - there were a number of scientists certainly that I spoke to over the day ! And Scotland is famed for science and industry - these areas are thriving at the moment as is the University sector, brining in many from abroad as well. In fact today they said that EU students would have guarantees to complete their studies in Scotland ... And for me the most stirring talks were from the organisers - a French guy and a woman called Vanessa Glynn, Chair of the European Movement in Scotland, who gave a fantastic speech which had the crowd cheering.
You can read it here: http://www.euromovescotland.org.uk/documents/VanessaMarch4EU.pdf
Some of the gist of what was said that I can remember - We want to Remain in the EU - We value our EU citizenship - the Young people deserve their future. If it came to it, Scotland would love to offer EU citizens the right to stay. And how the Europeans are quite open to having a country like Scotland, who are keen to be in the EU. There was a lot of negative feeling about the influence of the Daily Mail. And who is really going to benefit in the so called return of powers from the EU - straight into the hands of those who will happily have deregulation etc...
But first things first - today was the Anniversary of 60 years since the Treaty of Rome. UK was not in the group immediately, but tried three times to get in and finally got in. Yet now we could give all this progress away. The EU has kept peace for 60 years in Europe.
The blue sky overhead could almost have had yellow EU stars on it. The flag of the EU has reigned over countries which have worked together and kept peace together. Yes, there are issues - but we need to be a positive force and get in and work to sort out the EU. And the UK argued to bring in the Eastern countries - yet now we are quitting - join our club - but actually we are leaving the club.
Let's hope not - let's hope Theresa May sees sense and does not sign Article 50 on Wednesday. Guy Verhofstadt is apparently to be the EU negotiator. He understands the people who were with me on the March better than our own government. Let's hope Guy can fight our cause - we are EU Citizens. Many of us have been born as EU Citizens - we have ALWAYS BEEN EU CITIZENS.
Oh yes and I heard two good jokes today - well a couple of cheesy ones anyway !
Question - How do you entice a bear out of a cave using just cheese ?
Answer - you say "Camembert" !!
and ... even worse
Question - How do you hide a horse using cheese ?
Answer - you "Mascarpone" !!
(Thanks to the Newcastle group for those - keeping us entertained at the Station!)
Videos of Edinburgh March:
http://breakingbrexit.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/the-eu-march-in-edinburgh-25th-march.html
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQtUExB-XI0&spfreload=5 (I am sure there are more than 2000 here !!)
During the start of the journey I could hear two young guys who were sitting opposite me, who were talking about their various projects they were involved with. One of them was on the local Railway forum and the other was talking about his degree where instead of taking one module, they instead work with students from across year groups to look at the impact of their engineering projects on the environment and on European citizens etc. An EU Project ! All these little things that we could lose.
Anyway I got to Edinburgh and met up with the group from the North East of England who I had met previously. We then eventually left Waverley station and headed up to the start of the March at the end of Princes Street at Waterloo Place. We would walk from there, up past Calton Hill where the Scottish Parliament was going to be at one point, then walking onwards with views of Arthur's Seat, and then finishing up down at the Scottish Parliament. We sat there or stood there in the sun listening to some excellent talks from a variety of people.
I met a woman who works as a translator and who may have to move abroad if Brexit happens as most of her work is in Euros and she expects she may have to move. I met an astrophysicist who has now had to put on hold a project to create a solar observatory in Europe, as things are now so uncertain with regards to whether people can be employed or will have citizenship abroad etc. How sad is that - these are concrete victims of Brexit and it hasn't even happened yet ! I met a scientist who comes from mainland Europe but is working and living in a University in the North of England who assured me that quite a number of her colleagues are seriously contemplating moving to Scotland ! I met some French people and lots of other lovely and interesting people from all over the UK and abroad. I heard from a German scientist all about her work on the environment. It sounded interesting. And she explained how Germany has the equivalent differences as the UK or France does - a sort of North / South divide. Always interesting to hear new things ! Two SNP "Yes" supporters were speaking French to a French lady next to me ! I also met up again with the Perth for EU group. (I used to live in Perth !) They have a thriving Remain in EU group based in Perth.
 |
| Gathering at the start - looking back to Princes Street and the Scott Monument |
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| Past Calton Hill - |
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| Arthur's Seat in Background |
 |
| Perth for Europe |
 |
| Excellent knitted EU Hats ! |
 |
| Past the Gates of Holyroodhouse - wonder what Her Majesty really thinks re EU ! |
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| Edinburgh - always a stunning backdrop ! |
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| Arthur's Seat in background |
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| Past the Scottish Parliament |
 |
| This is possibly the best photo I took from a photography perspective and meaning too ! |
 |
| Listening to the speeches - another EU hat too ! |
Things then proceeded, and in typical British style someone started their speech - "We must Remain in the EU - its brought us peace, prosperity .... and .... and " (stutter) - someone in crowd shouts "cheese" !!
Then a return to fluency ! We heard from a rebellious Labour group who have not been listened to by Jeremy Corbyn, but number 5,000 Labour party members who support Remain and had signed a letter to Jeremy, with no response ! One speaker had lived in Berlin just after the second world war and was reminding us how the European Union had kept a peaceful Europe, and he was reminding us how it is not difficult to slip into a non peaceful situation. Most of the individual country flags have been involved in something disreputable over time, but the European flag of yellow stars on the blue background had only presided over peace. We heard from a retired Edinburgh judge (born in Perth !), David Edward who was a former Judge of the Court of Justice of the European Communities, working on panels with colleagues from Finland, France etc. ( And we heard from Joanna Cherry of the SNP who had been taught law by this judge 30 years ago in Edinburgh ! We heard about the lack of any response from Theresa May from the large White Paper of questions from the Scottish Government. Scotland has been given tax raising powers, yet now the method of controlling their economy in the way they see best has been taken away from them. Oh yes and from another speaker, another slightly amusing correction when someone listed all the "industries" Scotland is good at and which prosper in the EU - finance, IT, farming, food and drink etc were listed - but they forgot science - that was shouted out from the crowd - there were a number of scientists certainly that I spoke to over the day ! And Scotland is famed for science and industry - these areas are thriving at the moment as is the University sector, brining in many from abroad as well. In fact today they said that EU students would have guarantees to complete their studies in Scotland ... And for me the most stirring talks were from the organisers - a French guy and a woman called Vanessa Glynn, Chair of the European Movement in Scotland, who gave a fantastic speech which had the crowd cheering.
You can read it here: http://www.euromovescotland.org.uk/documents/VanessaMarch4EU.pdf
Some of the gist of what was said that I can remember - We want to Remain in the EU - We value our EU citizenship - the Young people deserve their future. If it came to it, Scotland would love to offer EU citizens the right to stay. And how the Europeans are quite open to having a country like Scotland, who are keen to be in the EU. There was a lot of negative feeling about the influence of the Daily Mail. And who is really going to benefit in the so called return of powers from the EU - straight into the hands of those who will happily have deregulation etc...
But first things first - today was the Anniversary of 60 years since the Treaty of Rome. UK was not in the group immediately, but tried three times to get in and finally got in. Yet now we could give all this progress away. The EU has kept peace for 60 years in Europe.
The blue sky overhead could almost have had yellow EU stars on it. The flag of the EU has reigned over countries which have worked together and kept peace together. Yes, there are issues - but we need to be a positive force and get in and work to sort out the EU. And the UK argued to bring in the Eastern countries - yet now we are quitting - join our club - but actually we are leaving the club.
Let's hope not - let's hope Theresa May sees sense and does not sign Article 50 on Wednesday. Guy Verhofstadt is apparently to be the EU negotiator. He understands the people who were with me on the March better than our own government. Let's hope Guy can fight our cause - we are EU Citizens. Many of us have been born as EU Citizens - we have ALWAYS BEEN EU CITIZENS.
Oh yes and I heard two good jokes today - well a couple of cheesy ones anyway !
Question - How do you entice a bear out of a cave using just cheese ?
Answer - you say "Camembert" !!
and ... even worse
Question - How do you hide a horse using cheese ?
Answer - you "Mascarpone" !!
(Thanks to the Newcastle group for those - keeping us entertained at the Station!)
Videos of Edinburgh March:
http://breakingbrexit.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/the-eu-march-in-edinburgh-25th-march.html
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQtUExB-XI0&spfreload=5 (I am sure there are more than 2000 here !!)
My Trip to EU Remain March NE - Newcastle - 4 March 2017
I wrote this blog during the day itself ...
Did not sleep much - in anticipation of the day ahead - but got up as planned and managed to get the train while it was still dark at 6.40 when I got the train from our local station. Reading material packed...EU hat packed - food supplies packed !! Surprised that there are quite a few out and about at this time. Got to Glasgow Central. A magnificent station. Got organic coffee and an almond croissant at Pret-a-Manger…. A good French name for the start of an EU outing !
I get onto the Virgin cross country train. It's heading for Plymouth …. But I will get off half way at Newcastle! Lots to see en route though via Berwick upon tweed etc. Although on the way down there is a good deal of fog.
… I am still hoping to grab some sleep...hope I don't snore!! I have managed to book one of the few tables on the train. …. More to follow!
Not long to Newcastle now. This train not as good as Virgin Intercity. I had to head along three carriages to get a tea and sandwich as the trolley service was off. Have also had to listen to a long, loud and slightly indiscrete conversation on a mobile from a guy who should probably know better as he is involved in youth sport yet I can now tell you all about his staff and various controversies ! Not much sign of the fog clearing yet. Let's hope it's a good day and I manage to meet up with the others
I am just so disappointed to have not slept well.. but perhaps it was nerves. Speak later.
I met the others who had travelled by train at the station. Two of the organisers, Louise and Jon kindly met us there to take us to the march. This was useful as on my previous visits to Newcastle I had always gone directly to one of the two Universities and in fact it turns out I had not seen the city centre at all - which turned out to be very beautiful.
Here is a picture from someone else which sums up the atmosphere at the station. Thats me with my back to the camera !
There were as many hen parties arriving at the station as EU campaigners !
But we were ready with flags hats and leaflets! I met Joanne and Paul who I had expected to meet via Facebook and the rest of the group as well. There were rumours the police knew of hecklers, which was not unexpected. Louise escorted us up to the tall Earl Grey monument and then beyond to the swimming baths where the march was to start. I have to say it was good to finally do something constructive about attempting to halt Brexit, which I do not feel is in any way in the best interests of our modern, forward looking and outward looking country.. (or at least that was how I would have described us pre-the Brexit vote !). After months of only being able to discuss this online, finally we were out and about and doing something about it !
......
......
Well that was a long and interesting day !
I chatted to people from Northumberland, Dumfries, France, York etc. Young and old. Joanne revealed her fabulous banner with message for Theresa …
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My home made hat and a French(?) girl I met on the march
|
There were a variety of banners, many with witty comments. We started out on the march. and we marched up to the Charles Grey statue - commemorating Earl Grey, famous for his tea (see tea shop in background of photo) but also famed as a PM and parliamentary reformer. Apparently there was a lot of support from the shopping crowds on our way past. Good news - lots of thumbs ups ! There were even dogs on the march. The dogs were appropriately a cross between a French and a German breed!
We marched along proclaiming “EU we love you” ! There was a good turnout. We got to the monument and gathered there. There were a few hecklers or it may have been just one very aggressive man. The police did a good job surrounding us so that the talks could commence. The talks were excellent. All good.
The start of the speeches - great MC !
Emmy Van Deurzen speaking
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| After AC Grayling's finale talk - well done all ! |
First up - a stirring speech from Emmy van Deurzen (you can watch it here ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Standout for me were the local MEP Fiona Hall and Joyce Quin the local member of house of lords. One of these speakers mentioned how agency workers and zero hours contracts etc. is not something that is happening elsewhere in EU - its the UK that allows this. they don't have to !
Also the director of nursing at Northumbria university Julia Charlton presenting stark facts about numbers in nursing. With about half of nurses due to retire in next few years and numbers of EU applicants to posts reducing… and fees etc so expensive that there are not enough applicants. Other talks were all excellent ...one from a business man Richard Swart … and finishing with a stirring talk from AC Grayling.
There were fabulous musical interludes from a young woman on guitar Madeleina Kay who had written three stirring songs in support of the EU! Her gorgeous white German Shepherd dog was joining in while wearing an EU dog jacket !! (you can just see him behind her in this photo) - she has now recorded her third song that we all joined in with - you can watch it here - excellent and I love love love the verse half way through ! (wont spoil it for you - listen in !) https://www.facebook.com/albawhitewolf/videos/1146528952126175/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED
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| Madeleina Kay singing one of her three stirring songs |
And there was another musician who added to the atmosphere. I stood through it all. I think it was filmed. If it was then it will be well worth watching the talks online.
After I spotted two of the guys from the original group who had met at the station. We headed down a road of magnificent sandstone buildings and found a nice bar/restaurant/coffee shop. It was good to finally sit down! An hour later and it was off to the literary and philosophy library to listen to a stirring talk by AC Grayling. This library had featured in an Ann Cleeves book that I had read so I was interested to see it. A little haven of peace and quiet in the city. And a welcome glass of wine. Time to reflect after the day and listen to AC Grayling in a more relaxed atmosphere ... we heard about the inadequacies of the planning for the referendum… it's democratic illegitimacy. About how voters need to educate themselves and be thinkers… book recommendation "Thinking Fast and Slow"… quote re 1952 Eisenhower election… about Cambridge analytics who had the big data for both trump and the leave campaign, so they would target particular sectors of voters hence why Trumps talks sounded disjointed… necklace of sound bites, often unrelated but targeting different groups in audience eg anti immigrant or those concerned with.
.. etc. Apparently Camb analytics did this pro Bono but it's under investigation. AC Grayling seems a very nice man. He recommends we keep our separate campaign groups, keep going, talk to Remainers and Brexiters and our MPs… and keep going… it could be a long fight right up to General Election 2020… and it is also annoying as we all have other things our time was really due to have been spent on! (a sentiment I can fully agree with !)
I spoke to quite a few during the day who want to move to Scotland, I heard of quite a few who have managed to apply for Irish citizenship. And I also heard about Northumbria council who are building 1000s of houses on green belt with no jobs, no facilities like doctors… and a primary school with a MacDonald's drive through across from it …. "Money talks" as always …. And voters need to take back control and find out what is going on. Compulsory voting was also a recommendation as was a parliamentary democracy which started to work again through our MPs starting to have the guts to stand up for what is right.
So all in all a good and exhausting and stressful day on occasions but with hope a positive day.
I had heard all of his talk and all of the questions and answers session but had to leave just as a stirring finale of Ode to Joy was being proposed, as I had to make sure I caught my train on time!
It was a long day but well worth it - lots of food for thought and always inspiring to meet like minded people. There was a good deal of support from the shoppers who were out and about and from people at the station too ! lots of thumbs up signs apparently !
Map ! New EU !
I have to say this looks pretty good - well maybe if include Northern Ireland / Ireland !
VIEW 2017 EU MAP !!
VIEW 2017 EU MAP !!
Why Britain Didnt Join the Euro
Interesting stuff here - the triple approval idea of Cabinet, Parliament and Electorate would have been a good idea for this Brexit idea as well - but only if Parliament can vote freely and I guess it would be nice if parliament was elected by PR so the percentages of MPs more closely reflected what the electorate votes (or would vote if we had PR !)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_and_the_euro
Incidentally from what I hear Greece would not have passed these stringent criteria but Goldman Sachs got them round it somehow. They should be accountable for any problems that ensued for the Euro. They should not be earning millions if their advice was not good or what they did was immoral ... but I do not currently know the details ....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_and_the_euro
Incidentally from what I hear Greece would not have passed these stringent criteria but Goldman Sachs got them round it somehow. They should be accountable for any problems that ensued for the Euro. They should not be earning millions if their advice was not good or what they did was immoral ... but I do not currently know the details ....
Justin Trudeau of Canada talking about the EU
Justin Trudeau of Canada commending the EU - as a Free Trade deal is signed soon - although currently UK government has failed to include protection for location based products eg Scotch Beef, Cornish Pasties etc etc - a deliberate mistake or incompetent error ? Paving the way for cheap meat products to come in from US and Canada - certainly I have heard of poor treatment of animals in intensive production in the US - I don't know about Canada.... but it seems our UK government are continually poor at supporting our fishermen, our farmers, our producers ...
.@JustinTrudeau says the "the whole world benefits from a strong EU" while speaking to the European Parliament at Strasbourg. pic.twitter.com/znFrA3YWqV— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) February 16, 2017
Brexit Has Made me Angry - My Family History Might Explain it - We are Certainly Not Elites Either !
Brexit has really made me angry.
"Brexit - not in my name" !!
My Family History (as I see it !) might go some way to explain it.
And the misinformation from the Leave campaign might also ! The 350m figure was never factually correct and the money was never going to the NHS you can forget that ! These people believe in Private Healthcare so they are destroying our NHS as fast as they can so we cry out for private !!
And .. now it seems we never lost our sovereignty - the "CALL" of another 1/3 of the Brexiteers - "We want our Sovereignty Back " even though they cant spell it and neither can I probably ! (This excerpt from the Brexit White Paper this week)
Now to get on to my family history.
Firstly many of the Brexit main players appear to not be entirely British themselves - now this is interesting - many have backgrounds from elsewhere yet they appear to have become more British than the British themselves !!
No doubt some British people are purely from way back "stock" - some may well have farmed in an area and never interbred - maybe they are indeed pure Pict or pure Scot or pure Anglo Saxon or Breton. But I think you'd be hard pushed to be such pure stock nowadays !
Most must have mixed with incoming Romans, incoming Norsemen and women (if Vikings TV prog to be believed!) and it carried on from there with the Norman invasion which led to many terms in English being French terms as they seemed to become the ruling class. My history is very poor - this is how I see it !
My own family history includes Hugeonots from France who fled persecution there and settled in Lanarkshire as Lace Makers - so we do have refugees in our history. There are also a few Irish who presumably fled the potato famine or its aftermath - and settled in Glagow. I am proud to say there are a few inter-marriages in my family history - catholic/protestant - which in those days were really not a "done thing".
And we have a few branches who emigrated to Canada over the years so we are indeed world citizens in our small ordinary Scottish family !
But in fact we have quite a few heroes - or reluctant heroes in our family. Again I hate to say it but some of the politicians now spouting about WW2 or WW1 surprisingly either didn't live in the country then or seemed to avoid fighting ! Funny that.
What I do know is that the people who did fight etc then they never ever spoke about it. So in fact we never heard anything about it. We have pieced the stories together from old documents in family boxes or from stories from Uncle's who wrote some of it down. So here is a list of what my family and husband's family got up to in the war ... and I guess how the war sort of ruined what our family might have become ...
My grandfather fought in WW1 - including I know of Gallipoli - Mons - he rode a horse through the deserted and ruined streets of Amiens in Northern France etc - no doubt he fought in many of the battles - he had a gun carriage - and became a Captain having signed up along with all his brothers some of whom were under-age. I think they all survived so we have that to be thankful for. But he got the Military Cross and I know he did realise the horrors - you just have to read this - but I also know he went about designing an improved tank and submitted that to the military. He had a business selling car accessories which passed down our family tree to my cousin. But he never spoke about it - and my uncle who had a VW campervan had to park it round the corner as you can imagine so he wouldn't see it !
L ... lives in UK
S ... lives in UK but lived in New Zealand a while with her partner
A ... lives in UK but travelled world for a bit
S ... lives in UK but also in New Zealand and Hong Kong
J ... lives in Australia
Work life Dundee
L ... Grew up in East Germany but must have come to UK minute the wall came down and is I think still here !
M .. same as above
L ... from Greece but probably back in Greece
there was guys from Spain, Iraq, Libya, Iran also in that department - some stayed and some went back but these were people who were either working full time in NHS or studying...
Granted there was also a terrorist who was found to have come from Dundee at the time but there was also a home grown one too from there ... but people are all so different - you cant judge one person by how another is. The rest were trying to cure diseases or learn how to improve scanning techniques !
S ... a friend from Argentina who I hope is now in America - I haven't heard from her now for a few years. But she introduced us all to films of what a beautiful country Argentina is.
And I guess for balance there were probably 50 other ordinary Dundonians or UK people in the department but it was always a colourful mix of different nationalities from what I remember. And I remember the lovely Tapas meal the guy from Spain or Tenerife made for us all when he left !
Recent family life
One family have a husband who had to take a job in Sweden for a couple of years - in IT - he is back here now - the family probably didn't see much of him in those years- the occassional weekend - not easy.
Two other families I know have had long parts of their careers as engineers in Germany or Holland
I have a friend who is from Belgium and lives here - fluent in 5 languages yet could not get a job easily at all and is working in a shop and loving it !
Another friend lived here for a while - they were a French family and I am still in touch with them.
I have a friend now who is married to someone French and they live here. I hope they are able to stay - they have been here a while.
It goes on and on ...
A relative lives in Germany with his Spanish wife !
A friend also had a grandfather who fled Germany in war - this has led to four out of five of their family managing to obtain German passports this year and by this means - EU citizenship too..
There was a Netherlands family at our Toddler group ..they are in Wales now I think.
My neighbour's grand-daugher is working and living in Paris - not sure as what but she has just picked up jobs while travelling and is now settled in Paris. Nice !
A friend's son is working as an engineer in the south of France - at an Aerospace place I think - but he is a UK citizen - so what happens there !
Many friends have houses in France and I speak French with groups of people like this - through French classes and meetup groups.
One of these friend's daughters now works in Marseille.
Another friend's sister is married to a French guy and they live in south of France near Perpignan.
An acquaintance I know is about to marry a Spanish guy - sounds fabulous.
A friend's son is working as a ski instructor in France.
I could go on ... and on ...
We are European ... and we are Global too .... and young people are even more Global ...
Where I live we are just so used to people being a mix of nationalities from EU - its great. And it benefits us as we have access to jobs across the EU.
I will never ever agree with Brexit - and I will never ever agree with the way some of our politicians are dealing with it and talking about it.
Signed Jennifer Wilson
"Brexit - not in my name" !!
My Family History (as I see it !) might go some way to explain it.
And the misinformation from the Leave campaign might also ! The 350m figure was never factually correct and the money was never going to the NHS you can forget that ! These people believe in Private Healthcare so they are destroying our NHS as fast as they can so we cry out for private !!
And .. now it seems we never lost our sovereignty - the "CALL" of another 1/3 of the Brexiteers - "We want our Sovereignty Back " even though they cant spell it and neither can I probably ! (This excerpt from the Brexit White Paper this week)
Now to get on to my family history.
Firstly many of the Brexit main players appear to not be entirely British themselves - now this is interesting - many have backgrounds from elsewhere yet they appear to have become more British than the British themselves !!
No doubt some British people are purely from way back "stock" - some may well have farmed in an area and never interbred - maybe they are indeed pure Pict or pure Scot or pure Anglo Saxon or Breton. But I think you'd be hard pushed to be such pure stock nowadays !
Most must have mixed with incoming Romans, incoming Norsemen and women (if Vikings TV prog to be believed!) and it carried on from there with the Norman invasion which led to many terms in English being French terms as they seemed to become the ruling class. My history is very poor - this is how I see it !
My own family history includes Hugeonots from France who fled persecution there and settled in Lanarkshire as Lace Makers - so we do have refugees in our history. There are also a few Irish who presumably fled the potato famine or its aftermath - and settled in Glagow. I am proud to say there are a few inter-marriages in my family history - catholic/protestant - which in those days were really not a "done thing".
And we have a few branches who emigrated to Canada over the years so we are indeed world citizens in our small ordinary Scottish family !
But in fact we have quite a few heroes - or reluctant heroes in our family. Again I hate to say it but some of the politicians now spouting about WW2 or WW1 surprisingly either didn't live in the country then or seemed to avoid fighting ! Funny that.
What I do know is that the people who did fight etc then they never ever spoke about it. So in fact we never heard anything about it. We have pieced the stories together from old documents in family boxes or from stories from Uncle's who wrote some of it down. So here is a list of what my family and husband's family got up to in the war ... and I guess how the war sort of ruined what our family might have become ...
My grandfather fought in WW1 - including I know of Gallipoli - Mons - he rode a horse through the deserted and ruined streets of Amiens in Northern France etc - no doubt he fought in many of the battles - he had a gun carriage - and became a Captain having signed up along with all his brothers some of whom were under-age. I think they all survived so we have that to be thankful for. But he got the Military Cross and I know he did realise the horrors - you just have to read this - but I also know he went about designing an improved tank and submitted that to the military. He had a business selling car accessories which passed down our family tree to my cousin. But he never spoke about it - and my uncle who had a VW campervan had to park it round the corner as you can imagine so he wouldn't see it !
Anyway moving on, a Great Uncle got a Military Cross twice and also the Croix de Guerre from Buzancy, where the Scots had fought alongside the French and the French erected a memorial to them.
Before the war this Great Uncle had joined the army - which was unusual as the family had Irish history - but for whatever reasons he joined the British Army and became a great horseman - he joined the Hussars and the story goes he jumped a horse over the officer's table without knocking over a wine glass ! I think it was maybe a thing they do as I have a photo of the Hussars doing this. He was due to jump at the White City when war broke out. But here he is forming part of the Escort for the Kaiser of Germany who was on a visit to I think Kent as he was Commander in Chief or something of the Hussars. His horse is marked with a star - its in the middle in first two rows but we cant quite work out for sure which one it is !
This is my Great Uncle Jack Kelly ...
Moving on ... another Great Uncle reluctantly fought - not sure which war - but he was a pacifist but fought so his mother would not be ashamed.
Other grandfather failed the health check but took children away to the Highlands.
A Great Aunt was stationed in the Highlands to check soldier's mail - even checking the mail from a soldier she had met on the train who had written to his mother to say he had met a nice girl on the train - how sad is that to think of ... I got the feeling she had not met him again ... but lets hope she did. Poor guy. But she also had in her circle of friends a woman who was arrested as a Germany spy - she had been entertaining the offices and trying to get stories out of them ! Apparently a very flamboyant woman .. I think blonde ...
Those are the exciting stories - another great uncle was an ambulance driver during the Clydebank Blitz and my Uncle who had inherited the Car Accessories shop took leather gloves to help rescuers at the Blitz.
An Aunt worked at Bletchley Park having passed the crossword test you see in the Alan Turing film ! But they were told to never speak about it. It was the "goose which laid the golden egg but never cackled". Her family really only fully discovered the story after she had died. They had to say nothing for 50 years.
And my grandfather was a Prisoner of War camp commander (well we were told commander ..) inWW2, presumably as he was too old to fight by then but was trusted having made Captain in WW1 and receiving military cross. We recently realised he had been at the Trent Park secret Listening Camp where the senior Nazis were held. Maybe he was the mysterious Lord Abernethy who has never been identified ! ... but my mother assures me he would never have passed as a Lord !!
He also ran the camps on Isle of Man.
This is my Grandfather !
(A boat made by one of the prisoners - "Grandad's boat")
Another Uncle had suffered mustard gas poisoning in WW2. My husband's Uncle had come through the war after flying goodness knows how many flights as a gunner in Lancaster Bombers.
But again if I can point out - none of this was EVER spoken about. It should have been.
So ... when various minor MPs and Boris Johnston and such like use Nazi or WW2 symbolism then they have no right. This week we had an allusion to Dunkirk - as though Brexit was "our Dunkirk moment". How ignorant is that... OMG ... I just searched for Dunkirk - there is a 2017 film coming out about it - oh dear - it was a heroic and awful time - but the film will just stir up all those Brexiteer passions again!
Here is the History of Dunkirk - heartbreaking - but for European Unity please read the sections "Retreat to Dunkirk" and "Evacuations" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dunkirk.
So ... on from that ... in fact this post was originally to be a listing of how many Europeans I know who are now integrated in my life - and how many UK people I know who live abroad.
I must not forget also my Aunt who worked as a doctor in Kenya for a good few years - in Nairobi.
In my family my father worked at a famous engineering company who built gas turbines into power stations all over the world. But in the end Thatcher's Government was the end. The pound was too high due to oil money so British exports were expensive. Norway took the best option at this time and save their oil money so it didn't influence their currency ... (my summation of economics !) ... But our exports were expensive to the rest of the world by then ... it was not the fault of the British companies it was the fault of the level of the pound over valuing ... and other countries gave financial support to the competitors - it was maybe breaking the rules in some way but they managed it. So the Scottish company failed to get a deal in Kenya as the Kenyans could get the power station for free from the US. But I remember my father visiting Colombia, Argentina, Norway, US, India. He no doubt visited elsewhere too but his main job was engineering design back in the UK.
So from that ordinary background one brother became an Engineer and studied as part of his degree via Erasmus in France then worked in France for a number of years, becoming fluent in French. Another brother being a true citizen of the world and a computer expert who used the internet in its very very early days, made a good friend with a guy from America and also his wider friends too. They have become family friends. But when he first came to visit it was with trepidation that we waited as I don't think you even got to see photographs of people in early internet days !
Anyway so here is a listing of people I know - in my not terribly large circle of friends this is how global people are.
School friends
C ...still in UK !
J ... lives in the US
K ... back in UK but lived in Bahamas for a long time
F ... still here but has visited US, Pakistan
D ... lives in Peru
University
A ... lives in Sweden with her family - all UK citizens but have now taken out Swedish passports this year after Brexit !
H ... lives in Geneva
C .... still in UK
A ... lives in UK but lived in US for a long timeL ... lives in UK
S ... lives in UK but lived in New Zealand a while with her partner
A ... lives in UK but travelled world for a bit
S ... lives in UK but also in New Zealand and Hong Kong
J ... lives in Australia
Work life Dundee
L ... Grew up in East Germany but must have come to UK minute the wall came down and is I think still here !
M .. same as above
L ... from Greece but probably back in Greece
there was guys from Spain, Iraq, Libya, Iran also in that department - some stayed and some went back but these were people who were either working full time in NHS or studying...
Granted there was also a terrorist who was found to have come from Dundee at the time but there was also a home grown one too from there ... but people are all so different - you cant judge one person by how another is. The rest were trying to cure diseases or learn how to improve scanning techniques !
S ... a friend from Argentina who I hope is now in America - I haven't heard from her now for a few years. But she introduced us all to films of what a beautiful country Argentina is.
And I guess for balance there were probably 50 other ordinary Dundonians or UK people in the department but it was always a colourful mix of different nationalities from what I remember. And I remember the lovely Tapas meal the guy from Spain or Tenerife made for us all when he left !
Recent family life
One family have a husband who had to take a job in Sweden for a couple of years - in IT - he is back here now - the family probably didn't see much of him in those years- the occassional weekend - not easy.
Two other families I know have had long parts of their careers as engineers in Germany or Holland
I have a friend who is from Belgium and lives here - fluent in 5 languages yet could not get a job easily at all and is working in a shop and loving it !
Another friend lived here for a while - they were a French family and I am still in touch with them.
I have a friend now who is married to someone French and they live here. I hope they are able to stay - they have been here a while.
It goes on and on ...
A relative lives in Germany with his Spanish wife !
A friend also had a grandfather who fled Germany in war - this has led to four out of five of their family managing to obtain German passports this year and by this means - EU citizenship too..
There was a Netherlands family at our Toddler group ..they are in Wales now I think.
My neighbour's grand-daugher is working and living in Paris - not sure as what but she has just picked up jobs while travelling and is now settled in Paris. Nice !
A friend's son is working as an engineer in the south of France - at an Aerospace place I think - but he is a UK citizen - so what happens there !
Many friends have houses in France and I speak French with groups of people like this - through French classes and meetup groups.
One of these friend's daughters now works in Marseille.
Another friend's sister is married to a French guy and they live in south of France near Perpignan.
An acquaintance I know is about to marry a Spanish guy - sounds fabulous.
A friend's son is working as a ski instructor in France.
I could go on ... and on ...
We are European ... and we are Global too .... and young people are even more Global ...
Where I live we are just so used to people being a mix of nationalities from EU - its great. And it benefits us as we have access to jobs across the EU.
I will never ever agree with Brexit - and I will never ever agree with the way some of our politicians are dealing with it and talking about it.
Signed Jennifer Wilson
Fabulous blog post
This is excellent and articulates exactly how I feel - I am a EU Citizen first and foremost because I have lived all my life as one !
http://www.indelicates.com/brexit/
http://www.indelicates.com/brexit/
Channel Island Status offers hope for Scotland
What will happen about this special Status which the Channel Islands have held with regards to the EU - I wonder if they have freedom of movement for their citizens as well ?
If so, lets get some of this for Scotland ! This is what we want !
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15039680.Channel_Islands_single_market_deal_is__one_to_look_at__for_Scotland/?ref=mr&lp=13
If so, lets get some of this for Scotland ! This is what we want !
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15039680.Channel_Islands_single_market_deal_is__one_to_look_at__for_Scotland/?ref=mr&lp=13
A Brexit for All or NONE At all !
This article is interesting re: WTO rules (see below). We must not go down the line of a sectoral deal for any sector. I have a suspicion that the London based government, of the party who first mooted the election, are tempted to try for a sectoral deal for Financial services. However, if they do this, then to me it is the most major insult and snub and ruination for manufacturing in the United Kingdom. It would be massively unfair. And it would really finally separate London from the rest of us ! Now we say London, but lets remember also that many of those who work week in week out n London are workers from the rest of the UK. Every week people leave Glasgow, Liverpool and other cities and head down to London to work for the week. Lets not forget this when London gets so uppity.
(Photograph © Copyright Christine Matthews and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.)
And as well as manufacturing there are other sectors that should be considered - services, fishing, farming etc. As well as consideration to UK workers abroad. So we must either have:
Lets remember though that its manufacturing and exports that are the key to sorting out the negative balance of trade in the UK. We need to sort this and its the only way of increasing the wealth of our country. The balance of trade has been negative for far too long. It needs to be reversed.
And personally I do not think Brexit is the way to do that. But if we are doing Brexit then let's really aim to stand on our own two feet. Lets ban takeovers by foreign buyers while the pound is low. And let's get started on building up the UK ! "Make Britain Great Again" (to paraphrase Trump !! (I wonder why Theresa May has not used that one ! Apart from the fact we are the UK as opposed to Britain !)
Anyway have a read about trading and WTO Rules here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38658025
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| Changing Light over the London Skyline from New Zealand House |
And as well as manufacturing there are other sectors that should be considered - services, fishing, farming etc. As well as consideration to UK workers abroad. So we must either have:
A Brexit For All or NONE At All !However lets also remember that Financial Services and Banking caused the Financial Crisis of 2008. These money speculators are happy to gamble with other people's money. For them its not even a gamble as there is no personal risk attached. If they win they take the money. If they lose, someone else pays ! They gamble with our money. They invest with our money - but they make sure that the first returns are paid to them and any that is left night come to us if we are lucky !
Lets remember though that its manufacturing and exports that are the key to sorting out the negative balance of trade in the UK. We need to sort this and its the only way of increasing the wealth of our country. The balance of trade has been negative for far too long. It needs to be reversed.
And personally I do not think Brexit is the way to do that. But if we are doing Brexit then let's really aim to stand on our own two feet. Lets ban takeovers by foreign buyers while the pound is low. And let's get started on building up the UK ! "Make Britain Great Again" (to paraphrase Trump !! (I wonder why Theresa May has not used that one ! Apart from the fact we are the UK as opposed to Britain !)
Anyway have a read about trading and WTO Rules here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38658025
Very Good From the New York Times
And I thought that American's didn't do Irony .... !
Very good ! Sums up this nonsense of Brexit entirely. Certainly this reflects many of the people I know who work globally now or at least across Europe. This is the way many people work now.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/opinion/theresa-mays-global-britain-is-baloney.html
Very good ! Sums up this nonsense of Brexit entirely. Certainly this reflects many of the people I know who work globally now or at least across Europe. This is the way many people work now.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/opinion/theresa-mays-global-britain-is-baloney.html
The Will of the People ? Not ! This is not Democracy as it should be !
If I hear the term "The Will of the People" again I will seriously scream !
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 :
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 !
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 !
How some of "Thatchers Children" - Expats and UK Workers Abroad have been excluded from the Debate on the EU !
I am just an ordinary person but among the people I know there are a few groups who should probably have had votes in the EU Referendum. And I could almost frame them as "Thatcher's Children" ! My generation left school in the 80s. There were no jobs where I lived - well jobs were hard to come by. Industries were closing. My father worked in an esteemed company designing gas turbines which were installed in power stations worldwide. I can remember him visiting Delhi (as it was called then), Argentina, Colombia, the US, Norway, he nearly had to go to Iraq, Europe and no doubt other places I forget. Those are the ones I remember. But that company was hit by the level of the pound in the 80s and the intransigence of Heseltine to consider investment in a new technology they had invented to use coal more efficiently. They also use the environmentally friendly Combined Heat and Power technology where a town can re-use heat produced in one part eg if freezing an ice rink then heat is produced and you can use that to heat houses. That sort of idea ! Anyway to explain, this esteemed company that was trading worldwide in high tech turbines largely did not survive the 80s. There was a lot of people who lost their jobs. And my generation were just leaving school at that time.
Now this is the reason that most people I left school with moved to England or moved abroad. Certainly most graduates did so. People I was at University with left to work in Europe or elsewhere. But many still have their ultimate home and certainly their citizenship is in the UK ! My friend's brother has worked worldwide as a civil engineer. All with have worked over 15 years away from the UK and did not get a vote in the EU Referendum. Even though the EU will definitely have had an impact either positively or negatively on their own and their family's lifes. As it is the only citizenship many of them had, they should have had a vote. In fact two of them who I know about have decided to apply for Swedish and Germany nationality, so I suspect realistically we have now lost them finally to the UK. But those ones were fairly settled in their countries. The other ones I know are more mobile and work in different countries.
Other people I know literally live in the UK and work abroad staying in hotels or rented apartments. If there were enough jobs in their sector here then they would have taken them. But there weren't.
These are the people who have been largely overlooked in the debate. In that I have two close friends who are working/commuting in this way and two others who did this fairly recently then I would imagine the numbers involved must be higher than the official estimates.
And then there are the UK expats who have retired to live in the sun ! (this does not tend to be my generation as we are not quite at the retirement stage yet - unless you are lucky such as Fred the Shred !! - but I don't really consider that he has retired on his own money ... )
Most of the retired expats we hear about are based in Spain but many are in France, Germany or other countries. Now a very common story we have heard from this group is their ballot papers arrived suspiciously late. I have spoken personally to some and they relate other stories indirectly. One I spoke to had received his paper late and the postmark was for the day of the referendum, so there is no way it could have arrived on time ! Now this was a group who I think would probably have voted Remain ... well possibly not. But someone somewhere might well have thought that ... or was it just incompetence ? But electoral returns officers in those regions should be held to account for this mismanagement - it is disgraceful.
So taking into account these groups - the people over 15 years away and the expats with late ballots - I wonder how many extra votes for Remain there might have been ?
Now this is the reason that most people I left school with moved to England or moved abroad. Certainly most graduates did so. People I was at University with left to work in Europe or elsewhere. But many still have their ultimate home and certainly their citizenship is in the UK ! My friend's brother has worked worldwide as a civil engineer. All with have worked over 15 years away from the UK and did not get a vote in the EU Referendum. Even though the EU will definitely have had an impact either positively or negatively on their own and their family's lifes. As it is the only citizenship many of them had, they should have had a vote. In fact two of them who I know about have decided to apply for Swedish and Germany nationality, so I suspect realistically we have now lost them finally to the UK. But those ones were fairly settled in their countries. The other ones I know are more mobile and work in different countries.
Other people I know literally live in the UK and work abroad staying in hotels or rented apartments. If there were enough jobs in their sector here then they would have taken them. But there weren't.
These are the people who have been largely overlooked in the debate. In that I have two close friends who are working/commuting in this way and two others who did this fairly recently then I would imagine the numbers involved must be higher than the official estimates.
And then there are the UK expats who have retired to live in the sun ! (this does not tend to be my generation as we are not quite at the retirement stage yet - unless you are lucky such as Fred the Shred !! - but I don't really consider that he has retired on his own money ... )
Most of the retired expats we hear about are based in Spain but many are in France, Germany or other countries. Now a very common story we have heard from this group is their ballot papers arrived suspiciously late. I have spoken personally to some and they relate other stories indirectly. One I spoke to had received his paper late and the postmark was for the day of the referendum, so there is no way it could have arrived on time ! Now this was a group who I think would probably have voted Remain ... well possibly not. But someone somewhere might well have thought that ... or was it just incompetence ? But electoral returns officers in those regions should be held to account for this mismanagement - it is disgraceful.
So taking into account these groups - the people over 15 years away and the expats with late ballots - I wonder how many extra votes for Remain there might have been ?
UKIP have not been representing us in Brussels at EU meetings
So it turns out that UKIP have not been serving British interests and Farage has not been attending key meetings about British fishing. Not surprising really but disappointing when they are accepting money and should be representing us while we are in the EU even if they dont agree with it !
https://www.ft.com/content/85563e82-8f44-11e3-be85-00144feab7de
and
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/press-releases/farage%E2%80%99s-voting-record-fishing-%E2%80%98makes-mockery%E2%80%99-new-election-poster-20150408
https://www.ft.com/content/85563e82-8f44-11e3-be85-00144feab7de
and
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/press-releases/farage%E2%80%99s-voting-record-fishing-%E2%80%98makes-mockery%E2%80%99-new-election-poster-20150408
Mark Blyth Professor at Brown University
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwK0jeJ8wxg very interesting to watch.
ECHR - Patrick Stewart explains !
This is very good - Patrick Stewart explains the European Convention on Human Rights for us -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptfmAY6M6aA - great acting ! Would be funny if it wasn't all so true !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptfmAY6M6aA - great acting ! Would be funny if it wasn't all so true !
Review of Books on Brexit / EU / Remain
Good reviews of books that cover the Brexit period - I quite fancy reading all of them !
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2016/dec/22/thirty-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-eu-referendum
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