Brexit HAS united the country – just not in the way the Tories wanted
The Conservative Party’s cack-handed tackling of the UK’s departure from the European Union is the biggest disaster this country has faced in decades – and people on all sides of the political divide know it.
That’s why outrage has been building on the Left, Right and Centre.
Take a look at these three self-explanatory exclamations, all of which appeared on This Writer’s Twitter feed yesterday (September 2).
The first is the image at the top of this article.
Now, here’s a right-wing view: former West Dorset Conservative Peter Reynolds’ resignation from the party. This is a cracker [boldings mine]:
After the disastrous handling of the EU referendum result, the ludicrous decision to appoint one of the most incompetent and out-of-touch ministers as prime minister and her farcical election performance, I have been wrestling for some time as to whether to renew my membership. The Conservative Party is now far divorced from its fundamental principles of liberty and small government and Mrs May is an authoritarian bigot stuck in some 1950s delusion of what Britain is today.
Following her ridiculous announcement last night that she intends to stay on as leader I am now tendering my resignation forthwith. She has no mandate, no respect and in my view is held in utter contempt throughout the country. It is also self-evident that all other ministers are too weak, cowardly and neurotic about their own jobs to do anything to stop her.
Mrs May failed consistently over six years at the Home Office. She is a Remainer and should never have been permitted to lead the party or the country after the referendum result. Mrs May and all ministers failed entirely to plan for a leave vote and they have dithered, waffled, dodged and tripped up again and again, achieving absolutely nothing in the period since the result.
Brexit was a huge opportunity for the UK but the Conservative Party has wrecked it and damaged Britain irreparably in the process. If I had my way Mrs May would be led in chains out of Downing Street and placed in stocks in Parliament Square to endure the humiliation she so richly deserves.
Note that these are the words of a ‘Leave’ voter, disgusted with his own party’s failure to get to grips with the necessary actions required to effect an acceptable departure from the EU.
Finally, it seems a proportion of the population is angry at pensioners for voting selfishly. Here’s 54-year-old Chris Webster from Abergavenny:
He writes:
“Clacton’s ruthlessly pro-Brexit Boomers are an inspiration. Brexit is expected to cause a long-term loss of some 10% of GDP, or around £200bn per year.
“Government revenues are around 35% of GDP, so a 10% drop means £70bn less for public spending.
“But state pensions cost £90bn a year, and 65% of voters over 65 voted Leave.
“The obvious solution is to cut pensions by 65% or £58bn, and let the generation that mostly voted for Brexit pay for most of it.
“This is a controversial idea, so we should hold a referendum to ensure we know the will of the people. As in the EU referendum, we must ignore the interests of those who will be most affected, so pensioners will not be allowed to vote.
“Of course many old people will lose out, but they will be reassured by empty promises from wealthy politicians, and they can starve happy in the knowledge that it is a price worth paying for Brexit.
“Never mind cake, let them eat sovereignty.”
Of course, the impression of solidarity against Brexit is illusory.
Look at the details and they’re all different.
But they all hate the Tory travesty we’re living now.
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Chris Webster you are bitter bigoted old man, I and mostly all the other people drawing their pensions now worked hard all our lives and paid into a wonderful thing called the Welfare State. For fifty years I contributed to a State Pension which I receive now at sixty five if the money I paid into this Pension had been a private one I would be receiving three times what I get now. The Pension for us you describe as boomers is not a Benefit it is a Right it is OUR OWN SAVINGS just like a private pension only much LESS. We suffered hardship and depravation by striking against Tory Tyranny what have you and your generation done you are a member of the most Selfish Greedy and Stupid Generation ever Thatchers Children the YUPPIES you despise my Generation well right back at You FOOL. On our watch the Welfare State and the NHS flourished, on you and your Thatchers Children Generations watch you have overseen the Destruction of all that made Britain the Envy of the World Yes You Idiot The Welfare State and The once Wonderful Extraordinary NHS. You and your Yuppie Generation have allowed Blair, Brown, Cameron, Clegg, IDS,Cable, May, Hunt et al Destroy Britains Pride and Joy, So Webster how much do you reckon We Boomers should Take from You the Yuppies The Children of Thatcher. There is not enough Money in the World to Replace the Destruction you Scabs have Overseen We Boomers were the Generation who fought on the Streets against WAR and Tory Tyranny a Generation of Hope and Growth. You Thatcher Kiddies are a Generation of SCUM.
What makes you think Chris Webster was a Thatcherite?
His point is that older people have deliberately voted for the impoverishment of the nation, and that – in those circumstances – it would seem reasonable for them to take a large part of the hit.
Your comment would suggest that older people deliberately intended to hurt the younger generations.
Is that really what you want to say?
What makes you think anyone other than remain voters voted for the impoverishment of the nation, not only economically but democratically as well?
All the factual evidence that has ever been collected about the effect of the ‘Leave’ vote in the EU referendum.
Hi Mr Sivier, Where exactly did I print Webster was a Thatcherite I printed Him and his Generation were the most Greedy, Selfish and Stupid Generation ever, My Generation are called the Boomers does this make all my Generation Warmongers it does not, Just like Webster’s Generation were not all Thatcherite, It seems to me that you yourself have an ageism problem with My Generation What exactly is the Heinous Crime you and your ilk believe we have committed, Remember the Bile Hatred and Scorn you and your Generation have poured on People who were once Young and idealistic with good hearts and minds, Remember also these People You Scorn as a blight on Society because we have the Temerity to Receive a Pittance of a State Pension of which the Pot has been Plundered by not My fellow Retirees but by Successive Governments a Majority of these good People like myself worked from age nine, Mr Sivier we Elderly People do not wish to Hurt the Younger Generations it is in fact the complete opposite, I was a Shop Steward and served on Union Committees most of my working life and I fought tooth and nail like most of my Generation so You the Younger Generations would never have to Doff your Caps, Most of the rights you and your ilk are about to Lose are the Rights Me and Mine fought took Strike action and went without to get You and Yours, The Legacy of Thatchers Children and the Blair Witch Project is this The Total Destruction of the Welfare State NHS and coming soon Workers Rights, Contrary to your wrong assumption that us Boomers want to Hurt our Younger Generations the Majority of us Love our Young People, The Tory way is Divide and Conquer and never was this implemented to Greater effect than when the Majority turned Victimised Demonised and Supported the Tory Lib Dem Coalition in their Attack on the POOR and Disabled, I ask you Mr Sivier do you Really believe the Tory BS that elderly people on a scabby Pension are to blame for all the ills of this F****d up Country think about it We paid into a State Pot for 50 years and receive £135.77 per week and we are BAD PEOPLE Get a Grip.
Pat McQueenie 65 and Lucky to still be Here.
Your words to Mr Webster (who no doubt hasn’t read them): “You are a member of the most Selfish Greedy and Stupid Generation ever Thatchers Children the YUPPIES… on you and your Thatchers Children Generations watch you have overseen the Destruction of all that made Britain the Envy of the World… You the Yuppies The Children of Thatcher… You Thatcher Kiddies are a Generation of SCUM.”
Am I wrong to equate your words about “you Thatcher kiddies” with a suggestion that he is a Thatcherite, then? I don’t think so. The intention is clear from the words and their tone.
You obviously have a serious sense of self importance and an arrogance I find quite amusing, the words I have printed are true all of them and whatever makes you assume that Webster has not read my post, could it not be the case he Webster has no answer, you with your obvious dislike of anyone on a State Pension feel obliged to defend the Websters of this Country not I, Personally I would stand at a Barricade if necessary and Defend the Daniel Blake’s of this Country, when you started your blog I was quite taken with your opinions I am sad to say my opinion has changed as have yours, you and all the younger people of today are in the not to distant future if luck favours You all, will be The Old Undeserving of a Pension Gits, you come across to me at this moment in time as an upper middle class kid on socialist a Guardianista if you like who believes anyone 65 or over is a Scrounger, for your information Mr Reporter every Generation Before Me my Generation then your Generation and the Generations thereafter Have the right to a State Pension as long as they have contributed to the State Pension Pot it is theirs and our OWN MONEY not the Governments, I do not expect this post to be allowed through your overly stringent screening you and all persons like you with your obvious Hatred of the Elderly Disgust Me and my Comrades therefore Myself and My Comrades wish You a long long Life and can only Hope the Young and Middle Aged’ Obvious Hatred of Our Generation is looked on with Embarrassment and Shame when you realise the Victimisation of today’s Elerly is and was “A CRIME” and that all of you feel the same bemusement and Hurt that Myself and My Dear Comrades feel at this time You do not want to listen to what an Elderly Person has to say therefore I will waste no more of my precious time on your Blog Mr Reporter and as stated previously I do not expect this to be shown as I believe you and all those like you are COWARDS
Yes that’s right – I have a serious sense of self importance and arrogance.
Mr Webster probably hasn’t read This Site because it doesn’t have a huge readership at the moment and I found his words posted on Twitter. Therefore it is unlikely he has any connection with the article.
No, I don’t dislike pensioners.
If you only think my opinions are worth reading when they coincide with yours, I think that says more about you than me.
You seem very defensive of those who do have pensions but voted to harm those who do not.
“Brexit” was only ever yet another Tory right-wing attempt to turn the clock back almost half a century, by telling bare-faced lies to people who are nostalgic for an age they never actually knew. As a 70+ pensioner I actually remember the 1960s and early 1970s when Britain gained the epithet of “The Sick Man of Europe”. Needless to say I voted Remain, as did my 92-year-old mother – who remembers earlier times which for ordinary working people were even worse.
No it wasn’t, I knew the pre common market eec eu period I remember when we were allegedly the sick man of europe and we were better off than we are now. needless to say I voted leaven 1975 and again in 2016 because neither time was I taken in and convinced by the lies of th project fear remain campaigns.
Well said Barry, I loved the 60s 70s and 80s until Thatcher the Dictator grabbed power, we were the Golden Generation and the biggest con in History was when Heath and his Tory Thieves welcomed Decimalisation, we went from having 20 shillings to the pound 10 shillings to the 10 Bob note 10 pennies in one shilling 6 pennies to a silver sixpence 3 pennies to a thruppenny bit I will never forget it the price of a pint in the Waterloo Bar Edinburgh went from 1/9p a pint to 12 new pence a pint seeing as the new 10 pence was equivalent to 2 old shillings for which the night before you would have got thruppence change and overnight you were paying the equivalent of 2 and tuppence worst mistake this Country ever made. We also had the best coins in the world the 2/6 half dollar, the 2/ 2 Bob, the single shilling 1 Bob, the sixpence a tanner, the silver thruppenny, a thrupenny bit thruppence, the Penny, the Halfpenny the ha’penny, and the Farthing the Tories have committed two of the worst monetary penalties on the Working People of this Country Gary Decimalisation and Austerity we did have the good old days I feel sorry for most youngsters.
Pat McQueenie
Edinburgh
Good stuff from the (ex?)Tory leave voter. I would have Chris Webster in the stocks with May though.
well i and some older members of my family (and younger too) voted remain. ( i have just had my 75th birthday a month ago) many people i know of my age also voted remain and are socialists too. maybe up here in yorkshire we have more idea of what makes this country tick than others in other areas, mostly down south.
I am 68 and I am not one of the 65% and I am neither one of the over 65’s who mainly vote Tory, still the only group that continue to do so. It was not the people of that generation that brought us the NHS and the welfare state it was my fathers generation. Those of my generation who have enjoyed those massive advantages and taken them for granted and put them in danger by voting Tory are in my book a disgrace. The same people yes in the main who moodily voted out in what they see as an act of some kind of patriotism. Yet it was their parents who died on the battlefields and in the bombing of this country and who would have seen the EU as a force to stop further war in Europe, yet they voted against that as well. They should be labeled the ungrateful generation or simply the most stupid generation ever. The EU needed reform especially the banking sector and direct democracy, no one can dispute that and it needed doing ruthlessly by us and other countries but to throw it all away on the false premise of being ‘true British’ is frankly a disgrace and a slap in the face for those who died when Europe regularly fought wars within its borders.
Mick Hills, yes you are right. i was born almost slap bang in the middle of the war. august 1942 to be exact. my father fought in Holland, Belgium and Germany. (or as his army records say, in Europe. (RE’s), as did my mums brother and my dads best man (RAF) the latter was in the Dambusters squadron. dad voted Tory as a small business man, carrying on a family business but back then ,pre Thatcher, i think the Torys were nothing like as bad, evil or nasty as those in govt now. however soon after i got married(leaving the family home and dads jurisdiction), i voted labour.(to my dads horror when he found out.)… we do owe so much to that generation. for so many things we grew up with, which are now being destroyed by this govt. ….. Barry Davies… i have no recollection of a referendum in 1975 though.i was a young married mum by then.33 yrs old. and i voted regularly. have always thought we had no say in whether we went into the common market. I could be wrong but i dont remember it…i do remember going decimal … that started in 1971, the year my son was born, and was finalised in 1973 when we no longer could use the old coinage. (Pat Mcqueenie…. there were 12 pennies in a shilling not 10 IN OLD £/S/D….10’s were post decimalisation and by then we had no shillings anymore.)…..at that time most of my groceries came from our corner shop 6 doors away from our house and when i was pregnant with my daughter in 1969 i started using a red note book. wrote down all the groceries i needed. took it along to the shop and they delivered it. they would not allow a pregant woman to carry groceries even that distance (difference between then and now,eh?)… the week before final decimalisation took place, as usual i did my weekly shop there….. week after the same. but the costs had doubled what they were the previous week. kept that old notebook for years but think it got lost 20 yrs ago when i moved homes.
“Brexit was a huge opportunity for the UK but the Conservative Party has wrecked it and damaged Britain irreparably in the process.” Wrong. Brexs**t was a huge opportunity to wreck the UK economy – but save the off shoring tax avoiding newspaper proprietors from EU legislation punishing their status. You stupid, stupid country. I’m first and foremost a European and how dare you try to deprive me of my citizenship!