This is the worst day in my lifetime for myself, my children, and my grandchildren. I am amazed that so many people can be blinded by the rhetoric of politicians who clearly believe that truthfulness is less important than success.
When the “leave” campaigners extolled the strength and virtues of “Britain” did they tell us that their success would almost certainly lead to the end of our United Kingdom with a “porous” border to the north, the loss of our only nuclear base and our place on the UN Security Council?
They preached the value of the Commonwealth but did they tell us that Australia and New Zealand have found new markets for their trade and agricultural products, particularly with the signing earlier this year of the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Trade Agreement, and their interest in trade with little England is much diminished? Did they point out that most Commonwealth countries are in it for what they can get out of it and they will increasingly look to donors like China and Russia, as they already have?
Did they explain that the US will increasingly turn to Berlin and Paris for their strategic conversations?
They tell us that we have the fifth largest economy in the world, and that achieved while we bear the millstone of the EU. They tell us that without that millstone we will be so much better off so where will our economy rank then? Second, third, fourth? I very much doubt it.
When ranting about EU red tape did they explain that most of what is said on the subject, the “bent cucumber” syndrome, is entirely mythical or introduced at the request of suppliers, consumers etc?
These politicians, or more likely their advisers, have a deep understanding of mass psychology and propaganda. They knew that, in order to be successful, they need to focus their campaign at a level which would be understood by most of the electorate. They did not debate the points raised by professionals, intellectuals, economists and experts. They merely dismissed and abused them. The leader of the most effective and successful union of states the world has ever seen was dismissed as “a hypocrite“. Others were “hysterical“, “bizarre“, and so it went on. To many people that was all they needed to know. They had no interest in giving consideration to the views of the OECD or the IMF. What are the OECD and the IMF anyway?
They found their focus, their route in to the minds of the people, in immigration and it served them well. Did they point out that we have an ageing population and need an influx of young people to generate the wealth necessary to sustain that population? Merkel understands that. Why don’t they? “…the NHS will face an unquantifiable strain…” (Michael Gove). In the past two months I have seen four NHS professionals. They were from Rajasthan, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, and Eastern Europe. Anyway the NHS faces a future of intolerable strain regardless of migration.
Did they explain that many EU immigrants are young, well educated and ambitious? They come to work hard, build up a nest egg and their grasp of English, the lingua franca, and they express an intention to return home.
So, let’s hope we can sell lots and lots of vacuum cleaners, fans, backhoes and fork lift trucks to an eagerly waiting world.
