I have enjoyed my recent blogging sabbatical.
It came about for two main reasons, the first was the 'neverendum' called by David Cameron which will actually 'end' on June 23rd but which everyone knows will not end then because the deeply divided Tory Party will never accept the result whether it is to remain within the EU or whether its is for 'Brexit' a combination of hard headedness, ambition and opportunism will see to that.
The second reason was harder to deal with but involved the indoor critic and a constant round of medical interventions resulting in the end that we had to insist that our failing local NHS Trust referred herself to Newcastle, this meant an instant improvement in diagnosis, treatment and prognosis.
There has been alongside all this, despite all the words written, (and I read The Guardian, The Independent, The Financial Times and The London Review of Books) I have a strong sense that none of the commentators either know or understand what in practice Brexit will mean or indeed what the benefits of remain will be.
Clearly facts are at a premium.
Either Britain will rebuild its Empire, the Global map will be redrawn and repainted Red, White and Blue, Dom Joly's Schrodinger's immigrant will return home or not, the NHS will be £350M a week better off or not and our GDP will soar like a helium balloon into the sunny skies that will shine over Dover's White Cliffs.
Or my pension will disappear, my house will halve in value, my grandchildren will face a long term future of uncertainty, and the NHS will run out of Doctors and Nurses, because like Schrodinger's immigrant they are either here on benefits or here stealing our jobs or indeed, both, and war and mayhem will break out across the channel we insist on Calling English.
One commentator, clearly for remaining, has blogged relatively frequently, perhaps too frequently hence my own self imposed sabbatical, encouraging everyone to realise that they have a Christian duty to vote remain, as though he has, it seems, forgotten that it was only recently in Church terms, some four hundred years or so, that under the leadership of the King of the Day with the connivance of the Archbishop of the Day, that England left Europe the last time and that turned out alright. But that implies, as Giles Fraser noted in The Guardian, that Europe in inextricably bound up with the Big Guy in The Vatican, and our rejection of Europe is really a rejection of papal supremacy?
So what am I voting for, or against, and does it matter?
Harold Wilson in a speech made in 1971 made the following statement:
'We shall watch anxiously how far the irresponsible men now in power in this country fritter away (our) strength by pursuing false economic objectives and by their policy of dividing our nation'
It came about for two main reasons, the first was the 'neverendum' called by David Cameron which will actually 'end' on June 23rd but which everyone knows will not end then because the deeply divided Tory Party will never accept the result whether it is to remain within the EU or whether its is for 'Brexit' a combination of hard headedness, ambition and opportunism will see to that.
The second reason was harder to deal with but involved the indoor critic and a constant round of medical interventions resulting in the end that we had to insist that our failing local NHS Trust referred herself to Newcastle, this meant an instant improvement in diagnosis, treatment and prognosis.
There has been alongside all this, despite all the words written, (and I read The Guardian, The Independent, The Financial Times and The London Review of Books) I have a strong sense that none of the commentators either know or understand what in practice Brexit will mean or indeed what the benefits of remain will be.
Clearly facts are at a premium.
Either Britain will rebuild its Empire, the Global map will be redrawn and repainted Red, White and Blue, Dom Joly's Schrodinger's immigrant will return home or not, the NHS will be £350M a week better off or not and our GDP will soar like a helium balloon into the sunny skies that will shine over Dover's White Cliffs.
Or my pension will disappear, my house will halve in value, my grandchildren will face a long term future of uncertainty, and the NHS will run out of Doctors and Nurses, because like Schrodinger's immigrant they are either here on benefits or here stealing our jobs or indeed, both, and war and mayhem will break out across the channel we insist on Calling English.
One commentator, clearly for remaining, has blogged relatively frequently, perhaps too frequently hence my own self imposed sabbatical, encouraging everyone to realise that they have a Christian duty to vote remain, as though he has, it seems, forgotten that it was only recently in Church terms, some four hundred years or so, that under the leadership of the King of the Day with the connivance of the Archbishop of the Day, that England left Europe the last time and that turned out alright. But that implies, as Giles Fraser noted in The Guardian, that Europe in inextricably bound up with the Big Guy in The Vatican, and our rejection of Europe is really a rejection of papal supremacy?
So what am I voting for, or against, and does it matter?
Harold Wilson in a speech made in 1971 made the following statement:
'We shall watch anxiously how far the irresponsible men now in power in this country fritter away (our) strength by pursuing false economic objectives and by their policy of dividing our nation'
Harold Wilson called the first referendum in 1975 and it was his negotiation of the European Regional Development Fund that has done so much to benefit the British Economy and the Regions of the British Isles.
Since then of course our economic strength has been frittered away and our nation divided by successive administrations led by 'irresponsible' men and women.
Initially as this process started I was clear, indeed I said as much in a previous blog. However as the debate has unfolded and the fog of uncertainty has descended and as I have heard and read so much that is both untrue and false, it has seemed to me that 'brexit' is a classic non seqiter it simply doesn't follow from the arguments.
Not enough houses, house prices unaffordable, too many people are homeless logically the sequiter should be build more houses?
NHS waiting lists are too long, operations cancelled, doctors appointments like gold dust logically the sequiter should be more Doctors? Not as Jeremy Paxman recently suggested stop treating pensioners unless they are tax payers?
Schools are overcrowded, teachers stressed again, surely more teachers are required?
Too many immigrants from the EU picking our cabbages? Surely the answer is not send in some old people to pick them instead in return for their pensions as a Member of Parliament recently suggested?
Clearly calling the referendum was a mistake, David Cameron is no Harold Wilson. But it is becoming an Alice in Wonderland referendum in which too many people are claiming to be believing seven or more impossible things before breakfast.
So the decision to vote remain remains and hopefully after June 23rd no more will be heard from the irresponsible men and women who have created this exercise in democracy gone mad.
Socrates also took a dim view of democracy, in fact his view was probably even dimmer when he was found guilty democratically by a vote of five hundred of his fellow Athenians but it seems that, unless you are a Harold Wilson, allowing, as Socrates expressed it, surrendering the direction of a nations future to people without adequate experience in Government by regarding the opinions of all citizens as being of equal value is simply a folly.
And a folly is what we have.
Clearly 'Brexit' will be a folly even if it is called an 'outstanding success' by the Brexiteers in Chief.
Since then of course our economic strength has been frittered away and our nation divided by successive administrations led by 'irresponsible' men and women.
Initially as this process started I was clear, indeed I said as much in a previous blog. However as the debate has unfolded and the fog of uncertainty has descended and as I have heard and read so much that is both untrue and false, it has seemed to me that 'brexit' is a classic non seqiter it simply doesn't follow from the arguments.
Not enough houses, house prices unaffordable, too many people are homeless logically the sequiter should be build more houses?
NHS waiting lists are too long, operations cancelled, doctors appointments like gold dust logically the sequiter should be more Doctors? Not as Jeremy Paxman recently suggested stop treating pensioners unless they are tax payers?
Schools are overcrowded, teachers stressed again, surely more teachers are required?
Too many immigrants from the EU picking our cabbages? Surely the answer is not send in some old people to pick them instead in return for their pensions as a Member of Parliament recently suggested?
Clearly calling the referendum was a mistake, David Cameron is no Harold Wilson. But it is becoming an Alice in Wonderland referendum in which too many people are claiming to be believing seven or more impossible things before breakfast.
So the decision to vote remain remains and hopefully after June 23rd no more will be heard from the irresponsible men and women who have created this exercise in democracy gone mad.
Socrates also took a dim view of democracy, in fact his view was probably even dimmer when he was found guilty democratically by a vote of five hundred of his fellow Athenians but it seems that, unless you are a Harold Wilson, allowing, as Socrates expressed it, surrendering the direction of a nations future to people without adequate experience in Government by regarding the opinions of all citizens as being of equal value is simply a folly.
And a folly is what we have.
Clearly 'Brexit' will be a folly even if it is called an 'outstanding success' by the Brexiteers in Chief.
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