Still a lot of bad blood going round today, following the Brexit vote, from both sides.
The Remain camp are questioning Leavers' intelligence and accusing them of ruining the lives of the younger generation, while the Leave lot are calling the Remainers whiney and anti-democratic, just because the vote hasn't gone their way.
Here's the thing: had the nation voted more substantially for Leave, then there'd be no arguing with the result. Similarly, had there been any substance to the arguments made by the Leave politicians, there'd be a lot less backlash against the result, FROM BOTH SIDES.
But the truth is, the vote was incredibly tight, and following the result, the biggest claims by the Leave lot have already been debunked (and, in fact, were debunked weeks ago, for anyone paying attention):
The Remain camp are questioning Leavers' intelligence and accusing them of ruining the lives of the younger generation, while the Leave lot are calling the Remainers whiney and anti-democratic, just because the vote hasn't gone their way.
Here's the thing: had the nation voted more substantially for Leave, then there'd be no arguing with the result. Similarly, had there been any substance to the arguments made by the Leave politicians, there'd be a lot less backlash against the result, FROM BOTH SIDES.
But the truth is, the vote was incredibly tight, and following the result, the biggest claims by the Leave lot have already been debunked (and, in fact, were debunked weeks ago, for anyone paying attention):
Not only will we have to uphold the free movement of people if we want to remain in the single market (which we do), but we're going to find it more difficult to keep an eye that movement once we're out.
On top of that, that whacking great slogan on the side of the Leavers' bus...
David Cameron, who pledged to remain in charge whatever the outcome, said this:
In the face of all this, the government are now being petitioned to hold a second referendum; a petition that, of the 100,000 signatures required to force a discussion in parliament, has at the time of writing this 1,664,757.
Leave supporters are, of course, calling this undemocratic. From their point of view, the nation has already democratically voted for Leave.
But have they? How many of those voters voted Leave because they thought it would net the NHS more money? How many of those voters voted Leave because they thought we'd regain control of our borders? How many of those voters voted Leave because they didn't believe it would have a significant impact on our economy?
The entire referendum was based on demonstrable lies from both camps. No, now that the nation's voted Leave, it isn't going to cause an economic apocalypse, it isn't going to trigger World War 3 and it isn't going to sever our trading ties with Europe. On the other hand, the NHS isn't suddenly going to be flooded with more money, we aren't going to regain control of our borders, we aren't going to be free from EU regulations, and given our reduced economic standing, we aren't going to be able to dictate terms and trade with who we want, how we want.
This entire referendum has spat in eye of democracy.
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