L’ex primo ministro conservatore definisce la Brexit “un atto di follia collettiva” in un attacco schietto
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/former-tory-pm-brands-brexit-an-act-of-collective-folly-in-outspoken-attack_uk_691d64f7e4b073def3eee822
di F0urLeafCl0ver
9 commenti
It’s John Major, if you want to save the click:
A former Conservative prime minister has branded Brexit “an act of collective folly” in a bitter attack on the UK’s decision to leave the European Union.
John Major said Britain’s “enemies celebrated and our friends despaired” at the result of the 2016 referendum.
He accused those who campaigned to leave, which included senior Tories like Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, of spreading “misinformation” to persuade voters not to stay in the EU.
“It left our country poorer, weaker and divorced from the richest free trade market that history has ever seen,” Major said.
“National interest was brushed aside by false hopes and promises. False hopes and promises that even a cabinet dominated by frontline Brexit enthusiasts was unable to deliver.”
The former PM, who led the UK between 1990 and 1997, said the damage caused by quitting the EU “has become only too apparent” as he defended the Remain campaign, which was branded “Project Fear” by its opponents.
He said: “The nation saw Project Fear become Project Reality very easily. It’s no consolation that the majority of the public now overwhelmingly recognises that it was misled in their moments of triumph.
“Brexiteers predicted other countries would follow their lead and leave the European Union. None have. All saw only too clearly that Brexit was packed with disadvantages.
“Far from others leaving the European Union, as we meet, nine further nations now wish to join the European Union, which is an apt comment on how the world saw Britain’s decision.”
Major added: “The United Kingdom once revelled, within the memory of everyone present in this room, in being a leading member of the European Union, with half a billion citizens and the undoubted first ally of the United States, the world’s most eminent superpower.
“Today, we know we are neither, and so does the world.”
His comments come as Rachel Reeves prepares to blame the economic impact of Brexit for the need to put up taxes and cut spending in next week’s Budget.
Meanwhile, polling now shows that most Brits believe the UK economy has got worse since the country left the EU.
John Major, the last sane PM the tories have produced. And even back then he had to deal with infighting and back stabbing by the euroseptics.
8% knock to GDP. The clowns who still support it screaming about sovereignty and happy fish can explain the grand plan to make up that insane knock (and counting!)
If anyone out there is still wedded to Brexit as the right thing for Britain to have done, just have a think about how all the people saying Brexit would solve all our problems are now saying that we need to leave the ECHR to solve all our problems.
Have a long, hard think about that. Take your time.
People were lied too.
When people pointed at the facts, they were dismissed and insulted. Told they didn’t understand how things worked, that they were wrong, that they should be ignored.
To this day, I swear it was all pushed by people at the top to make themselves and their friends wealthier. They got a few useful idiots to go along with the lies and push it aggressively on other people.
It’s harder to cite a greater example of such grotesque stupidity, venality and deceit bordering on treason by an elite against their own people. They were allowed to gaslight the entire country and not a single person has bene held accountable.
Yet people will still not admit it and claim it is the EU who screwed up the negotiations. Those who voted for Brexit will never admit they were ignorant and ignored facts in place of their fantasy.
Of course it was going to have its downsides – many, but some who voted for Brexit were aware of many of those. But it is difficult to assess how good the decision was at the time given –
– Covid (and then Russian invasion of Ukraine) struck at the time of Brexit. The UK didn’t cope with Covid as well as many EU countries for other reasons not Brexit, eg NHS shut down most routine surgery much more than most European Countries did. Sickness rates after much higher than in European Countries.
– The Senior Civil Service, Theresa May and especially fuckwit Boris Johnson did their very best to fuck up Brexit as much as possible, at least from the Brexit that most people wanted (if they wanted Brexit).
There was huge support to cut immigration towards the end of the Blair/Brown years from the EU that Cameron tackled by promising a referendum. Cameron didn’t want to leave the EU (and campaigned on the Remain side later). The EU wouldn’t let Cameron and the UK make up for the Blair mistake of immediately allowing free access from the new Eastern European EU countries and wouldn’t allow any deal to cut immigration.
Most people who voted for Brexit wanted to cut immigration (all immigration but the Govt couldn’t stop anyone from the EU from coming here, they already had power over non-EU immigration).
Blair and Brown may have allowed free movement from the new EU countries (while most of the rest of the EU delayed access) just by a mistake or to pump up GDP figures even more. Either way, that decision was the start of the Brexit process.
Then of course lazy fuckwit traitorous Boris comes in and instead of doing what voters wanted, and what most Tories wanted, he opened up the borders to those from around the world increasing immigration even above the high immigration that had come from the expanded EU. Although I suspect elements with the Senior Civil Service sat back to watch the car crash of the Boris administration rather than try to help.
So I would disagree with the Brexit vote being a huge self inflicted injury. Electing Boris as leader of the Tories was a huge error. That lazy sod with his piss poor impression of Churchill he tries to do did huge damage to the country. It didn’t help that Labour put Corbyn up against him in a general election – what a choice!
It sickens me that Boris is still more popular a PM than the likes of Sunak (or even Starmer). Far too many people seem to support the most confidant bull-shitter politician.
And Major tries to claim the EU is great because other countries want to join – they are poor countries that will get funds from the EU. The UK along with the likes of Germany and France paid in. We would also face the issue of free movement from those new countries that join the EU if we were a member. In theory, we now have control over our borders (Politicians from all parties have yet to fully apply that power).
So yes it’s been a mess, but lets lay the blame on all those that fucked up – the main one being Boris Johnson.
Ahhhhhhh so we’re allowed to say Brexit was a complete wreck now.