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comment by thelurkerawakens
thelurkerawakens  ·  1834 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: March 20, 2019

I am actually in a pub waiting to meet a new guy joining my team at work in a month, so thought killing time with a pubski post makes sense. It is that or following the live developments of the self inflicted shit show that is Brexit unfolding.

I am totally preoccupied by Brexit. It effects my work, my hopes for the future and relations with the older elements of my family who show no regret for their vote despite decrying the current debacle. At work it was my job to give the Brexit preparation update and I tried to frame it as a mental health picture: knowing the difference between your circle of care and circle of influence - anxiety comes from focussing too much on the one you can't effect. It came across credibly enough but in reality I am finding it difficult to make the separation. This feels like a coup in slow motion by arrogant rent seeking public school boys.

In any event I have cashed in my one weekend off per year with my wife and have booked myself on a coach to London to join the march for another more informed referendum. In truth I would prefer a genuine soft Brexit that maintains trade in its current form and keeps consumer protection in place. But that is not on the table, so for the first time in my life I am taking to the streets. Wish me luck!





goobster  ·  1833 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Taking to the streets... for what?

I'm not being snarky. I am deeply involved in Brexit, with friends on both sides of the issue, including journalists for The Economist, EU ministers, British ex-pats, ex-pats of many stripes living in Britain, etc. There isn't a position unrepresented in my friend circle of friends.

So, the UK has voted to exit, the EU said, OK, and the UK set a date. Then did fuckall for 3 years, acted like entitled children, and now are reduced to asking for clemency from the EU, who has absolutely ZERO motivation or inclination to do so, because it would just weaken the EU without providing any benefits to the member states.

Ok. So May is voted out either today or tomorrow. Either way, by Monday there will be some pasty twit with no plan, sitting at the wheel of a bus with no steering wheel, gas pedal mashed to the floor, and already 3/4 the way over a cliff.

And this new PM is supposed to ... what? Devise a new plan? Get an extension from the EU? Hold a new Referendum vote? Start erecting fences along the soon-to-exist border between Ireland and Northern Ireland?

Before the 29th?

NONE of that is even possible. It takes a MINIMUM of six weeks to put ANYTHING to a vote.

Even negotiating a revocation of Article 50 - much less an extension - would take more than a week. Nobody even knows what that would entail, much less how it would be enacted, or what verbiage needed to be in the document to make it legally binding.

So why go march now?

Take your wife and go to Inverness. Or Islay. Get a BnB and stay for a week. Don't read the news. Make some meals. Drink some tea. Read a book or three. Take walks. Visit distilleries and sample their wares. Stay out of pubs and away from the news.

Then, pop your head up out of your cozy hole, and see what's left.

I can't imagine what it's going to be like in two weeks...