The arguments over Brexit are still rumbling on and even if you were a remainer, the best result of it so far has been getting rid of Dave the Rave and pipsqueak George. As a leave voter, I was both surprised and delighted by the result. I didn't stay up to watch the result on the night as the media were sure 'remain' were going to win so I went on to bed. But in the continuing narrative surrounding Brexit, is the assumption that 'remain' were right and 'leave' were wrong. No one can say for sure how this will pan out and it will take several years before any conclusion can be drawn as to the rightness or wrongness of the result. For me, one of the positive outcomes will be that we will not be able to blame the EU for all our woes (at least in the long term) and the buck will now stop in Downing Street. This may revitalise an interest in politics for the masses as the influence of the EU seemed to induce a sense of apathy in voting as people felt more and more powerless and that their issues were not being listened to or cared about.
One of the ironic outcomes of the result has been the remain vote here in NI, with Sinn Fein campaigning for it. I asked a question about this in an online debate, The question was this, 'Why would Sinn Fein who fought for 100 years against British rule in Ireland quite happily hand over the sovereignty of Ireland to the EU? I'm still waiting on an answer. The funny thing about this is that Sinn Fein have been at the forefront of a campaign in the Irish Republic against water charges, something that was imposed by the EU. You couldn't make it up!
Then, the same in Scotland, complaining for years about being under the yoke of Westminster, then when they get a vote on independence, they bottle it. Now, they want another vote so they can leave Britain but hand over their sovereignty to the EU.
Strange times indeed......
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What are the other positive outcomes for you Aideen?
While I really agree that not being able to blame the EU for anything anymore is a good thing, I think the simpler solution would have been not to blame the EU in the first place.
Chris
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I think the main positive is that people have started to engage again with politics. I'm not against the idea of closer ties within Europe but the EU seems to be engaged in a programme of expansion without any democratic mandate to do so. On the negative side, all the talk of an EU army and the anti Putin rhetoric makes me wonder who's agenda they are following. There was an army general on R4 a few months ago talking about a war with Russia,(sounds crazy, I know) but is that the next 'corporate adventure'? There's a lot of money to be made from war and it won't be their children on the front line. Then there is the TTIP agreement which again seems to tie everything up in favour of the global corporations. The leave vote has been portrayed as a 'negative' but I think this is an opportunity to reflect, politically, on what we want as a people,what kind of society we want to live in and what we need to do to create it. Sometimes, it's better to take a step back and think about what is going on before we move forward, especially when we don't know exactly where we are going.