Brexit One Britain Response

Letter received 18/07/2016

Thank you for sharing your views with me following the result of the United Kingdom's Referendum.

I am sad about the choice of the British people. The European Commission worked hard to keep the United Kingdom in the European Union.

European leaders offered the United Kingdom a fair deal that reflected their hope that the United Kingdom remained part of the European Union.

This is an unprecedented situation but the European Union will stand strong and uphold its core values of promoting peace and the well-being of its peoples.

I truly hope that the United Kingdom will be a close partner of the European Union in the future.

I wish you well

Jean-Paul Juncker.

Brexit Vytenis Andriukaitis

Comment upon Vytenis Andriukaitis' blog entry message to the UK

Hi Vytenis

Thank-you so much for your kind words. I'm glad there are still some in the Council of Ministers who can see past 'that man' and understand that my country is torn in two. For every one person who got their country back there is another who feels they just lost it.

Personally, I voted remain. 50% for economic stability at a time when Britain is still paying off the Global Recession hang-over and 50% because I remember my parent's and grand parents' stories of Europe re WW2. I understood the dream of 'Europa'. I shared concerns over political integration and other issues but saw those as resolvable without leaving.

I lost that dream.

I then see a 57% increase in hate crime within my country in the space of a week. I have flashbacks to my youth in the 1970s/80s when such scenes played out on TV just about every day. Bovver boots pounding pavements. Police baton charging. Blood.

I had hoped my country was past such things. That we understood. I hoped never to live long enough to see history repeat.

I lost that dream too.

I turn to my elected representatives to show solidarity, only to see a few locked into ideology warfare instead of pulling together to make the decisions so much needed. I am disgusted. So much so I wote to the Speaker of the House of Commons asking him to remind the house of their duty.

It's not the decision of my countrymen I mourn but the pain it has caused, particularly to the younger members who feel they have lost their future.

Fiona

Brexit From A Friend

From a chatty email to a friend :

"Sorry, am trying to be chatty but I seem to have developed some novel form of Tourettes since Friday. Symptoms include moronaphobia, mythbusting, facepalming and general Faragerage."

Brexit Thanks Ms M

Letter dated 29/06/2016

Dear Ms Merkel

I want to thank you for being one of the few leaders that kept calm and helped others keep their head in the first few days of my country voting to leave the EU. Frankly, the behaviour of some of my own representatives, albeit a minority, both embarrases and angers me. As for that man, Farage, well, I can only apologise to you and the rest of the Council of Ministers.

I wanted to stay as I shared the dream that is 'Europa'. Yes, and some of the concerns over further integration and other issues. But mainly the dream.

The actions of the few in my country who are using the result to commit acts of violent race hate to expat Germans and other nationalities makes me ashamed to be British.

One sad Brit,

Kind Regards,

Fiona Wilson

Neo-Rascism

I was born in 1963. As I grew up and started taking notice of the world, hate crime was a daily news article, reports more common than a politician's lies. Hours of video footage of National Front marches, often resulting in riots as answering marches sought to silence the voices of the haters, to convince them their view was toxic to the very things they wanted.

Scenes of extreme Police brutality as the rioters were clubbed to the ground or washed flat by fire hoses. The innocent being caught in the cross-fire. 

I'd hoped never to live long enough to see history repeat. I'd hoped this country had got past such nonsense, such poison. My dream of that died today.

The far right and other nationalists are once again hijacking phrases from mainstream politics, distorting the Brexit Leave campaign's banner slogans, making them darker, blackening their original intent.

I hear of 'go home' notices filled with hate being pushed through the letterboxes of anyone who is suspected of being a foreign national, anyone 'other'

I hear a white German woman, resident in the UK for decades, sobbing over the airwaves, choking on her fear as she describes shit being lobbed at her home, of being jeered at and told to f^^k off back home. She sits alone as she waits for help, the German embassy dumbfounded by her plea for help, her only comfort, the voice of LBC's anchorman.

I read a post from a white, British friend telling me she's had abuse hurled at her in the street, Yes, she looks like she might be very slightly Vietnamese or Thai, so that's enough to make her unwelcome in Britain in their eyes.

I read a teacher describing how one part of her class are in tears from their parents anxieties that they might be 'sent home' whilst another group parrots their parent's jubilation that they 'got their country back'.

I watch again the banners, the hijacking of my flag, the sound of bovver boots on tarmac as the haters reclaim 'their country'.

I want no part of such things. I want no such definition of 'my country'. I will tolerate no such toxin near me or those around me. I wish I could fully remember how we pushed these thugs back into the slime from which they came last time but, for now, it's hard to think clearly over my sorrow, or to get past gagging on my disgust.

But I will.

Then I, and every other Brit who feels as I, will be coming after you.To once more make you part of the ooze from whence you came.

Brexit Passion

I have been trying to channel my anger and sadness into something more positive in the last 24 hours however I've come home to more pieces on what went wrong and futile hopes that things were different or could be overturned.

There are still folk who think I am angry at the result. NOPE. Saddened, yes. Angry, No.

So, in the hope that in explaining how I feel, it may help others channel their passion into something more positive and inspire some of you to DO something about your frustrations rather than just talk about it.....

.... And yes I do mean ALL of you, not just remain voters.....

-I am angry that it got to the point we needed to have a referendum in the first place.
- I am angry that we didn't tighten up the rather flabby (indeed, any) legal or legislative definition of the referendum. It's NOT 'advisory' if no politician would ignore the result for fear of setting the country alight if they did.
- I am angry at those of the press that have fed us misinformation about the EU for forty years, painting it as a monster to be got rid of - most human endeavours have good as well as the bad.
- I am angry that neither side presented a simple, clear, set of reasons for their position rather than indulging in hustings style mud slinging and obsfuscation. It was a DECISION vote, not an OPINION vote so an OPINION style campaign was NOT appropriate.
- I am angry that so many people on BOTH sides are sitting wondering what the hell happened, realising far too late that there were gaps in their understanding of the issues.
- I am MAD AS HELL at the self-indulgent behaviour of some of our elected representatives who have spent days since the result persuing their OWN agenda and career aspirations rather than focusing on reassuring both us and the rest of the world that this isnt the End of Days.
- I am angry that it would seem that only the House of Lords and the Bank of England thought it would be helpful to have a plan for the days ahead for BOTH possible outcomes PRIOR to Refendum Day.
- Most of all, I am ENRAGED by the hate crime surge.

So.... if you have all this passion, do you let it eat you up or do you turn into affirmative action for positive change?

I've chosen to ACT.

I have written to the Speaker of the House of Commons requesting him to remind certain MPs of their duty.

I have tried to show that it is easier than you think to find out the reality behind the smoke and mirrors - my posts on how to find out what's going on in our elected bodies and what your MP's stand is on given issues.

I have volunteered as a union rep for many years and also on a public consultation body for the NHS.

I am going to learn more about voting systems and join the Electoral Reform Society.

So, my challenge to you, for those who dare, who among you is also going to act?

There are many way of being 'political', some take time and effort, others mere minutes. Even something like arranging a litter pick is 'political'.

You know what, I'm going to offer a small prize at Christmas for the person who's done the most.

With love,

Fiona

LikeShow More Reactions

Comment

Brexit Refendum 1, The Conspiracy

Referendum I, The Conspiracy (draft outline)

Act 1 : Cameron and his confidents are introduced as is the concept of Brexit. It is revealed that they secretly want out of the EU whilst presenting the contrary to the world.

Act 2 : Slowly the reasons for their wanting Brexit are revealed: some by ideology, the inner circle because they have knowledge hidden from other member states that would produce a seismic shift in the economic and/or political landscape in Britain's favour, one because he had been in thrall to Osborne' since toadying for him at bording school.

Act 3 Boris is systematically fed disinformation that says the result will be remain. His ego and ambition won't countenance being wrong about his (faux) supporters wihin the Conservative party, believing his reward for falsely supporting Leave will be the leadership after Cameron.

Act 4 Farage's secret mole, Conservative Head Quarter's Lavatory Technician (Bogman) is revealed. A non-descript, ratty individual has ears like a bat and the tall cubicle doors given him plenty of opportunity to eavesdrop, or so Farage thinks. Bogman is actually Cameron's secret half brother.

Act 5 Opens with Boris shocked face at being booed by the crowd after the result is announced, so utterly convinced as he was that the vote was being rigged by a team of shadowy figures in 'Cube', 'Cube' members spent election night in an 'office' built by the BBC's set team in the basement of Boris' own country home. Something he never discovers as he's always taken inside a blacked out van in Bank of England livery.

Act 6 Slowly Boris realises his political aspirations are dashed as he watches Cameron's top team surge in popularity following a deliberately slow start as they take charge. They wait out the implosion of the Labour party from Churchill's old war rooms, chilled Bollinger by their sides as markets crash and far right thugs take to the street, inflamed by MI5 operatives.

Act 7 Farage never really does realise he was an unwitting pawn in the government's game nor ever hears of Cube's codename for him (Stoogelite).

Conclusion The film ends withe the general populace either subdued to inaction by fear (Remainer's is obvious, Leavers due to fears for personal safety) or running amok in the streets. Some have had their narrow mindedness deliberately channelled by years of Conservative propaganda, others are just out to loot. Some outlying rural areas have disintegrated totally and the film closes on scenes of strange fertility rituals venerating faded EU motiffs.

The stage is set for the next film in the series :

Act 1 : Starting at the end of the film, viewers are confused to see Margaret Thatcher in charge of a renewed and reinvigorated England whilst Scotland is fighting the fiscal hangover from hell, Viewers are disoriented as inconsistencies in fashion, cars etc to Thatcher's era become apparent. Farage is glimpsed wearing a frock...

Fiona Wilson

Brexit The Last Resort

The Last Resort

We, the people, believe the time has come for us to impose legislation on our MPS regarding improvement of their attitude to their Parliamentary duties as you have singularly failed to implement effective Self Regulation. To this end, we require the following Development Action Plan, effective immediately.

- Complete cessation of all snidiness, double dealing, back stabbing, self servicing, and toadying activity. This goes twice for lying, cheating or any other obscure Latin expression for being dishonest and will include sins of ommission.
- Immediate and complete focus on doing the damn job we hired you for, namely
a) sorting out a new PM,
b) sorting out an entirely new Opposition party now to be called the Party formerly known as Labour and to be represented by a giant screw, oriented in the upward position
c) Making a bloody decision on Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty one way or the other. This last activity should have a full Cost/Benefit Analysis done for each option with the preferred option clearly identified and all options fully audited by an external body that we, the People, have selected and which you hold no vested interests in.

Failure to comply will incur a sliding scale of penalties starting with the recently installed Pillory on Westminster Green for minor infringements such as even thinking about Duck Houses or, indeed any other damn Avian domicile through to permenant and rapid defenestration from the clock tower housing Big Ben. This last measure being entirely decided by a random selection of unelected, faceless, tradesfolk given to irrational prejudices (the DDF),

You have until Friday to make up your minds before we issue a Foreclosure Notice and inform Nicola Sturgeon we would liike her to form a new Government at Hollyrood.

This Last Resort will cut Parliamentary overhead in these Islands by 25% via a reduction in Parliamentary structures from the current 4 to 3.

It will also recover the monies set aside for the repair and refurbishments needed to the Houses of Parliament which have been allowed to fall into a truly shameful state of repair, Any features worth saving will be auctioned off in a car boot sale at Chequers with the exception of the bell known as Big Ben, This item will be relocated to Hollyrood as part of reparations for absconding with the Stone of Scone for so many years. It is destined to be used as a door stop on the one day a year Scotland receives double digit temperatures. Such static activity removing biennial clapper maintenance fees.

Possible further reductions will be reviewed if the Welsh Assembly does not stop moaning about the loss of it's EU Development Grant and, no we're not giving you prime Thames-side land with planning permission, Cornwall.

Fiona Wilson,
pp The People

Brexit Normal Service

Okay, for all my non UK friends, you can stop frantically trying to understand what's happening in the UK and when, This is your definitive summary.

Please understand that centuries of not panicing and occassionally having to sort out other people's clusterfuck moments takes its toll on a body, especially when you haven't seen the sun for three years,

Our current meltdown was as overdue as the San Andreas fault shifting a significant amount, but be reassured, normal service will return soon, once we work out where the reset switch is or, indeed, find the right peson to press it.

I can now reveal that our last emotional outburst (sorry, Gran) after Diana died was really only a practise emergency drill.

Sorry, Britain

Brexit One Britain

Letter dated 26/06/2016

"Dear President Junker,

I apologise for contacting you whilst you're very busy trying to get my government to talk to you (assuming we have one; I think we may have dropped it down the back of the sofa). I felt you could probably do with at least one Britain bothering to answer? For politeness sake?

There's no point trying to strong arm our politicians right now.... no one's in. They have all gone off for a period of meditation and naval gazing as things have got a little too real for their sensitive, self-serving, venal, back-stabbing little hearts,

I know you're a bit miffed with us at the moment, That's okay, but frankly, we're not worth having a coronary over.

Take an early summer holiday. I hear Greece is offering some cheap deals at the moment. Take a few bankers and stock marketeers with you, Ply them with enough Retsina and they won't be able to remember their stock market bank account passwords. That should stabilise the markets quite nicely.

Oh, and it might be a good idea to send copious cases of a good Scotch to the Far East for much the same reason. I think you'll find Nicola Sturgeon would be amenable to giving you a bulk discount. You can find her at Hollyrood's Distillary in Edinburgh.

Kind Regards,

Fiona

PS I really am sorry, I wanted to remain."

Brexit MP Slapdown

Despite the momentous trial of a Referendum into the UK's membership of the EU, I took the decision not to write a lot of political opinion here (unlike me I know). Instead I am simply going to run a 'tickertape' of the my Facebook posts I feel are most worth highlighting. Enjoy!

Letter dated 26/06/2016

"Dear Rt Hon John Bercow MP,

I hope you are well and have not resigned since I wrote this letter.

In your capacity as Speaker for the House of Commons: If there are any MPs still willing to due their duty before collecting their paycheck, would you please ask them to lead this country?

The very obvious lack of strategy in the event of the UK electorate having voted to exit the EU is a deplorable abrogation of responsibility.

I would like to thank the House of Lords for at least considering the impact of Brexit and writing a thoughtful piece on the most likely path to resolution post Article 50 being invoked.

In short, the UK electorate would appreciate the House not fiddling whilst Rome burns.

Yours, a very concerned voter and UK citizen,

Fiona Wilson.
Reading, Berkshire

cc Alok Sharma MP (again, assuming your haven't resigned)."

Cat Aquatics

My cat, Sam is about 14 months old now. He is a big softie but clumsy and always in trouble with my old girl, Nutmeg (14) as a result. He and his half sister, Jodie, loved running around in the garden, bug hunting last summer. It was during one such afternoon that I noticed a rather unusual addition to my bird bath which is a large, plastic saucer that rests on the path. Sam was standing ankle deep in the cold water, playing boats with a dry leaf from my Medlar tree. I watched, expecting a moment of realisation on his part when the water soaked into his fur and reached skin. No, no rush to leave, no Catty blab of indignation, and no furious washing. No, he just curled up in Sphinx pose in the middle of it than sauntered over to me and leapt on my lap for a wash. Ugh, cue one rather cold, wet, biped!

Bird bath paddling went on well into Autumn, until I decided it was too cold to have the back door open. This has not deterred Sam however. You'd think years and years of cat ownership would have honed me to expect a cunning alternative plan, wouldn't you? But no.

I often have a bath in the mornings and set it running whilst tidying the kitchen and brushing my teeth. Such distractions meant I did not see a certain Samuel paying more attention than usual to the running tap or take note that his conversation had lapsed (he does like to talk a storm, especially in the mornings). That is, not until I went to get into my bath. Yep, there's Sam, armpit deep in my bath, patting at the plug chain.

He's repeated this trick several times since (all under my close supervision), often playing water polo with me, courtesy of a ping pong ball. I've not tried seeing if he'll swim yet but it wouldn't surprise me. Anyone got some cat-sized armbands?