The Brexit Mess
The darkness ahead -- if we fail in our task.
, Katie Hopkins, Front Page Magazinehttps://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/11/brexit-mess-katie/
“Katie - what on earth is happening with Brexit?”
It’s a question I have been desperate to answer and have found myself unable to answer -- as one day of uncertainty has led into the next. The word ‘unprecedented’ is commonplace in the UK right now.
Trying to give an accurate update on Brexit has been like trying to sell yogurt in the desert. It is past its shelf life even before it reaches the store.
But despite the attempts by our Remain-leaning Parliament to frustrate the will of the people, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has finally found a way forward, albeit a long way from the "Leave" we were promised for Oct. 31. Even the ceremonial 50p coins minted for the occasion will be smelted down in despair.
Bojo has called a General Election for December 12, 2019 in the hopes of breaking the endless deadlock over Brexit. And despite a desperate effort by the opposition to allow 16-year-olds and 3 million EU foreigners (who do not have British citizenship) to vote, Boris has prevailed.
The British people will go back to polls and vote for a new government to take them into 2020. Boris believes it will give him the majority he needs and a fresh mandate to Get Brexit Done and get us out of the European Union -- his battle cry since he entered the House of Commons.
But the risks are considerable and the choices are stark. This will not be just a vote on Brexit. This election merges Brexit votes and party loyalty. There are crossed allegiances at every turn. Leave-supporting Labour voters will never vote Conservative, for example -- similarly entrenched in their view as a Never-Trumper is inside the GOP.
In the most basic terms, these are the choices facing British voters:
- Conservatives: Leave with a deal;
- Liberal Democrats: Remain in the EU - overturn Brexit;
- Brexit Party: Leave with No Deal;
- Labour: Remain in the EU and offer a second referendum.
Rather like a trip to the oral hygienist, this election is not something anyone is particularly looking forward to.
Over the last weeks and months, many politicians have made themselves the enemies of the people -- voting against the wishes of those they are supposed to represent. Estate Agents and Solicitors were the least respected professions in this country. Politicians now wear that mantle with some shame.
These Members of Parliament aren't going to be too eager to go knocking on the doors of people they have let down so badly, especially so close to Christmas. I can only imagine the reception they will receive. Just this week online, a British voter was sharing how to wire your doorbell to the electricity supply in readiness. I believe this was the British sense of humor at work.
Stop any decent Brits in the street and ask them what they think about Brexit and they will sigh at you and tell you they are sick to the back teeth with the whole thing. They just want it done and over with, whatever it might be.
Asking people to vote again, after their last vote has been ignored, is asking people to invest time, faith, and energy in a process for which they have none.
Just like the decent Americans I know, most are fully-loaded with everyday life: we have kids to drop at school, elderly parents to care for, jobs to maintain, a sick friend who needs a visit, a car that needs servicing and a bit of guttering that needs reattaching to the roof. Real things that need fixing for our families.
Expecting busy people to stand in line in the darkness of a British winter and vote again is like asking my kids to do extra homework. They’d assume I was mad.
And December elections are a rarity for precisely these reasons. No one thinks they are a good idea. The last one was in 1923. And produced a hung parliament. This is not a good omen.
There is a big issue at the heart of all this that will need to be resolved. Many Labour (left-leaning) areas of the UK also voted Leave. These are the hardcore, working class people of Britain from the factories and the mines. Their families have voted Labour for generations. If they voted Tory their parents would turn in their graves.
Disillusioned with Labour who want to Remain, the Brexit Party is their best alternative. There is a real danger the Brexit vote will be split.
Boris’s spokesperson says Nigel Farage is "not a fit and proper person." And Farage says Boris and his Brexit deal are not to be trusted. This is one thing our side is spectacularly good at on both sides of the Atlantic -- fighting against itself.
What heartbreak there will be for true Brexiteers if vote-splitting results not only in a win for Remain parties, but places a socialist, pro-Hamas, anti-Semite Jeremy Corbyn in as Prime Minister.
Two things need to happen in rapid order:
First:
Boris needs to show some magnanimity towards the Brexit Party. Offering Farage a clear run at Labour seats where a Conservative MP has no chance of winning would reward Farage’s Brexit movement for their effort and endeavour, in return for them stepping aside for Conservatives elsewhere. Brexiteers are desperate for them to do a deal.
Pragmatism, not egoism, will win this election. The "Leave-EU" plan needs to introduce an app to assist with tactical voting. This is a sensible approach to an archaic voting system in the UK.
Second, and most importantly:
The good people of Britain need to be disciplined in our determination to make Brexit happen, "Once more into the fray!"
The good people of Britain need to be disciplined in our determination to make Brexit happen, "Once more into the fray!"
We must stand in line in the cold and the dark at the ballot box and put our faith in this vote, despite all that has gone before. We must place aside the three long years our will has been disrespected to fight back for the Brexit we voted for on June 23, 2016. And we have to do all this because the alternative is just too terrible to consider.
If we fail in this task, fail to back Boris and his promise to Get Brexit Done, if we waiver and vote against Boris disregarding a voting system rigged in favor of the largest party, if we simply stay indoors, then we fail to honor those who believe in this country and have faith in our nation. And we fail in our determination to prevail against all the odds and against the Establishment itself.
This is our opportunity to fill Parliament with decent people who deserve a seat in that House and oust those who do not.
For three long years we have been told we are too stupid, too lazy, too racist, too dependent, too weak, too fearful to trust in a sovereign Britain.
Now is time for us to stand shoulder-to-shoulder once more, and roar back like a lion.
Now is the time to remind the powerful and the Parliament that the British people still believe in this great country and are still determined to be heard.
Katie Hopkins is a British media personality, columnist, former businesswoman and one of the U.K.'s leading freedom fighters. Visit her on Twitter: @KTHopkins and email her at: katie@katiehopkins.co.uk.
