François-Marie Arouet, known by his nom de plume as Voltaire, was a 17th-century writer, historian, and philosopher. He reportedly said, "I wholly disapprove of what you say—and will defend to the death your right to say it!" This quote describes the very essences of free speech in a modern democracy.
Since the EU referendum vote, there have been calls for people to cease objections to the result. Theresa May famously stated, "Brexit means Brexit" supposedly ending further discussion. So why aren't people accepting the vote to Leave? There are multiple of reasons, and I will explore just three to make my point.
The first reason is Britain has been a member of the European Union for just over 40 years; this is a significant length of time for our country to become completely intertwined with other nations on a multitude of different subjects such as Business, Law, Science and Healthcare are an essential mechanism for our society. However not everyone is close to these topics, most are abstracted away from them in their daily lives but do benefit greatly from their existence.
Let's take one example, the NHS. The NHS does not perform any research into new drugs itself. Drugs testing is an expensive and time-consuming process because it needs to be right. So rather than duplicate the effort across all member states the process is done once for the benefit of all by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) based in Canary Wharf London. Make no mistake EMA is a function of the EU, so how many people actual knew that fact before they voted? Soundbites like, 'Taking back control' ring hollow particularly when we are happily already leading and collaborating.
The second reason why people are not happy with the Referendum vote was the method by which it was obtained by using psychological techniques that sit on the border between persuasion and manipulation. Although not illegal, which is a point to stress but not entirely moral, truthful or indeed fair meaning the result was gained by false pretenses making a mockery of democracy and fair play.
The third reason, is why have the Referendum vote at all? The net benefit to Queen and Country still isn't clear to many. My opinion was to prevent further members on the right of the party I did support, the Conservatives, from joining UKIP, this was indeed a crisis for the party but not for the country as a whole. The damage that this has done to the centre of the Conservative party isn't clear, but a post on the 48% where I asked if there were any Disenfranchised Conservatives there had hundreds of comments in agreement. If this is representative of any percentage, the Conservatives have a problem. Conservatives are famously quiet on such things but behind closed doors, it is apparent that many are far from pleased with a policy many mustered all their energy fighting just weeks before. Many have spoken to me about their uneasy at the jump to the right chasing UKIP dancing to their tune when the majority of the party and country is in the centre ground.
As you can imagine with just these three reasons people are understandably upset as none of them, not one, is trivial. The mistake, therefore, is to dismiss any of them as minor complaints as this isn't going to unite the country successfully, this is warning shot across the bow.
For our new future to succeed which means the 52% and the 48% reconciling their differences it will be foolish to push on ahead with Leaving the EU without first agreeing on the deal again with the country.
So, for now, Theresa May and UKIP will just have to accept that Opposition means Opposition, and it's coming from the right as well as the left.
Since the EU referendum vote, there have been calls for people to cease objections to the result. Theresa May famously stated, "Brexit means Brexit" supposedly ending further discussion. So why aren't people accepting the vote to Leave? There are multiple of reasons, and I will explore just three to make my point.
The first reason is Britain has been a member of the European Union for just over 40 years; this is a significant length of time for our country to become completely intertwined with other nations on a multitude of different subjects such as Business, Law, Science and Healthcare are an essential mechanism for our society. However not everyone is close to these topics, most are abstracted away from them in their daily lives but do benefit greatly from their existence.
Let's take one example, the NHS. The NHS does not perform any research into new drugs itself. Drugs testing is an expensive and time-consuming process because it needs to be right. So rather than duplicate the effort across all member states the process is done once for the benefit of all by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) based in Canary Wharf London. Make no mistake EMA is a function of the EU, so how many people actual knew that fact before they voted? Soundbites like, 'Taking back control' ring hollow particularly when we are happily already leading and collaborating.
The second reason why people are not happy with the Referendum vote was the method by which it was obtained by using psychological techniques that sit on the border between persuasion and manipulation. Although not illegal, which is a point to stress but not entirely moral, truthful or indeed fair meaning the result was gained by false pretenses making a mockery of democracy and fair play.
The third reason, is why have the Referendum vote at all? The net benefit to Queen and Country still isn't clear to many. My opinion was to prevent further members on the right of the party I did support, the Conservatives, from joining UKIP, this was indeed a crisis for the party but not for the country as a whole. The damage that this has done to the centre of the Conservative party isn't clear, but a post on the 48% where I asked if there were any Disenfranchised Conservatives there had hundreds of comments in agreement. If this is representative of any percentage, the Conservatives have a problem. Conservatives are famously quiet on such things but behind closed doors, it is apparent that many are far from pleased with a policy many mustered all their energy fighting just weeks before. Many have spoken to me about their uneasy at the jump to the right chasing UKIP dancing to their tune when the majority of the party and country is in the centre ground.
As you can imagine with just these three reasons people are understandably upset as none of them, not one, is trivial. The mistake, therefore, is to dismiss any of them as minor complaints as this isn't going to unite the country successfully, this is warning shot across the bow.
For our new future to succeed which means the 52% and the 48% reconciling their differences it will be foolish to push on ahead with Leaving the EU without first agreeing on the deal again with the country.
So, for now, Theresa May and UKIP will just have to accept that Opposition means Opposition, and it's coming from the right as well as the left.
