You can’t have a rational argument with stupid people when it comes to Brexit or the General Election.
Or with racists.
Half the country voted to leave the European Union in 2016. For most of them, it is still the overriding issue in deciding who to vote for in this coming election. That is despite every single financial forecast (including official Government figures) showing that the country will be much worse off leaving the European Union. Indeed the country will be much poorer for at least a generation. The poorest in our society will suffer the most.
Brexit supporters talk of ‘taking back control’ but have no idea which EU laws have been passed that apparently controlled us. In reality, these ‘EU’ laws have mainly given rights and protections to (British) workers and consumers. But what Brexiteers really mean about ‘taking back control’ is that they don’t want immigration and they don’t like ‘foreigners’. And yet without immigration, we will simply not have enough people to fill jobs across many sectors, particularly health and social care, but also the hospitality industry and farming. The pinch is already being felt. It will get much worse, believe me.
And of course, to get their beloved Brexit, many Brexiteers will vote Tory.
The same Tory party that started their term in office ten years ago by cutting tax for the wealthy and for business and have since gone on to wreck the National Health Service, welfare and social care, education, the police force, the justice system, the parole system – indeed – there is no part of British life that they have not, through incompetence, greed, corruption, idleness, or sheer ugly political dogma, damaged. The fabric of our society has been ripped apart.
Tories will claim it has been because of the need for austerity, yet the deficit is as big as ever and the country is very close to recession once more. We are now a much poorer country in every respect. The human cost in suffering has been unacceptable. The rise of food banks, homelessness, gang violence amongst the young, and the removal of support for those with serious mental and physical disabilities are all the result of Tory cuts. The Tory refusal to invest directly in schools, hospitals and affordable housing when interest rates have been at an all-time low is beyond belief. Meanwhile the rich in the UK have become richer and richer.
Yet Brexiteers and surprisingly some people who have lost the most and have the most to lose from another Tory government will still vote for Boris Johnston. An old Etonian from a privileged background who as no affinity whatsoever with the working woman or man. A compulsive liar, racist, fraud, and misogynist who has been fired twice for dishonesty. A man who has no grasp of detail, no vision, no decency. A man who bumbles through every interview and question with a string of moronic cliches. A man who will do anything to win power. Including promising a programme of expenditure that a Tory party would never ever usually promise. And which he knows they will never deliver. But however large these promised sums are, they cannot repair the damage that has been done to Britain and its communities over the last ten years.
But Boris doesn’t care. He simply wants power. He who leads a Tory party that has strands of pure fascism in its manifesto. A party that will bring this country to its knees. A party that will make the huge rift in our society even deeper.
Brexiteers will vote for Boris mainly because he has promised them their xenophobic, ill-informed, racist Brexit. They will vote for him because the Daily Mail, The Sun, The Express, The Telegraph and the Times (owned by people who pay little tax in the UK and have their own money-making agendas for wanting to see Britain out of Europe – and they hate the Labour Party) have told them to do so. They will vote for him because there are significant amounts of money and lies being poured into advertising and manipulation on social media by faceless organisations or governments who also have their own agendas in supporting Brexit – as they did with the Referendum itself.
They will vote for him because they are stupid. Or racist. Or both.
There is no rational argument that can address that.
.
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© the author writing as Romantic Dominant
Photo © Matt Cardy/Getty Images
