"The transition period" sounds like something to annoy J.K. Rowling. And it is. But from this Government, "There will be no extension to the transition period" means that there will be an indefinite extension to the transition period. Until we just decided to re-accede to the EU because we had never, in 10 years, got round to leaving either the Single Market or the Customs Union.
And who will save us from this? Nigel Farage? By then, he will be in his late sixties, and he will not have held elected office in a decade. The Brexit Party won last year's European Elections on the votes of those of us who had swung the EU referendum in the first place. The libertarian Right, we most certainly were not. The libertarian Right, we most certainly are not.
In any case, there is no longer any national election by means of Proportional Representation, nor any on the single issue of Brexit. And Farage is a seven times failed parliamentary candidate whose combined vote across all seven attempts is less than Diane Abbott's majority at Hackney North and Stoke Newington.
Sadly I think you're right. What's George Galloway doing these days? I know he's already 65 but he's been elected to Parliament numerous times and for all his faults he's a brilliant speaker.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, he is. But he lost his deposit last year. Still, as he himself says, never say never.
DeleteGalloway, there's a thought, he probably swung the referendum for Leave. It was definitely won by us, the heirs of Tony Benn. There weren't enough right-wing Leavers to win, we tipped it. No-one in the London media saw it coming but we all knew it was going to happen up here. Much of the Tory South voted Remain but on the night Sunderland moved the money markets. Galloway also probably got the Brexit Party to the top of the poll last year, again they didn't do that in the North East among other places by relying on Telegraph readers.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, they did not. George does seem to have swung a lot of BAME votes, in particular, for Leave, as well as giving a voice to many people on the Left, or from the working class, or both, who were already going to vote that way if they had voted at all.
DeleteIn so doing, he almost certainly got out enough of those voters to make the difference. Many of them might not otherwise have bothered, since nobody was speaking to them or for them.
Likewise, George gave voice to the views of enough left-wing, working-class and even some BAME people who were minded to vote for the Brexit Party. That got out enough of them who might not otherwise have bothered, taking the Brexit Party to the top of the poll in Wales and in every English region outside London.
The Brexit Party would still have won, and won with the votes of many left-wing and working-class, and some BAME, people. But it would not have romped home as it did without George's call to arms. And without George's call to arms, then Leave might not have won at all.
He had a similarly decisive role in the Scottish independence referendum.