SO, WE HAVE ANOTHER ELECTION (BREAKING NEWS)

In another surprise u-turn the government have announced that they will after all be taking part in televised debates about the general election. A spokesperson said “the government recognises that more needs to be done to involve young people in politics”. To this end the general election has been put on hold for 6 months. The Conservatives have recruited Ant and Dec and there will be 2 resignations in safe seats and by-elections to allow them to become MP’s. One of them will then replace Theresa May as PM and the other will be Brexit Minister. It is rumoured that both have been promised knighthoods. In the Labour party Diane Abbott will replace Jeremy Corbyn in recognition of her sparkling performances on BBC Question Time. Baby face Tim Farron said “there will be no change at the top of the Liberal Democrats, but then I have never been known to stand back when I see a camera or the chance of a sound bite”. For the SNP Nicola Sturgeon has just been told to shut up. The BBC are working on a new format for the debates based on the Pointless Celebrities quiz show and hosted by Alexander Armstrong. Also in the pipeline is a voting system allowing people to vote via a phone app. as young people cannot be expected to go out and vote in a draughty church hall with a pencil and paper, especially if it is raining. There were those who wanted the general election vote to be run in the same way as the voting for Master Chef and Strictly Come Dancing and this being considered, but there are some technical difficulties to overcome first.               

SO, WE HAVE ANOTHER ELECTION.

A lot of people are exhorting us to use tactical voting to keep the Tories out. I think this is called “pissing against the wind”. The same applies to any ideas that Brexit is not going to happen. I would suggest that, whatever your political affiliations, you use tactical voting to give the government a massive majority. It is the best way to get a Brexit that is favourable to us, and by us I mean the UK including Scotland. Quite frankly a hard Brexit is the only way to achieve this outcome, and only the Tories out of the two main parties are likely to take this approach. Given a large majority they will not be encumbered by all those who are intent on sabotaging Brexit and leaving us in a position where we would not have any of the benefits of EU membership, but all the disadvantages. Ideally, one negotiates from a position of strength, not cap in hand and “please sir can we have some more”. For God’s sake we are the 5^th largest economy in the world not fucking Albania. No deals should be made that would not leave us in full control of immigration and our sovereignty. Regarding the single market we don’t need it and our position should be that we might be prepared to trade tariff free with the EU and anyone else we choose to trade with. If the EU choose to put 15% tariffs on our exports to them then we will put 20% on their exports to us and neither should we pay any divorce bills.

I am not anti-immigration or anti-Europe, in fact I voted to remain, I was wrong. I would actually like to be in a European Union but not the present one. No union should override the individual member’s sovereignty, nor should they need to punish or threaten to punish dissenters. The present set up will never reform, there are too many vested interests among those who make the decisions. It needs to break up and start again, and probably will. By getting out first we should avoid the worst of it. My prediction; there will continue to be a rise of the right in Europe and that will hasten the demise of the EU. Once the old order has been destroyed we can hopefully pick our way out of the rubble and build a better and fairer society, but I will not be holding my breath. The present EU is a corrupt and inefficient organization and although they appear to be generous with poorer new members, eventually the richer countries get richer at the expense of the poorer. Look at the way Greece has been shafted. Free movement can only work if all the countries have similar economies. This should be obvious, it should also be obvious that Europe cannot continue to absorb tens of thousands of young men with no skills and a bad attitude to women, without destroying their social cohesion. It is already happening, these guys are not even refugees; genuine refugees who need help could not afford to pay the thousands of Euros demanded by the people smugglers.     

Much has been made of Theresa May refusing to enter a TV debate. Personally, I would prefer a PM who was dignified, intelligent, thoughtful and had good policies, rather than a shallow “personality” who came across well on TV. Probably the Tories would do well to try and recruit Nigel Farage who is brilliant on TV and has all the facts at his fingertips; ironically, he would also be a good Brexit negotiator.