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Article - "Self-harm inflicted on the British people is the direct effect of Brexit itself"

Posted: Wed Dec 2, 2020 7:17pm
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chrisso50

chrisso50

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From the Irish Times: "British readying for Brexit: They never saw it coming."

Sometimes our vocabulary has to expand to encompass new realities. Covid, for example, has added “lockdown”, “social distancing” and “flattening the curve” to our daily lexicon. Likewise, the UK’s departure from the European Union has already given us words such as “Remainers”, “Leavers” and “cake-ism” as well as, of course, the word “Brexit” itself. Phrases about “unicorns” and “cherry-picking” have been given a new resonance.

But Brexit, set to take full effect on January 1st, now requires the urgent invention of another word to capture the simple reality that the self-harm inflicted on the British people, across so many areas of their lives, is the direct effect of Brexit itself and of the hard version of it pursued by the Johnson government. Many people, of course, understand this well both in Britain and around Europe. But if this elementary reality has to be explained every time that British tabloids express astonishment at the latest materialisation of the bleeding obvious, we may lose the will to live.

For example, in recent days alone, the British public has been informed, shock horror, that British ski instructors are set to lose their seasonal jobs on the continent, that British owners of second-houses in Europe will only be able to reside there for a limited period every year, and that European spouses of British citizens will no longer have an automatic right to reside in the UK.

Stories like these are merely a tiny tip of the massive Brexit iceberg that is floating in the direction of the British public. Just wait until long lines of traffic are approaching British ports and lengthy queues at European airports are growing tetchy, not to mention the thousand other Brexit “shocks that flesh is heir to”.

It would be unfair to our forests to cut down enough trees to explain in response to each and every cry that the sky is falling down that, on a particular day in 2016, a majority of British voters voted for that very sky to fall down; or that, in the UK general election last December, a prime minister who was insouciant about maximising the damage was given a parliamentary majority.

So here is my modest proposal. We should agree on a single word we can use to set the record straight, in jig time, whenever it is implied that the consequences of Brexit are as mysterious as the Third Secret of Fatima or as inexplicable as the changing seasons were to our Neanderthal forebears. The new phenomenon that the word needs to capture is Rejecting All Brexit’s Inevitable Effects Syndrome. The acronym may work better: Rabies.

I do not mean to imply for a moment that most Brexiteers are mad, even if many people, including in the UK, would be more comfortable if a few of the more pop-eyed Brexit cheerleaders were to self-isolate for a few decades. Still less do I wish for anything negative to happen to the British people, my affection for whom significantly inspires my contribution to public debate. I hope that the damaging effects of Brexit for them can be minimised.

But I am concerned about the deliberate infantilisation of the British public who were not told about the real effects of Brexit in 2016 and who are still being misled, on a daily basis, about the relationship between their own Brexit vote and the inevitable consequences which they and their families and friends are now beginning to experience.

The implied message of some tabloid headlines seems to be “Never saw it coming, mate”. Of course, the next step, already under way, is to blame others for the damaging effects of Brexit; after all, if the effects were not inevitable someone else must be to blame. True followers of the One True Brexit Faith are convinced that Brexit should have been an unqualified rip-roaring success; their quest to find scapegoats for the inevitable long-term damage they have inflicted on their country will be unrelenting.

A tragic reverse symmetry can be observed in today’s denial of what Brexit actually means. Several decades ago, the now British prime minister, as a journalist in Brussels, invented for the British public an entirely fictional European Union of straight bananas and scheming European bureaucrats plotting to get rid of prawn-flavoured crisps. The EU that the British people voted to leave was therefore not the real one but rather a clever figment of Johnson’s imagination. Today the British people are finding that the EU they actually did leave, at Johnson’s urging, is in fact a real one in which British citizens used to have important rights of employment, travel and residence.

I regret the impact that Brexit will have on our British friends. But I suspect the word ‘Rabies’ could become increasingly handy.

Source:
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/british-readying-for-brexit-they-never-saw-it-coming-mate-1.4424631?fbclid=IwAR2GabLZk_93_M8wdYhDr2fMxWwJKNV-JzhOhLHeYUSc_BjglQlvlU6lw0o#.X8execWWt64.facebook


Jack

Posted: Wed Dec 2, 2020 8:00pm

Jack

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Posted: Wed Dec 2, 2020 8:00pm

Love it. Thanks for sharing Chris. 👏🏼👏🏼

EndEx

Posted: Wed Dec 2, 2020 8:42pm

EndEx

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Posted: Wed Dec 2, 2020 8:42pm

Lost the will to live after the 1st paragraph I'm afraid, another reason for me not to read the Irish Times, or the British Guardian come to think of it. 

BREXIT IS HAPPENING NEW YEARS EVE! 🍾🥂

John99andrew

Posted: Wed Dec 2, 2020 10:33pm

John99andrew

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Posted: Wed Dec 2, 2020 10:33pm

EndEx wrote on Wed Dec 2, 2020 8:42pm:

Lost the will to live after the 1st paragraph I'm afraid, another reason for me not to read the Irish Times, or the British Guardian come to think of it. 

BREXIT IS HAPPENING NEW YEARS EVE! 🍾🥂

Just another one burying there head in the sand, carnt admit they where wrong.

chrisso50

Posted: Thu Dec 3, 2020 12:09am

chrisso50

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Posted: Thu Dec 3, 2020 12:09am

John99andrew wrote on Wed Dec 2, 2020 10:33pm:

Just another one burying there head in the sand, carnt admit they where wrong.

And if he'd carried on reading he might have realised Brexit is not happening New Year's Eve - it's already happened! We left the EU on 31 January. This Year. That was Brexit. Amazing that some Brexit cultists won and yet don't seem to realise it...

Chris

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Matthew

Posted: Thu Dec 3, 2020 8:00am

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Posted: Thu Dec 3, 2020 8:00am

We've debated Brexit and the referendum vote not to mention the latest British General Election. We've hauled Boris Johnson over the coals. We've listened to the fishing lobby in the UK screaming for the UK to leave without any deal and then negotiate. We've listened to countless expats in Spain loading us with "facts" of how much better off they'll all be after the separation. I'm not going to resurrect these issues. As far as I am concerned Brexit happened and the nitty gritty of such is being ironed out this week and will come into effect on 1st of January. 

The realities after 1st January are about to kick in and let's hope your ass is not being kicked and if your situation improves then best of luck with that too. The Irish Times article is good. Brexit has maintained its high position on daily headlines in Ireland since the UK Brexit Referendum. Rep of Ireland still stands to be a casualty of Brexit. Anybody who thought Ireland was going to stand still on the lead up to Brexit and its consequences has a mindset of those (not) offering lodging to Irish immigrants of the 1920's. A new ferry service will operate between Rosslare (SE Ireland) and Dunkirk from 2nd January. It has not been highly publicised in Ireland or Northern Ireland. Covid got in the way. But, the ferry will operate from 2nd January 2021 and will largely obviate the need for Irish businesses to export to Europe via the UK. Half of Northern Ireland businesses will use the service too. The other half will put theirs through the UK as usual, but perhaps won't experience business-as-usual when they reach south east England.

Ireland needs Brexit like we need another pandemic. The final Brexit procedure will happen within a month. Let's hope the EU and the UK can maintain a friendly relationship. There are casualties already among the UK expat community in Spain. Access to holiday home owners from the UK will suffer. There are tax implications. Those Brits illegally in Spain for years can have little truck with illegal immigrants in the UK. Like the Irish Times article said we're approaching the iceberg but we can see only the small percentage above water. Long Term Rentals in Spain have already become dearer and rarer. Those who wish to return fulltime to the UK have discovered that the "welcome" is nothing like they'd been expecting. Rental charges and house prices in the UK have skyrocketed and suddenly the disposable income and rate variations between the GBP£ and the Euro are now not in their favour.

Let's give the UK government some praise, the Covid vaccination will become available there next week with the EU a month behind. It appears Northern Ireland will receive the vaccination first. It is probably the most infected area of the UK having helped in promoting the virus where possible. Northern Ireland is fast becoming another liability for the UK. Scotland is continuously sabre rattling and the Welsh nationalists may follow suit eventually.  The UK will circle its wagons and try to save the NHS like it should do. But, the New Reality in the UK will be nothing like the real reality during its membership of the EU. I wish everybody in the UK well. I would advise for those who can to immediately apply for an Irish Passport. It'll open closed doors, believe me! If you back two horses in a two horse race you can't lose. 

chrisso50

Posted: Thu Dec 3, 2020 10:56am

chrisso50

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Posted: Thu Dec 3, 2020 10:56am

Well said Matthew.

We can thank David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson for what happens next. This is the first of many signs now going up in Northern Ireland... all because Brexit happened in January and because of the impact of it on Ireland and the Belfast Agreement of 1998. A border poll seems quite likely.

Chris

Matthew

Posted: Thu Dec 3, 2020 12:04pm

Matthew

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Posted: Thu Dec 3, 2020 12:04pm

chrisso50 wrote on Thu Dec 3, 2020 10:56am:

Well said Matthew.

We can thank David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson for what happens next. This is the first of many signs now going up in Northern Ireland... all because Brexit happened in January and because of the impact of it on Ireland and the Belfast Agreement of 1998. A border poll seems quite likel...

...y.

Chris

There'll be no Border Poll. We Irish although stereotypically short of the 

Matthew

Posted: Thu Dec 3, 2020 12:04pm

Matthew

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Posted: Thu Dec 3, 2020 12:04pm

chrisso50 wrote on Thu Dec 3, 2020 10:56am:

Well said Matthew.

We can thank David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson for what happens next. This is the first of many signs now going up in Northern Ireland... all because Brexit happened in January and because of the impact of it on Ireland and the Belfast Agreement of 1998. A border poll seems quite likel...

...y.

Chris

There'll be no Border Poll. We Irish although stereotypically shown to be short of the mark are now mostly university educated and are well versed in not trying to catch falling knives. Don't tell anybody though.

EndEx

Posted: Thu Dec 3, 2020 12:35pm

EndEx

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Posted: Thu Dec 3, 2020 12:35pm

Matthew wrote on Thu Dec 3, 2020 12:04pm:

There'll be no Border Poll. We Irish although stereotypically shown to be short of the mark are now mostly university educated and are well versed in not trying to catch falling knives. Don't tell anybody though.

Yeh,  "well said Matthew, thanks Chriss, you still there John"?

Seems the PM warning me of names that will respond came to fruition guys?    So this is the advance party of the Republican Remoaning Party. 

Take 2 Brexit pills once dailly for the next 28 days. The odd full English or Ulster fry when the cafes reopen will help ease the blow.

I now bow to your superior Irish Times education Matty boy, but do keep up the good work, you are amusing so many forum members..... Bottoms up what!!

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