Saturday, June 25, 2016

Who's to blame for Brexit? I name the guilty

I don't usually go in for blame. It corrodes and eats away at you, because often it leads to negativity and a failure to act positively as a result. That's why I mean it when I say I embrace forgiveness. What I don't offer is a free pass, an excuse, a shrug. So as a major, major seismic decision has been made by 52% of the British people, then someone's to blame, here's who.

I'm to blame. I should have delivered my leaflets earlier, I should have realised I had so many left over after I'd done my rounds and could have made better use of them.

I'm also to blame for letting vanity get the better of me and enthusiastically making sure we pulled out the stops for Gordon Brown to come to Manchester Met and deliver a major speech. I could have said, let me ring round and get you into a factory, or a youth centre in Bolton or something. Same with Eddie Izzard, Lucy Powell and Chuka Umunna. Sure, I got to meet them all, but it made no difference. They all spoke to lively audiences I helped pull together of students and Remain supporters. 

Our universities are to blame. Most of the people who work for us voted Remain, most of the people who have been educated by us did too and most of our students did. Despite providing piles of evidence that it was better to stay, our experts were ultimately ignored. What then have we done to so weaken wider public trust? What must we do to broaden social gain from what we do? I will dedicate my life to changing this.

Brexit is to blame. The use of the stupid word made the decision assumptive. Would you call the General Election the Tory Election? No, of course you wouldn't, especially when there's a binary offer. Damn anyone who used it.

David Cameron is to blame. The lucky general ran out of luck. His plan didn't work. His judgement was appalling and he created this unnecessary and spiteful contest. He has paid a price and will be denied a legacy of making Britain more comfortable with his liberal brand of conservatism. He has done the decent thing and resigned.

Jeremy Corbyn is to blame. If he was intent on sabotaging the Labour IN campaign AND Stronger IN, then he couldn't have done a better job. He was useless. I have never understood the appeal. I never wanted him on the ballot, never mind as leader. He has come to represent whatever his followers want him to be about, all those meaningless tropes about equality and fair society and it doesn't have to be this way. It's empty rhetoric. He has no plan. He has no zeal, he is unfit to be leader of the Islington Allotment Society, never mind the most important reforming political movement in Britain's history. He must also do the decent thing and resign.

Labour is to blame. All of it, not just the bits I'm particularly angry about. Labour has failed to reconnect with the people who need a left of centre, social democratic, government. There are no wake up calls here, the erosion of Labour's base has been there for all to see for five years at least. Liz Kendall based her leadership campaign on this truth and was duly slaughtered for it. 

The Trade Unions are to blame. Apart from the TUC's Frances O'Grady, I can think of no meaningful or positive intervention in the campaign from a trade union leader. The more they bluster, the more bombastic the rhetoric, the more they are being exposed as deep failures. They have failed in their manifest destiny to look out for the working people of this country: to train, promote education and embrace new patterns of work and technology. I laugh when I see resolutions passed at poorly attended union meetings and the photos of campaigners with their flags. They have no real power and influence any more. They lose every time. They are a paper army.

Blue Labour is to blame. A serious intellectual exercise has virtually disappeared at a time when it has been badly needed. I even read a blog today when it was referred to as a movement. It isn't, tragically. It's a collection of very clever blokes who aren't able to gain any traction for some heavy duty ideas.

The Liberal Democrats are to blame. I reserve a particular place in hell's waiting room for our local LibDems. If only they had put in 1% of the effort they do to getting their candidates elected locally into a campaign to remain in the EU. A leaflet mostly about the parliamentary ambitions of one of their councillors from Romiley and party building arrived with a poster, two days before polling day. Their presence was pitiful. Stockport voted to Remain thanks to Labour activists. There will be a reckoning for this. 

The EU is to blame. How can anyone seriously expect to campaign for an endorsement of, and membership of, an organisation so widely misunderstood and so utterly unloved. Where did the passion of that unification of ideals go? The biggest laugh I got around the whole campaign was when John Oliver did that daft song called 'F*** the European Union', but vote Remain anyway.

We are to blame. Our divided society. The cruel casting off of the poor, the blindness to the effects of globalisation, the lack of concern for Communites derided as chavs and scroungers. They've had enough. 

So, yes, I've got that off my chest now, let me know if there's anyone I've missed out. 

5 comments:

jon said...

Surely Boris, Farage, UKIP and the hate brigade are worth a paragraph? Not to mention the media and the 'debates', which pandered to the petty squabbling and spectacularly failed to educate, inform and enlighten the audience. A level of accountability with the campaigns spurious claims and counter claims would be nice too, if ultimately unenforceable. Right nappy changed, back to bed for me.

Peter said...

The political and media circuses exist on another planet to the electorate, they lost touch with reality long ago.
This referendum is a message that the governance of this nation has been largely ignored as individuals sought their own agendas.
Public servants? Yeah ok....
When the dust has settled and everyone calms down, hopefully then we'll all pull together. The Tories may have unwittingly sown the seeds of revolution.

Peter said...

The political and media circuses exist on another planet to the electorate, they lost touch with reality long ago.
This referendum is a message that the governance of this nation has been largely ignored as individuals sought their own agendas.
Public servants? Yeah ok....
When the dust has settled and everyone calms down, hopefully then we'll all pull together. The Tories may have unwittingly sown the seeds of revolution.

Anonymous said...

'At a time when my confidence in our politics has never been so low it was a reminder that there are many ways to change the world. And never has it felt more important to embrace that message of love, forgiveness, peace and hope.'
- Only 24 hours later and you may as well never have blogged this. Pointing fingers of blame prolongs the anger, frustration and fears many felt during the referendum. I hope you have now had time to gather your thoughts so you can think and act in a more constructive way. All this divisive talk gives the Tories and open goal.

Michael Taylor said...

You have clearly not read the blog from the top, just zoomed straight in on the bit about the people who you agree with (not the Tories, clearly).

Forgiveness is not a free pass, it is about taking responsibility for your actions. I don't see how burying our heads in the sand from our own part in this divisive and unnecessary referendum, gives the Tories an open goal.

But as I don't know who you are, I can only guess.