please empty your brain below
Excellent.- the poem that is, not the referendum consequences which I dread.

John | 15.03.17 - 7:08 a.m. | #

As Mr Trump would say. Sad.

Andy Norman | 15.03.17 - 7:14 a.m. | #

Remember Gibraltar too.

We must close the frontier at Gibraltar,
and make life hard on the Rock.
The people of Britain have spoken,
They know they are in for a shock.

John | 15.03.17 - 7:15 a.m. | #

And the BBC:

The news though led with Miss Sturgeon
And not with May's declaration
The people of Britain have spoken
But the BBC's not for this nation

Ken | 15.03.17 - 7:25 a.m. | #

Yawn you may as well not bothered.

| 15.03.17 - 7:33 a.m. | #

Yes, the 52% have spoken.

Let's see if the Dutch election today creates another bump ... Nexit next?

Andrew | 15.03.17 - 7:50 a.m. | #

Hang on Andrew, I thought 37 percent voted to leave?

RogerB | 15.03.17 - 8:16 a.m. | #

If we weren't all so directly involved it would make fascinating drama (even if some of the key players are a little dull or hamming it up).

Andrew - clearly we can't take anything for granted any more, but a 'Nexit' seems very unlikely, based on polling.

James | 15.03.17 - 8:17 a.m. | #

What about the rest of Europe who regard us as worse than a skunk and are determined to make things very difficult for us? They're laughing their socks off watching us pointing blaming fingers at each other as one side tries to undermine the other without any intervention by those EU states who are going to start kicking us with intent all too soon.

B | 15.03.17 - 9:09 a.m. | #

First off the Dutch are NOT going to leave the EU.

I remember when the UK joined the EEC in the 1970's it was never a happy union.
Looking back I believe that the UK never ever should have joined.
President de Gaulle was correct the UK has too many ties with the USA to be a member of Europe.

Michael | 15.03.17 - 9:10 a.m. | #

Fantastic.

Boxer | 15.03.17 - 9:21 a.m. | #

Will tune into Fox News later to hear Sean Spicer accuse you of using 'Fake Doggerel' to antagonise the Europhobes.

Frank F | 15.03.17 - 9:27 a.m. | #

I suppose the third line of each verse should be "The people of England have spoken" as I think Northern Ireland and Scotland wanted to remain. Not certain of Wales.

John | 15.03.17 - 9:40 a.m. | #

52% of the Welsh voted to leave, but technically it was Britain that voted to leave, irrespective of what the voters in Northern Ireland and Scotland, plus the other bits.

As I understand things, the Scots who are pro-independence also tend to be anti EU too, so who knows how they will vote in a referendum about 'independence'.

Still anon | 15.03.17 - 10:34 a.m. | #

Brilliant.
Utterly depressing, but brilliant!

Cornish Cockney | 15.03.17 - 10:42 a.m. | #

I weep for my children,my grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Jerym | 15.03.17 - 11:42 a.m. | #

I quite liked this article about May and Sturgeon:

‘Divisive’ referendum ‘will cause huge economic uncertainty’ says woman enacting divisive referendum causing huge economic uncertainty
[...]
The Prime Minister then said that Scotland was stronger as part of the UK, its neighbour and principal export market, before claiming that the UK would be stronger out of the EU, its neighbour and principal export market.

http://newsthump.com/2017/03/14/divisive-referendum-will-cause-huge-economic-uncertainty-says-woman-enacting-divisive-referendum-causing-huge-economic-uncertainty/

Dan | 15.03.17 - 12:38 p.m. | #

@ Still anon

Technically 52.5% of the Welsh may have voted to leave, but it was the UK that voted to leave; effectively there was only one constituency and the threshold was 50% + 1, so it's irrelevant what the voters in Northern Ireland and Scotland, plus the other bits may have done.

FTFY !

Gerry | 15.03.17 - 1:08 p.m. | #

B refers to "..rest of Europe who regard us as worse than a skunk and are determined to make things very difficult for us? They're laughing their socks off watching us..."

This does not accurately describe the European people as a whole. There are probably a few with attitudes like that, but all the European people that I have spoken to are quite genuinely sad that Brexit is happening, and are sorry for everyone (within Britain and outside it) who might suffer as a result. They also understand why it is happening, rather better than the average Brit (for or against) does.

| 15.03.17 - 2:33 p.m. | #

A plea, dear DG: please stick to Bus Stop M etc because frankly this non stop Brexit stuff is bad enough all over the formal news without the wittiest blog in town joining in. If I hear another representative of a nation that cannot even field a half decent rugby team moaning on and on about democracy when London, population 50 odd % more, voted similarly but is having the decency to accept it was a UK wide vote, I shall puke for the next 2 years. It (Brexit) may or may not work out, we shall probably never know because of all the other factors involved, but there are other political issues to consider eg the NHS, social care for the elderly, the environment etc etc.

Fed Up | 15.03.17 - 4:48 p.m. | #

Gerry - it was a response to John's post about not being certain about how Wales voted in the referendum, and substituting The People of England for The People of Britain in the ditty.

Fed Up - I sympathise, but you mention the NHS/social care/etc., these are all contaminated by Brexit, the fact that instead of the next 'Iron Lady' we instead have 'Tin Foil Theresa' with the 'u' turn on NI after a week doesn't bode well for us in the negotiations.

Still anon | 15.03.17 - 6:10 p.m. | #

I think that Fed Up might care to bear in mind that if it is really true that the "formal news" is going on about difficulties that might result from Brexit, this could be because, just possibly, some difficulties might indeed arise.

I do agree, though, that the "popular press" (which is rabidly pro-Brexit) cannot plausibly be included as a purveyor of "formal news".

I also agree that at the end of the day, we will not really know how much of any problems can be put down to Brexit, and how much to other factors.

Malcolm | 15.03.17 - 6:24 p.m. | #

In numbers, 17.4 million people voted to leave, and 16.1 million to remain. But 13 million registered voters did not vote, and another 5 million people of voting age are not registered, so it was more or less a three way split between "yes/no/don't know". You might say the vote for "leave" was about 33% of the voters, "remain" was 31%, and no view was expressed by 35%.

50%+1 (of those voting) is a ridiculous threshold for a change of this magnitude, but there it is: the will of the people.

Now we must come together, a single national community of the British peoples: one folk, one kingdom, one leader.

Andrew | 15.03.17 - 6:28 p.m. | #

What with Brexit and Trump, and everything else, I feel a bit like we've all been told that supposed Chinese curse, May You Live In Interesting Times...

There's a reason sensible democracies don't do referendums. They cause problems, and create unpredictable results. In our democracy we elect politicians to make the difficult decisions for us. That sometimes - such as with hanging - means ignoring the "popular" view because politicians look at (well, are supposed to look at) the big picture and make the best call. The decision should never have been put to the people. Referendums break our principles of democracy.

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 15.03.17 - 8:15 p.m. | #

Andrew - that's all very well, but the snag in your argument is that having a referendum at all was - at least in theory - a decision made by parliament.

If we are supposed to trust parliament to make decisions, then we ought to trust them to use whatever methods they see fit to inform those decision - including, if they wish, consulting the population or examining chicken entrails.

(The referendum was theoretically advisory-only, but that detail, like others, has been swept aside by the swivel-eyed ones).

Malcolm | 15.03.17 - 9:10 p.m. | #

The UK electorates may not make mistakes, But Boy-Oh-Boy the USA electorates have made one that will last at least four years. I wish you good luck with your decision.. Now please pray for us for ours.

Colesville Garth | 15.03.17 - 10:10 p.m. | #

Still waiting for England independence referendum...or is that asking too much?

Grumpy Anon | 15.03.17 - 10:12 p.m. | #

If we carry on infuriating our home nation neighbours, I don't think an English independence referendum will be needed.

Chris R | 15.03.17 - 10:19 p.m. | #

Malcolm - it is a big snag. But then the whole thing only came about because David Cameron needed to stop people defecting to Ukip in 2013. It clearly wasn't supposed to be a serious referendum, and it seems obvious that Cameron was expecting another coalition, allowing the commitment to be dropped.

Ultimately the worst elements of Brexit have nothing to do with the population who voted for it, and everything to do with the politicians who waved through such a flimsy, inadequate piece of legislation.

The fact that they failed to put any proper checks and balances in the act (i.e. majority in all four nations, a clear majority of the vote overall - e.g. two thirds, and - most criminal of all - lack of any plan of what to do next) just shows how seriously anyone took it.

That is, of course, the whole problem with our parliamentary democracy. It relies on our MPs actually having an ounce of common sense between them.

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 15.03.17 - 10:41 p.m. | #

While I insist that bug topics like Brexit should have always decided by 2/3 or even bigger majority, democratic process seems not adopted because the People never mistake. Rather, in case they DO make mistakes, there is more legitimacy to make them take their own responsibility.

Patrickov | 15.03.17 - 11:34 p.m. | #

Sorry for typo, I mean "big" topics, not "bug".

Patrickov | 15.03.17 - 11:35 p.m. | #

Theresa still has a good deal of residual credit, even among remainers, for her (admittedly accidental) attributes of not being Gove, Johnson, Leadsom or male.

Malcolm | 16.03.17 - 1:13 a.m. | #

see you on at 11.00 on the 25th March at Buck House then?

Simon Brand | Homepage | 16.03.17 - 8:15 a.m. | #











TridentScan v2.10.0 | Privacy Policy