I've just watched Andrea Leadsom's address to a bunch of (Leave) acolytes. As a Leaver herself, she naturally continues to ply us with the 'better off out' bollocks and her principal call is for the country to unite around being optimistic about the future.
I have no problem with people being optimistic, but optimism is not a state of mind you decide to adopt. It's a state of mind resulting from an assessment about the future. You can't suddenly wake up optimistic if all the evidence tells you that the future is bleak.
Having a positive attitude in the face of adversity is one thing. I am sure it helped encourage all those young men to leap out of their trenches at the Somme. But wouldn't it have been better not to have put them there in the first place? Were they optimistic about their futures. No chance. Were they hopeful they'd survive. You bet.
I will of course make the best of the bad hand she and her deluded chums have dealt me. But I will continue to listen to real experts rather than rabble-rousing power-crazed people who feed off discontent to further personal ambitions rather than use tactics we know that do work to improve people's lives. And in this case, Remain would have meant continuing to build our economic future within a certain world rather than a fool's paradise.
All she and her mates have done is thrown a bomb into the crowd and declared that the survivors need to be cheerful.
I also wanted to hit her when she stated that we will have continued free trade with the EU. What magic wand is she going to use to make this happen, let alone with all the other nations with whom we have trade agreements negotiated through the EU (free or otherwise). We will have to start from scratch and nothing is certain let alone likely. And does she think a Leaver would be welcome at the other side of the negotiating table? She has no way of knowing what we will offered. Let's face it, we didn't do too well negotiating when we were proper members of the EU.
By the way, joining the EEA won't let us control our borders - nor will it cost us less. In fact it will cost us much more because we won't get Maggie's rebate and we won't get all those grants and collaboration deals. Pain is guaranteed by Junkers and co., especially if you or any other Leaver tries talking to them. But we knew this before the vote. And half 'the people' didn't believe it. Blind faith at best, or just reckless naivety.
Personally I did see Brexit coming. #smugbastard. I wasn't persuaded by the polls. I'd heard too many people speaking passionately about their individual lives being affected by immigration. There are a lot of them (not in Scotland, N Ireland or London). I understand why they have issues with this from a point of view of depressing wages (the racists amongst them can go to hell), and there is definitely a problem to be solved. But not by making the UK so unattractive for immigrants that they wouldn't want to come here in the first place. So to prepare for a Brexit vote, I reduced as much exposure to the Pound as I could pre-referendum. Now my Pound wealth has increased (but of course in global terms I've not changed much). Does this make me optimistic about the future? Not a chance. Does this make me take positive steps to make the best of a very bad situation? Of course. Will those decisions be good for the UK? Probably not, because I now think other countries will benefit from our naivety. So I'm betting on them, not the UK - just like the whole world of investors. Who's backing investment in the UK right now?
I hated her naive thinking. I hated her pathetically forced smiles trying to demonstrate 'huge optimism' and nasty 'Britain's best' statements. But most of all, I hated her demand that I become optimistic. I will make that decision for myself based on the evidence and arguments I'm presented with. Hers only made me more pessimistic.
But there's a mischievous little part of me that wants her to receive the poisoned chalice. She got us into this mess, now get us out Andrea. And by the way, you don't start negotiating by telling the other side they're crap. And they're certainly no longer our 'friends' no matter how much you want them to buy our stuff - which they don't much anyway. We buy three times more off them than they buy off us which is why our economy has by far the worst balance of payments out of all 28 EU economies. More cause for optimism?
I have no problem with people being optimistic, but optimism is not a state of mind you decide to adopt. It's a state of mind resulting from an assessment about the future. You can't suddenly wake up optimistic if all the evidence tells you that the future is bleak.
Having a positive attitude in the face of adversity is one thing. I am sure it helped encourage all those young men to leap out of their trenches at the Somme. But wouldn't it have been better not to have put them there in the first place? Were they optimistic about their futures. No chance. Were they hopeful they'd survive. You bet.
I will of course make the best of the bad hand she and her deluded chums have dealt me. But I will continue to listen to real experts rather than rabble-rousing power-crazed people who feed off discontent to further personal ambitions rather than use tactics we know that do work to improve people's lives. And in this case, Remain would have meant continuing to build our economic future within a certain world rather than a fool's paradise.
All she and her mates have done is thrown a bomb into the crowd and declared that the survivors need to be cheerful.
I also wanted to hit her when she stated that we will have continued free trade with the EU. What magic wand is she going to use to make this happen, let alone with all the other nations with whom we have trade agreements negotiated through the EU (free or otherwise). We will have to start from scratch and nothing is certain let alone likely. And does she think a Leaver would be welcome at the other side of the negotiating table? She has no way of knowing what we will offered. Let's face it, we didn't do too well negotiating when we were proper members of the EU.
By the way, joining the EEA won't let us control our borders - nor will it cost us less. In fact it will cost us much more because we won't get Maggie's rebate and we won't get all those grants and collaboration deals. Pain is guaranteed by Junkers and co., especially if you or any other Leaver tries talking to them. But we knew this before the vote. And half 'the people' didn't believe it. Blind faith at best, or just reckless naivety.
Personally I did see Brexit coming. #smugbastard. I wasn't persuaded by the polls. I'd heard too many people speaking passionately about their individual lives being affected by immigration. There are a lot of them (not in Scotland, N Ireland or London). I understand why they have issues with this from a point of view of depressing wages (the racists amongst them can go to hell), and there is definitely a problem to be solved. But not by making the UK so unattractive for immigrants that they wouldn't want to come here in the first place. So to prepare for a Brexit vote, I reduced as much exposure to the Pound as I could pre-referendum. Now my Pound wealth has increased (but of course in global terms I've not changed much). Does this make me optimistic about the future? Not a chance. Does this make me take positive steps to make the best of a very bad situation? Of course. Will those decisions be good for the UK? Probably not, because I now think other countries will benefit from our naivety. So I'm betting on them, not the UK - just like the whole world of investors. Who's backing investment in the UK right now?
I hated her naive thinking. I hated her pathetically forced smiles trying to demonstrate 'huge optimism' and nasty 'Britain's best' statements. But most of all, I hated her demand that I become optimistic. I will make that decision for myself based on the evidence and arguments I'm presented with. Hers only made me more pessimistic.
But there's a mischievous little part of me that wants her to receive the poisoned chalice. She got us into this mess, now get us out Andrea. And by the way, you don't start negotiating by telling the other side they're crap. And they're certainly no longer our 'friends' no matter how much you want them to buy our stuff - which they don't much anyway. We buy three times more off them than they buy off us which is why our economy has by far the worst balance of payments out of all 28 EU economies. More cause for optimism?
Comments
Post a Comment
Thanks for taking an interest.