Friday 1 February 2019

Politicians and the B word

I've been reluctant to say much about Brexit for the last six months or so simply because it's been so unpredictable that had I of typed something up then within six hours it all would of changed again and in some ways that uncertainty has been a real drag around it whatever you might think about leaving or the many ways people have suggested we could.
Equally I know pretty much from "insider" emails at least one national political party has amongst it own supports made no bones about preventing the referundum result and the election of government with a mandate to achieve it from doing just that.
Their take seems to be one of "We the politicians know best" and yet it was those Mp's who give us that question to decide.
Indeed a quote from former Labour Prime Minister Blair suggested that as elected politicians spend more time in the commons, then they should do what they think rather than what it is we, the voters instruct them, in elections and the like.
Is it so so surprising that  public dissatisfaction with politicians is as high as it is when they feel actually they don't spoke for them nor act on what it is they bring to the attention of those who are elected?
The other thing is very few politicians have  worked in everyday fields or even those was past member of all parties have such as doctors, teachers, engineering and agriculture but instead have spent their time from 4 1/2 to 24 in Education and then chasing doing political research positions.
How much does that person really know about the world of work, commerce, education and healthcare in its widest sense?
That's why I can't buy this notion of Mp's being uniquely qualified about those things around brexit that have proven so difficult and regardless of how you voted damn taxing such as how imports and exports work, the way the single market works (and why the EU sees moving people in the same light as moving goods) and that chunks of it go on the basis a resumption of full sovereignty political count for at least as much as the economics and they also include medium to long term potential advantages and disadvantages as well as the short term.
It's taken over forty years for trading patterns to change from where we were before 1973 and those changes bought advantages as well as disadvantages so it seems upon leaving it may take time for those to change and as before it will be swings and roundabouts.
It is possible to grow many fruits and vegetables here but as things were there was little commercial interest as the supermarkets source cheap supplies from Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands but if they were to be potentially more expensive then we may see more UK produce being grown and stocked on the shelves.
Sometimes I think because some are so used to life as it is now with the EU, they don't see how life can continue without it as I'm sure no one who voted to leave simply wanted to disengage with the people in Europe so much as they had issues with how the EU was run.
We'll see if talking with the EU about the 'backstop' really achieves anything or this will run and run to the eleventh hour before being finally resolved.

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