Dad why are you smiling.

I’m playing that mind training game. My brain age has been assessed as 28.

I take that it’s 28 months and not years then Dad.

Consider my brief basking bubble has been officially burst.

I was listening to a chap on the radio basking in the news that Brexit has moved a step closer. In his bubble this is wonderful. The new deal our great PM has negotiated is brilliant. Billions been taken away from Europe and will be given to our NHS and schools. Taxes will come down. Businesses will boom. Wages will rise on the back of all these wonderful new trade deals. For our country and our kids I really hope his bubble is not burst. I really do.

I wish I was in this Brexit bubble – but I’m sadly not. This brilliant deal is based on two dubious principles.

  • A Customs Union Border in the Irish Sea splitting the UK in two with Northern Ireland effectively staying under EU trade rules. Bizarrely our PM said last year that this idea would be a disaster and no Government could ever sign up to it. Equally bizarrely our Foreign Secretary has said the arrangement will be a great deal for Northern Ireland. Staying in the Customs Union is a special deal. Ok so why is this special deal not been given to Scotland, Wales and England. Oh yes I forgot that would mean staying in the EU.
  • All the important negotiations on trade and relations with the EU will be done after we officially leave. Basically we would have 14 months from leaving to sort this out. So basically we leave without known on what basis we are going. But here’s the rub. Here’s why many on the Right love this idea. It gives the Government the right to leave with no deal. Just have to wait 14 months then thy can blame the EU. That’s the crash and burn strategy many on the Right have always wanted.

The bottom line is this new Brexit Deal is a BAD DEAL which was rejected last year. Rejected even by the team pushing it now. It’s a Great Deal for the Rich and a BAD DEAL for the rest of us. Again I hope I’m wrong but deep down I do fear for the future. No I don’t think the Country will go bankrupt. Life will continue. But it will be worse. We are not in a strong bargaining position for the new trade deals. Any deal with Trump will mean opening up our NHS to his big business friends. To compete the Government wants Britain (now Northern Ireland remains effectively in the EU) to move to an economy which is based on low wages and zero regulations. Where the drive is for tax cuts and profits for the Rich. Our wages are going to fall and our worker rights are going to be eroded with no safety net of public sector support.

But apparently I’m missing the point of Brexit. One of the biggest supporters of Brexit has said ‘Brexit was never just about the money’. That’s easy for you to say when your not exactly short of a penny or two. But ok point taken. Let’s look at travel rights. Britain’s will lose the right to travel freely in 26 countries and will not benefit from free or discounted medical cover in those countries. That’s not so good. One of the first actions of Brexit will be to scrap EU regulations on Food Standards, Environment Protection, Freedom of Speech, Workers Rights, Maximum weekly working hours, Maternity and Paternity Rules. The rules designed to protect us. Thats not good either. But hang on let’s not forget we get a different coloured passport with no mention of Europe on the front. Unfortunately last time I heard the new passports will be largely produced in the EU. But let’s celebrate having a blue passport, so much nicer than that red one.

For my sons sake I really hope I’m wrong. I really do. But at the moment I’m clinging to the hope that this new deal is rejected. Yes in an ideal world I would like to stay in the EU. The EU is certainly not perfect but it’s a whole lot better than the current alternative. But if we do go then WE still have time to do Brexit right. Just agreeing to keep Freedom of Movement would make a huge difference. And yes in our little bubbles we can still have our Blue Passports.

45 thoughts on “Bubble burst”

  4. I have never had a passport. I’d bet most Americans haven’t. Even traveling to Mexico for the day (I live near the border) no passport is needed. When I was in Canada for 3 days, no passport.

    Sorry, I know that’s not the point. I dont know why Brexit was passed. It seemed like xenophobic BS from the little bit I did read.

    28 months😂😂Good one! I love your son’s humor!

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  7. I completely agree with you. Our current PM tricked the country into this precarious position and now he comes along with an awful deal acting like he is a hero and delivering the will of the people, well not my people that’s for sure.

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  8. Loyalists have said there’ll be violence if the deal goes ahead. IRA will bring violence if Northern Ireland has a hard border. And it won’t be limited to island of Ireland if history is anything to go by. People will die if Brexit goes ahead. That’s my biggest fear.

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    1. Johnson doesn’t care. Just as bad are the handful of Labour MPs who honestly think they can trust the PM. At least Johnson is doing what we expect of him. Those Labour MPs are selling the people they are supposed to be looking after down the pan.

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  9. Even at a brain age of 28 that still makes yours over twice as old as your son’s brain!

    We just have to accept the fact that he has you licked Sir – lets hope he picks a nice nursing home for you! 😉

    I realise that it is only an illusion that the smarter elite like to have you believe is real, but Britain is a ‘democracy’ where supposedly the majority get to decide what is best for the country and you elect people to represent your views on just how that is to be achieved so that one government can be formed to plan and provide for the best possible path to achieve those wishes of the majority.

    That’s the theory.

    Frequently hijacked by the fact that our elected representatives are:
    1 – told how to vote by a minority of power-brokers in the ‘party’. and
    2 – are funded by, and spoken to by, lobbyists for commercial interests far, far more so than they ever are by any individual British citizen. (For example see: BoJo and the owner of JCB Contracting – Baron Bamford)

    If the people of Britain really wanted to have the government they wanted they would be going to see their local representative MP’s and holding them personally to account for not following the wish of the majority and letting them know very clearly that they would not be being re-elected at the next election unless they picked up their ‘game’.

    But, of course, that ain’t ever going to happen, – apathy and individual differences rule – which is what our MP’s rely upon. As long as they can keep us sufficiently divided (and that ain’t hard – just pick another new topic to split us up over) all will continue as they wish it to.

    I think i might about have lost my ‘bet’ over Brexit, but it hasn’t happened just yet. 😉

    Let’s see what November brings shall we? 🙂

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      1. Possibly more people than ever before feel alienated and many will look for scapegoats.

        The mass media, social media are happy to supply ‘ammunition’ or petrol to the fires and increasingly we see more and more politicians all too eager to take advantage of them.

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      1. nobody was ever asked to give an opinion on Johnson’s vision. Or anybody’s. Johnson is just an opportunist, as May was before him, who thinks that they are the Pied Piper and that we will follow them as soon as they pay a tune.
        But by the same token, how many so-called progressives have acknowledged that the EU has its own problems? You can count them on the fingers of 0 hands!
        A bad situation all round.

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      3. I do see some positives here though because a lot of the trouble stems from first past the post, where people think that 50%+1 support equals 100% of the spoils. I’m reassured to hear people now questioning that. Brexit is one thing but how we are represented is, to me, a bigger deal

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      5. Absolutely. Cameron has a lot to answer for. He didn’t think he could lose so was complacent. It was a dumb question because it left so much ambiguity. And we should have announced that there would be a deal on day #1. The uncertainty that people have felt is disgusting. This could have been handled so much better.

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  14. Brexit has been a complete shambles from beginning to end… Not that we’ve reached the end of this mess yet. And now we’ve come alnost full circle with Johnson trying to claim credit for accepting the deal that the EU proposed three years ago.

    As for the blue passports: There is nothing that prevents any country from issuing blue passports. Maybe this whole thing could have been avoided if someone had thought to ask the Croatians where they get their passports printed.

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