In her 18 Xmas speech, HM QE2 avoided Brexit entirely (she did mention Commonwealth), in the "BBC balance" interpretation of Royal obligation to be politically neutral. We can speculate on meaning and intent. But it got me thinking about requirements for reconciliation. Thread.
Leavers would need due consideration and political action on the discontents that drove their vote. E.g. redistribution, investment in communities whose public services have been eroded. Creating + opportunities: vocational training, education. Community-building and integration.
Parties can help by recruiting talent from outside the Public School - Oxford PPE - Spad conveyor belt. Westminster can help by letting serious £ move to regions. A decade of austerity has also left a sense that working people absorbed the consequences of moral hazard in City.
Remainers would need truth for reconciliation. A Europhobe press and revolving-door pols would have to come clean about decades of peddling Euromyths. Full investigation of the Leave campaigns' 16 referendum shenanigans and punishment of any personally attributable crimes.
Upcoming Brexit debates in @HouseofCommons should begin with declarations of interest and relevant transactions. Which Remain MPs take EU pensions? Which Leave MPs have shorted £, divested from UK, started EU subsidiaries of hedge funds? See it, say it, then it might be sorted.
With A50 clock running down, UK debate must return to a common ground of reality for reconciliation to be grounded in truth. Leading pols of Lab, Con must stop making myths about renegotiation, economic impact, the NI backstop, citizen's rights, immigrant-blaming, Dolchstoss.
Any attempts to reconcile the country must include consideration of divergent, genuine needs, wants:
of 48% as well as 52% (of '16 Leave voters)
of all 4 nations of the UK
of @BritishInEurope and @The3Million
of businesses (yes, even the City) and the Many
The UK includes us all
of 48% as well as 52% (of '16 Leave voters)
of all 4 nations of the UK
of @BritishInEurope and @The3Million
of businesses (yes, even the City) and the Many
The UK includes us all
It has been argued that a #PeoplesVote would be divisive. It very well could and probably will be. It will happen under intense time pressure if it does. But if HM The Queen's plea is taken in a spirit of truthful reconciliation, a People's Vote could help start the process.
Reconciliation cannot consist of simply gaining a majority for one side, and the other forever shutting up about it. Too much is at stake.
Addendum on future relationship of UK with the EU. Reconciliation also means, whether UK stays or leaves, a serious debate about what this will look like. If staying, UK must discuss future position on further integration, helping to solve Eurozone tensions, refugee crisis.
If leaving, UK must include EU in circle of truthful reconciliation. Leave prep docs have emphasised the pervasive importance of grown cooperative mechanisms with democratic neighbours to the UK. Yet some Leave rhetoric has invoked EUSSR, echoes of Nazi Germany. UK must decide.
You can see where my sympathies lie. I think no Brexit can overcome UK's current divisions. But work of reconciliation is far from complete even if the emergency brake is found and UK remains in EU.
#Leavers, #Brexiters, what would truthful reconciliation require for you?
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#Leavers, #Brexiters, what would truthful reconciliation require for you?
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