Dear UK voters, I understand that 48% of you voted to say that you think that the job I have been doing on your behalf, since last May, is a complete waste of money...
the job I have been doing to improve the lives of animals across Europe, to defend human rights in other countries, to promote good practice in farming, fisheries, and energy, to support research opportunities and to improve transport across Europe—including this country...
You, the 48%, think that this job I have been doing is a complete waste of money. You think that it is enough to look after our own people and animals, and play no part in helping others to do the same.
You wanted me to lose my job and with me my six lovely parliamentary assistants who help the people of my region when they write in to me with their worries,
My six wonderful assistants and trainees who help me to find the right information to inform my interventions on human rights crises in Russia, Hong Kong, and the Amazon. You wanted them to lose their jobs too.
The man who manages the building where we rent an office: you want him to lose that rent. The phone company from whom we rent our phone lines, they'll be losing that. The printers and designers who support our work in the region.
Never mind. It was all worthless wasn't it? We didn't need to work on a study on how to develop green energy in the Eastern region and build a circular economy. You're happy, because the 48% won again and we lose our jobs which you didn't want us to be doing.
But thank you 💚💚to the 52% who voted the other way. The 52% who voted for parties who would have given us an extension and time to ask the young people who didn't have a vote in 2016 whether this EU thing really was all worthless, or whether we were actually making it better?
The 52% who voted Labour, or Green, or Lib Dem, or SNP, or Plaid, or Sinn Fein, or SDLP or Alliance—parties who would have asked the people whether they'd prefer still to keep their Green MEPs (or their Labour, Lib Dem, SNP etc MEPs) speaking for them in decisions in Europe...
Those 52% of voters did not win, because they weren't in the right place for their votes to count. So in January we shall lose our jobs, myself, my six Green MEP colleagues, my three SNP colleagues, my fifteen Lib Dem, nine Labour, one Plaid and many other colleagues...
We shall lose our jobs, and with us over 400 assistants here in the UK and in Brussels. We'll do what we can to help our staff to find new positions. But the personal tragedies will not be healed. These people dropped what they had been doing, hoping to heal the world.
Thank you 💚 to the 52% who thought we should not give up on that grown up collaborative European project in foolish haste, just at this moment when, above all, we need to work across borders, find a solution to the climate crisis, and avoid putting up walls to silence the cries.
Thank you to the 52% who voted for a future for us in the UK as a group of islands in close friendship with our neighbours, as a nation inclusive of Scotland, of Northern Ireland, and one that cares deeply about the Republic of Ireland.
Thank you to the 52% who didn't vote to get Brexit done. And no Mr Johnson, you do not have a mandate from the "people" to get Brexit done. In fact your party secured the votes of less than 44% of those who voted. And 32% of registered voters didn't bother to vote at all.
So does the UK want to leave the EU? I think probably not. 🙄
