Thread by @AndrewPRLevi

Many thanks for responses to this tweet 👇

I’ll add some context in this short 🧵.

First, why did I send it?

Because of widespread confusion & even delusion on two points:

(a) no one outside the UK voted for Brexit. Not Ireland. Not the EU. No one. The problems .../1.

https://twitter.com/andrewprlevi/status/1383020646423273478

...arising from Brexit aren’t for them to solve.

Claiming what you’ve messed up can’t have been you & it’s someone else’s business to clean up may (sometimes) be amusing or even charming in a three year old. Not a in national government, or .../2.

... among major media outlets & millions of adult voters;

(b) the fact two of the UK’s primary constituent parts (“home nations”) voted Remain, along with many of the UK’s main cities, including London, is highly significant. Because it’s one of the principal factors .../3.

... in a Brexit-driven destabilisation of the UK. Most obviously in the cases of Scotland & Northern Ireland. But also Wales, where the result was narrow, Cardiff voted heavily remain & independence sentiment has risen in the aftermath. /4.

And England, where many of the most economically significant centres, notably key cities including London, voted Remain. Their interests are seriously damaged by Brexit & they know it. /5.

The territorial integrity of England, not “just” the UK as a whole, is now under considerable strain.

“Vote Leave to ‘take back control’ of some left over bits of the UK” wasn’t on the side of any bus. /6.

Second, in choosing my list as I did I was trying to pack into a single tweet the essence of what’s behind the above two points.

In doing so, I probably misrepresented Wales. I hope my summary, above, puts that right. As far as is possible in just a few words, at any rate. /7.

I also left out many cities across England & the UK as a whole which voted Remain. I hope the excuse of Twitter brevity can be accepted: the cities I chose to list were intended to be emblematic. /8.

I’ve also been challenged that I could have said “parts of Scotland” voted Remain, just as I said “parts of England” voted Leave. But it’s untrue. Every single area of Scotland on the official electoral map voted Remain. /9.

Another challenge was that “some parts of the UK” voted Leave & “some parts of the UK” voted Remain.

That’s true, but not illuminating.

It misses the prospect we now face of Brexit-induced territorial break up of the UK & England. /10.

And it fails to address the (admittedly blindingly obvious) point that the UK, not the EU or any other country or organisation, is entirely responsible for Brexit & its consequences.

Mummy isn’t going to smile indulgently & clean up the mess. /11. End

P.S. Don’t @ me. Nor is Daddy. Nor, for the benefit of the Leader of the House of Commons, is Nanny. No one. Full stop.

P.P.S. I know. The 🧵 isn’t “short”. Sorry about that.