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.
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It’s a pity to see Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, someone who often has insight to offer, shredding his credibility in @Telegraph with near hysterical claims of a Brexit miracle.
One can only imagine the ... input received from on high which persuaded him to write it.
It’s notable that Mr Evans-Pritchard’s positive predictions for relatively higher UK than EU growth depend on the UK vaccination effort being more effective, sooner than the EU’s. And on large numbers of Hong Kong migrants settling in the UK. /2.
The former remains to be seen. There’s a lot of excitable betting on the UK hare beating the EU tortoise. Let’s wait a short while to find out. (Germany vaccinated 740,000 people yesterday).
The latter is, of course, every Brexit voter’s dream. /3.
It’s truly painful to watch James Dyson delivering a hodgepodge of pure nonsense about the benefits of Brexit. He founded & leads a successful business. Yet every “fact” is wrong.
All he has left is emotion.
He must know it.
What does it tell us that he says it anyway? A 🧵/1.
He may believe “independence of spirit” & personal determination explain his success. He has both, in quantities which set him apart from most people. Yet even if it were the reason (spoiler: it isn’t), compared to the UK his business is tiny, simple & profoundly different. /2.
Sir James’s personal qualities helped him through key challenges, as the individual central to Dyson Ltd. /3.
Don’t you just love the bemused response to groups angry at the border in the Irish Sea & the lies told about it?
“But they voted for it” & “suck it up, you wanted hard Brexit, dumbos” miss the point.
There is one. Bear with me./1.
Stoking violence is completely irresponsible. Those doing it must stop.
But it mightn’t be a bad idea if the rest of the UK - not least supporters of the lunatic, hard Brexit of which we’re experiencing the early, predictably awful throes - understood what’s really going on./2.
People in NI, of whatever political, cultural or other persuasion, aren’t stupid.
They’re like everyone else: products of circumstance & their own ability to respond. /3.
Brexiters & their backers have minimal capacity to bring about EU apocalypse.
Yet Brexit’s failure, as a supposed strategic project for boosting the UK’s geopolitical & economic position, is guaranteed & starkly visible if the EU continues. /2.
Which explains much of the prevalent, increasingly shrill, emotionally needy anti-EU rhetoric. And curious features of Brexit which appear consciously to price in abject failure. /3.
Look, I know it’s too much to ask, in some cases at least, that political candidates have a passing familiarity with history or major foreign languages. But, with all due respect, you’d think someone who’s had as many opportunities in life as @LozzaFox would. But no ... a🧵/1.
Mr Fox’s call for freedom translates well into German. A cynic might say he’s aware of this history & has gone ahead in spite - or even because - of it. I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt. I’ll assume ignorance. /2.
Ah, you object, but that was about “freeing” a country from its shackles, prohibitions & evil leaders. Not a capital city. A different point, surely?