🧵OH had that bloody documentary about Johnson on last night. I know some of you will totally understand this. I can’t tell you how much anger I still have inside me when I remember those traumatic events around the EU ref. 1/ The lies, the bile, the xenophobia, the sheer incompetence, the back stabbing, the disgusting bedfellows that previously normal people suddenly had. It changed politics, it removed all sense of honesty and honour from the political landscape in the UK. 2/

I lived in mid Wales for many years. For a few months we had to make a regular drive between Newtown and the hospital in Swansea as my OH was having to see a consultant. The shortest route was 88 miles and took over 2 hours. All routes went through a series of towns. 1/ The reason was, infrastructure connections between north and south Wales are still decades behind England. 2/

So first of all how many people is that? Can’t be that many as the total population is only 2.8M and secondly how many of those come under the contemplating category? If 50 come and the rest only contemplate then that’s very very different to 50 contemplate and the rest come 🤷🏼‍♀️

https://twitter.com/peston/status/1587022236065697796

This all seems like some spin to frighten people about foreign criminals. If you follow immigration experts here you will know that the consistently say a very high proportion of asylum claims are found to be legitimate and subsequent allowed.

It’s so depressing that we have come back to summer 2015 when the press and media are full of provocative headlines and language that allow the dehumanisation of the poor souls who risk their lines in boats. I guess we never left. Empathy appears to be in very short supply. What would make you all leave your lives and families even if you aren’t happy with your income or your house or your job, and risk your very existence in a leaky boat? You would have to be desperate right? Absolutely desperate. It’s unimaginable.

If Only - the government since 2010

If only we could appease the ERG we could be a progressive government
If only we could blackmail the EU with our departure , they will agree to anything we say.
If only we could get rid of the EU we could be kings of the world! 1/ If only we were out of the EU you could have cheap shoes
If only you hadn’t believed us we would know what to do next.
If only we could get rid of immigrants we could give you a house
2/

The EU is facing many difficulties, but Brexit isn't one of them | Lorenzo Codogno theguardian.com/commentisfree/… “Now, the extra paperwork puts off firms that lack the critical mass to absorb the extra fixed costs of handling non-EU trade procedures. Over time, the situation may well improve, but some companies have already given up. British consumers have paid the price,”

I have been in Spain for about 18 months. Nobody Spanish ever mentions Brexit to me except in relation to bureaucratic procedures. My neighbours have never mentioned it. It’s certainly not an oft discussed media topic. 1/ The only people who talk about Brexit are the British communities here whose lives have been made complicated and difficult by the whole thing. For example there has been no agreement to date on swapping of driving licenses for Brits. 2/

In 2017 I wrote ‘how can it be settled when everyone wants something different?’. This still feels like a relevant question. The oven ready deal appears to be not what they wanted after all. Did the words in the deal magically appear altered to different people? 1/ Others want special treatment for their industries. Fisheries got stuffed, it’s not what they voted for! Farmers got stuffed, they wanted something else and now they want special visas and will need help to stay in business. 2/

What they promised on red tape and what they have delivered instead to the British public on red tape #BrexitReality #BorisJohnsonMustGo 1/3 Johnson is very clear in this article from 15th April 2016. He claims that being a member of the EU was holding British business back like a jailer with its red tape … 2/3 euractiv.com/section/uk-eur…

“It is Johnson who sets the tone.”
@campbellclaret spot on with this.

The attitudes of those at the top of any organisation always filter down through the management layers and if allowed to persist will also affect how people at the bottom act. 1/

theneweuropean.co.uk/brexit-news/we… The danger is the moral vacuum spreads and infects people. If the prime minister tells lies to get himself out of trouble, why should someone junior bother to tell the truth. If the cabinet are doing a shitty job why should their advisers be held to account. 2/

What we have seen under Tory government - in no particular order and not comprehensive

- thread

1. Interfering with report on police corruption connected to a murder
2. Windrush scandal
3. Wholesale damage to British import/export industries because of brexit 4. Wholesale removal of people’s rights through Brexit
5. Mistakes leading to higher covid death toll than necessary
6. Austerity impacting millions of lives
7. Appalling Brexit outcomes for farming, fishing, finance.

Lots of people saying Labour are right to stay silent on Brexit, that people need to feel the pain or something. That’s easier said than done for those who have spent years proudly building their independent businesses, creating jobs, creating tax revenue, collecting vat, 1/ putting homes up as collateral to raise the money to invest in the future for themselves, their staff, their families and their communities, working all the hours god sends for years, doing without to get their companies through bad patches. 2/

I totally agree with this very well expressed piece. At the core of brexit was always that willingness amongst too many supposedly mature people to blame the problems they saw with things like housing on the Eastern Europeans in particular that came to the UK. 1/

https://twitter.com/kacidama/status/1365622076279836673

In fact the statistics never support this age old narrative that getting rid of the foreigner will make things better. An influx of young ambitious immigrants can even help to revive local economies which are struggling due to the demographics of an ageing population. 2/

https://twitter.com/redalphababe/status/1231171665054359552

On the issue of how quickly a rejoin campaign takes a hold, well I think it depends on a lot of things - no idea why people are so absolutely positive it’s the wrong thing to do straight away!

Let’s see how quickly people get fed up with cabbage for dinner again! Thread 1/ It didn’t take more than a few months to turn a small group of people from not caring a toss about Eu membership to turning the EU into the devil incarnate in their heads. Enough people to get leave over the line I mean. 2/

Trump has been allowed to get where he got to because people who knew better, for political reasons, went along with him. To oppose self serving lies and manipulation requires hard plain truths from politicians. If that doesn’t come from an opposition where does it come from? I am extremely troubled. There are already severe problems in cross border trade apparent. We have lots of worms yet to wiggle out of the can. Who is going to call all this out as it occurs? There is no real fix to any of it outside the sm/cu without reducing rights.

I have no issue facing the fact that we have been unable to stop Brexit from happening but no amount of desperate self delusion spouted by MPs will hide the fact that Britain has damaged its own prospects by leaving the biggest trading bloc in the world!

https://twitter.com/tomtugendhat/status/1344314720795451403

There is nothing in the short or medium term that can make up for the financial hole that this government have led the UK into. The EU is not going to fall apart it will only get stronger. To abandon the privileged position of being a powerful voice inside it was stupid!

Kelvin Mackenzie’s tweet just goes to show that the only weapon for brexit extremists to retain their power base is hate - the spreading of hate. They lost all the rational arguments. These are the same people who wanted to use wave machines to repel dinghies with human beings. They are the same people who told lies about the city of Liverpool. They are the same people who wanted to cut money from disabled people. They are the same people who don’t approve of feeding deprived children.

Thanks to the ridiculous general election we have a government who are delivering nothing but mess mess mess! I don’t care what any of you say it was absolutely the right thing to fight for a second referendum and parliament should have supported that instead of damaging the UK!

https://twitter.com/nicktolhurst/status/1339925498059776000

It was the only pathway to returning to a level headed sensible politics! I hope there are politicians and ex mps who will genuinely search their consciences and understand the bad choices they made in indulging the English nativist brexit fiasco with their indifference/support

I keep hearing a naive argument from Tory MPs & their cheerleaders that no deal won’t affect so many businesses but they are being completely dishonest about the realities of business in the 21st century. We are all interconnected and rely on the overall health of the economy 1/ Those companies who export are directly affected - if they lose business

1. they lose jobs
2. They stop investing
3. They pay less tax
4. They spend less in their GB based supply chains which in turn leads to 1-3 in those companies
2/

So many parts of this totally outstanding. But mainly it reminded me why we started organising in earnest in our communities in 2018 and got behind a second referendum. We recognised that the push from government was from the start always going to lead to this precipice. 1/

https://twitter.com/monicabeharding/status/1337685600145731587

There was never a soft Brexit option and as we learned more and more about the nitty gritty it was a totally pointless option anyway. The strings were being pulled by the ERG, the tail was wagging the dog. 2/

The brexiters journey in gifs

Boris Johnson in referendum campaign - 2 speeches After he has chosen a side