Have protestors really taken over the UK. I think not. One of the biggest sources of extremism and anti-democratic politics was the 2016 referendum to leave the EU.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68451333
The referendum as it was organised was a case of democracy being ignored. Decisions should have been made based upon facts rather than falsehoods and appeals to emotion. A referendum should reflect the long term views of more than substantial majority of the population, thus a two thirds majority should have been the starting point for a debate about whether to leave or not. During the referendum debate the polling was so close that that "the majority " in favour of leaving or remaining was changing day by day. Had the referendum been taken on a Saturday rather than a Thursday the result could have been different.
Now that we have seen the mid-term results of the leaving the EU, which show that most of the promises of Brexit have not been delivered and even immigration has gone up: Brexit is faltering. Brexit is turning out to be a failure. we are now in a position where a substantial number of leave voters have changed their minds. The latest polls are showing that 58% of those polled wan to re-join the EU. though this majority is not two thirds of the electorate. Most voters in the referendum wanted to remain in the single market or the customs or both, because they saw it in the best interests of our country even though we would leave the EU.
It occurs to me that the swing in favour of a leave vote was caused by the infamous poster promulgated by the Brexit party which pictured thousands of people of middle eastern origin heading towards the UK frontier to "legally" invade our country because we were going to remain in the EU. The leave campaign was substantially based of xenophobia and dare I say it racism. They were stoking up the fear. Most leave politicians , from the left and the right, did nothing to counteract the xenophobia of the immigrant poster, let alone condemn it. Many racists and xenophobes felt that the referendum gave them licence to become active.
The referendum also divided the UK , two of its nations chose to vote to remain in the EU. The Scottish people are un-happy that their views were ignored. Worse still, the open border arrangements between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic are now a contradiction because of Brexit
It took a court case for the UK parliament to show responsibility for leaving the EU. Parliament was legally required to decide whether to leave the EU or not. They bungled it. The British people voted to leave the EU, but they did not vote to leave the single market or the customs union. Parliament decided eventually to vote to leave everything, which was against the economic best interests of the country. Staying in the single market would have resolved most of the problems of the Irish border. It would also have solved the problems of British and EU citizens having to obtain visas for longer stays and work.
The British economy needs workers. The single market meant that free movement, of labour, allowed the UK to tap into a cohort of workers who were both young and mobile, and who in the main did not bring family members with them. EU workers are no longer coming unless they have a really important reason. The new economic situation now means that the UK must attract workers from the far east and south east Asia. These workers have to pay to come here so they are entitled to fair treatment and should be allowed to be joined by family members. They have the right to expect this. This means that immigration has increased substantially as a result of leaving the EU. Because of the rise of xenophobia many of these immigrants are resented by the indigenous population. The government has decided that that there are too many family members joining immigrant workers, so they are increasing the minimum wage requirements to allow family members to join their loved ones; this is effectively preventing thousands of workers coming with their families. Our workforce could be substantially be reduced because of this. The UK need foreign workers, why stop them coming by leaving the single market or imposing punitive visa restrictions?
What is the UK parliament doing about the failure of Brexit: nothing? Members of Parliament are too embarrassed to talk about the Brexit failure that they voted for. They have got no ideas about how to exploit Brexit, even if it was possible. They have left us with a divided nation which is becoming increasingly xenophobic and intolerant towards immigrants and asylum seekers .
Human rights are being ignored in favour of MPs making personal attacks against one another rather than concentrating on improving the living conditions for all of us, whether we are Jews, Muslims, Christians, atheists or asylum seekers, and whether we have dark skins or light ones. Most protestors do not want to overthrow the State. Soon they may not have to, as the State could be be slowly destroying itself with divisive and weak politicians looking in the wrong direction. That is Brexit for you.
Referendums can lead to dangerous consequences. We all have the responsibility to watch who and what we are voting for.
