Tagged: Brexit

I’ve been wanting to write an article on my nationality and my relationship with it in the post-Brexit age of increased English nationalism for some time – and with England in the final of Euro 2020, the time has come. There was a time when I’d watch every England game, hand on heart singing the national anthem. Nowadays, I start tournaments almost kind of begrudgingly though I quickly get into being an England fan once more as my negative associations with England as a country temporarily fade. Yet I still cannot help but feel that although I’m excited for the …

I know I should have written this back in December when people do those whole “look back” kind of things but maybe it would have got lost with everyone else posting pictures of themselves 10 years between. I did write some notes, vaguely, and it was astonishing as to just how much fun and enjoyment I had in 2019. There is so much that I am missing out here – holidays to Madrid and Corfu/Albania, two days at the cricket in The Ashes, the wonderful RA Summer Exhibition which I love so much, my leaving do at Lovespace, adventures to …

I have had enough.  And I am not talking about Brexit. The Metropolitan line has become so bad that I’m getting home close to 8pm.  Today, I was on a tube stuck outside Harrow-On-The-Hill, awaiting a platform as both northbound platforms were occupied by other trains.  Neither of which apparently had a driver.  Fucking brilliant. A good 15-20 minutes just stuck there, going nowhere, until the train finally moved, so I could then sit on the platform for a while and wait for my end destination train to arrive – which was stuck outside awaiting a platform.  Plus a bit …

“I’m a remoaner”, as Destiny’s Child may or may not once have sung.  Yes proud Remainer here – I unequivocally did not want to leave the EU and still do not want to leave the EU. But hey.  It’s happening. I see most of my remainer compadres seem to prefer a soft Brexit, staying in the customs union, staying in the single market, or even the EEA.  Hell, even one or two prominent Brexiteers do too. Sometimes, though, you have to play the long game, like the unaffectionately-known “bastards” of the 1990’s, Redwood et al, who spent 25 years agitating …

I received an invoice last month from my hosting company for £5.99 instead of the usual £4.99.  Cue an e-mail: Hello I noticed that you are trying to charge me £5.99 for hosting this month, instead of the usual £4.99. Please can you correct your invoice and ensure the correct amount of £4.99 is charged. Kind regardsJames ****** Hi James, Thank you for contacting us on the matter and apologies for the delay in my reply. I’m afraid the price of £5.99 is the correct amount of the hosting package as we have increased our hosting package’s prices by 20% …

On Wednesday, shortly after midday, the letter was submitted to the European Union that we were triggering Article 50. Shortly after 10pm, my Margaret Thatcher mug fell down and broke. Normally I would have been annoyed, but I realised that this was a sign from Planet Brexit.  This was the culmination of 9 months of being pissed off with the direction of the Conservative Party, particularly under the leadership of Theresa May. It wasn’t exactly something new.  It has been a long process of anger and loathing experienced when agreeing with people like Liz Kendall against my own party, over …

Every year I give up something fundamental in my life as a sacrifice. Last year I gave up high-5’s.  The year before I gave up trimming my eyebrows. Other years I gave up important aspects of living such as French swear words, zebra crossings, semi-colons and paper clips. If you know me, you know just how religiously I like to follow the nine commandments of the moon and giving something up for lent is my way of worshipping her. So onto this year. Well, I really want to give up recruitment consultants.  Sadly, until I get a job, I am …

One week ago today I fell out of love with my country. I have always been a passionate Brit, but also a European.  Don’t worry, I’m not about to go over the arguments for and against the European Union! I awoke at 3:45, my alarm had been set, and I switched on the internet to find Nigel Farage making some kind of victory speech.  Surely not? When the referendum had been announced, in my head it was more of a case of how much the winning margin would be.  I wanted the referendum so that we could finally put a …

I have awoken to find that the open, welcoming, free-trade loving country that I loved, has been replaced by an insular, backwards-looking nation that I simply do not recognise. Today is a victory for racism.  Today is a victory for xenophobia.  Today is a victory for lies. And I have never felt less proud to be British. This was utterly avoidable. Firstly, there was no need to call the referendum in the first place.  It was David Cameron’s choice out of party management – a need to placate those swaying towards UKIP especially after the two party betrayals from Reckless …

In the final part of my series on why I voted to remain, I am going to change tack – the other 3 posts were about how I saw the European Union affecting the country as a whole.  This is about me. I appreciate that the European Union is not perfect.  I’d like to scrap the common agricultural policy, it should have more of a pro-business focus and a reduction of regulation where possible. The Eurozone is a large problem.  Since around 2010 I’ve been arguing that one of two things needs to happen – either the Eurozone needs to …

I know it isn’t cool to admit it, but I like immigration.  In fact, I’d go so far to say that the most important aspect of being a European Union member is the right to live and work in 27 other countries (plus a couple of others with freedom of movement as part of their access deal to the single market). Had David Cameron come back from the negotiation to say that we no longer had this right, then Brexit would have tempted me. I LOVE IMMIGRATION.  I LOVE IMMIGRANTS. But I don’t want to make these blogs about me. …

For obvious reasons I didn’t post the second part on Friday as planned.  You can read part 1 on economics here if you missed it. As I mentioned last time, I may or may not respond to any comments – any blatant lies I will simply delete. So.  Sovereignty. I see polls of Conservative Brexit members in particular who keep stating that sovereignty is by far their number 1 reason for voting to leave.  But what does it mean? Travel back thousands upon thousands of years, to cavemen existence (no I’m not saying we will all become cavemen if we …

Over the course of the next week, I am going to explain why I came to my decision to vote to remain in the European Union, in possibly 5 blog posts, separated into distinct chapters. Like many, my mind was made up long before the campaign started – around a year ago for me.  There is plenty that I don’t like about the European Union in terms of how it organises itself so myself voting to leave was possible.  There was a decision for me to make. The most important part of any voting decision for myself is the economy, …

OK.  I think the Brexit lot are nutcases.  Some of them make quite lucid arguments but many are fanciful – seemingly expecting a large pot of gold just for leaving the world’s largest trading club.  Not to mention the magical sovereignty – wow.  Get in the English Channel. On the other side, the Brexiters amongst you probably think I am crazy for wanting to stay in a club with at least some democratic deficiency, possibly some corruption and some damn irritating rules that we have applied to our law book. Boris used to be one of my favourite politicians but …