1. The election was won by the Tories because people in the “Labour heartlands”, those areas most affected by austerity, voted for the party which caused the austerity in the first place.
2. Almost 2 million more people voted for pro-remain and second referendum parties than voted for pro-leave Tories, DUP and Brexit Party combined.
3. Elections are won on simple slogans which avoid any clarity on the underlying issues. Get Brexit Done and the 2016 referendum slogan Take Back Control are misleading. They imply a single event, when the reality is a lengthy process of change.
4. Trump’s first reaction to the election result was that he is looking forward to a very lucrative trade deal between the US and the UK. No prizes for guessing which side it will be lucrative for. Watch out for the NHS
5. The Internet is a wild west of fake news. Social media has played a huge role in influencing the election outcome. Facebook and the comment forums of the anti-EU tabloids are full of fake news and misleading statements.
Somebody quoted this from the Yorkshire Post:
“The people of this country must never again be asked to navigate a maelstrom of misinformation in order to decide who will govern them.”
I agree completely.
6. People in the UK have never been told by any official sources about the benefits of EU membership. When people know so little about the EU, what are they to believe? Do they know for example, that under EU law they can claim hundreds of euros as compensation for delayed flights, or that they are eligible to apply for regeneration funds for their area?
This has allowed the right-wing tabloids to publish endless misleading and often plain wrong information about the EU. Boris did the same when he was the Telegraph’s correspondent in Brussels in the early 1990s.
The billionaire offshore owners of these newspapers are well aware of the EU’s policies against offshore tax avoidance.
7. The so-called “fair and impartial” BBC has become the mouthpiece of Tory Leave. Every day the BBC sent out reporters to interview voters. I have followed the election quite closely and have never seen a single set of interviews in a remain-supporting area.
8. Boris Johnson’s history of not being truthful continued. He said that with his withdrawal agreement there would be no checks on the new border down the Irish Sea, while his Brexit Secretary and every trade lawyer say there will be.
He evaded the press throughout the election campaign. He has a reputation for not reading his briefs and has made racist statements in the past. I still wonder what people see in him.
9. Proportional representation voting systems are much fairer
In the UK first past the post system the Greens got 1 MP with 2.7% of the vote, the LibDems got 11 MPs with 11.6% of the overall vote, Labour got 202 MPs with 32.1% and the Tories got 365 MPs with 43.6%.
Also, in this system most people’s votes don’t count as so many seats are heavily skewed to Labour or Conservative.
The UK has no written constitution. Recent events have shown what happens when conventions which are not legally binding can be ignored.
10. Although we will be technically out of the EU by 31 January 2020, Brexit will not have gone away by then. David Cameron called the EU Referendum to settle disagreements about the EU within the Tory party. These will almost certainly continue as will other opposition to Boris’s plans.
All forecasts show that the further the UK diverges from EU regulations, the greater will be the downturn in the economy.
Boris has said he wants to stay close to EU regulations in his proposed new trade deal with the EU. Mrs May said so too, and put this in her withdrawal agreement. Boris removed it in his revisions to Mrs May’s withdrawal agreement. You have to ask why.
He is now faced with a difficult a choice, whether to stay close to EU regulations, which will keep his new voters happier because it is more likely to create jobs, or to diverge and deregulate which is what the right-wing ERG MPs (and Trump) want. It was the ERG who scuppered Mrs May’s deal, ultimately leading to the election. This group is big enough to make life difficult for Boris in Parliament just as they did for Mrs May.
11. Corbynism and Momentum do not have enough support to win an election. Key figures around Corbyn are pro-Brexit and I sense he has been pushed around by this group.
Plenty of people will analyse the last few years in British politics. I think they will conclude that Corbyn has considerable responsibility for the UK’s departure from the EU and the consequences.
But Corbyn has been vilified by the right-wing press for years, far more than seems fair to me.
I’m afraid you’re preaching mainly to the converted, Susan. Those who *should* read this are too busy absorbing the drivel put out by the Mail, etc. We note that the pound has dropped sharply since Boris’s decision to enshrine the drop-off date of 31 December 2020 into law!
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Hi John. I agree with you but I wanted to get my thoughts down. I have been trying to goad people on the Mail, Sun etc using various nicknames but only ever get down arrows or insults in response. I really think No Deal was only ever the plan, but Boris has got himself into a hole over this with his new voters. I just wonder how Cummings will try to spin it once job losses really start. But Boris has only ever been interested in Boris.
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