Brexit vote is making UK a laughing stock abroad, says Tim Farron
Source: Guardian
The UK has become a laughing stock abroad since the vote to leave the EU, the Liberal Democrat leader has said.
Giving a speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) in Manchester on Wednesday, Tim Farron said malevolent forces were seeking to hijack the result of the referendum and that the vote had not been an endorsement of Ukips politics.
Weve been made a laughing stock abroad, he said. Weve had to watch the shaming pictures of Nigel Farage sneering on our behalf in the European parliament. Farron said people abroad were increasingly associating the UK with figures like Farage, the former Ukip leader. When Nigel Farage gets up to speak in the European parliament its noticed by very few people here, but its noticed by pretty much everybody on the continent, he said.
Last week, Hillary Clinton, the US Democratic presidential hopeful, condemned her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, for sharing a platform with Farage, whom she described as one of Britains most prominent rightwing leaders.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/31/brexit-vote-nigel-farage-making-uk-laughing-stock-abroad-tim-farron
LeftishBrit
(41,190 posts)What a mess it all is!
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,773 posts)That way the vote is not a "do-over", but people do get to vote more seriously on the issue.
There were a lot of really stupid people -- unfortunately most of them young who will have to live with the results -- who voted Exit thinking that it was safe to do so because of the polls.
There was also another lot of stupid people who were mostly ignorant and thought UK Conservative austerity really originated in Europe so they voted Exit.
T_i_B
(14,734 posts)They are the ones who voted to leave in large numbers. Usually out of spite towards foreigners.
And yes, I live in an old coal mining area and there were a large amount of people blaming the EU for the decline of the coal and steel industries, in spite of all evidence to the contrary.
There were issues with the campaign to remain (and I should know, I campaigned for "Stronger In" , chiefly the failure to explain to people what the EU actually does and how it works. People just don't have any idea what being in the EU single market actually entails.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)So your shitting on young voters is completely wrong.
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,773 posts)Many of them wanted to snub Cameron and thought they could send a message about globalism because the polls forecast an Stay vote. They think of globalism as income inequality but actually that is a result of Conservative austerity and favoring the upper class. In fact, young people are all for the results of globalism: cheap devices, creative interaction, good music, continental romance & travel, racial mixing, employment mobility.
Hannah Jane Parkinson
Millennials had the lowest turnout in the EU vote yet its our future at stake. Something must be done to make politics more accessible and engaging
{...} assuming Brexit does actually happen we shall be denied free movement.
When polled before the vote, 73% of young people supported remain. The young will have to live with this decision the longest. It is we who take up the benefit of being part of the EU most readily, travelling and working abroad; we who have grown up with friends of different nationalities; we who define as European and global citizens (this does not negate Britishness); we whose eyes have been opened via the Erasmus programme; we for whom the only true border that exists is a poor Wi-Fi connection.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/28/young-people-bad-voting-millennials-eu-vote-politics
They want to be molly-coddled, as if politics isn't already accessible.
T_i_B
(14,734 posts)Also, the elderly are more likely to be the ones actually doing the political activism as they tend to have more time on their hands then folk of working age.
And we have an ageing population in the UK, which means that UK politics has become about mollycoddling pensioners rather than helping the working man.
MicaelS
(8,747 posts)Pensioners came from? I am willing to bet most of them were blue collar workers. Or are you saying they don't count because they don't work anymore?
T_i_B
(14,734 posts)....They really are not too bothered about the blue collar workers that have come after them, just as long as they get their own pensions.
Oh, and many of them really don't like immigrants and are more worried that today's blue collar workers aren't always white English. Now personally I don't care where you are from just as long as you can do the job, but that's not a fashionable viewpoint in 2016.
pampango
(24,692 posts)or a new general election out of fear that it will be defeated.
Must be nice to think you have the power to negotiate such an auspicious international agreement and have it take effect upon your signature without any parliamentary or democratic review of the details of the agreement.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/03/britain-general-election-before-article-50
NBachers
(16,998 posts)Angel Martin
(942 posts)calamity and economic doom if the people of Britain dared to rise up against "the great and the good" and vote for Brexit !
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,773 posts)Angel Martin
(942 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(48,773 posts)The over-reaction downward may have an over-reaction back up.
But though the stimulus from the Bank of England helps, stimulus does have long term costs. Sometimes they are necessary, but BrExit was never necessary or advisable.
T_i_B
(14,734 posts)Our currency is tanking, race hate crimes are skyrocketing, funding is being pulled from higher education and infrastructure. And the worst is yet to come.
Currently the only hope many people are grasping at is that the government won't ever get round to triggering article 50 due to the complexity of the whole operation and inability to negotiate a deal that won't kill off UK industry.