129. I am far from Gruntled

I’m very pissed off.  

I am pissed off because of the reaction I have had from certain people when they learn that I voted “leave” in the EU referendum.

Still here and prepared to read some more? 

I reckon that you are thinking one of three things.  You might be thinking:

1. “Good for you, so did I,” or,

2. “You are a stupid idiot who is going to be directly responsible for sending this country into irrevocable, terminal, economic decline,” or possibly,

3. “You’re a racist.” 

Calling Brexiteers ‘racist’ seems to be the default position of that sector of the British population who voted to remain in the EU.

My reasons for voting to leave had nothing to do with race or immigration but everything to do with a return to democratic processes, self-determination and regaining our sovereignty.  

I accept that in many parts of the north and east of England, immigration was the most important and the dominant factor in the debate but not all of those opposed to further uncontrolled immigration are necessarily racist.  

Like it or not, freedom of movement in the EU is a huge issue.  Theresa May has accepted that this is the case by declaring that curbing migration from the EU will be a “red line” in Brexit negotiations.

I am not actively engaged in politics these days. There was a time when I was, but that was when I was 17 and too young to vote.  Fired up by a fervour quite uncharacteristic of me before or since I leafletted and canvassed for the Labour Party in the run-up to the general election in October 1964.  

In the autumn of that year, I rode around Lowestoft on my Vespa scooter for three weeks before the general election, festooned from wheel to wheel with posters reading:  

RON ATKINS

LABOUR

I became quite caught up in it all.  I went to hear a speech given by Lord Carrington, the Leader of the House of Lords at the Technical College.  Then, the Sixth Form of my school was given an afternoon off school to go to Battery Green to hear the Prime Minister, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, standing on a rickety platform, address a sizable crowd.

I went out canvassing every evening and, having learnt policies and ideas almost by heart, informed electors about the economic planning, growth and jobs based upon changes in science and technology that the Labour Party would introduce.

Ron Atkins was beaten by Jim Prior, the sitting Conservative candidate in that election but he was successful in Preston North, two years later.  

I always voted Labour in every subsequent election until May 2015 when I realised that there was no way I could be part of a movement that was promoting Ed Miliband as Prime Minister.  

I think that I care just as much now about social inequity as I did when I was 17 but I have come to realise that any impact that I, as an individual can make, is ineffective.  The main problem that I have with hard-left politics and socialism in particular nowadays, is that it just doesn’t seem to work.  

I can’t think of any successful country that is run on socialist principles.  If socialism is so great, why have nearly 50,000 Cubans fled and entered the United States in the past year and why do many more of them attempt to migrate south to Honduras and Central America on rickety rafts?

The nearest thing we have to a serious political party espousing socialist ideals in this country (at the moment) is the Communist Party.  However, these days that party always fails electorally.  The last elected Communist politician in the UK (a local councillor on Fife Council), resigned this year.  

In the election last month to elect his successor, the Communist candidate received just 86 votes.  That was 3.1% of the votes cast and only 0.86% of the total electorate in that constituency.  

In the 1973 election for Fife Council, the Communist’s share of the vote was 91%.

My engagement in politics now is confined to the ballot box.  Until this year, I had never voted for a winning candidate or cause in any kind of election - not even for the captain of my cricket club’s first team.  Historically, a vote from me has guaranteed failure or disappointment.  I have always supported the loser.

I started to write this post a day or two after the result of the referendum was announced.  I have completely rewritten most of it. The response from a total stranger to a comment I made on Facebook, has made me realise that passions are too strong and irrational for sensible debate.

I have a Facebook “friend” who on Friday, June 24th wrote:

“Am upset with you GB but glad that 99.9% of my friends feel the same as me.”

I responded to that with:

“I must make up the 0.1% because I'm delighted.”

And then, because she is a schoolteacher and had posted her comment at 11.30 on a Friday morning when I know she should have been working, I added,

“Aren't you supposed to be at work at 11.30 on a Friday morning?  You can't copy Spanish siesta behaviour now.”

One of her other friends on Facebook, who does not know me at all, replied to my comment with this:

“I have been nice so far in this referendum.  Not being able to vote myself, I have tried to put the facts forward while not calling people from the other side "uneducated untravelled bigoted racist ignorant twats" or worse.  Well, that's something that this referendum has definitely changed. 

You are an ignorant racist bigoted twat and I'll be taking my £20K yearly contribution to the UK treasury back to France, because after 12 years continuously contributing to the economy of this country, I feel betrayed angry and my heart is sinking.  You don't want me here to pay your pension?  Then go fuck off!!”

That reaction is quite extraordinary and disturbing.  Never mind his poor punctuation, as he is French after all, but I find it somewhat ironic because the main factor that made me vote the way I did was my desire for us in the UK to return to true democratic processes, including the freedom to vote as I choose.  

However, I don’t think that the schoolteacher and her rude friend have to worry about it yet.  Even though the result was fairly conclusive, the level of hysteria being displayed by some of those who voted to stay in the EU is only going to increase.  

It won’t surprise me at all if all kinds of dirty tricks are used to thwart leaving.  

Actually, I won't be surprised if we don't leave for several years.  I don't think "they" will let it happen without a huge fight.  I’ll only believe we're out when we really are out.

I still follow events in the Cayman Islands where we lived from 2005 to 2010. Three leading churchmen there, including an Anglican Bishop, have recently announced a joint campaign to “a return to biblical values”.  A centrepiece of this campaign is to disavow “alternative lifestyles”.  That is their way of saying that same-sex marriage should never be allowed in Cayman.

Many Caymanians are very sensitive to criticism of Caymanian ways by UK nationals.  A Cayman commentator on the topic, anticipating a barrage of condemnation from the UK, wrote that we in the UK are in no position to criticise the religious leaders’ view as we in the UK are mostly hypocrites.  He pointed out that more than 17 million of us are racist, showing that we are racist by voting to leave the EU.  How dare he put forward such an opinion!

On the 18th of June, just five days before the referendum polling day, I was phoned at home by a polling organisation to ask how I intended to vote in the referendum.  

I have always distrusted opinion polls.  Asking random people their opinion about something they may never have thought about will often lead to errors.  

I told the researcher that I would certainly answer his questions but first, would he mind telling me the name of his MEP?  He couldn’t.  He didn’t know what party his MEP represented either.  I asked him to name just one MEP.  He couldn’t.

The day after that phone call, a YouGov poll told the country that 44% of the electorate would vote to leave the EU and 42% would vote to stay.  I assume that my vote contributed to those results and was among the 42%, but what the pollsters didn’t know was that I had lied to the researcher.  I had sent off my postal vote to leave some weeks earlier but I told the pollster that I would be voting to remain.  

I am a little ashamed to say (no I’m not) that misleading that polling company gave me an inordinate amount of pleasure.