This isn't Brexit
Most people, when they wake up on Monday morning, won't be thinking about brexit.
They'll be thinking about getting the kids up and ready for school, if possible without a fight. They'll be wondering if they've got enough care organised for their elderly parent so they can go to work to make the money to pay for the care that keeps them from going mad when they're stuck in the house all day. They'll be wondering whether the boss will text and tell them they're not needed that week, which will leave the household short of cash and cause a lot of problems with the 'social' and the tax man. They'll be waiting for the post to arrive, just in case that appointment they need at the hospital has finally come through.
A lot of people didn't vote in the brexit referendum or the last general election - about 28% - in many cases even more - and probably won't vote in future elections, not because they don't care but because there's only so much a person can do.
They might overhear a conversation or a radio report during the day and wonder vaguely if anything is going to happen this week with brexit, because they've been aware of well-paid MPs in Westminster fighting like cats in a sack - and very publicly on TV - over the last two years and more. Brexit hasn't changed their view of politicians, merely confirmed that they are all the same: living in a different world, being paid large amounts of cash by people who struggle to keep a roof over their family's head, and delivering nothing for ordinary people.
I'm reluctant to add to the anger of voters like this, but I want to point out what's going on now isn't brexit. Brexit doesn't start until the UK leaves the EU.
Then we'll find out what tariffs there will be on food coming in from abroad, what we'll have to pay for visas to visit the EU, what jobs in the UK will be lost as investors, scientists and manufacturers give up and move to other countries.
And that's just for starters.
There are going to be all sorts of problems around matters we haven't even thought of because we're so used to working in the EU, which for 40-odd years has smoothed our way in the world, making imports and exports easier, making travel easier, allowing us to take advantage of the extra clout we have because we're part of a 'gang' of 28 countries.
The big issue for a lot of people should be the loss of EU funding to some of the poorest, most neglected areas of the UK. There's a bit of rumbling going on already, as people who voted to leave discover the EU for them is not about the idealism of the people who founded the organisation. It's about cash. It's not about maintaining racial purity by keeping foreigners out. It's not about protecting national laws from EU interference. Nobody cares if your cucumber is straight or curved.
Every country in the EU pays in and every one of them gets money back but the EU directs where the additional funding should go and it's normally to areas of greatest need (including Wales, north-east England, south-west England, etc), so the people in the UK who will be hardest hit by leaving the EU are the very people who voted to leave.
Just read that again if you would.
The UK government has already started playing silly b*ggers with EU cash. The sum of £160 million that should have come to Scotland for farming in 2018 has gone to England. Michael Gove (ever the friend of Scotland - sarcasm alert) admitted it but didn't change it.
So what do we do? Maybe we should watch what politicians in Westminster are saying. One of them has already said it may take 50 years for the UK economy to recover from leaving the EU. That's two generations. So if you have grandchildren, they won't have the same standard of living as you and neither will their children. (And that's not taking Tory Party 'austerity' into account). The same politician also said this was a price worth paying. Is that acceptable to you? If it isn't, maybe we need to re-think how we're voting.
It seems a lot of the older people (over 65s) who voted to leave the EU - 60% of them voted leave - have died since the referendum, and have been replaced by younger people (aged under 24). 80% of these younger people voted to remain in the EU.
We sometimes comment on the radicalisation of young people in Scotland since the establishment of the Holyrood parliament. I remember when I noticed a change in attitude among young people in Scotland. During the 2007 Holyrood elections, I was working in Ayrshire. Young people were everywhere: leafleting, talking to people in the streets and shopping centres. On election day, they were out directing people to the polling stations. Some, but not all, were SNP.
To me, the message to take from this is simple: if you don't like the direction government in Westminster is taking, do something about it.
They'll be thinking about getting the kids up and ready for school, if possible without a fight. They'll be wondering if they've got enough care organised for their elderly parent so they can go to work to make the money to pay for the care that keeps them from going mad when they're stuck in the house all day. They'll be wondering whether the boss will text and tell them they're not needed that week, which will leave the household short of cash and cause a lot of problems with the 'social' and the tax man. They'll be waiting for the post to arrive, just in case that appointment they need at the hospital has finally come through.
A lot of people didn't vote in the brexit referendum or the last general election - about 28% - in many cases even more - and probably won't vote in future elections, not because they don't care but because there's only so much a person can do.
They might overhear a conversation or a radio report during the day and wonder vaguely if anything is going to happen this week with brexit, because they've been aware of well-paid MPs in Westminster fighting like cats in a sack - and very publicly on TV - over the last two years and more. Brexit hasn't changed their view of politicians, merely confirmed that they are all the same: living in a different world, being paid large amounts of cash by people who struggle to keep a roof over their family's head, and delivering nothing for ordinary people.
I'm reluctant to add to the anger of voters like this, but I want to point out what's going on now isn't brexit. Brexit doesn't start until the UK leaves the EU.
Then we'll find out what tariffs there will be on food coming in from abroad, what we'll have to pay for visas to visit the EU, what jobs in the UK will be lost as investors, scientists and manufacturers give up and move to other countries.
And that's just for starters.
There are going to be all sorts of problems around matters we haven't even thought of because we're so used to working in the EU, which for 40-odd years has smoothed our way in the world, making imports and exports easier, making travel easier, allowing us to take advantage of the extra clout we have because we're part of a 'gang' of 28 countries.
The big issue for a lot of people should be the loss of EU funding to some of the poorest, most neglected areas of the UK. There's a bit of rumbling going on already, as people who voted to leave discover the EU for them is not about the idealism of the people who founded the organisation. It's about cash. It's not about maintaining racial purity by keeping foreigners out. It's not about protecting national laws from EU interference. Nobody cares if your cucumber is straight or curved.
Every country in the EU pays in and every one of them gets money back but the EU directs where the additional funding should go and it's normally to areas of greatest need (including Wales, north-east England, south-west England, etc), so the people in the UK who will be hardest hit by leaving the EU are the very people who voted to leave.
Just read that again if you would.
The UK government has already started playing silly b*ggers with EU cash. The sum of £160 million that should have come to Scotland for farming in 2018 has gone to England. Michael Gove (ever the friend of Scotland - sarcasm alert) admitted it but didn't change it.
So what do we do? Maybe we should watch what politicians in Westminster are saying. One of them has already said it may take 50 years for the UK economy to recover from leaving the EU. That's two generations. So if you have grandchildren, they won't have the same standard of living as you and neither will their children. (And that's not taking Tory Party 'austerity' into account). The same politician also said this was a price worth paying. Is that acceptable to you? If it isn't, maybe we need to re-think how we're voting.
It seems a lot of the older people (over 65s) who voted to leave the EU - 60% of them voted leave - have died since the referendum, and have been replaced by younger people (aged under 24). 80% of these younger people voted to remain in the EU.
We sometimes comment on the radicalisation of young people in Scotland since the establishment of the Holyrood parliament. I remember when I noticed a change in attitude among young people in Scotland. During the 2007 Holyrood elections, I was working in Ayrshire. Young people were everywhere: leafleting, talking to people in the streets and shopping centres. On election day, they were out directing people to the polling stations. Some, but not all, were SNP.
To me, the message to take from this is simple: if you don't like the direction government in Westminster is taking, do something about it.
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