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I noticed something very similar with the whole Brexit process. At the beginning, in 2016, it was made very clear by the Leavers that it was unthinkable that t
by adhesive_wombat 5y ago
I noticed something very similar with the whole Brexit process.
At the beginning, in 2016, it was made very clear by the Leavers that it was unthinkable that the UK would end up outside the single market and without a free trade deal with the EU. "No Deal Brexit" was called a scaremongering fiction and was promptly dubbed "Project Fear".
Once May invoked Article 50 in early 2017, it became clear that the softest Brexit possible would be harder than even the hardest Brexit countenanced by Leavers during the referendum.
Suddenly, the whole debate pivoted to a whole new one, where No Deal was renamed Hard Brexit: harder than any outcome mentioned in the referendum. Then, it was continuously repeated that people had, in fact, voted for that Hard Brexit.
It was very strange, and I felt like I was taking crazy pills as the options were redefined, it felt, almost overnight, and it seemed everyone just went with it.
- mcphage 5y agoNot being in the UK, I was surprised that the referendum was specified as being non-binding, but once the vote happened, politicians spoke as if they had a moral obligation to implement the result. Which seemed ludicrous, given the final result was 52%/48%—and who know what it would have been had the referendum been specified as binding beforehand. I'd certainly vote differently on quite a few measures if I knew the result was supposed to matter.
- adhesive_wombat 5y agoLeave even said it first: > In a 52-48 referendum this would be unfinished business by a long way. --Nigel Farage [1] [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36306681 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-3630668...
- mcphage 5y agoAnd "unfinished business" seems like a good description for it. It's close, so some investigation needs to be done—what do people want, why do they want it, what can we get—but smashing head first into a brick wall doesn't seem the best next step.
- adhesive_wombat 5y agoIt's not even that Remainers were universally happy with the EU in all aspects. No one thought it perfect. If it had gone 48-52 the other way, it wouldn't have been a remit for adoption of the Euro, entry into Schengen and full integration into an EU military.
- rvieira 5y agoRelated to Brexit (but more with the "Freedom fries" angle) Morrisons tried to rename "Brussel sprouts" to "Yorkshire sprouts"[0]. [0] - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/morrisons-brussels-sprouts-yorkshire-brexit-supermarket-freedom-fries-a9259341.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/morrisons-br...