24
June. An open Letter to Boris Johnson MP
Dear Boris and
your fellow Brexiters.
Congratulations. Well done. You’ve won the vote to take us out
of the EU. I hope you’re proud of yourselves.
As I write this the pound is in free-fall, financial markets have
crashed, billions have been wiped off the value of British companies, the Prime
Minister has resigned, the Scots look set to reopen demands for independence (who
can blame them – they voted to
remain) while nationalists in Northern
Ireland are already agitating for unification with the Republic. Furthermore, financial experts are warning about
stagflation, recession, growing unemployment and rising mortgages.
I was proud of my
20 year son, out on the streets of Hastings and his university town, handing
out “I’m In” stickers and “Remain” leaflets.
He could see clearly where his future and that of his country lay. As could so many other young people. But it was you and Farage, whipping up the
fears of older voters, that have overridden the wishes of the next generation –
a Dad’s Army of has-beens re-evoking the
spirit of the Blitz, harking back to ‘Plucky little Britain’ standing alone
against the enemy across the Channel.
But the most
egregious of your claims was that the EU is fundamentally ‘undemocratic’ and
that we were being ruled by ‘unelected bureaucrats’. Quite apart from evidence this is factually
wrong, I would urge you to take the beam out of your own eye before banging on
about the mote in Europe’s.
Throughout the
campaign you denigrated these ‘bureaucrats’,
but just look at the figures. The
EU has 55,000 civil servants managing the affairs of 28 countries. Britain has 440,000 civil servants managing
the affairs of just one.
Perhaps you were
talking about the ‘unelected’ European Commission. But every EU Commissioner is
appointed by the democratically elected government of their country. The
Council of Ministers consists of politicians democratically elected by voters
in their own country. The third tier of
the EU, the Parliament consists of MEPs directly elected by all of us.
Consider for a
minute how that compares to the democratic structure of your Little Britain. We have a wholly unelected, hereditary, head
of state. Half of our parliament is wholly unelected - in fact mainly appointed
by the political patronage of a prime minister.
And we have our main parliamentary chamber invariably elected on a
minority of the popular vote. What
proportion of ‘the people’ voted for your government? Just 35%. Meaning that very nearly two-thirds
of the electorate voted AGAINST you. Yet you still got in, with the result that
the toxic infighting within your own party has now consigned our country to
financial and political isolation.
And while we’re
talking about the ‘democratic deficit’ just how is the new Prime Minister to
succeed Mr Cameron going to be elected – or should I say ‘appointed’? Only Conservatives will have any say. Tory
MPs (who, as we have seen, a massive majority of the country did NOT vote for)
will select two candidates and then one will be ‘chosen’ by members of your
political party. And that person becomes
MY prime minister! It’s an absolute
farce that makes the EU look almost like a model of Athenian democracy.
So how are you
proposing to persuade my son, who was motivated to get out of bed and campaign
in the referendum, that it will ever be worth his while voting again? If you are going to take us out of Europe,
then Boris I suggest you start by reforming your own country’s antiquated and
utterly unfair ‘democratic’ process.
