Brexit

I've not written about this disaster here before, mostly because trying to make sense of it has been ludicrously difficult. But here it goes, my tuppence worth:

What a fucking calamity.

I don't care what side of this debate you fall on, unless you are deliberately ignorant of reality, or stand to make an absolute fortune, there's no way you can be happy with the way things have gone. No deal will please anyone, not entirely. The current, and only deal on offer, pleases people less than no deal at all, which has also been rejected. This leaves extension or not leaving.

Now, leaving aside my preference (remaining) for now, I think we can all agree that this whole project has been a complete catastrophe from the beginning. A move made solely to sort internal Tory party issues, the referendum (which was a non-binding advisory vote, essentially and opinion poll) ended up with that failing miserably, and "Call Me Dave" Cameron doing a runner (despite promising otherwise). In the almost 3 years since, the Tories running this shit-show have repeatedly lied, shown to be beyond incompetent, tried to bribe the sort-of ruling party in Northern Ireland (and have that not work), ignore Wales entirely, told the Scottish to essentially stay out of it, and kept themselves in control of the biggest decision since the War whist refusing the input and advice of all other elected representatives if the people, and have repeatedly acted like all they need to do is appease a handful of backbenchers who appeared from nowhere and demanded to be treated like they matter.

All the while, the UK has hemorrhaged the following:

• Money
• Businesses
• Services
• Respect
• Credibility
• Any form of strength and bargaining power 

In return we have gotten:

• Theresa Maybot
• Jeremy Hunt's ever expanding sales catalogue
• X amount if Brexit Secretaries
• A country in the grips of Austerity, which is supposedly over
• The possibility of the IRA returned
• £1.6b in possible bribes for English towns

I despair.

Frankly, at this point I think our only real option is to call the whole thing off, make some headway into repairing some of the damage the Conservatives have done to the Union and then see where we stand. Should the stomach still be there to face Brexit, then perhaps that is an option to revisit properly, starting with a legally binding referendum and perhaps some stronger regulation on the dissemination of facts during its campaign, and maybe with an actual plan or two at the ready, backed-up by some research, if it turns out that Brexit is still wanted. Maybe it might be an idea, should there be a next time, to have all of those elected involved in the process, instead of a bunch of cowards with 80's power poses.

For those of you wondering why I'm not advocating an extension, it's really quite simple: what will that get us? Nothing but a few more months of the same useless hand-wringing and posturing. That's if the other side are willing to even give us extra time to score more own goals (did I use that football analogy right?).

If you need me, I'll be looking up flight times from Baikonur...