Category: Uncategorized

A Brexit Compromise?

Having been a fan of pragmatism my whole life, I have always believed that compromise is a sign of strength.  Even so, even after an exhausting 2 years of thinking, debating and campaigning around Brexit issues, I continue to be totally resolute in arguing to remain in the EU, right in the heart of Europe.  I believe this is where our interests will continue to be best served, whatever our background, whatever our place of birth, whatever the state of our bank balance.
Why, I was asked the other day, would I not be satisfied with a soft remain, in the customs union or something like a Norway-ish option or something on the lines of Jeremy Corbyn’s recent letter? 

Well the short answer is I am totally sceptical of the Leave Establishment.  The long answer is I do not believe they will ever accept such compromises in practice going forward, even if they decide to support such a thing in parliament because they see it as a way of avoiding a referendum where there is a chance the public will demonstrate the will of the people is not so much the will of the people anymore.  They will want to continue to pursue their anti-Europe instincts. 

The Brexit Glitterati such as Farage and other Ukip and ex Ukip people and the right of the Tory party have used their Euroscepticism to give themselves a platform for personal power.  In the case of the UKIP MEPS for example, they have used their positions in the European Parliament to undermine and represent British citizens in the worst possible way, not attending committees and debates which are there to develop and improve EU laws and policies for the benefit of citizens across the continent and accepting their pay and expenses for zero public service in return.  

Instead of speaking on the subject being debated in the European Parliament, they have frequently used these opportunities to grandstand with diatribes and rants against EU leaders, MEPS and Commissioners and by extension the people of those countries.  YouTube is full of these pointless and negative speeches only designed to please Farage & Co fans and backers.  They are laughing at everyone taking tax payers money in order to just shout a lot about foreigners and immigration to keep their supporters happy.  Even if reports are true and Farage and his friends have rejected the current form of UKIP which has lurched to the far right, they will attempt to keep the same negative tactics in any new re-imagination of UKIP. 
My greatest distaste is reserved for the right of the Tory party, those Eurosceptics who claim so vehemently to have hated every single second of the UK being part and helping to build one of the biggest most successful trading blocs in the world over 40 years whilst at the same time being huge beneficiaries from it at a personal level.  The level of hypocrisy amongst these kinds of politicians should nauseate every sensible thinking citizen of the UK.  In the main these people have been huge winners in a multitude of ways thanks to the power of the City of London which has grown in strength and vigour precisely because of our EU membership and the Single Market.  These MPs have chosen to use their Euroscepticism as a whip to beat leaders and PMs.  The threat to a split Tory party comes directly from this minority of people, it always has.  On the face of it they only seem to care to use their threats of 48 Letters to destabilise their leaders in order to push an anti-EU agenda, which, given the passion they claim begs the question why they haven’t the faintest idea how to implement it. Note that when it comes to it though, they suddenly find a new-found affection for “Tory unity”.  They have no confidence in their own party of government until they have confidence in it sufficiently to dodge a general election threat.

All these Brexit players have been far more interested in shouting from a distance, indulging in a kind of professional controversialist game-playing in order to build their own power.  Most of the Brexit architects have resigned or slunk away from any responsible position in trying to deliver the thing they claim is closest to their hearts.  I ask myself if I should be supporting a compromise and then I think carefully about these politicians who have driven us to this chaos.  I ask you all this question.  Do you think these people are going to give up the very addiction that gives them their sense of power?  They may well be persuaded to support some form of deal by Mrs. May.  They are far from stupid.  They understand perfectly that no-deal is a seriously damaging outcome.  They want the threat of it used to get the EU into giving them something without having to give anything back in return.   When the penny drops that won’t happen to their satisfaction, they will find some fudge to support Mrs. May. 
But then very quickly, will they not see a softened Brexit as simply an opportunity to continue to play their games?  The in-depth negotiations for some years which will follow any version of Brexit will be an opportunity for them to start pushing again with their attention-seeking agenda.  They will continue the internal party conflict they have thrived on and Labour will also continue to struggle with their own internal divisions over this.  These splits are not going to disappear or be healed by any kind of compromise Brexit.  The Eurosceptics will continue to pull away or pull apart and resist anything which even smells of moving closer again to the EU27.  It’s just a slightly different platform for them to shout from.   In the end if we agree to some form of pointless Brexit, we will have conceded ground which is totally contrary to the interests of every man woman and child of this country for what in return?  For Brexiters to simply see it as a chance to keep pulling and pulling us further back from our closest neighbours and making us give more and more of our personal rights and protections up as consumers, as citizens, as workers. 
Do I trust these people? Do I want to support a fudge?  

No I don’t and No Thankyou. . 

Too much sugar is bad for me and its bad for you too.

@redalphababe

Letter on No deal

Submitted to letters pages 6th Feb 2019



It causes me great alarm that our news reports seem to be full of Vox pops of people on the streets of the UK brushing off concerns and promoting a view that they are so fed up with the Brexit issue they think we should just fall out of our membership on the 29th March with no deal.  Even more alarming are the polls I see which imply a proportion of people selecting no-deal as a desired option think this means we carry on as we are.

It is incumbent on our MPs to explain to everyone the implications of no-deal.  If we do not resolve this in some way and article 50 is not extended or revoked, we will no longer be in any framework or treaty which we are currently a part of.  All these arrangements are the methods by which our lives are managed in an orderly, safe and fruitful way.  The issue is not so much short term disruption to things like food and medicines etc, everybody agrees there will be disruption, but that in effect we have to recreate these frameworks or make hundreds of little side agreements to deal with each and every aspect, whether it is trade, agreements on flying across Europe, management of isotopes for cancer treatments, food safety regimes, using our driving licences in the EU, replacement of an EHIC arrangement, our financial industry – an absolutely enormous industry for our economy, operator licences for trucks who work across Europe etc.  

We have spent 40 years with our EU partners developing this entire system on which our  lives and our economy are structured, and it is incredibly complex and most of us including the politicians who spent 40 years dreaming about taking us out of the EU had absolutely no conception of just how complex it is.  

This was not something imposed on  us, the EU is not us versus them.  These systems were created by US.  We are part of the EU.  Every framework that exists, that we are part of, we created together with the other members.   We have a sophisticated complex structure which has turned us into a large economy and turned the EU into the biggest most powerful trading bloc in the world, envied a and admired by other parts of the world so much so that other groups of countries are creating their own blocs with their neighbours to emulate the European project.   

The idea that this could all be simply dropped overnight without disastrous and damaging consequences is frankly bizarre.  Furthermore, we are all thoroughly fed up of the B word, but it won’t end there.  Obviously, we cannot remain in a no-deal stasis and will have to try and clear up the mess.  It will take tens of thousands  of hours of parliamentary and civil service time to set about putting everything right and putting some trade back together.   The Brexit bill is set to get longer and longer and longer whilst we are losing jobs as large companies move some or all of their operations into the EU27 to protect their margins. 
The same will be true of any kind of Brexit deal as the future relationship is really only a sketch so all the fleshing out of reality will have to be done in parliament and by our civil servants and diplomats.  Article 50 was triggered with no idea of destination or plan.  Why?  It is abundantly clear the sunlit uplands are not going to be appearing for an awfully long time  if we allow our MPs to take us down this insane path. 

@redalphababe

for an old friend.

Why didn’t you go away
Why did you Stay?
Your dream, summer warmth and a little house in France
turned into a sad game of no chance

You followed your duty

always with  grace and love and kindness
a beautiful smile fixed on your face

Your freedom denied 
but you would not have taken it
given the choice you would probably have accepted
the responsibilities
of your life 
and borne them with glee
I think you never really wanted to flee

You just wanted the choice put in your hands, to go
if you wanted to see new lands

It wasn’t to happen

you are far now in peace
Your heart lives inside us, 
your kindness won’t cease to be close to our memory 
our strength will only increase

Whether we knew you for long or for short 
Our lives have been richer to know you at all

Your life was to lift others, help heal their pain
Our fabulous angel, no more need to take the strain.
So live now in sunshine, your cottage awaits
Roses grow in the garden, Butterflies pollinate, 
in joy for your company they flutter and hover,
Bees whisper to you “don’t worry, here it’s always summer”

@redalphababe

The Bungalow.. A Brexit Allegory

I will tell you a little story.  I was offered an excellent deal once on a cute little bungalow with high ceilings and a polished carved wooden door.  It sat on the edge of a pretty village.  The sizeable plot it sat in was populated with fruit trees and grapevines and the rose bushes by the door released their scent as we did the viewing.   It was a very appealing property, with permission to extend the existing dwelling further.  

We really liked the look of it as the seller weaved ideas for us and wooed us with  his magic words.  It had so many possibilities.  We could give up our jobs and build a little business in the grounds. Perhaps a guesthouse.  The inside had evidence of damp in the walls after being empty for a few years, but with a little work it looked manageable.

The price was fair for the promises the bungalow represented,  so we had a long talk as a family and decided to buy it and  we felt happy as we looked with pleasure at the windows glinting in the sunshine of a brighter future.  

We did our due diligence,  we hired a lawyer and ordered a survey and we went on with our lives looking forward to the day when we could make our plans for the little bungalow in the sunshine. 
All was not well though.  It turns out when the paperwork was examined, and the searches were done that the house had been built without any qualified person signing it off. In fact, part of the property did not even have the planning permissions it was advertised with.  Nobody had ever checked to see if it had been built to the required standard.  The ceiling was full of asbestos, the ground riddled with rat holes.  We had no idea if it was a money pit or an accident waiting to happen.  On closer inspection still, the damp was rising, we could see light through the roof and the windows rattled in the wind. The property was worth only half of the asking price.  

The people who had wanted us to buy the bungalow tried to gloss over the problems.  They told us everything would work out just fine.  When we carried on voicing our doubts, they told us we had agreed to the purchase and there was no getting out of it.  When we still looked unhappy, they threatened us with unpleasant consequences and the ire of the vendors if we tried to overturn our own decision. There was to be no re think or second chance to consider the consequences of our purchase, they said. To do so would be overturning the will of the family, they said.  

We argued for months.  What should we do, what was a fair compromise?  Which deal was the best risk moving in as it was and take our chances with the leaky roof  or borrow some extra money to do the work?  Should we rent another house whilst the remedial works were completed.  What if it took years?   Our family was split, we even took it out on our neighbours and blamed them for making us unhappy in our current house in the first place, though actually none of us could really remember what it was about our home we disliked now we came to think of it.  Of course, our friends couldn’t understand why we were being mean to them and feeling very hurt, they drifted away from our lives.  The shifty people who tried to sell us the house looked on at the chaos smiling.  Pretty soon they would reap the benefits to their bank balance of their lies and our bad decision. 

But one day in the midst of a shouting match, we realised we couldn’t go on and that what we thought we were buying didn’t exist, it  was a dream, a mirage, an impossibility.  We might, after a lot of time and elbow grease and money be able to make the bungalow a habitable home for us in the end,  but as we looked at our existing house with it’s comforting fireplace and beautiful bay windows, it’s interesting neighbours and its proximity to the heart of a beautiful town and all its delights, we realised the price we would have to pay was far, far too high.  

We realised that with a little tweaking and renewing we could make more out of exactly where we were without having to pay any removal fees.  It was so simple,  we could just change our minds.   
To be sure we wrote out the pros and cons and risks, our existing house versus the bungalow.  Then we carefully absorbed those points and discussed them calmly, fact checked and read experts advice and then had a family vote.  The will of the family had changed.  We patched up our rows with the neighbours.  We told the shifty salespeople we were staying put,  we didn’t want the substandard bungalow anymore and we would be building a brighter better future exactly where we had belonged all along.

Do the right thing Parliament

May is busy peddling her deal, begging, cajoling, threatening, rewarding.  The government will do anything to win their vote tomorrow completely ignoring what is right for the people of the United Kingdom.
But remember, if you are tempted to wobble and fall for the terrifying Fear factor of No-deal being served up by May and her supporters, stockpiling, invisible ferries, medicine shortages food shortages, this was not what they promised you. 
Look how the language has changed over the last 3 years.  They told us it would be easy,  that we had the ace up our sleeves.  They told us time and time again that our 27 partners would fall over themselves to rip up the principles and four freedoms of the EU that we all 28 designed and built together over the years.
Leave promised unicorns, cherries, a good deal, loads of money.  It was all going to be absolutely fabulous, they said.  All that language has completely disappeared.  Even the meaningless slogans have disappeared.  No sunlit uplands here.
The vast majority of economists, experts, business leaders, academics, trade specialists all argued for remain in 2016.  How many of those people have watched what is happening and had a eureka moment that they were wrong in 2016 and that we are better outside the EU?
I don’t know of any?  Do you?  There may be some who have suggested an alternative path or discussed a compromise route because they are worried about a second referendum.  But how many actually now believe that Brexit is good for our business and our economy. Not even our government will say we are better off outside the EU. 
How many times have we had tangible measurable answers to the question, “what part of brexit will make our lives better” posed so many times by so many of us.  None.
But we have seen plenty of  tangible numbers the other way – job losses already, companies moving out, EU27 citizens voting on the xenophobia and our disgusting treatment of them with their feet, a slowdown in growth, weakening of the pound. 
The problem with brexit is brexit.  Leave politicians  cannot agree because disentangling ourselves without damage from our 40 year political investment in the EU is impossible.  The people were not promised damage.  They were promised greater prosperity and opportunity.  This is clearly undeliverable. 
Grow some courage parliament.  Tell it like it is.  We already have the best deal. We will be leaving the biggest free trade block in the world.  A model being emulated by groups of countries in the rest of the world whilst we will be consigned to years of negotiating and fixing the EU related things that weren’t broken instead of fixing the domestic things that really are.   
Parliamentarians, if you honestly can’t agree and you can’t find the courage to #RevokeArticle50 which is the most responsible and righteous path, then the only way forward is to let us decide.  
May’s deal Vs the Best Deal  #remain 
#PeoplesVote #remainoption 
/end

More for #the5million

Hail

2 years suspended
Uncertain futures
A life of broken plans
A Home with a bolt on the door
Who will slide it open?  Will they unlock it and when?
Aged old friends too embarrassed to think
Too frightened to look lest they feel the burn of personal responsibility
Sops and platitudes rain down as
cold projectiles of hail
fueling grieving resentment freezing forgiveness
Slowly dwindling to silence then distance

‘We didn’t mean you’
Too proud to admit your error
You hide behind these words with your fake tans and polished smiles
Your Marks suits and empty eyes.

@redalphababe

Movement

An open horizon beckons its hope to excited people
A reflection in the sunlight of potential new fates
Children learn languages
Parents, new skills
Beautiful girls learn words of passion whispered by lovers on strange moonlit shores
Students pack sweet memories in their rucksacks, currency for their life ahead
We can breathe in our freedom
We can drink it’s energising adventure
We pack our bags with glee undiminished by our pasts, undeterred from our future possibilities
We remove freedom from those we would punish for bad choices

yet we have done no wrong – so why send ourselves into solitary confinement

@redalphababe

Resignation letter sent October 2017

I sent the letter below in October 2017 to the Labour Party.  In view of Jeremy Corbyns insistence in an interview today that he would press on with imposing brexit if labour won an election without referring back to the people first, I checked what I had written and decided to post it on my blog page.  In fact most of my points stand, though I was wrong about one thing,  a large majority of labour members and supporters want to remain and want an opportunity for a public vote on the matter.  The level of anger I have seen today related to the guardian article below is worse than I have ever seen it.  People who I have followed who have remained with labour defending the party working for the party are feeling completely let down today.  The Labour Party must listen to them if it is not to make itself a minor footnote in the history books when they are written about the Brexit disaster. 

Here is the article that prompted my post today 

Corbyn: Brexit would go ahead even if Labour won snap election

My original letter 

Dear  Labour Party
I am sorry to say but for some time I have felt I cannot  support the Labour Party by being a member and have therefore cancelled my direct debit.  I will continue to support  Labour campaigns on local issues and local candidates where appropriate but as a member I feel very constrained to express my opinions which it seems are at odds with a large portion of the current membership. 
The contentious issue for me is Brexit.  I am 100% against Brexit – I think it is the most damaging and dangerous political direction ever taken by a British Government in my lifetime and I feel disappointingly that most of the Labour Shadow Cabinet continue to take a very weak confusing and schizophrenic line towards Brexit.    I understand in a way, Labour are trying to keep the support of hard brexiteers amongst labour voters and woo back UKIP voters and they want to honour the result – but frankly all members of a government including HM opposition have a primary duty to put the good of the country before ANYTHING ELSE INCLUDING THEIR OWN PARTY.  
Leave won the EU referendum with a very small majority which in my view simply was not a big enough majority to warrant such a  massive and disruptive and damaging change.  In addition watching the government lurch through negotiations as all the realities unravel it is increasingly obvious to anybody with a modicum of sense and logic that leaving the EU is so incredibly complex and damaging that it serves the country very poorly to continue down this extremely damaging path or to support in any way the government on this policy.  
Furthermore the long standing wholly unwarranted British hysteria about immigration which, it grieves me to say, has been spread not only on the right of politics but also amongst some Labour party voters, members and MPs has been hugely hurtful and harmful to EU citizens some of whom have been here for decades, since they were children.   This is perhaps the worst aspect of Brexit because it was fought by its proponents primarily on anti-foreigner arguments.  I actually joined the labour party in 2015 because I was extremely distressed at the growth of the anti-immigration narrative that was all over the press and TV and having always voted  Labour I thought I could support them more directly in their principles that all citizens should be treated fairly including people who have settled here from other countries.  I sense that this is not really what Labour is wholeheartedly behind nowadays and many are simply increasingly indifferent to the reality that  members of our communities in effect are being treated as second class citizens and any deal that is done will change their current status as equal EU citizens to something less.   I must be free to oppose this anti FOM narrative resolutely in the name of  family and friends who may or have already been affected and in memory of my parents who came here in the sixties as foreign migrants and started a new life here.  We, their children, have gone on to create employment and spend our working lives paying taxes and contributing to our local communities and contributing to the growth the economy.  Every serious study has shown that the story sold to some parts of the electorate that EU27 citizens have been driving down wages is false and again it grieves me that some members of Labour Shadow Cabinet and MPs have on occasion actually publicly  promoted this false argument in order to support giving up EU membership.  The anti-immigration narrative plus the shambles of Brexit negotiations unfolding has also hugely damaged our standing in the eyes of our strategic partners overseas too and HM opposition should be firm in its opposition to this.   
I run a business which since the 2008 crash has seen most of its strongest growth in sales throughout Europe – this has counterbalanced the poor growth we have seen in our UK markets in the same period.  As a small business without the single market we will see significant damage to that income stream as our bureaucratic and  export costs and complexities increase in whatever the new arrangements end up being.  The best Brexit is no Brexit from the point of view of the wellbeing of our business and the security of the local people we employ whose livelihoods depend on us continuing to remain strong and viable.   
Brexit overshadows everything else in these worrying times – no issues such as poor wage growth, housing or austerity can be addressed properly in a post Brexit UK as even just the costs of its negotiation and  implementation will be enormous without even starting to take into account the long term economic damage to our industry and business. 
After months of indecision from me about my labour membership and increasing disquiet at my personal position which is at odds with the Labour party and the disappointing lack of firm anti Brexit policy from the national party,  I feel I must follow my principle.  My money and time will be better spent not on political parties but specifically supporting grass roots/cross party Anti Brexit campaigns for the time being.   My resignation is no personal reflection on individual members I have come across who have been in the main very nice people or indeed on Welsh Labour and the work they do in the Welsh Assembly,  but I feel this is the right thing for me to do.
I wish The Labour Party the very best of luck in the future.
Kind regards
Maria del Pilar Gomez

Fawn Socks

Fawn socks, Rimmer checks 
Girls are getting it in the neck
Roll up our skirts get legs a-tanning 
Forget the pervy neighbour scanning 
Dreaming of romancing, sunshine and dancing 
In the hall Assembled,
a letter read
Complaints to be dealt with
by the head 
A Sister’s anger fills the stage 
A leader, tall, cross on a chain, all  beige 
Trying to make us all the same, maroon and bland but kind and sage 
Singing  echoes around  the walls, 
scores of crescendos, summer stalls
Hockey matches. Hitting balls, 
fearless, tackling, lots of goals. 
Important wins to keep school pride 
To keep onside 
Not be denied 
To gain respect 
The team accept
Reaching the sixth, boys in the classes 
Less supervision, more blusher,  eyelashes
Fluttering
Pretending 
To be aloof 
Gossip the currency, fitting in, the desire
Parties and music fanning the fire 
of passion 
of love’s lost  agony 
Unique to the young 
who think the world’s over when it’s only begun 
Fawn socks are gone, blandness is history 
Now to become a mystery 
But Never to be Sisterly  
@redalphababe 

Pictures from Twitter – 4 little verses

Refugees

They see swarming
We see calling
Mourning
For Histories lost
And futures stopped

Food bank

Full shelves
Empty stomachs
Frozen minds
Gurning suits look proudly on
Their creation of shame born out of patronage
Victims required for illusion of empire.

Ugly thread

Lack of care
Or hidden behind the caps of hate?
Envy and anger designed to inflict damage
Troll or bot or friendly fire?
The hurt is the same, the journey has been long
Pick the right fight
We are close to the finishing line,
Reject the ugly, embrace the goal.

Freedom of Movement

A right to live a life your own
A right to love in sun or snow
A hope and dream which can be real
No bank nor birth can stop the zeal which which we dare to start again
or try some shoes not otherwise worn

You would give that blessing away
to give mine too is not a game
It’s a pain endured, an agony, a crime
Our identity
ripped
shredded
Undermined

Our pattern pieces make sense sewn up
Torn apart, they are rags forgotten, unworn
in a drawer, an incomplete project
mothballed
abandoned
left behind
As elsewhere the future is forged without us.

You lose too.

@redalphababe

SUPPORTING A PEOPLES VOTE

As the dramas unfold in parliament, it is clear  there is no agreement amongst our parliamentarians on the deal that Mrs  May has come back with which has taken 2.5 years to negotiate and no agreement as to how to resolve the impasse.  It is an appalling deal.  We will have had our voice and vote removed completely when we should be in the heart of Europe continuing to shape it with our partners.

You cannot have the benefits without the membership fee.  You cannot shape the EU without the membership card to get you in.  You cannot have the SM and CU without embracing the four freedoms.  You cannot have the exact same benefits of EU membership, SM or CU without being members.  The other option, No-Deal, contrary to public opinion does not mean we remain as we are just not in the EU, it means we literally fall out of every single treaty and framework agreement with no arrangements going forward.  All the systems and regulatory and business-related apparatus that we rely on to manage our complex economy and public services and way of life will have to be rebuilt or remade in some form.  Either way, May’s deal of the blind future or no-deal of complete chaos, it will not be the end of Brexit.  Either option will lead to many years of arguing and negotiating and distraction when we could just be getting on with growing our economy and shaping our futures at the top table with our friends.
It is time for us all to accept that the problem with Brexit is Brexit.  After 40 years of membership, our systems of trade, of movement and, in our private lives, our mix of cross EU relationships and families  which have grown and developed are all inextricably linked.  Is that a bad thing given the enormous benefit we have seen to peace and the improvements in the protections of citizens in many areas and the fantastic opportunities that Freedom of Movement has given us and of course genuine frictionless trade with access to FTA agreements across the world beyond the EU?  Leaving is like trying to take the ice out of the ice cream so in the end it just leaves a melted lukewarm mess in your bowl.  It will leave our bank balances lower, our futures more uncertain, our public services desperately damaged especially the NHS which will become extremely vulnerable to becoming a two-tier system of more health insurance  vs a public service struggling to make the budgets work and find enough staff.  The NHS is already struggling in these areas.  Brexit will make it worse.
I agree with Chris Matheson, in his thoughtful column on the issue of Brexit recently and the dangers of no-deal and I am very glad he is not prepared to compromise by agreeing to Mrs. May’s bad solution.  There is another way.  We can choose to change our minds and remain.  There is only one way we can legitimately and fairly break this impasse.  We need to have a referendum and test the May proposition properly, a proposition which Parliament by the looks of it cannot agree on and examine the costs and the consequences and the so-called benefits to our lives.  Then we need to re-examine our EU membership by the same standard.  Then we need to decide whether May’s deal is what we really and truly want.

@redalphababe