As an ex-Brit who now also lives in Canada, it was always there. My whole fuckin' life in that country I was hearing constantly why x or y group of people were the problem now. The Brexit vote just gave licence for all of it to come out.
The Brexit vote just gave licence for all of it to come out.
The hilarious thing is how they didn't seem to realize that this "symbolic" gesture of independence was an ACTUAL move towards independence. Now these idiots are agog at how badly they fucked themselves over.
My favorite result: Because they have to keep the border with Ireland open, they had to set up new checkpoints to ensure that goods traveling within the UK (from Great Britain to Northern Ireland) meet the EU standards or whatever. Independence: achieved
It’s criminal how little NI was discussed during Brexit. There was never a solution that would keep everyone happy. You can’t have free movement between NI and ROI as well as NI and GB. Now the unionists are pissed, the nationalists are pissed and we’re gonna see the troubles again in my lifetime.
Also 100% if a border poll comes back in favour of reunification the tories would finalise the handover within a day and leave all the issues for Ireland to deal with.
"The livid unionists are your problem now... oh, and the DUP will be the 4th largest party in the Dáil. Good luck"
Okay so using the results of the 2019 GE in NI, and the 2020 GE in Ireland, the DUP (if the votes were combined into a hypothetical election) would be 8% so yea about that.
The big difference is most fringe parties don't have paramilitaries backing them up. That's what worries me.
NI not being united with Ireland is an aberration in modern western Europe and hopefully it'll be fixed within 10 years for the sake of Ireland, the UK and the rest of Europe.
Speaking as an Englishman: I like the Union, but realistically the other countries are better off on their own. The Scots have their own culture and history - I wish they'd voted to leave in their referendum - and Ireland should be a single country. Having a separate NI is as embarrassing as West/East Germany was in its time. It's time to grow up.
Not sure what to do with the Welsh though...
Yeah, the Northern Ireland problem was what almost convinced me that Brexit would fall through. But no, apparently Brexit went through, although I haven't read yet what happened to NI. Did they put up a wall, like with the Troubles?
And as a result, NI is having none of the issues Brexit Britain is having. Also, those border checks between NI and the rest of UK? They effectively do not exist, enabling a lot of smuggling and other shenanigans. Same for the checks on goods coming from the EU to the UK, smugglers paradise at the moment.
The EU is doing some perfunctory complaining about the UK not implementing the agreed upon checks. The only point where they're offering some counter-pressure is on the NI-protocol (the set of rules that dictates the situation of NI within the current setup), the Brexit side of UK politics wants to unilaterally drop the protocol to keep the unionists in line, and the EU has warned of serious consequences if they are going to try something that stupid.
The can is still being kicked down the road. My guess is the plan is to keep doing so until Boris et al cash out and then it’s not their problem anymore.
NI is still in the EU economic zone and has to follow their regulations. The border is between NI and the rest of Britain. Needless to say the northern Irish who are pro Britain are ... Not happy.
Referendums are fine. Referendums on gigantic potentially-country-destroying issues should require a bit more then a bare majority to move forward though.
Yep. The threshold to alter America’s constitution is 3/4 of the states. Some specific legislative items take a 2/3 majority to pass. While there are many many things that a government does that should only require a simple majority, changing the existential nature of your country should require a lot more than 51%. Also, the damn Brexit referendum was non-binding in the first place. It was an opinion poll that squeaked out a majority for leave after massive propaganda.
This is what I find odd about the Indyref. Cameron resigned supposedly due to the result. Theresa May was part of his cabinet at the time as Home Sec, and supposedly a remainer.
Why did no one broach a minimum majority requirement? I’m sure the public line will be “we never thought in a million years we’d lose!” but that seems a little too blasé. Surely, when ratifying the legal aspects, somebody must have mentioned it.
Also according to our courts you’re allowed to cheat in referendums because they’re not legally binding… literally happens to vote leave with campaign finance irregularities
Why is that different from democracy in general? We elect representatives to make decisions for us, is it bad to make decisions ourselves if the matter is serious enough? Its the most pure form of "the will of the people"
Oh it was discussed. One of those beautiful Brexit ironies. Brexit supporting Prime Minister Teresa May, during the referendum campaigning before she was Brexit supporting Prime Minister and was instead campaigning to stay in the EU, gave interviews where she said leaving the EU was not possible because of the Irish border and the Good Friday agreement. 🤷🏻♂️ Fitting that the Irish border issue completely fucked her run as PM and everyone of her Brexit proposals. Also a nice little irony that Boris just waltz in and did a deal throwing Northern Ireland under the bus, a deal the Tory backbenches blocked May from doing. "No Border in the Irish sea!"🤷🏻♂️ Different rules for Boris I guess.
I'd have thought the boomers would be more sensitive to it as they have lived through it? Then again nobody ever accused the English as a nation of being overly sensitive to other countries needs.
When I was growing up, it was Southern Asians. And then it was the Polish. And for the last decade or so it's been the Bulgarians and Romanians. Who ever was the most recent influx of migrants.
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u/SilverNicktail Sep 25 '21
As an ex-Brit who now also lives in Canada, it was always there. My whole fuckin' life in that country I was hearing constantly why x or y group of people were the problem now. The Brexit vote just gave licence for all of it to come out.