Page 73 - Phonebox Magazine October 2016

calling for a referendum, although the Germans are less keen on referenda due to the Nazi’s manipulating them in the 30’s. So the whole caboodle is in a right pickle, and not before time. I’m quite proud that it was the UK who gave them the initial kick up the bum and got the ball rolling.
I do take issue with those who belittle referenda. I didn’t notice any of them screaming about it in 1975 when the UK voted to stay in the EU, and we were misled by Heath and Wilson then most certainly. Also the argument that we were lied to about this recent one is ridiculous. Both sides were lied to. It was a political campaign. That’s what they do. It is up to us, the public, to decide who is telling the least amount of porkies, which we did. It happens in every general election, so why do we think it’ll be any different in this one.
That’s not to say that pro EU’ers shouldn’t have a whine about it. The anti EU’ers whined on for about 40 years, and they were laughed at and mocked, so why not enjoy it the other way round for a bit?
What the Remain team really need to do is to start a campaign to get us back in, just like the anti’s did to get us out. I’ll be happy to have another vote on it in 41 years. Who knows, I might have changed my mind by the time I’m 98.
A pal of mine reckoned that had the 16 - 18 year olds had the vote, then the Remain camp would have won, and that may be so. But they didn’t and so that’s that. Some of the younger people I know are really staggered by the result, but much as I like the youth of today on the whole, I do think that an occasional clip round the ear
and an early bath doesn’t do them any harm. They’ll see it was all for the best when they’re about 40. It takes until you’re 40 to realise what democracy is and that it doesn’t always go your way. You can’t support democracy and then ignore a democratic result.
And the MPs should never forget that they voted to support a referendum in parliament in a free vote. 544 of them voted for it, and 53 voted against, so it is only fair to point that out to them when they’re throwing their toys out of the pram.
I’ve taken a bit of abuse for my views on it, but I don’t mind. I’m never rude although I confess that I did call one of my good friends a ‘Pompous Arse’ on Facebook, But it’s nothing I wouldn’t say to his face as he can sometimes be a pompous arse. What I’ve noticed on facebook is that the more reasonable you are, the more abusive they become. They try to bring you down to their level of silliness. I got a torrent of personal verbal abuse shortly after the result and I just say something like “Mmmm, well, yes, it’s a point of view”...or “Good of you to add so much to a reasonable debate”...and it drives them up the wall, and in the end they give up screeching at me and go off and nd someone else to whine at.
So there we have it. That’s my view, and I hope the whole wretched club disintegrates and starts again. I might not be around to see it completed but my daughter and her pals will, and that’s what this vote was about.
I raise my glass of non alcoholic champagne to Jean- Claude Juncker, without whom none of this would have been possible.
Cheers.
October 2016 | Phonebox Magazine 73