No March Or Protests Here
Referendum Result in Blackpool Voting District 23 June 2016
Total Number of Ballot Papers Counted : 66,959
Total Number of Votes Cast in Favour of Remain : 21,781
Total Number of Votes Cast in Favour of LEAVE : 45,146
Against a flood of contrived outcries over the Government's Prorogation of Parliament what is it that elected representatives of the people don't get from the outcome of the 2016 Referendum ? The closer this Government inches to the legal date by which the UK Leaves its Membership of the European Union - the more frenetic the angst is being expressed by those determined to negate the outcome of a national Referendum from which 52% determined their desire to see Britain remove itself from the EU.
What even is more remarkable are determined efforts of certain Conservative MPs to side with Labour, SNP and Liberal Democrats to bring down a Government of their own Party - raising the spectre of putting Corbyn and his Shadow Cabinet into Downing Street with the support of quisling Tories. Just how the Conservative Party has permitted this state of affairs is in and of itself a tolling of the death knell for the Party. Equally the Labour Party has a leadership which finally came off straddling the fence of a will they/won't they screenplay on Britain's departure from the EU. The Corbyn and co three year soap opera playing out both in Westminster and on talk shows of any available channel eager to gain the latest soundbite from a cast of not necessarily impressive characters.
Then of course there is the sight of a failed former Tory Prime Minister sidling up to a triage of plaintiffs in Court to negate the Johnson Government's perfectly legal move to prorogate Parliament's sitting. Not only is this depressing but confirmation that the Conservative and Unionist Party as we knew it - has lost its way completely. No less are the hysterical cries of latest Leader of the Liberal Democrat Party - decrying prorogation of Parliament and attempting to force through the courts a legal judgement that denies the Government of this country right to take actions it deems necessary. Neither Liberal nor Democrat - just what does this Party actually stand for in 2019? If anything other than a wayward band of naive do gooders seizing any opportune topic of the day to gain air time with the big boys. Sad.
Then there is the Labour Party, representing a very substantial number of constituencies in England where the Referendum results overwhelmingly rejected continuing UK membership of the EU. Blackpool being high on the list of Voting Districts by percentage 'NO' ballots. Gordon Marsden - our Brighton Parliamentary commuter; and Paul Maynard hanging on to the retirement belt of north Blackpool take note.
The SNP are hell bent on pursuing an independent course for Scotland - a one track pony determined to break the Union whatever the cost. With the most unhealthy population in Europe and dependency on voted transfers of capital funds from the UK as a whole - it is laughable that the Sturgeon show has managed to sell the independence lemon (albeit an emotive one) to patriotic Scots. Withdrawal of UK institutions and facilities from north of Carlisle to retrench to Cumbria and north eastern communities - is likely to render SNP management impotent. NHS services, national passports and new currency requirements being just tip of a huge fiscal iceberg requiring implentation by the Scottish Parliament - whilst bereft of further national subventions from England. Good luck I say.
Net beneficiaries will be swathes of northern England struggling to gain their equitable share of the national exchequer. And rightly so. Scotland's loss is to become England's gain: reinstating the border across the narrow neck of this island's geography; recognising further what Rome's legions found necessary north of Berwick on Tweed and Carlisle.
Whatever the outcome of forthcoming parliamentary and political confrontations - this country wiill not be able to revert to 'business as usual and punch above its weight on the world stage'. This threadbare line we have been sold over past decades by politicians now past their sell by dates has been rudely exposed through an incessant shifting of Europe's tectonic plates under the Palace of Westminster.
We have all clearly seen the puffery, ill humour and shadow boxing of this Parliament and the sooner it is got rid of the better. Speaker and all. A clearing of accounts and fresh political order looms - one hopefully that can assertively address consequences of cynical Westminster smoke and mirrors administration over past decades. Policies (by all recent Governments) that have impoverished much of the economy outside of the Home Counties and London. Calls for a new Parliament to be established away from the River Thames and those comfortable sinecures available to the few may well be heeded when the dust finally settles on this EU fault line of our politicians making. Much like other nations with a need for renewal to redress geographical and commercial preference - could we in fact see York reemerge as the capital of England, if not the United Kingdom? There will no doubt be plenty of bidders on both sides of the Pennines and Midlands - with the real estate fraternity hovering in the wings rubbing its hands in anticipation. What goes around comes around.
More anon.
