The EU Referendum
The EU Referendum
Well ladies and gentlemen: today is a crucial one for the future of the United Kingdom. Please give this matter your most careful consideration, and be sure to vote. Your opinion does count!
I think I know which way our favourite author would have jumped, but who knows what the right choice will turn out to have been, with the benefit of hindsight a generation or two from now?
Regardless of the outcome, I wish the old country well, and hope it proves able to make the most of whatever decision is reached. I will be following the results with keen anticipation.
All the very best.
Cibator
(Note that I preferred to use a more formal title than that rather horrible term "Brexit Vote".)
I think I know which way our favourite author would have jumped, but who knows what the right choice will turn out to have been, with the benefit of hindsight a generation or two from now?
Regardless of the outcome, I wish the old country well, and hope it proves able to make the most of whatever decision is reached. I will be following the results with keen anticipation.
All the very best.
Cibator
(Note that I preferred to use a more formal title than that rather horrible term "Brexit Vote".)
Fas est et ab hoste doceri
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To bring this thread back to Wheatley-land, I really wonder which way DW would have voted.
He loved Europe, with its wines and individual cultures, and had strong views on how it should be re-organised post World War II - as evidenced by some of his War Papers reprinted in Stranger Than Fiction.
He also had a strong regard for the Romans and their organising ways and the enlightened (?) stability they brought to their provinces - although perhaps he would have enjoyed things less if he had been a Briton at the time.
On the other hand, he hated bureaucracy - as evidenced by the little slip he had to have inserted into copies of Saturdays With Bricks to remind readers there were such things as Planning Regulations.
My guess, overall, is that he would have been an 'Outer', because he would not have liked the way in which U.K. Law was subjugated to E.U. Law - but I am genuinely unsure.
Your views ?
Cibator - do you believe DW would have been a Brexiteer in current circumstances - ?
As I say, I'd be most interested in your thoughts. What a pity DW isn't around so we can ask him .... unless of course we ask the Duke de Richleau to summon him back from the beyond as he did with Tanith ...
He loved Europe, with its wines and individual cultures, and had strong views on how it should be re-organised post World War II - as evidenced by some of his War Papers reprinted in Stranger Than Fiction.
He also had a strong regard for the Romans and their organising ways and the enlightened (?) stability they brought to their provinces - although perhaps he would have enjoyed things less if he had been a Briton at the time.
On the other hand, he hated bureaucracy - as evidenced by the little slip he had to have inserted into copies of Saturdays With Bricks to remind readers there were such things as Planning Regulations.
My guess, overall, is that he would have been an 'Outer', because he would not have liked the way in which U.K. Law was subjugated to E.U. Law - but I am genuinely unsure.
Your views ?
Cibator - do you believe DW would have been a Brexiteer in current circumstances - ?
As I say, I'd be most interested in your thoughts. What a pity DW isn't around so we can ask him .... unless of course we ask the Duke de Richleau to summon him back from the beyond as he did with Tanith ...
Charles
i think charles that your points sums up not just how DW would have felt but a lot of people now feel, and not just the british either.
most of us love being european but not at the cost of our national identities. the ever increasing attempts to create a single european identity is a big turn off for a lot of people across europe. something i have to say that up here in scotland does not seem to have been noticed.......yet.
the bureaucracy is merely a foundation for the standardisation they are trying to achieve.
although i did eventually vote to remain it was the first time in my voting life that i could not see a clear path. my attitude became one off, if i thought we could change it i would stay in, if i thought the uk would change i would leave. i can't see that either is likely mores the pity and that was the dilemma.
hope this doesn't come across as a rant
DW imo would have been a brexiteer with relutance. many of his stories point to close relations with europe, and indeed some even with a close resemblance to the four freedoms causing all the chaos at the moment. if his writings reflect his point of view then i think he would have been looking for a deal along those lines. no political union, but keep the four freedoms.
tough one to call though, it is a very complex argument with many nuances.
most of us love being european but not at the cost of our national identities. the ever increasing attempts to create a single european identity is a big turn off for a lot of people across europe. something i have to say that up here in scotland does not seem to have been noticed.......yet.
the bureaucracy is merely a foundation for the standardisation they are trying to achieve.
although i did eventually vote to remain it was the first time in my voting life that i could not see a clear path. my attitude became one off, if i thought we could change it i would stay in, if i thought the uk would change i would leave. i can't see that either is likely mores the pity and that was the dilemma.
hope this doesn't come across as a rant
DW imo would have been a brexiteer with relutance. many of his stories point to close relations with europe, and indeed some even with a close resemblance to the four freedoms causing all the chaos at the moment. if his writings reflect his point of view then i think he would have been looking for a deal along those lines. no political union, but keep the four freedoms.
tough one to call though, it is a very complex argument with many nuances.
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I love Europe too. I'd rather read Zola than Dickens and I'd be much happier grazing tapas and drinking Rioja in the Iberian peninsular than eating a scotch egg on the Edgware Road.
However, coming to a decision about the referendum didn't present me with much of a dilemma: I voted 'Out', am happy I did so, and wouldn't hesitate to do so again...and my foreign-born wife did the same.
If the EU was the principled and well-intentioned brotherhood its supporters make it out to be, I would have cast my vote differently. But it's not: It's a ghastly amalgam of German corporatism and snooty French Jacobinism- a cruel and mercenary vanity project for and of the elites.
And I think DW would have voted to leave with an alacrity that exceeded mine.
However, coming to a decision about the referendum didn't present me with much of a dilemma: I voted 'Out', am happy I did so, and wouldn't hesitate to do so again...and my foreign-born wife did the same.
If the EU was the principled and well-intentioned brotherhood its supporters make it out to be, I would have cast my vote differently. But it's not: It's a ghastly amalgam of German corporatism and snooty French Jacobinism- a cruel and mercenary vanity project for and of the elites.
And I think DW would have voted to leave with an alacrity that exceeded mine.
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- Level5
- Posts: 146
- Joined: Sun 21 Oct, 2012 15:20:17
- Location: London