Is Britain Heading For A Period of Civil Unrest?

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I quite like that term, ‘civil unrest’. It sounds like a contradiction in terms doesn’t it? It sounds like you are going to politely hit somebody over the head with a baseball bat, which seems somewhat implausible really. “Pardon me sir, I need to hit you over the head with this baseball bat. I so hope you don’t mind too much”. How can you be ‘civil’ at the same time as participating in a revolution or a riot or something of that ilk?

“Excuse me, my good man. Would you mind awfully if I just twat you around the head with my iron bar? Thank you ever so much, sorry to trouble you”.

Anyway, odd terminology apart, it really isn’t looking good in Blighty.

Beliefs, opinions and guesses are holding sway over democracy and, if social media is to be even vaguely believed, the proverbial ‘shit’ is about to hit the fan.

You see, reasonable debate hasn’t just ‘gone out of the window.’ Reasonable debate has packed its bags, hitched a lift on a passing star cruiser from Sirius and gone off for a few decades of wandering around the universe – and not, necessarily, our universe either.

The Brexit ‘Remainers’ and the Brexit ‘Leavers’ are now firing on pure hatred for each other.

If you wandered into a pub and recognized somebody you got along fine with, and decided to have a chat about Brexit from your point of view as a ‘remainer’ or ‘leaver’, and this person you got along fine with happened to be on ‘the other side’, the likelihood is they would, if you were lucky, empty your beer over your head.

If you were unlucky, the likelihood is they would stick their glass in your face.

The British have this tradition about being ‘slow to anger’ – well, having been to Millwall Football Club as an away fan supporting Oldham Athletic, I am tempted to dispute this tradition but that’s another story.

‘We Brits are slow to anger’ is a mantra I have often heard, usually followed by ‘but when we do get angry’ and, I suppose, there is some truth in that. Hitler, Argentina and people not paying enough tax for the governments liking, particularly if they happen to be elderly and helpless sufficiently illustrates the point.

There are a quite alarming number of very angry people in Britain right now.

Somewhat bizarrely, the one thing Brexit ‘remainers’ and ‘leavers’ do have in common is anger.

It’s a heady mix is that. There’s no ‘may’ about it. There will be trouble ahead and, I suspect, in the not too distant future.

The rest of the world, probably including the European Union, peering in on this current British mad house, seem to be scratching their heads in bafflement.

Some wonder why so many people in Britain want to leave the EU while some wonder why we stayed so long.

Ultimately, all the arguments are, in general, waffle. They are opinions, thoughts, beliefs and so forth. They may be right or they may be wrong.

Stripped bare, there is only one fact. More people voted to leave than remain. That’s the nub of the matter.

Unfortunately the losing side will not accept it. They insist that we mustn’t leave. I understand their concerns. They believe it will be disastrous and, indeed, it might be.

It is, however, a belief and not a fact.

The only fact is that more voted to leave, for better or worse.

It’s a bit like Trump getting elected President in the USA. Those who hate him have never accepted it – I can’t say I entirely blame them either given his behavior since the election – but, at the end of the day, strip it bare and he won. Yes, he won courtesy of the anomaly of the electoral colleges but, the system is what it is.

Democracy isn’t perfect. No system of government is. It’s not the greatest thing ever, but it is a damn sight better than communism or dictatorships or theocracies.

If it goes wrong we muddle through. We have to or our democracy is threatened. We have to ‘bite the bullet’ when it doesn’t go our way.

America has to live with Trump, for example, until such time as they can democratically get shot of him. If he wins again, they cry into their beer and live with it again. Eventually, the worm will turn and they get to win the day.

Brexit is the same. It was democratically voted for.

“Oh! But the leave campaign lied!”

I have very little doubt about it but, guess what, so did the remain campaign. About the only thing they didn’t threaten if the vote was ‘leave’ was a Martian invasion and asteroids landing on all major UK cities.

Both campaigns were appallingly bad.

If ‘remain’ had won, I wonder what their thoughts would be if we left anyway? I bet they wouldn’t be very happy eh?

So, how the hell do they think the ‘leavers’ feel when they won, but our parliament is doing its utmost to prevent their victory from happening?

There is now talk of a further extension for up to a year or more!

Democracy is bigger than Brexit. Democracy is bigger than Trump.

Unfortunately, democracy is very fragile. Destroying it is alarmingly easy to do.

Refuse to accept a democratic vote because you don’t like it at your peril. Don’t be surprised if, the next time around, you win and the opposition refuse to accept it. You won’t like that will you? You’ll say “Excuse me! This is democracy at work!”, and they’ll say “Really? You think so? What was it last time when we won then?”

When a democratic nation asks its people to go to the ballot box, the votes are counted and, whatever the vote is about, the result is enacted – usually in a matter of days. Occasionally, for some reason or another, it may take a few weeks to enact but, enacted upon it is. That’s how democracy works.

A particular and, seemingly, reasonable point that the ‘remain’ side are currently raising is this.

The referendum was in 2016. It is now 2019. Circumstances have changed.

True.

The ‘leave’ side remain, (if you’ll pardon the pun), the ballot box victors in 2016, yet their ‘victory’ was not acted upon. Hence they quite understandably feel robbed.

Once the result of the referendum was in, we should have left as quickly as possible. Even a couple of months or so would have been fine. Once we had left, we could then have sat down with the EU and fathomed out what happens next.

In the meantime, ‘Remain’ could have set about preparing to campaign, for some indeterminate point in the future, to have us join again.

That is democracy.

To deny the ballot box victors their victory—regardless of the consequences, which are unknown as its never happened before—is utterly anti-democratic.

If you completely remove democracy from a democracy, what are you left with? Anarchy.

The Kaiser Chiefs sang “I Predict A Riot” and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few over the coming weeks and months but, anarchy in the UK? The Sex Pistols were possibly more accurate than The Kaiser Chiefs. I’ve a strong sense that it’s coming, and soon.

Blighty is in a lot of trouble and there seems to be no way out.

About Post Author

Neil Bamforth

I am English first, British second and never ever European. I have supported Oldham Athletic FC for 50 years which has made me immune from depression. My taste buds have died due to too many red hot curries so I drink Kronenburg beer and milk - sometimes in the same glass. I have a wife, daughter, 9 cats and I like toast.

fourdinners14223647@aol.com