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Paul Bigland

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Paul Bigland

Tag Archives: Democracy

I thought my marching days were over!

23 Saturday Jun 2018

Posted by Paul Bigland in Brexit, Democracy, Politics

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Brexit, Democracy, Politics

It’s a funny old world. Here I am, sitting on a train to London to join tens of thousands of other people who will be marching to protest about the shambles known as Brexit.

I thought my marching days were over. As a veteran of the Miners strike, CND protests, Poll Tax fracas and Gulf war demo (amongst others) I’d hoped we’d moved on as a country. How wrong can you be?

Now we’re in the biggest mess we’ve faced since World War 2, and it’s entirely self-inflicted!

Our politicians have failed us, they’re incapable of publically admitting what a shambles Brexit is and the price the country will pay for it. Instead, some are outright lying about it. So, I find myself having to hit the streets of London once again. What a sorry state this country’s in.

Expect some pictures later…

20.36.

What a fantastic day! I’ve a huge amount of pictures to share of this brilliant event, but here’s one of my early favourites.

DG300536

Sunday. 24th June

Getting back to Halifax after the march was fun due to delays on the East Coast Main Line thanks to a failed train near Peterborough. I ‘enjoyed’ an enforced stay in Doncaster, then our train was terminated at Wakefield and we were taken to Halifax by road. I finally got home at 02:15 this morning, but it was well worth it. I’ve added another couple of pictures from yesterday, but the rest (there’s around 60) can be found by following this link to a gallery on my Zenfolio website.

DG300482

DG300719

A good day for democracy so, of course, Brexiteers are getting nasty.

03 Thursday Nov 2016

Posted by Paul Bigland in Brexit, Democracy

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Brexit, Democracy

Since the referendum result this country really has felt a surreal place. It’s been like one of those parallel universes so beloved of science fiction writers. You know, one of those places that (superficially) look and sound the same but have startling and unsettling differences. So, what was once an outward, democratic, fairly prosperous and socially liberal country was replaced overnight with one that was inward, xenophobic, illiberal  that had a whiff of fascism about it and that was happy to ruin its economy for the chimera of having ‘taken back control’.

Today, that division has been thrown into stark relief as the High Court has ruled that Parliament must vote on whether the UK can start the process of leaving the EU and that the government cannot trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty – beginning formal discussions with the EU – on their own.

This is clearly a victory for democracy. You would have thought Brexiteers would be welcoming the decision. After all, they campaigned for sovereignty, democracy and Parliament, for us to ‘take back control’.

Not a bit of it. Instead the rhetoric and threats have more in common with a fascist dictatorship. Here’s a few comments from Twitter.

50-war

ukip-mep

twit-nazi

But the ‘best’ has to be the Daily Mail comments. Take a look at these – and this is a mainstream newspaper for God’s sake…

heil-2

And finally…

daily-heil

This is why I worry about the future of my country.

 

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