Fed up with the endless referendum babble?

The following article was published in the South Wales Argus this week.

 

Fed up with the endless referendum babble? … Yes? Me too. Don't believe a word anyone says? … No?  Neither do I.

The row between Top Tories is demented.  Does anyone swallow the line that NHS privatizer Michael Gove is suddenly devoted to spending on Steel jobs and the NHS? Is David Cameron sensible in forecasting a third world war? Is the EU to blame for all the problems UK politicians have created? It's all self-serving hard-core nonsense. But the choice is a serious one.

NEWPORT: Newport has a 200 year proud history of hospitality and compassion to newcomers. It's not racist to say we have taken more than our fair share of asylum seekers recently. Last year Newport 500: areas represented by PM, Chancellor & Home Secretary None! The problem is the way migrants are distributed in the UK. If Top Tories took their share, the strains on schools & the NHS would ease. Sending criminal migrants back would also help. Blaming the EU is a cop-out for failing Government policies. We can do better for hard-working migrants and for Gwent.

WALES: Wales benefits hugely from the EU. 35 out of the 40 Welsh MPs are voting REMAIN -including most Tories and all Labour MPs. We get far more money back than we put in. Our economy is recovering but could suffer a heart attack if we pull out. No cash bonanza here post-Brexit. Wales already has it. We could lose it.

JOBS: The miracle renaissance of Gwent’s manufacturing jobs could be strangled by losing direct access to the EU market. Half of Welsh steel is exported to the EU. Other local industries benefit hugely. Without violent change, the future looks bright.

ENVIRONMENT: The habitat of our grandchildren is in deadly peril. Global problems cannot be solved by single nations. Shared reforms by continents and the world are the only solutions.  Cutting off our input as leading reformers could hamper change and poison the only planet we have.

PEACE: The world is dominated by international power blocks.  The terrifying threats to world peace can be tackled only by groups of nations working together. Our influence would be diminished if we withdraw from the benign EU peace-creating block. Isolation will enfeeble our influence.

RIGHTS: Most of the reforms we enjoy in working, women’s and human rights are EU inspired. The prospect of future Governments led by Boris and Trump is alarming. Solidarity with moderate EU nations can shield us from the worst excesses of dogmatists.

HARMONY: As a child of the war, whose father’s life was ruined by WW1, I recall the hatred between the nations of those bad years. It’s gone. We now live, work and holiday harmoniously with fellow Europeans. That’s real progress to be built on. Our young people have most to lose by dis-harmony.

Don’t be turned off. Your vote is crucial, especially for the causes that benefit all of us who live here in Gwent. The EU often infuriates but on balance there is only one choice -REMAIN.

 

 

Comments

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Its one sizable dent in their armour and one window opened. Who loses? The 'eternal British people'? (I know, but come on...) Or those who assume authority on behalf of the privileged few at the behest of capital? Its not SUPPOSED to be a temporary fix. Which is why those arguing against each other on the immediate consequences have missed the point. Capital WILL fail. It doesn't care who or what it drags down with it.

Brexit is the reality and cannot be revoked realistically. Those seeking to make it a meaningless decision risk further exposure to the people, who have just as much right to a share and a say as those who arrogantly assume authority.

Its not to be regretted if the pound falls against the Euro or if the FTSE dives (and why would they let it?). There is only one outcome. We've taken a step forward for us and the next generation which to me at least is very refreshing.

They haven't listened to US, why should we be concerned about what THEY say? In other words: they haven't helped US, now they expect us to worry about what it means for THEIR interests?

They would bury the lot of us for a profit. Time to bury them instead. Or at least as in this instance begin to build their coffin. These are after all people who act pompously while hurting the innocent. That needs a re-phrase: these people assume authority and use it to scheme against the people who mistakenly rely upon them for justice. Instead they scheme to screw us out the million and bung their friends the billion. Not the best sentence like. I don't see them giving up and humbly accepting this. Its surely a positive step even if not immediately apparent.

Capital HAS thrived, particularly here, but it will I believe be burnt down. Why do I say that? It was an idea that flourished and made advances. But only for a while. Ultimately it left many people in many places gradually worse off. We are not tied to it. They act like public school prefects, which lets face it the majority of them were.

Its a plot rather than a conspiracy. A whisky faced successful capitalist inculcates their offspring with nothing more noble than arrogant greed. We are not below them. They will be served. Not out of vindictiveness (or that even more contemptible accusation of 'envy') but of JUSTICE.

[Paul Flynn]

Many thanks.

I am aware of the George Street reading of the Riot Act in the twenties and I know from hand-me-down stories from my own families of violence against Irish Immigrants in 1850s. I had not heard about the pogrom in Tredegar. Must look that up. I recently read a book about the last Jews in the Valleys as part of the process of local families moving to London.

But these events do not alter my claim. The Irish descendants of Irish immigrants held 3 of the local MPs seats until recently and other communities have been well assimilated including Asians, Somalis, West Indians and East Europeans. In many cities there are ghettoes of immigrant groups. Not here. Newport is good example of racial harmony.

Best wishes,

[K]

"Newport has a 200 year proud history of hospitality and compassion to newcomers."

Unfortunately not completely true, Paul: there were race riots in which black and south-east Asian people were attacked by whites in 1919 and in 1911 the then home secretary Winston Churchill was forced to call out the troops when one of the few anti-Jewish pogroms that took place outside the Tsarist empire happened in nearby Tredegar in 1911. Earlier in the 1850s anti-Irish sentiment was quite widespread too amongst the largely protestant Newport population.