The Lies of the Tories

I came across someone this morning spouting David Davis's lies.

"I thought this was a group devoted to setting up trade deals within Europe. I voted leave as I think our little island nation should become autonomous again and YES also because there is no room at the inn and we cannot possibly feed water and clothe the world."

This is my response to that person and to anyone else who says similar.

They lied to you.

David Davis said he would achieve trade deals with individual EU member states, bypassing EU bureaucracy. He can't. It doesn't work that way. We will have one trade deal with the EU and it will need to be agreed by all 28 interested parties. We will also need to have our own trade deals with all other potential trading partners.

Each and every one of these deals will take years to achieve. Each one of them will require hundreds of thousands of person-hours and cost many millions of pounds to achieve.

In the meantime our economy will lose TRILLIONS OF POUNDS. We will do ourselves irreparable damage on every level of our society.

We've been had.

Furthermore, we are not "full". This is another Tory lie. They have underfunded our NHS, our schools, our universities, our local councils, and a thousand other things. They've taken money away from us and told us it was immigrants who were to blame.

It's all lies.

Immigrants pay far more into the system than we take out of it. We also spend money within the local economy, creating jobs and spreading wealth. Tory austerity, on the other hand, has created a nation in which the basic human rights of the poorest citizens are being systematically violated.

David Cameron and his buddies along with the Leave campaigners should be prosecuted for the damage they've done to this country.

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Sample Letter to MEP

Find your MEPs' contact details here (you will have several). Write to them all to let them know what you think. 

Dear (YOUR MEP'S NAME HERE),

Fifty-two per cent of voters in this country voted to commit economic suicide. Many of them did so because they have been screwed over by the current government. Many of them did so because of beautiful lies they were told by a Leave campaign that was fuelled by political ambitions of people who have never had to work. 

The people who propagated those lies knew they were lies. They did not care. This was never real to them. They thought it was a game. They thought it was a popularity contest. 

The poor, who are already suffering under Tory austerity, will be hit hardest by the economic devastation caused by this decision. 

Not only have we voted to commit economic suicide, we've also handed the country to the far right. Immigrants and people of colour are being attacked and degraded because we have legitimised racism and xenophobia.

Democracy is a constantly evolving beast. One minute we vote for something, the next we change our minds. That is how democracy works. If we don't like the result of a vote, we are free to petition, campaign, and speak out against it. That is how democracy works. 

This referendum is not democracy in action; this is democracy on steroids. In an election, the results can be reversed, they can be repealed. A few years later we do it all again and we make a different decision. Not this time. If we do not fight this, it will be irreversible. 

There will be no more UK. Scotland will leave. Northern Ireland will break away. London will no longer be the financial capital of Europe — and if you don't think that's a bad thing, you must not know how much tax they (IF YOU WORK IN THE FINANCE SECTOR TO, CHANGE 'THEY' TO 'WE') pay. The price of everything will increase while wages go down — at least for the few lucky enough to have a job. We will have to wave goodbye to our workers' right. We will kiss our human rights goodbye.

As one of the MEPs representing me in the European Parliament, you are beholden to carry this message to them. They must be informed that this is not over yet. 

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

(Full name)

(Full address)

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#StephenCrabbforPM

Stephen Crabb is a bad candidate for Prime Minister.

He thinks homosexuality can be cured by positive thinking. He believes cutting disability benefits will HELP those who need them. 

And yet…

And yet, the alternatives are just SO MUCH WORSE.

We are going to be stuck with one of the five Horsemen of the Apocalypse as our Prime Minister for up to 3.5 years. And not just any years either, these will be some of the single most important years in this country's long history.

Pale / Death: Michael Gove (being alternately operated by Sarah Vine or Rupert Murdoch). He wants this country to commit suicide. For what reason, I cannot begin to imagine — but he does.

Red / War: Theresa May hates immigrants. Never mind free movement within Europe, she wants to ban SKILLED immigration from anywhere. I mean, remember the racist vans? She would build a wall around the country if she could.

White / Pestilence: I'll let the Telegraph describe Andrea Leadsom, shall I? "Ms Leadsom is the 'real world' candidate, with prime Thatcherite credentials. It is no surprise that Tory grandees this week spent hours on the phone persuading her to stand. She will bill herself as the person who will deliver brexit because she is passionate about the outcome." Ugh!

Black / Famine: Liam Fox is a fraudster, a nepotist, and a thief. He misused huge amounts of government funds at a time when the country could least afford it. Surely that's enough.

Other: So, Stephen Crabb… As Prime Minister, he would undoubtedly think bad things about homosexuals. He would wish he could try to cure them. But let's be realistic here: those thoughts will be so far to the back of his mind. He will not have even one second of time to spend acting on them. At the end of his term, the LGBTQ community will still have every right and freedom they have today — and maybe, just maybe, we'll all have a country left in which to enjoy our freedoms.

We NEED a general election. In the absence of one, I know which one of the above I'd prefer.

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Seriously, Call a General Election!

I'm still angry. I finally had to put my Vote Remain t-shirt in the wash because it was starting to grow its own ecosystem, but the anger still hasn't faded.

And, yes, I'm still angry about the future.

David Cameron still hasn't called a general election. We will end up with a prime minister we did not elect (the blah blah blah is here). And just like Boris the Clown and David Hameron, they won't leave until they've had the chance to personally defecate all over every single last one of us...

Let's look at the possibilities...

Theresa May
Education: BA in Geography from Oxford
Real-world experience: Worked in the financial services sector for 18 years, much of that as an International Affairs Advisor
Political experience: Local council for 8 years; MP for 19 years; Shadow Minister for This, That, and the Other; Home Secretary for 6 years
Notable talents: Able to kill a yak from 200 yards away — with mind bullets
Position on the EU: Quietly (and some might say not entirely convincingly) Remain
Pros: Economic background, broad experience of portfolios, dogged determination
Cons: Utterly unlikeable, doesn't believe humans should have rights, wants to kill all foreigners on sight, doesn't believe anyone other than herself should have any privacy, hates refugees, has no soul

Michael Gove 
Sarah Vine
Education: Some kind of degree in something from Oxford
Education: None
Real-world experience: So-called Journalist
Real-world experience: So-called Journalist
Political experience: MP for 11 years; Failed Secretary of State for Education; Secretary of State for Justice for 1 year
Political experience: None
Position on the EU: Remember that bus?
Position on the EU: Ardently, vocally Leave
Notable talents: Can pass for human (from a distance)
Notable talents: Highly skilled ventriloquist
Pros: Apparently not awful as Justice Secretary
Pros: None
Cons: War-monger, sworn enemy of the NHS, doesn't believe in education, doesn't see the value of experts, unable to do basic sums, proponent of capital punishment, must be manually operated, has no soul
Cons: Doesn't believe in privacy — especially her own, eats immigrants for breakfast, has no soul

Andrea Leadsom
Education: BA in Political Science from Warwick
Real-world experience: Worked in the financial services sector for 16 years
Political experience: Local council for 4 years; MP for either 6 or 11 years; Economic Secretary to the Treasury for 1 year, Minister of State at the Department for Energy and Climate Change
Notable talents: Able to withstand overwhelming evidence of the realities of climate change in order to remain wilfully blind
Position on the EU: Ardently Leave
Pros: Economic background, ability to cut through mountains of red tape to uncover facts
Cons: Willingness to screw the little guy to suit herself, largely unknown, next to know experience, has no soul

Stephen Crabb
Education: BA in Politics from Bristol, MBA from LBS
Real-world experience: Worked in various volunteer an Tory party office jobs
Political experience: MP for 11 years; Junior Minister for Wales (which sounds like a take-your-kids-to-work thing); Secretary of State for Wales for 2 years, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for 3.5 minutes
Notable talents: Most likely to win an award for best David Brent impression
Position on the EU: Remain
Pros: Did you know he grew up on a council estate? (What the hell, right? It worked for Sadiq Khan.) May be able to relate to the non-political classes? May have a soul, but it's not exactly sparkling.
Cons: Dislikes disabled people and gays (Question: Do two strikes multiply or add? What would he make of a gay disabled person?)

Ugh.

I need a shower after writing that.


In the name of all that is holy, David Cameron, you shiny ham, CALL A GENERAL ELECTION!

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Call a General Election, Redux

I'm sitting here in my Vote Remain t-shirt and I'm angry. Yes, sure, I'm angry at how things went down — but that's faded to background noise at the moment, like a headache that won't quite go away. The past is gone. I can't change it and neither can anyone else.

Right now I'm angry about the future. I'm angry about things that haven't happened yet, but look like they will. I'm powerless to DO anything to prevent them. Anything, that is, except try and influence the outcome...

And, oh, I'm going to do that for all I'm worth.

David Cameron has resigned. Good. Good riddance. Don't let the door hit you in the arse on your way out.

But has he called a general election? Nope. No indication that there will be one any earlier than May 2020. And that means we will end up with a prime minister we did not elect.

Sure, you can argue that we elect the party not the person. It's true. But it's not the whole truth. The party leader is the face of the party. An MP is elected by a few thousand people who believe that he/she is well suited to deal with local issues. Party leaders have a very different mandate in addition to that. And the prime minister has the biggest mandate of all.

Two names are being Trumpeted louder than all the rest (if you'll pardon the rather disturbing pun): Boris 'What Happens if I Push This Button' Johnson and Theresa 'Humans Don't Deserve Rights' May.

Let's get one thing clear about Boris Johnson — he doesn't give a crap about the EU. He's not an 'outer'. He's said so repeatedly. In fact, he basically said as much in his first post-Brexit column. He chose to support the Leave campaign because he could. To see if he could actually pull it off… To show David Cameron up...

What will he do as PM? Who the hell knows… Anything he wants. He literally does not give two craps about anything or anyone. Maybe himself, but I'm not even sure about that.

And then there's Theresa May. She's got a bee in her bonnet — a bee named human rights. Ms May does not believe humans should have rights. She wants to read your emails. In fact, she's reading this right now. As I type it. Offline. I caught her going through my rubbish once. In my bathroom. Don't even get me started on what she wants to do to your little old nan!

What will she do as PM? Ban human rights (except her own). Ban privacy (except her own). Ban skilled immigration (bad luck, she's already here). Ban fun. Ban youth. Ban colour.

Seriously... I'm angry. I have every right to be and, what's more, I have every reason to be.

DAVID CAMERON, YOU CONTEMPTUOUS, DISINGENUOUS SHINY-FACED PRICK, CALL A GENERAL ELECTION!

Sent from my iPhone

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General Election Now!

Dear Mr Cameron,

I'm writing to you today because the UK is at a crossroads. What comes next will set our course for decades to come. We must define the terms of our relationship with the EU and obtain their agreement.

In the 4 days since the results of the referendum were announced the has world turned upside down. Following is a list of some of the consequences that have unfolded in that time.

• Nigel Farage admitted the Leave campaign's claims of freeing up £350 million a week to be spent on our own social services was erroneous.
• Daniel Hannan stated that this decision is unlikely to have an impact on EU migration rules.
• Sinn Fein called for Northern Ireland to leave the UK and reunite with the Republic of Ireland.
• The SNP indicated their intention to secede from the UK and remain a member of the EU. Furthermore, the EU indicated they would view such an application favourably.
• More than 175,000 people signed a petition calling for an independent London.
• Even after invalid signatures were removed, more than 3.5 million people across the UK signed a petition calling for a second referendum on leaving the EU.
• Both the Daily Mail and the Sun published articles advising their readers of the dire, devastating personal consequences of Brexit.
• Global equity markets lost US$3 trillion in the first two days days of trading following the announcement — the largest two-day drop ever recorded.
• The value of the pound reached a 31-year low. In fact, it was falling so rapidly that British tourists overseas were unable to exchange or withdraw cash.
• The Bank of England announced they had set aside £250 billion of additional liquidity as an emergency measure.
• Repeated, rampant, violent, vulgar incidents of public racism in broad daylight were reported all across the country.
• The EU began pressuring the UK to leave quickly.
• Voters across the UK have publicly expressed remorse at voting Leave, saying they did so purely as a protest against YOUR government.

The time to act is now. We are a nation in crisis. We cannot afford to wait days or weeks. The consequences of delaying will be devastating to our economy and our national identity.

We must not trigger article 50 and give formal notice to cede from the EU until and unless we have a plan in place on how we will proceed. There is no plan. Right now instead of developing a plan, your colleagues are arguing over whose responsibility it was to have developed one. 

We must engage with one another across intra-national borders to work together to resolve this. The rest of the UK stands to lose more from Scotland's separation than they do, but — make no mistake — we all lose. The same is true for Northern Ireland. This is Game Theory in action. Only by working together can we all win. 

You must call a general election. We cannot allow you to simply hand the premiership to Boris Johnson or Theresa May. We cannot permit this country to be ruled by an official unelected to the job at hand for 3.5 years. This must be done immediately.

We must work together now for the good of all our people.

Please act immediately.


Yours sincerely,
British by Chooce

London Borough of Lewisham

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#RuthforPM

I wrote this on Friday, less than 12 hours after the results of the referendum. I sincerely hope there will be a general election called soon. If not, I continue to believe this represents the best possible outcome. As she is currently an MSP, not an MP, she would need to stand in a by-election first. I don't believe that's an obstacle.


______________

Dear Ms Davidson,

Like you, I voted for the UK to remain a part of the EU. I assumed the facts, the research, the evidence, the studies, and the expert opinions would be enough to persuade others to do the same. I did everything I could to convince people. I thought it would be enough. I am deeply saddened by the outcome announced this morning.

We are at a crossroads. Collectively, our next steps will determine the health of our culture and our economy for decades to come.

David Cameron has resigned, effective October 2016. Where does this leave us?

The next general election is due to take place in May 2020. I believe it is unlikely one will be called much earlier.

Our country needs the right leader. We need someone with energy, passion, strength, conviction, persuasiveness, compassion, courage, resilience, and common sense. Our country needs someone who can unite people with competing interests. We need someone who can persuade Scotland that we are better together — because it is true. Separation would devastate the economies of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales. If Scotland leaves, it would be decades before we could recover — if we ever did.

In short, we need YOU. You alone have the vision and the progressive attitude to move this country forward together. You alone can speak compellingly across party lines, socio-economic divides, and intra-national borders.

To paraphrase the immortal words of Princess Leia, 'Help us, Ruth Davidson; you're our only hope.'
Our next prime minister will be elected, not by the people, but by the party members. Until now I have not aligned myself with any particular political party. That ended today. I have registered as a Conservative party member so that I will have a voice in that decision.

I would very much like to vote for you. Please, I implore you, throw your hat into the ring.

Yours sincerely,
Shannon
London Borough of Lewisham, UK

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