A possible way forward for our divided country

Here's my humble suggestion for a possible way forward for our rather bruised and divided country post-referendum: With the tory brexiters apparently rowing back (at least a bit) from the pre-referendum anti-immigrant rhetoric (and the, admittedly remote, possibility that the tories might not even be in power in a few months) it seems very possible that we could end up with the so-called 'Norway Option' - membership of the European Economic Area (EEA), which is basically the single market, without full membership of the EU. Rather than agitating for a 2nd referendum or for the government to simply ignore the referendum result - which will only lead to further division and bitterness - perhaps the best thing would be for those who voted remain and those who voted leave (apart from those whose leave vote was purely motivated by anti-immigrant feeling which - Jeremy Kyle-esque news interviews with white van drivers in pie and mash shops notwithstanding - is undoubtedly nowhere near all of them) to push for EEA membership as a compromise. Remain voters would surely be pleased that we would get to retain the EU's 'four freedoms' (freedom of movement of goods, services, capital and people) - at least to the same extent that the remaining 27 EU member states do - and those on both sides of the divide with concerns about sovereignty or the so-called 'democratic deficit' would surely be pleased by the fact that the UK would no longer be under the direct jurisdiction of Brussels. True, we would no longer have a vote in the Council of Ministers and we would have no MEPs, but we would undoubtedly still have a pretty significant influence over EU policy due to the size of our population and (once it gets back on its feet) our economy. Those who are obsessed with keeping immigrants out of the UK would not be happy but, considering the leave vote was only 52%, such people are without doubt only a minority of the electorate. I would, therefore, argue that the referendum result does not have to be interpreted as a mandate to reject freedom of movement.

Initial thoughts on the Brexit vote III

I voted (and campaigned) to remain in the EU but I think that holding a second referendum because we didn't get the desired result would be a dangerous affront to the whole concept of democracy in this country, so I will not be signing any petitions or supporting any moves to overturn the will of the majority of the UK electorate.

Initial thoughts on the Brexit vote II

Once the parties have sorted their leadership issues out I think we should have a general election so the public get to decide the government that negotiates the terms of the Brexit.

Initial thoughts on the Brexit vote

I think there are potentially a lot of bad consequences of yesterday's vote. But hopefully President Obama meant it when he said we would be "at the back of the queue" for a trade deal with America. At least that way we might now have seen the back of TTIP as far as the UK (or whatever's left of it) is concerned.

The EU is no threat to UK sovereignty

Here's another analogy about the European Union and sovereignty.

Many people would argue that, in a representative democracy, sovereignty ultimately lies with the people (at least with that part of the people that comprise the electorate). Yet the people do not directly formulate every policy that a national government introduces, nor do they get to vote on every piece of legislation that is proposed in a national parliament. However, if a significant number of constituents are unhappy with the way their government is operating, the latter must take notice of that because otherwise they run the risk of being voted out at the next election, when the people exercise their sovereignty in its most direct sense. When the election comes, if the people are still not happy, the government will fall.
Likewise, the UK electorate do not get to formulate EU law or to vote in the European Parliament. But if a majority of us are happy with the broad sweep of current EU law then we will, democratically, choose to remain a part of the European Union, much like an individual in the UK voting for a political party, whose manifesto she is in general agreement with, to form the domestic government. Similarly, if enough of us are unhappy with the consequences of EU membership, we will democratically elect to leave, either in the upcoming referendum or at some point in the future (as I pointed out in Chapter 1, there is no reason why there can't be another referendum on EU membership in the future - if enough people want one, they will elect a government that offers one), in much the same way that people will vote to depose a domestic government with which they are unhappy.
The foregoing analogy shows that, no matter how democratic or otherwise the internal institutions of the European Union may be, the UK's membership of the EU is no more of a threat to popular sovereignty than is our own national system of representative democracy.

Yesterday's Daily Mail headline

It's a good thing the NHS is able to recruit nurses from abroad as the Trust I work for finds it extremely difficult to recruit and retain nursing staff at the moment and I believe that is true for most, if not all, NHS Trusts. Without nurses from overseas the already seriously overstretched health service would probably collapse. As for the accusation that bosses are using cheap labour, I wouldn't disagree. Those 'bosses' are the Conservative government so beloved of the Daily Mail, who have held down public sector pay for the last 6 years and now even removed bursaries from student nurses. It's good to know the Mail has finally seen the light and decided to speak out in favour of a decent pay rise for our longsuffering NHS nursing staff!

Just in case you are interested...

...here are the links for my other blogs:

"Free Armenian Lessons" (short lessons in both Eastern and Western Armenian).

"Andrew's Art" (drawings and paintings including a few home-made greeting cards).

"Luther's Marbles" (a blog about the Doctrine of the Trinity).