Blogathon 22/16: In. Out. Shake It All About

It has long seemed to me that the organisation known as UK plc has a load of terminal fuckwits at the control.

The current hoo-hah about the UKs EU membership is a stunning case in point.

David (I have a dodgy relationship with the truth) Cameron has artfully negotiated his way in to an unwinnable fight.

And in the other corner is the motley political crew of Nigel Farage, Michael Gove, Ian Duncan Smith, Chris Grayling, Boris Johnson, and John Whittingdale (let’s just remember right now this is the politician who is in charge of the BBC, and its purse-strings, and will be calling the BBCs financial shots for the next few years).

During Glastonbury weekend, the British public will be asked whether, or not, they want to stay in the EU, or join an exclusive club of European nations who aren’t in the EU.

This post isn’t about that, at least, not directly so.

This is about the ‘what if?’ scenarios that could conceivably arise, given the poisoned chalice that the terminal fuckwits in charge of UK plc have determined to hand to the voting public.

Scenarios like:

1. What if the wealthy south of the UK votes to leave the EU, and the impoverished north votes to remain? Will we then have an actual north/south split, with the phrase ‘little England’ actually meaning ‘a littler England’?
2. What if the majority of people in the UK vote to remain in the EU, but those who live in the south-east of England don’t? Will the mainstream media which, let’s face it, is entirely based in the south-east of England anyway, start bleating on that although the majority of the UK voted to stay in, there’s no real mandate to actually stay in, because they – the mainstream media – say there isn’t (and then they’ll grumble about the result for the rest of our lives)?
3. If the vote is close – let’s say 51% of those who vote choose to remain in the EU, but 49% of those who vote say they want to leave the EU, but a mere 40% of the electorate actually turned out to vote, will we see a campaign to change our voting system? Or will the losers – those 49% of the 40% turnout – just acquiesce and accept the result (yeah, we know they won’t, don’t we?).
4. If, by a slim majority, the UK votes to leave the EU, but the overwhelming majority of voters in Scotland and Wales vote to remain in the EU, will Scotland and Wales be within their rights to have referenda on leaving the UK (because they want to remain in the EU, and it’s really only England that doesn’t)?
5. And in that instance, if a significant number of voters in England do vote to leave the EU, in contradiction to the wishes of the majorities in Wales and Scotland, have the English just voted to break up the United Kingdom?

These are big questions. These are interesting times.

Personally I’d like to see scenario 4. and 5. occur: Wales and Scotland becoming independent nations outside of the UK but in the EU, and England going it alone outside of the EU.

I think in that situation we would see a very close economic and business alliance formed between Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

Mind you, I can’t help wondering how those 2,250,000 British pensioners, who currently live in Europe, will be voting.

That’s another interesting situation I’d like to keep an eye on.