When the referendum result came out on Friday you would have thought that the bad blood between the two camps would have cooled; and steady, competent leadership from Westminster would have steered us through our national crisis, out of Europe and into the unknown.
Instead, the wet blanket in 10 Downing Street resigned, the Chancellor tried to overdose on cocaine, and New Labour gave up all pretence of being public servants and started an unwinnable civil war against Jeremy Corbyn. In the power vacuum that has ensued, the bigots on the street have lost their minds and gone haywire. The country is descending into chaos and those who are supposed to lead us may as well have got on a plane and escaped the country.
You are not a bigot if you voted to leave
The first thing that needs to be said is that an awful lot of people who understood Europe felt it had lost its way. Even though I voted to remain, I genuinely felt that the EU needs a good hiding. Its actions toward Greece showed little in the way of compassion and antagonised me no end. TTIP was almost a deal breaker too.
In short, there are a load of bloody good reasons to leave Europe and now we’re out I’m not complaining too much. Donald Trump has lost hundreds of millions of dollars, and old Beardy Branson took such a hit he’s not going to be able to buy more clap clinics from the NHS for a while.
Bigotry and trolling has no place in this world. Ever. Most people who voted to leave aren’t unhinged assholes – most who voted to leave are appalled at the shooting of Jo Cox and the abuse being hurled at people of a different colour, disability, sexuality, religion or linguistic ability.
Given the outright racist and bigoted comments of Nigel Farage I’m not surprised the weaker people who need leadership saw the opportunity to spout forth. If anyone needs to be ‘sent home’ it is the scummy people who used such disgusting language and imagery in the Leave campaign. Nigel Farage’s wife is German – send them back to her home country and refuse to let him cross the Channel again. All other immigrants can remain.
Three prominent women
Jo Cox MP was shot by a right wing terrorist just a week before the referendum. That didn’t stop the politicians from parrying the fact that they were bigots for more than the weekend after the incident. That alone should have stopped right thinking people in their tracks and shut them up.
Too late it seems. British people it appears are ‘allowed’ to say “fuck off nigger”, or certainly people who haven’t been told any better by their mother.
Unreported is that there is increasing disablism among the bigots. A very prominent disability rights campaigner called Paula Peters wrote a post on Facebook the other day saying that she’s been in tears from all the abuse she’s getting. She sees people abused for their race, gender orientation, physical or mental handicap and religion all the time. A little old lady who scares the wits out of fire breathing Tories is close to quitting. Why? Politics is descending into playground abuse.
Ros Kayes is a prominent politician who I am honoured to call a friend. She’s a Lib Dem – everyone has their issues but I forgive her! Ros has campaigned hard for social justice over the years at considerable personal cost and was deservedly made Mayor of Bridport recently. As with Paula Peters she is a tough old boot and makes most of her opponents go pale in the face when there is a fight on under the usual rules. The rules have changed it seems.
When Jo Cox was murdered I started questioning whether the very fabric that holds this island together as a society is unravelling. Ros was extremely outspoken. People who are old enough to know better instead launched a campaign against her. Someone was blocked on Facebook then after some trouble with a mysteriously changed password and altered privacy settings, Ros found that somebody had reported to the world that she had said that the bigots and racists had won. That person then claimed that Ros had said, “All Dorset people who voted leave are bigots and liars.”
A campaign was launched on that basis to have Ros sacked as Mayor of Bridport. Last night I set up a counter campaign saying “Support Ros Kayes as Mayor of Bridport”. Given that a prominent women have been shot and killed as part of the chaos that has arisen from the nastiest political campaign in British history, Ros is quite scared that one of the unhinged bigots out there may harm her. In light of this, shouldn’t everyone, from whatever party or political leaning support this at once hardworking and valiant yet vulnerable woman?
If we all stepped back and stopped screaming abuse at each other, and realise that we’re all in it together on this island, then everyone would support Ros. Support her for standing against racism, bigotry and hatred.
See you at the barricades!
Richard Shribb
