I must admit that I am still suffering from a form of generational guilt from the EU referendum of 2016. Whilst I voted to remain a member of Europe, it was my generation that decided to take us out of it. And it was the next generation, their own children and grandchildren, who will pay the biggest price.
Even now, I feel like saying sorry to every young person who will, unless parliament sees sense, lose their rights to live, live, study, work and even travel freely across Europe, the very same rights that the generation who took us out of Europe themselves enjoyed.
I hope the leavers have the common decency to support the softest possible Brexit, which would represent the least worst scenario. This is for many people all that’s left: to cobble together something that will make the whole country worse off, but not worse off than it could be. I am not in that camp. I want to stop Brexit altogether.
Some people want an another referendum on the terms of our exit, others want another referendum on whether we should reverse the previous referendum. Me? I want parliament to consider the result of the advisory referendum and then reject its conclusion because we live in a parliamentary democracy, not a referendum based democracy or some halfway house. I don’t think for one moment this will happen. I’m just putting my views out there. The most important thing is to ensure that the futures of our young are not damaged too much, if at all .
Still, at least hardline Brexiter and right wing Tory Iain Duncan Smith has some advice for our young people. He says: “Either live with it or find somewhere else to live!” In other words, if you want to retain your ability to live, love, study, work and even travel freely across Europe, then fuck off. Your country doesn’t need people like you. This is the country of Nigel Farage, Arron Banks, Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Gove, Boris Johnson, Tommy Robinson, Nick Griffin and every right wing dingbat in the land, all supported by Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and every right wing dingbat on the planet.
I’m guilty about something I didn’t help bring about but I am not about to give up on trying to stop this country dumping on the next generation.
