Friday 24 January 2020

What does freedom look like?


According to the Brexiteers, there’s just one week left under the oppressive yoke of Brussels rule, after which the UK will, at last, be free to set its own course in the world.  We will be free to set our own standards and rules in a whole host of areas, constrained only by the minor inconvenience of trying to sell our wares into markets which insist on imposing different standards and refuse to accept anything which does not comply.  That will be their problem, though, not ours – if they don’t accept our new standards, we can refuse to sell them our goods and services.  Let’s see how they like that!
We’ll also be free to set our own external tariffs, which means we can abolish all tariffs on incoming goods if we wish.  That will give us the advantage of buying whatever we like, from wherever we like, at the cheapest prices available on the world market.  If the rest of the world doesn’t follow suit and abolish their tariffs on our goods, that too will be their problem.  We can stop making the things that they want and force them to look elsewhere.  Let’s see how they like that!
We’ll be free to control immigration, and stop foreigners coming here to take advantage of our economic strength.  We won’t even need to pay the cost of introducing a points-based system: the economic result of using our freedom to set our own standards and abolish tariffs means that they won’t even want to come here in future.  How’s that for killing two birds with one stone!
Above all, we’ll be free of the evil and iniquitous requirement of EU membership that the state must abide by the rule of law.  Our government will at last be free to trample on democracy and human rights and treat people however they want.  Brexit means Brexit; the people have spoken; the government must give them what they voted for.  That’ll show the EU that we mean business!
As Fintan O'Toole suggests, the big problem with imaginary oppression is that getting rid of it leads only to imaginary freedom.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The biggest problem we face in the coming months is the restoration of loser consent.

Imagine if Wales had voted to retain the 'Assembly' but it was done away with anyway just to save money. Or if a pledge to protect the Welsh language on a manifesto was suddenly reversed by non-Welsh speakers once the party had secured power.

Be a bit more thoughtful about some of the comments you make. If not for yourself for the sake of others.

Spirit of BME said...

The idea of a “imaginary occupation” is an interesting one.
Last week Young Charles Battenberg while in Israel visited the Occupied West Bank and met with the Palestinian leadership, the Guardian and the MSM did not draw any comment to his title of “Prince of Wales “which was born of a much longer occupation and one day when mumsy pops it, he will rule his own occupied territory.
Since my school days the occupation of Wales has very successfully been hidden and masked by the Welsh flag being flow on the building of HMG in Wales in Cardiff and other government buildings and even English castles. This sends out a soft message of togetherness, even equality!!
The only flag that should fly, on these buildings, is the Union flag which would identify the “legitimacy” of the power that currently rules us.

John Dixon said...

Anon 01:14 - I'm not sure that I understand what on earth you're talking about here, let alone in what way it is relevant to the post.