Dear Millenial,
I was never prouder to be British than last Friday as the EU Referendum results were read out.
We the people had gone out in the pouring rain, voted our conscience and by a very small majority made the unprecedented decision to leave the EU.
As the former Director of the CBI, Lord Digby Jones said:
Everyone could vote and every vote counted.
But the vitriol on those who chose to exit the Governing Body of the EU received over the weekend and today, have shamed me to my very core.
Not least because nearly all of it, is spewing from those on the Left of politics.
Odd that the people who would normally be pro-democracy, desperate to be seen as caring, reasoned and just, should be so anti the outcome of a democratic vote.
And that's the reason I'm writing to you as a 19 - 35 something's who are complaining about the LEAVE decision, because your generation has been cheated, not by this vote, but by an education that would have assisted you in understanding it.
The reason that many of my generation voted (I fall into the Category of Generation X by the way), isn't as you'd read in the papers or on Social Media because we are anti-europe, in fact far, far from it.
It's because we watched how an idea that we as the British Public had voted on, has slowly been eroded with no democratic involvement whatsoever into a corruption of something that we didn't ask for or desired.
Prior to the EEC/EU we were inter-railing across all of Europe with no visa issues at all (1972), the birth of the Ex-Pat had been comfortably established in Spain, Gibaltra & the South of France (since the 18th century) and that Dark Navy British Passport was literally an entry through any border control in the World.
The EEC was an idea to unite separate countries in Europe into a single block when it came to trade. It was never about governance. And for Trade it made perfect sense.
You see we remember the Winter of Discontent in 1978/9, when Leicester Square was covered with 6 feet of rubbish, dead bodies lay decaying on the ground, the country only worked a 3 day week and was plunged into darkness with rolling electricity black outs.
It was the reason we'd voted in a referendum to stay in the EEC 4 years earlier in 1975, Britain was indeed the "Sick Man of Europe".
But as time passed we improved, but the EEC (Not the EU at this stage) brought with it many woes
We remember the waste of food the EEC Butter Mountains, Wine Lakes & Food Burns produced, so that other less inefficient European countries could seem more competitive in 1986 (which were repeated again under the EU in 2009).
We remember the EEC Fishing Quotas and the devastation that had on our Fishing Industry and the families who'd worked them for centuries (resulting in the Scottish Klondikers in 1994)
We remember Margaret Thatcher's attack on the EEC (December 1979) and her wins of the now oft talked about Rebates, powers and opt outs.
Boy, do we remember the terror of Black Wednesday and the loss of £3Bn tax-payers money not Trade like today (a cool £1bn being pocketed by George Sorros) in a single day in 1992 as Britain tried and failed to standardise under the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) to be allowed into the European Currency Unit (ECU precursor to the Euro).
And we remember the underhand way then Prime Minister, John Major, passed the Maastrich Treaty (This was the birth of the European Union ) against the wishes of many in parliament and who almost got away with excluding the Social Chapter for the entire UK (which the much lauded EU Workers rights is based on, if Major had got his way that wouldn't have applied to the UK anyway) and gave away many of the UK rights previously won - induing our right to have a Referendum on important EU changes.
The EU is not Europe, it is Europe's governing body.
And it was the Lisbon Treaty that was the last straw for most of the people I know who voted Brexit. This removed 40 of our 43 Vetoes. We in the UK had no say in this whatsoever. Ireland did it's best to block it, but having voted to reject, were asked to have another go 16 months later having got concessions for themselves, ironically, al around Soverignty (but not for the UK), it got passed.
This Treaty, is the one the majority of you, as Millenials, should remember.
And that is why, we, as educated Generation X's wanted our democracy back.
Sure people in the UK would have obviously voted because they wanted immigration down or that imaginary £350m paid into the NHS but the majority of people I know, love Europe, we're Londoners, our entire existence is based on immigration, our city speaks over 250 different languages and has the most cultural diverse range of people of any city in the world (and don't forget whilst Remain won in London 40% of us that's 1.5 Million people here in London Voted to LEAVE).
There's a lot wrong with the UK democracy (I'm an advocate for Proportional Representation and way more so after this vote) as Churchill said:
"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others."
But if our politicians are on our soil (and not Brusell's), we, like the Suffragettes, Jarrow and Poll Tax Marchers before us can make real change.
No more silenced by the arrogance of the like's of Tony Blair when the people marched against the Iraq War, because the British Voting Public have just shaken the core out of every establishment in the World that thought we were complacent, apathetic and fearful of change.
But I did begin by saying you've been cheated of an education and I should support that.
You see you should have been given a good schooling teaching you how to think - you weren't you were taught how to pass tests
But if our politicians are on our soil (and not Brusell's), we, like the Suffragettes, Jarrow and Poll Tax Marchers before us can make real change.
No more silenced by the arrogance of the like's of Tony Blair when the people marched against the Iraq War, because the British Voting Public have just shaken the core out of every establishment in the World that thought we were complacent, apathetic and fearful of change.
But I did begin by saying you've been cheated of an education and I should support that.
You see you should have been given a good schooling teaching you how to think - you weren't you were taught how to pass tests
You should have been given an excellent Higher Education teaching you how to challenge - you weren't you were sold University Degrees that were employment based and tied into a lifetime of debt.
You should have been given an internet that shared information between great thinkers - You weren't you were sold Selfies on Instagram & Katie Hopkins on Twitter.
And some of those issues must be laid at your door as well as your parents.
You see many of you were students
When Tony Blair introduced School League Tables - You didn't take to the streets
When Tony Blair introduced Student Fees for Universities - You didn't refuse to go
When Tony Blair introduced School League Tables - You didn't take to the streets
When Tony Blair introduced Student Fees for Universities - You didn't refuse to go
And When Tony Blair introduced the Digital Economy Bill - you didn't revolt from the Web.
Your's was the first student generation in British History not to be tearing the walls down for Justice and I think that in part was due to Tony Blairs Iraq War march, where a Million people marched on Downing Street and were simply ignored.
Had you been given the education you so rightly deserved,
You would have been able to see through the propaganda and lies on both sides of the debate choosing instead the likes of fullfact.org
You would have known to ignore the media and the rhetoric about the EU and done the research for yourself (and not just from the internet).
You would have challenged the echo chamber of Social Media, that makes it so easy to assert opinion as fact with no or little evidence
You would have voted when you had the chance & campaigned accordingly beforehand (if you hadn't already done so).
And then you would have accepted the result as being democratic whether in your favour or not, as you'd have known by then, that is how democracy works.
Had you been given the education you so rightly deserved,
You would have been able to see through the propaganda and lies on both sides of the debate choosing instead the likes of fullfact.org
You would have known to ignore the media and the rhetoric about the EU and done the research for yourself (and not just from the internet).
You would have challenged the echo chamber of Social Media, that makes it so easy to assert opinion as fact with no or little evidence
You would have voted when you had the chance & campaigned accordingly beforehand (if you hadn't already done so).
And then you would have accepted the result as being democratic whether in your favour or not, as you'd have known by then, that is how democracy works.
But you're free thinking individuals now and so can search the facts for yourselves (check the links contained in this letter, ask your MEP's, go to your local Library and trawl Hansards).
I urge you to do so, I think in doing, you'll discover that leaving the EU in fact can create a stronger community in ALL of the European Countries on our continent, not just some.
And maybe, just maybe, you may realise, my generation were not voting for a forgotten past of Empire but the potential of the advent of an exciting, unified and prosperous future in Europe for all.
I do hope so, I certainly was.
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