How it Works14 mins ago
Brexit: Think Again
Michael Morpurgo argues it's time to think again over Brexit.
"It is surely time to accept that we have made a mistake", he writes, "that whichever way we voted, things are not turning out the way we expected".
"Or are we too proud?" he asks.
Listen, if you're not one of the shouty brigade, to Morpurgo's reasoned argument on BBC4's Point of View
https:/
It's only ten minutes long, and will give you cause/pause for thought.
BillB
"It is surely time to accept that we have made a mistake", he writes, "that whichever way we voted, things are not turning out the way we expected".
"Or are we too proud?" he asks.
Listen, if you're not one of the shouty brigade, to Morpurgo's reasoned argument on BBC4's Point of View
https:/
It's only ten minutes long, and will give you cause/pause for thought.
BillB
Answers
Sir Michael Andrew Bridge Morpurgo, OBE, FRSL, FKC, DL is an English book author, poet, playwright, and librettist who is known best for children's novels such as War Horse. Although aimed primarily at young people, these can be read by people of all ages. I have heard him talk and it was one of the most enjoyable talks I have been to. Will listen to his argument...
09:23 Sun 05th Aug 2018
bainbig //Because (as Morpurgo implies in his talk) joining together with other nations is a natural upward progression, away from tribalism, crass nationalism, towards a union of similarly-minded peoples to whom war is unthinkable. //
Is this your answer to my question, why would you want to join if you were outside of it now? Is that it then!!!? Just what is upwardly progressive about giving up your country's thousand years of sovereignty for which millions of people have fought and died to maintain. Surrendering the right to make and uphold your own laws, to decide who shall enter and live in your country. Emasculating your own parliament to a bunch of un-elected self-serving bureaucrats and pay 8 billion pounds per year of British taxpayers money for the privilege, and which European countries do you consider are thinking of going to war with one another?
Is this your answer to my question, why would you want to join if you were outside of it now? Is that it then!!!? Just what is upwardly progressive about giving up your country's thousand years of sovereignty for which millions of people have fought and died to maintain. Surrendering the right to make and uphold your own laws, to decide who shall enter and live in your country. Emasculating your own parliament to a bunch of un-elected self-serving bureaucrats and pay 8 billion pounds per year of British taxpayers money for the privilege, and which European countries do you consider are thinking of going to war with one another?
NJ, I was told by someone who had to hand the statistics from a study that there was at the time more bureaucracy in the USA than in the USSR. I have worked for US companies and was appalled at how the only thing that seriously mattered was for each and everyone to have the paperwork carefully arranged to protect the ****, actual performance and attention to the job was definitely secondary. Americans usually doing things to excess, I would very much suspect that they still reign supreme when it comes to being bureaucracy champions. On the other hand, fighting/being light on bureaucracy and ending up woolly and lacking in clarity/transparency is no virtue. Incidentally, the UK is not particularly light on bureaucracy - there is a lot of duplication with different institutions/authorities acting independently and the result is in effect a lack of a co-ordinated system in running the country. That absence of a system is at the root of some of the complaints levelled in the UK against the EU (quite wrongly).
Khandro, the UK seems to me the single European country most strongly wedded to military prowess, constantly celebrating anniversaries of battles and wars and labelling military employees as "heroes". I am not qualified to assert that he UK currently thinks of going to war in Europe but it is currently actively engaged in military conflict in.....how many different ones is it ? Meanwhile the UK is utterly defenceless against its worst enemy - itself.
Some on here have inferred that I did not know what I was voting for when I put my X in the leave box, as I knew as much as the next person, so my opinion is as valid as some kiddie book writer. It is time for the for the remoaning class to shut up and leave the negotiations to those we hope know what they are doing, or they could just move to France or Germany.
“NJ, I was told by someone who had to hand the statistics from a study that there was at the time more bureaucracy in the USA than in the USSR.”
You may well be right, Karl. Who knows? I’m not particularly fussed about the level of bureaucracy elsewhere as it scarcely effects me. Whatever the answer it’s a long way from this:
Together we can get rid of all the bureaucracy..."
You may well be right, Karl. Who knows? I’m not particularly fussed about the level of bureaucracy elsewhere as it scarcely effects me. Whatever the answer it’s a long way from this:
Together we can get rid of all the bureaucracy..."
I had the privilege to grow up with a lad who went on to become a barrister, a QC, and a Judge.
When I see the title 'judge' abused for the sake of some spurious one-up-manship on an internet forum, and read the totally injudicious ravings associated with it, I despair, and think often of my dead friend, the model of prudence, fairness, intelligence - qualities often sought in real judges, and rarely found in their internet counterfeits.
BB
When I see the title 'judge' abused for the sake of some spurious one-up-manship on an internet forum, and read the totally injudicious ravings associated with it, I despair, and think often of my dead friend, the model of prudence, fairness, intelligence - qualities often sought in real judges, and rarely found in their internet counterfeits.
BB
