Below is an account of a discussion group which I have been sent by a contact of this blog. In my opinion it reveals a great deal about the awful attitudes of some in the Remain camp. The author, a Brexiteer from a county that overwhelmingly voted to leave, attended a public discussion on Brexit organised by the Herefordshire Green Party and which had as its theme how to stop or at least neuter Brexit. The author shall remain anonymous but I have checked the backstory and found that there is little reason to doubt the veracity of this author’s piece, although it is a personal impression of a public meeting.

My Night With The Remainers – by MYT

On Wednesday 23^rd January I went to a public discussion meeting, one of a series of discussions on different subjects, in a nice riverside bar in Herefordshire. This discussion was organised by Herefordshire Green Party, on the subject of Brexit. I had hoped that this would be an open discussion with various points of view being expressed. However my heart sank when I saw the first of the slides on the screen that showed an image of one of the Remainiac demonstrations in London calling for the Brexit vote to be reversed. At once I knew that this would not be the open discussion that I would have expected and would have preferred. A quick glance around the room told me that this would be an incredibly one-sided discussion but I decided to stay as I am a bit of a ‘happy warrior’ and do enjoy a bit of a political fight. Although I’m a Brexiteer I wanted to know more about the views of my opponents and hoped to counter some of the worst misconceptions about Brexit and those who voted for it.

I have to be fair here and say that not all the participants were rabid Remainiacs, there were some more thoughtful individuals at the meeting. I’m happy to report that most of the time I was treated with respect by those with whom I vehemently disagree. There were some people who acknowledged that there were genuine concerns over issues of EU migration and democracy that drove the Brexit vote, but a lot of those who spoke from the floor did indeed show the Remain camp as being a camp of sore losers.

I will not name any names here, in order to not embarrass too many of the participants and because I did not declare in advance of the meeting that I might be writing about it or commenting about it publicly. This is because I didn’t intend doing so when I decided to attend. However, I will describe people, their policy positions and what they said.

The vast majority of the slides that the organisers put up on the screen did not include the idea that the Brexit vote should be respected. Much of the information was about ‘where do we go from here’ and included such things as ‘let Parliament decide’, ‘have a second referendum with a Remain option’ or put the matter to something called a ‘Citizens Assembly’. It was pretty clear to me from this sort of display where the Herefordshire Greens stand on the issue of Brexit. They despise it and are looking for any possible way, legitimate or not, to annul the vote we had in 2016. One thing that made me laugh was the claim made by one speaker that those who didn’t vote should also maybe be counted against Brexit, or at least counted as showing that Brexit was not a unanimous view. There was also another claim made by a different speaker that the Referendum vote is not legitimate because it got less of a turn out than the Scottish Independence Referendum vote.

The audience and floor participants were not much better. There were a lot of people there who were identifiably middle class and of a leftist mindset. There were, among others attending, a smug looking middle aged guy with a ‘Stop Brexit’ sweatshirt on, a lady who banged on about how Brexit will harm the NHS and cause racism, a blue-haired lady who appeared to come from a liberal left anti Brexit viewpoint and a Polish Leftist who came over as very opposed to the idea of freedom of speech in one of his remarks.

The overwhelming sense that I got of the mood of the participants was that they despised those who voted for Brexit and tended towards the view that we Brexiteers didn’t know what we voted for. At one point I interjected to say that many of us were perfectly aware of what we voted for and voted on issues of economic sovereignty, border control and keeping our democracy as close to the citizen as possible.

I was astonished at some of the misinformation being expressed at this meeting about Brexit and why so many Britons chose to vote to leave the EU. There was also some naked class-hatred that seemed to be held by some of these Remainiacs. ‘Stop Brexit’ sweatshirt guy repeated the misinformation that a recent Remain ‘People’s Vote’ demonstration in London had got 700,000 attendees. I was surprised to hear him say this, even the Greater London Authority has estimated the attendance at about 250k. This is a significant size of demo for sure but not the 700k that ‘Stop Brexit Sweatshirt Guy’ has claimed. Some of the participants plainly thought that they knew better than the Brexiteers, especially working class Brexiteers who voted for Brexit in droves. I picked up a palpable sense of disgust among these middle class Left types for the uppity lower class Britons who chose Brexit.

There was a constant pushing, both by some participants on the floor and from the organisers, of the idea of a second referendum. At one point one participant said that the Leavers are frightened of a second referendum because they will lose and that if Leave had lost, Leave supporters would be calling for a second referendum. I disagreed with that, I know many Leave supporters who would have accepted a vote to Remain with good grace and a sense of respect for the democratic vote. The fact that these Remainers think like this tells me a lot about how anti democratic is some Remain thinking.

I was disturbed by some of the anti-freedom of speech views that were being expressed by some of the participants, in particular a Polish-Briton who insisted that some people deserve to be silenced and “no platformed”. She made the claim that allowing people with unpleasant views to speak created ‘fascism’ and also claimed that the current Polish government was a ‘fascist’ government. I reckon she was totally wrong on this. I would call the current Polish government socially conservative and nationalistic, but it is in no way ‘fascistic’ and it grew out of the Solidarity Trade Union movement that challenged the Communist dictatorship in Poland in the 1980’s, hardly antecedents that create ‘fascism’. She refused to listen to my opinion that the best way to challenge hateful speech is by debating with those who promote it, exposing the flaws of their ideas and she stuck to her pro-censorship position.

I was glad I attended this discussion, even though there was noticeable pro-EU bias from the organisers and among the participants. I felt that I did add something to the evening by attending and by putting the pro-Brexit view I probably helped to turn an anti-Brexit whinge-fest into something approaching a proper discussion. I’ve met many people since the Referendum who voted to Remain for good and sound reasons as they saw it, and who have accepted the vote to leave the EU with good grace. However, I’m sad to report that too many of those attending this event, I have to put into the ‘bad loser give us another go ‘ category. This was ‘Continuity Remain’ in the flesh. There appeared to be too many people at this event who would probably consent to whatever means necessary, even underhand or undemocratic or questionable means, such as a ‘Citizens’ Assembly’ (who picks this Citizens’ Assembly? is my concern) in order to overturn the Brexit vote. This event was worth attending in order to see the worst of the worst of the attitude of the Remain camp and to hear just how much they despise Brexit and those who voted for Brexit. It was also worth showing up for in order to see the Greens exposed as being how the writer James Delingpole describes them, which is as ‘Watermelons’, green on the outside and communistic red on the inside. If the Green Party cannot accept a democratic vote to leave the EU, then they cannot be trusted to govern or to manage Britain’s economy. I believe in Parliamentary democracy and I had hoped that they did too, but it appears they will only accept a vote that gives the answer they want and if they don’t get that, then they will want to repeat it until it goes their way. It is sad to see debate hijacked by one side that does not accept that the other side could have a valid point worth talking about, it is reassuring that in this case, the opposing view was at least heard. I encourage readers to go along to any similar events they see advertised and put their points forward politely but firmly.