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Oct. 17, 2016 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin
05:59
What the Remoaners Should Do
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The reason last week's This Week in Stupid was a day earlier is because on Sunday I went down to London to be on the Right Dishonourable podcast with a couple of lovely chaps called John and Jimmy.
They were fantastic hosts and I had a really fun conversation with them and I really just enjoyed being there.
The great thing about the podcast is that one of them is slightly more leaning to the sort of political perspective I have and the other one is leaning slightly more towards the political perspective I criticise quite often.
He likes Jess Phillips, which should give you an impression.
But John, he's a lovely, lovely guy and he makes for a really interesting conversation.
I'll leave you with a clip of it and I'll leave a link in the description and go and show them some love.
They talk mostly about British politics, but we do obviously talk about American politics slightly because you can't get away from it, can you?
But yeah, it was really nice for them to have me on and I've left a link in the description if you're interested in checking them out.
And I'll leave you with the clip of me and my opinion on the Ramonas and how they can suck it.
What kind of Brexit do we want?
The idea of soft and hard is quite obviously simplifies the matter a bit too much.
But there's also the question about who is it who should decide how we leave the EU?
Is it the largest party in the party with the majority, although the party that only got about 30 something percent of the vote?
37 I think everyone.
Yeah, and 25 of the popular vote, which I like to say.
I know you like to raise this point, but Stephen Bush, your friend at the New Statesman, has already disproved that that is even relevant.
Yeah, Stephen Bush.
Pezzi makes argument on Twitter.
But how much say, is there a case for Parliament as a whole rather than just the Conservative Party deciding what kind of a Brexit there is, especially considering that something like two-thirds of members of Parliament actually wanted to stay?
So the argument is no.
Not at all.
Absolutely.
The Conservatives were elected on a mandate of calling the referendum.
They won a majority, they called a referendum.
There was a clear majority in the referendum.
There is no need to involve anyone else in this.
The Conservatives have done exactly what they said they would do.
They've won every vote along the way.
There is no democratic need to ask anyone else to stay.
They have the legitimacy they need.
The same Tory party led by Theresa May is not the same Tory party that was led by Derek.
Doesn't matter.
I think that that is a really important point because it's an almost completely different cabinet now as well.
And I would also argue that you want some kind of an input because of the fact that the referendum, by its very nature as a referendum, was a binary question.
And the way that you leave the EU is so nuanced and difficult to complex.
I don't actually think it is.
I think it is a case of a hard Brexit, which is properly leaving the EU, and a soft Brexit, which is not really leaving the EU because you're still tied into all the treaties, you still have to buy by all the laws.
And May has been very clear on the hard Brexit.
So there's been a few clear kind of variables in the manner in which we leave the European Union.
One is control over freedom of movement, one is access to the single market, though the word access isn't hugely accurate.
Being part of the single market and our sovereignty in terms of being able to make laws and not be part of an institution that has sovereignty over Parliament.
So those are kind of like the three variables.
But all those variables in practice, the distinction can be sliced, hard Brexit, soft Brexit.
Either you're answerable to the European Court of Justice, which is the top EU courts, or you're not.
And she can very clear that she wants to leave the ECJ, like the European Court of Justice.
Yeah, yeah.
But picking it because people voted to leave for very different reasons.
Some were because of liberty reasons, some were because of immigration, some were because they wanted to stick two fingers up at the establishment, various different reasons.
And the type of Brexit that we have has such wide implications for our economy, for our future as a country, that I feel like it does need to be debated at least by the people who represent the population.
That's what you would like, isn't it?
Yeah, no, no, of course.
But that's not what they have to do.
I think there's a case for them having to do that.
Yeah, but that's because that's what you would like.
don't have to do I'm beyond trying to stop Brexit I'm not having a go I'm just saying you've got to make the distinction There's actually nothing compelling them to do any of this.
No, there's nothing compelling them to do that, but I think that you end up if you are to go full on hard Brexit, then you end up with something that, although we don't have very much data on this because of the fact that it's a referendum and it was yes or no, you end up with something that actually a tiny number of people really wanted.
Even those who were campaigning for Brexit were campaigning on us staying in the single market, some people wanted us to maintain freedom of movement.
I agree that it would be a nice gesture if they were to take in the advice of the people who are opposed to it and stuff like that and you know trying to conduct everyone.
But I think it's important and the only reason I make this distinction is because of what what I guess people call the Ramonas and I don't think you're one of them, don't get me wrong.
Oh he's definitely.
You might be I am.
The Ramonas there is I I'm absolutely I'm absolutely sick to the back teeth of hearing them talk about how they want to overturn the referendum.
I'm unbelievably sick of it.
And I'm at the point because of the remotes, I'd be a lot more open to saying, yeah, okay, well let's you know have a discourse across the table because you're going to have to deliver the example afterwards as well, blah blah blah.
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