Doing the world a favour

Subject: Doing the world a favour.

As the vote to leave, or not to leave takes place in a few minuets time one has to reflect the mood of the people roughly 3 years ago when in the Referendum 17 million of them voted to leave. An almost equal number about a a two million less voted to stay and so, as democracy often reveals, it was a vote in which the result was contentious. 
The reasons for choice on both sides were many. Nationalism, conformity, business interests, plain old bloody mindedness sticking it to the establishment, sections of the public who felt they had nothing to lose or gain, a dislike of the EU Commission and its unelected status, the cartel or cabal you takes your pick which runs the affairs of Europe with little or no concern about the ordinary person in the street, instance the terrible economic pressure applied to Greece who themselves were misled in their attempt to join the EU.
There are so many good things which have been accomplished by the EU but hiding behind it all is the double standards of an unaccountable elite and whilst we may also have our flaws in the integrity of our government, we do at least have the fall back of an election, every 5 years to change the chairs on the deck of the Titanic.
When democracy came into being in Classical Greece it was a reflection of status, with only a segment of the population eligible to vote. With the arrival of the universal franchise in the 20th century the concept of political eligibility changed to include us all. Based on the assumption that any adult had enough common sense to make their mark on the ballot paper, using some sort of critical analysis it moved further away from the concept that some people 'know better'.  And so it was with the Referendum, an offer to the people rather than the normal pattern of leaving things to our political representative in Parliament. 
If a vote means anything it means choice and once made it's the responsibility of the system to respect it. Of course it's one of the reasons referendums are rare in this country, the politicians don't respect us and are clearly tarnished by the power bubble they live in. How can 'we' be expected to know the reasons, the ins and outs of an In or Out question. As it turned out  the facts were not presented by the politicians, rather we got the hype of prejudice, on the one side billions to save and spend on our own special needs whilst on the other the almost immediate crashing out of our economy and the lurid self harm we would inflict on ourself.
Even today the respected voices of our political leadership still scream opposing stories from across the Westminster aisle, claim and counter claim each apparently secure in their own judgement, the howls of contempt or joy which swept the House of Commons Chamber as the results were read out illustrated that it was still a game to the politicians not the most serious event in their political lives.

 Listening to John Redwood, the arch Brexiteer speaking in a committee about, as he sees it the scare stories which are meant to frighten us, stories about a failure to obtain medicines, failure to put aircraft in the sky, the blockage to industry through our ports and so on. His verdict was that it was in the interests of business to find solutions and solutions would be found, the market would find a way, money talks. 

Although I am no supporter of this right wing Tory he was convincing and compared favourably with the shrill doom Sayers who were describing, in apoplectic terms the mayhem we were inviting on ourselves. 
And so is it all rhetoric. With 40 years of compliance to the rules demanded by Brussels, with near mirror like systems and services, how can we, given the political will on both sides come to a grinding halt. Is it all a political charade which, once the dust settles life will go on as usual with a few inconveniences. Some extra paperwork, a few extra checks to ensure compliance with the regulations, is this the Mark which will bring the ship onto the rocks. 
As a nation who embarked in the not too distant past on a war against one of the most powerful fighting units ever assembled, unaided and against the odds we chose not to surrender to our fears and in the end did the world a favour.