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This is a normal post Much as I like David Mitchell and often agree with him
I think he's missed the point there by a very wide margin.

He wants to be led. Good for him. I on the other hand want the democratic right to make a goddamn choice about who's in charge.

Let me be clear about this - I've not made my mind up if I'm in the leave or stay camp. However Mitchell isn't asking me to be in one camp or the other, he's denying that I should have the ability to be able to make that choice at all.

Advocating reduced democracy purely to score points against your political nemesis is so short-sighted it hurts.
(, Tue 31 May 2016, 17:54, , Reply)
This is a normal post I dunno.
Was reading about Burke a while ago, and what stuck with me is the concept that people elect other people to make the difficult decisions, about which they have the time to read, to think, and to debate.

I admit that this is a pretty important thing we have to decide, but else do we have plebiscites on - the death penalty? I think his point about the whole referendum being an arrogation of responsibility rings pretty true.
(, Tue 31 May 2016, 18:17, , Reply)
This is a normal post I'd agree
If I thought that any of them had actually been debating it. None of the parties seem to have been interested in debating it until UKIP backed the Tories into a corner.
(, Tue 31 May 2016, 20:22, , Reply)
This is a normal post And yet, here we are
poised on the brink of one of the most important decisions of our adult lives, in possession of absolutely bugger-all in the way of facts.

I for one would rather leave such a decision to those with the information to properly consider the alternatives, and to come up with the best course of action. Instead I'm supposed to decide whether I prefer Gideon's vision of economic suicide or Boris' vision of OMGHITLERS!!!
(, Tue 31 May 2016, 19:19, , Reply)
This is a normal post It's the hyperbole that gets me.
If I weren't so keen on the idea of the EU and generally pleased with what's been achieved I'd probably vote to leave just to stick it to Cameron out of sheer bloody-mindedness.
(, Tue 31 May 2016, 19:32, , Reply)
This is a normal post Pretty much that.
I work for a French-owned company on a Europe-wide project. My job has taken me across four European countries, my boss is French, and members of my immediate team originate from Spain, The Netherlands and Italy.

I've seen what benefits membership of the EU brings, and as yet no-one has provided me a compelling reason to throw that away.
(, Tue 31 May 2016, 20:19, , Reply)
This is a normal post Fuck both the campaigns for that
But here's what bothers me about the whole EU thing. It's been clear for as long as I can remember - possibly even since the Maastricht Treaty was signed - that the UK population had no idea what they were getting out of the project. We've all heard about the money that flows to Brussels the French farming subsidies, the financial basket cases that some of the member states turned out to be. But who is publicising the positives? If the positives are there - and there must surely be some - why did it have to get to the point where we're at risk of leaving before hearing about them? How can an organisation that big be so bad at PR? Is it that they just didn't care what we think?
(, Tue 31 May 2016, 22:11, , Reply)
This is a normal post Last word
In large part, I'd say Britain's problem is that our politicians have treated us with so much contempt over the last 25 years when it comes to Europe. They've been grandstanding so much over what bezzie mates they are with the German Chancellor of the day, or crowing about how much they won from the most recent treaty negotiations, to the extent that they haven't levelled with the electorate about what they're doing, and why, and why it's important.

Both camps have such utter, utter contempt for the people they're asking to make the decision they don't have the balls to make themselves.

Cunts.
(, Tue 31 May 2016, 23:07, , Reply)