Conceit and deceit at heart of UK poll

Double Vision with Charlie Adley

What a nasty British election this has been. Maybe that’s because the entire process was born out of a massive conceit. Setting out to appeal to bewildered Labour voters and UKIP orphans, Theresa May created a Churchillian atmosphere of Us against Them, claiming she could secure a better Brexit deal if she had a massive majority in government.

What a load of tosh. May knows well that when her team face up to negotiations with the EU, the size of her parliamentary majority will not make the slightest difference.

When Alexis Tsipras arrived in Brussels after Syriza’s massive landslide victory, Wolfgang Schäuble bluntly rebuffed his mandate thus:

“It’s yours against mine.”

There will be 27 other mandates on that table, and in the EU, an entity perfectly designed to give heretic governments the runaround; to obfuscate and confuse. Rather than spoil her campaign with that inconvenient truth, May prefers to win over a certain Brit voter who doesn’t mind a bit of argy-bargy with Johnny Foreigner.

That voter longs for England to control its borders. May looks the type who’ll close the doors, yet here lies more deceit. It is an accepted truth that a thriving Western economy needs a broad base of migrant workers. Those who constantly complain that immigrants steal English jobs will not be eagerly racing off their sofas to fill vacancies created by Europeans departing base and messy industries.

Work for those hours, at that rate of pay?

Are you kidding? Who do you think I am, mate?

Britain needs immigrants, and without free movement from the EU, the UK will have to open its doors to people from all over the world, doubtless with many more skin types than the EU offered.

Not sure those refugees from UKIP voting Tory this time round will like that so much.

To read Charlie’s column in full, please see this week’s Galway City Tribune.