Brexit

Now this is for all my American friends who wonder what the hell is going on over here in the UK just as we wonder what is going on in America – the states, as some people call it to give it a ring of familiarity when they have never been there – bit like saying 'Frisco' for San Francisco when they locals would never say that. Someone once used the expression the bay area of San Francisco when in actual fact San Francisco is in the Bay Area; bit like saying the London area of Soho. 

In other words we don't seem to know much about each others countries.

The thing is some time ago (1974) Britain had a plebiscite – the first one in their history. It's when the plebs – the plebeians – have a popular vote for something which they eventually called a referendum (work that one out how one word became the other!)

Just before that (and I'm not looking anything up today so don't correct me on dates etc) in 1972 Edward Heath, the then Prime Minister, took Britain in to the common market. He was a Conservative and the opposition didn't like it so when the opposition, The Labour Party, were elected in the next election, they called a referendum, even though they (me too) were against a common market at the time but the population voted to stay in.

So the government went along with this and stayed in as it progressed and formulated in to what it is now The European Community or the EU as they got to call it.

In the meantime and over the years the right wing of the Conservative Party had members who were described as Euro Skeptics and they moaned about the EU making laws for Britain – even though they didn't impose any laws on Britain just stipulations about being a member the union: no capital punishment, being one of them and various standards for duty free exporting and importing; various rules as to how money could be transferred between countries, ability to be able to work and live in any of the EU countries and things like that.

But there still remained the Euro Skeptics on the right of the Conservative Party.

Now let me explain – there are three main parties here: the Conservatives on the right; the Labour Party on the soft left; the Liberals in between them. 

Unlike in America where the Liberals are on the extreme left. The Liberals here, having other titles like the SDLP, at one point and now they are called the Liberal Democrats.

One day, a piece of snot rather like a bogey (which the Americans call buggers) fell out of someone's nose and became the leader of another party; a party of extreme right persuasion called The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).

There he is above, that piece of snot, when he was younger.

UKIP attracted a lot of the Euro Skeptics from the Conservative Party – in fact at one point it looked liked a hemorrhage and the Conservative Prime Minister was worried.

UKIP didn't seem to get any seats in Parliament in fact the only two seats they ever did have in the Commons were when Conservatives who changed parties in mid-stream and only one of them retained their seat at the next election and he has now gone.

Because of the hemorrhage of party members the Prime Minister promised a referendum as to whether the country should stay in the EU and the country voted to leave; he didn't want any more leaving his party.

That is the whole story really.

The laws of Britain, by-laws, common laws (jurisprudence) and the like were set up in the Magna Carta in the twelfth century or so. 

Bad King John was taken to Runnymede by the Lords of the Day – Dukes and Earls and other fingers - and they made Johnny Boy sign the Magna Carta (I think it means Magnificent Book) and that's how Britain has been ruled ever since. 

No constitution and nothing written down apart from by-laws etc so no arguments, as in America, as to what is constitutional and the constitutionality of this and that.

So no names or pack drill today – every name I ever mention on this blog goes out on the Internet and attracts readers no matter how small my blog is which is why I haven't mentioned any.

We have a bunch of politicians at the moment who are trying to negotiate something as complicated as Magna Carta and they don't seem to know what they're doing – and we are standing for it.