"Look, if you had one shot or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted in one moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?"
- "Lose Yourself" by Eminem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrBrtyTOeOQ
In 2002 the rap artist Eminem wrote the above lyrics for a song which formed the soundtrack of the film 8 Mile. The film, set in 1995, is an account of a young white rapper named Jimmy "B-Rabbit" Smith Jr. (Eminem), who lives in a mobile home park in Warren, Michigan, and his attempt to launch a career in rap, a genre dominated by African Americans. (Wikipedia). He's essentially "trailer trash", a blue-collar worker whose life is mundane and pretty crap, but who gradually takes more responsibility for his own life throughout the film, eventually winning a local rap contest against the leading rapper. It's a film about believing in yourself and your abilities and being prepared to take a chance against the odds.
On 23 June 2016 we have got that one shot, that one opportunity to seize back full control of many areas of our life from unelected Europhile bureaucrats and put it into the hands of elected politicians in the UK. And through the power of the ballot box, that puts the control back into your hands and mine. Are you going to capture it or let it slip?
There's been far too much rubbish spouted on both sides about the pros and cons of staying in the EU or leaving it and it's got to the stage that many of us now take what both sides are saying with a pinch of salt, no matter where we stand on the issue. I don't intend to load this article with statistics to argue the case. Because for most of us I think it's our hearts that are telling us where to place that cross come the day.
We are a bit of a litmus test with this referendum. Throughout the larger, longer serving member countries of the EU, ordinary people are watching, waiting, to see which way we go. If we stay in, the Establishment in these countries, and those running the EU, will breath a sigh of relief and see it as an opportunity to press ahead with yet greater EU integration. However, if we come out I think it will light a beacon in these countries which people will gather around and say - if the UK can choose to stand on its own feet, why are we staying in this club which let's be honest has hardly been a resounding success.
The Remain camp's arguments for staying in basically consist of spreading fear, in support of which are included dubious statistics from vested interests - that economic recession will return, whole industries go to the wall, thousands maybe millions of jobs will be lost, that workers' protection laws will be ripped up, that inflation will run riot, house prices will fall, the NHS will collapse, Old Age Pensions will be at risk, taxes will rise, we'll have more difficulty dealing with illegal migrants because France will no longer act as our buffer, Green and environmental causes will be reversed, Boris Johnson will be Prime Minister and that basically the sky will fall in. Expect over the next few weeks to see further character assassination of the leading figures in Brexit, Boris, Farage and Gove. Because the Establishment is now crapping itself and they will do whatever it takes to bend us to their will.
Do you remember the story of Chicken Licken? He and his friends thought the sky was falling in too. It started off with just Chicken Licken but he kept going around telling all his pals the sky was falling. And they all believed him. Eventually Chicken Licken, Henny Penny, Cocky Locky, Ducky Lucky, Draky Lakey, Goosey Loosey, Turkey Lurky and even Foxy Loxy were all sucked in to the mistaken assumption. All that catastrophising, fearmongering and predictions the world would end, well, it's contagious - but all that actually happened was a fucking acorn fell out of an oak tree!
You don't have to go back very far to see this fable played out in real life. Remember the weapons of mass destruction capable of being deployed in 45 minutes? Complete fabrication - but the lies did the job and allowed us to be taken into the war in Iraq. Much more recently, all the predictions of disaster for the Scots if they had the audacity to vote for independence. Well, those scare stories persuaded enough Scots to err on the side of caution and vote against independence. Job done for the Establishment!
Those in charge can get it wrong, you know. Remember General Custer saying where did all those bloody Indians come from? The captain of the Titanic - I can't see any Iceberg. Neville Chamberlain telling us peace in (for) our time. And David Cameron saying he'd get immigration down to 50,000. All of these people spoke with the voice of authority. And all got it catastrophically wrong.
They tell us now that economists are overwhelmingly in favour of us staying in, because it's better for our economic wellbeing. But they don't tell you that 75% of economists were in favour of us joining the Euro when it was set up.
Oh - and let's not forget some other big hitters telling us we're much better off in. Tony Blair had set up a special little inner group to steer us into the Euro - a fact hidden from the British public until one of the main players in it decided to write his memoirs.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/jan/23/tony-blair-euro-secret-peter-hain
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-1544621/Hain-Britain-cant-stay-out-of-euro.html
Yes - Peter Hain let the cat out of the bag, and guess what? Hain was one of the leading lights of this secret cabal. So much for democracy, so much for accountability and transparency. No wonder these sorts of people love the EU because it's just a larger version of that despicable, undemocratic little gathering. IF others had listened to these idiots back then we'd be in the Euro now, right up shit creek without a paddle. Naturally, if Peter Hain knocks on your door canvassing in the next fortnight I doubt he'll mention the above - but if it's my door being knocked on you can bet that I will!
The thing is that people in general are naturally risk averse so will tend not to stick their necks out. And that's the trump card the Establishment are playing. They tell us that Brexiteers can't predict how things will turn out. Of course they bloody can't - any more than Remain can tell us exactly what will happen in the EU in the future. No-one has yet lived who can predict the future, though there a lot of charlatans who claim they can - many of them foremost in the Remain camp right now.
Look, there's bound to be uncertainty as to how things will turn out. But when Columbus set sail, he didn't know exactly what he'd find; when da Vinci first learned to use a paintbrush he couldn't have known he'd produce the Mona Lisa; when Gagarin orbited the Earth who would have predicted a man would walk on the Moon not a decade later. But that's what has made the human species such a success. We thrive on unpredictability, on challenges, on change! That's where we're at our best. We are definitely not at our best adopting Carwyn's Way of servile dependency on the EU where we're slightly better off because it gives us more money (in Wales) than we give back. What a pathetic excuse for staying in. Let's get up off our knees and stop this passivity, this grovelling, so unbecoming to a proud people. We might have slightly less money to spend on doing up our town centres but it will be our money, we'll choose just how to spend it, and hopefully we'll spend it far more wisely than we have up to now.
That's it for me. I've kept the statistics out of this piece as I promised. Now when 23 June arrives are you going to fall for the stories of the doom and gloom mongers, those whose way to win an argument is to frighten us into submission and even lie to us? Or like B-Rabbit in 8 Mile will you seize that one shot, that one opportunity, to believe that things CAN be better?
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