Saturday, June 02, 2018
Chair of Vote Leave campaign leaves us to our fate
In many ways it is hardly surprising that the rather wealthy Nigel Lawson, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer and chair of the Vote Leave campaign, might adopt the Marie Antoinette position of 'Let them eat cake' to those people he helped persuade to vote to leave the EU, whilst he applies for an official residency card so he can continue to live in France, unaffected by the chaos he has unleashed at home.
As has been pointed out elsewhere, it was always the free movement of ‘other people’, especially the poorer ones, which was the concern of the wealthy Euro-sceptics who led the Brexit campaign. It was never their intention that their own right to spend their wealth and live where they wished, should in any way be curtailed.
This arrogance will not go down well with those Europeans living and working in the UK, or even those with British citizenship who have their home and work on the continent, whose continuing status remains uncertain and who, in the case of the former group, are being aggressively targeted by the Home Office despite their own contribution to community and country.
The Independent quotes Paul Butters, the chair for the pro-EU campaign group Best for Britain who is rightly angry: “The idea that the chairman of Vote Leave has applied for his residency card in France takes the biscuit. It seemed to Lawson that no cost was not worth paying to leave. But with this news, it seems the cost will be paid by others while the former chancellor suns himself in his luxury home in France."
Indeed it is this sense of entitlement amongst the leading Brexiteers which rankles the most. Their actions tell us that they never cared for the rights and the livelihood of the millions of people they persuaded to support their cause through a mixture of lies and undeliverable promises.
Whilst our economy struggles as a result of that referendum result, the likes of Lord Lawson are sunning themselves on the continent, happily insulated against the consequences of his own campaign.
As has been pointed out elsewhere, it was always the free movement of ‘other people’, especially the poorer ones, which was the concern of the wealthy Euro-sceptics who led the Brexit campaign. It was never their intention that their own right to spend their wealth and live where they wished, should in any way be curtailed.
This arrogance will not go down well with those Europeans living and working in the UK, or even those with British citizenship who have their home and work on the continent, whose continuing status remains uncertain and who, in the case of the former group, are being aggressively targeted by the Home Office despite their own contribution to community and country.
The Independent quotes Paul Butters, the chair for the pro-EU campaign group Best for Britain who is rightly angry: “The idea that the chairman of Vote Leave has applied for his residency card in France takes the biscuit. It seemed to Lawson that no cost was not worth paying to leave. But with this news, it seems the cost will be paid by others while the former chancellor suns himself in his luxury home in France."
Indeed it is this sense of entitlement amongst the leading Brexiteers which rankles the most. Their actions tell us that they never cared for the rights and the livelihood of the millions of people they persuaded to support their cause through a mixture of lies and undeliverable promises.
Whilst our economy struggles as a result of that referendum result, the likes of Lord Lawson are sunning themselves on the continent, happily insulated against the consequences of his own campaign.
