Thread by @MattCarr55, This is sad day for millions of us

This is sad day for millions of us - not because we wanted No Deal. That was always a Brexiter demand, which, ironically, many of those who are now praising John-Son-Un’s ‘victory’ were baying for only yesterday. I’m relieved that the U.K. was not stupid enough to do this, but

This country has now completed the dismal trajectory of the last 4 years and embraced a mean, shrunken vision of the future, whose consequences - for now - have been hidden by vainglorious delusions and the Tory political machine. It’s a future in which the country will be poorer

Poorer economically, culturally, spiritually, and politically, as countries that succumb to chauvinism and ethnonationalist exceptionalism always are. The predictions made by Brexiters in 2016 have already fallen so far short of the mark that I very much doubt whether

their predictions for the longer term will materialise. I very much suspect that the EU may have saved us from ourselves during these negotiations by enabling Johnson to present a deal as a triumph. They are, and have always been the adults in the room in these negotiations

That’s not how it’s being presented here of course. Brexiters now claim the ‘war’ is over - a ‘war’ they invented,against imaginary enemies (the EU ‘dictatorship’, ‘rootless cosmopolitans’, liberal ‘elites’ etc. Now they can be found ‘drinking Remainers tears’

with all then sadistic relish that has been present throughout the whole dismal process. Remainers always had a more generous vision of what this country could be than that. They also showed far more concern for the welfare of the population than Brexiters who

chanted ‘No Deal!’ and ‘let’s go WTO!’ etc with no concern whatsoever for the consequences of these arrangements, and certainly very little attempt to prepare for them. Now they haul John-Son-Un’s deal as if it was the one they always wanted, but here’s the thing

They won, with the help of a useless opposition, using some of the most cynical, ruthless, and authoritarian tactics ever seen in British politics. They destroyed arrangements that took 45 years to build, making not the slightest attempt to compromise with the 48 percent

Or even respond to the shifting polls suggesting that a clear majority did not want the destructive rupture they were asking for. They destroyed, and now they must build, and I don’t believe they can. Their vision of the future is too detached from reality, too shrunken, and

too fake. They have burned too many boats, alienated too many people, weakened the bonds of cooperation that any medium-sized nation must have to survive in the 21st century. Very few governments admire and like us now, and the ones that do are not friends you would want

They have watched the charlatanry, the lying, the grifting, the aggressive posturing, the xenophobia, the arrogance and the selfishness of a nation that was just too big for its boots and drunken on old imperial wine. So this is a downward trajectory we are on

And I believe its consequences will gradually become apparent in many different ways. And we still have the potential to become a better country than Brexit has made us, and we need to fight for it, as tenaciously and as passionately as the Brexiters fought for theirs

And if we can do that, we or our children may live to see a time when this wretched episode is regarded with the shame and horror it deserves, and those responsible will be treated with the contempt they deserve

And perhaps we will rejoin the EU at some point, but in order to do that we will have to become a very different country to the one we are now, and the one the Brexiters want us to be.

And the struggle to make that happen starts now. It will be taken up by the young

whose politics are not as sour, as mean, as frightened or as backward-looking as so many of their parents and grandparents have proven to be.

So let the Brexiters drink Remainer tears today. But I really don’t think the future belongs to them at all.

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