Thread by @Helenreflects

Little reflective thread. My friend @HaseltonMarlies has been making these poignant, bleak photos of everyday scenes in the UK before it leaves the EU in her #LastMonthsBeforeBrexit series. I've been thinking of where we are now... 1/

https://twitter.com/HaseltonMarlies/status/1041683490385915905

I was devastated on 24 June 2016, although I worried Leave might win. In the course of the day I wrote "the UK voted to wreck itself economically to get rid of foreigners". Goodness did I get a lot of grief about that. Lots of people unfriended me, and I unfriended lots others 2/

Including that well-educated (Oxford educated!) white British guy who was joking about that he and others should organize a "leaver's party". Slowly, my anger towards Brexiters has decreased in the a bit over 2 years that followed. However, my anger towards the UK has not. 3/

I felt a deep sense of betrayal when we were used as negotiating cards and then as human shields to protect the interests of @BritishInEurope. I was shocked and dismayed that Leave didn't start a conversation with relevant stakeholders from all layers of society ... 4/

About what kind of Brexit the UK might want or what kind would not be hugely damaging. Instead it's just been about infighting and keeping the eurosceptics at bay, while the Labour opposition has been desperate to keep their UKIP-leaning voters happy 5/

One UKIP-py voter apparently is worth several disappointed Remainers. It's all about constituencies. But there was something else. I obviously benefited from the EU through free movement but did not know much about it but after Brexit I started reading up on it. 6/

Then I realised what a wonderful project the EU is. It's not just about big companies being able to move more easily, but also about ordinary people being able to move anywhere they want in the EU if they can find a job without being at the mercy of their employers and visas 7/

And reading the full text of the Treaty of Rome (1957) brought me to tears which is weird as treaty texts are hardly soppy texts. But I felt right there the ambition and scope of the project of the EU, which is peace and prosperity for the people of Europe 8/

Seeing the Tories now fight among each other, threaten no deal, and try to keep their extreme elements in check while also blaming the EU and not even properly negotiating with them I am thinking (sorry #FBPE crowd!) does the UK even deserve to be part of this project?

The UK is not a team player. They've never digested the crumbling of their empire. They wanted to join the EEC, asking three times to be let in, NOT as is so commonly believed because the UK were economically worse off than EEC 10/

But because they were missing out on the political power France and Germany got from being team players in the EEC. They didn't want to be left behind so they joined. Read it here in this long piece I wrote (still reasonably up to date) 11/ blog.usejournal.com/brexit-a-detai…

I know the EU is not perfect, just like nothing on Earth is perfect. But as a vision it is damn powerful. I do hope it survives the tribulations it has now. For that to happen, it needs unity and people who can see the bigger picture. 12/

Conservative MEPs were whipped to vote in favour of anti-semite, anti-refugee Orban. Think about that. Orban wants to make it illegal for a lawyer to provide a refugee with legal aid, with imposition of jail terms. Some people say this is about Brexit 13/
independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…

Don't worry, they say, we don't *really* endorse a man who really thinks being Hungarian is being “white, heterosexual, Christian or at least non-Muslim”.
Oh no, we're not anti-gay or racist, or Islamophobic. We just want to have some support for our Brexit negotiations 14/

As long as we have this leadership the UK does not deserve to be in the EU. The UK does not have the generous team-player spirit to fulfill its vision.
And it certainly does not deserve to be in the EU with all its opt-outs and special concessions. 15/

I wonder how my fellow EU citizens who left the UK due to Brexit (with no deal a scenario for many of us!) would vote in a potential referendum on the UK's re-entry. My guess is many of us would vote No. At least with the Tories in power.
/ends