Unlucky for many

As I sit down at the computer here on Gabriola, the final hour of voting has begun in the U.K. How much longer, I wonder, will it still be called the United Kingdom? The Brexit debacle, however it may be resolved, has left permanent scars on my home country. For this David Cameron will be forever damned.

By a minute past midnight tonight, on Friday the 13^th (such an appropriate date, isn’t it?) we will know what to expect. As a staunch Remainer I know one result is pretty much impossible. Jo Swinson won’t be the Prime Minister tomorrow, so there won’t be a referendum in the new year stating simply: “Now that you’ve had time to think about it and fully absorb the implications, do you still want to leave the EU?”

No. Either bastard Bojo will win the majority the polls have been predicting or he won’t.

If he does, the country will be ripped out of the European Union at the end of January. People here have asked me since the referendum what I think will happen if the UK leaves the EU. And I’ve told them I think that after a few years and a change of government the UK will be going, cap in hand, to the EU to negotiate re-entry on substantially less favourable terms. I still think that, although I do now genuinely fear that by then there will no longer be four countries united in one kingdom.

On a more positive note, there seems to be a very real possibility that Bojo the Clown could actually lose his own seat today. Not sure how much this could help the country in the long term (it would keep him out of the House of Commons for a while at the very least), but it would certainly make me laugh for a day or two.

Then we come to option two. If the polls have clearly indicated nothing else since 2016 it’s that polls can be wildly inaccurate. Thus we have a narrow victory for the Leave campaign, a tangerine Wankmaggot in the White House and a minority Conservative government in Westminster, none of which the polls predicted.

Another Conservative minority seems a distinct possibility, including, one can only hope, a new MP in Uxbridge and South Ruislip. This is not a great outcome, as it will simply mean more of the same bollocks for as long as the government lasts.

The LibDems, SNP and Green(s) aren’t going to band together with Labour to form a coalition alternative that places Jeremy Corbyn in 10 Downing Street. It ain’t going to happen, nor should it. If you’d asked me last time around, I would have been all over the idea. I still had the rosy glow of the confirmed Corbynite. But, as I admitted a couple of months ago, I was wrong. Corbyn is not the man who cometh when the hour does.

If the anti-Semitism scandal which has erupted within the Labour party has proven nothing else it has proven what an ineffectual leader Corbyn is. (Am I really going to go there? Yes, it seems I am.) This should be a no brainer.

Although there are people who loudly claim otherwise, criticism of the policies of the Israeli government, such as the expansion of settlements in the occupied territories, does not equal anti-Semitism. The last time I checked, Putin was getting plenty of flak for the Russian occupation of Crimea and fomenting unrest in eastern Ukraine. If he can be criticised, why the hell can’t Netanyahu?

I believe the Palestinians have a right to self-determination in their own territory as firmly as I believe the Chinese government and army should get the hell out of Tibet. Does this mean I hate all Jewish (or Chinese) people? No, it does not.

I’m a long way away and perhaps I missed it, but to the best of my knowledge, Jeremy Corbyn has so far failed to firmly make this point. Which, of course, leaves the door wide open to the accusations. Is Jeremy Corbyn anti-Semitic? I don’t know, but my guess is no more so than I might be accused of being for supporting the idea of a chunk of land being set aside for the Palestinians. Is his inability to nip this in the bud a sign of woefully weak leadership? Yes.

Don’t get me wrong. I’d love to see the National Health Service get the support and investment it deserves. And, as I’ve said before, I’m a firm believer in public utilities. I find the thought of a Labour (or any other) government implementing these policies positively thrilling. But Jeremy Corbyn is never going to get this done.

Anyway…

As I’ve been writing, the polls have closed. The votes are now being counted. Whatever the outcome, Friday the 13^th is going to be unlucky for many.

All I can do is wish you the best of British luck, my dears.