Vocal Voices

from 6 years ago. It was the speech in which he announced that the Tories were going to make the referendum a pillar of the next Tory Manifesto for the 2015 election.

Personally I suggest anyone on any side of the Brexit divide go and read it, absorb everything Cameron said and then reflect, for at least a while, on just what happened afterwards.

In short Cameron laid bare the entire situation with the EU at that time and what needed to be done to fix it. Hidebound, inflexible, uncompetitive, overly expensive EU structures which needed review and revision in order to make the EU the competitive market, for the future, that the UK and many others required. The statement that the UK (and possibly others), would never join the Euro, the statement that the UK would never join Schengen. The clear statement that a hardcore centre of the EU were driving ahead blindly, ignoring all others in their blind determination to get what they want; at any cost.

Cameron set out a vision for what the EU needed to transition into for the UK to want to stay. Especially including the devolvement of powers back to member state parliaments.

True to his commitment, Cameron set out to have his referendum and then set out to get support for his "vision" with the EU and the member state rulers.

The end result?

"Get lost Sonny".

We had a vote and we had a say and we voted to leave. What has changed in the intervening 2 years?

Not One Single Thing.

It is worth reading what Cameron said. It is a very good summary of the situation in 2014. Dissatisfaction with the EU had finally reached the point where it was actually distorting UK politics. Cameron acted and acted quickly, to head it off before it became baked in like the SNP in Scotland.

In the whole EU referendum mess the only thing Cameron achieved was to destroy the UKIP. If you were to see Cameron's goals in 2015, you would see that he only had two goals on the EU. 1. destroy the UKIP as a threat. 2. Win the referendum.

Anyone in politics will tell you that getting even half of what you set out to do is a major achievement.

For anyone who is unsure about the situation they should read that speech and then ask themselves:

Is it true
What has changed

For truth, it is useful to see the EU response to his criticism. After all if it had been untrue, the EU would have been shouting it from the rafters. Result? Silence.

Next for what has changed? Well, read the speech, then go and do some research. I know what has changed. It might be enlightening to find out, personally.

The undercurrent of Cameron's speech is all about the UK and what the UK wants, but to be fair he does make some good points.

However, and also to be fair, other leaders could make similar speeches and they too would be about what their countries want from the EU. Some of their 'wants' would chime with those of the UK where others would be bête noire to us.

Cameron came back from his negotiation with the EU with a few 'wins' but mostly with neutral statements. Unfortunately he was unable to sell his deals with he UK public and we drifted in to a referendum he himself did not fully believe in.

He wanted time for a proper, reasoned debate and for proponents of both sides of the argument to avoid exaggerating their claim. Fail! He also always wanted the UK to be at the centre of the single market and he recognised that outside of the EU the UK would lose some International powers. What we got was the rushed invocation of A50 without any plans to work to.

What happened was that Cameron lost the referendum and resigned and ran away. May then became Tory leader and called an opportunistic general election in which she lost a majority to a hung parliament. At that point any promises made by Cameron became null and void. His government ceased to exist and the new government, the one we have now, is a construct of May propped up by the DUP.

All true, but the message was clear.