Quote:
Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington
Hill walker your postis very interesting but I am unsure of the point of it(maybe I am being a bit thick - or maybe this is a tongue in cheek post). I thought politicians were educated men and women...and we have spoken to them in the past and they have PRETENDED to hear us...they have PRETENDED that they were concerned.....well until we had put our X in their box and then they disregarded everything that we ever said to them.
Yes our language is full of inconcistencies......and I know from my experience with foreign doctors that(as a nurse) some of them found it very difficult to understand. (you try explaining what a 'one night stand' is to a young chinese doctor)
If you are alluding to the question on the Ballot paper, I do not think it could have been made clearer.
And those people who are now saying that they regret voting to LEAVE the EU.......I would ask what they thought they were voting for?
There has been a report this morning about families being at loggerheads because of the fact that some voted Remain, while others voted to LEAVE.
Was there no discussion and debate in these families during the nine month or so run up to this event?
I know that my daughter and I have had some in depth discussions about the vote and the implications....there was no doubt in my mind how members of my family would vote.....but had there been differences of opinion, then that is what they would have been.....not a major fallout.
As for professions having their own dictionary - yes and this was always so that those not 'in the know' were kept out of the loop.
That is why Doctors wrote most of their stuff in Latin...it sounded impressive and it kept the ordinary man ignorant.
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Margaret, sorry I thought I had pitched it about right, clearly I hadn't, blame a lifetime working in an environment where it was policy (original usage being 'intention' rather than current usage being 'rule') that whilst some use of computing facilities for personal use was permitted any usage for some topics (sex, religion and politics) was discouraged.
To clarify I am utterly appalled at the way all our representatives have acted before, during and since this referendum. To cite two examples. First the pronouncements on the effect that a leaving result would have on the financial markets was an obvious self-fulfilling prophesy. The markets and pound were going to twitch whatever the result, they like stability but their traders love a twitch, that's how they make money, and any excuse will do. The self-fulfilling prophesy could only make it worse. Secondly the promises of extra money for this and that (particularly the NHS) was stupid as nobody can guess what state the economy will be in after the several years it will take to untangle the current financial arrangements with Europe. A few maybes, possibles, like tos would have helped but only minimally.
Now that the result is in what do the politicians do. One party decides the best thing is to campaign for re-admission, one party decides to self-destruct, and one party decides to turn itself into a headless chicken. Do any of them say (with conviction) 'OK keep calm we have a lot of work to do'?
Some of the electorate is almost as bad. Some think we are already out! Some say 'Oh is that what I voted for!
But worst of all we now have lots of people and politicians trying to define what LEAVE actually means, and some of those definitions are potentially the worst of all possible combinations namely keep access to the market place by continuing to pay out but also pay the price of no say on policy and no control over borders etc! Or another scenario, negotiate some sort of a deal and then have another referendum to ratify it.
Its all in the language. Before the event the IN campaigners should have clearly stated what they thought the future plans of the EU are and where they think its going. The LEAVE campaigners should have clearly stated what they thought LEAVE meant and what they thought the implications of this would be. Ok I know nobody has a crystal ball, the future cannot be accurately predicted but thoughts, aspirations and intents can be. Virtually all we got was from both sides was 'codswallop' which gives leave for people to say 'I didn't understand' or 'what I really meant was'. Like I say its all in the language and the word 'LEAVE' in this context is still to be defined, several politicians have already questioned it, and some have attempted their own definition.
Unlike you Margaret I did not do extensive research before voting, and I do not criticise you in any way for doing it your way. I based my judgment on living and working in what has already happened and my perception of the way things were developing and would continue to do so. In doing things this way I had to discount many things which many think of as great advantages/disadvantages of the EU. We as a country are perfectly capable of coming up with good ideas (eg NHS) and great failures of judgment (eg giving away our industrial base).
We have a result we should accept it and its consequences and get on with. It may be for the best it may not but as someone I know often says 'better to live with results of your own judgment than someone else's'.
RANT OVER
By the way I like the 'one night stand' example. My 'chop down/up' came from a conversation with a very well educated guy from Iraq who was stranded over here by the first Gulf war. His knowledge of English words was far greater than mine but his initial ability to use/interpret the words produced several conversations that all who were present will remember till their death. I should add that this situation did not last and before he left (for Canada) he gave me a book of English poetry he had written.