A Letter to Mark Francois
I sent this to Mark Francois earlier today. If i get a reply, I'll provide an update, but having reflected on Big Ben's Bongs, Brexit day and what it's about, I felt a bit emotional and compelled to write something with a gammon flavour to it.
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Hi Mark,
There is currently over 140K of crowd funding in the pot for Brexit day and although Big Ben is out of action, there is a much more appropriate way of celebrating this historic day. For 3.5 years, London has become irrelevant when it comes to Brexit, it represents the status quo, remain, and millionaire funded, anti-democratic stunts to overturn the will of the “little people". For way too long, our country has been represented all over the world exclusively by using monuments in our capital city. Brexit day should let the world see global Britain as national Britain …a long look outside of London, where we take our deep breath of independence and showcase to the world our vibrant North with our beautiful coastlines, the Yorkshire Dales, Peak District, the wonderful landscapes of the Lakes and, of course, the glorious valleys and hills of Wales.
Let’s start by getting this right !
The Brexit votes came from Northern heartlands, the places where decade after decade constituencies of all colours have been ignored, while the people watch the money drip into the capital year on year.
Again and again, the capital sticks up two fingers to the north, and our coastal towns and yet, even before Brexit has happened, it’s a case of “here we go again” where our historic event we worked so hard to achieve gets centre stage in the rich remain-centric capital, far away from Brexiteers, and then we panic because "Big Ben” won't bong.
Let’s hear it for the north where the Brexit voters live, the coastal towns, the small businesses in Leicester, Coventry, Stoke on Trent, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Durham. Let’s get the 140K of public donations and bring the party to them …. let’s have fireworks from the Tyne Bridge, and the Liver Building, let’s light up Leeds Town Hall and the Crooked Spire in Chesterfield. Let’s have a party in Manchester with a great band, a flotilla of fishing boats round Clacton-on-Sea, Whitby and Whitehaven.
Brexit day is not for rich London remainers. It’s for people who work 3 hours overtime each week so their family can have a holiday, for those that are on a council waiting list and want their money spent on housing in their country, it’s for people who vote labour but held their noses and took a leap of faith in Boris Johnson, for those who’s High Streets have been reduced to betting shops, charity shops and abandoned pubs, and for those who finally believe that the government is finally listening to them.
As the song goes, "Now they see what will be, blinded eyes to see ….. for whom the bell tolls” … or,in other words, a silent Big Ben represents the silent majority and the real party is with those who earned it.
Please spend wisely, and thanks for reading.
... Let's see if he replies ... I doubt it, but anyway, "spleen vented", my inner northerner cleansed and half an hour killed this morning.
I do like a good rant now and again.