They still don’t get it do they? I’m talking of course about Remainers, or at least those Remainers who have spent the past five years staggering around in sackcloth trying to reassure unelected elites in Brussels that Britain loves them really.
Today marks the fifth anniversary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland officially leaving the European Union.
And how does the Mayor of London respond? With this: “Five years on from Brexit, London remains a European city, where European Londoners are valued and cherished. You are our neighbours, colleagues, friends and loved ones. Thank you for making London your home. You are wanted here — and always will be.”
Sadiq Khan might think this is a unifying thing to post on X. It isn’t. Once again, this is a Remainer peddling the myth that a vote for sovereignty spearheaded by a bloke with a German wife is proof of a hatred of Europeans.
In a way I’m glad he posted this. At least anyone deranged enough by Brexit to the point that they can’t remember basic geography can be reminded that we’re still within the continent of Europe.
It begs the question as to whether Mr Khan thinks the governments non-EU member states like Serbia should spend their time reassuring their citizens that they’re still in Europe despite having not joined the bloc.
The worst thing about Mr Khan – sorry, Sir Sadiq, if you can believe it – posting this nonsense is that it panders to a narrative that could genuinely frighten non-British citizens. That narrative being that us Leavers voted out because we hate Europeans.
I remember liberal-left types being genuinely scared about this. They envisaged deportations of people who’d arrived her legally and thought that fascism was back.
Who’s fault was that? Was it the fault of Leavers like me, who hate fascism, and any other form of government that denies its citizens democratic accountability, and voted acordingly?
Or was it the fault of cynical politicians pretending that a vote to bring government home was the result of a racist resurgence?
Sir Sadiq might like to consider another set of people who live in London and who I can assure you did not have a good time in the years 2016-2020. Leave voters.
Being a (somewhat reluctant) Brexiteer, aged in your twenties and living in London was not pleasant. I had the displeasure of watching mediocre politicians trying to stymy a democratic vote and take mine away in the process.
That was bad enough, but living in a pro-EU hotspot at odds with much of the rest of the country also guaranteed a ready supply of zealots keen to tell me I was stupid.
I was mocked on a regular basis, thick northerner that I am, as though I’d been tricked by some evil right-wing ploy, along with all the other imbecilic goblins who had the misfortune to be born outside of the south-east of England.
There was the fear of talking about any of this out loud in a pub for fear of some witch-hunter on the table next to you branding you a heretic.
There was the middle-class smugness of pro-EU marches that seemed to look down on people from less affluent backgrounds who just want to have a say.
It was ugly, divisive, belittling and pointless. And it was all blamed on Brexiteers. This stung more than a little, given that I’d promised to myself that I’d not gloat if Leave won the referendum vote.
Today, on Brexit’s fifth birthday, I will allow myself a gloat. I’ll aim it at the strange, undeserving ingrate who runs a city in which more people vote to Leave the EU than voted for him to be Mayor.
Suck it up, Sir Sadiq. You lost. And thank God you did.
