What Makes Remainers Tick? (You’ll Be Surprised by This)
Dr Vernon Coleman MB ChB DSc FRSA
I recently received emails from someone called James Chater who is in his mid-60s and describes himself as a composer whose ‘primary purpose is to present music written for liturgical use in the Orthodox Church’.
Mr Chater has, he says, put some of my material on his Facebook page (together with comments which are not, I suspect, entirely complimentary) so it does not seem unreasonable to quote some of his mail to me and to reply on the internet – particularly since there are important points here. (I don’t have a Facebook page and, indeed, I have never even looked at one. I have no idea what he said about me but if I discover that any of it is libellous he will in due course find out just how expensive libel can be.)
I was so startled by the tone of Mr Chater’s emails that for a few hours I considered retiring completely from campaigning. But then I received another broadside from him and this seemed to me so unreasonable that I changed my mind and now feel energised.
Funny how things turn out, isn’t it?
The fact is that I have, over the years been burgled, threatened, attacked, sued, fired, fined, libelled and lied about endlessly. My emails have been hacked and my website has repeatedly been taken down. (On the last occasion by the North Koreans). All this a result of my articles about drug companies, immoral wars, etc.
And now I have Mr Chater.
Here are some quotes from Mr Chater’s communications:
1) ‘I will supply you with free publicity on all the pro-Remain Facebook pages I belong to! Then you can spend your declining years emptying your email in box of all the messages that irate pro-Euers will be sending you. Just in case I haven’t made myself sufficiently clear: LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE!’ (Yes, an academic in his 60s really did send that – complete with capital letters.)
2) ‘I…have had to waste a huge amount of time and money acquiring a French residence card and am having to apply for French citizenship to keep my rights as an EU citizen. All because of this stupid referendum, based on a pack of lies.’
3) ‘Remove from your website…any suggestion that the EU is a fascist or Nazi institution…In return I will remove the posting on Facebook in which I draw attention to your views.’
There are several important points worth making.
First, why can’t EU supporters debate the issues without resorting to threats? (To be fair, when I pointed out to Mr Chater that it would be illegal to harass me on the internet, or to encourage others to do so, he promised not to do this. So that was nice.) Am I being unreasonable in suspecting that thousands of supporters of the EU have a tendency to be selfish and ill-informed, not to mention pompous and humourless in a Clegg-Cable sort of way? On the other hand, I find that supporters of Brexit are, on the whole, selfless, patriotic and well-informed in a Farage sort of way.
Second, I really don’t understand why Mr Chater feels it is necessary to obtain a French residence card. If he wants to obtain French citizenship that is his choice. He has, presumably, chosen to live in France because he likes the country. But it seems very unlikely that the EU will be so evil as to not give Britons living in the EU the same rights that the UK has already offered to EU citizens living in Britain. I have little doubt that lies were told by both sides during the Referendum campaign but as far as I am aware far more lies were told by the pro EU side than by the Brexit side. Incidentally, since Mr Chater lives in France, he may not know that patients in the UK are currently waiting 12 hours in Accident and Emergency units in hospitals – palpably as a result of EU policies relating to immigration and working hours.
Third I don’t see what is wrong with including the facts about the EU on my website. I understand that the EU does not like the truth but I refuse to suppress the truth merely to please the EU. In order to try to make the facts about the EU’s formation easier to understand I have today posted on this website a shorter summary of the evidence proving without any doubt that the EU is a Nazi creation. The piece is called Proof the EU is a Nazi Creation. I do hope that my readers will share this with friends, neighbours and EU supporters. We should be able to reach the whole country within a week. I do hope that Mr Chater will read and digest this piece.
Fourth, it seems to me that many EU supporters want Britain to stay in the EU for personal reasons. Mr Chater may want us to stay in the EU for other reasons but he seems particularly upset by the fact that he spent time and money obtaining a French residence card and becoming a French citizen. I think he has done these things unnecessarily but he now appears to blame his actions on those patriots (including me, I suspect) who want our country to leave the EU. Many leading EU supporters (think of Mandelson and Clegg) are former EU employees who have a vested interest in supporting the EU. Others are so ignorant that they fear that when (not if) Britain leaves the EU they will no longer be allowed to eat smelly cheese, buy claret or take their holidays in Spain. Brexiteers, on the other hand, act out of patriotism and concern for the next generation. Like many who oppose the EU, I have absolutely nothing to gain from supporting Brexit – other than a love for my country. I voted against membership of the EU in 1973 and have remained steadfastly opposed.
Fifth, Mr Chater is, I believe, upset by the fact that I have taken the EU to task and have dared to take the mickey out of an organisation which he appears to revere. (Some EU fans even think I was serious in suggesting that we declare war on the EU if the eurocrats don’t start to behave a little sensibly. Tosh. It’s called satire, irony and hyperbole.) The fact is that we are effectively already at war with the EU because the eurocrats want to destroy Britain – they want to do this to dissuade other countries from leaving. I believe that those of us who love our country have to be tough with the EU if we are going to survive.
Copyright Vernon Coleman 2018
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