Enthusiast
Member
- Joined
- 18 Mar 2019
- Messages
- 1,089
I didn't suggest they were. I was simply suggesting to one of our correspondents who had suggested that he had "..never spoken to a Brexitist who isn't a moron or, at the very least, stratospherically ill-informed." that he might widen his circle of acquaintances. He suggested that "Brexitists are predominantly xenophobic, racist, and really rather thick." That suggests that most of 17.4m people fall into that category. I find that insulting and would do so even if I were not among their number myself.All racists and xenophobes are supporters of Brexit but not all supporters of Brexit are racists and xenophobes.
As for Mr Martin, I was using him as an example of a Leaver who is neither thick nor racist. He qualified as a barrister and has built a very successful business. Anybody who built that sort of business from scratch cannot be thick and nor, might I suggest, would he have got very far if he was racist. Common sense was not mentioned. Leavers were branded as predominantly "thick". I interpret that as being unintelligent or badly educated. I don't believe Mr Martin is either of those - though I would hazard a guess that he is not too deficient in that department either. The fact that his establishments are not to everybody's taste is neither here nor there. But he must be doing something right because his business is very profitable. But then I suppose, until the millions that are about to be thrown out of work start frequenting them, his customers are probably predominantly thick racist Leavers.
I'm afraid that our friend Tetchytyke has done himself no favours. We all have different points of view and different reasons for voting the way we did. One side was going to lose. But if you want your argument to retain any integrity you don't insult a large number of people simply because you disagree with them. Most of my friends (none of them thick racists) are Leavers but some are Remainers. We've had some robust discussions over the last three years (some of them in one or two of Mr Martin's "scummy" establishments in London's City and West End) but we have always remained civil, never resorted to the type of insults and parted as the good friends that we've always been. I've been dipping in and out of this thread for a while and the debate has always been robust but in the main civil. But the recent remarks make me wonder whether, like the Brexit saga, it has run its course.