The Chequers statement

Any deal has to be better than No Deal to be worth accepting. No deal gives us all our money back and restores control over our laws, our borders and our trade policy.
We need to take back control of our laws, borders, money and trade policy.
It is unlikely the EU will accept the Chequers position and will demand more.
The EU has always made clear that customs union membership comes with freedom of movement and the supremacy of EU law, which is why I have three times helped vote down the idea of seeking to stay in the single market or customs union, in support of the government.
The red lines that we do not accept the jurisdiction of the ECJ, do not pay them more money, and have our own migration policy remain very important.

178 Comments

  1. Beecee
    July 7, 2018

    “No deal is better than a bad deal….”

    I wonder who have said that, and how many times?

  2. Ian wragg
    July 7, 2018

    To you maybe but not too the majority of politicians and certainly not to May and Hammond.
    We’ve lost John and no amoumt of spin or dissemination is going to change that.
    The good news is that UKIP will arise from the ashes and the Tories will be wiped out.

  3. Know-Dice
    July 7, 2018

    Good to see that you are getting angry…

    Now get your Leave colleagues on board and get rid of May…

  4. fedupsoutherner
    July 7, 2018

    I hope the EU turn down Mrs May’s proposals but as she has already been in a tete a tete with Merkel it may already be a done deal.

    Let’s face it John, your opinion and others in your party count for nothing with May and Hammond at the helm. They will blindly do what they want and to hell with everything else. Your party has failed to deliver Brexit and has dumped democracy in one go. Well done! God alone knows what the rest of the world is thinking. A one time great nation who capitulated to nobody is now at the beck and call of basically the Germans. What an humiliation. There will be many disappointed people today and not only British. We could have led the way to something better but as usual flunked it big time. I am going to stop now as I can feel the blood pressure rising as I type and the NHS is busy enough as it is!

  5. Rien Huizer
    July 7, 2018

    Again, you are probably right in expecting that the deal (or what little detail is in the public domain and may or may not be identical to what was leaked to the Commission team) is not acceptable to either the Commission, a sufficient number of member states or a majority of MEPs, or all of those. In that case one may ask why this effort was made and what audience it was aimed at. Not the EU, unless the idea was to provoke a seemingly unreasonable “no” from the Commissions, paving the way for the US trade take-over Mr Fox has been advovcating and whose allegiance to that project may well survive his apparent surrender to a European solution for the UK’s future trade problems. So it must have been at a domestic audience, maybe also the business community. As you know, business does not have to pretend to be patriotic. All it has to do is to satisfy shareholder interests (among those may well be protecting a valuable franchise with emotional aspects)

    We will have to wait and see. Imo, no meaningful progress has been made towards an amicable ending of this soap, but it cannot go on forever.

    1. NickC
      July 8, 2018

      Rien, As usual you completely fail to be self aware. You make snide remarks about the UK being a trade vassal of the USA. By what principle is that worse than being a trade and legal vassal state of the EU? If you want to be taken seriously here, you have to give reasons, and not just make assertions.

      1. Rien Huizer
        July 9, 2018

        The UK had influence in the EU. The relationship with the US can never be one between equals. But the UK cannot remain a member after the past two years, and does not deserve prefential treatment either.

  6. Turboterrier.
    July 7, 2018

    John , you are but a voice of the few within the party and sadly our so called top table do not have the vision, experience, principles and belief in this country as you have always show to hold.

    You can have all the red lines you want but they mean nothing when May and her cabinet are standing on them all holding and waving a white flag. Their contempt for the electorate and this so called democracy is lamentable.

  7. Peter Wood
    July 7, 2018

    Dr. Redwood,

    What is a population to do, that has accepted governance by a democratic system, and thereby has elected representatives and given instructions when required by plebiscite, if those same representatives fail to enact, or by duplicitous means seek to thwart, such properly given instructions? Do they sit back and accept an inferior form of rule, or do they take action?

  8. Roy Grainger
    July 7, 2018

    Uh ? The cabinet has agreed that freedom of movement will continue, but have called the arrangement by another name. Just as they have with SM and CU. So why wouldn’t the EU accept this ? Albeit with some large annual payment which I’m sure May will agree to.

  9. Narrow Shoulders
    July 7, 2018

    I am sure there were more red lines than that previously Mr Redwood. Have you blinked too?

    You have always maintained that you can make more of a difference within the party than from the outside. Continual small concessions granted to the EU and accepted by you and your party suggest that may not be the case.

    Who will rid us of this troublesome organisation?

  10. Denis Cooper
    July 7, 2018

    My guess is that rather than totally rejecting it the EU will take the new UK position as their starting point for extracting yet more concessions, which will be given.

    Maybe I’m wrong on that, maybe they’ll say there’s really no point pursuing this line of negotiation and so the two sides should just make sure that they sort out the minimum agreement needed to avoid chaos when we leave.

    However there is the question of how backbench Tory MPs will react to Theresa May more or less ripping up her Lancaster House speech, and I go back to what Graham Brady said about that only nine days ago:

    http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/06/28/the-eu-summit/#comment-943433

    “… Tory MP Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, said that the government should be “cleaving to the principles that were set out in that speech”.

    Journalists are presenting this episode as Theresa May courageously facing down the fanatical Brexiteer troublemakers in her cabinet, but it is more like the Theresa May of July 6th 2018 facing down the Theresa May of January 17th 2017.

    Once again this is only a guess on my part but it may end up with a Tory Prime Minister having to rely upon opposition MPs, including overt eurofederalists, to help make up the Commons majorities needed to betray the country.

    Which would not the first time that had happened, by any means; in fact it is what the archtraitor Edward Heath did to secure the passage of the European Communities Bill 1972 through the Commons. The Lords presented no problem, they willingly voted en masse to sell us out, but it was more difficult with the Commons.

  11. Richard1
    July 7, 2018

    Sounds like a very soft and squishy Brexit to me. No Deal might be better than this – but let’s face it so might cancelling article 50 and remaining in the EU. The test will be whether the UK will be free eg to plug into the Australia-NZ FTA, to join TPP, maybe even to join NAFTA. If, when we see the detail of this, it turns out we are under such regulatory control by the EU as we cannot do such things, this proposal clearly falls into the category of a bad deal.

  12. Reno Fardner
    July 7, 2018

    You have lost

  13. Nig l
    July 7, 2018

    I have seen the 12 point plan. As usual looks good in headlines but it is the minutiae that will ‘sell us out’.

    It is telling that she had to threaten to sack people to get her way and equally telling that they acquiesced to save their jobs rather than their principles.

  14. Augustyn
    July 7, 2018

    In your constituency I have voted Conservative and therefore for you in every general election since moving to the area in 1987. Never again. Not only do I feel that I have been betrayed but I know I have been betrayed. I am beyond anger that Mrs May has been able to get away with saying one thing for the last two years and then delivering something else. What word is there that is stronger than disgust?

    1. Richard1
      July 8, 2018

      What else are you going to vote?

  15. MickN
    July 7, 2018

    The plus side of all of this is that if we offered to take a million people from the EU every year in perpetuity, stay subservient to the ECJ and pay them 100 billion a year they would still turn the offer down. It is what they do. Nothing will be agreed by the EU until the day after the deadline has passed. You only have to look to Greece to see their history of this.

  16. miami.mode
    July 7, 2018

    To try and prove it was not a complete sell-out of Britain, for dinner they had Scottish salmon, Oxfordshire beef and bread and butter pudding. What frauds!

  17. A.Sedgwick
    July 7, 2018

    I would prefer Corbyn as PM rather than a cobbled together sell out, which this latest fudge is. This is about maintaining centuries of creating our democracy and the supremacy of the will of the people, which also created the best democracy i.e USA. If the supposed 60 true Brexit MPs do not vote down any crap “deal” then we are truly lost. I have posted several times that these MPs should have joined UKIP, as one did, when at its peak, obviously that is not an option now but creating a true Conservative Party is, the rest are no real different to Labour.

  18. Freeborn John
    July 7, 2018

    You need to take down May NOW. What she is doing is totally unacceptable in subverting the referendum result. It is unbelievable that Davis and Fox have not resigned and are still in their non-jobs in Cabinet sitting there uselessly while Robbins negotiates/surrenders and trade deals are impossible. Your party is going to be crucified at the next election.

  19. Sebastian Weetabix
    July 7, 2018

    I have to say if what has leaked out of the Chequers meeting is correct, I will never vote for the Conservatives again as long as Theresa May is in charge. It is nothing short of a betrayal of democracy, and if that means the useless Jeremy Corbyn takes power, so be it. At least he has consistently opposed the EU his entire career.

  20. percy openshaw
    July 7, 2018

    Dear Sir, we should, as you suggest, emerge with something better than WTO terms if we are to forsake that option. But will we? Under pressure from Continuity Remain, the government’s position is eroding fast. As a result, the threads and websites are boiling with anger. James Forsyth, in the Sun, suggests that a lack of preparation for no deal has undermined the cabinet Brexiteers at Chequers; that they should have dug their heels in a year ago. If this is true, then it is surely a scandal – up there with a failure to rearm sufficiently in the thirties. True, the bulk of blame lies squarely with the PM, but unless there is real advantage in her latest “demarche” then I suggest that all Brexiteers should move to be rid of her. The devil is in the detail, says Mr Rees-Mogg; he’s been hiding there for a while – and so has Mrs May. Isn’t it time to smoke him out and – if necessary – fight him – and her?

  21. eeyore
    July 7, 2018

    JR – Thank you for this carefully phrased statement. Your deep concern is apparent throughout.

    Now we know that Brexit means Remain, democracy means bureaucracy and the solemn promises of Her Majesty’s Government mean sod all, we find ourselves reliant on the EU to do our business for us. And this in the nation of Nelson and Pitt, Churchill and Thatcher. Words fail me.

  22. Alison
    July 7, 2018

    ‘Any deal has to be better than a no deal’. All I can do is hope that this adjusted line is to tread water for a couple of days, ahead of an more appropriate activity (and waiting to see how the EU will respond to Mrs May’s proposals) – although I bet Mrs May has planned for this, by asking Barnier and co to hurry slowly).
    Skimming through the 3-page government doc released last night, the red lines on freedom of movement have gone – we now have a ‘mobility framework’.
    Mrs May and her Remain Cabinet colleagues are beneath contempt.
    One of the massive problems with treading water is that little or nothing is done to prepare for no deal, which limits our negotiating position and extends the time we are tied to the EU.
    I am afraid I can only describe Mrs May’s approach and work as deeply dishonest. Pathetic. Weak. She is deeply untrustworthy, and I beg you never to forget that, particularly now.
    PS you can probably guess how incandescent with fury I am.

  23. Tad Davison
    July 7, 2018

    In all, a relatively short post which at this stage is telling. Perhaps because your own position is well documented, but that you needed to write something for your readers and have not yet digested the minutia of the Chequers statement. Join the club.

    However, from what I can see thus far, the so-called statement falls well short of what the people voted for in the referendum, and if that turns out to be the case, May needs to seriously consider her position. So too the remainers in the cabinet. The Lord Halifax types in her ranks would be better employed elsewhere. The country doesn’t need them. We need Churchills who act in the country’s best interest. We are heartily sick of wishy-washy politicians who bend over backwards to appease a different master.

    The British people expect British politicians to do what is best for this nation, and that means taking back control in its entirety, not some half-baked measure designed to fit in with what the EU wants.

    Tad Davison

    Cambridge

    1. Tad Davison
      July 7, 2018

      Before last year’s General Election, Theresa May wanted us to vote Conservative essentially it is said, to give her a mandate to deliver Brexit. Many will now be breathing a sigh of relief she didn’t get it. A remainer at heart, we are beginning to see her Lancaster House speech was nothing more than a ploy to con the public, as so many of her Tory colleagues have done in the past. Evidently, the last 24 hours has shown the type of Brexit she has in mind doesn’t fulfil the expectations of those who voted for a clean break.

      There are but a handful of Tory MPs in whom I will ever place my trust again. What I have to say about the rest would never get past the moderator, but I’m a gritty working-class type of a bloke, so I’ll leave it to the reader to envisage what I mean. If the Tory party now disintegrates, it wouldn’t bother me one iota, and the same goes for the other Westminster parties. We have to get rid of the all-pervasive miasma of self-interest and chicanery within our political system.

      Even with the full weight of the establishment peddling myths and misinformation to get people to vote to stay in the EU, they decided by a majority to leave, and it was agreed by all that their decision would be abided by, in full, not subject to some compromise by arrogant ‘we know best, you’re just uneducated plebs’ politicians.

      This should not end with this Chequers statement, far from it, it should be a catalyst for political revoltution.

      Tad

    2. Turboterrier.
      July 8, 2018

      Tad Davison

      As usually very well said you are so right on so many points. Ever thought of standing for Westminster? You sure as hell can can be no worse than the majority of what we have at the moment

      1. Tad Davison
        July 9, 2018

        Thank you for the compliment.

        I was schooled by the arch Eurosceptic, the late Sir Teddy Taylor, and I had thought many times about standing for parliament. However, with that education came the realisation that the Tory party had shifted its stance and was all-but full of those who would sell us down the river.

        The really patriotic ones whom I align with, were diminishing in number in favour of those yes-men who con us they are batting for Britain when in reality, they are dancing to the tune of a foreign political entity. And despite the fact that the voters didn’t want more and more EU. (largely, the only way the pro-EU people could get elected was to cash-in on the unpopularity of the EU and appear to be against it until they could manoeuvre themselves into taking ever-closer almost imperceptible steps towards EU integration)

        I believe in the sovereignty of a UK parliament that works for, and is directly answerable to the British people, but that just would not fit in with their pro-EU plans to consign this country to subservience and subjugation in perpetuity, so I might not have been selected anyway. We have lots of enemies, but the ones who are in our midst are the ones we must deal with first.

        I saw the sort of nonsense Sir Teddy Taylor had to deal with on a daily basis, and decided to stay outside where I could speak freely. The taking of thirty pieces of silver does not interest me and never will. We should always be suspicious of those who do.

        Tad

  24. alan jutson
    July 7, 2018

    I am in despair of our so called democracy, and the weakness of our Prime Minister and Government ministers.

    The people were asked to vote, and were given all sorts or warnings and threats if we voted to leave, but the people still voted to leave, its the politicians (of all sides) who have now sold us out, because we are not going to be an independent Country making our own rules and laws in the future.

    Sorry John, I know you have put in a huge effort, but your fellow politicians who seem to love the EU in all of its forms, seem to have prevailed.

    We will still be controlled by the EU and as such remain members in all but name but without any voice or influence, truly the worst of both Worlds.

    I expect the EU reject the so called third way, and try to screw us even further, and no doubt they will succeed in getting us to submit even further, given past capitulations.

    To say I am disgusted is an understatement.

    1. alan jutson
      July 7, 2018

      We negotiated with ourselves and lost that argument, before we even put forward our minimal requests to the EU.

      Utter madness, and crass stupidity.

  25. David Hoy
    July 7, 2018

    So looks as though we are staying in the EU by another name then. Must hope that no deal rides to the rescue. Can you confirm how the preparations for this are being stepped up now? Unless a stand is made by Brexiteers in the Tory party at some point me and many others I suspect will not vote again in elections.

    1. Turboterrier.
      July 8, 2018

      David Hoy

      me and many others I suspect will not vote again in elections.

      I believe you have to vote just for the fact a hell of a lot of good men and woman gave their all for us to be able to do so. You can still honour their sacrifice but vote for a complete outsider party like UKIP just as the Italians so desperate for change decided to buck the system.

  26. cornishstu
    July 7, 2018

    Well I hope it is rejected by the EU, whether May et al will then come to their senses and realise the error of their traitorous actions I doubt very much. How is it that the side that lost the referendum can be given such prominence, why is she trying to placate the remoaners?
    Oh yes she is one too, it seems I was right there just is not the political will to carry out the democratic wishes of the people, all we have had is lies and rhetoric.

  27. graham1946
    July 7, 2018

    So, Tory party unity once again is more important than the national interest or what the voters say. From reports it seems that Gove stabs Brexit in the back again, like he did to Boris. From what we gather from Chequers, 3 pages of 140 to come. This I expect will be like Tory budgets, all applauded on the first day and unraveling a week later.

    Why does one woman plus one civil servant’s idea have more weight than 17.4 million votes? Voting in this country is a waste of time, however you vote you still get the government.

  28. They Work for Us?
    July 7, 2018

    “Any deal has to be better than No Deal.“ clever phraseologyand the traditional English double entendre?

    Only if it really means that no deal is the default option and that any deal has to be seen to be demonstrably better.

    Much has been made of the Brexiters being faced down, you humiliate your opponents at your peril and turn them into implacable enemies.

  29. formula57
    July 7, 2018

    “It is unlikely the EU will accept the Chequers position and will demand more” – well then we can expect more capitulation from the May government until the point where the Evil Empire gets all it wants.

  30. Nig l
    July 7, 2018

    Obviously Mutti Merkel who scandalously saw it before our cabinet ministers, had to agree first. Shows where Mays’ loyalties lie and who has the real power.

  31. S copeland
    July 7, 2018

    “Any deal has to be better than No Deal.” Ambiguous. You mean, of course, that if a proposed deal is worse than No Deal, we should not agree to it.

  32. Derek
    July 7, 2018

    Is this not contrary to her own Statement ‘No deal is better than a bad deal’. What happened to democracy or are we being misinformed over Chequers?

  33. Kenneth
    July 7, 2018

    Why should the Conservative Party accept the lame duck PM’s attempts to wriggle out of the manifesto and her own stated position?

    Why would anyone vote Conservative next time if the referendum result and manifesto are treated with such contempt?

  34. mickc
    July 7, 2018

    Best of luck trying to achieve a clean Brexit. May doesn’t want one, she wishes to Remain….and in effect we will.
    Happily this will destroy the Conservative party in its present form.

  35. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
    July 7, 2018

    “The EU has always made clear that customs union membership comes with freedom of movement”
    IMHO, the EU- Turkey Customs Union doesn’t come with freedom of movement.

    1. NickC
      July 8, 2018

      PvL, As you well know, or ought to, Turkey is not a member of the EU’s customs union, it is in a customs union with the EU. Can’t make a case for the EU without telling porkies? Perhaps you should reflect that there isn’t a case for the UK being a vassal state of the EU.

      1. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
        July 10, 2018

        @NickC: Even you might have noticed that the customs arrangement proposed in your Chequers proposal is NOT The customs union , but A (bespoke) customs union. Try and read before your next knee-jerk reaction please!

  36. Geoffrey Berg
    July 7, 2018

    The government’s latest position is worse for us than No Deal even as it is, before it is further weakened by the EU in ‘negotiations’.
    Essentially it protects their manufacturing (on their terms and their rules) where the EU exports to us much more than it imports from us while curtailing our ability to import more cheaply from the rest of the world and curtails our ability to compete properly in internal British and world markets through less regulation in manufacturing.
    Furthermore in our bigger and stronger sector (services), it is exposing us to the EU poaching services trade from us. Additionally because trade deals with other countries will (consequent upon the proposed EU restrictions on our manufacturing sector and trade) tend to be just partial and therefore harder to obtain,
    So this proposed deal needs to be rejected.

  37. mancunius
    July 7, 2018

    “have our own migration policy”

    Not even that. ‘Labour mobility’ = limitless free movement, limitless new arrivals, the tax-credit magnet pulling in more and more of Europe’s low-skilled unemployed.

    1. hans christian ivers
      July 8, 2018

      rubbish they are all working and lots of the countirs have no unemployment as well

      1. Edward2
        July 8, 2018

        Nonsense
        Unemployment in the EU is double figures with youth unemployment near 50% in some EU member nations

      2. NickC
        July 8, 2018

        Hans, Rubbish, every country in the EU has some unemployment. Some rather a lot. The whole EZ average was 8.4% in May 2018, twice as high as UK unemployment.

  38. agricola
    July 7, 2018

    Any deal is not better than no deal.

    The Chequers position is a dogs breakfast and continues to cloud our sovereignty in many areas. It is a customs union called a facilitated customs arrangement, civil service jargon if ever there was. It allows EU to dictate on environmental, climate change, social, employment, and consumer protection. A sovereign state should dictate on these matters for itself. Just recall the disastrous results of their dictation on the Somerset Levels.

    Do not overlook that this is just a negotiating position, the EU will demand much more. If our government will not recognise that we voted to be a sovereign nation do not expect the EU to accept any gesture towards it. If this is all that May can offer then reversion to WTO rules makes sense.

    1. hans christian ivers
      July 8, 2018

      no deal makes no sense for our prosperity

      1. NickC
        July 8, 2018

        Hans, I am supremely indifferent to your EU’s prosperity. Thank you.

  39. Fed up and Angry
    July 7, 2018

    I am writing to you to express my disgust at the EU deal being proposed by the current Prime Minister. It drives a bus straight through the heart of the Brexit red lines and makes the result of the referendum worthless. Just what kind of legitimacy can our democracy have if the largest UK referendum ever can simply be ignored because the establishment doesn’t like the result?

    This is an unacceptable situation, so I politely ask that you please vote against this deal, and further more deliver the appropriate letter to the 1922 Backbench Committee. This Prime Minister is either incompetent, or corrupt (and working for the EU), either way for the good of our country she must be removed.

    I cannot in good conscience ever vote Conservative again if your party leader is allowed to continue with this betrayal – even if it means that we end up with Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister.

  40. Paul H
    July 7, 2018

    Actually, I think that the EU may be clever enough to deem this to be an acceptable basis for final negotiations with a U.K. that is at last being “reasonable”. After all, having achieved 90% of what it wants, why risk everything when it can probably achieve much of the rest by extracting further “minor concessions” and “technical changes”?

    I have long harboured suspicions about how much power really vests in our hands through so-called “democracy”. The scales should now have fallen from everyone’s eyes.

  41. Sir Joe Soap
    July 7, 2018

    Collecting customs duties differentially for other third-country imports for UK-consumed and EU-consumed product will be extremely difficult. The EU tariff rate will end up having to follow the item through the system until consumption before repayment, making third country items as expensive as they are currently, hence unable to compete with EU product in the UK. Furthermore, the EU will have the right to INCREASE import duty rates on products used mainly in the UK, which will effectively scupper any trade deals whereby other third countries (particularly third world countries) might see themselves selling us agri-products at a fraction of the EU price regime.

    1. Sir Joe Soap
      July 7, 2018

      The other point of course is that such a deal is meaningless without the EU also being obliged to track all items through to consumption, where the UK tariff is higher than the EU tariff, to avoid companies importing goods into the EU then moving them “frictionlessly” into the UK for consumption here. I just can’t see the EU writing this into law.

      The whole scheme is ill-thought out garbage.

      The only realistic way is to go WTO rules, offer worldwide free trade and wait for others to put up walls.

      1. graham1946
        July 8, 2018

        Yes, Sir Joe, it is indeed curious that we were told that to change the present Customs arrangements in Northern Ireland to include one more line of code is too difficult and will take years, whereas a completely new system, far more complicated and unworkable can be delivered immediately, or within the transition. Now we know why she agreed a transition. We thought it a delaying tactic and that we’d end up more or less the same as now with an FTA, but she had other ideas, to keep us shackled to the EU in perpetuity. If she thinks this is the end and will settle the Tory party down, she is very wrong, as usual.

  42. Sir Joe Soap
    July 7, 2018

    Guardian, 11 May 2016:
    Brandishing a Cornish pasty (rather ironically, one of more than 60 British food and drink products that have protected geographical status under EU law, meaning they cannot be ripped off by imitations made elsewhere), Johnson said it was “absolutely crazy that the EU is telling us how powerful our vacuum cleaners have got to be, what shape our bananas have got to be, and all that kind of thing”.

  43. Woody
    July 7, 2018

    We watch with interest to find out if May was lying when she insisted the brexit means brexit. After the eurocrats reject our negotiating position of complete subservience for some made up reason then there surely can only be one response .. no deal. no money, we leave.

    1. Hope
      July 7, 2018

      Do not blame me I did not vote for Tories they are far too dishonest and never keep their word. May is like Blaire in a dress you cannot beleive a word she says. Where are her red lines now? Where are the main points of her Lancaster speech and her comments thereafter claiming that’s staying in the single market in essence is not leaving! You can only conclude from her key note speech, red lines and strap lines that she is a liar. Please show me that I am wrong.

    2. NickC
      July 7, 2018

      When you by-pass all the media manipulation, artificial dead-lines, and sheer political theatre, Theresa May has simply brought us the “Kit-Kat” Brexit: hard Remain tack on the inside, smothered with a thin layer of soft gooey Leave platitudes on the outside to kid us it is palatable.

      After all, we were told that our civil servants were “negotiating” a Kit-Kat Brexit with their “colleagues” in Brussels a few months ago, so we shouldn’t be surprised. The establishment is banking on our sloth, indecision, and resignation, and their media propaganda, to get away with it.

    3. Hope
      July 8, 2018

      JR, suggest you read the advice of Martin Howe QC in Guido. You will see that your cabinet has not been truthful and has betrayed the people of this country. Sadly for reasons known to these fanatics, it has made a great nation a vassal state for years and inhibits our ability to trade around the world. It is the worst of all outcomes. Brought to you by traitor May.

  44. Helen Smith
    July 7, 2018

    Very despondent this morning, I don’t see any point in voting if your vote only counts if you vote the ‘right’ way. I know you will do your best but you are outnumbered.

    You may wish to change the first line of your piece Mr Redwood, Remainers could wilfully misrepresent what you mean.

    1. APL
      July 8, 2018

      Helen Smith: “I don’t see any point in voting if your vote only counts if you vote the ‘right’ way. ”

      Then punish Tories, and especially the Remain backed CCO. It’s no good just going back to not voting, you have to vote against the Tories.

      Many of us can’t bear to vote Liberal or Labour. So the alternative would be your independent Conservative candidate.

      In order to save Conservatism in the UK, Conservative party Central office needs to be destroyed.

      1. Helen Smith
        July 8, 2018

        I always vote, and I always voted Tory until Cameron then I switched to UKIP. In 2017 I voted Tory again and campaigned for them, looks like it’s UKIP again or failing that Monster Rabing Loony.

        1. Fedupsoutherner
          July 8, 2018

          Helen.I’m the same. From the day I could vote, I voted Tory. Always have for 42 years but like you, switched to Ukip. I only voted Tory again because they said they were the only party to deliver Brexit. What a lie of mammoth proportions. I have read that Farage is considering coming back into politics if Brexit is not delivered. If that happens then the other parties had better watch out because this time things will be different and Ukip will get my vote along with many others.

    2. Hope
      July 8, 2018

      Gove was appaling this morning. He confirmed ECJ rulings applying to all court cases here regarding goodsetc. Labour mobility replaces freedom of movement, just a change of name. CAP and CFP change names as well to deceive people that the U.K. Has left these as well.

      May has changed the names and thinks it is okay to spin this as leaving the EU!

  45. Prigger
    July 7, 2018

    The Chequers statement is a promising position from the EU, they have made progress but not enough. Now we should present our own position.

  46. Original Richard
    July 7, 2018

    “We need to take back control of our laws, borders, money and trade policy.”

    And assets (fishing grounds).

    1. margaret howard
      July 7, 2018

      Our fishermen sold them for a quick profit disregarding the well being of the industry and indeed the country. What so many here forget is that the EU consists of 27 more countries whose rights and prosperity have to be protected. They did not vote brexit, Britain did. So any future losses caused by disruption of trade for these countries have to be met. Britain knew and agreed to that when it begged to join the EU, supported by Germany who must regret their help by now.

      1. NickC
        July 8, 2018

        Margaret Howard, Rubbish – our fishermen were sold out to the EU (EEC) because our 200 mile EEZ was handed on a plate to the EEC in a last minute capitulation by Heath. Before he started “negotiating” fishing wasn’t even an EEC policy.

        1. margaret howard
          July 8, 2018

          The Common Fisheries Policy therefore stated that member nations would only control an area of sea extending twelve miles out from their coastline. The rest of their EEZ would be combined with other member nations to create the largest EEZ in the world (as the picture below shows).
          This meant that EU fishermen could effectively fish anywhere in the EU’s EEZ, and the same rules and regulations would apply to all. Fishermen from any EU nation can fish freely within any other EU countries waters (although licensing and quotas still apply).

          1. Edward2
            July 8, 2018

            Rubbish
            We gave quotas away outside the 12 mile limit in order to join.

      2. Know-Dice
        July 8, 2018

        Margaret, who do you think will pick-up the slack once the UK leaves? – Germany, they are going to be really please with that – Not…

        The UK has paid in more that we have taken out for every year (except one) since we joined the Common Market. Currently 9 countries pay in and the rest get a free lunch. Yet, we don’t have enough money here to properly finance the NHS and care for the elderly…

        I guess that’s Ok with you…

    2. Lifelogic
      July 8, 2018

      We therefore need to remove the blatant liar and fraud Theresa May.

  47. getahead
    July 7, 2018

    So we are not leaving the EU. The CBI got what it wanted.

    1. Lifelogic
      July 8, 2018

      Indeed the CBI who were proved wrong on the Euro and theERM and much else.

  48. Jack snell
    July 7, 2018

    Am afraid that, JR, yours is a losing argument..what’s being proposed now is likely to be watered down again..in the end we’ll remain much more a vassal state in the bloc..we’ll be like the Gibraltar of the North..makes you wonder why we started on this road in tne first place..we’ll end up having all af the cost and responsibility for access to the markets but with little say in anything that matters..there was no mention of the fisheries yesterday either that I could see..neither was there anything about passporting for banks and Insurance?? I suppose we’ll have to wait until the paper is published in full..we should abandon A50 and stay where we are

    1. NickC
      July 7, 2018

      Jack Snell, Alternatively we should abandon A50 and Leave, joining the rest of the planet outside the EU. I suppose we’d need a referendum for that? Oh? – we already did?

    2. Denis Cooper
      July 8, 2018

      “we should abandon A50 and stay where we are”

      Theresa May has not yet reneged to that extent, but there is still time.

  49. Andy
    July 7, 2018

    To clarify, free movement is linked to the single market – not the customs union. But you knew that right? The customs union is the bit that 17,399,000 of the 17.4m who voted for Brexit had not heard of until well after the referendum.

    Since 2016 the UK has basically been on a national crash course – How the EU Works for Dummies. What we have learned over the last two embarrassing years is that very few of us – including most Conservative Eurosceptics – ever really understood the basics of how the EU worked and why membership has been hugely beneficial for us.

    In the words of Joni Mitchell – you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.

    And that’s why none of you have figured out the inevitable electoral catastrophe the Tories face when it turns out Brexit takes away a bunch of stuff people actually like.

    1. Edward2
      July 7, 2018

      You’ve got it the wrong way round Andy.
      If 17.4 million people feel that they have been denied what they voted for in the referendum then they may well decide not tonvote for the Conservatives at the next election.
      Blair won an election and got a big majority with much less than 17.4 million votes.

      1. Andy
        July 8, 2018

        I don’t doubt that many of the 17.4m people feel betrayed. They have been betrayed.

        Betrayed by the leading Leavers who promised them golden unicorns.

        Direct your anger at those who misled you.

        Direct your anger at those who promised something which does not (and never will) exist.

        And I would never advise anyone to vote Conservative.

        Especially now as the Conservatives are simply UKIP dressed in blue.

        1. Edward2
          July 8, 2018

          Leaving is a very simple process.
          Just as Cameron and his leaflet said.
          The rest is just a campaign by remain to…Remain.
          If the Conservatives actually wanted to leave things would be completed by now.

    2. Simon Coleman
      July 7, 2018

      Exactly. The referendum was an almost fact free exercise…but nobody realised that we had 17.4 million 100% dummies in our country who were prepared to gamble all the benefits we enjoyed from EU membership in exchange for the vaguest promises ever made to a UK electorate.

      1. Edward2
        July 8, 2018

        Simon your disdain for the rights of others to have an opinion and vote as they wish is a dreadful feature of Remain supporters.
        Abusing the decision of over 17 million people.
        It makes me realise how anti democratic EU supporters really are.
        Freedom and democracy will win in the end.

    3. Bob
      July 7, 2018

      “you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.”

      Exactly Andy, which is why we voted for a return to self rule, which has been gradually eroded ever since the Brits voted to join a common market after being lied to by Ted Heath.

    4. NickC
      July 7, 2018

      Andy, It is clear that you don’t understand “the” customs union even now. The single market is the only part of the EU treaties (TEU and TFEU) that has been separated out – into the EEA Agreement.

      “The” (EU’s) customs union is not currently a stand-alone policy which can be joined or left on its own. It is enmeshed in the treaties and is part of the Internal Market and the CCP. You clearly haven’t read TFEU Art28, for example, which defines the EU as “comprising” a customs union. Art28 is under Title 1a (“Free movement of Goods”) and therefore a sub clause of the Internal Market (Title 1). Further references are scattered throughout the treaties. The customs union is also (only) one function of the EU’s CCP – the “Common Commercial Policy” (TFEU Part 5 Title II). It is that which VoteLeave targeted – to regain control of the UK’s trade policy – as a crucial objective of Leave. That is only possible by leaving all of the EU.

      Your insistence that others must only use the phrases you adopt, or that have become fashionable in the last year, is an attempt to control the outcome by controlling the language. Actually, the whole way you talk about the EU and its treaties show not only desperate ignorance but a laziness which deters you from reading the treaties yourself and finding out.

    5. Anonymous
      July 7, 2018

      Try being civil for once.

      You might get somewhere.

      Here’s your Politeness for Dummies book.

    6. stred
      July 8, 2018

      Andy Pandy seems to be the only EU puppet that didn’t listen to any of the arguments made by both sides during the referendum. Perhaps other people were also incapable of understanding, were deaf or illiterate but they were probably equally likely to vote either way or not at all.

      1. hans christian ivers
        July 8, 2018

        stred

        unnecessary nonsense

      2. Andy
        July 8, 2018

        I listened to all the arguments during the referendum campaign.

        I thought the Remain side ran a terrible campaign. It was deeply negative. It was devoid of facts. It didn’t put forward any of the benefits of being in the EU. They simply tried to scare people. Shocking.

        But Leave ran an even more depressing campaign. Again it was all about scaring people. Millions of foreign rapists. An influx of Turks. It went beyond fear by appealing to base instincts of hate. Awful.

        I am a longtime supporter of the EU, I know far more about it and how it works than most people. And even I have learned loads more about it since the referendum was call – quite a bit of it since.

        The fact is that most people, on both sides, did not know what they were actually voting for. As demonstrated by the fact that now we finally have a plan for Brexit and nobody like it.

        But Brexiteers like it least.

    7. Denis Cooper
      July 8, 2018

      To clarify, read Article 3 in the 1957 Treaty of Rome:

      http://aei.pitt.edu/37139/1/EEC_Treaty_1957.pdf

      “For the purposes set out in Article 2, the activities of the Community shall include, as provided in this Treaty and in accordance with the timetable set out therein:

      (a) the elimination, as between Member States, of customs duties and of quantitative restrictions on the import and export of goods, and of all other
      measures having equivalent effect;

      (b) the establishment of a common customs tariff and of a common commercial
      policy towards third countries;

      (c) the abolition, as between Member States, of obstacles to freedom of movement for persons, services and capital …”

      But you knew that right?

      Or are you just another loud-mouthed ignoramus?

    8. M.W.Browne
      July 8, 2018

      Bunch of stuff ?

      What does that mean ?

  50. ian
    July 7, 2018

    Another battle won by big businesses with supporting MPs in parliament, big businesses have won every battle over last 45 years with it MPs in parliament with support from the lords, 100% record on taxes and the EU, good going considering they don’t vote.

    Max payout for some big businesses in 2008 from the people treasury, with people paying higher taxes and cuts in services which are still ongoing to pay for it with businesses recovering after receiving the biggest tax cuts in history. The people of England have been outmanoeuvred at every turn and outvoted by their own MPs in parliament.

    They never learn, not like the European people who have new parties and people to vote for and are having some good result for a change in the effort they have put in to take on the EU.

  51. Local Lad
    July 7, 2018

    “Any deal has to be better than nNo Deal”

    Was that a joke?

  52. Adam
    July 7, 2018

    Our nation voted to Leave the EU. The notion of EU law being supreme is nuts. Its law to us shall be exterior & inferior.

  53. Local Lad
    July 7, 2018

    Typing error:

    “Any deal has to be better than No Deal”

  54. NickC
    July 7, 2018

    So . . . .
    Delay to invoke Art50;
    Art50 process extended to max 2 years;
    Non-transition “Transition”;
    Extension to the “transition”;
    ÂŁ100bn bribe (less what they owe us);
    Not leaving the EU on 29th March 2019;
    Ignoring the democratic decision to LEAVE;
    Customs union;
    Complicated double customs;
    Single market, except for services;
    Continued subservience to EU laws;
    Continued uncontrolled “labour mobility”;
    Trade policy determined by EU;
    EU security control to make people unsafe;
    Victory for Olly Robbins’ smirk;
    Many more salami slices to come . . .

    It’s Theresa May’s GDR version of Leave – you can vote as much as you like, but you’ll only ever get Remain. Its BINO now and even more BINO later, and that’s supposing the EU doesn’t reject it outright. In fact it’s so full of Remain wishful thinking I don’t think it will survive more than a few days.

    1. hans christian ivers
      July 8, 2018

      NickC,

      Read the white paper when it is published and then make the conclusions as usual half of your statements are not even covered in the White Paper.

      Like uncontrolled “labour mobility”

      1. Edward2
        July 8, 2018

        Labour mobility is a feature of the recent government policy.

  55. ian
    July 7, 2018

    Big businesses and elite now pouring money into the Lib Dems party treasury to take on labour at the next election and to win back Europe EU, should be their biggest result in a 100 years coming up.

    1. Hope
      July 7, 2018

      I think the Tory party will be like the Libdems at the next election. On the other hand elections and elctorial democracy do not count. Corbyn has every right to claim to be PM and that he won the last election, surely this is the same as what May has just done?

  56. Brian Tomkinson
    July 7, 2018

    Your first sentence can be taken two ways. I presume you mean that no deal is better than a bad deal?

  57. roger
    July 7, 2018

    is there not a man or woman amongst you that will stand up for democracy?
    Vote her down and let us elect replacements for the traitorous nodding donkeys of Westminster.
    You are an embarrassment to the country.

    1. jerry
      July 7, 2018

      @roger; Conservative Brexiteers would need a majority to do what you suggest, if they had such a majority the PM would already be a Brexiteer!

      1. NickC
        July 8, 2018

        Jerry, It is not for Parliament to decide, they gave that decision to us. All they have to do is implement it.

        1. jerry
          July 8, 2018

          @NickC, Of course it is for parliament to decide, only parliament can vote Mrs May’s idea of Brexit down, unless of course you are now calling for that second referenda – this time to instruct the government on How we should leave?

          What is more, to vote the current policy down in parliament Conservative Brexiteers would almost certainly need to have the help of opposition parties, and they would only likely get that via a No Confidence vote, but that means a general election if the PM is defeated.

          Perversely, an intransigent and unmovable EU is now likely to be hard-line eurosceptics best friend…

  58. James Matthews
    July 7, 2018

    Not sure what to make of that comment. Leavers voted to take back control of our laws, our borders, our territory, our trade and our money. The Cabinet has now abandoned all of those objectives. Mrs May seems to have opted for a kind of Vichy status, although comparing her to Petain would be most unjust to the Field Marshal. He at least had a distinguished record of defending his country in WW1 and was trying to salvage something in the face of an overwhelming military defeat. Mrs May has no such mitigation. This is a calculated sell ot and betrayal. Some unaccustomed success at football and a lot of sunny weather will not cloak that for long.

  59. Simon Coleman
    July 7, 2018

    The red lines have gone. Your bonkers no-deal Brexit has been booted out…and by a legitimate democratic process. The last election produced a big parliamentary majority in favour of a soft Brexit – to minimise harm to businesses and jobs. The Cabinet at last grasped this straightforward reality. You say you’re a democratic politician – well just accept the outcome and do something to help for a change.

    1. NickC
      July 7, 2018

      Simon Coleman, Why do you think that the WTO deal is “bonkers” when all the rest of the planet (well 98%) uses it? Have you not got a more rational argument?

      1. graham1946
        July 8, 2018

        He doesn’t need one – he’s already told us he is more intelligent than the 17.4 million. Remainers just have to insult, because they have no actual rational argument. We keep asking them to lay out why we are better off in the EU but they don’t, can’t.

    2. Tabulazero
      July 8, 2018

      Well said.

      Brexiter politicians have wasted precious time.

    3. Edward2
      July 8, 2018

      Soft Brexit = staying in the EU
      Hard Brexit = actually leaving the EU

  60. hans christian ivers
    July 7, 2018

    John,

    Why do you keep insisting when it has been made clear in the Chequers statement that there will still be some ECJ influence on certain elements?

    1. NickC
      July 7, 2018

      Hans, Do you think the USA, Australia, Japan, etc, would meekly accept “some ECJ influence on certain elements” within their nations? So why should we?

      1. hans christian ivers
        July 8, 2018

        NickC,

        I made a statement on the facts coming out of the meeting on the weekend, I did not make a statement for or against, so maybe you should read it again?

    2. Tabulazero
      July 8, 2018

      Because Mr Redwood is trying to save face.

      The policy he and his friends advocated was unrealistic from the start and they knew it.

      Fast forward two years and the UK is now preparing to become a Vassal state as a result.

      1. NickC
        July 8, 2018

        Tabulazero, The alternative to a vassal state is an independent state, much like the rest of the planet.

  61. zorro
    July 7, 2018

    She has given up on all of those red lines in one way or another. She will even be collecting the EU’s taxes! The EU will reject it and ask for more money to be part of their vassal club. This is her opening gambit….pitiful

    zorro

  62. Ian wragg
    July 7, 2018

    Establishment 1
    Voters nil

  63. The Prangwizard
    July 7, 2018

    Define no. 3 please.

  64. Chris S
    July 7, 2018

    After yesterday’s total surrender our only hope now is for Brussels to be so determined to punish us that they reject the “offer”.

    May can’t possibly survive the humiliation and will have to be replaced with someone with the guts to stand up to Brussels. Maybe, just maybe, it will be Gove who will certainly be believed when he tells them we will be leaving on WTO terms holding our heads up high

    Disarray across the 27 will ensure they will soon be back to start negotiating properly.

  65. Gary C
    July 7, 2018

    JR, I consider you to be an honourable man however your strengths are undermined by a large number of your colleagues who are more than happy to be cuckold to the EU dictatorship.

    Our once great country has not the courage to say to the EU “thank’s but no thanks, we are leaving” instead our only hope is the EU will reject TM’s latest offer.

    TM has alienated the electorate, the world is laughing, our government is pathetic!

    Never again will anyone in this family vote Conservative.

  66. Denis Cooper
    July 7, 2018

    JR, be advised that your first sentence is being misinterpreted:

    https://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2018/07/conhome-snap-survey-newsflash-is-mays-plan-good-or-bad-should-it-be-backed-or-not-our-poll-is-now-live.html

    “I see Redwood has also caved in taking the line that any deal is better than none.”

    Reply Yes, that is not my view

  67. Martin King
    July 7, 2018

    I think your first sentence is open to being interpreted in two completely opposite ways. Some are interpreting as though you are now saying any deal is better than no deal. I imagine you are actually saying that any deal needs to be better than no deal to be accepted?

    Reply Yes

  68. Lifelogic
    July 7, 2018

    Exactly but you have the two daft socialist remainers May and Hammond at nos 10 and 11 and more than half of the Tory party MPs are social democrats at best. Most a love over regulation, the EU, open door immigration, high taxes, big government and climate alarmism. Hence they constantly choose such appalling and dishonest PMs..

    ERM Major was a sick joke who failed even to apologise. Cameron claimed to be a cast iron, low tax at heart, Eurosceptic, who would deliver notice the day after the referendum. He did the opposite and (with gross negligence and dereliction of duty) failed to prepare for a leave vote and then just abondonned ship with total contempt for the voters. May promised she would deliver a real Brexit she is clearly doing no such thing. Her economic and other policies are totally moronic and misguided too. But we will get an upskirting law and easier gender change opps.

  69. fedupsoutherner
    July 7, 2018

    Totally off topic. Football’s coming home! Didn’t they do well? At least we, the public, the voter, the worker, and those that believe in their country can celebrate something.

    1. Iain Moore
      July 7, 2018

      Football may be coming home, but our sovereignty isn’t , not with May it isn’t.

    2. Anonymous
      July 7, 2018

      Providing good cover for a sell out.

    3. Know-Dice
      July 8, 2018

      FUS: Agreed

      Whilst Sir Gareth Southgate pulls the country together (even some of those that don’t watch football), May continues with her plan to drive the country apart…

  70. William Long
    July 7, 2018

    I agree that the three ‘Red Lines’ you list are vital, and are what we thought we were voting for in the Referendum, but the question is whether the Conservative Party in the House of C0mmons are prepared to cross the wire to defend them. I have little confidence that this will happen.

  71. Cary
    July 7, 2018

    The Chequers statement looks like yet another exercise in kicking the can down the round.

    Can anyone explain what happens if Sir James Dyson wants to build and sell in the UK a vacuum cleaner with a motor more powerful than that allowed under EU regulations? It clearly can’t be sold in the EU but could they be sold in the UK and non EU countries? Paragraph 4a of the Chequers text issued stated the the UK is committing to ‘ongoing harmonisation with EU rules on goods, covering only those necessary to provide for frictionless trade at the border.’ Now a vacuum cleaner manufactured in the UK and being sold in the UK and non EU countries will not impact on frictionless trade at the border.

    Any answers? I think the text is not clear. It looks like another fudge.

    1. rick hamilton
      July 8, 2018

      Of course any manufacturer has to comply with the regulations of any export market, so if that’s all it means then we carry on with E-marked goods and have nothing to complain about. However the EU imposes endless regulations on how things are sourced, produced, packaged, labelled, transported etc and it’s even worse for agri food products.

      I suspect May’s humiliating and defeatist proposal means we will continue as now, in other words Dyson will not be able to sell his powerful and effective machines in the UK, just the weedy ones the EU Commission wants (but not the actual customers, whose views do not matter).

      I assume they can’t stop him selling them to Japan (where they do quite well) or USA, etc. Does he read this site, if so comment please.

    2. stred
      July 8, 2018

      Dysons are manufactured in Malaysia. They would have to be half powered to be exported to the EU and, if we shadow their customs union, they will have to be half- powered in the UK. Henrys are made here and would still be made to work well for export to the ROW but we will be bound to accept half-suck in the UK.

  72. Nanny Says
    July 7, 2018

    BBC “Theresa May has refused to rule out making it easier for EU citizens to come to the UK after Brexit than it is for people from elsewhere in the world.”

    That would sour the air in making trade deals in the rest of the world from the word go. Love my trade love my people!

    1. Hope
      July 7, 2018

      It is called a Labour market or something similar. She has made it easier free movement by another name. Regulatory alignment equals single market, EJC rules will apply for any dispute on the common rule book, May is giving away over ÂŁ100 billion plus fees when under punishment extension. She has lied and betrayed the public vote. CAP will be part of regulatory alignment. It is a total sell out by the cowards in cabinet.

  73. Dame Rita webb
    July 7, 2018

    has Mrs may apologised to the Swedish ambassador yet?

  74. Oggy
    July 7, 2018

    The Eu referendum was a binary choice ‘Leave or Remain’ there was not a third option of leave with a deal.
    This is how the establishment/politicians have twisted the result since to mean what they think it means and not what was decided, because ‘they know best’.

    The amount of anger I’ve witnessed against the Tories since yesterday means you are heading for a wipe out and Corbyn as PM. The electorate will not forget this Brexit betrayal.

    1. Anonymous
      July 7, 2018

      Like they care.

  75. Hope
    July 7, 2018

    Ha ha ha JR. May has sold the country out, she has betrayed electoral democracy. Come on get real. I just saw her lying on TV with Peston that this is a good deal! Read what she said before and contrast, tell us what you really think.

    Any leave minister with an ounce of sense, integrity or honour would reflect and resign immediately. This is a proposal to make our great nation a vassal state to a foreign power with no end in sight. May kisses the cheeks of the unelected foreigners who made threats to our nation and wants us to be held in a punishment period for years as an example to other countries. Your cabinet has agreed to this! Shocking as it is horrific.

  76. NigelE
    July 7, 2018

    Dr Redwood, you are clearly in a minority within the Conservative Party, a party that seems to creep ever closer to ignoring the wishes of the majority that voted in the 2016 referendum.

    The Conservatives need to learn, urgently, from what happened to their Canadian Conservative brothers (and sisters) in the 1993 election in that country. The Progressive Conservatives held office and had failed to deal with the issue of the day (the economy). They became increasingly unpopular and were challenged by two new parties that had arisen because of the governments shortcomings. At the election, the Progressive Conservatives lost half their vote and 154 out of 156 seats. Within 8 years, the party had ceased to exist, absorbed into another.

    Couldn’t happen here? Perhaps, perhaps not, perhaps not so extreme. But it seems very likely that something on the same scale awaits the party that betrays the UK voting public.

    My MP is Mr Gove. I have sent him several emails indicating my displeasure at the latest news from Chequers and that he is unlikely to get my vote in future unless a more positive outcome is achieved.

  77. rose
    July 7, 2018

    Never can a Government and Parliament have been more out of touch with the people.

  78. ian
    July 7, 2018

    just been down the hospital where the police are waiting in A&E for more arrives from England game which will most likely go on till late tonight. before they get home.

  79. LukeM
    July 7, 2018

    It’s good that proposals for the future has been agreed, they can now be put to the EU so that we can start real negotiations..we have wasted too much time already.

    1. Mark B
      July 8, 2018

      Good morning

      They have always been out of touch. Remember TB and the Iraq war demo in London ?

  80. Iain Gill
    July 7, 2018

    Who on earth is the conservative party expecting to vote for it now?

    1. Simon Coleman
      July 7, 2018

      People who want to keep their jobs, keep vital labour movement from the EU, and keep close to our biggest market for goods and services.

      1. NickC
        July 8, 2018

        Simon Coleman, So you think a nation of 65 million (actually nearer 75 million) doesn’t have enough labour of its own? And how come other countries have a surplus, if we have a deficit? What magic is this?

      2. Edward2
        July 8, 2018

        You haven’t noticed that unemployment is far higher in the EU Simon

    2. Mark B
      July 8, 2018

      Liberals and New Labour voters.

  81. mark riley
    July 7, 2018

    Who is responsible for the inadequate preparatory work in the event of a WTO only deal; the lever being used by Mrs May to strongarm the Cabinet? It has been stated by DD that these were taking place so if the fault lies with individual Civil Service Departments can we expect some dismissals to be forthcoming?

    1. Stred
      July 8, 2018

      It is inconceivable that May and Hammond and perhaps other Remainer ministers did not know what the deliberate delay was intended to achieve. Ie the ability to claim that WTO was impossible without damage to the economy. This was to go alongside Treasure forecasts of economic doom. The plot was obvious when collaborators were heard suggesting that a very bad deal would be helpful when visiting their friends in the Commission.

  82. Jeremy Searle
    July 7, 2018

    What is to be done with TMs statement and position. Lots of money, lots of ECJ for the EU and the EU will be asking for more. TM has turned a reasonable hand into complete rubbish.

    This is dismal.

    I hope it is “high” politics and not what we are are reading in the press.

  83. Paul
    July 7, 2018

    “Any deal has to be better than No Deal.”

    Silly statement.

    1. matthu
      July 7, 2018

      … to be worth accepting.

      i.e. Any deal that is worthy of being accepted has to be better than no deal.

  84. Richard Brown, MIoD
    July 7, 2018

    Dear Mr Redwood,
    You won’t remember me, but we met at the Norringham Chartered Insurance Institute InsureEd a few years ago and talked briefly about politics after you had given your lecture.

    What I say now is adapted from my post on Facebook.

    I’ve read the 3 page document only once so far. There are some issues but, on the face of it, much (not all) of it seems ok. More comments later, once I’ve digested the ramifications.

    1 The devil will be in the detail. I have sympathy & agreement with JRM’s comment on the details and note his willingness to try and vote it down if necessary.

    2 Cabinet unity: Mrs May has, rightly, insisted on collective responsibility. I’d have done it from the start. Lack of collective responsibility has made us look to the EU as if they can divide and conquer.

    3 Were I a Cabinet Minister and told either to accept the collective view, or resign, or be fired, I’d have accepted the collective view and carried on fighting my corner from within. The time for Cabinet Ministers to revolt is not now, but when it comes to the vote in the Commons.

    4 There are enough pro-Brexit Conservative MPs to vote down the White Paper, if Mr Corbyn takes the view that it will be a vote of no confidence in Mrs May, which may put him in Number 10. This is a dangerous game and it may not work, but we shall see.

    I’m content to exchange a dialogue, if you wish.

    1. Peter D Gardner
      July 8, 2018

      Richard Brown, I read the Chequers statement four times. On first reading asa disinterested person I thought it a statement by two parties reconciling their differences and as such it wasn’t too bad as they will clearly stay together. As a Leaver, I thought it full of loopholes in favour of Remain and no guarantees of any of the key elements of Leaving the EU (taking back control of laws, money and borders). In fact every single one was either broken or curtailed. As a Remainer I thought it substantiated the false obstacles that had been carefully built up over the preceding months, favoured remaining fully aligned with the EU and contained sufficient caveats and loopholes on things designed to please Leavers that could in the next stage be used to seal remaining under the EU completely. In other words it was BRINO, a complete victory for Remain.
      As for staying in to fight another day, when is this other day supposed to be? Isn’t the next EU summit in October? At that meeting, Mrs May will secure the last lock on the Iron Maiden she has just put round UK.
      The UK is definitely leaving by constitutional means and Brexit cannot now be legally reversed except by a further act of Parliament. It can however be subverted and UK surrendered to EU vassalage by further negotiations with the EU. The only way vassalage can be avoided is for Mrs May to be removed from office before October.
      There is a dangerous view circulating among Brexiteers that once UK has left it will be able improve on Mrs May’s deal. This is deluded. Just as the backstop on Northern Ireland in the December withdrawal agreement excludes the most desirable aspects of independence from any deal on the future relationship by tying the whole of UK to EU alignment and giving the EU a veto over any UK proposal for the Irish border, so too will the conditions arising from the Chequers statement. That is why I draw a parallel with an Iron Maiden. There will be no escape. The agreement will have no exit clause. Mrs May will intentionally consign UK to EU vassalage for at least a generation. She must be removed before she does any more damage to UK.

    2. Denis Cooper
      July 8, 2018

      “Mrs May has, rightly, insisted on collective responsibility”

      Well, she’s left that a bit late, don’t you think? Shouldn’t she have done that when she first became Prime Minister, and before she gave her Lancaster House speech?

  85. Paul Cohen
    July 7, 2018

    This latest attempt to get an agreement with the EU is doomed to fail – far too late and lacking ambition. The mantra for many months now was that a no deal is better than a bad deal – what happened to that? The EU will predictably pull this initiative apart and leave the talks in tatters, obviously we could not give ground at all and Barnier will make one of his superior critical remarks and we are back where we started.

    Time to pull up the drawbridge to an episode that the UK have handled badly and handed the initiatve to an indifferent oponent.

    1. Bob
      July 7, 2018

      Problem is that Mrs May isn’t negotiating with the EU, she’s working for them, as are most of her Cabinet. The small number of Brexiteers in her Cabinet have been bullied into submission.

      I quite surprised how many people fell for her act.

  86. Mark B
    July 7, 2018

    Good evening.

    When you fail to plan, you end up planning to fail.

    Too few in politics and elsewhere wanted to leave the Wet Nurse of the EU. So comes as no surprise that we will be leaving the EU, but in name only.

    1. forthurst
      July 7, 2018

      Unfortunately, our FPTP electoral system meant that 68% of the votes at the last election did not count. This means that people like Duncan will continue to vote for a party which does what its corporate backers want and will ignore its ever loyal but gullible supporters because it can get away with it. If you want a parliament which represents the majority of people who wished to leave the EU (17.4M), you actually need an electoral system which ensures that every vote counts. In that situation the liblabcon would shrink to 30% as in Italy and parties which represents the people’s aspirations would flourish and we would not have a government which was an international embarrassment and a disgrace.

  87. PaulDirac
    July 7, 2018

    You must have made a mistake (large one) in your first sentence “Any deal has to be better than No Deal.”

    No, I mean it has to be better to make it worth having

  88. Chris
    July 7, 2018

    A triumphant Robert Peston about Theresa May: this is what a Remainer observed the Brexiter MPs to have given away, Mr Redwood. Peston also noted the humiliation May personally inflicted on her Brexiters. What an extraordinary way for her to behave, to apparently do all she could to fudge Brexit and at the same time humiliate and emasculate her Ministers who were charged with effecting Brexit/honouring the Referendum vote.

    https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/07/how-theresa-may-trounced-the-brexiteers/
    How Theresa May trounced the Brexiteers

    “..She persuaded her cabinet to sign up for a Brexit plan that DRIVES A COACH AND HORSES through what the Brexiters in her team – especially Boris Johnson and Michael Gove – said Brexit was all about, during that historic referendum campaign…..”

  89. oldtimer
    July 7, 2018

    I no longer trust the statements made by Mrs May. At the first referendum we were assured that there would be no loss of sovereignty – it was merely a trade deal. That turned out to be a lie. What reason is there not to be sceptical of Mrs May’s statement that she is fulfilling Brexit? I seem to recall she was adamant about not calling an election but nevertheless called one because she thought she could get away with it. She is trying it on again.

    My conclusion about pro Brexit cabinet ministers is that they think that either the EU will reject the UK position out of hand or use it as the start point for demanding further concessions which they will then resist with the support of you and like minded MPs through the guerilla warfare of parliamentary processes. There is also a huge battle for public opinion to be fought and won for Brexit to prevail.

  90. Chris
    July 7, 2018

    The realisation of what Theresa May has done (and her Cabinet ministers have agreed to) is finally dawning on senior tories if this report is true. I would say that the slogan about the Cons Party not caring about ordinary people is absolutely true. You have just demonstrated your utter contempt for the views of the voters and raised two fingers to democracy apparently. Theresa May and her “Conservatives” deserve everything that is apparently coming to them:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/07/07/brexit-deal-will-condemn-tories-landslide-election-defeat-mps/
    Brexit deal will condemn Tories to landslide election defeat, MPs warn

    “One senior government figure said Mrs May had backtracked from her professed “red lines” in the EU negotiations in a move that could lead to a “seismic moment” in which millions of voters buy into opposition party assertions that the Conservatives “do not care about ordinary people”…..”

  91. Edwardm
    July 7, 2018

    We are now faced with the government and opposition both betraying the British people divided only by the detail of their betrayal.

    We are back to the days of parliament versus the people.
    I still have trust in certain MPs, but sadly they are all too few.
    Big change is needed.

  92. Remoaner
    July 7, 2018

    Putin says Croatia didn’t know what they were playing for

  93. Mike Wilson
    July 7, 2018

    Clearly we need Nigel back as leader of UKIP and 17.4 million of us to vote for him. The Tories and Labour will not do as instructed.

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      July 8, 2018

      Hear, hear Mike.

  94. Steve
    July 8, 2018

    I predict a riot.

    1. Steve
      July 8, 2018

      Oh boy the papers are hot on this. From what I’m reading Ms May will soon be out.

      My replacement choice would be; Jacob Rees Mogg, or respected John Redwood.

      Mr Redwood Sir, maybe you could invite the rest of the conservative party to read these diaries ?

    2. The Prangwizard
      July 8, 2018

      I earnestly pray for one, and a big one at that, and more than one, repeated daily until we get our democracy back and May and others shoved out the door.

    3. Anonymous
      July 8, 2018

      Can you imagine the disorder by now had Remain won and the result been subverted ?

  95. Peter D Gardner
    July 8, 2018

    It is a mistake to see Mrs May as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. She is the EU’s Governor of the Provinces of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
    Seen this way one changes from condemning her to beaming with pride and admiration. She has done very well considering the continuing strength of the rebellion in England. Enscowani has been brought to heel.
    The nominal Brexiteers in the Government have until the end of the week to resign or they will be toast at the next General Election.
    The Remainers in the cabinet will be toast anyway unless they represent a constituency of rabid Remoaners.
    The Tory party has just ensured it is unelectable in 2022 whoever its leader will be.

    1. Steve
      July 8, 2018

      Exactly.

      The only wise thing the conservatives can do now, and fast, is oust Theresa May.
      Otherwise as you say sir, they will be unelectable. Probably even finished for the rest of time considering the treason committed.

      That must be done with utmost expediency, the nation’s sovereignty is at stake, and I am expecting to see on the news next week that she’s defenestrated.

      Agree with your description…”EU’s Governor of the Provinces of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland”

      That is very appropriate.
      Regards

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