Parliament has declared verbal war on the people. The rows  can only be ended if we leave the EU on 29 March with no Withdrawal Agreement.
The public has  been very patient as 2 years 8 months have passed without fulfilling the promise to take control of our borders, our laws and our money. Parliament has endlessly re run the arguments of the referendum as if we had not done all that in the campaign and come to a decision. MPs against Brexit  have  been patronising or dismissive of Leave voters.
We need to leave to create an independent democracy in our islands. We did not vote leave to achieve some  changes to our trading arrangements. We voted leave to govern ourselves, to throw off the yoke of Brussels government. We voted against the lies that had wrecked our economy in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. We voted against  the stream of laws and taxes coming out of the EU that  damage our prosperity. We  voted out to confirm we do not want to join the Euro and enter their emerging political union.
We voted to take back control of our fishing  grounds, to have a policy which is kinder to both our fish and our fishermen.
We voted to take back control of our taxes, so we can take VAT off female  sanitary products, domestic fuel and green products, where today we cannot remove those taxes.
We voted to control our borders so we can have the  same rules for EU as for non EU migrants.
We voted to spend our own money on our own priorities. I want that Brexit bonus budget in April.
Above all we voted leave to be free again. It will be a crippling irony for our democracy if the people insist their Parliament takes back control, only to find Parliament refuses to do so. What part of Leave do Remain MPs not understand? Why do so many MPs want to stay in a puppet Parliament, whose laws are imitations of the EU ?
These Remain MPs are letting the people down badly. They blame the public for bravely choosing freedom. They  lack any vision of the better future that beckons. Their pathetic whining of how our country will be worse if they take responsibility from the EU tells us more about their inadequacies than about the bold vision of the  people.
March 23, 2019
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1104188/Brexit-news-Brexit-Direct-Action-Theresa-May-brexit-delay-motorway-go-slow-rush-hour
The blockade should be around snowflake London that would be the only answer your buddies in Westminster would understand, the frustration up north and all the other leaving towns and cityâs is growing because all we can see and hear is self serving interest mps trying to keep us in there beloved Eu , we voted out what is so hard to bloody understand, come the next GE Parliament is going to be filled with true believers in Britain but no doubt one or two remoaners will keep there seats but in very small numbers, as Iâve said before to try and keep some trust in the people is to take us out on March 29th 2019 as laid down in law or democracy is dead
March 24, 2019
Hi! Thereâs a lot of us in Manchester and in Scotland, Wales and NI who donât want to leave either.
March 25, 2019
I wager not one of the remoaners in Scotland or Manchester has a logical reasoned argument for remaining in the money grabbing EU other than of course the regurgitation of the sound bites that seem to proceed any reply….Sturgeon desperate for ‘independence’ yet desirous to be a draining member of EU. Maybe the work independence has a different meaning in Scotlands.
March 23, 2019
Good Morning,
We read that the WA may not be represented to Parliament next week, but nevertheless an SI to defer leaving date to 12th April will be! For what reason? Seriously, you MUST get rid of this PM, you’re looking like a lot of headless chickens being chased by blind fox!
March 23, 2019
It must be because they are lazy troughers and they see Brussels as a bigger trough. Otherwise, they like the idea of a new world power where they have a chance of being politicians as powerful as those in the US.
March 23, 2019
Wonderful pithy writing Sir John
March 23, 2019
Do your fellow MPs not realise that “indicative votes” would look a complete farce?
It would make the House of Common look like at game show, “Strictly Come Brexit”
You’d half expect the Speaker to say “The Right Honourable Member for XXX Come On Down!! You Brexit Plan has won!!! – the bad news is the EU has already rejected it.”
March 23, 2019
I could be like It’s a Knockout with the winning choice going through to Jeux Sans FrontiĂšres. Which was always won by a small village in Switzerland, not in the EU, CU or Single Market.
March 23, 2019
Yes! Yes! Yes, Sir John!
March 23, 2019
Yes John, you have it in one.
As to what motivates many MPs to wish to remain, a state which reduces them to that of parish councillors, I know not. In terms of quantity they become even more vulnerable than they are at present. I can only think they like the pay and conditions more than the responsibility of having to work for a democratic country. On the Labour side it might be an overwhelming desire to be part of a socialist continent.
The aftermath of ww1&ww2 gave birth to a vision of creating a Europe without war, one thst traded and discussed and resolved it problems. A sentiment I would go along with. Sadly it has developed into a failed experiment run by third rate politicians, sewing the seeds for the very situation that the EU was created to avoid.
By a turn of history we were forced to turn our empire into the Common wealth it is today. A largely democratic voluntary association of countries. I would like to see, post Brexit, this association becoming the greatest free trade area the World has ever seen, with expansion into some of the FTAs that already exist. My mantra is “Trade is better than aid.” It does not desroy the dignity of the individual or country to which they we born.
March 23, 2019
Why is this the only one in 17 you cannot read and publish. Is 06.12 not early enough for you.
March 23, 2019
BBC writes that “Mrs May is expected to table secondary legislation – that has to go through the Commons and the Lords by next Friday – to remove 29 March from UK law.”
Steve Baker recently commented on ITV’s “Peston” that “there are some things we could do” to stop a change to the law regarding our departure from the EU.
It is no longer a case of “could do”: this is a must do.
March 23, 2019
The BBC also say that International law trumps Parliament. Why is the EU more an international body than UK Parliament?
In my book the EU is just an overblown selfrighness quango.
I don’t know if it’s true, but it adds to the reasons to leave the EU.
March 23, 2019
Great stuff. Full of passion and 100% correct imo.
I read that a statutory instrument could be used to change the legal default of leaving on 29th. It would be a quick way of scuppering Brexit (?).
I do hope that is not true.
Up until T Blair I had no idea that the law could be so easily undermined/ changed …if the will is there.
Shameful and terrifying times..or was it just better hidden in the past?
March 23, 2019
Anyway…what price being in the EU?
I canât even find that proper long spaghetti any more..the one in the blue wrapper.
So much for vibrant diversity!
March 23, 2019
Sir John
I agree with you, (that we should leave without the awful WA) on 29th March. But I fear the majority of your colleagues in the Commons don’t share you view, and will do whatever is in their power to thwart that. As a result, how this plays out over the coming months is anybody’s guess right now.
In all likelihood the WA will be voted down again, but then what? The proposed extension to 12 April, (has it even been agreed in the Commons?), does not really solve anything, unless indicative votes produce further ideas to be sent to Barnier and the EU Commission “on approval”. Then what? A school of thought suggests that we may have a new PM within a short time, but who takes over? Another Remainer, like Liddington? We are certainly back to Groundhog May.
And why, in the name of God will anyone who didn’t like the WA twice previously start to vote for it now? The more we learn about it, the more we realise how utterly disastrous it would be. It is surely so bad, that remaining in the EU is a better option.
Perhaps that was and is the game plan, proposed by the EU and endorsed by Mrs May and her cabal.
March 23, 2019
That was most certainly the game plan.
March 23, 2019
The why question,
1) ÂŁ77000 basic a year with pension and not having to take responsibility for anything.
2) Average age of MPs only about 50 – I suspect many could be indoctrinated or have limited experience. No wisdom.
3) Career politicians (researchers, lobbysists, union officials), MPs with’professional’ not ‘manual’ business bacground, MPs with social science and law degree backgrounds (where winning the argument is more important than what the argument is – values? I do wonder how many MPs change their vote based on the arguments given in a debate, I do wonder how many MPs understand data and models).
March 23, 2019
I think there is also a scary how question i.e. How the elite will maintain the status quo? Supporters of remain are coached into London (sponsored by the elite), whilst there are reports of Brexit supporting lorry drivers being broken up and in some cases arrested. In supposedly less democratic countries we are used to coached in support and broken up protests – where is this behaviours control heading?
March 23, 2019
The army is presumably being mobilised for No Brexit rather than No Deal as they keep telling us.
March 27, 2019
As a military veteran I can assure you that the army swears allegiance to the Queen not the government. If they tried to stop peaceful protests with the military I think all hell would break out.
March 23, 2019
Caterpillar
Ah well you see; brexit supporting demonstrators are extremists.
Just as Scotland can have a nationalist political party and nationalist assembly, while anything English and nationalist is is classed as extremist. Why ? – because the political establishment in Westminster sees it as a threat. I call it hypocrisy.
Given what the Westminster lot are doing to this country I’d say it is they who are the extremists, and they’re certainly terrorising the nation.
March 24, 2019
Some have family working for the EU. Conflict of interest.
March 23, 2019
It seems to me that Remainers are trapped between the hard rock of A50 revocation and the hard place of partipcatung in the upcoming EU elections. Either would anger voters but any other option they favour, such as a 2nd referendum would involve one of the above. Therefore there should be a huge campaign against partipating in the May EU elections. A50 revocation is a step too far for them so their other escape route of delay involving EU elections needed to be closed down with a campaign that erects a wall of public hostility to the idea of voting in EU elections 3 years after we voted to leave the EU.
March 23, 2019
FJ,
The feedback I’m getting suggests the EU is worried that the UK might have elections to the European parliament. The UK contingent would almost certainly be made up of anti-EU MEPs who given the opportunity, would vociferously argue against the way the EU is run from within. They wouldn’t just roll over as the bulk of MEPs presently do.
That is bound to undermine this most iniquitous institution, and make people from other countries question its reason to exist at all.
If May drags Brexit out and wrecks it altogether (which I believe has been her plan all along), then we should fight the EU elections with tooth, claw, and vitriol in order to get the right people elected.
Tad
March 23, 2019
If there was to be a vote for MEPs, I’m not sure Eurosceptic MEPs from the UK would be elected.
Most Leavers would boycott the election on principle, so probably most voters would be Remainers.
March 23, 2019
Depends how persuasive the campaign. If the people knew they had been conned (yet again) they could be so infuriated, they would wipe out those who had delivered the con – the remain lobby – and justly so!
Tad
March 23, 2019
Tad. There were reports that eurosceptic parties in other countries had forsaken any plans for a UK style referendum in favour of winning as many seats as possible in order to try and destroy the EU from within.
Farage’s Brexit party might well win a lot of seats in any elections which would only add to the EU commission’s problems.
The danger is that as they would not perhaps consider us a full member, then they might accept appointees from the UK, although I believe Farage has already taken legal steps to ensure that the Brexit party would participate in the elections to overcome any such shenanigans.
March 23, 2019
I have already been to The Brexit Party website to register an interest. Let’s see how things go.
Tad
March 23, 2019
Tad
“we should fight the EU elections with tooth, claw, and vitriol in order to get the right people elected.”
and the right people exposed and fired.
March 23, 2019
Steve,
You probably already know how I feel about such people, if not, I’ll leave it to your imagination because the boss needs to keep this site clean.
Tad
March 23, 2019
Surely the more obvious conclusion is to vote in EU elections, exclusively and massively for the pro-Brexit party or parties which are implacably opposed to the EU, and which have always campaigned to leave the EU.
Brussels will do anything to avoid an even larger influx of Ukip and Farage party MEPs into their talkshop. Together with the predictably large German, Italian and French anti-eu contingents, we might together make life extremely difficult for the EU Empire.
March 23, 2019
You’re preaching to the choir JR. Sadly your colleagues, for want of a better term that can go unmoderated, aren’t listening. True eurosceptics need to find some leverage before this all gets horribly ugly.
March 23, 2019
Take a glance at the map to the side of this page. A bit more than the choir.
March 23, 2019
surely you are not saying that TM’s wonderful best deal does not deliver all the above?
March 23, 2019
There is significant and consistent majority for not leaving the EU. The last time I looked 3 and a half million people have petitioned Parliament to cancel article 50 and today London will be swollen with ordinary people who are not part of this âweâ. There is no Brexit bonus , it is on the side of a rusting bus, and the idea that millions of people many of whom so valued Parliament so much , they had never voted before, did so for âconstitutional reasonsâ is laughable .Honestly, I just feel like saying , “oh just grow up for god`s sake ” ; and I have.
March 23, 2019
3.5 million is a long way short of either 17.4 million or 16.1 million. Furthermore, Newmania, how many of the petition signers have the legal right to vote in UK elections, referenda, etc? I suspect many of them are EU nationals, after all, there are 3.6 million EU natioanls working in the UK at the moment.
March 23, 2019
And how many EU nationals are on the demonstration in London?
March 23, 2019
You mean that petition whereby idi Amin has voted to revoke A50 700 times and Jacob Rees Mogg 8,000 times ?
March 23, 2019
You need to look a little harder, Newmania. Check out on Guido Fawkes who is sponsoring the petition and just how many fake and repeat signatures there are.
March 23, 2019
When people assert something, as in ‘There is significant and consistent majority for not leaving the EU’, it is always better to back it up with facts from reputable sources. Would you care to tell us where you got yours?
I tend to listen to the professionals, and even they can get it wrong. I steer well away from infamous spin-doctors like Alastair Campbell, who try to influence a debate we have already had by falsifying the figures to frighten people.
March 23, 2019
Newmania
The petition you refer to is widely acknowledged as unsurprisingly being abused and compromised.
March 23, 2019
Bring it on !
Let a Celebrity/Middle class London Remain petition trounce a properly counted proletarian plebiscite for Leave.
Now this petition exists any move to Remain will be viewed as such, you idiot.
March 23, 2019
You’re welcome to leave on 29 March, but this all sounds like a lot of spin as well. Are the people really best served by it?
March 23, 2019
Peter van Leeuwen, considering that a majority of us voted to leave the EU in the full knowledge of what it would mean for our country (not yours, I suspect), then of course we are best served by it. We will survive Brexit and eventually prosper as well as we have done in the EU or possibly even better.
March 23, 2019
Yes.
March 23, 2019
They decided that they are better served by that than by staying in the EU. It’s that simple.
March 23, 2019
Tell me, all of you who refer to No Deal (WTO rules) as crashing out: why is it that imports to the EU from the USA, Australia and New Zealand do not experience delays entering Europe. Nor are there delays to EU exports to these countries. So why should there be any problems with EU-UK trade?
At most, it will take a couple of months to sort out the paperwork and computer systems. If Mrs May’s Government had planned positively for No Deal six months ago, these systems would already be in place. Its failure to do so constitutes GROSS NEGLIGENCE.
March 23, 2019
The ‘leave’ camp has allowed the arguments to become focused on trade and the technicalities of customs unions, tariffs, and the operation of the single market when the real issue is the loss of independence and sovereignty.
The spurious allegation that we did not know why we voted leave has become one of the often repeated assertions, we voted against mass immigration, the eventual adoption of the Euro, being dragged into the Schengen agreement, European Arrest warrants, ludicrous ‘green’ taxes , the take over of our armed forces, and any other little treat lying in wait on the route to full federalisation.
March 23, 2019
So what are you going to do about it? Are you going to let May prevaricate and sell out the leave vote even more? Over entitled Remoaners have tried everything fair and foul to stop us leaving all we seem to get from Tory Brexiteers is “oh dear that is unfortunate”, “What Mrs May is done is not ideal” etc. When are you going to be ruthless and underhand as them?
March 23, 2019
Yes, we should be leaving on WTO terms on March 29th, but I am not sure how things will pan out after our new delayed deadline.
I suspect Brexit issues will run on for years, as will the problem of the disconnect between what the public want (and are promised) and what politicians are prepared to let them have.
March 23, 2019
Make no mistake: a sudden Brexit on April 12th is not going to be fun. It is going to mean breakdowns in supply and possibly government. Events – a prison break-out, a superstore going belly up, more of the 2011 riots are the worst case scenario. But the benefits of being a self governing nation once again outweigh the risks.
The questions is this: are we up for it?
Lily livered remainers are not. People who support the Withdrawal Treaty are not.
Me, I am.
March 23, 2019
They hold our freedom and independence so cheap they are prepared to throw away the chance of winning them back. People like that won’t pay even the smallest price in temporary inconvenience to get them back. and it is they who are ensuring there might be temporary inconvenience. If we had had a Brexiteer Cabinet and government all would have been prepared from the very start instead of actively sabotaged.
March 23, 2019
Sir JR,
This idea of being free as if the EU is a Gulag is not only not particularly appropriate nor is it true, it is actually a rather sad log you have written today and not very on the call either.
March 23, 2019
Can we have that in French please. Ask the Gilets Jaunes if the eu is a gulag
March 23, 2019
Don’t be greedy. We’ve already had it in Double Dutch.
March 23, 2019
So what other club, institution, plays dirty to ensure you never, ever leave????? They would never survive in the world beyond politics. If the EU were such a good idea why do they prevent us from leaving, why do they refuse other countries having referendums? Macron is certainly not going to allow France to have one, he knows how France would vote – so not a Gulag, not a prison? Gulag is actually a far better description of the EU than any other I can think of.
March 24, 2019
Sir Joe Soap
This was an observation not a debate
March 24, 2019
Vera,
It is always nice to have a debate but then the assumptions are based on unrealistic base, there is no point in having the debate.
March 23, 2019
It’s worse than the Gulag, which was at least founded on rules made in the USSR for Soviet citizens.
Tell us why we in the UK should obey rules made in another country, and over which we also have no say? That is what May’s WA would do for us.
March 23, 2019
This phenomena never fails to mystify me. I wonder if school teachers ever encounter pupils who cannot see the world in the same way as the rest of humanity?
Certain medical conditions aside, I know that gullibility plays a huge part in thinking of the remainer and how they see things, but I also wonder if others are actually in the pay of someone to keep spouting this repetitive nonsense?
It’s like constantly arguing against people who insist that 2 + 2 = 5!
To break free of the stranglehold of the EU isn’t just an aspiration, it’s an absolute imperative for anyone who believes in democracy.
March 24, 2019
Ted davison
So the conclusion must then be that 7 out of 10 Danes who now support membership of the EU do not believe in democracy?
March 24, 2019
If Danes want to be in the EU then that is their decision.
That has nothing at all to do with what the UK voters want.
March 23, 2019
Why do so many other people across Western Europe tell us to get out while we still can, and that they would if they could?
March 23, 2019
Well said Sir John.
March 23, 2019
Good morning Sir John,
I sense and share your growing anger at the latest turn of events. But the latest talk is that MV3 won’t be tabled unless the PM is sure of getting it passed, and with no DUP support the chance of that is vanishingly small. Of the mooted seven options for indicative votes next week, I understand that three of them are: PM’s deal, PM’s deal + customs union and PM’s deal + customs union + single market access. Since all three are based on the PM’s deal they ought to fall foul of the DUP’s objection. Of the remaining four options: revoking Art 50 would definitely start riots in London, while a second referendum would take 22 weeks to organise (meaning we must take part in MEP elections) and the last time this was put to a vote was rejected. This only leaves a standard Free Trade Agreement and No Deal. I think you’re absolutely right that leaving with an FTA is the obvious course to take, because it’s not ‘No Deal’ and it’s not ‘PM’s deal’ either. I hope enough MPs will see the sense in it and that that’s the kind of Brexit we end up getting. Fingers crossed.
March 23, 2019
You are absolutely right Sir John and as I said yesterday we voted to leave and NOT to pass the decision to a bunch of MPs hell bent on reversing the referendum. We don’t need a two week extension, we just need to leave next Friday.
March 23, 2019
I think this debate is a bit passe.
Seems to me that everything has moved on and we need to see what parliament can agree on or else we’ll end up with nothing – and nobody wants that.
March 23, 2019
Actually, I want that. Nothing will soon be replaced with something.
March 23, 2019
Nothing has ‘moved on’. The people voted to leave the EU, and are still waiting to leave the EU, as we shall on March 29th.
‘Parliament’ is just a collection of 650 MPs – it has never ‘agreed’ on anything – that is why we have governments with manifestos the electorate has voted for.
That MPs impudently decide to subvert and oppose the manifestos they stand on is quite a new departure. It is ‘moving on’ only in the same way an unfaithful spouse abandons his/her spouse and children and ‘moves on’.
It was Tony Blair who institutionalised the phrase ‘moving on’ in politics. It is a typically sly piece of casuistry.
March 23, 2019
Do you realize what you are condoning and how much damage it will do our country, its constitution, and its democracy? These things used to be highly prized and an inspiration to the rest of the world. They are now looking on aghast.
March 23, 2019
Agreed.
March 23, 2019
LOL
March 23, 2019
I have been warning from the day after the 2016 referendum, these remain people will now move heaven and Earth to stop us leavers having our democratic rights upheld. As some very senior Brexiteers will confirm, I described the pending deception as ‘the mother and father of all stitch-ups’.
Parliament has truly declared war on the people, as Sir John rightly says. So if we truly value democracy, it is time the people reciprocated and declared war on parliament.
The best and most effective way at our disposal is to vote these remainers out and refuse to vote in another load of shysters in their place. That way we get rid of all the trash.
Party chairmen and local associations of all parties need to know and understand that we will no longer tolerate duplicitous, cowardly politicians who bend the knee to a different master.
Knowledge is power, so the people need to know who the EU sock puppets are in order to effect the necessary changes. The ones who would be governed by Brussels, not London. But they are tricky characters. I myself have been conned into helping these pro-EU types by their insistence and assurance they were Eurosceptics, then at the last minute, they changed their stripe. I feel very bitter towards them.
Our future is in our own hands. We must make sure our fellow countrymen know who these people are. We must not be afraid to name and shame, and mount campaigns against them in their own constituencies. Show them their voting record and call the b*****ds out!
Tad Davison
Cambridge
March 23, 2019
As far as I see it Parliament has chosen a Celebrity/Remain petition over a proletarian/Leave democratic vote which was properly counted.
We’re now in the world of spin – let’s have it then.
Watch out for the rigged second referendum, so all can be made good again and the mandate for full EU integration recorded in the EU Museum as The People’s Idea.
March 23, 2019
“As far as I see it Parliament has chosen a Celebrity/Remain petition over a proletarian/Leave democratic vote which was properly counted.”
With regard to the poll, certain Remain boards have been quite upfront about that: go to duckduckgo, search for “UK Parliament Petition bot” and click for videos. The sourcecode and how to manage/subvert the email verification are all publicly on Youtube.
March 23, 2019
If the Cooper-Boles-Letwin plan is voted through Speaker Bercow will become the effective Prime Minister.
Just thought Iâd mention it.
March 23, 2019
My answer to ‘Cooper-Boles-Letwin’ is quite simple. If they take over the timetable first of all any Bill they table will touch on the Prerogative and therefore requires Royal Consent: I would withhold it. If, by some strange twist they manage to get a Bill through both houses I would advise Her Majesty to refuse it Assent, a power not used since 1708, but as we are into traditions that is as good as one from 1604.
March 23, 2019
Worse even, Bercow will be the effective PM of this country, as he will have worked out long ago.
March 23, 2019
I don’t think they would need to rig the next referendum as many leave voters like myself will not bother voting in a second referendum. The establishment is hell bent on ignoring our votes and the leave result of the 2016 poll, so if we voted leave again they would just do the same again and so on ad infinitum until they get the result they want. This is EU democracy in action.
March 23, 2019
To not vote would just let them get their own way. They don’t care if you don’t vote, they just don’t want you voting against them. If everyone didn’t vote, they will have won.
March 23, 2019
Yes, Vera, however pathetic the turnout and however small the margin, if the result is in favour of the EU, it will be implemented. Then that will be it. Never again.
March 23, 2019
I get the overwhelming impression you are starting to realize why people are angry.
Being on the outside looking in can have its advantages.
March 23, 2019
I agree wholeheartedly with your comments John and I suspect the majority of Conservative voters and Leave voters would do so as well.
The stumbling block is the PM and her inner circle of remainers. As long as they lack the courage and vision to make a success of Brexit outside of the control of the EU, we will be shackled to EU rules.
The party has missed several opportunities to replace Mrs May claiming that the time was not right. Look where that approach has taken us. Until she is replaced by a conviction Brexiteer I cannot see the situation being resolved.
March 23, 2019
Well said Sir John. My thoughts exactly. Brexit was never about signing up to a new treaty. It was about us once again becoming a free independent country.
March 23, 2019
Indeed especially not a new treaty that ties us in (potentially for ever), destroys our ability to negotiate properly and costs 39 billion for nothing!
March 23, 2019
The public has been patient for rather longer two years eight months. With referendum being promised by Cast Iron and other over many years only to be cheated out of them. Cameron ratting on his Lisbon Treaty referendum promise with the complete lie that a Treaty is no longer a Treaty once ratified!
The appalling Masstricht and Lisbon treaties rammed through without any authority from the people. Betrayal of 40+ years has brought us to this appalling position.
March 23, 2019
Remainiac MPs will spout the same garbage we have heard for almost three years when they speak in the House next week. Of them the biblical proverbs are true:
“A dog returns to its vomit” and “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”
2 Peter 2: verse 22
March 23, 2019
My favourite Bible verse what it comes to Brexiteers – especially ERG guys – is Proverbs 17:28:
“Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent”
March 23, 2019
So that’s the Remain lot looking like knaves and fools which we already know.
March 23, 2019
“Parliament has declared war on the people.”
We think that but we’re waiting for the end of March before we dust-off our Special Operations Executive manuals and begin our campaign off disruption to slough-off a Parliament that lacks the legitimacy of the sovereignty of the people.
As to yourself, if it comes to it, … are you planning to boycott the Vichy parliament?
March 23, 2019
From the 29th March it no longer has a mandate unless we leave. No point to it at all. All hot air and no power.
March 23, 2019
âAbove all we voted leave to be free againâ.
In all the millions of words spoken and written since the referendum, I believe the seven that form your above sentence probably best sum up the feelings of most of us.
March 23, 2019
How will you be free after Brexit in a way you are not free now?
Give us one example of something which you think will make you freer than you are now?
I will give you one example of where you will be ends free.
Right now you are freely to live, work, love, study across 31 countries. After Brexit you can do this freely in just one.
Reply Read my piece.,, free to cut or remove VAT for example
March 23, 2019
Reply to reply “free to cut or remove VAT for example”
Return to what we had prior to our EU membership?
“Between October 1940 and 1973 the UK had a consumption tax called Purchase Tax, which was levied at different rates depending on goods’ luxuriousness.
Purchase Tax was applied to the wholesale price, initially at a rate of 331â3%. This was doubled in April 1942 to 662â3%, and further increased in April 1943 to a rate of 100%, before reverting in April 1946 to 331â3% again.
Unlike VAT, Purchase Tax was applied at the point of manufacture and distribution, not at the point of sale. The rate of Purchase Tax at the start of 1973, when it gave way to VAT, was 25%”
Is that what you dream of returning to?
March 23, 2019
Purchase tax was levied at rates between 0% (on basics) to 55% (on luxuries, which included motor cars). VAT was supposed to have been levied at a flat rate, to keep administration simple, but it doesn’t seem to have worked out that way.
March 23, 2019
We will be free to make our own trade deals with whichever country we choose, or not – we are not free to do that now. We can take ALL of the Vat Tax instead of just a small part – the remainder going to the EU. We can ignore all those ridiculous petty rules and regs which the EU churn out about straight bananas and dim light bulbs and produce, buy and sell what we want. 31 countries??? As far as we know the EU consists of 28 countries soon to be 27.
And we could live, work, love, study, in all those countries before we joined the EU so unless the EU plans to build walls I don’t see how that will stop. We all know what happens to walls – Are you saying that people from USA do not come to the EU to work, love, study, blah, blah, blah? UH?
March 23, 2019
Free movement includes the EEA – so not just the other 27 in the EU but also Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein as well. And Switzerland which is not in either the EEA or EU but which is in Schengen. But then you knew that, right? No? Oh.
Straight bananas is not a real thing. Thanks to EU rules our lightbulbs are more efficient than ever. It saves you money. Which petty rules and regs are you talking about? Leavers can never name them.
Who do we not have a trade deal with through the EU who you want a trade deal with? And why do you want trade deals anyway? You donât like international cooperation.
And, of course, we will still be able to move to the EU after Brexit. But the point is that we will face bureaucratic and probably financial hurdles to do so. Whereas now there are now. It will not affect the wealthy Brexiteers elite. These posh public schoolboys have resources behind them to buy access to Europe. You and your children do not.
March 24, 2019
Yet again you say “leavers cannot name them” when I and others have given you many examples of useless laws they have burdened us with.
For a youngster you have a very poor memory Andy.
PS The rich elite love the EU
March 23, 2019
Free to make our own rules, not be dictated to.
March 23, 2019
Which rules do you want to make that you currently canât? And which rules which we do not want have been imposed on us?
March 25, 2019
Andy, we don’t want to be taxed for prostitution and drugs because we don’t charge it and those of us not partaking in these services don’t want to pay the EU for that.
We don’t want to be dependent on the EU for life-saving drugs when we are more than capable of making them closer to the patients in our own Country.
We don’t want to pay import from the RoW 80% tariff taxes to the EU we want to use that money in the UK.
As Agricola said yesterday “I do not have any desire to halt the free movement of anyone in the UK or EU providing they have legitimate reasons for movement such as a career move to a legitimate job, a genuine educational course, a holiday, or a self-financed retirement that does not burden the host country. Reciprocal health care will almost certainly remain whereby UK citizens enjoying health care in Europe are funded by the UK government and visa versa. I do not anticipate anyone getting hurt as you put it except ATM scammers, sex slave trade operators, and street beggars. All of which we would be better off without. Prepare to enjoy a renewed sovereign UK.”
We don’t want to be inward-looking, we want to be global, encouraged and assisted by our Government to trade around the World.
We don’t want EU rules on toasters and vacuums and headlights that we now need yellow glasses imported from the EU to be able to see on our roads at night without too much dazzle.
The EU has fostered division in the UK with Blairs help and his regionalisation and divide by setting up alternative parliaments for everyone but England. We resisted their AV suggestions that divides European States so bad that Holland, Germany and others can ignore large groups of their public voice by just compartmentalising new parties and ignore them.
March 23, 2019
We can cut VAT now. Our VAT is 20%. EU rules simply state that a standard VAT rate should not be less than 15%.
So we can slash VAT tomorrow while remaining in the EU. And, of course, discount rates are allowable to. Up to two of them – so there is nothing to stop you having very low rates on products we want consumers to buy – like energy efficiency products.
So the only freedom you cite is one you already have. Anything else – or is that it? I am just curious.
March 24, 2019
We cannot REMOVE VAT. We can only reduce it to the EU permitted minimum. That means we are not in control of our taxes. With the new push to harmonise tax rates across the EU, we will have no say in our fiscal policy/taxation rates. The more I listen to remainers, the more I am convinced that it is they who didn’t know what they were voting for!
March 23, 2019
Indeed we voted to be free and in charge of our own destiny. As May largely put it in her Mansion House speech before she went totally mad.
The appalling Theresa May takes this as an instruction to ram us into a new Treaty that potentially ties us in for ever more and wants to pay ÂŁ39 billion of our money for this straight jacket. It deliver nothing of any value and is totally inferior to just leaving for nothing.
March 23, 2019
[…] finish on a high note: the inimitable Sir John Redwood opens his diary entry for today (here) with an exceedingly strong […]
March 23, 2019
Sadly I now feel that we may not leave at all. If Meaningful Vote 3 happens I hope that your fellow Brexiteers will vote it down again. Even if we end up staying in, surely it would be no worse than being in perpetual perpetuity as a result of signing that international treaty.
March 23, 2019
Warren
I don’t see MV3 getting through, whether by vote down, the PM not tabling it, or even Mr Bercow not allowing it.
It’s dead and the EU knows it. Hence the real motive – May will revoke A50 and do a runner.
March 23, 2019
Indeed either WTO Brexit or Remain would be better than Brino, which is why MPs should have no hesitation in voting down Mayâs deal. Momentum seems to be building for Mays deal conditional on a âpeoplesâ voteâ. The irony of the use of âPeoplesâ is of course that the choice will be like one of those elections in non-democratic countries where you can vote for the president or an approved opponent. Actual, real, opponents donât make it onto the ballot paper.
It feels like we are headed for a long extension with a Brexit so soft and squishy as to be pointless. Continuity Remain hope it will then wither on the vine. It might not even need a second referendum.
The best course of action now would be to ditch mrs may asap, this weekend if possible, and replace her with a PM who is prepared to present a positive vision of Brexit, go back to square one with the EU and negotiate accordingly.
March 23, 2019
Staying in would amount to being the same as the WA. Thatâs why the EU commission were so jubilant. We burnt our bridges when we voted to leave. Crawling back to them to ask to stay would have a heavy price attached. The UK, as we know it, would be history.
March 23, 2019
Even a Remain win would have been Hard Remain – now I know the EU and Remainers better it would have been used as a mandate for accelerated integration. I now think that was Cameron’s clever-dicky plan all along.
As soon as the referendum was called the dynamic changed between us and the EU.
March 23, 2019
Indeed. We should ask the other Andy etc if Remain had won 52-48% how they would have proceeded with a ‘Soft Remain’, wishing to respect the 48% who voted to Leave. What concessions would be on offer ??
March 23, 2019
absolutely and the leavers if the vote had been reversed would not have been given a second thought.
March 24, 2019
Dear John, Totally agree with everything you have said, breaks my heart to see P.M. May throw this chance for the U.K. away…Then am sure sheÂŽll just disappear into the dust with her gold plated index linked pension, while we all suffer the consequences of her blatant sabotage of Brexit. I for one will never be able to vote Conservative again if the U.K. does not leave the E.U. WITHOUT a deal on the 29th of March 2019 at 23.00hrs, we have been more than patient over these past 2+years. This will be the only way for the Country to move forward please help make this happen …
March 23, 2019
”If they are the people I thought and still want to think that they are, those who represent them will assuredly be pulled back in time from the betrayal of their birthright of parliamentary freedom either to a European state or to a Marxist bureaucracy.” (Enoch Powell).
But will they? And how can they be compelled to?
March 23, 2019
TPTB are fully prepared to shatter the illusion of democracy in the UK by showing the little people that their views do not count and that they are sticking to their script .
Farage left UKIP and let it wither on the vine when he should have been holding Teresa May’s feet to the fire .
This all comes at a time when the movers and shakers within the EU are going over the top to try and take over from Junkers when he retires .
Federica Mogherini the EU minister for War and Foreign Affairs has pointed out that European Defence has become a reality when the founders only considered it in their wildest dreams .
The EU is becoming a dangerous military power and that the UK , whether in the EU or not IS PARTICIPATING in European military union (despite the deafening silence from ever so called Brexiteers) .
March 23, 2019
That’s entirely the wrong spirit. We have to be determined to force a No Deal Brexit over the line, no matter how many General Elections it takes. And Samson must be prepared to bring the temple down. The Conservative Party cannot possibly survive in its current form – imagine writing a manifesto containing a European policy that Amber Rudd and John Redwood could agree upon – so why bother trying to save it?
March 23, 2019
Totally agree. We should leave at 11p.m. on Friday 29th March on WTO terms and keep our ÂŁ39bn to spend here in the UK. How can you make that happen for us?
March 23, 2019
What makes you think its 39bn?
The UK share of the EU’s pension debts etc, comes to 100 bn
The subsidy to low paid EU migrants, comes to 30 bn a year. Since the vote we’ve been forced to pay 90 bn and even John Redwood says you are going to be forced to pay that with no limit on time or money.
Politicians will not implement no recourse to public funds for EU migrants, because they want their cheap servants and they insist you pay for them.
Then there are the member ship fees. We’ve wasted 40.5 bn over the last three years.
May’s deal means more payments to the UK.
It goes completely against the take back control of our money.
Then there are the tariffs …
Then the cost of regulation ….
March 23, 2019
Thank you for your personal view on what leave means. There are 17.4 million alternative views and now the democratically elected HofC can use their collective judgement and good sense to revoke Article 50 and we can work with our European partners to build a better future for us all.
March 23, 2019
I’m guessing the treacherous remain MP’s (including TM) are hoping any bad feeling this has caused will subside before the next GE when the Tory’s will be begging the electorate to vote for them to keep the Labour party out.
I would say to those who value democracy our country and an honest and truthful government DO NOT be fooled tricked or blackmailed into giving these backstabbers your vote they have destroyed any trust anyone could have in them and as such have not earned your vote.
Do not boycott the election, vote for someone other than those who have shown their selves to be perfidious or spoil the paper, this is a mess of their making do not reward them for it.
March 23, 2019
Just about all of that is complete and utter jingoistic nonsense.
We’ve sold our fishing grounds. We opted out of the Euro and there is no requirement on us to join.
Even tampons. The 4 million workers living in poverty who could work 1 hour in 2 weeks get classified as employed by your government. Tampons are luxury items for them. Large supermarkets already waive the 5% tax. Scotland provides them free in schools. Wales have a period poverty fund.
This government chooses to ignore poverty and blame the EU when it is their austerity measures which cause such huge damage to those who cannot afford it. The UK are heading toward the bottom of the EU poverty ladder, and it is your Tory government that is responsible.
March 24, 2019
There is no requirement for us to join the euro? Where have you been? Opt outs are coming to an end and all members will be expected to adopt the euro. The EU is intent on becoming a United States of Europe (that’s the whole purpose of “ever closer union” and the need for “more Europe”). Think about it logically; how can you have a United States with one member state using a different currency?
March 23, 2019
Well said JR – That sums it up nicely..
I’ll bet that won’t be read out on BBC news
March 23, 2019
Parliament is not fit for purpose because 90% of MP’s are inept, incompetent, corrupt or otherwise not capable or willing to represent the people that voted for them. We need a choice on ballot papers for “None of the above” to stop pathetic candidates from winning simply because the other candidates are worse.
March 23, 2019
Yes Pete – Totally agree…. and if ‘None of the above’ wins they should provide new candidates…
This is but one thing that needs to change – We need a new contract with parliament, simply because Heath and others have proven that we cannot trust them – Especially with treaties – We must have a say in them in future. Not just ones with the EU, I’m very concerned about treaties we have been signed up to, willy nilly, that tie our hands in all sorts of ways.
March 23, 2019
Four good quotes for today. Democracy… while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide. John Adams.
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge. Isaac Asimov.
The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting. Charles Bukowski.
In the Soviet Union, capitalism triumphed over communism. In this country, capitalism triumphed over democracy. Fran Lebowitz.
March 23, 2019
All discussion on what the country should do is secondary right now.
We have no effective government with a PM who has lost authority and control. Replacing her will only slightly help, but might well lead to more of the same.
We need in addition a general election for any hope to form a way forward, so the parties can reset their manifestos. The electorate will be very wary of fudge this time round though.
There is no point in extending Art 50 as we don’t have a functioning government that can make use of the time. I just hope that all the alternatives presented to Parliament will fail to get a majority, including the one to extend.
March 23, 2019
I agree with your posting today JR.
Had not been to The USA for about 20 years until again recently, and it struck me once again of the positive can do attitude DNA built into the American people and businesses, when compared to the opposite mindset of much of our own, including many of our politicians.
Our Politicians preach that freedom and democracy is wanted throughout the World, but when it comes to our own UK they want to deny the British people the same, instead they want to take instructions and be ruled by a foreign power block.
Why?
Why do elected politicians here not want the run our own Country, are they afraid of their own incompetence, are they frightened of taking responsibility.
When we had an Empire we eventually helped individual Countries deliver their own Independence, we did not force them to still obey Westminster rules, we did not ban them from completing their own trade deals, we do not ask them for huge sums of money each year, and demand tariffs on all goods they import.
They were allowed to set their own rules, yes perhaps they were guided, yes they were advised, but they were still in control, indeed they then voluntarily chose to belong to a club that is called the commonwealth.
They now have more Political freedom and a greater Independence than the UK, how ironic !
Why do people stand for political office, if they are frighted of using the power they supposedly crave.
March 23, 2019
This needs to be read and understood by all MPs.
33M people had a vote including MPs in June 2016 on the issue. It is wrong that some MPs think that an electorate of 650 is entitled to overrule the result.
In their high arrogance these inadequate MPs are abusing the peoples trust and they are now placing parliament against the people. It is quite uncalled for.
The only clean alternative to WTO, is FTA/GAT24 (without ÂŁ39B), is Mrs May and parliament going to consider that.
March 23, 2019
It is good to hear that from the backbenches, but for there to be any faith left in your party, people need to hear it from the Cabinet and PM.
I am fully expecting Brexit to be sabotaged. I am also fully expecting to sign up for a party other than the Conservatives for the next election – my MP fully supports Theresa May, so I have no divided loyalties on that account.
March 23, 2019
JR
Absolutely right, Sir.
Perhaps you might secure opportunity to present this potent article to the Commons and at the most effective time ?
March 23, 2019
Great post John and a shame many of your fellow MP’s don’t feel the same. They will feel the wrath of the people come election day. Staying might be better than signing May’s atrocious WA because then a true Brexit party could emerge and we might be offered another chance. Sign May’s agreement and we are doomed for ever. We have been truly shafted by parliament and it’s unlawful in my eyes. How come we have to abide by the law but MP’s are above it? The whole things stinks to high heaven and it’s no wonder the British people don’t believe we have a democracy any more. You must be feeling very let down by your own PM. She has not only betrayed the nation but her own party. There are no words strong enough to describe the anger people feel against her and her ilk. Please someone tell me how often we heard the words from her mouth “We will be leaving on the 29th March”? What a joke.
March 23, 2019
Someone said it was 108 times.
March 23, 2019
Sir John, well and truly said, thank you.
March 23, 2019
Well said Sir John!
A comment that my Wife made last night has me very worried about the future.
She has gained the impression that, around 2020, there are plans to amend the treatie(s) in such a way as to remove the Art.50 process. In other words it will be illegal to leave the EU without the permission of the Commission.
If this is true, we are facing a great crisis! If this true, do you think that the plan all along has been to drag this out until we are trapped? If this is true, is it 29th March or never?
March 23, 2019
Exactly right. The traitors (and a totally incompetent government negotiation and irresponsible opposition) has ensured that no sensible deal has been offered. We must therefore just leave next week and neotiate later. Negotiate without May expensive straitjacket on.
March 23, 2019
The EU controls our law & money, but Theresa May controls the current war.
She acts like a General of Seesawland, wanting a peace which neither side can win. So she forces her balance on power, claiming âPeace is for both sidesâ.
She struggles astride her see-saw on increasingly soggy ground. Her squeaky pivot rusts away, as her platform rots to dust. She endures to her ends in âPieces for Allâ to see with her destiny of destruction.
Conservatives & others should get off and go to WTO. The world offers many better swings & roundabouts, with all the fun of the free & fair.
March 23, 2019
Sir John,
In fact, 52% of the electorate voted to leave the EU. That’s it. The reasons why varied. There was one chap in Sunderland quoted as saying he voted leave to “get rid of all the immigrants” and he was disappointed that “they’re all still here”. Some apparently voted leave to “give Cameron a bloody nose”. But “leave” was undefined. so how and when we leave the EU is a matter for our elected representatives to decide. They initially decided 29th March but now look likely to choose a later date as the majority of them realize that many of us, particularly those of us running businesses, consider it utter madness to just depart in 5 days time with no proper arrangements in place. They have listened to the people. Contrary to what you say, this is democracy in action. The executive has tried to sideline our sovereign parliament from the beginning and it is uplifting to see the fight back. I am sure we will leave the EU institutions in due course, much to my regret, but I hope we will do so in a manner and timeline chosen by parliament as a whole, not the ERG and Mrs May.
March 24, 2019
“… how and when we leave the EU is a matter for our elected representatives to decide. ” I would draw your attention to Cameron’s speech at Chatham House in the run up to the referendum, where he stated, “this is YOUR decision, not Parliament’s, not MPs'”. OUR decision. We voted to LEAVE, not to be kept in.
March 23, 2019
If Tory Brexit MPs haven’t either the courage nor inclination to bring May down or indeed split the PCP wide open by breaking away then please explain what is the point of your incessant articles repeating the same point
May and Parliament will crush popular democracy. This PM’s a bigger danger to our freedoms, democracy and way of life than even Corbyn and Marxist Labour. And still she remains
Break the party wide open. Have the courage to do it or else we will lose our nation forever and we can all wave goodbye to democracy
March 23, 2019
Well said.
March 23, 2019
How is it all going Sir John ?
It is not responsible for senior politicians to declare that Parliament is at war with the people.
But your plan for a No Deal exit is now exposed for all to see and presumably many of your colleagues feel the same. You are taking a wrecking ball to the entire country.
March 23, 2019
When we voted for Brexit it was no surprise that the EU would want to punish us to deter other countries from leaving. They have done this and for some bizarre reason Theresa May has chosen to accept their terms. It shouldnât have happened like this and the reason we are in such a mess.
March 23, 2019
All the EU has actually done is protect its interests in the negotiations. Prominent leavers like Davis and Fox told us that the EU would be falling over themselves to give us what we wanted. But they were 100% wrong. The EU defended the single market with everything they had and didn’t give us any deep access to it. Those Brexiteers bear a heavy responsibility and it’s about time you Leave voters started examining the truth of the promises you were given, rather than simply blaming May and remainer MPs for the chaos we’re all now in.
March 24, 2019
Davis and Fox and other ministers originally tasked with the job of leaving the EU have either been sacked or sidelined or forced to resign in frustration.
The negotiations have been taken over and fully controlled by remain supporters in Number 10 and controlled by the PM and Chancellor.
March 23, 2019
Why are cabinet ministers like Rudd still in office, why haven’t local Tory association booted them out of the party and office?
They only have themselves to blame for not taking action before now, as sit back and watch their Brexit slip away.
March 23, 2019
I assume local party members have the power to deselect but not the power of recall, which is restricted generally to those convicted of dishonesty or some other criminal offence.
March 23, 2019
I cannot think of a greater dishonesty than standing for an election on a manifesto of Leave yet working against that promise when duly elected.
March 23, 2019
I agree: unfortunately manifestos are not legally enforceable and governments cannot be held to them. Which means we can trust no party at all.
March 23, 2019
Is it time for the ERG to split from the Conservative Party and vote with Labour to bring down the government?
If Parliament have indeed (threatened to) declare war on the people it is probably best to
decide where the first aggressive contact should take place.
It would be far preferable for that conflict to take place in a General Election rather than on the streets.
It would be preferable for a new party alliance to be formed containing those elements committed to restoring UK sovereignty . This grouping would require national coverage to have credibility with the electorate.
The risk of course would be th election of a Corbyn government.
However, it would be interesting to see what stance his party would take against a fully fledged Brexit supporting party.
This is now the only way forward unless the government belatedly sees the truth and drives a No Deal outcome through.
March 23, 2019
If Brexit is thwarted by parliament, it would mean that democracy is dead. If that is the case, then what would be the point of parliament continuing to exist? If it is to be a white elephant, the whole place should be sacked. Why have the expense of a whole layer of politicians that are there just to do the EU’s bidding?
March 23, 2019
Good article.
But the positive case for leave has not been made often enough or strong enough or in enough different ways
March 23, 2019
Indeed, quite the reverse, the government has run confidence and the country down with their project fear, huge over taxation, idiotic and over complex taxation, Green crap energy, endless red tape and idiotic bank regulations from Hammond and Carney.
March 23, 2019
And critically the “progressive” case for leave was never made (the ability to ban live animal exports, explaining how the Customs Union keeps African poor etc.). Popular support for the sore loser movement would have faded on the campuses had Brussels been painted as the enemy of “social justice.”
March 23, 2019
Why is there no systematic boycott of EU products, wherever possible?
My last five new cars have all been German. I’ve been waiting two years now to replace the current one – absolutely no way I’m buying anything European. SA grapes are just fine.
WTF are we putting up with this ****?
March 23, 2019
Agree Oliver. There is NO way I would buy a German car or anything European
March 23, 2019
Oliver
Well I stopped buying Irish meat products, and I no longer buy anything European.
We have to be careful with what we say, though. It seems our respected host doesn’t like us to organise post – betrayal resistance.
March 23, 2019
Sir John,
Now the EU has offered Mrs May “manoeuvring time” is the 29th March departure still on the books or is it now effectively delayed or stopped?
The news that contingency plans in Kent are being put in place, given what the Calais authorities have said, looks like government tactics to influence opinion on WTO exit.
March 23, 2019
It is not just the Remain MPs, two Conservatives last night on LBC, sort of Leavers but fence sitters following the queen of that ilk, keep talking about getting the backstop right. The whole WA Treaty is wrong. The EU have presented May with this Treaty to sign, there is no alternative, they have led her by the nose. From the start we should have given the EU our terms for Leaving other than WTO.
I cannot see how true Conservative Leave MPs can stay in the Party, they should resign, stand as independents or join the Brexit Party, hold bye elections. The current Parliamentary Parties are Remain – end of story.
March 23, 2019
There is an alternative, which is to deselect as many pro-EU MPs as possible before the next General Election. But if that fails, you are right.
March 23, 2019
Sir, your site is the first port of call for me every day followed by the Guido Fawkes one. There is a link on his site today to the BBC news where they admit that the petition to stop Brexit has been rigged and ” hijacked by bots “. I was shocked to see this but I was even more shocked that at the bottom of the page is a link that I can click to read ” Why you can trust BBC news ” Oh the irony !
I saw a sneering Sourbry deriding the numbers on the March to Leave to Nigel Farage the other day with a comment like “How many were there Nigel? 150? ”
I am thoroughly ashamed of my government and country thanks to the likes of her.
I want to see this whole rotten government finished. Whilst you are constantly derided for your views they ARE what most of us voted for. Thankyou Sir.
I want to see not just the motorway protests that will now escalate, but civil disruption on a massive scale as will surely happen when democracy is shown to be a sham as it has been here.
March 23, 2019
Dear Sir John I feel you are becoming as angry as we are.
What’s going on in Westminster is the stuff Civil wars are made of.
March 23, 2019
The whole business would be laughable if not so serious. Her, making silly speeches which go round and round, blaming everyone but herself. The flaccid de facto deputy Liddington, who couldn’t beat his way out of a wet paper bag. Clark, Hunt and Gauke, all trying to keep one foot in her camp and one in a remainer camp. We deserve much better than these people.
March 23, 2019
âWhat part of Leave do Remain MPs not understand?â
The part where Mrs May presents you with a deal that is clearly Brexit and you reject it because you claim it is not Brexit.
Her deal does all the things you claim you want. So why are you objecting?
For what it is worth I agree it is a lousy deal. But then you wanted it and I did not.
March 23, 2019
It isn’t a deal.
Please stop referring to it as a deal.
The Withdrawal Agreement is just a treaty that keeps us in the EU and doesn’t include any trading arrangements.
March 23, 2019
You quite obviously haven’t read Mrs May disgusting so called ‘Deal’. It is anything BUT Brexit.
It is as you say a ‘lousy deal’ but it was drafted in Berlin and agreed to by someone who doesn’t believe in Brexit. The whole rotten scheme is designed to force teh UK back into membership of the EU by 2025.
March 23, 2019
Andy
I have to say; you may be right.
March 23, 2019
There seem to be too many Andys here. Can one of you change your ‘handle’?
March 23, 2019
We can agree that Mrs May’s deal was lousy. It would make us vassals to the EU.
Leave means freedom from any control by the EU, it is far bigger than just trade. WTO or FTA are the only trade arrangements compatible with Leave.
March 23, 2019
I came across the following letter that was sent to their MP by someone who works for a multi-national & is responsible for looking at major international contracts & their commercial implications:
“May appears willing to sacrifice both her career and the future of the Conservative Party on
the altar of her deal.
If May does succeed in bring her deal back for a third vote then Parliament is in danger of making its last meaningful vote, on any topic, ever. Once the Withdrawal Agreement is signed all of Parliament’s power will have been transferred to the unelected Joint Committee, which will rule us as a colony of the EU. Parliament will have given away its authority to set taxes, define spending priorities, make British law and generally administer the country.
Under the agreement there is no way out except with the permission of the EU. Nowhere to appeal to except the ECJ. And nobody empowered to make such an appeal except the unelected Joint Committee.
So far as I can see, all other options are better than this. Absolutely anything is better than May’s irreversible and unforgivable total surrender of sovereignty to the EU for perpetuity.
Hold strong and continue to oppose the WA. Please keep your colleagues in ERG on track if they falter.”
March 23, 2019
It ain’t gonna happen John. If you get rid of May NOW, there is a chance but she has already made it clear despite saying otherwise that she has no intention of going out on no deal. Looks like this pathetic excuse for a PM is now going to let Parliament decide the outcome and we all know where that will lead. If she was replaced by a Brexiteer today, e.g. Raab or Johnson, what a difference the outcome would be. The Tory party will never be forgiven for this.
March 23, 2019
The Biased Broadcasting Corporation and other MSM outlets are reporting that the petition to revoke Article 50 has reached over 4 million votes. It would be interesting to know how many of the votes were from people outside the UK. Speaking of the blatantly biased bunch in Portland Place, their activities demand serious investigation. Supposedly impartial, the bias has become so unremitting and relentless that the people responsible for it, (and those responsible for allowing it to happen), need to be urgently and unceremoniously sacked.
March 23, 2019
Britain is no some backwater nobody has heard about. The whole world has watched our PM treat the British people and their Parliament like backward schoolchildren. She called Surrender âBrexitâ and the world held it breath in case we swallowed it!
Our Parliament has no locus in this matter. It has acknowledged that by enacting No Deal Brexit TWICE. It is under orders. If Parliament defies us then democracy is dead and I donât mean just in Britain. Every tin-pot May will ignore the expresses will of the people.
Sir John, you have âemergedâ that God. Your argument is unanswerable. God give you strength!
March 23, 2019
As so often I agree with every word you say. However, what is happening cannot be too much of a surprise when one considers that most members of Parliament these days consider themselves to be on a different planet to their constituents whom they should be serving, rather than regarding themselves as their masters. The fact that they think the normal rules do not apply do them has been very adequately illustrated by excluding themselves from pension restrictions forced on the public, refusal to provide receipts for expenses, etc., etc., etc.
They have no faith in democracy ( I can never see why ‘Populism’ is a pejorative term) preferring to stay with the rule of an unelected oligarchy that will do all their work for them and provide massive grandstanding opportunities.
To add to all this they clearly have no faith in the ability of their country to make its own way in the world and reap the benefits of so doing.
March 23, 2019
John – I agree but only if you substitute “Conservative MPs” for “MPs” throughout. With the Unionists you have a majority to implement anything you want irrespective of Opposition games. The Conservatives have chosen not to implement Brexit. It is 100% the fault of the Conservatives, you own it.
May has told us again and again we are leaving in March. She did not qualify it, she just stated it as a fact. It is within her power to do this by ignoring all the non-binding votes and letting the law run its course on the leaving date. But she isn’t doing this. She is therefore a liar and acting in bad faith on this issue and many others. So, why is she still leader of your party ?
You moan about whining MPs who want to stay in the EU without noting the chief whiner and project fear proponent is your own Chancellor.
I conclude to implement Brexit we will have to take a new course that omits the Conservative party entirely. At the May Council and European Parliament elections we’ll make a start.
March 23, 2019
I have monitored your diary for the past few weeks and learnt a lot from it. I sense from your entry today that you are just as angry as most of the rest of us leavers and just want to leave next Friday as we were promised. Now we not only have a charade coming up in parliament next week, a ‘People’s March’ today and a clearly hacked petition, and a media that is 100% remain. It couldn’t get worse.
March 23, 2019
Sir John, though you are absolutely right – you are, after all preaching to the converted. But we are helpless. Apart from civil insurrection if the will of the people is thwarted, what recourse is there? There is nothing and no-one to whom we can appeal if those who have set themselves up to ‘rule’ us are acting like despots.
The very fact that some MPs STILL styled themselves ”remainers” after the country had voted ”out” shows how arrogant and self-obsessed they are. They said they accepted the decision, then promptly went about flouting it. What despicable people. I’d like to think they’ll get their comeuppance, but I really fear that any of our future elections will be nobbled by the EU if we don’t escape.
March 23, 2019
If MP’s think about it, they have already voted for No Deal or leaving under WTO rules. In fact they legislated for that very outcome when they voted for Art 50 and then again for the Withdrawal Act, where there was never a mention of a deal.
They now seem to disagree with themselves and indicative votes are likely to do nothing but increase the division between them.
Yes Sir John, we chose sovereignty for the United Kingdom and we must leave on 29th as there is great danger in anything else.
March 23, 2019
These are dark times for our democracy when Remainer MPs do not stick to their manifestos that won them their seats. Trust will evaporate.
This country needs to be free of the overbearing EU. This is our one and only chance to get out and we must make it happen.
March 23, 2019
Don’t let your guard down for a second!
Repeat to yourself every minute!
Surely there are ways to go on the offensive?
Legal challenges, legal parliamentary delay tactics? or is the HoC and its speaker demonstrating such corruption that it is a failed institution? No-one will want to give the obvious answer to that question, because they don’t know an alternative.
One need to be careful what one wishes for – chaos? dictatorship? The EU is of course becoming that very quickly. PR is the totally weak government answer. Democracy demonstrates that it is not a long term principle of government – always divided always downhill….
March 23, 2019
For their own survival the EU cannot afford to set a precedent to other countries and give us a favourable deal – simple!
So any option will be 100% advantage EU, nothing /nine /zilch for us.
That is the crux.
Most MPs cannot see this as they are forever looking the this only insde the Westminster bubble, apart from our host.
It is imperative this is understood, which is why it is Mission Impossible to get any better deal where it is a Win-win for both sides in a successful negotiation. Any delay or kludge cannot fix it and the EU know this but pretend they love us.
They only love us for our money as they will have to do major reforms without it and their very existence depends on us. However after 46 years without any reform the EU is now a Dinosaur in the end game, a big monster gobbling up billions with inefficient bureaucracy, steamrolling every objection to it’s agenda. It thinks getting bigger is the answer whereas getting smarter is required.
We need to un-hook from this nonsense EU thinking before everyone is brainwashed and simply leave as required by the Referendum 2016.
Thank you so much Sir John for reminding us what we voted for in the first place after 46 years of not being given a day in our future.
March 23, 2019
ukretired123
Whilst I agree 100% with what you say, you fail to iterate that, because the EU will offer nothing to us in our negotiations to leave, it does not prevent us from taking the WTO route out. Once we are gone, the EU would be fools to try to treat the UK less favourably than any other potential trading partner.
March 23, 2019
Many people live miserable and downtrodden lives. Their only chance to be treated as an equal in society is with the democratic vote. This Remain Parliament is determined to deny them even this, to take away their last vestiges of hope and thus treat them as serfs.
The only way that Theresa May can now respect the people as democratic equals and honour the 2016 Referendum is to prorogue Parliament so that we Leave the EU on the 29th March, as she has promised to do over 100 times.
March 23, 2019
The WA is a withdrawal agreement, just that, but it sets the tone for a future relationship basis with 27 countries. Without the WA there can be no talks about a FTA with them – it just won’t happen. So to continue along with this old patter in the face of the stark reality facing us is delusional at best. But you don’t have to take my word for it – a few more days will tell – meantime the UK Gov Petitions poll about revoking A50 is climbing out of all proportions
March 23, 2019
It is up to the Continental Europeans. Do they wish to impose harsh and vindictive terms on the UK and poison relations for a generation or more, because that is what they are doing. If they don’t want a FTA with the UK well that’s up to them. But of that is the case I would do everything possible to reduce their trade with the UK. As Churchill remarked if forced to chose between Europe and the Open Sea the UK should always chose the Open Sea.
March 23, 2019
Apparently the PM is not intending to put the SI this week, claiming that E.U. law has precedence over our law. This will come as a shock to a lot of Remainers who truly believe we are a group of independent countries cooperating for mutual benefit!
For the first time in my life I am hopeful that âthe truth will outâ and be understood!
Not changing the leaving date in U.K. law is great news!
March 23, 2019
Follow your argument where it leads. If this rotten parliament will not deliver Brexit, then get rid of this rotten parliament. The only way that I know to do this is to support a Labour No Confidence motion and to fight the next General Election on the basis of Brexiteers vs the rest. Our main opponent would be a Corbyn Labour Party dedicated to a Customs Union and full access to the Single Market. That means the EEA/Norway option, which I don’t believe is popular. You need a Brexiteers’ Manifesto and you need it now.
Sir John, you think all the right thoughts and you write lucidly but where is your Will to Power?
March 23, 2019
Brexit has made Parliament rotten. There has been a general election since the referendum…and the Brexit party lost its majority. The Norway option should gather more support from the indicative votes, if they ever happen. The focus will shift to finding the simplest and less damaging way of exiting the EU – and that’s Norway plus. And please don’t give Mr Redwood any ideas about seeking a return to government. Things are quite bad enough.
March 24, 2019
The EU will not allow Norway nor Norway plus.
They have refused anything other than the Withdrawal Agreement
March 23, 2019
Her arrogance and stubbornness is not unusual for someone so pig-headed being told she is wrong.
March 23, 2019
I agree with every word. But MPs aren’t listening. Are you going to give the best Brexit available, which is May’s deal however flawed it might be, or martyr yourself on the rocks of no deal?
The statutory instrument delaying Brexit will go through this week. Then there will be no hope of leaving on 29th March. What will you do then? Surely that will be sufficient confirmation that the Commons does not agree with your (our) view?
Please, do the brave thing. Accept we have been defeated in the Commons by May’s behaviour and the intransigence of many MPs. It isn’t brave simply not to engage with the unpleasant choice, which is actually May’s deal or something softer, it is an abdication. Do the brave thing, make the best choice from the bad options we have, and then promise to win the fight in the next round which I believe we can win.
You’re a brave man, Sir John. Please. Get us the control that is on offer now before it slips away.
Anthony
March 23, 2019
Dear Mr. Redwood,
‘Brexiteers should not be naive about what MPs are prepared to do to stop a no-deal Brexit’ says a Daily Telegraph article.
I say to all MP’s, they should not be naĂŻve about what some people might be prepared to do if they feel their votes are worthless.
The PM’s Downing Street address the other day was widely condemned but it did point out one thing I believe that resonates with the public. They have had enough of MP’s motions and amendments and clever parliamentary wheezes in what many see as a naked attempt to frustrate and then overturn the referendum result.
This looks likely to continue next week with more attempts by MP’s who are determined to wrest control of the parliamentary process in order to further their own objectives.
MP’s bleat that they are now subject to threats and intimidation both on social media and in the street. Well, welcome to our world where what you say and do might have consequences! If I am not mistaken the world which MP’s themselves as lawmakers have helped create.
Before some people condemn what I have just said in my last paragraph, I am not excusing the actions of those who issue threats of violence and certainly not in the case of the murder of a Member of Parliament but as MP’s gather in groups in order to walk to Parliament or catch their taxis in two’s and four’s, they should consider whether their actions are truly reflective of those they purport to represent or are they motivated by personal prejudice?
They pass a law asking us to decide our national future. They promise to abide by the result. We then decide. Then they block the result of our decision.
MP’s need to ask themselves how this looks to your average Joe.
March 23, 2019
What a superb post, Sir John, as usual. How can the EU decide when we leave? 12th April? They can stuff that where the sun doesn’t shine. We are leaving on the 29th or else there will be civil war. The go-slow on the motorways on Friday is just the start. And let’s stop talking about forcing May out. The main focus right now has to be leaving in 6 days time.
March 23, 2019
Well said.
The question is, what are the leaver stalwarts doing, surely enough resigned from May’s stable to form a whole cabinet.
March 23, 2019
Do you trust this government to be ready for leaving with no deal? Given the performance to date? how could you trust them? The older I get the less faith I have. Look at HS2. Look at education. We used to be the best in the world. I met some students on the beach the other day. They had surveying equipment. One of them asked me, an old man (to them), to take a staff up the coastal path to the top of the cliff. I asked âwhy donât you take it up thereâ? Health and Safety! Weâre not allowed to. Anyway, as a former land surveyor I asked them what they were doing. They were trying to measure the height of the cliff. I pointed out they didnât have enough information and a lad patiently explained they were using âtrig, innitâ. And that he loved Maths. I again pointed out they were one piece odd data short to use the sine rule. I asked âare you at college?â Nah, uni.
So, at university they are teaching kids the sort of basic trigonometry I learnt in last year at primary school.and first year at grammar school.
And you trust the people in charge of this shambles to organise our leaving the EU? You have more faith than I do.
March 23, 2019
Just suppose there was support for some softer form of Brexit supposedly evidenced by an indicative vote obtaining a majority in Parliament, comprising most Opposition M.P.s with a handful of Conservative Remainers, though opposed by the great majority of Conservative M.P.s.
Who would negotiate that with the European Union – a government that doesn’t want it, pressed by its own M.Ps who want it even less, or the Opposition outside or inside the government, acting on behalf of the government?
In the context that the main priority of Labour is to get and win a general election to get into power and the main priority of the SNP is to get another Referendum on the EU to pave the way for another Scottish Independence Referendum, this could never work.
Sooner or later on some pretext or other (such as those negotiating the details of a new agreement didn’t get what each of the parties supposedly theoretically wanting such an agreement actually wanted), Conservative opponents would unite with the new dissenters from the negotiating team and the whole thing would fall apart, having wasted much more of our time, money and credibility.
Pity, those M.Ps who advocate ‘indicative votes’ are too dim to see the inevitable practical result of what would actually happen to make it all end in yet another failure in practice.
March 23, 2019
Very well said, Sir John!
GilesB mentions making the positive case for Brexit, but I wonder if the opposite might be equally useful – to make the negative case for remaining.
What does ‘Remain’ look like?
Many people have explained their remain vote as a vote for the status quo. Perhaps, opening their eyes to the realities of ‘ever closer union’ as contained within the Lisbon Treaty might make them reconsider. It needs to be said that there is no status quo.
March 23, 2019
When Mrs May formed her Cabinet of Remainers and authorised Olly Robbins to carry out negotiations effectively sidelining her “Brexit Minister” I already knew that her mission was to sabotage Brexit and I did warn you.
I’m just surprised that so many of the ERG persuasion were duped by her flimflam.
March 23, 2019
Brexit is for the many, not the few.
March 23, 2019
I would point out that exit day can only be changed by a minister of the Crown.
The minister would need the prior approval of both Houses, but even if the necessary SI was laid (by him, or indeed by anybody else) and the resolution was passed, it would still be down to the minister to make the change, and there is nothing in the Act to say that he would have to go ahead and do that.
Section 20 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2018/16/section/20/enacted
“(1) âŠ. âexit dayâ means 29 March 2019 at 11.00 p.m. (and see subsections (2) to (5)) âŠ
(4) A minister of the Crown may by regulations â
(a) amend the definition of âexit dayâ in subsection (1) to ensure that the day and time specified in the definition are the day and time that the Treaties are to cease to apply to the United Kingdom, and
(b) amend subsection (2) in consequence if any such amendment.”
As far as I can see there is no legal basis for anybody who is not a minister of the Crown, let us say the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Revolutionary Committee, whether that would be Hilary Benn or Yvette Cooper or whoever, to take over that role.
What I am saying here is that if the date of March 29th laid down in the Act got changed that could not be because the Prime Minister had lost control of the Brexit process/MPs had seized control of the Brexit process, as the media like to say, but only because Her Majesty’s duly appointed Prime Minister, be that still Theresa May or be it a successor, had authorised the appropriate minister of the Crown to make that change.
Nobody else would be to blame, there could be no excuse that MPs had done it against the will of the Prime Minister because MPs are not legally empowered to do it.
March 23, 2019
Well said, Sir John- I couldn’t agree more. Please keep trying.
Some pompous, self-righteous and anti-democratic MPs threatening to “take control of the Brexit process” only to hand us over in chains that bind more tightly, more insidiously than they do at present …. well, words fail me.
March 23, 2019
Thank you Sir John – finally, an MP who ‘gets it’. I am really in despair at the quality of our political classes, who do not seem to understand that ‘No Deal’ is a negotiating position – and a strong one at that. The people gave them a stick to beat the EU with – and what did they do with it? The problem isn’t just May – its the quality of all the political representation and the civil servants who have done their best to subvert everything – not just Brexit. We have to clean it all out as they have broken their contract of trust with the people of this country and purport to be acting on Her Majesty’s behalf. This is very serious and will have far-reaching consequences.
March 23, 2019
MC, you may not be old enough to remember the bitter disputes about the Maastricht Treaty in the early ’90s – our host ‘got it’ then, and bravely risked his career to defend his views on the UK’s relationship to the EU.
He was right then, and he is right now.
March 23, 2019
Parliament is at war with the people is not an understatement – but I would rephrase it has caused a war between the people. The losing side of parliament has refused to accept democracy and spent the last 3 years whipping up it’s supporters to defy by any means the winning majority. It is these remain MP’s who are wholly responsible for leavers to feel they need to fight to defend democracy. In normal circumstances the losing side accepts the result but here we have remain MP’s acting like leaders of an army ready to assault anyone who voted leave. If the sad losers in Parliament didn’t act like spoilt children we would not be in this mess. We have the remainers complaining of threats of violence – but that’s they way they treat people when they find out they are a leaver. I made comments on LinkedIn about Brexit and received numerous threats over the last 3 years from remainers. How dare the SNP complain – it is they who had demonstrations outside poll stations to threaten those that wanted to remain in the UK
March 23, 2019
I totally agree. I am fed up with being treated as a second class citizen because I voted to leave the ever political dominance of the EU. Those mps who seem to think they can ignore our voting system are going to pay dearly in the next election. They play with democracy as if it doesn’t exist and throw away sovereignty as if it doesn’t matter. Shame on them they do a great disservice to a once great nation.
March 23, 2019
Totally agree with you, Jen, but it will be Conservative voters that will feel cheated and will consider alternatives, whereas Labour voters are generally fairly tribal and the consequences will be a socialist government.
March 23, 2019
I sense that Brexit is in danger of not happening which would be shameful. I sense that the mood in the country is one of, “this is proving to be too difficult to solve, therefore just forget the idea”. Remainers have seized on this and are exploiting it to the maximum. The Leave lobby has not been putting forward their argument strongly enough and momentum is now against them. I sense that “soft” Leavers would change their minds given the chance.
The situation is deplorable.
March 23, 2019
Hi Mr Redwood
I am thankful to you for your remarks regarding Brexit as I am in despair at what’s happening bin our country
I am reading awful comments from remainer’s implying I am think uneducated and ignorrant I am none of those thing
I have worked hard all my life to as had my husband to bring up a family
I own my own home and have no dept
I voted to leave the EU because I can see the demise of this beautiful country
I believe we could do really well if we left the EU
As I do know how they waste money and are self serving
I worry what will happen to this country if remainer’s get there own way
I see the working class people in France being threatened by there own government if they continue to protest against what is happening in there own country
God help us all
March 23, 2019
Sir John,
Can our leaving date of 29 March be simply overridden by the European Council ‘deciding’ to put it back to 12th April, as appears to have happened?
March 23, 2019
Well said John. In complete agreement with you on everything you have said.
March 23, 2019
Sir John,
I agree with every word BUT you and your dedicated Leave campaigners are up against a Remain majority in both houses of Parliament. You can say anything you like, or rant and rave at MPs as Mrs May has done, but it won’t change the arithmetic.
Aided by the Speaker, you won’t be able to prevent Remainers passing whatever legislation they need to stop us leaving without a deal !
If you really do want us to leave the EU, you simply must support May’s flawed agreement and ensure a smooth takeover by a proper Brexiteer-led Government. Every other option will end up with us staying in.
March 23, 2019
Everyone seems to be assuming now that the earliest date is 12th April not 29th March. Is that your view too and is it because – as ever – EU law trumps UK law ?
March 24, 2019
Once again a list of demands – but no substance or plan!! We can all have ideas, that’s the easy bit. The tough part is in the execution of those ideas. You’ve had 2 years 8 months to bring forward a plan…
March 24, 2019
Dear John, Totally agree with everything you have said, breaks my heart to see P.M. May throw this chance for the U.K. away…Then am sure sheÂŽll just disappear into the dust with her gold plated index linked pension, while we all suffer the consequences of her blatant sabotage of Brexit. I for one will never be able to vote Conservative again if the U.K. does not leave the E.U. WITHOUT a deal on the 29th of March 2019 at 23.00hrs, we have been more than patient over these past 2+years. This will be the only way for the Country to move forward please help make this happen …
March 24, 2019
This is the week that we commemorate 75 years since brave British POWs held in German captivity risked and gave their lives (were murdered) in an audacious ‘Great Escape’ bid for freedom. Yet thousands of my fellow countrymen and women are marching in the nation’s capital demonstrating AGAINST freedom, democracy, our sovereignty and the referendum majority result; and in favour of continuous British subjugation. Those who fail to learn the lesson of history are condemned to relive it. Do these Remainers believe that the EU status quo ante will be restored without further humiliation should we be foolish to beg to return to full membership.
March 25, 2019
I do hate being told why I voted leave, I know why and it doesnât match with the ERGâs view and definitely not with the UKIP mantra. We voted to leave our membership of the EU – that is all – we werenât asked anything else. But for two years people, including MPs, have been making assumptions about what people voted leave for. Parliament simply needs to deliver us no longer being members of the EU in order to fulfill the referendum result – what happens next was not on the ballot. But both remainers and leavers are frustrating this process in order to try and stamp their own agendas onto the result of the referendum. Some these assumptions and lies and just get on with delivering what we voted for – nothing more – nothing less!
March 25, 2019
Use of metaphors such as âwarâ is exactly what is wrong with politics at the moment and the reason why some MPs (who are representing constituencies who voted to remain) are being threatened which is disgusting! The use of âwarâ, âtraitorsâ etc from other MPs is enabling that behaviour. Interesting that you mentioned taking back control of fishing as France has made it quite clear already that they will not respect this. The main things people voted for were more jobs and more money for the NHS, both of which seem to now be lies….If you honestly think leaving with no deal is the best thing to do then the public should be made aware of what might happen including the absolute worst case scenario which the cabinet is keeping to themselves at the moment.
March 25, 2019
Sir John,
Yes, and yes and yes.
1. Either MV3 approves the WA – and the supporting “Tory Brexit” legislation would still require a series of votes to be supported at each stage by some Labour MPs – or it does not, by 11/4.
If the WA is not approved
2. Either the UK leaves the EU ‘without a deal’, by 11/4,
Or Parliament passes legislation by 11/4 to hold EU elections.
Are there any other choices? Do not the other options being touted – becoming a district of Norway, a province of Canada, referenda, revocation of A50, metamorphosis into unicorns etc. – all require EU elections?
There is another reason why a clean exit without the WA is essentia l:
If the UK, after all the contortions of the last 2 1/2 years and despite all its ‘efforts’, accepts that leaving the EU is impossible, it relinquishes all international negotiating credibility in the future, on trade or any other subject, including with the EU.