If you want to talk about Brexit

Respond to this post.

I have not changed my view on how we should leave and want us to get on with it. I am currently planning a letter to the Attorney General to explain again how the Withdrawal Agreement stops us taking back control to implement Brexit.

263 Comments

  1. javelin
    April 13, 2019

    Loyalty is not a one way street

    Daily Express poll of 20k readers

    Brexit Party: 15,797 or 82 percent
    UKIP: 976 or six percent
    Change UK: 635 or four percent
    Labour Party: 600 or four percent
    Liberal Democrats: 380 or one percent
    Conservative Party: 361 or one percent
    Other: 237 or one percent
    Green Party: 209 or one percent
    SNP: 178 or less than one percent
    Plaid Cymru: 33 or less than one percent

    1. Bryan Harris
      April 13, 2019

      Some people are calling for PR to replace FPTP, but on the above figures wouldn’t it mean that even if Brexit party or UKIP gained control of the Commons, we would still be left with the dregs of other parties – I still want to see strong government, despite failures with Labour in the past, and if we are going to bury the socialists at the next GE then, and subsequently, FPTP is the way to do it.

      1. Julie Dyson
        April 13, 2019

        With respect Bryan, you’re looking at it the wrong way around. It is my assertion that had we enjoyed a fairer PR system during the last decade, we would most likely have left the EU, on WTO terms, on 29th March.

        In the 2015 general election UKIP had just short of 3.9 million votes (12.6% of the total cast) but received only a single MP. Conversely, the arch-Remainer SNP secured a whopping 56 seats on the strength of a measly 1.4m votes (4.7%). Heavily remainer Labour had somewhat less than just two and a half times the votes of UKIP (at 9.3m / 30.4% of the total) and yet earned 232 seats.

        Let me repeat that, because it is frankly astounding — almost 1 in 8 voters in this country were represented in parliament by just 1 out of 650 MPs. And this in a country which likes to pride itself on its innate sense of justice and fair play.

        FPTP killed Brexit. I will vote for any party aiming to end this archaic injustice, and will never again vote for one which does not aim to do so.

        1. Mike Wilson
          April 13, 2019

          Spot on. FPTP does not lead to strong government. Look at the shambles now.

          1. Polly
            April 13, 2019

            Given that government always messes things up, weak government looks best.

          2. DICK R
            April 15, 2019

            It leads to immovable weak governments, far worse.

        2. Bryan Harris
          April 13, 2019

          Julie – I can see your logic – but look what PR has done for countries like Italy……….. Often having trouble getting a government together… then compromise compromise….
          If UKIP win on FPTP then they will see no need for PR, because it keeps a presence in Westminster of all parties… and there are certainly some that shouldn’t be there, logically speaking.
          It wasn’t FPTP that killed Brexit, it was our government colluding with the EU.
          PR – not sure which version we are talking about – would certainly have changed the makeup of the Commons, but that was 2015 – could that have been repeated, I fear not…
          Let’s remember what FPTP was designed to do – it was to give a voice to an area – someone who could stand up for the people of that area…. With PR we are entering the EU world of ‘no responsibility’ where an MEP is not directly responsible to a group of people, and that is about as undemocratic as it gets

          1. Julie Dyson
            April 13, 2019

            “someone who could stand up for the people of that area…” sounds great in principle but we only have to remind ourselves about all the remainer MPs — currently acting against the majority wishes of their own constituency — to know that often this basic idea doesn’t get much farther than the doorway of Westminster. Once inside, they’re a law unto themselves for the next five years.

            There are pros and cons with every voting system, no doubt about it, but the fundamental problem with FPTP is that it can leave a huge number of people feeling completely unrepresented by either their local MP (if not one you voted for, pursuing policies not to your liking) or their preferred party (in the case of 3.9 million UKIP voters in 2015).

        3. Hope
          April 13, 2019

          JR, start with the 40 points highlighted in the Spectator.
          International law above EU law for starters. No customs union, single market or ECJ whatsoever including for citizens living here. No other country in the world would be stupid to agree to these.
          Backstop must go there is no need in its current form their no deal plans make this clear. It is a lie and a con to keep the UK in the customs union. However, Cox knowing it lasted forever still voted for it! Dope.
          No payment required it was always for a trade deal. The UK certainly does not owe £39 billion! Traitor May did not even discuss one let alone get one. Itemised costings please and no add ons like EDF whatsoever. It was deliberate to last out trade discussions for years so the servitude plan would allow the defeated U.K. To return to the EU.
          It is not a withdrawal agreement in any sense of the word it is a trap to imprison our country. Article 184 makes it clear the EU failed to agree a future relationship per article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty after THREE years! Any dispute resolved by a international body. Clear open and transparent costs not principles to hide what is paid to the EU.
          Ntelligence, security and defence not given away for nothing, like May wants.
          May is a liar and is dishonest. She must not be anywhere near negotiations and the whole civil servant team replaced. The current one investigated for its KitKat policy to hide costs and ties to EU. This fails Nolan tests for public sector employees.

          1. Mitchel
            April 13, 2019

            Also,according to another article in the current Spectator (by Mark Galeotti),”breksit’ has even become a word in Russian for claiming that one is about to leave a party or the like and yet never actually heading out the door”!

        4. JoolsB
          April 13, 2019

          Exactly Julie, the outcome of Brexit could have been entirely different if we lived in a democracy, which we clearly don’t, and where UKIP had received an equal number of MPs for those 4 million votes, more than the arch remainers SNP/LibDums/Plaid/Greens put together .

        5. Chris
          April 13, 2019

          Good post, Julie D, highlighting the dilemmas of FPTP. However, I have huge concerns about PR which Bryan mentions above.

          1. Julie Dyson
            April 14, 2019

            I too share some of those concerns, actually, although Italy was a poor example of a functioning PR system as its problems stem mostly from EU membership and it spending two decades in continual slump as a result. This has in turn resulted in its desperate people frantically looking for answers in its national politics, resulting in terrible division, when the only answer for them lies with (or perhaps, outside of) the EU. It’s a no-win situation, but not one actually caused by PR — it merely reveals that PR is not the answer to their problems.

            The main argument against PR is that it can cause “weak government”, but I would suggest that this is a failing of party policy, not the PR system itself. In Germany for example, no specific party has been able to come up a wide-reaching policy, so it must govern by compromise and coalition.

            The main argument for PR (other than being far more fairly representative of the actual electorate) is that it serves to put a brake on more extreme policies. Millions fear a socialist party under Corbyn so feel they must vote Tory for that reason alone or risk making Labour unstoppable in once government. By the same token, when it had a large majority nothing could stop the Conservatives pushing ahead with damaging austerity measures such as the extremely unfair Bedroom Tax, which to this day causes massive suffering among some of our poorest and most disadvantaged.

            Under a fairer PR system, either of those extreme examples of government policy would be more likely curtailed and kept in check, to the betterment of all.

        6. Richard Elsy
          April 14, 2019

          I’m with you on this and although I’ve supported the Conservative Party for many years, I was a Liberal for some time at university and up to 1982. The abysmal disenfranchising of millions of voters which I remember from those days doesn’t work any longer. The next General Election will be characterised by a huge chunk of voters, over 10.0 million at least, either being disenfranchised or abstaining out sheer frustration and a justified sense of impotence. Our House of Commons will have a diminished legitimacy and the respect which we have for our MPs will be sadly, further damaged – possibly for a generation. This isn’t looking like there will be a sensible and democratically supported outcome. Our MPs have dissembled for too long and we shall remember this. Our mandate was clear, twice, and my membership of the Conservative Party was cancelled on March 30th for obvious reasons. I wish John Redwood well although I suspect that he may find that he’s no longer welcome in the Parliamentary Conservative Party and that it may be time to take off along with the others who are still on the same side as their Tory membership and Tory voters. The members are tired. The voters are off to Brexit Party or Ukip. It’s not so much Titanic as Mary Celeste..

        7. Bryan Harris
          April 14, 2019

          Two last comments on PR from me – which I’m still not in favour of – Perhaps we can discuss more fully after Brexit – but have you noticed it’s only the smaller parties, trying to get seats that propose PR…?

          FPTP has many advantages when it is all honestly done – but PR is more open to abuse and cherry picking of candidates by parties…

      2. Andy
        April 13, 2019

        Here’s a prediction. Come the next general election the Brexit Party May win a few seats. It may scrape into to double figures – unlikely but possible. It has beyond zero chance of ever being a party of government.

        You lot live in a leave bubble. You have no idea of how much anger there is towards you and your Brexit in swathes of the UK. Scotland, Nothern Ireland, most of the big cities.

        Your attitudes have hardened. So have ours. And, on average, we are younger than you. You will not win.

        1. Alison
          April 13, 2019

          Andy, and one from me. Suppose we are still in the EU come 2022, on the same basis that we are today (still powerless to stop decisions). I predict you will be desperate to change decisions made by the EU in the next two years. You will be desperate to distance yourself from an EU where the eurozone economies are collapsing, youth unemployment levels back over 50% in some countries. Where the ECB hast to keep on pumping in trillions of euros to keep the eurozone with just enough air.

          1. Andy
            April 13, 2019

            Which EU countries have youth unemployment of over 50? Let me help you out. None of them. Zero. Nada. Nil.

            None of them have youth unemployment over 40% either. The actual statistics are available if you would like to look at them.

            Here is the problem with your argument. If youth unemployment was caused by the EU it would be a problem everywhere in the EU. But it isn’t.

            If it was caused by the Euro it would be a specific problem throughout the Eurozone. But it isn’t.

            Youth unemployment is a specific problem in specific countries because – who knew – those sovereign countries have mismanaged their own economies. Shock horror.

          2. Edward2
            April 13, 2019

            This is the remarkable argument of the most extreme pro EU supporters like andy and margaret.
            Everything great that happens in European countries is 100% due to the EU
            But when there is recession high unemployment and dreadful levels of youth unemployment they say it is 100% the fault of the individual nations and nothing to do with the EU.

          3. NickC
            April 14, 2019

            Andy, Can’t you read? Or can you only argue by strawman? Alison said: “youth unemployment levels back over 50% in some countries”. “Back over” means returning to the level in Greece (which was 60% in 2013) for some countries.

        2. L Jones
          April 13, 2019

          Again, you don’t seem to realise Andy (you should get out more) that there are many of us Leavers who are EVEN younger than you! Many of us have young families and we want their adult lives to be free of the sinister and self-interested coils of the EU. We live out in the real world of business and travel, working for our children’s future.

          If, for some yet undreamed of reason, they wish to renegotiate re-joining in the future, then they will be free to do so. If they remain tied they and their country will be free to do very little.

          Recognise the word ‘free’, Andy? Understand its importance? Tell us how remaining in your much-revered EU makes us free.

          1. Steve
            April 13, 2019

            L. Jones

            Don’t waste your time on him, he’s as ignorant and naive as they come.

          2. Andy
            April 13, 2019

            Tell us how it doesn’t?

            We’re in the EU – and I am perfectly free.

          3. NickC
            April 14, 2019

            Andy, We’re not perfectly free in the EU – we cannot choose the people to represent us, still less choose the laws imposed on us, or apparently change our government even by Referendum. You have exchanged liberty for a cushy lifestyle (which is actually in the gift of others). That may be what you want, but at least be honest about it.

          4. L Jones
            April 14, 2019

            By your reply regarding ”being free”, Andy, it is obvious that you are still fixated on the status quo in the EU. There isn’t one.

          5. margaret howard
            April 14, 2019

            Steve

            “L. Jones

            Don’t waste your time on him, he’s as ignorant and naive as they come.”

            Pathetic.

          6. hefner
            April 14, 2019

            Pathetic indeed. « Never argue with an im++++le, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience ». Another one « There is such a fine line between clever and stupid, I don’t know which side you are on? ». And yet another possibly from E. Roosevelt « Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small discuss people ».
            Dominic, take your pick which one applies to you.

        3. Dave Andrews
          April 13, 2019

          Talking about predictions and bubbles –
          The Brexit Party won’t take any seats in the next election, most likely they will fall out with each other at the top. That bubble will burst, and not enough people like Farage for him to make a substantial difference. The vote draw will be split and we’ll have another hung parliament.
          The young and their fealty for the EU is another bubble that will burst in time, just as it has with Corbynmania. More young people will come along and be swayed by their liberal left teachers, but they also will modify their views and very likely become apathetic. Next election – not much change in the leave/remain balance.

        4. Fred H
          April 13, 2019

          You totally underestimate the resentment towards Tory/Labour mishandling of the BREXIT 33 months shambles. Scotland & NI ‘might’ produce 60 seats of ‘no change’ politicians. Consider the other 590 and the apathy towards voting for the BIG2. A landslide of smaller party representation on the cards.

        5. G Wilson
          April 13, 2019

          Remain constituencies already have remain MPs. It will make no difference at election.

          Leave constituencies already have remain MPs. We are the ones with the motivation and momentum for change. And believe me, we are angier, because we are the ones who won the argument and the vote and are being cheated.

        6. NickC
          April 13, 2019

          Andy, It is in your own interests, and the interests of the few extremist Remains left, to accept the democratic majority Leave vote. If you won’t accept our vote, why should we accept yours?

          You claim that soon young Remains will outnumber us. But by your own insistence that majorities no longer matter, why should there being more Remain voters have any relevance?

          1. Andy
            April 13, 2019

            17.4m out of 45m voters is not a majority.

            17.4m out of a population of 65m is not a majority.

            Plus those 17.4m have never agreed with each other.

            And lots of them have died since 2016 anyway.

          2. Edward2
            April 13, 2019

            Ridiculous argument Andy.
            45 million is the total registered to vote (actually it is 47 million now) but we have a voluntary system.
            If you want to vote you can.
            Only those who bother to go out and vote can be counted.

            65million is the total population of the UK but this includes people who are not UK citizens and people under 18.
            You want babies to vote?

            Then you have the leavers voted for different motivations.
            Yes but remainers have many different visions and ideas of the future of the UK in the EU.

            It is a irrelevant argument.
            We has a referendum.
            There was a majority to leave the EU

          3. David Price
            April 14, 2019

            @Andy by the same token 17.4m out of 40m voters were not a majority in 1975 and zero voters were not a majority in 1992 – no-one voted to be in the EU.

            17.4m out of a population of 56m were not a majority in 1975 and clearly they couldn’t all agree because they were not presented with all the information and were not clairvoyant.

            You have sided with antidemocratic cheats and liars and there will be consequences.

          4. NickC
            April 14, 2019

            Andy, By your own definition a majority does not matter. So why are you so keen on proving the Leave vote was not a majority? You cannot have it both ways. Are you truly unable to see you Remains are cutting off the branch you’re sitting on?

        7. vera
          April 13, 2019

          Oh Dear! I haven’t died yet. Sorry about that, Not. If we remain in the EU we will be asset stripped and forced to substitute sterling for euros which will not stop the economic rot now going on in the EU where youth unemployment is hitting record levels upwards towards 50% and more. If the City of London is plundered, it will just move to Singapore – not Frankfurt. We were offered a Referendum, given it even, but it will be the last. Having not got the result they wanted they won’t risk it again. The EU is Germany. Germany is the only country which has profited from being in the EU, profited at the expense of everyone else, but even so, they too are now economically teetering on the edge of a cliff. An enormous cliff-edge far worse than that cliff edge we were threatened with over a clean Brexit. And any little financial hick-up will see them topple over – Good, can’t wait.

          1. Richard Elsy
            April 14, 2019

            I voted leave. I just had a lovely lunch in a tiny hotel in the Lake District with my 91 years old mother. I may last as long as her which gives me another 25 years or so. My two daughters also voted leave. The ‘demographic’ argument is nearly as daft and as disingenuous as the ‘Remain’ argument which failed to offer us any lovely prospects of a happy, democratic, worthwhile federal Europe.

        8. Anonymous
          April 13, 2019

          I didn’t see a blue an yellow beret until the referendum was called.

          People in this country kept their allegiance to the EU very quiet indeed – especially politicians during elections.

        9. Frances Truscott
          April 14, 2019

          But Andy the young have been lied to. The eu has not made us richer. Mass migration has depressed wages. Youth unemployment in the eu is dreadful. It’s 39 % in Greece 32 and 33 % in Italy and Spain. It’s actually higher than that because many in useless education are not counted as unemployed. Then there is the eu army with conscription.
          So why in God’s name are you so attached to the eu? I have seen it’s bribes. A lovely empty visitors centre in the Scottish islands but the fishing industry decimated by the eu. The local guide was clear about that.its never clear to anyone why remainers are keen to remain. Europe will still want to sell us things, it will still want tourists.
          What on Earth do you think is good about the eu. It has done so much damage to Greece Spain and Italy and has not done much good for the rest .

          1. L Jones
            April 14, 2019

            Perhaps one day Andy will tell us why he/she still believes in the EU. He/she still seems to think that the EU is an unchanging, benevolent ‘organisation’. Perhaps too he/she might tell us why remainers aren’t also ‘dying off’ – because there certainly are a lot of ‘old’ ones in Parliament.
            It’s time you told us, Andy, why you think the EU wishes to keep us clutched to its ample bosom. Is it its benevolence and altruism that you so obviously believe in?
            Oh! It couldn’t POSSIBLY be anything to do with the money it leeches from us, could it?

      3. Leslie Singleton
        April 13, 2019

        Dear Bryan–It is our silly, in this day and age, so-called representative democracy that is the problem, not FPTP or PR (both of which have advantages)–What we need is more Direct Democracy. Has always beaten me why we should pay attention just because somebody has been elected, for any number of possible reasons. We should move towrds the Swiss way of doing things and minimise the role of politicians.

        1. Bryan Harris
          April 14, 2019

          @Leslie – I really agree with that.

          Major issues should always be put to the people…

          I’m particularly concerned that the government has signed off so many treaties, in our name, without making them known to us even…. for example with the UN… May recently signed UN agreements in favour of immigrants, curtailing our own rights

      4. Iain Gill
        April 14, 2019

        The way political party candidates are selected is a far bigger problem than the voting system. By the time candidates are on the voting slip most of the decision is made. For most voters they are selecting from people on the voting slip who are from too narrow a section of society and too similar a set of world views. The views of decent mainstream voters do not get fair and balanced representation.

        1. Bryan Harris
          April 14, 2019

          @Iain – Yes, we currently have to rely on political parties to vet candidates, but perhaps that needs to go further, to make sure they are suitable to serve

    2. Lifelogic
      April 13, 2019

      Indeed and the Brexit Party was only really launched yesterday. But what is needed for a general (FPTP) election is a pro Brexit Conservative Party with real Conservative, tax cutting leadership and some vision rather than a dim, robotic, traitor who is clearly working for the EU and against the UK.

      1. Hope
        April 13, 2019

        LL, That changed in 1990, 30 years on and that party does not exist. It is not going to happen. Their associations and supporters do not get a credible influential voice about MP selection or policy. They get a choice of three clones from CCHQ.

        1. JoolsB
          April 13, 2019

          Exactly, the Conservative party has been dying since the day they dumped the best peace time leader they have ever had or are ever likely to again. Thanks to May and the Liberal lefties that have invaded the party, it will soon be put out of it’s misery and officially declared dead. Long live the Brexit party.

      2. Oldrightie
        April 13, 2019

        Nicely and succinctly put. As for age and brexit, as people mature freedom becomes more desirable. Not least freedom from an education system hell bent on brainwashing the gullibility of immaturity.

    3. Gary C
      April 13, 2019

      It would appear the people did and still do know exactly what they voted for.

      LEAVE NOW.

      It has been proven our politicians of all colours have let the country down badly.

      There is a massive amount of anger our there which hopefully will show in the elections.

      1. Steve
        April 13, 2019

        Gary C

        “There is a massive amount of anger our there which hopefully will show in the elections.”

        True, in fact anger doesn’t really describe the mood. It’s pure unadulterated wrath.

        But not to worry – Andy and his young friends are going to sort us out, apparently.

    4. Andy
      April 13, 2019

      Daily Express poll?????? Seriously.

      1. NickC
        April 14, 2019

        Andy, Sneering at Express readers is very metropolitan elite. Award yourself a pat on the back from the EU.

    5. Tad Davison
      April 13, 2019

      I’m now one of the 82%. having paid my £25.

      I don’t just want to talk about Brexit, I want to fight remainers, but I shouldn’t have to do it with both hands tied behind my back. When I respond to a nonsense post, point by point, and blow their pathetic infantile arguments out of the water, it would help if my own post actually saw the light of day. Otherwise, what the hell’s the point?

    6. margaret howard
      April 13, 2019

      Daily Express readers? What did you expect?

      1. L Jones
        April 14, 2019

        So you’re a sneering snob too, Margaret, as well as being a Facebook aficionado? Heard of the expression ”People in glass houses…..” etc?

    7. jerry
      April 13, 2019

      @javelin; “Daily Express poll of 20k readers

      Brexit Party: 15,797 or 82 percent [../etc/..]”

      …oh what a surprise, a pro Farage readership is going to back, err, Mr Farage [1]! Back in the real world though, most people have yet to even hear of his new party.

      There was a very telling interview with Mr Farage on R4’s Today programme on Friday, if you listen carefully to his reaction when it is suggested that the EP elections might not actually take place (on account of having left the European union), most eurosceptics would have said ‘Good!’ – not Mr Farage, I now wonder if Mr Farage had actually started to cleared his desk in the week before the 20th March…

  2. Peter
    April 13, 2019

    “I have not changed my view on how we should leave and want us to get on with it. ”

    Me neither.

    However, as I suspected it will be a long war to achieve that. First of all we have to stop politicians making things worse, either by some form of Withdrawal/Surrender Agreement, or a Customs Union, or whatever.

    I don’t fear an election, quite the reverse, but I doubt MPs will let us have one any time soon.

    Meanwhile, much of what can be said on Brexit has already been said.

    1. John Sheridan
      April 13, 2019

      I agree completely.

      We should never sign up to that one-sided WA just because of the threat that Brexit may be put at risk. If the current set of politicians cannot deliver Brexit, then let’s have a general election where Brexit is front and centre. people can vote for their choice of Leave or Remain candidate.

      1. Mike Wilson
        April 13, 2019

        And if both Tory and Labour have Remain manifestos? Why would an election be about one issue? That’s what a referendum is for.

        1. anon
          April 13, 2019

          Referendums are ignored by the politicians when they have the levers of power. They do this for their own reasons.

          Manifestos are the mis selling (arguably fraud) scandal of the century, Labour and Tories are now unfit to govern.

          We need a single issue party (Brexit party or UKIP) to ensure a WTO variant leave happens.

          We then need some reforms to ensure manifestos breaches are then swiftly followed by a rolling set of by elections starting with the PM and then cabinet

        2. John Sheridan
          April 13, 2019

          Fair points.

          The last referendum has yet to be implemented because too many MPs are in favour of watering down Brexit. Trying to change the composition of Parliament is the reason I would support a general election.

          I would vote for the candidate that closest supported my view of Brexit. That candidate may not be in the party I usually support.

        3. G Wilson
          April 13, 2019

          We tried that, and the Tories and Labour are refusing to implement the result.

          That’s why we need to replace them with MPs from a party that will do so.

    2. Mark B
      April 13, 2019

      With Labour increasing in the polls all it will take is for them to table a vote of no confidence in the government. If the DUP and / or the ERG tell the PM that they will abstain from the vote unless Leave on WTO is restored as an option. A GE is what Remainers fear most.

  3. Frances Truscott
    April 13, 2019

    I am constantly horrified by the lack of news about the eu and the obvious bias of ………. The media presents the eu as an unalloyed good. It doesn’t explain the structural problems with the euro, target two, youth unemployment in the eu, it’s plans to tax the city, impose taxes from Brussels ,export many millions of its tragically unemployed young people. It doesn’t explain that Italy’s gdp hasn’t gone up in 20 years and only the Germans and the Dutch have been made richer. Any time someone tells the truth about the eu they are described as far right. Dr Alice weidel of the a f d may have iffy views about some things but her speech about eu failings was spot on.

    1. JoolsB
      April 13, 2019

      The media are totally biased. BBC and SKY constantly refer to leaving on WTO terms as crashing out or falling over a cliff edge.

    2. Stred
      April 13, 2019

      The add is accepted into the conservative group of parties in the European Parliament. The lady is not a nazi. They ban anyone with Nazi views. Their leader was badly beaten up by left wing thugs recently.

      1. Stred
        April 13, 2019

        Adf. It’s my extra smartphone today.

    3. L Jones
      April 13, 2019

      Frances – ‘Andy’ here will explain it to you. He/she knows all about the benefits of remaining in the EU and can tell you why all this you have described makes the EU a Good Thing.

      He/she is a remainer. They know all the answers, but they don’t usually share them with the rest of us.

    4. Richard Elsy
      April 14, 2019

      You’re absolutely right – not least on Target 2 and the Financial Transactions Tax sitting in the Berlaymont and aimed at the City of London which would cop about 60% of the tax burden. I’ve exhausted my vocabulary when it comes to describing our MPs and their peculiarly crass behaviour since the Referendum and the 2017 General Election. ‘Dishonesty’ features high in my repertoire although I hesitate to resort to ‘treachery’ although ‘stupidity’ is high on the list.

  4. agricola
    April 13, 2019

    The key to a good Brexit, on which the future of the conservative party and democracy hangs, is the speedy removal of T May.

    The party plus the DUP must then evolve an acceptable package covering elements of the WA rebranded, an FTA on goods and services and a vision of our future relationship which above all looks after the interests of all present EU citizens, and maintains our love of Europe and Europeans.

    1. agricola
      April 13, 2019

      PS.
      Leaving on WTO terms is a position of last resort which must always be on the table. Any submission we make on above should be open to a short discussion by professionals not the tainted civil service team of May. Absolutely not a lengthy negotiation. It should also be an integrated package, not split package. The EU have always said that they never knew what the UK wanted. With the above they would be in no doubt.

      1. glen cullen
        April 13, 2019

        Wrong
        WTO should have been our position of first resort, that’s what the general public expected when they voted ‘leave’.
        Once we have left the EU it would be up to the government of the day to arrange any future trade deals (at their leisure without interference from the EU, electorate, media nor parliament like they have for centuries)
        Implementing the result (i.e WTO) is bigger than parliamentary politics

    2. Lifelogic
      April 13, 2019

      Indeed if you love Europe you should surely despise the EU which is damaging it so much. I have an Italian wife and we have second homes in France and Italy. It is not just in the UK that hatred of the appalling & anti-democratic, bureaucrats know best so shut up EU.

      1. Pominoz
        April 13, 2019

        LL,

        But, sadly, so little of the discord is ever reported in the UK as those who want to leave try to have their message heard.

        I wonder why?

      2. margaret howard
        April 13, 2019

        Lifelogic

        “It is not just in the UK that hatred of the appalling & anti-democratic, bureaucrats know best so shut up EU.”

        Makes you wonder why none of these countries have ever voted for an anti-EU government, even the Greeks who have had such severe financial restrictions placed on them.

        They know what life was like before their EU membership and have no wish to return to it. All EU countries have achieved tremendous progress and prosperity under the EU umbrella.

        1. Edward2
          April 13, 2019

          Yet again you post this cut and pasted argument margaret.
          Yet again I reply by asking you to check out the rise of anti EU parties in Italy Germany Hungary Greece and other EU member nations.
          With many vested interests and PR it is difficult for an anti EU government to gain power but there is a trend and it is increasing.

          1. mancunius
            April 13, 2019

            Netherlands too. The current opinion polling shows support for Rutte’s governing party has sunk to 22%, while the populist, euro-hostile FvD has risen to a leading position at 28%. (The FvD is actively campaigning for a referendum on Dutch EU withdrawal.)

            Meanwhile, high youth unemployment continues to be a major factor in euroscepticism that is particularly strong among the youth demographic – e.g. in Greece where it has been rising again – to 39.5% in December 2018. In Spain youth unemployment is at 32.4% and in Italy 32.8%.
            No wonder their young people are so virulently anti-EU. It is only middle-aged diehards and their pampered offspring who haven’t woken up yet.

      3. NickC
        April 13, 2019

        Lifelogic, To add to the many appalling features of the EU we have this new development: “The European Union’s executive branch is proposing that individual member countries drop their right to veto decisions on energy taxes, a move that could facilitate the introduction of a carbon tax across the whole bloc.” – Associated Press, 9 April 2019.

  5. Dominic
    April 13, 2019

    Cox is a placeman, nothing more. You may as well send your letter to Father Christmas for all the good that it will do

    Every position of power in the UK state is occupied by a Europhile. With that in mind it is almost impossible to influence Leave’s direction of travel.

    The fightback must begin not in the corridors of power but in the real world.

    We cannot look to the Tories for direction in this matter. Tory Eurosceptic MPs play by the rules. May and the EU doesn’t play by the rules. May and the EU are victorious. Simple

    The Brexit party is our last hope to protect UK democracy from political control

    1. Norman
      April 13, 2019

      To many, TM has become a marionette, choreographed by Brussels. Parliament has also shown it’s true colours.
      A legal challenge through the AG might be the only way to get the Government re-configured without an election.
      Vote for Farage or Batten? Out of the Stalag and into the Colditz!

      1. Ignoramus
        April 13, 2019

        Farage probably knows more about the EU and its policies, subterfuges, corruption and failures than most of the Commons. Without him would there have ever been a referendum? His image of “a bit of a lad” is irrelevant. It is highly likely the Brexit Party will not oppose Conservative or Labour Leave MPs or candidates. What is to lose?

        Forget Batten and UKIP – they will be toast.

        1. margaret howard
          April 14, 2019

          Ignoramus

          “Farage probably knows more about the EU and its policies, subterfuges, corruption and failures than most of the Commons.”

          So why did he spend years taking their money? I wouldn’t work for an organisation I knew to be corrupt.

          To me seeing him there gave the impression that he was totally out of his depth and laboured under an enormous inferiority complex. It used to embarrass me seeing other members regard him with indulgent tolerance.

          No doubt that was why he seldom attended.

    2. vera
      April 13, 2019

      Boycott all products from the EU. Buy only British. I’d say buy from other countries outside the EU but they tend to have high duty on them and most of it ends up in EU coffers.

      1. Steve
        April 13, 2019

        Vera

        Spot on Vera.

        I no longer buy EU produce, and that includes Irish products as well.

        Admittedly I live a relatively basic life, but eating to a good standard is perfectly possible by only buying British.

        Ok so you don’t get British plums during winter, but before the EEC food on the table was seasonal anyway.

        Back in those days you needed life skills in everything from car maintenance to growing your own veg.

        Mend and make do was the ethic, and people worked hard for what they had. There was also community spirit – people watched out for each other.

        Conflicts were often sorted out the old fashioned way – with fists. And while it was not unusual to see someone with a black eye, stabbings were relatively rare.

        They say you are what you eat, and I believe there is truth in that.

        I also believe that as a nation we’ve become too dependent on the trappings of consumerism. After brexit people will have to re-acquire the old skills, but, they will be better for it.

        Reply I continue to avoid all continental EU food products in order to buy UK grown and produced food where possible, otherwise imports of tropical produce from outside the EU.

        1. margaret howard
          April 14, 2019

          Steve

          So no cucumbers and tomatoes? Bananas? And before EEC food we had access to all sorts of out of season produce from former empire countries.

          I remember the times you talk so fondly of. Growing your own veg only if you had a garden and then only root veg in the winter. Pale complexions and spots because of lack of vitC. Unhealthy amounts of meat and only white bread. Hence in the 1950s life expectancy of about 65 which is now 30 years longer.

          As for old fashioned conflicts – well hundreds of thousands had died in 2 world wars in the 20th century and you must remember the many widows and their children who lived in great poverty on a measly pension. And few owned their own houses with poor living conditions nobody would put up with today. No central heating and few cars to make you independent.

          And if you believe that after Brexit young people will be willing to go back in time to reacquire old skill I’m afraid you will be very much disappointed.

          1. Edward2
            April 15, 2019

            I thought Greens wanted people to be locally self sufficient and were against flying in food from thousands miles away.

          2. Steve
            April 15, 2019

            Margaret Howard

            Well if your life and diet were like that you must have been getting something wrong.

            As for life expectancy, the hard fact is that people now live longer as you say, which puts a strain on the state.

            Obviously you have your own views, but for me personally I’d rather not exchange my sovereignty for a load of fruit.

            Besides, said fruit can be imported from non EU countries if needs be.

      2. David Price
        April 14, 2019

        I have always favoured local produce but have become anti-EU products since directly experiencing their anti-UK attitudes and practices in commerce.

        Local products first then Commonwealth then anything non-EU.

        EG We have stopped going to ASDA for most of our foodstuffs as they source much from the EU. I changed car last year from a 10 yr old Merc to a UK built Japanese vehicle.

        I will now also start boycotting goods and services from those who support the EU, courtesy of Mrs May, EU mandarins and their followers.

  6. Everhopeful
    April 13, 2019

    It seems that May is using the EU elections to further punish dissenters.
    If you MPs do as you are ordered ( and pass her dog-eared treaty) said elections will be pulled.
    Strangely,some Tory MPs have actually found a little grit (!!!) and declared that because they will be trounced they will not stand. How very sporting!
    And if the PM ( rue the day) manages to seal our fate with her treaty all the preparations and money spent in preparation for the elections will be wasted.
    As will 1000 years ( at least) of history.
    Nasty. Nasty.

    1. Ian wragg
      April 13, 2019

      That’s Hammonds ploy. Telling MPs if they vote for the WA they can avoid humiliation at the EU elections.
      The future of the UK is in the hands of traitors.

      1. Everhopeful
        April 13, 2019

        Ian wragg,
        Yes..agree re Hammond’s ploy.
        Apparently the SI ( number 832) ordering the EU elections on 23rd May was put forward on the 8th of April by David Lidington.
        This was to come into force on the 10th ( the day our PM went to Brussels I believe?)
        They have crystal balls in Westminster??
        As I have said before…there were rumours re money being put aside for these elections not long after the Referendum.
        We were never going to leave.

      2. Jagman84
        April 13, 2019

        Seeing as we were not meant to have any MEPs at this point in time, losing in unnecessary elections will be of little consequence to the potential candidates. They probably have lucrative jobs lined up, even if they are terminally useless!

    2. Dave Andrews
      April 13, 2019

      That will only work if Labour also fear the EU elections. I’d say they are ambivalent over them. However, they do not want to be seen to prop up a Tory government, and the front bench don’t want to commit themselves to any particular Brexit stance. The DUP won’t support without the backstop being removed and there are enough in the ERG that won’t support it as well regardless of the backstop.
      Result – the EU elections go ahead as scheduled and the Tory vote will collapse. More pressure on May to go.

  7. Korry
    April 13, 2019

    Stick with it, sir. The EU is crumbling. German carmakers and French cheesemakers will DEMAND we get a great deal. We hold the cards. It is clear they need us more than we need them

    1. Lifelogic
      April 13, 2019

      Indeed but alas we have a robotic, incompetent idiot (and indeed a traitor) holding the cards. Even worse still we have Corbyn/SNP waiting in the wings and May seems most determined to get him elected.

      1. Mike Wilson
        April 13, 2019

        I assumed Korry was being ironic.

      2. APL
        April 13, 2019

        LL: “we have a robotic, incompetent idiot (and indeed a traitor) holding the cards. ”

        That can’t be true, the Speaker said so.

        It’s quite interesting tho, only about three or four years ago, John Redwood was writing on this blog, that he EU didn’t play on the doorstep.

        Turns out, he was knocking on the wrong 48% of doors.

    2. BW
      April 13, 2019

      Yes we hold the cards but TM is holding them the wrong way around

  8. Lifelogic
    April 13, 2019

    I suspect Cox understands this himself already in relality. Even if he does foolishly still support May’s appalling £39 billion straightjacket treaty. May, Hammond and the deal must go and the putrid treaty never be put into effect by these traitors. Even without the absurd back stop it is totally unacceptable and not remotely Brexit (as the the appalling May keeps pretending it is).

    May regrets “not being able to persuade parliament” to accept her appalling deal. Thanks goodness she has not been able to. This despite the many truly appalling traitors sitting in parliament.

    The BBC continues its blatant pro EU bias four (plus chairman) to one on Any Questions yesterday (and four totally dire remainers it was too – Baroness Sal Brinton, Nicky Morgan MP, Emily Thornberry MP). Nicky Morgan endlessly complaining (yet again) about people calling her and others like exactly herself what they clearly are.

    A pathetic attempt by the BBC on Newswatch this morning to defend the BBC’s pro EU blatant propaganda. Even moving Question Time from heavily Bolton to remainer Dulwich.

    1. John Sheridan
      April 13, 2019

      “May regrets “not being able to persuade parliament” to accept her appalling deal. ”

      Imagine what she would have done if she had won a landslide in the 2017. She would have pushed through her WA/PD and then conceded on Fishing Rights.

    2. James1
      April 13, 2019

      The government has no business forcing me to pay a licence fee to the Biased Broadcasting Corporation. The whole blatantly biased bunch should have been broken up and sold to the highest bidders years ago.

    3. NickC
      April 13, 2019

      I have no sympathy whatsoever for the likes of Morgan, Soubry et al, complaining that they are named as traitors and Quislings. Remains started on day one after the vote telling us Leave voters that we didn’t know what we were voting for, and were thick, racist, flat-earthers, knuckle-draggers, uneducated, couldn’t read, and even were holocaust deniers, for God’s sake! [All epithets I have been called]. Remains will reap what they sow.

      1. David Price
        April 14, 2019

        Morgan and co claim to be “one nation” Tories … they just don’t say which nation they support, it certainly isn’t the UK.

  9. Mark Millward
    April 13, 2019

    Sir John Redwood defects to Brexit party! Now that would set the cat among the pigeons. How about it Sir John?

    1. NigelE
      April 13, 2019

      Emotive words seem to come naturally to the political arena! ‘Defects’ implies Sir John has abandoned his country or cause. Nothing is further from the truth! If anything, it is the Parliamentary Tory party that has defected from its core beliefs and parted from Sir John.

      And yes, despite switching from anger to despair to apathy (on a daily basis), I still want to talk about Brexit.

    2. Leslie Singleton
      April 13, 2019

      Dear Mark–Unfortunately he won’t do that if the last time it made sense, and he wouldn’t do it, be any guide

      1. Stred
        April 13, 2019

        I hope the Brexit Party will not stand against the few MPs who are true Brexiteers.

      2. David Price
        April 14, 2019

        If he had done as you wish he would not be on parliament to have fought against the euphilics.

    3. michael mcgrath
      April 13, 2019

      I would prefer Boris to be elected leader, with JR in a Brexit oriented cabinet and a safe seat and cabinet level post as lead Brexit negotiator offered to Nigel Farage

      1. Andrea Wood
        April 13, 2019

        Please do NOT select Boris as the Tory Leader. He is a Baffoon, he is a chameleon and he’s also hinted that Amber Rudd would be his choice for Chancellor. Boris would be no better than Teresa. I wish you would run for it again Sir John. At least we know where we are with you.

        1. Chris
          April 14, 2019

          Sir John would make a superb Chancellor in my view. I think Owen Paterson could make a good PM. Certainly not Boris and Rees-Mogg who were prepared to ditch their principles to vote for the WA. Utterly unforgiveable, and demonstrates, in my view, that they do not have capacity for making sound, principled judgements under pressure. In the case of Boris, it was likely opportunism that drove him to abandon principles.

          I do not want that sort of politician leading the Party. We need a draining of the swamp and the re-establishment of honesty and integrity to the system. We should never again allow a clique to mount a coup against the people. Farage is right, the political system needs a great upheaval and revamp.

      2. David Price
        April 14, 2019

        No-one who has been in May’s cabinet would be suitable. Boris has gone uncharacteristically very quiet for such a self-promoter.

    4. Norman
      April 13, 2019

      It would indeed: feathers flying everywhere! Probably not a good idea. Rather, ‘Strengthen that which remains’.

  10. Bryan Harris
    April 13, 2019

    Even if May were to go, what are the chances that another remainer would take her place and continue her mission to keep us shackled to the EU?
    If EU law overrides UK law, what hope does the excellent Bill Cash, and others, have of declaring that legally we have already left?
    None of us want to see May continue her game, on and on, re-extending for ever more, but what options are open to us that will make her change. She doesn’t listen to any advice from Brexiteers, and she clearly believes she can ride out any problems, and use force if necessary to quell any riots……
    As psychologists might say, “We need to think outside the box” – There are some great posters on this blog, JR included (: – So maybe it’s time for a communal brain dump – to list any and all options to get our WTO BREXIT – What should we be doing? What can our white shirt MP’s do?

    1. Bryan Harris
      April 13, 2019

      I have some thoughts on this, but will put them in new posts as OPTIONS

    2. Turboterrier
      April 13, 2019

      Bryan

      To be able to think outside the box you have to be in it in the first place. The majority of MPs have never ever thought like that simply because they know no other existence other than politics. They have let the EU do all the thinking and all the talking
      . They jusy can’t think for themselves.

      1. Bryan Harris
        April 13, 2019

        @Turboterrier

        That’s easy to agree with – they have been accustomed to making it appear they have been running things while all the time they have been simply acting as a conduit for EU regulations ….

        That’s why we have to force the issue – Make them wake up and reevaluate the situation…. We have few options other than to force Parliament to act for us – But how?

    3. NickC
      April 13, 2019

      Bryan Harris, We can stop buying EU stuff. Simple. Find an alternative if you can and buy it. Don’t kick yourself if there is no alternative, but do consider whether you need it at all. Don’t buy an EU made car. Don’t go on holiday to the EU. Don’t buy EU food.

      1. Bryan Harris
        April 14, 2019

        @NickC – That would certainly have an impact – WE buy far too many BMW’s…

        We should encourage the sale of British produce and good – I would suggest that British products be emphasised in stores, but I think that is illegal under EU rules

    4. Andrea Wood
      April 13, 2019

      I suggest the whole Leave voting population should have a day of Peace and fasting (Gandhi style). We could chose an auspicious date like 22nd May. Absolutely no commerce whatsoever is done. And if it’s successful we do another one every week until the EU and The Cabinet wake up and listen to us.

  11. CM Chalmers
    April 13, 2019

    I have mentioned in an earlier post that we need to start boycotting EU goods. I have been doing so for a while and believe you me, it’s really easy. If we started a nationwide boycott, it would hit them where it hurts – in their pockets. As our politicians have failed us spectacularly, we must take action ourselves. This boycott is a no brainer. Come on, folks. Join with me and let’s make a difference!

    1. Nickyroberts
      April 13, 2019

      I too have been doing this for some time. The EU only bend when conditions force them to, as with Trump’s threats. Boycotting EU goods is the only leverage the people have. We have been betrayed by our political class so what other options are there. I will no longer visit Germany, France or Poland, I always choose either British produce or that from alternative sources, I would never buy a German car or a French one. If 17.4 million people do that we may have some power restored.

    2. Christine
      April 13, 2019

      I agree. I always try to buy British first then Commonwealth countries second. Only if I have no other choice do I buy from an EU country. Supermarkets like Morrison’s put the Union Flag on fresh food which makes it easy to identify. Non food product are much difficult to identify as they often just state “Made in the EU.” Leavers need to vote with their pockets. With the EU countries heading into recession this will make them think again about how we are being treated.

      1. anon
        April 13, 2019

        Some producers in the UK are pro EU.

        Some get subsidies and hence support the EU.

        We should think about refusing all EU subsidies! and buying
        from UK suppliers or those who switch supply chains to non-eu sources.

        All purchase decisions by leavers need to be guided by their preference. This includes declining the BBC subscriptions and using non-live internet feeds instead. Pensioners can still stay with the license fee , but ensure you ask for everything in braille, if you need too.

      2. margaret howard
        April 13, 2019

        Christine

        After Brexit you should be swamped with US products. Only they have stipulated that their goods should not be made to carry a country of origin identification.

        I wonder why?

    3. Mick B
      April 13, 2019

      Over 158,000 people have pledged to boycott EU products on the hitthemwhereithurts.uk website. Long way from 17.4 million but it’s a start.

      1. David Price
        April 14, 2019

        Thanks – I didn’t know about that site and have now pledged.

        Now all we need as some way to identify product origins and where the money goes.

    4. Pominoz
      April 13, 2019

      Well, you don’t need to drink French wine. The Aussie stuff is world class and decently priced.

      Feel it would be a little unfair to ditch the Italian wine at this stage.

      1. Steve
        April 13, 2019

        Pominoz

        “Feel it would be a little unfair to ditch the Italian wine at this stage.”

        Agreed. Though I do think it would be marvellously satisfying not to have German and French cars on the roads.

      2. David Price
        April 14, 2019

        I prefer the taste of new world wines so have rarely bought EU apart from port (Portugal). If EU sourcing cannot be avoided I do discriminate against German, French, Spanish and Irish goods and services. Italian is OK but that’s limited to vinegar and risotto rice while Polish is limited to mushrooms if I can’t get British.

    5. NickC
      April 13, 2019

      CM Chalmers, Well said. I started avoiding all EU stuff spontaneously and then found others were doing it too. The four I do my very best to avoid are products from Germany, France, Spain and Eire, because they have stood in the way of our exit the most.

  12. Roy Grainger
    April 13, 2019

    Writing a letter is literally an utter waste of time and achieves nothing. A few defections to the Brexit party might help.

    1. Nigl
      April 13, 2019

      What would really help is resignations from the pathetic cabinet ministers who claim to be against what the PM is doing but sit on their hands, thinking of themselves and their careers rather than the greater needs of the voters or what they signed up to in their manifesto.

      1. JoolsB
        April 13, 2019

        Exactly Nigl. Leadsom and Mordaunt have proved to be huge disappointments and as for backstabber Gove, all so called Brexiteers now May’s lackies and backers of her attrocious surrender document. Obviously their Ministerial cars and seat at the cabinet table are far more important to them.

  13. Roy Grainger
    April 13, 2019

    Negotiating tip: Notice how when the EU were faced with No Deal they blinked and offered an extension ? Put a hard No Deal PM in and they’ll blink again and compromise some more.

    1. NickC
      April 13, 2019

      Roy, Indeed. All we want is a trade (only) deal negotiated as equals. Only going WTO has any chance of securing that. No Remain MP would negotiate to buy a house in the same way they insist on negotiating with the EU.

  14. David J
    April 13, 2019

    Dear John
    Views have not changed. The was to leave. The mainstream media including the BBC are driving remain. Sadly too many politicians too. Leaving on WTO terms is the best solution. My main concern now is that the public backlash will end up bringing Labour to power. I’m working on my exit to the US

    1. Andy
      April 13, 2019

      They won’t want you. They are almost at hostile to immigrants as you lot are.

      1. Edward2
        April 13, 2019

        twaddle
        USA has a larger immigration population than any other country.
        47 million immigrants as of 2015
        1.18 million legal immigrants arrived in 2016
        The average per year from 2010 to 2017 was over a million a year.
        The highest figure in USA’s history.

        1. margaret howard
          April 14, 2019

          Edward2 – twaddle

          “The average per year from 2010 to 2017 was over a million a year.
          The highest figure in USA’s history.”
          ==

          European Immigration: 1880-1920

          The peak year for admission of new immigrants was 1907, when approximately 1.3 million people entered the country legally.

          http://www.history.com/topics/immigration/u-s-immigration-before-1965
          ==

          And in case you had forgotten, ALL Americans are immigrants.

          1. Edward2
            April 15, 2019

            Rather pedantic to go back to one year in 1907 when there was a marginal higher number.

            However thanks margaret you’v inadvertently agrred with my original point to andy that the USA is plainly not hostile to immigration.

  15. Michael Wood
    April 13, 2019

    Dear Sir John

    Am I wrong when I say if the Withdrawal Agreement is passed there won’t be any more elections?
    In that event won’t the country be run by the joint committee making parliament redundant?

    1. L Jones
      April 13, 2019

      That’s always been my own fear. Why would the EU ”allow” us to have GEs on our own terms if there’s a risk we may vote in a Eurosceptic party? If they can influence or order it, they won’t want anything to jeopardise the Project, so why would they give us the freedom to choose our own leaders?

  16. Annette
    April 13, 2019

    Firstly, well done for your honesty & integrity in standing your ground for democracy, though I do think that you & the other stalwarts need to recognise that you are now in the Conservative & (European) Unionist Party. The party is now terminal. There have been too many instances where there was opportunity (by party mandarins) to correct things that just didn’t happen. Not enough people have shown willing to put their head above the parapet, sadly.
    Following your letter to Cox, many of us would be interested in crowdfunding a class action. Sir Bill Cash’s damning critique lays a foundation to prove that what has happened & actions taken are unlawful & in breach of our Constitution. If the 17.4m, plus others who believe in democracy, gave just £1 it would create a decent fighting fund. It is also time to recognise that our corrupt Parliament is no longer viewed on ‘party’ lines but whether they are democrats or anti-democrats. All democrats must come together, acknowledge that the other side isn’t playing by the rules, to defeat them & restore our country. The ballot box has now failed twice. The people are running out of options for a peaceful resolution, which does not include any of the versions of remain being spouted by the EU quizlings.

  17. percy openshaw
    April 13, 2019

    Ask them why on earth they’re winding down no-deal preparations?

    1. Stred
      April 13, 2019

      It’s to blackmail MPs into voting for the EU preferred WA and avoid the election.

    2. graham1946
      April 13, 2019

      No deal was voted off the table by one vote in Parliament which apparently is plenty whereas 17.4 million wanting Brexit is not.

  18. Simeon
    April 13, 2019

    Sir John,

    Under what circumstances could you see yourself resigning the whip and your seat and fighting a by-election, perhaps as an independent, perhaps as a member of another party?

    If you took the local conservative party with you (or even if you didn’t), might you not then be re-elected, thereby sending a clear and unmistakable message to the country? If you and other like minded colleagues coordinated this same move, could that not give the people of this country reason to believe that there is an alternative, true Conservative party in waiting?

    Reply I intend to keep my election promises made as a Conservative candidate

    1. Sir Joe Soap
      April 13, 2019

      Reply to reply
      There’s a disparity in your logic. On the one hand, you’d like to leave a failing organisation which is heading in the wrong direction, where it’s CEO says that when the going gets tough you lie. However with respect to the other organisation with a similar philosophy you cling to it like a limpet.

    2. Fairweather
      April 13, 2019

      Stred
      It’s not a General Election
      In the Eu election you vote for a party in your Region
      You can see who is on the list
      These won’t be MPs

    3. James Bertram
      April 13, 2019

      Trouble is, Sir John, what is more important to you – keeping your promises or being a Conservative? It has come to the point where these are near incompatible options.
      Unless you remove May immediately, and fail to hold EU elections so that we leave by default, then the only way to keep your promises is to set up a new Real Tory party (perhaps reforming as the Conservatives after you have delivered Brexit). Action needed.

  19. Caterpillar
    April 13, 2019

    Dear Sir John,

    At a less fundamental level, I think the AG should also confirm whether the Govt explainer document is 100% consistent with the actual WA (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/withdrawal-agreement-and-political-declaration)

  20. Richard1
    April 13, 2019

    I think the first step has to be a change of leader. I can’t see how anything positive or sensible can happen with Mrs May in office, she is simply beyond hopeless & has lost all credibility with both the public and the EU.

  21. acorn
    April 13, 2019

    Switzerland’s supreme court has overturned a nationwide referendum for the first time in the country’s modern history, on the grounds that the information given to voters was insufficient. (Jon Henley Guardian)

    In a ruling that may resonate in Britain, where remain campaigners have long argued that voters in the 2016 Brexit referendum were not adequately informed, the court said incomplete detail and a lack of transparency had violated the freedom of the vote, which could now be re-run.

    “Given the tight outcome of the vote and the seriousness of the irregularities, it is possible that the result of the ballot would have been different,” the federal court said.

    1. Mike Wilson
      April 13, 2019

      Bring it on. As long as ‘Leave without paying £39 billion and on WTO terms’ is on the ballot paper and that unsubstantiated predictions are outlawed.

      1. acorn
        April 13, 2019

        I bet the £39 billion will be paid anyway regardless of how the UK leaves the EU.

    2. Davek
      April 13, 2019

      Remain propaganda again. In the case of Switzerland: “During the referendum campaign, the Swiss government told voters just 80,000 of married couples were paying more tax than couples living together.

      The true figure was almost half a million, the government later said”.

      So the government lied during the process, much like ours with it’s once in a lifetime and honouring the result fibs.

      1. Andy
        April 13, 2019

        Once in a generation. And the next generation are already now asking for their say.

        1. mancunius
          April 13, 2019

          You had your say in 2016.
          You lost.

    3. Mark B
      April 13, 2019

      Well so long as we can have a re-run of the 1975 Referendum when we were told it we had joined just a Common Market and not a Political Union, I am happy with that.

      1. margaret howard
        April 14, 2019

        To refute your claim about a Common Market only I will once again provide you with the 1975 original referendum leaflet. For some strange reason only known to himself JR keeps removing it. So here goes once again:

        Extract from the official 1975 referendum leaflet:

        The aims of the Common Market are:

        Bring together the peoples of Europe

        Raise living standards and improve working conditions

        Promote growth and boost world trade

        Help the poorest regions of Europe and the rest of the world

        Help maintain peace and freedom
        ==

        Quite clear and that’s what we got.

        1. Edward2
          April 15, 2019

          Failed on all their aims.

    4. NickC
      April 13, 2019

      Acorn, Then it looks like both the Remain campaign and the government failed in their duties to inform Remains. Which is odd because the government sent its own booklet round to all households and Remain vastly outspent Leave. I can assure you that I was very well informed by the Leave campaigns. perhaps you should have paid more attention to us?

    5. sm
      April 13, 2019

      Acorn, recalling that the UK had a profoundly Remain Government at the time of the Referendum, are you not arguing that the Remain movement was, remarkably, unable to provide adequate details and sufficient information to persuade the rest of us of the desirability of voting Remain?

  22. Bryan Harris
    April 13, 2019

    OPTION-01
    A good number of remainer MP’s are facing deselection – This should be encouraged as an objective to change minds of MP’s in favour of a WTO Exit.

    MP’s need to be targetted and informed that the pressure for their deselection will not cease until they vote for and make sure a WTO Brexit happens.

    1. JoolsB
      April 13, 2019

      Deselection is only being favoured by local Conservative Associations who are then facing opposition from Tory Head Office. Nick Boles resigned before he was pushed from his local Association and Tory Head Office then backed him and unbelievably they have said they would welcome back with open arms traitors like Soubry. Shows just how out of touch and in contempt of the voters/grass roots the Tory party under May has become.

      1. Bryan Harris
        April 14, 2019

        @JoolsB – Yes that is a total con

        It must surely make sitting MP’s think twice though if their association doesn’t want to support him or her.. No canvassing etc – That would cause a rumpus

  23. Christine
    April 13, 2019

    Many Remainers see staying in the EU as the status quo. It isn’t. The message about what the EU is planning isn’t getting through to the British public due to the MSM bias. There is a total disconnect between MEPs and MPs. How many MPs are aware of the tax changes coming down the line? It’s scary. The best thing you can do over the next 6 months is make your colleagues aware of what’s coming. Go on the offensive rather than the defensive.

  24. Fed up with the bull
    April 13, 2019

    Bring on the Brexit Party. No amount of complaining to anyone John will make the slightest bit of difference. The way we are going was decided long ago. Probably the moment the Leave vote came in. At least the general public can see when they have been shafted. I do thank you for your tenacity though and wish there were more like yourself. I am sure we all come across as ungrateful but I can assure you we do value your input. Have a good break.

    1. DaveM
      April 13, 2019

      I’m personally just waiting and hoping for the Brexit Party to recruit people like Mark Francois, Steve Baker, Owen Paterson, etc, and to come up with an enduring name rather than a one-policy name. It would be good if people like Priti Patel and Kate Hoey went across as well. Farage has the charisma to get it started but it needs real credibility to endure. Ultimately it would end up being a proper pro-British centre right party. The only alternative is for proper conservatives to break away en masse and form a new party, but clearly funding would be a huge issue without a billionaire benefactor – maybe an American like Steve Bannon.

      As it stands, Theresa May is on course to take the Conservatives’ polling figures into the teens, so unless something drastic happens (like the Con party’s PP taking its collective head out of the sand, growing a pair, and getting rid of its utterly hopeless leader), there will soon be a vacancy for a party to represent the English people. Interesting to see who it’ll be.

  25. Bryan Harris
    April 13, 2019

    OPTION-02
    It is not likely that remainer MP’s will break away from the Tory party to form a new group in any number…. and have decided clearly, that the Tory party is now moving to the left anyway – making life difficult for any true Brexit MP’s.
    That’s why I’m suggesting that white shirt Brexit MP’s should form a new right of centre party and leave the Tory party.

    May’s wing of the party have already made clear that they will encompass more left wing voters, and we need another socialist party like we need a hole in the head.
    By breaking away, the new party will not affect the voting numbers in the Commons, but it will force a large number of disruptive elections, and will certainly wake up the Tory party that they doomed electorially …

    1. JoolsB
      April 13, 2019

      Totally agree. Leave the Tory party to the Liberal lefties that have infiltrated it and are now in the majority and once it has destroyed itself, the true Tories like John and the ERG members can form a true Conservative party once again.

  26. Sakara Gold
    April 13, 2019

    I took a call from a colleague in New York recently, in his office they were watching one of our evening parliamentary debates, the shrieks of raucous laughter and their impersonation of the Speaker (“Order! Order!”) embarassed me.

    The arrogance of Theresa May in still promoting her deeply flawed “Withdrawal Agreement” as the only way out of this mess – despite it being voted down three times in the House – is driving the country to distraction as well as providing the whole world with entertainment.

    The Remainer majority in Parliament, Macron with the Gang of Four and our hapless PM have managed to defeat the Brexit project by a series of pointless extensions to our leaving date. In my view we will not now leave the EU, we will have to arrange European elections at the same time as council elections next month, with all that entails. The national humiliation is worse than Suez

  27. IanT
    April 13, 2019

    Thinking about my own voting intentions is not a reliable indication of what others will do. In my case I also have the dilemma of living in Sir Johns constituency. So whilst I am not willing to support this current Conservative Government, I will still vote for Sir John – as his steadfastness should be rewarded. I will also vote for my Conservative Local Councillors as I’m happy with them too. [As a small aside the local Labour candidate knocked on the door recently – and I told him that I will never vote for ANY part of the Labour movement whilst it is controlled by Marxists! – he didn’t seem too happy with that]

    Nor will I vote for UKIP Mk2 under it’s new management as they are driving in completely the wrong direction and are no longer worthy of my support. However, I do think Brussels deserves to get Nigel and his cohorts back and it will be Brexit Party for me come the Euro elections.

    If I lived elsewhere, I’d all most certainly be voting Brexit Party in any General Election too. It is time for a shake-up but in my case, it’s also time to support those who have shown they deserve it.

    1. Sharon Jagger
      April 13, 2019

      I think any Conservative MP who has not voted for the withdrawal agreement should be voted for. Unfortunately, my Conservative MP voted for it on each occasion, so I shall not be voting for him again.

    2. NickC
      April 13, 2019

      IanT, Do not put your faith in the MSM’s smearing of UKIP. We are the same party as we were under Nigel Farage’s leadership. Indeed he would have been welcomed back at any time in the last 3 years such was the mess our own new leaders made. His excuse of UKIP’s supposed change won’t wash because as leader he could have re-directed the party.

    3. Fred H
      April 13, 2019

      well said.

  28. hefner
    April 13, 2019

    Exodus 5:1-2: “Let my people go that they may celebrate a festival for Me in the wilderness”
    How forward-looking of Mr Johnson, (he knows his Classics), 40 years in the wilderness, just a bit shorter than Mr Rees-Mogg’s recently announced 50 years.

  29. BlokeInBrum
    April 13, 2019

    Well I’m off to the Brexit Party Rally in Brum later, to see what that nice Mr.Farage has to say.
    It is sad to see that whilst the wider Tory party is still conservative, that those representing them in the House have moved substantially to the left.
    John, you have to make a choice. Do you believe that the Party as a whole can be saved? A Conservative Party which conserves nothing, a party which brings in a sugar tax, a party that regulates free speech, a party that espouses Nanny Statism, is this a party that can rediscover its core values of Small State, indivudual responsibility, low taxes. Or has the Party gone past the point of no return?
    Is it time to burn it all to the ground and start over?

    1. Bryan Harris
      April 13, 2019

      Well said …

    2. Pominoz
      April 13, 2019

      BlokeInBrum,

      Like the ‘handle’ – and the comments.

    3. NickC
      April 13, 2019

      A party that imposes internet censorship; a party that prevents parents from removing their child from “gender fluidity” lessons at primary school; a party that has damaged democracy; a party that has overturned our Leave vote; a party that endorses the liar May as PM; a party . . . . .

      1. Treacle
        April 14, 2019

        I submitted a post about internet censorship here that was, unusually, deleted. But when this censorship takes place (it was scheduled to start this month), some millions of men will suddenly and unexpectedly have another reason to vote against the Conservatives. You would think that the government might have the sense not to do things that will unnecessarily alienate large numbers of voters.

    4. Treacle
      April 13, 2019

      And another one: all cars to have speed-limiters. In a stroke, there go the votes of White Van Man. Does the government have a death-wish?

  30. Bryan Harris
    April 13, 2019

    OPTION-03
    White shirt Tory MP’s could break away from the Tory party and instead of going through the issues related to forming a new party, could join an existing right of centre party, for example UKIP.

    This would have the same effect on the Tory party as Option-02, and force a thorough review of policies…

    1. NickC
      April 13, 2019

      Bryan, Hold on . . . . UKIP is a liberal party, why would we want to be swamped by Tories?

      1. Bryan Harris
        April 14, 2019

        @NickC UKIP are Liberalist – but not liberal in the socialist sense.

        UKIP have the right policies for going forward, but I’d never describe them in the same vein as labour or the Tories – Right wing or right of centre is where I see them.

        Labour are hopelessly lost in socialist dogma, while the Tories have inched across the political spectrum to the left and are indeed also lost given their aspirations and actions against taxpayers.

  31. IwasGnarth
    April 13, 2019

    Cometh the hour, cometh the fracture. Perhaps our riven society was due, or overdue, this examination and realignment, regardless. Brexit may be the catalyst, or perhaps that was the increasingly desperate attempts to reconcile dreams with reality amongst the slumberers in charge of the New Belgian Empire?

  32. BW
    April 13, 2019

    Not sure we can win this battle with the house stuffed with MP’s who are more than happy to go against the manifesto on which the gained their seat without having to resign and have a bye election. Let’s face it. Their argument is the the people did not know what they were voting for. Well their constituents certainly didn’t. But they are not shouting for a second vote on them. They also keep shouting about the lie on the Brexit bus but fail to mention the biggest lie of all. Their own, to gain their seat

  33. Syd
    April 13, 2019

    I note today that your web page address has changed to “Not Secure – johnredwoodsdiary.com”

    Why is this?

    1. graham1946
      April 13, 2019

      It’s always been like that on my browser – a decent paid for Internet Security programme takes care of any nasties. No personal info is given here, so don’t worry.

    2. matthu
      April 13, 2019

      I think this is Windows pointing out to you a more secure connection is possible.
      Use https instead of http – that fixed it for me.

    3. davews
      April 13, 2019

      There are a couple of non-secure images (John and the Blind Dogs) on the right hand side, ie on http:// servers. You browser is correctly saying that the page has mixed secure/non-secure content. Minor issue but needs addressing.

    4. Big John
      April 13, 2019

      Probably because your browser has just updated, and you are using google chrome.
      Google have decided that any site not buying a ssl certificate is not secure.
      But as you are not buying anything on this site, I wouldn’t worry about it.

  34. Simon
    April 13, 2019

    Sir John,
    You and your chums are a day late and a dollar short as usual. The WA was signed off by the PM last November. The EU says it is now locked. Writing to the AG is just the usual Tory virtue signalling. The bare bones of the WA should have been planned and agreed in advance. Gosh there is an innovative idea. Whinging 6 months later is just grand standing.

    1. Jagman84
      April 13, 2019

      I think that your memory must be failing. There has been vociferous opposition since the WA terms of surrender were revealed to the cabinet at the infamous Chequers meeting. Apologies, if you have had your head up your own backside since then….

  35. Richard416
    April 13, 2019

    I think what most ordinary people would have expected to happen during that long two years wait, would be an agreement on who does what from the day we leave, so that leaving would be orderly and questions like foreign nationals would have been resolved. Some sort of trade deal would have been desirable but by no means essential.

    We were not inviting an unelected joint committee of the e.u. to rule us, or anyone else other than our own elected government. Many of us are astounded that out own parliament evidently likes the idea of having no power in future.

  36. Alison
    April 13, 2019

    Things in the WA that block us from Brexit.
    On fishing, the Withdrawal Agreement (‘WA’) and proposed Future Relationship text explicitly link fisheries management and access. They allow fisheries to be sacrificed as a condition for overall market access (WA Art. 6.1, p311 and also p295, the closing section of the main agreement; FR points 74 & 75). While the existing CFP might not continue after 2020, it will be replaced by a new one, very close to “the CFP” we are told we will be leaving.
    The Scottish Fishing Federation is in the government’s pocket. It produced a pledge about fishing that is not worth the paper it’s written on, loopholes in every line. A pledge that will cut no ice with the EU.

    The EU have been working for years to destroy our UK fishing industry, through the quotas. FOr goodness’ sake, we are a sea-faring, island nation – two islands, with Northern Ireland.
    Of course, fishing was also the sacrifice when we first joined the EEC. People say the sector is tiny. It is small now, because the EU takes so much. With control over our own waters, we would repatriate a £6-8bn industry. Job creation – there are 50,000 jobs we could create in rural coastal communities.

    1. John Sheridan
      April 13, 2019

      Well said. I too believe that Mrs May will concede ground on fishing rights during the trade discussions. She has conceded so much already in pursuit of her customs arrangement (cannot call it a customs union as it upsets core voters).

    2. Steve
      April 13, 2019

      Alison

      Fishing is the acid test. May fully intends to hand our territorial waters over to the french.

      This is because her euro friend Macron said that french access to UK waters was paramount. From this you could draw s a logical conclusion that if refused, France would get sh***y with other aspects of trade.

      So, when the french blackmail the UK what does May do ?……….the woman’s about as useful as a cardboard bath seat, she’s a flyweight.

      Sending her to defend our country’s sovereignty, trading position and honour was never going to work. She’s a Europhile but when it comes to the UK she’s a pacifist. She’s sly, and she’s a risk to national security.

  37. Original Richard
    April 13, 2019

    True leavers need to speak louder and more often against the May/Hammond/Parliament/EU axis to inform the public that their WA is not leaving the EU.

    The threat that not signing the WA will lead to a “softer” Brexit is misleading as the inevitable long-term consequence of the WA is to remain permanently in the CU/SM/ECJ.

    No reputable government/Parliament who believes in the long-term well-being of the UK or for it to continue to be a democracy would want to sign an international treaty from which there is no lawful exit EVER.

  38. David Taylor
    April 13, 2019

    It has been shown by Mr Redwood & others that the withdrawal deal that Mrs May has judged is the only way out of the EU is flawed and does not and will not deliver the outcome that a majority voted for in the referendum .
    There is no need for hyperbole .
    No deal or the at least the threat of no deal has been removed from the Governments limited list of negotiating options , therefore in my opinion the EU need not change its attitude & approach .
    The arguments put forward for remain were & are based on the project fear campaign , which was probably overstated . The Leave campaign claims ditto , that is no longer the point , British people heard both sides in 2016 and chose Leave, since then the Remain camp have refused to accept this and have campaigned to stop the Leave decision being implemented .
    I would hazard that if Remain had carried the majority in 2016 , the Leave camp would have accepted it , apart from a few grumblers .

    1. graham1946
      April 13, 2019

      The Remoaners demand concessions from Leavers to placate their losing side. I wonder what concessions would have been offered had the boot been on the other foot? Nothing but more and more EU offered over the last 40 odd years, without reference to the voters by Thatcher,Major, Blair, Brown and now May. I think we know the answer – as the delightful Soubry says, ‘suck it up’. She should take her own advice.

      1. Andy
        April 13, 2019

        Nobody has asked you for concessions. We have asked you to deliver Brexit on the terms you promised in 2016 – taking into account the options ruled out by voters in the 2017 general election.

        We are simply demanding that you do what you said you would – and we are questioning why you either can’t or won’t.

        1. Edward2
          April 13, 2019

          Come on Andy you know the answer.
          There is a remain majority in Parluament and the House of Lords.

        2. Edward2
          April 13, 2019

          Come on Andy you know the answer.
          We have a remain majority in Parliament and the House of Lords.

        3. Steve
          April 14, 2019

          Andy

          “We are simply demanding….”

          Actually Andy, you’re not entitled to demand anything.

          Here’s why ;

          1 – you lost the referendum, which puts you in the minority and guess what…it works by majority rule.

          2 – from what you tell us it would appear that you haven’t been around long enough to have paid your dues. You have a long way to go before expecting others to dignify your opinions.

          3 – you keep yourself ignorant of what hardship is and at cost to the state, despite incessantly and falsely complaining that the state does not satisfy all your wants. Try real hardship son.

          Additionally you seem to have a big chip on your shoulder and evidently hate things English. That being the case you should really move to your beloved France.

    2. JoolsB
      April 13, 2019

      And if remain had won, we would never have heard the words ‘we must find a compromise’ . Leave would have lost as far as they were concerned and that would have been the end of it. Well LEAVE won and and the remainers can’t accept it so we are told by remainer May and her toadies we must compromise by accepting May’s BRINO or no Brexit at all. As John and his Brexiteer colleagues cannot get rid of this abysmal hopeless EU controlled PM, we must now turn our hopes to Nigel Farage and the new Brexit party instead.

  39. Alan Joyce
    April 13, 2019

    Dear Mr. Redwood,

    Nor should you change your views on how we leave. I do not think voters think very much of politicians that ‘flip-flop’ on such fundamental matters.

    Mr. Richard Drax MP realised how wrong he was to back the WA in the third meaningful vote when he stood up in the House on a point of order and apologised for making the wrong call. He said he felt ashamed of himself for not trusting his instincts and those of the British people.

    The WA was a terrible deal 3 months ago when it was first rejected overwhelmingly in the Commons and it remains so. It is not a good reason to change one’s views and accept a bad deal just because it has been difficult to negotiate a better one particularly when the future of the UK is at stake.

    Someone once said “If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything”. MP’s should bear this in mind.

    1. Chris
      April 13, 2019

      Agreed, AJ. The WA was skilfully constructed for us to have BRINO, and to provide a platform for easy reentry into the EU. The plan has always been to grind people down by saying this was the only choice and by repeatedly bringing it back to Parliament. This was in the hope that everyone would be so fed up and so confused that they would end up voting for it just to have the matter “resolved”. Except it would not be resolved. It does not represent Brexit, and MPs should hold their ground and stick to their principles. Those who haven’t and those about to ditch their principles, take up a place in the hall of shame, in my view.

    2. DaveM
      April 13, 2019

      I’m thinking that a large number of Con MPs are merely backing the WA out of desperation – they see it as the only way to get rid of May, the liberalist globalist dictator who is going to deprive thousands of hard-working local councillors and countless MPs of their seats in upcoming elections.

  40. Duyfken
    April 13, 2019

    Can’t think of anything worthwhile to add. My only suggestion is that you might obtain as many endorsements as possible from fellow MPs (and others?), to give further weight to your letter contents.

  41. Paul Cohen
    April 13, 2019

    The British public have had to endure a long period of uncertainty over Brexit, watching Mrs May operate has been particularly stressful. Mrs May was a curious choice for leader, after three years of negotiations it is apparent that she lacks the necessary negotiating skills to achieve the result required and promised – one wonders if she was set up to fail? She has also gained a reputation for not telling the truth and for being obtuse many times. As Home Secretary she had an inauspicious tenure – one remembers her alienating the whole Police Force Federation audience with her now familiar style of public speaking.

    Liam Fox has been asked to provide an “idiots guide” to leaving the EU for distribution to Conservative MP’s – apparently a sizeable number have not even read the 16pp* booklet distributed nationwide by Cameron – this begs the question of what the hell are they doing in Government then. They should be de-selected pronto

    *As an ex MD of a printing company I was surprised by the stated figure o about £9000 to produce 27 million copies of a 16pp A5 wire stitched booklet – my own calculations for this work including materials (480 tonnes of paper and distribution included) would be about £13-14 million). As Brexit are facing a fine for overspending on promotions I wonder if the cost of a Cameron inspired EU biased publication has been included and for the proper amount?

    If Brexit did not happen would the previous UK position status quo apply?

    Reply The government publication was excluded from the Remain campaign spending limit.

  42. Paul Cohen
    April 13, 2019

    Sorry – previous post!
    Para 3, should be £9 million

  43. James Matthews
    April 13, 2019

    What can any of us say that hasn’t been said ad nauseam? We need to get out. We need to get out without delay and leaving with no-deal is infinitely better than May’s surrender agreement. However our Remainer Prime Minister is determined either to impose her agreement or keep us in. She need not have asked for any extensions to article 50. She could have ignored Parliament on the basis that the law providing for our departure from the EU on 29th March had already been passed and it was now for the government to apply it. Even if Parliament had then been able to force a general election this could not have happened in time to prevent our exit. She colluded with the EU to impose an extension because her preference is surrender and vassal status for the UK. This is the greatest betrayal by Parliament and Government of the people since the primacy of the Monarch in Parliament was constitutionally accepted and of the people by a leader since Wat Tyler’s rebellion.

    Parliament has the power and has decided to overrule the electorate. Given that reality what can be done? I would not rule out another referendum if a fair choice is offered. That means three options – remain in, May’s deal, or no deal, with, MOST IMPORTANTLY, a s single transferrable vote.

    It seems likely though that no Parliament elected under our present system will ever again offer us a referendum on anything important. The only circumstance in which we will be able to escape from the EU is if it collapses, so we will have to devote our efforts to that end.

    Meanwhile, given to events of the last three year, millions of us will conclude that Parliament no longer has a legitimate claim on our obedience or loyalty.

  44. gyges01
    April 13, 2019

    I’ve posted before saying the same thing … that we left on 29th March 2019 and everything beyond that is ultra vires. This policy should not be only pursued internally but externally with the aim of changing international law to ensure that a democratic state cannot be a high contracting party without the sovereignty of the people.

  45. Kenneth
    April 13, 2019

    Hypocrisy is not uncommon. I am sure most of us are guilty of it now and again.

    However, the level of hypocrisy amongst some MPs is staggering and obvious.

    For example, I have heard some ask for a new referendum because the country “is divided”.

    They know – we all know – that we have already done that, so why lie? Why don’t they say they didn’t like the result of the last vote and want another one?

    Can’t they see the damage they are doing to themselves, their respective parties and politicians in general by looking so obviously and so publicly devious?

    And what of the rebel Prime Minister who has pretended that her “deal” is Brexit?

    Her obvious duplicity damages the office she holds and may do lasting damage to the Conservative Party. I am amazed that she has not been removed.

  46. TheyWontCrushBrexit
    April 13, 2019

    Sir John,

    Can you please demand that Mr Cox publishes the Full Legal Advice for the WA…as demanded by Parliament.

    A breakdown of what the £39 billion comprises is also required.

    How can there have been three MV votes, without this crucial information?

    It is beyond belief!

  47. Chris
    April 13, 2019

    What worries me greatly is that some “Leaver” MPs continue to think that a tweak to the backstop will do. In my view, it won’t. The whole WA should be binned.

    It is a very carefully constructed Remain in all but name document which would ensure vassal state status. The PD is also a “dangerous” document as it apparently is full of problems for those who voted to leave. Except for the lawyers like Martin Howe, very few MPs, I suspect, have really got their heads round the PD. They provide such easy prey for those masterminding our BRINO.

  48. anon
    April 13, 2019

    How about talking about reform of the system of governance to ensure the voting actions of MP’s are not in conflict with the manifesto pledges made and the against expressly made promises to enact and ensure that decision is carried through.

    Can we have some articles on democracy and where our parliamentary system has failed or been suborned?
    Can we then contrast that with the EU’s approach to democracy and how they undermine national democracy?

    Can we have an update on what the cabal is planning?
    Likely some anti democratic wheeze to prevent EU elections.

    I suspect & believe any and all possible obstacles will be put in place to make leaving difficult and onerous.

    This government must end itself.

  49. Polly
    April 13, 2019

    Who set the parameters of the Withdrawal Agreement?

    Please could you tell us who is behind it……..

    1. Andy
      April 13, 2019

      Brexiteers are. It is the only deal possible which upholds all the Brexiteers red lines and all the EU’s red lines.

      1. NickC
        April 14, 2019

        Andy, Neither Theresa May, nor Olly Robbins, nor the EU Commission are Remains. Read the WA – it is a draft treaty which locks us back under the control of the EU without even an exit clause. The WA is therefore even more Remain than we have now. The only deal possible which upholds all the Brexiteers’ red lines is the WTO deal.

    2. Steve
      April 14, 2019

      Polly

      Merkel, May, Tusk and Barnier covertly constructed the WA.

      The WA was revealed at Chequers only hours after May’s unscheduled meeting with Merkel…..think about it.

  50. Sue Doughty
    April 13, 2019

    On 31st October 2019 with the WA still not through the House of Commons – because Bercow banned her from trying again – does the UK leave without a deal?

  51. BR
    April 13, 2019

    I believe that we can all now see what May has been up to all along. Her intention was always (and still is) to foist a terrible Brexit in Name Only deal on the country – effectively a Remainer pretending to be middle of the road.

    All major positions are occupied by Remainer. Therefore any successful Brexit is dependent upon their removal. May must be removed, replaced with a pro_Brexit PM and the cabinet reshuffled such that there are no remainers (May’s pretence of creating a ‘balanced’ cabinet is not the way to do it).

    On that basis, Gove cannot be part of the cabinet (and certainly not PM). I believe that he has also been exposed as the ultimate fifth columnist and cannot be trusted.

    It also seems that joining a formal CU is May’s next move with Labour and no doubt she will use that as a threat in some way (perhaps: ‘Vote for the WA now or the next version will be worse’) but it’s an empty threat since if we join a CU, then we can leave it whereas the backstop is forever. I dare say she will attempt to sign something that makes us unable to leave a CU but all of this must be resisted.

    Brexit will take longer, but as long as there is no WA it is still a work in progress which has a democratic mandate to deliver it. I suspect Hammond’s utterances on a 2nd Ref are hot air, trying to exert pressure on the ERG etc since the HoC is not inclined to vote for a 2nd referendum.

    In the meantime, I suspect the next two elections will be painful for the Conservative Party but anyone pro-Brexit must hope for that. Having a cohort of fiercely anti-EU MEPs about to take up their posts on 31/10 is the best leverage possible.

    in the meantime, as I wrote here before, I believe that the ERG should state publicly that they will exit any treaty signed by this parliament as soon as possible – notice has been served and begins now.

    I will be voting for the Brexit Party until this is delivered (leaving all EU institutions). I will also suggest to them that they change their name and aims; I believe that the Conservative party is n longer the party of conservative values and the ‘Brexit’ Party should have a name that suggests that they are in politics for the long haul rather than a single issue.

  52. Mike Cowburn
    April 13, 2019

    It might not work BUT only 9000 more Tory members need to sign this petition to force the party management and the 1922 committee to even more action.

    https://www.petitions.net/reduce_the_12_month_minimum_between_2_votes_of_no_confidence_in_tory_leader_to_3_months

    1. James Bertram
      April 13, 2019

      And this story is breaking:
      #StandUp4Brexit
      ‏@StandUp4Brexit
      51m51 minutes ago
      More
      “The 1922 Committee drew up the current rules concerning confidence votes. If MPs believe that the (12mnth) rule is an impediment to their proper function and responsibilities for the leadership it is quite within their right to change these provisions”
      If Tory MPs wish to change the 1922 committee no confidence vote rules there is nothing standing in their way
      MICHAEL SPICER AND ARCHIE HAMILTON.
      The rules surrounding the leadership of the Conservative Party were once unwritten, governed by conventions and overseen by party grandees….
      telegraph.co.uk

  53. Helen Smith
    April 13, 2019

    I am boycotting Eu goods, and I shall take to wearing a black ribbon to signify the death of democracy.

    I am also having printed a leaflet which I shall plod around my large village delivering to every house to persuade people not to vote Tory or Labour in the forthcoming local elections.

    Nearly half the PCP is Brexit minded and over 70% of the Con party is. The only way the party has a future is to swing in behind Brexit. Brexiteers also tend to be pro free market, pro low tax, everything the EU is against so fits in well with a Conservative message overall.

  54. nhsgp
    April 13, 2019

    Why doesn’t the WA state how much we pay the EU? There are no numbers.

    Lets have a bill where remainers take back control. They have to specify the cap on payments for the EU, all the costs, and they have to specify what gets cut to pay for it.

    Ideally with a clause that the cuts apply in the constituencies of MPs that vote for the deal.

  55. Edwardm
    April 13, 2019

    In delaying or diluting Brexit, Mrs May and parliament not only make our country look foolish, but by prioritising the EU they are telling the rest of the world it is less important to them.
    I want a clean break form the EU and then to treat the rest of the world positively.

    Time will tell whether Brexit is properly delivered and of the fortunes of the conservative party. Conservative MPs (outside the ERG) have it in their own hands.

  56. PaulDirac
    April 13, 2019

    Fully agree with you Sir Redwood.
    I am a Conservative party member, but will vote for the Brexit party if the EU elections are forced on us.
    If a GE is called, (I’m Mole Valley), my vote will depend on the situation, but since this is a safe Conservative seat I’ll be very tempted to vote for the Brexit party..

  57. 'None of the above'.
    April 13, 2019

    I don’t believe that Theresa May is worried about the “disappointment” of taking part in the EU Parliamentary elections. What she is worried about is seeing Tory candidates getting hammered by “the Brexit Party”. I admire your persistence Sir John but your letter will be met with the same disdain that the PM showed Sir Graham Brady recently.
    We must be patient and be prepared to play the long game; just keep making sure that the WA does not get passed.

  58. A.Sedgwick
    April 13, 2019

    Regardless of your eminence in the CP you are wasting your time yet again, join The Brexit Party, not only will that have massive impact it could help get rid of May and free us properly from the EU. You said in the Commons after the Referendum, had Remain won you would have left politics – it has won for the foreseeable future.

  59. Jazz
    April 13, 2019

    Have we left? If not, please keep discussing Brexit and how a Brexit outcome can be achieved.

    Our democracy is predicated on our votes counting. If our votes no longer count, what then.

    Do we have to pay taxes?

    Please keep discussing.

  60. Charles Crane
    April 13, 2019

    Just voted by post in the local elections. We have town and borough to vote in.
    Wrote “No suitable candidate” across both.

    Tory candidate just knocked on my door. Told him that in view of the way May was handling Brexit, breaking every single manifesto promise and ignoring the referendum result, I wouldn’t vote for him if he got down on his bended knees and begged him. I asked him to pass that back to the constituency office. I’m willing to bet he won’t.

    Sorry John. I used to live in Winnersh and know you personally to be an honourable man, but the Party is finished. If May wants a legacy, this is it : “The woman who destroyed the Tory Party.”

  61. Gary Lloyd-Coxhead
    April 13, 2019

    What is your view on the case brought by the Democratic Party before the High Court that argues we have already left the EU, as reported in the Daily Express?

  62. Gordon Nottingham
    April 13, 2019

    Yes, at last someone has suggested a BOYCOTT of ALL EU imports, surely if 17.4 million voters would vote with their feet and wallets then the 27 other countries would demand we got a good deal when we finally do EXIT the EU. ie NO DIVORCE BILL etc. etc

    I have made a start by buying a UK Scooter, I will never buy French cheese or wine again, nor will I buy a German car. As a pensioner I cannot do much more to this end, but would encourage all my friends and family to do so.

    Now is the time for positive action.

  63. vera
    April 13, 2019

    Mrs May is a thorough EU fanatic and always has been. She certainly had me fooled for a while. Notice how she cleverly blames MPs – ‘we could have Brexit now if you just vote for my(Merkel’s) deal.’ It’s like telling a prisoner, ‘you could be out of jail now if you would just accept execution.’ May must go down in history as our biggest traitor of all time, more despicable even than Bliar.

  64. Alasdair Macleod
    April 13, 2019

    The people have been lied to by Mrs May and her cabinet. It is sickening that she remains Prime Minister while really good, dutiful Tory councillors throughout the nation will pay the penalty for her deceit.

    MPs in the ERG have been too polite for far too long. The Parliamentary party should eject her ASAP if they are to stand any chance on May 2nd and May 23rd.

  65. Lee Taylor
    April 13, 2019

    I have always considered myself Conservative and I have never voted Labour (though I have voted UKIP). If there was a GE tomorrow I would vote for a Conservative MP simply because my MP like Sir John has stuck to his guns and voted to leave. However in the local elections I will be voting for a party that wants us out of the EU and that is not the Conservative Party with its current stance.

    When the government of the day defies the democratic will of the public then you no longer live in a democracy and frankly that is the path to totalitarianism. That this should happen under an ostensibly Conservative government is even more troubling. If it was a Labour government it wouldn’t shock me, particularly with its current marxist leader. However the current Conservative government is no longer what I would consider Conservative and from the local perspective I hope they get annihilated. I would also like to see Labour get suitably punished as they have been just as duplicitous as Mrs. May and her cheer leaders.

  66. Melvin Cornwell
    April 13, 2019

    I’m afraid we still have too many faint hearts in the Tory Brexiteer camp, and at the core of that is the same stubborn basic thinking – that even if a full and proper Brexit is not delivered, at least everyone can cling on blindly and save the Tory Party. This is not so – forfeiting the one most certainly means forfeiting the other.
    The ERG / DUP etc have the nuclear option to resolve this, but clearly they do not have it about them to go in where the blood and snot is flying.

  67. ChrisS
    April 13, 2019

    I’m sorry, but Denis and I seem to have to keep repeating this :

    Whatever we would personally prefer, there is no way the House Of Commons as presently constituted is going to agree to us leaving on WTO terms. There are simply too many Remainer MPs who will vote against it.

    A WTO Brexit is now firmly in cloud cuckoo land.

    We have no choice other than to work within the constraints put on us by MPs. Any chance of a hard-ish Brexit was lost when at least 30 Conservative MPs failed to vote for the Withdrawal Agreement at the third attempt.

    Had they voted in favour, we would at least have been out by now. It would then have been up to a new Brexiteer leader to sort out the mess May has got us into. I am sure that a reasonable outcome would have been possible. Especially if a General Election would be held on a Conservative Manifesto of no to a Customs Union.

    Instead, the only chance of achieving any kind of Brexit now, is to get Corbyn on board which will require the Government to sign up to a Customs Union. If it happens at all, it will make the job of whoever takes over from May infinitely more difficult.

    We have missed our best chance. From where we are now, every possible outcome is worse than signing the Withdrawal Agreement.

  68. John Probert
    April 13, 2019

    What a disgraceful act to defy Democracy

    Why exchange one punitive treaty for another ?

    Keep up the good work I think the Attorney General is a Brexiteer

  69. Andy B
    April 13, 2019

    And then jn the mail the income tax bill to pay for the e.u military followed by the brown envelope with the conscription joining details for the younger than average members of the community.

    What would you prefer, best of three from the Guardian , BBC and the Mail? Tell you what lets ignore the Express readers, what do they know anyway, lets have another poll, and another and another.

  70. Deborah
    April 13, 2019

    Thank you for your steadfast support of clean Brexit.
    I see that the latest opinion polls showing voting intentions for any EU elections indicate the Conservatives at 17% versus Labour at 29% .
    I trust that you understand, and hope you will try and convince your colleagues, that voting for May’s deal at this point will only make matters worse, not better, for the Conservatives.

  71. Lookalike
    April 13, 2019

    There will be only twelve full sittings of the EU parliament between now and the end of october so don’t know why we even bothering to go to all of this trouble and expense – 100 million plus for elections- so just boycott the thing and wait until 31st Oct.

  72. Iain Gill
    April 13, 2019

    oh yes lets talk Brexit

  73. Simeon
    April 13, 2019

    Sir John,

    Thank you for your reply.

    Your faithfulness to your party can only make sense if the next leader is able to repudiate current party policy. Is there a possibility that the next leader will be both able and willing to do this, given that the leading candidates on the ‘Brexiter’ wing, Raab and Johnson, both voted for a ‘suicide vest’? Could either of these two be trusted not to, however ‘reluctantly’, accept the ‘inevitable ‘ WA? And even if they were willing to leave without an agreement, could they maintain the structural integrity of the present Parliamentary party? It seems to me that, given the choice, both men would betray Brexit if it enabled then to become PM. So if neither of them will do, then who?

  74. Simon Coleman
    April 13, 2019

    I don’t think he needs to hear it again. Leave without a deal is the only idea you’ve ever had regarding Brexit. £1.5 billion already spent on no deal planning; 6000 civil servants stood down. What a complete farce.
    On another matter…where are all these Brexiteer resignations from Cabinet that we heard were coming? In fact, what have any of those ministers achieved in the last 3 years? Fox, Johnson, Raab, Davis, Leadsom, Mordaunt and others. You must have a view on that.

    Reply Johnson, Raab, Davis did resign !

    1. Edward2
      April 14, 2019

      The Withdrawal Agreement is not a deal.
      It is just a treaty agreement to start talks towards a deal over the next few years.

    2. Fred H
      April 14, 2019

      Sir John, and that was exactly when the weight of Tory Leavers should have joined in !
      Because you all sat back and thought ‘that will show her’ she calmly sat back and waited for it to die down. You all have totally underestimated what you elected. Organised revenge is what is required, tokenism is hopeless.

  75. Cis
    April 13, 2019

    Sir John

    Remember to ask when his legal advice on the WA will be disclosed in full.

    What is May so desperate to hide?

  76. Treacle
    April 13, 2019

    I don’t know which I am angry about more: Mrs May’s refusal to honour the result of the EU referendum, or her throwing away of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win over the northern working class to the Conservative Party by implementing Brexit. Not only has she thwarted democracy and prevented our departure from the EU but she has thrown us all into the hands of a fanatical Marxist who will strip us of our property, ruin the economy and wreck the country. And it was all so preventable. All May had to do was to say “the people have spoken”, and implement their decision. That was her job.

  77. Alan Jutson
    April 14, 2019

    I think the Attorney General probably knows all the failings of the Withdrawal Agreement John, but he has been virtually silenced by Mrs May who wants to push it to its limit, hoping Mp’s will get so tired of voting against it, it will eventually get through.

    May is now so fixated on her deal or no Brexit, she is now trying to confuse some Labour Mp’s to vote for it, calculating that more Labour Mp’s will vote for it, than Conservatives against.

    Given the ignorance of so Many Mp’s in Parliament as to what the W/A contains, and the failure of them to understand workings of the only other option that puts us back in control of leaving on World Trade Organisation Terms, the future looks rather confused and bleak.

  78. Ian
    April 14, 2019

    The vast majority here are for WTO, thank God.
    The elephant in the room that no one talks about is What

    We need a total sort out of yes

    The Lords, you know the wire pullers the ones even Churchill had a problem with, those trouble makers with no responsibility, with permanent seats.
    No one has ever changed them, on mass they are EU lovers
    Oh ,vote Farage anything else will change nothing.
    We will only get change by changing to Leave, anything else and you just get Treachery, the Gove types those that are wedded to The Party

  79. Richard Harris
    April 14, 2019

    I’m one of those who believe strongly in regaining national sovereignty. The current evolutions of the Conservatives have filled me with horror for the reasons you have so ably discussed in the past. If there is not a meaningful Brexit, voting becomes as easy as ABC… anyone but Conservatives.

  80. BR
    April 14, 2019

    Why is my comment posted 13th April, 11:55am, still awaiting moderation? I cannot imagine that there’s anything to concern a moderator there.

  81. GilesB
    April 14, 2019

    The EU will wreck the U.K. economy if we are locked in a Customs Union.

    For example, they will propose to the US zero tariffs on imports of Bourbon, in exchange for the US implementing zero tariffs on Champagne and a 500% tariff on Scotch whisky. It will kill off a major industry in Scotland, but why should the EU care. They could make a similar offer to Japan for Saké.

    Also the EU can offer to open our markets to third countries without us getting reciprocal rights on exports.

    And they can massively increase the common external tariff, of which 80% goes to Brussels, and use the cash to subsidise their importers so that there is no effective cost to their economy, but a massive increase on ALL of our imports.

  82. Alexis
    April 14, 2019

    Yes, I do.

    I believe parliament has gone rogue. I no longer believe that this drive to overturn the referendum, and the similar drive against a WTO deal, is a mere outcome of that old chestnut – ‘parliamentary arithmetic’.

    I think that is an excuse, and that the problem is now – how can I put this? – the people who think they run parliament.

    WTO Brexit, or a better deal, could be pragmatic options, in the hands of people who are genuinely concerned about business, and genuinely concerned about running the country effectively.

    These people are neither. And they have been given the reins of power.

    While they continue to have those reins, they stand poised to destroy the party, the country, and every affected business outside their cosy club, in their determination to overturn the referendum by any possible means.

    This gives Leavers very few options. I must leave you to interpret what I mean.

  83. A week in politics
    April 14, 2019

    Just started, studying Shakespeare. I find more incorrect “translations” than one would expect to find in the Kamasutra translated by Innuit five year olds pre-Damian Hinds.
    It would take me three-score years and ten times ten even if I had a brain with IQ of 200 to set it right.
    I shall do my duty in the bit of time I have left on Earth.
    Funny, but there isn’t reason post 1900, to keep the tomes of Shakespeare adulterated. He has few comments on Brexit

  84. Rhoddas
    April 14, 2019

    Remainers think differently, they clearly desire more EU law and control reaching further into our society and lives, taxation (without proper representation), common protectionist policies, Single Market/Customs Union/EU army, all in exchange for some of our money back in subsidies (e.g. CAP) with mostly unrestricted services/goods/travel/work throughout the eurozone. Remainer MPs, the Civil Service, Mutlinationals and Remainer voters want this so-called “Bargain”. As you say Sir John, this is the easy/lazy option for our HoC/Civil service.

    Leavers think sovereignty, control of our own currency, laws, borders, fishing/agric, Nato and global trade are more important, with accountability in the HoC by elected MPs on a fixed term basis. Making trade deals – whilst I can see our clout would be a tad less, we are still #5 0r #6 trading nation, so I think it will work out. Even Carney & B-liar have said it will be alright… finally. Businesses already trade on WTO/FTA terms and if EU make it difficult for trade then we must act with reciprocity… Fair’s fair after all.

    The dishonesty of the Remain news/campaigning is utterly surreal 1984, anyhow the cat is out of the bag now, though we won’t find the REAL arguments in the national (Remain biased) press, just Project Fear and suppression of Leave news. Now we have to now rely on your diary/others, Order-Order and FB/TW sites whom are Leave supporting.

  85. THS
    April 14, 2019

    Sir Bill Cash is talking about a legal challenge to the PMs extension of Article 50 as Parlianents intention can only be expressed in acts not bills and Parkiaments intention was to leave deal or no deal. Any thoughts on the likelihood of success?

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