By request I am republishing my May 2016 speech
Is this a puppet Parliament?
Or does it have within it the ability to take back control?
Is this puppet Parliament to remain a mere cipher for Brussels?
Or can it take back control to make our own laws and levy our taxes?
Was not this once great Parliament founded on the principle that there should be just laws
And redress of grievances before we grant taxation to government?
Was it not founded on the very principle that those who pay the taxes should have a vote and a voice over how they are imposed?
Was not this the principle that led to the foundation of the world’s greatest democracy, the United States of America,
Taking British ideas and adopting them in a neglected colony where we had foolishly ignored the public will?
Has this Parliament no collective memory?
Has it no understanding of the underpinnings of democracy?
Has it no shame?
Has it no sense of the struggles of those who went before us to establish our democratic rights?
Can they be so easily, needlessly and foolishly swept aside?
Are there no Hampdens and Miltons on the Labour front bench?
Is there no Cromwell who guiltless of our country’s blood
Can with words and votes cast off this monstrous EU intrusion on our democracy?
The Labour front bench are but marionettes, dancing to the tune of Brussels.
Many government Ministers are but players in a drama scripted and written by the EU.
This lackey Parliament tamely puts through law after law required by the EU.
The civil service instructs Ministers to implement every Court decision, regulation and directive.
Most UK governments decline to oppose things in Brussels we do not want, for fear of losing the vote.
Most UK governments seek to disguise how much power has gone.
They try to suppress debate and minimise fuss
So they use this Parliament to rubber stamp decisions made elsewhere.
Today the government accepts an amendment to the Gracious speech to stand up for the UK’s NHS
We were forced to move this because the EU does not share with us the details of the trade agreement negotiations
Why can’t this Parliament debate the terms and mandate the government?
Because these matters are initiated by unelected Commissioners
They escape proper supervision by 28 countries who disagree about what the Trade Treaty should say
Today we debate the dreadful pressures on our public services.
The Conservatives in the last general Election promised to reduce the demand by controlling migrant numbers.
How can we do this inside the EU?
To pay for our public services we need more revenue from taxation.
Where in this Gracious Speech is the measure to stop the loss of corporation tax revenue?
In the last parliament the UK had to repay companies more than £7bn of tax levied thanks to European court cases we lost.
The government forecast yet another £7bn loss this Parliament from more defeats by the EU.
You might have though the modern Labour party would show some solidarity with its sister party Syriza in Greece.
It might lift a voice if not more against the relentless and destructive austerity policies forced on that poor country.
You might have expected a demonstration or two over the mass unemployment of young people in Spain, Portugal and southern Italy.
But no. Because they are promulgated in the name of the EU the Labour front bench judge it prudent to keep quiet
To not rock the boat, to allow it go on.
I have at times in recent years think we happy band of brothers and sisters seeking to restore Uk democracy
Are fighting the English civil war again without the muskets
Just as they had to face down an unaccountable King
Taxing in ways that were unpopular, and promulgating unacceptable laws
So today we find ourselves having to fulminate against Brussels taxes
And EU laws many in our country do not want.
Will the people now speak?
Will they bring an end to this puppet Parliament?
Will they reveal the sham show. The pretend Parliament
Which strut on the stage as if in charge
But has long since given far too much power away,
The power to tax, the power to decide welfare, the power to control our own borders, the power to handle our own criminal justice system.
This is no Parliament
This is but a side show
A pale imitation of the real thing
A masque, a stooge, a lackey of the European sovereign
May 24, 2016
Yes with Merkels hand up Cameron’s backside
May 24, 2016
In Shakespearian terms, a red hot poker would be more appropriate.
May 24, 2016
That would be fatal, and the plan is not to kill our national Parliament but to reduce it to a sham which can continue to fool the population.
December 31, 2016
Exactly.
January 1, 2017
Denis Cooper: “which can continue to fool the population.”
Perhaps it’s time we were a little more exacting as to who we put in the Parliament?
May 24, 2016
With Cameron’s track record for substandard behaviour and lies, who will be the gatekeeper to make sure the vote count is correct and proper? At the moment it appears the country is run like a banana republic. We see that your party is being investigated from the last general election, nothing done about postal vote rigging and your headquarters has shut out the leave campaign from using its data base which it raised funds to purchase.
Should we all take pens, who will check ballot boxes do not go missing like the last general election etc. I am truly worried.
Austria presidential election won by a very slim margin, 0.1 percent, based on postal votes! The Austrians should be asking for another ballot and make sure all votes were cast and counted properly.
May 24, 2016
Wouldn’t you be happy if Brexit were to win by 0.3% thanks to British expats’ postal vote?
May 25, 2016
No, quite frankly. I think people fought for the right to vote and politicians should not corrupt this as they do with every they touch. This makes us a democracy where we chose who we want to govern to raise tax and impose law. A fundamental point for not being in the EU.
Westminster is a truly rotten institution and needs radical reform. Under Cameron we had the promise of change, nothing happened, kicked into the long grass and further subterfuge to cover up all sorts of wrong doing. Including his recent cash for questions from the union to change the law! He should be forced to produce the letters to Serco to see if his negotiation on behalf of the country was in good faith or an utter sham and to see if he lied/ misled parliament. This is disgusting.
Hence the impotent election committee. Not sure how to proceed to prosecute the main parties for fiddling expenses to campaign. Ballot boxes went missing at the least election.
Etc ed
December 31, 2016
Twas not Shakespeare, ’twas Edward II.
May 24, 2016
Well Mick I hope she is wearing surgical gloves, because I would not like to see her tainted with what has emanated from his mouth of late.
May 24, 2016
Worse recession was in 2008 when the UK was in the EU. Mass unemployment across the Eurozone has caused an invasion to this country when Camseron was covering up the true immigration figures and lying he would reduce immigration to tens of thousands. No ifs or buts. House market dropped through the floor in Eurozone countries who are in the EU, destitution across Eurozone countries while the EU elite paid hundreds of thousands to keep it that way! Greece not helped but punished, Italy, Spain, Portugal economic basket cases, France in an awful state. War in the former Yugo salvia, low here was the EU? Repeated Terrorism in Paris, what has e EU done to prevent free movement of terrorists? Nothing. Why are all these facts not in the media or challenge Cameron lies? Why should any of us have laws or taxes imposed on us and our taxes spent elsewhere without any say or right to get rid of the EU elite. Lord Hill needs to shut up, none of us voted for him.
Moreover, JR, the way Cameron is conducting himself, irrespective of the genuine issues, is disgusting. It is dishonest and unpatriotic. What are you going to do about it?
May 24, 2016
There’s a designated group of people who have been given £0.6 million of taxpayers’ money plus other privileges:
http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/journalist/electoral-commission-media-centre/news-releases-referendums/electoral-commission-designates-vote-leave-ltd-and-the-in-campaign-ltd-as-lead-campaigners-at-eu-referendum
who should be exposing him to the public opprobium he deserves.
May 24, 2016
We read today that CCHQ is not allowing you to access the data base you would normally use for campaigning. Who paid for the data base? Did the associations and supporters raise funds to obtain it? Cameron made clear not to listen to supporters or associations othe than when he needed to support to get elected! Presumably this is because most of the grass root Tories want to leave the EU and Cameron is making sure their voice is not heard and throwing every obstacle in your way. Now is this the fair balanced referendum he promised? If I were in your shoes I would call a vote of no confidence which would demonstrate to the wider public not to trust him, even though he would not be booted out until after the referendum.
Good to see Osborne missed his deficit target again. £74 billion, another failed prediction. Is this because we are in the EU? Mass immigration rom the EU increasing the benefit bills?
May 24, 2016
Osborne is a dire & socialist chancellor barking up the wrong tree. Huge deficit, a record peacetime trade deficit, absurd national minimum wage agenda, a bonkers sugar tax, endless increases in countless taxes (many way above the Laffer point), absurd OTT complexity, the damaging GAAR, open door to net liability, low paid EU immigration, IHT ratting, landlord and tenant mugging, pension robbing ………. meanwhile running appalling, deteriorating & hugely overstretched public services that are dreadfully & run organised.
Tax borrow and piss down the drain seems to be his agenda.
May 25, 2016
Reported 2,500 immigrants to the EU in 24 hours, no mention of it on TV at the moment. Previously we heard about all these poor people and now silence! No wonder coward Cameron will not have a TV debate about the EU. This is not about trade and the media are letting him dictate the agenda and diverting attention from the real issues particularly giving away our right to democratic self government.
May 24, 2016
Cameron etc want their Brussels reward for the complete removal of this country from World maps. They are firmly fixed on getting it. All Dave does is lie lie and lie.The NHS cannot survive while being deliberately flooded with non-payers from anywhere who can roll in. Immigration down to “tens of thousands”. Unfortunately that is now per month, not per annum. ex-soldiers who have lost limbs fighting for this country are left on the streets homeless – while the “people” ( I use the term VERY loosely ) can jump out of a lorry after getting here illegally, and are then put in hotels, all found. Disgusting – and Dave does absolutely NOTHING to stop it.
You wouldn’t put the words I want to use John, on your website, of what I think of Cameron – -in fact I don’t even think there are words to fully describe my feelings for this traitor.
I hope Cameron gets what he wants for the rest of us, but he deserves even worse. A very VERY nasty being, certainly not one who deserves respect.
May 24, 2016
The heir to Blairmore is what he is. If you want to get really angry at someone, get angry at those that voted him, and other like him, in.
May 24, 2016
“You wouldn’t put the words I want to use John, on your website, of what I think of Cameron – -in fact I don’t even think there are words to fully describe my feelings for this traitor.”
Ditto!
May 24, 2016
Magnificent. This is what Boris should be saying, rather than playing the boy racer. There are three bullet points that Leave needs to focus on, the loss of sovereignty, leading to loss of control over the borders and progressive loss of control over the economy, despite the retention of Sterling. Make the point that the DIY recession comes when Britain is forced into the euro as the EU plans. Why hasn’t Boris said this?
Those old male pensioners who are now apparently losing their stomach for the fight need to be bribed back into line. How about a Brexit bonus for every household? Cash in the hand.
It is to be hoped that Remain have played their cards too early, after all there are only so many threats you can make, and at some point the law of diminishing returns applies.
An excellent letter in the DT from a man in Sarawak (!). He asks, if Brexit is a leap in the dark, how is it that the government and its agencies can make such detailed predictions of calamity?
Where is Juncker when you need him? And Merkel too? A few more threats from foreign potentates would not go astray after the sugar hit of the Obama intervention.
May 24, 2016
I thought Boris made quite a good speech earlier this month – http://www.voteleavetakecontrol.org/boris_johnson_the_liberal_cosmopolitan_case_to_vote_leave
This kind of thing doesn’t get much coverage though and I only spotted it as I was perusing Lord Owen’s blog.
WRT Obamna’s intervention, Peter Lilley made the point in Parliament shortly after our hosts speech that after the TTIP “deal” there are no other trade deals in the USA queue so we would be both last and first in the queue … if we so desired
May 24, 2016
Powerful. This is the line the Leave campaign now needs to take, and one that Hilton has kick-started – the Sun has a very similar comment today. The facts are that;
1. Osborne and Cameron have taken the economy piece too far to the point where people are now asking why he would call a referendum at all if things would be that bad.
2. Cameron’s WW3 claims have been ridiculed.
3. No one believes he got anything from his so-called negotiations.
4. No one has any doubts about the scale of unwanted immigration or Turkey.
The line to push therefore is simply “do you want to be ruled by Germany and Brussels or by London?”
May 24, 2016
Hear bloody hear. Very well said indeed and an inspiration when one is badly needed.
On a less positive note, sadly we must tell you that Facts4EU.org has been forced to suspend its work as of last night.
JR, we had support from some of your readers although the site wasn’t really aimed at them. It was, however, a very useful and respected source of daily information backed by research into official sources, and was popular amongst voters, campaigners, and one or two MPs.
In many people’s opinion it did a far better job at daily rebuttals and positive reasons to vote leave than the official campaign. (Some would of course say that this isn’t setting the bar very high.)
More information about why the site has had to be suspended can be found here: http://facts4eu.org/index.shtml
May 24, 2016
It is a great shame that your site has been discontinued and I hope some of the enormous money given to Vote Leave can be diverted to use this much more effective campaign. They pussy foot about and don’t even want to talk about the ridiculous migration figures. They think it is not nice to talk about overcrowded hospitals, housing and schools or have to build another 800k houses, as requested by the EU.
Could you not leave what you have done already but without the part that needs editorial input? This could be left for emailers to spread. My pro EU kids and bird enjoyed the one on Carney and Mrs Lagard with the pictures having maximum effect.
May 24, 2016
Why did you remove all the material you had all ready collected and published?
Couldn’t you just leave the site “as was” but not update?
May 24, 2016
I’m sorry to learn that. I intended to send you something, but I didn’t want to open a Paypal account and I was going to email you about that today.
May 24, 2016
Brexit Facts4eu.org
I could not find the information on how much money/what resources you need in order to run the site up until the referendum.
Perhaps you could let me know?
May 24, 2016
With so many prepared to accept the absolutism of Brussels it can only be that they are daft or erroneously believe the the EU is a mirror of the USA. The USA was founded on common cause, heritage, culture, standards and values the EU was on none of those. The EU more closely resembles the USSR and China. The former in construct and the latter in allowing some elements of capitalism to be incorporate into a rigid political system.
Your speech was 100% accurate and anyone who is not swayed and influenced by it have serious intellectual problems. Unfortunately many will not be and they and we will come to very much regret that.
May 24, 2016
“The EU more closely resembles the USSR and China”.Well,yes,but never forget there has been a well placed class of person seeking to establish the USSR,adjusting for the cultural differences,here since the 1920s and with every passing generation since they have become more influential.Apart from some tinkering by Mrs T no Tory government has sought to demolish the bastions they occupy because,as should now be obvious,Lenin’s maxim that “the best way to defeat the opposition is to control it ourselves” has already been put into effect.
May 24, 2016
Strange that those MPs who pride themselves on being the heirs to Pym and Hampden, to the Roundheads and the Levellers, who are certain (as Isaac Foot used to ask) which side they’d have been on at Marston Moor, now stand foursquare for arbitrary taxation, prerogative government, imposed laws, foreign domination and the Divine Right of bureaucrats.
And those who know in their hearts they would have stood with King Charles, and gone down in defence of all those bad things (except the bureaucrats – even the king wouldn’t have stomached that), now find themselves on the side of freedom.
Can Parliament rely on the people to rescue it from its servility and mediocrity? We’ll find out on June 23.
May 24, 2016
I would have liked to have seen them squirm on the benches surrounding and opposite, but then perhaps eunuchs know they are only there to attend.
May 24, 2016
Well done and thank you.
May 24, 2016
Pathetic puppets indeed, you put it very well. So many pathetic puppets, many of whom must fully realise the dishonest & pathetic roll they are paying as apologists & liars for the EU.
You say:
The Conservatives in the last general Election promised to reduce the demand by controlling migrant numbers.
Mrs May, even now, claims “we have control of our borders as we are outside of the Schengen area”, who does she think she is fooling? True we can check the passports at the ports, but we still have to let them all in & fund them (including many violent & convicted criminals or potential terrorists). We also cannot make them leave. Anyone that is, that the other members have given (or sold) citizenship too. Something they might well do to encourage them to move on from their own countries.
How can we do this inside the EU? We clearly cannot. Is is dishonest to claim we ever can.
The NHS is deteriorating by the day due to the absurd structure and funding methods and the extra demand muc of it from lower paid migrants and their elderly relatives (who usually pay very little at all in taxes and NI).
May 24, 2016
Osborne is running a huge PSBR and a record peace time trade deficit, yet has massively increases countless taxes many well beyond the laffer point. Meanwhile public services are appalling and deteriorating by the day.
Do we want democracy or antidemocratic serfdom within in the EU? It might well be our last chance to escape, until the whole disaster disintegrates perhaps violently. It is surely our duty to show the right way to go now.
Do we want leaders that we can vote in, influence and kick out or of people who have no interest in the UK, are rarely even British and whom we can never elect nor influence?
Surely the question is a no brainer, but these puppets clearly have no brains. Or are only interested in their personal careers and their jobs as paid liars at public expense. Pay taxes and then have them used to just to indoctrinate and deceive you you.
Just how much government money is being spent on propaganda for remain and running the country down ? It is becoming like a banana republic under socialists Cameron & Osborne.
Anyone who can say “no if no buts to the tens of thousands”, “cast iron”, and “we will continue cutting people’s taxes” while increasing hugely and with a straight face is totally unsuitable to be a politician.
As is anyone who pretends to be keeping his IHT promise when he is doing no such thing or anyone who thinks that the national minimum wage will help the economy.
They are paid liars and economic illiterates. Greencrap, EUphile, tax borrow and waste, LibDems of the worst type. Brexit is the only way.
May 24, 2016
What do you expect from Cameron and Osborne? The first is an opportunistic ex-PR merchant and I am not sure whether the other has ever had a proper job outside parliament in his whole life.
May 25, 2016
forgot.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/20/with-its-future-assured-the-bbc-is-now-happy-to-toe-david-camero/
May 24, 2016
“Is there no Cromwell?”
“It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.
Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not barter’d your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?”
May 24, 2016
Points well made, John.
Just wondering how many were there to hear them made, and how well they were received. Too often the best speeches in parliament these days are made to empty benches.
May 24, 2016
good comment. i agree. i can read also in your post deep frustration. i share that. where is the Leave campaign? it seems the last 10 days they have been AWOL.
May 24, 2016
Who exactly is this man Matthew Elliot? I had never even heard of him until I saw him being quizzed by a parliamentary committee. He seems to me to me distinguished by his absence. One even begins to think that there is conspiracy!
May 24, 2016
At least the boss of Wetherspoons is doing something.
May 24, 2016
Now Cameron is claiming that European holidays will cost more on Brexit. Tourism in Spain is their biggest industry and the Brits their largest customer. I see no sign that the Spanish wish to worsen their already abysmal economy. Potential trouble in many other spots should benefit Spain.
Ryanair have just announced an average 7% fare reduction . Where do they go, Europe.
The way the Pound is going at the moment, holidays could get cheaper. The man is a desperate fool.
May 24, 2016
Cameron is indeed a desperate fool, but will the public fall for his lies and scares? I do not think they will, but the betting odds suggest otherwise.
May 24, 2016
Have you ever considered that the Bookies (and the pollsters) are in on the Remain scam? Cameron’s actions are not of a man who trusts the quoted odds.
May 24, 2016
You have firmly hit the nail on the head with that speech John.
Any chance of getting it on the BBC news ?
May 24, 2016
@GaryC
None whatsoever.
May 24, 2016
Reporters on the BBC keep saying things like – but the overwhelming majority of respected economists & economic group say remain is far better for the economy.
Well the the government and EU funded ones perhaps. But not the ones who were right on the EURO and ERM. The ones I respect and trust.
The BBC is hugely biased, without the BBC remain would have lost already.
The majority of government funded climate alarmists also said the world was going to warm much further, but it has not since 1998. Do they use the same garbage in garbage out computer modelling systems perhaps?
May 24, 2016
John
You see it.
We see it.
But the majority of your fellow MP’s are blind to it.
Shame on them.
May 24, 2016
John I am sincerely disgusted with the behaviour of Cameron and Osbourne in the latest full scale capitulation to Brussels. I should think Junker et al are clapping from the wings as the duo come out and make one ridiculous claim after another about the effect of leaving the EU. It is total bunkum and they know it. I hope to goodness that there are people left in the Conservatives who have a backbone and if (as some predict) the majority vote to remain in this cesspit of chaos, that the Tories throw Cameron out for his betrayal of our national interests and we install a hardline Euro sceptic who can go to Brussels and thump the table to get this dinosaur to change before we all go extinct.
The EU is a cesspit of failure and does nothing for us apart from bit by bit remove our freedoms, our identity, and load us up with debts caused by the incompetence of others. There is nothing to commend the EU, it is run by idiots, is structured to build sclerosis into its functionality and it will destroy this country with limitless inward migration.
Eurobarometer records that 60% of ALL the EU peoples DO NOT TRUST THE EU – that is a scandalous state of affairs, yet we cannot get rid of the people behind the incompetence. The EU should be operating at 90% + levels of satisfaction and if it doesn’t it should be forced to change until it starts hitting those kinds of numbers.
If Out fails, as it is likely to do with such a skewed and biased Tory leader spending so much political capital on forcing us to stay, millions of us will hope the Conservatives will find a solid Euro sceptic leader to warn Europe that without change the UK could still walk away – there is nothing to stop us from voting for a party that promises another referendum if Brussels goes back to disasterous “business as usual”.
May 24, 2016
You forget, Cameron claimed to be Eurosceptic to get the job! Fallon says rather slyly we are all Eurosceptic aren’t we?
May 24, 2016
Christine
You are not alone in feeling absolutely disgusted at the way British politicians are trying to fix what should be a free and fair referendum.
The price the remain side will pay will be very high indeed if the result is to remain, especially if it is by a small margin.
When the EU eventually takes ever more control, the economy fails, and immigration continues to rise in the next few years. I can honestly see some civil unrest.
I hope it does not happen, but when the public are lied to by politicians, and the democratic route to change is blocked, people eventually get frustrated and lash out.
Cameron and his band of followers may really rue the day they tried to overrule our so called democratic system by manipulation and lies.
A True Statesman would have stood above all of this and simply carried out the peoples wishes to the best of their ability.
May 24, 2016
I think you need to think UKIP.
Frankly it is, and always was, the only game in town.
May 24, 2016
Dr Redwood,
A great speech but it didn’t go far enough….Why no direct criticism of Mr Cameron (and his career minded but unprincipled backers) conduct and character which has proved them unfit for office. He has forfeited his right to party loyalty by tearing up everything you believed in. A golden opportunity lost perhaps.
Isn’t our democracy founded on the principle that our elected leaders are CUSTODIANS of our democracy not owners of it.
Leaders are not, like Mr Cameron, supposed to collude with foreign powers to give away our birthright without consent.
You and many other colleagues gave your backing to Mr Cameron on the understanding he had a rationale mind and safe pair of hands. He has proved you comprehensively wrong.
He is a deadly enemy of true Conservatism and democracy. Did his backers envisage that he would be talking up the prospect of a ‘great recession’ if the British people expressed a will to leave the European Union?.
May 24, 2016
Cameron/Osborne = Praemunire
zorro
May 24, 2016
As a mere mathematician/physicist, come engineer, come businessman I had to look it up on Wiki:-
In English history, praemunire or praemunire facias is a law which prohibited the assertion or maintenance of papal jurisdiction, imperial or foreign, or some other alien jurisdiction or claim of supremacy in England, against the supremacy of the monarch.
May 24, 2016
If only other parliamentarians were so independently minded. Great speech Mr Redwood
May 24, 2016
This needs to be in mainstream media as I think the Remain campaign will win at the rate it’s going.
I hear the leave people around me voting out but they think remain will win.
May 24, 2016
@Sean
If a speech like this were broadcast on the MSM it could undermine the Remain campaign, so it will not be allowed.
Have you paid your TV Licence Fee? (to fund the impartial BBC)
May 24, 2016
I’ve read dozens of forums recently and the comments are consistently about 10-1 for Out. That includes the BBC and the Guardian. I have yet to meet anyone who wants to remain, including my daughter’s friends who are mainly Welsh students. I can only therefore surmise that the polls are either false or that they are taken from a very strange cross section of the population of London.
There’s only one poll that matters though…..
May 25, 2016
Sean, we do not have any mainstream media. They all appear to be recipients of EU largesse. Funded of course by the British taxpayer.
May 24, 2016
I watched the debate and I thought the points you made were excellent and your remarks very impressive.
I notice in the Telegraph today it says that Pensioners are deserting the ‘Leave’ campaign and are going to vote to Remain. Well here is one who is’nt! Among all the outrageous predictions made by the ‘Remain’ camp, I have heard nothing that would convince me to vote to stay in the EU. The mistake many Politicians make is to assume that older people need to be ‘guided’ to do the right thing. I would remind them that increasing age does not bring the inability to think and decide for ones self, so I’ll still be voting to leave, and no amount of ‘warning’ will convince me to do otherwise.
May 24, 2016
UK old age pensions are the worst in Europe at around a quarter of average earnings, wheras Spain has a pension higher than their average. Perhaps the pensioners are being fooled into thinking the EU taxes will bring the same. Instead, they may be aware that the UK has more money invested in pensions, probably private and for state employees than the rest of the EU.
May 25, 2016
I have heard nothing that would convince me to abandon the leave campaign. Sounds like more Goebbels propaganda.
May 24, 2016
Was there a response? Or did the honourable members carry on their way?
This should be set to music and posted on YouTube.
May 24, 2016
Very eloquent, but unfortunately not widely publicised, and probably falling on deaf ears in that place.
Instead we endure the unedifying sight of Dave and Osbo predicting gloom and doom at a B&Q warehouse. The whole event was tightly controlled, and one member of the audience was allowed to ask a question. At the end, a TV reporter attempted to ask the questioner what he thought of the answer to his question, only for a member of the No. 10 “Stasi” to step in, put a hand over the camera lens, and prevent him from answering.
Is this what our free country has come to?
May 24, 2016
A good speech, all unaswerable points, powerfully made. Sums up why I no longer vote Conservative. I don’t appreciate being lied to by political ‘leaders’ with no grasp of economics or it seems common sense.
May 24, 2016
Exactly.
Just professional bare faced liars and economic illiterates in the main.
Doing thinks for, invariably ill conceived, perceived political reasons. Things that usually harm the very people very very they pretend to be trying to help.
The national minimum wage and mugging of tenants as good examples. Mrs May say ing we have control of our borders, Cameron saying we will “continue to reduce taxes”, Osborne ratting on his IHT promise while pretending not to.
May 24, 2016
Reply to Lifelogic and others. There is only ONE party in the UK that is telling the truth about the EU and we all know who they are. Not our treacherous main stream parties.
Isn’t it about time more was said about Italy’s banks and their finances?? Apparently money is being drawn out of accounts at a fast rate. What’s the betting (more goes wrong ed)after we have voted to stay in???!! More money to shell out and even if it isn’t in the form of a loan for Italy we will be charged more to be a member of the EU to make up the difference. Shambolic, liars both in the EU parliament and our own. Hopefully more people will vote leave in the hope we get rid of Cameron and Osborne. They have dragged the Conservative government into the gutter.
May 24, 2016
Brilliantly expounded, JR. Much is made of the ‘blue on blue’ divisions, but I am sure there are Labour members who cringe at their party’s mute acquiescence. Let’s hope you have shamed a few into action.
May 24, 2016
And there was silence in the chamber.
May 24, 2016
I don’t like the phrase ‘take back control’ , I would much rather it was expressed as ‘restore our democracy’, or ‘vote for independence’.
But your speech and post shows up how appallingly Vote Leave have run this campaign. They gifted the Remainers the economic argument, utterly failed to lift up peoples interests fronm their pockets and made them consider the importance of having a functioning democracy. In fact having a functioning democracy is the foundation for having a good standard of living. Failed to show that is the suffocating EU control which is giving rise to extremist political movements across the EU as people lose faith in the political centre to ever respond to their wishes. And if that isn’t bad enough, Vote Leave have made ridiculous claims, like £350million per week, and Turkey claims, which has been a gift to the likes of the BBC , who, program after program, spend most of the time rubbishing them , with the result the argument for leaving the EU is rarely developed beyond that. Don’t Vote Leave understand how terrible that looks to the general public?
I despair at how disastrously Vote Leave have run this campaign , they have been utterly useless, and I am really angry that they have squandered OUR , not just their, once in 40 years opportunity to right the wrong Heath did to our nation in 1973, and I feel it is all to late to get any changes , even if those running Vote Leave would accept any advice or admit error, which I doubt.
PS Just heard Steve Hilton on the Today program , if there is an argument that should be made for leaving the EU, well he has just made it.
May 24, 2016
A puppet Parliament certainly John with the following principal cast members:
Harry Corbett – Angela Merkel
Sooty – David Cameron
Sweep – George Osborne
As for Sooty and Sweep’s opposite numbers on the Labour front bench we have the equivalent of the Castro brothers.
May 24, 2016
….also featuring M Juncker as Mr Punch(lots of brandy please!)and Vladimir Putin as the crocodile that steals his sausages and bites him on the nose when he tries to grab them back!
May 24, 2016
John -very good stuff . The HoC should have been standing on its feet and cheering .
May 24, 2016
I’m sure almost all here agree with your sentiments but recent polls suggest we appear to be losing the argument. Can it really be true that the ludicrous claims of Project Fear are having an effect even among older voters ? I find that very hard to believe.
Everything I have read and heard indicate to me that the arguments in favour of leaving are overwhelming. The threats of horrendous consequences if we left would be laughable if they weren’t being delivered by people we are supposed to respect.
Despite what CMD said after his failed renegotiation, no British government other than, perhaps a majority LibDem and Green one, would seriously suggest that we should join the EU today. That being the case, one would have thought common sense would mean that those same politicians would recommend leaving.
Yet almost to a man they are all signed up members of the EU fan club.
They can’t all be on a promise of a big job on the Brussels-Strasburg Gravy Train like CMD clearly is ?
May 24, 2016
Thank you for stating these inconvenient truths.
What I find worrying is the very few MPs who actually attend most debates. If the matter is “important” then the placement troop in in overwhelming numbers usually troop in to swing the vote along approved lines. The concept of a large number of MPs actually debating an issue, weighing up the pros and cons and finally coming to a sensible decision has virtually been lost?
We need fewer MPs, debating much less new legislation coupled with “attendance to vote” requirements.
On the tactics of the govts “Remain” campaign, there can’t be many dooms, plagues and pestilences left. I understand that Camoron is trying to tell the public (at a talk to Easyjet staff) that flying to holiday destinations will be more difficult and more expensive if we leave the EU. Flying arrangements are surely international and reciprocal. Airline slots and international agreements exist on access to airspace. All existed before the EU and are available to non EU countries.
May 24, 2016
A very impassioned speech, but a little too late, I fear.
However, here is still a month to go. Remain have thrown the kitchen sink at their case – world war, economic ruin, morality – when will Vote Leave do the same? I wrote once that this isn’t a referendum – it’s guerilla warfare. Do you think the gloves are still on at BSE? Do you think it plays well with the British public, remain or leave, to make public statements about faith in David Cameron or George Osbourne’s leadership? Faith is the one card you have. We don’t really know the numbers, we don’t really know who will trade or when, we don’t really know if we will stem immigration – not in your heart of hearts. It’s a belief that we will do the right thing for this country; it’s faith. By saying you have faith, and by “you” I mean members of Vote Leave, in David Cameron and George Osbourne, you undermine your own case and give praise to their figures. Why shouldn’t you believe them when they say the sky will fall? No one has painted them as liars. No one has stepped out of the spotlight, save for IDS, to say they have no faith in them.
The stacking of the deck we have witnessed, from the world’s heavyweights, the world’s media, the “1%” – the corrupting of democracy, will leave a vacuum; one that I fear will be filled up social upheaval and unrest by our future generations. That is how serious I think this is.
May 24, 2016
It appears that the scales have finally fallen from your eyes regarding the current “lackey” leadership of your party. There is hope for you yet.
Next you’ll be joining the TV Tax refusniks.
May 24, 2016
I came across the following in Peter Mair’s ‘Ruling the Void’:
.. David Cameron, leader of the then opposition Conservatives, concluded in the wake of the MP’s expenses scandal .. in early 2009: “I believe the central objective of the new politics we need should be a massive, sweeping, radical redistribution of power. From the state to the citizens; from the government to parliament; from Whitehall to communities. From the EU to Britain; from judges to the people; from bureaucracy to democracy. Through decentralisation, transparency and accountability we must take power away from the political elite and hand it to the man and woman in the street” ..’
‘I would reduce No 10’s Power’, David Cameron, Guardian 26 May 2009.
[Perhaps this was written for him by Steve Hilton?]
May 24, 2016
Mr Redwood
Thank you for this. It appears to me that you are one of the very few honourable parliamentarians currently in the House able to present proper considered arguments. The standard of the debate in the Referendum campaign to date has been pitiful with complex assessments reduced to pathetic scare phrases founded on dishonest assumptions. Your colleagues, particularly Messrs Cameron and Osborne, should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. I believe that the blowback from this campaign will completely destroy this version of the Conservative party and, for me, that will be no bad thing. It has no ideology other than to retain power and no idea what to do with it. Its leaders are not statesmen but appear more like aggressive bullies prepared to do anything to hoodwink the electorate. They are on the wrong side of the argument and, below their external appearance, I believe that they know it. The Consrevative leader ship is corrupt and cannot be redeemed.
If they win I hope that it does not come as a surprise to them to find that they have lost at least half of their supporters at the next election. I am a lifelong Conservative voter but I will not vote for the party again until it recovers its moral and intellectual direction. This is utterly pitiful.
With best wishes and thanks.
Phillip Downs
May 24, 2016
You speak for me as well, I used to be a Conservative party member and activist, at the next election I will not be voting Conservative. Cameron, his side kick, and what they have got up to in this referendum have finished me with the Conservative party.
May 24, 2016
Me too!
May 24, 2016
I think your speech could be summed up by saying our MP’s no longer represent their electorate, but because of our loss of sovereignty, now represent Brussels to the people. And if the contempt with which the people hold the political class is anything to go by, they have noticed this change.
May 24, 2016
About time the truth was out. This should be shared by the media who have connived with Westminster, corporates and big banks for far to long whilst our democracy disappeared. The legacy parties have got us to this point and it is time for sweeping reform with the only democratic party brought to power to bring true reform!
May 24, 2016
Brilliant!
May 24, 2016
Yes, hear, hear! Absolutely excellent but how many MP’s were there to appreciate JR’s’ speech, I wonder?
May 24, 2016
Yes, this is a travesty of our Parliament and the above comment is very pertinent! To see the British Prime Minister flying off to Brussels with a begging bowl held out says how low the British have fallen. I am appalled that people want this to continue.
May 24, 2016
Why oh why are the Brexit campaigners not broadcasting such a speech right across all forms of media, instead of the disunited, fragmented arguments? It is almost as though, across the board, they are unable to actually get the real messages across and thus not making the most of that which ought to be on offer to persuade people yea or nay as to Brexit.
I see in today’s news that the majority of us old ‘uns are now going to vote stay. Hmmm, I don’t know how the poll was conducted but have in mind the old adage that age, experience and cunning will always outwit youth and wonder if there is not a certain amount of disinformation being given by those old ‘uns questioned in the poll?
Carried out my own little poll last night with my three friends with whom I go out with once a month. Three of us positively out, one still undecided. And yes, we all fit gracefully in the old ‘un bracket.
May 24, 2016
According to politicalbetting.com this latest poll was based on a sample of 800, of which the 65+ age group would be a small sub sample. As such the margin of error will be high, and unlikely to justify the headline afforded to it by the Daily Telegraph. Like you and others who have already posted, it does not match my own experience in this age group. Telephone polls usually give Remain a substantial lead. Online polls suggest a close result. Both cannot be right. Both could be wrong. Referendum polling appears to be more problematic for the pollsters than election polling. If you give the polls credence, then Leave is ahead. Alternatively you could conclude know one knows, there is all to play for, there are plenty of don`t knows out there to be persuaded and there is still four weeks to go.
May 24, 2016
You clearly enjoyed the Hollow Crown.
May 24, 2016
Well said John. However we the people are being stitched up in this referendum by politicians , media, big business etc.
Do you think for one second that we the people are going to stand for our country being handed over to a sinister organisation in Brussels?
I’m not sure what our Boston Tea Party moment will be but I’m convinced it will happen.
May 24, 2016
Excellent speech and should we Leavers lose I cannot see how you and those Conservative MPs of your ilk can stay in the party led by Cameron. In my book he was a poor choice from day one of his appointment but I couldn’t foresee how undemocratic he has become.
May 24, 2016
There will be a consolation prize if Cameron’s lies succeed in defeating Leave.
We will get to watch the chickens coming home to roost when we get the bill for bailing out Greece (again) and for bailing out Deutsche Bank and the Italian Banks in the midst of a summer refugee crisis.
Cameron’s credibility and the credibility of those who support him will be toast. ( Talking of toast, the EU regulations on toasters and kettles have been held back until after the referendum, along with all the other vote losing measures the EU is keeping quiet about).
The credibility of the Conservative Government will be shot to ribbons, leaving the field clear for the only alternative; a Corbyn Labour Government.
Those newspapers (aka propaganda rags) which supported remain will also have to explain themselves to their readership, that should be interesting too.
The certainty is that those who supported and voted for “Remain” will regret it and realise they have been tricked by lies.
The only question is how long after the votes are counted will it take for that horrible sinking feeling to manifest itself in the electorate?
May 24, 2016
A lamentation.
But apparently not strictly an elegy, because it is not written in proper elegiac couplets, nor a
jeremiad because that must always end with a prophecy of doom.
I think you have taken over from Sir Richard Shepherd.
May 24, 2016
Your fine and passionate speech, John, is here:
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2016-05-23/debates/1605232000001/DefendingPublicServices#contribution-1605235000001
By the by, do you have a view on why the findings of the polling companies are so at odds with the (admittedly self-selecting) website page-polls run by pretty well all the media except The Guardian (I think)? These report a Leave advantage of around 60/40 in the left-leaning media and 70/30, even 80/20 in the rest.
The sample base on these page-polls is usually huge – several tens of thousands. It’s all very well to whisper about the vociferous on-line kipper army, but that doesn’t really explain why the Mirror and Indy polls have both registered such substantial Leave advantages on perfectly numerically respectable sample bases.
The pollsters’ version requires a vertiginous drop-off in anti-EU sentiment among those who do not participate in these media polls, such that a substantial majority of “shy” Remainers, who don’t read political articles in the on-line media and who don’t have any curiosity to see to what degree their own views are shared, somehow exists. I don’t buy it. I think there is something else going on, perhaps to do with the incapacity of the singularly soft-left pollster “community” to envisage, and thereby model, patriotic feeling.
What do you think?
May 24, 2016
I suspect that you are right.
zorro
May 24, 2016
THERE must be something MORE than just the REMAIN Politician’s bending of the facts to frighten the Country into submission after all they are all intelligent and honourable people. WHAT ‘frightens’ them so much that they consider it absolutely sancrosanct that we remain IN. They know the falsehoods that they are issuing forth, they know that Brussels is corrupt in its thinking and bankrupt in its philosophy and economy and that things need to change but why are they so vehemently opposed to a ‘Leave’ vote when they know and have been told by European MEP and senior ones at that that things will never change in the way that Britain wants it to. Why do the Americans issue warnings to us to ‘Remain’? What’s going on here that we (the Country) dont know about? What’s the hidden agenda because it’s more than straight forward economics? If we ‘Leave’ do we lose our place at the top table at the UN- is that what this is all about – does America think we will lose our influence because we will no longer have a political base in the EU? Again I say is this what it’s all about? If we are no longer on the ‘Preferred List’ at the UN so what? If the Germans take our place there so what? We defend our Nation let others take care of theirs. Our place is in the market place not going in GungHo’ in areas of conflict around the world leaving it unfinished and destroyed – let others take up that challenge. Effective quiet diplomacy is what we are reknown for and we can continue that and a fearlessly,staunch,proud member of Nato. So I ask again what is the real truth behind Remain Politicians vehement refusal to allow Brexit in that they are distorting Democracy to achieve that end?
May 24, 2016
I find the situation profoundly sad .
Virtually everyone under the age of 45 has been brainwashed to equate the EU with Europe and consider anti-EU opinion xenophobic .
They are going to turn the country into a 5#1thole and will be claiming it’s “nobodies fault” when the inevitable comes to pass and their utopia turns into a hell .
Idiots on HM Govt and the official oppositions front benches are telling the turkeys to vote for Mandelson’s post democratic era and the drones seem to be complying willingly .
It’s like Abraham pleading with God not to destroy Sodom .
God says if he could find 50 righteous people he would spare the city .
Then God relents to 10 yet there are no righteous people in the city .
Are there 10 righteous people in HM Parliament ?
May 24, 2016
Mr Cameron stood in an allied war cemetery in Amiens listening to the French President warning of consequences if Britain leaves the EU.
Later he stood by as President Obama presented his “back of the queue” warning to Britain.
It is utterly shameful that a British Prime Minister allows foreign leaders to walk all over him.
May 24, 2016
It will not end well for Mr Cameron.
zorro
May 24, 2016
Whereabouts in Parliament did you make the speech? Are they open Sundays and were the press interested? Very good stuff.
Reply In the main debate in the Commons
May 24, 2016
This excellent speech would have made the teatime news if only Mr Redwood had aimed his guns squarely at Mr Cameron and mr Osborne.more fire in his belly needed…
May 24, 2016
Heard mighty pretty speeches in Parliament. On a par in their eloquence and import with great statesmen of the past. Slipshod Remaindians plonk smartphone with chubby finger throughout. Deaf with play. In a world of their own.
Hard for the Leave Campaign getting the British to vote Sovereignty to such.
May 24, 2016
‘A masque, a stooge, a lackey of the European sovereign’
You only have to hear these pro-EU politicians talk to know whose tune these puppets are dancing to, and Cameron is just one of the worst in a long line of toadies who have sold us down the river.
I often feel that civil insurrection is the only way we are going to get our sovereignty back, because the pro-EU politicians are playing a massive con upon an impressionable and ill-informed public to get their way. Unfortunately, the younger the voter, the more susceptible to the subterfuge. Those with more worldly experience are generally more savvy.
And Cameron thinks after the referendum is over, things will get back to normal and everybody will be big buddies again. In a pig’s ear it will! The Tory party needs to get rid of these pro-EU lackeys or split altogether – that’s how serious the divisions are!
Tad Davison
Cambridge
May 24, 2016
Well said Mr Redwood.! If the vote goes the way of the remain vote.
Why should this country have a Parliament at all? We are ruled and will be “kept in our place” by the EU if we remain.Save a few quid sack the lot!(not you Mr.Redwood)
We need you.
May 24, 2016
The destruction of the British Parliament was self-inflicted. So too the dismantling of our traditional culture and demography.
When people such as Mr Cameron, Mr Osborne, and in deed Mr Corbyn who are steeped Private-Eye-esque in aristocratic family history, resplendent private education, and related one way or another with the Establishment of Dame This, Lady That but unpatriotically and cynically dunk our heads in it by betraying us to foreign powers in Europe, then what is to be done? The rot started at the top, remains at the top and is determined to dunk their own heads in it. Give them their head.
May 24, 2016
Very stirring. Well done John.
We must remember, the EU that Osborne and Cameron are protecting with daily threats about our future security and wellbeing are just puppets in Europe : Weak and ignored. The Labour party when in power just gave everything away too in quiet little rooms like Gordon Brown.
March 2013 George Osborne suffered a bruising defeat in Europe on Tuesday as the 26 other EU finance ministers imposed curbs on bankers’ bonuses in an unprecedented move targeted at the UK financial services sector.https://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/mar/05/george-osborne-eu-bank-bonusesMartin Schulz, the parliament president acknowledged the UK’s position but said “An agreement has been reached on all aspects of the legislation. There is no possible route for one member state to block the legislation. It would appear that one state has severe difficulties with the agreement but the EU must press ahead and get this important legislation on the statute book.”
Jan 2013 Mr Osborne issued his warning to EU members in an interview with the German Die Welt newspaper published today. “I very much hope that Britain remains a member of the EU,” the Chancellor said. “But in order that we can remain in the European Union, the EU must change.” ….Mr Osborne’s interview came to light only a day after a senior German official warned Mr Cameron not to blackmail the EU.
Gunther Kirchbaum, a politician close to German chancellor Angela Merkel said that Britain “cannot create a political future” if it is “blackmailing other states”….http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9795800/George-Osborne-to-the-EU-Change-or-Britain-will-leave.html
May 24, 2016
“But in order that we can remain in the European Union, the EU must change.”
Had he gone mad?
Surely even in 2013 Osborne must have known that it would be catastrophic to leave the EU, whether or not it had changed, it can’t be something he’s just realised:
https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=osborne+brexit+catastroph
May 24, 2016
It occurs to me that the Remainders are always going on about the Leavers having no plan for what would happen after Brexit, but presumably Osborne had a plan back in 2013 so we could ask him what it was!
May 24, 2016
JR, many people do care about our national sovereignty and democracy, but they also care about themselves and their families and friends, and too many will think that there must be something in the numerous threats being made against them by the government and so very reluctantly decide to give way and vote to stay in the EU.
A small minority will vote that way with some enthusiasm; for the rest it will be with reluctance and resentment, but unfortunately the tellers will not be discarding the ballot papers where the electors hated having been bullied into voting against their real wishes but felt they had little choice with the government dead set against them.
It is no different from the bad old days before the secret ballot when a local magnate would let his tenants know how they must vote if they wanted to avoid trouble, and it is actually no surprise to me that Cameron and Osborne have resorted to such tactics.
Our problem is that the designated Leave campaign is so weak. They could take apart the threats being made by the government in detail and show them up for the shysters they are; but just shouting “More scaremongering!” doesn’t do that, and it doesn’t count as a convincing counter-analysis.
Do we have an economic case for leaving the EU? I think we do; but if you just listen to what the official Leave campaign says you might conclude that instead being Better Off Out we would be significantly worse off, “permanently poorer”, and many people in the middle of the debate will not agree that this would be a price worth paying.
At the moment we are definitely losing this campaign, but there is still nearly three weeks before the first postal votes will be returned – June 8th is the closing date for applications – and our position is not yet irrecoverable. I will tell you if we get to the stage where I judge that there is no longer any point in prolonging the fight.
May 24, 2016
Agreed. The essence of a campaign like this is to keep it very simple, focus on just three points and use three words only to make each point. History lessons and discursive comment simply won’t win the votes.
Take back control
Stop the Immigrants
Save the Pound.
Repeat this mantra morning noon and night until 23rd June and ignore all straw man diversions and distractions from Cameron. It’s what Crosby would recommend – he talks about failing to cut through.
May 24, 2016
Mr Redwood – This is some of the finest oratory I have ever heard from a modern day Parliamentarian (although not too much competition there). However unfortunately no one will hear it and the chances of this being featured on the quisling BBC/CH4/SKY is precisely 0%.
It is now the time for action. I hope you have gone to see that nice man Mr Brady and put your signature down with 49 others to start in motion the removal of those two traitors Cameron & Osborne.
I can not tell you how disgusted I am with your dear leader!!!!! ******* treasonous lying ***** doesnt come close!
May 24, 2016
Mr Redwood, I watched your speech on TV yesterday. It was inspiring and very well delivered. It is a pity that more members were not in the chamber. Hopefully many viewers tuned in to the programme.
May 24, 2016
So basically Cameron and Osborne are p****** down our backs and telling us it’s raining…and there is another month of this to endure….
Are the Conservative back benchers going to stand for this ?
May 24, 2016
Off-topic, there is now an extraordinary dispute over whether Turkey is a sufficiently “safe” country for “asylum seekers” to be returned there from Greece, which could have major consequences:
https://euobserver.com/migration/133515
“EU defends Turkey deal in light of Greek court ruling”
The EU Commission says that it is, in general:
“… the EU Commission has maintained that the legal framework in Turkey for the protection status to Syrians and non-Syrians appears to be sufficient protection or equivalent protection foreseen by the Geneva Convention.”
Against that:
“A Greek appeals committee last Friday upheld the appeal of a Syrian asylum seeker who had been listed for deportation under the EU-Turkey deal.
According to media reports, the tribunal in Lesbos said Turkey would not give Syrian refugees the rights they were are entitled under international law.”
Consequently:
““Asylum seekers might now be encouraged to go to court, and if massive number of appeals are granted, that could bring the whole EU-Turkey deal down,” Wenzel Michalski, the Germany director of Human Rights Watch, and a witness to the first forced returns to Turkey, told EUobserver.”
“He also said that the Greek appeals committee only confirmed what HRW has been saying, that Turkey is not a safe country for refugees, adding that the organization has documented shootings of migrants at the Turkey-Syria border to stop people from crossing.
“European politicians made a purely political decision when they decided Turkey is a safe country, not a decision based on facts,” Michalski added.”
But then in the past both the ECHR and the ECJ have ruled that “refugees” should not be returned to Greece, either.
May 24, 2016
Off Topic: EgyptAir Flight MS804 .Again.
Press Reports:-
“France specially SENT a ship to the Mediterranean. It has sonar.”
“Egypt has SENT a submarine”
NATO/EU matériel is looking more like cornflake packet ship and aeroplane cutouts.
The Press is now saying the Med is “very deep in places” “It’s hard to find anything in such depths. ” Well the British Navy has always called it “The Pond” on account of its calmness and not being a “real” sea.
We were led to believe that the The Pond was full of the US Sixth Fleet even before the migrant crisis. Then we were shown pictures of the Med being so full of ships fighting migrant smugglers and picking up distraught rubber dingy amateur mariners that you couldn’t put a sharp mother-in -law’s tongue and nose between them.
Where are the North Atlantic lost armadas? Where is the 2% of our GDP for their upkeep? Where has our money gone for the “Security Measures” of the EU?
…—… SOS Mayday Mayday… All our ships are missing.
And of course a slow-moving civilian aeroplane which did not deviate in distance or time along its radar-tracked flight path.
May 24, 2016
As I am sure you are aware, it is all nonsense…..
zorro
May 24, 2016
Is it a conspiracy that has kept you in the relative background during this campaign? I read eminently sensible arguments on this site, yet cringe as the “leading lights” of “Leave” are effectively (in my opinion) alienating the undecided with their populist sound-bites. Several people I have spoken to recently deride Messrs BJ and NF as almost comic figures, and won’t look beyond the superficialities of their media utterings.
Sorry, but I fear this vote may well leave us to the mercy of an undemocratic and corrupt entity. In which case, I wonder what will become of Dr Redwood and fellow mp’s who tried to stand up for our self-determination.
May 24, 2016
Something to remember, 50% of the electorate are of below average intelligence and discernment. Your own circle may consist of those in the top 1 or 2%, but out there in voter-land the message has to be simplified into sound-bites for ease of transmission and then, consumption. Concerns have to be identified and magnified until voting intentions are changed to support the desired objective. It ain’t pretty, but it works.
May 24, 2016
Brilliant speech Sir BUT……….
I have voted Conservative for over 40 years. Whenever Tony Blair used to appear on my TV screen I had to fight with an overwhelming urge to put my boot through the screen.
I have to say that now David Cameron has the same effect.
He has lied and cheated with his failure to get any renegotiation and the subsequent project fear. I see now that he has ordered GCHQ to stop Brexit supporters from using the Vote Source software tool.
Back to the BUT……..
I am sick of the reasonable tones being used by our side. He has taken the fight from being a fair one to one of rolling in the gutter. Can we stop trying to win a street fight by following Queensbury rules please. Start calling the man the liar that he is at every opportunity. We are always seen as being on the defensive and trying to politely refute the garbage that is emminating from him. Whilst we are refuting one lie he is moving onto the next. It would be nice to see them on the back foot once in a while.
Time to release the Farage !!
May 24, 2016
Very much on topic:
Mr Trump in one or two of his rallies does not take prisoners,- a loose cannon, in US Democrat books.Comes out with interesting commentary of US Defense …naming companies.
He says that some government paid projects go to certain private companies irrespective sometimes that the sophisticated ancillary technology is unasked for by the military; is inappropriate; no military personnel can usefully use it, and in battle conditions is impractical. Billions of US dollars wasted on useless contracts.
Military procurement is Big Business and it has a legendary corrupt element to it worldwide.
Mr Cameron in his meeting about Corruption on May 12th Anti-Corruption Summit spent no time at all even a whisper about the 4th largest economy in the world (UK ) in having an atom of corruption. My we are angels, nay, Archangels.
Well Mr Brown authorised the building of at least one aircraft carrier without aeroplanes. Not said, but also bereft of support ships feeding it literally and with water, fuel, ammunition and health care;also, physical diverting incoming,- becoming dummy targets. Such an aircraft carrier even belatedly provided with appropriate aircraft could not go to sea for above two weeks without returning to someone’s port or held to ransom on the high seas by the enemy. ( The Russians are obviously aware of the logistics of aircraft carriers.)
The point: there does seem a mighty hole in the accounts of money the UK provides to both NATO and EU on security in regard to weaponry and personnel. All is secret. Very convenient. But show us the money!
Let’s have a grand parade as in Red Square Moscow ( method in their “madness” )..show us our soldiers; show us our equipment; our rocket launchers; our bazookas; our grenades and rifles, tanks, armoured cars, field guns, anti aircraft missiles and mobile missile carriers. Let us have a fly -past of identifiable aircraft in our service and a marine sail-past of our ships and submarines. Let us SEE our military wealth.
May 24, 2016
Well done. This can’t be a full Hansard record because you must have been interrupted.
I want to complain bitterly about the ineptitude of the Vote Leave central campaign. They think that it is a good idea to spent lots of time banging on doors to canvass opinion and perhaps fine tune the message.
They are wrong. This campaign is about maximising the core vote. We know which buttons to press, namely immigration/freedom of movement, sovereignty and the economy. Polling indicates that we are losing the economic arguument, which ought to be ridiculous given any REASONABLE view of the short and long term future.
Below is an extract from a letter that I am posting to Lord Lawson today:
“We need to put four blockbuster rebuttal documents in the public domain, sent to the television channels and the press, stating that these are official Vote Leave documents which should be given prominence:
– A rebuttal of the original HM Government pamphlet, which was distributed at a cost of £9 million to taxpayers;
– A rebuttal of HM Treasury’s 200 page ‘study’ (the dodgy dossier) about the long term consequences of Brexit vs Remain;
– A rebuttal of HM Treasury’s analysis of the short term consequences of Brexit; and
– A dossier debunking the track records of all the individuals and institutions warning of dire consequences from Brexit.
I’ve had a go at the first two (enclosed). If Vote Leave staff can do better, that’s good, but the job needs to be done. One number spun by Remain makes me scream. Services comprise 80% of the UK’s economy. True, but that contains the vast domestic sector. Services exports to EU-27 are only 4.6% of our economy. Please get that number out there.
Any rebuttal of the short term consequences must be based on rational behaviour, irrational behaviour being impossible to predict. Is it possible for the pound to crash, our trade balance to worsen, interest rates to rise, house prices to crash and inflation to take off, all at the same time? Surely Shome Mishtake.
Example of debunking are:
– Lord Hesletine – believed the UK should join the EuroZone. Still believes we should join the EuroZone;
– John Major – the Chancellor who took us into the ERM; the PM who wasted £2 billion of UK money on the foreign exchanges between 12 noon and 5 pm on Black (White) Wednesday by delaying our exit from the ERM; the PM who failed to veto the Maastricht Treaty; and
– Christine Largarde – urged the UK to join the EuroZone; has prostituted her office of CEO of the IMF in order to prop up the Euro.
—————-
Please, Mr Redwood, contact Lord Lawson and see that this gets done.
May 24, 2016
They also threatened “if we came out of the ERM interest rates would have to go up further”. They then fell dramatically post white Wednesday.
Major and the other culprits did not even have the decency to apologise!
May 24, 2016
John,
Are you aware of the powers Herr Juncker has under Article 7 TEU to effectively neutralise the powers of any duly elected government of which he doesn’t approve? To quote :
“The Commission can now trigger a “rule of law mechanism” (Article 7 TEU) against nations it perceives as deviating from “the common constitutional traditions of all Member States.” Ultimately, “far-reaching sanctions” can be exerted, and a country can be stripped of all voting rights in the EU and have funding blocked. ”
I find this rather worrying and totalitarian dictatorship by the unelected of the highest order. Please ensure your Leave colleagues are aware of this and make much of it.
May 24, 2016
I read about that today too. This is genuinely worrying – are they priming themselves for a Le Pen victory?
This – along with all the other things that are being saved until after the 23rd June – needs to be made as public as possible as soon as possible. There are several newspapers and websites which will publish.
May 24, 2016
All that you have said is so very true John.
May 24, 2016
Nice one John
Were there any responses from eith side of the house?
May 24, 2016
The stark contrast between how the public receive the stage managed meetings of David Cameron and his fear promotions and Nigel Farage on his Brexit bus is heartening to those Leavers dismayed by the official Vote Leave campaign and the reported polling trends. Just look at this videoclip of the Brexit bus in Dudley. Apparently Farage is getting rapturous welcomes and he actually talks to real people in language they understand. What a communicator, and what a shoddy PM we have who has to resort to spin and what I consider to be lies to wage his campaign and frighten people:
http://www.expressandstar.com/news/politics/2016/05/24/brexit-nigel-farage-issues-ukip-rallying-cry-as-eu-referendum-nears/
May 24, 2016
JR your speech to Parliament was admirable but just how many MP’s were present to hear it.
Perhaps one of the more informative pieces I’ve read recently re what ails our democracy is the lack of it. Mr. Steve Hilton gives us his thoughts on this in the Press. He considers the further the voter is removed from the decision making on matters that effect their daily lives the more disinterested and detached they become. We’ve known this for decades hence the often low turnout at election time. It is not always ‘can’t be bothered’ syndrome – very often it’s what’s the point.
Regionalisation is a good example of this. In my town of 14,000 we used to have a Town Council where you could go in and ask to speak to one of the officials and if available he would do so. Now you telephone your LA and often go round in circles trying to get the appropriate person who is usually otherwise engaged and eventually after several attempts you call it a day.
If we hand over more powers to Brussels we will be further disengaged but that appears to be what our PM wants as he sure is lying his way to that end and result. This individual is not a Conservative. In fact does anyone know what he stands for other than the aim of governance of the UK from Brussels. No mention of this in his Party’s 2015 manifesto.
When it comes to our Referendum the level of discussion on the implications of what might lie ahead have never been discussed so to all intent and pupose we will be voting for a pig in a poke. The latest poll out today by an organisation called ORB gives Remain a 13 point lead with men, pensioners and the Cons. going over to Remain. Personally I don’t think this figure is accurate but assuming it is or with even a closer margin of error it will be a huge challenge to turn this around.
The conclusion by Steve Hilton, re the article I refer to above, is we may have to experience being governed from Europe for up to twenty years or more before deciding that our Parliamentary democratic form of government is not compatible with that of the EU. By that time it will be a full blown Federal State of Europe and our Parliamentary democracy long since gone. Mr. Hilton was instrumental in encouraging Mr. Cameron to become PM. He is now in the Leave camp.
May 26, 2016
A handful of Conservative mp’s and a lonely government minister.
The telegraph picked it up but the official VOTE LEAVE campaign have completely ignored Redwood’s speech.
If he was speaking for the Remain side it would be on a rolling twitter feed all day.
May 24, 2016
PS to above post:
Michael Deacon, D Telegraph wrote a scathing article about Cameron and Osborne’s fear presentation at Eastleigh B and Q, and how the “joke” about DIY Brexit went down like a lead balloon:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/23/david-cameron-and-george-osborne-made-a-joke-about-brexit-and-it/
May 24, 2016
A puppet government indeed, and with further frightening sanctions in the offing for those governments democratically elected of whom the Commission does not approve. See this latest from Juncker:
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/05/24/eu-vows-use-new-powers-block-elected-far-right-populists-power/
May 24, 2016
Off-topic, a long meandering and I would say deeply flawed article by Hague today:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/23/trade-deals-are-the-worlds-best-hope-of-avoiding-the-new-recessi/
“Trade deals are the world’s best hope of avoiding the new recession”
Firstly we have been told by Hague’s chums Cameron and Osborne that the timescale for agreeing and implementing any significant new trade deal is very long, and even if they were exaggerating, as usual, it is certainly true that it would be far too long for new deals to be an effective means of avoiding an impending a new recession.
Secondly they are not necessarily of any great economic importance, for example on the government’s own projection TTIP would add less than 0.6% to UK GDP, and as I recall much the same for the rest of the EU and a bit more for the US.
Thirdly, the closer the world approaches complete liberalisation of trade the weaker will be the impact of any new deals for further liberalisation, there only being a diminishing residue to liberalise, and so they will become less and less effective as a means to avoid a recession, even less effective than Hague suggests at present.
Which reminds me of another article in the Telegraph recently:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/05/15/the-new-trump-order-global-trade-growth-stutters-for-first-time/
“The new Trump order: global trade growth stalls for first time since WW2”
The reference to Trump is not in fact particularly relevant, this is what struck me:
“Economists might not agree on much, but on globalisation, they sing in almost perfect harmony. The benefits of trade are what have made us rich, they say, dragging up the living standards of people across the globe.”
And yet:
“Against this the backdrop of an increasingly hostile political climate, trade growth has seemingly hit a wall. For the last five years, trade has grown more slowly than the global economy, a phenomenon unheard of since before World War Two.”
Or, the global economy has grown faster than the volume of global trade, when from past experience since the war conventional economists would expect the opposite.
So what price those models which assume that the creation of any impediment to trade will inevitably feed through to a reduction in economic growth and GDP?
May 24, 2016
Great! That is the issue. If Labour would rise up to its patriotic responsibilities rather than pretending workers’ rights are protected by Europe, we would be home and dry. Attlee and the Labour Party rejected Halifax in favour of Churchill; would that the present front bench had any of that integrity.
May 24, 2016
“! want to complain bitterly about the ineptitude of the Vote Leave central campaign.”
Don’t get me started on the local organisation in my area; after a launch complete with Tory MP, there has been a total lack of leadership or communication or anything resembling a campaign. The problem of course is that Vote Leave is not supported by a political party so those that support it locally cannot call on the resources of their local party organisations. The only party which could organise a local campaign has been deprecated by those affiliated to parties run by traitors with which they appear to be comfortable as though it is just another difference of opinion in a broad church: well it isn’t; it is fundamental issue and anyone who belongs to a traitor’s party is a traitor by helping to sustain it.
May 24, 2016
JR ‘Are there no Hampdens and Miltons on the Labour front bench?
Is there no Cromwell who guiltless of our country’s blood’.
In the interests of balance..
Are there no Powells or Ridleys on the Conservative front bench?.
(No only Nicky Morgan , Amber Rudd, Matt hancock et al. who are guaranteed to do whatever the PM tells them to do .)
May 25, 2016
Expressed nicely . Thomas Stearns Redwood.. TS Elliot also a strong conservative.
May 25, 2016
I had read the Hansard transcript but have only just now seen your speech on Parliament.tv, stirring stuff and absolutely spot on.
May 25, 2016
Big thank-you Mr Redwood for the great speech on the reason for Brexit, well delivered on the vital points that for unfortunately the Leave Campaign are not getting the message across. Your speech should be shown across all channels on prime time TV instead of the Dad’s army style advert that was recently aired.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/673677/EU-referendum-John-Redwood-voters-to-banish-puppet-parliament-Brexit
May 26, 2016
JR – Why hasn’t this excellent speech been distributed through social media by the VOTE LEAVE campaign ?. Have they been got at by No. 10 what is going on ???
Reply I don’t know. You could help ask them to do so
May 25, 2016
I’ve just watched your speech, Mr Redwood. Very inspiring and very moving. Had I not already been a Leaver, it might well have converted me. Congratulations.
(Pity there were so few to hear it.)
December 31, 2016
Will the people now speak?
I thought we already had by way of the referendum. We have clearly stated we want out of the EU. When are our politicians going to listen and take heed? Are we, the British public never to be heard? 2017 will be a really decisive year when we can all judge what our politicians think of us and who is listening. Another election will be interesting.
December 31, 2016
We are now rid of Cameron and his left-of-centre policies . Voices of the right speak more for the independence of this country and the rights of the people . The future is brighter , challenging , and – above all , stimulating .