I see no point in delaying our exit from the EU. I have never understood why we would be able to strike a good deal after March 29 if we were unable to strike a good deal in the 2 years 9 months of delay so far in implementing the decision of UK voters. Leave voters expect Parliament to implement the decision, not to seek out ways to undermine , delay or cancel it.
Yesterday the President of France and the Prime Minister of Spain both seemed opposed to the idea of delay in Brexit. France might consider it if the UK had changed her mind about leaving and now wanted a second referendum. Mrs May rightly continues to rule that out. Neither favoured a delay or further negotiations about the draft Withdrawal Agreement.Ā Ā Spain like Ireland strongly believes the Irish backstop has to stay in place unless and until both the EU and the UK agree it can be removed.
There is a general briefing line coming out of Brussels that any delay could notĀ be longer than two to three months anyway. Ā They argue that the UK will cease to be represented in the European Parliament from 2 July when the newly elected Parliament takes over. The UK is not planning to field candidates, and the EU has decided to redistribute some of the UK seats to other countries and to abolish the remainder. If the UK is not in the Parliament it cannot legally be a member of the EU as it is no longer represented in the body that is an important co legislator with the Council, responding to the agenda and draft laws of the Commission.
Mrs May has always made clear the UK will notĀ be contesting the next European election. It is a good fortune that the old Parliament expires shortly after the official date for Brexit. There have been no moves from rebel MPs in Parliament to seek to reinstate UK candidates or UK seats, which would of course require the consent of the EU. Whilst nomination papers do not have toĀ be in before April, some party campaigns have already begun on the continent and parties are preparing for the new distribution of seats resulting from the UK’s departure. The longer the UK leaves wanting to fight the election the more unreasonable it would be to other EU members to seek to join in when othersĀ have planned their election campaigns around the configuration of the Parliament without the UK.
I assume neither the Labour nor the Conservative parties will be wanting us to contest the EU elections. Were they to do so it would create great anger amongst the Brexit supporters in the country who would see it as breaking promises to leave. It would create ideal conditions for pro Brexit parties to do very well at the expense of traditional parties.
Delay would make the UK look weak. It would increase and prolong uncertainties. It would invite the EU to demand even more concessions. The UK government always said No deal is better than a bad deal. If you issue such a statement you have to be prepared to carry it out.
February 28, 2019
“Delay would make the UK look weak.”
I agree.
However the vast majority of MPs and media seem to have no problem seeing the United Kindon humiliated.
February 28, 2019
The UK already looks weak because its government is weak.
There are three issues
1 an untrustworthy PM
2 a government without a working majority
3 a HoC that opposes Brexit by c500 to c100
February 28, 2019
From what I hear the reason for delay is primarily legislative.
Apparently there are six major bills to be passed, setting out the future path of the nation after Brexit for fisheries, agriculture, trade and so forth. All are highly contentious.
Trying to pass and debate such legislation between March 13th and 29th seems wildly unrealistic. This isn’t to dismiss Brexit, but I don’t think anyone wants a slapdash Brexit, which risks everything going wrong and us having to rejoin the E.U straightaway.
February 28, 2019
Merlin, Don’t be silly. The government has had nearly 3 years. It is their fault if they’re not properly prepared in time.
March 1, 2019
Indeed. They should have stared preparation for a Brexit outcome as soon as the referendum was decided upon by Cameron. Not to was gross (criminal even) negligence by the Cameron and May governments and the civil service.
March 1, 2019
I agree entirely.
The government should have passed this legislation, but they haven’t, so we can’t leave yet.
I think we are in furious agreement.
February 28, 2019
JR, your continued wishful thinking is pitiful. Either use the strength of the 110 leave MPs to lever dishonest May and her cohort of traitors in cabinet to leave the EU as promised or stop whinging. Party loyalty notions are over if you wish to win.
Events last weekend by Rudd and her traitorous actions showed her lack of representative democracy, national interest, party loyalty. Self centered interest of the EU above country ie traitor. Did Rudd care she had betrayed her supporters who campaigned and raised funds for her to be elected on promises she never believed in or was happy to renege on? Did she care it might bring the government down, acted against collective responsibility, against loyalty to a May who put her in office? Did Rudd care it humiliated your party, cabinet or May? Or was this with May’s connivance to hide behind?
The EU is never going to negotiate a good deal. This is not about economics it never was! In fact it has not done so. The trade deal has yet to be discussed. Which is likely to be dreadful to add insult to Injury! May calls her servitude plan the deal to deceive and hide this fact. Again, more dishonesty. It was in your manifesto to agree both in two years. Her lie that it cannot be done until we leave was never written in your manifesto.
Does Bercow care he has broken the constitution and ruins the role he performs to fulfil his ego?
Your reply to Dominic is also pitiful.
Wake up, get some balls and act.
February 28, 2019
I was greatly heartened to hear non-EU immigration is increasing to offset the fall in EU immigration, with 261,000 non-EU citizens migrating to the UK last year – a great many from India. So I think there is a really positive diversity message coming out of Brexit and it should lead to this country becoming even more cosmopolitan, which is something we can all celebrate.
In short, I’m prepared to concede there appear to be some positive sides to Brexit that I hadn’t anticipated.
February 28, 2019
This is indeed good news, if they aren’t allowed to claim in work benefits, child tax credits for any children left behind at home, housing benefits and are paying their healthcare top up costs that working immigrants should take out – this needs much more publicity than it gets and notices in GP surgeries.
I read that many of the ROW immigrants are higher qualified too but they have to not be a drain on the benefits system.
February 28, 2019
JR, this is the sort of people Hammond, Grieve, Letwin, Soubry and Cooper are helping. āThis is what Herman Van Rompuy has said, with their backs against the wall, the abyss in front of their eyes and a knife on their throat we are nearly there.
Now tell me these type of remainers are not traitors to this nation. When speaking in false sensational language inside and outside parliament. Then Cooper has the Gaul to speak about language used. Another traitor who needs to be ousted by her local party activists.
February 28, 2019
Was she speaking Gaul, Latin, or Romano-Gaulish?
To have the gall, fcs.
February 28, 2019
Like you have previously confirmed predictive text can be frustrating. What a waste of time if this were your point.
February 28, 2019
We needed someone like Mrs T to deal with these EU bullies.
February 28, 2019
Mark Francois is now as robust as Sir John: https://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2019/02/mark-francois-the-voluntary-party-must-now-save-us-from-ourselves.html
“I have never seen anything even remotely like this. It is one rule for Europhile Ministers and another for everyone else. …
I welcome the suggestion, advanced on [ConHome] and supported by Jacob Rees-Mogg and others, that local Conservative Associations should now follow the clear lead of their senior Voluntary Party colleagues by debating and passing the same motion, at their Annual General Meetings around the country, most of which will take place during the āAGM seasonā next month.
This would send a powerful signal to Downing Street and to CCHQ that the Voluntary Party is resolved ā and can no longer be taken for granted.”
February 28, 2019
We would not want the UK looking weak now would we!
I mean what a staggering comment with no self-awareness.
The world is literally laughing at us.
And when I say us I actually mean the angry Tory pensioner government.
February 28, 2019
Politicians have made the country a laughing stock – not the British people. Another thought: the great success of our organising the London 2012 Olympics seems a very, very long time ago.
February 28, 2019
If you are an employer as you claim Andy, you really need to do an Equality course, get more self-aware of the Equality Act of 2010, diversity, age discrimination, harassment law, and human rights.
February 28, 2019
No, we are still laughing at you, āAndyā. Bad management can always be removed. Unless you stay in the EU, that is. That is the whole essence of Brexit and why extreme & angry remainers, like you, concentrate exclusively on trade and economic non-problems.
February 28, 2019
Dear Mr. Redwood,
Andy,
You know that sound of laughter you can hear well it’s the rest of us having a good chuckle when we read your posts.
February 28, 2019
I am somewhat confused by your comment. The UK is made to look weak by the opposition to the democratic vote to leave by both labour and Tory mp’s. All compounded by fact their mp’s were elected on the basis of manifestos which promised to implement the peoples vote of 2016. The world is not laughing, but sad … however the eurocracy is indeed giggling away, that’s what children do when playing silly games.
February 28, 2019
Ageist comments are akin to racist comments or slights against any other different social group. You might be old yourself one day. Hopefully by then, you would have learned how pathetic you are and stopped saying such things!
February 28, 2019
Frau Merkel must be constantly rolling around on the floor laughing her head off. The UK staying in the EU allows Germany to nearly eliminate its national debt by running down its armed forces and by hiding behind our nuclear deterrent. While we are net contributors to an organisation that allows them to sell more stuff here than they buy from ourselves. We have been humiliating ourselves well before the referendum.
February 28, 2019
Dame Rita
” allows Germany to nearly eliminate its national debt by running down its armed forces and by hiding behind our nuclear deterrent.”
Not hiding, just being realistic recognising that it’s useless. Why throw good money after bad?
The reason they sell more stuff than they buy from us is that they make more of it and generally make it much better. However, until now they’ve generously allowed us to assemble their cars here. Hope this continues otherwise we shall lose even more jobs in the car industry.
February 28, 2019
The 30% German Euro currency exchange rate advantage gives them a huge advantage.
February 28, 2019
Perhaps you’d like to argue your case against the author of this article with the headline:
Britain’s economy is set to boom and become the largest in Europe ā because of Brexit by Liam Halligan (Daily Telegraph)
‘The public finances are on the mend, recording a healthy surplus in January on booming tax receipts. Employment is at record levels, with real wage growth at a two-year high. Despite a global slowdown, Britain expanded 1.4 per cent last year, recording just 4 per cent unemployment. Yet Germany and France are on the brink of recession, the Italian economy is contracting and eurozone joblessness is twice as high…………’
February 28, 2019
Andy, Our friends are in despair, and our enemies are laughing at us. But that is because our Remain establishment has decided to overturn the will of the British electorate to get out of the EU. Either we are a democracy, and accept the popular vote, or people here and internationally lose trust in the UK as a state. That loss is far far worse than your imaginary Brexit problems.
The oddest thing is that your position, and that of the Remain establishment, has all been debated over the last three decades. And you still don’t realise it. You “cared” so much about the EU before 2016 that you totally failed to engage. I have not seen a single thing said by you or the rest of Remain that has not been dealt with, sometimes decades ago.
February 28, 2019
Indeed but May’s WA will actually make the UK a very weak vassal state for years to come. It is a total outrage, how could anyone vote for it unless they are an enemy of the UK?
February 28, 2019
Lesson from Donald J. Trump’s negotiations with North Korea that Theresa May and her appeasers need to listen to – ‘You always have to be prepared to walk’.
I guess Mr President understands better than our own leader that no deal is better than a bad deal. Somehow, I cannot see the United States getting bullied and walked all over on his watch and I take my hat off to him.
Oh if only we had a strong leader too!
Tad
February 28, 2019
Or to quote Kenny Rodgers…
Come on Theresa lets see if you can pull a rabbit out of the hat…or whether the Withdrawal Agreement really is a “dead parrot”… regardless of how beautiful its plumage is…
February 28, 2019
The trouble is, Brexit is not the big gamble the negative people say it is. They just want to scare everybody for their own dubious myopic ends, but far fewer people are prepared to swallow their BS any longer. They’re tainted and discredited.
There’s great opportunity in leaving the restrictive EU, and we in the UK have nothing to fear but fear itself. I have no doubt good people will soon see the positives and set about making our new-found freedoms work to this nation’s advantage, but it is always an up-hill task trying to make unimaginative people see things as clearly as we leavers do.
Tad
March 1, 2019
Too true Tad,
But the gamble will be in the next few weeks…
The WA can be voted down (with ERG support), but can leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement i.e. “no deal” be voted through without the risk of delaying Brexit?
March 3, 2019
Well said Tad – I fully agree
February 28, 2019
George Eustace: “āWe must therefore have the courage, if necessary, to reclaim our freedom first and talk afterwards. We must be ready to face down the European Union here and now. The absence of an agreement poses risks and costs for them too.ā
So one more vote against May-Robbins’ awful Subordination & Servitude WA.
February 28, 2019
Richard,
I agree with him and your own line, but there’s an awful lot of his fellow parliamentarians who are out of step and out of touch with the people, and could yet wreck it all by design and subterfuge.
If we do manage to rid ourselves via the ballot box, of those like Grieve who have been appallingly disloyal to this nation by pandering to the EU, it can only be a good thing, but we need a different type of politician in their place who can cut through and see the world that lies beyond the M25.
This is why I so frequently mention the need for a different selection process that reflects the views of the Tory party membership rather than those of the ‘metropolitan elite’ and the Heath-ites. That way, they might begin to win elections outright and on a regular basis, and bring disgruntled and disenfranchised people back to the fold. We haven’t had a good Prime Minister in this country for twenty-nine years – and it shows!
Tad
February 28, 2019
I am not sure he is disloyal he has a French mother. Perhaps he is more loyal to France/EU than the U.K.
February 28, 2019
Sir John,
I agree with your article in its entirety, but remain concerned that a true Brexit will, one way or another, just not be delivered – neither on 29th March nor at some future date . I am normally an optimist and hope that I am wrong, so I am hanging my hat on the following extract from an article which appeared in the Daily Express on 27th February entitled:
āLaura Kuenssberg MOCKS Theresa May on her ‘EXTRAORDINARY’ Brexit U-turnā
Most of the article is what you might expect from the title. However, the voting options from March 12th are summarised as follows:
1. Theresa May announced that on the 12th of March Parliament would be having a meaningful vote on her deal. If this passes the UK will leave the EU with the Prime Ministers deal.
2. If it is voted down, the following day, MPs will vote on whether to leave on a no deal Brexit.
3. If this fails, the UK will have a vote on delaying Brexit by extending Article 50 on March 14th.
4. If this is voted down by MPs, the UK will be leaving on a no deal Brexit, if it passes the UK will need to request an extension to Article 50.
I am not too sure of the likely numbers but perhaps the following outcomes are possible:
1. Voted down (Hopefully!!!)
2. Probably voted down (Unfortunately)
3. Possibly voted down
If this is the actual scenario, then āNo Dealā becomes the fallback option ā which would be absolutely great.
Do you agree with the Daily Expressās summary of the situation and dare we hope that there is so much disparity of view in the HoC, (and the option of a Brexit delay is unappealing to a sufficient number of MPs) that we might actually end up with departure on WTO terms and all the benefits that will bring?
Reply Parliament could vote against WTO exit but we would still have a WTO exit unless it went on to change the law. To do that the government itself would have to make the change or allow it to happen. WTO exit is still the default position,
February 28, 2019
@JR reply; More to the point, it is the default position the now doubting MPs (on all sides of the house, bar the LDs and the SNP) voted for, if these now doubting MPs had wanted to insert Brake (or indeed BRINO) clauses into the Withdrawal Act they should have done so when at the Bill stage, not try to do so on the sleigh all but two years after our A50 notification.
That said, whilst it will down to Govt to change statute legislation, if MP’s vote down both the WA and a ‘no deal’ exit the PM is so weak she will oblige those who want to stall Brexit, otherwise why promise such a vote?
February 28, 2019
But Mayās Government will indeed allow this to happen. May is a far worst a PM than Heath, Major, Brown, Blair, Cameron and and obviously worse than Wilson & Thatcher. Really quite some achievement. All she had to do was to deliver Brexit as she promised she would. A zero vision robotic election thrower. A remainer pretending not to be and an architect of project fear. A socialist pretending to be a Conservative. A puppet of her dire remainer civil servants.
February 28, 2019
She tell MPs yesterday to do their duty and vote for her appalling Vassal State WA. There real duty is to vote for a WTA leave on 29th March and replace her now.
February 28, 2019
LL – Sir J tell us that it’s not possible to replace her ‘now’. But it needs to be done now before she does more damage to the party – let alone the country.
Her colleagues are so afraid of setting a precedent – yet there must be a way of booting her out without setting one. They all seem to be in thrall to the office itself, with no regard to the harm the person holding that position is doing to it.
February 28, 2019
Barry Sheerman MP just now complaining about Quentin Letts’s “disgraceful language” in his Times article today. Quentin Letts today is spot on (and amusing with it). Grow up a bit you silly over sensitive little man!
The many traitors in the Cabinet (and parliament) richly deserve most of this criticism and contempt. They are behaving outrageously against the interest of the country, their party, against the voters will, against their manifestos and against real democracy. Andrea Leadsom then replies to him and actually supporting him in what is basically a call to ban free speech even further that is is in the UK!
Many (perhaps most) MP’s deserve complete and utter contempt. Particularly ones like Corbyn (or indeed any who support Corbyn). This as he endlessly promises things he knows he can never afford to deliver. This just to try to get into power on the back of the politics of envy and false promises. He is surely a compete and utter fraud.
Should obtaining a position of power and a public salary by gross deception be a criminal offence perhaps?
February 28, 2019
The government will change the law. When asked this morning whether that change would be through primary or secondary legislation a minister dodged the question, but as pointed out here last summer:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/07/19/the-wto-global-trading-model-and-mr-barnier-time-for-the-media-to-mend-its-language/#comment-948838
it would only need a statutory instrument approved by both Houses.
Reply Yes for a short delay. but we would also need legislation for any deal over on what terms we extend with the EU.
February 28, 2019
Theresa May and Jeremy Corybn have agree a joint campaign slogan for the next election:
“Your vote is not important to us”
February 28, 2019
Backed up by a reworked D’ream song entitled “Things can only get WORSE !”
š
February 28, 2019
Her last manifest was a vote for me and we will kick all Tory supporters in the teeth one. That did not go too well against a fake Father Christmas/Magic Money Tree Corbyn promising other peopleās money to everyone. Fortunately we have now passed peak Corbyn.
Looking weak is bad enough but Mayās dire WA will ensure we are a weak vassal state and keep us so for years, even long after May has been cast out to enjoy her undeserved deserved gold plated pension. As she should have been kicked out way back.
When the Mail yesterday said āTime do your dutyā I assumed they were finally suggesting she reached for her revolver. But no they actually wanted her appalling subservient deal.
I still blame Gove for inflicting this appalling dishonest, socialist Woman on the nation. What on earth was he thinking?
February 28, 2019
That’s not new, that’s how the FPTP system is designed to operate.
February 28, 2019
Stephen Priest, As you say: “Your vote is not important to us” sums up the total decrepitude of the apparatchik-minded Theresa May and the allotment-Trotskyist Jeremy Corbyn.
February 28, 2019
I can well understand your terror at the thought of Euro Parliament elections. It will be a chance, at last, for the voters to make clear that the mood of 2016 has completely changed, now we realise just how many false promises were made by the Leavers. Both Labour and the Conservatives would be slaughtered at the polls unless they committed to ending Brexit
Reply On tge contrary they would be danaged if they back off Brexit
February 28, 2019
Wow Hereward, what a bizarre post, you’re saying that the LibDems would sweep the Euro elections ? What actually would happen is Farage’s new Brexit party would do better than UKIP did in the last Euro elections, so 40%+ of the seats.
On lies, still waiting for those 500,000 job losses. And about that EU army ā¦.
February 28, 2019
@Roy Grainger; Except Farage has been tainted by what UKIP has become, it will be hard for him to defend his previous (in)actions as UKIP leader, now that it is plainly clear that the undercurrent Farage claimed did not exist within UKIP was alive and well all the time, often sitting mere inches away from him on the UKIP top table.
Forget UKIP, time for new blood, or older blood that had nothing what so ever to do with UKIP.
February 28, 2019
Roy Grainger
“What actually would happen is Farageās new Brexit party would do better than UKIP ”
Well he’s made various unsuccessful attempts to stand for parliament which is what he obviously believes is his rightful place.
And his UKIP party never managed to attract enough votes to get into Westminster either except for a renegade from the Tories who soon left again.
Not a very good record.
March 1, 2019
margaret, peoples trust in the two main parties is now at breaking point if the only way people can protest is to elect people like Farage then I worry about what the future will bring. Past record means nothing, the SNP didn’t have any past record of winning when they wiped the board in Scotland in 2015 56 of 59 seats.
February 28, 2019
Tories and Labour are dead either way.
Brexit is just the means voters will use to kill you.
Fail to deliver Brexit and old angry leave voters will kill you quickly.
Deliver Brexit and fuming young voters will kill you off anyway.
Brexit means the death of Labour, the death of the Conservatives and the death of the Union.
February 28, 2019
So you think the Lib Dems, Greens and SNP will form the next Government Andy.
Hilarious as usual.
February 28, 2019
Andy – You, Newmania and various others bang on about how we need migrants because our own young workers – presumably Remain voters – are useless.
The BBC do so too.
We are not allowed to discuss the failed policies that made them so useless and the ‘old angry leave voters’ look on in utter dismay.
February 28, 2019
Anonymous
“You, Newmania and various others bang on about how we need migrants because our own young workers ā presumably Remain voters ā are useless.”
Worry not. According to today’s news we’ve managed to attract another 261 000 non EU migrants last year. That should make up for the EU citizens who have left since Brexit.
February 28, 2019
So despite your continual predictions of disaster and catastrophe Margaret, hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world are desperate to come to the UK every year.
March 1, 2019
Edward2
” hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world are desperate to come to the UK every year.”
The fact that many of them will be from Africa and 3rd world countries should be telling you something.
Reply Yes that people from all over the world se the UK as a gera5nplace to work and develop their skills. Your comment is unpleasant.
March 1, 2019
Dreadful comment Margaret.
They are welcome to come here to try to improve their lives.
Africa or impoverished EU nations it doesn’t matter to me.
February 28, 2019
@Andy
Are you referring to the European Union? We can but hope!
February 28, 2019
Andy, At last you are predicting the death of the EU, or “the Union” as it likes to call itself in its self-aggrandising treaties.
February 28, 2019
‘the mood of 2016 has completely changed’
Not according to the highly respected pollster, Professor Sir John Curtice, he says there has been no appreciable change!
What do you know that his polling organisation doesn’t, or is this just more made up remain lies and scaremongering?
February 28, 2019
Tad, all his stuff is made up He’s not known as fact free Andy for nothing. Never knowingly provided a fact, or even an argument for Remaining. He’s been asked dozens of times, but fails, because he knows nothing, not even about his beloved EU
February 28, 2019
James Forsyth of the Spectator reports today that the civil service is looking at sending “MPs or members of the House of Lords to the European Parliament to temporarily occupy the seats that would otherwise be filled by MEPs.”
That’s an acknowledgment that, in the PR elections for MEPs, the Brexit Party will be able to win a significant number of seats in the EUs pretend parliament.
People are increasingly furious at the refusal of our non-representative Parliament to carry out our instruction. The May elections are very dangerous for the main parties, and so are the elections to follow.
February 28, 2019
Good morning
Both, but not either. If the EU will not agree, and they will never agree, then we are stuck forever under their thumb. We will be forced to make humiliating and long lasting concessions or be made to suffer for it.
Mrs. May says a lot of things, it’s what she does that needs to be noted. So on that score I think we will be looking to vote at the Euro Elections.
Correction ! Your leader, Teresa May MP said that, not the UK or anyone else. It goes with all the other rubbish she has said. Strong and stable. Leave means Leave. There will be no second referendum. We will not be seeking an extension to Article 50. and so on. She says one thing, and then goes and does another. She did the same as Home Secretary. Said we will not be part of the European Arrest Warrant, then when and signed us up on the sligh. You just cannot believe a word this woman has ever said. Oh, and if you think she will not stand at the next election, think again !
February 28, 2019
Yes, Mark B, I believe she will try to stand. If you look at the advice from Gavin Barwell to Theresa May he apparently gives her an option to back out of any promise to stand down (“otiose” is the key GB word). I saw this comment by A Coby in response to an article on ConsHome website:
https://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2019/02/the-key-is-the-dup-a-letter-to-the-prime-minister-from-her-chief-of-staff.html
Alan Coby comment:
āThe ERG are already folding as Rees Mogg confirms today and will vote for Mayās appalling Deal with some fudged non legally binding verbiage.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-2ā¦
āThis will be positioned by No. 10 as a tremendous victory for the unchallengeable Mrs May and will allow her to renege on her commitment to stand down before the
next GE and position her to lead the Tory Party into the 2022 GE.
As Barwell writes above in the spirit of true sycophancy :āIn these circumstances your commitment not to lead the Party into a 2022 election would become
otiose.ā ā¦ā¦.
Reply Its a take on Barwell from an outside observer
February 28, 2019
The only thing that will happen if there is a delay is for the remoaners to get what they want and that is another referendum , I cannot be the only one as a normal guy or girl on the street that is totally confused, you have intelligent mps saying this is a very good deal then you have other intelligent mps saying itās a bad deal, talk about being bloody confused the only thing that will happen is for another referendum and the totally confused voter to be hood winked into voting for us to stay in the Eu, so for goodness sake just vote for the bloody deal so we are out on March 29th and we can sort out the rest later but just get us out
February 28, 2019
No, Mick. If we leave on 29 March under Mrs May’s deal, then that is the start, not the end, of the wrangles. We will not even have begun to discuss the nature of our future relationship with the EU, but we will have no seat at the table, we will be paying huge sums to the EU and we will be locked into obey EU law under the backstop. No, don’t think Mrs May’s deal solves anything. It doesn’t. It is literally worse than no deal
February 28, 2019
Too true.. š
But you don’t take in to account that in the next week Mrs May will come back with a transformed Withdrawal Agreement with no “backstop” and a Political Declaration that will guarantee a legally binding positive future relationship with the EU.
Oh, hold on I must be dreaming, there goes another unicorn….
February 28, 2019
TiC. Remainer speaking. So let’s have a Peoples Vote and all the young voters, who won’t be able to visit their friends in the EU anymore if we leave, can vote to stay and join the EU army, commanded by Belgians, and help expand into Ukraine and as far as the Eurals and let Herr Selmayr set our taxes and collect their tariffs on their smart phones and get jobs in nice sunny places like Greece and Italy with 40% youth unemployment and…….
February 28, 2019
The Withdrawal Agreement is not the most favourable option. No deal is better than a bad deal, and the WA is anathema to most thinking people.
You speak of the ‘seat at the (EU) table’ as if it were something of value, strength, and influence, so perhaps you would enlighten us as to when the UK has gained from having one so we may debate it.
February 28, 2019
Indeed, but after the loathed and unwanted Transitionn ends we tear the treaty up.
February 28, 2019
MP’s upon reading the Withdrawal Agreement, eventually, voted on it. It was so bad, and still is, that the government lost to the largest vote in UK parliament history. That’s how bad the WA, or ‘deal’ it is. Not even Remain MP’s could stomach it. And you want us to sign the very same ‘deal’ just to get it over with ? Well I tell you what, I’ll do a Gordon Brown on you and ask you to sign it. No need to read it, it will all be fine. And yes, Sir John I am still smarting over what the Three Little Stooges, Cameron, Clegg and Milliband did over the Scottish Referendum.
February 28, 2019
Unfortunately, Mrs Mayās deal is a dreadful deal. Not my words, but those of Martin Howe QC, a leading Barrister specialising in European Law. Iād trust him over Mrs Mayās words or her Civil Servants!
If we took her ādealā it binds us to the EU with no voice, keeps us in the Customs Union, effectively, keeps us committed to throwing billions of pounds at the EU, damages our National Security and completely fails to deliver Brexit. It is probably even worse than remain.
February 28, 2019
A delay is in preperation for a second referendum. 2 remain options on the ballot paper.
February 28, 2019
Mrs Mayās deal is Brexit.
It takes us out of the EU, single market and customs union.
It ends free movement. It gives you the border that was there all along anyway.
Yes – it is s rubbish deal compared to the status quo.
But how do it fail to deliver on what you voted for?
Reply It is not Brexit. It is a very expensive invite to more talks over a post Brexit relaitonship
February 28, 2019
It’s not Brexit. It’s Hard Remain.
February 28, 2019
And the ‘status quo’, Andy – how long do you think this so-called ‘status quo’ would go on for? What don’t you understand about the expression ‘ever closer union’? EU army? Joining the Euro? Expansionism? And so forth.
‘Status quo’, eh?
February 28, 2019
Dear Mr. Redwood,
I hope to god that if we do proceed to talks over a future relationship that these discussions are not led by Robbins and Barclay although I guess if the present incumbent of No.10 is still Prime Minister then it is a given.
Surely, Brexiter MP’s and the ERG cannot accept that.
February 28, 2019
“It ends free movement. It gives you the border that was there all along anyway” – Might end free movement – in name only – but TM signed the UN migration pact, which means they just come via another route with another pack of lies to ensure they stay here.
February 28, 2019
Andy, I assume you are incapable of defending your vision of Vichy-UK as our future within the EU empire, complete with up to 40% youth unemployment which you advocate?
February 28, 2019
2 remain options –
LEAVE – only on whatever terrible terms the EU agree to let us have
REMAIN – on worst terms than before – higher payments, join ERM as a path to join the Euro, photos of gloating Macron and Merkel compulsory on the walls of every UK household
February 28, 2019
If we delay but have to keep paying in we are then in a situation ofTAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION.
Which caused the American War of Independence.
February 28, 2019
Well said, Mike W.
What a terrible situation our ‘leaders’ have brought us to – and all because we simply wanted to leave their execrable dystopia. They could have just waved us goodbye – instead of acting the aggressive beggar and refusing to let us pass.
And the remain camp STILL think they’re the best thing since sliced brot.
February 28, 2019
If we knew what the EU had āgiven awayā in these negotiations, we would be better informed about whether our negotiators had played a strong hand successfully or not. The failure of Mayās spin to highlight this, merely parroting she has good deal until we are fed up to the back teeth of it and donāt believe her, indicates that she and her negotiators have been weak from the start of the negotiations.
It is the ERG and the British public who have been strong, the latter in the face of a barrage of lies from HMG and the BBC.
February 28, 2019
The EU have given nothing away.
They have a series of principles – and they have stuck to them.
Brexit was never going to be a negotiation.
The EU has no need to negotiate.
It was always going to be a capitulation.
And it is the most humiliating capitulation in Brexit history.
And Mr Redwoodās wing of his party is responsible.
The ERG and its members will own the blame.
February 28, 2019
Remainers are in charge of these negotiations.
People like you Andy.
That is why it is a mess.
February 28, 2019
Andy’s loving his “I told you so moment” delivered line by line in ecstasy.
The fault lies with the people who made no contingency for what was actually written on the ballot slip “Leave the EU” in its most literal sense and did their very best to avoid it.
Andy is about to find out what happens when the people he hates (older white conservatives, with a small ‘c’) stop voting and leave it to the kids.
Over the past few days I have linked to a study which shows us to be of the least racist nations in the EU. And we have shown vividly to the peoples of Europe that EU nations have ceded their democracies to the EU – a few modest changes on their part (which many in the wider EU want too) would have avoided Brexit altogether !
Be proud of us.
We could have remained plugged into the Matrix.
February 28, 2019
Letās see, they may have over-played their hand. Mrs May and her hapless (remainer) civil servants have fallen into each and every negotiation trap, so the cause of Brexit has been very badly served. But through all the angry and hysterical public debate – your posts here are a good example – no-one has been able to explain why free trade and friendly cooperation in all sorts of areas requires supra-national govt. this is not lost on the population. The Govt + civil service have made a terrible hash of the negotiations – maybe even deliberately. But still we have not had any positive arguments for participating in the undoubted super state direction of the EU. There are coherent arguments for it, but no one on the Continuity Remain side, yourself included, dares to make them.
February 28, 2019
“The EU have … a series of principles ”
And when it suits them they have another series of principles.
February 28, 2019
Andy, That is why I have consistently argued to walk away from the EU. It’s not as though there aren’t enough international agreements for us to use. It’s certainly a better bet than your vision of a Vichy-UK in the EU empire, complete with EU levels of youth unemployment of up to 50%, which you advocate.
February 28, 2019
One of their principle’s is NOT to respect referendums. What was the word Tusk used to describe ours? ‘Stupid,’ wasn’t it?
February 28, 2019
They gave away nothing as they are not the ones Leaving, we are.
There were no negotiations. It is a take it or Leave it Withdrawal Agreement. The term ‘Deal’ is deliberately misleading. It is designed to suggest that a negotiation took place between two equal parties and genuine settlement has been made. No such thing has taken place. Ergo, no Deal !
They have not been weak. They have been complicit in a deceit.
There is nothing more the people can do. We are just bystanders, at least for the moment. When the sell out comes, and it will, you will have your say at a later date of their choosing. You will be of course reminded how to vote as you don’t want to vote the wrong way – again !
February 28, 2019
Mark B, As I realised in 2003, with the EU being the creature it is, the only options are to walk away, or be consumed.
February 28, 2019
Just admit you’ve capitulated on our exit from the EU. Along with most other Tory MPs in the ERG you’ve decided that it’s much easier to support May in her plan to keep the UK in the EU and that is that
The Tory party is now a meaningless, unprincipled Parliamentary entity existing for little else than to offer Oxbridge graduates a career in politics.
In the real world, where people are looking for solidity, morality and truth we are left with rancid, putrid Labour and a Tory party that is morally bankrupt and cowardly
There is now no one turn to for direction
Labour’s now infected and operates outside of the law like a fugitive indulging in all forms of baiting. Corbyn and his rancid party act above the law and indulge in activity that would get normal people prosecuted under the criminal law. The Tories remain silent on Labour’s extremism. So does the BBC and all the other pro-Labour rags.
While the Parliamentary Tory party. well, what can we say. It embraced liberal left authoritarianism years ago and forgot to tell its supporters. It’s embraced the idea of social control using political intervention using the media, television and the law.
You have betrayed your supporters, democracy and your country
The litmus test for the ERG was bringing down the one barrier to Brexit, May. You haven’t done that and that tells me all I need to know
You’ve all become empty vessels
Reply Just not true. The ERG and related pro Brexit Conservative MPs have battled for Brexit every inch of the way. I do not support delay or the Withdrawal Agreement. There are however only 110 of us as measured by the Withdrawal Agreement vote so tactics are difficult to deliver the will of the people in a 650 seat Parliament with only a handful of Leave MPs in any other party.
February 28, 2019
May could not govern without the support of 110 Tory MPs. You have the leverage over her and yet you won’t use it
Your duty is to democracy and the United Kingdom not to the Tory party and this PM
February 28, 2019
I’ve posted elsewhere, that this is the solution; ergo those 110 should resign the whip & refuse to vote for the government (other than on issues with which they agree). Carried out ruthlessly, May would soon find that she can’t govern and a confidence vote must result in a G.E.
A G.E. gives the opportunity for local Tory associations to weed out those candidate MPs who failed to honour their commitments – and should produce either a Tory Leaver majority or a Tory-BREXIT coalition. This especially applies if the Mar 14 vote is passed meaning no WA, no no-deal but an extension for A50 to facilitate the G.E.
Whaddya say ?
Reply No I will not resign the whip. It is my party too and I am defending the promises of the party Manifesto so I have no intention of resigning the whip and leaving the party in the hands of the minority who do not wish to honour the clear statements on EU policy contained in the Manifesto.
February 28, 2019
Unfortunately, two thirds of the Conservative MPs are Remainers and support May’s Brino. This not honouring the referendum manifesto and they don’t care. Voters who still wish to leave need a new party to vote for. The Conservative Party has changed because Cameron selected candidates willing to say one thing and do another. The local constituencies can not do anything to change this. There is no point in hoping that the party will come to the ERG view. They laugh at sincere Brexiteers behind their backs
February 28, 2019
Then you are putting party before Country!
February 28, 2019
It has been outrageous from the outset that, even after the majority of people – and certainly the vast majority of constituencies – voted to Leave the EU, some MPs have ALWAYS styled themselves ‘remainers’.
February 28, 2019
Quite agree Dominic. They should but they won’t. The over-riding aim of the Tory party is to remain united. Everything and everyone else can be sacrificed to make sure if it.
When they talk of others being out of touch they can’t see they are too in this debate. The referendum result and its undiluted implimentation should be the only objective. They say it is but only up to a point. They could bring May round but they dare not. Not the done thing old bean. What would they say at the Club?
February 28, 2019
I completely agree with your analysis of the situation, Dominic. There was, and is, a course of action the Tory Brexiter MPs could take to honour the referendum result and to uphold democracy. They seem to have decided against it. Jacob R-M has already stated publicly his latest softening in approach, which has key MPs in the ERG confused apparently. There is no confusion in the public’s eyes. It appears that he is simply not willing to take the necessary steps to uphold democracy and honour our Brexit vote.
February 28, 2019
I support our host. Armed with nothing more than the referendum result, and against the combined powers of government, EU, Parliament, Speaker, Civil Service, Bank, big business and media, it is astonishing how far a handful of principled MPs have managed to take this great business.
Brexit is within sight of the winning post, hard pressed but still ahead by a neck. We must all do what we can to cheer it on. Party members should tell their chairmen that they will leave if government reneges. The rest of us should put pressure on our MPs.
February 28, 2019
I agree. But what is more amazing is how many do not feel obliged to stand on the principle, that a promise is a promise and, their positions were gained through promises they now seek to ignore and overturn. Shameful !
February 28, 2019
and all Tory activists should strike, not another leaflet deleivered or door knocked upon until we leave, properly.
February 28, 2019
Reply to Reply
Sir John, as soon as Mrs. May started backing away from the Lancaster House intentions, the ERG and all other leave supporters should have gone into max attack mode to sell 2 concepts:
First, why there is nothing to fear from leaving on WTO terms – you completely failed on this losing the narrative to the ‘cliff-edge/crash-out’ mob.
Second, holding May to her undertaking that the nation must be prepared for a WTO exit. Preparations should have been started in earnest 2 years ago, had we done so we’d be happily strolling towards 29th March.
I agree with Duncan, you have let us down, and the Tory party will probably pay dearly at the next election – but really that doesn’t matter because our once proud nation will be ruled by a foreign power.
Reply I have both been setting out why a WTO exit is fine and pressing for completion of WTO exit preps by government
February 28, 2019
Turning on Breakfast for the weather today, they immediately had the Fear Spot. This time it was a Welsh sheep farmer, who said he was going over to beef because it was more profitable and sheep took up too much time. But then came the ‘because of Brexit’ line. His wife said that they were worried because they had not yet been told whether subsidies for sheep via the CAP would be replaced and by how much. The government has now had getting on for 3 years to determine the policy put forward by Leave for replacing the CAP and has deliberately done nothing in order to scupper WTO or ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’. The same goes for scientific research. This is beyond incompetence. It’s treachery.
As a little encore, the BBC showed their French exchange helper, who had come over for a while to see how British farmers work. Of course, after Brexit, this would no longer be possible was the line. Does anyone know why exchanges will no longer be possible? I had exchanges before we joined the Common Market. BBC lies are just slipped in subliminally.
February 28, 2019
How is this for an idea. The ERG tell Mrs May that they will not vote for any government business until we have left the EU. Mrs May can’t get any business through the house and would have to call an election. Calling an election will mean Parliament will not be sitting and March 29th will pass and we will have left on WTO terms. I know it is not what any one of you want to do, but Mrs May by capitulating to the likes of Hammond and Rudd has destroyed your party now anyway and desperate times call for desperate measures.
Reply An ERG strike would not lead to an election.
February 28, 2019
Reply to reply. Thank you Sir for that, but if as we are always told Mrs May could not govern without the support of 10 members of the DUP, then how could she govern with 80 odd Tories abstaining on each and every vote . She would lose every bill presented . She would have to go to HM and tell her that she can no longer govern the country surely. A GE would then have to follow. As I said I know it would go against everything you and others have always believed, but I always believed that if the majority votes for a party of in a referendum then those on the losing side (and I have been many times) accept the result. The game has changed now and these are desperate times and existential times for our country.
February 28, 2019
Hi – I didn’t see your note before proposing my ERG/110 strike leading to a confidence vote & G.E.
Sir John – why wouldn’t this strike lead to an election – or at least May to ignore the results of the Mar 13 vote and proceed to default WTO?
February 28, 2019
A vote of no confidence supported by the ERG and an eager Labour Party ought to trigger an election. WTO goes through while parliamentary business is suspended.
Of course a Prime Minister intent on Leave would prorogue Parliament anyway. No confidence vote necessary.
I suspect ERG are not prepared to set the wheels in motion.
February 28, 2019
Conservative MP Sir Desmond Swayne suggested proroguing Parliament to deliver Brexit in January.
I donāt know if Sir Desmond is in the ERG.
February 28, 2019
Swayne is an ERG 62 original. He was one of the twenty that voted “no” to the Cooper amendment yesterday. The majority of the ERG 62+ abstained; they are praying for Mother Theresa to throw them a lifeline back to the bosom of the Tory party and her Withdrawal Agreement.
Remember your Star Trek. “This Unit Must Survive”; said the M5 Computer. In this case the Conservative Party is the “Unit”.
February 28, 2019
Sir John, an ERG strike seems a good idea to me. I don’t know why you think it would not lead to an election – for that seems a possibility. And if not that, then surely, at least, it should hasten the removal of May and lead to a ‘leader’ election within your party?
Dominic makes two unassailable points: ‘May could not govern without the support of 110 Tory MPs. You have the leverage over her and yet you wonāt use it’
‘Your duty is to democracy and the United Kingdom not to the Tory party and this PM.’
No self-respecting MP could ever vote for May’s Withdrawal Agreement under any circumstances. – Please see Brexit Facts4EU article today:15 REASONS TO HATE THERESA’S EU SURRENDER DOCUMENT
A quick and readable summary of why Mrs May’s Withdrawal Agreement stinks
How on earth can any MP vote for this, and how can the ERG capitulate?
Brexit Facts4EU.Org gives a simple 15-point summary of this national humiliation
‘…no self-respecting Member of Parliament should even consider voting for Mrs Mayās surrender document ā with or without any last-minute amendments….This is a one-sided international treaty the likes of which have never been seen outside of a surrender document following a countryās defeat in war. It defines our subjugation to foreign powers for decades to come….’
Reply Yes, I have set out why the Withdrawal Agreement is unacceptable, and with 109 other Eurosceptic Conservatives I defied a 3 line whip and we helped vote it down. We may have to do so again. We prefer to work with the PM and our party as that is the best way to get Brexit delivered. We helped and worked closely with her and Ministers to secure the EU Withdrawal Notification Act and the Withdrawal Act, without which there would be no Brexit. If we declared war on our own party the government might try to form a cross party grouping of pro Remain MPs with a majority for something Leave voters would not recognise as Brexit. Daily we seek to work with the government to deliver what all Conservatives promised in the 2017 Manifesto, exit from the EU, single market and customs union, and with the clear statement that No deal is better than a bad deal. You need to accept that we have good aims and need to judge the tactics daily in a very fluid and difficult situation, where no one and no one party controls votes in the Commons on a reliable basis.
February 28, 2019
āYou need to accept that we have good aims and need to judge the tactics daily in a very fluid and difficult situation, where no one and no one party controls votes in the Commons on a reliable basis.ā
Yes I can understand your points. In such a situation it is remarkable that you donāt just play your cards close to your chest like May. Tactics are certainly more important than replying to posts on this forum.
That said, I am sure you understand why posters suggest ways to deliver Brexit. Most of us donāt expect a reply anyway.
February 28, 2019
Thank you for the explanation, Sir John, and I apologise if I came across as less than appreciative – I do accept your intentions are good and that you are in a far better position to judge the tactics. And a co-operative approach may still be the best approach currently.
However, I am concerned that Brexiteer MPs will vote for May’s WA in the hope of being able to oust her soon after, and then to control the political declaration/transition period. I think this is a false hope and that May is once again leading you up the garden path – see Conservative Home:Published: February 27, 2019 āThe key is the DUP.ā A letter to the Prime Minister from her Chief of Staff. By Paul Goodman (I assume it is not really by Gavin Barwell). – with the suggestion that May has no intention of going any time soon, even reneging on her promise not to lead you into a 2022 election.
Basically May cannot be trusted one iota (I suspect she was behind Olly Robbins ‘overheard’ indiscretions, and too, the Remainer Cabinet Ministers’ revolt – it is noticeable she sacked none of them, saving her wrath for poor Alberto Costa).
So, I think that backing her WA will always be a step too far, and that you have to vote down the WA regardless of the amendments to the backstop.
This means, I’m afraid, that there will come a time when you have to choose between party or country, between cooperation or confrontation. Then the government might well try to form a cross-party grouping to get a ‘custom’s union’ deal through – and this, most likely, will result in the break-up of the Conservative Party – by then, it is the only way, and consequently the government will fall. Hopefully a new Brexit party, which you and ERG hopefully will join, will be ready to capitilise on the chaos and win the election (it’s just as well Labour is in such a mess).
Just trying to run through the options, and why supporting the WA in any way won’t work.
Hope it is of help.
March 1, 2019
He has never had any intention of voting for the DWA.
February 28, 2019
Reply to reply. Combined with a strike by Tory activists it might, not another leaflet delivered or door knocked upon until we leave, properly.
February 28, 2019
Reply to reply. Isn’t that an admission that parliament will keep us in? All hope gone then. I am totally disillusioned with politicians and wonder why we need them. Corruption, lies, deceit, where dies it all end. Asking us to trust a politician is like asking us to trust Ronald Biggs or the Mafia.
February 28, 2019
Reply to reply, JR, I sympathise with your position. Without you – and up to about 100 other faithful Tory MPs – the war would be already over. Yet I also sympathise with Dominic’s, and others, frustrations with Theresa May and the majority of Tory MPs. I am afraid that there has been too much party loyalty, and too little country before party.
A suggestion: could a Tory MP table a motion of “No confidence” in HMG? If it’s possible, it would certainly put Labour on the spot: either Lab must support and bring down the government; or oppose and be a laughing stock. Of course a general election would ensue if the motion was carried.
Reply Only a motion of no confidence in the govt tabled by the Official Opposition gets to be debated automatically and quickly.
February 28, 2019
Thank you John for reiterating the PM’s stated principles, namely:
1. Having an extension beyond 29 March is counterproductive, and politically incoherent;
2. ‘No deal’ has not been revoked, and is STILL better than a bad deal.
In the event of the latter, we do have staunch friends in the Anglo-sphere who would help our transition if the EU plays hard ball, which it undoubtedly must.
In terms of British sovereignty and freedom, support for the WA is a short-term ‘palliative’. But the implications of doing so are likely to be terminal.
February 28, 2019
No deal is indeed better than a bad deal and Theresa Mayās WA is an absolutely appalling deal. Not Brexit in any real sense at all. A total betrayal of what May promised and the of 17.2 million. Get rid of this appalling dishonest and totally misguided PM. Not a Conservative bone in her body.
February 28, 2019
The Withdrawal Agreement is anything but shorterm.
February 28, 2019
Mark B, Errr, true. But that’s why Norman said the implications of it were “likely to be terminal”.
February 28, 2019
Sorry Norman.
February 28, 2019
The point of delay is to prevent Brexit. This was always going to be the Remainer ploy and May is assisting them in this course of action. Everything we have seen since the referendum has been designed to subvert the will of the people by our alleged “representatives”. Everything this pathetic government has done has made Britain look weak. No proper planning. no attempt to negotiate from strength, no belief in Brexit at all, a complete and total failure of leadership at every level. The only good thing that government, parliament and the establishment in general has achieved is to make it abundantly clear to the majority of people that democracy is a sham.
February 28, 2019
Isnāt ā No Dealā now off the proverbial ā tableā after the Cooper amendment? I donāt really understand the importance/ power of the different amendments so it is good to hear that no EU election participation means no membership. A definite rule.
But I remember a fuss some while ago because money had been put aside for the EU elections. So was there a plan for a long delay?
February 28, 2019
The Spelman amendment (not Cooper), in which by 318 votes to 310 MPs rejected leaving the EU without a deal, is not binding on government. It was no more than an expression of the sentiment of the House on that day, January 30.
In previous votes MPs passed the Withdrawal Act 2018 which raises no bar to leaving without a deal. An Act of Parliament trumps a mere motion of the House.
February 28, 2019
Oh good!
Thanks.
February 28, 2019
I honestly canāt understand why Mrs May thinks it is OK to make assertions that she does not stick to.
Doesnāt she realise that Leavers have been hanging on her every word now since she promised ā Brexit means Brexitā?
I always slept so much better after she had said something hopeful. Now I miserably discount every word!
February 28, 2019
No deal comes as a default by virtue that we will be Leaving on the 29th March 2019 as stated in law. The EU also expects the UK to be Leaving on that date. The last minute shenanigans is designed to force Parliament to accept the vile and wretched Withdrawal Agreement. A document no less worse than that signed by Germany at Versailles 100 years ago this June. The German’s must be salivating at their chance of revenge.
February 28, 2019
But it would only take a government resolution approved by both Houses to change the exit date which is presently stated in law.
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/07/19/the-wto-global-trading-model-and-mr-barnier-time-for-the-media-to-mend-its-language/#comment-948838
“Power to amend the definition of āexit dayā”
“14 A statutory instrument containing regulations under section 20(4) may not be made unless a draft of the instrument has been laid before, and approved by a resolution of, each House of Parliament.”
We now know that this government led by Theresa May wants to defer our withdrawal from the EU, so the only uncertainty is for how long, and quite possibly it would be sine die, forever.
February 28, 2019
Mark B, Indeed your description of our fate is true. Apart from the fact that the exit day date of 29 March can be amended within the existing EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018.
It has been a century old German ambition to turn the rest of Europe into the equivalent of Vichy-France. And this is what our Remain crew on here want – to make the UK into Vichy-UK. The Remains don’t care about democracy, or self-determination. They destroy our reputation, even though we get more business due to reputation than from the EU. They are blind to the tides of history because history is only for “Little-Englanders”.
February 28, 2019
Q: When is a train not delayed but cancelled ?
A: When the penny drops.
February 28, 2019
When the one coming the other way arrives first.
February 28, 2019
I’m waiting for the Italians to say “No to delay on Article 50, either accept the WA, leave or revoke Article 50”. Maybe they can do us a favour.
February 28, 2019
May has said much that she has either changed her mind about or been forced to renage on. Anything she says from now on in lacks credibility.
Whatever she may wish to do grows less likely by the day. Her increased weakness has created a space in Parliament for those majority of remainers to fill. This they have done with increasing confidence, losing sight of what they have in the recent past voted for or the manifestos they were elected on. It has allowed them to ignore the democratic wish of the people as voted for in the referendum of 2016.
Such is the duplicity of the present incumbents of the HoC that I dare not predict what the future holds, except to say that there will be political upheaval at the next GE. So many have been disenfranchised.
February 28, 2019
Your reasoning above is astute and correct but…..
It only makes sense to anyone who is not cowed (as a means to remaining in or otherwise) by the prospect of a no deal on 30 March.
We can not win this argument unless and until no deal is seen as a feasible option within the country. You need greater media exposure to make this happen and in 2 years 9 months our side has not managed it. We will always be shouted down by the extremists but we need simple comforters to reassure the masses.
February 28, 2019
How can it be seen as a feasible option to leave with a multitude of legal and practical threads hanging loose? That is why I was in favour of an orderly process to tie up all the loose ends, not just walking away, and as we had agreed that Article 50 would be the procedure for any member state to use if it wished to leave the EU then that was where we should start. People suggesting that we could just walk away, and even save ourselves any financial settlement, have actually helped to make it unlikely that we will in fact leave. Why, oh why, did they do that?
February 28, 2019
The orderly process should have been started in July 2016 Dennis. Then it might not have been necessary to just walk away as our position would have remained strong
February 28, 2019
You talk about leave voters as though they are the only people who count.
There are 65m people in this country, not just 17.4m.
Less than 27% of the population voted for Brexit.
And they did not even vote leave for the same reasons.
Perhaps Brexit would be easier if those who ran Vote Leave delivered on their lies.
Instead they mostly ran away.
Brexit affects the other 73% who did not specifically vote for it too.
You have a duty to them too. Fail and theyāll be the ones who make sure youāre locked up.
February 28, 2019
By your very dodgy maths even less voted to remain.
February 28, 2019
In the referendum 46,500,001 voters had the opportunity to state they wished to remain in the EU, 30,358,760 (65%) chose not to do so, whether by voting leave or not voting.
The size of the UK population is irrelevant, as it includes children. I was too young in 1975 to vote in the EEC referendum but I doubt you’d consider it void because it is affecting people now who couldn’t vote in it. As you and other Remoaners have gleefully pointed out about Leave voters, many people who voted to stay in the EEC have died, so shall we discount their vote?
February 28, 2019
A typical Remainer ploy: adding all uncast votes to their own.
February 28, 2019
You talk about remain voters as though they are the only people who count.
There are 65m people in this country, not just 16.3m.
Less than 25% of the population voted to remain in the EU
And they did not even vote to stay in for the same reasons.
Perhaps staying in would be easier if those who ran the EU weren’t so deceitful and overbearing
Instead they mostly just said “our way or no way”
Staying in affects the other 75% who did not specifically vote for it too.
You have a duty to them too.
February 28, 2019
68% of voters did not vote to Remain in the EU. A good many of the 32% who voted Remain just wanted to get Brexit done.
I suspect a very large majority are appalled with the antics which have got us stuck in the cat flap.
The biggest lie ?
That we could actually Leave the EU when offered the choice. We weren’t actually meant to take it.
February 28, 2019
As for locking people up. I’ve been wanting to do that for decades: banksters, war mongering politicians, rich leftist hypocrites who have left our education* and judicial system in tatters, lying federalists…
How come you get to jump the queue on doing that ?
*Making young people so useless that we need mass immigration to cope.
February 28, 2019
The most significant person to run away was the Remainer Prime Minister (David Cameron)
He promised us that Leave the EU was a real choice.
It now transpires that we weren’t meant to take it. I believe now that the intention of the referendum wasn’t just to see off UKIP and reunite the Tory party. I now believe that a Remain result was sought to deliver a sly mandate for HARD Remain.
We’d probably be in the euro by now – a lot of rebates reduced.
February 28, 2019
We can leave the EU.
We just can not leave on the terms which Vote Leave promised – which are all of the benefits of EU membership with none of the responsibilities.
It really is not a complex equation. Rather than getting angry at the realists perhaps you should direct your anger at the Vote Leave liars?
February 28, 2019
We can just leave Andy.
The problem is that whilst a majority of those psoole who voted in the referendum want to leave the EU there is a majority in Parliament who are trying their best to remain in the EU.
February 28, 2019
Under that reasoning, there has never been a legitimate government in our history! Your just a bad loser who hates democracy if it doesnāt suit your agenda.
February 28, 2019
Andy, if you do not know how to interpret statistics then you should not quote them.
Over 72% of those entitled to vote did so in the Referendum and a majority voted to leave the EU.
The turnout at the General Election in 2017 was 63% and of those who bothered to vote – over 27 million voted for parties whose Manifesto said that they respected the Referendum result and would leave the EU, its Customs Union and the Single Market.
And your Ageism is disgraceful!
February 28, 2019
Nobody at all voted to join the EU
February 28, 2019
Membership of the EU and its predcesssors has been repeatedly reaffirmed by electorate at general elections over a period of 40 years. General elections are how we do democracy in this county. What part of democracy do you not understand?
February 28, 2019
Andy, General elections are non-specific so it is impossible to tell what the electorate wants specifically. The Referendum was that specific question where the electorate was asked whether they wanted to Remain or Leave. So no-one need wonder or argue anymore. Under the rules laid down by Parliament Leave won. What part of democracy do you not understand?
February 28, 2019
Andy – PM after PM promised referendums on the EU and then broke their promises later. Think Blair, Brown, Cameron. Remember Brown sneaking off to sign the Lisbon Treaty when the UK had been promised a referendum? Remember Cast Iron Dave? Even Clegg was in favour of a referendum until he was actually in a position to prevent one.
So, no. Membership of the EU and its predecessors has not been repeatedly reaffirmed by electorate. Instead, the electorate has been repeatedly lied to and denied the opportunity to have a say on the EU.
Even Tusk reported very recently that Cameron had confided that he had only promised the electorate a referendum this time around because he felt sure that after the 2015 election he would again find himself in coalition with the LibDems – and once again he would not have to fulfill his promise.
But never let the truth get in the way of a good narrative!
February 28, 2019
I also think those who voted Remain deserve consideration, which is why I support JR’s approach. Leave (which satisfies the leave voters), and offer the EU continuing trade with minimum friction (satisfies the remain voters worried about the economic consequences). The only British people unsatisfied are those who are wedded to the EU on quasi-religious grounds, which I fancy is a very small minority. Even they can be satisfied by emigrating to their beloved EU-land.
February 28, 2019
Yep, the baby next door was denied a vote
February 28, 2019
The baby next door will be far more affected by Brexit than most of the rich Tory pensioners in Parliament who want Brexit.
They forget the baby at their peril. The baby could grow up into the lawyer that will get them locked up for treating the country with gross negligence.
February 28, 2019
The rich are nearly all remainers.
Oh and voting a different way to you andy, is not an imprisonable offence.
February 28, 2019
Andy, Your fetish for turning this country into Vichy-UK and impoverishing our young people in the same way as they are in southern EU is more likely to get you locked up.
March 1, 2019
The gross criminal negligence in high office has not been on the part of Brexiteers, but the two people in the Government who are responsible for not preparing us for Brexit and not executing it.
February 28, 2019
Where is the entire legal advice on the Withdrawal Agreement.
March 1, 2019
(Deafening silence.)
February 28, 2019
The Conservative Party looks in a worse state than it did during the Major years. Then it was was a few āb@stardsā. Back then John Majors pro EU stance had devastating consequences. Major caused the Conservatives to be removed from all but one county in the UK. At the next GE Blair and Brown got in for a generation.
Today the remainer cabinet ministers are in open revolt against the manifesto are are not sanctioned. This time the voters and the party members are pro Brexit but a small handful of corporate elitists seem to be running the party. If this cabal of ādictatorsā are not removed I predict a far worse time for the Conservatives
February 28, 2019
WE neither want a delay, nor the bad deal that is offered.
What Mrs May makes clear is that her claims are fuzzy & often wrong.
We need a leader who will lead Mrs May out of power now, enabling us to leave the EU with our freedom in independence.
February 28, 2019
Only The Queen can do this, now. A pity we will have to wait decades to see what advice she is currently taking from her constitutional lawyers!
February 28, 2019
Given the way Labour is declining in the polls, at least partly because of the antisemitism issue and of course the new “independent group” I wonder if an election is the way to go. First we’d need to let Mrs May step down to be replaced by a proper Brexiteer. There’s then a strong possibility of a proper majority and the ability to pass legislation, including Brexit legislation. The EU might be more minded to grant an extension to 30th June in these circumstances. It would be a risk of course, and as the alternative outcome could be the catastrophe of a Corbyn government (or govment as Mr Corbyn always says, much to my irritation). Perhaps that’s too great a risk to take!
February 28, 2019
I have a mortal FEAR that our representatives (MP’S) are selling us out.
If Brexit is not won, all defaulters should be sacked and banned from EVER serving as an MP again.
The 17.4 million need to get a grip and tell TM that BREXIT does in fact mean BREXIT.
I am to old to pick up a pitchfork, but for heavens sake we MUST LEAVE the EU.
February 28, 2019
If no agreement can be agreed after almost 3 years of “negotiations” it is hard to see what can be done in another 2-3 months particularly when in that period most of the time will be spent electing a new EU Parliament after which a new EU Commission will be formed.
It is clear that those advocating this have only one aim which is to overturn the 2016 referendum result. Duplicity and mendacity is rife in Westminster and it has become Parliament against the people.
February 28, 2019
@Brian Tomkinson; You really do not understand how the EU works, and thus why we need to leave (or become the most europhile of europhile members…), the EU always runs their negotiations it to the wire, the real decision makes are not elected nor appointed by member states or MEPs, thus the eurocrats that will working on any Brexit ‘deal’ are not affected by the upcoming MEP elections.
As for over turning the 2016 referendum, there is no need to, BRINO is still leaving the European Union, Norway is not a member of the European Union, even those it is in the EUCU and thus has to adhere to the EU’s “Four Freedoms”. Of course had Brexiteer MPs backed the calls for a second referendum asking the How and Why questions…
February 28, 2019
Bearing in mind your blog strapline was “Speaking for England” perhaps now is the time to mention that England voted much more clearly than the UK, and especially when you exclude London (59% UK as opposed to EEA,ROW, 83% for E as a whole), by 13.7m to 11m.
Should both Scotland and NI hold refernda on independence as is entirely possible, very especially under a Corbyn government, the entire backstop and related treaty will become simply ridiculous – will we still be bound by it, or is there a “material events” clause?
Any BRINO will not result in “far right” racist insurrection, as the sandal wearers like to brand those who simply want self-government, but in an irresistible drive for English independence.
Plus I do hope our hand wringing apologies for negotiators will be preparing a similarly intransigent play book to that the EU have used when SCEXIT and NEXIT come to be negotiated – that they assume full and fair share of our liabilities incurred propping them up, as well as full responsibility for their own pensions and health care etc. Let’s see how welcoming Selmayr and Co are when they realise the full cost of carrying yet more economic basket cases.
February 28, 2019
@Oliver; “Any BRINO will not result in āfar rightā racist insurrection, as the sandal wearers like to brand those who simply want self-government,”
A strange way of describing some Brexiteers, you only need to read some of the hyperbole comments on this site from europhobes claiming that anything other than a WTO exit will result in civil unrest.
“but in an irresistible drive for English independence.”
Independence from a largely English parliament, now that’s a novel idea!…. š®
February 28, 2019
With this latest cave-in by Mrs May – having asserted apparently 70 times that there would be no delay – the EU should press it’s advantage. They should reject a short delay, when next month it will surely now be requested, and insist on a long one conditional on the UK holding a new referendum. Parliament will of course jump at it against the threat of no Deal which the EU is making a good show of saying it’s relaxed about if that’s the way things go. No wonder they are winning. The Tories really should have got rid of Mrs May while they could.
February 28, 2019
108 times.
February 28, 2019
BBC Radio 4 Toady program decided their would be no Brexit bashing this morning.
Instead they decided to do some Trump bashing, parroting statements made by his detractors. They reported that Mr Trump has walked away from a meeting with DPRK President Mr Kim without a deal and then quoted the slogan, “no deal is better than a bad deal” , almost as if they’re beginning to understand what it actually means.
March 1, 2019
That was John Humphrys, very tentatively. He is the only one who sees both sides of the case and is leaving in September. The one they played the odious female chauvinistic trick on, making him interview the Cambridge economist.
February 28, 2019
“some party campaigns have already begun on the continent and parties are preparing for the new distribution of seats”
Not sure that holds water as a reason why the UK could not re enter the EP elections, as you say the official papers do not be returned until April with elections in late May, if some wish to start their marathon race early they can not then complain if the route is officially changed before the official start date! Anyway, do politicos ever stop campaigning?…
That said, if the reallocation of MEPs in the EP, and a reduction of 46, is irreversible until the next round of EP elections, should the UK parliament decide to cancel Brexit then it would be possible for the UK to contest a reduced number of seats (and those elections could be held after the May elections), not good but at least we would still have representation in the EP and the EC. I’m not advocating it, just saying, but if a ‘no deal’ WTO exit is taken off the table by parliament then no Brexit along with a reduced number of MEPs is better than a bad deal that leave the UK a vessel state.
February 28, 2019
President Trump said this morning that he could have signed a deal with Kim yesterday, but the deal just wasn’t good enough, so he walked away. He said that if you don’t retain that option you are not negotiating! If only the plonkers in charge of the UK would learn that lesson! But they don’t.
February 28, 2019
Just leave. Keep the billions. 250 bn is a more accurate number, with on going costs of 43.5 bn a year.
The EU will be shocked. Once they have calmed down we can get to sensible dealings.
Where there’s a win-win, we agree, to avoid lose-lose, we agree. Otherwise we do nothing
February 28, 2019
(Mrs May ed) managed to give up our occupying the six monthly presidency when she first got herself into Downing Street and I have no doubt she will give up the parliamentary elections by the same method. She seems wedded to the idea of taxation and regulation without representation.
February 28, 2019
The UK already looks weak, delay or not…
But surely, having no MEP’s will mean nothing if May’s deal goes through – Their effect in the EP is negligible anyway, which matches our effectiveness elsewhere in the EU establishments.
We do not want a delay – we are all sick to death of the theatricals going on and on.
We want out – REALLY OUT – Not submerged into the EU as a vassal state, and we want all the things back that have been surrendered to the EU – We want our freedom now…!
February 28, 2019
The news about Cox’s codpiece is doing nothing to make me feel that MP’s really understand what May’s deal involves – Here they are set to judge just one aspect and THIS IS SUPPOSED TO GIVE US A WARM FEELING…. and will encourage MP’s to vote yes to surrender on all counts.
Never mind the backstop – what about everything else that May wants to give away
~
https://brexitcentral.com/meet-eight-lawyers-will-judge-whether-coxs-codpiece-cuts-mustard/
February 28, 2019
To delay REAL action any further is to alienate even more Leavers and some of the ‘democratic’ Remainers. Procrastination has been the watchword for the Remainer Cabinet and no doubt they feel that once a further delay is introduced, it will set a precedent for a succession of further delays. So much so that our actual leaving will be eventually dismissed as untenable. Their plan from the off was to scrap Brexit or failing that, delay our leaving indefinitely. And so they continue down that path.
It demonstrates the arrogant, offensive manner these self-appointed political elitists now present to us, the ordinary British folk, who just want their Country back under their control. These politicians who pursue this anti-democracy policy will feel the Electoral wrath at the next GE.
Over the past two plus years, Brussels has proven their true selves. Their offensive remarks to the British people and their Prime Minister, the scare stories, their threats of punishment to their largest customer and the second largest contributor can only be seen for what they really are, Dictators who demand that we follow their orders.
If anyone had doubts over our leaving in 2016, the constant non-concessional negotiating and bullying tactics of Brussels will surely convince them we made the right decision.
March 2, 2019
As the time drifts away from manifesto promises, referendum results what is the chance your future vote is meaningful if your past ones were not!
Efforts are being made to ensure we effectively remain in a totalitarian EU / parliamentary dictatorship.
As a voter, the failure of the political process to deliver on a simple binary instruction, irrespective of your vote is instructive.
February 28, 2019
Sir Oliver has just described those who want to uphold the referendum result as “hard core”, knowing he was being offensive, and those who are trying to overthrow it as “grown up”. It makes one want to weep. This is a Cambridge philosopher with a good mind and an impeccable education. His parents must be turning in their graves.
February 28, 2019
Thank you for your efforts on our behalf but the time has come to take positive action. The gloves must come off before the fix goes in.
Let us pressure Mrs May to bursting point with public humiliation.
The ERG does not only support any Govt business but walks out of the chamber any time Mrs May walks in, returning only to vote against in divisions.
It announces it will support any motion of no confidence in the Govt and induce the DUP to do the same if Brexit is betrayed with the Withdrawal Agreement or a second referendum.
Can the ERG table its own motion of no confidence in the govt?
February 28, 2019
John. Can you shine some light on the fact that the WA is not an International Treaty but a form of EU membership totally subservient to ECJ administration.
If we sign it the only exit is to abrogate it which no government would even consider.
Reply We would have no right to exit it or rescind it.
February 28, 2019
Reply to reply: …..and yet Jacob R-M is happy to support the WA if there can be a codicil regarding the backstop. How can this be? There is so much in the WA which is anathema to so many who voted to Leave, yet here we have JRM apparently doing a U-turn (if reports are correct).
February 28, 2019
Not to worry JR they are already putting labels on the Strasbourg furniture over there, getting it ready for redistribution. There’s not the slightest chance UK will be represented in the next EU parliament- none of the EU 27 concerned want to take a chance on fifty or sixty Farage/Hannan lookalikes sitting across from them next term, or any other term- it just won’t happen
February 28, 2019
I donāt think either the EU, Mrs. May, or the 200 Conservative MPs who voted for Mrs. May to continue as Conservative Party leader and hence PM care whether or not we are represented in the EU.
So I can well imagine that they will be quite happy for Brexit to be delayed, perhaps indefinitely, whilst we are unrepresented at the EU. Iām sure the EU can bend rules the rules to suit.
Not that I believe there is much difference anyway between being unrepresented at the EU and being represented by our civil service negotiators and previous EU ambassadors, especially with QMV.
Our Ā£100bn/year trading deficit with the EU is a good example of their handiwork over the last 4 decades.
February 28, 2019
Ageist comments are akin to racist comments or slights against any other different social group. You might be old yourself one day. Hopefully by then, you would have learned how pathetic you are and stopped saying such things!
February 28, 2019
Dear Mr. Redwood,
I find it significant that Conservative Eurosceptics have appointed a panel of eight lawyers who will judge as to whether what the Attorney General, Mr. Cox, brings back from Brussels on the Backstop is worth the paper it is written on.
When Mr. Cox was drafted into the negotiations I thought the likelihood of the EU changing the legal text of the withdrawal agreement was practically nil and that he was going to be ‘leant on’ by the Prime Minister to change his advice and attempt to bamboozle Eurosceptic MP’s with his lawyerly skills to back the withdrawal agreement.
It is welcome that Eurosceptic MP’s continue to be alert to the Prime Minister’s subterfuge
but it is also a sign that trust has completely broken down within the Conservative Party.
February 28, 2019
The only useful purpose for a delay would be if the 200 Conservative Party MPs who voted for Mrs. May to continue as Party leader and hence PM were to come to their senses, forced Mrs. May to resign and allowed their membership to elect a Brexit supporting leader who would use the time to properly prepare the country for a āno dealā (WTO terms) Brexit.
Similar to when Mr. Neville Chamberlain in September 1938 obtained a signed piece of paper he called āPeace for our timeā (the Munich Agreement) which gave the UK vital additional time for re-armament.
If these EU supporting MPs do not take this action then the enormous gulf which exists between them and the party membership will lead to a break-up of the party.
February 28, 2019
Quite so, Sir John.
I look forward to a no-delay, WTO rules Brexit. I see all the hyperbolic spinning by the BBC and others and just think that the old adage that ‘ if you tell lies for long enough then some will start to believe you’ is being played out again.
February 28, 2019
Sir JR
Unfortunately,, the UK already looks weak and business feels weak due to the continued uncertainty
February 28, 2019
“Mrs May has always made clear the UK will not be contesting the next European election”
Not one word this woman utters can in any way be construed as ‘clear’ or truthful.
February 28, 2019
Once again your view is eminently sensible but sense seems have departed many MPs. It is the actions of Remainers – who almost to a T have said they respect the Referendum result – trying to overturn it, that really annoys people. I well recall our Headmaster, on our arriving at senior school, being told in his speech to new boys ‘never, never be a bad loser, or you will be despised’.
February 28, 2019
The BBC and others like making fun of Donald Trump, but he knows enough about negotiating to walk away from a bad deal. If only our wimpish negotiators had the same courage and conviction to do the same.
February 28, 2019
President Trump will have the last laugh. He is a superb negotiator and he will get exactly what he wants with regards to N Korea and it will be a deal that will be good not only for both countries, but for the world. World peace is his goal. Removing the influence of the deep state in N Korea was the first step so that KJU was “free” to negotiate. It is quite staggering that P Trump has managed to bring NK to the table to negotiate, and yet what do the MSM focus on? A Committee hearing where unverified claims were being made about P Trump by an individual with a criminal record, already convicted for lying and perjury and also disbarred.
I suspect the deal is already done in private, but for public consumption a number of moves have to be taken.
February 28, 2019
It seems extraordinary that pro-Remain MPs are so locked up in their Westminster bubble, oblivious to the world about them, that they simply make the assumption that the EU is going to accede to their wish to extend Article 50, by a few weeks or months or years!
Even if the EU Commission were willing to extend, the European Parliament, I understand, recesses on 18th April before the European elections and since ratification is required by them even a short delay of a couple of weeks to get a deal through is simply meaningless.
Moreover, apart from the fact that the seats in the EU Parliament have been re-allocated, why would the EU wish to deal with more Eurosceptic MEPs from the UK – for there would be a lot more who would not be wearing Conservative or Labour colours if Article 50 is extended beyond the elections – raising issues regarding due process and accountability on the floor of the Parliament?
February 28, 2019
“It would create ideal conditions for pro Brexit parties to do very well at the expense of traditional parties.”
Be prepared to be wiped out by UKIP and the Brexit Party!
February 28, 2019
I am coming to the conclusion that Rees Mogg is not the “good guy” he likes us to think . He must know damn fine that the “Withdrawal” Agreement is the reverse of withdrawal, yet looks as if he will vote for it , threatening that “otherwise we get delayed, or no, brexit.” So if he votes for it that will prove he is deliberately party to May’s fraud. Further he must know that the backstop is not the only problem, what about all the other 40 “nasties” and the lack of get-out clause? And most important of all, if he votes for it (persuading the rest of ERG to do the same) we will have him to thank for signing us up to a hostile totalitarian state where be can be killed/maimed/raped by EU paramilitaries with diplomatic immunity, and vulnerable to arbitrary arrest and long imprisonment on no evidence, and our property at the mercy of this totalitarian state.
February 28, 2019
Mary, J R-M is well aware as you suggest, and he has plummeted in my estimation, and I would not trust him again. I believe this has done the reputation of the Cons Party no favours, let alone the whole Brexit process.
March 1, 2019
She set out to divide the Brexiteers and she has succeeded.
Some will still vote against, including the DUP, knowing we will then probably get landed with full Remain or Norway plus Customs Union.
It is too easy to criticise the victims of the dastardy.
In the end the EU will have accomplished its object: total humiliation and no-one else will try. But why, oh why, so many Quislings?
February 28, 2019
JR
” There have been no moves from rebel MPs in Parliament to seek to reinstate UK candidates or UK seats, which would of course require the consent of the EU.”
Next to a huge sigh of relief there will also be a certain regret that they will lose a buffoon like Farage who gave them so much amusement.
February 28, 2019
“Mrs May has always made clear the UK will not be contesting the next European election. “ – oh! Well that is that settled then, at least until she speaks again.
If British MEPs are returned in July, apparently under EU law they are then entitled to serve the full term for which they were elected, irrespective of Brexit occurring meanwhile. Martin Howe Q.C. says of this point that it looks like a formidable difficulty to an Article 50 extension of longer than three months.
February 28, 2019
To continue my previous which was getting too long: at the end of the day the 1972 Act of Accession and all EU treaties are unconstitutional and can be torn up. The Government is acting in bad faith by concealing this.
I am disgusted by May’s lies, fearmongering smoke and mirrors, constant wasteful junkets to Brussels and above all by the press who connive in this fraud by exclusively publishing irrelevencies.
The pathetic bunch in House of Commons are not running the country, all the while they play their pathetic power games they leavee power vacuum which the EU is quickly rushing to fill.
Believe me sir if Govt think wee’re going to roll over and settle for all this you are mistaken
February 28, 2019
May could learn much from Donald Trump. “Sometimes you have to walk away.”
February 28, 2019
The problem is that as an MP, you come across increasingly as an observer standing on the sidelines watching the game.
As I read your blogs, I generally agree with what you say and what you believe should happen, then I realise that this is a sitting MP whose party is in government and he is talking as if he’s nothing more than a member of the audience.
Perhaps go into May’s office and tell her that if any of her cabinet want to resign over no-deal, you’ll happily take up a role (Business, Chancellor?) and then you’ll be well positioned for the next leadership election (which surely can’t be far away).
Suggest you ask Jacob to join you. If you’re not part of the solution…
Reply I am very engaged in the discussions, debates and arguments, and also of course have a vote in these proceedings. The aim of the website is to provide analysis as well as give you my view.
February 28, 2019
Has anyone else noticed that whenever Trump says something positive about helping Britain after Brexit, (the BBC do a hit piece on him). Otherwise please explain how a lawyer? resigning from Trumps team to call him, “a racist, liar and cheat” should be lead story on BBC 6pm news when this is the BBC and America another country?
February 28, 2019
Said “lawyer” has been disbarred, and has been convicted for perjury, and is about to serve a jail sentence. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, says the Cohen hearing is the āfirst timeā a convicted perjurer has been brought back to be a star witness.
February 28, 2019
Has anyone else noticed that whenever Trump says something positive about helping Britain after Brexit, (the BBC do a hit piece on him). Otherwise please explain how a lawyer? resigning from Trumps team to call him, “a racist, liar and cheat” should be lead story on BBC 6pm news?
February 28, 2019
Every organ of State is involved in sabotage to keep us aligned to the EU at the expense of all alternatives. I just find it funny, its like watching a Movie about how the Establishment destroyed itself.
February 28, 2019
I think it was Benn who said a delay should be justified on the basis of settling the future relationship (as required by A50).
Personally I think this is really sensible. Also why the idea was buried without trace.
March 1, 2019
A 50 required the UK and the EU to settle the future relationship in the first two years, at the same time as the withdrawal agreement. Caving in to the EU’s desire to depart from this rule and have their preferred sequencing, was the first of many tactical mistakes made by the PM. Davis didn’t want to go along with it. Naturally Benn is happy with the delay and the disadvantage we are now under because it makes remaining more likely.
February 28, 2019
Mrs May has always made it clear we will not be contesting the Eu elections…..
HA.
She also made it clear she wouldnāt call an early election, no deal was better than a bad deal, we would leave the SM and CU, we would stop paying vast sums to the EU, WE WOULDN’T SEEK TO EXTEND ART 50, and WE WOULD BE LEAVING THE EU ON MARCH 29th.
Anyone else spot a pattern here?
February 28, 2019
Sadly one has got to the point that when working out what is going to happen, you look at May’s words and then expect the opposite to happen. It is getting frighteningly predictable.
March 1, 2019
She also promised she would change the negotiating team and get the backstop removed.
February 28, 2019
President Trump has terminated negotiations with the North Koreans, as they were demanding too much in return for too little with the statements:
“Sometimes you have to walk and this was one of those times,” and “A ‘bad deal’ in which we gave away a lot would inspire years of debate and pushback from US foreign-policy elites.”
Sounds very familiar regarding the UK’s negotiations with the EU, except that we don’t have a leader in place who has the bottle or conviction to take that stance. It’s humiliating to perceive how the rest of the world sees the unprofessional mess that the pro EU factions have got us into.
February 28, 2019
I see that there is a belief with the Tory party voters, that if they can get rid of Mrs T May everything will be ok within the party, as the ERG get ready to sign up for their leaders’ surrender to the EU.
What laughs they are, hanging on in hope of voting for Tory party at the next GE as they get sold out.
February 28, 2019
Ian, As I understand it , the Tory party leaership election procedure makes it now impossible for anyone but a globalist to get elected leader . This apparently has been so since Ian Duncan Smith was elected leader; good for the British people but disastrous for the globalists who dominate the Tory party.
February 28, 2019
Donald Trump demonstrated by walking out of the Vietnam summit how a leader stands up for his country and his people.
And what do we have ā after 2.5 years?
Pathetic.
February 28, 2019
This is what I keep alluding to. Our MP’s and Civil Serpents are simply not up to the job.
There is a ‘Cliff-edge’. But it is not an economic one but and administrative one.
February 28, 2019
The huge difference, VO, is that President Trump is utterly committed to the USA and wants to fight for his country (he could have had a quiet life enjoying his wealth but decided to work towards turning the USA round from the Obama years and bring back prosperity, hope and pride in one’s country). Our PM does not, apparently, and is intent on keeping us shackled to the EU, but in an even worse position than before – a real vassal state.
February 28, 2019
Has anyone checked to see if all 27 countries will agree to an extension to Article 50 and what demands they will make to agree. Spain wants Gibraltar, France wants our fishing and Germany wants that Ā£39+ billion. What’s the point of voting till you know the answer to this question? I bet the PM knows the answer but is not letting on, more pressure on the MPs to get her own way.
February 28, 2019
I think May caving in to Remainer ministers and agreeing to delay is the worst strategic mistake of the many she has made in negotiations since agreeing to the EUās favoured sequencing. The EU can now set terms for the delay she requests knowing that she caves when her ministers want her too. Ministers will demand more knowing she will not sack Remainer ministers. Likely this will drive her to either indefinite delay or encourage the EU to demand a 2nd referendum. May really is a complete incompetent who has failed on a scale never seen before in British politics with non one to blame but herself.
February 28, 2019
She is not incompetent (I wish it was simply that), but I fear that she is doing exactly what has been planned by her and her handlers. It is the establishment at work, although I prefer to call it the deep state now, as it does not simply operate locally, but globally. Farage won a battle against all odds, but then the full weight, power, money, propaganda and trickery of the deep state was employed to reverse the decision to Leave (for that, effectively, is what May’s WA will do) and they had an easy task with a Remainer PM, ready and willing apparently to effect true Brexit, and MPs who were either europhiles or were not apparently prepared to put country before Party and uphold democracy and honour the Referendum result.
February 28, 2019
Chris. Dead right.
February 28, 2019
https://independencedaily.co.uk/the-draft-withdrawal-agreement-threatens-our-civil-liberties/
February 28, 2019
leave, and leave ASAP, we have already danced around the handbags for far too long, JFDI
February 28, 2019
Goodness.
If Labour get in we could end up with:
– borders more open than ever
– PC agendas all over the place
– high tax
– surrender to the EU
– Remainers running the show
– abolition of prison sentencing
– effective legalisation of cannabis
– greenism gone mad
– bad energy strategies and deals
– murder rate going through the roof…
Ooo err !
February 28, 2019
Sounds like what we have at the moment.
(Re first point, May has already recently signed up to the UN commitment on automatically taking in large numbers of migrants as designated by the UN)
February 28, 2019
Chris .. Dead right. The UN Global Compact for Migration was sneakily signed by May’s minions in December with NO debate, a colossal catastrophe for Britain but next to no publicity. It WILL be binding (although my MP says not); the EU will dictate how many migrants we take and enforce it through ECJ and EU Criminal Injustice system and paramilitary. It gags free speech about it and gives migrants rights to housing etc which we just can’t afford.Many countries refuse to sign as it is catastrophe but May of course had no such qualms..
Another crime against Britain by May is forced sex education of very young children, pretty disgusting stuff I may add that shocks even me in my old age; God knows the damage this abuse is doing to children. It’s evil, it stinks.
February 28, 2019
May signed it precisely because it is a catastrophe.
February 28, 2019
Mary, I honestly do not think that many people, including many MPs who should know better, realise what on earth is going on. These are not random events, but a carefully constructed programme of Marxism being imposed upon us. What defies belief is that a Conservative government should apparently be willing propagators of this destruction of our society.
March 1, 2019
Has no MP raised any eyebrow about this in parliament?
In particular, has no Conservative MP raised the issue of the PM signing up to this without any parliamentary debate at all and despite there being an online petition signed by more than 100,000 people asking the UK not to agree to it?
By signing up to this agreement, Mrs May on behalf of the UK also commits to āpromote independent, objective and quality reporting of media outlets, including by sensitising and educating media professionals on migration-related issues and terminology, investing in ethical reporting standards and advertising, and stopping allocation of public funding or material support to media outlets that systematically promote intolerance, xenophobia, racism and other forms of discrimination towards migrantsā.
So here once more we have the government dictating and propagandizing what it will be acceptable to report in the media, and in due course what it will be required to include in school curricula.
Same as has happened on climate issues, hate crime issues and gender issues where it is no longer acceptable to publish an opposing view.
And the Conservative Party, previously a defender of free speech, meekly acquiesces.
February 28, 2019
ERG /Leave tory mps should now form their own independent house of commons group ‘Brexit Conservatives’ and appoint their own front bench. In the ensuing compromise, remain cabinet led by P Hammond Amber Rudd and other arch remainers be sacked, Olly Robbins services discontinued and a new deputy PM of Jacob Rees Mogg be appointed.
There should be no delay to Brexit.
February 28, 2019
With you on that, Andrew S. Desperately serious times demand drastic/novel/radical solutions.
February 28, 2019
I see Leave means Leave have announced a Brexit March leaving Sunderland on the 16th and culminating in Parliament Square on the 29th March. I am not as young and fit as I used to be but I fully intend joining the marchers in London at the end of their trek. Will anyone else here be joining me? Sir John, will you come along and show your support?
February 28, 2019
Despite some angry comments directed at you of all people Mr Redwood, most of us are very grateful for all of your continuing hard work on our behalf.
Reply Thanks. I make the best calls I can to help get us out on time, but the arithmetic of Parliament makes it a challenge
February 28, 2019
Absolutely correct MPC
My MP is actively trying to frustrate the result of the referendum in a constituency that had a leave majority.
Thank you Sir John for all your great efforts on our behalf in Parluament.
March 1, 2019
And we too constantly tell each other how lucky we are to have you telling us what is going on and fighting indefatigably for our independence. It is heroic when, as you say, the numbers are daunting.
February 28, 2019
I see one more MP has resigned from gov today and Mr Farage is organizing a march from Sunderland to Westminster to end on the 29th of March, marchers will pay 50 pounds each for all their accommodation and food, I wonder how many Brexiteers on this site will turn up to support them or are they just like the politicians that they vote for and complain about, just sit and do nothing for their Brexit.