As someone who wants us to leave now and not fight the EU elections, I think the parties will struggle to write their Manifestos for May 22nd.
Presumably the Brexit party and UKIP will write similar documents urging a WTO exit as soon as possible They should look forward to not having to take their seats or to giving up their seats after October 31st on the assumption we have then left the EU. Their problem will be differentiating their approaches from each other and avoiding splitting their pro Leave votes.
The Conservative party will presumably draft a Manifesto today based around Mrs May’s Withdrawal Agreement. The problem with that approach is if her Agreement were to pass with Labour support anytime soon then the elections will be cancelled, as the UK’s new status of in the EU without vote and voice would then kick in removing the entitlement or need for MEPs.
If the Agreement does not pass, this would leave Conservative candidates with a Manifesto made irrelevant by events.
If instead the Conservatives draft a Manifesto based on the proposition that the Agreement has not gone through, they follow a logical but politically dangerous path of hypotheticals. What then should it say? I would want it to say because there is no support for the Withdrawal Agreement we are leaving without signing it. That invites the response of “Get on with it, and spare us the election”. Alternatively the Conservatives have to set out in the document how they might get talks with the EU retriggered even though the EU has made clear its refusal to re open the Withdrawal Agreement. Likely tough responses from the EU make that a fraught approach.
Labour too has a difficult task in compiling a Manifesto. It faces all of the above problems facing the Conservatives over what to offer, with added grief from the factions wanting dilution or cancellation of Brexit within the party. If it includes a second referendum it is alienating all Leave voters who see no need to answer the same question again. If they leave out the second referendum they upset many of their pro Remain MPs and supporters especially in heavy Remain areas like London and Scotland. If they stick with their wish to enter a Customs Union they will be asked why they have failed to support Mrs May’s Agreement which is a necessary prelude to a customs union solution according to the EU. They will also generally be asked why they have been such an obstacle to leaving the EU and why they rule out leaving without an Agreement which most Leave voters and some Remain voters saw as necessary leverage in the talks.
The Lib Dems, Greens and nationalists who want us to stay in the EU have the easiest task. They will presumably set out why they think the people were wrong to vote to leave and how they wish to reverse the decision. They can then go on to explain how they want to spend 5 years in the European Parliament voting on EU laws, budgets and taxes. They will write off any chance of winning votes from more than half the public who want to leave or accept we need to leave in the light of the referendum result.
April 17, 2019
Good morning
I wouldn’t put anything. As no one would believe a word of it. Plus, it is the EU Commission that calls the shots.
Just vote for a party that is 100% committed to Leaving the EU.
April 17, 2019
Quite! The main political parties remind me of that unfortunate bird that found itself travelling in ever decreasing circles with a predictable outcome. Not long to wait.
April 17, 2019
May could write: I am so terribly sorry for betraying the nation, betraying democracy, the constitution, the party, supporters and voters. I was encouraged to collude with the EU by the civil service who thought the nation would not notice by their deception or it be too late to do anything about it. They thought it would like the deception in FCO paper 30/1048. I am truly sorry for colluding with Marxist Labour rather than seek agreement with my party through the Brady amendment, activists and supporters.
I have been caught out. Rather than destroy Brexit and my party I resign and allow the new leader to obtain a clean Brexit that you all voted for. This is the only way to restore democracy. Once again, I apologise and refer myself to the relevant authorities for investigation. I am willing to provide names of those who conspired with me.
April 17, 2019
Nice one Hope, but please don’t persist with the idea that our PM was somehow ‘encouraged’ to collude. It has been evident for a while that the PM fully grasps what is happening, but it has suited her to convey a quite different impression to the public.
April 17, 2019
Hannan made me laugh with his stupid comments in his article today. Surely he wrote them to show May the response he would get to any Tory manifesto and why the UK must leave on WTO terms ASAP.
The six percent of businesses who trade with the EU compared to the 94 percent who do not, will ultimately prefer leaving on WTO terms to having Corbyn in government. Have a ponder on that for a moment.
Tory associations can bring leaving on WTO without extension by withdrawing all support immediately. No money nomcanvassing nothing. May has ignored and abandoned you. CCHQ endorsed this fully by supporting remain MPs who publicly stated they wanted to destroy the party over its associations. Wake up you are being abuse without a veto or voice- sound familiar?
April 17, 2019
Don’t forget, Hope, she LAUGHED at Sir Bill Cash when he asked her about resigning. I don’t think she’d put her name to anything like this that smacks of honour and concern for her party, let alone her country.
April 17, 2019
And she looked across to the opposition front bench at the same time bringing them with her on her insult.
April 17, 2019
Hope
“and allow the new leader to obtain a clean Brexit that you all voted for.”
Nearly 50% of British voters voted Remain.
Scotland voted 62% to 38% – with all 32 council areas backing Remain.
Northern Ireland voted 56 to 44 to remain.
Third world democracy?
April 17, 2019
Listen carefully, 48% of those eligible who exercised their vote in the UK voted for remain. There was no 50:50 vote. The winning margin was well over a million people. A million is a very large number. This was the largest democratic mandate ever. It was a UK-wide referendum. If it was done on a constituency basis it would have been 70% for leave.
This process is democratic. You want to overturn a democratic vote so that makes you an anti-democrat.
Got it?
April 17, 2019
Decisions have to be made.
In companies boards of directors can pass an important decision by one vote.
Same with the referendum where over one million more people voted to leave the EU despite a prolonged remain campaign of Project Fear by the establishment.
The rules were made plain before the referendum.
The UK voted as a whole kingdom.
Scotland voted to remain part of the UK
Northern Ireland has shown no real demand to leave the UK
Oh I notice you never mentionsed Wales margaret.
April 17, 2019
That is exactly what she (and Hammond plus the rest) should do. If she has any morality about her at all. But clearly she does not.
April 17, 2019
SNP and Lib Dems were honest in what they campaigned for, the Tories were completely dishonest as it was a personalised manifesto that turned out to be a disaster. How many repeated lies has May and her remainers told? Worse they keep coming!
April 17, 2019
MarkB, That would be UKIP or the Brexit Party because people trust their policy of actually leaving (and not returning to) the EU treaties. The Conservative and Labour parties are hopelessly split – and who would believe either of their manifestos anyway?
I expect that the polling will show the Brexit Party in the lead, as Tories switch to TBP. They are already near neck and neck at the bookies with Labour for most MEPs before they are widely known. UKIP are likely to pick up a lot of Labour Leave voters.
April 17, 2019
Guido shows polling that Brexit at 27 percent twice the level of Tories. May’s legacy will be letting Corbyn thrash the Tories at the next general election. May has legitimised him, his values and culture by being in coalition with him.
I thought female Tory MPs, protested in parliament that they were furious after 2017 election by being bullied by Momentum and Corbyn refusing to debate it in Parliament! Go May Go May. You are on a direct path to destroy your party! Momentum claimed they got Corbyn from 25 percent to 40 percent. May will be that target for sure!
April 17, 2019
Mrs May will try and push through W/A no 4 before the Euro elections, hoping they will not be required (if it passes) remember she can try again as its a new session of Parliament.
April 18, 2019
How about this for the Labour and Tory manifestos
“This Manifesto is unbelievable”
April 17, 2019
These Climate Change persons clad in anything from an amateur clown’s outfit to an Old Mother Riley Sunday Best skirt and stockings. So many. Shouldn’t their neighbourhoods where they live be alerted in case they find their way home?
April 17, 2019
Maybe supporters of The Green Party who post on this blog would care to give their take on events in London that disrupted the lives of so many ordinary people and stopped them going about their legitimate business?
April 17, 2019
Shouldnt they be ‘available for work’?
April 17, 2019
Lololo!
April 17, 2019
What a pity they got rid of the water cannons.
April 17, 2019
They could send the Fire Brigade (or is it ‘Service’ nowadays) to water the plants.
April 17, 2019
I am too busy working to be able to go.
(Not that I want to go.)
April 17, 2019
What is so amazing is that more people ‘believe’ in the new manmade climate catastrophe fiery hell religion the less they know and understand of science, engineering, energy, electricity and physics. Some environmental reporters for the BBC propaganda unit do not even know what positive feedback is in the engineering sense and confuse energy, power and their units all the time. They foolishly think that wind power, biofuels and PV make a real difference to CO2. They do not to any significance at all.
Perhaps these juvenile “experts” could advise us on all sorts of other technical or medical issues from their position of complete ignorance. Bridge design, nuclear power stations and how to do brain surgery perhaps.
April 17, 2019
They have been brainwashed by propaganda in schools, the ‘do as I say not as I do’ Princes, by governments (who wanted yet another excuse to tax and move to more global government) and the appalling propaganda from the BBC in almost every programme they show from business, nature, to science, news, technology, farming, food, the weather ….
A bit warmer is better anyway on balance. But nearly all the warming forecasts have proved to be alarmist exaggerations at best fraud at worst as measurements clearly show.
April 17, 2019
There is an element of truth in what Climate Changers claim. Like there was an element of truth with what the Communists said before The Russian Revolution.
If The Establishment just before The Russian Revolution had been a bit softer and more sympathetic, we would NEVER have had a Russian Revolution. We would never have Communism. Or Stalinism. And the Romanov Family and Russian aristocracy would still be in power today – similar to here in the UK. (And I am supporter of the Monarchy and The Aristocracy – I am no Communist!).
Unintended Consequences of being to extreme.
April 17, 2019
I don’t believe that for one second. The Romanov dynasty and Imperial Russia were targeted for very specific geo-political reasons by other world powers.
Zorro
April 17, 2019
You might be right. I don’t really know much about it (was kind of talking rubbish a bit on this one ..)
April 17, 2019
Ed Mahoney, The Russian monarchy was removed from power in March 1917. It was Kerensky’s provisional government that the Bolsheviks overthrew in November 1917. Kerensky’s government was weak – that was why communist violence succeeded in overthrowing it.
So you are wrong about being “softer”, wrong about never having a Bolshevik takeover in Russia, and also wrong about the anti-science climate castrophe enthusiasts.
April 17, 2019
Yes, you’re right!
I only realised after ‘Post Comment’ that my comment was a bit rubbish ..
April 17, 2019
The truth being climate changes – it always has and always will. Mankind is one of millions of factors that effect climate.
I certainly agree with the above. But not the endless alarmist drivel religion that the BBC and other alarmists keep pushing. It is clearly impossible to predict the climate in 100 years even if you had all the input data and you do not. When they can predict the climate for next month reliably then perhaps let them move on to two months.
April 17, 2019
I do think though that that the UK could be tapping a lot more into Green Tech or whatever they call it.
Whether climate change is real or not, there’s lots of money to be made here.
April 18, 2019
Well lots of government grants paid for by tax payers.
April 18, 2019
‘Well lots of government grants paid for by tax payers’
– I didn’t mean government grants!
I meant private tech companies making loads of money from environmental technologies good and services – which reached $1.05 trillion in 2015. That’s a lot of $$$ or £££ (whether climate change is real or not – the UK could be cutting into that pie a lot more than it is).
April 18, 2019
@Lifelogic,
The USA’s EXPORTS for environmental technologies in 2015 was nearly $50 Billion.
The USA’s total revenue for environmental technologies in 2015 was $330 Billion.
April 18, 2019
@Lifelogic,
And I fail to see how making lots of money in environmental tech here in the UK, by tapping more into the global market and exports to these markets, is less salubrious than lots of other industries people make money from.
Rather than focusing on how true or not global warming is, let’s focus more on jumping onto this relatively-high revenue stream?
April 19, 2019
Always in favour of good new technology that actually works preferably without taxpayer subsidies.
April 19, 2019
@Lifelogic,
But you’re focusing on ‘taxpayer’.
Can’t you focus instead on the relatively big potential revenue stream that environmental technologies could bring to this country. Again, USA’s EXPORTS in this is $50 Billion!
I think we need more Conservatives focusing on this instead – the opportunities for entrepreneurs – instead of just being angry against the green brigade – an anger which isn’t going to achieve a lot (just rouses the green brigade even more).
Best
April 19, 2019
Also, it’s impossible to gauge the impact of environmental technology on other forms of technology we export – but it’s important.
If the UK is going to have a strong and growing economy then we’ve got to focus a lot more on high tech / digital in general. With huge potential revenues / higher exports / higher skilled jobs / higher productivity and so on.
(And government has a very important role to play in helping entrepreneurs here – most famously I think of the Israeli gov setting up a hedge-fund for high tech entrepreneurs which resulted in Tel Aviv becoming a major high tech hub.
April 17, 2019
How about The French Revolution (and The Spanish Civil War)? Couldn’t it have been avoided if The King and Aristocracy had been persuaded more to reform (and if so, they might have held onto their properties – and heads – and then no horrible French Revolution).
April 17, 2019
It’s all lies anyway. Politicians credibility zero.
April 17, 2019
Ian Wragg, It depends. You can trust UKIP and the Brexit Party to honour their commitment to actually leave the EU treaties. You can trust the LibDems to cancel Brexit. You can trust a lot of Tory MPs to feather their own nest whilst keeping us in the EU via the dWA. And if the Con-Lab coalition gets off the ground, a lot of Labour MPs ditto.
April 17, 2019
I’m not sure I would trust this artificial creation, the Brexit party, to honour anything and that includes leaving the European Union. Its purpose is to divide the Ukip vote. How we are being played!
April 17, 2019
Not all politicians perhaps about 100 diligent, intelligent, honest & sound MPs who are usually making a sacrifice to do the job like JR.
Thought even most of these idiotically voted for the insanely damaging “Climate Change Act”. JR sensibly abstained.
April 17, 2019
Tar, Brush spring to mind.
Guilty by association.
April 17, 2019
Brexit delay cost one billion (?) a month and MPs go off on holiday for two weeks. Each MPs holiday is basically costing the tax payer a million pounds.
If the average tax is £5k then 200 tax payers slog their lives out for a year for their holiday. This does not even register in most MPs consciousness. Now MPs are asking for tax payers to vote for them.
It’s either breathtakingly arrogant or breathtakingly stupid. Take your pick.
April 17, 2019
MPs are perfectly entitled to holiday. As – if you are a worker – are you.
Perhaps you should be required to give up your holiday as well.
Remember that is something the Tories may well do after Brexit.
All that red tape they talk about which stifles business. Yep – your right to a break.
April 17, 2019
The UK’s annual leave is better than many in the EU.
Here we have zero hours and modern slavery… whilst still in the EU.
April 18, 2019
Even people on zero hours have the right to one day holiday for every nine days worked in the UK (not the EU their max WTD is 20 days).
April 17, 2019
Dear Andy, Newmania Margaret etc
We did tell you, but no your fantasy world tells us its all about Brexit
WRONG , the EU is a failing institution
The clouds looming over the global automotive industry have darkened this week with Volkswagen’s former CEO being charged with fraud over the Diesel emissions scandal. Already tumbling German business confidence will not be improved…
Now beleaguered car company Nissan will cut 600 jobs in two plants in Spain, on top of Ford’s announcement last month that it is slashing 5,000 jobs in Germany.
Workers rights are longer established and more worker friendly in the UK than anywhere else in the EU
April 17, 2019
Libertarian,
There is no doubt the automobile industry all over the world is in trouble an will need to re-focus on new materials and new manufacturing methods to compete, taking that to the extreme of the Eu being a failing institution can only be done by somebody who thinks he knows it all. But I will not resort to personal comments here as you do.
The UK has longer established worker rights than anyone else in Europe yes, but not more worker friendly and if you knew your subject you would not write such nonsense, as a lot of legislation on this subject is done on a national level like foe example through national agreement in the Nordic countries.
April 17, 2019
Hans, You resort to personal comments all the time!
April 17, 2019
It is what remainers do NickC
April 17, 2019
The best workers right is the ability to quit and get a better job as so many are available. Over taxation and over regulation tends to do more harm than good in this regard and damages the economy to a huge extent. Plus lots of workers have to carry other workers who should have been fired.
When for example to dire teachers ever get fired almost never. They just go on teaching new students and failing them for years and years.
April 17, 2019
libertarian
Fossil fuel consumption is in past, thank goodness to be replaced by modern technology. All these firms that adapt will flourish, those that won’t will disappear. Oil and petrol are so passee.
The ‘beleaguered’ car companies you mention at least belong to countries that, unlike us, still have thriving car industries – we just assemble them here for Germany, Japan, America etc these days.
April 17, 2019
Well… except for much of our manufactured goods, the production of which has been outsourced to dirty-fuel nations.
April 17, 2019
Fossil fuels still provide 80% of the world’s energy needs.
Not quite as passé as you think.
We should develop more nuclear but Greens dont like that nor do they like fracking gas.
So it’s just solar and wind and hydro.
Currently generating about 15% of the UKs power requirements and intermittently.
Whilst in the UK our growing population requires more power.
I’m buying a diesel generator for back up at home.
The lights will go out with current energy policies.
April 18, 2019
Rubbish!The attempted putsch in Venezuela is all about oil-Bolton and Pompeo have even admitted it.The current intense interest in the Arctic is mostly about oil and gas.Etc
April 17, 2019
The UK introduced higher holiday allowances than those mandated by the EU.
April 17, 2019
How can the sovereign UK government possibly make the decision to give workers more holidays when – as you all keep telling us – the EU makes all our laws? How can this be?
Incidentally the holiday entitlement only came in here thanks to EU’s working time directive – viciously opposed at the time by the same Tories who now tell you you’ll be better off outside the EU.
These elite Tories have much to gain from Brexit. EU rules to protect workers and consumers (ie you and me) costs the elite money. That’s why Mr Mogg, Mr Fox and co want Brexit. Because Brexit will let them shaft you more easily.
Thanks to progress from the EU full time workers here now get 20 days paid holiday and bank holidays. 28 in total. We know the Brexiteers admire America – where the workers routinely get just 10 days off a year. This is what Brexit will ultimately mean for you.
April 17, 2019
Wrong again Andy.
Holiday entitlement came into force by UK law decades before.the Working Time Directive.
April 17, 2019
Andy, All of us keep telling you that the EU makes all of our laws? Not good enough, Andy, you won’t get paid today for that tosh.
April 17, 2019
Andy
“Incidentally the holiday entitlement only came in here thanks to EU’s working time directive”
BS !
Worker’s rights in this country were fought for and won by the unions and labour movement, long before the EEC even existed.
Just goes to confirm you remainers had a sub standard education, or ‘brainwashing’ courtesy Tony Blair.
As far as you’re concerned nothing existed before Blairism.
Read some history books for God’s sake before posting utter piffle like that.
Not that you and your kind would necessarily ever understand worker’s rights………most of you live in fear of having to earn your living.
And note: Worker’s rights were NOT established by the EU !
April 17, 2019
Andy, How do you know that the EU won’t take away your right to a holiday? All whilst they are conscripting your children into the EU army or militia? Yep – the EU can do what it likes with peasants like you because you have no democratic control over them.
April 17, 2019
NickC
What a really intelligent and thought through response, you must be proud?
April 17, 2019
You’re an expert on the subject.
April 17, 2019
Hans, Well, I did leave out the bit about massive youth unemployment in southern EU (from France to Greece) of up to 60%, which could spread to the UK if we remain in the EU.
But when Andy’s progeny are conscripted their loss of holidays and lack of a job won’t matter, will it? Precisely because you and Andy have no democratic control, the EU can do anything to you.
Or hadn’t you realised that?
April 17, 2019
HCI
Proud or not, he’s absolutely right.
April 17, 2019
NickC
“Hans, Well, I did leave out the bit about massive youth unemployment in southern EU (from France to Greece) of up to 60%,”
Name the countries involved.
==
“But when Andy’s progeny are conscripted”
Who is introducing conscription in the EU?
And can you guarantee that our government won’t send our soldiers into yet more illegal wars a la Iraq, Afghanistan etc to ingratiate itself with the US?
April 18, 2019
Margaret Howard, Don’t be so bone idle. The historical and current data for EU youth unemployment for France, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece – the southern EU – is freely available.
UK national democracy is far from perfect but it is better than no democratic control. The EU could remove any of your rights at any time. And you cannot do a darn thing about it because you have no democratic control over the EU.
April 18, 2019
NickC
It may be freely available but where does it say it is ‘up to 60%’?
(the highest by far is Greece with 36%)
And the EU COULD remove my rights?
Where has it done so and why should it?
April 19, 2019
Margaret Howard, Youth unemployment in Greece reached 58.21% in 2013 (Statista). You’re really prepared to trust that the EU will look after you solely out of its kindness? You have no democratic control. Hadn’t you realised that?
April 17, 2019
The Factory Act and other similar legislation gave UK workers the right to paid holidays decades before the EU was even dreamt of.
April 17, 2019
Andy – Everyone is entitled to only four weeks holiday plus 8 bank holidays, so 36 days. MPs get 110 days and have no obligation to do any work in that period – some no doubt do and some no doubt only claim to do – bit like teachers who pretend to work on “preparation” during their long holidays. If MPs work during the recess anyway they should have had no objection to attending parliament over Easter to sort out Brexit, which they keep telling us is a crisis. Even the EU Parliament’s own loudmouth Verhofstadt was astonished at them pushing off for a holiday at this time.
April 17, 2019
I would like to stick up for MPs.
I am sure some are lazy. But most are not.
They may well get hundreds of days not in Parliament – but those days are needed in their constituency helping the people they represent.
I disagree with the Tory Brexiteers on just about everything. But I do not doubt they work hard.
Indeed – I would argue that most MPs worker harder than you or I ever have.
April 17, 2019
Andy
“I would argue that most MPs worker harder than you or I ever have.”
Well that’s easy to comprehend.
I suspect number 10’s cat works harder than you.
April 17, 2019
Roy Grainger
Actually, Roy, holiday entitlement is specific to the contract between employer and employee.
However, employers have to adhere to a minimum, but they can grant more if they want.
April 18, 2019
Steve,
The most sensible comments you have made yesterday
April 17, 2019
You are being unfair to a great many MPs, Javelin. Speaking from many years’ experience, assiduous parliamentarians of any party will spend much of their holiday working in their constituency and catching up on varied paperwork and necessary reading. It’s too facile to believe that MPs are only working when they are in the Chamber.
Reply Yes my office stays open with plenty of emails and letters to deal with, continuing problems to be pursued, and of course local visits and events.
April 17, 2019
The figures are indeed quite amazing. About £4 billion of work needed to resture the Palace of Westminster too. A sum that could build about 30,000 detached three bed houses for people. Or the income tax from about 800,000 workers for one year. Then we have HS2, Hinkley C and endless other waste in govenrment everwhere you care look.
Why bother with Westminster if all the powers have been given away to the EU. Not in fact “given away” we even have to pay them to take them away. When oh when will this appalling lying woman and her tax to death Chancellor just go!
April 17, 2019
Not to mentiion £15 billion per year in foreign aid.
April 17, 2019
£4bn is a lot of money.
But some things are worth it.
It is money we need to spend.
And virtually none of it is yours anyway.
April 17, 2019
I am sure that it could be renovated perfectly adequately for a lot less than 4bn pounds!!
April 18, 2019
£4 million would be sufficient to build a new building perfectly suitable.
April 17, 2019
If it isn’t tax payers money where is the magic money tree. I would like a new sailplane, a mere £200’000. In fact peanuts in terms of Parliamentary restoration. Short of using my own assets, what is the socialist star gazers answer to my purchasing decision.
April 17, 2019
How on earth do you know that ‘virtually non of it is mine’? I and my UK based businesses will pay about £600k in taxes to HMRC this year. More still should I choose sell some assets or businesses – due to May and Hammond’s gross incompetence and the threat of Corbyn they choose to augment every day they remain.
April 17, 2019
Andy
“And virtually none of it is yours anyway.”
Do explain.
April 17, 2019
Mr Redwood,
This is a proportional representation election, for EU seats. A party programma can be quite vague (in essence not worth the paper it is written on) and does not have to be England or even UK-specific. Finding candidates may be more difficult. Also, why would the brexit parties be splitting their votes? They will end up sitting next to each other (if they bother to show up when there are no cameras around to record the Farage circus act). Different rules. Maybe the audience will be confused, but that is also part of brexit. You will get over it, I am sure, but it will not be a vey good score for the Conservatives, probably. But once “out” with or without a deal, who cares?
And while your site offers a constant stream of support, not for your own government, but a hypothetical one that would be more in line with the promotional literature re the 2016 referendum, why not join the Brexit Party?
April 17, 2019
“Why not join the Brexit Party?” Among other things Brexit is a struggle for the soul of the Conservative Party. I doubt our host wants to give up yet.
If he and like-minded MPs throw in the towel, the Conservative Party won’t have voters and Conservative voters won’t have a party.
April 17, 2019
Conservative voters don’t have a party anyway.
What I’m reading in comments sections and hearing in public is this realisation and they are toast.
April 17, 2019
The struggle goes beyond the Conservative party. The struggle is by the people for the return of sovereignty, and a cleaner form of democracy that limits the power of the establisment. The establishment needs to learn to persuade rather than rule by controlling the means of power. Then a real conservatism can thrive. Only the Brexit party and some conservatives have the drive to realise such a new political regime. The majority of politicians are way off piste, still fighting the wars of the past.
April 17, 2019
eeyore
There won’t be a conservative party after the next general election, or maybe even sooner.
Besides, the locals next month will probably confirm as much.
They’re finished, everyone knows this, and many Tory MP’s are now publicly admitting it too.
It’s now too late to win over the voters even if Theresa May was kicked out tomorrow. Voters are hell bent on revenge and will be ‘going for the throat’ at the first opportunity.
Labour won’t be smirking either, they know they’re also going down now that there is a credible leave alternative to vote for.
The duopoly’s days are numbered.
April 17, 2019
Rien, how would you know which Party to vote for if you don’t have some idea what it stands for and how it would implement its policy (if of course you are not, like so many of us now, totally and utterly cynical about 99% of politicians by now!).
April 17, 2019
Rien, I replied to your ill informed ramble with some harsh comment. Comment which our host found unpalatable, but it did not alter the truth. The EU on it’s totolitarian approach to democracy is the problem for the UK, not the nations or peoples of Europe. On the latter I voted with my feet, property and taxes for Europe, but not the EU. I will leave you to guess what I had to say on the history of Europe and the UKs relationship with it and the consequences. Be gratefull that you were ever allowed to create an EU even though you allowed it to be screwed up by 2nd rate politicians.
April 17, 2019
agricola
” Be gratefull that you were ever allowed to create an EU ”
Good grief who had the power to ‘allow’ Europe to establish the EU? You don’t mean to take credit for that?
If I remember correctly the UK was asked by the founder members to take part but declined preferring to start its own trading bloc EFTA and only applied to join when EFTA was overtaken by the EU when most of the other EFTA members left as well.
April 17, 2019
Rien, It does not matter what the manifestos say. The EU is not controlled by the elected MEPs.
April 17, 2019
You overlook one simple fact. Trust in politicians has now been absolutely destroyed by May and Parliament’s betrayal of the EU referendum result and all manifestos and political commitments will be treated with total contempt.
It now makes little difference what is contained within each party’s manifesto.
We are being threatened by Merkel. By Pelosi. By the Irish President. Our democracy is despised by May, by Corbyn and other Remain forces. At this rate of knots we may as well suspend democratic elections, suspend all our freedoms (under Labour this will happen anyway) and let’s revert to a system of non-democratic government
It is quite simple. We need more Eurosceptic MPs in the Commons. Without these we will remain within or enslaved to the EU for decades to come.
Labour’s traditional vote must be made aware of their contradictory voting behaviour. They vote Leave in the EU-Ref. and then vote for a Remain party (Labour) at the subsequent GE. Why would you do that? They appear not to appreciate this simple oversight. They need to be constantly reminded that they’ve been betrayed by their own party, Labour
April 17, 2019
Well I think we need to give the Brexit party’s manifesto the benefit of the doubt, and libdems stick to theirs in fairness. Labour and Tory’s go on the bonfire.
April 17, 2019
Trust in politics has been destroyed. But it has not been destroyed by May or by Parliament. The PM and MPs have been trying to deliver on the result of the undeliverable promises made by Vote Leave.
Mrs May has offered you all a Brexit deal. It takes us out of the EU, single market and customs union. It ends free movement. It ends the jurisdiction of the ECJ. It stops what Mrs May calls ‘vast sums’ from going to Brussels. It does everything you all want but Brexiteer MPs will not vote for it . They say it is a rubbish deal – much worse than we have now – and they are right.
And this, I’m afraid, is because any Brexit deal is worse than remain. Yes, there are plenty of problems with the EU. But it turns out that membership is the least option for this country. Save you anger not for Mrs May but for Johnson, Gove, Fox, Stuart, Hoey and others who sold you a dud in the first place.
If, now, you want a no deal Brexit instead you are perfectly entitled to try to seek one. You just need a mandate for it – which you specifically do not have.
April 17, 2019
What is it you do for a living, Andy ? I’m off today and I still can’t manage to vote as prolifically as you can.
April 17, 2019
write
April 17, 2019
Andy, Theresa May’s dWA does none of the things you claim. Can’t you develop your argument based on what the dWA actually says by quoting from it, as I have done in the past? This is why you lost the Referendum – you lied, and you’ve been found out. Remains don’t want to own Remain. And no wonder.
April 17, 2019
The promise was made by David Cameron and approved by Parliament. The result would be followed through by Parliament and carried through.
Mrs May and her civil service from their position of a long term incestuous relationship with the EU have been instrumental in producing the suffocating WA. Our host has quantified it very thoroughly. I know he is a politician, but I trust his judgement particularly when I can observe and make my own judgements. If you must argue for the WA, first read the judgement.
There are aspects of the WA that make good sense, reciprocal citizens rights for instance. The WA needs a forensic edit before it can be accepted.
Do not blame the whistle blowers, they are doing an honest job.
There is a mandate for Brexit and you know it. Nobody suggested it had to be or would be iced with cherries on top. The only suggestion was made as to what we could do with the money we saved by not belonging. A no deal Brexit saves a further £39 plus billion on top. Yes we will have current account obligations on leaving and maybe ongoing ones dependant on our involvement with existing cooperations, but not £39 billion.
Andy you need to get real.
April 18, 2019
Even the reciprocal rights are not what they are cracked up to be. They are not reciprocal for a start. Here, they set up a two tier system under the ECJ in which continental citizens enjoy a higher status and better rights than British subjects.
April 17, 2019
I think most people simply wish our politicians to tell the unvarnished truth. Too many of them have not been doing that. They have been disguising and distorting the truth. The arguments are still largely couched in terms of the economy, ignoring the fact that if the people in Brussels cannot be voted out we do not have democracy. Fortunately enough people know the transgressors and will deal with this issue at the forthcoming elections in a way that will teach a lesson that will not easily be forgotten.
April 17, 2019
Here’s a thought.
What if it is not a mass conspiracy involving all the living prime ministers, most senior politicians, judges, civil servants, the BBC and many more.
What if – in fact – these people who have served our country with honour and distinction for decades are, in fact, telling you the truth when they repeatedly tell you that Brexit is bad for you, for your family and for the country?
What if those you believe – proven charlatans like Farage and Johnson – are, in fact, still charlatans?
Incidentally – the MEPs in Brussels can be voted out. And the Commission can be removed by MEPs. Which is not entirely dissimilar to what happens here.
April 17, 2019
Andy, What if the rest of the world’s nations are perfectly capable of existing, and in the case of the Anglosphere nations democratically prospering, outside the EU?
What if you are just too willing to swallow the next European utopianist totalitarian ideology? What if most politicians who support the EU are either paid to do so, hope to be paid to do so, too thick to have an opinion, or are proven liars such as Heath, Blair and May?
And since Brown effectively vetoed our entry into EMU, and Thatcher changed her mind about the EU, there’s not many PMs left on your side.
April 17, 2019
NickC
Did you actually read it before you sent it, I hope not
April 17, 2019
I don’t doubt that we can survive outside the EU.
But we will be poorer – and not just economically.
We have less diplomatic power. Our soft power goes.
We are socially weaker. Our democracy more at risk than ever.
Will we survive? Yes.
But I have loftier goals for my country than mere survival.
It’s a shame you don’t.
April 17, 2019
Well Andy you are a passable devils advocate, but he speaks with a forked tongue. Why not let us have your plan for an idyllic society and how you intend funding it. How will you persuade people to take a positive role in it, and at the same time allow it’s democratic oversight. Start thinking and expounding positive before you slag off those who have already seen the light and are trying to redress the balance.
April 17, 2019
Is Britain looking at the biggest scandal ever.. who really decided the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement?
The originator of the agreement is unknown.
Deliberately deceiving title which is the reverse of reality.
Demands legal immunity for EU personnel. Why ?
Forced on the Cabinet by secretive PM who promotes globalist progressive policies and who strongly supports Davos.
Only this agreement which can’t be changed.
Legal advice originally secret, and is still partly secret.
Allegedly written in German and translated into English.
etc ed
April 17, 2019
Didn’t some German politician say something along the lines of ”bring it BACK to the EU for re-writing”?
April 17, 2019
Polly, Remember the daft meme, circa summer 2016, that we had no negotiators? The truth is that our civil servants have been travelling to Brussels to negotiate on a continuous basis since 1972. Of course we had negotiators.
The problem is that in going to Brussels so frequently our own civil servants have picked up the bad habits of the EU. They negotiate and the Minister just signs it off, usually. It takes a lot for a UK Minister to overturn such a cosy arrangement.
Thus is our civil service politicised and corrupted.
April 18, 2019
Don’t be so alarmed: it has always been like that. Don’t you remember
“Yes Minister”, “Yes Prime Minister”, “House of Cards” and similar programmes of the ‘90. How can one be sure it was comedy fantasy when one sees what is happening today? If one were to stop taking all this as seriously as some seem to do here, maybe some over-inflated personae would soon blow up quite quickly?
April 17, 2019
Martin Stymar
😉
April 17, 2019
I smell your fear that Brexit is being overturned, but please tell the truth. There is not “half the public who want to leave or accept we need to leave in the light of the referendum result”. Every single poll for two years now has shown clearly that more than half the public wants to remain. And once we have shaken off this silly totalitarian and unbritish “will of the people” mantra, remain we will
April 17, 2019
Polls were virtually unanimous before the referendum too.
(As they were before the US election, too.)
April 17, 2019
No second referendum though.
Remain in the ‘totalitarian’ manner of the EU and show the world a referendum ignored.
Pick and choose what polls suit YOU.
Ignore a properly held vote that doesn’t suit YOU.
A march of 1 million (some say 400k) is more valued than a properly counted majority vote by 17.5 million.
Yours is mob rule, Len. Way to go.
Scrap Parliament then. Polls (only the ones that suit Remain, mind you) is the way we run the country from now on.
April 17, 2019
Len Grinds
NO THE POLLS HAVE NOT SHOWN THAT
You live in a make believe world of fantasy
April 17, 2019
Maybe have a “straw poll” at the up coming Council elections on the 2nd May, if Parliament can have “indicative” votes, why not the public?
April 17, 2019
I wonder which polls you speak of. ”Every single poll….” Mmm.
Perhaps you, as a remainer, will tell us why you think the EU and your unelected EU masters want us to remain in their power. Do they fear for us going it alone? Do they love us so much they can’t bear to lose us? Do they think we’d miss all the EU’s ”benefits”?
And tell us too why, exactly, we should wish to remain. List a few of the benefits. We don’t hear a really good sound, solid argument that would convince us that, although four legs are good, two legs are better.
It’s most odd to say that the ”will of the people” is a ”totalitarian and unbritish” concept.
April 17, 2019
52% v 48% as expressed by the British people in a democratic exercise endorsed by Parliament and no doubt by your own participation in it. It is the only poll you need to focus upon. All else is propaganda
Have the decency to embrace democracy and understand that your opposition to a democratic event endorsed by all is in fact an expression of authoritarianism. Is that what you would like to see emerge? A political class acting ultra vires? A political class without accountability?
I don’t believe those who take pleasure in seeing Brexit thwarted truly appreciate what they endorsing. I find that genuinely disturbing
April 17, 2019
Well, if the public is so supportive of the EU, the LibDems and Greens will clean up. If the Brexit and UKIP parties do, as seems likely then I suggest your analysis may be wrong. Lets see what happens, if it happens. I suspect that the Remoaners are so afraid of losing that Parliament will pass May’s surrender document to avoid the elections taking place at all.
April 17, 2019
Graham, this is what concerns me. They will sign the crap agreement because they are worried about a total wipe out at the elections.
April 17, 2019
Len Grinds, Polls are not accurate, a vote is. It is most odd that you prefer any polling result to democracy. Moreover since your avowed principle is that the Leave majority does not matter, why should a Remain majority matter, even if it were true?
April 17, 2019
Len – more than half the voters voted to leave. We had a referendum.
April 17, 2019
It’s a matter of fact that Len his getting his way and not ours, despite a vote in our favour.
I wanted to show the world that the EU is anti democratic. A subverted referendum is a good second best. Andy’s “imprison anyone I disagree with” is icing on the cake that I did not vote to have nor to eat.
Newmania comes here frequently to call erudite posters ‘thick’ and our host ‘extremist’.
David Lammy is the true face of Remain. Anyone who disagrees with him is a Nazi, apparently.
April 17, 2019
No. It is roughly half of a selected group of 1024 or so, from polling companies with an Remain agenda. Quelle surprise!
April 17, 2019
Utter crap. You got two days ago posted its recent finding, people have not changed their minds red years in and despite promoting lies and fear to leave.
April 17, 2019
Wrong again Len
There are many polls showing no change in voters decisions.
Despite three years of relentless Ptoject Fear 2
Look at the You Gov poll as shown on Guido Fawkes site.
April 17, 2019
A YouGov poll commissioned by the London Evening Standard was conducted on 31st March and 1st April. In a straight choice between No Deal (WTO rules) and Remain, Remain is ahead in London and Scotland. No Deal is ahead everywhere else. If one weights the results by population, No Deal may enjoy a slight lead. So be careful what you wish for. By Autumn, when we have had time to organise and issue a manifesto, we will willingly fight a General Election on the basis of Brexiteers vs The Rest.
April 17, 2019
No doubt the Conservative manifesto will consist of twaddle, just like it did for the 2017 election. It can then be interpreted however the particular candidate pleases.
The Labour manifesto can also be full of meaningless aspiration, with plenty of “blame the Tories for everything”.
April 17, 2019
JR: “As someone who wants us to leave now and not fight the EU elections, I think the parties will struggle to write their Manifestos for May 22nd.”
Who cares?
I can save you a lot of time. The Tory manifesto could be a concise “This document is not worth the paper it’s written on”.
And for once in the history of British politics, a manifesto would have been truthful and accurate.
April 17, 2019
APL – excellent post!
April 17, 2019
The Brexit party and UKIP may have the easier task in writing an EU manifesto, but they will have to come to terms with each other, otherwise they may not be as successful as they’d like.
UKIP certainly will have a specific manifesto to get ourselves out of the EU on WTO terms… Brexit party have yet to make it clear what they will say, but both I suspect will emphasize the treachery we have seen from the UK government in pretending to negotiate an exit.
As always, working to EU rules, and having to vote with PR, whatever the result, the strength of winning parties will be diluted to ensure that all parties get some seats, unless of course it is a total and utter whitewash…
April 17, 2019
An interesting conundrum for the bubble-dwelling parties who have yet to recognise that the genie is out of the bottle. I saw yesterday that the Conservative & (European) Unionist Party has rabid, unreformed EU remainers on their ‘party lists’ for the election. That’ll go down well & shows that (with a few honourable exceptions) the heart of the party, but not its brain – its members, is owned by the EU & always will be.
May will use the fear generated of the impending electoral oblivion to try & push through her surrender doc again. It’s all she has to bury the unlawful, unconstitutional & anti-democratic actions of her Govt, much like Heath.
Personally, I’m wondering about a case against the Govt. I prepared for leaving on 29th March, on WTO as thankfully no Withdrawal Agreement was agreed. It cost me money but I was ready. It’s also costing me & everyone else money, via taxes, for the unlawful delay since then which also hasn’t seen the light of day in a Finance Bill. We truely have taxation without representation now.
April 17, 2019
Please would just one politician be positive?
I want leadership from politicians.
Something like a way forward – sort of joining Efta/EEA and going from there. Sort of taking our place in the world trading system as we were once very good at. Sort of reaching out to Arfica which is a continent (as the Chinese know) full of promise if handled right – and we used to be very good at that indeed.
April 17, 2019
Mike Stallard, Are you still going on about the EFTA/EEA route? For the umpteenth time, the EFTA/EEA is not on offer – it was tailored specifically by the EU to trap Norway into EU control after Norway’s “No” referendums. The EU won’t offer us the same (their rules, their game) – not least because they haven’t.
April 17, 2019
Nick, you can’t put it where it won’t go.
April 17, 2019
Mike. Have a look at the composition of the Commonwealth of Nations that we are part of. There’s no shortage of African mainland nations (17) in that group. The Chinese have benefited from our inability to forge closer trading links with Africa, due to our EU membership. The Anglosphere is similarly constrained but is patiently waiting for our exit. It’s the economic rationale for leaving the dying, insular, EU institutions.
April 17, 2019
I wonder if “more than half” goes quite far enough, in terms of the votes “Remain” proponents will write off?
Many, many, quite possibly most, of those who voted remain did so because [a] they didn’t see that it was worth the fuss of leaving and [b] they thought we might be worse off, and feared their precious little houses would fall in value (which makes no difference unless you’re selling up not trading out).
There was almost no positive case made – and that remains true – Remainers, even if there is a durable economic cost – seem to place ZERO value on self-determination, self-government, freedom, democracy… which is why we hold them all in complete contempt.
Having suffered so much already for a Brexit, yet to be delivered, I reckon many many people will recognise that having come this far the job must be finished…
April 17, 2019
Well said, Oliver. And perhaps any remainer here might tell us why they think the EU don’t want us to leave the ‘club’. And there is nothing said about the benefits of remaining, only the dreadful abyss that awaits when we eventually succeed in breaking away.
More than anything, we hate the attitude of remainers who think it’s too much bother – that the EU has made it too difficult to escape. As if THAT were a reason to give up on the desire for freedom from its sinister coils!
April 17, 2019
Oliver, Well said. Remains can’t even make a positive case for the EU, never mind the UK being broken up into separate provinces controlled by a corrupt totalitarian EU empire.
April 17, 2019
Dont miss out the fact that Remain voters were lied to (500,000 job losses in the year following a Leave vote) and did not know what they were voting for (EU army).
April 17, 2019
This is false. David Cameron and the people who (mis)lead the remain campaign did not make a positive case for the EU.
But plenty of us do. They do not get published on here because – by their nature – they are lengthy.
But I would urge you all to get out of your comfort zone and read them. You might surprise yourselves.
April 17, 2019
What does it matter what the Conservative manifesto says when elected Conservatives, and their leader, will just ignore it ? As it is a PR-based system there is no reason really for UKIP and BP to try to differentiate themselves assuming they both get a reasonable % score. More interesting is how the Conservatives will differentiate themselves from Labour given the coalition they have formed to delay and obstruct Brexit.
April 17, 2019
If Conservatives want the electorate to believe that we will truly Brexit, they should not waste party funds in contesting the EU elections.
April 17, 2019
I doubt anyone would give any credence to a Conservative or Labour party manifesto after the shameful way both have reneged on their 2017 manifestos. Your party, I fear, is in terminal decline as will be shown on 2 May when you lose votes, councillors and councils. How Conservative MPs have allowed Mrs May to bring your party to this is beyond comprehension unless you all have a death wish for a once great party.
April 17, 2019
The only honest approach for Conservative candidates who, in standing for election wish to support their leader, is to campaign for UK to stay in the EU. That is what Mrs May intends, so just be honest about it.
The alternatives for honest Conservative candidates who do not support Mrs May are:
1) to focus purely on UK’s domestic issues,
2) to campaign for some EU bandwagon unrelated to Brexit,
3) to campaign to leave by undermining Mrs May from within the EU,
4) to campaign on the basis that it is a complete waste of time and if elected you will not take up your seat and you will forego the salary, allowances and pension and have them paid to a UK charity.
Any manifesto approved by Mrs May cannot be honest. She will demand that it should say that her WA is taking back control etc etc.
April 17, 2019
PS.Or be honest, campaign for what you believe is right and join the Brexit Party.
April 18, 2019
Judging by the latest campaign email, the Conservative party is going with the line that they filled more pot holes nationwide than Labour.
Seriously?
April 17, 2019
Sadly the Kings of comedy writing, Galton and Simpson, are no longer with us. Long live the new kings, the Tory and Labour manifesto authors.
April 17, 2019
RAF
Trouble is all the comedies we used to love were actually skilfully, craftily softening us up for this present situation.
They held up to ridicule characters who protested the terrifying changes they were witnessing (eg Steptoe and Son..Shepherd’s Bush).
They taught us to ridicule those who adhered to truth and wisdom.
A brainwashing process that has been so successful.
And now as you say..the true jokers are revealed and the voices of dissent silenced.
April 17, 2019
You write above that a large part of the Labour party wants to dilute or cancel leaving the EU.
This ignores the fact that the same statement can be made about your party Sir John.
Wanting to remain in Europe despite a referendum and a general election where leaving received most votes is a cross party state of mind.
April 17, 2019
John Mann suggests that the vast majority of Labour voters in the North of England still want to leave the EU, and that it is the large number of Labour voters in the South East who wish to remain.
April 17, 2019
I find this situation where the Remainers have managed to block us leaving the EU on the 29th March completely surreal. Who could believe that we are now actually contemplating taking part in the EU parliamentary elections, instead of debating how we should spend the £39b we would save if we just leave? You couldn’t make it up!
We know that all politicians lie, break manifesto promises, play politics with our future, fiddle their expenses etc. however this PM has lied to the country in spades, repeatedly (“Brexit means Brexit. We will be leaving the EU on the 29th March – no deal is better than a bad deal”)
Her performance at PMQ’s over the past couple of months is worthy of an Oscar, or perhaps the less charitable would say a “Razzie”. Like most liars, she will now expect us to still believe her future utterances – as well as the promises in the forthcoming Conservative EU election manifesto.
Personally, I fear that a Labour government – led by elderly white men with fat files in the Registry – is likely to be the end result of her mendacity when she is forced to call a snap general election. Doubtless, the lady thinks that the party will also do well in the forthcoming local elections.
It might be a good plan to prepare for a Labour government and the coming exchange controls by buying gold in a vault overseas, where McDonnell can’t get his greasy hands on it.
April 17, 2019
Meanwhile, outside of the eurosceptic echo chamber, life will go on as before, I doubt most people will have given even a passing thought to the EP elections considering that the Local elections are due with polling cards dropping on door mats.
Your time might thus be better spent this month explaining why voters should vote for Conservative candidates in the local elections. Indeed by banging on about Brexit some might well become confused and thus punish local election candidates for policy way above their ‘pay grade’ so to speak.
Should the EP elections take place I suspect the vast majority will simply carry on as they have for the last 40 years, either totally ignore the elections or vote along their party line affiliations regardless.
Reply I am campaigning on the doorsteps with local election candidates
April 17, 2019
Jerry
But its not just Brexit , this tory government with Hammond as chancellor has been a disaster , attacking small business, increasing taxes, regulations and bans, now trying to shut down the internet and destroy the entire Digital economy, my local councillors all signed up to central government edicts raising business rates and council tax, reducing services, doing away with car parking and adopting new local taxes so local tory councillors should expect everything that MP’s and MEPs are going to get , sacked every single one of them . We have lots of independents standing this year , they are going to romp home
The Conservative Party is finished
April 17, 2019
Jerry, You are making the mistake of assuming voters compartmentalise “local”, “national” and “EU” issues. They don’t, in general.
April 17, 2019
@NickC: That would be why turn-out for local and EU elections is almost always well below that of either a GE or MP by-election, because people treat all with the same importance… Those posting to this site (and similar) might obsess about national politics all the time but the majority do not!
April 18, 2019
Jerry, Stop putting words into my mouth. I did not say people treat all elections with the “same importance”. I said people don’t in general compartmentalise. In particular your notion that the Tory government’s Brexit debacle won’t affect Tory voters is for the birds.
April 17, 2019
Reply to reply Good luck with that. Tell them about all the money you’re saving locally to send across the Channel?
April 17, 2019
The Tory EU manifesto will be interesting to read, if it comes out, but May is likely to have secured her surrender deal before then with labour’s help. Although it is interesting to speculate it’s content:
“AS PARLIAMENT HAS DECIDED TO IMPEDE BREXIT BY VOTING AGAINST THE NEGOTIATED DEAL WITH THE EU, IT IS UNFORTUNATE THAT WE STILL REMAIN A PART OF THE EU AND MUST THEREFORE TAKE PART IN THE ELECTIONS.
THIS GOVERNMENT BELIEVE IN EUROPE, BUT THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN, AND WE WILL DO EVERYTHING WE CAN AT UK AND EU LEVEL TO MAKE IT HAPPEN. VOTING CONSERVATIVE MEANS A HAPPIER BRIGHTER FUTURE.”
April 17, 2019
I think things are getting interesting.
My prediction is that the E.U elections will become a proxy referendum. Also that Remain will win the vote – and then we will really be in a catfight. As Leavers will claim it is not a proper vote, and Remainers will claim it overrides the referendum.
April 17, 2019
Interesting viewpoint. Which votes will you count as contributing towards the Remain share?
April 17, 2019
Turn out will be so low that one will have to question whether it’s a valid vote at all.
April 17, 2019
I disagree. I have never been more motivated to vote in an election. Brexit party all the way !
April 17, 2019
Yes, yes, yes Mick.
April 18, 2019
Was that Yes, yes yyeess as per Meg Ryan? 🙂
April 17, 2019
Merlin, What, you think the LibDems and TIG will win the vote? Some hope. Both the Conservative and Labour parties are divided – are they Remain, or Leave, or don’t knows? I think TBP/UKIP will win most MEP seats.
April 17, 2019
So you are saying everyone who votes Labour or Conservative in the EU election are voting for Remain ? How do you work that out ? Labour plus Conservative policy is currently a form of Leave, albeit weak, so I predict a massive majority for hard+soft Leave. Let’s see which of us is correct (Clue: it’s me)
April 17, 2019
Latest YouGov polling being reported on Guido looks interesting with Brexit party on 27% and currently in the lead.
But to be fair, TIG having renamed itself CUK can hardly be inspiring support. (Self-harming springs to mind?)
April 17, 2019
As a lifelong Tory supporter I can honestly say that I have no interest in anything the Tories or Labour say because I will be voting for the Brexit party.
If there were many more Mps like yourself I would return my vote but our democracy needs a massive programme of reform and Parliament needs some talent.
As it is, Labour and Tories seem to be in a race to the bottom.
Both parties need to split.
April 17, 2019
Julie, I second that.
April 17, 2019
Thirded, please see the light sir. It is staring you in the face. A cabinet of uselessness will never be re-elected.
April 17, 2019
Do these European elections say Theresa May in the UK is Manifestly Schizophrenic?
April 17, 2019
Whatever the Conservatives put in their euro election manifesto, it would either be read as satire or a pack of lies. In particular, expounding the virtues of May’s three times defeated servitude agreement would have considerable potential for hilarity.
They’d do better not to churn out a manifesto.
April 17, 2019
Daniel Hannan’s attempts to persuade people to vote for the Tories in the European elections have not convinced the Commenters on Cons Home website one bit (Hannan article today). Cannot believe a word that is written in Cons manifesto, and so on.
April 17, 2019
Hanan would do better packing his bags,as would our host!
April 17, 2019
I give as much credibility to anything from the clowns in the Con/Lab party as I do for anything that is broadcast on the £3.75 billion a year BBC .
But then I don’t work in an government department/ local government/ quango/ education/ one of the public services a charity or ‘the arts’ most of these have as must credibility as the house of clowns does which goes someway to explain why voting intentions are the same as always , those on the payroll and the sheep will always vote the same way.
Commentators seem to have forgotten the ‘Blair’ years , now we have apparently 30/35% intending to vote con/lab, after all that has been done over the last three years that beggars belief, just write all the rubbish you want, most voters won’t read it and will vote as they always do.
April 17, 2019
“[T]he Brexit party and UKIP…problem will be differentiating their approaches from each other”
I am already perceiving a difference in approach. So far, I am given to understand that UKIP has a policy of unilateral and unconditional withdrawal from the EU by means of an act of Parliament and not Article 50. From Nigel (“le Brexit, c’est moi”) Farage I am picking up that we need to “change politics for good”, a bog standard one-size-fits-all slogan that smacks of an extraordinary cynicism towards the very electorate that produced the shock result of 2016.
I do not mean to be harsh on Mr. Farage, but after three predictably wasted years of a non-Brexit, he has left it so late returning to British politics that we have to make a snap judgment of his new party based on first impressions. And appearing to pile on someone who was recently imprisoned for, as even BBC admits, “nobody to this day knows exactly what”, is not a good look.
April 17, 2019
If he’d started earlier he would have been accused of starting a party dealing with an issue which was still being resolved. Until May belatedly snitched on her earlier promises, many people would’ve assumed a vicar’s daughter wouldn’t tell such porky pies. Now we all know better, Allez Nigel!
April 17, 2019
Kevin, Yours is a very wise comment.
April 17, 2019
There was a time when a party’s manifesto was to be trusted. Both Labour and Conservatives promised to deliver Brexit. Both have failed to do so with a significant proportion of their MP’s doing all they can to thwart Brexit and renege on their manifesto commitments. All those Change UK MP’s fought elections on a manifesto pledge to deliver Brexit and are now actively working to stop it as are many others.
Individual MP’s, our host included, have been consistent and honourable but they seem to be in the minority.
It may be some years before I and many others believe any statements from the two major parties.
April 17, 2019
For leaving now to occur, it seems removing Theresa May would be necessary. This is a topic of heavy discussion on conservative home and other such sites.
For conservative members, Soutiam Goodarzi’s petition to change the rules on confidence votes (“Reduce the 12 month minimum between two votes of no confidence in Tory leader to 3 months”) has 1,200 signatures at the time of writing and can be found on petitions.net. The signatures are apparently being validated against membership lists.
April 17, 2019
I’d like to think Mrs May’s web of deceit comes back to bite her.
But I guess Mrs May will find a formulation for the manifesto which she can spin and show no shame. Its like a game for her.
April 17, 2019
The deceit of the British Establishment goes back a long way.Take these words of Arnold Toynbee from the 1931 Copenhagen International Relations Conference:
“It is just because we are really attacking the principle of local sovereignty that we keep on protesting our loyalty to it so loudly.The harder we press our attack upon the ideal,the more pains we take to keep it’s priests and devotees in a fool’s paradise-trapped in a false sense of security which will inhibit them from taking up arms in their idol’s defence.
If we are frank with ourselves we shall admit that we are engaged on a deliberate and sustained and concentrated effort to impose limitations upon the sovereignty and independence of the 50 or 60 local sovereign independent states which at present partition the habitable surface of the earth and divide the political allegiance of mankind.”
Yes,folks,remember Brexit means Brexit!!
April 17, 2019
Off-topic. Brexit Facts4EU today has reprinted your excellent article from Monday. They put a note at the bottom of the letter: ‘ Note: JR prefers not to use his well-deserved honorific of ‘Sir’ in his parliamentary activities, after receiving a knighthood in the New Year’s Honours List. We respect his wishes.’.
How would you prefer to be addressed on this site (or what do you dislike of the following)?
– JR, John, John Redwood, Sir John, Mr Redwood, Dr Redwood, Guv, Geezer etc.
Reply I do not mind as long as it is polite. I did not know I had ever expressed a public view on the use of the knighthood.
April 17, 2019
It’s such an awful mess first thing to do is revoke A50 and leave all to a future generation.
In the meantime let the EU nominate a team of technocrats to come in and run our affairs while we work at overhauling our political system.
April 17, 2019
FredH, Revoking Art50, but not repealing the ECA, will mean we are run by a team of EU technocrats. RIP, UK democracy.
April 17, 2019
And all for a completely useless parliament, which at best does a bit of scrutinizing of the diktats from the commission or council.
The two parliaments and the orchestrated shipment every six months is pythonesque.
Notre Dame goes up in flames through underfunding – makes you think.
Reply Why through underfunding? The fire may have started owing to spending money on repair, we need to await the results of the enquiry
April 17, 2019
Is there any point in drafting a manifesto. Even assuming people believe any of the promises are likely to be delivered, the European Parliament is a toothless talking shop.
April 17, 2019
Excellent analysis, Sir John. It’s all a bit of a mess and — as others have stated above — many voters won’t be paying a blind bit of attention to what’s in the older parties’ manifestos as we all expect it to just be more of the same where the EU is concerned: half-truths, spin and damned lies.
On the subject of the newer parties: Change UK will be unashamedly Remain and I expect them to pick up a few MEP seats on the strength of that. The Brexit Party’s manifesto will be virtually identical to UKIP (for obvious reasons) but without the (allegations made against UKIP ed). As a consequence, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see TBP win at least half of the 73 seats — and those five million disenchanted Labour Leave voters could well increase even this high estimate quite substantially. Either way, it will be a veritable landslide.
April 17, 2019
Just to clarify, if I may so be allowed: my “allegations made against UKIP” are not drawn from social media or fake news sources, but from UKIP’s own stated position – to be found on their own website, primarily under the section on Policies–>British Culture.
I don’t have an axe to grind, I just loathe extremism of all kinds — whatever its source — and I feel that UKIP’s anti-extremism policy is in itself, extremism. Interested persons can visit their website and decide for themselves.
April 17, 2019
Don’t forget that the Brexit Party will be sitting in the EU Parliament with the EFDD in order to avoid association with the evil nationalists, Marine le Pen and Matteo Salvini whose representatives sit with UKIP in the ENF. They’re such awful people aren’t they? No wonder the beeb disapproves.
April 17, 2019
I believe my vote is a privilege, and I have never wasted it despite being a Tory in a consistently Labour majority area. Sadly, my view is not shared by a rogue Parliament that simply cannot accept the decision of the majority of the electorate. As a consequence, instead of meeting their objective of leading our country out of the EU, Parliament has set itself against the very people who put them in post, and the powers my vote loaned them have been transferred to the EU without a mandate or my consent.
I will not be wasting my valuable time voting in the local elections, and because I feel the return of our sovereignty, in full, is fundamental to our future, I can only vote for The Brexit Party if the Europeans should take place. There is nothing the Tories or indeed, Labour, can say to me that will change my mind………..except, “We will be leaving the EU under WTO rules on 31 May 2019”.
April 17, 2019
There is still a legal case to be answered – We have already left.
April 17, 2019
Frankly, they may as well print the Conservative manifesto on toilet paper.
No trust, no vote.
The Conservatives will get less than 16% of the national vote, and at most twelve MEPs out of 73. Labour won’t get many more, perhaps twenty if there is no co-ordination between Brexit Party and UKIP. The regionals will keep the same number as now. Libs and Greens one, or perhaps two each.
April 17, 2019
Latest poll: European Parliament voting intention:
BREX: 27%
LAB: 22%
CON: 15%
GRN: 10%
LDEM: 9%
UKIP: 7%
CHUK: 6%
via @YouGov, 15 – 16 Apr
As Conservatives are down to 15% already before the campaign starts, they’ll be lucky to be in double figures by the time May 23rd comes round, given May’s track record. If they only get 10% of the national vote, they’ll probably only get four or five MEPs.
April 17, 2019
And they might get rid of their leader.
April 17, 2019
One wonders how Mr Redwood will support of a manifesto he so publicly despises, but there is a more interesting question. Why is the Conservative Party happy to abandon the Remain supporting constituency?
Polls have shown a 7-10 % lead for remain for a year now. Many voters will be employed in the Services sector his, “No Deal”, scheme attacks, and Change UK are ideally placed as a centrist option for these quiet millions. In the long term alienating moderate small c conservatives strikes me as an astonishing strategy for a Party whose USP was that it cared more about paying the mortgage than ideology. What am I missing ?
Reply My Remain voters by a majority have urged me to vote against the Withdrawal Agreement. MY aim is to show Remain voters that a clean Brexit will increase our prosperity and raise our growth rate. No-one is trying to put them off. The small minority who like the whole EU project and wish to reverse the referendum decision presumably voted Lib Dem in 2017 and now have a choice of Lib Dem, Change or even some Labour candidates.
April 17, 2019
A clean Brexit and getting a competent small government chancellor would do wonders for the UK growth rate. Just firing May and Hammond and replacing them with pro a Brexit PM would increase confidence hugely and mean we can still avoid Corbyn – despite the appalling Theresa May’s best efforts to throw the next election.
April 17, 2019
Looking at actual voting intentions your position is, in any case, less illogical than I have suggested.
U Gov Latest: Lab 24%,Con16 %, Brexit 15% ,UKIP 14%, Change 7% , Lib 8% Green 8%, Nats 6%.
There may be a remain majority but the single issue Brexit vote is more numerous, better organised and better placed to concentrate the mind of a Conservative MP. Grim reading; but facts are, unfortunately , facts.
April 17, 2019
Brexit party have started well seeing that they only launched a week ago.
April 17, 2019
Interesting. That indicates c. 1/3 for hard brexit, 1/3 for no brexit, and 1/3 for sort of a remainish brexit or a brexitish remain.
April 17, 2019
Not really , the polls still show a solid remain majority again and again and again, the problem here is the Labour Party which is as committed to Brexit as the Conservative Party.
Brexit is not the top issue for many voters and with both main Parties favouring Leave the question of who to vote for is not simple for the remain constituency. There are a lot of middling people who are forgotten and the position least hated by most is Norway plus .
April 17, 2019
So many ill-informed opinions in a single post. Remarkable.
April 17, 2019
Polls for the Guardian and Independent do but other polls do not.
You Gov shows hardly any change in voters intentions should there be another leave or remain referendum.
And you greatly underestimate the feelings of remain voters who still have the issue as their most important one.
April 17, 2019
I think it will be an interesting test of public opinion on Brexit. I suspect we will see politicians sit on their hands until after the vote to see which way the wind is blowing. A strong vote for CUK, LibDems etc would strengthen calls for a 2nd referendum. A strong vote for TBP etc would strengthen the case to leave with no deal if the EU won’t budge on the colonisation plan.
To me it feels that such is the mess that’s been made, the public may be shifting wearily back towards Remain. The Brexit side must take some blame for this as there has not been the Co-ordination there should have been. May has been left in post far too long after it became clear quite how hopeless she is. We have the Spartans arguing for WTO Now. We have mainstream ERG now in favour of May’s deal so long as May goes (why does the deal become good just because May has gone?!). And we have Messrs Gove, Fox et al backing May’s deal with the colonisation plan, and even now still in the cabinet while a permanent customs union is agreed with the Marxists! No wonder the public have lost faith.
April 17, 2019
The Conservative Party believes in leaving the EU and has agreed to abide by EU law and stay in the Customs Union but technically outside it. By voting Conservative you will be voting for no vote in the European Parliament. So please vote for our non-MEPs and send them to Brussels and Strasbourg for a few weeks until we sign the agreement to leave and really stay. This has cost taxpayers £100, 000,000. The Conservative Party is the party of financial competence.
April 17, 2019
“The Conservative Party is the party of financial competence.”
Sure they have given us tax borrow and piss down the drain in spades and the highest most complex and idiotic taxes for 70 years. Plus HS, Hinkley C, poor roads, endless green crap, millions of worthless degrees (funded by soft £50K loans that will often not be repaid), a sick joke of an NHS, poor schools and poor services all over the place.
The opposite of financial competence. Daft as a brush Chancellor John Major even took us into the ERM disaster – to try to get us into the EURO.
Economic competence – I think not. Better than Corbyn/SNP but only just.
April 17, 2019
Why are we twiddling around this appalling mare’s nest they have made (on purpose)..trying to find a “solution”??
Think of the previously unthinkable things they have done.
This disingenuous discussing …trying to think of a “solution”.
There is none. Except that is,the increasing totalitarianism they are imposing.
Have a vote? We already don’t!!!
We should all be very,very scared.
April 17, 2019
Daniel Hannan has written a pleading article on Cons Home this morning saying please vote Conservative so that we can finish the job. We just didn’t have enough Cons MPs to deliver Brexit. Well, that nonsense has aroused a very strong response from commenters on Cons Home, and deservedly so.
April 17, 2019
Well, perhaps if CCHQ were to let Conservative Candidates stand instead of parachuting in Lib Dems by any other name (over the objections of local consituencies), they would have enough Conservative MPs.
April 17, 2019
Chris, they had the chance to get rid of May and deliver Brexit but blew it. I don’t trust them now.
April 17, 2019
I remember an extremely lovely politician telling a story about her elderly mother.
On hearing the results of the Referendum the mother said words to the effect that we would not be allowed to leave.
Her daughter answered not to be silly …of course the vote would be honoured….
WE LIVE IN A DEMOCRACY.
I imagine that if the EU elections go the wrong way then various ministers…judges…officials ( whatever) will be appointed and sent to Brussels in place of those right wingers/Leavers who have been duly elected.
These elections are no surprise I imagine. I expect they were never repealed …or maybe sneaked back in. Rumours had it ages ago that they were budgeted for.
April 17, 2019
Being threatened with execution is surely bad enough, but to sign your own death warrant beggars belief. Far better to sack the hangman before you get anywhere near the scaffold!
April 17, 2019
Will the Lib Dems/Greens and those candidates in the Labour and Conservative Parties who are EU supporters tell the electorate the truth of what is planned if we stay in the EU ?
Such as :
Joining Schengen and the Euro ?
Continuing with uncontrollable immigration ?
Handing over to Brussels control of our military and nuclear capabilities ?
Handing over to Brussels our foreign policy decisions and our permanent seat at the UN ?
Handing over to Brussels control over the size of our contributions to the EU budget ?
Handing over to Brussels our decisions on budgets, laws, taxes and trade ?
Handing over to Brussels our environmental, energy and immigration policies ?
Accepting further EU expansion eastwards (see Mr. Cameron’s “Atlantic to the Urals” speech in Kazakhstan in July 2013)?
Or will they pretend, as Mr. Clegg did once, that it will all carry on much as before?
April 17, 2019
Silly scare stories. None of these plans exist
April 17, 2019
I’m amazed how uninformed pro EU fans are.
Just read the Five Presidents Report.
The ambitions of the EU are all in there Ken.
April 18, 2019
Richard…..I think you meant to write Germany when you wrote Brussels?
April 17, 2019
I wrote to my Conservative Councillor last week as follows :
“Dear Mr Parry
I am sure you are an excellent candidate but on the occasion of the European and local elections, I, and many others, will not be supporting the Conservative Party.
Whether Teresa May is just serially incompetent or has deliberately sabotaged the Brexit negotiations, I cannot support your party while she remains leader and Hammond is Chancellor. They seem determined to take your party to electoral oblivion, yet the Cabinet is unwilling to act and the Parliamentary party failed to oust her when they had the opportunity.
It now has to be up to lifelong Conservative supporters like me to send the strongest possible message to MPs that she has to go. Immediately.
If she is replaced before the 2nd May, I might reconsider, however a very considerable amount of damage has already been done. Particularly to Brexit.
I won’t go over all of the issues but you will be well aware of them. You might even agree just how bad things have become.
Yours Sincerely”
He has replied and says he has asked our MP, Christopher Chope to contact me.
Chope was another of the Brexiteers who voted down the withdrawal agreement on the third occasion.
April 17, 2019
What a pity you aren’t a Maidenhead constituent!
April 18, 2019
I was born in Maidenhead and lived there for 22 years.
Alan Glynn was the MP. He was a useless individual as well !
I worked in Pinner and canvassed for the Thatcher Government and Tristan Garel-Jones who famously won Watford in 1979. Regrettably, he has remained a Europhile.
After some years living in Germany, we moved back to Dorset where the excellent Robert Adley was our MP. He was a brilliant chap. When Robert sadly died prematurely, Chris Chope took over. He has made waves recently and is as ardent a Brexiteer as our host.
April 17, 2019
Save your money and don’t bother publishing one as firstly no one will believe anything written in it. Secondly who is going to vote for a party that has lost control of Parliament and the Capital of our country.
April 17, 2019
The position is very clear and simple.
Those politicians who accept the referendum result and are determined to implement it should say just that in a very short declaration. We don’t need or want anything else.
Those politicians who do not support the referendum result and refuse to implement it should not be standing for election because they have declared their disagreement and opposition to the implementation of legal National ballots. They will have declared their own election results as invalid in advance.
We cannot have a system whereby politicians only accept ballot results that suit them, and reject those results which don’t.
April 17, 2019
Trouble is, May thinks that only her WDA delivers on the referendum …
April 17, 2019
Whatever you put in a manifesto, don’t mention’ Teresa May’, rather in the style of Basil Fawlty ‘Don’t mention the war’.
April 17, 2019
I find the labour lead in the polls intriguing, they haven’t worked for brexit, mostly working to vote down any option to leave. I wonder if public opposition to the withdrawal agreement and labours opposition so far to it has been popular? It does seem strange that their plans require the withdrawal agreement passed, yet that vote consistently against it.
But otherwise I would urge anyone who does not support the withdrawal agreement to cast their vote for the brexit party, I hope a dire election result would wake up many conservative MPs to the need to change their leadership.
April 17, 2019
Best if May signs off the Manifesto as a ‘blank page’.
That way there will be no more lies and the Party will continue to achieve nothing, while May paralyses the Tory Party.
Surely, something must be afoot Mr Redwood, to rid us of this wretched woman?
Or is the Tory Party completely mesmerised, into following Mrs May, as she “crashes the Party out”, over the “cliff-edge” and into oblivion.
April 17, 2019
Saw an interesting comment on today Daily Express of course not from a politician but a member of the public……
Customs union is not leave, it is REMAIN MINUS, MINUS, it is worse than staying in, £39 billion coupled with the £8 billion deficit each year over the last 3 years = £24 billion. So let’s do the maths, (calculators ready), £39 billion + £24 billion = £63 billion ÷ 156 weeks (3years). Answer = 403,846,153.84615 Rounded up, £403 million, a week! So more than £350 million a week on the bus, admittedly the £39 billion was not part of the equation at the time. But how can this parliament use taxpayers money like monopoly money, then to say they haven’t got the money for the NHS and other institutions, this works out as well for Mays deal. All of them should think of the democratic vote, not the EU parliament and All their countries parliament’s All of them are in it together to protect their vast wages, expenses & pensions (they all know they will be worse off & have to work a bit harder) poor things. They really do think they are more intelligent than others in society, they can’t do maths, don’t read books, out done in debates, won’t answer questions, then the prime minister says one thing over and over and then changes last minute, they have all been found out. Please feel free to use my figures above (the can of worms needs opening
April 17, 2019
Perhaps the folks calling Notre Dame a European monument will strike a chord with the French. It is French and unique to France. There again a European substitute could be erected; square and grey !!!
April 17, 2019
What’s the point of a manifesto when nobody will believe it anyway. A waste of time just like the government at the moment. Irrelevant!
April 18, 2019
Fedupsoutherner.. Looking at history I would say people believe what they think the manifesto should say, not too concerned about what it does. Then later surprise, action bears little resemblance to promises.
April 17, 2019
Excellent analysis Sir John to highlight just how May, Hammond and Civil Service advisors are lightweights thinking they are running the country when everyone knows they are just playing games of divide and rule without any clue as to what to do. So much for leadership more like Mayday leadership:
“Is there a Sat nav for this?” Or ” Get me out of this hole please EU! “
April 17, 2019
Sir John,
Your piece is all wind because you know full well that CCHQ is stuffing the selections for candidates with fanatical RemaINers – when are you going to do the only logical thing and get rid of May or split the Party into a populist and popular real Conservatives taking the national membership with you and leaving May with her rump of sycophants, pay rollers and careerists with no practical campaigning membership to support them?
April 17, 2019
UK MEPs have no influence over domestic policy. But they can have an impact, albeit a limited one, in the EU Parliament. That said, surely the primary purpose of these particular European elections, is to make it very clear that current Conservative policy is absolutely unacceptable. Regardless of the individual merits of candidates, no one in favour of reclaiming British sovereignty should be voting for anyone other than UKIP or the Brexit party.
April 17, 2019
As for the content of the manifesto, a solemn vow to be as obstreperous as possible would suffice. The possibility that these European elections yield a significant number of anti – EU MEPs is a very interesting one. A sufficient number of these could well contribute a whole lot more to the cause of restoring national self – determination than the Conservative party can manage.
April 17, 2019
It doens’t matter what they write. Nobody is going to read them anyway. The EU election manifestos are non binding, with no rights to suggest laws and no power MEPs cannot be held to account
April 17, 2019
The Tory Party is led by a liberal left fascist obsessed with control of speech, the internet the wider media and democracy. She’s supported by a Europhile cabal who appear determined to impose an authoritarian culture upon us and Eurosceptics have stood by and watched her destroy our nation, its culture, our freedoms and our Parliamentary democracy
Shame on every single MP that is involved in this despicable authoritarian project
April 18, 2019
Dominic.. difficult to argue with those views. Mass culling of current ruling bodies is the only answer.
April 17, 2019
“What would a Manifesto for the European elections say in the UK?”
“…- ! …- ! …- ! …- ! da-da-da DAHH, da-da-da DAHH, da-da-da DAHH, da-da-da DAHH And so we call upon the occupied countries to rise against their oppressor “
April 17, 2019
Never mind the sideshow of the European elections. They are a complete waste of money and the Conservatives are polling about 20% overall. They will receive a well deserved thrashing.
Turn your attention instead to recent polling for a UK General Election. The Conservatives are down to 28%, with Labour on 31%. Unless you succeed in getting rid of Mrs May, you will be defeated in a General Election. I was chairman of my local Conservative Association for 5 years and I’m not voting Conservative in any election until she goes.
Remember that a YouGov poll carried out on 31st March and 1st April shows No Deal equal to or slightly ahead of Remain and take courage. Once ALL Brexiteers get organised, you can support a Labour No Confidence motion.
April 17, 2019
Leave, the only one able to guarantee and have The clout to make it happen is Nigel Farage and his Brexit Party.
He will do what it says on The Tin.
He will deliver our Democricy
Non of the others will even get near Democricy, Ukip will do there best, but they have blotted There copy book by allowing a few people in that maybe should not be there.
The other three main parties, have all been guilty of loosing our Democricy over the coarse of many decades, quite simply all those who are still supporting those parties are complicit in the putting this Nation in harms way.
Make no mistake The Withdrawal Treaty, which our host made clear in his well crafted analyses a few dats ago.
How anyone could consider such a Deal is beyond most of us.
You could ask how on Earth did she feel comfortable presenting it to this Nation ?
She felt so very very confident, just as she is when she rushes over to the EU ?
She knows she is bulletproof, why, well because the whole Establishment is right there right along with her as are the EU.
Oh this is totally rigged, how could anyone doubt that now.
So your choice is very simple if you believe in Democricy, and you want the best for this Nation and all of us that love our Country, and now want it back.
Only Nigel Farage will deliver.
He has as a business man , not a politician, single handed largely but with a growing band of like minded people for the last 25 years.
You want and need Democricy, he is more able that any other to get this job done, he will never change his coat.
He also wants WTO as does our host
We need to put all the wrongs right by having Our Swamp drained , that includes The Lords
April 17, 2019
1) the Brexit Party and UKIP are not the same – Brexit Party has Farage and even a Rees-Mogg. Farage got us the referendum.
2) The tory manifesto will be written by May/Hammond brexit betraytors so it won’t be worth a dime.
3) Tory manifestos aren’t kept to anyway so who cares what it says?
4) See the damage betraytors have done to your party/and democracy ? All trust destroyed.
They’re hoping to get away with a further extension in october/brexit cancellation by having May stay in place. They’ve packed the sham parliament off on holiday now to get over it.
A local tory leaflet came through my door while I was out re local elections. Was sorry to have missed the caller, I could have told them directly how I will vote to unseat the tory councillors.
April 17, 2019
I’m not a UKIP voter, but most people don’t realise they are classical libertarians these days. Freedom of Speech and democratic accountability are core principles.
April 17, 2019
The rest of the world must think they are watching some tv comedy sit com as these flip flop wearing tree hugging cave dwellers are fetching London to a standstill , as for the main parties putting stuff in there European Election manifesto don’t bother we all know who’s going to wipe the floor with you and his name sounds like garage and it won’t stop at the European elections
April 17, 2019
Sir John, I doubt if any Conservative election manifesto for any future election will ever again be given the slightest credence.
April 17, 2019
This is what I think it will say:
We athe Conservative Party are on your side. We are respecting the result of the EU referendum, working across Parliament to take back control of our laws, our borders and our money. We shall use our voice in the EU parliament to ensure that we leave the EU in an orderly and beneficial manner.
This is what it will mean:
.
April 17, 2019
Well the Conservatives could just do what they have done with the local elections and send an e-mail and put a letter in the letter box saying:
Local elections are just a few weeks away!
You can use your vote to deliver the improvements we need. Vote for your local Conservative Candidates … Conservative councillors protect the services local people rely on. While keeping their tax low.
That is it. It doesn’t say what they are proposing to do. What they will specifically do for my local town.
How will a vote for the local Conservative be seen? I want reassurance that voting for my local Conservative Councillor will not be seen and reported by May and the national Conservative Government or the National press that this is a vote for her and her complete failure to lead, manage or control Brexit. She has wasted a fortune on her delay because she didn’t bring people on board from her own party let along other parties and her coalition DUP members. If we don’t get those reassurances then my local 3 Conservatives won’t get my vote.
April 18, 2019
a-tracy. I really don’t think a few crafted words, or even a War and Peace document prior to voting day will make a ha’porth of difference. The Tories and I hope Labour too will take a smaller vote pasting. Not only will turnout be low, but the Big2 will suffer a negative swing. Just how many doors will be open to the also-rans remains to be seen.
April 17, 2019
Quote EU’s trade commissioner, Cecilia Malmström “The EU remains open for discussions with the US, provided these are without preconditions and aim at a fair outcome.” Vis-a-vie the trade tariffs US (& EU are currently trying to avoid) are imposing.
It’s abundantly clear the UK Leave negotiations and the output, the draft putrid WA were constructed to be diametrically opposed to any FAIR OUTCOME for UK, without pre-conditions for a following FTA. Your succinct WA analysis has left me in no doubt about that!
President Trump is right, the EU have NOT been fair to the UK and the collusion with the PM, swathes of Cabinet ministers and supported by Remainer MPs is utterly disgusting, an abomination.
Anyone with an ounce of common sense can conclude this PM, her Government and indeed the remainer House of Clowns are wholly and visibly without merit (excepting your good self Sir John, Owen P and a few select others) and they should resign / deserve to be booted out forthwith!
Bring on the Brexit Party and lets drain the swamp. We need both talented honest MPs and trade negotiators who will honour the referendum mandate to fulfil Leave with the UK’s sovereign best interests at heart….
April 17, 2019
Interesting the Brexit Party votes seem to come mostly from Conservatives and UKIP, and a few Labour voters.
Conservatives down to 15%. Lowest national vote ever.
Does not bode well for the next GE election.
April 18, 2019
Not wishing to be complacent, but when it comes to the next GA, as long as there is a decent Brexteer leader in place, and we have left, all those like me who are going to vote Brexit Party in the local and European elections will return to support the Conservatives.
There is simply too much at risk to allow Corbyn and McDonnell anywhere near Downing Street and FPTP will not give Nigel enough seats to form a coalition that could defeat Labour.
April 17, 2019
It cannot be said the people of London, generally, have not got what they voted for.
The Mayor siding with utter disruption of transport.
The Mayor a Johnny-come-lately to stop and search for knifers
The London based Bank of England siding with flogging to death Industry with green taxes
The London Labour Party siding with political chaos on the streets.
Disintegration by “communities” of general communality advocating “Separate Development” with more than a ring of Apartheid.
Zac Goldsmith did not campaign hard enough and he should be sent to Coventry
April 17, 2019
Dear John – I don’t know why politics has to be so nasty! At the end of the day, you can only argue your case, and stick to your principles. You may not win every battle, but if there’s to be any future worth having anywhere, decency and wise judgement must prevail. I doubt all this divide-and-rule politicking is going to do anyone any good.
I hope you will stay true, stand firm and keep your cool: also get some well-earned rest, to maintain perspective. If there’s to be a way through, you’ll then be well-placed to play your part. Meanwhile, it has to be said the whole world seems to be going crazy, so to serve in public life is not for the faint-hearted. Hearty thanks for all you do, even in this daily blog alone. Happily, it’s not all on our own frail shoulders. What a wonderful example our dear Queen Elizabeth II has been: and how much poorer the nation would have been without her! May God bless you, in your own high calling, in Her Majesty’s service.
April 17, 2019
Roger Tilbrook blogspot (he is a constitutional lawyer) has fascinating updates on the Judicial Review procedure currently underway in the High Court to sue Theresa May and the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (Case No. CO/1322/2019).
Their argument is apparently that we have already left the EU, and quite why there is no media coverage of this (other than on youtube) when there was daily coverage of the Gina Miller case is another story.
The Government has apparently struggled to respond and had asked for more time and had been given until today the 17th April 2019 to make their submissions to the High Court.
Could get quite exciting …
April 18, 2019
The government will NOT implement what you decide.
Any deal is better than no deal.
The UK will be leaving the EU on the twelfth of never.
April 18, 2019
Mr Redwoods comments are largely well formed except for the final paragraph commenting on the Lib Dem’s, Greens and Nationalists.
I quote: “They will write off any chance of winning votes from more than half the public who want to leave or accept we need to leave in the light of the referendum result.”
He is making the assumption, especially the Lib Dem’s, that just over half the public that vote democrat to leave still want to leave which I think is now safe to say not true. Of course, the original large minority who voted to leave will, I believe still wish to leave.
Therefore I do not think the assumption that the LIB Dems can write off half the public votes is true and is a dangerous political assumption for their opponents to make.
April 18, 2019
Sorry I didnt proof read properly! I meant to type the original large minority who voted to remain will, I believe still wish to remain!
Apologies to all and thought I’d correct before I got totally trolled lol
April 18, 2019
I am a Conservative Party member, but I will be voting for Farage because I believe in democracy.
I have already sent in my postal vote for the local elections with “No suitable candidate” written across it.