It is good the government is moving an amendment to confirm our exit date. It is two years nine months later than many Leave voters wanted. It means we will have paid the EU Ā an extra Ā£30bn after we decided to leave in extra contributions which gives them a win. Around Ā£8bn of that extra cost came about thanks to Gina Miller and the courts, delaying our exit by a costly nine months. Let’s now get on with it and have no more delays.
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November 10, 2017
Indeed Mrs May is already Ā£8bn down on the deal. Anyone running a business in this perilous state would be fired by shareholders (perhaps excepting certain former RBS bankers).
November 10, 2017
It is more JR because a sixth of overseas aid goes to the EU about Ā£2 billion each year. Not an insignificant sum. Moreover, there must be more than this for the EU to demand we have other obligations! If not what is Barnier falsely claiming from us taxpayers? I hope all our assets in the EU will be deducted from the last two years of contributions. Otherwise I fear we will not get our money back. If there is an extension we could be on the hook for more Greek type bail outs or Irish ‘loans’. No thank you. Enough of Cameron type lies.
There has been plenty of time to change, any extension will create uncertainty for business and countries who want to trade with us. Leave by March 2019 no later. No more control or interference by the EU. We voted leave not stay in.
Lord Kerr at it today saying article 50 can be reversed. Remainers will carry on with this using the next election as a second referendum. This should not be allowed to happen.
November 10, 2017
Mrs Clegg, a Spanish lawyer in trade, was on Sky today telling us that we need to cave in to Barnier’s threats pay 60bn extra and beg for favours afterwards. If we have to pay for British EU pensions, the taxfree status of collaborators like Clegg should be revoked and if he moves to his country of allegiance, then the pension should not be paid.
We should also be careful to deduct the rebate from final payments, as they are likely to refuse to pay this and other returned subsidies. They are not to be trusted in any way. I have decided to sell my property in France as, although I still like my friends there, their government is threatening additional taxes and charges.
The freely given pledge of military partnership should also be withdrawn. Mrs May has put another arch Remainer into the MoD to oversee the stripping down of the forces and merging command structures. A trustworthy replacement is needed and Spiderman should be kept as far from the MoD as possible.
November 10, 2017
Brown says a crisis next summer will keep us in.
If we don’t leave then let us be the first EU country to scrap its own Parliament.
Let’s embrace the EU wholly and honestly and completely instead of via this dinner/groping/debating/pension club we call our democratic legislature.
Let’s know our EU political parties, policies and their politicians as well as we do our own LibLabCon parties and Question Time faces – in fact I’m surprised that anyone who voted Remain doesn’t know them already. After all, they’re the ones telling Leave voters they’re stupid and didn’t know what they were doing.
Scrap all domestic politicians throughout the EU if it proves that you can’t leave and settle your own laws.
Imagine the savings !
November 10, 2017
Mr Brown’s forecasts have always been absolutely bang-on!!!
November 10, 2017
Oh yes like , ā there is no money left , good luck ā and selling all our gold at rock bottom prices , genius!!
November 10, 2017
Yes Dave, please be assured, the irony wasn’t lost on us!
I for one can recall the numerous terminological inexactitudes that would issue from his lips, and I see he has lost none of his mastery for giving a different account. I criticise a lot of politicians, but he’s the only one who makes me say out loud ‘You (fibber ed)very time I hear him!
Tad
November 10, 2017
Note to editor:
Perhaps you’ll allow me to just use the initial letter of each omitted word – L and B
Tad
November 10, 2017
This is satire, correct?
November 10, 2017
Like his selling of our gold reserves, absolutely bang on,
November 10, 2017
Yes, and the captain of the Titanic was certain he’d make it across the Atlantic, until he didn’t.
The debate to be had is whether you should install a fully competent Brexit believing team to deliver a good result, or risk hitting an iceberg with this one. Frankly the country has had enough of well-meaning but useless leaders. There are people in the Tory party who could carry this off with verve and panache – why not put them in position? Perhaps because many of your colleagues actually want us to go down, because they have their own personal lifeboats?
November 10, 2017
Dis May gets worse by the week and if nothing else Brexit has shown the utter contempt by the politicos and their elite and dishonest cohort of support organisations like the IMF, Bank 0f England, Treasury, etc etc. The routine dishonesty and incompetence shows that we need far less people in the bubble at exorbitant wages doing part time jobs with no qualifications, badly. Previous and current events show we need root and branch reform of the political class and a voting system fit for the 21st Century so we can hold them to account and sack them. Proportional representation so every vote counts not just the legacies. How about minimum standards, experience, pre vetting and a host of other processes and checks BEFORE they put themselves forward for election?
etc ed
November 10, 2017
Sir Joe Soap
Perhaps because many of your colleagues actually want us to go down, because they have their own personal lifeboats?
Do not think you are far wrong on that one Sir Joe
November 10, 2017
We will unless the EU use Article 222 to “put down” our Brexit “revolt.” We need to leave now and negotiate on a level playing field. We should not be negotiating Brexit with the EU under EU rules paying Ā£1 billion a week for the privilege.
November 10, 2017
http://www.lisbon-treaty.org/wcm/the-lisbon-treaty/treaty-on-the-functioning-of-the-european-union-and-comments/part-5-external-action-by-the-union/title-7-solidarity-clause/510-article-222.html
I wouldn’t put it past them …
November 10, 2017
Let’s not forget one of the biggest delays was by remainer May who wasted a whole year before triggering article 50. Sorry John, I hope you are right in that we leave in March 2019 but I do not trust our self serving politicians, many of whom are trying to thwart the will of the people with their delaying tactics. Nor do I trust this Government to walk away as they have promised if it is a bad deal. The red line must be we come out of the single market, out of the customs union and NO MORE MONEY offered in the so called divorce bill. What has been offered is too much already.
The biggest worry is that May’s Government is getting weaker by the day and will allow Corbyn to get into power before March, 2019. If that happens, we can all kiss goodbye to Brexit.
November 10, 2017
Oh, come on. Do you really want our government to treat the courts with contempt by taking some action when the legality of that action is still being challenged? Blame those who started the legal challenges within days of the referendum and after David Cameron had reneged on his promise to activate Article 50 straight away.
November 10, 2017
The remainiacs will be having attacks of the vapours now some concrete dates are in the frame.
Watch the disruption start with Miller trying to nullify the date.
Let’s just get on and leave.
Every utterance from Brussels is threats.
If you capitulate there will be revolution on the streets.
November 10, 2017
Agreed, time to get real.
November 10, 2017
Lord Kerr a crossbencher says it is not yet guaranteed. He reckons it can be undone.
November 10, 2017
Lord Kerr blames Theresa May for misleading the public:
https://news.sky.com/story/brexit-can-be-reversed-says-article-50-architect-11120404
“Article 50 architect says Brexit can be reversed”
“Lord Kerr who helped draft Article 50 will accuse the Prime Minister of misleading the public over whether Brexit can be reversed.”
He blames Theresa May, can you believe it, he doesn’t blame Lord Pannick for misleading the public on behalf of his client Gina Miller, and nor does he blame himself for his sloppy drafting of Article 50.
And nothing in reply from the government.
November 10, 2017
The EU will reverse A50 if it means more of our money. They always ignore their rules if it suits them.
November 10, 2017
If Article 50 is reversible then it is meaningless then the whole of the Lisbon treaty is a complete waste of time and should be scrapped, it isn’t worth the paper it is printed on
November 11, 2017
Lord Kerr is only confirming what we know already which is the EU (aka Germany) will ignore a previously agreed treaty article and break the rules and cheat whenever they want :
For example :
Cheating on diesel engine emissions with no mis-selling compensation paid to UK car owners, as they have had to do in the USA.
Continuing to build coal fired power stations using a particularly dirty form of coal known as lignite whilst we are closing down all our coal fired power stations.
Running a very large trading and budget surplus for many years against Euro rules and causing massive youth unemployment in southern Euro countries which in turn has been a factor in causing unwanted and unnecessary migration.
Not spending 2% of GDP on defence and thus relying on the tax payers of other countries to fund NATO.
Unilaterally and illegally inviting millions of illegal immigrants into Europe, causing social and economic problems in many countries followed by insisting that all EU countries ātake their quotaā.
Supplying gas turbines to Crimea against international sanctions.
Etc.
November 10, 2017
Now thatās really not fair on Gina Miller. Parliament could and should have voted properly at any time and her case would have had no basis to proceed but the Government was scared to put it to the vote. In particular the time and money wasted at the Supreme Court was the fault of the Government.
She won at the Supreme Court because she was right in law and you should admit that.
November 10, 2017
And I also remember it was Mrs May who specifically told the Supreme Court that there was no need for them to rush as she wasnāt going to trigger Article 51 before the spring anyway. They were prepared to move much more quickly if the government had wanted.
November 10, 2017
Miller is merely a figurehead for a more powerful group.
November 10, 2017
Was it also not the case that the Miller court case was successful because it was ruled that Article 50 was irrevocable once enacted and yet the very opposite is now being argued by those determined to ignore the will of the people and keep the UK in the EU?
November 10, 2017
It wasn’t “ruled”, it was accepted by both sides and therefore not discussed.
November 10, 2017
It is not such a bad idea IMHO. The EU27 needs to get on with many other challenges and is not served with a revoking of article 50. There will be time after March 2019 to work out new trade deals, something that would take quite a few years anyway.
November 10, 2017
PVL
Absolutely agree, both sides need to make sure of the deadline.
Will concentrate the minds on both sides.
Either get on with proper talks, or call it a day.
November 10, 2017
Showing a determined front to the EU has paid off for us in the past ; Maggie played her cards like this and gave us a dignity and a pay back .
November 10, 2017
Margaret Thatcher is no longer with us unfortunately.
We now have Theresa May and comparing her tenure as Home Secretary, which was abysmal, do not expect similar.
November 10, 2017
Chicken vs egg. Without needless dithering from the government, there would have been no opportunity for anti-independence campaigners to disrupt the process.
If one wishes to prevent further delay, one must deal with the real reasons for the current delay: why wasn’t the Article 50 letter sent immediately by either Cameron or May?
November 10, 2017
Because David Cameron reneged on his previous promises – to send in the Article 50 letter straight after a referendum vote to leave, and to then stay on and see us out of the EU – and by the time Theresa May had become Tory leader and Prime Minister the proceedings for judicial review were already in progress.
November 10, 2017
NAMING THE DAY
There’s no legal requirement to pass legislation naming the time and date we Leave the European Union.
The Treaties automatically cease to apply two years after Article 50 was invoked.
Mrs May however, is quite right to place this time and date in the legislation, and I can’t see how it can be avoided, otherwise the rest of the Great Repeal Bill will be a waste of time, because it won’t say when any of it comes into law.
And it’s not appropriate to pass legislation of this magnitude and leave it to the Government to arbitrarily decide if and when the legislation is ever applied.
Neither does ‘naming the day’ emasculate Parliament. If Parliament wants to change its’ mind between now and March 29th 2019, it can pass a vote of no confidence in the Government.
What this does however is to prevent Parliament from doing, is obstructing Brexit by the use of procedural devices, slight of hand and by placing political pressure on the Government
They will now have to put up or shut up.
‘Naming the day’ and enshrining it in law will also concentrate the minds of the EU and go further to disabuse them of any idea that we are Remaining.
Now that 11pm on Friday March 29th 2019 has been named, why don’t we have a Special Bank Holiday on Monday March 1st 2019, so we can celebrate all weekend. March 1st is, in any event Saint David’s Day in Wales.
November 10, 2017
I absolutely agree with you – let’s get on with leaving. The people are getting angry and impatient with the lack of progress in doing so.
Gina Miller should be sent an itemised bill for that 8bn even though there is no legal basis for it !
November 10, 2017
Blame the judges, eh. Your contempt for the rule of law is shameful.
November 10, 2017
Who’s blaming the judges?
November 12, 2017
Well, one of them said of a previous case challenging the government’s right to sign an EU treaty without a referendum: “This is politics dressed up as law!” That case was lost.
I should have said the same of the Miller case, before it got anywhere near the Supreme Court.
November 10, 2017
Good news though It’s going to be a very very long 17 months !
November 10, 2017
Upward and onward to the cliff!
November 10, 2017
Indeed – I can’t wait. The water at the bottom of the cliff is going to taste like nectar.
November 10, 2017
Ted
Ha,ha. What a stupid comment.
November 10, 2017
Fedupsoutherner, we could start a slanging match but it would be to no avail..so instead I would ask you to just consider what new trading deals Dr Fox and the govetnment have lined up for us for when we depart. The EU is already hardening it’s stance and from what I can see and we are indeed going to experience hardship. The EU side are preparing to deal us this blow so that we will be softened up for whatever new trade relationship they wish to allow us for afterwards..the cliff edge..it’s there..it’s real
November 10, 2017
Ted C
Why would the EU want to deal anyone a blow. The EU is not a violent teenager. It does not want to (and does not need to either) to “deal blows” Where does this idiotic anthropomorphic discourse come from. As if the EU had emotions..
Maybe you have feelings about other countries and peoples that you should not have, but no one who understands international relations believes that emotions are for anything else than feeding the idiots.
November 11, 2017
Ted, you obviously don’t read and absorb Johns posts or you wouldn’t be fretting yourself over this ridiculous cliff edge scenario.
November 10, 2017
We will see who votes for the amendment and post leaflets through every door in Constituencies of MPs who vote against.
November 10, 2017
Mrs. Mayās words did sound clear and positive and I welcome them. I only she can deliver on them without being undermined.
Further googling of Lord Kerr reveals his Article 50 statement is old news. Why it was revisited this morning on the Radio4 today programme I donāt know. A cynic might say it was to take the edge off Mrs. Mayās statement. I couldnāt possibly comment.
November 10, 2017
Heseltine says that stating an exact date “creates Uncertainty.”
Yeah,”war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength”
November 10, 2017
Heseltine is an old Marxist from another era. No Tory is he. Or his ‘mate’, Ken Clarke. Their days of influence are long gone.
November 10, 2017
Charles Moore was BBC Question Time last night. He has some interesting views though you have to listen carefully, as he is not the best at explaining them.
He said that the government will have to make it clear āin the next three or four weeksā what we are going to do to achieve the Brexit we voted forā.
More worryingly, he answered another question about the state of the government by saying it gave the appearance of a government paralysed by fear.
November 10, 2017
Lack of a working compass and any uplifting vision is the governments main problem.
November 10, 2017
JR, come on, Gina Miller no more delayed the Art50 letter than I did. The reality is the Cameron government hadn’t prepared for Brexit, so thankfully used the Miller case as an excuse. Not least because Mrs May is into displacement activity.
You could have, and should have, had a vote in Parliament in summer 2016 because most of the honourable members would not have dared to oppose the Referendum so close to the result. As indeed happened in March 2017.
November 10, 2017
It should have been in the referendum Act, as repeatedly pointed out when that Act was being passed.
November 10, 2017
You are probably right…
November 10, 2017
Cameron should have had preparations & the letter written in advance of the referendum and delivered it the next day as he promised – not that a Cameron promise is worth anything – a cast iron one or otherwise.
November 10, 2017
Sadly most of us here already knew that.
November 10, 2017
It will also reassure those on the EU side who are very glad to move on without the UK, possibly after a small financial loss (depending on how one sees the balance of mutual obligations). the UK, especially present day UK is completely incompatible with the EU where the vast majority supports cooperation and integration and has learnt two very expensive lessons about nationalism in the 20th century, while the UK seems to indulge in romantic fantasies about a heroic past end a bright future in splendid isolation.
November 10, 2017
We have no wish to become a vassal of your (EU ed)
All Brussels ever wanted was our money.
I believe we pay 14% of the bill but only get 5% representation.
The French position is reversed. Says it all really.
November 10, 2017
You should check the facts before you write. It is a good habit.
November 10, 2017
EU Parliament: 751 MEPs, 12.8% of those are Germans, 9.9% French, 9.7% UK, 9.7% Italian, 7.2% Spaniards, …
EU budget 132961 Mā¬ with 29143 G, 20968 F, 15889 I, 14072 UK (2014 figures).
So Ian, where are your 14% of the bill and 5% of the representation?
November 11, 2017
You are forgetting the unbudgeted expenditure and accruals.
November 11, 2017
Thanks for pointing this out. Where can one find the relevant (and possibly more complete) figures?
November 10, 2017
Where have you been, and who have you been listening to? The whole point of Brexit is to break out of āLittle Europeā’s protectionism and embrace the world. We support co-operation. We’ll remain in NATO and the Council of Europe. We are happy to trade with you. But we reject unification.
Which brings us to those ālessons about nationalismā. I don’t see much evidence of any having been learned at all. Not really. The most obviously bad parts of 20th Century nationalism have been dumped (and indeed enthusiastically negated) by the EU project, but the principle seems too seductive for lovers of power to abandon. The EU has its flag, its anthem, its parliament, its āministersā, and soon its army. It constrains the liberties of its member states and their citizens (which it claims for itself) by imposing rules, regulations, and laws from the centre. What we hear from the Colleagues of Brussels is, quite simply, a European nationalism.
And that’s why we’re leaving.
November 11, 2017
Whereto?
November 10, 2017
Ask yourself who was it as a nation that led the way in showing Europe the error of it’s ways from Napoleon onwards via the Kaiser and Hitler. We daily see the symptoms of you making yet similar mistakes, not least with totally undemocratic integration. Every time you have asked the people, post treaties, they have said no and been ignored. The people will demand a day of reckoning, look around you and read the signs, or keep your heads in the sand and reap the benefit.
November 10, 2017
Rien, If that really is the considered EU position, then no wonder we voted to Leave. Yes the UK is incompatible with oligarchy. Boris was right: the EU is yet another attempt to re-create the Roman Empire, but this time by stealth and bureaucracy rather than military might. You are purposefully forgetting history. You or your children will regret it.
November 10, 2017
I thought I explained: the 27 (well, the relevant ones) are involved in a process of integration. That means winners and losers but most countries manage to keep the winners compensated to a certain extent. The UK never wanted to integrate and should have left a long time ago. I do not think that the UK could afford not to integrate, but if part of the people live in a fantasy world and anothjer part does not bother, the ones who understand the benefits of integration lose the vote. Simple and boths sides should move on. The EU will be better without the UK and maybe the UK will be more comfortable outside.
Roman empire etc is nonsense. History is important but for me history shows that this UK decision is a bad choice. Not for the EU, but for the UK. However, you can take the horse to the water etc.
November 11, 2017
Is English your first language?
You do seem to have some difficulty understanding what is plain to everyone else. Just a pity an earlier reply of mine wasn’t allowed. That put it in plain terms even a lop-sided brainwashed remainiac like you could comprehend!
November 10, 2017
Opinion is so polarised on how it will all work out after Brexit, prophecies of disaster or assurances that we will prosper with a new freedom. Some people are going to be very wrong! I think it’ll fall between the two with a lot of muddling through, some areas declining and some improving with all the politicians of various persuasions using selective evidence to show how their predictions were “almost” correct. But those whose prophecies are self-evidently totally in error will, I suspect, either disappear from public life, find others to blame or stand up and apologise to the electorate. This last one being somewhat unlikely.
November 10, 2017
That’ll do.
November 10, 2017
I see that the BBC/ sky are in over drive on the statement given by lord Kerr and also throwing heseltine and Chuka Umunna into the mix, talk about a one sided argument, I still think someone should organise a March in central England for Brexit so that the remoaners and the eu can see our side because it sure as hell is not being published as much as the remoaners side is
November 10, 2017
Maybe we ought to look towards bringing the date forward?
The EU doesn’t seem to want to enter into an amicable spirit of negotiation where each side shows good will towards the other. They just want to take, take, take, and where the UK shows weakness, to take even more.
I am sure it isn’t beyond the wit of man for our leaders to show some guts for a change, tell the EU to get lost and go and run for anything other than what we legitimately owe them, and just walk away.
It is pretty clear by now that the EU sees our leadership as a pushover. They keep wanting more and more, and are totally intransigent. Their strategy would appear to be, cause as much trouble and consternation within the UK as they possibly can so that the people get fed up with the negotiations and change their minds. And that’s because the EU cannot really do without OUR money because all their fanciful plans and pet projects would be put back if not cancelled altogether.
I have news for them. They’re forgetting the 1940 factor!
The British are an accommodating lot, provided they don’t get pushed around. Then they show their true resolve. We have stood up to tinpot dictators and bullies many times in the past. If the EU thinks the British people won’t stand up to them now, they have another think coming! As for the UK’s leadership, unfortunately, that’s a different story – for now!
Tad Davison
Cambridge
November 10, 2017
1940. Dunkirk? Or the month before?
November 11, 2017
Oh how I wish some of my comments were not edited out. The reply I had for you was a good one!
So I will say this, if you think we on this side of the channel can’t make a go of it when we leave the EU, watch this space!
Not for the first time will continental leaders be astounded by our resolve, our determination, and our ability to control our own destiny.
November 10, 2017
John I have read somewhere that all the goods that come into the UK from overseas and that WTO tafifs are paid on these. Where does that money paid in tarifs go for goods into the UK I read that it goes to the EU coffers and not to us, is that correct
November 10, 2017
Quick question John
Multi-Billions of taxpayers money down the drain each month “for nothing”, which is “actually” acquired from hardworking UK citizens, who then must endure significantly reduced “critical” services across the nation. Is Mrs May’s EU appeasement strategy completely devoid of economic reality?
Does she personally sit in a privileged financially secure vacuum? Is she devoid of rationality or a logical thought process and does she not see the subsequent disastrous consequences this continuing mess entails? Can she not see the obvious damage to the UK’s long-term economic and commercial stability?
By prolonging a payment structure to a wildly profligate foreign organisation that clearly provides no tangible benefits to this nation, or indeed has little interest in this nation, except for its outrageous limitless financial (market borrowed) contributions?
How long must this government continue to be lead by a completely out of touch, politically insecure individual, who is clearly out of her political depth and with limited high office capabilities?
Shame on your political party for continuing this atrocious debilitating debacle! Bring in someone that has the gonads to rescue this deplorable shambles, before it is too late! …..or eruditely explain why your hands are tied?
If politicians were paid by business acumen and successful results, only you and a few others would be remaining in Parlament?
November 10, 2017
It seems that Lord Haw Haw is alive and well and broadcasting daily from Brussels via the BBC!
November 10, 2017
No more money in the pot.
Wait two weeks until Barniers ādeadlineā expires. Then walk if the EU still will not talk about trade.
November 10, 2017
Yes I’m sure there’s something in A50 that forces them to negotiate rather than walk away? If they walk away from negotiations that date need bringing forward.
November 10, 2017
We will leave on 29 March 2019. And it is a demographic certainty that we will be back in within 20 years.
The vast majority of under 45s voted Remain. We have grown up as Europeans. The EU is not just an economic thing for us – it is also a question of identity. European is who and what we are – and no vote by angry pensioners will ever change that.
We’ll still mostly be here in 2030, 2040, 2050. You lot – not so much. And, by then, not only will we have a big majority but we’ll also have been sufficiently impoverished by Brexit to be able to permanently undo it. Enjoy.
November 11, 2017
That is a pretty plausible outcome. Just add that by that time NI will have joined the Republic
November 11, 2017
And your addendum matters because?
November 11, 2017
No idea who you think you are speaking for, but the British Social Attitudes Survey disagrees.
https://whatukthinks.org/eu/media-centre/britain-feels-less-european-than-anywhere-else-in-the-eu/
Which comes as no surprise to anyone who listens to the concerns articulated by Remainders of whatever age. Overwhelmingly they talk of money, not identity.
November 11, 2017
Many of the over 45s that you denigrate were the same ones who voted to remain in the Common Market in 1975. People moderate their opinions with age and, thus, many remainers will do likewise. Your prediction is far from being a certainty.