Get on with it

There is still a long year to wait before we leave the EU. This is quite enough time to make any changes that are needed. The government assures us we will be ready to leave with No Deal if necessary.

I want the government to get on with the new borders, fishing, farming and trade policies we can enjoy once outside. I also want to hear how we will spend all the money we save. If we are going to delay our effective exit and give them more money in a prolonged transition there will need to be a very good deal to justify the delay. The message from many of us is Get on with it. Brexit will bring substantial benefits and opportunities.

We have a borders and trade system which works for the rest of the world at the moment, so we know how to live outside the EU.

214 Comments

  1. Lifelogic
    March 29, 2018

    Indeed, but we have May and Hammond in charge with their Brexit in name only and their let’s stick to the ever bigger state, higher taxes and higher regulation European model and then pass over power to Corbyn and Mc Donnall agenda.

    1. Hope
      March 29, 2018

      May today was asked if Brexit was worth it, she replied it would be different! Did Canada give the EU Ā£100 billion to talk all about trade, did they agree the ECJ applies to all EU citizens in their country, did they agree to the EU having control of waters and fishing stocks, did it agree to have freedom of movement from EU citizens and write asking all their families to come as well, did Canada agree to regulatory alignment forever? If not what is the plus plus plus for doing any trade deal with the EU that could not be achieved by WTO terms? I ask because May rules it out recently before trade talks got underway, who does this?

      May has reneged on alll her assurances, red lines and main points of her Lancaster speech. May has nothing to offer us the people. Why are you and other Leave MPs not actively ousting her?

      1. Hope
        March 29, 2018

        JR, how does Davis’s and May’s capitulation over territorial waters and fishing stocks give certainty to the industry during the punishment extension? What is clear come 2021 because Davis indicates stocks/quotas will be given away?

      2. Johnny Englander
        March 31, 2018

        They are not actively trying to oust the Prime Minister because they cannot, and they know it. Her replacement by any pro-Brexit hardliner would result in the immediate resignations or defections of enough anti-Brexit Tory MPs to force a General Election, which as matters stand at the moment the Tories would lose in the worst landslide since WW2.

        No, they will simply tolerate her for just as long as necessary to get a deal of any sort signed, after which she will be unceremoniously ousted and subsequently blamed personally for all of its deficiencies. Recognising that, as she surely must have done, she should have quit immediately after the last disastrous GE and retired from politics altogether. I can only put the fact that she didn’t do so down to a misplaced sense of loyalty to her party. And for that, I have some sympathy for her.

    2. Peter
      March 29, 2018

      Agreed. I simply don’t trust our government. Look at how many claims have now fallen by the wayside. We are being strung along for Brexit in Name Only.
      Rees- Mogg and ERG people will not prevent this. Strong words just get ignored.

  2. Bob
    March 29, 2018

    The British have a strong hand to play but our negotiators keep folding.
    It seems like they’re playing to lose (other peoples money).

    Did Brussels ever produce the itemised exit bill?

    1. Timaction
      March 29, 2018

      Or with our share of the accumulated assets making Ā£100 billion. In the negotiation what did the EU give up? Not sure it wasn’t a 100% capitulation by Davis and his team, especially as one of the kit-kats in his team was bragging how we were going to contribute significantly to the future EU defence bill but have it hidden from the public.
      There’s also talk of complete regulatory alignment and taxes going forward so we can’t gain a competitive advantage. Who are the idiots who even consider this as a good deal??

      1. Hope
        March 29, 2018

        Where is the bill so we can read line by line because it is clear the govt has lied to us about the cost of leaving and to talk about trade. Both May and Davis claimed a line by line verification as the taxpayer would expect. Now tell us the truth. The govt cannot offer Ā£20 billion, the double it and then include Ā£58 Illini of U.K. Assets as well.

        JR, why are none of you demanding the truth from Davis or May?

        Croatians are free to come here from June 2018, why no controls as promised? The country was not part until after negotiations started. May is creating uncertainty in a Leave in name only.

        1. Timaction
          March 29, 2018

          Indeed. I’ve just read that we are also about to be paying Ā£100’s of millions more on top of our existing contributions to support this weeks new EU Turkey/migrant deal even AFTER we have left, even though we don’t have to. Why? 16.4% of the additional Ā£3 billion to support Merkel’s Turkey deal. It can be read here……..http://facts4eu.org/
          This money is not reported on any official account or published or supporting any treaty obligation. Has the Government gone completely mad? The Government have collective Stockholm syndrome and need to learn the word NO when it comes to the EU!

    2. Rien Huizer
      March 29, 2018

      What strong hand?

      1. Timaction
        March 29, 2018

        Vast annual trading deficit. Second largest contributor. Highest defence spender. Best intelligence services. etc etc.

        1. Rien Huizer
          March 29, 2018

          What else?

          1. Dennis Zoff
            March 29, 2018

            Rien

            Better to ask what we get in return from the EU..or is that a question impossible to answer….anything will Do?

          2. stred
            March 30, 2018

            40% tariff on Irish cheddar and continental cheese, which we can make in the UK. 10% on BMWs when we can buy Jags instead. The largest fish stocks that we can take back and licence immediately. An immediate end to exporting EU unemployment. An end to Barnier and Selmayer’s plans to run the EU when everyone realises they have gone over the top and the money has gone.

            But, as they said in the Iraq war-“it’s like a turkey shoot”.With May and her team of Kit Kats the Commission must think it’s like that.

      2. James Matthews
        March 29, 2018

        The ability to walk away without a deal, which is what we should have planned on from the outset. When it looked as though that might happen Brussels were, for the first time, showing genuine concern. If we had a Prime Minister who actually believed in our country we would be departing the EU in June this year. Sadly we have Mrs May.

        1. Rien Huizer
          March 29, 2018

          Walking away without a deal when you have entered negotiations to get some advantage/improvement is not really showing a strong hand. More like ..

          1. James Matthews
            March 29, 2018

            There is no point in negotiating when you counterpart is clearly intent on screwing you. The EU demonstrated that that was the case in the first month after article 50 was triggered. We should have walked then, telling Brussels to let us know if they ever felt like being serious. We didn’t, but we still can.

          2. libertarian
            March 30, 2018

            Rien Huizer

            “Walking away without a deal when you have entered negotiations to get some advantage/improvement is not really showing a strong hand.”

            Really? You’re not very good at negotiations then? Given your background that doesn’t surprise me.

          3. Denis Cooper
            March 30, 2018

            I suppose you realise that a negotiation may be started in hope but nonetheless end up without any agreement?

        2. BobE
          March 30, 2018

          I agree

      3. Edward2
        March 29, 2018

        They earn 90 billion a year more from trading in the UK than the UK earns each year from trading in the EU
        Especially Germany Holland and France

        1. Rien Huizer
          March 29, 2018

          Numbers can be deceptive. The Netherlands is in equilibrium once you take out Chinese etc re-exports. Germany, yes but they will recover and most of their stuff faces little competition. Same with France.

          1. Richard
            March 29, 2018

            UK goods exports to the EU face inelastic demand says the World Bank report. Scope for UK’s import substitution of eg food & cars. The UK’s liberal economy is very attractive for non-EU FTAs.

          2. Dennis Zoff
            March 29, 2018

            Interesting…links please?

          3. libertarian
            March 30, 2018

            Rien

            Blimey mate has your account been hacked. The Germans & French face no competition…. Lol OK

        2. Edward2
          March 29, 2018

          Yeah right…it’s only 90 billion a year.
          Ruin a few hundred thousand families lives on your EU altar eh Rien?

  3. Gary C
    March 29, 2018

    Good morning,

    Re: ‘If we are going to delay our effective exit and give them more money in a prolonged transition there will need to be a very good deal to justify the delay.’

    There should be no If, delay or need to pay any ransom.

    Far too much time has been given to pandering to the bullying EU when it should have been spent standing up for our own country.

  4. jerry
    March 29, 2018

    This might be a good place to remind those who did not see our hosts “Brexit Lecture” (part of the Speakers lectures I believe) BBC P will be repeating it just after 3pm on Easter Monday.

    Indeed it will be interesting how each party suggests money from the Brexit dividend might be spent, will it be yet more tax cuts (well I suppose VAT could be abolished, perhaps being replaced by a better targeted, veritable rate, purchase tax), or will it be playing catch-up (investment and renewal of our existing infrastructure, including replacing social housing lost to Right-to-Buy), or might it be brand new blue-ribbon/white elephant schemes such as HS3…

    Interesting comment by someone from within the fishing industry this morning between 5 & 6am on R5L, confirming that even after full Brexit the UK will be bound to fishing quoter’s because they do not actually come from the EU but the UN.

    1. Richard
      March 29, 2018
      1. anon
        March 31, 2018

        Thank you as i refuse to associate with the BBC. So i cant watch telly.

        Fairly soon my list will expand. I have a few in mind.

        Our ” so called democratic parliament” law forbids me from receiving over the air broadcasts from others, without paying a tax to fund the BBC mouthpiece.

        Its this use of laws (uk and eu), rules, and thought and speech guidance which are creating a government of Theresa May like puppets.

        Lack of competition and lack of choice and freedoms are reinforcing companions.

        Still very little sign of direct democracy.

    2. Know-Dice
      March 30, 2018

      Jerry,

      I presume that maybe the total fishing quota for the UK fishing grounds is set by the UN (I haven’t checked), but distribution of that quota amongst EU countries is surely down to the EU?

      So, when we leave 100% of the quota will be available to the UK.

      1. jerry
        March 31, 2018

        @Know-Dice; The person being interviews implied that she was talking about the landed fishing quota post Brexit, that it would not be any different to now.

  5. Know-Dice
    March 29, 2018

    Good, that’s what many on your blog have been saying since the Referendum…get on with it…

    And on another topic:

    “We’ve not got enough beds or staff – NHS bosses”

    Lets be honest and not PC – Too many patients…

    1. Lifelogic
      March 29, 2018

      If you have something of value that is free at the point of use (to almost anyone who turns up) you will obviously have rather a lot of demand for it. I do not blame them, I would do the same if I had no money and I (or my family) needed serious healthcare.

      I blame the politicians for running such a daft and unworkable “free” system and having an open door immigration policy. Theresa May was home Secretary from 12 May 2010 ā€“ 13 July 2016. What is total net migration since May 2010 I wonder? What is this extra demand on the NHS?

    2. jerry
      March 29, 2018

      @Know-Dice; “Lets be honest and not PC ā€“ Too many patientsā€¦”

      Or just to many managers, accountants and the like. It has been known since the late 1950s on that by the turn of the Century (Y2K) there would be a spike in people needing care due to the post war baby-boom and this could last until around 2065. Why hasn’t anyone in Whitehall plan for this?

      1. Anonymous
        March 30, 2018

        “Why hasnā€™t anyone in Whitehall plan for this?”

        This is what they told us mass immigration was for. To provide us with doctors and nurses and taxes in abundance. So that the NHS would avert crisis.

        It turns out that EVERYTHING is in crisis – schools too and an ageing population doesn’t explain that.

        1. jerry
          March 30, 2018

          @Anonymous; Immigration has indeed helped to source staff, when lazy Brits refuse to do certain types of jobs. The real issue is funding (not staff) though, so I will ask again, why did no one in Whitehall plan to spend more, they planed long and hard to give tax cuts though…

        2. Lifelogic.
          March 30, 2018

          The highest taxes for 40 years (45% + of GDP) and yet appalling public services in general. Money is being wasted hand over fist all over the state sector. Then they force the private sector to waste billions too, through their bonkers regulations and their incubation of the parasitic litigation industry. Yet they wonder why productivity is so poor, the reason is moronic, misdirected, incompetent and bloated government from Cameron and Osborne and now from May and Hammond.

    3. juter
      March 29, 2018

      The number of NHS beds has halved since the 1990s.

      1. Pragmatist
        March 30, 2018

        Juter.
        A proper question. What happens to NHS beds which are considered worn out?
        Years ago I had the privilege of sleeping in a cheap furnished flat where the landlord had purchased my bed and other old beds from a cruise liner firm.
        I never see any great bonfires of beds and in fact no second-hand NHS stuff at all. Nor Victorian pieces of furniture, tables, chairs, etc etc from refurbished NHS facilities. Not so much as a lamp shade.
        What amount of money is secured from the disposal of NHS stuff and where is it?

      2. Lifelogic.
        March 30, 2018

        Almost the lowest number of doctors per head in the EU too.

    4. Lifelogic
      March 29, 2018

      “Lets be honest and not PC ā€“ Too many patientsā€¦”

      Well too many patients and most are not paying anything. Charge everyone something with a safety net for the very few who really cannot pay. Give tax relief for people who take private medical cover and insist on it for new arrivals.

      1. jerry
        March 30, 2018

        @LL; “Charge everyone something with a safety net for the very few who really cannot pay.”

        That is already done, it is called taxation, by definition a means-test, at least when based on income, purchase taxes are somewhat more blunt.

        1. Lifelogic
          March 31, 2018

          Charge at the point of use!

          1. jerry
            March 31, 2018

            @LL; I take it that you do not charge your tenants a deposit against breakages, defaulting on payment or whatever when you agree to rent one of your residential properties out. After all the ex-tenant can pay at the time of leaving should they default or leave breakages etc.

            Do you only pay your private health insurance when you actually need to use their services, only pay your car insurance after your car has been damaged?!

            Someone, Mr LL, doesn’t appear to understand the concept of how insurance works…

  6. Ian wragg
    March 29, 2018

    It’s a pity the Prime Minister and Chancellor don’t share your ideas.
    We are all waiting to see what the next capitulation is. No one has yet explained why we need a 21 month implementing period when we are not going to be doing anything.

    1. jerry
      March 29, 2018

      @Ian wragg; Itā€™s a good job the Prime Minister and Chancellor donā€™t share your ideas, Mr Wragg, if they did Mr Corbyn would have cycled up Downing Street by now!

      1. getahead
        March 29, 2018

        jerry. the Prime Minister and Chancellor take instructions directly or indirectly from the corporate elites. They don’t represent the voters who voted to leave the EU. Don’t be so sure that Corbyn’s Labour is the only alternative to the Tories.

        1. jerry
          March 29, 2018

          @getahead; Politicians might ignore the electorate for one term in office but they never get another opportunity, as Mr Brown and Mr Clegg found out!

      2. Lifelogic
        March 29, 2018

        No May is making Corbyn more likely by the day. She is a Corbyn warm up act.

        1. jerry
          March 29, 2018

          @LL; Just as Callaghan became the warm-up act for Thatcher, but had he stood up against the trade unions he might well have been re-elected…

          The right wing (of the Conservative party) are in real danger of doing what the Labour party did back then, people who vote against the status quo do not do so because they want the polar opposite to how they voted, they do so because they have become tired of the status quo.

    2. DaveK
      March 29, 2018

      Being the “Queensbury Rules” country of the 28, when we sign up to promises we endeavour to keep them. As we signed up to the 7 year EU budget which ends Dec 2020, if we walked away then the EU would have to find the Ā£39 billion to continue with their plans and this could be disastrous. Now where have I heard that sum mentioned……. I also would like to see the Level 1 Project Plan for the 21 months unless everything is going to happen on “cliff edge day”.

      1. Richard
        March 29, 2018

        “Mr Cameronā€™s Bloomberg speech in which he announced an In-Out referendum on membership was given in January 2013, whereas the current MFF and ORD run from the beginning of 2014 and were negotiated and agreed during 2014. So all the Member States knew when the ORD and MFF were agreed that it was all dependent on the UK voting to stay in the EU in the referendum.”
        See page 25: http://www.lawyersforbritain.org/files/the-withdrawal-of-the-uk-from-the-eu–analysis-of-potential-financial-liabilities.pdf

        1. jerry
          March 31, 2018

          @Richard; Straw-man arguments, until we triggered Article 50, and perhaps complete the exit process, we agreed to obey the EU rules, even more so if we were ‘in the room’ when the EU budget in question was being negotiated and voted upon.

  7. Iain Moore
    March 29, 2018

    They are trying to bury Brexit in prevarication and delay. Three years since the referendum result and they still haven’t made any arrangements for controlling immigration from the EU. Churchill took a country on its knees , negotiated alliances with the USA and Soviet Union, and defeated Nazis , all in 4 years, this Government can’t even put in place an immigration system in 4 years.

    1. Timaction
      March 29, 2018

      8 years of broken promises on immigration, that impacts on all health, education, housing and other public services. Congestion, water consumption, and environmental issues. It also has significant issues relating to our culture and dated practices by some, whose belief and value system is alien to us. In reality it means double standards under the law and enforcement and longer queues for English tax payers and pensioners.

  8. Excalibur
    March 29, 2018

    Indeed, JR, let’s get on with it. As well as controlling our borders, deciding how we spend our own money and conducting our own trade agreements, we need to conclude expeditiously our actual exit.

    I find it particularly galling that there is to be a transition period, and that the EU is to have continued jurisdiction over aspects of our governance, through the ECJ. Brexit means Brexit. Let’s get on with it…….

  9. The Prangwizard
    March 29, 2018

    She’s not listening to you. Has she ever? Is anyone in government? She dithered for nine months at the outset. Her trip today is a nonsense, probably looking for people who will confirm her wish to extend the continuiy period indefinately, on Brussel’s instructions.

    If you wish to talk quietly, at least carry a big stick, otherwise you will continue to be ignored.

    1. Rien Huizer
      March 29, 2018

      If “she” is not listening to MP’s why don’t they sack her? That she is still there shows that what she is doing is approved, imo.

      1. anon
        March 31, 2018

        Approved by the “right people” not the little people eh?

    2. Heath
      March 29, 2018

      If you listened to redwood, you are the fool. EVERY word he has saud about brexit turns out to be false

      1. Edward2
        March 29, 2018

        Your debating skills need development Ted.

      2. Denis Cooper
        March 30, 2018

        Really? Go on then, give us half a dozen examples, that should be easy.

      3. Porter
        March 31, 2018

        Heath. I know it is modern myth but “Brexit” which has caused this and caused that and your truths are no doubt valid (!) hasn’t actually happened yet!
        When something good happens nowadays the Remoaners say..”Ah but we are still in the EU.” When something bad happens they say it is because we have Brexitted the EU. We are still in the EU and it is murder. It creates so much uncertainty for business as Remoaners rightly point out. We should be able to leave immediately! This will tell Remoaners their emigration tickets to EUland can be purchased “before the rush”
        Strangely , our celebrities who threatened to leave the UK if we voted Leave and the celebrities who threatened to leave the USA if Trump were elected have shut up. We do not see them gesticulating on boats or making silly statements on TV right now.
        I’ll carry their bags!

  10. Lifelogic
    March 29, 2018

    Radio 4 Today Programme (and other BBC programmes) this morning are really rolling out their endless pro EU propaganda. Together with much other PC, left wing drivel & unfinished poetry bolted on.

    Using their one year to Brexit theme as an excuse. More like one year to Theresa May’s Brexit in name only betrayal I suspect.

    1. jerry
      March 29, 2018

      @LL; Your comment probably tells most people far more about yourself and how far to the right your politics are than it does anything about the BBC (or any other broadcasters), just because you think something is left wing drivel, overly arty or what every just makes you appear uneducated, perhaps you…

      “Using their one year to Brexit theme as an excuse.”

      As is our host, after all his planned article for today was about Russia!

      1. Lifelogic
        March 31, 2018

        It is not “far right” to want a state sector of a sensible size, (about half the current size). It would be far better for almost everyone if it were.

        1. jerry
          March 31, 2018

          @LL; Your partisan opinion has been noted… šŸ˜›

  11. Prigger
    March 29, 2018

    Labour Local Election leaflets last time did not mention Brexit once ( over 65% voted to leave in my area ). We will find out if they dare mention it now with local elections on May 3rd in England.

    Also Mr Corbyn was not mentioned once, nor in MPs leaflets ever. Certainly not a photo. Corbyn though Leader of the Opposition is far better than many of these MPs who snub him, in all ways.

    1. Rien Huizer
      March 29, 2018

      Corbyn is not the PM you would like to have, I am sure..

      1. Prigger
        March 29, 2018

        Rien Huizer.
        Yes I would, he will teach our very ignorant youth something they have not experienced, that is, nationalisation. They need to learn about it, to suffer it personally.

        Also apart from Corbyn’s silly economics he is actually a believer in free speech, yes he is, as was Ex-Labour PM Harold Wilson, despite his rhetoric about Hate Speech. Mrs May and Amber Rudd are enemies of free speech and a severe unrelenting threat to the well-being of our Country and our historic British values of tolerance and freedom.. He is a patriot and always wished us to be out of the EU…a foreign organisation.

        1. jerry
          March 29, 2018

          @Prigger; “[Corbyn] will teach our very ignorant youth something they have not experienced, that is, nationalisation. They need to learn about it, to suffer it personally.”

          Well I knew nationalisation, I have also suffered privatisation, I know which I prefer, not for everything though, which is were the hard left went wrong – my witness is what the Tory government of 1951-63 did not denationalise even though it would have been easy to do so at the time, for example the railway system could have simply reverted to their pre 1948 companies.

    2. jerry
      March 29, 2018

      @Prigger; [my emphasis] “Labour Local Election leaflets last time did not mention Brexit once [..//..] Also Mr Corbyn was not mentioned once, nor in MPs leaflets ever.”

      Why would they! The clue is in the name, local leaflets = local issues, 99% of Brexit is a national issue whilst 100% of a Corbyn lead govt. is national, thus the last Labour GE manifesto dealt with both.

  12. Anonymous
    March 29, 2018

    A recent poll showed that 57% now want us to get on with getting out. (I’d say higher than that in my own circles. )

    Not that I take polls seriously. The only serious polls are elections and referenda.

    Credit to our people for ignoring the Remain establishment. To be fair, this was easy. Respect and trust was lost long ago through Major, Blair, Brown and Cameron.

    And then there’s the BBC. Its agitprop output and unwatcheable PC entertainment.

    The London Evening Standard has become so shrill as to have lost any credibility at all.

    1. jerry
      March 29, 2018

      @Anonymous; If 57% of people in a poll said they want eggs for breakfast, what would you do as chef, ask them how they want their eggs, cook a varied assortment or simply be arrogant and dish one style of egg up that corresponds to how you like them? For all anyone knows, even the pollsters, 55% of those asked might well “want to get on with Brexit”, only problem being they want the so called Norway Option, complete with CU…

      1. Prigger
        March 29, 2018

        @jerry. I would ask them to vote 0n it, as on 23rd June 2016. and accept that your goose is cooked jerry. We voted Leave! We are leaving. Take your bad eggs back to Holland!”

        1. jerry
          March 29, 2018

          @Prigger; We were asked if we want to leave, not How nor When. So yes, great idea, lets ask those how and when questions, that second referenda anyone – more eggs anyone!

          What is more, what ever the Country wanted in June 2016 was democratically changed by the result of the June 2017 general election, surely you are not trying to be like the EU, democracy only when it suits?…

          1. rose
            March 30, 2018

            When you leave a house, how do you leave it? You do not continue to live in its rooms. We are leaving the house – and its rooms.

          2. Prigger
            March 31, 2018

            @ jerry. If you are ever in the unfortuanate position of being asked by a nightclub bouncer to “Leave ” the establishment, don’t ask “Do you mean leave softly or hardly or.. or, you will possibly feel the answer rather than being told it.Stop mincing words man and accept democracy!!! The vote was Leave!” Out of the disco. Do not pass GO ,. Do not collect Ā£200. OUT!!!!

          3. jerry
            March 31, 2018

            @Prigger, Straw man augment. If the Bouncer was to act beyond his powers, act beyond the law he would be facing the courts! This is why venues, these days, have to employ people who know the law etc, not just people who like to throw their wait about, stamp their feet, whilst huffing and puffing!

            How can you be certain that 16,40,742 voters out of the 17,410,742 who voted Leave did not vote for a version of Brexit that would leave us in the CU, signed up to the ECHR, in either the EFTA or EEA?

            You can’t because no one was asked to give their opinions on the technicalities of leaving, just the broad-brush question of leaving or remaining in the institution of the EU, Norway is not a member of the EU after all, citizens of Norway can claim VAT free sales in the EU I understand, but Norway is signed up to many of the above treaties non the less.

      2. Anonymous
        March 30, 2018

        It was quite clear what was on the menu.

        Remain campaigned during the referendum and told us that leaving the EU would mean leaving the single market.

        Leave never said that we’d remain in the EU market but that we’d be able to trade with it. Which we will.

        1. jerry
          March 31, 2018

          @Anonymous; “It was quite clear what was on the menu.”

          Along with 19 pro EU groups each with their manifestos there were 29 different anti EU groups all with their own manifestos campaigning for Brexit, so no it was not at all clear what we were voting for, or are you seriously suggesting that -to pick just two Brexit groups- the “Trade Unionists Against the EU” group want the same post Brexit policies as the “Business for Britain” group?!

          If you try and claim that only the two ‘official’ groups, Vote Leave and Remain, were legitimate campaigns then the referenda was illegitimate and needs to be rerun, but if that’s what you want…

          I do not usually agree with the SNP but the way some on the (hard) right are trying to demand that there was but one version of Brexit is nothing but an attempt to grab political power for which the electorate have not given any mandate, quite the opposite according to the 2017 GE result. Call yourselves Democrats, you lot don’t understand the first meaning of the word. šŸ™

          Reply |Nonsense. We were asked Leave or stay. We chose Leave. So lets just leave. If we wanted to recreate much of the EU we would have voted to stay!

          1. jerry
            March 31, 2018

            @JR Reply. “We were asked Leave or stay. We chose Leave.”

            Except that we were not asked either HOW nor WHEN we should leave, that was left as a matter for the Government of the day, and as we all know the electorate have since given their views on that in 2017.

            Had the result been Remain would you now accept europhiles demanding we give up all our opt-outs, accept open boarders as in the Schengen Agreement, accept the Euro – of course you wouldn’t, at the very minimum I suspect (hope) you would be calling for a second referenda on the issues!

            “If we wanted to recreate much of the EU we would have voted to stay!”

            Why are Norway, Switzerland & Monaco not in the EU then? All have signed up to, or accepted, significant EU treaties…

  13. Epikouros
    March 29, 2018

    We cannot wait until the final day to decide if we are going to leave without a deal as if we do that is a recipe for chaos. We must decide in time(which should be fairly shortly) to present white papers and put amended motions before parliament so as to have the legislation in place and detailed worked out so that from day one everyone knows their legal position and what the rules are that govern their actions. Including the EU as if we go into a transition period without everything in place for a no deal Brexit they and remainers will be sure to take advantage of the situation and cause us as much grief as they possibly can. The majority wants the government to proceed rapidly now with Brexit. So for once the government should actually do what the people tell them and not treat them with usual disdain.

  14. L Jones
    March 29, 2018

    Is that ”many of us” in Parliament, or ”many of us” out here in the real world?
    We’d all like to save the country money by avoiding this so-called transition period, but are we just voices shouting into the wind?
    Surely we are transitioning to something that we already have anyway, so what is the point? Or am I missing something, not being an expert?

    1. Rien Huizer
      March 29, 2018

      The “many of us” is certainly more than 1 MP but not such a large group that it could change things democratically.

  15. Alan
    March 29, 2018

    “Brexit will bring substantial benefits and opportunities.”

    I doubt it. Mr Redwood must be one of the few people left who imagine that we will benefit from Brexit. Most people seem now to have settled for the hope that things will not get worse.

    The message is not Get on with it. It is How do we get out of it?

    1. Rien Huizer
      March 29, 2018

      Too late. The EU will never trust UK politicians to make long tem commitments.

      1. James Matthews
        March 29, 2018

        Well that is excellent news.

    2. Denis Cooper
      March 29, 2018

      That may be the message from your minority, but not from the great majority.

      This is just one of several recent opinion polls that show the same kind of overall picture:

      https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/938502/brexit-news-boris-johnson-one-year-countdown-uk-eu-exit

      “The massive 68% support for the Government getting on with delivering Brexit in the Daily Express/ComRes poll compares with 52% who voted for Leave and 48% for Remain in the in-or-out EU referendum in 2016.”

      It’s a great pity that a small minority lack commitment to our national democracy and refuse to respect the will of the majority of their fellow citizens as expressed in the referendum.

    3. Leslie Singleton
      March 29, 2018

      Dear Alan–Keep striving to understand that we will save the shedloads of hard cash that we presently hand over willy nilly to the EU, the only (worst case) consequence being that we will (like the rest of the ROW) have to pay some smallish tariffs. And of course we can get back on track with the English speaking peoples (same language, culture, history, law, religion etc–birds of a feather flock together) and not have to pay attention, unless of course we choose to, to a Babel of bureaucratic bossy foreigners whose names we cannot spell or pronounce. Not to mention we get our fish back and our own tariff income on imports. No contest.

      1. Leslie Singleton
        March 29, 2018

        Postscript–Then there is the pernicious rubbish along lines, Have the British changed their mind?–I do not believe they have but it is disgraceful that the question should even be put–What chance the Renainers clamouring for any kind of new vote if the original had been to stay In? The answer has to be, Don’t make me laugh. Many who voted In must have been disgusted watching the wretched Commission in operation.

        1. Anonymous
          March 30, 2018

          Johnny Vaughan of all people said on his radio show that he voted Remain but is disgusted with the antics of Leave now.

          The sneerers on this blog make me want to puke.

          And too stupid to see that they’re getting the reverse effect to the one they want.

          1. Anonymous
            March 30, 2018

            “but is disgusted with the antics of Leave now.”

            should read

            “but is disgusted with the antics of Remain now.”

        2. Leslie Singleton
          March 30, 2018

          PPS–And there is another very simple and to my mind unarguable fact which is that few Brits have even the smallest desire to merge in to an incipient same country as the rest of the EU–Nothing could be further from the truth–We are superior to them and always have been.

    4. DaveM
      March 29, 2018

      No one voted to Leave in the hope they’d get richer. They voted to leave an organisation which wants to eradicate nation states and have all decisions made in, and implemented in Brussels. What is it you don’t understand about that? Of course the hope is that there is no recession as a result but……. you can pick any cliche you like to finish that sentence – poor masters over rich servants etc.
      If all you’re worried about is your own bank account then you should seriously consider moving abroad. Things are looking bright in all the Med countries I believe.

  16. MPC
    March 29, 2018

    Most contributors to your site and in the country surely, agree with you on this, but I’m not sure of the purpose of your post as David Davis when interviewed last Sunday said clearly that no deal is now virtually an impossibility. Kier Starmer’s proposed ‘meaningful vote’ amendment, sending Mrs May back to Brussels again and again if the deal is unacceptable, would further deny us the Brexit we deserve.

  17. bigneil
    March 29, 2018

    A full year – -at Ā£55m a day. And that is only what we know about. I could never imagine giving that much of other people’s money away. I assume we will STILL be giving the EU cash AFTER the leaving date as well. As well as the lump sum. As well as still taking in hundreds of thousands of dangerous, financial burdens from other countries to sponge here. As well as housing them. As well as schooling their kids. As well as treating them all on the NHS for free – -which WE have to pay for. As well as giving the new arrivals what they demand, so THEY can have what doesn’t offend THEM in OUR country, even though they contribute nothing positive.
    The Union Jack should be changed to a white surrender flag and then waved by the govt. It clearly has no intention of saving the country or the people who built it up. The Barcelona Declaration on full throttle.

  18. hans chr iversen
    March 29, 2018

    John,

    We have been there before, you keep talking about the money we will save, once leaving the EU. (Ā£ 12 billion)

    But it assumes everything else being equal and with the lowest growth rate of teh G 20 and a growing productivity gap to teh rest of western Europe, I am not sure there will be so much to spend.

    But , maybe you ahve positive information on this subject that the rest of us, do not have available or knowledge of?

    1. NickC
      March 29, 2018

      Hans, This is more Remain project fear from you – you offer no reason why we cannot prosper independent of the EU. As for low growth rate and low productivity – WE ARE STILL IN THE EU.

      1. hans chr iversen
        March 30, 2018

        NickC

        We can still prosper outside the Eu and we will but we will most likely prosper even more if we get a good and open trade deal with the EU.

        Nick, the is no fear in what I write but I do believe that due to our low educational standards, lack of investment in infrastructure and too little adult training once we are in jobs, we are not as competitive as we wold be and would like to thin that we are.

    2. Denis Cooper
      March 29, 2018

      There is such positive information readily available to everyone, whether UK citizens or not, but while JR can take a horse to water he cannot make it drink.

  19. duncan
    March 29, 2018

    This is what happens when Tory MPs :-

    1. They elect a Europhile as leader
    2. Turn a blind eye to the abuses of Whitehall
    3. Refuse to confront the poison of the BBC and its output
    4. Threaten to bring down May

    It is this PM, not this government, who is a major barrier to the UK taking back its sovereignty and independence. She is an illiberal left cuckoo masquerading as a Tory.

    Most Tories do not want this fake Tory as our leader. She is a disgrace to the UK and a threat to our freedoms
    A Blairite in all but name. Indeed she’s even worse than Blair

    We want her out

    1. duncan
      March 29, 2018

      4. Refuse to threaten to bring down May

      1. hans chr iversen
        March 29, 2018

        Duncan

        Dream on

    2. Rien Huizer
      March 29, 2018

      Who are “we”?

      1. juter
        March 30, 2018

        not you.

    3. Lifelogic
      March 29, 2018

      I tend to agree: Asked today about what positives of Brexit were she answered (something like):- “it is going to be different” she is robotic, pathetic, dithering and really rather dim. She has an appalling chancellor and has a compass that is 180 degree out for a real Tory.

      Her answer should have been:- there are of course massive benefits and very few negatives, we restore UK democracy, we can have selective immigration, we can become nimble in negotiations and competitive, we can deregulate hugely, we can control our fishing, we can get rid of CAP, we can get out of the ECJ and ECHR, we can cut taxes & have a sensible energy policy and can actually compete in the World.

      But no just “it is going to be different”.

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        March 29, 2018

        LL. Pathetic isn’t it? I really should give up reading this depressing news at bedtime. Its the stuff nightmares are made of. The government has gone totally bonkeres and turned theirs backs on the voters and democracy. A Tory government? My fanny!!

  20. Denis Cooper
    March 29, 2018

    From the LibDem spokesman Tom Brake on the BBC TV news this morning:

    “Well, first of all of course, there is nothing certain about this, the UK can still if it wants to change its mind and revoke Article 50.”

    Oddly enough there is no provision at all in Article 50 TEU:

    http://www.lisbon-treaty.org/wcm/the-lisbon-treaty/treaty-on-European-union-and-comments/title-6-final-provisions/137-article-50.html

    for a member state which has put in its formal notice that it intends to withdraw from the EU to subsequently change its mind and revoke that notice, either by unilateral right or by agreement with all of the other member states or a majority thereof or whatever.

    That kind of provision could easily have been written into Article 50 TEU in one way or another, perhaps with a time limit for a revocation to be effective; but it was not, and so it would be down to the EU’s Court of Justice to decide whether the possibility of revocation or cancellation of the member state’s notice of withdrawal nonetheless existed, and if so the conditions under which that reversal could lawfully occur.

    When this treaty article was first proposed some of us objected that the EU’s Court of Justice should be expressly excluded from having any jurisdiction over its operation, in the same way as that court is expressly excluded from jurisdiction over most provisions of the Common Foreign and Security Policy under Article 24 TEU:

    http://www.lisbon-treaty.org/wcm/the-lisbon-treaty/treaty-on-european-union-and-comments/title-5-general-provisions-on-the-unions-external-action-and-specific-provisions/chapter-2-specific-provisions-on-the-common-foreign-and-security-policy/section-1-common-provisions/119-article-24.html

    “The Court of Justice of the European Union shall not have jurisdiction with respect to these provisions, with the exception of … ”

    Because it was clear then that even if there was a decision that the UK would leave the EU some people like Tom Brake would try to use that court to keep us in it.

    1. Rien Huizer
      March 29, 2018

      Apart from the legal question (the UK could alwsys reapply and given full compliance with current rules etc that would probably be granted, of course subject to the usual entry conditions like EUR, Schengen and driving on the proper side of the road, but these are minor issues. Oh, the rebate, well that must go too) it is unlikely all EU members would readily agree to some form of continued/renewed membership. The UK has revealed a lack of reliability by submitting EU membership to a crudely designed referendum, with the government putting far too little effort in making sure that referndum would be a formality. Despite art 50, EU membership is supposed to be permanent, unless the club does not think you deserve to belong. Of course there is no formal expulsion mechanism but having art 50 makes it possible to drive unwanted members to the exit (that did not exist before that article was inserted) using a variety of mechanisms. Cutting subsidies, introducing barriers to mobility etc. The Visegrads and Greece know exactly where their true limits are and are staying clear of those. Of course it remains to be seen what irresponsible things a future Italian government might do. For the time being that is theoretical since the election winners there seem keen not to govern at all.

      1. A.Sedgwick
        March 29, 2018

        “Driving on the proper side of the road” really says it all. Watch out Eire! Tell that to USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, NZ and others. My understanding is riding on the right was mainly down to Bonaparte being left handed. He lost by the way.

        1. Rien Huizer
          March 29, 2018

          USA and Canada are OK. They drive on the proper side of the road although the US still uses some archaic forms of measurement. ANZACS will never learn although the Aussies now know how to manufacture reverse swing. Great to see someone who seriously wants to consider the merits of driving on the right side of the road and does not know that speaking English is no guarantee for driving on the left. To put your mind at rest, the Indonesians drive on the left too, although they were a Dutch colony. Hope you see my point.

          1. Six of one
            March 29, 2018

            The USA got to the moon. How DID they do it with such archaic forms of measurement? BTW 12 is very useful in Higher Mathematics, not 10

      2. Edward2
        March 29, 2018

        Love the use of the word “compliance”
        It’s a revealing word.
        It’s not a word English people understand .
        If you are a free people…

        1. Rien Huizer
          March 29, 2018

          Complying with mutually agreed rules is not English?

          1. Pragmatist
            March 29, 2018

            You mean, we vote in a referendum according to mutually agreed rules and the referendum result is set as binding on all parties. Sounds sense to me. So why are you presenting an argument before we have left the EU, the vote is over! The decision has been made according to mutually agreed rules.

          2. Edward2
            March 29, 2018

            Depends who sets the rules.

            One vote in 28….

          3. David Price
            March 31, 2018

            If you look at the stats for non compliance with EU rules you will doubtless be surprised that the UK is nowhere near the top of the list.

            In February this year the German business paper Handelsblatt highlighted the “unreliability” of such as Germany and how very non-compliant they have been with EU rules.

            Complying with mutually agreed rules is clearly not German, or Spanish, Belgian, Greek, French, Polish, Italian etc, etc.

      3. mancunius
        March 30, 2018

        “EU membership is supposed to be permanent, unless the club…”

        There is no club that ‘supposes’ any membership to be permanent. And the EU is no exception – members may leave at any time via Art. 50. Hence the frequent change of underwear needed in Brussels since June 2016.

      4. Denis Cooper
        March 30, 2018

        Of course having left the EU the UK could later apply to rejoin, but under the normal accession Article 49 TEU not the withdrawal Article 50 TEU.

        http://www.lisbon-treaty.org/wcm/the-lisbon-treaty/treaty-on-european-union-and-comments/title-6-final-provisions/136-article-49.html

        “The UK has revealed a lack of reliability by submitting EU membership to a crudely designed referendum, with the government putting far too little effort in making sure that referendum would be a formality.”

        Setting aside the weak attempt at satire, Article 50 starts:

        “Any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements.”

        You may notice that the text refers to “its own constitutional requirements”, not “such constitutional requirements as the Union deems proper”.

    2. acorn
      March 29, 2018

      Denis, you missed out the unwritten clause in article 50. The one where Mr Tusk keeps hold of the original letter in its original envelope in his desk drawer. Waiting for the day when he can arrange to say, with a perfectly diplomatic straight face, “what resignation letter?”.

      1. Denis Cooper
        March 30, 2018

        Of course I’ve missed it out, it’s unwritten … but I’m sure the eurocrats would have no scruples about trying it on if it seemed convenient and they thought they could get away with it.

    3. Mark B
      March 29, 2018

      Denis

      One should feel pity for them. They have to keep the hopes of their supporter alive. That end they have to put out this spin.

  21. Ian Pennell
    March 29, 2018

    Indeed the Government should get on with getting Britain out of the European Union without nasty weasels like Dominic Grieve, QC and Keir Starmer getting traction in destroying Brexit. Having Britain remain in the Customs Union and Single Market and the Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer’s effort to make it impossible to leave the European Union without a deal means that Britain will effectively stay in the European Union, yet without any say in the impositions of Brussels – that would be the worst of both worlds!

    Since there is now a risk that we will not be able to get a Brexit that actually means Brexit the Government should start aiming to get that Conservative Majority back- a Majority that is represented by Brexiteers. So Theresa May should SCRAP Foreign Aid, end EU payments and SLASH Green subsidies using the proceeds to drastically cut Income Tax, put much more money into the NHS and Police and sell remaining stakes in the banks to start a major house-building programme so that two million more first-time buyers have a new home by 2023. Then when the Conservatives are back 15% ahead of Labour call that snap General Election – this time ruthlessly exposing Jeremy Corbyn’s policies whilst offering much better appealing policies that would grow the British economy.

    When you get the Conservative Majority back you can be sure of getting the Brexit that actually means Brexit. Be sure to use the Parliament Act if the Lords filibuster crucial Brexit legislation.

  22. Adam
    March 29, 2018

    Our Govt is proceeding with due care, but it should act stronger & faster toward better.

    Complying over-patiently with the wastefully slow processes of the thing we seek to rid ourselves of loosens control of our capability as a nation.

    Yes! Get on with Out of it!

  23. John Finn
    March 29, 2018

    John

    I find it hard to believe that, after more than 40 years of increased integration, we can simply leave and everything will be fine.

    I don’t know who on the UK side initiated the Transition period but I’m pretty sure JLR expressed a wish that there should be one and it’s likely that Nissan asked for at least something similar.

    We have celebrated the decisions made by both these companies to increase investment in the UK but I suspect they’ve been given assurances by government sources that they will suffer minimum disruption during the Brexit process.

    1. Rien Huizer
      March 29, 2018

      No disruption at all. And if that would not be the case, three years is plenty of time for the Japanese to pack up and go. They are very good at that.

      1. Edward2
        March 29, 2018

        You are getting a bit worried it appears Rien
        Especially as Nissan and Toyota have announced long term investment plans.

        1. Rien Huizer
          March 29, 2018

          I am perfectly aware of what they announced. Subject to, etc

          1. Edward2
            March 29, 2018

            Pack up and go where….high tax high red tape EU?
            Rather than lower tax low red tape UK.

  24. Peter Wood
    March 29, 2018

    Good Morning,

    Yes indeed. The strategy so far seems to be to find out how much it’s going to cost us to get a UK friendly FTA; ‘the prize’ as Mr. Gove referred to it. The question to be answered, and soon, is since we’ve agreed the bill, what are we going to get for it? Perhaps Dr. Redwood you could keep a tally for us as to what we’ve agreed to pay, and what we are likely to get as a balancing benefit. (The right to negotiate FTA’s with other nations is NOT on that plus side; we’d have that for nothing if we left with no deal!)
    Fisheries: this disingenuous doublespeak from the PM and ministers on fisheries is most unbecoming of our nations elected leaders. We can all see through it and it is therefore both patronising and dishonest. Negotiating away the nations sea heritage is to be considered as an equal red line to a hard border in Ireland.

    1. mancunius
      March 30, 2018

      I was horrified to hear Hammond so lightly and casually offering the EU possible ‘reciprocal fishing rights’ post-transition. This is not a Cabinet decision, and fisheries negotiation is none of his business, certainly not at this stage.

      1. Lifelogic
        March 31, 2018

        The Treasury and Fiscal Policy should be non of his business either. The man has increased taxes to the highest for 40 years and increased tax complexity to an absurd degree.

        He is totally unfit for his job. Not a Conservative bone in his body rather like his boss.

  25. adams
    March 29, 2018

    You are in Parliament and your Party is in charge but you have next to no input into the negotiations with the EU . Is that true and are you not fuming with indignation the way power stays in the hands of the few ? Especially as the people in charge seem to not know which way is up . Commiserations to you John .

  26. Rien Huizer
    March 29, 2018

    Mr Redwood,

    More transparency would be appreciated, not only in the UK but certainly also in EU27. The raison d’ etre of the “economic” EU is to reduce friction for business and not be constrained by the whims of politicians and electorates. That is through “credible commitments”. The uncertainty that still surrounds brexit is unforgivable because we now have a member without any credible commitment at all. Business can adapt to life without the UK or life with the UK in a different form. But not to uncertainty. Since estimates of what can and what cannot be done in time for a -now largely academic- possibility that access is interrupted, vary a great deal, at least the issues around borders and fall back procedures for trans national business should be made public. If the exist, show them, if not explain why.

    All riparian states facing the UK are taking contingency measures, what is the UK doing?

    1. NickC
      March 29, 2018

      Rien Huizer said: “The raison dā€™ etre of the ā€œeconomicā€ EU is to reduce friction for business . . .” Oh ha ha ha ha ha …………….

      1. juter
        March 29, 2018

        Look on the bright side, we’ve only got another year of this EU funded troll to go.

        1. Rien Huizer
          March 30, 2018

          I hope it will not be longer than that but I fear it will take many years before UK-EU funding dries up..

    2. Pragmatist
      March 29, 2018

      Rien Huizer
      “Business can adapt to life……But not to uncertainty.” Business IS uncertainty. I am fed up this mantra “uncertainty..” and how business is pitifully afraid of it. What nonsense!
      I make huggins of money on the stock exchanges of the world. I wouldn’t if there were not uncertainty. It has been absolutely splendid these last few days in particular with alleged trade wars with glorious “volatility” and “uncertainty”. You see, I am blessed by having certainty when all about me are losing theirs. It is in the mind. “If” you are grown up about it. Yippeee! Ā£Ā£Ā£Ā£Ā£Ā£Ā£$$$$$$

    3. mancunius
      March 30, 2018

      “The raison dā€™ etre of the ā€œeconomicā€ EU is to reduce friction for business and not be constrained by the whims of politicians and electorates.”

      The only trouble is that this mythical unicorn can only be glimpsed on uneven dates when there’s a Z in the month.

  27. English Pensioner
    March 29, 2018

    I hope the government are making preparations for the possibility of our leaving with No Deal. We have already had the long delay before the letter was formally sent to the EU because Cameron was so convinced that he would win the referendum and made no contingency plans for Brexit. We don’t want something similar happening again for lack of planning.

  28. John Leak
    March 29, 2018

    “…how we will spend all the money we save.”

    Why spend it at all? Government spending is out of control and has been for years.

    1. Rien Huizer
      March 29, 2018

      The government will be saving money if GDP holds up and taxes continue to flow as without brexit. But that is a big question if adaptation to the new situation is costly.

      1. libertarian
        March 30, 2018

        Rein

        Annual growth in total investment spending ā€” state, business and private ā€” in the UK was the highest of any G7 country during 2017, according to figures published by the Office for National Statistics today (March 30)

        1. hans chr iversen
          March 31, 2018

          yes growth from a very low base in investments

          1. libertarian
            April 2, 2018

            hans

            Any evidence for that?

  29. Denis Cooper
    March 29, 2018

    It is both an abuse of the English language and an insult to our intelligence to describe a period during which nothing at all will change as a “transition”. Various words might be used to accurately describe such a period, depending on its precise character – it could perhaps be a “pause”, a “derogation”, a “delay”, an “extension” – but “transition” is not one of them.

    1. acorn
      March 29, 2018

      Transitional Provisions is the full legal term you should be looking up in this circumstance.

      Law Wales says, “there may be transitional provisions if the legislation was implemented to replace or amend existing legislation on the same topic. The transitional provisions specify the circumstances in which the old legislation still applies, and the circumstances in which the new legislation applies instead.

      Another purpose of transitional provisions is to preserve a state of affairs ā€“ for example, to ensure that a person licensed under an existing licensing scheme continues to be licensed if new legislation substitutes a replacement licensing scheme”.

      1. Denis Cooper
        March 29, 2018

        Thanks, acorn, but as you well know I have repeatedly referred to “transitional provisions” in the past, indeed ad nauseam, and without any need of your kind advice to do so. Here is an early example from last May:

        http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2017/05/31/no-deal-is-better-than-a-bad-deal-2/#comment-870819

        “I expect there will be transitional provisions, and that does not greatly concern me as long as we know where we are going to finally end up. Back in 1957 when the six founding countries agreed to establish a common market they allowed themselves twelve years to gradually do that, step by step. Similarly there were transitional provisions in the later UK treaty of accession to the EEC. But what I would not want would be a treaty which took us to some transitional state supposedly as an interim arrangement, which then turned out to be the final permanent arrangement.”

  30. Denis Cooper
    March 29, 2018

    Is this the government, or civil servants, or the Times, trying to provoke us?

    https://openeurope.org.uk/daily-shakeup/australian-high-commissioner-uk-will-become-irrelevant-if-it-does-not-leave-eu-customs-union/

    “According to The Times, the UK would continue contributing more than Ā£1.4 bn a year to the EUā€™s foreign development aid budget, if it helps securing a better Brexit deal with the EU.”

    Absolutely disgusting.

    1. Denis Cooper
      March 29, 2018

      Oh, and then there’s this:

      https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/03/david-davis-theres-no-deal-without-a-trade-deal/

      “Interestingly, Davis, quite deliberately, wouldnā€™t rule out preferential treatment for EU citizens when it came to the right to work in the UK as part of the Brexit deal. It is becoming ever clearer that this is one sweetener that the government is prepared to throw in to get a better deal.”

      Another “sweetener”, along with our fish, and continuing to hand the EU foreign aid money … so when do we get any “sweeteners” in return?

      And why on earth should he have said this?

      “David Davis said that Boris Johnson wasnā€™t right that the Irish border issue was being used to try and keep the UK in a customs union with the EU. ”

      Obviously it is being used for that, just see what the euromaniacs Anna Soubry and Lord Patten said earlier in the week:

      https://www.open-britain.co.uk/one_year_on_from_article_50_where_next_for_brexit_speeches_from_anna_soubry_mp_and_lord_chris_patten

      It could hardly be more obvious that this from the EU pensioner:

      “There is a simple answer to the Northern Ireland border question and to much else besides. Letā€™s stay in the Customs Union … ”

      So why is David Davis denying it, what is wrong with him?*

      And it would be used to try and keep us in the EU Single Market as well, if enough of the leading Remoaners had the courage to come out and say it openly and those in the Labour party didn’t get slapped down by Jeremy Corbyn.

      There is in fact a simple way to keep the Irish border just as open as it is now and has been for a quarter of a century, as everyone says they would prefer, and that is to refrain from reintroducing in any unnecessary obstacles.

      1. NickC
        March 29, 2018

        Denis, They’ve convinced themselves that we are too thick to notice.

        1. Heath
          March 29, 2018

          Look, it was redwood who promised the EU would fold on day 1

          1. Denis Cooper
            March 30, 2018

            When did he promise that?

      2. Wearty
        March 30, 2018

        When do we get sweeteners, Denis? Never. Because we have boxed ourselves into a dreadful hole. We have no leverage, nothing to offer. The question is just how bad brexit is going to be, not whether it will be bad. Leavers like Gove and Boris said we hold all the cards. Liars

        1. rose
          March 30, 2018

          We held a good hand and Mrs May and the civil servants have squandered it.

          1. hans chr iversen
            March 31, 2018

            Yes, Rose but only in your positive dreams

  31. Nig l
    March 29, 2018

    A poll in the DT this morning indicated a massive majority for people who thought you have handled negotiations badly and on the basis you immediately gave away 4o billion plus without one iota of give from the other side and seemingly continue to crumble, who can argue?

    Who knows what the final deal will look like but to date your chosen leaders are letting the people, who they are elected to represent, down. You have a year to remedy that if it can be retrieved.

  32. Simon
    March 29, 2018

    So how is your simple Brexit going now Mr Redwood ?

    1. Denis Cooper
      March 29, 2018

      Interestingly that was something else Tom Brake MP tried on this morning, that nobody had expected Brexit to be so incredibly complicated. Well, maybe some of them had believed a former leader of Mr Brake’s party when he pretended that the legal impact of EU membership on the UK was really very slight … however I think I prefer the analysis of the then French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner when the Irish people voted against the Lisbon Treaty:

      https://www.ft.com/content/74d671b2-46c0-11dd-876a-0000779fd2ac

      “Mr Kouchner told reporters that two factors were damaging European citizensā€™ faith in the EU: the first, economic uncertainty and fears related to globalisation; and the second, an inability to understand the EUā€™s complex institutions and legal arrangements.

      ā€œNo one understands the institutions and no oneā€™s interested. No one understands anything, not even me,ā€ he said.”

      Supporters of the EEC/EC/EU/USE project has always been keen to ensure that ordinary people do not understand what is being done. Not because it is beyond their understanding, on average, but because they are usually too busy with their everyday lives and it is made complex and deliberately obfuscated .

    2. NickC
      March 29, 2018

      Simon, If we were getting Brexit it would be simple. What we are getting is a weird half-in/half-out melange that we Leaves certainly didn’t vote for. The current mess is directly the result of establishment Remains. Their sabotage will reverberate for decades and will not be forgiven.

      1. Andy
        March 29, 2018

        No itā€™s not. What you are getting is a direct result of your vote to Leave, without you fully understanding what you were voting for. Stop blaming people who told you Brexit was a dumb idea for Brexit being a dumb idea.

        1. libertarian
          March 30, 2018

          Andy

          You’re still in fantasy land i see

          Our trade deficit narrowed by Ā£12.8bn as UK goods and services exports grew to Ā£625.9bn in the year to Jan 2018 @ONS figures released this month show.

          Confidence among small UK firms is rebounding against a backdrop of lower inflation, progress on Brexit talks and a positive Spring Statement, according to the latest Federation of Small Businesses Small Business Index
          More than seven in ten firms expect their performance will either improve (32%) or remain the same (40%) over the next three months

          1. libertarian
            March 30, 2018

            Oh and also this

            Annual growth in total investment spending ā€” state, business and private ā€” in the UK was the highest of any G7 country during 2017, according to figures published by the Office for National Statistics today (March 30)

      2. Edward2
        March 29, 2018

        Correct Nick
        Sabotage Remain must be seen to be responsible.
        Leaving is good

      3. hans chr iversen
        March 30, 2018

        NIckC

        You really have to look at life in much more positive terms, all your input is negative and not forward looking and constructive. Maybe, you need a new hat?

      4. hans chr iversen
        March 31, 2018

        NickC

        Even more negative propaganda, when are you going to write something positive?

  33. NickC
    March 29, 2018

    JR, I would like the government to get on with “it” too. But your fine statements of intent come too late in the day. The establishment are 21 months into a program of reversing the Leave vote as much as they can get away with. Whatever else the government is “delivering” it isn’t Leave. No wonder trust has broken down.

    1. Timaction
      March 29, 2018

      I’m afraid many of us turned our back on the legacy parties years ago, having witnessed first hand the contempt and lies shown by them to the people since Mrs Thatcher. The rest that followed have let us down, sold us out, given away our sovereignty to the EU whilst hiding it, stopped free speech through equality laws at every opportunity, promoted left wing political correctness and ingrained this within all public services and bodies, got us involved in wars where we had absolutely no business doing so. The latter has stirred up a hornets nest in the middle east that has culminated with extremism and mass illegal immigration onto the EU and Britain. Shame on them all, especially as they continue to arrogantly display no contrition or actions to deal with the problems THEY created!

  34. The Russians Did It
    March 29, 2018

    As you must have realised by now John, this PM has no intention of delivering a proper, clean Exit. You either help remove her, or you effectively condone the sellout.

  35. Lifelogic
    March 29, 2018

    So May is touring the country doing her “photo ops” to get the country “to back her vision of Brexit”. What is her “vision of Brexit” does she have one?

    It seems to be staying in (in all but name), doing whatever the EU bureaucrats tell her too, paying a fortune to the EU for nothing, continuing with open door immigration and giving away all our fishing waters. This while taxing & regulating everyone to death with the highest and most complex taxes for 40 years (and rip off energy prices and green crap on top) and building on EU workers “rights”. Also nagging private businesses in a very silly way indeed. What on earth does she know about running a business? The government seem incapable of running very much at all even with 45% of gdp taxed of the private sector to spend.

    Rather than just smiling with some children and mothers at a nursery school somewhere perhaps she could actually explain what her vision is? Does she know what the word “vision” means?

  36. Jon Burgess
    March 29, 2018

    You speak as though you are not in Government. What is the point of Brexiteer Tories, if they allow May to shackle the UK to the EU past the Brexit date? Do something about it then. Who represents those that voted to leave?

    1. John C.
      March 29, 2018

      I feel turning on Dr Redwood like this is unfair. He has been consistently resolute in his promotion of Brexit, despite being overlooked by the management of his party. The majority of Tory MPs seem to be Remainers, and Dr Redwood is in no position to discipline them or convert them. Turn your wrath on those who deserve it. There is no shortage of duplicitous MPs.

      1. Jon Burgess
        March 30, 2018

        The issue is the effectiveness of being a leaver in this Government. The Brexiteers are making absolutely no difference to the direction we are heading, which is leaving the EU in name only. 50 – 80 leave MPs could be making life intolerable for May and force her hand, but they choose not to for the sake of party unity. As ever, it is party before country and we will all suffer for it by ending up without a clean break from the EU.

  37. AndersK
    March 29, 2018

    Bravado talk..as if saying it is going to make it happen?

  38. AndersK
    March 29, 2018

    Instead..try singing it

  39. Walter
    March 29, 2018

    Yes but I see the royals are going to spend 25 million on the wedding..more waste

  40. Edwardm
    March 29, 2018

    Get on with it indeed.
    At the current rate of progress and backsliding and give-aways, the government has joined the remedial class, and it is pathetic.
    We have voted for self determination and our government needs to assert it, and as you say, needs to show enthusiasm and a vision for Brexit opportunities and a bright future.

    Thank you for your positive and inspirational address to The Bruges Group yesterday.
    It is annoying and a loss for us and I’m sure for you, that you are not in government at this time.

  41. Helen Taylor
    March 29, 2018

    Totally agree, if you are working to a deadline in a business or anything else such as moving house you get on and get it sorted. The more time you think you have the more time it will take.
    Can I also ask you if there was any mention in your party of a petition that was handed in by Brexiteers to 10 Downing Street asking for the Brexit we voted for. This had a total of 1.4 million signatures and was managed to be givenNo coverage by the main street media. We would appreciate you asking the question on whether it has actually been read. None of the petitions or surveys that have been done can come up with anywhere near the amount of signatures that we had. It was done through a Facebook Group called the List

    1. Rien Huizer
      March 29, 2018

      Facilitated by Oxford Analytica this time?

      1. rose
        March 30, 2018

        A pity because a lot of us don’t use facebook or twitter. It could have been so much better supported.

  42. Stuart Beaker
    March 29, 2018

    Dr R, your party is in government, and yet you act as if you personally were a member of the official opposition. Isn’t it about time you actually did something to force your own dismal government to do the right thing? The agenda has been completely stolen from under Brexit’s feet. It is a deliberate betrayal, and it doesn’t matter who is doing this, it needs stopping by you and others in the place where you are. Time for action, even if it is costly for you. You may suffer from active smearing rather than merely passive marginalisation – so what? If you do nothing, the next GE will be chaos, if we ever get that far.

    Get on with it, man!

    Signed, A frend.

  43. Andy
    March 29, 2018

    It is amusing that you think a year is long enough to resolve all the issues your Brexit debacle has caused.

    Nearly two long years into this national humiliation we hear lots of Brexiteer ranting – and still no answers.

    No answers on customs arrangements. No answers on the Irish border. Millions of EU citizens here and UK citizens there still in limbo.

    No answers on aviation rules, on nuclear regulation, on medicines. Do the Tories think these things donā€™t need regulation? Hell – I am happy for you lot to take untested drugs but Iā€™d prefer me and my family to be properly protected, thanks.

    I recently wrote to my Tory MP to offer the services of my 6-year-old to help with Brexit. This on the basis that he often makes a total mess which is left to grown ups to clear up. The similarities with this incompetent hard-right government are striking.

    Cue the angry fact free pensioner ranting in response. Why donā€™t you all try with answers instead? My generation has to live with political herpes you have imposed on us.

    1. Edward2
      March 29, 2018

      We are right in the middle of negotiations.
      Most solutions get done at the end of the timescale.
      You are still locked into a project fear mindset Andy
      Keep calm.
      All your worries will be resolved

      1. Andy
        March 29, 2018

        I thought you knew what you were voting for. It turns out you didnā€™t because you have no idea what Brexit will look like.

        I have no doubt that Brexiteers will be far more outraged at final ā€˜dealā€™ than Remainers.

        1. Edward2
          March 29, 2018

          Long as you end up happy Andy….

          1. Edward2
            March 30, 2018

            Presumably Andy you know what the EU will be like in years to come.

            Brexit is about being an independent nation like the other 160 nations.
            Suddenly lefty remainers are all concerned about the future of bankers in the city and jobs in industry.

    2. Anonymous
      March 29, 2018

      Your generation is my generation too, Andy.

  44. Dennis
    March 29, 2018

    Can you tell us JR if any of the Brexit team have ever asked for your view/advice on anything to do with Brexit? I think not as we would know by now. It seems in this debate you are completely redundant. A great pity.

    Reply The Brexit team do get advice from Eurosceptic MPs on a regular basis. They have agreed with us over exiting the single market and customs union and sticking to the date of exit as 29.3.19

    1. Alison
      March 29, 2018

      Question to Dr Redwood’s reply – ‘agreeing re sticking to exit from SM and CU’ – but there is an increasing number of phrases dropped here and there, alongside warm verbiage to appease the people who voted Leave and who want to leave, which indicate that Mrs May and team are going to ask for extensions, including on Single Market.

      on top of that, those phrases weaken the UK’s negotiating position. It is just appalling.

      No no no no no

  45. The PrangWizard
    March 29, 2018

    As for the money we hope to save, it should not be frittered away on day to day expenditure. No-one will notice, and consequently it will not be appreciated.

    It should go in to some form of sovereign capital fund for big and future projects.

    And no, for Heaven’s sake, not the money pit which is the NHS.

  46. Denis Cooper
    March 29, 2018

    David Davis today:

    https://brexitcentral.com/year-go-brexit-closer-deal-ever/

    “My team is continuing to work hard to turn the Joint Report from December into legally binding text, including on Northern Ireland where we must ensure there is no return to a hard border, while respecting the territorial integrity of the United Kingdom.”

    There seems to be this idea that unless special provision is made the default position with any international border is that it must be “hard”, in some degree, and so unless we do something positive to prevent it happening the present (almost) completely open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic will automatically revert to being some kind of “hard” border, almost as if nature will take over with a thicket of barriers and obstacles somehow growing up out the ground.

    After we have left the EU just leave the Irish border as it is, as it has been for a quarter of a century, at least for the time being.

    With the longstanding Common Travel Area there will be no need for any new restrictions on the movement of persons across that border after we have left the EU, unlike the other UK borders with the EU, so it is just a matter of the movement of goods.

    Well, in principle we may eventually want to introduce new exclusions of some imports from the EU on the grounds that they do not meet our national standards, but at present our national standards are the EU standards and on the whole we are sufficiently content that they are high enough and that they are being met elsewhere in the EU that we don’t insist on checking incoming goods at the border, so why should we start to do that the day after we have left the EU?

    And equally why should the EU insist on reintroducing border checks on goods coming in from Northern Ireland when at present such checks are deemed unnecessary, and in fact are only ever permitted on narrow grounds? Is that because they expect that once we are out of the EU the UK authorities to start sending over rubbish?

    We are sometimes told that unspecified WTO rules will require border checks; but that is not true, it is just another invention by Remoaners. Or then we are told that it is EU rules which will require border checks; but while that may be true under present EU law it need not continue to be true after we have left the EU and its treaties and laws have in any case been amended to accommodate our departure.

    1. Wearty
      March 30, 2018

      WTO rules require border checks

      1. Denis Cooper
        March 30, 2018

        Which WTO rules? If you can be so definite with your assertion you should have no problem citing chapter and verse, in fact I’m surprised you haven’t rushed to do so just to prove me wrong …

        On the other hand, I take the evidence of Dr Lars Karlsson who appeared before the Commons Brexit select committee:

        http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/03/26/potholes-and-road-capacity/#comment-927180

        and who made it clear that continuing with the present unchecked border would be “within the international customs law, the international standards and good practice”, which would of course include WTO rules.

        1. Henry Spark
          April 1, 2018

          O dear Denis, do you believe that border checks are only about customs checks? O dear, o dear. Many remainers think leavers don’t have the first idea what it is they are talking about and you my friend confirm that!

    2. stred
      March 30, 2018

      Working all day with Sky News on, I watched the Irish nationalists whinging about the border for a couple of hours. This precious non-border that they have where they can drive south to fill up with cheaper diesel and visit relations. Then a unionist pointed out that southerners can save Ā£10k on a nearly new car by buying in the UK.

      Why can’t they realise that they live in an area where the border is an economic bonus? They should be developing trading estates on the border where UK firms could have offices in the EU and UK at the same spot, with the legal border running through the buildings. All the UK legal and financial services companies, which do not have free access at present and still won’t after all of May’s giveaways, will need a foot in the EU and where better than on the UK/EU border, with English speaking staff. They could have a really profitable industry going with lots of jobs, but instead they just whinge and dream of being united in an Ireland run by the EU and paying to fund an army and foreign policy run by an ex? communist.

      1. rose
        March 30, 2018

        Unfortunately, the republicans who hold the rest of the continent in thrall have no interest in creating wealth. Nor does Mrs May; nor does the EU.

  47. Alison
    March 29, 2018

    As Denis, Duncan, so many other say …

    The situation is awful. Mrs May has GOT TO GO.

    I shall not sit and am not sitting passively by while we are sold down the river.

  48. Jason Wells
    March 29, 2018

    Let me say this again- Brexit will be a disaster for the UK and especially for the UK economy- we are going to end up in a place where we will not be part of the decision making process in the biggest economic bloc on the planet with 500 million people with huge spending potential and where we will have to pay in for whatever access we are given or allowed to have- it is the most stupid thing ever decided and now government is acting even more reckless in trying to follow through with a notion as to where we are headed. The truth is that there are no new international trade deals out there waiting for us..ask Liam Fox..ask DD..and especially no new trade deals that could ever compensate for loss of our present trade with the EU. Things can never ever be better outside of the bloc than in it..When the dust settles on all of this, and with the best will in the world all become apparent when we see queues again forming in the sea ports and airports just like the 1950’s and the 1960’s, it’s the long suffering public and small business that is going to pay the price for this decision–the government types will still pass through as usual with their diplomatic passports- stupid- stupid- stupid- and still JR goes on like a needle stuck in a broken record–well come the day..come the hour..I will be waiting, I hope, in five years time to hear the results of the post mortem

    1. juter
      March 29, 2018

      EU=15% of global GDP. Enough of your nonsense.

      1. Jane4brexit
        March 31, 2018

        And we need to remember that with the UK global GDP at 3.9%, that EU %age and it’s 500,000 people will both be a lot less once we leave.

    2. David Price
      March 31, 2018

      It won’t be a block of 500m homogeneous consumers after we leave, they will lose 60m+ people with above average consumption per head.

      That’s 60m+ people the EU has demonstrated utter contempt for and declared they would “punish”.

      So which do you prefer – to contribute positively to exploit the opportunities of being outside the protectionist EU or siding with the EU, a foreign government, and undermining that progress.

  49. Jason Wells
    March 29, 2018

    Corr’n..without a notion

  50. getahead
    March 29, 2018

    John, there is no way this government will leave the EU with no deal. They have shown themselves to be irrepressible liars. They promise much and achieve nothing. They do not want to leave the EU and will do everything possible to compromise the Referendum vote without ever quite denying the result.
    They are controlled by Hammond’s big business and liberal elite cronies, and the corporate lobbyists, supported by the BBC and much of the mainstream media and press, all part of Blair’s globalist modern world where the wishes of the serfs are of no account.
    I note that Blair is currently pressing for a second referendum which I don’t believe he will get but it won’t stop him kicking and screaming.
    So unless pressure is put on May from inside the Conservative Party, she is sure to come up with, to quote, ‘Brexit in name only’.
    Please John.

    1. hans chr iversen
      March 30, 2018

      getahead

      THe liberal elite propaganda machine, is really getting to you.

      Are you sure it exists, as you describe it?

  51. mancunius
    March 29, 2018

    Are government departments making realistic preparations for a No Deal? We hear strangely little from them; and those of us with experience of large organizations know that vague reassurances about ‘working tirelessly behind the scenes’ are usually deliberately misleading.
    Let’s hear from Ministers what firm steps they’re taking. If they don’t know what to do, or they and their civil servants are foot-dragging, that needs to be addressed.
    I would not want to see a transition period that is just an excuse for further departmental dilly-dallying and temporising.

    1. Richard
      March 29, 2018

      Worrying. Same story in Spectator too last weekend:
      https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5889036/to-solve-her-brexit-conundrum-the-pm-must-be-able-to-walk-away-if-she-has-to/
      “But worryingly, there is a sense in Whitehall that with the negotiations progressing well [SIC], there is not much point in rocking the boat by preparing for a no-deal scenario or spending money on things that might not ultimately be needed.
      One of those intimately involved in no-deal planning complains that ā€œthere is an institutional reluctance to continue working on contingency in Whitehallā€.
      This is alarming. If the UK cannot walk away from the table, then its negotiating hand will be hugely weakened.”

      Mr Hammond gave the same reluctance to spend money preparing for a no-deal to the European Scrutiny Committee recently:
      “Mr Hammond said that once agreement is reached on a transition deal, it will be possible to ‘stand down’ preparations for ‘no deal’ on the date of Brexit, but will probably then be necessary to prepare for the risk of withdrawal without a deal at the end of the transition period.”
      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5465043/Chancellor-says-Brexit-transition-deal.html

      The UK is being “stitched up like a kipper”.

    2. stred
      March 30, 2018

      BBC SE News reported that Rudd had confirmed that 800 new border customs jobs were to be created in the SE ports. Hurray! Then someone pointed out that that number retired every year and the net increase would be near zero. They must think the electorate are thick. Rudd is as in the same mould as May. That is why she was chosen, to facilitate Brexit means Brino.

      No computers and cameras ordered. No lorry park. No extra border staff. No WTO option. Even the Dutch and French are taking on more.

  52. Mark B
    March 29, 2018

    “Get on with it !”

    Have you not read the memo ? We are leaving in name only, so need to do anything.

  53. Lindsay McDougall
    March 29, 2018

    The way that I read the transitional agreement is that it is for the benefit of the City of London and a dis-benefit to the rest of the UK.

    How do you read it, Mr Redwood.

  54. Pragmatist
    March 29, 2018

    No wonder we don’t buy stuff from Russia. She woke up!!!! Their weapons are about as useful as a German car!

  55. James Matthews
    March 30, 2018

    More than 10% of the comments on this thread provided by Rien Huizer as spokesperson for Brussels, following on from Peter Van Leuwan.. Obviously the EU apprenticeship scheme is going well.

  56. Dioclese
    March 31, 2018

    Sorry to have to say that May and Hammond really do HAVE TO GO if we are to have any hope of escaping the yoke of the EU…….. on all but name…

    Time for Rees-Mogg to step forward me thinks?

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