I repeat my advice to the PM. There are only two sensible options, a comprehensive free trade deal or exit on WTO terms. She should table a free trade deal and ask if the EU wants one or not. We need to leave on 29 March 2019.
We have sent the letter and passed the EU Withdrawal Act, so we have done all we need to do to leave legally. The remaining issue is do the EU want free trade or want to trade under WTO terms.
273 Comments
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July 9, 2018
We have a comprehensive free trade deal right now. The EU offers the most comprehensive free trade area agreed between states in human history. So are you now finally agreeing we should stay in it?
July 9, 2018
A free trade deal for which we have to pay many billions of pounds a year is not a free trade deal.
Reply I have never proposed sending them more money!
July 9, 2018
I think Roy was replying to Helena.
July 9, 2018
@L Jones
Off course he was..
Helena had overlooked the fact that we pay many billions of pounds in order to trade on a deficit with the EU 27. This is insanity, and Mrs May wants us to carry on with it, which proves who she is actually working for. If the Tories want to be taken seriously ever again, they need to get her removed from Number Ten to the Tower via Traitors Gate without further ado.
July 9, 2018
Gavin Barwell, extreme remainer- read his comments after ther eferndum result- inviting Labour MPs to the briefing! What does this tell you about collusion with others to get a leave in name only. Willing to get Labour to support.
Read Soubry’s letter to her chair and her claims for change in name only to single market, customs union etc. May delivered on it. JR, now tell us May has not been colluding with ultra remainers of whatever persuasion to leave in name only. May has broke her word on everything and delivered nothing of her Lancaster speech to leave the EU.
I am bewildered by Raabs appointment. Doe she have any principles or convictions? Read his comments after the referndum, compare to the policy this weekend and ask why would he agree to the position to deviled a policy he does not believe in? Is his career more important than the national interest.
July 10, 2018
JR the UK is not taking back control of its laws because it cannot act against ECJ on goods and court cases will apply ECJ jurisprudence. This might be indirect control rather than be viewed as direct application but what it is not is taking back control. That is not true. May must be forced to account for her comments previously against what she said yesterday. It is also not true to say that is compliant with your manifesto. Please show me I am wrong.
July 9, 2018
L Jones, as blatant a “bott” as you get, is our Helena.
July 9, 2018
Steve Baker on Daily Politics today. A must watch. Came across truthful sincere and visibly upset at treatment by No. 10. He should hold high office, the public would adhore him. May blindsided Brexit dept! She went against her key note speeches that he was trying to implement in a white paper and write policy about! What sort of person is she? Undoubtedly supported by fake economic Treasury reports. His counter part Lee came across as low life insincere and disingenuous.
May has to go she is responsible for the briefing against Brexit ministers, she is responsible for the taxi jibe. Absolutely disgusting behaviour. May is not fit for any role in public office. May is becoming more toxic by the day, her leadership behaviour is nothing short of disgusting.
July 10, 2018
Indeed he is very sound.
July 9, 2018
Make no mistake – 39 billion is a drop in the ocean compared with our 2.4 trillion GDP! Ok we have a mountain of debt but new trade deals world wide have the potential to sort this out after Brexit.
July 9, 2018
“A free trade deal for which we have to pay many billions of pounds a year is not a free trade deal”
CBI director-general John Cridland told Sky News that EU membership is worth £3,000 to every UK household.
July 10, 2018
That is the CBI who told us how much better off we would be if we entered the ERM.
July 10, 2018
CBI, an EU funded organisation!!
July 10, 2018
Maybe he was lying, have you checked it for yourself?
£3000 would be 11% of the UK median disposable household income in 2017, which was £27,300; how does that fit in even with the EU’s own estimate that its Single Market is worth 2% of GDP averaged across all the member states, let alone the 1% gain estimated specifically for the UK; and moreover than one-off 1% gain in GDP would be the gross gain and to convert that to a net gain it will need to be offset by the costs of the Single Market which are estimated to be several times greater than its benefits.
You have to realise that those who speak for the CBI will always try to protect and advance the vested interests of its most powerful and vocal members and they have scant regard for the truth if that gets in their way. If you listen to them you might conclude that 100% of our economy is devoted to exports to the rest of the EU and nothing else should matter when determining policy.
July 9, 2018
Dear Helena–Try and grasp that free trade within the EU is by no means the only free trade around–There is a World out there, growing many times faster than the EU
July 9, 2018
@Helena; If only it was only a “comprehensive free trade deal” I would agree, Canada-EU now has such a deal (CETA) but Canada has not ceded political control to Brussels, unlike countries such as Norway and Switzerland have had to, as the UK would have to.
July 9, 2018
Helena: “The EU offers the most comprehensive free trade area agreed between states in human history”
Dear Helena, utterly untrue and inaccurate.
The most comprehensive free trade area exists and has existed between England and Scotland, and has existed for over three hundred years.
July 9, 2018
Not so. It doesn’t cover services except financial passporting and is based on harmonisation rather than mutual recognition. The Australia-NZ model is much better. EU membership also has all sorts of other stipulations and conditions which have nothing to do with trade – paying money, uncontrolled immigration, outsourcing of all trade policy to the EU, accepting the EUs court as the Supreme Court. There may be pros as well as cons but you should recognise that the EU is not aiming to be just a trade arrangement it is a supra-national Government.
July 9, 2018
Helena,
As you are aware the EU is not just a free trade area. Wanting non-diversionary, non-subsidised, free (maximally facillitated) trade throughout the world will not come from the EU. Just look at how the EU uses the customs union now.
July 9, 2018
Paying £10billion for a £80billion deficit is not my idea of a free trade agreement.
July 9, 2018
Too right! Why would we spend £80 in one Supermarket if we had to pay an extra £10 for the privilege?
We should be asking the EU for a ‘cashback’ deal!
July 9, 2018
Nor mine.
July 9, 2018
We do not have a FREE trade deal with the EU.
We pay billion of pounds to their wasteful coffers – that is not FREE
EU law has supremacy over UK law – that is not FREE
We can not make trade deals with other countries – that is not FREE.
We can’t set our own tariffs or remove tariffs completely – that is not FREE.
The current and previous British Prime Ministers have to grovelled to the worst German Chancellor (non GDR) since the Second World War and got nothing- that is not FREE.
July 9, 2018
Helena. We do not have free trade with Europe. We also have to pay tariffs on goods from elsewhere which we could get cheaper if we are out of Europe. It is not all about trade. It is about self governance. We are our own people and its about time we stopped being told what to do by Germany.
July 9, 2018
Indeed and we must be able to import, tariff free, from the rest of the World too.
July 9, 2018
“We are our own people and its about time we stopped being told what to do by Germany”
You have spent the last 300 years forcing your laws, language, administration etc on people across a quarter of the globe. The Germans were amateurs by comparison.
July 10, 2018
Odd that having been given independence these nations still keep a UK system of law, administration and keep close ties with us.
July 9, 2018
What about the United States of America under its 1787 federal constitution?
Did that not precede attempts to establish a federal United States of Europe?
July 9, 2018
Helena,
It’s not free and certainly when 9 countries pay for the privilege and 19 get a free ride then something is wrong…
July 9, 2018
Helena
Once again you demonstrate your complete ignorance over what constitutes a Free Trade Deal
What we actually have is
A customs union with protected markets in goods ( this is not free trade)
NO internal market in services at all ( 80% of our economic activity)
A market in which we have to pay billions top participate ( thats NOT free trade)
July 10, 2018
Libertarian,
What an exceedingly diplomatic response from you.
July 11, 2018
hans
But much to your continued annoyance a factually correct post. If only you had facts on your side eh hans.
Congratulation though, your first post for ages without spelling and/or grammar errors. Well done
July 9, 2018
It’s not really a free trade deal, not only do we have to pay billions for the privilege but it’s based on a common rule book rather than mutual recognition and it doesn’t extend to services which are 80% of our economy.
July 9, 2018
Helena, We don’t have a “comprehensive” free trade deal with the EU. We are part of the EU, for which we pay around £20bn/yr, but more importantly we pay by losing our independence.
July 9, 2018
You have a strange concept of free, paying £13bn a year to trade when you are a net importer, to avoid a situation where you would get more in tariffs than you pay out is not my definition of free.
July 9, 2018
Come on Helena ,there are obviously many more elements to the argument of Brexit v Remain. We have voted to leave .Full stop. The trade needs to continue in the best way for both the EU and UK. I like focus but not deliberate omission where all the elements of withdrawal are not taken into consideration.
July 9, 2018
The EEA (“single market”) is not a free-trade area. A free-trade area is only concerned with cross-border trade between its members; it doesn’t impose its regulations on their internal business, nor does it prevent them from entering into similar agreements with third countries.
July 9, 2018
The EU is the exact opposite of a free trade deal. It’s a corporate racket which seeks, like the 19th century corn laws and other protectionist agendas to protect producers by applying tariffs (ie taxes on consumers) to those outside the EU seeking to trade with us.
July 10, 2018
You are being facetious. The EU is a lot more than a free trade area.
July 9, 2018
Gove needs to be appointed Brexit Secretary. Any soft appointment must result in a May resignation and a leadership challenge.
July 9, 2018
But Gove has been an enthusiastic vocal supporter of the current plan so what would be the point of that ?
July 9, 2018
She will be appointing a collaborator. Who better than the backstabbing opportunist. Birds of a feather flock together.
July 9, 2018
Exactly.
July 9, 2018
Agreed Gove has shown he is not the person, Fox or …. Redwood
July 9, 2018
The Brexit supporters, in defending May’s indefensible cabinet position look like complete idiots. Michael Gove yesterday, Andrea Leadsom today on the daily politics. Doubtless we will have Dominique Raab tomorrow. Arguing that black is white when everyone can see the truth damages them massively in the eyes of the voters.
It is like Cameron, Hammond or Osborne claiming they are in favour of lower taxes they are just saying “look at me lying through my teeth to you”.
July 9, 2018
Gove was the biggest surprise for me on Marr, also Leadsom today on DP – she seemed so unsure of what the policy was! It all looks like smoke and mirrors and TM has now been found out as the true remainer she is.
July 9, 2018
Caterpiller
No sensible Brexitier could accept such a role given the terms Mrs May now wants to put forward.
She has shown her cards at last, and she has been shown to be double dealing, she has been a true Remainer all along.
July 9, 2018
Roy: Too true and certainly “Et tu, Brute” Gove has a track record of stabbing.
Mrs May’s choice of replacement for David Davis will let us know exactly which side her bread is buttered.
July 9, 2018
Reply to myself 🙁
Et tu, Boris…
July 9, 2018
Steve Baker MP has (resigned) and given an excellent interview on BBC that can be seen and heard on Guido. The treachery of this Prime Minister and her cohorts know no bounds and she needs to go. She lied to her own Cabinet and deceived them of her intentions on her policy and amended white paper that the Dept Exiting the EU did not write. Nor did her Brexit Champion Mr Davis know of it in advance!
We now know that Olly Robbins, an arch remainer, and Mrs Mays personal champion has been colluding with the opposition in Brussels to deliver this non remain policy in all but name. May briefed Merkle before her own Cabinet and Party. Chamberlain but worse in our times!
Mays treachery alone will see the Tory party destroyed if she is not gone in hours NOT days. Social media cannot be manipulated like the msm and the word is out and spreading like wildfire. Good riddance to this useless Prime Minister. You should stand Mr Redwood. We need an entirely Brexit Prime Minister and Cabinet before all trust is lost on the establishment and elites. Your leader no longer holds the mandate to rule.
July 9, 2018
Cough….
July 9, 2018
Listen to (VAT on school fees) Gove yesterday on Marr and you would not want him near anything.
He is the reason we have had to suffer the “remainer”, daft socialist and “Brexit mean sweet FA” T May.
July 9, 2018
Ideally I agree Gove would not be as good as eg Redwood or JRM, but all I’m saying is that any appointment softer than Gove would be a complete farce
July 9, 2018
Gove is the classic Judas Goat.
July 9, 2018
Which total idiot (at number ten) approved the press release about confiscating phones and having resigning ministers having to ring for taxis? Is this really the quality of the typical number ten support staff?
July 9, 2018
It can be argued that Gove has caused the post referendum chaos and the disastrous appointment of May as PM, the mind boggles at the thought of him selling us down the river and seas.
July 9, 2018
Dear John–What is going on is scarcely believable–I had thought that the whole point was NOT to have a common Rule Book–Cannot see how can go on without another General Election immediately, at which of course Boris should lead the Conservatives–Nigel Farage’s description of the disastrous Mrs May as duplicitous is spot on. We did not vote for concession and compromise.
July 9, 2018
Postscript–Only just learnt that David Davis has resigned, which is a reason for hope.
July 9, 2018
PPS–And now I have only just learnt that Boris has resigned–What joy!–There now truly is hope–Broom Mrs May, who clearly has been aiming for some sort of bend towards the EU in every way possible since she became PM, and get Boris in charge–By acclamation and without a great palaver. Treachery thy name is Gove, so get rid of him too.
July 9, 2018
No. You voted to massively empoverish the country.
July 10, 2018
More nonsense from you Tab.
Standards of living are up.
Unemployment is down.
July 9, 2018
@Leslie Singleton: Mad-Monday, do you want Corbyn in Downing Street?!
July 10, 2018
Dear jerry–I am nowhere near believing that that is what the people would vote for, and even if they did so be it–The present Government is just plain unacceptable–May has just been playing a game with us
July 11, 2018
@Leslie Singleton; Have you been asleep since the beginning of June 2017, the people appear very prepared to vote for Labour lead by Mr Corbyn, and if anything that has increased in the last 12 months – as you say, so be it, if that is what the democratic majority wish. The problem for those wanting a meaningful Brexit is that Labour still have far to many Blairite europhiles influencing party policy, Brexit under the current make up of Labour MPs will be far worse than anything Mrs May will deliver., even worse, if another hung parliament which brings the LibDems and/or the SNP into government…
July 9, 2018
Re: ‘What is going on is scarcely believable’
The conservatives are a firework, the safety warnings written clearly all over it, TM has lit the blue touchpaper inside a closed room, the outcome is predictable!
July 9, 2018
Leslie. The Conservatives had better hope Farage doesn’t come back into politics as he is threatening to do. UKIP would do well with what is going on at present. With what is going on in the Tory party right now, he would get my vote.
July 9, 2018
I have supported the Conservative Party for 50 years as a member, worker and financial contributor. I would vote for Farage immediately if he put himself forward. I am certainly not alone. Theresa May has made her party toxic and not just over Brexit.
July 9, 2018
Me too. I’m surprised we haven’t heard much from him so far.
July 9, 2018
Absolutely, I feel the voters have now been dealt a crap hand by TM and there is very little we can do about it other than a GE or REF… Farage was years ahead of his time and gave this country the opportunity to have their say and become an independent country again. There is lots of stuff about new radical parties starting up to change the course of politics – if Farage made a come back then I would drop my Tory membership like a stone and help fund him…
July 9, 2018
Dear fedup–To hell with the Tory Party if they cannot see sense and get rid of Mrs May pronto. And to hell with worrying about Corbyn getting in–The country is not that stupid–With Boris in charge the Tories would in any event walk it because he is popular and inspirational and authoritative and convincing instead of Mrs May who is none of these things. Do people think it was easy becoming Mayor of London and doing a great job?
July 10, 2018
@fedupsoutherner; If Mr Farage does ‘un-resign’ (4th time will it be?…), and conservative members/voters are foolish enough to jump ship again, that is only going to help one person and the party he leads, Mr Corbyn.
July 10, 2018
Jerry. Not necessarily. There are a lot of unhappy Labour voters too.
July 11, 2018
@Fedupsoutherner; Dream on, unhappy Labour voters are these days more likely to move to the LibDems (hence why the LD share of the vote increased in 2017), disaffected Labour voters are now europhiles, in any hung parliament that is more likely to help Labour.
July 9, 2018
Leslie Singleton, Theresa May has made the same blunder that she made at the 2017 election. Policy is concocted in backrooms, untested on the public or even her MPs. Then, when it sees the light of day, all its contradictions, loopholes, and capitulations, missed by the civil service or Spad “experts”, become obvious to ordinary people. You see, she – and they – don’t trust us.
July 9, 2018
Yes Leslie, who in their right mind feels the need to duplicate and follow an EU rule book. The rules of manufacture almost worldwide now are ISO9000 and QS 9000 plus some internationally agreed environmental standards. Specific EU rules tend to be protectionist. The thing that appals me most excluding DD and his two colleagues is the mind boggling commercial and negotiating ineptness of the cabinet and their civil service drivers. In the real world they are unemployable.
July 9, 2018
” We did not vote for concession and compromise”
Seeing that nearly half the voters voted Remain, compromise is the only way.
July 9, 2018
So Davis has run away from the mess he created. So has Baker, and Braverman too. Farage is long gone from the scene. Is there even one Brexiteer man enough to take responsibility for this fiasco?
July 9, 2018
I disagree in part with your comment John, there are only two options (sensible or otherwise), either scrap Brexit or leave on WTO terms, any idea of a comprehensive free trade deal will likely keep us shackled to EU polices without having any input.
At least the Government had a couple of decent people, how many more eurosceptics currently in government positions will put beliefs before careers though. It will be interesting in the Commons later, will certain people keep their own council or will cricketing meteorites rise before the House again, that was also about UK/EU polices if I recall…
July 9, 2018
New Brexit secretary John Redwood, has a nice ring to it.
July 9, 2018
In a way it is a pity that David Davis and others have resigned so soon and all together, there is an argument that they should have stayed on and worked against Theresa May from within and each waited until they could do maximum damage before resigning one at a time. That is what our opponents would do, I suppose the difference is that they care about our country while supporters of the EU only care about the EU. But now they have handed unchallenged control to Theresa May and her favourite unelected official Olly Robbins, who is behind all this and might as well take over as Prime Minister.
July 9, 2018
The Conservatives, the party that just keeps on giving the country a laugh.
The opinions of the Leave side are not what the majority of the country want.
Business leaders are not stupid. I believe them on needing to be close to Europe, not what politicians on the Leave side say.
Thanks for giving me a great start to the new week Mr.Davis 🙂
July 10, 2018
Blue & Gold
There are 5.8 million businesses in the UK . 63% of the owners voted Leave. Just because you are a big corporatist and want to believe the CEO’s of half a dozen big multinationals is your lookout
SME’s now provide the bulk of private sector jobs , 95% of workers in private sector work for SME’s and just 8% ( EIGHT ) of businesses trade with the EU
I guess its your lack of business knowledge that lets you down so badly
July 9, 2018
Goodbye Nissan, goodbye Airbus, goodbye Siemens, goodbye JLR, goodbye the City..,
It was good to know while you were there.
July 10, 2018
Tabulazero
Just typing this garbage doesn’t make it happen you know
Three large scale new HQ buildings are under construction in the City and city recruitment has RISEN 13% in the last year
July 9, 2018
Your description of what is required is spot on and parallels my own thoughts. Mrs Mays solution is the camel from a horse committee. She has to go and all her stool polishers with her. Boris ‘s colourful language got it spot on. As an opening position it is dreadful, think what the EU might do to it in negotiation. If the conservative party prefers cobbled together unity to the voted for needs of the country then they have signed their own resignation letter.
July 9, 2018
The Telegraph says that Brexiteers need a better plan. Well, I have repeatedly offered a better plan, which is based on the concept that the EU has a perfect right to decide what will happen in its own territory and so it can lay down its rules for goods – what can legally be made, or imported, or sold – but it has no right to decide what will happen in our territory. So, yes, if you’re among the mere 6% of UK companies who export to the EU then you must make sure that you obey their requirements, and likewise if you want to export to the US then you must make sure you obey their requirements, and so on with all other foreign territories, but if you only want to do business in the UK then you only have to look at the UK’s rule book as determined through our national democratic process. And if the EU perversely decides that it’s just not good enough for the UK authorities to pass and enforce stringent laws to expressly prevent people in the UK driving across the Irish border into the Republic with goods that the EU will find unacceptable, then let them build their hard border on their side and suffer the opprobrium and maybe the violence that they predict, don’t give in to any unjustified demand that everybody in the UK must obey their regulations just to stop contraband entering their EU Single Market.
July 9, 2018
I regret that David Davis has resigned his position in government (not for the first time) and admire his principles in doing so.
I also admired him for his military background, his humble origins, his very healthy disrespect for the Etonian cabal in the party and his willingness to defend our constantly eroding civil liberties, particularly when Theresa May was Home Secretary
May and the country have lost a good minister.
July 9, 2018
Surprised Davis took so long about it, anyone with any knowledge of body language could see he has not been happy for many months.
Who would be when you are simply having to obey instructions and directives with which you do not agree.
He has been undermined not only by May, but by Oily Robbins and others, time after time after time.
So much so he was just a shadow of his self.
Perhaps now he can speak his own mind at last.
July 9, 2018
What preparations are needed in your view to prepare for WTO & can we get there by March 19? Christopher Booker, EEA advocate, raises another scare – now we’re so reliant on weather dependent power such as wind we need to be able to import electricity through inter-connectors governed by EEA rules, the lights might all go out?!
July 9, 2018
If DexEU is to be continued surely there can be no Brexiteer with integrity who would wish to join it given the betrayal document agreed at Chequers, the contents of David Davis’ letter and the leadership of May. If May appoints Remainers and thus doubles down on her treachery, or continues without the department she has only unelected elites, of the Civil Service and elsewhere, anti-democrats, and the weak, with her. Democracy and the country is thus lost to them, surviving hand to mouth under the jackboot of the EU.
May must be forced to resign now.
I mused last evening on the Teddy Roosevelt mantra ‘ talk quietly, but carry a big stick’. Sadly some opinion formers have learned only half that, ‘talk quietly’. They don’t believe in carrying a big stick, ‘it’s not the done thing, old chap’. They thus allow themselves and we the people and our democratic will, to be walked all over by those who have lost any belief they might have had in honesty and truth. We need stronger leaders and opinion formers at this point.
This is a crisis requiring action.
July 9, 2018
You advice is spot on. Alas May given any decision virtually always gets it wrong (she is after all essentially a government knows best socialist at heart). Thank goodness Davis has finally gone. Let us hope May and Hammond follow very shortly but without Corbyn/SNP ever getting near power.
New proposals to push up the prices of houses yet again through regulation (and tax). This by perhaps insisting on electric car chargers. We already have disabled access rules and endless greencrap builders have to incorporate. Could we not just have electric chargers and such things for those people who actually want and need them rather than everyone? Electric cars for most people with current technology are a nonsense anyway, other than as a second city “virtue signalling” car. They actually use more energy taking in the round (with the manufacture and at the power station) and not less.
Forcing people to buy premature technology before it is ready is economic lunacy. The best thing people can do is to run their old cars to death until such time as battery technology becomes competitive (if indeed it ever does) over other alternatives fuel cells, gas, hydrogen. petrol and synthetic fuels).
July 9, 2018
I just heard Jeremy Hunt on radio 4 suggesting T May needed backing to deliver a clean Brexit. One might have thought Hunt had enough to do sorting out the ten thousands of premature death the NHS produce each year (and that is just in Cancer care relative to the European average).
May’s proposal is clearly just to change the names, lie to the voters and make the UK a vassal state. They are not even close to being a real Brexit. They give none of the benefits of a real Brexit and retain all the negatives.
July 9, 2018
She has no intention of heeding your advice, now trying to spin it as the only pragmatic solution. As David Davis says what she is claiming is ‘illusory’ and that she had renagued on a previous agreement.
We can all see through it, it is a shame various cabinet ministers are ‘blinded’ by their desire to hang on to their jobs.
Well done DD and Steve Baker, some cojones at last.
July 9, 2018
Incidentally I copied my last letter to our local paper to Theresa May, as my MP, and I will share with you the response I got from her assistant:
“Dear Dr Cooper,
Thank you for forwarding your correspondence to the Maidenhead Advertiser about Brexit and the Irish border on to Theresa.
Theresa is grateful that you have taken the time to forward your thoughts and she has taken them on board.
Thank you again for writing.
Sincerely … ”
Well clearly she had not taken my thoughts on board, or she would not have persisted in ramming the contradictory eurofederalist thoughts of her favourite unelected official Olly Robbins down the throats of her cabinet members.
July 9, 2018
May has to go. We have waited and waited and given her the benefit of the doubt. Finally she has shown her hand and done the dirty on the referendum voters.
July 9, 2018
With the resignation of David Davis, it looks like there is an unholy alliance developing between staunch Remainers, who aren’t quite the spent force some might have thought, and uncompromising Brexiteers, who would both like to scupper any delicately balanced compromise. We’ll then either leave with ‘no deal’ or we won’t leave at all. They will be the only choices.
There will have to be a deal with the EU, at some point and in some form, but it will then only be struck after we’ve been out for a period of time and the political possibility of not leaving at all has vanished.
But, for now, the stage looks to be set for May to be swept aside in the next few weeks and an all-or-nothing battle to decide the matter. Real Remain. Or Real Leave. The EU could force the pace if they declare the May plan to be unworkable and scupper it themselves. Then Mrs May will either have to resign or accept the inevitability of a ‘no deal’ solution.
Interesting times!
July 9, 2018
We Britons are free to choose our own preferences. The Govt has wasted too much time conforming to lengthy processes the EU sets up to obstruct.
We should tell the EU what we want, & Leave as soon as we are ready. If they want to lose our custom, that is a matter for them. The wider world is a larger growing market.
July 9, 2018
You obviously don’t know that we were called the ‘Sick man of Europe’ and were on the verge of collapse before we joined the EU.
Industry was collapsing, interest rates were spiralling and inflation was rampant. We had food, fuel and power shortages and a steadily growing balance of payments deficit. The common market had to pump in 25% of its regional development funds to stabilise Britain, the highest ever figure
I bet Germany regrets supporting our application to join theEU against de Gaulle’s repeated ‘NONs’
July 10, 2018
The things you mention happened after we joined the Common Market.
PS
Funds from the EU….they have no money, it is just us getting some of our money back.
July 10, 2018
Thatcherism sorted that sickness, not the EU.
July 10, 2018
Before we joined the EU, Rome invaded Britain & much else ensued.
If Germany regrets, it should have made different choices.
We Leave the EU to become better neighbours in our own home, with the freedom to make our OWN choices.
July 10, 2018
Margaret Howard, We were the “sick man of Europe” due to Union militancy and far left politics. And that mostly when we were already in the EEC. Then Margaret Thatcher remedied Union militancy, not the EU.
July 9, 2018
John,
As long as you keep arch remainer, capitulating, appeaser May as leader, none of the above is going to happen and you know it. Get rid of her NOW!
July 9, 2018
Forgot to add the word TRAITOR.
July 9, 2018
JoolsB, Indeed. However, Mrs May is now totally at the mercy of the hubristic, Remain supporting, Kit-Kat Brexit negotiating, civil service.
The EU gives power to civil servants (who do all the real negotiating with their EU “colleagues”); and our civil servants have grown to like it. This is the death of democracy.
Like the Unions 40 odd years ago, the civil service is usurping the power of Parliament, but MPs have hardly noticed.
July 9, 2018
I did warn you Mr Redwood that Mrs May would fudge brexit.
It’s uncanny that I was able to predict it.
Are you wondering how I knew?
July 9, 2018
The situation is very simple. Tory MPs need to have a long hard look into their future – do they choose the EU or Democracy.
However May is so clueless she might call a GE to get a mandate to stay in the EU and hand power to the communists. She needs to be shaken hard and told to hand power to a Brexiteer.
I have a £1000 bet on Raab.
July 9, 2018
Well said! But May is NOT clueless, she is a 100% Quisling! She has been trying to crush Brexit ever since she luckily got the top job. Long delay in beginning the process – calling an unnecessary GE with a ridiculously long campaign (it is political wisdom that the longer the campaign, the greater the chance of things going wrong – which they did with a vengeance!) – Grovelling to the EU at every opportunity – how many billions would you like? How much of our fish stocks would you like? How many of your unemployed would you like us to take?
Any GE now and the Remoaners in the Tory party will gladly put up with the inevitable Corbyn premiership to stop Brexit! Gone are the days of the Tory weapon of togetherness to thwart the left.
Drastic, but considered actions need to be taken quickly!
For a start,May has to fall, or rather be pushed onto her sword – perhaps one of
Solingen steel might make it easier!
Brexit needs a champion – and quick!
Have pitchfork will march! When do we meet at Wokingham Town Hall?
July 9, 2018
Javelin, you may just have become even richer!
July 9, 2018
May is not very far from bing a communist anyway. She certainly is no Conservative.
July 9, 2018
Whatever you think of her policies and motives, the PM surely has no authority left now, either here or in Brussels. She will surely appoint a pro EU replacement for Davis, making the victory of the pro remain establishment complete. She needs removing, and quickly.
July 9, 2018
No, she will appoint another Leave MP who has supported her, and in that way will have him under control.
July 9, 2018
May is gone
It’s a question of who do we get next
If it’s another remainer that will be bad
July 9, 2018
Dear Iain–Why not obviously Boris?–He is popular even in Labour heartlands–The country would wake up and pay attention with him doing the talking–Mrs May’s question-begging platitudinous and boring drivel (“because it’s right for the country”) has become a great yawn.
July 10, 2018
Worse she is a proven straight forward liar, she was home secretary and then PM for years promising to drop immigration to the tens of thousands while doing precisely the opposite with her levers of power.
And her Brexit means Brexit line has proven to be the same.
No chance of conservative victory at next election unless there is rapid rethink.
July 9, 2018
The decision of Gove to back May’s plan is inexplicable unless, unlike David Davis and our host, he realises that a proper Brexit leaving us fully independent is not deliverable because of EU intransigence and MPs will not vote for our exit on WTO terms.
I deeply regret to say that I think the latter is a more accurate scenario.
Either way DD was right to resign as negotiator. I would have done so on Friday evening.
July 9, 2018
If he had gone on Friday, we would not be talking about it because of the football. These things are carefully stage managed to get maximum attention. Really he should have gone when May took his assistant Olly Robbins into Downing Street. Since then he has been sidelined and even Barnier called him the ‘tea boy’ whilst dealing directly with Robbins. This is all May’s fault. By the end of this week her ‘triumph’ will have backfired and I wouldn’t be surprised to see her gone. Hope so, anyway.
July 9, 2018
What’s interesting about Theresa May’s response is that she explicitly mentions free movement, agriculture and fishing – but is vague about everything else. So it’s saying to the EU we want to cherry pick these three things and we’ll stay in the club and pay extra for everything else to make up for it.
July 9, 2018
Javelin, There is no “cherry picking” involved in being an independent nation. However, Mrs May has capitulated on “free movement” (her “Mobility Framework”), the single market with customs union (which includes agriculture but excepts only for services). And I doubt that fisheries will end up under UK control either. So she’s not even a good cherry picker.
July 10, 2018
she is lying about those things too though, the detail is very clear
July 9, 2018
Three cheers for DDs resignation.
I hope the 48 letters have been sent.
Just reading Mays piece in the Telegraph just underlines what an Alice in wonderland person she really is
Brexit is anything she says it is.
July 9, 2018
Cheers especially for Steve Baker, who gave up his first ministerial position as a man of honour. As, according to Moggy, he was doing his best to bring forward the system necessary to go to WTO trading, can we find out from him the details of the delay for 2 years and why we followed the Irish PM in slowing things down? Perhaps JR or facts4Eu could ask him to inform us all.
July 9, 2018
She’s not listening.
She could be the last wo(man) standing in the Tory party, but she still won’t listen.
Finished.
July 9, 2018
She is apparently completely in hock to smooth tongued Remainer advisers (OR) and civil servants. She is obsessed also by control and apparently needs that sort of bureaucratic structure to keep her in power.
July 9, 2018
How is your dead simple ten minute Brexit going now Mr Redwood ?
July 9, 2018
The EU have a track record of taking everything to the wire…so, it’s not over till the fat lady sings…
July 9, 2018
Simon
It isn’t because Brexit is being run by the Remain camp and sadly every single last one of you is totally clueless.
July 10, 2018
the professor has spoken in the most civilised tone possible
July 11, 2018
hans
Hello? Anything to contribute? No thought not. I’m a straight talking cockney, i dont do civilised tone…. muppet
July 9, 2018
Simon, No one said 10 minutes, that’s absurd. I said a year to the WTO deal using international law, but expressly stated it would be difficult. JR went the Art50 route which takes 2 years if necessary, and he recognised that negotiations would be needed. I still haven’t heard a single Remain explain why the UK cannot be independent of the EU. Can you?
July 10, 2018
Oh yes they did!
“Then as now, he [D Davis] was absolutely right to claim that, “Within minutes of a vote for #Brexit CEOs would be knocking down Chancellor Merkel’s door. Demanding access to the British market. It’s not just German cars, the same would happen in industries across Europe, all demanding uninterrupted access to the UK market.” (Indy)
July 11, 2018
acorn
I just found more than 15 articles from German companies, industries and newspapers expressing fear at loss of markets due to Brexit
I can’t be bothered to google more as its so obvious to anyone who has ever run a trading business
July 9, 2018
It is dead simple .. its the civil servants and the establishment that want to make it seem complicated .. thats what bureaucrats and self servers do … and thats exactly what the eurocrats also do. Is brexit worth it ? .. YES.
July 9, 2018
Hopefully Barnier will do us all a favour and reject the latest proposal.
July 9, 2018
I’m sure that he will.
May’s latest iteration will be taken as the baseline for further movement towards Brexit in Name Only.
Interesting to hear rumblings from the other European countries that they are waking up to the fact that “No Deal” WILL have a negative effect on them…
July 9, 2018
Nigel, Unfortunately the EU will not save Leave. If we are too weak to do it ourselves why should the EU help us out? If Mrs May’s Kit-Kat Brexit gets as far as Brussels they will accept it and salami slice many more concessions out of her. You can thank Olly Robbins and continuity Remain for that.
July 9, 2018
Or what the remainers are hoping is he accepts it but with much more compromise on our side which dopey May will be only too happy to give.
July 9, 2018
He must think that all his xmas’s have come to together and is as we speak 0n the blower to junker, verhofstadt, tusk and most of the rest of the 27
July 9, 2018
“There are only two sensible options, a comprehensive free trade deal or exit on WTO terms.”
And the cost:
(If you do not know the answer, it can be found here: eureferendum.com)
July 9, 2018
and staying in Mays EU means a minimum of £40 billion plus probably £5 billion annually in fees plus the public paying the Common External Tariff ad infinitum.
There are 152 countries NOT in the EU Mike and they rub along very nicely.
July 9, 2018
Mike Stallard, Dr North boxed himself in by imagining that it would take decades to derive new UK laws to replace the EU laws that run our modern economy. When someone came up with the idea of “patriating” EU laws at a stroke (see EU Withdrawal Act 2018) his fake intellectual hobby-horse came crashing down. Nor is there any justification for two complete rule changes when one will do. And stuck in the EEA we would probably never leave, and get sucked in further, anyway.
July 9, 2018
WTO rules means no increases in tariffs against another WTO member.
The EU is kippered.
Then put in place in full a no recourse to public funds. 12K a year tax from each EU migrant.
July 9, 2018
How the gods must be smiling, at long last we have a cabinet with principles and the courage of his convictions to be big, brave and honest to say enough is enough.
This man could down down as the man who saved the present Conservative party from itself.
July 9, 2018
Agreed but Boris needs to follow suit or better still instigate a leadership challenge. Sadly Boris is losing all credibility for every day he stays in a cabinet that he clearly doesn’t agree with. It took guts and principles for Davis to do what he did, what a pity he was on his own. If Boris doesn’t act soon, he will lose all respect.
July 9, 2018
The woman is a disaster and it is most disappointing several of the Cabinet did not make the mile walk out of Chequers.
July 9, 2018
They hadn’t had time to digest the proposal, especially its detail. They hadn’t been able to consult, with each other or with their junior ministers and their departments. That was how she hoped to bounce them. Together with the vicious briefing against them, this was really loathsome behaviour. You cannot have collective cabinet responsibility without collective cabinet discussion – and respect and trust. She deserves everything which is coming to her, even if it is two days late.
July 9, 2018
A long time ago I saw a few accounting driven transactions. The person renting something wanted the deal classified as a short term lease but the owner of the asset wanted a long term lease. Simple, create a punitive regime for not renewing the lease.
Does Mrs May understand that a common rule book (we both use it but they write it) means that every week from 2019 until the next election there will be some mini scandal as the EU writes the rules to screw some corner of the UK and transfer business to the EU. No one incident will be enough to incur the huge one-off costs of leaving (for that is how this treaty will attempt to bind successor parliaments) and her government will limp on ot the next election shown as having sold the UK down the river. The good news is that corbyn won’t destroy the economy, the bad news is that it will be because you have already set fire to it. Still helps her stay warm for a few more days.
July 9, 2018
May lost an unnecessary General Election with ill-conceived, badly presented policies that disaffected the public and is now busy losing Brexit in the same manner.
July 9, 2018
An unnecessary general election that she was advised to hold by the President of the EU Commission, allegedly.
July 9, 2018
Not so sure she didn’t deliberately write a rubbish manifesto to get a hung parliament. A bit like Shameron wanting a further coalition to prevent a referendum he didn’t want!
Legacy politicos simply cant be trusted!
July 9, 2018
Whatever way you look at it she is complete dope, an electoral liability. Someone who is 180 degree wrong on almost every issue she touches.
July 9, 2018
At last. Someone is showing some back bone in the Tory party and sticking to his principles. He is to be admired. I just hope the meeting tonight of the 1922 committee produces something great and we can be rid of the worst PM the Conservative party has ever seen. Well done Davis. Any MP worth their salt will sign a letter to dispose of May if they want to save the party and make this country great again.
July 9, 2018
The sellout is here. Anyone with a brain knew this was coming. The democratic will of the British people flushed down the toilet by the political class, again. Absolute proof that voting is a sham and that our, allegedly, free country is simply a tax farm controlled by globalists through their completely corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, media and police puppets. What should happen now is mass civil disobedience, a tax strike and mass protests in every city. What will happen is none of that because the people are so brainwashed they actually believe in the right of some unaccountable bunch of criminals to rule over them. Once again the traitorous gang in Westminster will survive to screw us again.
July 9, 2018
David D, England was a cash cow for the Norman aristocracy, who mainly lived on the continent. The UK is a cash cow for the EU. Certainly Theresa May and the Remains do not trust us, the people. The distrust is now reciprocated.
What to do? – we can express our Leave views openly in person, on blogs, in papers and to our MPs; we can help genuine Brexit MPs (Labour as well as Tory); we can subscribe to Leave groups; we can vote for real Leave parties; we can avoid buying EU products, or from EU businesses, if at all possible; we can stop paying the BBC TV Tax. Join the resistance.
Remember: Remains don’t like being told that the UK can be independent.
July 9, 2018
“because the people are so brainwashed” – that is the BBC’s job pay your taxes and they are used to brainwash you.
But I am not so pessimistic. May will go soon and will be replaced by someone better (not very hard) hopefully a real Tory even. Then we will not have to suffer the Corbyn/SNP disaster. Real Tories would win outright.
July 9, 2018
This looks like a Geoffrey Howe moment.
I can’t see the PM lasting after this – time for her to resign, or she will be ousted within the month. Her choice.
July 9, 2018
I am afraid too many of the current Conservative Parliamentary Party are of the same mind as Mrs May for this to be more than a pipe dream.
July 9, 2018
She will never resign. She is no lady. She will drag us all down with her to the bitter end.
July 9, 2018
I give her a week.
July 9, 2018
It now looks like a general election is an absolute necessity and may be the only way to remove many of the Europhiles from Parliament.
We now know the full extent of Mrs May’s betrayal of the Referendum,which is a danger to the survival of the Conservative Party. Just read comment by Conservative voters and members to feel the anger.
July 9, 2018
BOF
I’m afraid our so called “democracy” doesn’t work like that . To remove my totally soaking wet arch remainer at the next election I would have to vote for Jezza
This is why we end up with the rubbish we do in parliament because our democracy is nothing of the sort
July 9, 2018
Well, the Labour Party would have to come off the fence and choose Leave or Remain. Would they also include a commitment to a ref on the deal, knowing they could well be negotiating that deal? I don’t think so.
However, until the likes of Soubry, the awful Wollaston, Morgan, S Hannond and Grieve at el are deselected things won’t improve for the Tories.
July 9, 2018
Why is a general election required ? A new tory leader who is prepared to implement the manifesto that the tories were elected on (which was almost identical in this regard to the labour manifesto) is all that is needed.
July 9, 2018
Davis had been completely usurped by Robbins, his position nothing more than a remnant token. Barnier was aware that any meaningful engagement with Davis had become pointless and would utilise other channels that May had developed. Davis was trying to run with the declarations of the manifesto and PM May’s speeches and even at PMQ’s last week May held to that position. At last the phoney war is over.
July 9, 2018
Correct. It was an astute move by Theresa May to have her favourite eurofederalist adviser Olly Robbins appointed as the senior civil servant in the new Department for Exiting the EU, originally his portrait appeared on its website where that of Philip Rycroft now appears as Permanent Secretary:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-exiting-the-european-union
Then when David Davis had sussed him out as a eurofederalist plant and no longer wanted him Theresa May simply pulled him across to work with her directly, as he did previously when she was Home Secretary and got up to similar dodges with pretending to do one thing and then turning round and doing the opposite.
On this occasion she is the one who has been caught out, she must have forgotten that David Davis was in the SAS and knows about surprise night attacks.
I said on here five days ago that either Olly Robbins must go or Theresa May must go, and it would be less bother to replace him with somebody who actually believes in Brexit and will influence her in that direction.
July 10, 2018
It would be a good idea to open an office for fishing licensing in Grimsby and transfer Olly there immediately in a clerical position.
July 10, 2018
The first sign that she was going to rat on Brexit was when she sacked Davis’s junior minister, David Jones, straight after the election. Moving Robbins was part of the same operation to isolate Davis.
July 9, 2018
The lack of any ‘contingency’ planning for leave by officials in advance of the 2016 referendum vote has led to one of the most catastrophic outcomes that is becoming all too apparent. Despite everything, one can only hope that something reflecting the decision that the 17.4m voted for will emerge over the next few weeks and months.
July 9, 2018
Peter Chivers, Absolutely right.
July 9, 2018
They have had 2 years since to prepare. Does planning and competence = Conservative Party? No!!!
July 9, 2018
As far as I can see there is nothing that can save the Conservative party whist it continues to be an integral part of the major dissonance between People and Parliament. Quite simply, it will refuse to vote to save itself because it does not believe in Brexit by a factor of 2:1 (whereas the shires of England want it by the same factor). There will be a complete horlicks, followed by electoral defeat, and the only real question is, will ditching May before the next election be enough to save the party? I think there will be long term damage. The generation who were young and naive when they voted in 1975 have long memories, and they have waited already 43 years to put things right again…. This betrayal will be punished.
July 9, 2018
As the EU cannot compromise the integrity of the single market, that means there is only one option; to crash out on WTO, probably without any transition or the ancillary Treaties required to make even basic trading possible . That is just the initial shock.
The country did not vote for this, does not want this, and is certainly is not ready to face the consequences. For those responsible there will be no hiding place . You are one of the guilty men.
I hope you have a suitable hidey hole in South America planned
July 9, 2018
Brexit no longer means Brexit or a red white and blue Brexit but is a fake Brexit.
July 9, 2018
The BIG question is
Will the Conservative Parliamentary Party finally find the bottle to oust this disaster of a government and install someone with true leadership potential?
July 9, 2018
Unfortunately, Mrs May never appears to have any regard for advice other than that from the arch Remainers, in particular Mr Oliver Robbins, an unelected civil servant. Mrs May seems to have capitulated to the demands of the EU at every stage of this process and it must therefore be assumed that this trend will continue. She has now put our country in the invidious situation of offering terms which already concede too much to the EU at the beginning of this round of negotiations. Just what further concessions she is prepared to make under pressure from the EU (which she never wanted to leave and still can’t bring herself to say she supports Brexit) we await to discover. The damage to your party, but more importantly to the democratic process in this country, is likely to be massive. She may well leave her mark in the history books as the wrecker of both.
July 9, 2018
I am surprised that our host has not shown some recognition of DD attempts
to steer this BREXIT process through to a conclusion.
How frustrating it must have been to see a golden opportunity converted into
a humble tribute for a principled man who understood what BREXIT meant to the >50% of the country.
July 9, 2018
DD was the whip who tried to get John Redwoos to vote for Maastricht. Good career move but a man of principle?
July 9, 2018
Could it be that our PM is subtle enough to try a double bluff? Has she offered a very soft Brexit knowing that whatever she offers, the EU will turn it down.
She could then tell parliament that she’d offered far more than most people want, and been turned down, so it’s out on 29 March 2019 without any further discussions.
But I doubt if she is capable of being sufficiently devious!
July 9, 2018
Even a large portion of the cabinet thinks that May’s proposal is nonsense. Why should the EU think otherwise. Stop blaming the EU for sticking to what they have said all along. The UK will not be able to have its cake and eat it. Brexit is a lose – lose for the EU and the UK. The only beneficiaries are the US and Russia. So ask every Brexiter whose side they are on.
July 9, 2018
She’s certainly capable of being devious, but not in this way, as is Gove!
July 9, 2018
Dear Mr Pensioner
Time and history will have this woman down as very devious, viz; ‘EU’s Governor of the Provinces of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland’.
She’s a liberal, not a conservative, her ideological DNA has her programmed to sell us out. She must be removed immediately.
A note to the respected Rt Hon John Redwood;
Sir, I suggest to you that failure to replace the PM now will leave me with no option but to never vote conservative ever again. I further suggest there will be millions like me reaching the same conclusion.
HOW DARE that dishonourable contemptuous woman ignore my vote.!
Get rid now, or be forever unelectable, Sir.
July 9, 2018
You would assume a *competent* Remain politician would have already ensured this proposal would be acceptable to the EU (by and large) by discussing it with them in advance. As Barnier has not dismissed it out of hand as is his normal policy this may be the case, although of course it still seeks to cherry pick parts of the SM (goods but not services) which is a EU red line. It seems May is also arranging to brief the Labour MPs on the deal – a prelude to relying on their votes to get it accepted in Parliament – she may calculate she can split their Blairite faction off and achieve this – Corbyn however as a tactic would whip them to oppose the deal as he can’t be seen to be propping up the Conservatives. In any event if the deal is passed with Labour MP votes of course the Conservative vote at the next election will totally collapse (it may anyway).
July 9, 2018
EP: That scenario had been put forward by others on this blog previously, but who knows if it has any legs…don’t hold your breath…
July 9, 2018
I doubt she is that clever.
July 9, 2018
I had that same thought some time ago but then I awoke to find it was all just a dream.
July 9, 2018
No she has started from a soft brexit position to achieve an even softer Brexit. This was always the intention. Everything has been fake.
July 9, 2018
That’s not being devious, it’s the only strategy for a proper Brexit we have left, given the total intransigence from the Brussels side.
May won’t go for it, of course, and Barnier knows it.
Our only hope is a change of leader.
July 9, 2018
Why do you think she apparently went to Merkel first for approval before she divulged it to Cabinet. That in itself is unacceptable and should have rung enormous alarm bells in all MPs who uphold democracy. She looks like a supplicant and shows all too clearly the role of the EU – we are and will continue to be, under May, a vassal state.
July 9, 2018
English Pensioner
But I doubt if she is capable of being sufficiently devious!
Not sufficiently devious?? She’s been nothing but devious from start to finish. Pretending that she would deliver a full and final Brexit, no erasing the red lines that she had set and yet here we are, two years down the track and we have a complete reversal of what was promised. She has managed to convince a lot of people that Brexit is being delivered when really nothing has been delivered except a lot of bowing and scraping and a few billion promised to those in the EU. I would say that is being excellent at devious.
July 9, 2018
No. She’s not the brightest but does have devious, deceitful characteristics with a touch of bullying to boot. Remember she told the police after 20,000 police cuts that they were crying crocodile tears on the Nations security…………..before the latest attacks and atrocities………..the rest is as they say history!
July 9, 2018
My thoughts entirely English Pensioner.
From another English Pensioner.
July 9, 2018
Nice idea. However…..
we know she is a remainer.
we know quisling remainers are in charge.
we know her husband is a traitor.
we know she has appalling judgement.
we know she isnt really a conservative.
July 9, 2018
She is continually devious. That is how she got to no 10 in the first place and has managed to stay there. But she is not sufficiently intelligent or committed to do what you suggest. Low cunning is what she deals in, not high principle. She just wants to cling on as PM and to hell with the country and its Brexit.
July 9, 2018
English Pensioner – that is exactly what I have been hoping. That Ms May has been playing the ‘long game’. So that our negotiators can walk away with their heads held high, knowing that they have played their cards well and that the EU has double bluffed itself into a corner.
Wouldn’t that be nice?
July 9, 2018
More fantasy from Redwood. The only option of the two which might happen is to crash out of the EU, and that still seems the most likely scenario. It takes a decade or more to negotiate a “comprehensive free trade” deal. The Little Englanders bounced May into triggering Article 50 long before the UK was ready to do so.
July 11, 2018
wab
NO it takes the EU a decade and more to negotiate a Free Trade deal , everyone else does it far quicker the average USA FTA takes 14 months… China /Swiss 2 years etc
You little euros need to get out into the world more
July 9, 2018
I take some comfort (barely!) from the thought that the official opposition could do no better – than the shambles currently unfolding.
Corbyns views are more elastic than the Cats & Traps we should have ordered for the QE Carrier!
July 9, 2018
The resignation of David Davis over the totally unacceptable outcome of the Chequers meeting leaves Mrs May high and dry. She has been supported by politicians and civil servants who have utter contempt for the 17.4 million who voted to leave the EU. It indicates her equal contempt after all her fine words. What credibility is left her.
The conservative party in office can either accept the referendum result or it’s own demise. There is no half way house, as has been demonstrated. Get behind the people or go. You are not above the people in wisdom, you are there to serve their wishes as instructed or go.
At best Mrs May’s negotiating position was weak and must have had the EU rubbing their hands in glee. It only demonstrated her total inability to negotiate. It make s me weep to think we are represented by such amateurs, but then they were never on our side at the outset, now we know it. Undoubtedly she must go, and please take that political tart Gove with you, a polisher if ever I saw one.
July 9, 2018
The Prime Minister s finished. Why prolong the agony?
Let’s get on with Brexit with a proper Prime Minister
July 9, 2018
I’ve always felt DD was a man of principle. I’m glad he has at long last resigned. Mrs May is a blo*dy useless woman and it is time she left the office she is so unsuited for. As to the EU it should be a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement or WTO. We Leave on 29th March 2019 and we should do so with the £39 billion cheque.
July 9, 2018
Mrs May continues to demonstrate many bad qualities. She is devious, she is muddled, she has kind of Stockholm Syndrome with respect to the EU, she is defeatist, she does not keep to her word, she takes us for fools.
Whilst she is in her current position she represents the Conservative Party.
To be clear, it is now the consenting Party of the vassal state.
I want better for our country.
July 9, 2018
Dr Redwood, have you not known Mrs May long enough to know she does not do ‘simple’. Next time you see her ask her what ‘KISS’ stands for. I bet you a fiver she does not know.
July 9, 2018
We voted to leave the EU not to cherry pick. Mrs May’s heart isn’t in Brexit and she was never committed to it from day one. The election last year was a farce and in my view she emasculated the men making the GE all about her. Let us be honest the opulence and power within the EU courts is tangible and extremely seductive to all who step into its hallowed halls. Westminster must seem like a poor relation and I think once people get a taste of something, however deceptive they are ensnared. Tuske and Barnier are very attractive men and Junker a charmer. Mrs May like the Blairs just love it as did Nucola Sturgeon and Leo Vad… I have to say from my observations if Theresa May she has neither the commitment nor the strength to stand up to these men. It is probably politically incorrect to say this but I think it needs a Mrs Thatcher type woman or a very strong man who sees through the hype and loves this wonderful country of ours, respects its people’s and its values its laws and traditions. Someone to say this is business, the people have voted and given us the conditions of that vote and we will carry out their wishes. We desire a free trade deal but if getting that means compromising the desire of the British people then we will leave on WTO rules. That has never been made clear because of Mrs May’s desire for a ‘deep and special relationship ‘ with the EU. We want a deep and special relationship with countries on the European continent not a political construct which is destroying the very countries it is there to SERVE.
July 9, 2018
It appears that David Davis, the Minister supposedly in charge of Brexit negotiations, was virtually the last person to know about the position adopted by the Prime Minister. He and his fellow ministers in the department did the only honourable thing they could do and resigned. His treatment and the treatment of his ministers in the department has been disgraceful.
July 9, 2018
Given the EU’s track record for enacting FTAs let alone 7-10yrs negotiating them, leaving ASAP onto WTO would have provided the certainty that businesses crave. Many have advocated what you say and as a constituent and regular reader I’d add myself to that list. But how do you handle objections from businesses like Airbus, Nissan and BMW who fear disruption to their just-in-time supply chains? And does the WTO option create any issues for the Ireland / N Ireland border?
July 9, 2018
At this stage it would be best to let the clock run out and trade under WTO rules..in this case we don’t need to appoint a replacement for DD..but we may need to beef up Liam Fox brief..the WTO office in Geneva will need to be manned
July 9, 2018
Those here criticising May for holding the last election might like to consider what would have happened if it HAD led to a Conservative majority of 100. Then she could have pushed through her preferred soft Brexit with no trouble at all.
July 9, 2018
I completely agree with you, Dr. Redwood. You put the case in a beautifuly straightforward manner. I do not understand how leaving the EU has become so complicated. One can only reconcile this apparent contradiction by assuming that fudging Brexit is the preferred policy option of the Government?
July 9, 2018
May was supported by Davis to become PM and deliver Brexit. She allowed preparation for no deal /WTO to be stopped and took away his best negotiating position, she overruled him on the process of negotiations, sidelined him and his department, gave in to the Irish border nonsense and finally went back on her word on the customs union and single market.
Yet he still likes and supports her. Possibly some psychotherapy would help.
July 9, 2018
As I have been saying since the election Raab will be the next PM.
More imprtantly my 1k at the bookies is still looking good.
July 9, 2018
Hans and Peter will be pleased that the UK is to follow EU standards for agriculture. Our pig and calf farmers will be able to keep them in small dark pens until they are driven across the continent to be turned into smoked ham and wiener schnitzel.
July 9, 2018
I am not at all surprised DD resigned, as he has a modicum of integrity compared to the rest of the rabble. Gove and Boris are the pits. I do wish people would stop trusting them.
July 9, 2018
Dear Mr. Redwood,
Appointment of Brexit Secretary.
What on earth is Dominic Raab thinking about?
He will encounter the same problems as did David Davis. A policy of remaining as much as possible in the EU driven by a PM and a civil service who never wanted to leave.
The PM is now the problem. She is not part of the solution. What is this invitation to Labour MP’s to a briefing designed to achieve other than to rub the noses of Brexiteers in the Turd that is the Chequers Summit plan?
Brexiteer MP’s need to focus their minds quickly and take action before the Prime Minister damages the party beyond repair and leaves the Country in a bigger mess than it is already in.
July 9, 2018
It’s a ‘Dog’s Brexit’ (= Dog’s Breakfast). Why is David Davis the only one not deceived by this dishonest scheme? Just to please 20 remainder members of cabinet, Theresa May is seeking to sideline the 17.4m who voted to leave the EU. May she not get away with it.
July 9, 2018
Wake me up, someone resigns from the Tory party. Remain always had the numbers it needed in parliament and lords to wins to stay in the EU.
July 9, 2018
Unless somebody cancels the trade bill your frog is cooked.
July 9, 2018
DD was con into the cabinet by remainders to carry out the trade talks and leaving the EU by being told he would be in charge, It turns out he was never in charge and was now being asked to surrender to the EU.
July 9, 2018
Slowly the truth is percolating out of the mass of verbiage. Apparently David Davis and his deputy had a clear approach to the EU negotiation which was to have been the basis of the white paper. That is until May and Robbins undermined it by insisting on their own. The rules of engagement at Chequers , including removal of phones, and watches along with the threat of having to walk home if you failed to support the prime minister. Not very grown up government. Now the two have honourably resigned. The replacement Brexit secretary, Dominic Rabb now holds the poisoned chalice which contains a vintage called Brexit in name only, because we are still a taker of EU rules. The whole process has been reduced to a Whitehall Farce.
July 9, 2018
It’s obvious that Raab was asked some time ago if he would take over from DD, Raab calls himself an arch leaver.
July 9, 2018
Bring it on..you guys won’t be happy until you get your noses rubbed in it
July 9, 2018
Brexit going well again I see?
It is a complete farce.
Predominantly old, white, men shouting at each other.
No thought for our country.
No thought for our children.
Selfish ideologues detatched from reality.
We need a revolution to drain the swamp.
July 10, 2018
Presumably you like the “predominately old white men”in the House of Lords.
July 11, 2018
and the old white men who run the EU
July 9, 2018
DAVID D, you have it exactly right, The people of England live on EU island which takes care of their every need.
July 9, 2018
I have to say John I do wonder whether or not us leavers have the patience to wait for TM to change course on her policy. DD was sidelined long ago and it comes as no real surprise that he decided to go. Surely if TM wanted to stick by her chequers statement then why didn’t she have the bollocks to appoint a remainer like Hammond to get her dirty work done?? Barnier and his cronies must be planning their next bombshell to the UK negotiations. My golf mates are BIG REMAINERS but even they are saying how can a PM who took the job on repeatedly lie to the country. Yes I would have voted for her after Cameron jumped but my attitude has long since changed. I SUGGEST EVERYONE WATCHES STEVE BAKER ON THE DP EARLIER TODAY!!!!
July 9, 2018
Unbelievable that Raab would take the position of Ollie Robbin’s tea-boy. What is wrong with politicians that they so easily sell out for a non-job in government with a bog standard company car.
July 9, 2018
John, Why are Cons inviting Labs to Number 10??
Why don’t they invite every party in the UK to come round??
How about Blair and all the Peers??
DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT 17.4M PEOPLE VOTED IN THE REF TO LEAVE THE EU!
July 9, 2018
As predicted by many of us Conservative Leave voters… the Conservative Party has sold us out. The majority of you are either fanatical EU disciples or spineless and career minded. You always put Party before People.
I for one now know that the Conservative Party has to be destroyed. I am going to do something I thought I’d never do. In the next GE I’m going to vote against your Party John. My constituency – Richmond Park. Tory majority 45. You can all go to hell!
July 9, 2018
It was clear when dd couldn’t work with ribbon but tm could and she wanted him in downing st that a sell out was on the way.
July 9, 2018
Now David Davis as given his notice in, he now as time on his hands to get the biggest union flag, then every time sky or bbc are interviewing people on the green outside Westminster he could stand in front of those Eu loving flag waving muppets that sky or bbc seem to give coverage to
July 9, 2018
There is an excellent video on Guido of an interview with Steve Baker.
It is crystal clear what has been going on and he doesn’t need to point the finger either!
CF
July 9, 2018
This is exactly right.
Some of these Remainers, whom nevertheless voted in Parliament to invoke Article 50 and for the Brexit Act, seem to think that the Government can just ignore the law and Remain in the EU, extend membership at will, or magic a deal into existence.
There is not, and never has been, a guarantee of any ‘deal’ at all. It’s Remainers who keep talking about a ‘deal’. If they weren’t willing to contemplate Leaving the EU without one, it was downright reckless to have voted against invoking Article 50 and against the Brexit Act
Its not just the EU and the Cabinet that Mrs May has to convince on the merits of whatever ‘deal’ she gets. It has to be approved by Parliament as well, and there’s nothing to stop Eurosceptics voting against it.
Unless the EU 27 unanimously agrees otherwise, and Parliament passes legislation to repeal the Brexit Act, we Leave by operation of International, UK, and EU Law on March 29th 2019 ‘deal or no deal’.
I find it inconceivable that Parliament will pass legislation to empower the Government to ask the EU to withdraw the Artricle 50 Notice or to extend membership, and particularly so, without a further Referendum before March 29th 2019.
Doing so would render the UK a global laughing stock and remove what little influence we ever had in the EU.
In any case Dominic Raab seems a sound choice as replacement for David Davis and I doubt whether Mrs May will survive him leaving as well.
July 9, 2018
And the Foreign Secretary.
July 9, 2018
Can’t wait for the Tory left budget in nov 2018.
July 9, 2018
If the game is not up with the people’s Blue Boris leaving, what are we awaiting?
There is no light at the end of the tunnel under her maladroit direction. May has squandered every advantage the UK possessed in the Brexit negotiations and similarly every advantage she once possessed has perished through her bad judgment.
July 9, 2018
Looks like DD and BB do not wish to be held to account for the calamity now headed our way – typical !
July 9, 2018
Did DD really spend only 4 or was it 5 hours with Barnier in 2 years?
July 9, 2018
I totally agree with John Redwood. It must be a sensible free trade deal or we deal with the EU on WTO terms like the rest of the world. I wish the PM and others could focus on the opportunities that are ahead and stop listening to the nauseating negativity from the remain camp. The last 2 years of UK economic success have proven the remainers wrong. They should acknowledge it.
July 9, 2018
It would seem that the PM, as many suspected, has taken the soft option
I think she is now very vunerable with Johnson and Davis gone
Oh Dear I hope she backs down quickly and survives
July 9, 2018
It is good that Boris John has resigned, all be it belatedly. What is important now is momentum. The letters to triggers a leadership election have to go in today. Even if May wins this year, she will be weakened in another leadership next year and it will be impossible for her continue to the next General election. Since much detail of the long-term relationship between the UK & EU will be negotiated after March 2019 and during the standstill transition the EU will know that if anything sustainable is to be achieved they cannot just negotiate soft Brexit with her and have her impose it on the UK indefinitely. This is the time for action and any hesitation in bringing May down for her BRINO coup attempt will be fatal to brexit and the long term survival of democracy in this country.
July 9, 2018
So there you have it..Gove is likely to be the new foreign secretary..in this case he will be free to stab in the back other brexiteer elements in the cabinet ..wow! ..next leader of the Tory…M Gove..wanna bet?😃😅
July 9, 2018
DD and BJ gone. Surely now time for May to resign. Perhaps a new cabinet of people with a positive Brexit vision rather than a damage limitation approach. Perhaps a return to the cabinet for Dr Redwood?
July 9, 2018
David Davis the ‘man of principle’ who was responsible for whipping MPs into voting in the Maastricht Treaty. Total farce it would be funny if the situation wasnt so serious.
July 9, 2018
Off topic but perhaps of interest –
In Germany, abundant renewable energy means that when supply exceeds
demand, consumers can get paid for using power.
In Germany, when demand for electricity is low, and weather conditions are
right, consumers benefit. Over the Christmas period in 2017, for example,
when demand from major energy consumers was low and unseasonably sunny
conditions fueled the country’s wind and solar power plants, the price of
power actually dipped below zero, The New York Times reported. Periods of
negative pricing can lead to lower electricity bills over the course of a
year.
R
July 9, 2018
It’s overdue that Theresa May goes. A remainer, would lose the next election just like she failed the last one. A good time to have the battle, Gove, Johnson or outside chance Mogg (probably not enough MP backers though).
July 9, 2018
I have listened to Theresa May in the Commons and the design of her plan is determined by the mere 0.1% of UK GDP which is transported across the land border into the Irish Republic, according to her there being no other way to avoid restricting the present free flow of goods across that border.
Except of course there is another way to achieve that essential end, a way which has been pointed out here repeatedly for the past seven months, in fact since December when it had become clear that the new Irish government was minded to be obstructive in an effort to keep us in the EU Customs Union and the EU Single Market:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2017/12/15/parliamentary-votes-on-the-eu-withdrawal-bill/#comment-907596
“Another point in that book:
“However, the advantage for FTA and WTO options are that EU rules will only need apply to exporters and not the 94% of UK firms that never sell into the SIM, but currently have to abide by EU regulations. This will give rise to an economic benefit to the UK economy, which we cautiously estimate could be around 0.75% of UK GDP in the medium term.”
Another side to this would be that if our government could persuade the EU to accept a continuing guarantee, backed up by UK legislation and by its efficient enforcement as now, that in the future all UK exporters to the EU will still be compelled to maintain their present compliance with EU rules then that could avoid creating any new need for checks at the EU entry points, including at the Irish land border.”
And not just pointed out here, but in a succession of letters printed in her local paper, one being copied to her and receiving the response that she had taken it on board.
Well, it’s obvious that her mind is completely closed to any possibility other than the EU’s politically driven “Single Market” model, an ideological model which we have not accepted for our trade with other territories around the world because our political class has not yet been ensnared into desiring political union with them.
July 9, 2018
Will MAY try to save the Tory party and ditch the EU or will Tory remain MPs then ditch MAY save the EU, whatever happens, the Tory party will never be the same again, whatever happens only MAY can choose, the EU think they have it in the bag?
July 9, 2018
Why does our Prime Minister take no notice of the opinions of the wise and earthy members of her back benches?
Why does she listen to no one but her SPADs and the Remainers with her anti Brexit biased Cabinet?
Is she on a political suicide mission that will bring down the Conservative party and the country with her?
She is more a worry than Corbyn because we all know what damage he will do.
July 9, 2018
Oh dear! Boris has gone now.
Stand by for a leadership election ………………………….
July 9, 2018
The PM was asked twice today to publish the DEXEU plan which was supplanted by the Robbins one. Both times she evaded the question. I hope you will be able to drag this out of her. It is the least she could do in gratitude to the ex Secretary of State. especially as she and her kitchen cabinet have been briefing that Brexiteers are hopeless and have no plan. The media have been lapping this up.
July 9, 2018
Usual ploy Mr.Redwood, not liking Free Speech. You come across as being very insecure.
Anyway, the day has just got better, with now two resignations. Boris Johnson was a total embarrassment to the UK so glad he has gone.
July 10, 2018
Quote; “Usual ploy Mr.Redwood, not liking Free Speech. You come across as being very insecure”
Blue and Gold, I think you’re being a little unfair.
Rt Hon Mr Redwood provides this platform out of his own resource. Consequently; at least he’s in touch with people which is more than could be said of the rest of the government.
I suggest you will not find this degree of accessibility, and indeed, recognition of free speech concerning any other MP.
I think credit is due to him for giving ordinary people his time in running the site, and for representing our views at higher levels.
Do you think the PM would take any notice of you or even allow you to voice opinion ?
July 9, 2018
It was obvious really, did anyone seriously think in installing a liberal – minded remainer would not result in the betrayal of the British people ?
The way she’s trashed democracy and been secretly working for foreign powers leads me to think she’s guilty of sedition and treason.
I say arrest the woman immediately and lock her in the tower pending trial. Be nice also if she could have Bliar as a cell mate.
July 9, 2018
The issue is fundamentally one of trust. If May thought Davis was doing a bad job she could have sacked him months ago. Instead she waited until her Blairite civil service appointee Robbins had trotted off to Brussels to cook up the ‘common rule book’ etc. Then she set up a meeting where she sidelined the work of the man she’d commissioned and kept in place for years, in favour of a civil service concocted scheme. It was all accompanied by a sophisticated operation of spin, and it seems she had Raab lined up as replacement for Davis. Who knows the background to that choice? Oh, I know, let’s just take it on trust. Or rather, let’s listen to the people who’ve been trying to work alongside May for two years to get the Brexit agenda accepted, only for her to repeatedly turn to ‘half in’ alternatives. Boris and Davis saw the sleight of hand of May’s behaviour and put two and two together, however reluctantly. We should do so with more alacrity.
July 9, 2018
Exactly. I hope Dominic Raab is putting this point to Mrs.May right now.
July 9, 2018
I’m fed up with the 48% of Remainers saying they should have a say too. I would suggest that a very large proportion of Remainers were not for staying in the EU but were pathetic “I dont know much about it so I will votes in@’ Whereas people who voted to Leave were firm and positive in their intent.
July 9, 2018
Have you all considered that a large part of this particular fiasco may be the fault of the EU negotiators, and that this lack of willingness to deal is quite possibly because they are absolutely bricking themselves about what is about to happen?
The British contribution to the EU budget is large, but importantly it isn’t just big, it is foreign currency. All the rest of the EU budget is sent in Euro money, not in what to them is a foreign currency. What I am implying is that it is the loss of this large input of something other than Euros which has got the EU negotiators so scared, and the only reason for them to be so scared is that their banking system is on the verge of disaster.
Realising that one’s negotiating counterpart is absolutely shit scared is a wonderful feeling. It means that one does not need to actually do very much; offer a fair deal then let them do the sweating until they accept it. Of course, we also have to wonder what happens next, after the Brexit cuts off their supply of foreign currency, as it inevitably will.
I would expect frantic renegotiation and wild attempts to try to make us resume paying us. Still, we may never see that now, if a deal fails to be made.
July 9, 2018
Theresa is up to her elbows in the blood of democracy. She now has a choice whether to heal the country or create a frankenstein state.
July 9, 2018
A free trade deal won’t be good enough to cope with the complexities of trade with the EU. That’s what business keeps saying. So, explain please why you think the people who trade with the EU every day don’t understand their own business models.
July 9, 2018
What we have learned over the last two years is that what was promised to Brexit voters is completely undeliverable.
It was a unicorn. It was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It was Narnia. It does not exist. You were lied to.
This is not the fault of the current PM or or anyone who voted Remain. It is not the fault of the honest leave voters. It was fault of those who led the Leave campaign.
We need action now. A government of national unity – members of all parties, of all sides of the referendum debate.
27% of the electorate – who do not even agree with each other – can not be allowed to impose their permanent will on the rest of us. Particularity as the will that risks being imposed is that of a few dozen unappeasable Tory backbenchers.
July 11, 2018
27% is it now Andy?
You will soon claim it is zero.
Most of you youngsters stayed in bed on referendum day.
July 9, 2018
Any idea of a proper Brexit finally appears to be in tatters tonight.
The Establishment looks like it has won. Yes, we will technically be outside the EU but the reality will be quite different.
Mrs May’s white paper is very reminiscent of Cameron’s renegotiation plan : She is asking for the softest possible Brexit in the full and certain knowledge that Barnier and Co will not even allow us that.
Her immediate agreement to the phasing of the negotiations was catastrophic and set this SlowMo car crash in motion. How David Davis stayed on board the rotting, sinking ship for so long, I’ll never know. It was obvious that May has had her Remainer chums in the driving seat for months with David Davis nothing more than a front seat passenger firmly strapped in and gagged.
It seems unlikely that there will be a leadership challenge with Corbyn waiting in the wings so her squalid Non-Brexit plan will effectively go unchallenged.
May has finally confirmed that she has been the worst PM since the 2nd World War. Worse even than Gordon Brown.
July 9, 2018
Correct Mr Redwood.
But she is owned lock, stock and barrel by the Remainers Jeremy Heywood and Olly Robbins. Their plan is to keep us as closely aligned to the EU as possible, with the aim of getting us back in at the first opportunity.
Martin Howe, QC is right: their plan will make us a vassal state of the EU and therefore the German Chancellor.
We will not be restoring our Sovereignty. We will not be independent. We will not be self-governing.
How is this “Delivering Brexit?” It isn’t.
She has to go.
July 9, 2018
Sorry John you have been in a pro EU party for a long time, time to form an English Party so We are no longer ruled over by the Celtic nations.
July 9, 2018
Minutes after Mr Hunt took up his new post as Foreign Secretary, the Foreign Office issued a warning to English fans in Benidorm to behave themselves when the semi takes place.. Hunt will soon catch on Benidorm is not in Russia, give him time.
July 10, 2018
He may not be there long enough to find that out. We also know what May really thinks of the NHS to give it to Matt Hancock, useless at all previous jobs.
July 9, 2018
I can’t for the life of me understand why Anna Soubry, Nicky Morgan and Kenneth Clarke wanted a second referendum and now don’t
July 10, 2018
Maybe they’ve seen the annual British Social Attitudes Survey by The National Centre for Social Research funded by Whitehall departments, charities and other groups, which shows that of those interviewed, 36 percent wanted to leave the EU, up from 22 percent in 2015, 19 percent wanted no change down from 27 percent and only 7 percent who wanted the EU to have more power or to move to a European government. They said ‘Voters in Britain have so far emerged from the Brexit process more critical of Britain’s membership of the EU’
July 9, 2018
I dare say that by the time you read this Dr Redwood, Mrs May will no longer be your party’s leader.
Both you and Jacob Rees-Mogg are urging Mrs May to adopt proper Brexit policies. JRM emphasised on LBC radio that he wants a change of policy not a change of Leader/PM. Mrs May has let it be known that she will have to be dragged from office before giving up on her alignment with EU regulation.
Why do either of you think there is a snowball in hell’s chance of her changing her policy on Brexit?
I cannot see any mechanism apart from her removal from office by which the Conservative Party can persuade her to change her policy.
If there is one and it is employed successfully I cannot see how her changing course 180 degrees would not trigger a no confidence motion in Parliament.
So, surely, regardless of whether a likely successor can be agreed upon, this is the end of Mrs May’s government.
Looking further ahead I cannot see how the Party could rescue itself from oblivion if Mrs May continues in office long enough to consign UK to EU vassalage, which I have no doubt she will do at or shortly after the next EU summit (in October?).
It seems to me that the Party, your Party, has only one way to recover its reputation and have any chance of winning in 2022 is to replace Mrs May now, before it is too late. You have only a few weeks to do it.
July 9, 2018
Mrs May is calling the EU’s bluff in her own way. She is saying accept this deal, bad as it is for UK, or you will get Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg.
July 10, 2018
Peter D Gardner..wrong..the EU is a bloc of 27 nations with some very smart people in charge..they are not going to be bluffed or bullied and will no be easily intimidated by anyone especially little old England whose best days have long since passed..ok send Boris or Rees-Mogg..put them in the firing line..i dare you.. and see what a reception they get..soon Farage and the other Tory MEPs Hannan included will wrap up their desk top union flags and depart into the sunset as well..just another footnote in history
July 10, 2018
The remaining issue is do the EU want free trade or want to trade under WTO terms.
This oft-repeated distillation of how Mr Redwood views Brexit, and the EU in general, is more revealing than he perhaps realises. It is, we are informed, all about free-trade. If the EU is unable to accept a contination of free-trade with a country of the UK’s stature outside the EU, more fool it. Those much-vaunted WTO rules offer a ready-made alternative etc etc
If only it were that simple. As if the EU – in the midst of an escalating tradewar less we forget – was ever likely to abandon foundational principles simply to accomodate the UK. Even a country like the Netherlands, with close economic ties to the UK, would never seriously consider such a step. It would represent an existential challenge to the EU. This counts for more than any post-Brexit economic fall out.
Moves towards European integration, from day one, were as much motivated by political and security considerations as economics, requiring mutually acceptable supranational authorities. The UK understood this and initially kept its distance, later relenting for economic reasons, if somewhat reluctantly. Yet the political dimension was always there, in all the treaties.
Yet here we are, half a century or so later, and Mr Redwood affects to be baffled why the EU doesn’t simply give the UK free access to the world’s largest single market, no strings attached. I’m left wondering what future historians will make of this myopia.
Reply Not so. I have always explained it is a project for political union which we do not want, and have said leaving with no deal is fine if the EU doesnt want tariff free access to the UK
July 10, 2018
Mrs May is calling the EU’s bluff in her own way. She is saying accept this deal, bad as it is for UK, or you will get Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg.
>
What a bizzare spin. So the UK establishment think surrendering is a bluff? What happens if the EU agrees? Whose won then?