I was not surprised by the resignations. The Chequers statement brought to the surface arguments that had been underway for many months. David Davis felt his department and his advice was being sidelined by the Cabinet Office officials. He had argued against the EU’s sequencing of the talks, and had sought to dig in more over money and the so called Withdrawal Agreement. Boris Johnson felt his advice was also being ignored when he set out an upbeat and optimistic view of Brexit. He complains about the extent of the concessions made and possibly planned.
Some people close to the PM made it worse by the silly briefings that Ministers would have to walk home if they resigned at the Chequers meeting, and by effectively challenging some Ministers to leave the government. Today in the Commons the Prime Minister robustly defended the red lines that matter to many of us. She assured us that freedom of movement will end, we will have our own migration policy, we will not pay large sums into the EU and will be able to sign our own trade deals.
However, the small print of the Chequers statement implies her officials do think we need to make concessions that rub out these important red lines. It is these apparent contradictions between the principles and the detail that has caused all the trouble. A majority of the country, Brexit voting and some Remain voting, want reassurance that the government will implement the wishes of the people. That does mean taking back control of all our laws, borders, money and trade policy. It is difficult to see how this is compatible with a deal that ties our hands on goods and agricultural business and trade. Nor does the detailed language rule out some payments, some role for the European Court and some side deal to allow more migration.
We are told a few large companies think a failure to negotiate some customs deal will be damaging to them. It is difficult to see why. These claims are similar to the claims such businesses made to force us into the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, which proved an economic disaster. They are also similar to the statements of some big businesses that they would stop investing in the UK or might withdraw if we failed to join the Euro. Instead they stayed and invested more. We have just had a devaluation against the Euro of more than 10%, so the UK has just become a lot more competitive. Our trade is not at risk if we leave and trade under WTO rules.
July 10, 2018
May kept her plans secret until the last minute and told her ministers one version while plotting something very different.
We don’t know how far the backlash will go. I would like to see her toppled and a general election to weed out intransigent remainers..
July 10, 2018
“May kept her plans secret until the last minute….”
In reply to Peter;
Another thing May did was to have the Chequers plot held while the country was focused on the footie. Sneaky, deceitful, treacherous and a twist on how to bury bad news, ‘let the electorate get well ratted watching the match while we slip the knife in.
What strikes me is that May is insistent that BREXIT is what she says it is, and ultimately defined by her franco german walloon bosses.
There’s no doubt Brussels has got their woman in number ten. Treason against the state, surely.
Personally I think regardless of outcome Theresa May is going to go down ranking alongside the likes of Tony Bliar, totally despised by the British people.
I cannot vote conservative ever again after this, my vote will go to UKIP. Sorry Mr Redwood but unless the tories have a good purge to rid themselves of these seditious and treacherous individuals, then millions like me will also vote UKIP. Your party is finished.
July 10, 2018
Right, get Corbyn in. Like THAT would improve matters……
July 10, 2018
Gareth,
With the right candidate, I am sure the great British (well English anyway) public, should a GE be called, galvanise around someone they can trust to deliver Brexit. They were mislead by May and many had their doubts but as Tory MPs choose their leader, and stupidly they chose remainer May, we didn’t have much choice. I don’t think the public will forgive the Tories for that in a hurry but the public aren’t stupid and know a Labour Government would betray us even further on Brexit if that were possible. Of course the other option is Nigel Farage who is talking about becoming leader again which would split the Tory vote and then we might get Corbyn unless of course we all had the guts to vote for Farage and forget May and the treacherous Tories which would be no more than they deserve. Another bonus of voting for Farage would be UKIP are the only party willing to recognise the rotten deal England gets and offer the English a voice and equality with the rest of the so called union, i.e. an EP, something even the self serving Tory party refuse to do. A GE might not be as bad as you think.
July 11, 2018
Grieve, Soubry, Morgan, Hammond and co voted with Corbyn. No action by May as it softened Brexit. Grieve makes veiled to collapse the government heralded by Soubry as a hero. No action. 1922 committee two days ago May says if she is ousted you will get Corbyn! The two hundred or so Tory dullards should have worked out why she did not make the remarks about her traitors threatening to collapse her govt? The dullards fell for it! There is more chance to install a new leader giving three years or so to change public opinion and go to the GE. May in place they are all finished. She is very toxic.
Lett’s in the paper today saying May is lying or does not understand English. Everyone knows she has and now she is digging a deeper hole. Yesterday she claimed she is keeping faith with the public vote. JRM in his DT article demonstrates with evidence she has not kept Her promises!
100 years of the woman vote, it took a underhand untrustworthy woman as PM to cancel and betray the last hundred years of public voting.
July 10, 2018
JR, may has misled parliament. She previously stated the U.K. Would be in control over its laws borders and money. While carefully stated yesterday there would be no direct law from the she knows that the courts applying ECJ jurisprudence meas the U.K. law will be written to take account of this and any U.K. Court will apply such case law. This is Not taking back control at all. What are you and others going to do? She also knows regulatory alignment also means indirect application of ECJ on goods. Again misleading parliament. She has clearly not been straight in parliament and not truthful in public. I think there is little doubt May acted in concert with the traitors of your party going by the comments yesterday in parliament.
Letwin made it clear that it is more important to act on what the public voted for than any issue before parliament. Your nasty, underhand, untrustworthy toxic needs to be ousted. JRM is wrong replace May with a leaver and you stand a chance at election. Stick with May you are gone for generations.
May claimed fair to all bullshit, the cabinet does represent the public vote to leave the EU. All top jobs of state have ultra remainers. 73 percent of MP voted remain.
July 10, 2018
There is an opinion poll out asking “Who would make the best prime minster?”
“Don’t know” is a leading both May and Corbyn.
That says it all.
(come on “Don’t know” – your time has come!!)
July 10, 2018
No…get a proper Conservative as leader.
July 11, 2018
You have a choice. Either you get the, Full Fat Corbyn or you get the Semi-skimmed Cornyn. Either way you get Cornyn.
When MP’s realise that you will no longer play their game, it will be you who will set the rules.
July 10, 2018
This has got silly. Essentially we have resignations over a Tax.
The current red lines are sound.
All we need is WTO rules with Customs easements for integrated supply lines, perishables and Irish cross border trade.
If we can get a comprehensive Trade Deal, or free trade – good, but those are mutually beneficial and are negotiable
We have to organise resistance to the proposed gift of our freedom before it becomes a fait accomplis.
17.2 million must rise now or prolong the agony of indecision until after the next election.
Organise us
July 10, 2018
@Peter; Your last sentence would more likely weed out the Brexiteers, even if they do then form the Official Opposition against a Labour (lead) government with Corbyn in Downing Street. When that happens let’s just hope that Labour win a outright majority and the hard left have deselected many a europhile Blairite, otherwise May’s Brexit plans will appear radically eurosceptic in comparison!
July 10, 2018
I seem to remember the referendum resulted in 65% leave constituencies. So much for our so called representative democracy.
July 10, 2018
I’d go along with that Peter, but the Tories just band together in times of crisis. They do what is best for them, and to hell with what is best for the country. I could scarcely believe how much they ingratiated themselves in defence of one of the most useless Prime Ministers in a generation.
This latest episode has the hallmarks of the lowest form of chicanery by an unelected civil servant at May’s behest. It is designed to get rid of genuine Brexiteers, and put in their places people who are remainers by conviction, but are now making Eurosceptic noises, and all designed to con the public yet again. The people have rightly had enough of duplicity. We need a new party in whom we can trust, where honesty and integrity actually means something.
Tad
July 10, 2018
“May kept her plans secret until the last minute.”
That’s all she ever does.
Calling a general election.
Announcing a manifesto.
July 10, 2018
May, typically underhand, presented Her unilateral white paper just like Her unilateral manifesto. But the two are incompatible! Brought to you by dictator toxic May.
July 10, 2018
A general election now would be a disaster for the Conservative Party and damaging for Brexit. But pressure from below (by the party membership and party supporters), applied directly to the surrender-monkeys infesting the Conservative benches is the only thing that will work now. I hope to see mass resignations from the party and MPs’ in-boxes receiving so many emails from angry Leave voters that the Commons officials begin to think that a denial-of-service attack is underway. The people need to tell an arrogant political elite that up with this we will not put!
July 10, 2018
A general election now would be a disaster for the Conservative Party and damaging for Brexit ?
Why the tories would win by a landslide ?
The 4 million Labour voters that moved from UKIP back to Labour thought the referendum result was going to get honured. They would vote conservative if a leaver was in charge.
Corbyn cannot win without those 4 million.
July 10, 2018
May allowed Greive, Clarke, Soubry, S. Hammond, Ford et el to vote with Labour and threaten to collapse the govt. that was okay, nomaction taken. May then tells the 1922 committee if she is brought down they would get Corbyn! So it is okay for traitors to threaten to collapse the govt but not leavers! May’s deluded world to get what she wants.
JRM being foolish not to bring May down. To say he will not vote for the same white paper is fanciful nonsense and achieve absolutely nothing. It is an empty threat, like his previous letters of reminding why what she said etc. she did not listen or care for his views. It had no impact whatsoever.
She is underhand, betrayed all voters, betrayed leave voters and those who voted for her manifesto. To say she has kept faith is breathtaking falsehood, can she remember saying that staying in the single market is not actually leaving! Regulatory alignment to goods and agriculture products is not leaving. UK has no say on the rules or laws of those products and is a rule taker and vassal state. That is not keeping faith it is a sell out. Is she capable any more of telling the Truth?
Get rid of her now or bring on Corbyn a Tory party might emerge in opposition.
July 10, 2018
All very true! Except – they’re NOT ”elite”.
July 10, 2018
It is clear from the Steve Baker interview on TV yesterday how underhand and dispicable May actually is. Her previous comments, speeches, red lines with her current behaviour and white paper show how toxic she is to democracy, public life and government. You keep her at your party’s peril. The public have made up their mind about her lack of integrity on delivering what she said. You will not convince the public otherwise. Blindsiding the people who are centre for the policy for leaving the EU and then brief against them. We read today how Boris told No.10 in advance of his resignation for the evening. It was leaked by No.10.
Most telling were the traitors in your party congratulating May for her underhand behaviour and policy.
It is not possible to be an independent nation when the courts have to be reliant on what a foreign court case states (jurisprudence). May used and inserted the word direct carefully on this point in parliament yesterday because she knows, as we do, the courts are therefore subject to ECJ supremacy. This is not taking back control of our laws, it is a lie which she has now promoted in public.
Regulatory alignment is not independence or line with her Lancaster speech. It gives control of goods regulation to a foreign power where we have no control or say over. It condemns to the UK to not be more competitive than the EU. The theatrical excuse that parliament might have a block is a sham. History and current events show us parliament cannot be trusted. We had the lies of the tidying up excercises when they were nothing of the sort.
As Boris wrote yesterday whT is disturbing this is the opening line before any countr offer and Clarke stated there will have to be compromises! Further capitualtions. May has failed to deliver/ negotiate any substantive point with the EU on leaving the EU.
The papers quite rightly condem her behaviour today. Your party has failed to realise that the only damage limitation is to rid her now. Clarke and co were happy in the worldliness as long they remained in the EU, he was content to sit on a platform with Blaire to promote the euro and perfectly happy for the U.K. to be ruled by the EU.
July 10, 2018
Peter, on your specific point everyone I have spoke to thinks her actions were dishonest. There is no way back from that to gain people trust.
July 10, 2018
I agree. We need to have a proper and decent Prime Minister.
Mrs May is a running joke.
July 10, 2018
That made me smile. A general election will weed out most of the Conservative Party and put Labour in Downing Street – perhaps forever. When New Labour were in power it looked as though the Tories would never get back in. Young people seem to prefer Labour as the Tories always have a terrible image problem. The ONLY reason the Tories squeezed back in in 2010 was the global financial crisis and the fact that people didn’t seem to really take to Brown. If Blair had stayed as PM, he’d probably still be PM. What do the Tories have to offer against someone like him?
Anyway, back to the present. If there is a General Election I’d bet that Nigel will suddenly reappear as leader of UKIP and a big percentage of the 17.4 million will put two fingers up to Labour and the Tories and vote for UKIP. I certainly would. Who knows who could form a government. It will NOT be the Tories.
July 10, 2018
I wish I was so clever as to know other people`s business better than they do.
July 10, 2018
Go to night school!
July 10, 2018
Yes, it would be nice to know more about the thoughts of the 94% of UK businesses who do not export to the EU but still create 88% of our GDP. Somehow we only seem to hear about the preferences of (some of) the 6% who export 12% of our GDP to the rest of the EU, their needs are taken to represent those of all “business” in the UK. But pride of place for extra special treatment must go to those who export a mere 0.1% of our GDP across the land border into the Irish Republic, as Theresa May is stuck with the idea that that there is no way to keep their trade unhindered except to hinder all the businesses involved with goods across the whole of the UK, 20% of our economy as we are reminded even though only some small fraction of those businesses are involved in exporting to the EU. The claim is that Brexiteers are too ideological but has always seemed pretty ideological to me to insist that every business in the UK must obey all EU laws in all their activities because a small minority of them, about 6%, wish to export some of their products to the EU, about 12% of GDP, while not imposing a similar requirement with respect to the laws of say the US or any other country to which we export.
July 10, 2018
Well it is quite difficult to understand the scares raised. Goods and parts in global supply chains flow seamlessly through ports such as Felixstowe in minutes if not seconds, as explained by industrialists such as Sir James Dyson. Even with no trade deal there is a 10 year derogation from imposing Tariffs under WTO rules – and is it really likely the EU while they are complaining about Trump’s tariffs, will want to impose them on the UK? Regulations the day after brexit will be the same as the day before – so how can that be a problem? Sure we should listen to businesses’ concerns but we are entitled to interrogate the rationale for their fears.
July 10, 2018
There are some people who think they are so clever they can with impunity, and foreign money, frustrate the referendum result.
July 10, 2018
Big business will also not wish to have Corbyn as PM – does that mean we should ignore the result of the next General Election if he wins ?
July 10, 2018
Great analogy .
The Conservatives lack a mandate for many of their policies such as privatisation of the NHS which I’ve come to realise is what is happening .
The extra £20b p.a. is to attract the outsourcing companies and insurance companies which the Conservatives serve , not improve services delivered to the electorate who they despise .
Then we have Teresa May deciding Britain should be staying in that most dangerous pieces of apparatus ; the European Arrest Warrant .
The ultra-authoritarian May is doing her best to make life impossible for the alternative media too so the executive has complete control of all media .
I’m fully aware that Corbyn will be a disaster but it will be possible to recover from it .
On the other hand , another term of Conservative govt will change the country irreversibly for the worst .
July 10, 2018
Governments nearly wrongly always think this. May in particular with her endless misguided regulations, the minimum wage increases, her “building on and worker’s rights”, the idiotic Taylor report and her interfering with employment and other contracts freely entered into. Not to mention all the endless climate alarmism and energy lunacy.
But in the case of some large industries such as Airbus and LandRover these are largely political moves. Doubtless encouraged by EU bureaucrats to weaken the UK in negotiations. I am with the Dyson and JCB types.
July 10, 2018
Governments nearly always and quite wrongly think this.
July 10, 2018
Well, Remainers ‘know’ that we were too ignorant to know what we were voting for, that we didn’t know about the Customs Union or the Single Market and that all under 30’s wanted Remain – Andy has told us so many a time here, so you must be a pretty clever lot to have that many friends and know what they all think. One thing we do know is that big business is pro EU because of the protected status they get and the laws designed just for them to keep out competition and prices high. We all pay a huge sum in fees and on our shopping bills to fill the bank accounts of the oligarchs.
July 10, 2018
Indeed. Their poor, poor shareholders…….
July 10, 2018
Newmania
We wish you were clever too, you wouldn’t post the nonsense you do then
July 11, 2018
Grow up an behave professor
July 12, 2018
hans
Shut up and post something factual or dont bother to post. You are just a waste of space
July 10, 2018
Surely you are? After all you repeatedly claim to know the electorates interests better than the electorate.
July 10, 2018
The problem is that they are really in the business of getting the EU to eliminate their competitors for them. They really should stick to “building a better mousetrap”…but they can’t. Hence falsification of emissions data etc…
July 10, 2018
Newmania, You frequently claim you do. And you know perfectly well that business is divided. However the Remain businesses are in a minority, being typically a few large multi-national corporates, with an extensive lobby presence in Brussels, agitating to sell-out the UK to EU control. Just like they tried to get us in the Euro.
July 10, 2018
A classic tale of a portfolio manager who thinks he knows best about how to run a business.
It is not as easy as it looks.
July 10, 2018
Tabulazero
How would you know you’ve clearly never run a business
July 11, 2018
rude again, what do you know about running services in the EU? Not much
July 12, 2018
hans
Probably as much as you, although unlike you none of my businesses have ever gone bust !
I’ve provided services in
Germany, France, Holland, Denmark, Belgium & Switzerland over the past 25 years
July 10, 2018
If you were better informed you’d know that portfolio management is a business.
JR has been (Chairman of Norcros, a large quoted industrial business, and of Concentric, a global supplier of pumps]
And what business do you run, pray?
July 10, 2018
Newmania, you’re tough. Won’t you be the same if you had tens of faithful zealots?
July 10, 2018
“we fight them on the beaches!! . . . . and if we lose on the beaches we’ll surrender immediately!!”
July 10, 2018
Newmania
“I wish I was so clever as to know other people`s business better than they do.”
The irony is breathtaking funny coming from you of all people, as you are very fond of telling all and sundry about their own business on this blog!
July 10, 2018
Newmania is an expert in punctuation: he has patented his own version of it.
July 10, 2018
It’s years of experience of being lied to over any negotiations involving the EEC/EU.
When we joined in the first place Ted Heath told us at the 1970 General Election that we wouldn’t join without the ‘wholehearted consent of the British People’ He wouldn’t have won without the promise.
Then immediately after the election we were told that his win in the election amounted to ‘consent’. We thus joined and he was kicked out at the following election.
July 10, 2018
I was wondering myself how the bosses of Airbus, Honda, BMW, Tesco and many others can dare to claim they know their businesses better than a bunch of Tory backbench MPs who mostly haven’t had a proper job for two decades.
July 10, 2018
Andy
This is going to come as a massive shock so you better sit down
Thats 4 ( Four ) businesses that you named there are currently 5-8 million businesses in the UK, 63% of their owners voted leave and 92% of them do NO trade with the EU
By the way gloating about others lack of business expertise when Andy you have told us you are sacking all 30 of your staff because you can’t manage your business without the EU smacks of you know ….hypocrisy
July 11, 2018
libertarian: “you are sacking all 30 of your staff because you can’t manage your business without the EU ”
When the EU subsidies go away, so do the EU leaches.
July 10, 2018
Their main expertise is in bread.
They know which side it’s buttered on.
July 10, 2018
(i.e. the globalist multinat bosses of Bmw/Landrover/Airbus etc)
July 10, 2018
You quote four out of four hundred thousand companies.
Over 80%》of companies employ less than 50 people.
Over 80% do not sell into Europe
July 10, 2018
No. Quite the reverse. Businessmen are telling elected politicians all about governing.
July 10, 2018
Good morning
She also said, when as Home Secretary, that she would bring down immigration. She never did.
Mr. Redwood MP sir, your leader is seen by many as damaged goods and a person who cannot be trusted. So assurances such as those are going to fall on deaf ears.
We should not be paying them anything ! No one else outside the EU and the Customs Union does. So it seems from that statement that she envisions that the UK will in some form still be tied to the EU. We voted LEAVE not remain under a different name.
It is such a shame that UKIP is such a shambles. An alternative for the UK is what is needed in order to focus MP’s minds.
I fear that the game was to waste as much time as possible so that we would have to accept whatever the EU offered. Which will be far worse than we have now. +600 MP’s can feel satisfied that they have managed to betray the very people they purport to serve.
July 10, 2018
We would do better to stay in than to leave on the basis of the Chequers “agreement”.
July 10, 2018
At least if we stay in, we could trigger Art. 50 again after a Brexit GE with a national government.
July 10, 2018
Every answer she gave to Parliament yesterday was a bare faced lie.
I thought this was not allowed. May Hammond Robbins and Heywood have effectively cancelled Brexot.
The white paper must be voted down.
July 10, 2018
Salvation May be at hand. Farage has said he will apply for the UKIP leadership in March.
Maybe that will be the catalyst that realigns British politics and cleanses the fifth columnists from public life.
July 10, 2018
Re: Salvation May be at hand. Farage has said he will apply for the UKIP leadership in March.
March is far too late.
July 10, 2018
There is also much talk about a second referendum. Surely now if this was a potential and with the public now realising how difficult the EU is being, the numbers of Brexiteers would significantly increase.The dominance of the EU is becoming patently clear.
July 10, 2018
To ignore an existing result and hold another referendum is a classic EU antidemocratic tactic.
July 11, 2018
margaret..what do yo mean about the EU being difficult? we havn’t even put our proposals to them yet? Jeez they are not mind readers
July 10, 2018
MPs have completely misjudged the opinion of the country. I cannot find more than 5% of comments on the internet supporting May. The ones that support May are gleeful remainers. Voters do not read the text in the media they go straight to comments section to find out what all their peers think. All the campaign funds in the world cannot help you now. If you think comments will translate into vote even Surrey seats are no longer safe.
If MPs think they can go against the incredible force of the internet they need to switch to a career in childrens stories. The Conservative Party will be wiped out. And deserve to be.
July 10, 2018
The only surprise is that more leavers did not walk away.
Quite disgusted by Gove’s performance on the Marr show on Sunday, others should be embarrassed by their silence, having shown they have put short term career before Country.
The questions now are:
Will the EU still push for more capitulation after seeing the difficulty May is now in ?
Will Parliament vote down this proposal as it stands ?
Will the Conservative Party come up with a no confidence motion against May ?
Will May resign if this proposal is voted down by Parliament ?
July 10, 2018
Mr Redwood
Let me tell you what I don’t understand. It is that yourself and your colleagues voted for a liberal left Europhile as the Tory leader. You have never once explained that to all your readers why you voted to elect someone who is neither a Tory nor a believer in UK democracy.
With a Eurosceptic as Tory leader committed to taking the UK completely out of the EU, the party would appeal not only to Tory voters but also to traditional Labour voters in the north who to a man are vehemently Eurosceptic.
So pray, why elect May? Internal party politics?
By backing May you are backing Remain and that is something you cannot conceal.
May is despised because she’s not a true Tory but she’s also disingenuous and untrustworthy. She will betray democracy and the UK. If you support her then you’re as devious as she is
Let’s hope Farage does make a comeback because what is now needed is a strong UKIP to break apart the cosy duopoly of British politics
Reply I did not vote for Mrs May
July 11, 2018
May was put in by the two thirds of the party who are Cameroon Remainers. Cameron was heard saying that we would be getting something better, from his point of view at the Davos elite meeting. May put Remainers in the majority in the cabinet and chose an ultra Remainer and admirer of the USSR to undermine Leavers in the Department for Exiting. They were corralled, ignored, deceived and insulted and are now powerless. The Conservative Party HQ has never intended to honour their promises. It is a party of traitors and honest MPs should form an independent honest party ready for the next election. Two thirds of local association members would support them.
July 10, 2018
It is difficult to conceive quite how the government has managed to reduce our once proud and sovereign nation into becoming the laughing stock of the world and the EU in particular.
What a shambles! More like an episode of Montoya Python’s Flyying Circus than effective governance and leadership by so many of our politicians.
July 10, 2018
That’s rather strange!!
You Brexmoaners have been bashing on that we are NOT a sovereign nation.
We ARE indeed a sovereign nation, glad you agree with what I have been saying.
July 11, 2018
B&G, We are not a sovereign nation (see Declaration 17). But we were before 1973.
July 11, 2018
We used to be a sovereign nation but we are not currently.
That is what Martyn said.
And that is correct.
Just one example:-
The EU courts are supreme.
July 10, 2018
Ambrose Evans Pritchard, writing in the DT, who incidentally quotes your ‘pithy advice’ elegantly dissects Theresa Mays facade of adhering to her red lines, taking back control etc.
We would be bound to EU law on the environment, social policy, consumer protection etc and subordinate to the rulings of the ECJ.the facilitated customs agreewould make it all but impossible to strike trade deals etc.
Baker, Johnson, Davis, know this therefore so does the rest of the Cabinet, whose silence is disgraceful, no more than the new Foreign Secretary acting as a lapdog solely to advance his political career.
You obviously understand as indicated in your subtle comments as opposed to Boris’ welcome megaphone and now does everyone who voted leave. Martin Howes dissection is even more widely available and read.
Incidentally re big business please tell Greg Clark that Airbus is effectively a ‘state’ industry relying on massive EU ‘subsidies’ so obviously it has to spout the EU line.
Please advise the PM that when she mechanically spouts her defence, she has obviously learned it by rote, because it is word for word the same every time and in her response to Boris, she is merely highlighting her duplicitous approach, so well explained by Steve Baker.
We now hear that the threat of Corbyn is being used to ‘stifle’ opposition to this sell out and that she will deliberately seek the votes of the Opposition to get her ‘sell out’ through. She might be able to bully (some) of her MPs but not the voters, it is just an extension of Project Fear.
Dr Redwood, can it get any worse. Your PM, contrary to her public statements, red lines, wishes of the 17 million plus etc whilst achieving some of the benefits of leaving, is in effect tieing us as a vassal state, the DT callers it suzerainty.
You must not let it happen.
July 11, 2018
How do you spell Remain? Ans: C h e q u e r s.
July 11, 2018
rubbish and again more rubbish
July 12, 2018
hans
So rude . Unbecoming for a genius economist of your standing
July 11, 2018
Airbus is an arm of the French government. What they advocate is not in our national interest.
July 10, 2018
Theresa May must be even more stupid than I thought she was to think that her abject cave in could ever be acceptable to Brexit supporters or to the country.
In continuing to claim that she is sticking to her red lines she is being totally dishonest. No one will be fooled. She is a huge electoral liability (and not just on Brexit her economic agenda and the ever high taxes & regulations are a huge mistake too) .
Her checkers plan would be a disaster for the country and her party and a total betrayal of her manifesto promises and claims. The Checkers plan is just staying in the EU in all but name.
Gove and Leadsom sound absurd in defending the indefensible. Doubtless Raab will too.
July 10, 2018
No change no chance as John Major proved in spades. T May if anything would bury the party even more than ERM fiasco, 17% mortgage rates, “if it is not hurting it is not working” John Major did.
It took three terms to get back after Major and then only in coalition with the LibDims under Cameron. Who was another fraud. Claiming to be a cast iron, low tax at heart to the electorate, EUskeptic. This when he was clearly the complete opposite.
July 11, 2018
If Raab has any sense he will keep his mind on belatedly preparing for no deal, which Hammond has so far prevented. Mrs May has landed the impossible on him again, as she did when she told him to sort out the housing crisis they have all been ignoring while importing insupportable numbers of people. This bad behaviour on her part is actually a very strong vote of confidence in him: first she keeps him out of the cabinet altogether; and then she brings him in but bars him from the negotiations while calling him the Brexit Secretary and making him responsible. If she first tried to hide him, and now tries to frame him, he must be good.
July 10, 2018
P.S. why should anyone be surprised? Your contributors have been, more or less, forecasting the direction of travel over the kast 18 months.
July 10, 2018
Mrs May’s integrity over our position on leaving the EU is in tatters. She has allowed unelected civil servants to lead behind the back of the Brexit secretary. Some might see it as naivety others as duplicity. Whatever, it has produced a very vulnerable negotiating position, again suggesting amateurism or a hidden agenda. What was produced as a negotiating position was not what she had been saying in all her previous speeches. I would suggest that she takes herself and her civil servants well away from the negotiation having told Dominic Raab that the two options are a trade treaty on goods and services that parallels current arrangements or a reversion to WTO rules. Neither of these require any hard border anywhere, just changes in the information exchanged electronically. If she has in mind another dogs breakfast she must go.
July 10, 2018
Apart from the infantile (puerile is too kind a word) attempts to bully cabinet ministers ahead of the Chequers meeting, it is clear from statements made by Davis and Baker that they were totally by passed by May in the negotiations and the White Paper that is said to be forthcoming. All the suspicions voiced by many here have been revealed to be true. May is attempting a Brino stitch up.
The resignations are welcome and necessary so that the public can now see and understand May’s duplicity. I also welcome Mr Baker’s call that his parliamentary colleagues focus on the policy ball, and not on the woman. Beyond parliament I hope that Johnson and Farage can and will reenergise the constituency that voted for Brexit and, if necessary, make it the key election issue. At the last election I declined to support UKIP against my local Conservative candidate, Mr Grieve. Next time will be different – unless this government gets back to delivering its manifesto commitment and withdraws from its death wish for colony status.
July 10, 2018
Perhaps the biggest single winners out of this viewed in terms of percentage of their GDP are the Irish. S0 I offer a sporting “Well done” to Leo Varadkar for managing to punch about two hundred times above his weight, getting 20% of our economy kept under EU control for the sake of the 0.1% of our GDP which is exported across the land border. If only we had a Prime Minister of a similar calibre and with a similar level of patriotism; but I think we’ll be waiting a long time for that while our political system relies on the present major parties.
July 10, 2018
Agreed Denis, defiantly a dog wagging tail….
Bearing in mind that some 85% of ROI export goods go through the UK with 65% with the UK as a final destination…
July 10, 2018
Leo Varadkar is not punching above his weight he is being used by the EU, Ireland will have to pay dearly for their support.
July 10, 2018
Having said that I do agree we require a Prime Minister of better calibre.
July 11, 2018
Vardakar will be looking for a new job if we get s deal with tariffs on cheddar cheese and meat. (people ed) like Mandi usually become Commissioners. Maybe that’s his plot.
July 11, 2018
Denis Cooper..and all because an earlier UK government allowed a border be made across the country irrespective of the wishes of the vast majority of the people in the country at that time.. what goes around..
July 10, 2018
Soubry stood up to offer her support.
Then Nicky Morgan said she was “delighted”.
Even Ken Clarke was supporting it, so –
it has to be worst of all worlds with those supporters!
July 10, 2018
The BBC has just reported that some Conservative Brexiteers have called upon the PM to revisit “her plans to maintain some trade links with the EU after Brexit”. It is extraordinary such mendacious and misleading broadcasting is permitted on the BBC.
July 10, 2018
As Boris puts it in his letter of resignation:-
Brexit should be about opportunity and hope. It should be a chance to do things differently, to be more nimble and dynamic, and to maximise the particular advantages of the UK as an open, outward-looking global economy. That dream is dying, suffocated by needless self-doubt.
Actually it is being strangled to death by socialist, remainer and totally disingenuous dope, the electoral liability Theresa May.
July 10, 2018
We’ll see what happens in EU negotiations October onwards. One must admit Barnier is much more upfront and immediate in responses than our own government.
So we will know by Christmas whether the Republic of Ireland is forced by circumstance rather than desire in holding an Eirexit Referendum.
But for historical residual emotion, we should understand it, we and Ireland would be better ploughing world trade together, and tossing insults at each other along the way of course., as usual 🙂
July 10, 2018
The resignation of David Davies was principled, the resignation of Boris Johnson was self-serving (or a week late…), one man will be back, the other’s career is finished – even if the PM is also finished.
July 10, 2018
Mr Gove did not surprise!
July 10, 2018
The ball is now in the EU’s court. They can take this proposal and adapt it to subjugate us or they can reject it.
We are now in the kind of weak position EUphiles have always claimed us to be in. It is ironic that EUphiles manoeuvred us into that position.
We can only hope the EU rejects this capitulation but then we may offer even more in order to get a deal. Did we learn nothing from David Cameron’s humiliation when seeking concessions?
Nothing is more important than this political project.
July 10, 2018
The truth is May has betrayed all those who voted Brexit. She is a traitor and a liability and the only reason all those Tory MPs are popping up all over the media to say they don’t want to replace her is because they cherish their own jobs and the prospect of a Corbyn Government is far more important to them than getting rid of this rubbish Prime Minister otherwise they would get those signatures and start a leadership challenge immediately. They need to show some courage and get rid now when hopefully the country will see there is even less chance of a true Brexit with Corbyn at the helm. The alternative is to keep her in place to implement her soft Brexit/Brino for which your party will never be forgiven John and Corbyn will end up being PM anyway.
July 10, 2018
Oliver Robbins, private school, Oxford PPE and straight into the Treasury as a Civil Servant. Is it any wonder he is so misguided? He looks rather old for his years.
July 10, 2018
Theresa May read Geography at Oxford then straight to the bank of England just as bad. Where are the numerates, the engineers, scientists, the rational and the people with an understanding of the real economy & real world in our government?
July 10, 2018
“Where are the numerates, the engineers, scientists, the rational and the people with an understanding of the real economy & real world in our government?”
You are kidding aren’t you?
I think you’ll find they are all working for JLR, Airbus, BMW Mini and the members of the CBI. You know , the ones that Boris was rude to. The ones whose views are dismissed.
July 11, 2018
Steve Baker is one.
July 12, 2018
Dave SW
There are 5.7 million businesses in the UK. 63% of their owners voted to leave.
July 10, 2018
Mr Redwood, please pass this to TM.
Dear Mrs May,
You said ‘Back me or risk a Corbin government’
Absolutely not, you have not only betrayed the trust of over 17 million voters but succeeded in embarrassing the country with the world laughing at us.
If Labour do get in it will be down to your own actions, you will be personally held to blame by those you let down.
Don’t ever ask for my vote again.
July 10, 2018
How was it different when Greive threatened to collapse the Govt! How was it different when the traitors in the party voted with Labour! Soubry called a Greive a Hero! No action by May.
July 10, 2018
“That does mean taking back control of all our laws, borders, money and trade policy. ”
We are all behind you, Mr Redwood, on this. the Eu is a cancer which must be cut out of the body politic.
But when? If we just snip it all off, then we will wreck the economy.
If we do nothing, the cancer will grow until it kills us.
We ned an anaesthetic, we need time. We need a skilled operation. And that is why we need to join Efta while we thrash out the final arrangements. That way, we stay in the EEA until we can leave the EU behind completely and join the world.
Under Efta, actually, we can take back a very great deal of control of our laws (Norway only obeys a quarter of EU directives), we get four standing committees, we are free of the ECJ and under the Efta court instead which is much more nation friendly.
Not perfect, but a good temporary basis to start off with.
July 10, 2018
Now more than ever, those of us who voted to leave the EU rely on you and your fellow Brexit supporting MP’s to ensure that we do actually leave. I greatly prefer a no deal exit to some fudged half in half out “solution” which I regard as the worst of both worlds. We coped perfectly well outside the EEC and most countries in the world are not in the EU and have no special deal with it. There may be problems and costs in leaving without a deal but they are far from insuperable. No deal is better than a bad deal.
July 10, 2018
Ministers have resigned, seemingly on the basis that the Govt is ignoring the referendum. What is shocking for the UK is that Conservative MPs appear to jeer when their colleagues make the democratic point in the HoC, that any MP would take the role previously held by DD – i.e. knowingly accepting a role to ignore the democratic result, that the Opposition does not hold the Govt to account on the electorate’s wishes, that (it appears) the Govt is briefing Labour and LibDems to get support for the semi-Brexit, that the leader of the LibDems – a party that previously backed PR and has large conference votes – wishes to change the referendum result…From the Lord’s down, wherever one looks for democracy, it is missing. The UK can now never claim the high grown, can never standup for democracy in other parts of the world, all the UK can do is fly insulting balloons over London.
(Over 400 constituencies back Brexit, over half the votes back Brexit, the clearest mandate the UK has seen in years, the result is finally clear that the London/euro centric institutions do not care for democracy.)
July 10, 2018
The Chequers Statement became The Chequers Stalematement, whether intended or not.
July 10, 2018
The game’s up, the Establishment have won, the people have lost. Jeremy Hunt as FS, not another Remainer in a key position. I am beginning to think it would have been better had Remain won, this hotch potch from May is another bureaucratic nonsense bolted on to the already bureaucratic nightmare of the EU, where we will be at their mercy without any say whatsoever.
July 10, 2018
No! Say not the struggle nought availeth! It would NOT have been better for the country had Remain won.
The only thing that would have been better though, is that we Brexiteers would have had a bit more self-respect, and respect for democracy, than to continue bleating about the result for two years. I think we’d just have sadly got over it and got on with life under the EU heel.
We’d have said (wouldn’t we?) – ”The people have spoken – the B***ards”.
July 10, 2018
She’s playing word games with the electorate. Even the disinterested and those who pay little attention will note that the absence of “vast payments” doesn’t rule out any specific figure.
July 10, 2018
Yes.
It’s similar to Cameron, on receipt of yet another demand for Danegeld from the EU, said “he would not pay that money in December.”
Osborne slipped it through quietly 6 months later, just after the General Election
July 10, 2018
Membership of the EU’s SM and CU is no defence against the corporates closing their factories in the UK, in fact quite the reverse as they feel they can build their new factories anywhere in the EU and still trade freely with their UK customers.
History shows this.
The fact that we should be trading with the EU on WTO trade terms is proved by the fact that we have a trading deficit of £80bn/year with the EU but a trading surplus with the RoW.
July 10, 2018
So the Government’s message will become “drawing red lines good, crossing red lines better”.
July 10, 2018
Given the content of the white paper, or that which we’ve seen, surely PMTM has mislead parliament on several occasions?
July 10, 2018
It is incorrect that membership of the EU’s CU enables the UK to benefit from the EU’s size when making trading deals.
This is because the EU is representing many different countries each with their own interests.
So, firstly it will be very difficult and time consuming for the EU to strike a deal and secondly there is absolutely no guarantee that any trade deal will actually benefit the UK, and could even be detrimental to our interests.
July 10, 2018
Which will also mean that any deal that the EU strike after Brexit might not necessarily be in the interest of the UK.
July 12, 2018
Tabulazero
Anyone who has ever run a successful business will tell you that any contract, negotiation, sale, partnership or agreement that only favours one side is a scam.
Reciprocal benefit is the aim of all such deals
July 10, 2018
I feel embarrassed not to have been surprised by any of this and expected it ever since hearing our PM utter DSP/Deep & Special Partnership. It’s time to accept defeat and understand things are going to get worse still as fewer Brexiters vote in future general elections and the common rule book is gradually expanded by future governments through Statutory Instruments. Spending all day on Mr Redwoods site agonising over it does no good and I recommend work or a time consuming hobby such as golf or water colouring as we finally lose our democ racy for good
July 10, 2018
The bigger problem than the cabinet, and parliament is the electorate who can see straight through the may BS
July 10, 2018
And still no sign of courage, leadership, ambition or direction from a Conservative Party that has been selling out its principles for 30 years in the cause of socialism lite and management by bureaucrat
This whole debacle shows that we dont have a single politician in any party that has the ability to inspire & lead the country . It is the final nail in the coffin of our so called parliamentary democracy . We need iDemocracy and we need it soon
July 11, 2018
you mean your enlightened dictatorship?
July 12, 2018
hans
Oh dear, old boy , very rude today. I know you arent very good at facts, but if I was putting myself forward ( I would never run as a politician, I’m an entrepreneur, disrupter, innovator and creator of new businesses , not a bureaucrat or middle manager) I would have said so, what I said is we need iDemocracy, as you dont know what that is i’ll explain. Its the total opposite of dictatorship. Its government directly by the people from the bottom up, not the top down.
For someone who sets themselves up as a Non Exec, Consultant and mentor you are strangely lacking in so many areas , you strike me as one of those consultant types who had a good idea back in around 1982 and has lived off the back of it ever since. You certainly dont have any experience of the new paradigm, technology, global digital landscape and you have a frightening lack of research skills
However I’m sure you’re a really nice man. Much love x
July 10, 2018
Do you know what? I am sick and tired of hearing what big business wants. It’s about time the PM and her Remain cronies listen to us, the plebs. We care about our country; big business only cares about profit.
July 10, 2018
Exactly and don’t foget about the bankers Christine.
Here’s what will happen party will fold and won’t leave. 17 million will be looking to move somehwere else politically.
Big business and the banking class know this and will fund UKIP or whoever it is heavily and thier lobbyists will capture the populists also.
Rinse and repeat, rinse snd repeat, rinse and repeat for the last 300 years.
July 12, 2018
Christine
You are absolutely right.
The politicians spend all their time talking to a handful of multinationals. This government has been at war with SME’s and the self employed
Small businesses accounted for 99.3% of all private sector businesses at the start of 2017 and 99.9% were small or medium-sized (SMEs).
Total employment in SMEs was 16.1 million; 60% of all private sector employment in the UK. Plus a further 4.8 million self employed
The combined annual turnover of SMEs was £1.9 trillion, 51% of all private sector turnover in the UK.
In a recent survey 94% of SME’s said that the Government never listens to them
July 10, 2018
Lets be honest, David Davis was a disaster. He said during the campaign that he expected most new free trade deals to be wrapped up within 12-24 months. Delusional? Liam Fox said this was meant to be easy? Why did their arguments not sway others? Why did Boris not carry the day if he had such a strong vision? In fact, lets go back. Why did he not stand for PM when he had the choice? Was he scared? Did he worry it would be hard?
This is just rats leaving the sinking ship I’m afraid. The EU has many, many things to dislike about it but those who campaigned for it have been useless in government, when they said it was going to be easy and we held all the cards. What happened to that?
Say what you like about May, and I think on many things she is absolutely useless but she stood up and she has proved staying power.
July 11, 2018
She knew she had a majority of the PCP behind her and Boris knew he hadn’t. That is more to his credit than hers.
July 12, 2018
When can their glory fade?
The wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Br’xit Brigade,
Noble few hundred!
July 10, 2018
It is indeed mystifying why so many in UK business are apparently terrified of a no-deal Brexit.
It is as though they are unable to perceive any tangible benefits to their companies from exiting the single-market and customs union.
Quite baffling really.
July 10, 2018
@Matthew MacKenzie
PLC directors first duty to comply with law, secondly, be answerable to shareholders.
Perhaps they need to be seen to attack anything that could possibly impact profits, or run the risk of lawsuits.
Unless it is obvious that Brexit is immediately benign for their business, they don’t really have to worry about the counter-factual, do they.
July 10, 2018
Matthew MacKenzie
Hmm well there are 5.8 million businesses in the UK, 63% of their owners voted to leave the EU and 92% of those businesses do no trade what so ever with the EU…
So no, its not baffling
July 10, 2018
The resignations were on principle, and rightly so. The Prime Minister has, on many, many occasions stated categorically that we would be out of the SM & CU, free of the jurisdiction of the ECJ, have control of our borders, laws, money, fishing and agriculture.
The red lines have been so comprehensively crossed that some without generosity may imply that all these statements were in fact deliberate lies, told to dupe the public and fellow MP’s.
With no satisfaction, I see that, as I predicted as long ago as last year, the spin is now in full swing from the Cabinet to sell this very bad deal. The Prime Minister cannot seriously believe that the threat of Corbyn will get the electorate behind her.
July 10, 2018
She assured us that freedom of movement……
However, the small print of the Chequers statement implies her officials do think we need to make concessions that rub out these important red lines. It is these apparent contradictions between the principles and the detail that has caused all the trouble
Apparent contradictions? Is that what they are? Contradictions or deceits?
Does Mr Redwood think May does not understand the small print, and thus believes she is being misled by her officials? If she does not understand, should she be in post? Does she not understand when the ‘contradictions’ are pointed out?
Or does she understand perfectly well and is up to her usual duplicitous behaviours?
Mr Redwood being wholly and obsessively loyal to his leader, implies she is completely innocent of these ‘contradictions’, and rather than risk being accused of disloyalty aims, in a cowardly fashion, at her ‘officials’ instead. Yet May personally defends the policy document, again and again, the whole of the document, not just parts of it. She says it is the right policy for all of us.
Given Mr Redwood’s pathological fear of plain speaking and of making mistakes, I imagine he must be appalled and horrified at the views expressed by Mr Johnson. At least Boris is not afraid to display his humanity, and express what millions know in their hearts, and which they have wanted to hear someone say. At last it has happened and I look forward to more.
July 10, 2018
I have no sympathy for the PM as she is clearly not going to deliver the Brexit she promised but perhaps our host could enlighten us :
Was there ever a time when Parliament would, packed as it is with pro-EU Remainers, have voted through a proper Brexit leaving us fully independent and outside both the SM and CU ?
I somehow doubt it.
Could this be why Gove chose to stay in post and actually supported May’s proposal ?
Given the disrespect shown to voters by Remainer MPs and the Lords, is May’s current proposal the only form of Brexit a majority in Parliament will support ?
Either she is being a realist or she has been half-hearted and weak with the result she had let 17m voters down
July 11, 2018
I think if by any chance Boris had gained a majority from the PCP, then from the membership, and got straight on with Brexit, with JR as his Chancellor and with maybe some Labour MPs in as well – Kate Hoey for example, and Gisela Stuart – he might have carried the House with him. By sheer strength of character he can carry people with him in a way she never could. Her mistake was to give the Remainiacs time to organize, just as she gave the Corbynistas time to organize in her “snap” election. And of course she allowed the EU to control every aspect of the capitulation. Boris would not have done that.
July 10, 2018
Freedom of movement will end could mean anything.
We will have our own migration policy ditto.
We will not pay LARGE SUMS INTO THE EU so “sums” are going to be paid
And we will BE ABLE to sign our own trade deals kind of them to allow it
Where can the people who voted for freedom resign from
July 10, 2018
Reassuring sentiments, but unless Conservative Eurosceptics are prepared to bring the May government down they will have as much success in negotiating changes to Government Policy as the Government has had negotiating with the EU while signalling that it isn’t prepared to leave the EU without a deal. Effectively none.
It is said that the Eurosceptics have been intimidated by the threat of a Corbyn Government. Let us be clear, if we have the kind of non-Brexit now envisaged we will get a Corbyn Government anyway, so that threat can safely be ignored. If a Corbyn Government does come about the responsibility will lie squarely with the Remainers who are seeking with evident success to sabotage the decision of the electorate.
July 10, 2018
It’s good enough for you all- and as far as Boris goes- live by the sword etc, etc, and so
with Boris and DD on the outside and Gove and Fox on the inside..outmanouvred..Mrs May has played her cards very well..and with the white paper agreed at chequers by the cabinet and already signed off it will be published and delivered to the EU on Thursday..so on to the next phase
July 10, 2018
How many members do the Conservative party have now ?
It was 148k at the start of 2018 ?
I would have thought the remainer tories would be worried about their jobs since the base is crumbling ?
It all feels like we never had the referendum and Cameron is going over there to negotiate all over again. De ja vu.
Even if the EU accept this soft Brexit I honestly believe the Conservative party are in for a massive shock at the next election.
Tory HQ must have the numbers of how many members have left the party over the weekend ? I can see it being down to 50K if that.
Brexiteers should be publishing how many members have left the party.
July 10, 2018
Dear Mr. Redwood,
You sum up the feelings of many of us very well. We are seeking assurances that what the government implements is what the people voted for. It looks as though it will not be and this is the Prime Minister’s fault. She repeats ad nauseum that we are taking back control of our laws, borders and money and then proceeds along another direction.
The Prime Minister is completely untrustworthy. She has ignored the referendum result in true Euro-fashion. It looks very much like that she has colluded and connived with the EU in order to achieve her Brexit in name only. Her visit to Germany to show Mrs. Merkel the Chequers Plan before even presenting it to her own Cabinet is a prime example.
Voters have been sidelined. Our opinion cast aside. It is a dreadful state of affairs. We now look to backbench individuals such as yourself and others to pressurise the government into abandoning its course of keeping the UK tied forever to the EU – a mere satellite state, a supplicant, a colony.
Voters will take their revenge at the first opportunity. I’m sure many Brexit-backing conservatives understand this. Perhaps, the PM does but doesn’t care.
I would like to urge all your readers to read John Longworths’s article dated 9th July on the Brexit Central website. It’s very good reading.
July 10, 2018
Gove must be the biggest backstabber going. He betrayed Boris and now we find he is backing Mrs Mays anti Brexit policy. He must be after climbing his own career ladder. Please God if there is a leadership contest, don’t let him win. He would be a disaster. If he thinks this bad deal for the UK is fine then he is obviously the wrong man for the job.
July 10, 2018
The resignation of Boris Johnson has been received with great relief at the Foreign Office and some of us can understand that very well
July 10, 2018
Boris was the best thing about the Foreign Office. The Office for Foreigners as someone used to call them.
July 10, 2018
Gosh hans you are well connected.
You know everyone in our Foreign Office.
They like a tame minister.
July 10, 2018
hans
Any evidence for that? No thought not. Brexit Derangement Syndrome has totally destroyed your credibility and thats a real shame
July 11, 2018
Your credibility was lost way before then due to your lack of credible information and your lack of manners on top
July 12, 2018
hans
Bless you, and still not a fact in sight. You casually malign someone you dont know, put words into the mouths of 14,000 members of staff at FCO then you claim others lack credible information and are bad mannered…. Have you read some of your own tweets ? smh
Heres a thing hans. If you were able to debate using facts, evidence and links that would be wonderful, but your contribution is always your opinion followed by telling everyone else off for their tone in their posts. You are the embodiment of someone who has badly lost an argument
July 10, 2018
The disapproval of the FCO is not quite the shocking condemnation it might appear to be to those less familiar with our organs of government, Hans… :-))
July 10, 2018
The net effect of this fake Brexit is that the tories will receive less votes and seats than they did at the last election. That the pm is prepared to risk this in order to stay in the eu shows how committed she is to the eu. She is willing to destroy her party to achieve it. Astonishing.
At least DD, BJ and the others have managed to disassociate themselves from it.
July 10, 2018
The die is cast. Theresa May counted before launching her “evolution” and will press on. There will be some bluster and fuss…but pretend-Brexit it will be. Grieve, Soubry et al have won the day. The EU will “soften” this charade even further, without resistance. It is a bad deal, and we will receive very little for handing over billions…
July 10, 2018
May and her grubby Remain, liberal left clique that have infected all aspects of British life and indeed the Tory party will drive this deal through and in the process weaken British democracy
We need all Tory MPs to undermine and eventually destroy politically this cretinous PM whose mendacity and viciousness is deeply anti-British
The UK and its democratic culture is under establishment attack and if it’s not stopped we will become little more than a vassal state of the German-EU empire
July 10, 2018
”….. to achieve an economic and cultural hegemony over Central Europe by the German Empire and subsequent economic and financial exploitation….”
Mitteleuropa, wouldn’t you say?
July 10, 2018
If the end agreement is what is proposed I would be happy but, as you say, the concern is this will be watered down, particularly on FoM.
July 10, 2018
I hope Boris enjoyed his ministerial career..and knowing that he is such a principled individual just wonder why he didn’t resign in Chequers on Friday..but I suppose he isn’t that principled after all.
You have to hand it to Mrs May however..she played her cards very well..and now it seems she can call on the support of the Labour party if needed it seems..on top of that the EU have thrown her a lifebelt from the vice president of the EU parliament last evening on Newsnight..all she needs to do now is publish the white paper and pass it to Brussels..they will do whats necessary to help her survive..interesting times
July 10, 2018
The big business seers, pro-European political class and their mouthpieces in academia and the anti-British press and media have been proved wrong again and again and again. They assured us that we needed to join the ERM. They were wrong. They told us we must join the Euro or the sky would fall down on our heads. They were wrong. They were wrong when they pressed successive British governments to join the then-EEC. They misled the British people during the 1975 referendum, arguing that the EEC was merely a trading bloc.
They tried to pull the wool over the eyes of the public again in 2016. This time it didn’t work, and we can now see what happens when the public defy the elite and their “experts”. These are the type of people who tell us we need mass immigration, “because all the experts say so and the NHS will collapse without immigrants.” They were and are wrong. We have a more than sufficient population in this country for our needs, and labour and wage reforms can address any problems for employers that may result from a closed border.
These same people tell us we need to tackle anthropomorphic climate change, but the science does not support their enthusiastic agenda. They are wrong on that too.
They are wrong about everything.
July 10, 2018
Chuka Umunna Labour MP, suggests on Sky News we should have yet another referendum on the trade deal. So yes, as he thinks MPs work in Parliament and Cabinet is useless then he and his comrades should resign as MPs. They can put in say 5 hours part-time work every referendum as Counting Officers. Except for Diane Abbott of course
July 10, 2018
You state “officials do think we need to make concessions that rub out these important red lines”
This is the underlying problem with government. Vague wording ALWAYS creates loopholes and costs further down the line. Giving good news with one hand and grabbing it back with the other. Why can’t government make a clear statement and just stick to it?
July 10, 2018
All in all it demonstrates that Mrs May is not in charge at Number 10. She is being mentored by her SPADs and Mandarins. Sir Humphrey is back in control again and democracy is out of the window.
July 10, 2018
“We are told a few large companies think a failure to negotiate some customs deal will be damaging to them. It is difficult to see why”
Who should we trust on this one ? Thomas Enders who runs Airbus and Ralf Speth who runs Jaguar Land Rover or John Redwood who runs an investment column in the FT ?
I wonder….
Reply Who was right about the Exchange Rate Mechanism and the Euro? The CBI or me?
July 10, 2018
May isn’t going to go…she needs to be pushed.
July 10, 2018
There appears to be much double speak from the top of our government.
It appears that the will of the government is to use caveats and weasel words to undermine the will of the people and to render the ballot box meaningless.
That there has not been a widespread condemnation and call for a new leader by conservative MPs suggests the problem extends far and wide.
Action is needed.
The only peaceable solution I can see is for local party associations to ignore central office and deselect those MPs who do not support a clean Brexit and have in place known Brexit candidates for the election whenever it comes. And for new candidates to promise that any agreement Mrs May signs with the EU will be new party policy to overturn it.
July 10, 2018
Just as in an episode of Dad’s Army, Boris, like the German officer, will be ‘taking names’ so if he does come to office as PM there will be a wholesale clear out to the back benches and about time too.
July 10, 2018
With the top four posts in Government now filled with “remainers” there is Zero chance of those who voted leave getting what they thought they were voting for. Obviously there will be no attempt to oust Mrs May as that would crystallise the split in the party. It looks like we shall all have to make the best of a bad job and it will cause many to decline to vote Tory at the next General Election.
July 10, 2018
Surely I’m not the only one sick to the back teeth of sky and bbc total pro Eu coverage with mostly interviews with pro Eu loving muppets and same old rhetoric about a people’s vote on the deal or another referendum and the we did a survey and the majority want one, well we don’t because we don’t trust it would be a fair vote and if by chance the remoaners won we would have another to make it best of three, why don’t the bbc and sky get there crews out of there London base and do the rest of the year reporting from north of the Watford gap and get a true feeling of what the British people think of the Eu, but they’ll not do that because they have a endless flow of remoaner muppets to pick from under the London bubble
July 10, 2018
The only hope now is that the EU reject the “Third Way” plan, we offer no further flexibility to the already generous concessions offered on our part, leading to a “no deal”.
Theresa May should be hung out to dry over the way she has lied and hoodwinked the Brexit majority. Side-lining Johnson and Davis in negotiations is unforgivable. We thought that we would be getting a deal that would be good for Britain. All she has offered is a watered down mess that is not a lot different to the status quo.
The Brexit supporting public won’t forget this betrayal, come election time.
Unless Theresa May is ousted and true Brexit PM is installed, expect a Labour Government by 2022 – as many Conservatives (including myself) will be abstaining, or voting elsewhere until this happens.
As for Anna Soubry, Broxtowe Conservatives need to act in the national interest and remove support for this obnoxious troublemaker.
July 10, 2018
I think the PM is selling partial control not FULL control
Without FULL control there is no REAL Sovereignty or Democracy
We need her to be much tougher, the detail is very worrying
July 10, 2018
The details that will be inserted at the very last moment, on 28 March 2019, will include:
1. Draconian, lasting, Versailles-type penalties for any UK divergence from or cancellation of the agreement.
2. A ‘flexible mobility preference condition’ that will be exactly the same as ‘free movement’ – i.e. unlimited immigration with no UK powers to stem it, except with draconian penalties (see 1.)
3. ECJ supremacy.
4. Annual payments of ca. 20 billion, index-linked.
July 10, 2018
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-5936159/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-Forget-David-Davis-Boris-Johnson-Mother-Theresa-quit.html
Brexit clearly means sweet FA to Theresa May.
She is not only trying to polish a turd she is now ramming it into the majority of voters faces. The only question is how this dreadful, daft, socialist woman can be replaced without having to suffer the appalling economic destruction that would be Corbyn/SNP. A Venezuela economy in no time at all & even much sunshine.
July 10, 2018
Dear Mr. Redwood,
At the 1922 Committee the Prime Minister, wrapping herself in the Tory Party flag, appealed for unity or risk a Corbyn government.
Patriotism – the last refuge of a scoundrel.
July 10, 2018
And they fell for it. They would rather sell their country out than risk a general election
July 10, 2018
I fully agree with you Mr. Redwood, but the question is what can be done about it if the Conservatives don’t trigger a leadership contest. It is doubtful that T. May will back down regarding her plan, and it is foreseeable now that she will make further concessions to the EU if she remains.
July 10, 2018
The Prime Minister is pushing her bullet point plan to the electorate but as we all know those things are replaced by rules which are almost the same, not least with the Mobility Framework replacing Freedom of Movement.
I truly hope she is toppled in favour of someone with more optimism and vision for Brexit than Remainer Mrs May.
July 10, 2018
To be brief: The ERG had better show some backbone…
July 10, 2018
The big problem is that the entire process of leaving the EU is in the hands of people who didn’t want to leave in the first place (i.e. government and the civil service). The PM has been spinning plates trying to keep her government from falling apart, always with an eye for the political situation rather than concentrating on the process of getting us out. The plates are starting to crash to the ground, and I wonder what leeway she has given herself when the EU puts a great big 2 fingers up to her ‘deal’? Personally, I would have preferred to see the EFTA/EEA route for the transitionary period, but she effectively ruled that out, proving that she and her colleagues haven’t a clue how the EU works. I think she has made a massive mistake, but the entire political class comes out of this so badly. They just don’t care about democracy.
July 10, 2018
I’ve just seen Chuka Umunna advancing the same longstanding fundamental fallacy as Theresa May has been advancing recently, namely that as some UK companies want to export to the EU all UK companies must obey EU requirements.
OK, so Theresa May has now slimmed it down to all UK companies producing goods must conform to the EU rulebook on goods – she should stop pretending that the “common” rule book will be anything other than the EU rulebook – but the principle is exactly the same, whether or not you want to export to the EU you will obey EU law.
So what happens when (say) the US follows suit and demands compliance with US legal requirements by all companies in the UK, not just by those who wish to export to the US, and it is found that the US requirements conflict with the EU requirements?
July 10, 2018
The outcome of the Brexit policy will simply be to deny ourselves any competitive advantage with the EU.
I voted to ‘take back control ‘ – at least that is what is written on my 2YO Leave poster .
What a sell out !
July 10, 2018
Typically, May can’t see consequences or plan for the future. If the Tory Party does not replace her before the next election then it will become the New Lib Dems. Many older Tories will refuse to vote for a lying Socialist traitor. Younger voters who, unbelievably, still see Corbyn as a man of integrity, will have their anti-Tory prejudices reinforced and vote Labour.
If May does not go, and she won’t, then we will have a Labour Government. Should they implement their alleged manifesto – and they are in the strange position of supporting a Brexit which keeps them in the Customs Union which means their flagship policy of nationalisations will be illegal – then the UK will, in a few short years, become Holland without the drugs.
No bailouts from the EU, as they would delight in seeing a former member brought to ruin. All the blame will be heaped upon the Tories for their inept Brexit. Socialists have had a hundred years of practice at blaming others and it is one of their few strengths.
Civil unrest, another thing the Left are rather good at, and the arrest of Tory MPs past and present is not out of the question.
Good luck, Mrs May.
July 10, 2018
It is being reported this lunchtime that the former Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington, has sadly passed away aged 99.
It will be remembered that at the time of the Falklands crisis that precipitated hostilities between the United Kingdom and Argentina, Peter Carrington resigned as a government minister as a matter of honour.
I wonder how that altruistic if not heroic act sits with the present Prime Minister. Perhaps it shows how much things have changed in the past thirty-six years, save for some very recent high-profile resignations on matters of high principle. I also recall Mrs Thatcher saying if the UK did not take action to protect British sovereign territory, our word would no longer be good for anything elsewhere. The ensuing campaign showed we would indeed be prepared to fight to protect our own. Thus, this nation’s integrity was preserved, and the nation rallied behind a strong leader.
Compare that with the deplorable practises now at play that seek to deny the British people by sleight of hand something they voted for in good faith, and expected to be delivered with equal good faith. And then we see the massive damage these underhanded so-called politicians do to the entire political process, and to the confidence the public has in those who try any and every trick in the book to wriggle out of their responsibilities.
Yet integrity no longer seems to matter to those greasy politicians who pander to vested interests – especially where those vested interests apply to the promotion a foreign undemocratic political construct which they place above our own.
Sickening!
Tad Davison
Cambridge
July 10, 2018
Right, waited long enough. May has not been booted out. I won’t be voting tory ever again.
July 10, 2018
No mention of the 1922 committee meeting! Just how long does it take to get 48 letters sent in? Or aren’t there 48 MP’s that are furious enough? On their head be it at the next election. I’d be interested to know where you stand on this John. You surely can’t still be supporting Mrs May? I see Farage is beginning to make noises about coming back when Gerard Batten stands down early next year from temporary leader. UKIP would be foolish not to welcome Nigel back with open arms. Then we might see history being made!
July 10, 2018
Isn’t the statement TM gave in the commons which implied everything that Brexit should be but belied by the details of the Chequers Statement a case of misleading Parliament?
What is the penalty for that?
July 10, 2018
I blame all the political turmoil on the high court of London, the judges of the high court of London broke a PRIVATE CONTRACT between the people of the UK and their government, witnessed by the judges themselves who were also involved in the contract made to them as well by the government in writing to them to their home address, in the media by way of newspapers and radio/ tv of seen and sound of a sworn statement by the government itself, the QUEEN and her family, the leader of the government Mr Cameron, all government ministers and government civil servants.
I have never heard of a PRIVATE CONTRACT between two parties being able to be broken before, whether it is the word of mouth or otherwise and witnessed by an independent person or persons.
The judges have the effect to start bringing down the rule law and democracy and destroying the two main parties in parliament along with the government and could well end up leading the people turning violence or not voting anymore, it quite clear that the government and parliament unable to resolve the situation the high court judges of London have put them and something need to be done to restore the contract between the people and the government before it to late for all concerned.
July 10, 2018
The Conservative Party could be seen largely backing the devious leader yesterday and heckling the one third of MPs who would uphold the manifesto and referendum promises. How they can stand being in the same party is difficult to understand. Some of the female MPs even believe that people can change their gender just by saying so and want to make it illegal to say this is untrue.
Why don’t the one third of MPs form a real Conservative Party and offer to support the Europhiles and loonies along with the Ulster Democrats. Then the local Conservative branches could transfer the two thirds of actual conservatives to the Real Conservatives and have someone that conservatives could vote for. They might even have a majority providing the teachers have not managed to brainwash the under 40s to vote Marxist.
corrected
July 10, 2018
It is not surprising we are in a mess over Brexit when the Conservative Party elected a Remain Prime Minster. Given that the main aim for Brexit was for the UK government to get back political control of the country in terms of immigration control, law making, control of contributions to the EU and free trade.
In regard to the every day interaction with Europe most Brexit supporters would want to continue as before. As this is managed by technology rather than politics it seems not to be a problem. No one is suggesting we turn our back on Europe in regard to security, common standards, defence, science, which will involve some cost. It’s just the politics of the EU we voted against. We did not vote against European co-operation
July 10, 2018
It’s now fairly clear that Mrs May – of whom initiallyy I had such high hopes – does not intend to honour the clear wish of the majority of Bristish voters in the Brexit poll – which is to be entirely free of Europe. Quite why she has adopted this suicidal policy is unknown. She appeared to understand the will of the people when she said ‘Brexit means Brexit’ but has since obfuscated and delayed until most of us are sick and tired of it. If she can’t deliver then I fear she must be challenged for the leadership of the Conservative Party. I do not see that this will mean a Labour Government – merely a change of leadership for someone who can fulfil the democratic demand. I strongly suspect there is a Sir Humprey at work at the back of all this.
July 10, 2018
The country did not vote for the kind of Brexit that you want Mr.Redwood.
This mess was caused by the Conservative party, that , as usual , only thinks of itself and not the UK.
Near enough 50 per cent of the voters did not wish to leave the EU, and our views have to be taken into account, which is what Mrs.May has acknowledged. There has to be a balance and give and take for both sides.
The only winner out of all this is Vladamir Putin, and the Right wingers appear to have more in common with him in his ambition to break up the wealth, peace and stability that the bloc has brought to Europe.
Isolationists like Mr.Redwood and Donald Trump will cost normal citizens of the UK and USA a lot financially, while they carry on with their bizarre ideology.
July 11, 2018
Cut n pasted from previous posts of yours.
Try to write some new.
July 11, 2018
And no-one took my views into account in 1997 or the next two elections. Far fewer voted for Blair/Brown than voted for Brexit.
July 10, 2018
You must know a lot more about this and no doubt that will transpire during the weeks to come. Of course this is another problem for British democracy. Anyone who thought they were in the process of agreeing to something with the UK through the elected official of the day will now have to think again. In a normal political environment counterparties can expect to bedoing business with the government when dealing with the political head of foreign affairs. In the UK, Mr Johnson’s successor might well be inclined to go in an entirely different direction. This without an election or government change via other means. Does anyone believe the EU will take the UK more seriously now? Does anyone believe the EU will make any kind of concession relative to the know positions? THis is precisely what EU officials have been warning EU member states politicians against. Any interaction with the UK government is a waste of time, unless it is meant as such.
July 11, 2018
Most of us never wanted to do a deal with the EU. You don’t negotiate with gangsters.
July 10, 2018
Excellent. So No Deal is the best deal. Go on, say it.
And let’s have an end to this pretence that the European Commission and the Republic of Ireland, enemies of an independent UK in spirit, will offer us a good deal this side of the river Styx.
July 10, 2018
‘It is difficult to see how this is compatible with a deal that ties our hands on goods and agricultural business and trade. Nor does the detailed language rule out some payments, some role for the European Court and some side deal to allow more migration.’
That is because it is not compatible with the red lines, total sovereignty including control of our fishing rights, no payments, no freedom of movement which by default means outside of the the cu and sm free 0f ECJ. Anything less is not leaving the EU if they want a FTA I am sure we would be prepared to agree to one.
July 10, 2018
Here in England cornishstu we will never have control of our fishing rights or agricultural policy in or out of the EU. Whilst May has promised the Scots, Welsh & NI full control in these areas, as usual the UK Parliament consisting of MPs from across the whole UK will control England’s. So we will have the Scots, Welsh & NI Parliament/Assemblies doing what’s best for them and then Scots, Welsh & NI MPs at Westminster deciding what’s best for them also. As usual England will get a raw deal from this anti-English Government.
July 10, 2018
We now have a Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and Business Secretary, all of whom supported the losing side in the Referendum.
They lead a ‘Tory’ Government most of whose Party Members and voters supported Leave and are opposed to this ‘deal’, and a country which voted Leave without any conditi0n that there would be any ‘deal’ at all.
Compromises have to be made, and if this was the end of it some of us would (very) reluctantly swallow it.
But this is not the end of it. The Government has shown itself to be so weak in these negotiations that the EU will demand whatever they want and the Government will concede it. But even then there’s no guarantee that the EU Parliament will vote for it and all the EU countries will agree it.
If the final ‘deal’ is any worse than one that has now been offered Eurosceptic Backbenchers should vote against and Leave it to May to go begging to Labour for support to put it through.
Then after we’ve left challenge her leadership.
Why should the winners of a Referendum be be given no say in what follows, whilst the losers call all the shots?
The best thing for all concerned would be for all the Leave supporters to leave the Government and be ready to challenge for the future untainted by the inevitable disaster which is now to come.
The only possible silver lining in all this is that May is playing a long game and will be willing to walk away from the negotiations at some point. These concessions do at least show that the UK has done everything possible that it can to reach a deal.
If so, that’s still a misguided tactic. When the time comes Remainers will still blame her for intransigence. And if that happens serves her right.
July 10, 2018
Your quite right John it won’t change business at all it’s just a few large companies who don’t want the trouble of a few changes.
You and your fellow mps need to sort his before it get totally out of hand
It could finish your party
July 10, 2018
It is finishing more than the conservative party.
July 10, 2018
Alan Tranter
It could finish your party
It already has for a hell of a lot of dependable Tory voters.
July 10, 2018
Alan, it is my belief that the elite businesses who have connections in Brussels are also contributors to the Tory coffers. They are part of the Establishment who care not for the British taxpayer nor for the country of the United Kingdom. Hammond is their puppet.
July 10, 2018
May has lied, deceived and behaved in a thoroughly disgusting and disrespectful manner to her own cabinet and party, whilst conspiring with civil servants to subvert democracy. This is no exaggeration. It is breathtaking.
As many are beginning to point out, this is now much bigger than Brexit and could end very badly.
July 10, 2018
Free movement is a wonderful thing. One million Britons include Brexit hypocrite Lord Lawson have used it to work, study and retire across the EEA.
Pensioners – many of whom have enjoyed this right themselves – have stolen it from their children. The worst kinds of Little Englanders.
We all know, as well, that it is largely not white, Christian migrants from the EU that they objected to anyway.
Brexit is dead. Whatever mess it is that your vile, irrelevant party delivers us next year we will pretty swiftly undo it. And those responsible will be held to account.
July 10, 2018
Andy,
To know nothing of what happened before you were born, is to remain a child.
Cicero
July 10, 2018
We oldies moved worked and lived in Europe before you or the EU were even born.
Your descent to smears of racism against 17.4 million voters is a new low for you Andy.
July 10, 2018
Not many old EU living/loving retirees voted Leave.
July 10, 2018
Andy
Stop being such an idiot. You make yourself look stupid
I’ve lived an worked in the USA, Holland and Switzerland without free movement of people or the EU’s help
Your 3rd paragraph is laughable.
Grow up
July 11, 2018
Libertarian,
In spite of your international experience you do not seem to have learned a lot, but I suppose you can try again
July 12, 2018
hans
You are obsessed with me, why would that be? I think I know.
Feelings of inadequacy hans…. maybe time to retire?
July 10, 2018
In spite of the extraordinary hash Mrs May is making your man Corbyn remains behind in the polls. You have no chance once we get a decent leader. Lawson is not a hypocrite – you don’t have to believe in supranational Govt to own a house in France. There are more U.K. citizens living in Australia than in the EU, despite there being no common Govt nor prosposal for one.
July 10, 2018
‘We will pretty swiftly undo it”
Do you have any power in parliament, then, Andy? None of the rest of us do, so please tell us how you will achieve this.
July 10, 2018
Your ‘vile’ EU will certainly become ‘irrelevant’ Andy, probably sooner than you think. What a sad person you are not to speak up for your country, to be optimistic and positive about its future. Insulting those who want the best for it, calling them xenophobic, shows you have sunk to a new low.
My children will thank me for helping them to the opportunities that independence from this execrable ‘organisation’ will bring. Your children may well consider you a political embarrassment in retrospect.
July 10, 2018
John – Can you briefly outline why you want the Chequers agreement changed but you are also supporting May continuing as PM ? It is clear May will not change the agreement (other than to concede even more to the EU) so why support her personally ? Waiting till the last minute and voting against the agreement is unlikely to lead to exiting without a deal but rather a Commons vote to revoke or delay A50.
July 10, 2018
Absolutely agree .
She must go ,or at the very least be challenged ,or we leave her there to wreak further havoc .
July 10, 2018
I think I can answer that one for you. Mr Redwood is desperate for some Brexit good news to give to his followers, knowing full well that there isn’t any. And if there is a leadership challenge, the resulting disruption to the EU talks will increase calls for a second referendum.
July 10, 2018
It is possible that ERG have a plan?
July 10, 2018
The Prime Minister is trying to dupe the electorate. As long as she is PM I will never vote Tory again.
July 10, 2018
Several points come to mind, I think.
First, Mrs May does not believe in Brexit, hence her sidelining of David Davis and the ‘Department for Exiting the EU’. Having just looked at Steve Baker being interviewed on yesterday’s Daily Politics programme, it is clear to me that Mrs May was never serious about the White Paper that Davis and co. had been working on for the last seven weeks. Baker’s assessment of what happened and why is a devastating indictment of Mrs May’s leadership style, as well as severe criticism of her failure to carry out her undertaking to deliver the kind of Brexit outlined in her Lancaster Hse speech and in the Conservative Party manifesto at the last General Election. If you have not seen Baker’s interview it is well worth watching; still available on the BBC i-player. He explains things well and his comments – mainly because of the considered way in which he makes them – are even more damaging to Mrs May than those made by Johnson or Davis.
Second, the worry now must be about the intended or supposed departure date, in March of next year. I think the Remainers will now focus all of their efforts on getting that date put back, for as long as possible. Their hope – their plan – is to so delay the legal exit from the EU that it never actually takes place. And their reason for this, I think, should be a cause for hope. This is because they know, or at least think it very likely, that if the British people are asked to re-join the EU, in 5 or so years’ time, they would refuse, since it would mean that we would have to accept freedom of movement, joining the EU army, joining the Euro, paying an awful lot more into the Brussels’ pot each year, restrictions on the City of London, and so on and so on. If we add to this the coming problems in Italy, Hungary, Germany and elsewhere, then the EU could easily be in such a mess that no one in their right mind would even want to join it, let alone re-join it. So, their priority, their most urgent objective, is to make sure, by whatever means they can, that our Article 50 leaving date is postponed, and postponed again, and again, so we never actually leave at all. Because they know that once we are out, we will stay out. So the hope is that if we can at the very least get the Article 50 bit done on time, in March next year, then no matter how bad the deal the likelihood is that we are legally out of the EU for good.
Third, it is difficult to see, given the Parliamentary arithmetic, how a wretchedly weak and soft Brexit can be avoided. Much as I utterly detest the idea that this will happen, it may nevertheless, somewhat perversely, also be a cause for hope. My reasoning here is that the electorate will know pretty quickly that they’ve been sold a pup. Demands for improvement and a better deal will rapidly rise, and any new party promising to leave the EU properly will quickly get a lot of support. The Remainers at this point will be stymied completely by their prior ‘success’ i.e. getting us lumbered with such a weak and hopeless deal. The only way to offer us anything better will be for them to invite us to re-join, but that we will never do, for the reasons outlined above. So, assuming that Mrs May is too gutless to walk out of the talks and let us go on to WTO, the priority is to make sure we do actually leave legally in March 2019. We can then treat the weak deal or agreement as merely the match to the blue touchpaper, because at some point the electorate really will rebel against the establishment and we will end up leaving properly. It just means accepting that we have to play this as a longer game, I think, and that it might take another 3-5 years. Not ideal, I know, but what is 3-5 years in the life of a nation such as ours? [Apologies to all for the length of the comment; rant over …]
July 10, 2018
I see the EU is already saying we must relax our red lines. No surprise there then. The lines will relax so much we will still be in.
July 10, 2018
Talk of more referendums. Didn’t we see that coming!
July 10, 2018
“We have just had a devaluation against the Euro of more than 10%, so the UK has just become a lot more competitive.”
Which is one way of putting it. Another is that in 2000, the euro was only worth an average of 61p. Now its worth around 89p, a nearly 50% appreciation against the £.
It is a similar outstanding success now being the largest reserve currency after the US$ with 90% of world total (the £ accounts for less than 3.0%)
July 10, 2018
There may not be enough MP’s to vote may out.
She may get her traitorous proposals through parliament with opposition MP support.
But there is no way on god’s earth the conservatives can win an election having lied to the British public like this.
I hope now that it’s this bad Boris joins ukip, or some other radical action, otherwise the country is stuffed.
May must go.
July 10, 2018
I’m past caring. Unless UKIP re-emerge under Nigel, I’ll never vote again. No point. We are governed by Brussels. Desperate, desperate days. The end of a nation.
July 10, 2018
It has been said before that whatever agreement we reach for the future with the EU we will never be as well off as we are at present time..
So don’t know why you keep on about the WTO rules..not a chance in a million..you JR writing for financial news outlets and being an MP with ear close to everything that moves should have grasped this a long time ago..brexit as you and Boris and others would like it has been outmanouvred..so now for the compromise deal..it will be a bit of a damage limitation exercise..we’ll probably end up half in and half out..now what’s that you were saying about being silly
July 10, 2018
Yet again, Mr.Redwood!
As I don’t agree with your damaging Right wing ideology, best not put my comment on.
FRIT.
July 11, 2018
Your pro EU ranting nonsense is on here every day.
July 10, 2018
The Prime Minister is First Among Equals. She’s not President. How DARE she go off to Berlin to run her SECRET proposals past the German Chancellor, presumably to gain her approval, BEFORE consulting her Cabinet colleagues. And then attempting to bounce them into acquiescing with her plans, using the threat of humiliation and inconvenience, is beyond disgraceful.
They are right to feel aggrieved. I’m only surprised not more have told her to “shove it” and walked away.
I voted Conservative last June for the first time since Major betrayed the country over Maastricht. If she’s allowed to stay in No.10 and signs us up to become a vassal state of the EU, I won’t be making that mistake again. And there will be hundreds of thousands like me.
The Conservative Party must deliver the REAL Brexit we voted for, or die.
July 10, 2018
If Mrs May does not announce her immediate resignation before Trump lands it will be dire for us.
Better he meets a nation with no leader chosen,
than this one at the top.
She has decided to side with the EU in what will be a protracted silent trade war against the USA.
July 10, 2018
There’s a problem with your analysis. Leaders of small businesses are firmly against your WTO rules plan as well. Not only would they face greater costs but also much inconvenience and thus even greater costs.
Back to the ERM now is it? The ERM crisis was not comparable to the present need to do a deal with the EU. It was a currency experiment that we were able to walk out of at any time. John Major took us into it to try to control runaway inflation created by his predecessor, Nigel Lawson – now your Brexit colleague. We went in at the wrong rate and got hit. Over 25 years ago – but you still use that as an argument to leave the EU. Sounds like desperation.
So you still think Mrs May is defending her red lines because she made the right noises in the Commons? I think you’ve been in that place a bit too long!
July 11, 2018
Wrong the majority of small businesses in the UK don’t export.
Those that export already operate using WTO rules outside the EU
July 12, 2018
Simon Coleman
Got any evidence for that?
Seeing as only 8% of business export I think you may be wrong. In fact I know you’re wrong because I’ve seen the survey data
July 10, 2018
The Irish Leader speaking in their Parliament is beaming brightly with Mrs May’s Statement , so too Remoaner business leaders who wished a second referendum and most remoaner MPs. Well, well….
July 10, 2018
A reliable little bird has told me Merkel has just said “Nein”, (actually she said it in English , I’m just putting the German in for fun ) to
Mrs May’s firesale sellout on Brexit. Forget October “negotiations”.
Merkel wasn’t the only negative EU nation leader either…though the latter comes through a third party source
July 11, 2018
I have said from the word “Go” that no deal is the only deal. Common sense has simply gone out of the window. The UK is a competitor with the EU nations for World trade and political influence. There is no reason or incentive for them to give us a deal that is disadvantageous to them. Why should they? I wouldn´t. Would you? Of course you wouldn´t. Leave means leave. There is no such thing as “a little bit pregnant”.
July 11, 2018
Sadly, looking at what’s going on, I find that my posts on this site a year ago that May has no intention to take us out if the EU, we’re right.
A body language expert whom I follow also demonstrated this as true, based on several facial and bodily ‘tells’.
The establishment will do ANYTHING to prevent a no deal BREXIT!