One of the first votes I cast as a young man was to vote to leave the EEC in 1975. I read the Treaty of Rome and realised this was no simple common market. I thought we were being lied to by the establishment who told us we could veto anything we did not like and would not lose our sovereignty, as the Treaty made clear wide ranging ambitions by the Europeans on their chosen path to âever closer unionâ.
I accepted the democratic decision of the UK voters and did my best for many years to believe in the common market and to  limit the EUâs activities to those of a common market.  I only called for a second referendum a generation later when several new Treaties had transferred large powers to the EU and it was quite obvious this was well removed from the common market people thought they had voted for. It was helping lead the campaign to keep the pound that marked the turning point. The UKâs eventual rejection of the main feature of European integration meant we had to seek a new and different relationship from those countries signed up to the federal state agenda. I launched the idea that joining a single currency was like sharing a bank account with the neighbours. It turned out to be an accurate metaphor, and one which most UK voters rejected as a policy for our country. The Euro predictably  caused intense economic distress in various Euro countries.
Tonight is an historic occasion. We are well on the way to being an independent self governing nation again. The government now needs to be firm as well as friendly to the EU in the talks ahead. We should not make any more concessions. Our fish are not be bargained away again, our laws must be under our sole control, and our money repatriated. The EU needs a Free Trade Agreement more than we do as it is such a big exporter to us, so we must stand firm in negotiation. The UK has been Treasure Island for the EU, both as a source of tax revenue for their plans, and as a great market for their exports. They should now be decent and honour their promise of a Free Trade Agreement with no penal clauses.
When we leave the Implementation period at the end of the year I will celebrate more. We will once again be that free independent country we were for centuries before we joined the EU. We will be a world leader for free trade, peace and democracy. We will regain our vote and our voice on international bodies. We will be true to our traditions of being engaged with Europe but not governed by Europeâs main continental powers. The UK has long championed the rights of smaller nations, democracy and the importance of national self determination in Europe.
We will be free to set out own taxes, so we can remove VAT from green products, from repairs to charitable buildings and from female hygiene products.
We are already shaking off the Maastricht debt requirements as the central driver of our economic policy and replacing it with the aims of promoting growth and prosperity.
We will able to pass the laws that people want, and spend all our tax revenues on our priorities.
I always thought myself lucky to be born into a country that so valued and defended freedom and democracy. I was always humbled by the knowledge of the sacrifices my grandparents and parents made with their generations to keep us free.
Tonight I am again proud to be British, and optimistic that we can do so much better once we have truly taken back control.
February 1, 2020
The hard work starts now. Watch the EU prevaricate.
February 1, 2020
JR, you state on the way, Johnson said Brexit is done. So you accept he lied? David Davis said a trade deal would be signed a “nano second” after we left. Where is it?
Today the U.K. is in vassalage accepting EU laws and regulations without a voice or veto, without being beaten in war or having done nothing wrong in law to be punished.
In 2006 the U.K. paid the last Cheque to the US for the cost of World War Two. The Tory govt. let Germany let off its war reparations. Yet today the U.K. Taxpayer pays hundred of billions to the EU for leaving. No legal debt nor a requirement under article 50 to leave. No legal requirement whatsoever. The EU gets to decide how much it wants over whatever period it wants. If the U.K. Challenges this it goes to the ECJ, not an international court.
The ECJ remains the Supreme Court of the U.K. a foreign court over the citizens living in this country. This does not exist anywhere in the world. UK territorial waters under EU control. UK not allowed to act against or impede EU foreign policy! Silenced in the world unless U.K. View is in accord with EU. N. Ireland annexed with a border down the sea!
Johnson and his govt. and party now suffering amnesia. But most likely trying to create a narrative like JR to pass the responsibility of failure onto others.
Sleaze for honour continue, diabolical Haewei decision to please EU and remainers, HS2 rolling on.
February 1, 2020
JR, suggest you read Timothy Bradshaw in Con Woman today. There is a growing if not overwhelming belief in what he says.
Sidwell should be out on his ear after the Mayhab fiasco servitude plan and Williamson debacle.
Where is the clean break he advocated now he has a stinking majority? Whitehall appears to have silenced / outwitted him so early. Haewie disaster decision, Immigration policy a disaster in the waiting, HS2 the same. Remainer establishment circulating feeding in their bile already etc. EU already making their threats!
February 1, 2020
Yes, Conservative Woman has its finger again on the true pulse of the conservative base. ConHome, on the other hand, is still catching up with its pretence to have supported Brexit all along, and has not caught up with the realisation that we haven;t left yet, and Boris isn’t ready to be a true conservative yet.
Go to Conservative Woman if you’re a conservative. Go to Con Home is you’re a red Tory, progressive hanger-on who has done so much damage to the Party.
February 1, 2020
Hope,
Indeed an excellent, although frightening, article.
I hope it is read by Boris and all in Cabinet and that it has the desired effect to trigger common sense. Suspect not in every aspect, but Huawei, HS2, priority of US trade deal would be good for starters.
February 1, 2020
No credit to Farage? Without Farage, the Tories would still be a pro-EU party and we would still be in the EU.
You, Sir John, along with a few other MP’s, did put Britain first, but your party (as a whole) was quite happy for the EU to be given whatever powers they asked for … without asking for electoral approval. The Conservative Party was happy to ride roughshod over democracy and would still be doing the same if it was not for Farage.
The deeds of Heath and Major will never be forgotten, along with the other undemocratic Tory europhiles.
February 1, 2020
Well seid Shirley, my submission a few moments ago said much the same in a different way.
February 1, 2020
Shirley we had Cameron lie to the nation he reformed the EU!
He was going to stop child benefit to EU children who never set foot here. He did nothing. In contrast Cameron and co. Stopped U.K. children from having child benefit while EU children continues! That is putting EU children before our own! Same for university tuition fees! It is a scandal of the Tory govt.
Next time a Tory minister says Brexit is done, you know they are dishonest.
February 1, 2020
The issue with child benefit really does need to be addressed. Not only did I lose the benefit which annoyed me know end as EU citizens were still claiming it, I see clients whose wives do not work but husband earns say ÂŁ62k and they lose it. Then other clients making sure they both earn ÂŁ49k each so they can continue to claim it. Whoever suggested this legislation clearly does not have a clue about finances!
February 2, 2020
Jasper, you draw attention to a very real injustice and it is affecting the younger generation who are finding life difficult enough as it is, not being able to buy property.
February 2, 2020
Peres de famille should be encouraged and rewarded, not discriminated against.
February 1, 2020
Well said. As they were in the last Parliament. Their failure to reward Farage who forced Cameron into giving us a referendum, is shameful. Maybe the reason is they privately still regret that and wish the status quo hadnât changed.
February 1, 2020
We in the UK have a history of whistle blowers being punished and ostracised by all forms of establishment. It is a nasty streak in our DNA. If the little men in grey prevail, history can hardly ignore the reality of the service Nigel Farage has given the UK.
February 1, 2020
Morgan the remainer who tried to water down and thwart a proper Brexit ennobled , Farage who achieved the result condemned by the Tories!
February 1, 2020
@Nig l
Agreed. Instead they knighted Olly Robbins instead.
The Honours list is becoming a Shame list.
February 1, 2020
Here here
February 1, 2020
This is surely true. The Conservative line from when the dire Ted Heath took us (in without even asking the voters permission) through Thatcher, Major, Cameron and May has been a total disgrace endlessly giving away further powers that were not their to give away without consent. A dukedom for Farage and never, ever anything for the dire Bercow or nor any of the Benn act traitors.
I was too young to vote in 75 but even as a teenager I was strongly against remaining in. The arguments of Benn, Powell, Castle, Shore and the likes seemed far more honest and sound to me.
Let us hope Boris steps up the the mark and delivers a real Brexit (and cuts the state down to size and cuts the greencrap). He must start by killing HS2. Failing to do this (as now looks likely) will be yet another very, very bad sign indeed.
The BBC coverage of last night was appallingly biased, as one would expect.
February 1, 2020
You say “like like sharing a bank account with the neighbours”, indeed with rather many neighbours who can out vote you at every turn. The EURO has done huge damage to very many EU countries and their democracies. The ERM also did huge (entirely predictable and predicted) harm to the UK. Still, even know, the very foolish John Major has learned nothing from the disaster he caused. He has not even said sorry.
Remaining in the EU would also have handed over our defence to these unelected bureaucrats too, not just the bank account.
Thanks goodness we have left. I hope I am wrong about Boris and that he does indeed deliver a real Brexit and some sound, smaller (indeed very much smaller) government. Get the government out of the damn way and watch the economy boom.
February 1, 2020
Better still would be to cancel COP26 in Glasgow and save all those air miles and the endless hot air and unscientific drivel the alarmists endlessly come out with.
Almost every member of the public seems to be against HS2 yet Any Questions find four panelists in favour of it. I have always thought that John Mann (now Baron Mann) was one of the few relatively sensible people in the Labour Party. Not it seems on Transport matters he is daft as a brush.
High speed trains in the relatively small UK make no real sense at all.
It seems Boris (as a school somewhere has said of the project) keep digging! No, no, no! When in a very expensive hole to nowhere you stop digging Boris and stop pissing other peoples’ money down the drain.
February 1, 2020
If if it ever did pay back (it won’t) it would be long after Boris has gone! In the short term only vast expense and damaging disruption
February 1, 2020
Shirley
Spot on the money
February 1, 2020
@Shirley; “No credit to Farage?”
No!
Without Farage the UK would likely have been out ten years ago, remember it was UKIP who deigned Cameron, and by extension the ERG, a majority in 2010, Farage even boasted as much the morning after the GE results. Farage and his parties did absolutely nothing to archive Brexit here at home, and at home is were it mattered, the UK parliament, not the EP. It is also conceivable that UKIP deigned the Tories a more electable eurosceptic/realist leader back in 2005 due to the exodus of support from the party to UKIP.
What is more UKIP, due to their campaigning methods, even managed to get otherwise Leave supporters to either abstain or vote Remain in the 2016 referendum.
I’ll say again, in my opinion Farage never wanted Brexit, the EP was far to useful to him (politically and personally), with that platform now gone let’s see how visible Farage is, beyond his own LBC programme, during the next crucial 11 months.
February 2, 2020
Jerry, What a complete load of tosh. For most of the last half century the Conservative party (with a few back bench exceptions) has been resolutely europhile. Apart from Thatcher in her later years, every Tory PM from Heath to May has supported “more Europe”.
It took the referendum party and UKIP to shake the establishment complacency and arrogance. You’re the sort who believes the Telegraph when it claims it won Brexit. No, the Tory party and its media trumpet have blocked Brexit, rather than enabled it.
February 1, 2020
Precisely. Neither the words Conservative nor Party were mentioned by Sir John, and tightly not. The party has squirmed its way through from 1992-Major, Hague, Cameron and last but by no means least the dreadful May.
February 1, 2020
Well said, Shirley. There is still much burying of heads in sand, and worse, on this.
February 1, 2020
Shirley,
Quite right as usual; but it gets worse, Mrs May’s sidekick Olly Robbins, the backroom deal maker is now a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, Ludicrous! And yet the real change makers, first the late James Goldsmith and latterly Nigel Farage, have had nothing. Is our system so unjust?
However, our host deserves recognition for honour and consistency, his contribution to the cause is probably greater than we will ever know; so thank you, Sir John.
February 1, 2020
Barwell who slandered leavers and was booted out by the public given a job by Mayhab and now enobled. Another sleaze.
What is Johnson going to say when Mayhab is eventually interviewed and she congratulates him for implementing her servitude plan!
February 1, 2020
Yes, very well said.
February 1, 2020
The most wonderful day in any of our lives! Sunderland was rocking last night. They were bullied and showed such class that the whole world looked on in wonder! Nobody could bully or fool them into changing the way they wanted to vote, not Cameron, Blair, the BBC or the Russians đđ.
They put their country and their nation above money.
Truly humbling to be with them at that special 11th hour.
Thank you Sir John, for decades of steadfast, brilliantly argued battle in this great battle for Britain.
February 1, 2020
There was near total silence in the great cities of Britain, Lynn.
That is, in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Cardiff, Newcastle, Bristol, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The country is irreparably divided.
If you think that is something to cheer, then well, that says much about you, I think.
February 1, 2020
I assume the vote in those areas was tipped to remain by the Large populations of young naive, woke students living of their student loans (funded by other workers) most of whom are doubtless studying for degrees in something fairly pointless.
Three DDD is the median grades for university entry nowadays so perhaps they have not thought it through much!
February 1, 2020
Read Curtice’s latest.
The country is still seriously split.
Incidentally, of those who didn’t vote in the referendum, fewer than a quarter would have voted Leave, over half Remain.
That’s not purely academic in assessing the mood of the country.
Rather more are pro than anti European Union.
February 1, 2020
Martin, The country was “irreparably divided” before 2016. It’s just that you didn’t notice.
February 1, 2020
No, before the campaign our membership of the European Union was only considered a major controversial issue to a small minority.
The frenzy of propaganda over a few years stirred up all manner of emotion, and showed just how manipulable people are.
February 2, 2020
Presumably the huge Conservative majority happened only because the voters were fooled by the main stream media.
You are still in the denial phase Martin.
February 2, 2020
Martin, That just shows how out of touch you are. And the frenzy of propaganda has been solely on the Remain side.
February 1, 2020
Such a force for unity, this EU thing.
February 1, 2020
Near total silence…. LOL… There were lots of celebrations Martin, but we had to be discreet because some people with 12 stars surrounding their faces on Facebook were so sad. We didn’t want them to be too upset, lest they be totally triggered đ
zorro
February 1, 2020
It has been divided by the losers not accepting the democratic result which they have to do if democracy is to continue.
But from the very start the EU has always been an opaque & secretive organisation as can be seen from the letter written on 30 April 1952 by Jean Monet Founding Father of the EU:
Europe’s nations should be guided towards the superstate without their people understanding what is happening. This can be accomplished by successive steps, each disguised as having an economic purpose, but which will eventually & irreversibly lead to federation.
For the French poodle maybe but not the British Bulldog.
February 1, 2020
Lynne, Read Con woman mad hatters tea party.
Johnson repeatedly said Mayhab’s servitude plan was dead. He has now implemented it! Mayhab must wonder why Johnson, ERG and co just did not capitulate two years ago.
EU demanding level playing field, why has no one reminded the EU or Germany that the U.K. Does not want to be part of their diesel emission scandal? That would be he sane reasonable response. The US got cars recalled and billions in compensation, what did Hammond do? He taxed us!
February 1, 2020
Well, we shall see. Fish will do as a test. As long as EU boats are banned from our waters, while we continue to be able to sell the 70% of our catch that we currently export to the EU, then fine! But if not, then the claim that we are taking back control, and that they need us more then we need them, will be exposed as nonsense. We will see. Watch the fish
February 1, 2020
If push comes to shove, said fish could be flying first class to Tokyo.
February 1, 2020
Could but won’t.
You have messed up big time.
February 1, 2020
Martin, You’ve had your go for the last 47 years. It’s our turn now. At least you will not have to suffer the lies of the EU ideology from 2021. And neither shall I.
February 2, 2020
Why not? The UK already exports seafood products around the world including China, USA, Africa, Canada, Kuwait, India South Korea, and Japan.
Source: Seafood strategic outlook 2016.
February 1, 2020
The fish could have been flying first class to Tokyo before Brexit.
Nothing stops British fishermen from selling to Japan – some do.
But the existing barriers to trade make it a non starter for most.
The distance involved, the culture, the language – and Japanese tastes.
All these things make it significantly harder to sell to Japan then Europe.
With just 11 months these is no chance most UK fishermen could adapt.
February 1, 2020
Andy, A resource is not the same as a trade. Or didn’t you know?
February 1, 2020
More lovely fish for us Andy and far better than red meat đ
zorro
February 1, 2020
Watch the fish? Watch the money would be a more appropriate expression, because a Dutch multinational whose UK subsidiary â North Atlantic Fishing Company â controls around a quarter of Englandâs fishing quota and around half of Englandâs quota is ultimately owned by Dutch, Icelandic, or Spanish interests. I donât know current figures but according to government figures, in 2016 the UK exported ÂŁ1.17 billion of seafood to the EU and imported ÂŁ1.04 billion from the EU – not far off of being evenly balanced trading. The bottom line is that outside of the EU, the UK fisheries sector will be in a very strong position to trade seafood with export markets around the world. Shame that much of the money earned will probably not stay in the UK.
February 1, 2020
Much more seriously, the EU and individual nations within it have destroyed fishing in the Med and under the CFP have gone a long way towards the same in all waters they have access to. Not only do they over fish and by some methods destroy the habitat, they take undersize fish, the children that never grow to maturity.
I hope that in our coastal and territorial waters we know scientifically what is going on and have a conservation plan to reverse the destruction. We need to ban all fishing where necessary, control the methods of fishing and only sanction EU boats that are prepared to accept the change in jurisdiction and whatever rules we decide to apply. We need a robust form of drone surveillance with Royal Navy follow up where necessary, and very heavy penalties for any who do not follow the rules.
Fishing rights are not a bargaining chip when seeking trade and financial services access.
February 1, 2020
Agricola, Exactly right – fishing rights in the UK EEZ are ours by international law. Management and conservation must be restored to UK control. It may be possible to licence a few foreign fishing vessels, if it suits us. But transgressor boats should be impounded and scrapped or sold off. Indeed it would be possible to licence UK privateers to police our waters with payment being the value of the impounded foreign boats.
February 1, 2020
May be the BBC could have more cooking programmes concentrating on fish. Why don’t we eat that 70% here in the UK?
The climate change people want us to stop eating beef etc. Isn’t fish meant to be a healthy alternative?
February 1, 2020
Yes and now Project Fear 3 starts re customs checks and shortages. We donât believe you.
Stay strong. The Spartans are still needed.
February 1, 2020
Chief Spartan avowed to hold a watching brief over our government and put their feet to the fire should your worst fears arise.
February 1, 2020
Michael Gove said yesterday there would be extra customs checks. He also said some companies would lose out of Brexit. Heâs effectively in charge of this stuff now so why donât you believe him?
Is he not telling you the truth?
February 1, 2020
Andy, When I woke up this morning the BBC told me about the medicines shortages, the overnight increase in gonorrhoea, the 29 mile lorry queues into Dover, the shortage of food at the same time as too much meat, and the imminence of WW3 all because of real Brexit.
February 1, 2020
Yes, Gove is the first to admit Brexit will not look anything like what was promised. There is a lot more pain to come
February 1, 2020
@Nig l; What customs checks on goods arriving from the USA, the Commonwealth and the Far East etc?!
A pleasant surprise last night (considering the usual EU obsessive stance of the broadcast MSM), I think it was on ITV, they visited the port of Bristol, stating that the ports management thinks it could become far more important than some of the east coast ports now, the report even included the loading of JLR products destined for China (and I think the US).
February 1, 2020
Liverpool too – far more potential trade – lovely – let’s hope Andy is not too sad if Brexit brings more trade
zorro
February 1, 2020
Yes it is great to be free again now letâs get on with making our country even greater, but got to mention the Brussels broadcasting corporations editions last night but did anyone else notice the colour of the studio blue and gold, this bias corporation needs shutting down or the licence fee scrapped
February 1, 2020
Mick
Yes Blue and Gold with even a EU star in the background.
Noticed also how much air time was spent on those who opposed Brexit, like Scotland, and possible problems in Wales and Northern Ireland, now without EU Funding, they forgot to say it was our money originally, which had been re-cycled !
Showed very little of the celebrations in Parliament Square
February 1, 2020
Sky wasn’t much better….
February 1, 2020
Mick
Here we go already – ‘your freedom’ means you want to shut up anybody who doesn’t agree with your version of events. Beginning to sound like Soviet Russia already.
February 1, 2020
Margaret H, Here you go already, deliberately conflating the BBC’s ability to air EU propaganda with your selfish insistence that Leaves should pay for it.
February 1, 2020
Nope.
We’ve done it all by the ballot box.
February 1, 2020
No Margaret that is the EU’s model đ
zorro
February 1, 2020
The BBC are appallingly biased and totally wrong on all the issues that they are so biased on. The EU, Climate alarmism, their PC agenda and anti-free speech agenda, the open door low paid immigration, magic money tree economics, the size of the state, their demands for ever more red tape, even more employment laws, their anti-landlord agenda, the blatant bias of panels on Question Time and Any Questions ….
February 1, 2020
Mick
Shutting down and completely rebuilt. The self appointed UK column has started as it means to go on. It needs to be totally dismantled and quickly before its venom undermines what we the country are trying to achieve.
February 1, 2020
Yesterday you were free to go and live, work, study, retire to 31 other countries.
Today you are free to do that in 1 other country.
The biggest assault on your freedom of any government ever is in your lifetime is welcome by you claiming you now free. Odd.
February 1, 2020
Andy, Yesterday 30 other countries did not have the right to refuse you entry into their nations, today they have recovered that right. Thanks to us. And now we have that right too.
February 1, 2020
none of the EU 27 have anything to tempt me…..been there done that – no thanks. Now Australia, NZ, USA a different matter.
February 2, 2020
Fred H agree with your sentiments.
February 1, 2020
What I did notice was the extremely poor coverage on both BBC and ITV. I switched channels several times trying to get a view of what was going on, especially of the thousands in Parliament Square, but the broadcasters were mainly concerned with Scotland and Ely (Ely of all the places in the country) each with just a few hundred people crowded together to try to make it look larger than it was, looking for anti Brexit mourning. Needless to say, the Farage speech was blanked out and I never saw any sign of Boris’s speech presumably because the BBC had the hump at being cut out of filming it. I heard it on LBC this morning. Message to the BBC – the end is coming, you are not our reliable source of unbiased news.
A disgrace and very amateurishly done on both channels. Seems the Moan Stream Media are in mourning and will continually look for every possible error and stumble as a sign that Brexit is wrong. Well, tough, it’s done, get over it.
February 1, 2020
@Mick; “[the BBC] needs shutting down or the licence fee scrapped”
+1
I never though I would be agreeing with those who want an end to the BBC, but they simply just cant help themselves of late. The blatant bias that has been shown during the Trump Impeachment, no BBC-P [1] couldn’t possible carry live the main day of evidence from the Trump side (Monday) because the HoC and HoL were still in session, but on Wednesday afternoon in the middle of a HoC debate on homelessness they could broadcast the EU parliament live…
The BBC, if it does survive, must be stripped of its BBC-Parliament remit, we need a British equivalent to the US CSPAN network, complete with extra channels.
[1] nor could it be placed onto the (Freeview) Red Button channel
February 1, 2020
The despondency at the BBC is palpable.
No “corridors of the BBC strewn with empty champagne bottles” last night, as was case when Tony Blair had his first election victory in 1997.
The BBC Licence is past it’s sell by date; call time on it and allow the British public vote with their wallets on the subject.
February 1, 2020
The BBC is a truly abominable organisation. They did their best last night to spoil the Brexit celebrations. It was like tuning in to watch the Six Nations but only being shown commentators wanting to stop the matches with loud talking over the national anthems. Shameful.
February 1, 2020
Yes I notice the blue and gold. I though might be a 0.001% chance it would change to Red, White and Blue on the stroke of 11pm , but only of Andrew Neil was pressing the button.
Also the who show was full of Remoaners .
No broadcaster could bring themselves to show Farage’s speech in full, Sir Vince Cable was everywhere.
February 1, 2020
Mick
You might also notice BBC presenter’s ties…..EU flag colours. Blatant bias. The government needs to go for the BBC with a vengeance.
February 2, 2020
@steve; Indeed, and now is their chance, with Lord Hall standing down…
Also, considering that the BBC is pleading poverty, perhaps the Govt should take the funding of the BBC WS back into the FCO, and then create an independent arms length outlet similar to VOA?
The world from a UK’s point of view, not the UK from a worlds POV, as the WS is the current norm (the latter is especially true at Weekends with programmes such as “Weekend”)…
February 1, 2020
Never forget, you and the ERG may have been the termites chewing away at the connection berween the EU and the UK, a service for which I and many should be grateful, the one person who drove it and sold it to the people was Nigel Farage. You should stand up in Parliament and give thanks for his drive and determination for no personal gain. Most of you would prefer to write this Wilberforce or Plimsole out of history. While history will quietly forget most in the ERG it will have to come to terms with the reality of Nigel Farage.
February 1, 2020
I 100% agree with every word.
February 1, 2020
@agricola; Nonsense on stilts, see my reply to @Shirley above.
UKIP and Farage come late to the party, and nearly scuppered it, a few more votes to UKIP back in 2010 and it could have been a very europhile Lib-Lab coalition, a change in our relationship with the EC/EU that we might never have been able to recover from – the UK might well have fallen for the claims my by europhiles and the then US president that the solution to the then GBP and EUR zone monitory crisis was”More Europe”.
February 1, 2020
So you think that Cameron would have promised a Referendum despite UKIP, what, out of the goodness of his heart?, out of his commitment to democracy?
UKIP was a very real threat to the incumbent LibLabCon Party at the time of the 2015 general election. Cameron’s response was to promise the people a referendum on membership of the EU. Cameron’s ploy gave a pyrrhic victory to the globalists; it stopped an influx of populists into parliament but it conceded direct democracy to the people on a vital issue. The referendum result indicated that the LibLabCon party had been governing without the consent of the people. Cameron now regrets his giving the English people the opportunity to revoke our membership of the EU presumably because he weakened the globalist stranglehold of our nation.
February 1, 2020
@forthurst; No the referendum wasn’t out of the goodness of Cameronâs heart, as you seem to believe, it was used to protect his own party, not the threat from UKIP (the next GE was a couple of years away), Cameron made his early 2013 pledge to first renegotiate our EU membership (thus keeping the europhiles happy) and then offer a EU membership referendum (keeping eurosceptics happy).
“it stopped an influx of populists into parliament but it conceded direct democracy to the people on a vital issue.”
Nonsense, name me two UKIP MPs who ever got elected at the same General Election. You can”t get influx’s of MPs from winning individual by-elections!..
UKIP were no more likely to ‘shake-up’ UK politics, with an “influx” of MPs, than the SDP were back in the early 1980s.
February 2, 2020
Try reading what I actually wrote.
February 2, 2020
@forthurst; “ÂŁTry reading what I actually wrote.”
I might suggest the same to you! It was you who tried to divert the debate away from the 2010-15 parliament, I simply refused to take your bait.
But have it your way (my emphasis)…
“UKIP was a very real threat to the incumbent LibLabCon Party at the time of the 2015 general election. Cameronâs response was to promise the people a referendum on membership of the EU. “
Those two sentences above, from your second paragraph, in the comment you told me to (re)read, makes no sense. Cameron, as I stated above, made his referendum promise in 2013, not 2015 as you claim, it was merely repeated in the Tory party manifesto.
February 2, 2020
Just to add to my last comment, the fact that Cameron placed before parliament a draft referendum Bill in 2013 also proves the SNP argument wrong when they say that Brexit was not on the table at the time of their Sept 2014 indyref.
February 2, 2020
Jerry, And Ed Milliband in response (in Parliament) accused David Cameron of making the announcement because he was “running scared” of UKIP. Miliband was not the only one to make the connection. I prefer to accept that evidence rather than your assertion that there was no UKIP threat.
February 2, 2020
@NickC; You still can’t grasp it, UKIP were not in any position to cause trouble in 2013, they had no MPs, the next GE was still two years away (a known-known) and if any party was in trouble by 2013 it was UKIP its self due to some high profile, even unguarded, comments -from ex leaders, (then) UKIP MEPs, local candidates and activist.
You might have air-brushed such events from your own memory NickC but the history books have and will not.
The only threat Cameron was under came from within his own party and the Tory supporting MSM. In any case, by 2013 UKIP and Farage were already targeting traditional Labour voters, away from traditional Tory areas, doing their uppermost not to be seen to much as the heir to Thatcherism, to the disgust of some ex-Tory voters. In that, UKIP succeeded, judging by the 2015 GE result!
As for Miliband claiming Cameron was running scared of UKIP was like the Tories (and UKIP) claiming Labour had caused the 2007 international credit crash (that had actually started in the USA) – political point scoring in other words, aimed at those who choose not to think for themselves, those who like to be spoon feed what to think…
February 1, 2020
I agree entirely. This country owes a huge debt to Nigel Farage. Indeed he should
be officially thanked in Parliament on our behalf and honoured in an appropriate way.
February 1, 2020
I believe we should have a special Brexit Honours List- One Nigel Farage for a Knighthood… well earned and deserved.
February 1, 2020
Absolutely right, agricola.
February 1, 2020
Sir JR
We are all proud to be British and what British democracy stands for and what former generations have done for Britain and Europe, this should be celebrated and treasured.
I am not sure we will do so much better outside the EU, looking at the performance of Britain during the 60’s and the comparable performance of the Continent at the same time and then our subsequent performance doing even better than the Continent as part of the EU, I am not sure we will do better, now, that we have left.
Then , some say we had more growth before we joined the EU in the 1970’s but all countries had more growth in the 50’s and 60 s after the war.
I hope I am wrong and yo are right, but fishing and financial services we are still going to have to do some compromising on a.s we need them more than they need us, 45% of our trade and less than 10% for the EU
February 1, 2020
It is the over all size of the trade that matters (not the percentages) they sell more to us than we do to them. They have more to gain from free trade than we do.
February 1, 2020
Lifelogic
Interesting , but at the end of the day it depends on what they have to compromise on to get the free trade agreement on whether they believe it is worth it?
February 1, 2020
The 10 percent you quote for the EU is mostly for about 4 countries, which paints quite a different picture. The rest are an irrelevance and most rely on handouts to survive. Anyway, it was not all about money and trade which Remainers cling to, it is bigger than that. The 60’s are over 2 generations behind us and the unions do not hold the country to ransom any more and we have learned a lot. Our productivity is still poor, but that will change once the pool of low wage labour dries up.
February 1, 2020
Graham1946
With our educational and training system as it is , I have a question on whether the pool of low wage labour will dry up, it takes much more than the pool to raise our productivity level just to the best Europe level.
But maybe you have the solution to share with us?
February 2, 2020
What I do note is that you have no reply to the ‘we need them more than they need us’ bit of your post which was your main thrust and choose the lesser part of my post. Traditional shifting of argument when you can’t answer. Anyway, I do think our education system is wrong and for years I have argued for it and the NHS to be taken out of political control.
February 1, 2020
Have you not heard of the Rotterdam effect ? 45 % of our trade may go through the EU via Rotterdam but that doesnât equate to 45% of our trade being with the EU.
When are you going to understand that leaving the EU was never about trade. It was always about being a sovereign nation again, Britain is better than just being a star on somebody elseâs flag.
February 1, 2020
Oggy,
I totally agree and that is the way it should be , but the figure has nothing to do with Rotterdam.
Being and independent nation I understand, being a sovereign state/ nation in this interdependent world is a historical illusion
February 2, 2020
Bill B, You appear to be misinformed. Some of the UK’s exports go to the rest of the world via ports such as Rotterdam and Antwerp, but are logged as exports to the EU. Obviously that is erroneous. The ONS is well aware of the “Rotterdam effect”. Look it up.
February 1, 2020
There was impetus to rebuild the Continent in the 50s and 60s after WW2.
Who set up VW to start producing cars again in the 50s? Ivan Hirst, a clockmaker from Oldham. British people have travelled the world since the 1600s to set up countries, start businesses, invent things and start processes running. The creative aspect of the British character has begun to be stifled by Eurocracy these past 20 years. Whether it’s completing unnecessary forms, abiding by complex employment legislation, or riding the complexities of the tax system, inventors and entrepreneurs have been shackled by EU generated paperwork and rules. It’s just not in the British character.
Whereas John Redwood spotted the higher end catch in 1975, I think that at that stage there was a genuine wish here to ease travel and business with the 6 countries then in the common market (France, West Germany, Italy and the three Benelux countries). This made perfect sense, given the fact that we were told that we had a veto over any change from that position. The background of the impending Cold War, the feeling that the Wilsonian white heat of technology wasn’t working, Concorde being a reasonable example of what joint ventures across the channel could achieve… the EEC being a link with the continent seemed a reasonable idea.
Fast forward to 1992, and Nigel Farage spotted that the practical aspects of the now behemoth EU weren’t working. Coupling that with a passion and skill at getting his message across to ordinary people really gave this Escape from Colditz the momentum it needed. Somehow, DESPITE the Tory party, DESPITE the establishment, he achieved what he achieved through the people of the UK.
Perhaps had Farage been the politician/cheerleader and John Redwood been the expert mechanic, rather than the reverse, the escape would have been achieved much earlier.
February 1, 2020
That 10% you quote is misleading bill.
Some nations out of the 27 do hardly any trade with the UK
Others like Germany and France do a huge trade with the UK
Worth many billions and hundreds of thousands of jobs.
And the 45% includes the Rotterdam effect of trade which passes through European ports but is destined for non EU countries.
Do you really think UK and European people will stop buying the goods and services they want from sources they find to be the best choice for their money?
Trade will carry on.
No unelected bureaucrats in the EU will be able to stop it.
February 1, 2020
Edward 2
Interesting observation I am not sure I think the figure only has to do with Rotterdam only, because it does not.
However, this is much more than just about trade and like in all situations there will have to be compromises on both side.
Nobody can agree with any of the rest you are stating
February 2, 2020
I didn’t say the whole figure was the Rotferdam effect.
Interesting claim in your last sentence bill.
No specifics as to why you say that.
Presumably you have asked a few million voters?
February 1, 2020
Never forget, lots of European countries were give war reparations; we were left to clean up by ourselves. The war finished when I was 7 years old but I can still remember many places in Cardiff and London that were still bomb sites twenty years later. That might explain why our continental cousins forged ahead of us in the 50’s and 60’s.
Reply There was US aid
February 1, 2020
I have read somewhere that – Ninety per cent of the Marshall Aid received by the UK went on debt repayment, whereas in Germany the funds went directly into investment.
February 1, 2020
Reply to reply – When did we pay that off JR!!?
zorro
February 1, 2020
Rationing after WW2 ended in Germany in 1950 but not until 4 years later in the UK.
The EU has exploited our fishing grounds, used our taxes to subsidise the movement of our factories to other EU (and even non-EU countries!) and build their infrastructure, followed by using freedom of movement to provide jobs for eastern and southern EU countries again subsidised by the UK taxpayer via working tax credit and child benefits.
The resulting immigration has put intolerable pressure on housing, schools, hospitals, the environment and infrastructure.
A majority of the UK population feel that it is time for this to end.
February 2, 2020
Didnât we repay the USA âaidâ – was this not repaid just a few years ago??
February 1, 2020
Good morning
Promises, promises, promises. That is all we have been offered and never delivered. Leave means Leave, we were promised. Then, Let’s get BREXIT done. But to say we are still under the ECJ and paying in for nothing in return.
Today is little different from the day before yesterday or three and a half years ago.
By the time we really are supposed to be free it would have taken us longer to do so than fight the First World War. Worth thinking about.
February 1, 2020
Mark B
Interesting perspective but this is an agreement between allies and friends not a war, nor has it ever been a war between nations in the EU, but it was set up like NATO to avoid another war at the beginning of the 1950’s
February 2, 2020
Bill B, If you think the EU is an ally and friend you haven’t been paying attention for the last 48 years. Moreover the EU treaties are nothing like NATO. The EU is a supra-national top tier of government (remember all those wonderful rules people like Andy say we’re losing?), whereas NATO is friendly nations co-operating with each other.
February 1, 2020
None more proud than our government and our national broadcasters! What a spectacular show they put on!
Illuminating no. 10 like that was sheer brilliance. Who thought that one up?
And the White Cliffs of Dover with the shadowy countdown clock and the sound-track that kept cutting in and out. So evocative of WWII!
Did anyone catch the CBBC horrible history of Britain? I unfortunately missed it, but I bet it really captured the mood.
Well done to all concerned! Golden gongs all round.
February 1, 2020
Well done John, Sir John.
Many thanks to you and a few brave (genuinely brave) colleagues who have saved us from vassalage.
My great hope is that the next few years will expose the likes of Blair and Major (not to mention Heath) for the contemptible sanctimonious smug types they are, so that the Great British People can never be fooled by their like again.
Well done!
February 1, 2020
Oliver,
it has nothing to do with being a vasal state and the leaders you are mentioning were elected in by a majority of the people, some of them several times as that is the case, who are the fools?
February 2, 2020
When leaders are pro EU you say they were elected by a majority.
When they are against the EU you and others say that if you add up the vote for all the other parties they were elected by a minority.
Odd that.
February 1, 2020
Like you John I will celebrate more after our so called negotiations are complete.
Such negotiations I suggest we may indeed have to walk away from due to possible EU spite and intransigence.
I still cannot understand why we signed the W/A agreement without being covered fully in the second stage, (nothing is agreed until all is agreed) because if we do end up walking away without a sensible agreement on trade and co-operation, then all that has been agreed in the W/A was very expensive, and absolutely pointless.
February 1, 2020
The wisdom of the masses
One great feature of Brexit was the wisdom of the “uneducated”.
They were not uneducated, of course. We are all educating ourselves every day as we gain new experiences.
No, when remainers pointed to their lack of education, they meant that they had not been subjected to as much STATE “education” as others. They also didn’t swallow everything the BBC and other remain media fed them.
I think this freedom from brainwashing gave them a broader, more tolerant and more balanced view of the world where wisdom could shine through.
They were also sufficiently street-wise to know when they were being spun a line.
Thank goodness this country came to its senses and gave the majority what they asked for. They usually get it right.
Reply Some of us Brexiteers became Brexiteers despite a conventional education from people who disagree with us.
February 1, 2020
I was pro Brexit in 75 (before my O levels) I remain one today despite going on to be educated (Cambridge and later Manchester) but then I was reading Physics/Maths and later Engineering and not PPE, Sociology, Law, Geography or Gender Studies.
âSome ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.â
â George Orwell
February 1, 2020
I looked out of the window this morning and the sky hadn’t fallen down, they said it would.
February 1, 2020
Well said
February 1, 2020
Great words John. Fishing is however the “acid” test for Brexit and will make or break your government. Do not make the mistake of underestimating the strength of feeling among the British people when it comes to our fishing industry. I hope you all stay true to your words.
February 1, 2020
Roger P, Yes, that is it exactly: restoration of fishing our fishing rights is a litmus test.
February 1, 2020
Roger Phillips
+1
February 1, 2020
The coverage of last night’s events from those media outlets that enjoy funding from the private taxpayer was utterly offensive and no doubt designed to be utterly offensive to those who voted Leave in 2016.
More slander. More bigotry. More accusations. More demonisation. More mockery.
And we are forced by laws passed by Parliament to finance this PROPAGANDA that is now out of control
It’s akin to paying someone in the street to punch you in the face repeatedly and then asking them break your legs.
Your party in Parliament has a duty to perform. That duty doesn’t involve betraying the people who voted to put you there. We want to see limits on immigration and we want to see the hateful BBC-CH4 partnership of the left put out of business. That’s just for starters. If you fail to do this then Johnson will become a lame duck PM and Marxist Labour will crawl back into favour
You have the majority, please use it
February 2, 2020
Agreed, the coverage from both Sky news and the now hated BBC was biased and offensive. I enjoyed watching the celebrations on Ruptly live online which simply focused on the thousands of British patriots at Parliament square. The BBC needs to be forced into a subscription model similar to Netflix. I for one would never subscribe to them.
February 1, 2020
Your Web site is a little confusing in its layout today. At the end of this post I followed a link to a recent Parliamentary intervention by you. This latter post, however, is not currently displaying on your home page. Nevertheless, I am pleased that you took the opportunity in that intervention to promote “a bigger domestic food industry”.
In Parliament Square last night, mention was made of Charles de Gaulle having vetoed the UK’s initial applications to join the EEC on the basis that our country was not a good fit for the project. Unfortunately, I believe that, under the Conservative Party’s “exit” strategy, the UK currently fits the EU like a glove. The more you can work away at detailed regulations to promote domestic industry, amongst many other things, the more this situation should improve.
February 1, 2020
A great day for Britain. We look forward to more.
February 1, 2020
Now that NIGEL is out of work, put him in charge of negotiations with the EU and he will make sure that the 27 will give us the BEST deals. Boris must NOT give an INCH.
February 2, 2020
Thanks, Gordon.
It’s wonderful to start the day with a roaring laugh out loud!
February 1, 2020
Agree with much of what you say Sir John. The progress so far is basically down to Farage, like it or not. His blunt, often rude commentary addresses the concerns head on, unlike most politicians, yourself sometimes excepted. Negotiations must be firm, direct and uncompromising. Much of what is required can be expressed ‘take it or leave’. I doubt Boris’ team will be man enough to do that, like millions I fear the position of successive UK governments can be summed up as weak. I would love to be proven wrong.
February 1, 2020
Fred H, Well said, my sentiments too.
February 1, 2020
Beware pupils of the same school as gave away our democracy still inhabit Westminster and the civil service. What was given away before, the present cohort will readily give away again.
February 1, 2020
They didn’t give away our democracy – they were well paid for it.
February 1, 2020
The last few days have been surprisingly wonderful.
The warmth, compassion, humour and love shown by our European friends has been lovely to watch.
From Auld Lang Syne in the European Parliament to the messages of love and warmth from leaders and the highly respectful way they have treated our flag, to the celebration of Britain in Brussels. Wonderful.
It really shows who our friends are.
Compare and contrast to the snarling of Farage and his insufferable band of malcontents to the desecration of EU flags in Parliament Square last night by a bunch of thugs.
Brexit is dying. In due course we will kill it.
Reply Did you enjoy the warm applause for our MEPs from other MEPs in the EU Parliament who also believe in national democracy?
February 1, 2020
Andy
“desecration of EU flags in Parliament Square last night by a bunch of thugs.”
Thugs ? thugs?……you talk of thugs ?
The only thugs I’ve seen for the last three years were the ones who bent just about every rule there is, made their own laws ad hoc, committed constitutional vandalism, told blatant lies to stoke up fear, corrupted the courts, suppressed the truth via corrupted broadcasters, betrayed their constituents, and, in certain cases committed sedition. All with the aim of killing democracy and wrecking the country.
I don’t think you should be giving any lectures on thuggery.
February 1, 2020
“Brexit is dying. In due course we will kill it.”
Hmm….killing things, isn’t that what ‘thugs’ do ?
Brexit is not dying, as you well know. Which is why we now see a nasty side coming out in your posts. Because you’re in a minority of undignified people who get nasty when they can’t get their own way.
Boris Johnson has graciously asked that we as a people reconcile. Do you think you deserve an olive branch from us ?
February 1, 2020
I donât want an olive branch from you. You have stolen my rights and harmed my childrenâs futures. I want you to give back what you have taken and if you donât I will fight you until you do. I donât care how long that takes – I have plenty of time.
February 2, 2020
You and Steve have one vote each.
That is how it works in the UK.
February 2, 2020
Andy you sound like the woman on sky news who said she was sad to be leaving the EU as her children wouldnât be able to travel around Europe – đhow with laughed at her uneducated statement. My children have travelled and plan to travel all over the world – they just get the necessary visas as and when required!!
February 2, 2020
Andy, No Brexiteer has “stolen” your rights, though the EU has stolen our rights as well as our fish. The EU is an invented ideology – it cannot possibly have any “rights” of its own to give out. Now we’ve got them back from the EU (according to Boris’s promises), so your children will benefit from being in a self-governing nation.
February 2, 2020
Andy
“…I will fight you….”
….grin.
February 1, 2020
Err no.
You’ve lost every vote from the referendum onwards.
The clamour for a second referendum turned out to be a figment of your fevered imagination.
February 1, 2020
Andy, Despite the EU’s (and continuity Remain’s) relentless campaign of vindictiveness, abuse and lies, Leave voters refused to buckle. Your hatred and contempt for us has been noted: you cannot invert it without looking even more ridiculous. You have been found out.
February 1, 2020
There are 750 or so MEPs – or there were before Brexit. Youâll struggle to find any who do not believe in national democracy.
The difference they have with all of you is that they also believe in cooperation. You should all try it sometime.
February 2, 2020
The UK had one vote in 28 with 9 paying in and the rest taking out.
Soon it will be 30 members with 22 taking out and 8 paying in..
Looking forward to German voters getting fed up pouring money in without the UK’s help.
February 2, 2020
Andy, Cooperation between sovereign nations is not the same as an invented dirigiste top tier of government. Or didn’t you know?
February 3, 2020
Reply to Reply
I was particularly heartened that, as ever with the EU Parliament, it was the young members who were on our side, plus a few older ones. The future for Europe is national and democratic.
February 1, 2020
If the EU had been a collection of collaborative councils without the authority to impose all their decisions then youâd have the ability to get on board with those that supported your nation views and abstain from those that didnât. But instead as Verhofstadt pointed out the EU still doesnât think it has enough authoritarian control and rule and without us delaying them Iâm sure it will accelerate.
Like the mortgage crash that started in America and too many other Countries piled in, thinking they were geniusâs like Brown and his âno more boom and bustâ proclamations. There were those of us that questioned this consolidation of bad mortgages to debt instruments in order to profit from the sale, we saw people we knew overextending on interest only mortgages, we shouted out warnings even to top people in the banks and we were told youâre are wrongâ, ânothing as safe as housesâ, âeveryone is doing itâ, âyouâll miss out if you sit it outâ. Three money people made lots of money shorting against it (I wish Iâd have known how to do that!). Then the prudent and risk averse of us had to bail all the spendthrifts with pfi repayments, ivaâs with short write off timescales so people just went right on a few years later with more bad debt, low interest for our savings to help them to spend, spend, spend on nothing of value or worth.
So donât tell us Margaret Howard that the EU is right and weâre wrong when they still havenât sorted out the banking problems and this control freakery. Cameron asked for a couple of concessions on rights to benefits for example and he was just dismissed. Had they have conceded the referendum wouldnât have happened, that level of authoritarianism doesnât sit well,
February 1, 2020
Excellent John,
Very well said !
Reclaiming national sovereignty and then a progressive vision of national sovereignty. Democratic control over the economy, full employment, social justice, redistribution from the rich to the poor in a fair way, inclusivity, and effectively the socio-ecological transformation of production and society.
The true value of the European project is in its capacity to deliver a rule of law throughout Europe and engender multilateral cooperation on matters such as crime, climate change, human trafficking, and global concerns that single nations cannot solve alone.
Returning to national governments the monetary and fiscal tools needed to provide for the well-being of their own citizens would not undermine that sort of cooperation.
On the contrary, it would provide the basis for a renewed European project â and more in general for a new international(ist) world order â based on multilateral cooperation between sovereign states.I
The battle is not over we all have to work together to stop the SNP. It is imperative they are stopped.
They now use Croatia as an example. Croatia is the new buzz word in the corridors of indy GROUPTHINK. The slayer of all myths, the dagger to the heart of over 20 years worth of MMT study by MMT economists the true experts on the issue. Who warned everybody in the 90′ s what was going to happen in the Eurozone.
They now say daily, Croatia with their own currency joined the EU with a deficit of 5%. The fairy tale stops. Alice in wonderland comes to a grinding halt. Move along now nothing more to see. Keep voting for an independent Scotland at the heart of Europe Croatia proves it beyond any reasonable doubt.
Then look what happened.
https://tradingeconomics.com/croatia/government-budget
Because Croatia kept on getting these delivered by the EU by first class post.
https://ec.europa.eu/info/business-economy-euro/economic-performance-and-forecasts/economic-performance-country/croatia/fiscal-surveillance-croatia_en
We all know what it means in reality. Not only have MMT economists explained what happens next. Michael Hudson and Steve Keen have drawn blueprints over the years highlighting the road map to serfdom. The IMF as the prison guard with privatisation stalls set up all over Scotland selling their scams. Pushing more and more families into private debt as large corporations steal the real resources.
But it is the usual in Scotland. The â half the story â narrative. Only tell half the story at all times. Never explain the full story. In case you upset the locals who voted for EU membership in huge numbers on false beliefs. Thinking they were voting for the Treaty of Rome not Maastricht and Lisbon. Thinking the EU will save them from the Tories.
We havenât even talked about the debt to GDP ratio yet. The SNP will have to do their own version of Macron on Scottish savers in order to stick to the rules. That has not to be talked about swept under the table until the reforms take place as they slash Scottish pensions.
Scottish households and businesses enjoy a 7% surplus within the UK. You can see from the graph above by the time the EU are finished that surplus will be destroyed and Scottish households and business will be running a deficit spending more than their income. Pushing families and entrepreneurs into ever more private debt. The debt that matters.
Madness!
Created â all under one banner â which was really clever I have to admit.
â all under one banner â means there could be 20 types of independence that 20 different groups want in Scotland. 19 of those groups might disagree with the SNP on what independence should look like. However, they all must vote for the SNP to get Indy done.
A group called Radical Indy wants independence outside of the EU but they must vote for the SNP even if that is not what the SNP are offering.
The SNP will completely ignore these groups if They win. By then it does not matter they got their vote. It stops these other 19 groups from splitting the vote and starting their own independence movements.
A complete sham to make sure the SNP wins. A very efficient way to kill off other types of independence that might gain popularity. Like Indy outside the EU for example. That the many liberals within the party will never entertain. The majority of the MPâ s and MEPâs s being from the liberal left. Mini meâs of Chucka Umunna.
I am really scared John and struck with real fear about where Scotland is heading. It is certainly not independence in any way shape or form.
The UK government need to create a task force that creates narratives that destroy the SNP myths. Educate Scottish voters to what heart of Europe actually means.
February 2, 2020
Derek H, M agic M oney T ree drivel as usual – and so turgid I only skimmed it.
February 1, 2020
@Mr Redwood,
Is your government still considering surrendering Britain’s military assets including our nuclear deterrent to a centralised EU command in Brussels?
Reply No
February 1, 2020
The more interesting question is why haven’t the French ever offered their nuclear deterrent to the EU?
February 1, 2020
It is indeed a very interesting question and a tiny bit of search on the web will make you (possibly) realise that the French already answered it via a speech that President Chirac gave in 2001 at lâIle Longue near Brest.
February 1, 2020
After the fantastic achievement of last night and the wonderful celebrations and the outpourings of pride in this great country….
Iâve just read a rather depressing article in conservative woman by Tomothy Bradshaw. He describes some faffing on issues by the U.K. government, but worryingly, says that Mark Sedwell is still very much in situ as is a negotiator, Davis Frost whom he describes as very pro EU.
Briefings for Brexit had identified mark Sedwell as one of the âDeep State â civil servants under Teresa May.
Now I know that a number of Leave campaign groups, plus Nigel Farage have said they are going to continue watching Boris and the government closely to ensure thereâs no backtracking. But, a couple of the items mentioned by Bradshaw had rung some mini alarm bells in my mind this last week….
I do hope heâs wrong in thinking Boris could be May Mark 2. Boris had seemed to have got off to a good start, but….
February 1, 2020
SIr John, congratulations on your campaign, well structured and thought through. I really hope our government have the strength of character and determination to ensure we get Brexit done in a timely and statesman like manner. Amazing how the BBC chose to commemorate this historic occasion! I was left feeling angry and frustrated. Where was the optimism? Why didnât we get any of Nigel Farageâs sound bites. I was not expecting us to gloat or go into rapturous self congratulations but a little bit of the feel good factor wouldnât have gone amiss. And decking out the studio in blue and gold was scandalous . Shame on the BBC.
February 1, 2020
Just been looking at a few clips from Sky Australia on youtube. They certainly didn’t deck the studio out in blue and gold, they weren’t too shy to screen the celebrations in Parliament Square and they felt comfortable talking openly of the economic miracle that lies just around the corner for us.
February 1, 2020
Well said, Shirley and Agricola. Nigel Farage was always the driving force behind leaving the EU, constantly pushing the Conservative party to do that which it did not want to do!
There never was a single Conservative leader, perhaps with the exception of IDS, who was prepared to stand up unequivocally for the UK against the EU.
The Tory ‘Ministry of Truth’ will attempt to write NF out of the records but will not succeed because, left to them, we would never ever have left the EU.
I am grateful that we did not leave with Mrs May’s shameful ‘deal’. Another significant achievement of Nigel’s was ensuring that she was forced from office by her party.
February 1, 2020
Boris Johnson may have been the one to deliver Brexit, but, as of today, it is very much Nigel Farage’s personal achievement. Nigel is unique : he is the one person who does not need to be an MP or Peer to influence events and get things done.
Why is this ? It is because he tells things as they really are and instinctively knows how to connect with the ordinary person in the street : in particular, the kind of people the Labour Party no longer bothers to represent.
As he retired from the European Parliament yesterday, his has been the one political career for at least a generation, that has not ended in failure.
But Nigel Farage has done better than that : How many people can rightfully claim to have achieved their single life-long ambition? Remainers will hate the very thought, but in this respect, Nigel’s has been the most influential and successful political career since Margaret Thatcher. There are clamours to give him a knighthood. I would like to see him, rewarded with a peerage, but in reality, Nigel doesn’t need one.
February 1, 2020
The broadcast MSM kept asking Brexiteers how they will measure the success of Brexit in the coming weeks and years, the point none of the media could grasp was that the only measure of success was at 11pm last night – that we actually did leave.
Hopefully, with sensible policies coming from Downing Street (please take note BoJo…) the UK will go from renewed strength to strength, both here at home and in the RotW, but if we crash and burn it will have been at the hands of the British people our British parliament, not some unelected eurocrat.
The democratic wish of the British people in other words!
February 1, 2020
A joy to read. If there is any need to spare a thought for the losers – Heseltine, Blair and too many others to name – let it be a combination of Powell and Orwell: “All political careers end in failure, but some end in greater failure than others.”
February 1, 2020
And no open borders with the EU or with the rest of the world. I am not hopeful with this prime minister and I see you do not mention this.
February 1, 2020
But we have never in our history had open borders, have you never been to Heathrow?
February 1, 2020
[…] My long fight for Brexit – John Redwood […]
February 1, 2020
Hear, hear!
It is quite revealing to observe the tack now being taken by the Mainstream Media now they can see that the game is up with trying to keep the UK in the EU.
Readers will note that all they talk about is what chances we have of cutting a deal with the EU before the year is out, as though the deals we are likely to make with countries outside the bloc were a marginal or irrelevant factor and the EU is the only area of trade that matters.
They should instead be exploring the deals we could make with other nations GLOBALLY, but no, not a peep about that! They should also recognise that the more deals we strike with countries outside the EU as soon as possible, the more pressure this puts on the EU to be reasonable with us and offer us a decent deal.
Those opposed to Brexit call us “Little Englanders”, while Ms. Von der Leyen even used the phrase “splendid isolation” to describe our approach to the world outside, but they should realise what “Little Ee-Youers” they are with their customs union and their attitude that they are the only game in town so we should jolly well bow down before them and kiss their boots.
Amazing how they still just don’t get it when they see themselves as intellectually superior!
February 1, 2020
An interesting psychological insight.
The five stages of the Grief are, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
So what happens to people who can only virtue signal about the EU?
First they get stuck in the denial phase for longer because they canât move to the anger phase easily because that will not be seen as virtuous and they canât move into the bargaining phase easily because that might mean they are wrong.
So after a long period virtue signallers might move into the depressed stage with suppressed latent anger and not having bargained with themselves about why events happened.
Finally they cannot move into the acceptance phase because that will mean showing they are wrong publically.
Virtue signalling individuals then will stay in denial longer and move to being depressed with latent anger and no real understanding of their role in the events.
February 1, 2020
Javelin, Intriguing. Though I think some of the Remains on here moved to the anger stage fairly promptly – where they have stayed.
February 1, 2020
Thank you, Doctor. I already feel better.
February 1, 2020
âever closer unionâ – or in plain English – “We want your money then to destroy your country. You must be ruled by us and obey everything we say. We will destroy your borders and order you to take in millions of 3rd Worlders, house them, and pay for their whole lives while they drag your country backward and downwards, demanding you change to become what THEY want.”
February 1, 2020
People from the Third World came here almost entirely because there were and are sovereign arrangements between this country and its former empire, the Commonwealth, enabling them to come here.
That is not at all within the remit of the European Union – nothing at all to do with it.
Only a tiny proportion came from other places via the European Union.
February 1, 2020
Let the EU prevaricate, Ian Wragg, it won’t do them one bit of good. They have in fact started by saying talks cannot begin before March, which is no more than a crude and ill informed way of running the clock down.
There are many trade deals around the world for us to agree and sign. In addition we can lift the current EU tariffs on many products which will not only reduce our home shopping bill but will also be in direct competition with the EU and which they fear most.
Boris put the time limit on the transition period into the WA bill and if they won’t come to discuss trade then it has been suggested he might put a tariff on all EU imports. Germany would head towards recession and the French and Spanish farmers and wine growers would riot.
We have Farage making sure we get a proper and realistic working relationship with the EU and fully prepared to hold the PM’s feet to the fire should he show signs of weakening. At the same time we need to ignore the protestations and down-beat attitude of the EU’s London based PR consultants, the BBC.
We have a very bright and prosperous future ahead of us
February 1, 2020
It was good to be at the Leave celebrations in Parliament Square last night. All credit to those who pushed for Brexit against entrenched Establishment opposition.
As Nigel Farage pointed out, Boris Johnsonâs government seems to be saying all the right things now. We still need to stay strong and not surrender to EU intransigence.
The country will be watching closely to see that happens. Conservatives will not be forgiven if the betray the referendum a second time. Once bitten, twice shy.
February 1, 2020
Peter, Very true.
February 1, 2020
It is a great moment indeed. However, if we are going to rely on the EU being ‘decent’ in the forthcoming negotiations I fear we can think again. We will only get a satisfactory result with great and ruthless strength of purpose.
February 1, 2020
People in the civilised countries of the European Union are not like you.
They understand more than brutishness.
That is your perennial mistake.
February 2, 2020
Martin, The EU isn’t as “civilised” as you imagine – we’ve had 48 years to see that. And you’re forgetting that most Remain commenters on here have said we would “lose” because the EU is bigger than us. That seems pretty “brutish”.
February 1, 2020
What dreadful coverage by BBC and Sky last night .
The majority who voted Leave were not allowed to Celebrate only Commiserate with Remainers .
No coverage of Farage or Widdecombe or Tice or others in Parliament Square rally
Not even Boris speech
Just endless Scots whingers NO Scots Leavers
And the ghastly Katyâs Adler telling us over and over of the reaction in Brussels
An absolute disgrace !
February 1, 2020
Search out a few of the Sky Australia clips on youtube. They gave a much more upbeat view of Brexit, the jubilation in the Square and our economic prospects going forward. No commiserations. No blue and gold screensavers.
February 1, 2020
Sir John,
In your optimistic outlook to the “firm and friendly” talks you recommend, do you hold by the statements of your colleagues about the likely outcomes? Specifically, do you agree that the UK will have the “exact same benefits” (David Davis) and that the trade deal will be the “easiest in human history” (Liam Fox)? You say that we were lied to in 1975, we haven’t been lied to this time have we?
Reply I stand by all I wrote and said both before and after the vote.
February 1, 2020
Villaking, This is what David Davis actually said in 2017 (Hansard): “I hope to persuade her that this is a very worthwhile aimâis the idea of a comprehensive free trade agreement and a comprehensive customs agreement that will deliver the exact same benefits as we have, but also enable my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade to go and form trade deals with the rest of the world, which is the real upside of leaving the European Union“. His words were an aim, not a promise, or a description; he was speculative, hopeful, and addressed solely the issue of trade.
I think you are also twisting the words of Liam Fox. We could have had the easiest trade deal if the EU had been willing and friendly, rather than the intransigent vindictive bully it chose to be.
February 1, 2020
We should also never forget that for all their nice words, the EU was quite prepared to lock us into an extremely damaging, to us, agreement. They have promised to make us pay for disrupting their self-serving little party, and they will try to do just that if we let them. Our negotiators must remain strong and firm.
February 1, 2020
Thank you for your efforts, Sir John. Now, will you, and the rest of the ERG, kindly be on the alert for any moves by either Brussels or No 10 to lock us into the EU. Any agreements signed over the course of this year should have exit clauses in them, so we can extract ourselves from any arrangements that are proved not to be working to our advantage.
P.S. How disappointing to learn that trade talks won’t be starting until March. They should be starting on Monday!
February 1, 2020
Sea Warrior, Indeed trade talks should start on Monday, but the EU is again demonstrating that it is our enemy by delaying talks for an unnecessary further month, even after the EU has had 3+ years to prepare.
February 1, 2020
Juliet Samuel in the Telegraph today. “I did not choose Brexit, but I did choose democracy”.
Sure, how can anyone think that choosing to vote to remain in the anti-democratic EU believe that they choose democracy?
February 1, 2020
Perhaps she read PPE or Geography or something I suppose.
February 1, 2020
Why do you still bang on about a FTA with them- we didn’t vote for a FTA so why continue talking about trade with them. We are free now so that should be good enough
February 1, 2020
No, according to the Leave campaigners such as Daniel “no one is thinking of leaving the single market” Hannan, you voted to remain in the Single Market and Customs Union.
Didn’t you?
February 2, 2020
He spoke about access not membership.
February 2, 2020
Martin, Look up the video of Hannan, instead of falling for Remain fakery. Both the campaigns before 23 June 2016 were specific that Leave meant leaving the single market and leaving the customs union – there are endless videos confirming it.
February 1, 2020
Because that is the cover they use for an Association Agreement.
February 1, 2020
I expect the USA’s farmers (the Republican Party base) will expect free access to our markets.
Mr Gove’s weird farm subsidy scheme (farmers as custodians etc) might be seen by the WTO as a hidden subsidy.
February 1, 2020
I’m sure the EU will start to reform, it wouldn’t do it whilst we were in. They will now fear our competiveness, unfortunately it took us to leave for them to do it, if we didn’t leave they would have carried blindly on.
February 1, 2020
Steve Reay
Exactly.
Although I suspect the EU will implode during the process. I also believe the French – led Commission know they’re in serious trouble.
Thank God it’ll all fall apart before they provoke Russia a step too far. Noting that the EU wishes to get it’s hands on our military, and is held bent on getting adjacent borders with Russia via Ukraine.
We’re best off out of it.
February 1, 2020
“The euro will be dead and buried by Christmas 2012” -Nigel Farage.
February 2, 2020
Martin, If the EU had stuck to its own laws, the Euro would have been.
February 1, 2020
Sir John
You have more than deserved your knighthood after your lifelong campaigns to rid us of the monster which was built on Sandy Euro Fantasy like the so-called American Dream.
Whilst it’s OK to dream, the Common Market was never subsequently based on (un) common sense but hidden agendas now exposed in the long run.
We must now buckle down and finish the job properly.
Well Done Sir John!
February 1, 2020
Well done indeed to Sir John, but also well done to plain Mr. Farage. It was only the pressure from him, UKIP and the Brexit Party that ever got us a referendum and then forced them to actually deliver (if they do that is).
It seems the Kier Starmer now want to fight to restore open door EU immigration. He apparently made a passionate defence of EU freedom of movement and would fight to restore it.
Essentially a racist immigration policy of EU good everyone else less good. That undercuts UK salaries very significantly and put huge pressures on housing, the NHS, police, social services, the NHS…… should be very popular with Labour voters.
February 1, 2020
Last night on the radio I heard someone being interviewed about Brexit, with him saying that Foreign investment at the moment in the UK is more than into Germany and France combined, and therefore we need 280,ooo immigrants a year. He neglected to say how many of these would actually be qualified (genuinely, not a fake degree ) 0r be coming to work and contribute as opposed to those who just want a roof over their heads, free benefits, free NHS etc and to work as cash in hand, non tax paying “car washers”.
February 1, 2020
Most (even non fake UK degrees) are not really much of a qualification to do anything much.
February 1, 2020
Yes, but the job is still only half-done. Northern Ireland and Scotland want to remain in the EU. We should allow them to have referendums as soon as possible, and let them leave.
Brexit was not a British decision. It was the people of England and Wales who got it through, over the wishes of the Remainer Scots (62%remain) and Northern Irish (56% remain). I say let them go.
February 1, 2020
I agree Ireland should go if they wish but don’t like the idea of a land border with Scotland unless we have a Trump style wall. For now cancelling payments under the Barnett formula and moving our naval facilities to England might focus their minds.
February 1, 2020
Leaver
See the thing is, at any international football match – the Scotts always don the colours of our opposing side. It’s a thing with them and goes back 300 years.
I say if they want to remain in the EU then maybe time to let them go providing their decision was democratic and included English and Welsh votes next time around.
If they think they can be independent while at the same time being a tiny Brussels colony that takes orders from the unelected, then fine, let them go.
Of course there can be no Barnett formula perks, no HMRC offices in Scotland, HM dockyards will have to be relocated, and they will have to join the euro.
Oh an there’s a border issue, boy will we have fun with that.
Independent from bad evil ‘too -ery’ England that obviously gives them nothing, and enslaved to the control freakery of the EU empire and it’s unelected mafia. If that’s what they prefer let them get on with it, they have a right to self determination same as the rest of us.
February 1, 2020
Leaver, Don’t be silly – it was a national vote and many areas voted Leave and many voted Remain. But it was one or the other for the entire nation, according to the rules laid down by Parliament. The result must be implemented just as the result of the Scots voting to remain in the UK was implemented.
February 1, 2020
Sir John, unlike you I am not at all optimistic as our current government are still made up of non fact based virtue signalling policy types. My hope is that one day they will run the country based on facts. Information such as HS2 cost benefit analysis, Climate Change and the Paris Accord, Erasmus (the middle class gap year fund) and all other topics are transparent to the public. For example with Erasmus, why do we pay in 11% of it’s budget when only 3% of the students are from the UK? If we continue in these organisations the government should ensure value for money.
February 1, 2020
DaveK, it seems you are comparing apples with oranges. Indeed the UK contribution to the EU budget was 11%, indeed the number of students from the UK in Erasmus was only 3%.
But from 2014 to 2017, 951 Erasmus+ grants were awarded to the UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) worth âŹ295m. Over the same period, UK HEIs were partners in over 330 grants worth around âŹ230m. So for the UK, specifically for Erasmus+, that is a positive gain of around âŹ65m.
Maybe there are/were not enough UK âmiddle classâ students willing to benefit from this âgap year fundâ.
But donât worry, with a bit of luck, you may be able to maintain all those privileged kids within the UK borders.
February 1, 2020
Hefner, What a pointless comment. Any “gain” we got from the EU was paid for by us. So not actually a real gain at all.
February 1, 2020
The return of our soverigntity is like getting your house back after the tenants have been evicted and the house has been trashed.
– Free Speech has been eroded by EU law
– Hunan Rights stopping criminals being deported
– House of Lords stuffed with Pro EU lobbyists
– Businesses dependent on cheap EU labour
– Regulations and laws to help other EU countries
We have been given a tarnished, battered soverigntity back.
February 1, 2020
I agree and re number 2 in your list those in receipt of EU salaries and pensions have to remain loyal to the EU, before their own country, so surely it is reasonable to ask any Lords in that position to resign and any MPs in the same position too. It would also be a quick and easy way to reduce the number of Lords and restore a balance of opinion there, which is more in line with that of the country.
February 3, 2020
Sorry, number 3.
February 1, 2020
The return of our sovereignty is like getting your house back after the tenants have been evicted and the house has been trashed.
Plus after you have had to pay the lawyers and courts ÂŁbillions in fees to repossess the house!
February 1, 2020
Isn’t it just great that we have to pay for the BBC’s BS, like it or not. Given how badly informed they are, I wonder if the shower that runs it would have been quite so biased towards Germany on May 8th 1945? Knowing how misguided they are, it wouldn’t surprise me.
Let’s de-criminalise payment of the licence fee. The BBC would simply wither away through lack of interest, but I’m sure the neo-liberal pinko snowflake pro-EU journalists would soon find work on the continent where their services would doubtless be appreciated by a besotted blinkered audience. They’re sure as hell not appreciated here, they’re detested!
February 1, 2020
Last night the BBC brought itself into ridicule with its so clearly biased reporting on its Radio 4 and television networks. Refusing to broadcast the PM’s brief, heartening address and instead devoting a large chunk of its 10pm ‘The World Tonight’ news to a specially BBC-recorded tirade by a German academic critiquing the British decision to leave the EU, and going on and on about British lies, xenophobia and demagogy, was an editorial mistake that strongly suggests the BBC can no longer be reformed to accept national democratic norms. It must now be broken up.
February 1, 2020
Agreed; a good start would be to abolish the licence fee.
February 1, 2020
It cannot change as that is how almost every single senior person employed at the BBC thinks! Rod Little who used to work there says he know a couple of hundred BBC people but only one who voted Brexit! They are even more absurdly biased on Climate Alarmist, PC Woke drivel, the gender pay lunacy and the likes.
February 1, 2020
Part of our future success will be determined by how our media reports events.
We can not go on as we are with quisling undermining of the path our country has chosen.
The bias of tv etc must be tackled since this may well fuel the ârejoin agendaâ.
Certainly, last night the reporting of our final hours in the EU was rife with sly digs and innuendo…..even to the extent of one interviewer being very rude to Mr Farage. As usual he parried the attack with brilliance but these media minions should know their place. They should interview to learn …not to lecture.
February 1, 2020
This morning a returning expat from Wuhan currently under isolation in Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral was interviewed on R4 Toady program and his first words were “good morning to great independent Britain…”
Martha Carney immediately responded saying “well let’s leave Brexit aside and focus on the Coronavirus if you don’t mind.”
He obviously touched a raw nerve.
February 2, 2020
A good thing the television in Number Ten broke down or it would have spoiled the party. We put ours on during our little party, to see the crowds and hear the speeches in Parliament Square. We hoped to see signs of rejoicing in the Provinces too. And we were primed to hear the PM’s address at ten o’clock and hear the chimes at eleven. The Prosecco (they are on our side) was ready and so was the smoked salmon. To our horror we got one long EUmaniacal dirge. No PM’s address, no speeches from Parliament Square, and only carefully diminished shots of the crowds. Instead we made many trips to Scotland to hear the Scottish National Socialists on the rant, and to Wales to hear the separatists complaining there. To cap it all, two remainers did the paper review on Sky. Difficult to say which was worse, Sky or BBC. It was as if the BBC were saying, go on, abolish us. We have no concept of nation and we don’t know how to cover a great national landmark. Nor do we want to.
February 2, 2020
I heard today that Frexit has its own channel.
February 1, 2020
Thankfully I can’t receive the BBC where I am just now but have Fox (US) news and France24.
France24 today has been all about “how will the UK manage without the EU” with much focus on the remainers in London and Scotland. Seems those in the EU media simply have no concept of an independent nation.
Fox is preoccupied with the Trump impeachment just now but what little news there was on Brexit was positive. Interesting to draw a parallel between the (anything but) Democrats and our own remainers. Sore losers to a man.
February 1, 2020
So no coverage on France 24 about the need for EU budget cuts now that ‘Treasure Island’ has cast off? I’ll set up a Google news alert to keep up to date with that developing good news story.
February 1, 2020
That’s because we are still paying in.
February 1, 2020
France24 had today (at 15:30 French time) three topics on Brexit including Macronâs comment, then other topics about Mahmoud Abbas, US Senate, coronavirus, Mary Higgins Clark, Weinstein, US election 2020, French retirement shenanigans. So not all about âhow will the UK manage without the EUâ. Is that the result of channel tunnel vision?
February 1, 2020
The whole thing is BS John and in ten years time we will still be under EU control and influence but with no say at toptable. Meanwhile the airports in Europe will set up special queuing channels for the second class blue passport holders and at home the UK customs will become again the scourge they once were for weary home coming UK travellers. So it’s all BS about taking back control – the people with real control will be the bureaucrats and frontline officials everywhere.
February 1, 2020
You forgot the plague of locusts. I commute back and forth quite frequently so I will keep you posted. At present there is passport and facial recognition at both ends, quite swift no problemas.
February 1, 2020
Bob: “Is your government still considering surrendering Britainâs military assets including our nuclear deterrent to a centralised EU command in Brussels?”
Reply [JR] No
JR, that is nice to know. However this subject did not seem to have much press coverage, despite the obvious dangers of such a move.
Might you at some point consider a topic on this ? A lot of people are extremely worried about Britain’s nuclear arsenal coming under EU control.
February 2, 2020
I think that they are rather more worried by the US’s being under Trump’a as we write.
February 2, 2020
A President who has shown a different policy to his predecessors who involved themselves in many armed conflicts.
But I realise you need to have a go at Trump.
It is a badge of honour for you left types.
February 1, 2020
JR says “The EU needs a Free Trade Agreement more than we do as it is such a big exporter to us, so we must stand firm in negotiation.” To which the EU would reply:
Please please Mr Redwood I beg you on behalf of the EU, we are desperate to keep supplying the UK with its basic food calories and nutrients. Forty years of food supply chain integration has left Britain dependent on importing almost 60% of its domestic food manufacturing components from the EU. Those components coming to the UK courtesy of the numerous high volume low cost, “third country” supplier contracts the EU 27 has built up since the UK became a member.
Please please also Mr Redwood, I beg you on behalf of the EU27, we are desperate to keep importing into our huge single market, Britainâs food exports, notably 96% of British beef, lamb; and crops such as wheat and barley.
February 2, 2020
Your usual nonsense Project Fear about food.
We import foodstuffs from nearly every country on Earth and export to nearly every country on Earth.
Trade often with nations we have no agreement with which has carried on for decades.