Having just read the front page of today’s Sunday Times, I just had to make this short comment on David Cameron’s hypocrisy and his blatant attempt at self publicity.
Just before the 2016 referendum he gave this televised promise “… I will implement the people’s decision whatever the outcome..”.
He then resigned the very next day running away from his promise and then hid for three years in his caravan writing his self congratulatory memoir.
His quote yesterday “I’m sorry I failed” should really have been “Sorry I ran away from my promise, I have no backbone!”
One of the finest Private Eye covers ever.
A completely self consumed hypocrite just like John Major and Tony Blair.
Politics used to mean “Of the people for the people”.
Politics now means “Of the MPs and for the MPs”. And, of course, for the supporting 24/7 Westminster bubble journalism industry.
No Deal was the default position voted for by MPs in 2016! By a huge majority.
MPs then voted a further three times to make Brexit happen on March 29th 2019.
What changed? A Prime Minister brow beaten by Brussels bureaucrats because she didn’t understand what to do. Boris Johnson does.
After last night’s vote our trust in our MPs and their system is now completely destroyed.
Our trust in them, of course, had been waning since the end of the Thatcher era , hastened by the Blair years and finally lost by David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Theresa May.
This duck palace, paid for by we the people, is the image that defined the downfall of our trust in our MPs. Ten years on from the MPs’ expenses scandal which exposed just what politicians had been claiming,
The duck palace opposite sums up their view of us.
My view of them can best be represented by a sigh of disbelief.
I am sure most of us now feel as if weare on a different planet to the one resided in by most of our MPs?
They, since the 2016 referendum, thought it was all about them and the party political system of representative democracy.
But the 2016 referendum had the completely unintended consequence of energising we the British voters to take part again.
Our myopic, insulated MPs just could not believe the result! (Ed: and neither did Boris & his mate Gove 😉 )
They still don’t understand what happened.
There is a lot a talk about trust this morning but “they” are talking about trust in Westminster and in the party political system.
They are not talking about our trust in them, they don’t care about that, yet.
History will call them charlatans, disconnected, self interested bottom feeders and the slayers of the people’s democracy.
Shame on them.
Boris Johnson ain’t perfect but he is, by far, the best we have until a real grown up appears. It might even be him, I cannot see anyone else to support.
Time will tell and I can’t wait to be 5 years older and look back on this preposterous era.
May I try to put the childish, irrelevant “furious backlash“, as reported today by the BrBC (British remoaning Broadcasting Corporation), into some logical context?
A view from Winston Churchill – he never envisaged that we would be a part of a political union
You may have guessed that I am for leaving the EU by now 😉
The remainers have been told effectively to shut by Boris.
Hurrah for him!
This is why: our MPs are simply ignoring the wishes of the British people.
In 2016 the people were asked by our government to make the decision, for the government, to either leave the EU or to remain.
This simple question was easy to answer.
More people voted in that referendum than had voted in any general election since had Noah floated across the Straights of Hormuz.
Those of us who voted to to leavewon, or so we thought.
Back in 2016 we didn’t know or care about about “a deal”. We just assumed our politicians had the job of competently removing us from the pile of poo that is the EU.
Back in 2016 we had never heard about the Customs Union. We didn’t know the implications of a deal or no deal.
Back in 2016 we didn’t even think or care about the Irish border complexities. Our dear competent politicians would sort that out.
Back in 2016 we just assumed that the politicians would calmly and competently remove us from the disastrous future created by Maastricht in 1987.
Back in 2016 we did not know why we were being ruled Herman Von Rompuy, or who he was. We did not know, or care, who the President of the EU was, or why there were 4 other parts of the EU that made the whole thing completely undemocratic, by design!
There were many other things about the EU that we did not know about either, we did not care. We just wanted out!
It had nothing to with economics or most of the argument we later heard ad nauseam from the remainers who could not accept that they had lost the most direct form democratic of vote we have.
The following describe my reasons for leaving the EU.
The EU:-
was in 1975 an trade union (we had a referendum to decide that). The EU became a political union in in 1987 (Maastricht: no referendum on that!)
is undemocratic by design, more so after Maastricht,
is faceless (go on, tell me who Herman Von Rompuy is?),
is financially incompetent,
has disregarded failed audit reports for over 20 years,
is intent on creating a federal European state ruled from Belgium (Maastricht),
is intent of creating a European Army (Maastricht),
is intent on supporting global business to the detriment of the people’s benefit,
is run (until last month) by a corporate tax avoidance specialist; Jean Claude Juncker
is designed to support Germany first, France second and everybody else third (the Euro created by Maastricht),
has created agricultural subsidies that make no sense unless you are French or German
Finally a few words from Daniel Hannan MEP. A touch of humour to cheer you all up!
Here is Pat Condell, a man even grumpier than me – eight minutes of well argued grumpiness explaining why he, and I, voted to leave the EU and why we must vote for an Independent Candidate in the next election. Discuss 😉
Nigel’s response to my letter is just underneath my response to his response.
Dear Mr Huddlestone
Thank you for responding. I hope to change your mind eventually because we really have no real alternative.
However, once again you miss my point entirely.
The very existence of “faith” (i.e. irrational) schools is divisive and it has to be up to government to force the change.
Government seems set on actively, but blindly, promoting a path of societal division and is ignoring its duty to keep us all safe.
Current government action is largely pointless and your “active promotion” is worthless and ignored.
We already see the first results of this in Birmingham and so many other places.
However, I realise that you fear lost votes; I can see no other reason for your inaction.
Yours in despair, yet with a modicum of hope in Boris and Brexit by 31st October.
Fingers crossed
Derek Ruskin
On 29/07/2019 10:43, HUDDLESTON, Nigel wrote:
Dear Mr Ruskin
Thank you for contacting me about secularism.
I appreciate the concerns of the UK’s secular community, particularly regarding extremism in schools and the importance of free speech for both religious and non-religious people. Please let me assure you that I remain committed to working towards a society in which all citizens, regardless of whatever their individual beliefs are, can live together fairly and cohesively.
During inspections, Ofsted inspectors ask questions that probe whether pupils are prepared for the next stage in their education and life in modern Britain, using age-appropriate questions to check children’s understanding and tolerance of different lifestyles.
All schools are now expected to “actively promote” British values, which were defined in 2011 as democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. Teaching respect for other people, even if you do not agree with them or their way of life, is a fundamental part of preparation for life in Britain, and a principle all schools should be able to support.
On the issue of Anglican schools, I can understand why some secular families might not wish to send their children to faith schools. However, many families of all denominations and none remain keen to send their children to faith schools. As such, I welcome the Government’s wide ranging education reforms which are raising school standards across the country, and allow parents, both secular and religious, greater choice of good schools in which to educate their children.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
I have written to you before about faith schools and their very existence which cause many obvious divisions in society.
Parliament still actively encourages this rapidly developing calamity by funding and encouraging ever more faith schools – butwhy?
Society has changed fundamentally in the last 60 years and I want my representative in parliament to come out in support of radical change. A secular education system is not only logical but now vital to ensure peace on our streets in the future.
Jerusalem? Berlin before 1987? Nope, Belfast today! Separating the Papists from the Provos.
If you don’t want to support the situation where children of ‘provos’ and ‘Catolics’ are told to avoid each other and where children of Muslim parents are told to shun the children of the kuffar (that’s you and me) then please take note of the following.
According to a major new study, 52% of people in Britain say they have ‘no religion’. The figure, which comes from the highly-respected British Social Attitudes survey, has risen from 48% since 2015 and 31% since 1983. The survey reveals that the British population is becoming increasingly irreligious and religiously diverse. These dramatic changes in Britain’s religion and belief landscape demand a policy response.
I am urging you to ensure that Britain’s constitutional settlement and public policies catch up with the opinions of its population. One of the most striking findings of the BSA survey is that just 1% of 18-24 year olds identify as Anglican.
This means church schools are unlikely to be an attractive, or even acceptable, option to tomorrow’s parents. This calls into question the appropriateness and sustainability of organised religion’s role in running our publicly funded schools.
Christianity is one major influence among many that has shaped our country. But the UK is now one of the most religiously diverse, and also non-religious, nations in the world.
Our political structures do not recognise this huge change. They need to evolve to make Britain a secular democracy where religion and the state are separate.
Pope Francis greeting Mugabe in Rome 7 years ago. Such a good Christian message don’t you think? What on earth is the Vatican all about?
To set out its vision for a secular Britain, the National Secular Society has published a comprehensive report, ‘Rethinking religion and belief in public life: a manifesto for change’: https://tinyurl.com/natsecsoc
This outlines constructive and specific proposals to reform the role of religion in public life.
I hope you can consider adopting these sensible and forward-thinking proposals.
The National Secular Society works towards a society in which all citizens, regardless of religious belief or lack of it, can live together fairly and cohesively. In its manifesto it considers how the state should respond to these fundamental demographic changes, particularly in our institutions and policy responses.
It sets out proposals for reforms in education, public services, institutions and public ceremonies needed to ensure fairness for all regardless of their religion or belief. It also evaluates the state of the law on human rights and freedom of expression where it concerns religion.
Please take the time to look at this report, consider its arguments, and work towards implementing these proposals for a fairer and safer society for the 21st century.
Yours sincerely
Derek Ruskin (derek@ruskinweb.co.uk)
PS: What do you get if you cross an atheist with a Jehova’s witness?
A – Someone who knocks on your door for no apparent reason.
There are a few simple truths at the heart of our disillusion with politics & politicians
No political party has dared to tell us that we can’t afford to pay for all our pensions, the NHS, social care and all those public services that we now demand “as of right”.
The welfare state has weakened the government’s ability to break even? It was never envisaged, back in 1947, that is was to become such a huge part of the economy. Discuss.
Our government has only broken even seven times in the last 110 years. (Ed: Not a lot a people know that.)
The depressing figures for the last 10 years are here on the government’s own statistics web site (ONS).
The party political system is flawed too, because it does not allow politicians to plan for long term solutions.
All political parties are demonstrably rubbish at financial planning.
It can also be argued that is our fault and that we are “in this mess” because so few of us vote.
(Ed: Except in the EU IN/OUT referendum!) 😉
The clincher for me is the simple fact that we were asked to decide the EU issue.
We were promised by our government that our answer would be honoured.
Our answer however was the wrong answer and David Cameraman ran off to hide in his posh new caravan.
Following on from the EU’s own answer to answers they don’t like, our politicians’ answer is to lie, ignore democracy, try to ask the same question again and talk bollocks for nigh on three years.
Are we bothered enough to do something about it?
We, the people, can’t be really be bothered to be bothered any more?
It seems we are not bothered enough because:-
Those who are well off want to keep the status quo.
Those who are “just about managing” haven’t got the time to shout about it.
Those who really are poor have no voice and no party to speak for them.
Great Britain, and most the the West, has developed a strange form of democracy wherein the views of the majority of people can now be completely and safely ignored.
Change UK (Ed: Who they?*1) has yet to realise that their name should actually be “No Change UK” or perhaps “Love EU“. I predict a huge election failure looming for these deluded, myopic, self interested twerps, because we will be bothered to vote in the next EU election and it will be for Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party that we will vote.
Annunziate Rees-Mogg joins the Nigel Farage’s new Brexit party
Hurrah for Annunziata Rees Mogg & Ann Widdecombe and the new Brexit party.
Those who govern us don’t really need to be bothered to be competent either! Why not?
Over the last 25 years, government ministers have been quietly transferring their own valid responsibilities to Quangos (Quasi non-governmental organisations).
This avoids ministers having to give difficult answers to awkward questions when things go wrong. “It wazzn me guv, you need ask the regulator”.
Quite sickening, in my opinion, but quite accepted, normal and largely unchallenged. Because we can’t be bothered?
We the people have been frustrated, bored and ignored into submission …
… by those who love their government jobs and their desire for power more than anything else.
The reason for this is our flawed voting system and Tory & Labour parties fear of introducing proportional representation (PR).
For example, if we had PR, Nigel Farage’s UKIP would have had 46 seats in parliament in 2015!
This all started when we began to notice that whoever was in power couldn’t think in terms longer than 3 years and didn’t do much for our benefit.
So the upshot of all this is that most of us now feel that we have nobody worth voting for.
They simply refused to listen to us when we gave the wrong answer on the Brexit decision.
How did this all happen?
This was not such an issue when there were two very distinct parties fighting for clearly different visions of government. That situation died in the 1980’s.
First we had Thatchers mad years of selling off anything the British people owned by right (our water supply, means of electricity distribution, etc. & etc.).
Her banking and financial deregulation policies lead to a debt driven growth causing the 2007 financial crisis from which we may never recover.
Those who bankrupted us were never called to account and we the people have been paying the bill ever since.
In the good old days, the Tories ruled for a few years until we spotted that they were nasty sex mad corrupt capitalists (John Major’s hypocritical years).
So we gave the Labour party a go until we spotted that they were driven by union bosses more interested in themselves than rights for the workers. (Callaghan’s useless government).
Then we had the Blair years where a religious despot so full of himself that he destroyed the Labour party by creating the second Tory party.
Then we had a few Brown years where he nailed New Labour’s coffin firmly shut.
Then we had a coalition which privatised the NHS, our forests and a few other things we didn’t notice.
Then Nick Clegg destroyed the Liberal Democrats by lying to two generations of students and by believing that the EU was better for the United Kingdom of Great Britain than was our own government.
Then for a few years more we still couldn’t bother to be bothered until we were asked, by David Cameron (Ed: Who he?), to vote either IN or OUT of the EU.
Then parliament decided that their voice should heard because they not like our answer to the question they asked us to rule on.
Well, what are you going to do about it?
Nigel Farage then came along and spoke in words that we understood and spoke about things that we actually cared about! We might not like him very much but his words connected!
It was he who forced David Cameron into giving us a referendum on membership of the EU.
We the people suddenly woke up and voted in numbers not seen for decades, but…
Then, for the last 3 years, we have been professionally ignored all over again and we have all lost the will to live.
Another truth is that most of the power now lies outside of the political process and is held by corporate entities who are bigger than most small to medium countries.
So, now it really does really matter that we can’t be bothered, because nobody we can vote for can do much about it. They aren’t really bothered either.
So there is nobody left for we the people to vote for.
Unless somebody else wakes up and err, does something about it.
Is that you?
Nah, you can’t be bothered and neither can I 😉
We get the leaders we deserve and since we can’t be bothered …
*1 Chukka Umuna, Anna Subrey & several other twerps.
It is not about you MPs – it is about the 17.4 million of us!
The sight of those silly school girls & boys skipping down the road away from their political parties was just sickening.
The new excited but deluded Remainer party who have nowhere to go after 29th March . Brussels perhaps?
Who do those adolescent MPs, who have never created anything of worth, think they are? It is simply not about them or their failed political parties.
It is about us, the 17.4 million of “We the People” remember them / us / we?
Qualification for MPs?
Most of our MPs are obviously ignorant of business, economics, democracy and history, yet they are given all the air time, on the damned BBC, to spread their unfounded opinions. But it was nice to see them firmly criticised, by the audience, on last week’s Any Questions, ;-).
Most of our MPs are completely unrepresentative of the people’s referendum result of 2016 and are trying their deluded best to reverse that referendum result.
They are so upset that OUR decision to leave bypassed them; that is what this is all about. For the future we need MPs who have done real jobs before they are allowed to stand as an MP. (Ed: what a good idea!)
You haven’t read Maastricht yet? Gosh, here’s your chance 😉
Please read the first 9 of the 260 pages of the Maastricht Treaty – it will take you 3 minutes, after which you will understand what I have been banging on about for the last 7 years! Fine but meaningless words – the reality falls at every post.
Our Remainer government has wasted two years on purpose
Our Executive (our so-called government) have been talking about the wrong thing and to the wrong people, for over two years.
Anyone who has actually started and run a business for more, than ten years, would have told the EU politely but firmly where to go!
A withdrawal agreement (who owes what to who, security collaboration, joint funded projects etc.) should have taken our civil servants a maximum of six months to sort out, had they been so instructed.
Then our civil servants could have started working on our import / export arrangements and would have finished those a year ago, had they been so instructed.
Our businesses would then have had the clarity they desperately needed a year ago. They would have had the time to prepare properly.
But faced with our career party politicians, who have never had to smell business reality, the EU just stuck to their desperate guns, firing blanks.
No real shots were fired and yet our pathetic negotiators capitulated!
What utter crap! I can feel Churchill and Atlee (and yes, even Margaret Thatcher) rolling over in their graves.
This last year should have been about putting people and mechanisms in place to cope with the EU’s intransigence.
Perhaps a hearing aid might improve matters?
Instead, our loopy PM, Theresa May, rolled over and agreed to spend two years talking about an agreement that the EU told us we had to sign, or else. (Ed: Or else what, we wonder?). That agreement was never needed and means NOTHING!
The EU is bust
We do not want to be part of a federal Europe run by Germany, again. They tried twice last century using force and are trying again using political and economic bribery.
The simple fact is that the EU is bust. The level of debt in Greece, Italy, Germany, France Portugal and Spain is simply eye-watering.
The debt was created by the EU creating Euro cash and calling it loans, rather than the bailouts*1 as they most assuredly were. They did it several times, twice to Spain and three times to Ireland.
Those loansbailouts will never be repaid, a simple fact that will inevitably finish the EU project once and for all.
The EU Central bank (ECB) actually charges its customers to put their money in; unbelievable! They started negative interest rates in 2014 and they are still doing it now(currently -0.4%)!
The EU is a failed project that is fighting for its life using smoke and mirrors and your money.
We must leave on the 29th to save our own economy first, or else I will invade Brussels!
Acknowledgements: Peter Brookes for his ever spot-on cartoon commentary on British poli-bollocks.
*1 – Bailouts are specifically ruled out in the Maastricht Treaty, “but never mind – lets call them loans 😉 and nobody will notice“.
“‘No bail-out’ clause Article 125 of the Lisbon treaty makes it illegal for one member to assume the debts of another. It has led to fears that Germany’s constitutional court could strike down EU bail-outs.” My source is the Financial Times
MPs are now so disconnected from the public that the current situation echoes events just prior to PeterLoo* in 1819. I saw the film PeterLoo last Friday and the political & economic similarities are hard to miss. Parliament and the Prince Regent (the King was mentally ill and incapable at that time) sent cavalry into a crowded Manchester square. Sixteen people were killed and seven hundred were seriously injured. The discontent of the people? Pah, send in the cavalry!
Two months is a long time in politics, memories fade with age and increasing confusion of age – see the wonderful front page of my copy of this month’s Private Eye below…
Today, the Tory, Lib Dem & Labour parties are arguing amongst themselves and the 2016 referendum result has been twisted into polibollical claptrap.
MPs may not have sent in the cavalry but being ignored is worse!
Every facet of our so-called parliamentary democracy is at stake here; our self obsessed MPs will destroy it if they manage to remove No Deal as an option.
MPs should not be the issue here. That view is ignored by the, once upon a time impartial BBC and is bypassed by all those with a voice.
The voice of ‘We the people’ is being ignored by our deaf MPs, BBC journalists and the government.
Referenda & their purpose
The responsibility for the Brexit decision was passed from the government, by the government, via the 2016 referendum, to ‘We the people‘.
‘We the people’ then made that decision, not you.
The executive (i.e. the elected government, not you MPs) promised to implement it.
I know that’s annoying for you, but you are, or should be, largely irrelevant to the process of Brexit.
But, that is exactly what the consequences of that referendum should have been.
Sadly, the 2016 EU referendum result was not legally binding on the government. David Cameron implied that it was binding and I’m sure most of us thought it was, back in 2016; most probably still do.
Interestingly, well OK not interesting at all really, the previous, and entirely stupid, referendum held in 2011 was binding.
Remember that one?
No, nor do most people, because it was an irrelevance to all but a few Lib Dems. They actually wanted a referendum on the introduction of PR(Proportional Representation). They had to accept the nonsensical compromise of AV (Alternative Vote) because that is what powerless politicians have to do.
My advice to parliament ( Yes, I know … 🙁 )
Dear MPs, take two months unpaid leave and give the government, what’s left of it anyway, some peace to sort out this incompetent and pathetic mess.
You might then begin to earn back some of the respect that the office of Member of Parliament once had.
Who let her out again?
The government could then use that two months of peace to sort Brexit, avoid our lights being turned off next year, cancel the ill conceived HS2 and use the money saved to nationalise the railways, the National Electricity grid and reclaim our water supply.
But it won’t. Grr.
THE END
* The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter’s Field, Manchester, England, on 16 August 1819, when cavalry charged into a crowd of 60,000–80,000 who had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation.
Growers of corn and wheat were being allowed to charge extortionate amounts for bread while imports of cheaper corn were banned by the protectionist landowners, many of whom were MPs. The people were quite rightly angry and, were we more like the French, would have made revolution, chopped off the heads of the Prince Regent and many of those landowners.
