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.
There are many serious and rational voices in support of a No Deal, despite the BBC’s overwhelming Project Fear coverage, and, to my surprise, by Channel 4’s Jon Snow (more on this below).
Two stupid, dangerous, hypocritical, weird, and probably mentally ill men (see Dr David Owen’s book Hubris Syndrome) who made it to PM Time for a change methinks
The pity is that these views are hidden from our view, but they are there, if you look.
So then, who are these misguided, treacherous, thick, ill educated No Deal supporters?
I have collected a few of the best arguments supplied by these well hidden voices below.
The Mayor of Calais, surprising a BBC Today program interviewer two days ago; please listen here
“we are ready and have been preparing for no deal for over 12 months, and there is no problem”
as are Rotterdam and several other European ports
Lord Anthony Bamford (Chairman of JCB – One of our oldest and most successful multi-national exporters) “A No Deal Brexit would end business uncertainty” read in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph Page 4
Leeds University students surprising Jon Snow in his Channel 4 televised debate – see here
Shock horror, not all young people have swallowed the Project Fear offensive
“So you are all leavers?” I quote Jon Snow’s incredulity at being faced down by so many rational 20 year erudite students!
Sir Rocco Forte (Forte Hotels) “What we are not being told by the harbingers of doom is that inward investment into the UK in the first half of 2018 was the second highest in the world after China, but ahead of the US and Germany. We are not told that 94 per cent of businesses in this country are not trading in Europe.”
Margaret Thatcher. See her famous speech (now all but forgotten) in 1982 railing against the formation of the EU and saying why she thinks the EU is a pile of poo (Ok “poo” is my word, not hers) – watch here
Tony Blair in his 1983 pre-election address, before he started being paid by Europe and being told that one day he would become President of the EU.
Now then, that’s what I call a proper U turn 😉
…and finally me, or anyone who has taken the time to read the Maastricht Treaty or even a summary. Read a very good, balanced, summary here in the Independent which is a quite rational and readable examination of the failure of Maastricht.
No Deal is far far better than any deal with the EU. The so called negotiated “agreement” is, and always has been a criminal waste of time by the Mother of Parliaments ignoring the wish a democratic majority. Quite sickening in my view.
This is exactly what our pathetic government has been doing for the two wasted years!
May’s deal is just criminally stupid, argued by someone who has never made anything, of worth, happen.
The time to pull the plug was two years ago, our dear leaders never saw it & still do not. Think about this image for at least 30 seconds – it sums everything up perfectly
Question: Who would I put in Orwell’s room 101?
Answer: All career politicians.
Why?
Politics original definition from the OED* “of the people, for the people“) is far too important to leave it to those who are clueless about the real life most of us (“we the people”) live. They think it means “of the politicians, for the politicians”
My evidence?
The last two years of party political idiocy arguing with the “unarguable with” (the EU bureaucrats and each other)”, who live by a rule book that nobody in the EU ever followed, other than the United Kingdom of Great Britain, of course ;-(
One despairs…
*OED : Oxford English Dictionary definition
Today’s definitions:
Party politics discussed by journalists feeding their insane desire / need for endless short term media massage
Discussing, endlessly, what some politician said and whether or not this affects their credibility
Acknowledgements:
Peter Brookes – for 45 minutes cartoon.
Also the Trouble Shooter’s creator, but sadly could not find out who that was, but Thank you
A referendum is the most powerful democratic tool we have. It is, and was in 2016, a direct call to ” we the people ” to have our say.
But our confused party politicians hate that level of direct democracy because it sidesteps what they think is their job 😉
This explains why around 500 members of parliament are doing all they can to reverse the clear instruction given to them in 2016.
Our voice is now seldom heard because our weird, quasi democratic, party political system plus the BBC’s blatant preference in support of the EU. We could learn a lot from Switzerland on the use of referenda.
The smokescreen trying to confuse us all
The “Remain lobby” is winning the media presence battle and is relying on the ignorance of the majority of “we the people”. Most of us don’t have the time to read things like the Maastricht treaty and the Localism Bill.
I have read them both and both stink to high heaven.
The summary of both, presented to us and the MPs, is and was a party political statement rather than an accurate summary of legal intent.
We are now being faced with a media smoke screen, mainly provided by the BBC’s coverage and our MPs who are completely unrepresentative of their constituents.
Why the smokescreen?
Because we gave the wrong answer in their referendum and they dare not say out loud that the EU is a failed project, because they signed us up, in 1982 to the disastrous Maastricht Treaty. That utter twerp, John Major, signed the damn thing in direct opposition to Margaret Thatcher’s lucid understanding of what the EEC was about to become!
Probably one of the few things she ever got right! (Sorry Peter…(private long running joke))
Their smokescreen demystified
May repeating robotically that “there is no other or better deal”
but there is, its called NO DEAL; just requires a PM with the balls to inform the EU
a monstrous change from her previous mantra of “No deal is better than a bad real” (Remember that one?)
Parliament asking for all the legal advice on May’s ridiculous deal, completely missing the point
lawyers will argue for ever and never see the wood for the trees – whoopeee, 5500 pages to read and advise upon, “Oh, that’ll be £100,000 please”.
Endless repetition of “a disastrous Cliff edge fall if we have no deal”
nonsense, it doesn’t
Remainer MPs calling for us to remain in the EU rather than accept May’s pile of poo agreement
Remainer businesses calling for a second referendum; their campaign largely financed by George Soros (The only guy to make £1 billion out of the 2002 ERM crash, another pile of EU poo)
Remainer businesses demanding security (Mainly the huge global corporates run by bean counters).
How dare they demand security? Small growing businesses never have security; that’s just called taking risks!
Hmm – what to do? Lemme think ….
A few facts
I’m making these few simple points today because our media driven political class are making Brexit appear to be a disaster for Britain.
It is not.
The vast majority, 480 of 650 MPs, voted to remain in the EU.
The BBC’s ridiculous pro-Remain stance is irritating enough, but Salzburg has exposed Theresa May, yet again, to be completely clueless. I have been saying this for months here and here and here.
Brexit means “buggered if I know”
Do the BBC, Theresa May & Dominic Raab really think we are all stupid?
The EU’s delusional bureaucracy is simply fighting for its very existence. It is scared shitless of the domino effect once we, the second largest net contributor, leave.
The EU is a failed organisation run by failed politicians and tax avoidance specialists. It is incapable of realising, as David Cameron found out to his cost, that their future depends on sensible changes to the preposterous way they run things.
May’s technical people, the ones who know how things work, have all deserted the sinking ship that is the Tory party. They together with David Davis, hoped that the EU & Theresa May would see the sensible but fair way forward and hoped, somewhat irrationally, that the EU would also see.
Labour and the Liberals sank with Milliband and Clegg and are all still at sea too. Help!
‘Tis the same with politicians and journalists in the Westmonster (spelled correctly) village. They speak the same language but only listen to words from like minded narrow focused professionals who spout the same bollocks.
Meanwhile, the rest of us can see that the EU is a dreadful example of humanity’s stupidity and ignorance. The Euro is simply daft and cannot ever work for Greece & Germany at the same time because the Euro is effectively the Deutsch-mark.
The EEC was just about acceptable as a way to stop Germany starting another world war but Churchill never intended that we join the damn organisation!
Even, my pet hate, Margaret Thatcher, who was a disaster for the UK in so many ways, saw the stupidity of Maastricht and would never have signed the damn treaty that created the EU.
Please watch her famous “No, No No speech here. One of the finest moments of our history, now all but forgotten by anyone under 40.
Mrs May, for Pete’s sake do not waste any more time on the EU, they are in denial of their own inevitable demise, as are you.
Instead start working on a successful No Deal exit on March 29th 2019.
Then you can focus on things like:-
Keeping the lights on as we close coal & nuclear powered stations destined for closure over the next few years.
Making sure that Amazon, Google etc., Facebook, Vodaphone, et al pay realistic tax to HMRC. Stop them laughing at the UK for its damn stupid tax regime
Don’t worry about UK businesses, they will sort themselves out, as the successful ones always do.
Population control. That requires a 50 year plan and some careful wise thought processes…
NHS, educashun, HS2, Northern Ireland government self rule and so many more it makes my teeth hurt.
Your legacy might then mean something …
There are so many more important issues for any government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain to be worried about. far more so than the ridiculous EU.
There are no funny cartoons in this post, there are no jokes either.
Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse it did! The humiliation for the United Kingdom of Great Britain is now complete.
If anything exemplifies the disconnectedness between “we the people” and the inhabitants of the Westminster bubble (politicos & journalists) it is these two “stories” separated by 35 years.
Story Number 1 (March 22nd 2018): (Ed: surely April 1st?)
The new blue British passport is to almost certain to be made by a French company in France.
Donald Tusk, Macron & Juncker must be crying with laughter into their coffee and croissants, this morning. Theresa May’s resignation should be demanded by both all journalists and Tory & Labour parties immediately.
Who will stand up for the United Kingdom of Great Britain? Please step forward.
Story Number 2 (1983):
Who wrote the paragraph below, in 1983? Answer at the foot of this post.
Britain and the Common Market
“Geography and history determine that Britain is part of Europe, and Labour wants to see Europe safe and prosperous. But the European Economic Community, which does not even include the whole of Western Europe, was never devised to suit us, and our experience as a member of it has made it more difficult for us to deal with our economic and industrial problems. It has sometimes weakened our ability to achieve the objectives of Labour’s international policy.
The next Labour government, committed to radical, socialist policies for reviving the British economy, is bound to find continued membership a most serious obstacle to the fulfilment of those policies. In particular the rules of the Treaty of Rome are bound to conflict with our strategy for economic growth and full employment, our proposals on industrial policy and for increasing trade, and our need to restore exchange controls and to regulate direct overseas investment. Moreover, by preventing us from buying food from the best sources of world supply, they would run counter to our plans to control prices and inflation.
For all these reasons, British withdrawal from the Community is the right policy for Britain – to be completed well within the lifetime of the parliament. That is our commitment. But we are also committed to bring about withdrawal in an amicable and orderly way, so that we do not prejudice employment or the prospect of increased political and economic co-operation with the whole of Europe.
We emphasise that our decision to bring about withdrawal in no sense represents any weakening of our commitment to internationalism and international co operation. We are not ‘withdrawing from Europe’. We are seeking to extricate ourselves from the Treaty of Rome and other Community treaties which place political burdens on Britain. Indeed, we believe our withdrawal will allow us to pursue a more dynamic and positive international policy – one which recognises the true political and geographical spread of international problems and interests. We will also seek agreement with other European governments – both in the EEC and outside – on a common strategy for economic expansion.”
Answer: Tony Blair in his 1983 election manifesto strategy for Britain, his legacy is now complete.
We have been, and continue to be, led, lied to, administered by hypocrites and vision-less, self interested, myopic ignoramuses.
Message: to any MP left in Westminster with a half a brain, any conscience and a vestige of common sense – WAKE UP!
The latest utterances from a so-called think tank called “The Institute for Global Change” blames Populism for the incorrect result of the Brexit referendum. This needs to be challenged along with today’s poppycock spouted by Lord Adonis after his resignation as Chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission. Adonis said in his letter of resignation “Brexit is a populist and nationalist spasm worthy of Donald Trump” (full text of his letter here).
Blair agreed with Jeremy Corbyn then! See the full text extract from their 1983 manifesto at the foot of this post. An interesting read because it sounds just like today’s news!
This preposterously and egotistically named organisation, fronted by Tony Blair and funded by globalised multinationals (but try and find out who!) is a poorly camouflaged attempt attempt to make the call for a second referendum on EU membership seem reasonable.
You just have to follow this link for the Twitter response to his Christmas message on Twitter. The responses are enough to gladden the heart of any curmudgeon like me 😉
Lord Adonis, a Labour peer, was the last Blairite sympathiser to have remained anywhere near the seat of current political power and has chaired the National Infrastructure Commission since 2015. Both he and Blair are Remoaners but look how Blair’s views have changed since 1983 when he was a Labour leadership candidate. Lord Adonis, who was transport secretary under Gordon Brown between 2009 and 2010, has chaired the National Infrastructure Commission since 2015. The commission produces a report in every Parliament advising the government on spending in areas such as transport connections and energy.
Lord Adonis sparked anger earlier this year when he compared Brexit to the appeasement of the Nazis in the 1930s, and has repeatedly called for last year’s referendum vote to be reversed.
Pope Blair on why he lied over the invasion of Iraq. A good Catholic convert from Anglicanism, just like Robert Mugabe…
The article appears so logical and is indeed very well researched, but fails to even consider the real reason for so-called populism, which is the proliferation of lying (sorry, of course I meant to say disingenuous), duplicitous self-interested scum-bags like Blair! The rise of the bland, but ‘clever’, career politician who never answers the question, who are trained to waste our time but who have at last succeeded in pissing off an entire generation of voters. We the people have nobody to vote for but we are all a bit too lazy to revolt, so we must take our share of blame. Any politician with integrity, balls and vision has either retired or cannot stomach what is now required to be today’s party political leader.
I hate almost everything about Tony Blair and just cannot understand why so many regard him as some sort of wise elder statesman. I have been unable to write about him for some years because the very sight of him just makes me feel sick. Most of us over the age of 40 will remember the first few weeks of his first term as PM and thinking “At last, a politician (see the glowing teeth of the young man to the left) with vision, integrity and the energy to change the status quo”.
How wrong we all were! The first clue as to his real nature, for me at least, was when I heard his smarmy utterance “I feel the hand of destiny on my shoulder (Diana’s death)” issuing from his loathsome face.
That realisation morphed into my disdain of everything he and his consumerist wife became and still are.
OK, back to his article on populism where the most important thing to know is who funds ‘think-tanks’. (You try to find out yourself!)
They were invented by a few clever, but conservative, strategists just before Margaret Thatcher first became Prime Minister. Their rise is probably the most significant event in recent British political history along with Special Advisers and the party whip system. I can heartily recommend Owen Jones’ book “The Establishment (and how they get way with it)”, in which he analyses the rise of the think tank in forensic detail. You won’t believe how they ever so cleverly changed public opinion.
‘A dissection of the profoundly and sickeningly corrupt state that is present-day Britain. He (Owen Jones) is a fine writer, and this is a truly necessary book’ Philip Pullman (author of His Dark Materials)
1983 Labour Party manifesto (extract)
It explains why we should have left years ago & demonstrates why we can’t trust Corbyn, and we all know we can’t trust Blair (I hope?)
This from 1983 is so reasonable and is fully supportive of Winston Churchill’s (Tory) and Clement Atlee’s (Labour) views in the 1950s despite Adonis and Blair saying otherwise.
Britain and the Common Market
Geography and history determine that Britain is part of Europe, and Labour wants to see Europe safe and prosperous. But the European Economic Community, which does not even include the whole of Western Europe, was never devised to suit us, and our experience as a member of it has made it more difficult for us to deal with our economic and industrial problems. It has sometimes weakened our ability to achieve the objectives of Labour’s international policy.
The next Labour government, committed to radical, socialist policies for reviving the British economy, is bound to find continued membership a most serious obstacle to the fulfilment of those policies. In particular the rules of the Treaty of Rome are bound to conflict with our strategy for economic growth and full employment, our proposals on industrial policy and for increasing trade, and our need to restore exchange controls and to regulate direct overseas investment. Moreover, by preventing us from buying food from the best sources of world supply, they would run counter to our plans to control prices and inflation.
For all these reasons, British withdrawal from the Community is the right policy for Britain – to be completed well within the lifetime of the parliament. That is our commitment. But we are also committed to bring about withdrawal in an amicable and orderly way, so that we do not prejudice employment or the prospect of increased political and economic co-operation with the whole of Europe.
We emphasise that our decision to bring about withdrawal in no sense represents any weakening of our commitment to internationalism and international co operation. We are not ‘withdrawing from Europe’. We are seeking to extricate ourselves from the Treaty of Rome and other Community treaties which place political burdens on Britain. Indeed, we believe our withdrawal will allow us to pursue a more dynamic and positive international policy – one which recognises the true political and geographical spread of international problems and interests. We will also seek agreement with other European governments – both in the EEC and outside – on a common strategy for economic expansion.
The process of withdrawal
On taking office we will open preliminary negotiations with the other EEC member states to establish a timetable for withdrawal; and we will publish the results of these negotiations in a White Paper. In addition, as soon as possible after the House assembles, we will introduce a Repeal Bill: first, in order to amend the 1972 European Communities Act, ending the powers of the Community in the UK; and second, to provide the necessary powers to repeal the 1972 Act, when the negotiations on withdrawal are completed.
Following the publication of the White Paper, we will begin the main negotiations on withdrawal. Later, when appropriate and in the same parliament, we will use our powers to repeal the 1972 Act and abrogate the Treaty of Accession – thus breaking all of our formal links with the Community. Britain will at this point withdraw from the Council of Ministers and from the European Parliament.
There will need to be a period of transition, to ensure a minimum of disruption – and to phase in any new agreements we might make with the Community. This will enable us to make all the necessary changes in our domestic legislation. Until these changes in UK law have taken place, the status quo as regards particular items of EEC legislation will remain. And this period will, of course, extend beyond the date when we cease, formally, to be members.
… when it gives us the wrong answer, or so it seems 😉
I keep reading, in the last few days, an ever more prominent but completely illogical viewpoint being expressed in the press and on the airwaves.
Orwell’s 1984 has a lesson for us …
It is this: “…the referendum vote was so close that we need another referendum to sort out the mess we are in.”
The latest bandwagon jumperer-onner to espouse this laughable view is Owen Smith, the lacklustre and doomed alternative to Jezza (the Trot) Corbyn, on Wednesday’s Radio 4 Today program. John Harumphries did a wonderful job in showing us what a lightweight twerp he is.
One feels sorry for what was the Labour party…
Well, OK I don’t really 😉
But then again one is not impressed by any of the alternatives; the Liberal Democraps or the unelected PM, Theresa May (but one grudgingly has to say that she is probably the best of a pretty poor bunch).
If you recall, the 2015 election was so close that even our Dave, who had already packed his Orlebar Brown “swim shorts” (£225, but not from M& S) had to unpack them again and wait for his referendum result get-out of jail card.
“Phewee, that was jolly close Sam, I thought we might have to stay on for three more years!”
The result was indeed close, BUT it was a result that our system says we have to abide by!
Oh, and by the way, more people voted in the referendum that any British general election since King Alfred burnt his cakes (Ed: may need verification?). That makes the LEAVE result even more unarguable with.
Try to imagine that Nicola Sturgeon has dropped the ice cream – my Photoshop skills are not up to scratch
The same truth applies to that irritating Scottish woman who keeps an banging on and on and on about the need for another Scottish referendum. The “No” side won, with 2,001,926 (55.3%) voting against independence and 1,617,989 (44.7%) voting in favour. The turnout of 84.6% was the highest recorded for an election or referendum in the United Kingdom since the introduction of universal suffrage.
Nicola, you lost by 10%, so ‘shut up’ . Well, she needs to be told.
I think our Theresa may have put the same view more gently in her meeting with Ms Sturgeon than have I, but, hurrah for Theresa!
If this view was valid, the simple fact is that in our “first past the post system” there would not have been a government since 1992. Why? Because, the majority of each winning party has been so small, and based on so small a sample of the population who actually get off their arses to vote that there would have to have been a vote every month for a month of Sundays to sort out “the mess we are in” (I quote the ever more prominent view that provoked this elegant rebuttal.)
Could it be perhaps, that the Remain camp are the ones who have most access to the more populist airwaves and the press rooms?
The lesson for the Westminster bubble and indeed the Edinburgh McBubble is that we the people are more likely to vote when our vote might actually make a difference.
…for someone to bring philosophical and visionary leadership to post Brexit Britain. Don’t get me wrong, I am a Britain first, and Englishman second but staunch European third.
As the EU’s 2nd biggest contributor ejects, the future for Britain looks brighter …
Remember the European Enlightenment? Few seem to, yet this was the flowering pinnacle of human philosophical rational thought, started by Confucius, Buddha and Socrates ending with Nietzsche telling us that ‘God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. Yet his shadow still looms. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives; who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves?’ . In other words, We human’s historic need for god to exist is no longer reasonable, rational or supportable now that we can all read and write and supposedly think for ourselves.
But I digress …
No, it is the irrationality of the EU I rail against and for so many good reasons. The EEC was all about stopping Germany murdering the rest of Europe for the third time in 100 years. The EU construct forgot that and went off on a weird direction (the Maastricht Treaty) of irrational economics (the creation of the Euro) and the creation of a bonkers bureaucracy that beggars belief.
The shallowness of Gove and Boris quitting the scene exemplifies this leadership void which needs to be filled by some adults. It is clear that Gove and Johnson were doing politics for themselves rather than thinking about Britain out of the EU. Pathetic self-indulgent twerps, they never actually thought they might win! They were shocked when they did and then ran for cover as fast as they could.
Perhaps, if BoJo ever grows up he might become the leader that Britain so badly needs but I see no others in sight. Yet, there are many MPs, economists and thinkers who do have the vision required; lets hope these quiet people, who shun power, can garner the support they need to overthrow the old clapped out political regime we currently endure. The Labour party and the Liberal democrats have destroyed themselves and so party politics, as I have said repeatedly here, is dead in the water.
In the meantime we have Theresa May in charge, but again we need to wait while she finishes her walking trip. One is quietly hopeful she may be the “one” but who knows?
The remain camp, many of whom are younger than 45, failed to be aware of the appalling depths to which the “European project” has fallen and seems to have no understanding of what huge inefficient, corrupt, inept bureaucracy the EU is. If any of you Remainers have yet to watch Brexit the movie, please do so. It sums up in one hour what many have been saying for years.
My best example of the young Remainers ignorance and delusion was exemplified by a young, seemingly intelligent woman in a pre-referendum day BBC Question-time audience who complained that neither side of the argument were putting their ideas across very well. But, her main complaint was that she was not being told what to think well enough. Only one member of the panel was brave enough to point out that perhaps she should have educated herself a bit more rather than waiting to be spoon fed. This attitude is sadly typical of the naivety of today’s under 45s who have had little time to think because their strokeable devices need so much attention, that time for personal rumination and research is lost.
“You guys are taking a huge risk” (says the pilot of the EU plane on fire and about to crash, to the sensible British parachuters)
As I said in my last article, many in the Westminster village bubble are still in denial, and here I include most BBC journalists and commentators. The financial markets have knocked sterling for six because of their short-termist, childish greed and globalist narcissism; but, ooh look! The stock market has largely recovered – gosh, who’d have thought! 😉
That the UK has never been a fully an integrated part of the EU seems to be lost on the major market ‘players’ as they allow their fears and ignorance to fuel massive sell-down of stocks regardless of the real positive relevance to UK and/or EU economies.
We have an amazing opportunity to grasp all that is good about small businesses, now incidentally, largely being led by a welcome increase in the number of female entrepreneurs.
We don’t need trade agreements; we need free trade areas, not the restrictive practice contracts that modern trade agreements actually are. Trade agreements are negative and stand against free market economics. Instead they bar businesses from markets where the bigger globalised corporations have bribed supported the leaders of developing countries.
The best exponent of this nauseating human development used to be us, then the USA but is now China.
TTIP thankfully seems to be dying a well deserved death, thanks to the Brexit vote – hurrah!
… for our politicians to accept the reality of what the British people have told them. This result is quite a shock for them and most will be in denial for some time.
I suspect the best positive way forward is a mixed party coalition executive (government) based around Boris Johnson, Daniel Hannan, Michael Gove and a few of the impressive economists from the campaign group The Economists for Brexit. I know this idea ain’t anywhere near perfect, BUT its a hell of a way better forward than anything else I can think of. What say you lot?
I fail to see any light coming from the ranks of the Liberal or Labour parties.
Our next PM? Daniel Hannan is an MEP who hates what the EU has become, but Hey Ho, the pay is very good 😉
The politicians then need a few advisors like James Dyson (vacuum cleaner man), JCB chairman Lord Bamford and a few others. They are needed to do the negotiations with Brussels as our Eton boys don’t know how to actually get things done. And, for pete’s sake don’t involve Lord Alan Amstrad Sugar (quelle tosser)!
Party politics just ain’t gonna cut it, it is an outdated regime for the administration of the United Kingdom Great Britain. (and, will someone tell that Scottish twitette to shut up?)
We need a far more radical approach than the LIB Lab Con flip flop show that we are all heartily sick of.
From Labour, I heard Caroline Flint, who still admires Blair for Pete’s sake, say “We lost because we did not explain our position well enough …”! The arrogance and ignorance she displayed in that statement is indicative of most party politicians and describes very well what most of we “Leavers” were voting against.
These are radical times, led by the people of Great Britain, let us hope that those who want power will, for once, work for the people.
As for as Jean Claude Juncker telling us to hurry up and start the exit proceedings, someone needs to tell him to “Calm down dear” (I quote one of Camerons more insightful (to us I mean, about him!) comments to a female MP a couple of years ago).
As long as we have not triggered article 50 of the 1972 Lisbon treaty, we are in control and we need to quietly think and regroup before we start negotiations. One hopes that the truth will dawn soon upon the Remain Westminster bubble but I won’t be holding my breath. We need some fresh thinking from the pool of MPs who have said too little.
The British people have been fed up with the EU and Westminster centric politicians for years and those hitherto quiet back benchers need to make themselves heard above the noise of banality expressed by the main parties’ spokespersons.
We need some statesmanlike vision statements from the Leave campaigners.
The EU now fears for its very existence and needs to be humbled by some straight talking from our next PM.
