Yippeee! Another general election 😉 the third since the five year fixed term parliament act came into err “force” in 2011.
Your Christmas General Election quiz starts here. Just 10 questions to answer.
There may be prizes (Ed: I doubt it …) 
The biggest question left for me is “does this Boris Johnson’s exit deal actually give us freedom from the EU?”.
My current understanding is that it still ties us into EU rules (for some years) and we continue to pay the EU £billions. £39 billion?
I don’t know yet, even having read the bill, it is still unclear to me. No deal is still the option if we get to 31st January 2020 without agreeing ‘the deal’.
That means that probably “no deal” is almost certainly the best result for the United Kingdom of Great Britain in the long term.
Why? Because it removes politicians from the mix 😉 and after the last 3 years of irritating and pointless fluff I think most of us can raise a glass to that!
Businesses will have issues, of course, and things will not be as favourable as they currently are.
BUT, the simple fact is this, European businesses will still want to sell us their stuff in return for us selling them our stuff; that was always the case.
OK then here is your quiz.
A unified defence policy is one of the main aims of the EU, introduced on page 3 of the Maastricht Treaty signed by John Major in 1992.
Q1) Can you imagine twenty seven (Ed: 26?) countries agreeing on a united stance against Russia when Germany so heavily relies on Russia for gas?
Most commentators think that the eventual creation of a united European army could never be met.
So then, if your answer is no (Ed: Obvs! (Sorry about him, but he’s been getting out a bit more lately)) then you have to vote for Boris Johnson’s Tory party on 12th December 2019.
Just one of many examples of how Maastricht is just potty; to put it mildly. More examples follow.
But, before we go on to more questions, I must share two videos from Margaret Thatcher; they are both just over one minute and well worth a listen.
As many of you will know, she is not my favourite politician but here she speaks with a clarity that should make any remainer stop in their tracks.
In one minute twenty seconds Margaret Thatcher calmly explains why the Maastricht Treaty will take the EU in a direction that the UK should not follow.
https://twitter.com/i/status/982553493927088130
This was just before she was ousted as PM by her personal “night of the long knives”.
Q2) Do you want our foreign policy to be decided in Brussels by the next version of Herman Von Rompuy? (Ed: Who he? Me: Look it up)
That was another main aim for the EU introduced in the Maastricht Treaty of 1992. (Page 4)
If your answer is no then you have to vote for Boris Johnson’s Tory party.
Q3) Do you really want 70 trucks to continue to move the EU parliament from Brussels to Strasbourg each month?
This at an annual cost of 114 million Euros (at 2014 prices).
The MEPs + staff + cooks & bottle washers stay there for four days and they all come back to Brussels again.
This stupid state of affairs has been there since the establishment of the Iron and Steel Community in 1952.
(Ed: Really didn’t know that? (Yes that move really has happened each month for the last 67 years).
67 years @ €114 million per year = € 7,638,000,000 in wasted cash – your cash 😉
For your amusement please read my source here.
If your answer is no then you have to vote for Boris Johnson’s Tory party.
Q4) Do you never, like me, want to see that piggy faced (apologies to all pigs everywhere) SNP MP bore spout the same old undemocratic bollocks nonsense again and again? He’s the one banging on and on about Scottish independence because, when he had a referendum on that, he lost. He’s the one who ignores the simple fact that Scotland is in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and is not – nor ever will be a separate country with the Euro-haggis as a currency.
Most of us, including the Scots, want Scotland to stay in the UK and do not want two more referendums on Brexit & Scottish independence which is Labour party policy.
The official result of the Scottish Independence Referendum on a turnout of 84.6% was:
Yes 1,617,989 (45%) No 2,001,926 (55%)
If you can still remember the question, and your answer is yes, then you must vote for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party BUT not this time.
Q5) Do you want eventually to replace the pound with the Euro? Maastricht (Page 3). Currently we have an opt out that costs us dearly.
If your answer is no then you have to vote for Boris Johnson’s Tory party.
Q6) Do you really want free unregulated movement (people and capital) to continue? This also means that citizenship is regulated by the EU. Both on Page 6 of the Maastricht Treaty.
If your answer is no then you have to vote for Boris Johnson’s Tory party.
Q7) Article 104 b (page 27) prohibits the EU taking on the financial commitments of a member state; effectively prohibiting bailouts.
However, the EU has ignored that rule 12 times to the tune of €544 billion (of your money) as at 2018.
So do you want to be party to an organisation which breaks its own rules regularly and so spectacularly?
If your answer is no then you have to vote for Boris Johnson’s Tory party. (Ed: Obvs.)
Q8) Page 73 Article 188(b) is a wonderful pile of garbage. This sets up the “Court of Auditors”. Yup – the EU does its own auditing, but get this: for the last 21 years the auditors of the EU have identified serious shortcomings in in the “veracity” of the figures. The consequence of which is err nothing. Throughout the Maastricht Treaty you may read the words “Recommendations and opinions shall have no binding force.'” This applies to the auditors and therefore renders them toothless. Also applies to the European Central Bank.
So do you think that is a good way to manage your money?
If your answer is no then you have to vote for Boris Johnson’s Tory party. (Ed: Obvs.)
Q9) Page 3 creates the Euro to establish a monetary and fiscal union; ‘one currency to bind them all’.
This means that all members of the Euro have the same fiscal (tax) policy. If you think that makes sense then I suggest that you do a bit of economic analysis of each member state before bursting out with laughter. First term lecture two or three of any economics course would have put you right.
Then, if you think still that the Euro works as well for Greece as it does for Germany, then you must vote for Jeremy Corbyn or Jo Swinson.
Q10) Page 200 ensures that “1. Each Member State shall ensure that the principle of equal pay for male and female workers for equal work is applied.”
If you think that is going well, after 27 years of “member states ensuring” that it happens, then you must vote Liberal Democrat. Jo Swinson becomes our next Prime Minister. ;-o
I thought I should finish with a joke (The line just above this one just in case you missed it).
One could go on and on …but one won’t (Ed: thank you).
Conclusion
This election is just about achieving our clean departure from the EU and nothing else, despite what Corbyn is trying to say.
The least worse of our party leaders is, for me, Boris Johnson. He ain’t perfect but his time is now and he is exactly who we need to get us out of the pile of poo that is the EU.
The Maastricht Treaty, signed by John Major in 1992 is a woolly pile of legalese which converted the EEC, which was a trade union (which sort of made sense), into a political and monetary union (which makes no sense at all). Derogation is a word that means “an exemption from or relaxation of a rule or law” which is mentioned 48 times in the treaty and basically means that if a rule within the treaty is broken by a member state they are told off very firmly but their two hour lunch continues unabated.
A final point of interest:
My spell checker corrects ‘Maastricht’ into ‘Christmas’ – funny old world eh?
Happy Maastricht!
