Owen Paterson’s article in today’s DT (paywalled link) was written after the Treasury announced that government planning for No deal would be wound up, having spent £ 4.2 billion on it. The title: “Abandoning no-deal planning proves Brexit was a stitch-up all along” shows that he’ll not mince words.
Also, this is not one of those articles written by hopeful contenders (or pretenders) for Ms May’s job. Owen Paterson has not made any noises to that effect. Moreover, he has considerable experience of the workings of Whitehall and the EU as former NI Sec of State and Sec of State at Defra.
Here are his observations relating to that latest Treasury stunt – as always, I’ll quote at length as the article is paywalled. From the top:
“Time and again, the Prime Minister told us that “no deal is better than a bad deal“, and yet the House of Commons has now told her three times that the legally-binding Withdrawal Agreement is a bad deal. It will go on doing so. Unionist MPs from the DUP and Conservatives – myself included – will vote it down as many times as she brings that document unchanged to Parliament.
The reason is simple. It does not deliver Brexit. It threatens the constitutional position of Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom in breach of the Belfast Agreement’s Principle of Consent and the requirement to consult the NI Assembly. Without giving the UK a unilateral right of exit, laws will be imposed on us without a say by 27 other countries. It means being subject to substantial fines for non-compliance. To cap it all, it means paying £39bn for the privilege.”
Note the last two sentences. These are facts which our EUrophiliac remainers, from the Cabinet down, never mention. Onwards:
“MPs have been completely clear that they will not accept this. The EU have been similarly clear that they will not reopen the Withdrawal Agreement. In such circumstances, the Government’s only chance of securing a good deal – the kind of zero-tariff Free Trade Agreement that Donald Tusk first offered in March 2018 – might have been to walk away, having been thoroughly prepared for no deal, to bring compression to the negotiations. Instead, the Government opted for an apparently infinite loop. The Prime Minister goes to Brussels. The Agreement does not change. It is presented to MPs with no new arguments, no new ideas and no new plan. It fails. That this ludicrous situation has been allowed to take root through a combination of obstinacy, unimaginativeness and incompetence is an embarrassment.”
An ‘infinity loop’ – I like that. Hands up all who are aware of that Tusk proposal? March 2018 – that was well before Chequers. I can’t help but wonder if our, that is Ms May’s special negotiating team – not DexEU – killed that proposal stone dead at birth. Next:
“More than that, it is insulting. It is insulting not merely to the 17.4 million Leave voters, but to every single voter who expects our democratic institutions to be trustworthy and expects their taxes to be spent responsibly. Things were bad enough when the UK proposed to give away £39bn – £60m per Parliamentary constituency – in the Withdrawal Agreement. But we now know that the Government is prepared to fritter away vast sums of money on policies it never even intends to implement.”
That’s put the spotlight on the Treasury, and it puts the continuing screeches from Labour about “Austerity” in a rather different light. After all, their wish to Remain means this and more money will have to be taken out of our wallets, solely for the benefit of the EU. More:
“The Government has spent £4.2 bn on no-deal planning. That is the equivalent of 91 thousand police officers or nurses, 93 thousand teachers, or 78 thousand doctors. The preparations are “well advanced” as former Minister Chris-Heaton Harris has confirmed. Aeroplanes will fly and land. Medical supplies will arrive. Livestock movements will continue. What was the point of spending all that money, if there was never any intention to use them?
It gets worse. In grasping an extension, the Government commits the UK to spending around £1bn each month in membership fees. Worst of all, it commits the UK to squandering £100m on wholly unwanted European elections, only for newly-elected British MEPs to immediately stand down in October. This expensive Government vanity project must stop. So, too, must the fear-mongering.”
Even worse: our Remain HoC is perfectly happy with squandering all that money – our money! – while still blaming the government for not spending enough in our country, on our problems. Moving along:
“Sensible measures, adopted in the best interests of both the UK and the EU, can mitigate any no-deal disruption and ensure that our relationships with our neighbours remain amicable and prosperous. These include alternative arrangements for a seamless Northern Ireland border.
No deal would not be an end state. It would trigger discussions of a wide-ranging, zero-tariff Free Trade Agreement – for the whole of the UK rather than just Great Britain. In such circumstances, both sides can invoke Article XXIV of the WTO’s General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. As long as the UK and EU agree to an FTA and notify the WTO of a sufficiently detailed plan and schedule for the FTA as soon as possible, we could maintain our current zero-tariff arrangements while the new deal was being negotiated.”
Again, we must ask our MPs why this WTO deal has been turned into the one thing to be shunned at all cost? Why is it that to the Remainiacs the WTO deal is worse than garlic and a silver bullet to a vampire? Owen Paterson concludes:
“Rather than tack further towards Labour’s nonsensical position of permanent non-voting Customs Union membership, the Tusk Free Trade offer after leaving should now be the Government’s aim. To get there, it should be accelerating, rather than scaling back no-deal preparations. The Prime Minister has already missed two Brexit deadlines, on 29 March and 12 April. To avoid the humiliation of missing another, she must cancel the European elections, prepare fully for no-deal, and take us out of the EU on 1st June.”
Brave words, Mr Paterson – but as we all know by now: Ms May won’t listen and nor will the HoC, a.k.a. House of Clowns. Tinkering around the edges of her deal is no longer sufficient. The only solution is getting rid of Ms May.
Osborne’s austerity regime cut £55,000,000,000 from local government between 2008 and 2018. Mrs May is going to whiffle through that in very short order.
It’s nice to know that the pothole that wrote off my nearside front tyre has contributed to our friends on the Continong.
And another thing…. The EU elections are going to cost £108,000,000. That means Mrs May’s ‘we are leaving the EU on 29th March’ cost a million pounds a pop.
JF
No wonder Mrs May didn’t ditch Hammond – he is her right hand man. She and him need to be accused in public, she can have’ vicar’s daughter’ thrown at her. There are no words to describe the abject treachery that has been going on in front of our eyes. She now needs to be dragged from office, preferably publicly at Prime Minister’s Questions so it can be seen on TV and thrown out for her despicable double dealing and her willingness to waste £Billions of our money to continue the deception.. That young solicitor with the ankle tag has nothing on this evil woman. .
I have been canvassing the postal voters in Gravesend (Kent) today, and what good returns we had. Loads of confirmed former conservative voters stating that they will never vote for that party again. They all pretty much stated that they would vote UKIP instead. Yes one or two did say that they were finished with voting for good, but that view is irrational to say the least. I can’t remember one person stating that they would vote for the Brexit Party. They would have had a job if that had been the case, as the Brexit Party is only standing candidates at the EU elections. UKIP must now deliver and take seats off the conservatives in order to send a powerful message to Theresa May and her useless government that we are not going to put up with their nonsense any longer.
Thanks for the good news
The only way to resolve having two parties for the same votes – a UKIP party and a Brexit Party – is for Gerard Batten to save the day and call Nigel Farage to absorb all members of Farage’s original Party into the Independence Brexit Party, to prepare for en-mass election to stand as a single party at the European election as well as in any future general election, under a combined Brexit Party to compete against the establishment, that can finally form a Brexit government against the EU bureaucrats, who have been pulling the wool over the British electorate with their “generous” Northern Ireland backstop to entrap the UK with the full knowledge and collaboration of our traitorous Prime Minister, who should be impeached for treason.
It is utter madness going into European elections with UKIP and The Brexit Party on the same ballot paper.
Remainers will ruthlessly exploit this foolish error to their advantage. It is the Remainers who will be mobilising the credulous youth vote this time around and it will make a difference to the outcome of the vote.
I thought UKIP had been saved and revitalised. It’s a bit late but one hopes they’re using their money to some purpose and that we don’t have politicans, fraudsters,hangerson ,or idiots standingI. I recognise 3 decent if uninspiring candidates..The EU crazy voting sysrem ensures some mediocrity gets through.. I suppose that’s the purpose though.
Viv, what makes you think getting rid of Ms. May will make any difference?The replacement could be even worse.
Could it be Ms. May is merely a puppet. And to find out who is pulling her strings – follow the money.
‘… only for newly-elected British MEPs to immediately stand down in October…’ Does anyone really think our newly-elected MEPs are going to have to stand down in October? That presupposes we’re leaving the EU at that time as we’re due to. But will we?
Could Batten say in a letter to Mrs May. All our candidates for EU will stand down if she does the same and opts for 1 st June
That’s a good idea but firstly how do you get to him to ask him and secondly, would he agree. Worth a try though.
You’ve found that as well ?
“The only solution is getting rid of Ms May.”
If only! Sadly, I don’t think that’s going to happen. The Tories must follow the plan. May has been chosen to carry the ball over the line. Once the next (final?) stage is reached she will go.
Of course, there is always the chance that something might stop the plan. If it does one would hope that it’s something legal, something peaceful, but until then, the plan will inexorably continue.
May’s mission is to get that Withdrawal Agreement passed through the Commons so the UK can be locked into permanent vassalage to the EU, all disguised as ‘leaving’ of course. Her job will not be ‘done’ until that happens. And her plan to carry out this mission is to keep pushing MPs to vote and vote again until they give the desired outcome. Sound familiar? Very much the ‘EU way’ of doing things!
if heath got 10 million in 1972 whats todays rate. follow the money, Deliberate destruction of britains economy by the eu
A very interesting video here:
“Ex-Brexit Minster, Steve Baker, Blows The Lid On Why We Don’t Have A Free Trade Agreement Already”
https://youtu.be/dSbudBWZi7E
Out in the open, these people need to be confronted head on.
A very well-put argument. The fact that the HoC has steadfastly rejected Theresa May’s ‘withdrawal agreement’ on several occasions now, yet has also pushed ‘no-deal’ off the table and refused to even debate the merits of invoking Article 24 of the WTO’s GATT, tells us all we need to know about the ‘direction of travel’ they want to lead us towards, namely ‘remaining in the EU’.
But first, they need to somehow overturn THAT referendum result. If they don’t, the veil of ‘democracy’ that conceals our elected dictatorship will slip, and they don’t want that either.
Come October 31st, if a way hasn’t been found to overturn that result, May will just be begging for another extension, which the EU will of course grant, despite the noises being made to the contrary.
So I fully expect one of the following outcomes within the next few months:
1) a ‘second referendum’ – or whatever they try to dress it up as – with the outcome ‘rigged’ in favour of Remain.
2) a General Election, where one party (more likely Labour) will take a gamble and make a manifesto pledge to ‘cancel Brexit’ and remain in the EU. The gamble will of course be that while they may lose votes, they may gain enough votes from their ‘unwitting sheep’ – coupled with a potential low turnout – to succeed.
Either way the Tories know they are finished, hence their unwillingness to oust Theresa May, they are content to just maintain power as long as they can.
You could be right Stuart but I would imagine that if there’s a General Election it’ll be the Leavers who will turn out in force for whichever party pledges to get us out. The problem will be if both the Cons and Labour promise to overturn the referendum result and keep us in the EU. Then there’ll be an opening for a pro-Brexit party to sweep the board – oh how I wish it could be UKIP but I’m afraid it won’t be.
To Debbie, I agree with you about angry leavers turning out to vote, and they could focus their attentions on the Brexit party. UKIP are seen as racist, which will tend to limit their support, but the Brexit party is outstripping them in the opinion polls, growing at remarkable speed. It is younger than TIG, but already has more than twice the support in the latest polls. Regrettably, a fringe party like Brexit is so disadvantaged under our FPTP system, that it can hardly have a real chance at power, but it may still attract voters who want to inflict a protest or punishment vote on the main parties..
I have not seen confirmation that the Brexit Party is to challenge both European Elections and national ones?
First of all, I pay no attention to opinion polls as they can be engineered themselves to give the ‘desired result’, they’re just another tool used by the Establishment media in order to manipulate peoples’ voting behaviour. Of course “opinion polls suggest” that The Brexit Party is ‘more popular’ than UKIP, because that’s what ‘they’ want: people to vote Brexit Party instead of UKIP.
Secondly, I believe The Brexit Party is just a vehicle for Nigel Farage and his Tory buddies to either keep or gain their seats on the EU Gravy Train and their snouts in the trough. I notice that they did not stand any candidate at the Newport West by-election.
The EU elections are ultimately pointless, as the result has no bearing on the makeup of the UK parliament, and UK MEPs have no influence in the running of the Houses Of Parliament. As we saw in 2014, voters were more inclined to vote UKIP as it did not matter ‘who won’.
The Brexit Party may ‘do well’ in these EU elections, but in all honesty, Nigel Farage cannot ‘save Brexit’ from Brussels (or Strasbourg, or wherever the EU parliament is based).
I’ll still be voting UKIP, and I know others that will also – including a black guy who works next door to our company. We both know that UKIP isn’t ‘racist’, and many others know this too, despite what the media try to tell us.
UKIP are ‘promoted’ as racist by the msn and various comie/muslim groups, uaf, thugmentum, socialist movements, etc etc.
3 years ago, survey showed 40% did not trust msn…..
Latest figures I have seen now suggest 60% dont ‘fall for it;
Too many people argue from the position of fear of what the msn etc. portray ukip as, rather than the position of most know its all bull.
One of a very few honest voices amongst a cabal of traitors. Perhaps the Easter recess should usefully employed by the rest of them to actually read May’s WA then tell us if they still believe that it would result in our leaving…
A pretty impressive ‘take’ of Paterson with James Delingpole is here:
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/04/13/meet-the-conservative-mps-keeping-the-brexit-faith/
It’s the first part in that video.
The whole thing is a blessing in the larger scheme of things. The PTB have shown their hand after decades of obfuscation. We count for nothing. We need a revolution as Farage said. Shame he’s still splitting the people’s cause with all that ‘far-right’ meme stuff the powers that be use though.
All true.