Be not intimidated…nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice. ― John Adams, 1765, British Citizen, Founding Father and 2nd President of The United States of America
It’s over! It’s over, bar the ridiculous charade of ‘tough negotiations’. The thoroughly nasty and vindictive European Union (EU) has won. And gallant, heroic and duped Mrs May and her negotiating team have already lost. We can forget a fair deal on Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and a free trade agreement. And, unlike in normal divorce proceedings, there is no independent arbitrator to ensure something approaching ‘fair play’ where differences are irreconcilable.
In any negotiation the parties have to progress in good faith because each knows things the other cannot know; privileged information that could be used by the unscrupulous to exploit the situation. Our contract law consequently places obligations on the parties and means of redress through the courts when one party abuses its position. Unfortunately the EU, so far, appears to be negotiating in bad faith, not telling the full truth about what can and cannot be negotiated, and the UK is buying the deceptions, considerably weakening our position; the EU are effectively ‘laying down the law’ and simultaneously getting us ‘over a barrel’.
Ambassador (rtd) Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos (Former Secretary General of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization) was on the inside of the Article 50 negotiations to include it in the Lisbon Treaty. He has revealed that Article 50 was only intended to cover financial arrangements for a Member State leaving the EU. The rest of the stuff now being set out by the EU as conditions is outside its scope and can only be there to pressurise us, exact a far heavier price and coerce others into not leaving the EU. It is one thing to freely negotiate issues that are outside the scope of Article 50 and another to be pushed into it on a dishonest claim that it must be agreed, usually beforehand, and the Sword of Damocles held over Mrs May head that ‘everything must be agreed before anything is agreed’. Obviously Europhiles on the inside are not going to own up to this subterfuge, they haven’t up to now have they?
Then there is the misinformation on the Single Market, free movement of people, costs of Single Market membership and the jurisdiction of the EU’s European Court of Justice (ECJ) etc. Different arrangements are open to members of EFTA; the European Free Trade Association who are also members of the Single Market, (the European Economic Area (EEA)) but not Member States of the EU and its Customs Union. They can and do negotiate free trade agreements with other countries. Free movement can be unilaterally suspended by any member of EFTA by invoking Article 112 (the Safeguard Provisions) in the EEA Agreement. The UK as a member of EFTA would be able to do the same, if we chose to leave the EU and join this trading association of independent European countries to remain in the EEA. Also, it costs the EFTA countries little financially to be members of the EEA although Norway does separately contribute towards EU facilities or services used and to development funds. The ECJ only has jurisdiction over the EU Member States and hence over part of the EEA, but not over EFTA (i.e. non-EU) countries.
There is also increasing evidence that the EU is out to punish us for the temerity of BREXIT. Their ‘negotiating position’ is hardening and the language becoming ever more strident. For example, see Britain needs fighting ‘Plan B’ for trade as EU turns screws on Brexit by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, first published in the Daily Telegraph 26th April 2017. They can also be very obstructionist. For example, see The six Brexit traps that will defeat Theresa May by Yanis Varoufakis, former finance minister of Greece, published in The Guardian 3rd May 2017. Perhaps worse, the EU knows how to inflict real damage on our economy in the event of us leaving the Single Market (EEA) and becoming a ‘third country’ with or without a trade deal. On the outside we would face external tariffs, non-tariff barriers (such as special rules, standards, certifications, approvals and inspections) and a massive expansion of Customs Clearances here and in the protectionist EU (which they might want us to pay for as well).
What we are seeing is a well-established modus operandi for the EU which can be explained in a few quotes from Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission:
When it becomes serious, you have to lie.
We decide on something, leave it lying around and wait and see what happens. If no one kicks up a fuss, because most people don’t understand what has been decided, we continue step by step until there is no turning back.
There can be no democratic choice against the European treaties.
Article 50 negotiations as they now appear can’t achieve a reasonable outcome in our interests (we are being misled), and who would actually choose to touch these EU people (gangsters more like) with a proverbial barge pole? We need a plan to out-manoeuvre them, a strategy to ensure they cannot hurt us and to avoid any negotiating except where we are the visibly stronger party; money and concessions invariably flow from the weak to the strong. These are high stakes and if we get it wrong the EU will likely exact a price worse than they’ve inflicted elsewhere, notably upon Greece.
We could ‘weaponize’ our ingenuity, industry and research to redress the balance of negotiating power, for example, by investigating background facts, intelligence gathering and analysis; something akin to the backroom work of Bletchley Park. There are obvious skeletons in the EU cupboard and some that require digging much deeper, such as the sinister origins of the EU and long-standing anti-British sentiments. The earliest predecessor of the EU (the European Coal and Steel Community) was profoundly anti-British and had the aim to damage our then industrial power. We were saved by Prime Minister Clement Atlee from this calamity, only to have later Prime Ministers and British civil servants collude in the EU’s ‘management of our decline’. Former EU insiders ‘coming clean’ could be goldmines of information.
We could cultivate allies and build alliances with those we can do business with to mutual benefit. The obvious ones are EFTA, probably by becoming a (temporary) member. The media here and overseas, up till now mainly Europhile could be another ally. Communications to influence public opinion are essential, otherwise the EU’s propaganda arm and fellow travellers will use it against us.
We could, in secret, develop a ‘Mayhattan’ project to facilitate the explosion of contagious popular democracy throughout the EU. The repressed and abused populations could be energised and benefit from our history, example and expertise. We can show them that there is a better way than the EU’s centralised, control-freak, bureaucratic, undemocratic, incompetent, arrogant Superstate under mainly German hegemony.
There are other things that can also be done to defend our national interests once it is recognised that the EU’s actions relating to Article 50 are part of a major scam.
England has saved herself by her exertions, and will, as I trust, save Europe by her example. William Pitt the Younger 1805
Will May ever open her mind and realise that a negotiated exit is simply impossible? That is confirmed every day by comments from the EU.
Unless and until she accepts the facts then we must assume that she is one of the enemy within, just as Cameron and Blair before her.
We are at war with the EU once again; it just hasn’t been formally declared as the weapons are insidious ones. Consider that the same factions, albeit with different people in control, are behind it.
Mrs may has been reasonable to the EU, saying she wants it to succeed. Nevertheless, she needs to be prepared to walk away and if necessary threaten the EU with destabilisation should the EU threaten us first. It is vital that the consequences and cost of the walk away option are known. This will provide a comparator to any deal negotiated with the EU. We will be able to identify the the bad deal Moreover, it will encourage the EU to negotiate a better deal in a fair manner.
I don’t know how sincere May was in saying she wanted the EU to succeed, plus all that stuff about having a ‘deep and special relationship’ blah blah bleurgh – pass the sick bucket.
Nigel Farage has always made it perfectly clear that he despises and deplores the disgusting EU and has worked for 24 years not just for Brexit, but to destroy the EU and see the whole rotten structure crumble. Now that’s the kind of honesty I love, admire, applaud.
Let’s hope that the PM gets tired of her game of ‘let’s be nice’ – a game that the EU has no intention of playing – and starts to channel the spirit of our great PMs of the past when they have been called on to deal with tiresome Continental despots.
Pay no money, listen to no lies, ignore all threats, lay down our terms and walk away to let them think it over.
I thank Mr.Moore for his exposition and I take the message that “all out” political war is the name of the game and the EU will unhesitatingly use every subterfuge known to man, plus any yet they can discover still unknown to their better half.
But at the end of the day, it isn`t just about politics and legal niceties, it`s about money and the POWER “loadsaloot” conveys
So why are the EU prepared to lie,cheat and steal.
My impression is that the EU`s real ambition is to take their “rightful” place as an equal world power along with the USA,Russia,China. etc they cannot achieve this without fiscal and political integration and exercise it without a solely dedicated Army,Navy and Air Force. which must of necessity be perceived on a global scale.
At present although various members of the EU do have forces in all fields power is only exercised through NATO.
Now we come down to the latest spat about British reparations (sorry Divorce settlement) for having the temerity to get out.
Hell, the b*stards are now asking for £$Euros100 billion, that`s up at least 50% in a week, what`s it going to be when we sit down and actually negotiate 200billion?
What`s it all for anyway.
Cast your mind back to Mrs May`s trip across the Atlantic to consolidate Mr.Trump in office (also our sponsor backin global affairs that Obama tried to prevent and interfered in our referendum)
What did she bring back?
Oh the promise that Mr.Trump would continue to support NATO 100%
Oh that`s as long as St Theresa made it clear that the EU shysters coughed up their dues (did anybody mention back dues?)
That`s going to be a problem with GB gone, we`re stuck with having to support NATO and that cost, plus having to pay the cost of our stand alone forces (i.e.you can`t expect the USA and GB to contribute to both)
Where`s the cash going to come from?
I know the GB exit fee – simples.
(After all it was Cameron who first started going on about this and look how he`s caused all the problems by letting them have a referendum)
“Good wheeze Junkie, where did you dig that one up from?”
Oh! Luxembourg days eh!
We’ve fought for our country so many times before, we unfortunately, are going to have to do it again.
We can keep on playing at politics, but it is a farce. We’re better of preparing and organising for the conflict that is to come.
I can’t remember who said this, but: “you don’t get what you deserve in life, you get what you negotiate.” Failing that it’s war. I hate the thought of war, but if it has to be, we need to win.
I sometimes write stuff here, but really I’ve known for over ten years that there are no peaceful solutions to our predicament. Our enemies know only too well how to use subterfuge and weaponise our democracy against us.
Flyer the charade of Mrs. May grandstanding with bluster against the EU as they begin to drop pretences and reveal the kind of people they really are is, at the moment, allowing her to sound tough and competent. In a sense this is Mrs. May’s Falklands war and we all know what that did for Maggie in the polls.
However that was a real war and Britain won.
Flyer, this time, we the people will have to organize, and by the time it comes to it, we will be brutally put down by either the EU Army or the army of Islam, or they could be one and the same.
I don’t think I have ever been so depressed as by the large number of people in France who voted Macron. How much worse can things get, and why would anyone vote for more of the same. I honestly cannot understand – are people just looking at their phones all day and not noticing what’s happening, or what?