We did it! We’re Out! We’re out of the EU, suitably celebrated by Big Ben bonging from loudspeakers In Parliament Square. Brexiteers partied everywhere and there was of course the Big Brexit Bash in Westminster, organised by TBP. There was also a speech by Johnson and some ‘Son et Lumiere’ for the occasion in Whitehall which nobody watched.
Those of us who couldn’t attend the London Brexit Bash or indeed any other Party had to be content with watching it on a live stream. I did, in the company of friends, and while we were watching others checked our main TV channels – with some stunning observations. More on that below.
This morning’s papers have some reports, non-paywalled ones are here, here and here. Keep them for historical references, the photos published in those reports are amazing! But what about that spectacle we were promised from Johnson?
Well, if you thought that projecting red-and-blue light onto Ministry buildings, if you thought that projecting Big Ben onto No10 as the seconds ticked down was a dignified end to our EU membership because we’re good winners and weren’t going to rub Remain noses in, then yeah, that should’ve been sufficient.
For us, it wasn’t! The crowds in Parliament Square, in town squares and pubs and clubs up and down the country showed that it obviously wasn’t. If you missed the live stream yesterday or couldn’t find one, here’s a link, for the history books. That one was watched in EU countries. A brief clip of the countdown celebrated in Parliament Square is here, from an Aussie TV Channel, and here’s a nice general summary:
“This was history in the making and as the clock struck 11pm (midnight in Brussels), millions of Leavers were not going to miss their chance to belt out the National Anthem, ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ or else ‘Rule Britannia’. Or all three. It was like a Last Night at the Proms where the EU flag was definitely banned. Welcome to a post-EU Britain. In Parliament Square, in the shadow of the House of Commons which had seemingly tried to thwart Brexit for so long, a jubilant crowd gathered in the shadow to sing, cheer and celebrate the return of national sovereignty. Britain may not have left the EU with a bong but it certainly wasn’t a whimper. In scenes of untrammelled joy more redolent of royal weddings than political schism, Leave voters turned out in force.” (paywalled link)
It was indeed an extraordinary sight, a joy to behold: a multitude of Union Jacks – not one EU flag in sight. A huge crowd, singing and waiting patiently. The official proceedings started with a fiery speech by Ann Widdecombe, followed by speeches from Tim Martin (Wetherspoons’ owner) and Peter Bone MP.
There was music – and there was Dominic Frisby who told us that he had to change the key expression in his famous song of what 17 million Brits told the establishment to do. He had been advised that using the ‘F’ word on stage was a public order offence … yes really! So he sang of the 17 million ‘fudge offs’.
And then there was Nigel, giving the last speech before the countdown. It was vintage! As the loudspeakers bonged Big Ben, many of us who watched found that there was suddenly quite a lot of dust around in our rooms …
While we watched the crowd and all those on stage singing lustily the National Anthem, friends reported from all over the country how fireworks in their neighbourhood, in their towns, were let off joyously. Of course, fireworks had been ‘verboten’ to be displayed on Parliament Square …
Not reported in today’s MSM was that our terrestrial TV stations did not show any of the speeches live – certainly not the vintage speech of Nigel Farage – and there was no mention of a certain segment of the population trying to disrupt the party in Parliament Square. Antifa tried hard, and the Police kept them well away, even using mounted police. That was shown in the live stream by RUPTLY which you can find on youtube.
Meanwhile, some of the friends in whose company I watched kept their beady eyes on the BBC, SKY and ITV ‘shows’, informing us that all those channels had only arch-remainers in their studios, bemoaning and bewailing our fate. SKY showed the White Cliffs of Dover with a projection of the message ‘The UK has left the EU’ – framed by the Union Jack and the EU flag! Yes, the Remainers were governing the airwaves, again.
This churlish attitude surely must be the last straw for the BBC. They are no longer representing the thoughts and feelings of our Nation. Moreover, as a wise friend remarked, the parties up and down the country and in Parliament Square, organised by us, not the government, demonstrated yet again the deep rift not just between Remain and Leave but between the metro-elites, the Westminster bubble dwellers, and us.
Instead of using this historic event and do what they demanded from us, namely to “heal the divisions”, it was the metro-‘elite’, it was government and the Remain MSM who rubbed our noses in. With their surly attempts to turn our, the people’s celebrations, into some irrelevant happening. It was they who reinforced that division they bewailed, live in our TV studios.
They still haven’t learned that we the people, the peasants they so despise, the plebs they’ve been smearing for the last four years, have told them and showed them again and again that the times have changed.
The niggardly attempts by government, by ‘the authorities’, to prevent us expressing our joy have failed. We celebrated because ‘we did it’! We did it on June 23rd 2016, we did it in the GE 2017, we did it in the EUParl elections in 2019, we did it in the GE in December 2019 – and by God, we did it yesterday – up and down the country!
Looking back, I believe that all these parties, big and small, organised by us the people, beautifully expressed this change that has taken place in our country: Brexit is our victory, not that of the ‘elites’, and so we had our celebrations, organised by us, not by ’officialdom’. Who needs those Remain ‘elites’!
Let me paraphrase that famous quote by Wordsworth on the French revolution. Let me say instead ‘Bliss was it on that night to be alive’ – a night none of us who were there, none of us who watched from afar, none of us who partied and celebrated with friends, will ever forget!
CHEERS!
[Ed. note: The usual Brexit column will be published a bit later today, it’s not forgotten!]
Todays the Day 31/1/2020
Having actively spent the last 13 years physically campaigning to leave the dreaded undemocratic disgusting entity that is the EU todays the day that all that hard work comes to fruition ( although I still don’t trust the Conservatives further than I can throw them to deliver an exit that doesn’t sell out parts of our society and economy)
All those years of tramping hundreds of miles delivering leaflets that I paid for out of my own working mans wage to little villages up the valleys or the towns and villages of the South Wales coast. Stopping off on my way home from a hard days work to deliver thousands and thousands of my self designed and funded flyers to areas that I knew had never seen anti EU material after years of Labour and Conservative party propaganda and representation. I tramped those streets day after day week after week until my knees and feet hurt so much that I could barely walk before heading home.
Countless national radio and TV appearances over the years.
Numerous talks and debates against pro EU opponents at Schools in many locations ranging from Cardiff in the East down as far as Pembroke in the West
Street stands at towns all over South Wales
Standing at numerous elections annoying the status quo parties, campaigning literally on my own at times against the massed ranks of Conservative and Labour Party activists with their substantial financial backing using only my own pitifully small resources funded entirely out of my own working mans wages.
I always gained great satisfaction from the expressions of moral disgust and sense of self entitlement from the representatives of all the other parties ranged against my efforts locally and nationally.
They were too stupid to realise that the more they whinged, whined and expressed satisfaction when the invite to certain hustings failed to arrive through my door the more satisfaction I gained as I took votes from them at every election which ultimately along with the national picture and efforts of others combined to get us out of the EU.
I was just a bloke who put in a full working life as a gas engineer, just a normal job who had no desire to get involved in politics other than to vote at every election but finally decided that the only language that the self entitled virtuous political class understood was to lose votes and elections.
Perhaps the existing parties underestimated myself and all the other ordinary working people who decided to stand up, get off our backsides and physically oppose them.
Well perhaps today they’ll finally get the message ( although probably not) that not everybody is prepared to stand back and do nothing when the status quo annoys them.
As a footnote to being roused to stand against both the EU and the existing political parties, come 2022 I’ll complete 10 years as a county councillor representing what I consider to be my home village after bombing out the Conservatives of a previously extremely safe Conservative ward, the previous tory councillor is still whining in the local press 8 years after being defeated.
It’s nice to know that an ordinary bloke or womans efforts can make a difference and win if they decide to take a stand against the traditional political parties however under resourced or underfunded those independent individuals might be….. I think that the general public appreciate those who campaign out of conviction rather than those from the traditional parties who campaign out of a sense of entitlement and in the pursuit of a taxpayer funded long term political party patronised career.
Cheers…………… Kevin Mahoney
A very grateful and delighted ex EU citizen
”THIS IS YOUR VICTORY. – GOD BLESS YOU ALL.”
A very great man once said, ….. ”
We are by no means “out”. We have left in name only.
Literally the only tangible difference between EU Membership yesterday and “independence” today is that we no longer have any MEPs. We are still subject to EU law, must still pay the EU billions, still can’t control our own trade policy.
We are now legally, as Nigel Farage pointed out for the entirety of last year before betraying his principles, an EU colony for at least 2020. It remains to be seen if we will come out the other side.
Absolutely right Gary, you are one of the few people who know what is going on. The Withdrawal Agreement & Political Declaration, that Boris Johnson has signed, makes Britain a prisoner of the European Union for as long as the EU wants. The WA & PD is the response of Brussels & Whitehall to the voters’ rebellion of the 23rd June 2016 against EU rule. The WA & PD turns Britain into a captive colony of the EU.
Gary Conway. I hate to be a party -spoiler but agree entirely with all you say. I felt sorry yesterday for a lady who had come hundreds of miles to London to celebrate, who jubilantly said that “we were getting our own borders back and will be able to solve our housing problem”. What is she going to feel when the UN Global Migration Compact kicks in , so shamefully signed on the quiet by TMay last year, which the EU criminal justice system will enforce, at the same time removing our free speech about immigration. For our Govt is surely still signing us up to EU military-security -criminal justice systems.
This morning on LBC, Kenneth Clarke and Menzies Campbell, preaching the same downbeat message on leaving the European Union. Boring, boring, boring. Change the blasted record for goodness sake, or better still get off the airwaves preferably for good. We need a dose of positivity for a change. Nigel Farage is the best prime minister that we will never have (unfortunately). He and UKIP and later the Brexit Party should take 95% of the credit for this momentous achievement. The next battle is to rid this great nation of the BBC. They are an utter disgrace, and steps need to be taken as soon as possible to abolish it.
Thanks Viv for a brilliant summary
I wasn`t aware there was a stream and had to make do with the useless fare provided by the BBC and Sky.
Evil they are BBC had the parliament square in the background and kept on informing us “Nigel is going to make a speech” and gave the impression they would be closing in on it, of course they never did, so the most I saw was him singing the National anthem at the end.
I did celebrate though, with a few glasses of Drambuie in one hand and a supply of Paterson`s shortbread fingers in the other.
It helped to wash away the taste of particularly Alistair Campbell and other of his ilk who had peopled my screen throughout the evening
As you say “we did it” and to me the victory is every bit as significant as Waterloo and Trafalgar, but in the aftermath there are still one or two flies to extract from the ointment.
I have been wondering since we are now out of the EU shouldn`t all monies they are continuing to extract from us be in the form of repayable loans with interest, after all we did have to repay the US for “LeaseLend”?
You need only look at what the EU did to the PIIGS countries with free movement and banker bailouts to see why Britain left the EU. The EU is not a democracy or even a benevolent dictatorship but a giant scam to funnel wealth away from the poor and working class and give it to a super-rich elite who now believe they can do what they like. No amount of PR can hide the truth.
“had been advised that using the ‘F’ word on stage was a public order offence.”
Good. So no more degenerate rappers and leftist comedians on stages (or on the BBC or C4), then?
They are havin’ a larf. One rule for us and one for them, as always.
We will never be truly free until the EUSSR is destroyed and all its moles and sleepers are purged from every institution in the country
there is still much to be done , they will NEVER give up and neither should we , there is no room for complacency.
Big and well deserved celebrations, but remember for moment these wise words,
‘
‘We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing; but let us not forget for a moment the toil and efforts that lie ahead.’
‘We must now devote all our strength and resources to the completion of our task, both at home and abroad. Advance, Britannia! Long live the cause of freedom!
I’ve taken these quotes from Churchill’s speech to the nation May 8th 1945. The next few months probably years will not be plain sailing particularly if the BBC, the media and general is allowed to get away with driving the ‘narrative’ as it did for most of the last few years,
We may also reflect on the alternative media who against all odds have done such a fine job in protecting our Freedom of speech and our Democracy.
Well done everyone and ‘THREE BLOODY GREAT CHEERS!
Well I certainly partied from afar, despite being fairly bashed up and incapacitated at the moment, I have never had a happier day, it almost brought me to tears.
However, we’re not quite free of the EU yet and the next eleven months could be quite lively as because of the EU, Europe is f****d. Deutsche Bank shares have lost 90% of their value, Commerze Bank shares have lost 98% of their value and Germany is rapidly tipping into recession: who will payroll the failed European project? Let’s make sure it isn’t us!
I can’t at the moment write in more in-depth about this because I too am a little bit bashed up but soon I’ll be in a much better state than the European Union.
Actually, there are so many Black Swans circling that we’d better hope that Donald Trump and Boris Johnson have planned an escape route but we’re certainly going to be much better off without a ball and chain like the European Union weighing us down.
Let’s just hope that Boris Johnson has the nerve and integrity to hold his own and our best interests at heart, against a European Union that is without doubt, certainly going to want and need a lot more of our money and our probably freshly printed wealth.
Whatever though, today we certainly took an enormous step in the right direction.
‘ Boris knows that of doesn’t deliver he’s finished’- Nigel Farage, Lets hope so. HS2, Fishing ,Defence , those will be the test and I can’t say I’m convinced of the ‘nerve. but as you say we have taken an enormous step in the right direction, Hope you are soon on the mend Flyer and in the words of someone who writes here daily best wishes and KBO!
Indeed flyer, we must still be wary of a sell-out (perhaps more likely a “give-away”) by Boris. Get well soon.
we, in what we firmly believe is the Brexit capital, had a good evening With all the necessities of the occasion . Fireworks with plenty of Palm trees, a sufficiency of repetitions of ” 17,40 K ” f offs. Dinner and plenty of booze. And a packed pub.
We were several branches of UKIP. got together.. However, the local branches have left ukip.We are continueing as a rogue ukip/Brexit entity. We assume none of us are in ukip any longer .. Head office is obviously busy with its own priorities whatever they may be.. Probably counting their toes and fingers. In the absence of communication we have been lost or dismissed or whatever. Anyway we are heavy with talent and have a lotof serious individuals.
Since the dolts at head office are living in their own little dreamworld,, and haven’t worked out that calling youself a leader, or an nec, or chairman, or a spokesperson, or anything else just means you’r still the same sad person whose calling himself something odd.
It is really sad that so many people believe that being promoted into a job means they can miraculously ( even with hard work, ),, do it
I am looking for a new or existing political party with similar aims in order to join. ( Maybe with my compatriots as a fully functioning branch.(es)]