‘Tower of Babel’ – reminding me of another building ….

Time is running out for Remainers and, it would seem, for the EU as we start this new month and new year, at the end of which we’ll be out, no if or buts – or we ourselves will stick Johnson in that ditch. There is uncertainty, but suddenly it’s not us poor benighted Leavers in tiny, helpless UK needing to be frightened- it’s the other way round. What a difference a year makes …!

The first example of an official Remainer switching sides so quickly that I had to rub my eyes was the Mayor of London. Unlike arch remainers like ‘Lords’ Heseltine and Adonis, who conceded that the Remain fight was over and that they’d lost, Khan went further:

“Speaking in the city centre ahead of the celebrations on Tuesday night, Mr Khan told the PA news agency […]: “Fairly or unfairly, people around the world saw the Brexit referendum vote as the UK somehow turning its back on the rest of the world, including Europe. The fear was, we would become insular, inward-looking, and what I’m keen to show is the opposite. Yes we may be leaving the EU, but very much as a city we are still a European global city. We will continue to be open to people’s trade and ideas.” (paywalled link)

I nearly fell off my perch! Who was it who described the EU Referendum vote as sign how horribly backwards and xenophobic the UK was? Not us Leavers, Mr Khan – but you and your Remain friends! Who was it who kept on and on about how Brexit would mean our country will be open to the world, no longer shackled to the restrictions imposed by the EU? Leavers, that’s who, not the combined powers of Remain, from the BBC providing Remainers like Heseltine, Grieve, and the rest with daily platforms to distribute their doom and gloom. 

This Khan speech is the first sign of Remainers in power recanting and turning themselves into Leavers … Quick, wasn’t it! Mr Varadkar is also gingerly stepping back from the Brexit abyss. Having been celebrated as the ultimate Brexit wrecker in the EU, he’s now hoping to negotiate a good trade deal with us once we’re out (link) while still making ‘hard border’ noises. That’ll work fine, won’t it!

Across the Channel things suddenly don’t look so good. They haven’t for some time, especially in France, but nevertheless our Remain MSM exhorted us to regard the powerful EU, and how forlorn and forsaken we’d be outside! But what a lucky escape have we had when we read about M Macron’s plans to play his power games on the EU stage as opposed to just France.

Macron is allegedly planning to ‘push the EU back on the global stage’ (link). Hang on a moment – wasn’t Brexit going to be catastrophic because the EU is such a powerful bloc on the global stage and we wouldn’t be, all alone? And now that’s not true so that Macron has to intervene? His chief adviser, mentioning some of Macron’s plans, says:

 “Europe has to get used to wielding power itself. Europe is the only global bloc that doesn’t think of itself as a power or as a long-term project.” In order to be in a position to push through his agenda, Mr Beaune said the French President had been laying the groundwork for years.” (link)

While Macron’s aims such as climate change and migration are obvious, the hint about that EU Army is hidden. It seems that our instinct, to regard M Macron as Micro-Napoleon, was spot on. A good thing, isn’t it, that we’re Out and no longer subject to the phantasies of such wannabe ‘world leaders’.

That the EU is, well, not exactly blooming, has been mentioned over the holidays and will become a major factor in the forthcoming negotiations. Liam Halligan in the DT observes:

“As long as there was a chance Brexit might not happen, the EU was always going to exaggerate the potential downside and difficulties of leaving, in the hope of encouraging Remainers and upending public opinion. […] There have always been good arguments to stay in the EU. But the arguments to leave are far stronger – and the vast majority of British voters value national democracy far more than European nation-building, sensing the ongoing Brussels power grab has already gone too far.“ (paywalled link)

Exactly. We also value our Sovereignty more than some possible economic hardships – hardships which haven’t happened in spite of the Project Fear scenarios. The next quotes from Liam Halligan’s article provide an interesting counterweight to the Irish, French and remaining Remainers ‘soft’ retreat. ‘Soft’ because M Barnier hasn’t spoken yet:

“The upcoming trade talks will no doubt feature more brinkmanship and finger pointing. But with the Commons onside, Brexit is no longer on a knife-edge – meaning Britain finally has the upper hand in the negotiations to come. Financial markets are waking up to the possibility post-Brexit Britain could enjoy a “roaring 2020s”. The FTSE-100 Index of leading shares gained 12 per cent last year, having fallen by the same amount in 2018. And the FTSE-250, focused on smaller, more UK-centric firms, is 25 per cent up over the last 12 months.” (paywalled link)

Wasn’t one of the eternal complaints of Remain that Brexit would introduce such uncertainties that the markets would be severely damaged? It seems that BRINO and Ms May were the wrecking balls, not Brexit. There’s more:

“Far from shedding a million jobs after voting to leave – as predicted by HM Treasury – the UK has created a million since the Brexit referendum. New figures show our non-EU exports grew five times faster over the last year than our exports to the EU – which makes sense, given that the majority of growth is happening elsewhere.” (paywalled link)

Isn’t that astonishing! Isn’t that exactly what those horrible hard-core Breixteers were predicting? And we were still told that there won’t be any lettuce for us once we’re out but super-gonorrhea instead! This last quote is especially noteworthy:

“Since 2016, the UK economy has held up well – weathering Brexit-related uncertainty, as the eurozone has flirted with recession. And with mass protests on the streets of France and Spain, and hard-Right parties rampant in Italy and Germany (where Alternative Für Deutschland is now the official opposition) it is the EU not the UK that has problems with extremism. While Brexit has been painful, the reassertion of democracy and the nation-state will moderate British politics, a lesson our European neighbours have yet to learn.” (paywalled link)

Didn’t the combined opinion makers of Remain keep painting us as extremist populist thugs, ready to “do” a Yellow Vest movement as soon as the gentle, united EU were to leave us on our own? In reality, our politics have always been ‘moderate’ – Antifa and Momentum thuggery exempted. That particular Remain argument has always been a despicable attempt to belittle and smear Leave voters. I’ll finish with this quote with which Halligan introduced his article:

“At any normal time, the ruling class will rob, mismanage, sabotage, lead us into the muck,” wrote George Orwell, soon after the Second World War. “But let popular opinion really make itself heard, let them get a tug from below – and it is difficult for them not to respond”. At the outset of this new decade, the UK’s ruling class has most definitely felt a powerful “tug from below”. Popular opinion has been expressed, repeatedly, and we’re finally leaving the European Union.” (paywalled link)

This ‘tug from below’ has become more insistent since the EU referendum nearly four years ago. Johnson would do well to realise that he now has to deliver. The economic outlook points to a good Brexit year for us and conversely to a miserable one for the EU. The EU monolith is crumbling, Macron and Barnier notwithstanding. That alone ought to stiffen the spine of our negotiators.

First though – the 3rd Reading of the Brexit Bill. The HoC will be back on Monday and we’ll see then if the MPs have felt that ‘tug from below’ to such an extent that the events in the HoC last year won’t be repeated, disgraceful but also strangely entertaining as they were.

Meanwhile, remember that you, dear readers, were part of the force that ‘tugged from below’ – but we still must not relent.

KBO!

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