‘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!
Photo by 我是魚夫
I am the original sceptic. I will believe we are out when we are completely OUT. There are too many very wealthy so called human beings that benefit from the EU. The main thin I want is for Britain to be a truly independent country. If that happens I will die a happy man. Happy New Year. Sid.
I am bemused as to why ‘Europe’ wants to be ‘A Global Power’. Or anyone else for that matter. Viv calling Macron micro Napoleon is spot on. What is it that drives these people? Correct me if I am wrong but when Britain was building an empire surely the original motive was Trade – amassing wealth – imposing our ideas of running the countries came second.
What other ‘Global Powers’ are there now? China? Well isn’t that country basically intent on trade, becoming more wealthy. I don’t know what Russia is doing now. Interfering in the middle east yes but it always has needed exit into the mediteranean because other ports freeze in winter.
USA has been a Global Power for years but isn’t Trump’s America First policy basically saying that ‘We are a Nation and our first priority is to look after our own standard of living’.
The EU architects from the start wanted Europe to be one nation. The Countries that make up that Union have other ideas and the project will probably fail. But if it does not fail and ‘Europe’ becomes one nation it is as entitled to defence as any other nation I suppose. But talking about being a Global Power is surely Offensive rather than Defensive.
Look on the bright side. The Remainers are trying to deny that they were. We are being told more of how sickly the evil empire actually is. That is all to the good. Boris really does have the whip hand in the negotiations. BUT HE STILL NEEDS PRESSURE APPLIED from every real brexiteer to get everything back from the EU by end 2020.
Interesting point that about BBC Parliament Channel – definitely room for improvement and it’s the sort of thing that if British Broadcasting Corporation has any meaning at all now, that is their job.
“…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.”
Let me get this straight: according to the Torygraph, a political party which wishes to preserve its country’s heritage and not hand their country over to gang-rapists and machete-wielding businessmen is extremist; therefore a party which wishes to hand its country over to gang-rapists and stabbers is moderate? Even Orwell could not have anticipated that level of linguistic drift.
”… There have always been good arguments to stay in the EU…” Funny, that. I can’t recall any. And it’s not for the want of asking.
Is Boris’s “oven-ready deal” Brexit, or Brexitino? What of WA Article 129 para 6 – to take just one example?
Quote:
“Following a decision of the Council falling under Chapter 2 of Title V TEU, the United
Kingdom may make a formal declaration to the High Representative of the Union for Foreign
Affairs and Security Policy, indicating that, for vital and stated reasons of national policy, in those
exceptional cases it will not apply the decision. In a spirit of mutual solidarity, the United Kingdom
shall refrain from any action likely to conflict with or impede Union action based on that decision,
and the Member States shall respect the position of the United Kingdom”
[Note the absence of the phrase present in other paragraphs “during the transition period”.]
Was this critique of Boris’s WA and PD, written the day after they were published, correct at the time – and has anything changed?
https://facts4eu.org/static/media/factsheet_7_eu_colonisation_treaty_v01.pdf
Note that in its #5, however, the author has missed the above-mentioned absence of the para 6 provision being limited to the transition period.
I often wonder if BJ realises (or even cares) that people actually read details of the WA/PD and understand and discuss them?
I think probably he doesn’t care. He has his own agenda – and I just hope it isn’t to sell us out to his ”EU friends” with a nice, easy, appeasy BRINO and to h*ll whether we like it or not.
I would also like to see ALL Socialist Definnitions bonfired as they are all of the ” Moving Goalpost ” type and dangerous for the untaught young with percentages and other difficult rich peoples theories.
It could still be Brino. The aristocracy is suspiciously silent, and strangely absent from our screens. As for lefties . They’re on school holidays..
Now we await your actual ACTION.. Harder borders, Reduced Housebuilding. Check shares in Persimmon and other substandard builders. ( I still don’t figure out what Mrs May and sidekick Rudd were playing at with Windrush. Have any shiploads of illegal immigrants been sent home yet ? I await the removal of one or two ( Hundred ?) ( Thousand ) EU regs. I look forward to Some UK government subsidies etc as per 1970’s with some relevant thought. I await the grip on the BBC Parliament Chanel for far better coverage of select committees and proper thinkers instead of Luvvies. I await the theories on important but ignored and negected issues like the “Compensation Culture2 loved by lefties.. A view on Charities and the vast array of other scams
I’m sure we all have our own favourites.
Do not hold your breath.
The work now begins in earnest of fulfilling the result of the referendum in legal technical terms while in practice riding a coach and horses through it. The establishment now regroup and plan while signalling how democratic they are. Soon there won’t be a soul admitting that they ever opposed implementing the vote. What – moi trying to block the result!? Cackles behind hands……