The silly season is drifting towards its natural finish. That doesn’t mean we’re spared the silliness our elected representatives and civil servants indulge in. There are times when I think they all are too addicted to be in the limelight to think through what they’re saying. Take Labour, for example … more on that below.
First though: the Backstop. Johnson has written an Open Letter to Mr Tusk. You can read the whole text here – all three-and-a-half pages of it. This is the gist:
“In a letter to the EU on Monday he [Johnson] said the backstop was “anti-democratic and inconsistent with the sovereignty of the UK” and it risked “weakening the delicate balance embodied in the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement”. […] “The backstop cannot form part of an agreed Withdrawal Agreement. That is a fact that we must both acknowledge.” He proposed replacing the backstop with “flexible and creative” arrangements to manage a soft border between Ireland and Northern Ireland after Brexit.” (paywalled link)
So far so acceptable, but as always the sting is in the tail, so look at these sentences:
“He told Mr Tusk both the UK and EU should agree neither side “will put in infrastructure, checks or controls at the border” […] The majority of MPs would agree to a deal without the backstop, he said, adding Parliament could act rapidly if it reached “a satisfactory agreement that did not contain the backstop.” (paywalled link)
Mistrustful peasants like myself ask immediately: what ‘deal’ would that be, BoJo? Are you thinking of sprucing up the six hundred pages of your predecessor’s WA and shiftily get the HoC to vote for that? Again? Really?
If Johnson thinks that’ll be the basis on which to win a GE after he’s “delivered” that sort of Brexit, he better think again!
What then of his opponent, Corbyn, and Labour? Yesterday, Corbyn was in full electioneering mode, pushing his dream of a VoNC in the HoC to “deliver” him into No 10:
“Jeremy Corbyn has urged Remainer MPs and Tory rebels to “get on board” with his plans to seize power from Boris Johnson in order to stop a no-deal Brexit. […] The Labour leader dismissed suggestions he should consider “stepping aside” if MPs bring down the Government in a confidence vote. Mr Corbyn said that if MPs were truly determined to block no-deal, they had to recognise that it “falls to the leader of the opposition to make sure no deal does not happen.” And whilst he promised that Labour would do “everything we can” to stop the UK leaving the European Union without an agreement on October 31, he warned that his success would depend on MPs accepting him as a caretaker leader.” (paywalled link)
The way Corbyn and Labour are framing their Brexit policies shows that they believe they’ll win that VoNC, and that the ensuing GE will garner all Remain votes, thus sidelining the bourgeois LibDems.
Even RemainCentral seems to start wondering about that ‘Labour Brexit’ when they headline their report thus: “Jeremy Corbyn: Only wealthy can afford to pay the price of a hard Brexit” (link, paywalled).
The following quotes from Corbyn’s speech ought to make even some hard-core Remain Tories sit up – unless they have a bolt hole in France, like Mr Dominic Grieve MP:
“A no-deal Brexit is a price only the rich can pay, Jeremy Corbyn said yesterday […] The Labour leader and his most important lieutenant, John McDonnell, both cast Boris Johnson’s Brexit plans as a divide between the “wealthy” and the rest of the UK. […] Mr Corbyn said: “Have no doubt, no deal would destroy people’s jobs, push up food prices and open our NHS to takeover by US private corporations.That’s a price Boris Johnson is willing to pay, as it won’t be him and his wealthy friends paying it, it will be you.” (link, paywalled)
That couldn’t be clearer! It looks as if the poll result reported here are irrelevant. Corbyn has of course the history of communist take-overs of ‘bourgeois’ parliaments at his fingertips, something the majority of Tory MPs and indeed voters have either forgotten or never heard about.
There were other unsavoury incidents at that Corbyn speech, so the report deserves the “FROM BEHIND THE PAYWALL” treatment later today – as a warning.
As always, there’s more. There is for example Mr MCDonnell who has said that he will support Remain even if a Corbyn government were to negotiate a ‘Labour Brexit’ deal with the EU. Remember that Labour is not just thinking of a GE but also for a 2nd Referendum:
“John McDonnell has declared that he would campaign to stay in the EU against a Brexit deal negotiated by Labour, […] Mr McDonnell told Today on BBC Radio 4: “I think generally people want to provide the electorate with a choice. I’ve made it clear from my personal position that I’ll be campaigning for Remain. I think that’s the best choice. But people will want to have a say and see whether there is another option. But we’ve had that debate in parliament and that’s why I’ve come down in favour of Remain, because I can’t see one that will have the same benefits as Remain.” (link, paywalled)
Look at it: ‘people will want a choice’ – so we, Labour, will give them one, making clear with all our might that only one of the options should be voted for … ! Of course Labor feels right at home in the EU!
And so do our much-vaunted ‘Leaders of Industry’. According to reports in RemainCentral, they have swallowed whole the ludicrous ‘Action Yellowhammer’ (see our report here) and have written moaning letters to Michael Gove:
“Ministers were accused of “concealing the facts” over a no-deal Brexit yesterday as business leaders expressed fury over leaked government documents that outlined the prospect of widespread disruption. The prospect of fuel shortages heightened industry fears over leaving the European Union without an agreement.” (link, paywalled)
It’s not as if this hadn’t been reported and talked about for a year now! It’s not as if exercises have actually been held, e.g. in Kent! How can they run their businesses without planning ahead?
Are they in fact so addicted to having their hands held by government and indeed the EU that they cannot plan for themselves? That they need the Nanny Government to tell them what to do?
They are not alone. Whitehall is also full of ‘concerned’ civil serpents who just had to tell the MSM about their ‘fears’. As Johnson prepares to initiate a publicity campaign to show the preparedness of Government for a no deal Brexit (here), they had to come up with new ‘Project Fear’ warnings. See RemainCentral’s headline for example “Ministers fear no‑deal Brexit campaign could trigger food and fuel panic” (link, paywalled).
Whitehall obviously still regards us voters as sheep, driven from panic to panic, unable to think for ourselves, craving the hand of the Nanny State to lead us. Here’s something else these civil serpents fear:
“Ministers are worried that the Government’s No Deal public information website could crash under weight of people seeking post-Brexit information.[…] The adverts will direct members of the public to the gov.uk website where they can find out more information on issues such as applying for passports and whether they can drive on the Continent. However the expected interest in the site – which has until now only been home to obscure Government announcements and reports – has meant that officials have been in a race against time to ensure that the site does not crash when it launches.” (paywalled link)
Goodness me! It’s high time we Leave because our own ‘leaders’, from Big Business to Whitehall, have beocme so incapacitated and indeed infantilised that they cannot do other but moan in fear about the future.
It’s their own fearfulness which has fuelled all the ‘Project Fear’ scenarios. They think that, because they are fearful, we all must be. It’s called ‘projection’.
We, the people, are not fearful – but they don’t trust us. Our trust in those self-proclaimed ‘Betters’ however has been crumbling since 2016. Between their institutionalised fear and Labour’s dream of creating socialism here in our country, our vigilance must not falter!
KBO!
The website standup4brexit.com gives 46 MPs’ pledged assurances:
”…. by rejecting Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement and delivering the Brexit that was promised at Lancaster House and in the Conservative manifesto. That means leaving the Single Market, Customs Union and ECJ overrule…… to commit to leaving the EU on 31st October and abandoning Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement as dead.”
MR BORIS JOHNSON is one of those making this pledge. If this site is genuine, his attention should be drawn to it.
Anyone who swallows the daily diet of scaremongering dished up by the MSM in general and the BBC in particular can be forgiven for thinking that civilisation beyond the coast of continental Europe is non-existent. No wonder our ‘Little Englander Remainiacs’ are petrified about cutting the apron strings of ‘Nanny EU’.
Thank goodness explorers like Christopher Columbus, to name one of many, had the courage to explore, otherwise we would still be under the illusion that the earth is flat and we would crash off the edge of it into outer space if we went too close to the horizon.
When you have a hammer everything begins to look like a nail.
And when it’s a YELLOW hammer …
I see things a little differently.
While it would be sensible for the UK to be negotiating now over arrangements to be put in place on exit day there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to negotiate any sort of trade deal that needs to be finalised before we leave. If Ireland wants a hard border that would be up to them. If it’s a wall they want they will need to get cracking!
Boris needs to deliver what we voted for. We voted to leave the European Union.
Trading on WTO terms poste exit would leave us free to impose tariffs on imported EU goods. Since we buy more from the EU than we sell to them this should help us with any costs that might arise as we adjust to once again being a free, independent, sovereign state with nuclear weapons.
Since tariffs in effect are not dissimilar to VAT, but with lower administrative costs, we might want to retain them and dispense with VAT once we’ve left.
There is only one real issue in Brexit – removing the “occupation” of the country by the EU elite.
It is like inviting a next door neighbour into your house and overstaying their welcome and when asked to leave claiming ownership of your house. The options then are you can acknowledge their right to own your house, you can throw them out and be enemies, or you can give them a face-saving exit from your property and once they have left the notion of them trying to exert power over you and your property becomes untenable.
Strange as it may seem the best option for Brexit is to accept a deal that removes the EU elite from power over the State, allows Britain to get on with its neighbours, and allows the State to rule itself without outside interference. A good precedent for this can be found in the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 where Ireland accepted the basics of independence and when British power was gone and after a brief civil war, dismantled the treaty over time.
Edward But what if the enemy is within?
Good that Boris has told the EU that we will no longer accept the backstop. However the worrying part of the letter is the reference to a “transition period”. Personally I would also have chosen a different form of address to Tusk rather than “his excellency” which clearly he is not…
What we have to remember is that project fear is a lot of very harmful lies, the perpetrators of this fear campaign actually mean us harm to pursue their owns selfish interests. A couple of videos with self explanatory titles and I’ve written about this often enough.
“Eurozone Banks look very sickly!”
https://youtu.be/hfbiAo44vrE
“Germany Prepares MASSIVE STIMULUS as Economy Contracts! Euro Sinking Fast!”
https://youtu.be/zhymf3mirJk
I like to use these videos for illustrative purposes, to save me a lot of typing but I do agree with them. This project fear thing is an appalling disgrace and a fabricated pack of lies, a complete inversion of the truth, I’d go as far as to say that it is a form of treason.
Margaret Thatcher’s famous words: “the trouble with Socialists is that they always run out of other peoples money,” is about to come true in spectacular fashion.
The Eurozone is a busted flush, only kept going with fraudulent accounting techniques and I’m very sure the intention is to keep it going until the UK can be tied to the EU indefinately, we’ll be robbed blind to help bail the EU out. The 32 billion mentioned in the Withdrawal Agreement will be a tiny drop in the ocean compared to what it will cost us if we don’t make a clean break from the EU now.
So remember, the remainers in our government are a bunch of dishonest, deceitful, treacherous criminals that mean us harm, they are making a mockery of what is left of our democracy.