Brexit – now!

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Brexit – now!

Stuart Millson urges our dithering political leaders to detach Britain immediately from the EU

A British army of disenchanted voters, from the unregarded towns of the old industrial North and Midlands, to the fishing villages of Cornwall and Kent, made history on the 23rd June by voting for their country to leave the European Union. As the broadcasters (David Dimbleby for the BBC, Robert Peston for ITV) turned pale in their referendum studios as the Brexit majority edged toward the 16 million-plus finishing line, it became clear that 40 years of Common Market/EEC/EU membership was approaching its end.

Despite Mr. Dimbleby informing us that this was “an advisory referendum”, and Robert Peston kindly and valiantly “trying to find something positive to say about the result”, the vote for Brexit – the in-out referendum which Prime Minister, David Cameron promised us – is a reality. However, since the victory by the Leave side and the departure of its most illustrious advocate, Boris Johnson, we have entered a period of prevarication and paralysis. Wrapped up in their own internal leadership election, the Tories have reverted to internal obsessions, briefings, political assassination and factionalism; meanwhile, Labour – clearly ignoring all the main warnings from the referendum about losing touch with their old constituents and supporters – have moved back into the world of the 1980s; of Islington and Camden thinkers, party tribalism and the general goldfish bowl of Socialist politics.

Having voted for an end to the rule of elites, the EU and the we-know-bests of the political class, the British people are now watching their great hopes and victory slowly being sucked back into the Westminster and Whitehall bubble. “Negotiations” are now planned for Brexit – but care must be paid, so we are told, to the preservation of our links with the “single market”; and even Tony Blair has suggested that a statesman needs to come forward to handle this delicate process. (Perhaps if Mr. Blair can think of a statesman, he could let any future Brexit negotiating team know his or her name…)

As time passes, as Parliament’s long summer recess takes hold and as the bad losers of the Remain side stomp their way through the streets of London waving their blue and yellow-starred flag of the EU superstate (that zone of massive youth unemployment and bureaucracy, run by people with the names Juncker and Merkel), the Leave momentum diminishes. That is why we need to urge, in the strongest possible terms, an immediate start to Brexit. There should be no reason why the starting gun – the famous “Article 50 of the EU Lisbon Treaty” – cannot be fired now. The Prime Minister promised us that the “instruction” given to him, and to his successors, by the British people would be honoured, and there can be no clearer way for this to be achieved than to make the first formal moves in the Brexit process. Of course, for the politicians of the “managed decline” era – those who act as if they are civil servants rather than elected representatives of the people – such action is unthinkable. Yet in 1972, when the Government of Edward Heath delivered us into the clutches of the then Common Market, with no mandate for this economic and constitutional change from the British electorate, the deed was done immediately: no long-drawn-out considerations on how our existing single market with Australia, New Zealand, North America and the rest of the world would cope, and no sense at all that any time should be wasted in signing up to this “vision” of European harmony.

Today, the sticking point over our leaving the European Union appears to be the notion that we must preserve our economic tie with the continent, and that “citizens of the Union” must continue to be able to move freely through every member (and ex-member) state. With each BBC news report – when not eagerly discussing the spectre of an imminent recession – comes the set-in-stone idea that the single market must be preserved. But why should this fixate us so much, especially when China, Japan and practically everywhere else seems to have unlimited access to EU markets – China, especially, with its cheap steel imports which the all-powerful in Brussels have been unable to curtail? As to the free movement of people; is there not a difference between the normal travel and settlement of individuals in any day-to-day economy, and – what we have actually ended up with as a result of EU membership – the mass-migration and unmanageable population transfer of cheap labour?

The referendum victory on the 23rd June delivered over 17 million votes for democracy, for a re-setting of the dial in post-war politics, for a re-calibrating of everything the complacent political and business class previously stood for and relied upon. Moreover, Brexit has provided real hope and encouragement to European electorates, increasingly disillusioned with the sterility and political-correctness of an intransigent, unelected EU elite, to seek their own referenda – as a new vision of a Europe of nations comes into view.

But it seems as though the great gift and treasure from last month – that once-in-a-lifetime vote now lies on some out-of-the-way siding; undefended by its former leaders who seem to have abandoned the field, and at the mercy of the appeasers, worm-tongues (to use a Tolkien term) and Remainers of the beaten pro-EU side. The Brexit movement must regain the initiative – and this means the convening, perhaps, of a Brexit victory rally, not in London, but instead in York or Doncaster, or even in Wales, the nation which voted to regain the identity and independence of the whole Kingdom. It also means demanding as soon as possible that the process for which we voted – leaving the EU – commences at the earliest opportunity. Already there are signs that the continental Europeans are ahead of us, as during the last meeting of the European Council, Britain (thank goodness) found itself excluded from the greater part of the day’s proceedings. We must capitalise on their eagerness for us to go: the British people and Leave leaders must find their voice again and the message must be clear: Brexit – now.

Stuart Millson is QR’s classical music editor

 

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7 Responses to Brexit – now!

  1. David Ashton says:

    The commodification of human labour suits global finance and global revolution, in Europe or outside Europe, a pincer destroying nations and civilization.

  2. Stuart Millson says:

    Listen if you can on the Radio 4 i-player facility to this morning’s Business report on the Today programme (c. 7.20 am). A reporter – a Katie something-or-other – was out and about in Sunderland, asking the most loaded questions you could ever wish to hear! “How much of a disaster has Brexit been to the Sunderland economy” asked our impartial reporter! Apparently, a quango there stands to lose millions of pounds of EU money for “regional development”. No doubt this “EU money” (actually – money from the UK taxpayer, generously redistributed to us by Brussels) is needed to repair all the damage to North East industries caused by our 40-year membership of the Common Market/EEC/EU.

  3. Stuart Millson says:

    I wonder if the BBC should be referred to as the anti-Brexit Broadcasting Corporation? Yet again on the Today programme’s business slot, the presenter was going out of his way to ask the Chairman of Rolls-Royce very loaded, anti-Brexit questions – such as “you have offices in Germany, will Brexit mean that your staff will be less able to move from office to office freely?” Needless to say, ghosts from the past such as Ken Clarke are wheeled out onto the airwaves, expressing their view that a recession might be on the horizon (as if we haven’t experience recessions and credit crunches – and the collapse of banks during our EU membership!) Fortunately, there was some break from the gloom on Radio 4 at 9.45am – a 15-minute talk by the philosopher, John Gray, who spoke very well about the delusional, embittered and backward-looking nature of the Remainders – and how Britain will now be able to have a more spacious relationship with the world beyond the Eurozone’s borders. I wonder how this view managed to get onto the airwaves in the first place!

  4. Stuart Millson says:

    Naturally everyone wishes the new Government well, as it embarks – we trust – on the restoration of this country’s normal (i.e. pre-1972/pre-Maastricht/pre-Juncker) self-government and freedom. However, an interesting moment yesterday when the new Cabinet was being appointed, which took me back to ten years ago… When David Cameron defeated David Davis for the Tory leadership, he stated that his aim was to make the Conservatives a “centrist” party and to stop “banging on” about Europe. Now, Cameron has had to leave office – and David Davis has one of the most important jobs in the Government… Minister for Brexit. How the tables have turned.

  5. Stuart Millson says:

    Radio 4’s Today programme featured Tim Martin the MD of Wetherspoons, defending Brexit against a pro-EU Remainder (sorry, cannot remember her name). The latter said – in relation to Obama’s latest comment, that we “voted the wrong way” – that she would prefer to listen to the US President, the Japanese Government, IMF etc., as all of them couldn’t possibly be wrong. Tim Martin pointed out that they were already wrong: their pre-Referendum predictions of economic disaster, collapsing housing market, collapsing trade all failing to come true. Why do we allow ourselves to be bullied by these gloom-mongering Euro-maniacs? (Or Remainiacs.)

  6. Stuart Millson says:

    It is clear that the Remainders are fighting are very close rearguard action now against the democratic will of the 17.4 million British people who voted for the restoration of their country’s independence. From capitalising upon, or even engineering, food shortages (the ridiculous Marmite war), to their constant analysis of how our credit rating or economy may collapse, the Remainiac militants are attempting to sow the seeds of doubt and demoralisation. Meanwhile, the endless and tedious churning over of “hard Brexit” each day in the media aims to give the impression that the Government is out of step, and the Brexit process, chaotic. We need to get behind the Government’s message and clear timetable, and look forward with pride and relish to March 2017’s triggering of Article 50. I am quite certain that we will provide inspiration to the peoples and electorates of Europe, as they, too, seek freedom for their countries.

  7. Stuart Millson says:

    I am astonished by the sheer cheek of the Liberal “Democrat” leader, Tim Farron, who seems to believe that he and his Remainder MPs have the right to obstruct the clearly-defined will of the British electorate. Following the successful action of the investment manager from Guyana in the High Court (a troika of judges ruling that Parliament must have the right to “trigger” Article 50) it seems that the Remainiac side in this referendum civil war have been emboldened in their plan to keep this country incarcerated in the EU. But the clear moral high-ground rests entirely with Brexit: the British Parliament at Westminster (a non-sovereign body for as long as we remain in the European Union) gave the British people, via an Act of Parliament, the right to decide this issue: do we remain in, or leave the EU? The majority supported the latter position – to leave, and thus to leave all of the political and economic arrangements, rules and stipulations which relate to this superstate. EU diktat will no longer apply to us, and we will also leave the European Single Market – although leaving the Market does not mean that we no longer trade with the nations within it.

    On the 23rd June, we, the people, decided on our future. The referendum result should, therefore, not be given back to Parliament in order for Mr. Farron and his friends to perform a sort of pick-and-mix exercise on what fragments and scraps of “Europe” we hold on to. Neither should there be a “second referendum” – a ridiculous notion – as stupid as holding a second General election, six months into a new government or Parliament, just to ensure that we all really know what we are voting for.

    This Sunday, as we look at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, or our local town or village war memorial, we should remember the huge sacrifice which our Armed Forces made (and those of our Empire, Commonwealth – and our proud and always-bold Allies from the United States) – so that Great Britain could remain a free, distinctive, sovereign nation. And we ought to remember, too, when we are lectured by the French and German Presidents, that it was Britain which liberated their countries and enabled them to scrape together their precious European Union in the first place.

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