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BREXIT NEWS 26-31 Mar 2018
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ANOTHER WORLD EXCLUSIVE FROM FACTS4EU.ORG
THE EU'S SATNAV PROJECT
© EU Commission
You do NOT have to be a rocket scientist
to find this series interesting, shocking, but also entertaining!
This disastrous EU project has great lessons for us as we look at Brexit overall. We hope you enjoy it.
Best regards, the Brexit Facts4EU.Org team, Easter Saturday 31 March 2018, 08.45am
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LOST IN SPACE : THE EU'S SATNAV PROJECT
PART 3: ROCKETING COSTS, ASTRONOMICALLY LATE
© EU Commission
PROJECT IS STILL ONLY 47% COMPLETE
1 year and 3 months ago the EU announced its SatNav system went ‘live’ - but what’s the truth?
We read about these EU ‘successes’ every week in their press releases. Unfortunately when we investigate, the reality is somewhat different. Regrettably Galileo is another case in point.
Galileo is the EU’s SatNav system, similar to the system we all use in our phones and in our cars. A lot of your money has gone and will continue to go into this, so you might be interested to know about it.
EU Press Release : “Galileo goes live!” - Brussels, 14 Dec 2016
(Er.... well, kind of.... except for the fact you will still need GPS.)
There is of course a fully-functioning SatNav system that we all use in our phones and cars, which is an American system called GPS. The EU first discussed back in 1981 that perhaps the EU should have its own version.
It then took them another 13 years before the EU Commission proposed a project, and this then got the go-ahead from the EU Council. Below is a quick summary of the EU's project so far, and then we give a bit more detail in the next articles.
Please note: To be fair to the EU, we didn't start the clock when the EU first talked about having its own SatNav system. We started our timeline 13 years later in 1994, when the project got the official go-ahead.
OUR BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY - GALILEO PROJECT
- So far the Galileo Project has taken 24 years from initiation in 1994
- This EU taxpayer-funded SatNav system is still only 47% complete
- The original deadline for completion passed 11 years ago
- The budget has rocketed to 7 times the original figure
- It’s now equivalent to half the entire annual GDP for EU member state Estonia
OBSERVATIONS
Unfortunately the story of the EU's Galileo project is the usual history of EU projects. It's way overdue, it has cost far more than it was ever supposed to, and it doesn't do what it said on the tin. Apart from that it's just dandy. Our red box summary above is only a quick précis, but we give a bit more detail in the next articles.
Incidentally, as it's Easter we'll share something with you. We know you generally don't always want all the detail we give you on each story like this.
The reason we have to go into more detail than you or we would like is because otherwise Remoaners would try to poke holes in our research. A few of them try to do that anyway, but most don't bother. They realise that we have researched in such detail into official EU and national government sources that they have nowhere to go. Any argument they might make is futile, as it won't match the facts.
This project is a fairly representative one of the EU in all its interstellar glory.
The subsequent articles go into more detail and are the result of a week of ploughing through thousands of pages of official documents from the EU, the European Space Agency and suppliers, as well as information from individuals who are actually working on the programme.
We hope we’ve distilled this work down into some highly-readable pieces for you. If you’re a mainstream journalist and would like all of our source files, please let us know here. Space. The final frontier.
Where the EU boldly spends like no man has spent before...
[ Sources: EU Commission | EU Legal Docs | European Space Agency | Dozens of other official sources as well as information from scientists working on the project ]
Journalists and politicians can contact us for the full list of links, as usual.
07.30am, 31 Mar 2018
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READERS' COMMENTS
Please send us your comments and we will publish them here. You can of course use a pseudonym if you prefer, and it's always nice to know roughly where you're writing from. Please always state the headline of the article you're commenting on.Name: Jon, Wales Date/Time: 31 Mar 2018, 1.56pm
Message: The "EU Lost In Space" series brought to us by Brexit Facts4EU is a magnificent eye-opener and I would urge readers to take some time to absorb the deeper aspects of the series, for like other articles, it exposes failures. It is detailed FACT you generally wont find elsewhere. Now I admit to being a 'space-geek', so for me this series was of great interest. My initial thoughts were of EU incompetence from a political point of view where they have this mentality of: 'it doesn't matter if things don't work, just keep bleeding taxpayers'! As noted, it is massively over-budget and completion, and there lay some of the issues. In my opinion, Facts4EU observations have it just right in a nutshell:
"Space. The final frontier. Where the EU boldly spends like no man has spent before...".
Transparency from EU elites is on another planet, but whatever one thinks about the European Union (which is not a country or state), the UK continues to be the second highest NET contributor to EVERYTHING it does, and the better our country performs, the more we have to pay it. So while the EU spends more of other peoples money (demanding more when it wants - usually called "errors"), it continues to be unaccountable to taxpayers. Is it any wonder elites enjoy their luxury EU lifestyle, huge salaries, pensions, and perks like lower taxes? But I digress. One must consider the huge amounts over four and a half decades [except one year] the UK has given to the EU. The behaviour of elites should change, for as the saying goes, 'you don't bite the hand that feeds you', yet they hurl abuse at us for deciding to exit their political union.
Name: W. Alkaway, Essex, UK Date/Time: 31 Mar 2018, 1.04pm
Message: Thank goodness the EU scientists didn't have to invent a tin opener, to see what's inside the tin that 'says it on the lid', or we'd be waiting even longer! How I laughed! They take themselves seriously, but no one else does.
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LOST IN SPACE : THE EU'S SATNAV PROJECT
PT 4: A BRIEF HISTORY OF EU TIME
© EU Commission
THE EU BRINGS NEW MEANING TO THE PHRASE ‘SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM’
Time is a relative concept, explained Albert Einstein. Never is this more true than in the case of the EU.
OUR BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY - GALILEO DATES
Here are some key facts about the timings of the EU’s SatNav project, Galileo:-
- First approved by EU Council 24 years ago in 1994
- Completion dates have come and gone many times
- EU Commission announced in 2016 that the project was finally ‘live’
- In fact it won’t complete until 2020
- That will mean 26 years in the making and 13 years after the first deadline
© Facts4EU.Org 2018
Key dates :
- 1994: Council of the EU approved Commission to start SatNav project
- 1999: Studies and proposed programme completed
- 2000: Satellites to be operational by 2007
- 2003: Establishment of Galileo Joint Undertaking (GJU)
- 2005: Completion put back to 2010 (3 years late)
- 2006: GJU put into liquidation, GNSS Supervisory Authority took over
- 2007: EU Commission nationalises the project - €3.4bn euros agreed by EU
- 2007: Completion now put back to 2013 (6 years late)
- 2011: First 2 satellites launched
- 2013 (4th ‘Completion’ date) : 4 out of 20 satellites launched, one has antenna problems
- 2014: 2 more satellites went into lopsided, elliptical orbit
- 2016: 14 satellites are operational in total, 16 less than planned
- 2017: 4 more satellites launched, still in test mode
- 2018: Atomic clocks start failing in some of the satellites
15 Dec 2016: The EU Commission proclaimed that the service was live - 9 years late, and 22 years after the EU Council first approved the project.
Very regrettably we have to report that whilst 30 satellites are needed for full operation including back-ups, there are still only 14 actually operational. The service is nowhere near being fully operational.
In a latest twist, on 18 January this year the EU's system suffered a 'glitch' when atomic clocks that regulate its satellite signals started failing at an alarming rate. Jan Wörner, the Director-General of the European Space Agency (ESA) which governs the Galileo project, said that some of the satellites now had fewer clocks than before and warned of the possibility of “a systematic problem”.
OBSERVATIONS
Two years ago we suggested that the story of the EU's 20+ year dalliance with space was a good indicator of the likelihood of the EU negotiating in a timely fashion with the UK.
We'd suggest that subsequent events have proved that we weren't wrong.
So far this EU satellite project has ground to a halt due to becoming bankrupt, then it was bailed out with taxpayers' money, satellites went into the wrong orbits, and now atomic clocks are failing. We're not space experts but we'd assume that atomic clocks are quite important when measuring time and space accurately.
In many ways the Galileo project is like a microcosm of the entire EU project. Give them a day and they’ll take a light-year. Similarly the UK needs to get on with things, not engage in more years of diplomatic and commercial discussions which go nowhere until time zero is reached.
We hope we’ve distilled this work down into some highly-readable pieces for you. If you’re a mainstream journalist and would like all of our source files, please let us know here. Space. The final frontier.
Where EU time is a relative concept.
Our final articles in this series will appear tomorrow, Easter Sunday. You do NOT want to miss these! They include a piece on the huge expenditure of UK taxpayers' money on this project, and the lessons to be learnt for the Brexit negotiations as a whole.
[ Sources: EU Commission | EU Legal Docs | European Space Agency | Dozens of other official sources as well as information from scientists working on the project ]
Journalists and politicians can contact us for the full list of links, as usual.
07.30am, 31 Mar 2018
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READERS' COMMENTS
Please send us your comments and we will publish them here. You can of course use a pseudonym if you prefer, and it's always nice to know roughly where you're writing from. Please always state the headline of the article you're commenting on.
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EASTER SUNDAY
Don't miss the concluding parts our 'EU Lost in Space' series, appearing here tomorrow.
NOTE: If you missed parts 1 and 2 of this fascinating series, they are below, or you can use our special 'EU Lost In Space' page, which contains all the parts in sequence.
Tomorrow we provide shocking information about money - the appalling and growing cost of billions of euros.
We also ask what we can learn from this disastrous project about the implications for Brexit overall.
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LOST IN SPACE : THE EU'S SATNAV PROJECT
© EU Commission
EU TRIES TO BAN UK FROM SATNAV PROGRAMME
In recent days, the EU’s satellite navigation project called Galileo has come into public focus, with various mentions including by the Prime Minister herself. Yesterday the CEO of Airbus weighed in, saying that the UK must not be excluded from the Galileo programme and that matters of national security were at stake.
This has arisen because of the EU Commission telling the UK in January that it will be frozen out of the programme, causing outrage in the UK’s healthy space sector.
The Commission appears to take no account of the fact that the UK has contributed over 12% of the total costs of the programme so far, and has provided a substantial amount of the design and technical expertise.
OBSERVATIONS
In the coming series of articles we will tell you something about Galileo, the EU’s rival system to the USA’s GPS system which we all use today.
We will show you how this project is massively late and massively over-budget. We will also use this as a classic example of the incompetence of the EU in managing anything at all.
To see a superb example of how incompetent the EU is
Just look to the stars with us and we’ll show you
One thing the EU has been very good at, however, is spending huge amounts of British taxpayers’ money. And on that score the EU’s SatNav project has been very effective.
You may well find that part interesting, if nothing else.
Next article: Part 2 - Space – another frontier too far for Mrs May
[ Sources: EU Commission | EU Legal Docs | European Space Agency | Dozens of other official sources as well as information from scientists working on the project ]
Journalists and politicians can contact us for the full list of links, as usual.
07.10am, 30 Mar 2018
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READERS' COMMENTS
Please send us your comments and we will publish them here. You can of course use a pseudonym if you prefer, and it's always nice to know roughly where you're writing from. Please always state the headline of the article you're commenting on.Name: Chris, Devizes, UK Date/Time: 30 Mar 2018, 11.29am
Message: The irony is that the Galileo program depends on American companies for a lot of its development. For example, Raytheon has an R&D centre in Harlow which does a lot of work on Galileo.
Name: Sydney Ashurst, UK Date/Time: 30 Mar 2018, 09.15am
Message: Galileo, an example of cooperating with the EU and then finding you have been taken over, lock stock and barrel. In Civil Aviation the UK cooperated generously in creating the European Aviation Safety Agency, since taken over by the Brussels Commission. We cannot be a full member, on leaving the EU.
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LOST IN SPACE : THE EU'S SATNAV PROJECT
PT 2: SPACE – ANOTHER FRONTIER
TOO FAR FOR MRS MAY
© EU Commission
THE POLITICS OF SPACE
On Monday Mrs May told the Commons:
“The UK does have a world-leading space sector and that has contributed a significant amount of specialist expertise to the Galileo programme. So we believe it is not just a question of what is in the UK's interests for us to continue to be able to participate as we have done in that programme. We think it's actually in the interests of the European Union as well because of the expertise the United Kingdom can provide.”
The UK government Business Secretary Greg Clark added:
“The UK has a world-leading space sector that has contributed a significant amount of specialist expertise to the Galileo programme. The Government has been clear that we want a critical role in this important project, which will help strengthen European security to continue as we develop our deep and special partnership with the EU. This can only happen with complete UK involvement in all aspects of Galileo, including the key secure elements which the UK has unique specialisms in and have helped to design and implement.”
THIS STARTED MONTHS AGO... BUT YOU WEREN'T TOLD
The EU has been making noises about excluding the UK from this project - to which the UK has already committed a huge amount of money - for some time.
Back in January the EU Commission wrote to the UK government about no longer being able to share Galileo information:
“If the Commission shared this information with the UK (which will become a third country) it would irretrievably compromise the integrity of certain elements of these systems for many years after the withdrawal of the UK.”
On 24 January 2018, the EU Commission announced:
“Today the Commission adopted a decision to transfer the back-up site of the Galileo Security Monitoring Centre from the United Kingdom to Spain. The Galileo Security Monitoring Centre (GSMC) is a technical infrastructure which plays a key role in ensuring the security of the EU's satellite navigation programme Galileo, including its Public Regulated Service (PRS). As a consequence of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU, the GSMC's back-up site needs to be relocated.”
The EU Commissioner for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (space expert Elżbieta Bieńkowska) announced:
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“Europe's satellite navigation system Galileo has already been delivering high quality services for over a year now.”
“With today's decision the Commission is taking the necessary operational steps to ensure business continuity and preserve the security of the Galileo system.”
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Six countries were allowed to bid for the new location (not the UK of course) and the Commission chose Spain as the only candidate it put forward to the European Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) Programmes Committee. The committee endorsed the only candidate.
OBSERVATIONS
Despite the UK still being a full member of the EU, and despite it continuing to pay a large part of the EU’s costs, and despite having contributed billions to this space project in particular and continuing to fund it, the EU is moving the Galileo Security Monitoring Centre to Spain. The UK was not asked to bid for the location because no British territory would be considered. This is in flagrant breach of the treaties.
It is clear from our research that British companies are no longer welcome in consortia when they are putting together bids for new parts of the Galileo project, because the consortia fear that this will put them at a disadvantage in winning contracts.
The really bizarre thing in all of this is that the UK has a major part of the technical expertise that is still required. In denying itself this expertise, the EU will be left with technical gaps it will struggle to fill, and only its incompetent and bloated management structures will be relatively unaffected.
HOW TO NEGOTIATE, ROOM 1.01
When this sorry episode started, the British government should have fired off a legal letter immediately, pointing out to the Commission that it was acting in breach of treaty obligations in denying a full member of the EU (the United Kingdom) a role in an important EU project.
Regrettably, our dithering and weak Prime Minister does not do such things, preferring instead to hope that warm words will bring them round. She really has no idea how the EU elites’ minds work.
Can you imagine President Trump sitting down and taking this? Or Viktor Orban of Hungary? Or even Frau Merkel?
What is required, across the board, is far more robustness from the British side. If anyone in Whitehall has a backbone, it’s still not too late to start using it.
Next article: Part 3 - Rocketing costs, astronomically late, 47% complete. You do NOT want to miss the facts and figures!
[ Sources: Hansard | EU Commission | And confidential sources ]
Journalists and politicians can contact us for the full list of links, as usual.
07.20am, 30 Mar 2018
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READERS' COMMENTS
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MANOEUVRES
EU Factsheet 28 Mar 2018 © EU Commission
COMMISSION & EU PARLIAMENT CONTINUE WITH RAPID MILITARY BUILD-UP
EU PLANS RAPID CROSS-BORDER MILITARY DEPLOYMENTS
‘WITHIN AND BEYOND THE EUROPEAN UNION’
Yesterday the EU made further announcements about its military build-up, with a major series of statements from the EU Commission and others.
The main press release was entitled “Action Plan on military mobility: EU takes steps towards a Defence Union”, leaving little doubt what this is all about.
We summarise below just some of the more important output of the three main arms of the EU – the Commission, the Council, and the EU Parliament.
1. THE EU COMMISSION
The most powerful woman in the EU is its de facto Defence Secretary, the Italian former Communist Federica Mogherini. She is more officially known by the title: ‘High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President’.
Here is what this woman said yesterday:
“Promoting peace and guaranteeing the security of our citizens are our first priorities as European Union. By facilitating military mobility within the EU, we can be more effective in preventing crises, more efficient in deploying our missions, and quicker in reacting when challenges arise. It will be another step in deepening our cooperation at EU level, also in the framework of the Permanent Structured Cooperation we have formally launched recently, and with our partners, starting with NATO. For us, as EU, cooperation remains the only way to be effective in today's world.”
2. CONCLUSIONS OF THE LAST EU COUNCIL
The big decision-making body of the EU is the Council, which Theresa May attends and which meets quarterly for its main decisions. Here are the minutes for the one which took place before Christmas. It starts with ‘SECURITY & DEFENCE’ as No.1 on the agenda.
It’s possible that no news organisation in the UK has told you about this (!!!) so we will.
“I. SECURITY AND DEFENCE”
“Further to its December 2016 and June 2017 conclusions, the European Council reviewed progress achieved in the field of security and defence, and:
• welcomes the establishment of ambitious and inclusive permanent structured cooperation (PESCO) and stresses the importance of quickly implementing the first projects; calls on participating Member States to deliver on their national implementation plans;
• calls for further work on the European Defence Fund, and in particular the swift adoption in 2018 of the European Defence Industrial Development Programme, in time to finance the first capability projects in 2019;
• expects the Council to complete the comprehensive revision of the Athena mechanism for financing common costs of EU military missions and operations;
• requests that the Council adopt, in spring 2018, a recommendation on a new dedicated instrument covering all requirements for Capacity Building in support of Security and Development after 2020;
• asks for work to proceed on implementing the full set of proposals on EU-NATO cooperation, including the additional ones agreed in December;
• invites the High Representative, the Commission and the Member States to bring work forward on military mobility, both in PESCO and in the context of EU-NATO cooperation;
• invites the High Representative to report in June 2018 on the work undertaken to strengthen civilian CSDP and to produce, in consultation with the Member States and the Commission, a Civilian CSDP Compact in 2018.”
3. THE EU PARLIAMENT
The EU Parliament’s ‘Think-Tank’, which is used by MEPs a little like the House of Commons Library service, came out with its own assessment this month. Entitled ‘Permanent structured cooperation (PESCO): Beyond establishment’, here is how it summed things up, opening with the following statement:
“In its 2016 Global Strategy, the European Union (EU) set a new level of ambition in security and defence. Closer defence cooperation among EU Member States is now at the top of the agenda.”
Note the ‘top of the agenda’ priority statement.
BRITISH MEP DIANE JAMES COMMENTED EXCLUSIVELY TO BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG
We asked seasoned observer of the EU's military ambitions, Diane James MEP, for her thoughts on these latest developments:
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“News yesterday that the European Union is advancing its military ambitions should come as a surprise to nobody. It is clear that to complete the bloc the EU requires its own armed forces; but it is unclear whether or not the EU will remain part of NATO, the defence pact which has kept the peace in Europe since the Second World War.”
“EU Transport Commissioner Violetta Bulc said yesterday that the mobility plans being drawn up to deploy troops across Europe at short notice was ‘part of the EU defence strategy, not NATO's’. I utterly condemn the EU's attempts to arm itself and subvert the efforts of NATO and will continue to do so post-Brexit.”
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© Diane James
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OBSERVATIONS
It may surprise some readers that “Promoting peace and guaranteeing the security of our citizens are our first priorities as European Union”, as the EU’s Defence Secretary put it yesterday.
Long gone are the days when the EU pretended to be a trading bloc. Now it not only acts as a quasi-superstate when it comes to social and tax laws and every new thing it can think of, but it has also taken the first duty of national governments unto itself – the role of defender of the nation.
OI, CORPORAL CLEGG! WILL YOU APOLOGISE NOW?
Almost everyone in the United Kingdom knows of Nick Clegg famously and repeatedly ridiculing all of us who warned of plans for an EU Army (or ‘combined defence forces’). Memorably Clegg did battle with Sir Nigel Farage in a TV debate in 2014, and lost miserably. However his words have never been forgotten…. “A dangerous fantasy”. Faced with the bare-faced military build-up now going on each week in the EU, perhaps he would like to grovel out an apology to Mr Farage - and to the British people as a whole - for his deliberate and shameless lies. No amount of sophistry or weasel words will get around the fact that all of this was planned and he knew it.
When we talk of military build-up, we're referring to structures, organisations, headquarters, combined forces, materiel, and finances.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE AN EXPERT
It almost doesn’t matter about the detail in our piece above. For example if you don’t know what PESCO is, it doesn’t matter. Just look at the EU Council’s list overall and you get the picture.
The EU is a mostly unelected, unaccountable, and dysfunctional continental machine intent on taking over all military capabilities in the EU member states.
It pays lip service to ‘working with NATO’ but in reality it wants to replace it. The military and foreign policy side of the EU is headed up by an Italian former Communist. She only left the Party when it disbanded in Italy and became a ‘socialist’ party. Now she is probably the most powerful woman in the EU.
The EU’s military now has finance and is starting to grow muscle. Early days but the means are now all there.
BUT SURELY WE ARE LEAVING ALL OF THIS?
Our MPs are almost all unaware of what’s going on, as they have been hoodwinked by Remainer civil servants and vested interests in the defence consultancies and equipment manufacturers.
We must pull out of all EU structures, protocols, agreements, battlegroups, financing arrangements, and every other EU mechanism now.
We have serious ideas about a strategy going forward but that’s for further articles. Any politicians who would like to hear a more independent voice (than the MoD) on these matters is welcome to contact us in absolute confidence.
Below we publish a summary to make everyone think. You don’t have to master all the complexities of the defence issues at stake here. All we ask is that you use your common sense as you scan articles like these. We don’t lie and we don’t need to exaggerate. The EU is quite bad enough without needing to.
We very much hope that MPs will start to take a very serious interest indeed in what the EU is planning. Furthermore, we strongly suggest that they adopt a “we’re out of everything” attitude when it comes to our armed forces and Brexit.
The reality is that we have bilateral agreements with countries like France anyway. There are very few countries of any military significance in the EU – generally it’s the UK’s huge power which dominates. The UK should and must negotiate separately with the EU for all matters relating to defence and foreign policy cooperation.
The idea that the EU can run its own defence forces is a complete joke. It can’t even pay its own way in NATO. Nonetheless, it will try to keep the UK completely embedded, because it needs our huge defence budget and capabilities – at least for the next couple of decades.
Finally, we would love to work with other interested bodies, we’re very happy to provide information for MPs and committees, and we’re fairly sure that our readers will want us to fight to ensure that no British forces get left behind after Brexit.
[ Sources: EU Council | EU Commission | EEAS | EU Parliament | EPRS ]
Journalists and politicians can contact us for the full list of links, as usual.
07.10am, 29 Mar 2018
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READERS' COMMENTS
Please send us your comments and we will publish them here. You can of course use a pseudonym if you prefer, and it's always nice to know roughly where you're writing from. Please always state the headline of the article you're commenting on.Name: Norman, Taunton, UK Date/Time: 29 Mar 2018, 3.13pm
Message: You know it really would not surprise me to see the EU try to invade the UK and with help internally from the remainers. Our MP's really don't have clue and our elite leaders really do not want us to leave, we have been sold down the drain. I really have doubts that we will ever leave and our independence and sovereignty will be lost for ever. You also need to watch the Muslims who are not what they appear to be. Sorry but there you go. You want more then do feel free to contact me.
Name: Brexiteer, Braintree, Essex Date/Time: 29 Mar 2018, 09.28am
Message: Rapid defence deployment inside the EU, that's the plan. In the original terms I read that the EU Commission can deploy their defence force anywhere, in any country without consultation with that government, to defend European values. They can intervene in any country to prevent public meetings the Commission does not deem appropriate. If the Defence force had been formed earlier it would have been interesting to see if they became involved in Spain during the Catalonian disputed elections. This force alone can be used to prevent any other country having a "Brexit" moment, as any political dialogue deemed un-European could be closed down. Thank God we are leaving!
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MILITARY COMBINE
© Twitter
A campaigning piece pulling together 9 months
of unique & original defence reporting that
you won’t get from the BBC, Times, Telegraph, etc
It’s now impossible to talk about defence without talking about the EU.
This is true because the UK has become very heavily tied up in the EU’s military plans since the Referendum. It has happened behind closed doors - parliament and MPs have been told virtually nothing about it. What they have been told has been highly misleading.
It’s a sad but simple fact that when you read about defence in the newspapers, or see a defence story on the television, you don’t learn anything about the EU’s military ambitions. There are many stories about defence matters, but they almost never cover the EU, its plans, and the way it has quietly dragged the UK’s armed forces into its web.
The same applies online. Try otherwise good sites like the UK Defence Journal. It’s as though the EU doesn’t exist.
WHY IS THIS?
Well, one answer is the usual one about the Establishment voting Remain. People who write about defence for a living tend to live in the Establishment world. They go to Remain wine bars. They have Remain dinners with their Remain contacts. They socialise with Remainer defence type 48s. (Type 48s…? 52/48? Get it…? Don’t worry, you have to be a defence geek for that joke to work.)
In our experience Brexit is a dirty word amongst MoD civil servants, amongst military equipment suppliers, amongst defence journalists, and amongst MPs with an interest in the sector. (And yes of course there are exceptions, but...)
This is not only undesirable, it is positively dangerous.
Below we are showing a list of defence articles we have published in the last nine months. We could have gone back further but the list is already long enough to demonstrate that:-
- We’ve researched and written more than anyone else about UK defence and the EU
- The warnings for the UK have been there for a long time
- It’s scary when you see what has been going on
LET'S WORK TOGETHER
We now call on the various special interest defence groups to contact us – and you know who you are.
We have tried in the past to get people to work together so that we all pull in the same direction and perhaps share some resources and articles. Now we feel it’s essential. No-one in parliament is truly championing this. If we don’t exert some real pressure we’re going to end up leaving our service personnel behind when we eventually leave the EU.
And the Brexit Facts4EU.Org team are for leaving no-one behind.
BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY – DEFENCE ARTICLES EACH MONTH
OUR DEFENCE ARTICLES FROM JUNE 2017 - MARCH 2018
DEFENCE ARTICLES IN JUNE
DEFENCE ARTICLES IN JULY
SPECIAL REPORT: How the UK government signed up to EU defence forces post-Brexit
DEFENCE ARTICLES IN AUGUST
DEFENCE ARTICLES IN SEPTEMBER
DEFENCE ARTICLES IN OCTOBER
DEFENCE ARTICLES IN NOVEMBER
DEFENCE ARTICLES IN DECEMBER
DEFENCE ARTICLES IN JANUARY 2018
DEFENCE ARTICLES IN FEBRUARY
DEFENCE ARTICLES IN MARCH
OBSERVATIONS
One of the reasons we've produced the index above is because the sheer size of it drives home three points.
Firstly, it shows just how active the EU has been in the defence area, that there has been so much to write about in just the last nine months.
Secondly, although we have to cover far more EU & Brexit topics than defence, we have produced more output on this subject than any specialist defence organisation we're aware of.
And finally, those of you who have kindly made donations can get an interesting perspective on the sheer volume of work we produce in just one area, despite us receiving a quarter of what we need to raise each month.
[ Sources: Cited in each article ]
Journalists and politicians can contact us for the full list of links, as usual.
07.10am, 29 Mar 2018
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READERS' COMMENTS
Please send us your comments and we will publish them here. You can of course use a pseudonym if you prefer, and it's always nice to know roughly where you're writing from. Please always state the headline of the article you're commenting on.Name: Jon, Wales Date/Time: 30 Mar 2018, 06.43am
Message: Prime Minister May or ANY UK government Minister, HAVE A DUTY TO EXPLAIN WHY so much has been quietly given away at UK taxpayers expense post-referendum? Have they forgotten we're leaving political EU institutions? When MPs read the above list of defence articles, one may think they would hold government to account in the House of Commons for what belongs to the UK? If MPs fail to seriously question these important FACTS, one might then consider of what use our politicians are? After prospective candidates come knocking at our doors 'pleading' we 'lend' them our votes at elections, do we then elect MPs to the House to pay for an EU Army when we are independent? The whole point of our sovereignty and self-governing nation state is our own defence, and our continued VOLUNTARY membership of NATO, for which the UK exceeds its minimum agreed contribution.
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WE PROVIDE FACTS
AND WITH YOU
WE MAKE A DIFFERENCE
We are a committed and determined team.
You haven't given up fighting for a clean Brexit.
Together we're up against a vast army of UK & EU propagandists.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org is an influential pro-Brexit news organisation read by MPs, MEPs, mainstream journalists, eurocrats, MPs and Senators from the EU, USA, Australia and other countries.
Do you still have the determination to get the Brexit you voted for? Or in fact more than ever before?
To the right: Articles in the national press,
all of which came from Brexit Facts4EU.Org.
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We’re committed and tireless, but we wouldn’t be here to report and fight without our supporters.
If you’re like-minded, please join our readership. If you're already 'in-the-club' we'd like to take the opportunity to send you a big thank you for all your support.
All we have here are our honest tools - research, compelling daily content, simple charts - and our most important resource - YOU.
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We badly need your help to keep going, fighting for a full, clean Brexit.
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ANY CREDIT CARD USER
One-off or monthly donations. Quick, easy, and very safe.
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Any amount
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WE'RE REALLY GRATEFUL TO OUR SUPPORTERS BELOW IN THE LAST SIX MONTHS.
UNFORTUNATELY THIS REPRESENTS A QUARTER OF WHAT WE NEED TO SURVIVE. CAN YOU HELP?
(Anonymity respected completely if you prefer to remain private)
This list is being updated.
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Best regards, the Facts4EU.Org Team, Mar 2018
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UK TO PAY EU EXTRA €328m FOR TURKEY
L-R: Bulgarian PM, EU Pres Tusk, Turkish Pres Erdogan, EU Pres Juncker © EU Council
UK TO TAKE ANOTHER TURKISH BATH
AS EU PROMISES EXTRA €3bn TO TURKEY
P.S. CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL THE BBC?
On Monday night, unelected EU Presidents Tusk and Juncker both confirmed informally that the EU will go ahead with another €3bn payment commitment to Turkey.
This is an extra €3bn euros on top of the €3bn that has always been committed. And the UK is going to be hit with another massive bill.
10 days ago we reported that the European Commission had announced it was “mobilising additional funding for the Facility for Refugees for Turkey”. Two of the EU’s main presidents effectively confirmed this on Monday evening in Varna (Bulgaria) at the close of the EU-Turkey leaders’ summit.
For the UK this would take its total commitment to the EU for its Turkish adventure to a total of €904.2m (approx £795m) since 2016. Crucially, €655.2m (approx £575m) of this will never appear on any paper as being part of the UK’s contributions to the EU budget. The second part of this (€328m) is now being demanded of the UK.
We’ll repeat that.
This new, extra €328m will be paid quietly to the EU, and
It’s in addition to the UK’s usual annual budget contributions.
© Facts4EU.Org 2018
UNELECTED EU COMMISSION PRESIDENT JUNCKER
As usual when he has something to say and he doesn’t want many people to know what he’s saying, President Juncker delved into French to make his remarks about the EU’s ‘Facility for Refugees for Turkey’. Here is what he said:
“The Refugee Facility in Turkey is the tangible expression of solidarity between Turkey and the European Union… The European Union has honoured its commitment to provide € 3 billion in 2016 and 2017 and the Commission launched on March 14 the process of mobilizing additional funds for the second tranche of € 3 billion, and I would like the Member States - I have no doubt about it – to join this effort.
“Our Turkish friends have the habit… to say that the European Union has so far paid only 1.8 billion euros… We have disbursed 1.8 billion euros, we have committed to disburse 1.2 billion euros more, to assign to projects.
“So there is no doubt about the whole, solemn commitment of the EU on these 3 billion euros, just as I would like to say that the commitment of the EU … on the 3 billion euros for the years to come will obviously be followed.”
- President Jean-Claude Juncker (unelected), Varna, 26 March 2018
You will note that President Juncker was forced to admit that 'only' €1.8bn of the first €3bn has so far been committed, but already they are preparing the next €3bn. The reason for the delay in spending all of the first €3bn was because of trying to find legitimate projects to pay for. The spending may increase now, because 1.2 million migrants in Turkey have been given EU cash cards with which they can withdraw money provided by EU taxpayers.
UNELECTED EU COUNCIL PRESIDENT TUSK
“On migration and support for refugees, the EU and Turkey remain very close partners. I would like to express our appreciation for the impressive work Turkey has been doing, and to sincerely thank Turkey and the Turkish people for hosting more than 3 million Syrian refugees these past years.
“The EU has lent substantial support to improve the livelihood of these refugees, and this evening we reaffirmed the European Union's unwavering commitment to continue this support.”
President Donald Tusk (unelected), Varna, 26 March 2018
MAKING COMMITMENTS
The above excerpts are from the speeches made by each of the two EU Presidents who were present, in front of President Erdogan of Turkey. Taken together, and with the various written announcements already made by the EU on this subject which we have previously reported on, there is no doubt that the EU is committing the next €3bn.
€2bn of the €3bn is on top of the normal annual contributions made by member states into the EU budget. For some reason we can’t get to the bottom of, the UK is once again paying a staggering 16.4% of this, or €327.6m. Then the UK will also pay its share of the further €1bn which is coming out of the EU’s annual budget.
OBSERVATIONS
Remember the famous golf club analogy? Well in this case your club’s committee has decided to donate another huge sum to a neighbouring club. They did this two years ago but you weren’t told about it then – ‘your share’ just disappeared from your bank account. Now the same thing will happen again.
Even though you personally don’t get any benefits from this arrangement with the neighbouring club, your own club will insist you pay ‘your share’.
And even though you’ve given notice that you’re leaving before the new money will even need to be paid, the club will insist that you pay ‘your share’ before you go.
In fact they insist that you pay far more than an equal share. They want you to pay 16.4% which is around a third more than you’re used to paying.
Naturally nothing about this will appear in the club’s daily newsletter, as it wouldn’t do for a member’s family to know what was going on….
MPs, WILL YOU TAKE ACTION?
We invite any of our politician readers to:
- Ask a question in the House about this ‘off-the-books’ funding to the EU
- Ask how much has been paid to the EU annually, under ALL headings and not just 'EU budget contributions', for the last 10 years
- Ask why the UK agreed to pay into a fund related to Schengen countries, for a problem caused by Frau Merkel in 2015
- Ask why large sums like these have not been mentioned in lists of the UK’s EU contributions
- Ask if Mrs May has already committed to the next tranche (€327.6m) of funding
- If so, demand that this offer to be rescinded immediately
Please note that we have found no formal decision yet in the minutes of the EU Council approving this measure. Whilst there’s clearly no doubt it’s going ahead – just as the first tranche of it did two years ago without parliament and the public being properly informed – it’s going ahead now.
However it’s not too late. Unless a clandestine deal has already been done behind closed doors, the British government can still simply say “nein”. There’s nothing in the treaties obliging the UK to pay and there is absolutely no moral obligation for the UK to do so.
This agreement with Turkey addressed a Schengen area problem, caused by Angela Merkel, and she was the one who negotiated it with President Erdogan. Bizarrely David Cameron agreed that the UK would pay part of it – and the UK ended up paying a huge share of it.
This really can’t be allowed to happen again…. Can it?
As ever, journalists and politicians can contact us for more information.
[ Sources: EU Council | EU Commission ]
Journalists and politicians can contact us for the full list of links, as usual.
06.30am, 28 Mar 2018
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READERS' COMMENTS
Please send us your comments and we will publish them here. You can of course use a pseudonym if you prefer, and it's always nice to know roughly where you're writing from. Please always state the headline of the article you're commenting on.Name: Jon, Wales Date/Time: 29 Mar 2018, 08.27am
Message: A direct challenge to ALL remoaners who use and speak highly of OUR NHS, and to ALL remain MPs and peers. Our NHS and its personnel are the 'Angels' of our great country. Do we have a tough Prime Minister to say to the EU: "Actually we will NOT be handing Turkey €328m thank you, as we prefer to hand it to our great NHS instead" - DONE! And what do we hear - A deafening silence!
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CAN SOMEONE PLEASETELL THE BBC?
© BBC
NATIONAL BROADCASTER FAILS UTTERLY,
AS USUAL
Once again the nation’s state-funded broadcaster has completely failed to provide any coverage of the EU’s demand for another massive sum in addition to the UK's annual contributions. It’s the major story we reported on again above, involving threads which are all newsworthy:-
BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY – WHY THE BBC SHOULD HAVE COVERED THIS
- Massive new funding from UK to EU
- Money is for a Merkel deal
- It rescues her from her migrant crisis
- This money is on top of UK’s annual EU budget contributions
- The UK is NOT forced to pay this under the treaties, but it will
The BBC seems unable to cover such a major EU/Brexit story, and yet they were able to find the resources to produce a story like this one yesterday:
© BBC
The BBC's latest anti-Brexit story relates to a review which was commissioned by Home Secretary and arch-Remainer Amber Rudd into EU migrant needs after Brexit.
The headline is “Brexit: UK firms 'fearful' for future migration system” and the two sub-headings within the article are ‘Lower growth’ and ‘We need global talent’.
OBSERVATIONS
We now consider this to be a gross and deliberate dereliction of duty by BBC News & Current Affairs and it is quite inexcusable.
We have published on the subject of this and other “off-the-books” funds many times, from before the Referendum when the funding started, to the most recent article on 17 March and now again today.
The only reason for the BBC’s continued failure to cover major stories like these with implications for the country’s finances, with implications for migration into the EU, and with implications for the Brexit negotiations, is that they do not want to cover stories which paint the EU in a bad light. Nor do they want you to know the true, full cost of the UK’s EU membership.
You may feel that a story which shows how the UK in fact pays the EU far more than just the annual budget contributions, is fairly important.
Amongst many other things this shows how the Establishment continues to lie to the public about EU membership. You may also feel that any news organisation which consistently fails to cover major stories like these is unfit for purpose. That’s certainly how we feel.
We invite our readers to ask the BBC why they haven’t covered this story. Here is how you can do that:-
Phone: 03700 100 222 (24 hours, charged as 01/02 geographic numbers)
Post: BBC Complaints, PO Box 1922, Darlington, DL3 0UR
To anyone from BBC News reading this, you are welcome to contact us if you would like to know what's going on in the EU, as you clearly have no idea. Or if you do have an idea then you're deliberately not telling the British people, which is even worse.
Seriously, BBC News editor, contact us. We've given up trying to get you to take any notice of our material so now you have to make the running. On the phone or over email we might josh with you, but we'll be friendly. All we want is for the British public to be informed to a reasonable level when there's a serious issue regarding the EU and Brexit. This is stuff we know about.
[ Sources: BBC ]
Journalists and politicians can contact us for the full list of links, as usual.
06.30am, 28 Mar 2018
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READERS' COMMENTS
Please send us your comments and we will publish them here. You can of course use a pseudonym if you prefer, and it's always nice to know roughly where you're writing from. Please always state the headline of the article you're commenting on.Name: Paul A, East Sussex Date/Time: 28 Mar 2018, 3.22pm
Message: I have sent this to the bbc complaint department...I have no doubt they will not recognise this as being a reasonable comment on their performance and file it under 'swivel eyed loon' or similar as they do anything which doesn't fit with their bigoted 'world view' agenda. The BBC reporting of news is continually and constantly biased against Britain leaving the EU by refusing to report any of the multitude of good news and possibilities available to us being a free and independent nation. This is a constant and daily reminder of what is now so wrong with the BBC - institutionally incapable of reporting anything which doesn't fit it's biased and bigoted agenda. For instance yesterday 27/March/2018 they banged on all day about UK firms being fearful about future migration system... (this being a manufactured story as no relevant migration system exists) whilst completely missing the fact that the EU is demanding another €328,000,000 from Britain to support Merkel's casual disregard of statutory EU laws so she can cover her mistakes by paying danegeld to Turkey (a country outside the EU) to help keep migrants out of the EU. The omission of truth is a lie whatever way it is looked at.
Name: Brexiteer, Braintree, Essex Date/Time: 28 Mar 2018, 2.41pm
Message: Here is something else the BBC forgot to report: Australia ready for trade deal with UK from day one of 2021, preliminary talks with Liam Fox are at advanced stage. If I was French, German, Italian trade minister I would be slightly concerned their market for agricultural goods and wine exports to that very lucrative UK market is at risk. Just remember who are one of the biggest consumers of such products? That's it, the UK. German exports to the UK have already dropped by 5% and we are still in the EU. A few more preliminary deals especially of agricultural produce should concentrate EU negotiators' minds. Remembering that most of these goods produced in the EU are sheltered from the real world lower prices, by the external Customs Union tariffs.
Name: Patrick H, London Date/Time: 28 Mar 2018, 11.00am
Message: Any organisation that is not fit for purpose should have its annual subscription revoked! Many are clearly offended by the BBC's deliberately nefarious output, and it no longer addresses issues that are most important to the UK citizens....time for a BBC reorganisation and the dropping of subscriptions.
Name: Jon, Wales Date/Time: 28 Mar 2018, 10.50am
Message: I suggest the BBC may not cover positive EU/Brexit news items so much because they've received EU funding themselves, on top of the BBC licence fee. The BBC is primarily funded by almost all households in Britain and perhaps appears pro-EU for one reason - they have to be? A requirement of receiving 'EU-funding' (so-called), is to promote the EU as often as possible, and not seen as anti-EU. The prime example of EU propaganda are blue "EU" plaques of different sizes dotted around our country to indicate part funding 'by the EU', when in reality this is UK money. (Plaque sizes indicate differing levels of funding). One must consider therefore, as the European Union is NOT a country or state in its true sense, the BBC is promoting an ideal which is against the UK national interest? We are leaving the political EU, and if our national broadcaster wishes to be taken seriously, it SHOULD be 100% behind our country and talk it UP by broadcasting the great opportunities that lay ahead of us, instead of the doom and gloom we often see/hear?
Name: Chris, Devizes, UK Date/Time: 28 Mar 2018, 10.31am
Message: The problem is that the BBC complaints system is a fraud. When they know they are in the wrong, they simply don't respond. They then say that the complainant didn't respond to their reply. Last year I complained about an interview with John Redwood on the Daily Politics conducted by that Marxist Remoaner Jo Coburn. John correctly pointed out that 60% of our trade is conducted under WTO rules without any problems. She repeatedly called him a liar!! It wasn't just bias but slander and defamation. The BBC didn't reply, or to either of my two follow-up complaints. They are utter scum.
Reply: Maybe they just need to be inundated! Also, if you don't get a reply you can complain to the BBC Trust.
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WE PROVIDE FACTS
AND WITH YOU
WE MAKE A DIFFERENCE
We are a committed and determined team.
You haven't given up fighting for a clean Brexit.
Together we're up against a vast army of UK & EU propagandists.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org is an influential pro-Brexit news organisation read by MPs, MEPs, mainstream journalists, eurocrats, MPs and Senators from the EU, USA, Australia and other countries.
Do you still have the determination to get the Brexit you voted for? Or in fact more than ever before?
To the right: Articles in the national press,
all of which came from Brexit Facts4EU.Org.
|
|
|
|
We’re committed and tireless, but we wouldn’t be here to report and fight without our supporters.
If you’re like-minded, please join our readership. If you're already 'in-the-club' we'd like to take the opportunity to send you a big thank you for all your support.
All we have here are our honest tools - research, compelling daily content, simple charts - and our most important resource - YOU.
|
We badly need your help to keep going, fighting for a full, clean Brexit.
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ANY CREDIT CARD USER
One-off or monthly donations. Quick, easy, and very safe.
|
|
|
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|
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Any amount
From £2
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Be a supporter.
One off donation
from £25 for 1 year
|
Be a supporter.
Monthly donation
from £3 per month
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WE'RE REALLY GRATEFUL TO OUR SUPPORTERS BELOW IN THE LAST SIX MONTHS.
UNFORTUNATELY THIS REPRESENTS A QUARTER OF WHAT WE NEED TO SURVIVE. CAN YOU HELP?
(Anonymity respected completely if you prefer to remain private)
This list is being updated.
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Best regards, the Facts4EU.Org Team, Mar 2018
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GAME OVER? REES-MOGG GIVES IN TO FAKE BREXIT
© UK Parliament
PRIME MINISTER’S STATEMENT
ON EUROPEAN COUNCIL BREXIT DEAL
Yesterday in parliament the Prime Minister made a statement regarding the EU Council on Thursday and Friday, part of which she was allowed to attend.
It was at this meeting that the EU27 rubber-stamped the withdrawal and transition agreement which had been announced on Monday by Brexit Secretary David Davis and EU Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier.
Before talking about Brexit though, Mrs May told the House what had been decided on Russia.
RUSSIA
Mrs May explained that the EU has decided to withdraw its ambassador from Moscow. She then announced that 15 (which later became 16) EU countries had also decided to expel some Russian ‘embassy staff’, ie intelligence officers.
It is very important to note that:-
BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY – LACK OF EU UNITY
- The expulsion of diplomats was carried our by individual countries, NOT by the EU
- The EU as an organisation has expelled no Russians at all
- Its single action has been to recall its ambassador
- 11 EU countries have expelled no Russians at all
- USA has expelled 60 Russians – almost double the 33 expelled by the EU27 states
In other words, the EU as an organisation once again failed to act as a bloc, and the EU’s member states failed to act in ‘unity’ and solidarity’ – the concepts which Messrs Tusk, Juncker, Verhofstadt and others are constantly claiming for the EU but rarely delivering, as in this case.
BREXIT WITHDRAWAL AND TRANSITION DEAL - EXCERPTS FROM PM'S STATEMENT
Here are the key excerpts of Theresa May’s statement yesterday:-
“Turning to Brexit, last week the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union reached agreement with the European Commission negotiating team on large parts of the draft withdrawal agreement. That includes the reciprocal agreement on citizens’ rights, the financial settlement, aspects of issues relating to Northern Ireland, such as the common travel area, and crucially the detailed terms of a time-limited implementation period running to the end of December 2020.”
“As I have made clear, we remain committed to the agreement we reached in December in its entirety. That includes a commitment to agree operational legal text for the “backstop option” set out in the joint report, although it remains my firm belief that we can and will find the best solutions for Northern Ireland as part of the overall future relationship between the UK and the EU.”
“I am pleased that the draft agreement published jointly last week correctly applies to Gibraltar, but we will continue to engage closely with the Government of Gibraltar and our European partners to resolve the particular challenges our EU withdrawal poses for Gibraltar and for Spain.”
“I welcome the Council’s restating the EU’s determination to ‘have as close as possible a partnership with the UK’ and its desire for a ‘balanced, ambitious and wide-ranging’ free trade agreement.”
“For whether people voted leave or remain, many are frankly tired of the old arguments and the attempts to refight the referendum over the past year. With a year to go, people are coming back together and looking forward. They want us to get on with it, and that is what we are going to do.”
REACTIONS TO THE STATEMENT
SIR BILL CASH : “Will my right hon. Friend give the House an absolute assurance that in these negotiations the Government will not accept exclusive or sole jurisdiction of the European Court over the UK from 29 March 2019 - nor after 30 December 2020 at the end of the implementation period — and that the Government will not enter a treaty or introduce legislation that confers such jurisdiction, which a recently retired European Court judge said would be a 'legal viper’s nest'?”
ANSWER FROM PM : “there will of course continue to be that role for the European Court of Justice, because we will be continuing to operate on largely the same basis as currently. Once we have ended the implementation period, it will be a very different story.”
JOHN REDWOOD : “Given the very strong mood in the country to just get on with Brexit, will the Government now produce their draft legislation, so that we can have the new fishing policy, the new farming policy, the new spending policies and, above all, the new borders policies that will represent the Brexit bonus that we are all waiting for?”
ANSWER FROM PM : Waffle.
NICKY MORGAN (Arch-Remoaner) : “I congratulate the Prime Minister on the implementation period agreed last week.” We mention this purely as an example of how the deal is so bad that those who wish Brexit stopped are delighted with it.
JACOB REES-MOGG : “Many of us are concerned that, in the transition period, most of the red lines have gone, but we can live with it on the basis that they will be restored when we finally leave. What reassurance can my right hon. Friend give me that when we leave, we will be out of the single market, out of the customs union and out of any jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice?”
ANSWER FROM PM : Waffle.
OBSERVATIONS
JACOB REES-MOGG
Many people had been waiting for the moment Jacob Rees-Mogg was called, hoping that the leader of the pro-Brexit Tory MPs would finally condemn the travesty that is the wholesale capitulation and surrender encapsulated in the government’s Brexit deal of last week.
The question asked by the MP for North-East Somerset demonstrated that he is happy to “live with” the deal the government has negotiated. This is wholly at odds with the stance he has taken for many months.
Yesterday a reader took us to task for our article yesterday questioning whether Mr Rees-Mogg is still in the fight. We completely understood that reader’s frustration. And we agreed with our reader that Mr Rees-Mogg has been a truly eloquent advocate for Brexit. We didn’t enjoy writing that article but within hours it had of course become prescient. We are bitterly, bitterly disappointed. We are realists about the world of politics, but we didn’t expect so abject a volte-face from so talismanic a Brexiteer.
COMMON FISHERIES POLICY
Several times yesterday there were references by Conservative MPs, including the Prime Minister, to the fact that the SNP and others would keep the UK in the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) as part of permanently remaining in the EU.
This was their way of deflecting attention away from the fact that the government has broken very specific promises it made to the fishing and coastal communities that the UK would exit the CFP on March 29th next year. This really won’t do. We continue to reject this wholesale capitulation completely.
This is just one example of the many areas of British life which should have started to improve in March next year, but that won't if no-one is prepared to stand up and fight.
WHERE DOES ALL THIS LEAVE US?
We're as sure as we can be that Mr Rees-Mogg knows we're looking at a Fake Brexit, come Saturday March 30th, 2019. We refuse to be part of the Westminster bubble so we're not going to speculate on whether he's been 'got at' or whether he simply doesn't want to rock the boat for fear of triggering a general election and accidentally letting Jeremy Corbyn into power. (Our view is that May must be replaced but there is no need for a general election.)
Whatever the reason, Mr Rees-Mogg has now acquiesced. We just can't see any other way of viewing his question to the Prime Minister yesterday.
With regard to the entire situation in relation to Brexit we would like to know what readers think. Do you share our views about the appalling state of play we are now in? Are you concerned at the thought of staying in the EU after next March but with the added horror that for an extra 21 months the UK will effectively be an EU colony with no say over its laws?
Or do you think that we should simply accept the fact that the decision of the British people in 2016 has been eroded month-by-month by a Remain-voting Prime Minister and her 72% Remain-voting cabinet?
[ Sources: Hansard ]
Journalists and politicians can contact us for the full list of links, as usual.
06.30am, 27 Mar 2018
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READERS' COMMENTS
Please send us your comments and we will publish them here. You can of course use a pseudonym if you prefer, and it's always nice to know roughly where you're writing from. Please always state the headline of the article you're commenting on.Name: Rosie, West Country Date/Time: 27 Mar 2018, 10.25pm
Message: He is in an impossible position. If her were to trigger a leadership contest we might very well end up with Amber Rudd. It isn't just the cabinet which is 75% remain. There is the PCP too. They would find it very difficult to cut out the membership this time as they did last when they foisted Mrs May on us, knowing the membership were going to return Mrs Leadsom. But they would still be able to ensure one of the two names was Rudd and the other a remainer. If we were really lucky we could get Mr Hunt who has at least crossed over. But any election is like shaking a kaleidoscope or holding a Grand National. You simply don't know how it will end. I am completely allergic to Mrs May, have never felt like this about a PM before, and would dearly love to be rid of her. She is just a token woman of the worst kind when we need a statesman. But I can see all too clearly why they are leaving her there.
Name: Prospero, South Africa Date/Time: 27 Mar 2018, 7.04pm
Message: Don't give up on Jacob Rees-Mogg. He has not capitulated and is our hope for the future. But he sees that this 'transition' was laid down last year as our being still in the EU and bound by its acquis, yet at least acknowledged by the EU and Remoaners that we are leaving. The time to overthrow will come if in Dec.2020 we are not free, with a good deal. Then vote the deal down and go WTO. Rees-Mogg will not be supported by cabinet and put forward as a candidate for PM. He knows this. But he keeps up the Brexit fight and does not let this wretched 'transition' be seen as the final deal. Politics has it's own rules and forces and Jacob is not a fool who thinks he can simply overturn them.
Name: Chris, Devizes Date/Time: 27 Mar 2018, 2.08pm
Message: The only way forward is a General Election, but without May as leader. John Finn asks if we have been following recent events? - Well yes we have. Corbyn is weaker now than he has been for many months, and I am sure the Tories could win, with a sufficiently strong Brexit message. But it needs a No Confidence vote first, and I'm not sure that will happen. One thing I am sure of is that if the Brexit process continues with May in charge, we will get BRINO (which is what she has been after all along). She will give up Gibraltar in the process too.
Name: Patrick H, London Date/Time: 27 Mar 2018, 09.44am
Message: This Brexit is not finished by any stretch of the imagination. Just because another self indulgent pontificating Politician has acquiesced for another palm of silver, does not mean the people have stopped in their steadfast desire to rid us of this EU monster; actually quite the reverse. The establishment have made one giant error of arrogant judgement, Brexit, and are about to make another one, ignoring the people's resolve and nefariously undermining their democratic decision! Once the UK people have resolved the EU question, inspite of the Government's wilful disrespect for the people's democratic rights, Waste-Minster will be next on the people's agenda! Brexit is not the final destination; fixing an undemocratic and blatantly anti-citizen Parliament/HoL is the next step. The question now..."where is the real unselfish champion of the people to be found?" Liberté, égalité, fraternité!
Name: John Finn, Coventry Date/Time: 27 Mar 2018, 10.22am
Message: David Smith (Barrow) - You have it exactly right. A hard Brexit is NOT an option. The numbers in parliament simply don't support it. The 2017 election was an attempt to address that particular problem. The Tories didn't get the necessary support so they are being forced to negotiate an agreement which would, at least, receive majority support.
May could walk away from the EU negotiations but it would be an empty gesture. She (or her successor) would be forced back, tail between legs, to beg for a Customs Union deal. Corbyn has no interest in doing anything other than to undermine the government in any way he can and so force a general election. Have facts4eu or its readers not been following events?
As things currently stand we've laid out a few goodies on the table. The EU can accept them in return for a favourable trading relationship or they can reject them. I'm pleasantly surprised that we are giving up as little as we seem to be.
Name: Patrick H, London Date/Time: 27 Mar 2018, 09.44am
Message: We must conclude on the initial evidence, Mr Rees-Mogg has been spoken to and a plum job awaits him after his demonstrable Brexit acquiescence. There can be no other explanation... If so, what a very sordid and sorry affair indeed, and people will never forget this despicable treachery!
Name: David Smith, Barrow-in-Furness Date/Time: 27 Mar 2018, 09.10am
Message: I'm as furious about the government's spineless and needless acquiescence to the EU's transition roadmap as anyone, and in fact I assess that includes Rees-Mogg. However, I'm also far from certain your analysis that this government could survive a change of PM, is an accurate one. Furthermore, for several reasons another GE at this juncture would likely be chaos, producing nothing but another hung parliament. One in which Tory representation in Scotland might easily be reduced and which would in any case do nothing to remove the Remainist Quislings. While in view of recent trends within Labour, it could also further weaken Corbyn's position vis a vis the Europhiles there and expedite a further shift towards a merely nominal Brexit policy.
If as I suspect, Rees-Mogg is at least as aware of all this as I, his position is pragmatic and defensible. Better for now to persevere with an administration that is at least pursuing ostensibly a real Brexit that will come into force post-transition. One that frees us from single market, customs union and ECJ jurisdiction, the CFP, CAP and (formally at least) most of the common defence infrastructures. An additional 21 months subjection to the repulsive EU then becomes tolerable... just. Especially in view of the key ability to conclude bilateral/multilateral trade agreements with third party states/RTOs in the interim.
Time enough to baulk if, when the final exit deal is concluded and comes back to Westminster, it falls short on these and/or permits possible open-ended transition limbo. And indeed if it does not, it'll be difficult enough getting it past the Tory Quislings, Blairites and other assorted Europhiles in any case. Better to fight a GE and/or bring May down at that juncture; when a majority of the country is fuming at the unwanted continuation of a saga it thinks has gone on far too long already and wishes to see concluded asap.
As for the EU itself, it's blithely sowing the wind. Yet if we're to ensure a full and deserved reaping ensues, best we're fully free to do so beforehand.
Name: Warhorse, North Somerset Date/Time: 27 Mar 2018, 09.05am
Message: Amazed and yet somehow not surprised at Mr Rees-Mogg's capitulation. I'm afraid this shows that absolutely no-one in government can be trusted on Brexit; they all have their own agendas. This country is now facing two years' minimum of uncontrolled immigration, allowing incompatible cultures to pour in, all of which are warmly welcomed by government idiots as "refugees". They'll be given houses, money and [Ed.: Edited out because of hate speech laws]. MPs MUST be aware of the public's views on this matter, it is the uppermost in most folks' minds, not trade deals or Russian spies!---- Yet they continue to ignore the elephants in the room. Nothing short of a true uprising by the common people will fix these problems. I don't seriously think that there is any salvation to be had via the present system's ballot box. We need to be rid of all the political parties that we currently have. None of them support the people. All of them support their own interests ONLY.
Name: Michael Wood, Wales Date/Time: 27 Mar 2018, 08.52am
Message: I expect her to announce shortly that we will be joining the Euro!
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BEFORE THE NEXT PIECE, WHAT'S COMING UP?
We have some fascinating and detailed stuff coming up for you
Here are just some of the articles we're working on:-
- The EU army - the definitive guide
- The EU's SatNav system - where on earth is it?
- The EU and South African Farm Murders - the final shocker in our SA series
- Viktor Orban, one in the eye for Juncker, and the Hungarian elections
- Come together - how Brexiteers could collaborate for the common good
- The Referendum - just how brilliantly you all did!
There are in fact several other pieces which we've started but will probably never see the light of day. We probably investigate 10 stories for every one we're able to bring you. So many great pieces just never make it onto our news pages - not because you wouldn't want to read them but because we're out of time.
Unfortunately journalism like ours is expensive in time. If you want facts you can rely on, it can take us a long time to establish these.
One thing you can be sure of. What you read here is unique, well-researched, and reliable. It's why so many politicians in the UK and in Europe and further afield now follow our work. You won't see us on the BBC, ITN or Sky News because we're too busy doing, rather than primping our hair and talking about it.
You will continue to see our work here, day after day, provided we get financial support from people like you. Sadly, none of us are married to hedge fund managers, and none of us have huge consultancy incomes from globalist anti-Brexit corporations or 'institutes'. We do this the hard way, and we do it with your help. Thank you.
[ Sources: Hansard ]
Journalists and politicians can contact us for the full list of links, as usual.
06.30am, 27 Mar 2018
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Do you still have the determination to get the Brexit you voted for? Or in fact more than ever before?
To the right: Articles in the national press,
all of which came from Brexit Facts4EU.Org.
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REMAIN OUTSPENT LEAVE BY 2 TO 1
CAMERON SPENT £2.9m ONLINE TO INFLUENCE RESULT FOR REMAIN
Yet Remoaner Speaker of the House John Bercow grants urgent debate on "the EU referendum and alleged breaches of electoral law"....
for allegations against Vote Leave.
In recent days Remoaners have once again sprung into outraged indignation for a perceived injustice done to them, and some are saying that the Referendum will have to be re-run.
Yesterday in the Commons the LibDem Remoaner Tom Brake MP requested and was granted a debate today in the House regarding the Referendum and alleged irregularities over the way expenses were handled back in 2016.
The House's Remoaner Speaker Mr John Bercow MP was quick to grant the debate and this came as no surprise to anyone who has observed his antics in relation to Brexit in the last two years. It was revealed last week that his car has an anti-Brexit notice in it.
This is not the first time Remoaners have cried foul – each time previously the Electoral Commission has cleared the various Leave organisations of wrongdoing.
WHO SPENT MORE ON PROPAGANDA, REMAIN OR LEAVE?
The answer is clear and irrefutable. The Remain campaigns – official and otherwise – outspent the Leave campaigns – official and otherwise.
This is according to the Electoral Commission. Questions were asked about the Commission and its impartiality before the Referendum and we would dearly love to know how the Commission Members all voted in the Referendum. Nevertheless they are the official body for these things so we have used their figures.
© Facts4EU.Org 2018
What you see above are the official totals for each side of the debate. The total for the Remain side includes the £9.3 million that David Cameron’s government spent on its leaflet and internet propaganda. Even without that, the Remain side still outspent the Leave side by millions.
CAMERON SPENT ALMOST £3m ONLINE TO INFLUENCE RESULT FOR REMAIN
Next we look at a breakdown of the £9.3 million that David Cameron’s government spent on just two aspects of its campaign for a Remain vote.
The chart below shows the breakdown of the expenditure on the Cameron government’s publicly-funded propaganda for the Remain campaign. This included the design, production and printing of the infamous leaflet which was delivered to over 27 million households throughout the UK. This leaflet has now of course been proved to be full of lies.
© Facts4EU.Org 2018
What is generally never reported – by the BBC, the mainstream media, or the big Leave/Brexit organisations – is that 31% of the £9.3 million that the government spent on its propaganda for Remain went on the internet in the form of 'digital promotion'.
Just take stock of that for a moment. Day after day we are told that Russia or Cambridge Analytica or Donald Trump or Arron Banks or someone else bought the result of the Referendum. In fact, the British government spent almost £3 million on a website and on 'digital promotion', in order to influence the result for Remain.
This isn’t conjecture. These are not the kind of vague wild guesses that pass for fact in the Remoaner world. The costings for the breakdown above come from the Cabinet Office and No.10, and are once again official figures. Despite their europhiliac proclivities, on this the civil servants and politicians came clean – perhaps because they admitted the figures before the vote when they still thought they were going to win easily.
OBSERVATIONS
BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY – CAMPAIGN SPENDING
- Remain outspent Leave by over 2 to 1
- The government used £9.3m of public money to promote its propaganda
- Almost £3m of the expenditure was for the internet and 'online promotion'
- If anyone ‘bought’ this result, it was Remain
So there you have it.
Even if there were any technical infringements by a Leave campaign this would be nothing compared to the financial onslaught by the massed ranks of Mr Cameron’s friends, including overseas banks.
Frankly, if we were Remoaners we would be keeping very quiet indeed.
[ Sources: Electoral Commission | Cabinet Office ]
Journalists and politicians can contact us for the full list of links, as usual.
4.15pm 26th, and 04.35am 27th Mar 2018
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Please send us your comments and we will publish them here. You can of course use a pseudonym if you prefer, and it's always nice to know roughly where you're writing from. Please always state the headline of the article you're commenting on.Name: Jon, Wales Date/Time: 28 Mar 2018, 00.15am
Message: The 'establishment' continue their never-ending propaganda campaign in a feeble attempt to thwart Brexit, or so it would appear? I firmly believe UK MPs and peers attempting to mould figures to suit their own agenda should study this article, then express the above OFFICIAL FIGURES in the Houses of Parliament with the exact same passion as they appear to express other figures on this specific matter? We ordinary mortals deserve to see and hear nothing less. This depends upon Mr [remain] Speaker calling MPs to speak? (I do not infer or imply Mr Speaker is biased!). I BELIEVE IN FACTS, and expect ALL elected MPs to convey FACTS to constituents in an open and honest manner?
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© Sunday Express
IS JACOB FIGHTING OR NOT?
Yesterday Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, the leader of the pro-Brexit group of backbench MPs known as the European Research Group, wote an article for the Sunday Express.
Key excerpts from his article follow:
“THE TRANSITION deal that has been agreed may only be accepted with the greatest caution if it is genuinely a staging post rather than the final destination.”
“People who allowed an ever-growing tide of EU regulation and directives to swamp Parliamentary sovereignty now stand up for it against that dangerous form of democracy – the people.”
“Beyond Parliament there are a number of groups set up to stop Brexit whose broad thesis is that we did not know what we were voting for as we are not clever enough. Oddly, they seem to think we will be clever enough to have another vote.”
“Sadly, it is now the case but there will be no change in the ability of the country to govern itself on March 29 next year. Although we will legally leave the EU at 11pm not a single extra power will have returned.”
“There is so much in the transition that the government said or implied it would never agree. Free movement, the European Court of Justice, new laws, large amounts of money, ‘sincere co-operation’ and even our fishing waters are all in the transition deal.”
What does it mean?
The key passage in the article that struck us was the following: “Sadly, it is now the case but there will be no change in the ability of the country to govern itself on March 29 next year. Although we will legally leave the EU at 11pm not a single extra power will have returned.”
This may sound like an obvious point to make but it's an important one. This was an article not an interview. Mr Rees-Mogg is an excellent user of the spoken form of the English language, but when he is writing he is able to make his meaning even clearer. In the above sentence there is no qualification such as "Were this deal to go ahead..." His use of terms like "it is now the case" and "legally it will" seem definitive.
It therefore appears that Mr Rees-Mogg has now accepted that the transition period will happen and that the transition and withdrawal deal agreed on Monday last week will proceed as described.
OBSERVATIONS
Did you agree this?
We know that we’re in the minority in still fighting against a transition deal, believing strongly that this is no more than an extension of EU membership with nothing to transition to and with even less powers for the UK than at present.
With no ability to prevent laws and directives, the Westminster parliament - the oldest in the world - will become a puppet government of Brussels and the United Kingdom will become an EU colony.
Even if a proportion of voters had accepted the principle of a transition period, we thought they had not yet accepted the complete and abject surrender to the EU which is represented by the government’s deal last week. Given that the government’s deal crosses every red line that any Brexiteer could possibly think of, we had expected that Mr Rees-Mogg would have come out strongly in rejecting the deal completely.
SOMETHING FISHY
It is a shame that this comes on top of the strange case of the ‘demonstration that got tossed back’.
On Wednesday last week Mr Rees-Mogg and some other Conservative MPs had been scheduled to take part in a protest organised by Fishing For Leave. There are many stories surrounding this, some involving undue pressure being brought to bear by the Chief Whip, but whatever the truth we know the outcome.
Mr Rees-Mogg and his colleagues did not throw any fish and did not even go on the boat. Instead it fell to Sir Nigel Farage to step in and do the honours. So it was that in the middle of Mr Rees-Mogg’s article in yesterday’s Sunday Express there was a large photo of UKIP’s EU Parliament leader, ceremonially chucking over-quota fish back into the Thames.
We would simply like to know what’s going on. We have heard fighting words from Mr Rees-Mogg for many months, and on the back of this he has risen to become the favourite to become the next Tory leader.
Is this in fact all hot air? Now that the chips are down has Mrs May called Jacob’s bluff and won? Where is the great revolt?
A COHERENT BREXIT FIGHT, BEHIND A STRONG LEADER
Many of our readers are asking why some of the various pro-Brexit organisations can’t come together to fight. We support that idea completely and have made numerous attempts to contact other groups in order to work together. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be the appetite for it – perhaps personal agendas are at work.
We remain open anyway. We are party-neutral and no-one on the team has the slightest interest in a political or TV career, unlike so many others, so our only ‘agenda’ is a full and clean Brexit.
One unfortunate aspect of the Brexit movement is that it seems to be fragmented at the top. At one point we thought that perhaps politicians might unite around Mr Rees-Mogg. Now it seems that Mr Rees-Mogg may not be as firm on a clean Brexit as we had all thought.
With fragmentation and lack of leadership in parliament, perhaps it’s not surprising that the various Brexit organisations aren’t working together. We can only hope that some sense prevails at senior levels, starting in the political parties.
[ Sources: Sunday Express ]
Journalists and politicians can contact us for the full list of links, as usual.
06.55am, 26 Mar 2018
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Please send us your comments and we will publish them here. You can of course use a pseudonym if you prefer, and it's always nice to know roughly where you're writing from. Please always state the headline of the article you're commenting on.Name: Getahead, Troon Date/Time: 26 Mar 2018, 12.18pm
Message: "Now it seems that Mr Rees-Mogg may not be as firm on a clean Brexit as we had all thought." Because he didn't turn up to throw fish in the river? Come on now. He is one of the best speakers in parliament and he's on our side. Don't doubt him. Don't dump him.
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A READER’S LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER
Since last Monday we have received many emails telling us how frustrated you are with the way the Brexit negotiations have been handled. Here is one of them as an example, which a reader wrote in the form of a letter to the Prime Minister.
This letter is considerably more polite to the PM than many people have been in their emails.
Mrs Theresa May
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
Dear Prime Minister,
With respect, you may recall the treachery of former PM, Edward Heath, who took the UK into the European Economic Community in the 1970s without any electoral consent whatsoever. The country was informed this was a trading arrangement and there would be no essential loss of sovereignty. It emerged Mr Heath knowingly lied.
After a General Election there was a change of government, and former PM Harold Wilson announced a referendum would be held about staying in, or leaving the EEC. This was questionable as we had not given electoral consent to enter the EEC in the first place.
The referendum was held in 1975 and the 'stay in EEC' vote won the day. However, in due course we again learned we had been deceived, and the establishment had been economical with the truth.
If in 1975 the country had been informed the EEC was in fact a political project that would develop into the EU we see today, and if we had been informed we would lose almost all abilities to function as a sovereign independent self-governing nation state as of right, and if our fishermen had been informed their industry would be decimated, and if we had been informed the majority of our laws would be made by foreign bureaucrats and imposed upon us, and if we had been informed our elected MPs were effectively governed by a foreign bureaucracy, then I guarantee the outcome of the 1975 referendum would have been a massive NO vote.
These two events were the biggest deceit and betrayal of British people we had ever known at that time. Mr Heath used our fishing industry as 'bargaining chips' and gave away UK territorial waters at the last hour. This was an absolute betrayal as this is one of the UK's natural renewable resources. Prime Minister, please see "FCO 30/1048" to refresh your memory.
After decades of promises from successive Prime Ministers, many Treaties signed, all without electoral consent, we eventually gained a referendum regarding our membership of what had become a political European Union with legal personality, with its will and laws imposed upon the British people by unelected foreign bureaucrats. A power grab was under way.
After much parliamentary debate, and as promised, the Referendum Act 2015 went through both Houses of Parliament in the usual manner and granted Royal Assent.
Prime Minister, on 23rd June, 2016, the referendum was held and 'Leave the European Union' won with 17,410,742 votes on a very high turnout - the largest expression in British history. I recognise others had a different opinion. Former PM Cameron resigned immediately, and former Chancellor Osborne dismissed under your Premiership.
Everyone voting to leave the European Union knew there would be issues along the way. Other matters raised their ugly head with many MPs attempting to defy the will of the people and cause mayhem, and others trying to thwart Brexit by any means possible. We have had continual and threatening behaviour from the EU from those we did not elect.
Prime Minister, you have quietly given away so much already post-referendum, and continue to give away that which is ours. The EU commission have walked all over you and pushed you to see what they could get. They have used and tested you, and you have buckled under their pressure. I would like to see my Prime Minister TELLING the EU, "NO MORE".
Prime Minister, with great respect, please dismiss your advisors and seek guidance from other people, such as the experienced team at Facts4EU.org, who will ensure you and our country are protected. The team will not allow the EU to walk all over our country.
The first duty of any government is the protection of its citizens. I do not see this happening. We voted to end free movement, control our borders, our money, our waters, and so on.
Prime Minister, I end with these thoughts. You recall our armed services went to the aid of the Falkland Islanders to support their right to self-determination and their wish to remain British for so long as they wished. Lives were lost, so may I ask WHY we in the UK, after a legal referendum in June 2016, are not allowed our own self-determination.
We voted to leave, not be governed by a foreign bureaucracy.
Yours faithfully
Jon, reader from Wales
The author of the above piece has also made a suggestion for readers:-
"I would urge visitors and supporters to again view the Rt Hon David Davis MP [DExEU] under examination by the Hon Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, at the Select Committee for Exiting the European Union in January 2018.
[ Sources: Reader: Jon, Wales ] Journalists and politicians can contact us for the full list of links, as usual.
06.55am, 26 Mar 2018
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Please send us your comments and we will publish them here. You can of course use a pseudonym if you prefer, and it's always nice to know roughly where you're writing from. Please always state the headline of the article you're commenting on.Name: Jon, Wales Date/Time: 27 Mar 2018, 05.08am
Message: Reply to Michael Wood, Wales. Hello Michael, thank you for your kind comment which is appreciated. May I suggest you raise additional concerns with your Assembly Member at the Welsh Assembly, as well as your Plaid Cymru MP? Whilst we all respect those having an opposing view to ours, I found one of the better ways to 'help' is to direct people to Facts4EU to obtain facts they very loudly said they wanted. They instantly lose their 'argument' as they cannot deny the facts. Regards, Jon
Name: Michael Wood, Wales Date/Time: 26 Mar 2018, 1.20pm
Message: I always enjoy reading Jon's comments on Facts4EU. Personally I have always had doubts that we would get out.
This business with the new passports was obviously planned to 'rub our noises' in it and our agreement to allowing Croatians free movement should never have been sanctioned knowing we are supposed to be leaving. Furthermore, I note in the press that other EU nations are buying up what remains of our fishing quotas.
I shall be writing to my local Plaid Cymru MP, who is a remainer asking if he has even read any of your articles.
Parliament and the Lords are redundant, but I think they are happy with that. There is so much else I could say, but my blood is boiling.
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