The old war is won… The new war is about to begin (Happy New Year)

We now have a hostile foreign power on our doorstep

Tomorrow we'll be positive but on our last day of EU captivity we offer some facts and warnings

It’s the last day of 2020 and the last day of the egregious ‘Transition Period’ which has kept the UK locked into EU laws, continuing to pay the EU massive sums, but with no say over anything the EU does.

At 11.00pm this evening the EU’s Transition Period will end and a new transition period will begin. Before looking at what we are now facing, firstly we offer some facts and observations on yesterday’s momentous events.

Yesterday’s debate in Parliament

At 9.53am yesterday morning (30 Dec 2020), the Prime Minister Boris Johnson rose to make his initial statement to the House of Commons at the start of the debate on the European Union (Future Relationship) Bill. By 2.21pm the debate had concluded and the Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, rose to give the final statement on behalf of the Government.

This concluded just four hours and 28 minutes of time when MPs were able to speak for the first time in Parliament about the largest trade and foreign relations treaty in the history of the United Kingdom. They had had less than 20 hours to prepare, since the publication of the 163 pages of the Bill and its Explanatory Notes.

The result of the vote

On Monday (28 Dec) Brexit Facts4EU.Org predicted the result of yesterday’s vote. Our estimate was a majority of 456 in favour. The actual result was a majority of 448. We were out by only four votes going the wrong way.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Vote on the European Union (Future Relationship) Bill, 30 Dec 2020

The ‘Ayes’

Conservative: 359
Labour: 162

The ‘Noes’

Alliance: 1
DUP: 8
Green: 1
Independents: 2
Labour: 1
LibDems: 11
Plaid Cymru: 3
SDLP: 2
SNP: 44

Summary: 521 for, 73 against, majority of 448.

36 Labour MPs abstained or did not vote. Only two Conservatives actively abstained: the Rt Hon Owen Paterson MP and the Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP. It is worth pointing out that if all Labour MPs had voted against, the motion would still have been carried by 81 votes.

Why did two senior Conservatives abstain?

Below are excerpts from the speeches of the Rt Hon Owen Paterson MP and the Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP in the House of Commons yesterday.

The Rt Hon Owen Paterson MP

“It will take real political determination to get fish back in five and a half years’ time when we think that in the channel, for instance, the EU will be going down on cod only from 91% to 90.75%, when it [the EU] should be on 25% according to zonal attachment. We will need real determination.”
“I would love to vote for the Bill today, but I really cannot vote for a measure that divides the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland will have a different tax regime and, as part of the customs union, it will be under the ECJ, the Single Market and so on.”

The Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP

“The Government are right to take back control and to recreate our sovereignty in the United Kingdom. We do not just want legal sovereignty; we also want practical sovereignty…”
“I have a couple of worries about this agreement. The first is fishing. One of the great prizes of Brexit is to recapture control of our fishing stocks and to rebuild our coastal communities and our fishing industry. Will the Government today promise to legislate immediately to prevent pulse fishing and over-large trawlers, which are doing enormous damage to our marine environment and to our fish stocks?”
“I am also worried about the position in Northern Ireland. To what extent is our sovereignty damaged or impaired by the special relationships and special provisions of the withdrawal Act? I thought they were going to be changed in this latest agreement with the EU.”

You can read the entire transcript from Hansard here.

The ‘deal’ passes into law – how did it happen?

As we wrote yesterday, an RAF aeroplane did indeed jet the new treaty to the Prime Minister yesterday, as soon as it had been signed by the EU Council President and the EU Commission President. And it was promptly signed by Boris Johnson in No.10 in the afternoon.

By signing this deal, we fulfill the sovereign wish of the British people to live under their own laws, made by their own elected Parliament. pic.twitter.com/FQDj1Nnqan
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) December 30, 2020

At the time Boris Johnson was signing the treaty the House of Lords was still debating it, and it had not yet passed its third reading. Her Majesty the Queen did not give Royal Assent until the early hours of today. Here is the final stage in the House of Lords at 00.30am this morning.

#HouseofLords is notified of Royal Assent to the European Union (Future Relationship) Act. Watch below: pic.twitter.com/jFywxS3rA9
— House of Lords (@UKHouseofLords) December 31, 2020

The old war has been won…. The new war is about to begin

Tomorrow - as the fictional character of Scarlett O’Hara famously pronounced in ’Gone With The Wind’ – is another day. It will then be time to address the wonderful opportunities ahead of the United Kingdom, as it looks out globally and seizes its opportunities.

On this last day as a colony of the EU, however, it is perhaps a good moment to reflect on the real challenges we face as a result of the EU’s Withdrawal Agreement (which remains in place) and the wholly unprecedented impositions placed on the UK by the ‘Trade and Cooperation Agreement’ – now an international treaty.

As we have pointed out many times, those who inhabit the Brussels corridors are ideological extremists working for their vision of an EU superstate, subsuming all individual European nations into one and governed by technocrats from the centre.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

For the EU it’s not enough that tomorrow:

It rules a sovereign part of the United Kingdom: Northern Ireland
Its access to the UK’s sovereign territorial waters will continue as part of this deal
The UK has granted access to the EU’s financial firms whilst the EU has not reciprocated
The EU has locked in its massive surplus in goods trade, whilst offering nothing for UK services (80% of our economy)
The UK must stick to EU standards on the environment, climate change, carbon pricing, human rights, social rights, labour rights, tax transparency, and State aid

No, none of these things will be enough. Not for the EU.

For them, the United Kingdom must not succeed as a free, independent, and sovereign country. To allow this to happen would be to allow the peoples of other European countries to see a brighter future outside the EU, and to have hope. All hope must be extinguished.

Observations

The ‘Attack Dogs of Brexit’ Dept

From tomorrow, the Government must start to focus on the future. This will involve the continuing and excellent work of Liz Truss’s Department for International Trade. (Yet another major trade deal was agreed on Tuesday, with Turkey.)

It will also involve initiatives such as the creation of freeports, the exciting new ‘Turing Scheme’ providing international educational opportunities for our young people, and all manner of schemes to drive growth in AI, robotics, biotech, fintech, and the many other areas in which the UK excels.

But there’s one more thing. If the Government understands the continuing threat posed by the EU in its inevitable use of the Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement against the UK, it will need a specialist team. This team will have to work continuously to counter all the moves the EU makes to try to neuter the UK’s increasing competitive edge. It will also have to go on the offensive as it sees the EU breaking or extending the terms of its agreements.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we propose a team within Government which we have nicknamed “The Attack Dogs of Brexit Department”. This may sound like a confrontational epithet, but this is about a mindset, if the UK is going to stand up to the EU. We will write more about this in 2021.

Happy New Year to all our readers

In the meantime, we wish all our readers a very Happy New Year. Thank you so much to those of you who supported us with kind words, and especially those of you who made donations.

If you would like us to see this job through in the coming months so that we don’t “win the war but lose the peace”, please, please donate today. We badly need your support if we are going to keep going in 2021. Covid has affected us all, and it has definitely affected the level of donations we receive from members of the public. With no other source of income, we rely on our readers to keep us going.

We are most grateful to readers who have donated in recent days, but we badly need more readers to do the same if we are to continue researching facts, scrutinising, publishing, and lobbying MPs. Quick, secure, and confidential donation links are below this article, or you can use our Donations page here. If you have never donated before, please, please, keep us going with a donation now. Thank you so much.

[ Sources: Hansard | No.10 ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, New Year's Eve, 31 Dec 2020

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Reader Comments 16

1. Brian D Higginson , Thursday, December 31, 2020, 08:28:

Sadly we in Northern Ireland still have the influence of the foreign power involved in the day today decisions of our country, sovereignty was not returned to NI or the UK, just GB.

2. Peter Harrison , Thursday, December 31, 2020, 08:59:

Brian D Higginson, all part of the betrayal!

3. Sal, Herefordshire , Thursday, December 31, 2020, 09:12:

You at facts4eu have been amazing for so many years I don't know how you do it. Thank you so much for all you've done for Brexit and I've just made another small donation. Hope it helps. We need you for many more months yet, unfortunately!

4. Not4EU, London , Thursday, December 31, 2020, 09:16:

First of all, a huge round of applause & our gratitude to Owen Paterson & Sir John Redwood, the only two MPs who put principles before Party (the DUP rightly opposed). As for the rest, their mainly sycophantic fawning to their 'Great Leader' was pretty vomit-inducing. A few raised good valid points, which went unanswered (of course) as their vote was in the bag but I didn't hear a word from anyone, other than pointing out the unseemly rush, calling for the agreement to be provisional.
It is a very sad Treaty when the best thing about it is that it can be terminated.
Tonight we (except NI) will take yet another step out of the EU's orbit. Despite the flowery words, the Govt have not delivered on their Manifesto promise to leave the EU. We, the people, will not forget this betrayal. They really need to be sued under the Trade Description Act for including '& Unionist' in their title, though in reality their Union is now the EU.
A huge thank you to all at Facts4EU in your tireless efforts to publish EU reality. A task expected to only last until the referendum. The fact that 5 years later its mission still has purpose shows the disingenuousness of our polical 'elite'.
We now need a Govt that will be robust & vigorously defend our interests and enhance our independence. Sadly, it will be none of the major parties at Westminster.
Tonight at 11pm I will become a Remainer - to remain outside the EU sphere of influence.

5. Gordon Specter , Thursday, December 31, 2020, 09:16:

Brian D Higginson, If it's any consolation we aren't happy about your situation either.
NI is in the UK and always will be in my eyes

6. Paul Oliver , Thursday, December 31, 2020, 09:43:

I am not totally satisfied with the agreement. I suppose No Deal was never really going to happen. However, given all the fighting over the years since the referendum, political moves by remoaners, not prepared to accept democracy, including a shockingly biased Speaker of the House and former PM’s collusion with foreign powers. We should just be glad we are basically “Out”. I hate the way the Human Rights Act is abused, the fact Northern Ireland border issues were manipulated and of course the Fishing theft.

7. Tina Hammond , Thursday, December 31, 2020, 09:56:

Brian D Higginson, unless Ireland leaves the EU...then the border issue disappears

8. L Martin , Thursday, December 31, 2020, 11:03:

Happy New Year to the team! Thank you and well done for all your excellent work. My financial support continues until the team calls it a day or the day we are finally out of the EU. This bad deal, as with Covid-19, pushed through Parliament by Boris and his Government at accelerated speed without proper scrutiny. I voted to leave the EU, not for another bad Treaty. Disappointed that this Government surrendered our fishing waters yet again to the EU, Boris is another Heath. Sad to see NI and Gibraltar abandoned to the undemocratic EU. This is a 50/50 could not have caved more deal, without loosing Tory faithful support Treaty. A very sad day. Not independence day at all! Finally, when we do eventually get back our vote - use it very wisely.

9. Doreen MacLening , Thursday, December 31, 2020, 11:28:

Brian D Higginson, So sorry about that, but in the future all will be well, we look forward to that time. It WILL happen.

10. Chimera , Thursday, December 31, 2020, 12:50:

Now the hard work starts for the electorate. We have until 2025 to write and email to our MPs and Ministers to tell them that in our opinions they have not delivered Brexit in a satisfactory form for many of us. If we sit around despondently complaining about what our politicians have agreed on our behalf, without telling them that we are not satisfied AND that we are not happy with them as our elected representatives then nothing will change. However, self-interest is a great motivator and if sufficient electors state that they are prepared to vote to change the status quo it is surprising what can be achieved. Very few people write to their MP so a letter is notable, three or four letters considerably so. Sign petitions whenever you can, or you can always start one. I notice that there is a petition on the Gov.uk site at the moment regarding banning ‘super-trawlers’ from UK waters, with sufficient signatures it could be debated in Parliament.
The old adage states that ‘twelve months is a long time in politics’, four years even more so. Many people will have forgotten that NI was ‘sold down the river’ and our fishing grounds (and the communities that rely on them) were treated as irrelevant in the scrabble for individual political survival. It is up to us to keep these issues fresh in everyone’s mind, especially our elected representatives. Let us not abrogate this responsibility.

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