One year after the Referendum, the UK’s Remainer Prime Minister was still signing the UK up to new and costly EU expansionism. This affects the defence of the Realm and the defence of Europe as a whole. Neither MPs nor the public were informed.
In recent days many MPs have referred to the integrity and the honourable nature of Mrs May. Last week Jacob Rees-Mogg MP even prefaced his attack on the Withdrawal Treaty by saying “My right honourable Friend — and she is unquestionably honourable — said…”
The sad truth is rather different, as we shall demonstrate.
WHY DID THERESA SIGN UP TO MASSIVE EU DEFENCE EXPANSIONISM?
To take but one example of the PM’s duplicity, the UK’s plans to remain embedded in the EU’s Common Defence Policy is an area few MPs understand.
Given that defence of the Realm is supposedly the first duty of government, we have chosen this topic to show how our Remainer Prime Minister carried on after the Referendum as if the British people had never voted to leave.
WHAT THERESA DID, ONE YEAR AFTER WE VOTED TO LEAVE
One year after the Referendum when the British people voted to leave the EU, the following happened:-
PRO-BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY
MAY'S DUPLICITY OVER COMMITMENTS TO THE EU ONE YEAR AFTER THE REFERENDUM
The UK formally agreed to the EU’s proposals regarding billions of pounds of expenditure which affects the UK taxpayer.
On Thurs 22 June 2017, the Prime Minister attended the European Council where she approved:
The ‘European Defence Fund’, and
The ‘European Defence Industrial Development Programme’, and
The ‘Permanent Structured Cooperation’ (PESCO) on defence
Crucially - and unreported by anyone but Brexit Facts4EU.Org at the time - the Council agreed that the deployment of EU Battlegroups should be borne as a common cost on a permanent basis. This had previously been resisted by several other EU countries. Nevertheless Mrs May, who was representing a country which had voted to leave the EU, approved this.
Note: Part of the extra costs will be funded out of an EU funding mechanism which does not appear as part of the normal EU budget, and therefore will not show up as part of the UK's net annual contributions to the EU. The use of these 'off-the-books' funding mechanisms is spiralling in the EU, as we have reported many times before.
MAY'S STATEMENT TO PARLIAMENT AND THE OFFICIAL ‘CONCLUSIONS OF THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL’ DO NOT TALLY
According to the official ‘Conclusions’ of the European Council meeting in Brussels one year after the Referendum, attended by the Prime Minister and all 27 other leaders of the EU member states, ‘Security & Defence’ topped the bill.
According to Mrs May’s account to Parliament following the Summit, defence wasn’t discussed. Here are the 2 versions:-
EUROPEAN COUNCIL CONCLUSIONS
SECURITY & DEFENCE was the first section.
MRS MAY'S’S STATEMENT ON EU DEFENCE
DEFENCE wasn’t even mentioned once.
We invite Conservative MPs who still back Mrs May to study the Conclusions of the European Summit and compare them with Mrs May's statement to the House of Commons immediately after it. In Mrs May’s version of events, there is no mention whatsoever of what she agreed with the EU on defence, and yet it was the main item.
OBSERVATIONS
If the UK government had been signing up to the integration of UK military capabilities and funding into the defence forces and structures of the USA, the media and Remainer politicians would no doubt have been screaming from the rooftops.
They would have demanded to know why Parliament had not been able to scrutinise the proposals and why there had been no publicity or discussion.
It is a simple fact that the government has been signing us up to a succession of new EU defence structures and funding arrangements since the EU Referendum. We have chapter and verse on everything they've done.
WHERE ARE THE 'MEANINGFUL VOTES' ON THIS? WHERE IS PARLIAMENTARY SCRUTINY?
None of this has ever been subject to normal review and debate by MPs, nor has it had reasonable airtime for the British public to be aware of what's going on.
NATO is the structure which British people have relied on since WWII to preserve the peace, not the EU. The defence of the realm is too important to be messed up by the EU.
AND WHERE'S THE 'HONOUR', MRS MAY?
Having bilateral arrangements with individual countries in addition to NATO is normal - and these should continue - but integrating our armed forces ever closer with the EU, as the PM has done and seems intent on continuing to do? No.
And hiding it from Parliament and the public? No.
Not acceptable. And definitely not honourable.
[ Sources: Hansard | European Council ]
06.45am, 20 Nov 2018
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: Andy, Leeds, UKDate/Time: 20 Nov 2018, 10.06am
Message: Perhaps Jacob was alluding to Mark Antony's speech at Caesar's funeral "Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest-- For Brutus is an honourable man; So are they all, all honourable men-- Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral." Perhaps Jacob, like Mark Antony, was saying she is a liar. But what we are seeing is a very well worked out plot to ensure that the UK rejoins the EU in very short order, but rejoins on very inferior terms not that the present terms are up to much. Patrick O'Flynn MEP makes this point today in another place.
Name: Andy from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, UKDate/Time: 20 Nov 2018, 09.48am
Message: If you have the opportunity, listen to the Radio 4 interview with Peter Lilley this morning. Mr Lilley exposes the BBC reality check expert as an incompetent remainer - our national broadcaster is a disgrace!
Name: Brexiteer, Braintree, Essex, UKDate/Time: 20 Nov 2018, 09.45am
Message: I look forward to the wailing and outrage by the snowflake generation when the plans for compulsory EU army conscription are announced. I understand the Ukraine, Russian border is wonderful this time of year. Six of the EU countries have compulsory conscription at the moment and Macron announced at the weekend, France was going to introduce short term conscription for 16year olds. May has indeed betrayed the whole country, by signing the UK up to the EU army. It's just that the general public were not interested in finding out what our leaders were doing in our name. Up to your chest in snow might concentrate those minds, trouble is it will be too late then.
Name: Jon, Wales, UKDate/Time: 20 Nov 2018, 08.45am
Message: UK Members of Parliament should ask if they consider themselves to be of good character and trustworthy?
MPs and [unelected] Lords are legislators. Either will start a Bill which is scrutinised before receiving Royal Assent to become an Act of Parliament. MPs have powers because (and only because) the UK electorate lent them our sovereign vote.
When any UK Prime Minister diverts taxpayers money to fund the creation of a foreign military, and does so without informing the electorate, it should be cause for concern? Just think if Churchill funded the Nazi army those decades ago - there would have been more than hell to pay.
The UK helps fund NATO, and we spend in excess of the agreed minimum two percent GDP. The majority of continental countries fail to pay their agreed minimum yet continue to enjoy NATO protection.
We have been very quietly sucked into EU defence, and this may keep us shackled to the EU for so long as it exists, or until our MPs decide who they work for. Thanks to Pro-Brexit Facts4EU, we have seen the true extent of Mrs May's give-away for one EU thing or another. These FACTS cannot be challenged by any MP or Prime Minister?
We are leaving the EU - what part of this does Prime Minister May not understand? If conservative MPs fail to remove Mrs May from power, they can be almost certain of wipe-out come elections, though the opposition is no different. NO-ONE will trust MPs again?
Name: JohnM, Surrey, UKDate/Time: 19 Nov 2018, 9.26pm
Message: May's Withdrawal Agreement a Human Rights breach? Hi, is this article correct in your opinion? If so, the public needs to be made aware...as well as those politicians fighting for Brexit. https://brexitcentral.com/proposed-withdrawal-agreement-breaches-international-human-rights-conventions/
Reply: Yes, we saw this elsewhere. Interesting points but we just don't have the bandwidth to do a piece on it right now.
Name: Ed, Manchester, UKDate/Time: 20 Nov 2018, 08.03am
Message: Honourable?? You must be joking. The PM is anything but morally correct, honest, moral, ethical, principled, righteous, right-minded or full of integrity. Maybe try a different description, it seems to fit much better: Dictator: a leader who has complete power in a country and has not been elected by the people. A person who gives orders and behaves as if they have complete power.
NO OTHER BREXIT ORGANISATION DOES WHAT WE DO
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BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG EDITORIAL
THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH BREXIT THAT A SWIFT EXIT BY MRS MAY COULDN’T FIX
There's nothing wrong with Brexit. Brexit hasn't been negotiated. And it certainly isn't being delivered.
The draft Withdrawal Treaty represents a takeover. It is an abomination. And it must be rejected.
Brexit itself isn't the issue. The draft Withdrawal Treaty isn’t Brexit. And Brexit hasn’t been negotiated for the last two and a half years. One of the most fundamental problems is the person who has been in overall charge of Brexit policy.
EXIT THERESA, STAGE LEFT
There are a number of steps which need to be taken – urgently. The first of these is the removal of Prime Minister Theresa May, on whatever grounds anyone wishes to choose.
For our part, insanity would seem to be a reasonable choice. No-one in their right mind would propose or sign a deal like this. It’s unconscionable.
Mrs May is the first issue to address. None of us have any control over the political machinations following that, but it is clear to any right-minded person that anyone who thinks this deal is remotely acceptable is unfit to govern. And most certainly she is unfit to deliver Brexit.
WHO SHOULD REPLACE HER?
Frankly, at this stage, almost anyone in the Parliamentary Conservative Party who backed Brexit in the Referendum campaign and who is no longer in the Cabinet would do. Theresa won’t. She has to go and she has to go now. We only have 18 weeks until we exit the EU.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org does in fact have an immediate strategy for what is then required politically, but we do not pretend to be experts in the field of politics, and we have such limited resources.
Instead we would like to focus again on what all of us can do, collectively, to prevent this tragedy.
Please read what follows, and please do something today if you value the prospect of your country’s freedom.
[ Sources: Draft Withdrawal Treaty ]
06.30am, 19 Nov 2018
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, UKDate/Time: 19 Nov 2018, 1.11pm
Message: I watched Andrew Neil's 'This Week' show last Thursday, in which his main guests were Michael Portillo and Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan. All three agreed that there was no chance of May's deal getting through the Commons. AN asked MP if May will survive, and he believed not. He said that May is wedded solidly to her plan, and will not back down. So, if the plan goes down, she goes down with it. Another interesting comment he made was about the mood during May's Commons appearance after the 5 hour cabinet showdown. It struck him how similar it felt to Margaret Thatcher's last appearance in the House.
Name: Patrick F, Kent, UKDate/Time: 19 Nov 2018, 07.27am
Message: With apologies to George Orwell. If you want a picture of the future, imagine an EU boot stamping on a human face - for ever. Mrs May exhibits all the signs of 'doublethink': the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them: we are leaving the EU by remaining in the EU. We are remaining in the EU, by leaving the EU.
We can’t stress enough that MPs are the immediate key to this problem
Brexit has lost the opinion battle since the Referendum. Remainer MPs and commentators have appeared on the (anti-Brexit) TV channels and have dominated the discussions.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org's specialty is facts and we have abhorred the daily propaganda being pushed at the public. The level of deception has been extraordinary and in our opinion has exceeded that of the Referendum campaign itself.
It’s essential that all Brexit organisations up their game, and that includes us. All we can say is that we were the only Brexit group to keep going on 24 June 2016 and every day since. But we need to do more.
HITTING MPs HARD
We realise we risk boring readers by urging immediate action yet again, but the team sees this as by far the most effective use of our time right now, when only a few others seem to be doing anything practical.
BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY
ACTIONS TO TAKE TODAY – URGENT
Use our tools to hit all Tory MPs and their constituency officers, saying Mrs May must go or they will lose your vote (SEE BELOW)
Use our tools to hit all other MPs, telling them we already had a people’s vote, and that you wish the UK to leave on WTO terms.
Use our tools to hit the broadcast and other media, condemning their bias and threatening to stop watching/reading them.
PLEASE ACT TODAY
Point 1 above is by far the most urgent.
Below we re-publish our simple letter for you to use. All you have to do is print it out, fill in your details, and post it. Today.
If you want to write your own letter, even better, but we advise sticking to the point and keeping it short. The point is to persuade them to remove Mrs May and to say publicly that they no longer support her. This is not the time to make pro-Brexit arguments, in our opinion.
There are more details in the article we published in the early hours of Saturday morning.
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: Liberty, Dorset, UKDate/Time: 19 Nov 2018, 2.47pm
Message: Sent mine to Rt.Hon. Tobias Elwood. Don't expect a response from him as my last three communications to him have been ignored. The deep rotten core of the establishment. Keep fighting! Great Article on our PM's betrayal website: Free nations Rodney Atkinson.
Name: Sylvia, Northants, UKDate/Time: 19 Nov 2018, 1.58pm
Message: Like many others who feel frustrated, I am sending emails, speaking to friends who are all cheesed off with the whole thing. I'm badgering MPs between doing my own work. But finally, with the help of BEST FOR BRITAIN, I finally managed to send an email from their site to my MP who seems to have a block on his email address. Whether I hear from him or not is another matter, he's known for only automatic responses. This has been a car crash waiting to happen; however, T.M won't be able to hide the car in the garage from her employers (us) for too long. I'd admire TM if she were honest and said sorry I've handled this badly and I need help. But I believe she's already committed the UK to Brussels already and why she's desperate to get this through. Politics is ruthless, and Hammond won't be there to bail T.M out, she'll have to walk the plank alone as many have done before her. But if she can swim, no doubt she'll be in the honours list next year! Watch this space.
Name: Liza, Bristol, UKDate/Time: 19 Nov 2018, 07.30am
Message: Mrs May has told so many lies and half truths that I have now lost count of them all. Perhaps she gets away with it because other people don't just lose count but actually forget.
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WE'RE REALLY GRATEFUL TO OUR SUPPORTERS
UNFORTUNATELY THIS REPRESENTS A QUARTER OF WHAT WE NEED TO SURVIVE. CAN YOU HELP?
(Anonymity respected completely if you prefer to remain private)
The draft Withdrawal Treaty contains all the disadvantages of EU membership, whilst at the same time turning the UK into a dis-empowered colony of Brussels.
We might even have used the term ‘Protectorate’ of Brussels, were it not for the fact that the only country with a history and capability of protecting anything in Europe is the United Kingdom, with its dominant armed forces and superior intelligence services.
WHAT ARE WE FACING?
We have refrained from producing a full summary of the document because it is so ludicrous we assume it will be abandoned this week.
Nevertheless, here are just a few of the issues with Theresa’s deal.
The UK is leaving the EU in name only on 29 March next year
The UK is effectively ceding its rights over part of its sovereign territory: Northern Ireland
The Province has even been renamed in the Treaty, now to be know as UK(NI)
The UK is ceding more of its rights over Gibraltar to the Spanish
The UK is allowing the EU to decide if and when it might leave, sometime in the future
New laws will be created unseen, in Brussels, which British people will have to obey
The UK will have no representation in the EU Parliament, leaving the votes to Europhile fanatics
Decisions affecting the British people will be made in the EU Council, with no minutes available
OBSERVATIONS
In effect, large parts of the lives of British people will be decided by Brussels technocrats and 27 other countries – and there would be absolutely nothing that the British people could do about it.
The enormity of what Theresa May is proposing is on a scale none of us had imagined in our worst nightmares.
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.
'THE DAILY REMAILER'
MAJOR NEWSPAPER HAS JOINED ESTABLISHMENT REMOANERS
Readers of the Daily Mail can’t help but notice how far their newspaper has moved its position on Brexit in recent weeks.
Since the appointment of its new editor, the Mail has progressively become an anti-Brexit paper. It is now quite brazen about it. Amongst its headlines today are:
“Liars of the Lemmings letter club: Tory Party boss Sir Graham Brady says some MPs have PRETENDED they have written a no-confidence message as he reveals he has not received the 48 needed to vote on ousting Theresa May”
And
“Bill Cash becomes the latest Tory MP join the lemming letter club”
OBSERVATIONS
The tone of the articles which the Mail has been producing each day has changed dramatically.
They’ve now lost us and we suspect they might regret their decision as their readers start to realise that they’re now reading a pro-Remain paper.
[ Sources: DailyMail Online ]
06.30am, 19 Nov 2018
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: A Bruce, Derbyshire, UKDate/Time: 19 Nov 2018, 2.36pm
Message: Daily Mail circulation (ABC) in October down by 12%, Mail on Sunday down by 13%, Mailonline down by 17%. How's that new editor working out for you, Lord Rothermere?
Name: Barbara Jell, Somerset, UKDate/Time: 19 Nov 2018, 06.50am
Message: It is with great sadness and profound regret that I have to announce the end of a long and happy marriage with THE DAILY MAIL, citing irreconcilable differences. Recent public revelations of shocking infidelity constituted grounds for divorce, a process which was put into immediate effect. I am now exploring online 'dating' and potential suitors must possess integrity, unwavering commitment, loyalty and faithfulness - qualities which are becoming increasingly rare. I am pleased to reveal a potential relationship with the Telegraph, but having been let down so badly previously, this is under very close scrutiny ...
AT 9.00AM THE PM WILL REPEATEDLY LIE TO THE BRITISH PUBLIC – AGAIN
At 9am this Sunday morning, the Prime Minister will be under the microscope on her draft Withdrawal Treaty, answering a series of tough questions in a live interview with Andrew Neil....
No. Who are we kidding? The Prime Minister has chosen to have a chat with Sophy Ridge on her political chat programme on Sky News at 9am this morning.
We must put aside our feelings about Ms Ridge and the majority of other presenters on Sky News, the BBC, and ITN. Instead we will focus on just one point.
IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO MISINTERPRET THE WITHDRAWAL TREATY
This morning Mrs May will (sadly) repeat her lies over and over, regarding the Brexit negotiations and draft Treaty.
Here a few facts:-
The UK is leaving the EU in name only on 29 March next year
Nothing will change, except that the UK will no longer have any say in the laws imposed on it from Brussels
We will still obey Single Market and Customs Union rules, still be under the ECJ jurisdiction, still be paying vast annual sums to the EU, still accept free movement
And under Mrs May’s disastrous agreement, the UK will no longer have a unilateral way of leaving, as we have at present under Article 50
The Treaty itself is so ghastly in so many areas, we have not yet done a ‘Brexit Facts4EU.Org job’ on it, summarising it for ordinary people.
Our hope is that Mrs May will be toppled before we have to do this.
ONE SIMPLE QUESTION THAT MS RIDGE COULD ASK, OVER AND OVER
Here is one simple question that Sophy Ridge could ask Mrs May, as our Prime Minister once again repeats her lies about Brexit.
Each time Mrs May makes a claim, such as “we will be leaving the jurisdiction of the ECJ”, Ms Ridge could ask “When?”
All she has to do is ask “When?” every time Mrs May makes one of her false claims.
The great British public is being given the wholly erroneous impression by the Prime Minister, quite deliberately, that she is delivering Brexit next year.
Our readers will know that nothing could be further from the truth. On such a vitally important matter for the country, it simply isn’t good enough for the PM to deceive the British people in this way.
And for her to do so on a daily basis, inside and outside Parliament… that alone should be enough for Conservative MPs to remove her from office.
JUST ONE EXAMPLE
Here is a random example of her answering a question from the Rt Hon Owen Paterson MP, in the House of Commons in July:
The Prime Minister
“I assure him that the Brexit that the Government will deliver and are working to deliver is a Brexit that ensures that we are out of the customs union, we are out of the single market, we are out of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, we are out of the common agricultural policy, we are out of the common fisheries policy, we bring an end to free movement, we take control of our borders, and we have an independent trade policy, but we are also able to have a good trade arrangement with the European Union, protecting jobs and prosperity for the future.”
OBSERVATIONS
We are compelled to ask what kind of country we are now living in, where the Prime Minister routinely lies to Parliament and lies to the British public on such an epic scale and on such a vitally important matter?
It matters not to the ordinary person if the Prime Minister can defend herself by saying “Well, I never said when it would happen.” She knows damn well that she is in effect lying continually. The public – the majority of whom do not have time to go through the minutiae of the debate - are being given entirely the wrong impression by this Prime Minister, and she knows it.
Shameful behaviour. Conservative MPs must eject her from office now.
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: Sylvia, Northants, UKDate/Time: 19 Nov 2018, 7.36pm
Message: I watched Sophy Ridge on Sky News which I accidentally came across while planning TV on my laptop in an afternoon break. OMG Sophy must have thought she'd died and gone to heaven. I can certainly see how veterans like Barnier has managed to run rings around Theresa May. I'd heard a lot about Ridge from my younger 30 something friends. So I was curious on how she would handle T.M, but the pertinent questions threw T.M completely, I was staggered at her floundering, she was like a pubescent teenager at the headmaster's office, and every interviewer's dream but our worst nightmare. What an indictment on Robbins' miscalculation and T.M's lack of ability under the scrutiny of a young and sharp mind!
Name: NOT4EU, London, UKDate/Time: 18 Nov 2018, 08.32am
Message: I see that another period, the 'wind-down' period has entered the lexicon of EUMay's 'You may Brexit but you may never leave' betrayal of our country. It appeared in the so-called 'rebuttal' of the Spectator's '40 worst things about the Withdrawal Agreement'. This 'wind-down' period comes after the undefined, but sometime this millennium (1,000 year Reich, anyone?) 'transition', and refers to all those clauses which appear to operate fully for 5/8 years after the transition (to nothing)/implementation (of nothing) period. That's not forgetting the never-ending direct effect of EU law in Art 4. I haven't reached the protocols pages yet, but understand that they are also inescapable straitjackets. The agreement, and the fact that nothing changes during the transition except the removal of representation, clearly demonstrates that the 'transition/implementation period' is a lie as nothing actually happens. Do they think that no-one owns a dictionary or have been involved with projects, so we don't know what words mean? Quite how EUMay squares the effective annexation of NI and our fishing waters, ceding control in Gibraltar, continuing to blindly pay and obey all EU law - even that yet undefined, whilst granting tax and criminal immunity to anyone who's ever been employed by the EU (to the end of the 'transition' period), with leaving the EU and restoring sovereignty and control is a clear sign of her cognitive dissonance and mental imbalance. Perhaps she should actually READ this document instead of relying on the snivel serpent whisperers in her ear.
Name: Kate, East London, UKDate/Time: 18 Nov 2018, 07.32am
Message: The PM says "There is no different approach that we could agree with the EU". That is true of her and Olly Robbins. And almost accidentally she hits the nail on the head there. That's exactly the problem, Theresa. You can't, Theresa. Olly can't. That's why you both have to go. We don't want and can't afford incapable and dishonest people deciding anything important for our country.
THE 4.3 TRILLION REASONS WHY THE EU27 LOVE MRS MAY WITH ALL THEIR
PUTTING SOME NUMBERS ON THERESA MAY'S GREAT BREXIT SELL-OUT
The fundamentals of the debate over Mrs May's extraordinary draft Withdrawal Treaty are all about sovereignty, democracy, and the prospect of becoming an EU colony with no way of exiting the temporary arrangements.
Underlying the thinking of so many players in Mrs May's camp is that the United Kingdom has to take what the EU offer. They almost seem to rejoice in telling us that the UK is powerless.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org thought that the Prime Minister might like to know some basic facts about her country - the United Kingdom – in relation to the EU27.
PRO-BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY
BRITAIN IS MUCH GREATER THAN MRS MAY THINKS
EU countries have sold the UK goods & services worth £4.3 TRILLION since 2000
That's 4,300 billion reasons for the EU27 to love Mrs May
In 2017 alone, the EU27’s sales to the UK were worth £341 billion
This UK market has a population bigger than 15 EU countries combined
Its economy is the 5th largest in the World (official IMF data)
Everyone talks about the EU Single Market. Remainer MPs make sweeping statements about it on a daily basis, without seeming to know any facts. In fact the UK benefits from the Single Market least out of all 28 member states, according to the EU Commission. (See our article on this.)
What is never spoken about is the UK's Single Market, which comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
This is a massive market for the EU27.
If the EU does a trade deal with the UK it would be by far the biggest in its history.
It would be many times the size of the EU’s deals with Canada and Japan, neither of which have yet been ratified, despite all the hype from Brussels.
Since the year 2000 the EU member states have sold goods and services to the UK worth in excess of £4.3 TRILLION. Last year alone these sales totalled £341 billion.
A MARKET OF 66 MILLION CONSUMERS
If the UK ever actually leaves the EU, it will represent the equivalent of the population of more than 15 member states all departing simultaneously.
The EU is not homogeneous. It is little understood that the EU contains member states which would only classify as towns if they were in the UK, such as Malta.
The population of the EU for 2017 is estimated by Eurostat as being 511.5 million. When the UK leaves it will fall to 445.7 million. The EU will be 87% of its former size.
On Brexit the UK Single Market of 66 million people on the EU’s doorstep will represent a massive market for EU27 companies, as at present. That market will be just as important post-Brexit as it is now.
OBSERVATIONS
We felt it important to remind most MPs, and presenters on the UK's TV news channels, that there are economic facts which underpin this debate. It simply isn't good enough to accept that the EU is all powerful and that the UK had no choice.
This seems to be the UK Prime Minister's stance. She "had no choice", it was "the best deal on offer", etc.
It has always been concerning to us that we have a Prime Minister who enters rooms in Brussels and allows herself to be either ignored (remember her lonely face at summits last year?) or insulted, as at the Salzburg summit.
We would suggest Mrs May timidly asked for nothing and got even less. The outcome of this is the appalling draft Withdrawal Treaty, which no self-respecting British person could possibly sign.
AND FINALLY, CAN YOU HELP US TO FIGHT BACK?
Finally, one of the reasons you don't see information like this elsewhere is because it's work which takes many hours from several people for each piece. Writing long opinion pieces is easy. Condensing detailed research into a form which is easily accessible for normal people, with bullet points and simple charts, is not.
[ Sources: Office for National Statistics | Eurostat ]
05.30am, Sunday 18 Nov 2018
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.
NO OTHER BREXIT ORGANISATION DOES WHAT WE DO
AND CERTAINLY NONE START WORK AT 2am, 7 DAYS A WEEK, TO DO IT
Collectively the team has borne 90% of the cost.
If you read our work regularly and value it, but have yet to donate, could we perhaps persuade you to help us with a donation, so that we can continue at this crucial time for Brexit?
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: Patrick F, Kent, UKDate/Time: 17 Nov 2018, 3.53pm
Message: If I have to vote in another referendum, and the question is whether to accept the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, will the Government be posting 9 million hard copies of the 585 page Withdrawal Agreement to each and every home in the UK? Will the EU agree to pay for printing and postage? I share Remainers' concerns that we should all have the facts in front of us before we make our decision. No document, no second referendum.
Name: Sylvia, Northants, UKDate/Time: 17 Nov 2018, 1.07pm
Message: Thanks for the video. What talent we have in this world! I so needed that. But on a more serious note, (sorry had to pause and watch the video again) phew! I so needed that boost of Vitamin IL (ironic laughter). Why are those in number 10 reluctant for us to see the Brexit Legal Advice? Some people will understand the information (even if jargon), and many won't have the time to read the paperwork. Took me all night and the next day to read the 585 pages of Brexit papers. I never went to bed, evidently didn't use Grammarly hence tedious. The point is we have a right to see this document as much as we have a right to look at the deeds of our house. While it won't make any of less angry than we are now, this is about OUR BASIC RIGHTS being denied us, which makes people wonder what the government is hiding AGAIN! The government must stop this belief that all people are stupid. It does them no favours but reinforces their dictatorial and secretive attitude. While I believe secrets are vital to security, this document is not going to jeopardise our shores or airspace, but it will put another nail in the coffin of the government and anger those who want to see this. Banks and loan companies deceived many customers over the years and now paying the price for their deceptions. May and Hammond have been political sleeping partners for years. They both scuppered Cameron in 2014 denying GB the chance to reduce immigration sensibly and wisely as many countries do. Their excuse was, we mustn't annoy Merkel, but where is Merkel now? Fighting for her political life and isn't interested in anyone but herself at this moment. While we need to be intelligent enough to sort the wheat from the media chaff, we're fortunate, for without some in the media we would be kept in the dark and topped up daily with manure. No. 10's Brexit legal advice should be published. PERIOD and let us decide what's false and what's the truth.
Click the image to watch the video Please note that absolutely no endorsement of our work is implied - this is for illustrative entertainment only
URGENT ACTION NEEDED TODAY MPs MUST KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
There are times when urgent action must be taken. This is one of those times.
If you care about democracy and what’s left of the sovereignty of the United Kingdom, we invite you to read what follows. It’s vitally important for Brexit – and for our country. This could be your final, effective say.
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?
The problem is the Prime Minister.
We and many other serious people believe that the ‘Withdrawal Treaty’ as drafted represents the worst sell-out of British democracy - and of the sovereignty of the United Kingdom - in our history. (And we have actually read all 585 pages of it.)
It almost makes EU membership seem generous by comparison. And that has never been true, since the British people were first told that this was just a ‘trading arrangement’ back in the early 70s when we joined.
TAKE ACTION NOW
If you have a Conservative MP, we urge you to do something for your country today. The Withdrawal Treaty is an extremely dangerous document and must be stopped.
This means removing Prime Minister Theresa May.
WHAT ACTION? AND WHAT DIFFERENCE WILL IT MAKE?
Mrs May is not backing down on her disastrous deal. Nor is she going to quit.
She must therefore be forced to go. This means stiffening the backbones of wavering Tory MPs, and warning others that they will be voted out, unless they unseat her.
It means thousands of you deluging your MP and the local party chairperson with personal visits, letters, phone calls, and emails – and doing so today and tomorrow. Please note that emails on their own just will not cut it. We’ll explain why later.
BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY
ACTIONS TO TAKE TODAY – URGENT
Use the ‘letter’ below – it’s easy to print it out
Or write your own – but please keep it short and make it only about Mrs May
Take it to your local Conservative Party constituency office today
Also post it to your MP at Westminster
Call the constituency office, ask the date of your MP’s next surgery
Tell them you’re horrified at Mrs May’s sell-out
Tell them you won’t vote for the MP again unless he/she votes to replace the PM
Tell them he/she MUST make their decision known publicly
Email your MP at Westminster and at his/her constituency office
The important overall message is to do something to make your views known in a physical way, be it visits, letters, or phone calls. These have far more impact than using the virtual world of emails.
MPs receive thousands of emails and most are ignored.
Today is the day to get physical
OBSERVATIONS
It’s clear to us that Mrs May is completely incapable or unwilling to negotiate a normal arrangement with the EU.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org is apolitical but we cannot support a Prime Minister who delivers the most shameful international treaty ever to be presented to Cabinet.
To spend two and a half years since the Referendum and come up with something worse than EU membership almost beggars belief.
WIPE THE SMILE OFF THE EU’S FACES
All the key individuals in the EU just couldn’t stop grinning from ear to ear last week. Even the arch-federalist, no-borders, EU Superstate-loving Guy Verhofstadt from the EU Parliament couldn’t suppress his glee.
We’re not surprised. They can’t believe their luck in having agreed a stupendous deal for the EU27. Having a Remainer British Prime Minister and a Remainer civil service to deal with certainly helped, but even then they could never have expected UK capitulation on such a scale.
Please help to wipe the smiles off their faces. Start now.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW
Print off our letter, or write your own. Change the dog-walk’s usual itinerary and go to the local Conservative party office instead. Record the rugby and watch it later. Make the supermarket visit the quickest in your family’s history. Take time to read the Brexit Battle Pack instead.
Let’s deluge MPs today. Mrs May’s Withdrawal Treaty is shameful. It isn’t Brexit. It’s even worse than EU membership. It’s not too late to change course – but that means changing Prime Minister.
This is no time to sit back and consider strategy. It’s time for a surgical strike.
Will you be part of Brexit Special Forces today?
[ Sources: Many sources, cited in previous articles ]
05.50am, 17 Nov 2018
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: NOT4EU, London, UKDate/Time: 17 Nov 2018, 1.02pm
Message: Dear MPs, it must be clear by now that you may well be wiped off the face of this earth for your spineless capitulation and failure to enact the clear mandate of the referendum to leave the EU. Tory MPs who fear the loss of their seats have a clear, winning option: vote down this surrender, rid yourselves of the EU quisling May and her Cabinet, and embrace 'no deal', i.e. WTO terms. This is the only thing that will save you and your party now. If you fail to ensure that we actually leave the EU on 29th March 2019, I can no longer consider that we have a legitimate Government or Parliament operating in a democratic society. It will confirm that it is as meaningless as a parish council and that we live under a totalitarian regime. I will not recognise our 'true' Government as being the technocracies of the EU. I know that I am not alone. No taxation without representation. No surrender.
Name: Sylvia, Northants, UKDate/Time: 17 Nov 2018, 06.15am
Message: I've read the Brexit Deal 580 + pages, please don't waste your time, it's tedious, I did! And regret the time I wasted when I could have been doing other things. There are lots of breakdowns on the Internet, in much shorter sharper versions without the waffle and Sky (not a fan of mine) have a simple breakdown. I'm sure facts4eu will have the measure of this document with even greater clarity. Suffice to say those I speak to while angry did expect TM to do this because she's always been false evidence appearing real since 2016. They are no means resigned, as many of my friends are political historians and know the government tactics inside out. I understand TM is coercing the Labour MPs (the sensible one's she calls them) to join her battle cry. Please try not to get despondent, those I speak to are still managing to be upbeat and while this seems the worst of the worst, (a sellout) we must keep picking ourselves up, hope the sensible MPs (although we have very few in Northampton they've allowed The Council to rob the ratepayers blind and did very little to stop them). We must also ignore the smirking and laughing from Brussels, hard I know, but we must be there for those who are feeling down and disappointed.
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THERESA’S PROPOSED SURRENDER
THIS ISN’T ABOUT INDIVIDUALS, IT’S ABOUT SOVEREIGNTY AND DEMOCRACY
With the media increasingly breathless with excitement at the comings and goings of ministers, it becomes ever more essential to remind ourselves what the Prime Minister’s disastrous Brexit ‘deal’ is all about.
The Withdrawal Treaty as currently drafted is a surrender of United Kingdom sovereignty on a scale never before seen. It represents an abdication of the duties of Her Majesty’s ministers in defending the country, generally seen as the first duty of government.
‘TWAS EVER THUS?
The EU has been engaged in ‘mission creep’ since its debut in 1951 as the European Coal and Steel Community, created by the Treaty of Paris. Since then it has metamorphosed several times, each time increasing its powers and its reach.
BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY
FROM THE TREATY OF ROME TO THE EU’S COLONISATION OF THE UK
1957 - 1992
In 1957 the Treaty of Rome was signed, creating the European Economic Community (the EEC or ‘Common Market), which the UK joined in 1973. The British people were assured that this was for economic reasons and would involve no loss of sovereignty.
1992 - MAASTRICHT
In 1992 the Maastricht Treaty was signed, creating the European Communities. Significantly the ‘Economic’ part had been dropped from the name, as the organisation was by now amassing significant powers over member states which went much further than being concerned with economic or trade matters.
The Maastricht Treaty created the beginnings of the ‘Common Foreign and Security Policy’ and the ‘Cooperation in the Fields of Justice and Home Affairs’, and the writing was then clearly on the wall. This is why this Treaty was so strongly opposed by what became known as “the Maastricht Rebels” in John Major’s government.
It was at this point that you, dear readers, became citizens of the European Union.
The Maastricht Treaty was further added to by the Amsterdam Treaty in 1997 and the Nice Treaty in 2001, containing further power grabs.
2001 - 2016
In the first decade of this century the technocrats on the continent were ready to install a Constitution on the peoples of the EU. This occurred in 2009 when the Lisbon Treaty was signed, after first having to be renamed when the peoples of France and the Netherlands were given a referendum on it, and rejected it.
Re-badged, it was forced on all countries of the EU, including the UK. No second referenda were allowed in France or the Netherlands. The Irish were given a referendum on it, rejected it, and were then forced to vote again until they got it right.
2016 AND THE POPULAR REVOLT
During the entire process of the EU technocrats moving inexorably towards their superstate, in the UK there were no referenda on any of the massive power grabs that had been taking place from Brussels, Paris and Berlin over the previous decades.
On 23 June 2016 the people of the UK were finally given an opportunity to express their opinion on whether they wanted to be part of this creeping superstate.
The good citoyens of the United Kingdom – finally given a decision on the matter – rejected membership of the European Union in the biggest exercise in democracy in the UK’s history.
They did so, despite facing the largest government-backed propaganda campaign in the country’s history.
2016 – 2018
The fightback from the Establishment began almost immediately after the vote. Various spurious High Court legal challenges were launched, the broadcast media dropped any efforts at impartiality, and for the past two and a half years the British people have suffered a relentless europhile campaign to overturn the result of the UK’s EU Referendum.
During the entirety of this time, a Remain-supporting Prime Minister has been in charge. In July of this year she dropped any pretence that a pro-Brexit Secretary of State for Exiting the EU was running the Brexit negotiations, when she announced by a written statement to Parliament that these negotiations were to be in the hands of an unelected (pro-Remain) civil servant and his team, based in No.10.
WHICH BRINGS US TO THERESA’S SURRENDER DOCUMENT, NOV 2018.....
OBSERVATIONS
We hope you found our short, simplified background above to be interesting. It is often when times are hardest that it is worth taking a quick step back, to see the overview.
Below we present just a few short extracts of the summaries of some leading figures on the disastrous ‘Withdrawal Agreement’ which Mrs May proposes to sign with the EU.
[ Sources: EU Treaties | EU Commission ]
06.50am, 16 Nov 2018
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: Sylvia, Northants, UKDate/Time: 16 Nov 2018, 4.50pm
Message: Well, I've just finished reading 'WAFFLE HOUSE' all 580 odd pages of the Draft Deal and true to form with all government paperwork it's full of BS, trying to baffle brains, packed with jargon (hoping you'll fall asleep and miss the obvious). Would make a great insomnia tool. Keep it Simple Silly (stupid) (KISS) seems to have bypassed those in government, but that's not unusual as they love jargon, Why, because they think jargon makes them appear intelligent and superior and they don't think anyone has the time to read it. WAFFLE HOUSE is smoke and mirrors and could have been completed in twelve pages with bullet points. But why would they do that when they can spend our money on what really amounts to JUNK MAIL. Reminds me of those tedious books we had to read to get through our post-grad degrees.
Name: Chris, Devizes, UKDate/Time: 16 Nov 2018, 2.20pm
Message: Replying to B38G below: I agree fully, and I also wonder what hold the EU have over her. Steve Baker has said that she made promises to the car industry, which she knew meant effectively staying in the EU, in order for them to keep their businesses in the UK. It was a classic case of industrial blackmail. However, I still maintain that she is suffering from some kind of delusional psychosis, and she really does believe her own lies. How else can one explain how she constantly spouts the same drivel about taking back control of our money, laws and borders, when the proposed agreement does the exact opposite. The next crucial step is the confidence vote, and I fear that there are enough selfish treacherous bastards in the Tory party to keep her in power. However, the Tory Brexiteers can still inflict a mortal blow by voting down the budget.
Name: SibeliusFan, West Midlands, UKDate/Time: 16 Nov 2018, 10.39am
Message: I've seen the opinion expressed in more than one place that if the UK "changed its mind" i.e. wished to rejoin the EU having said via A50 we were leaving, there would be, quelle surprise, a heavy price to pay. There would be no rebate as we have currently (heavens, the UK is a net contributor even WITH the rebate!) and we would be required to join the Euro - certainly by 2025. Is this seriously what "remainers" want? If this is all true a lot more needs to be made of it to counter the Brexit = disaster scenario.
Name: George, Norwich, UKDate/Time: 16 Nov 2018, 07.36am
Message: How often do we hear the accusations that we don't care about the young? (Btw, it's often not actually the young who say this, but someone else for them, which says it all). The point is that the young would be much better off trusting their real representatives - everyday older people such as fathers, mothers, grandmothers and grandfathers who saw and learnt a lot in their lifetime. Real people, who saw our country both outside and inside the EU. People who have no political interest to manipulate their thinking according to what personally suits them best. The young saw no alternative so far, all they know is the EU which gives them no comparison. Young man and woman, please look at the history if you're in doubt. Thank you for the article Facts4EU, very relevant and thought provoking.
Name: B38G, Edinburgh, Scotland, UKDate/Time: 16 Nov 2018, 07.01am
Message: Sir, We are living through the greatest humiliation and act of treachery this nation has ever experienced and our Prime Minister is the one to blame. She prefers to kow tow to big business than to heed the democratic will of the people or the cries of the hundreds of thousands of SME's across Britain who are being suffocated by E.U. red tape. Indeed, her actions are so bizarre some unseen force with a stranglehold over her must be dictating what she says and does because, surely, no sane person would so blatantly chant the same mantra day after day while doing the exact opposite. So powerful is this hold over her, she prefers to go down in infamy as the worst and most pathetic PM Britain ever had than she is to do the right thing for her country. She is also encouraging the break-up of the U.K. and jeopardizing the future of Britain's sovereignty. As an aside, I remember she had an early meeting with Nissan who were threatening to relocate to another European country because of Brexit but managed to persuade them not to. I only recently discovered that Nissan is actually French-owned. At least some Tory MP's have the decency to resign from important, career-enhancing jobs rather than be part of following her down the disastrous path she is intent on taking the U.K. Those other anti-democratic Tory MP's like Clark, Grieve and Soubry must be slapped down and kicked out of the Party by whoever replaces May. One thing is clear, they and May must not be allowed to drag Britain down this disastrous path.
THERESA’S SURRENDER DOCUMENT – WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT IT
REACTIONS FROM KEY FIGURES
Below we have selected some key quotations about the Prime Minister’s proposed Withdrawal Treaty with the EU.
These all come from the last two days and show the enormity of what Theresa May is proposing to inflict on the United Kingdom.
We start with quotations from Hansard – the official record of proceedings in the House of Commons – and end with quotations from the two Secretaries of State for Exiting the European Union who have both resigned in the last four months.
HOUSE OF COMMONS, 15 NOV 2018
“It is a draft treaty that means that we will leave the EU in a smooth and orderly way on 29 March 2019 and sets the framework for a future relationship that delivers in our national interest. It takes back control of our borders, laws and money, it protects jobs, security and the integrity of the United Kingdom, and it delivers in ways that many said could simply not be done.
“… the full legal text has now been agreed in principle”
- Rt Hon Theresa May MP, House of Commons, 15 Nov 2018
“I say to my right hon. Friend that my concern is that we have the sovereign right when we want to leave the UN; we have the sovereign right when we want to leave NATO; we have even the sovereign right when we want to leave the EU; but we do not have the sovereign right to leave this arrangement.”
- Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP, former leader of Conservative Party
“My right hon. Friend is right: that mechanism does require mutual consent.”
- Reply by Theresa May
“As has just been said, this is £39 billion for nothing. The choice is now clear: we stand up for the United Kingdom—the whole United Kingdom and the integrity of the United Kingdom—or we vote for a vassal state, with the break-up of the United Kingdom. That is the choice.”
- Nigel Dodds MP (DUP)
“These 585 pages are a testament to broken promises, failed negotiations and abject capitulation to the EU. Does my right hon. Friend understand that they represent a list of failures—on Northern Ireland, on ECJ issues, on indefinite extension of time, on customs, on full independence of trade and of fisheries and, above all, on our truly leaving the EU, because it will control our laws? Furthermore, there have been some very serious breaches of ministerial responsibilities, the ministerial code and collective responsibility.”
- Sir William Cash MP
“My right hon. Friend — and she is unquestionably honourable — said that we would leave the customs union; [Withdrawal Treaty] Annex 2 says otherwise. My right hon. Friend said that she would maintain the integrity of the United Kingdom; a whole protocol says otherwise. My right hon. Friend said that we would be out of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice; article 174 says otherwise. As what my right hon. Friend says, and what my right hon. Friend does, no longer match, should I not write to my hon. Friend the Member for Altrincham and Sale West (Sir Graham Brady)?”
- Jacob Rees-Mogg MP
BREXIT SECRETARY 1: DAVID DAVIS, WEBSITE 14 NOV 2018
“This will begin the breakup of the United Kingdom, not just isolating Northern Ireland, but also undermining the Unionist cause in Scotland. The so called backstop will not actually be a backstop at all but a foundation for EU ambition to constrain our opportunities and limit our competitiveness. In Brussels they admit this privately.
“This deal will contrive to make the Customs Union inescapable forever and effectively trap the UK to perpetual domination from Brussels. The supposed negotiation over the future economic partnership will be deliberately slowed down to take years. The UK’s leverage of the £39 billion payment will be squandered.
“The British people voted to take back control over borders, laws and money. If this deal is agreed it will be seen as a betrayal of the referendum result. The British people will lose faith in their political leadership and the democratic consequences will be dire.”
BREXIT SECRETARY 2: DOMINIC RAAB RESIGNATION LETTER, 14 NOV 2018
Dominic Raab is the second Secretary of State for Exiting the EU to resign in four months. Here is what he said yesterday.
OBSERVATIONS
Brexit Facts4EU.Org always tries to keep articles short. We could have provided countless other examples of the total condemnation of Theresa May’s disastrous Withdrawal Treaty.
Most people would agree that the people we have quoted above are serious individuals. What they are saying about the Prime Minister’s plans constitute very serious comments indeed.
Two of our team have gone through the 585 pages of the Withdrawal Treaty and the pitifully-short, 7-page ‘Future Arrangements’ paper which is supposed to define the UK’s ongoing trading relationship with the EU. Others have also read through all the other documents from the EU surrounding this proposed ‘deal’.
Even Remain-supporting Jo Johnson MP, who resigned from his ministerial position exactly one weeks ago, said “To present the nation with a choice between two deeply unattractive outcomes, vassalage and chaos, is a failure of British statecraft on a scale unseen since the Suez crisis.”
We would go further. In our opinion Theresa May’s proposed Treaty with the EU would be worse than Suez and the British government’s appeasement policy of 1935-1939 combined.
[ Sources: Hansard | David Davis website | Dominic Raab website | Jo Johnson website ]
06.50am, 16 Nov 2018
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: Greg, Leeds, UKDate/Time: 16 Nov 2018, 09.27am
Message: Here is the 585 pages Withdrawal Agreement in one sentence in half a page (that includes the heading). The 585 pages are a complete waste of time and effort: Everything is as agreed as member of the EU, simply rename Single Market, Customs Union etc to something else to silence people, up our payments, wave any voting rights for the UK, prevent this agreement from exiting it, ever, to avoid any future awakening. With many thanks, your faithful servant and admirer, the obsequious two-tongued Theresa
Name: Dawn H, Sunderland, UKDate/Time: 16 Nov 2018, 07.47am
Message: I've never seen Jacob Rees-Mogg so angry both yesterday and the day before. Will he convert his smoke into fire this time? This is the question. Talks: we heard it all, all we want is action, action right NOW.
We're really grateful to those of our readers who have given donations. If you read our work regularly and value it, but have yet to donate, could we perhaps persuade you to help us with a donation, so that we can continue at this crucial time for Brexit?
We invite readers to imagine that the EU Referendum had never happened
Instead, imagine a scenario where the British government suddenly decided that it should give up more powers to the EU to rule over the United Kingdom, and to remove any scrutiny by the British Parliament.
This would include the removal of the possibility of any future, unilateral (ie sovereign) decision by the British people to leave the fundamental structures of the EU.
Furthermore, imagine that the British government proposed to carve off a significant amount of its territory and give it to the EU to decide the laws there.
Then imagine that the UK would be unable to be competitive on the world stage, because of obeying laws decided solely by the EU, with no say in the formation of – or approval of - these laws by the British Parliament.
There would of course be no possibility of the UK striking its own trade deals, as the UK would be so constrained by the EU’s rules as to make any potential deals worthless.
New laws affecting the lives of the British people would of course be instigated in Brussels and ruled over by foreign judges sitting in a court in Luxembourg. British MPs would have no say over these laws and British judges would have no effective say over their implementation.
Then further imagine that all this were to be given up whilst at the same time offering the EU a vast sum – in excess of £40 billion – with a commitment by the UK to continue paying unless the EU agreed to free the UK.
Crucially, these payments would not be tied to any new economic relationship which the UK might want to agree down the road.
THE DOCUMENTS
Members of the Brexit Facts4EU.Org team have spent the night reviewing the 585-page Withdrawal Agreement – more properly a Treaty. We have also read the absurdly-short, 7-page ‘Future Relationship’ document outlining potential future trading arrangements, as well as numerous other documents released by the EU last night.
Some of the team have significant experience of negotiating complex multi-million pound international deals. All of the team have significant experience of ‘EU-speak’, having read millions of words from the EU in the form of directives, regulations, judgements, ‘reasoned opinions’, press releases, statements, speeches, partnership agreements, protocols, etc, etc.
It is essential to interpret the Withdrawal Treaty and ‘Political Declaration’ with the full knowledge of how the EU will implement their contents in practice.
OBSERVATIONS
OUR CONCLUSIONS
Be in no doubt. The documents released last night represent an abject surrender of British sovereignty on a scale that requires the immediate replacement of the Cabinet which has approved them.
The documents also represent a total rejection of the decision of the British people to leave the EU and therefore fly directly in the face of any idea of democracy in the country.
If this is the best our political class can do, then it is a terrible indictment. We must also include the upper echelons of the Civil Service in our criticism. Whether by conspiracy or incompetence, or a mixture of the two, the verdict stays the same.
How any Right Honourable Gentleman or Lady could have acquiesced last night to this abomination is a question we must leave to their own consciences.
One thing we can say unequivocally is that they should all hang their heads in shame.
It is clear that we have a serious problem. Replacing Theresa May is a given – she should never even have been appointed by the Conservative MPs in the first place. (Don’t forget, her appointment happened with no vote by Conservative Party members.)
A DEEPER PROBLEM
But the problem goes much deeper than that.
Regardless of whether any ministers resign today, tomorrow, or next week, they simply don’t get it.
They took over five hours to discuss something which is so appalling as to be laughable if it weren’t so serious for our country.
Had we been there it would have taken us no more than one minute to deliver our verdict to Theresa May. And we would then have resigned on the spot and come out to tell the media why.
There is a groundswell of feeling which is building against the Establishment as a whole. We will return to this topic, but for now we will focus our efforts on what readers can do to turn this farce into an opportunity for renewal.
TAKE ACTION NOW
Yesterday we suggested a ‘quick and dirty’ method of influencing MPs. If MPs are deluged with envelopes, they’ll notice far more than if they’re only deluged with emails.
There is far more advice and concrete practical information in our Brexit Battle Pack. This is endorsed by a total of 14 pro-Brexit groups and it’s FREE.
Lots of people have used this but we need millions more people to make their voices heard. Can you help to spread the message?
There is so much more we could do, but we lack the funds of the big boys. The situation really is now urgent. If you haven’t already donated, we hope you’ll do it now. We need you. You can make a general donation (see below) or donate specifically to get access to our fabulous Brexit Index.
[ Sources: EU Commission | UK government ]
06.20am, 15 Nov 2018
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: Sylvia, Northants, UKDate/Time: 15 Nov 2018, 3.52pm
Message: According to Theresa May's chief whip Julian Smith, TM WON'T BE BULLIED (she doesn't have to be, as none of us has to be bullied). And SHE WON'T CHANGE COURSE either (again she doesn't have to that's her prerogative, and at the end of the day we all have choices). All TM needs to do is five things: (1) Admit the job is beyond her... there's no shame in admitting this, in fact, it's the mark of an emotionally, mentally and spiritually mature individual. (2) RESIGN gracefully. (3) ADMIT to her FLAWS. (4) Heed the 8th Commandment, (as a churchgoer this should be familiar to her). But if she hasn't read up on this lately here it is: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." In my map of reality, this includes colleagues and the voters. (5) Ask her colleagues (those who defended her, who believed in her persistent lies) for FORGIVENESS. And if TM needs further ABSOLUTION pop along to church, have a word with 'Him Upstairs.' That's what I do when I cock up big time!
Name: SibeliusFan, West Midlands, UKDate/Time: 15 Nov 2018, 12.48pm
Message: She's paving the way for a rigged referendum with the aim of splitting the Leave vote and Labour will go along with that. More treachery.
Name: Matthew, London, UKDate/Time: 15 Nov 2018, 07.18am
Message: So never-elected PM Theresa and her un-elected accomplice Olly-boy worked hard and managed to cook up a remedy that is worse than the disease. What can we say - what a job! Then some remoaners and the media generally jumped on this with the conclusion that "well, we thought so, and therefore we just have to stick with the disease instead". What a bunch of useless, spiritless, brainless lot. Let's get rid of them all before they can cause any more damage.
Name: Jon, Wales, UKDate/Time: 15 Nov 2018, 06.29am
Message: Having heard the statement by Prime May outside No.10 Downing Street, there is no question in my mind she MUST be replaced immediately. To surrender one's country and its citizens to a foreign power is nothing short of treason (I can think of no other fitting word). Can you imagine any country outside the EU surrendering their country in the manner Mrs May has surrendered the UK? From reports, the British Cabinet are supporting Mrs May and MUST therefore be held accountable on an equal basis. I SUGGEST SENIOR ALL MPs SHOULD CONSIDER THEIR POSITION. Mrs May is effectively saying it's HER way or no way. Democracy is now dead, but not yet buried. I am VERY angry, but it still requires cool heads from Brexiteers to ensure we Leave as the majority voted for. An independent self governing nation state does not allow itself to be governed by a foreign power, and it certainly does NOT mean we owe the EU a penny, and does NOT mean we should pay to have a deal with the EU. Now Mrs May threatens NO Brexit, so she has to go.
We're really grateful to those of our readers who have given donations. If you read our work regularly and value it, but have yet to donate, could we perhaps persuade you to help us with a donation, so that we can continue at this crucial time for Brexit?
Today will be a big political day. It’s in all the papers overnight and will be on TV today. Here is a quick summary of the background.
WHAT DO WE KNOW?
WE KNOW THAT there has been no fundamental shift in the government’s negotiating strategy since the publication of Theresa May and Ollie Robbins’ universally-condemned ‘Chequers Plan’ in July.
WE KNOW THAT the unelected civil servant Ollie Robbins and his Europhile ‘Europe Unit’ based in No.10 were formally put in charge of Brexit negotiations by the Prime Minister, just as Parliament broke for the summer recess.
WE KNOW THAT the new Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, the Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP, had his department’s role downgraded to that of managing UK-only arrangements.
WE KNOW THAT Theresa May’s negotiating strategy with the EU has at best been spineless, supine, subservient and incompetent, and has at worst been deliberately calculated to ensure that the UK does not leave the EU on 29 March 2019 except in name only.
WE KNOW THAT the UK will to all intents and purposes stay in the structures of the EU, but with the almost unbelievable removal of any say in the EU’s rules and regulations.
WE KNOW THAT the UK will continue to pay vast annual sums to the EU, will continue to accept free movement, will continue to be subject to a foreign court, will continue to have its entire economy governed by the rules of a Single Market from which the UK receives the least benefit of any of the EU28 (Source: EU Commission), and will continue to pay high prices for imported goods thanks to being in the Customs Union.
WHAT DO WE SUSPECT?
Leaks which have emerged overnight suggest that the new ‘deal’ which has been negotiated is little more than a rehash of Chequers, but without the laughable idea for a ‘Facilitated Customs Arrangement’.
We see little point in speculating over the precise details of the ‘fudge’ that has been concocted. We will review the facts when we see them, and will produce a Brexit Facts4EU.Org bulleted summary, as usual.
OBSERVATIONS
The above will be depressing for many people.
In the article below we start to consider the various practical measures readers can take, to force the political class to respect the vote of the British people on 23 June 2016 and to deliver Brexit in full.
Let’s not get mad. Let’s get even.
[ Sources: Many sources, cited in previous articles ]
06.45am, 14 Nov 2018
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: NOT4EU, London, UKDate/Time: 15 Nov 2018, 07.47am
Message: We know that the 'deal' is SO secret that even the pretend 'Brexit Secretary' was one of those having it explained to him. We know that an agreement that was 130 pages in March is now 500 pages (h/t Steve Baker). Why one by one? They could have asked the Irish to send over a few copies as it was they who broke the news and appear to have copies. What a disgraceful way to run a country. The entire Cabinet, apart from those resigning (if they have any spine at all) are now complicit in the unnecessary and humiliating surrender of our country to a foreign power. Democracy, or even the illusion of democracy will be dead. May they all burn in hell!
Name: Martine Parry, Portsmouth, UKDate/Time: 14 Nov 2018, 3.56pm
Message: This 'deal' is what we have already with the EU except we will have no say on rules etc - just a colony of the EU. We are giving the EU more power over us than they have now. My fear is that this meets Labour's so-called 'tests' in that 'the deal has to deliver what we have at the moment'. It looks like May is a Labour supporter in disguise. She might get all of Labour to vote for the deal. V bad news for the UK. She must go and go now.
Name: Brexiteer, Braintree, Essex, UKDate/Time: 14 Nov 2018, 1.28pm
Message: This is what Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said in the Dail today about the Irish backstop, as reported in the Irish Times. "It does have to be there, it does have to be legally operable, it can't have an expiry date, it can't be possible for one side to withdraw from it unilaterally," Mr Varadkar said.
Name: GetMeOut, Bath, UKDate/Time: 14 Nov 2018, 07.57am,
Message: Yes, it's not just the EU that tries to make our break out impossible but we have not only one mole (TM) but several of them in our own government. We will not give up though. After all nothing in human history was possible, before it was done.
Name: Barbara Jell, UKDate/Time: 14 Nov 2018, 07.41am
Message: Why on earth are deranged Remainers calling for a second Referendum? Theresa May is giving them everything they have ever wanted!
More details will inevitably emerge today regarding the unelected civil servant Ollie Robbins’ ‘deal’ which Theresa May has been presenting to Cabinet Ministers, and which will be discussed at the full emergency Cabinet at 2pm today.
Whatever happens today – who resigns, who stays, who calls for a second referendum, etc – it has never been more appropriate for the ordinary people of this country to do what they can to ‘stop the rot’.
We also suggest that many reasonably-minded people who voted Remain in the Referendum are extremely uncomfortable that the democratic decision of the entire electorate is not being actioned.
WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON?
At Brexit Facts4EU.Org we have focused on publishing a daily diet of facts, from official sources such as the EU Commission, ONS, national governments, OECD, IMF, etc, which show the true nature of the Brexit arguments. We have done this 365 days a year since before the Referendum campaign.
We know readers like the way we summarise these facts into bullet points, and how we produce simple charts that speak a thousand words.
In recent months we started producing campaigning articles, as readers were disappointed in what the larger Brexit groups were doing. We have not felt it appropriate to comment on the work of others. Some of it has been excellent and some well-funded groups have been able to be very effective in the demographics they reach.
Regular readers also know that we have consistently publicised the work of some great specialist Brexit groups. Most recently these included Lawyers for Britain, Scots for Leave, the Alliance of British Entrepreneurs, Veterans for Britain, [Removed], and Fishing for Leave, amongst others.
Our focus has always been on reaching out to ordinary people across the country, from the north of Scotland to the south-west tip of Cornwall. In doing so, we have converted Remain voters, and we have also established a readership of MPs, MEPs and other influential people from the UK and internationally. It is always heartening when we see our facts quoted – even if we are almost never credited as the source!
SO WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN NOW?
Okay, let’s be positive!
There’s a lot we can do
And we can all start doing it today
There isn’t a silver bullet that will deliver Brexit… there are lots of them. We don’t have all the answers, but we believe we have some.
BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY
SOME POSITIVE STEPS
MPs matter. (Sorry, but they do.) We’re rejuvenating our Brexit Battle Pack.
Facts matter. We’re going to start summarising the absolutely key ones.
All specialist Brexit groups matter. We must all re-publish and promote each other’s work.
You matter. We’re going to suggest small ways you can influence Brexit.
Money matters. If you read us and like our work and ideas, please fund us.
THERE’S NO TIME TO LOSE
Every day now is important. We’ve put our money where our mouth is overnight, producing this article and the one above, as well as what you see in the next piece. It may not look much, but all these things take a lot longer than some people think.
DONATING - WHAT YOU GET IN RETURN
All readers can make donations at any time using either credit card or Paypal. In return you get a nice, warm feeling that you are doing something useful - and you really are. We are desperately short of funds to continue. Different donation levels give you different things - see below.
Alternatively you could fund one specific tool we've developed - the Brexit Index. This will give you four months' access to the world's best source of Brexit facts, researched from official sources, in 19 main categories and 97 sub-categories. It's either £9.99 for Standard access, or £49.99 for Pro access.
Please use the system below for a general donation, or the system on the Brexit Index page for a donation specifically to give yourself access to the best facts available on Brexit anywhere.
OBSERVATIONS
Brexit is being sold down the river. Even more importantly your country is being sold down the river.
Please stand up now.
[ Sources: Many sources, cited in previous articles ]
06.45am, 14 Nov 2018
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: Brexiteer, Braintree, Essex, UKDate/Time: 14 Nov 2018, 08.47am
Message: Read the Irish papers. They are cock a hoop they have an united Ireland. I am only surprised May didn't give away Gibraltar and the Falklands at the same time. The day Merkel announced in the EU Parliament the EU armed forces, which May has signed the UK up to. Be in no doubt unless the House of Commons votes this 'deal" down we will be a vassal state locked into the EU for ever. Supplying money to keep the EU afloat, and troops for the Russian front.
We're really grateful to those of our readers who have given donations. If you read our work regularly and value it, but have yet to donate, could we perhaps persuade you to help us with a donation, so that we can continue at this crucial time for Brexit?
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‘KISS YOUR MP’
AN OVERNIGHT TOOL FROM BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG
Our Brexit Battle Pack contains the best source of tips and practical sources of information anywhere, for persuading your MP and the media to respect the Referendum decision.
Today we add to that, with our ‘KISS Your MP’ method!
For those who don’t know, KISS stands for ‘Keep It Simple, Stupid’.
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: Gary, York, UKDate/Time: 14 Nov 2018, 08.19am
Message: Good idea, thanks. I just printed your letter in three copies: my wife signed one, me another, and I'll take one around to one of our elderly neighbours. All three will go to the letterbox today. A big kiss to my MP, Richard Burden: your majority just dropped to 4,661. Carry on like this and soon you won't be a burden, mate - at least not on us.
All readers can make donations at any time using either credit card or Paypal. In return you get a nice, warm feeling that you are doing something useful - and you really are. We are desperately short of funds to continue. Different donation levels give you different things - see below.
Alternatively you could fund one specific tool we've developed - the Brexit Index. This will give you four months' access to the world's best source of Brexit facts, researched from official sources, in 19 main categories and 97 sub-categories. It's either £9.99 for Standard access, or £49.99 for Pro access.
Please use the system below for a general donation, or the system on the Brexit Index page for a donation specifically to give yourself access to the best facts available on Brexit anywhere.
OBSERVATIONS
If you don't stand up and have your say now, you may have already had your last say.
We need to go full-time, full-on. We need your help to do this. Please donate using one of the methods below. After almost three years, we've exhausted our own resources. We need to drop everything to fight for the Brexit we all voted for, and we need to do it full-time
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, WalesDate/Time: 14 Nov 2018, 03.00am
Message: As a strong supporter of Pro-Brexit Facts4EU, it is essential ALL Brexiteers get together and 'FIGHT' FOR OUR COUNTRY like our forebears did for us (only they had to use weapons many decades past)
Everyone MUST spread this site far and wide on social media because here you will get one hundred percent FACTS and not BS like we get from many politicians, but this team need supporting people - at least they're fighting FOR us, unlike the majority of MPs fighting AGAINST us.
Send site address http://facts4eu.org/news.shtml to your taxpayer funded MP for articles, and demand they deliver our majority vote. Parliament gave this to the electorate in the first place, and "Leave the European Union" won which they MUST uphold, or remove themselves from Parliament in disgrace.
I saw a news item where Ms Soubry claimed she'd been told to abstain, and who was running this country, said she.
Very good point Ms Soubry for which you deserve an equally pathetic answer. Firstly, YOU DON'T run the country, secondly, the unelected bureaucrats in Brussels do (throw in a Robbins as well), and you have to abide by their rulings.
We should divide our Parliament into those who choose to hold up a 'white flag' and surrender OUR country (I call them cowards), and those who believe in our country (who I call true patriots and democrats).
BREXITEER MPs, I RESPECTFULLY ASK YOU TO 'FIGHT' FOR OUR COUNTRY OR YOU WILL NEVER BE FORGIVEN. This has been a sell-out from start to where we are now which will no longer be tolerated. All MPs should consider their position, and Tory MPs should consider removing Prime Minister May from power with haste.
Name: Tom N, Dartmouth, UKDate/Time: 13 Nov 2018, 5.51pm
Message: 'If you don't stand up and have your say now, you may have already had your last say.' Very true. Count on me! Remainers, watch out because this applies to you as well. It's all very well that you think this con favours you, but another day, another time, your vote will be discounted too if we let the government get away with this now.
We're really grateful to those of our readers who have given donations. If you read our work regularly and value it, but have yet to donate, could we perhaps persuade you to help us with a donation, so that we can continue at this crucial time for Brexit?
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“I think you are mad, simply mad, if you pursue this course”
EMINENT QC GIVES LEGAL OPINION TO CABINET MEETING TODAY
THIS IS ONE TIME YOU SHOULD READ A LEGAL OPINION IN FULL
Below we publish the full legal opinion of Martin Howe QC to the Cabinet regarding the reported plans for the Withdrawal Treaty.
BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY
LEGAL OPINION ADDRESSED TO CABINET
Draft Withdrawal Treaty has now been made secret
Once signed, it cannot be revoked without serious reputational damage to UK
Treaty as envisaged has no effective exit clause if there is a ‘backstop’
EU could actively damage UK economy and jobs if it chose
EU’s foreign court would have effective supremacy
Any such Treaty would be unheard of in international arrangements
It would leave the UK far worse off than it is as a member of the EU
WHY ARE WE PUBLISHING THIS?
Regular readers know that we have previously published summaries of the work of Martin Howe QC and his colleagues at Lawyers for Britain. Mr Howe is an eminent specialist in EU law.
On this occasion we are taking the unusual step of publishing - in full - the text of Mr Howe’s legal advice to ministers, ahead of their Cabinet meeting at No.10 this morning.
We have previously published our analysis of the text of the draft Withdrawal Treaty being negotiated between the unelected civil servant Ollie Robbins - who is officially in charge of Theresa May’s Brexit negotiations – and the unelected bureaucrat Michel Barnier who is in charge of negotiations for the EU.
Since then, the text of the draft Treaty has been amended but it has not been made available to anyone outside Cabinet. We find this secrecy deplorable, as do Martin Howe and his colleagues.
This is a long read, but we thoroughly recommend it to readers.
THERESA MAY’S BACKSTOP PLAN WOULD DROP THE UK INTO A LEGAL BLACK HOLE
By Martin Howe QC
Introduction – what we need to see
Many people are demanding to see the legal advice which the Attorney General gives to the Cabinet about the Irish border “backstop” arrangement. But much more important than seeing the Attorney’s advice is seeing the actual legal text of the deal being negotiated in secret between the UK government and the EU.
There is no valid diplomatic reason for keeping the text secret, since it is known to the other side in the negotiations. I fear that the real reason for this secrecy is to limit the ability of Parliamentarians, lawyers, experts and others to study the details of what is being agreed behind closed doors, and to identify problems and other issues which arise from the detailed provisions of the legal text which may not be apparent from what is in the public domain.
Although important additional issues may arise from the legal text, enough is publicly known about the shape of the “backstop” deal for clear legal advice to be given on the salient points. So this is the advice I would give the Cabinet.
The current “backstop” is not legally binding
First, the baseline of the legal advice is that the existing text about the “backstop” dating from the December 2017 so-called Phase 1 Agreement is not legally binding. This backstop text consists of two ambiguous, confusing and internally self-contradictory paragraphs in a Joint Report by the UK and EU negotiating teams. The UK is free under international law to walk away from these paragraphs.
The UK can justifiably say that the concept contained in those paragraphs – of the UK maintaining “full alignment” with areas of EU rules of the Customs Union and Single Market – has proved not capable of being negotiated into a solution acceptable to both sides. Therefore a different approach — of maintaining a customs and regulatory border enforced by behind-the-border measures — should be preferred.
A “backstop” in the withdrawal agreement would be legally binding
If a backstop arrangement is taken forward and put into a treaty text, it will become legally binding. If we sign a treaty committing the UK to operate a backstop arrangement, is not realistic to say (as some have) that it is just a treaty and we can either change it in future or just leave it or even break it. Under international law, we cannot change the treaty or legally leave it unless its terms allow us to do that. As a trading nation which is dependent upon asking other nations to honour the treaties we sign with them, we cannot afford simply to breach a treaty of this kind.
But trade treaties normally contain clauses which allow either party to withdraw on giving notice – typically 12 months. Indeed, I can’t think of a single existing trade treaty which does not contain such a notice clause.
So what the EU is currently asking for – a clause which would allow the UK to terminate the backstop only if the backstop is replaced by a subsequent agreement with the EU – is wholly exceptional in international trade treaty practice. This would lock the UK into a relationship with the EU which the UK could not escape except with the EU’s permission.
It appears that that relationship would involve obligations to follow the EU’s rules on external tariffs and customs, on so-called “level playing field” measures relating to state aids, the environment, employment and other areas, and (according to latest news reports) a continuing obligation to maintain access for EU boats into UK fishing waters.
Further, these would be obligations to follow EU rules not as they stand today but as they are altered in the future. Unlike now, we would have no vote or veto on changes to these rules. So they could be altered (intentionally or not) in ways which damage British businesses compared with their Continental competitors. The rules would also be subject to unpredictable changes of interpretation as a result judgments of the ECJ, a court on which we will no longer have representation.
This exclusion of the right of Parliament to make laws for the UK according to the democratic wishes of the people could only be constitutionally acceptable if the UK had the effective ability to exit the arrangement without delay, if Parliament so decides.
The backstop’s effects on negotiations with the EU
When entering into a legal agreement, one has to consider how the other party is likely to exercise the rights you concede to it under the agreement. The above backstop terms would be highly attractive to the EU, which currently sells £95bn per year more goods into the UK market than we sell to them. The tariff and non-tariff barriers of the EU single market and customs union make it more difficult and costly to import competing goods from non-EU countries, so EU27 producers are able to sell this large surplus of goods into the UK market at significantly above world prices.
These “backstop” terms would force the UK to keep in place the barriers against competing goods from non-EU countries entering the UK market. The “level playing field” terms would suppress the competitiveness of UK industry. So the EU would have a huge incentive to keep the backstop in place for as long as possible, in order to maximise its own goods exports into the UK market and the prices that EU producers would be able to charge on those exports.
This would have two effects on negotiations. First, the EU would have no incentive to agree terms in a replacement long-term trade agreement which are any better for the UK than the backstop terms. This would make it impossible in practice to negotiate away the “level playing field” restrictions and barriers against non-EU imports when concluding a long term trade agreement with the EU. Why should the EU concede terms which are worse for the EU in the trade agreement, than it can get simply by not agreeing a trade agreement and letting the “backstop” come into force?
Secondly, the EU would have a massive incentive to keep the UK locked into the backstop for as long as possible. This means that if some kind of arbitration process is adopted in order to allow the UK to leave the backstop, the EU could be expected to fight the arbitration vigorously and to string out the arbitration processes as long as possible. The EU is very practised at conducting international trade arbitrations, and is very skilled at stringing them out for literally years with obfuscation and delaying tactics.
A “joint review mechanism” or arbitration
It now seems that instead of pressing for a simple clause which gives the UK the right to withdraw from the backstop by giving notice, the government is contemplating a clause under which the UK’s right to withdraw is dependent upon satisfying some kind of ‘joint review mechanism’ or independent arbitral body.
This requires legal advice to the Cabinet on four questions: (1) What body is to take the decision? (2) According to what processes and in particular in what timescale? (3) What is the criterion for release from the backstop to be applied by this body? And finally, (4) how confident is the government of its ability to meet the criterion, and demonstrably prove that it has met it, within a reasonably short timescale?
As to what body is to take the decision, it is virtually unheard of in international treaty relations for states to agree to be bound by decisions of tribunals which are not strictly neutral. Typically, an international arbitration panel will consist of an arbitrator appointed by each party and a neutral chairman. However, the Chequers White Paper has proposed an arbitration process modelled on the humiliating process imposed by the EU on the former Soviet republics of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, under which a supposedly independent arbitration panel is obliged to refer issues of EU law to the ECJ and is bound by the ECJ’s decision.
It would be simply unacceptable and contrary to all international practice if the ECJ were to be involved in this way in an arbitration which governed whether or not the UK was permitted to leave the backstop and regain control of its own laws and of its external trade policy. In addition, a procedure which involves referring issues to the ECJ could add 18 months or longer on top of time needed for the rest of the arbitration process.
The timescale of the arbitration would be very dependent on what was the agreed criterion, and on how simple or complex it was to apply it. As a rough guide, the average time for trade disputes to be decided by World Trade Organisation panels in 2007-2011 was over 2 years, despite the fact that applying the theoretical time limits under the WTO disputes rules would have produced much faster results.
In practice where arbitrations involve complex and difficult issues with conflicting evidence and arguments from the parties, the procedures just cannot be made to fit within unrealistically short timescales laid down by rules.
So even if the EU were willing to agree to short timescales for an arbitration process being written into the backstop deal, the UK could not rely on such timescales being adhered to in a real arbitration. So a big risk factor to be considered by the Cabinet is the prospect of the UK being locked into the backstop for a lengthy period while an arbitration drags on, even assuming the right result is achieved in the end.
Against what criterion would this be adjudicated?
The next point to consider is what criterion is to be applied? How clearly defined and objective can it be? It seems that the UK government wants to suggest that the Facilitated Customs Arrangement (FCA) in the Chequers White Paper would be effective in ensuring that all goods imported into the UK will be subject to the correct EU import tariff (to be levied by UK customs and paid over to the EU) if the goods are re-exported over an open UK/EU border into the EU.
A dual-tariff scheme of this kind has not been tried before anywhere in the world. It appears that it would operate using a system under which some goods would be charged the higher EU level tariff on entry to the UK, and then given a rebate on proof that they had been consumed in the UK. Other goods would be let in at UK level tariffs, with systems in place supposedly to track them and prevent them from migrating into the EU.
The EU is understandably suspicious about the workability and effectiveness of this untried scheme. It fears that goods on which only UK level tariffs had been paid – which would be zero tariffs where goods are imported from a country with which the UK has a Free Trade Agreement – could be diverted by traders into the EU market. So a big difficulty is in coming up with an objective criterion against which the effectiveness of the FCA can be demonstrated which satisfies the EU’s concerns.
When could all this be invoked?
But there is a bigger problem when it comes to the question of whether the UK can be confident that it would be able to meet any such criterion within a reasonable timescale. The UK government seems to accept that it cannot get this new and untried system working before the end of the transition period in 2020. Last June, it sent a technical note to the EU which said that “the UK expects the future arrangement to be in place by the end of December 2021 at the latest.”
But third party observers are far more pessimistic about this system. CLECAT, the professional customs body whose members handle 80% of European customs transactions, believe that it would require five to ten years before it can be applied in practice, and that timescale would be dependent on developing systems which do not exist at present. Experts from the UK Trade Policy Observatory at Sussex University cannot make sense of the government’s figures for the goods that would be covered by scheme and believe that the difficulties of tracking goods are much greater than the Chequers White Paper acknowledges: see Decoding the Facilitated Customs Arrangement by Prof L. Alan Winters CB.
The upshot is that the government can have no confidence about when it would actually be in a position to satisfy the criterion and initiate the procedure for exiting from the backstop, let alone how long an arbitration would take and whether it would ultimately be successful. So the realistic legal advice which must be given to the Cabinet is that an exit clause which requires the UK to satisfy a criterion on the lines above would be likely to lock the UK into the backstop for a number of years. This is on an optimistic scenario in which the untried new customs procedures do not throw up unexpected problems, and the new IT systems are all built and go live on time – not a common scenario for public sector IT systems.
Impact of the backstop on trade relations with non-EU countries
The impact of such a backstop arrangement on the UK’s legal relations with other countries also needs to be considered. While the backstop is in operation, it would be impossible for the UK to implement free trade agreements with non EU countries because we would not be allowed to remove tariffs on goods from those countries. In theory we would be free to negotiate such agreements, to come into force when the backstop ends.
But if it escaping from the backstop is all dependent on an arbitration procedure, we would be unable to tell prospective non-EU free trade partners when we would be free to implement a deal with them. Indeed, we could not tell them any certainty whether we would be able to implement a deal at all. The likelihood is that prospective free trade partners would think it a waste of time to negotiate with us at all, and tell us to go away until we had actually succeeded in getting out of the backstop.
CONCLUSION
So my advice to the Cabinet is that agreeing to a backstop which the UK can only leave if we satisfy a review mechanism risks dropping the UK into a legal black hole for probably a number of years – and quite possibly for longer. While in that black hole, we would be subject to EU control of our tariffs and external trade policy and of wide areas of our internal laws, without having any vote on the rules which bind us. We would be unable even to negotiate any meaningful trade agreements with non-EU countries until we could provide them with a certain end date for the backstop.
At present, we have a clear legal right to free ourselves from obeying EU rules and from EU control of our external trade policy by giving two years notice. We have given that notice under Article 50 and we shall be free on 30 March 2019. Under the backstop as contemplated we would be worse off than we are as an EU member because our right to escape from EU laws would no longer be under our control. In the best case it would be subject to severe delay of unpredictable length, and in thew worst case might be dependent on satisfying conditions which we can never successfully achieve.
The final piece of advice I give to the Cabinet is advice which I have given to clients on occasion, who are seemingly intent on some ill-judged course of action. The decision on what to do is up to you, and as your legal adviser I can only point out the legal disadvantages and risks to you as you take your decision. But my own view is that I think you are mad, simply mad, if you pursue this course.
OBSERVATIONS
Regular readers will recall that following the EU Referendum and several times since, we advocated the formation of a ‘Dream Team’ to negotiate the UK’s exit from the EU.
We proposed a combination of politicians and business people and we have no doubt that the individuals we nominated would have done a much better job than those who have landed us in the current mess.
Our choice of legal counsel would have been Mr Howe. Sadly Mrs May failed to follow our advice of who to include.
WHAT IS MR HOWE SAYING?
‘En bref’, as Michel Barnier would say, Martin Howe has provided a stark warning to the Cabinet which is meeting today. In our business experience it takes a lot for a senior barrister to adopt such tones when advising a client. If he does, the client should sit up and listen.
In this case, Mr Howe has not been retained by Her Majesty’s Government and has provided his advice ex-gratia. This makes his opinion even more valuable, in our view.
Interestingly Martin Howe makes all the points we have been making in these ‘Observations’ boxes since the government's plans became clearer. The difference is that when a man so experienced in EU legal matters feels the need to advise in such terms, he does so from a position of greater authority.
Mrs May, Ministers, we strongly urge you to listen to this advice and to desist from your current course.
[ Sources: Martin Howe QC, Lawyers for Britain, published by kind permission ]
04.45am, 13 Nov 2018
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: SibeliusFan, West Midlands, UKDate/Time: 13 Nov 2018, 12.13am
Message: I used to like and respect Theresa May: she seemed like a decent, straight-talking sort of person, and I may be wrong but my recollection is that in much earlier years she was regarded as being on the euro-sceptic "wing" of the Conservative party. So when she tumbled by default into the role of PM and said she would deliver what we voted for, even creating a new government department dedicated to the job of leaving the EU, I was somewhat encouraged. (This, I'm afraid, merely shows how naive I must be.) Then she immediately started referring to "these negotiations" and my heart began to sink: somehow it sounded supplicatory right from the "off". Now I am disgusted by her treatment of David Davis, disgusted that she has allowed an unelected civil servant to be our chief negotiator, disgusted by all the secrecy and disgusted by the way she is trying to bounce the cabinet, parliament and the country into accepting the appallingly bad results of her so-called "negotiations." I've never regarded myself as particularly "political" but I've been made so on this issue, because I can't stand being lied to and hoodwinked.
Name: Chris, Devizes, UKDate/Time: 13 Nov 2018, 11.47am
Message: Despite this advice, May is still sticking with her absurd Super-Chequers+++ plan. Not only that, but she is still blatantly lying. I saw an article this morning reporting on her Lord Mayor's Banquet speech yesterday, which quoted her as follows: "While she said there won't be an agreement at any cost, she emphasised how any deal must ensure we take back control of our laws, borders and money. It must secure the ability to strike new trade deals around the world. And it must also be a deal that protects jobs, our security and our precious Union." Her plan achieves none of this of course.
Name: Brexiteer, Braintree, Essex, UKDate/Time: 13 Nov 2018, 10.53am
Message: In a nutshell the UK citizens would become slaves. There would be no democracy, voting would be pointless, as you would be ruled by a foreign governmental power, the EU. Your vote could change nothing. What wasn't achieved by two world wars in the 20th century would be achieved in the 21st without a shot being fired.
Name: NOT4EU, London, UKDate/Time: 13 Nov 2018, 10.11am
Message: Thank you so much for publishing this to a wider audience. It lays bare the audacious treason that May is trying to achieve with her complicit Cabinet. As Howe points out, there is simply no reason why the text itself should be hidden from view as it is known by both sides. What are they afraid of? A rhetorical question as we know the answer. It demonstrates the appalling lengths being taken to betray our country. It is wrapped in the sophistry and conflation of a 'deal' when it is nothing but a withdrawal agreement. A Treaty to which we would be legally bound affecting our future ability to govern and control ourselves, commonly known as independence. The actual 'deal' (trade as people would understand it) may come afterwards. I now want to jump on the 'People's' bandwagon. I want a 'People's Deal'. This is the 'deal' that 17.4m people actually voted for. It is, quite simply, to LEAVE the EU and that includes all of its shadowy agencies and institutions. There is no need for a Treaty or promises of money. These are only means of 'remaining' under the jurisdiction of the EU. The EU never had any intention of dealing in good faith. They only believe in the projekt. We want our independence back and we want it NOW.
Name: Jon, Wales, UKDate/Time: 13 Nov 2018, 09.45am
Message: I have read and entirely agree with the ex-gratia legal opinion for Cabinet presented by Martin Howe QC. His conclusion to free ourselves is clear and obvious common sense. I wish to thank him for his expertise. Whether or not Prime Minister May and her Cabinet follow his clear advice will be telling. Along with 17.4m+ voters, I had my own reasons for voting to "Leave the European Union", and I also voted for a CLEAN BREXIT. Any attempt to keep us in the EU by another name is to ignore our vote, the largest in British history.
We're really grateful to those of our readers who have given donations. If you read our work regularly and value it, but have yet to donate, could we perhaps persuade you to help us with a donation, so that we can continue at this crucial time for Brexit?
Tomorrow morning Theresa May's Remainer-dominated cabinet meets, with Brexit once again being the No.1 issue. Mrs May will continue to push her variant on the Chequers Plan that she has never withdrawn, despite it being rejected by the EU, as well as being rejected by MPs and the public.
Four months ago the EU produced its assessment of the effectiveness of the Single Market by country, in a series of reports. These were released just after Mrs May's disastrous Chequers Plan was published as a white paper.
At the time, Brexit Facts4EU.Org exclusively analysed the figures and suggested that our summary should be required reading for all Remainer MPs - including those in Mrs May's cabinet.
Today we are re-presenting the information, in a simpler format, in this article. Our chart above shows the percentage of the UK economy which the EU says benefits from the Single Market. It includes imports as well as exports, because so many Remainer MPs are talking about the UK's reliance on imports from the EU.
WHAT ABOUT UK EXPORTS INTO THE SINGLE MARKET?
We are regularly accused of being selective in the data we show. For the Remainer MPs who form the majority in the Cabinet, we are therefore showing below a chart of the UK's goods exports only.
As with the chart above, this data comes from the EU itself. We use EU data wherever possible because cannot be contested by those MPs who seem to have blind allegiance to that organisation.
Below is a chart showing the EU Commission's figures for goods exports into the Single Market.
According to the EU Commission, UK goods exports into the EU's Single Market account for only 7.3% of UK GDP. By anyone's reckoning that's not an enormous slice of the UK economy.
OBSERVATIONS
OBEYING THE EU’S RULES FOREVER
A key part of Mrs May's proposed surrender to the EU relates to UK businesses having to maintain 'regulatory alignment' with the EU. This is the ‘common rule book’ which she has been promoting.
In reality this is of course the EU rule book. The Prime Minister seems to be effectively advocating the retention of this in perpetuity, thereby binding British manufacturers and innovators to EU rules present and future, but with no say for the UK going forward.
THIS IS THE TRUTH ABOUT THE SINGLE MARKET
As you can see, the UK benefits least out of all the EU’s member states when it comes to membership of the Single Market. For some of those countries it has been an essential part of their economic success in recent years.
If Remainer MPs would like more information on the facts of the Single Market – rather than its imagined benefits – we have a great deal more information which we have produced in the last three years. All of this is based on official sources and is incontrovertible.
We would be happy to make it available to any MPs who are interested in the facts rather than the fiction of the Single Market.
FOR THE UK, THE SINGLE MARKET HAS BEEN A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT
Our report above shows unequivocally that the Single Market has been of great benefit to many other countries, but that the UK comes bottom of the list. This is despite the fact that the Single Market is sold as one of the defining benefits of EU membership.
It is also despite the fact that the UK has been the second-highest net contributor to the EU’s funds. In other words, the UK has been the second-biggest payer, but at the end of the queue when it comes to benefiting from that.
If you read us but haven't yet made a donation to keep us going, now is the moment. With some donations today we could invest in the time needed to circulate this information to more MPs and to the mainstream media. We'll do it if you could back us.
[ Sources: EU Commission ] Journalists and politicians can contact us for the full list of links.
05.30am, 12 Nov 2018
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: Faye, Maidstone, UKDate/Time: 12 Nov 2018, 4.42pm
Message: I think we're all sick and tired of hearing that we won't survive outside the Single Market. Strangely, some countries do and they can do well. The details of the necessity of being a member of the Single Market are never explained by the Remainers, they always just surround their statements with a big and fluffy pink cloud. I suggest they start reading your site for some realities, it's time to grow up. Oh yes, sorry to break this so soon before Xmas, but Santa doesn't exist either. Even if he did he's certainly not J-C Juncker.
Name: Ed, Manchester, UKDate/Time: 12 Nov 2018, 4.33pm
Message: Great graphs, thank you. I find them very useful - as they say a picture is worth a thousand words. My everyday life is too busy to read long essays so I'm pleased I found a site that specializes in compact info.
Name: Jon, Wales, UKDate/Time: 12 Nov 2018, 07.33am
Message: Prior to our [hard won] June 2016 referendum, the remain camp screamed for FACTS. They were presented what they asked for but chose to ignore them as facts interfered with their own remain narrative.
The country was fed a daily dose of remain propaganda if we dared to vote to "Leave the European Union". It did not mean we were leaving the planet as some gloom merchants would have us believe.
Regrettably, remain propaganda continued post referendum, largely instigated by Pro-EU loving MPs (and others), despite a democratic majority Leave vote. It is right for Remain thinking MPs to express their opinions, and as a passionate Brexiteer I have no problem with that.
Though I expect ALL MPs to respect the democratic majority Leave vote - the largest in British history, and they do so IN FULL.
When UK Prime Minister May started playing with words like, 'regulatory alignment' and a 'common rule book', it was clear remainer Mrs May would seek to make things so complex when it was not. She appeased the EU at almost every turn and they have played her like a 'fiddle' at great cost to the UK.
**Pro-EU MPs have questions to answer BOTH IN AND OUT OF PARLIAMENT**.
Brexiteer MPs MUST challenge Remain MPs in Parliament with FACTS they find here at Pro-Brexit Facts4EU, and ask them to explain (in their own words and not from a script), WHY the UK benefits least as shown in the above charts, yet we're their second highest contributor? They can't argue these facts because the EU commission must be right? After all, we know the commission would never purposely put out propaganda, would they?
Those MPs acting against our country (and I specifically mean against 17.4m+ voters), must explain why our country has in fact been doing better since the vote itself? The EU has done everything it can to make things difficult, yet we get ever more inward investment. Quite simply, people believe in our country, and those who invest here deserve praise.
It is NOT open to the EU to prevent UK independence and self-governance. The majority voted to Leave and they should get over it.
I am one of many who want a CLEAN BREAK from the EU, and to leave all its institutions. This should not prevent EU member countries seeking bilateral deals with the UK, and they are at last waking up to this fact.
Name: James K, London, UKDate/Time: 12 Nov 2018, 07.20am
Message: Yes please, you must get this info to as many MPs as possible. I haven't seen so many powerful facts on any other website. I sent you a small something, everybody please do the same - we don't have time to waste on this!
We're really grateful to those of our readers who have given donations. If you read our work regularly and value it, but have yet to donate, could we perhaps persuade you to help us with a donation, so that we can continue at this crucial time for Brexit?
ER... THIS IS ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS WHY WE VOTED TO LEAVE
Exposing the fatally-flawed logic of the world of Remoanerdom
A consistent message has been appearing in Remoanerdom in recent months. And it contains a fatal flaw.
The idiocy of the argument was perfectly but unwittingly encapsulated by Boris Johnson’s younger brother this week.
Those who voted Remain and who still refuse to accept the democratic decision of the British people in 2016 – the largest exercise of democracy in British history – are now consistently advancing the same message. It is a message with a fundamental and fatal flaw, and it is not being flattened as it should be.
One of the latest proponents of this flawed message was JoJo – brother of BoJo (Boris Johnson) – when he resigned from government on Friday. The warped logic is so obvious and so astonishingly obtuse that prominent Brexiteers seem to be ignoring it. They do so at their peril.
WHAT’S THE REMOANERS' MESSAGE?
The message is simple: ‘Brexit has become a nightmare so we should vote again.’
Here is how JoJo (the Rt Hon Jo Johnson MP) expressed it in his resignation statement:
“Given that the reality of Brexit has turned out to be so far from what was once promised, the democratic thing to do is to give the public the final say.”
Johnson Junior is now advocating a second referendum, joining the increasing numbers of sore losers on the backbenches in Parliament. His resignation contained a damning indictment of Theresa May’s leadership, which we applaud.
However Mr Johnson failed to join up the dots.
Not only is Brexit in a mess because of the incompetence and apparent agenda of the Remain-voting Prime Minister, it is in a mess because of the nature of the very organisation which the British people so wisely voted to leave.
WHAT’S THE REALITY?
The reality is that whatever one thinks of the supine, subservient approach to Brexit negotiations being conducted by the occupants of No.10 Downing Street (T May and O Robbins), it is the EU that has made Brexit so difficult.
In its entire approach to Brexit the EU has shown its true colours to the British people. Put simply, the EU has given full meaning to the expression:
“With friends like these, who needs enemies?”
If a supposedly-friendly club of which you have been a member for over 45 years turns nasty when you choose to leave, what does that tell you about the club?
HOW JOHNSON MINOR FAILED LOGIC 1.01
Excerpts From Jo Johnson’s Resignation Statement
(And our commentary)
“…a failure of British statecraft on a scale unseen since the Suez crisis”
Yes, this is how it looks internationally.
“Hopes for ‘the easiest trade deal in history’ have proved to be delusions. Contrary to promises, there is in fact no deal at all on our future trading relationship with the EU which the government can present to the country.”
Why is this JoJo? Well we’ll help you out. It’s because of the EU. It SHOULD have been the easiest trade deal in history.
“Still less anything that offers the ‘exact same benefits’ as the Single Market, as David Davis promised, or the ‘precise guarantees of frictionless trade’ that the Prime Minister assured us would be available.”
The Rt Hon David Davis MP (former Secretary of State for Exiting the EU) promised no such thing. He said it was the aim. Read the official Hansard record. We did. We also advised Mr Davis to hit this erroneous Remainer lie on the head, several times.
“All that is now being finalised is the agreement to pay the EU tens of billions of pounds. All that may be on offer on trade is the potential for an agreement to stay in a temporary customs arrangement while we discuss the possibility of an EU trade deal that all experience shows will take many years to negotiate.
“This democratic deficit inherent in the Prime Minister’s proposal is a travesty of Brexit. When we were told Brexit meant taking back powers for Parliament, no one told my constituents this meant the French parliament and the German parliament, not our own.”
Thank you, JoJo. You’ve just highlighted the fundamental inconsistency of your argument. Why on earth should leaving the EU mean them taking complete control over our laws?
“This is a con on the British people”
Yes, that about sums it up.
Mr Johnson then makes much of potential border chaos at Dover, without once questioning who will cause the chaos and why.
“Given that the reality of Brexit has turned out to be so far from what was once promised, the democratic thing to do is to give the public the final say.”
No, JoJo, the democratic thing to do is replace the incompetent leadership and enact the decision of the British people. It’s not the people’s fault that Mrs May’s ‘deal’ is a disaster, it’s the government’s, and you were a part of that government until Friday.
“Britain stands on the brink of the greatest crisis since the Second World War…. On this most crucial of questions, I believe it is entirely right to go back to the people and ask them to confirm their decision to leave the EU and, if they choose to do that, to give them the final say on whether we leave with the Prime Minister’s deal or without it.
“To do anything less will do grave damage to our democracy.”
No, you have it entirely the wrong way around. We had our vote. The fact that your precious European Union have behaved abominably only strengthens the case to leave.
It’s failing to respect the biggest democratic decision in British history that is what will inflict grave damage to our democracy.
OBSERVATIONS
JoJo, the chairman of your own local constituency association co-signed a letter to the Sunday Telegraph today, which starts “The Government was given an instruction by the British people to leave the European Union. It must ensure that this happens.”
It goes on to say: “She must ensure that the final deal complies with those red lines that she set out in both the 2017 general election manifesto and her Lancaster House speech – namely, leaving the customs union, the single market and European Court of Justice over-rule.”
Well said, Mr Anthony Owen and fellow constituency chairmen.
JoJo, your own constituency voted to leave the EU for goodness’ sake.
FINAL THOUGHT FOR JOHNSON MINOR
We have a final thought for Johnson Minor, as he was apparently known at Eton.
There was a general election last year and many people would say that the ensuing May government has been a disaster.
Is it legitimate for us to say that we “believe it is entirely right to go back to the people and ask them to confirm their decision”?
Of course not. That would be stupid. Democracy is democracy. Please think about it.
[ Sources: Jo Johnson resignation statement | Hansard | Sunday Telegraph ]
06.10am, Sunday 11 Nov 2018
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: Lincsdave, Lincolnshire, UKDate/Time: 11 Nov 2018, 9.19pm
Message: JoJo says that we would become a vassal state if we accept May's deal, so we should have another referendum and vote to stay in a vassal state. Mmmmm not sure about your logic JoJo.
Name: BrexiMax, Kent, UKDate/Time: 11 Nov 2018, 10.05am
Message: Steady on, silver-tongued Jo-boy. Let’s follow through your logic sensibly, shall we? If you want to give us, the plebs – sorry, public – the final say then let’s start with the fundamentals and peel off the rot, layer by layer. First you should ask us if we think our vote about leaving the EU in 2016 was respected, yes or no. That puts in perspective any further voting exercise. Then examine the two sources of the chaotic nightmare: the UK government and the EU. It makes more sense to start resolving the closest part of the problem, right here in the UK first. Forget your beloved EU for a minute. Considering that in the general election promises we were misled, lied to and didn’t know that your party won’t implement our decision, we shall re-run that first. Then we look at the EU and see yet again, if we now want to stay part of it. As we know, as part of the EU we have no meaningful parliamentary power, no control of our laws, our immigration, defence, or fishing, or a considerable amount of our money and we can’t do independent trade deals. And the EU turns really nasty if we don’t like it. We have now seen this in practice. Hmmm yeah, I think we have to seriously re-think our decision. Or maybe we should just curl up in the corner next to you, try to comfort you, so that you can recover from the lesson that the tough EU betrayal has brought you.
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Together we're up against a vast army of UK & EU propagandists.
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