From Boris Johnson: The man maybe a scatty but he hits the nail right on the head. On Friday I heard a new dawn chorus outside my house. There was a rustling and twittering, as though of starlings assembling on a branch. Then I heard a collective clearing of the throat, and they started yodelling my name – followed by various expletives. “Oi Boris – c---!” they shouted. Or “Boris – w-----!” I looked out to see some otherwise charming-looking young people, the sort who might fast to raise money for a Third World leprosy project. They had the air of idealists – Corbynistas; Lefties; people who might go on a march to stop a war. And so when they started on their protest song, I found myself a bit taken aback. “EU – we love YOU! EU – we love YOU!” they began to croon. Curious, I thought. What exactly is it about the EU that attracts the fervent admiration of north London radicals? It was the first time I had ever heard of trendy socialists demonstrating in favour of an unelected supranational bureaucracy. In the old days, the Lefties used to dismiss the EU as a bankers’ ramp. Tony Benn thought it was unacceptably anti-democratic. Jeremy Corbyn used to vote against it in every division. Why has it suddenly become so fashionable among our nose-ringed friends? I tried to think which of the EU’s signature policies they were so keen on. Surely not the agricultural subsidies that make up most of the budget, and that have done so much to ****** development in the Third World. They can’t – for heaven’s sake – support the peak tariffs that discriminate against value added goods from Sub-Saharan Africa. Nor can they possibly enjoy the sheer opacity of the system – the fact that there are 10,000 officials who are paid more than the Prime Minister, and whose names and functions we don’t know. They can’t really be defending the waste, the fraud – or the endless expensive caravan of crémant-swilling members of the European Parliament between Brussels and Luxembourg and Strasbourg. Are they really demonstrating in favour of the torrent of red tape that has done so much to hold back growth in the EU? It seems an odd sort of campaign theme: what do we want? More Brussels law-making! When do we want it? Now! Naturally, Lefties might want laws to protect the workforce – but they would surely want those laws to be made by politicians that the people could remove at elections. No: the more I thought about it, the odder it seemed. It was incredible that these young and idealistic people should be making a rumpus about the euro – the key policy of the modern EU – when that project has so gravely intensified suffering in many southern EU countries, and deprived a generation of young people of employment. Perhaps, I mused, it was a general feeling that the EU was about openness, tolerance and diversity. But they must surely know that the EU’s rules on free movement mean a highly discriminatory regime, one that makes it much more difficult for people from outside the EU to get into Britain – even though we need their skills. So what was it about? People’s emotions matter, even when they do not seem to be wholly rational. The feelings being manifested outside my house are shared by the large numbers of people – 30,000, they say – who at the weekend came together in Trafalgar Square to hear pro-EU speeches by Sir Bob Geldof. There is, among a section of the population, a kind of hysteria, a contagious mourning of the kind that I remember in 1997 after the death of the Princess of Wales. It is not about the EU, of course; or not solely. A great many of these protesters – like dear old Geldof – are in a state of some confusion about the EU and what it does. It is not, as he says, a “free trade area”; if only it were. It is a vast and convoluted exercise in trying to create a federal union – a new political construction based in Brussels. But, as I say, I don’t believe that it is psychologically credible to imagine young people chanting hysterically in favour of Brussels bureaucrats. The whole protest is not about the EU project, per se; it is about them – their own fears and anxieties that are now being projected on to Brexit. These fears are wildly overdone. The reality is that the stock market has not plunged, as some said it would – far from it. The FTSE is higher than when the vote took place. There has been no emergency budget, and nor will there be. But the crowds of young people are experiencing the last psychological tremors of Project Fear – perhaps the most thoroughgoing government attempt to manipulate public opinion since the run-up to the Iraq War. When Geldof tells them that the older generation has “stolen your future” by voting to Leave the EU, I am afraid there are too many who still believe it. It is time for this nonsense to end. It was wrong of the Government to offer the public a binary choice on the EU without being willing – in the event that people voted Leave – to explain how this can be made to work in the interests of the UK and Europe. We cannot wait until mid-September, and a new PM. We need a clear statement, now, of some basic truths: 1. There is no risk whatever to the status of the EU nationals now resident and welcome in the UK, and indeed immigration will continue – but in a way that is controlled, thereby neutralising the extremists. 2. It is overwhelmingly in the economic interests of the other EU countries to do a free-trade deal, with zero tariffs and quotas, while we extricate ourselves from the EU law-making system. 3. We can do free-trade deals with economies round the world, many of which are already applying. 4. We can supply leadership in Europe on security and other matters, but at an intergovernmental level. 5. The future is very bright indeed. That’s what Geldof should be chanting.
This is the better one to go for. Closer to the actual people. Not sure where those figures are taken from. I noticed them earlier this evening on the Beeb but May has been well over 100 since last night: http://www.conservativehome.com/par...mps-supporting-each-leadership-candidate.html
Do you think we may have to start building our own make of cars because the Europeans will not want to do business with us? Or is that a pipe dream?
At the mo' we'd need to hold a referendum to decide on the colour as our politicians would find that a little too difficult to resolve. First planning meeting ? please log in to view this image
Firstly,I do this to highlight the poor quality of politicians in the Conservative Party to assume the mantle of PM. Since the standard is so poor, why do the British public have to put up with it? The British public deserve better. Secondly, we have seen other institutions from banks to professional football clubs recruit from outside the UK in order to provide their clients, customers and supporters with the highest standards possible. I would like to ask why political parties are so poor in this respect? Are our home born ones really the best?
As we are trying to get out of the EU I don't think a Spanish PM negotiating our exit would go down too well with the electorate. Politicians come from all walks of life and some have not been politicians all their lives so the variety is there.
So when Fox is eliminated in the first round, will he leave the Tory party and seek the leadership of UKIP as that is where his true values and beliefs lie? He can also take Gove, Leadsom and all the rest of the LEAVE Tories with him because these people have highjacked a party that took us into the EU in the first place. These UKIP guys infiltrated the Tory party in the same manner that Socialist Workers took over elements of the Labour Party until Kinnock booted them out. Sadly, the Tory leadership did nothing about them thus allowing their numbers to grow and grow and the fault for that lies with Cameron at the beginning of his leadership days. Unfortunately the papers have never discussed this issue.
Some of us are hoping that Parliament will not implement Article 50. And could we hope for a second referendum where some may reconsider their initial vote?
I voted remain but I really can't see that happening. Nothing is impossible I suppose but I would say it was highly unlikely.
My Dad could help you. He seems to be a Leyland addict and my childhood went from an Austin 1800 > Maxi > Princess > Ambassador > Montego > Rover 214 > Rover 400 > MG ZT. He still has that MG and for the whole of my life I have heard about how these cars are so good yet in reality they have all had constant problems. In contrast I had a fiesta from 2005 to 2009 and then I bought a C Max last year. Never needed any repairs. I didn't have a car between 2009 and 2015. Didn't need one and couldn't afford one anyway.
I think you're forgetting Ted Heath, the worst Conservative Prime Minister of them all. So bad, his political stance should have put him in the other party. He set the bar pretty low. Cameron almost began to tread down that path but luckily for Britain that didn't happen. Now, it's like he can see the star, hammer and sickle in Corbyn's eyes and it brings out the true Thatcher blue in him thankfully!
Once we are out of the EU we don't have to abide with their competition rules and could tell state functions to buy British. Police and other organisations can be told to buy Nissan, Honda, Toyota, MG etc.
We already have a few "non British born" politicians but they have to be voted in through their constituency first. That is the system. The EU are the ones that like to put their own man in position in countries like in Italy and Greece and Portugal, the latter of which they leaned on their president to stop democratic process installing an anti EU coalition. One prominent "Non British born" MP that we have seen a lot of in the last few weeks is Gisela Stuart. So if these Spanish superstar politicians are a good option then they need to be elected via democratic process to the house first. The full list of "non British" born MPs. Yes some don't really count because they have British parents that were working abroad but: The number MPs who were born outside the United Kingdom is twenty-nine. They are— Margaret Hodge (Labour) — Cairo, Egypt Boris Johnson (Conservative) — New York, United States of America Rushanara Ali (Labour) — Bishwanath, Bangladesh Gisela Stuart (Labour) — Velden, West Germany Khalid Mahmood (Labour) — Azad Kashmir, Pakistan Yasmin Qureshi (Labour) — Gujrat, Pakistan Tobias Ellwood (Conservative) — New York, United States of America Greg Hands (Conservative) — New York, United States of America Mark Field (Conservative) — Hanover, West Germany Virendra Sharma (Labour) — British India Deidre Brock (SNP) — Perth, Australia Rehman Chishti (Conservative) — Muzaffarabad, Pakistan Edward Garnier (Conservative) — Wuppertal, West Germany Catherine West (Labour) — Sydney, Australia Keith Vaz (Labour) — Aden Colony, present day Yemen Valarie Vaz (Labour) — Aden Colony, present day Yemen Jim Dowd (Labour) — Lower Saxony, West Germany Nia Griffith (Labour) — Dublin, Republic of Ireland Paul Beresford (Conservative) — Levin, New Zealand Natascha Engel (Labour) — West Berlin, West Germany Shailesh Vara (Conservative) — Uganda Nicola Blackwood (Conservative) — Johannesburg, South Africa Rory Stewart (Conservative) — British Hong Kong Flick Drummond (Conservative) — Aden, South Yemen Alok Sharma (Conservative) — India Crispin Blunt (Conservative) — Germany Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative) — Warsaw, Poland Nadhim Zahawi (Conservative) — Baghdad, Iraq Marcus Fysh (Conservative) — Australia
What if Honda, Nissan and Toyota up sticks and move production to another EU country such as Rumania, Bulgaria, Portugal or Poland where costs are much lower and EU grants would be given to set up such plants.? Then we are up the creek and without a paddle!!
This is what should have been considered during the voting process. If that happens now, tough ****. We will have to deal with it.
