Saturday 25 June 2016

THANK YOU - LEAVE WON

Thank you is totally inadequate. I have been banging on about the referendum ever since it was called and even set up my own blog to bang on about it. 

The most important thing in the world to me was that I had power. Being in a political superstate I did not have power. Now there is a chance that I do.

A few notes. First the Leave vote was 51.9% against Remain 48.1%. Chuck Umunna is saying effectively that we should respect the 48% who voted remain. As Peter Hitchens writes:

"We're already being told that the winners must 'respect' the 48% who lost the vote called by their own side to crush (the) anti-EU movement once and for all. Well, no doubt we must be nice to them, and not gloat too much, but it is for them to respect the majority they did not expect."

All the noise about a second referendum because the remainers did not get the result they wanted is garbage. In 10 years time they will live in a country where they have power and, if they get elected, implement the policies they want.

In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon is saying that she will seek discussion with Brussels immediately in order to keep Scotland within the European Union. Well it does not look like she is 'respecting' the voters in Scotland that voted to Leave.

I have a feeling that Ms Sturgeon will not get very far either. I am not sure that those states who have internal stresses, like Spain with Catalonia, would welcome a nation that is newly independent from its traditional state. 

If Ms Sturgeon is able to get a second Independence Referendum and Scotland goes it alone, that is up to Scotland and I will be relaxed about it. It will mean the end of the Barnett formula and all that entails but if that is what Scotland really wants that is up to them.

In Northern Ireland, the scene is rather different. There is in place a way of calling for a 'border vote' where the people of Northern Ireland can vote on whether they want to reunite with the South of Ireland. Sinn Fein are calling for such a vote. That is entirely for the people of Ireland.

In the meantime I will do all I can to help Dr Richard North with promoting a sensible plan and route map to leave the European Union. Flexcit. 

It is, incidentally, not Germany or France's business how quickly we serve the Article 50 notice. Neither is President Hollande in any place to demand a new Prime Minister is appointed quickly. It is none of his damn business. They don't get it - we do not have to listen or take any notice of the European Union anymore.

"Any Member State may decide to withdraw from the (European) union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements" (Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty). OUR constitutional requirements, not theirs, OURS.

This is my last blog here. I am thinking about setting up a new blog but in the meantime, thank you to everyone who has visited or read this site. 

We voted to Leave the European Union.


Sunday 19 June 2016

Vote to LEAVE the European Union


This post will be my last before the Referendum - I will put one up with the result and a brief analysis of it at the weekend.

For me this referendum is not about markets or money or trade; it is about power.

The problem with the European Union is that it is not an Inter-Governmental organisation, it is a Supra-National one to which the United Kingdom is subservient.

The really strange thing is that, in my view, the Government of the United Kingdom would have MORE power outside the European Union and you would have thought that David Cameron and Gideon (George) Osborne would WANT more power. The United Kingdom as a member of the European Union certainly does NOT have power.

Under Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) it has precious little influence let alone power and is outvoted more than any other nation state. With the inevitable entry of more states, whatever power it does have will be further diluted.

I want a United Kingdom which is an Independent Sovereign State and which acts Inter-Governmentally with other Sovereign States as a negotiator amongst equals. It is not equal or Independent or Sovereign now.

I want a Government, one that I might have voted against, to have power - MY Government.

Vote to Leave the Political Construct of the European Union

Vote for an Independent Sovereign State

Vote to return power to YOU, the people and electors of the United Kingdom

Vote so that this and future generations will have Power

Vote against Supra-Nationalism and FOR Inter-Governmentalism

Vote to Leave the Political Construct of the European Union

Vote to LEAVE the European Union

Saturday 11 June 2016

LEAVE and secure the future of YOUR country

It now looks like the referendum campaign is going to turn nasty. It is reported that the Remain camp are going to make this personal with attacks on Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson:

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/eu-referendum-panicked-remain-camp-plans-to-take-out-boris-as-polls-swing-in-brexit-campaigns-favour/ar-AAgTXrC?li=BBoPWjQ&ocid=mailsignout

As an aside I have no idea how the Conservative Party will reunite after the civil war that this has become and in many ways I hope it doesn't. It deserves to be penalised or to split because of its behaviour in the last few weeks.

This referendum is NOT about the Conservative Party or about Alexander Johnson or David Cameron. This referendum is about WHO governs the United Kingdom and who has power. 

It seems to me that the stock market and the money markets are already factoring in the possibility of a Leave vote. It is true that some stocks are down on six months ago but I honestly believe that they will bounce back after the referendum.

The 'deal' Mr Cameron brought back is being undermined by those very leaders who agreed it with him. It is not legally watertight and some of it is dependant on future treaty change which is not on any horizon and will not be before the French and German elections in 2017.

I also do not accept that Herr Schauble can dictate for the other 26 States what they will accept and agree to and what they won't. If we opt for the EFTA/EEA option and that is the agreement then we still have access to the single market despite an old German man's view. 

The important thing is that we will be outside the POLITICAL construct of the European Union. 

It is being mooted that maybe Denmark and Sweden might follow the United Kingdom in leaving the European Union and joining EFTA/EEA perhaps creating a 'Northern European Inter-Governmental Organisation' 
David Cameron has LIED about the deal and he knows it. He has led a disgracefully negative campaign and has suggested all sorts of horrors will befall the United Kingdom in the event of a Leave vote which I do not think the majority of the electorate believes.

In some ways I think that the European Union will welcome a Leave vote. They will turn it into a 'beneficial crisis' and hasten full Economic and Political Union in the Eurozone, get rid of Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty so no other state can leave and generally tighten the Franco-German grip on the supra-national state.

The most important thing is POWER and who has it. In a regional supra-national state the United Kingdom does not have power. 

The United Kingdom has been outvoted more than any other European Union state. The views of the electorate or even of its politicians are sidelined by Qualified Majority Voting (QMV). This will only get worse. Whatever the 'weight' of our vote now, it will inevitably be diluted when more states join.

This referendum is about POWER and WHO has it.

Vote to repatriate power from a bureaucratic supra national regional power.

Vote for the next generation and future generations to live in an Independent Sovereign State that has power and influence at the Top Table.

Vote so that United Kingdom politicians are answerable to the electorate of the United Kingdom and not to bureaucrats in Brussels

Vote to secure the future of your country

Vote to take the United Kingdom out of the POLITICAL construct of the European Union

Vote for a POSITIVE alternative

Vote to Leave the European Union


Monday 6 June 2016

LEAVE - There is no reason to vote Remain


Today has been a very significant day. Realising that Leave has a lead in three separate opinion polls, pro-offshore-centralised -Supranational-State-with-no-say-supporting MP's have broken cover. The BBC published the following article on its website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36457120

"Pro-Remain MPs are considering using their Commons majority to keep Britain inside the EU single market if there is a vote for Brexit, the BBC has learned.
The MPs fear a post-Brexit government might negotiate a limited free trade deal with the EU, which they say would damage the UK's economy.
There is a pro-Remain majority in the House of Commons of 454 MPs to 147."
This is EXCELLENT news. 
This means that the vast majority of MP's, faced with a Leave vote will campaign together to get the softest possible landing for the United Kingdom which is the EFTA/EEA (Norway) Option. There is no risk at all from a Leave vote. It is NOT a leap in the dark
There are 649 MP's (excluding the Speaker). 454 (69.9%) are sensible and will ignore the ravings of Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and Michael Gove and go for the option that gives the United Kingdom the best of all worlds - continued access to the single market and restoration of Sovereignty to the United Kingdom. It might be the case that they actually begin to EARN their salaries at last.
To be fair, EUReferendum and Richard North have been saying this for at least two years
The urgent need to regain our power was also illustrated today by the former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Harriet Harman:
'Shown the presidents of EU Councils, courts, the Commission, Parliament and Central Bank - all male - she replied: "A) I don’t know who they are, and b) I don’t like the fact that they’re all men."'
Dealing with the last point first, this is not an Equality and Diversity issue; far from it. There is after all Angela Merkel and Christine Lagarde to consider. This is NOT about sex or looks.
"I don't know who they are." We have an MP who has voted and who is willing to vote for a Government whose members she does not know. I mean - how awful is that?
We need to regain power partially so people like Harriet Harman who does not know who her political masters are will know once we are out of the European Union.
We do not need to worry about trade anymore - that is now covered.
A Leave vote carries NO RISK
Vote to take the United Kingdom out of the Political construct of the European Union
Vote to re-empower YOU, the electorate
Vote with confidence for a bright future in an Independent Sovereign State
Vote so that your politicians will represent YOUR views and not be outvoted by 27 other states
Vote to take the United Kingdom out of the Political construct of the European Union
Vote to Leave the European Union.

Saturday 4 June 2016

LEAVE is the right choice

I do not accept or believe all the scare stories that the Remain campaign has put out over the last few weeks. On the one hand, up until recently, that we are a small insignificant state on the outer edge of the European continent. On the other that despite this we can undermine the whole world order if we vote to Leave. 

There will not be plagues of locusts, dark at mid-day, an end to sunshine or Captain Kirk becoming Prime Minister if we Leave the European Union. It is really unacceptable that the Remain campaign has said some of the things that would be the consequence of a Leave vote, not least the Prime Minister's suggestion that there would be a third world war.

The Prime Minister is a liar. If there are going to be any reckonings in the event of a Leave vote, the first two people in the firing line must be David Cameron and Gideon Osborne. They have undermined their offices and have been shameless in their dishonesty.

LEAVE is the right choice

This following is part of a post from EUReferendum.com

http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=86087

"We started with the assumption that there is no magic wand: the two years allowed under Article 50 would not be nearly long enough to unpick forty years of political, economic and social integration. To even get close is implausible. Moreover, the more radical the process, the greater the risk. Anything perceived to be risky would deliver us a referendum defeat. 

From that point we arrive at our guiding ethos. Brexit is a process, not an event. Leaving the EU will have to be done in phases. The first phase simply takes us out of the political construct of the EU. Only then do we look at the long road of full separation. 


When asked what does Brexit looks like the day after, the answer is simple: exactly the same. By remaining part of the EEA, with a transitional agreement on fisheries and agriculture, maintaining most of the cooperation agreements and adopting the entire EU acquis into British law, nothing changes. This is the quickest settlement to negotiate, the least disruptive and the solution most likely to be ratified without a fuss. 

Necessarily, this requires compromise on freedom of movement, an idea which is met with howls of rage from those less familiar with the subtleties and complexities of the plan. They wish to ditch this policy in the mistaken belief that it will have a significant effect on overall migration. 

We have always said the EU is more than just a trade bloc. There are multiple levels of invisible government which have gradually integrated over the years. These must be unpicked with a scalpel, not an axe. As much as we might like to go at it like a bull in a china shop, we don't have that luxury. Britain's soft power is hard-won on the basis that we uphold our agreements and respect treaties. Moreover we will still wish to have amicable relations with the EU and so compromise will be required of us. 


But in the process of producing Flexcit, we became increasingly aware that the EU is not the top table in regulatory affairs. In fact, the EU is now superseded in most areas, adopting regulations from many global bodies wholesale. We have seen how the United Nations Economic Commission Europe (UNECE) is pivotal to several key areas of regulation. We have also explored the role of Codex and standards bodies which now form the basis of what we regard as an emerging global single market. 

Far from having no say, we find that the EU is increasingly an obstruction to us having our say, removing our independent vote and right of opt out. It seems the entire case for remaining in the EU is perpetuating the myth that the EU is the alpha and omega of rule-making. It just isn't so. 

We find in the very first instance that Britain is free to pursue its own trading avenues and has an enhanced role in the formation of regulations. Consequently we become a leading voice in bringing that global single market closer to what we have achieved in Europe. The argument for going into the EEC in 1975 was that we needed to be in it to have a say in the rules. If that was true then, the same logic applies now - but on a global level. 

We set out in Flexcit the many opportunities this presents along with the process of modernising our aid, trade, fishing and agriculture policies after we repatriate them. But having dismantled much of our administrative capability and expertise while inside the EU, we really don't want to bite off more than we can chew. "


Leaving the European Union is a PROCESS not an event


I do not believe the United Kingdom will save much money from voting to Leave the European Union. There will be policies and initiatives into which we will still want to input and to which we will still belong inter-Governmentally.

A vote to Leave the European Union will take the United Kingdom out of the POLITICAL construct of the European Union


This is where I put my standard


I do not want to be part of a supranational regional government which is what the European Union is. 

I want to be in an Independent Sovereign State whose government liaises, negotiates and trades on an intergovernmental level with other Governments even the European Union Government (minus the United Kingdom).

There is a 'soft' landing for the United Kingdom in the event of a LEAVE vote. It is called FLEXCIT; a Flexible plan and pathway for the complete eventual independence of the United Kingdom. I have read it. It really is worth a look:

http://www.eureferendum.com/documents/flexcit.pdf

This referendum is not really about trade or money. It is about POWER and who has it.

Power is loaned by the electorate to the politicians. 

LOANED

Vote to take back power from the politicians 

Vote to put power back in the hands of this and future generations.

Vote to take the United Kingdom out of the Political construct of the European Union

Vote to start a process whereby eventually our Farming, Fishing, Environmental, Defence and Home Office policies will be drafted by and for the benefit of the electors and residents of the United Kingdom and not some bureaucratic, anti-democratic supranational regional trading block.

Vote to make you, the electors of the United Kingdom, the place where supreme power lies.

Vote for this and future generations

Vote to take the United Kingdom out of the Political construct of the European Union

Vote to Leave the European Union




Wednesday 1 June 2016

The EU is Anti-Democratic

The following article was posted by Lost Leonardo on the blog "Independent Britain". It is in my view an exceptional analysis and deserves wide distribution:

https://independentbritain.wordpress.com/2016/05/30/the-eu-is-anti-democratic/

"More than one person has now asked me to explain why I say that the EU is an anti-democratic union. This post is an attempt to summarise the reasons why I believe this to be the case.
First of all, it is important to clarify your terms. Democracy, from the Greek—demosand kratia—literally means ‘people power’. A democratic system is one in which decisions are taken as closely to the people as possible. The UK system of parliamentary or representative democracy could be said to be a limited democracy while the Swiss system of direct democracy is what one might call a true democracy.
The EU government, for that is what it is, is not only undemocratic but anti-democratic. The people have no control over the decision-making process whatsoever.
First of all, there is no self-identifying European demos. I am happy to identify as European, but I do not regard German or French people as my fellow countrymen. Although we are all born of the same civilisation, our different languages, cultures, customs and traditions makes us foreign to one another. The kind of solidarity needed to constitute a demos cannot be forced or faked and it is simply not present at the continental level. I am British first, not European.
As a result, the idea that the European Parliament represents the people of Europe is absurd. European elections are not really European elections so much as snapshots of how discontented a given people are with the politicians in charge of their respective national governments. Turnout in European elections is low, not only in Britain, and very few people take the results seriously. The European Parliament is the weakest of the five most important EU institutions: the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Court of Justice, the European Council and the Council of the EU.
Moreover, the politicians people elect to the European Parliament do not represent particular constituencies, they represent their parties and the leaders who select them. Elections to the European Parliament in the UK are held under the “party list” system. Electors vote for the party not the person who they want to represent them and, based upon the proportion of the vote that each party receives, candidates are assigned in ascending order—the first candidate on the party list is the first to be sent to the European Parliament, then the second, then the third, and so on. This, to clarify, is based upon the proportion of the vote that each party receives.
Vesting that much power and control in party machines is different to the UK system of parliamentary elections in which people vote for a specific candidate to represent their constituency in Westminster.
That, however, is the most democratic part of the Brussels-based system.
What turns the EU from an undemocratic organisation, which constrains the ability of national governments to act in accordance with the wishes of their respective electorates, into an anti-democratic organisation, which progressively removes policy control from accountable politicians, is the European Commission, which is a “higher authority” above the governments of the historic nation-states of Europe.
There are three features of the EU system which cement the European Commission’s dominance. First of all, the EU is the supreme law-making authority in the Member States. The precedents for this are long-established in European and English law. EU law trumps British law, and where the two conflict, the judge will find in favour of the EU. In the event that a decision is disputed, the final judgement is made by what is, while Britain remains in the EU, the highest court in the land, the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
Second, the European Commission has sole “right of initiative” within the EU. No new EU law can be proposed, amended or repealed without Commission involvement and approval. This is the key to the anti-democratic character of the EU. There is no way to “reform” this aspect of the EU because no initiative can or will progress without Commission consent. There is no mechanism to compel the Commission to act; legislative proposals put to the Commission by other EU institutions are advisory only.
The Commission is the executive arm of a supranational government, but the commissioners are not directly accountable to anybody. The European Parliament has the power to unseat the entire Commission, which has happened once, but there is no mechanism to hold individual commissioners to account.
Third, the Commission itself is comprised of political appointees who swear an oath of allegiance to act in the interests of the EU as a whole rather than representing the interests of any particular nation-state. Thereby does the Commission protect the body of EU law from democratic accountability.
This is the inverse of the British idea of freedom under law which is founded on the principle that no Parliament may bind its successor. Under the EU system of governance, every law is sacrosanct unless or until the Commission says otherwise.
This is not an effective or efficacious method for making legislation or policy. In a rapidly changing world, autonomy, agility and, above all else, accountability, are worth so much more. 
But, while we remain in the EU the ratchet of “ever closer union” is always turning, one Directive at a time, one ECJ judgement at a time.
The only way to bring trade, aid, energy, environmental, agricultural, fisheries, justice and home affairs, foreign and defence policy back under democratic control, take responsibility for our own governance and re-engage with the global trading system is to vote for Britain to leave the European Union."
If you want your power back, your country back
Vote to Leave the European Union