The bad news for May’s EU (Non) Withdrawal Agreement gets worse as at least 15 more Tory MPs who previously voted for it will now vote against (if the PM ever has the nerve to try again). The utter failure of our parliament to deliver on the democratic mandate of 17.4 million Britons not only continues but their sabotage of the Brexit negotiations themselves (by rejecting the so called “no deal” option) has reached treasonous proportions. It is as if in 1939 Parliament had voted to keep the British navy in port!
In Parliament the DUP’s Nigel Dodds perceptively said:
“Until yesterday, the EU was saying very clearly that unless there was a credible plan for an election or a referendum, or a prospect of getting the withdrawal agreement through soon, it would not grant an extension, and that if it did, there would be stringent conditions. In fact, it held to neither of those statements. When it was faced with the unpalatable choice of a no deal, it backed down. Will the Prime Minister learn the lesson of that?”
Which shows what a threat and bargaining tool “no deal” is. Indeed it is far more than that – it is precisely what the British people voted for. Only a spineless and treasonous Parliament could have taken it off the table. Luckily the EU can put it on again!
THE DEFINITION OF LEAVE
Unlike their so called “democratic leaders” the British people know what “Leave” means – being put back in the constitutional position they were in before they joined. That is – enjoying the status of a sovereign democratic country with its own Parliament, laws and constitution with the right to set its own tariffs, enter international agreements and trade world wide. None of this is secured by the May “Withdrawal Agreement”. But all of that is enjoyed by some 160 nation states in the world.
LABOUR SPLIT AND CONFUSED
The Labour Party is split between the eurofanatic Blairites, the Corbyn (semi) Leavers and the totally confused (claiming to want to leave the EU while remaining in a Customs Union which is the opposite). My wife Lynn says perceptively that the Labour Party reject the Single Market because it has the word market in it and embrace the Customs Union because it has the word Union in it!
But of the 45 seats in England and Wales that Corbyn needs to get a majority, 35 voted leave and 16 of his 20 most marginal seats voted Leave. But the vote that revealed the dangerous nature of the Labour party was the party’s backing for the vote which ruled out “no deal”, thus handing enormous bargaining power to the EU.
Professor David Paton, a Labour member for 30 years, announced that he was quitting the party, describing its Brexit policy as “both politically and economically illiterate”. He said he was “no longer prepared to be a member of a party actively trying to overturn the democratic mandate of the British people”.
The Labour Party deserves to suffer even more than the Conservative Party in the coming polls. But of course the British people should in general vote for MPs on their track record not the corrupted parties!
But the British people fight on. If they continue to pressure MPs to reject the May deal we might be able to rely on the EU imposing “no deal” even if our Parliament will not.
THE BRITISH ECONOMY IS DOING WELL
The British people are doing well economically with a gradual shift of economic activity from the South east to the North and West. For the first time more graduates are staying to work in Manchester than are going to London and the fastest growth of tech companies is in Newcastle! The economy in general is doing remarkably well with UK employers planning to increase their workforce with a net balance of 16% looking for more permanent staff in the near future (Recruitment and Employment Confederation).
2/3 of the companies said they increased wages over the past year (report April 2019) and the global consultancy EY’s annual survey of investment trends for the first time ever has put the UK as the world’s top investment destination. When surveyed about Brexit, 6% of investors said it decreased their attraction to the UK, while 7% said it increased their attraction – not quite armageddon then!
Investment Growth was strongest outside London, which helps to explain the fall in London house prices while growth continues in other regions – especially in the West Midlands and the North West. The UK is the clear European market leader in attracting Foreign Direct Investment with an 18% market share. The UK is by far the biggest destination in the EU for US investment.
UK DEBT
UK borrowing in the latest full financial year (to March 2019) was £24.7 billion, £17.2 billion less than in the previous financial year; the lowest financial year borrowing for 17 years.
Public sector net debt excluding public sector banks at the end of March 2019 was £1,801.0 billion or 83.1% of gross domestic product (GDP) a decrease of 1.5% on March 2018.
RETAILS SALES, EMPLOYMENT AND WAGES
In March 2019 retail sales increased by 1.1% while year on-year growth in the quantity bought increased by 6.7% in March 2019, the highest since October 2016. It is interesting that the major retailers saw falls year on year and this was the news that the corporatist leftist Guardian reported – blaming guess what – Brexit!
The February UK employment rate was estimated at 76.1%, higher than for a year earlier (75.4%) and the joint-highest figure on record.
The UK unemployment rate was estimated at 3.9%; it has not been lower since January 1975.
In the three months to the end of February industrial production was up 0.6% and manufacturing
up 0.9% Excluding bonuses, average weekly earnings for employees in Great Britain were
estimated to have increased by 3.4%.
THE EU CONTINUES ITS ATTACKS ON BRITAIN
The EU has illegally jumped the gun on many areas before the UK has left the EU. While Brussels has been negotiating a withdrawal agreement which sees UK membership continuing for at least 2 more years and possibly longer Britain has been arbitrarily excluded from EU programmes – just as we have been told we will continue to be controlled by EU legislation.
Here are two typical stories which show how the EU wants to have its cake and eat it – and this even before we sign up to the “bound hand and foot” Withdrawal Agreement!
Guy Verhofstadt says the EU ‘will never accept’ Theresa May’s plan to hike tuition fees for European students after we leave the EU – even though we have every right to charge students from other countries a commercial rate. Why should EU students be charged less than US or Chinese students? Here the EU wants to be treated as if we are staying in the EU.
But on the economic front the European Securities and Markets Authority has issued a list of European Securities including many British ones where EU investors will be required after Brexit to use an EU exchange to trade rather than London. But trading on non EU exchanges will be allowed (except London) even though, unlike London, many of them are not compliant with the EU’s MIFID legislation. Here the EU wants to eject us completely.
Imagine what they would dictate if we gave them the huge and potentially indefinite powers over us which Theresa May has provided them with in the Withdrawal Agreement.
We know how the EU functions. Jean Claude Juncker kindly provided us with a description:
“We decree something, then float it and wait some time to see what happens. If no clamour occurs and no big fuss follows because most people do not grasp what had been decided we continue step by step until the point of no return is reached”
FRIENDS AND ENEMIES
The euro-fascist Guy Verhofstadt says the British are stupid to leave and we would be a “dwarf” outside the EU. A poll in Europe showed that most Germans would not defend their ally the USA from a Russian attack and the French president is doing his best not to accommodate Brexit which he calls an ‘irresponsible lie peddled by anger-mongers backed by fake news”. These are the friends of Mrs May.
Our true friends are in the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada (and Russia if we are not blinded by Russophobia) who have all offered comprehensive trade deals. And from India Amandeep Singh Bhogal tweets: “lets get on with Brexit build a global Britain. A New India awaits an old friend.” And the former Australian PM Tony Abbott said that “Brexit Britain has nothing to lose but its chains” while Russian friends of Britain are looking forward to a “Sovereign National States Alliance”.
The ultimate decadence of the British political class is their treatment of our enemies as friends and our friends as enemies.
