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BREXIT June 23rd
2016, was a day that will resonate in the annals of British history for a
very long time. It was the day the British people firmly rejected
the federalist ambitions of the corrupt European Union (EU), and voted to leave that
'nest of vipers' in a binding national referendum. The vote was close, 52% Leave and
48% Remain, and there were regional and national differences in voting
percentages, but the majority UK wide decision carried the day. After
forty years of creeping federalisation, unrestricted mass immigration
and loss of sovereignty to the EU, the ordinary working people had
simply had enough. I will
declare my hand here and say that I was firmly in the Leave camp. I
could no longer tolerate the bully boy tactics of Brussels, the mass
influx of migrants, and EU interference in our laws and governance. I
was obviously not alone in that sentiment, but simply one outraged voice amongst
many. The EU
referendum would not have taken place, if it had not been for the United
Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). Since the formation of the party in
1991, UKIP have been the voice of dissent for those disillusioned by the
Common Market, the EEC and its latest incarnation, the EU. Under
their leader Nigel Farage, the party capitalised on concerns about such
matters as rising mass immigration, in particular amongst the struggling White
British working class, who were being badly affected by it. This
resulted in significant breakthroughs at the 2013 local elections and
the 2014 European elections, where UKIP received the most votes. At the
2015 general election the party gained the third-largest vote share and
one seat in the House of Commons, it was a tremendous result.
This
momentum and continued success had the Tory government of David Cameron
rattled, and to claw back lost ground he promised, many would say
rashly, to give the electorate a binding referendum on EU membership, if
the Conservative Party were returned to power at the General Election
held on 7th May 2015. Cameron was seemingly convinced that any
referendum would return a positive result for remaining within the
European Union, it was to prove a major strategic error of judgment. The
Tories were duly returned to power, with the promise of an EU referendum
being a significant attraction to many voters. The promise of a
referendum was kept. There really was no choice to be honest, failure to
do so would have been catastrophic for the Conservative Party, both
internally and externally. Cameron scuttled off to the EU to try and
squeeze some concessions out of Brussels, he returned in February 2016
with his tail between his legs and a fistful of worthless promises. His
EU soiree had been a personal humiliation and a blow to his prestige,
and the country knew it. The
Referendum On the
lead-up to the referendum, the Remain campaign was a lacklustre affair
full or outrageous claims and dire warnings of impending doom and
disaster, if the people of the UK voted to leave the EU. Many people did
not take the campaign seriously and for good reason, it appeared to be
hysterical and desperate, and came to be known as ‘project fear’. It
became more of a comedy than a campaign, treated with derision by the
press and public alike. Cameron and his pro-EU Tory cohorts had seriously misjudged the mood of the nation, as had the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats. Only Nigel Farage and UKIP, and the more hard-line British National Party, appeared to have their finger on the pulse. The working class in particular were angry. They were sick and tired of the mass influx of cheap, exploitable labour from Eastern Europe, that had driven down wages and worsened working conditions. They were angry at the strain this put
on the NHS, GP surgeries, schools and infrastructure, and the way it
piled pressure on the already inadequate housing market, causing sharp
increases in the cost of property, and in rentals. No country can plan
ahead if it has no idea how many people it is planning for. Chaos is
generally what results as a consequence, and that is precisely what
happened in the UK. The
working class were tired of being told that the EU was good for them,
when all they saw was bad news. The EU did nothing to prevent the
abomination of zero hours contracts, mock self employment, exploitative
Gangmasters or
abuses in the workplace, as witnessed by the employment scandal at
Sports Direct, an external article for which can be found here. All
this was a direct result of an endless flow of cheap, compliant foreign labour, that
engendered in far too many bosses the mind-set of viewing their employee’s with utter
contempt, and treating them abysmally. It was a return to the worst
excesses of the 19th century, their capitalist forebears in the ‘dark
satanic mills’ of old would have been proud. So given all that, what
exactly were the EU doing for workers’ rights in the UK? The people
knew the answer, absolutely bloody nothing. It was
no surprise that when the results of the referendum came through, it was
the solid working class areas of the country that were strongly in
favour of Brexit. In the city of Stoke on Trent for example, 70% of the
people voted to leave the EU. The middle class were strongly in favour
of remaining within the EU, as they were not adversely affected by the
mass influx of cheap labour, indeed, they benefited from all that cheap
labour in terms of nannies, tradesmen, cleaners and car washes.
The
working class were also sick of hearing the usual suspects drone on
about how beneficial all these cheap labour workers were to the country,
when they knew these people were earning such poor wages that they were
entitled to the whole raft of in-work benefits, including housing
benefit and Council Tax relief. Far from contributing tax revenue to the
country, they were draining it. The only beneficiaries were the
exploiter employers who had the government subsidising their appalling
poverty pay. Whilst Brexit was also about national sovereignty, free trade and being able to make our own decisions as a country, make no mistake, it was a working class revolution brought about by mass immigration and an uncaring and willfully spiteful government. It was a veritable ‘peasants revolt’ at the ballot box. The spirit of Wat Tyler lives on in the collective hearts of the people. The champagne quaffing
leadership of the Labour Party, the dinner party ‘Hoxton
socialists’, did not realise that fact, and just how out of touch with
their core voters they really were. In 2017, they are paying the price for
such rank arrogance. The Labour Party should be about more than
the North London chattering classes and their tedious dinner parties.
The Tories under their new leader Theresa May, parked their tanks on UKIP’s lawn whilst that party was in post-referendum disarray, and stole the thrust of UKIP policy by taking a tough stance on the EU. At the same time they were dragging their heels on triggering Article 50, the process that will begin the official withdrawal arrangements from the EU. There have
of course been
disgruntled Remain supporters feverishly attempting to subvert democracy and thwart
the will of the people since the 23rd June 2016, but the
process was still taking too long despite that. The
Brexit vote has sent reverberations around the world, and there can be
little doubt that it helped Donald Trump to become the 45th
President of the USA. Nigel Farage even spoke at one of his campaign
rallies. The anti-globalisation sentiment is worldwide, as is the desire
for a complete change in direction, and rage at the poisonous doctrines
of political correctness. I believe we are now on the threshold of a new era
and endless new possibilities. Buckle up! It could be an exciting,
unpredictable and wild ride into a new world vision for nation states. Dark
Forces Since
the referendum produced a leave result back in June 2016, the dark
forces of the Remain campaign have been sniping from the political
undergrowth and generating a guerrilla insurgency. The figurehead of
this revolt has been Gina Miller, a 51 year old investment manager and
immigrant from Guyana, who seemed to feel that her opinions trumped
those of the majority of the British electorate. Miller
launched a Brexit legal case with London-based Spanish hairdresser Deir
Tozetti Dos Santos and the People's Challenge group, set up by Grahame
Pigney - a UK citizen who lives in France. The
legal case revolved around the fact that this group believed Parliament
was the only entity that could make a decision leading to the loss of
her "rights" under EU law, and not the government. On 3rd
November, three judges ruled Parliament must vote on when the process
can begin. The case went to the Supreme Court in December but the 11
judges rejected the government's appeal by a majority of eight to three. The
government then went back to Parliament for a vote, and secured the
necessary majority for the Brexit process to continue, with Article 50
being triggered in March 2017. The Brexit Bill then passed to the House
of Lords where it has some amendments tacked onto it. These were
detrimental to the governments negotiating position, and were removed once the Bill
was returned to Parliament. It was
simply more sniping and delay from diehard Remain supporters, many of
whom were affronted by the fact they will no longer have access to the
EU gravy train. This attempt to thwart the will of the people by an
unelected chamber of life peers and old money aristocrats, has not gone down well. In essence, the Lords
wanted to guarantee the 'right to remain' of EU citizens in the UK,
without a reciprocal agreement from the EU about British citizens on
their territory. The Lords also wanted Parliament to have a right of
veto on any EU/British agreement reached at the end of the two year
disengagement process. This was simply a wrecking tactic to tie the hands of the British government, attempt to delay Brexit, and possibly try to instigate a second referendum that would produce the right result as they saw it. It is undemocratic and quite possibly treasonous. The EU has a track record of making countries come to the ‘right’ decision, as witnessed by the Irish vote on the Lisbon Treaty. The Lords were trying to pull the same tactic in the UK, but the people who voted to leave the EU were not going to stand for it. The Lords could well find themselves being abolished and a new elected second chamber established in future, purely because of this attempted gerrymandering. It would be a very beneficial result for the nation, as that swamp has needed to be drained for a very long time. On the 20th March 2017, the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, gave notice that the triggering of Article 50 would formally take place on the 29th March 2017. The bells of freedom and self determination have rung. ©Copyright - James of Glencarr |
