Do you remember that wonderful feeling of euphoria that we all woke up to on the morning of the 24 June 2016? That we defied all the odds, we defied Project Fear, we defied those who knew better than us and we had voted for something really meaningful, that our voted really counted this time?
As I drove over Westminster Bridge at 5am for an TV interview, the sun was shining and I saw the Union flag flying majestically over Parliament and thought, we've taken back control of our sovereignty and our flag, the symbol of Great Britain, has real meaning again. I had a tear in my eye, excitement in my stomach and a spring in my step. And now those feelings are crushed.
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I do not think Brexit will be delivered, ever.
We have a Remain prime minister, leading a Remain government, with a Remain Opposition, sending a Remain civil servant to Remain Brussels to discuss Brexit. What could possibly go wrong?
The cat was really out of the bag this week. Olly Robbins, top Brexit civil servant and closest ally of Mrs May and directly answerable to her only, was overheard in an EU bar on Tuesday night saying that MPs have a choice, back May's deal or extended Article 50 for a very long time.
The hapless Secretary of State for DexU, floundered on the airwaves yesterday, admitting that talks have taken place in Brussels and London about extending our leaving date. He stated, "We are committed to leaving on the 29th March… any extension is not a unilateral decision". The key word here is 'committed'. That can be reneged upon and that is exactly what is happening. Language is important, it's the carefully crafted get out clause, briefed by the spin doctors.
Is Blair telling the truth this time, does anybody still believe him? Apparently yes, given Merkel's approach, the Germans do. And the BBC continues its love-in with him in the berlief that he is still the future.
The BBC is now moving into peak Remain, the usually straightforward Laura Kuenssberg said of the Boles/Cooper scuppering Bill, "removing the possibility of that last-minute kamikaze choice." Kamikaze, eh? No longer cliff-edge, which implies one might hold on. This is fully fledged Japanese style suicide.
In the 2017 General Election both Labour and the Conservatives promised to deliver Brexit. The duplicitous Conservatives stated, 'we will no longer be members of the single market or customs union' and 'leaving the EU also means we will be free to strike our own trade agreements with countries outside the EU'. And Labour said it would accept the referendum result and then waffled on about protectionism.
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There has been much talk of brinkmanship from the PM, while the clock is ticking down to the 29th March. I think her cunning plan is to push it to the wire so that MPs on her side vote for her deal whilst threatening a ‘no deal', which is now the people's popular choice.
Meanwhile in the Brussels dark arts centre, they see March 21st as a final date, a make or break compromise to stitch up the UK. This would involve a political ‘tweak' on the backstop, possibly ‘being reviewed every six months, in light of updates in technology'. Even if a deal is signed by then, they still envisage an extension of Article 50 to allow time for ratification by both sides ie a never ending hell.
Let's remember who we're negotiating with. This week in Strasbourg an investigation into German Martyn Selmayr's promotion from Juncker's chief of staff to Commission secretary-general "did not follow EU law, in letter or spirit, and did not follow the Commission's own rules," declared the office of the ombudsman. MEPs condemned Martin Selmayr's appointment, yet they ignore elected politicians. He's a close friend of Juncker and now occupies the most powerful spot of any Eurocrat. Juncker openly says he lies to defend the Union. Tusk thinks that Brexiteers belong in a 'special hell', not an ordinary devil type of hell and Verhofstadt believes that the guillotine awaits us, which is inciting violence if you're that way inclined. Would you do business with these people?
David Liddington, de facto deputy PM and Keir Starmer, Brexit opposition spokeman, met for the first time yesterday. To discuss what? There is no common ground with the Brexiteers who want a complete break from Brussels. Starmer wants to keep us shackled to the EU's flawed ‘workers' rights' and customs union. If Global Britain is allowed to happen, we certainly do not want to be tied to outdated protectionist employment practices dictated by the socialists, greens, the alt left and the communists in the EU. And I am afraid faux Conservative, ultra Remainer, Liddington agrees with him.
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If Britain is to be open for business, our employment laws must be made in Britain and there is the non-negotiable customs union. We voted to leave, to take back control of our trade policy. Any customs union would jettison our ability to trade with the world.
If I were meeting Starmer, I would ask "at what point are you going to acknowledge the five million Labour voters who didn't vote for an extension of Article 50 and voted against staying in the customs union?". That won't happen because we have arch Remainer Liddington meeting arch Remainer Starmer.
Sadly, it's farewell to democracy, farewell to fairness, farewell to those voters who really thought they had made a difference and their voices had been heard. Many will never vote again and all will never trust our political classes ever again.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
