The
UK referendum of 23 June 2016 was a once in a lifetime people’s vote to make a
final decision on whether the British people wanted to remain or leave the EU.
The British people voted to leave the EU. Remainers extremists are trying their
utmost, with the help of forces from Brussels which keep interfering in UK’s
internal affairs, to overthrow the wishes of the British people as expressed in
the UK referendum of 23 June 2016. In many countries, this may well be regarded
as treason. Remainers are even trying to incite riots in the UK : [« Queen would be ‘evacuated from London in
event of no-deal Brexit riots’ », Colin Drury, Independent 03 February
2019], while the EU President, Donald Tusk said that Brexiteers deserve a «
special place in hell ».
Historical
Development
In 1957, the Treaty of Rome was signed by 6 European
states (France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands),
which created the European Economic Community (EEC), established in 1967. But French President Charles de Gaulle was
against the UK joining the EEC. Charles de Gaulle resigned in 1969 after losing
a referendum on a reform proposal for decentralization and changes to the
Senate, which paved the way for the UK to join the EEC in 1973 under
Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath. Ireland and Denmark also joined that
year taking the number of member nations to nine.
Because politicians took the UK into the EEC without
a referendum, pressure mounted on the government in favour of a people’s vote
which was held in 1975 under Harold Wilson and the British people decided to
remain in the EEC. As an economic union, the UK and other members fared well in
the EEC club. In 1981, Greece joined, followed by Spain and Portugal in 1986,
which brought the EEC membership up to twelve.
The
1992 Maastricht Treaty and the misleading of the British people
When the then PM John Major signed the Maastricht
Treaty of on 7 February 1992 to take the UK into the EU, Margaret Thatcher said
that John Major « put his head on fire »
by doing so. The British constitutional historian Vernon Bogdanor suggested
that there was « a clear constitutional
rationale for requiring a referendum » as the legislative cannot transfer
the power of making laws to any other hands (EU Parliament).
British politicians lied and misled the British
people when they decided to take the UK into the EU without a referendum. The
EEC was an economic union while the EU is both an economic and political union
whereby the British people would lose their sovereignty and freedom to make
their own laws as the EU Parliament could override the British Parliament; to control their own borders as migrants from
EU members would be free to enter the UK unchecked, register for benefits,
housing, free healthcare and education; to decide who they want to trade with. Also,
British politicians did not inform the British people the amount payable to the
EU every year is £19bn (less any rebate). Those payable billions could have
been better spent on UK’s NHS, Housing, Education, Law & Order. The Brexit
caption on the side of the campaign bus citing the NHS as an example is correct
and appropriate.
The UK EU membership attracted non-UK speculators
never seen before without knowing where their money came from. This also
created a housing speculation and a class of scrounging landlords. House prices
in London itself more than tripled in a space of 10 years and the young generation
is unable to buy a house of their own, even if they save for 25 years.
UK healthcare deteriorated as it is becoming a
nightmare for the British person to obtain an appointment with his/her GP
within a reasonable time. Appointments with GPs can take anything between 2 to
5 weeks as patients are redirected to nurses who even prescribe antibiotics and
other medication before getting the prescriptions signed by the GP who has not
even seen the patient. Health care has degraded. Public services and law and
order are degrading as uncontrolled millions are flooding in like nobody’s
business, while benefiting speculators and politicians who put the British
people into this mess are laughing all the way to the bank. It should be noted
that when the UK joined the EU in 1992, there were only 11 members. As soon as
the UK joined, the EU membership rocketed to 28 and the UK bore the brunt of
the influx.
The
2016 Referendum
The British people demanded a referendum to decide
whether to leave or remain in the EU. PM David Cameron of the Conservative
Party, a Remainer himself, agreed to put the referendum before Parliament after
assuring Donald Tusk, President of the EU, that MPs would not support the referendum
legislation. But he was mistaken. The referendum was legislated for under the provisions
of the European Union Referendum Act 2015 and was held on 23 June 2016, 24
years after the Maastricht Treaty. The referendum was a once in a lifetime
people’s vote to make a final decision on whether the British people wanted to
remain or leave the EU. The people voted to leave, which forced the resignation
of the Remainer David Cameron who promised in his post-referendum speech that
the will of the British people will be respected.
David Cameron was replaced with Theresa May, another
Remainer, who called a ‘Brexit’ General elections in 2017 and the Conservatives
were returned to power to ensure Britain comes out of the EU. After those
elections, Donal Tusk even discussed « reversing Brexit », given the
dictatorship the EU has become. Trade deals were never a condition of the
referendum. Helped by the EU ‘Remainers’ in Brussels, they are even trying to
overthrow the results of the referendum by calling for another referendum,
which is against all the democratic values the UK stands for. And, they do so
with impunity. Governments do not hold referendums on trade deals.
Margaret
Thatcher’s famous Bruges Speech
Moreover, Remainers are fabricating stories that if
the UK comes out of the EU, the UK would cease to be a European country. Perhaps
they should be reminded what Margaret Thatcher said in her famous 1988 Bruges
Speech. She said : « Europe is not the
creation of the Treaty of Rome. Nor is the European idea the property of any
group or institution. We British are as much heirs to the legacy of European
culture as any other nation. [..]We have not successfully rolled back the
frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them reimposed at a European
level with a European superstate exercising a new dominance from Brussels. »
This speech is said to have put Britain on the road to Brexit. There is no
turning back however much French President Emmanuel Macron may spread the fake
news that Brexiteers allegedly lied to the British people.
EU
Intransigence and Interference
On 29 March 2017, the United Kingdom invoked Article
50 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and gave formal notice to the European
Council of its intention to withdraw from the EU, commonly called Brexit. The
date for BREXIT was set for 29 March 2019.
For 18 months, PM Theresa May has been negotiating with
Brussels a withdrawal trade agreement, which will cost the British taxpayers a £40bn
divorce bill, negotiation with the very persons who have been deriding the
British referendum, people and politicians and using all sorts of threats and
blackmail to prevent the UK from leaving the EU because there is a real risk
that, once the UK leaves, the EU will collapse, bearing in mind that EU members
like Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain are heavily indebted to EU, mainly to Germany
and France whose leaders are dictating what they should do and how they should
vote, not to mention that ‘European’ Poland, a Communist country until 1989
which joined the EU in 2004, is the biggest beneficiary of EU funds, while ‘European’
Turkey, a NATO member since 1952, is still on the waiting list to join the EU.
PM Theresa May was wrong not to involve Parliament
in the negotiation process with the EU. She made it her deal which she signed in
November 2018. This deal, with an entrenched backstop for Northern Ireland would
still keep the UK within the EU for an indefinite period without the UK having
a say in anything. On 15 January 2019, MPs rightly rejected this deal with a
huge majority (432 to 202), which forced Theresa May to allow Parliament to
vote on the options at a later date. The MPs returned to Parliament on 29
January 2019. They gave Mrs May a mandate to renegotiate the Brexit deal with
the EU in which she will seek to replace the controversial Irish backstop with
an alternative, but they rejected a proposal to delay Brexit in order to
prevent the UK leaving without a deal. However, they also supported a separate «
non-binding » vote that stated the House of Commons rejected the no-deal option
for now.
Conclusion
As soon as the results of the votes were known,
Brussels reacted immediately and said that there can be no renegotiation. The
EU makes deals with many non-EU members, such as Canada and New Zealand. Why
make it so impossible for the UK? The fate of the UK is in the hands of the
British people, as a sovereign nation, and not in the hands of Brussels which
has been dictating their lives for the past 26 years. Referendums are not held
on trade deals. Britain has always been a great trading nation, trading with
the world under WTO’s rules, without the permission of her European
counterparts. Britain also heads the Commonwealth. The UK is a manufacturing
nation, the 7th largest economy in the world, and she buys most of
her raw materials, not from the EU, but from Africa and Asia. British MPs,
Conservatives or otherwise, have a duty to put their heads together and uphold
the will of the British people and take them out of this EU mess without delay,
deal or no deal.
As the prospect of no-deal approaches, Remainers are
even trying to incite riots in the UK in the case of no deal [« Queen would be ‘evacuated from London in
event of no-deal Brexit riots’ », Colin Drury, Independent 03 Feb 19].
Demonstrating his hate against the British people, EU President Donald Tusk lashed out against Brexiteers, saying they
deserve “a special place in hell”. (Evening Standard 06 Feb 19)
M Rafic Soormally
Economist
London
06 February 2019
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