Seven years after the Brexit referendum and three years since we actually left the EU project fear has intensified. Those who could never, and still cannot, explain why they want to be ruled by an unelected and democratically unaccountable president and 27 person commission, daily attack democracy.
According to Osborne, Soros, Labour, Lib Dems, SNP, IMF, OECD and a plethora of pundits, if we dared vote leave catastrophe would befall the nation. The catastrophe was going to be financial and social. There would be mass unemployment. A total collapse of the pound. A mass flight of firms from the city would herald the end of our financial services industry. Everything would cost more (Cameron mentioned socks) and to top it all. No planes would land in the UK. We would be locked on our island and never allowed to take a foreign trip again.
Perhaps because the treats were so risible and Cameron spent our money to bring in people like Obama to threaten us, the project backfired. Indeed, the remain campaign probably won it for democracy! The two Leave campaigns wasted time fighting on the Remain side's chosen battlefield. Almost all those who supported leave still do. We have and are missing an opportunity to tell the truth about the EU and promote the cause of liberty and democracy. Obviously Covid had an impact as does the Ukrainian war. However, we are cursed with weak ineffectual government that consistently refuse to implement what we voted for.
It was obvious to most that a clean no deal Brexit was in our interests. A combined force of pro EU MPs and Lords tried hard to impose a parliamentary dictatorship and overthrow Brexit. While one can understand Johnson's imperative in getting a deal that would satisfy the anti democrats, it is impossible to understand why no further action was taken. The Brexit Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), which forms the basis of the UK-EU relationship, allows for renegotiations to modify it at the five-year point. The treaty allowed us unilaterally to give 12 months notice to terminate it. Doing so would have made democracy safe and allowed us to seize the opportunities we had voted for.
It seems obvious that project fear Mk 2 is designed to soften up the electorate in the hope of a Pro EU Labour government using 2025 as a means of undoing democracy. There is still time to give notice, but after the shameful Windsor agreement it seems that Tweedledee Sunak is as invested in our future as Tweedledum Starmer.
The enemies of democracy seize on every gloomy prediction to prove that their ESAU option would have, and will be better. The fact that the IMF and OECD are only made to look less than total fools by the calamitous OBR and BofE does not stop the BBC, SKY, Guardian and other EU agents gleefully quoting them. What they don't mention are facts. The problem is that the facts show, that despite a lacklustre government, Brexit Britain is doing rather well. Indeed, one might say a hundred percent better that project fear predicted.
We are treated to regular 'opinion polls' that assure us of widespread discontent among leave voters. Apparently, there is unhappiness at high prices. On a recent trip to France, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium I noted the same feeling. As petrol and most food and household items were more expensive there than at home I wondered what comparison the fabled regretters were using. I found a wide agreement among wine growers that it was difficult to get crop pickers. One told me that his Spanish business has had to employ labour from North Africa whom they pay €2 (two) per hour. I heard similar stories from some Hotels and restaurants. In parts of France the scarcity of jobs has led to severe depopulation and a collapse in property values.
William Joyce was a convinced NAZI. He helped them and at the end of the war paid the price for his belief. He was able to explain why he held his beliefs. So were Philby, Burgess and Maclean. I have never met a person who wants to be ruled by the EU who can explain why. Are they really all so unutterably stupid that they cannot understand a simple question. Is it beyond their wit to separate forecast from fact? Do they hate democracy and their country so much that they would sell it? Or are they simply ignorant and, relying on malign media, totally ill- informed. There is little doubt that either by design or incredible stupidity the majority of Tory MPs have lost their way. They have conspired to destroy a mandate granted them by people who believed they would honour their word. We need an urgent change of course. I don't care if the Conservative party commits suicide. I do care that their shenanigans are threatening our future and democracy.
