In the general election last year, Labour promised, “Labour accepts the referendum result and a Labour government will put the national interest first.” As recently as July Jeremy Corbyn said, “It’s not our policy to have a second referendum.”
Now, after its conference, the kindest thing you could say was that it’s no longer Labour Party policy not to have a second referendum. In reality, Labour has aligned itself with those in Westminster who want to betray Britain, betray the trust that people put in the referendum process, and betray democracy itself.
Labour is effectively trying to mount a coup against democracy. It cannot be allowed to do so.
Clear
In the referendum of 2016 the people of Britain were asked to make a clear decision: the EU, in or out. The government leaflet sent to every household in the UK said: “This is your decision. The government will implement what you decide.”
The referendum allowed the British people to decide the direction the country should take. It was the opposite of the rotten parliamentary system which creates “representatives” who, once elected, do what they like.
‘Parliament – divorced from the thinking and needs of the people of Britain.’
The parliamentary system has created an institution which is divorced from the thinking and needs of the people of Britain. Secure in their Westminster bubble, they thought that if they spoke with a united voice (and all the main parties campaigned for Remain) the sheep, the people, would do as they were told.
They thought that they could stop all opposition to the EU for a decade or more. They were wrong, of course. But they are still determined to have their own way.
Hostile
For some time, several influential groups and individuals have been campaigning to overthrow the result of the referendum. There were legal challenges to the result and attempts to delay the triggering of Article 50. Many – probably most – MPs remain hostile to Brexit.
Now the focus is on the demand for a second referendum, the so called “people’s vote”. Used like this, the term “people’s vote” is an insult to the people of Britain. We had a people’s vote in 2016. Now people expect to see its decision – the largest democratic exercise ever in Britain – implemented.
Attack on democracy
Labour and its allies don’t want a people’s vote. They don’t want democracy. They want to get their own way. The pro-EU group Labour for a People’s Vote wants “a public vote on the deal with an option to remain in the EU.” This would be an attack on the democracy of the referendum.
Labour’s Shadow Brexit Secretary, Keir Starmer, says that “nobody is ruling out remain as an option.” Starmer has also refused to rule out extending Article 50, which would mean we wouldn’t leave on 29 March next year. He and his mates will do anything to stop Britain leaving.
National interest
Jeremy Corbyn now says, “Labour would not countenance a no-deal Brexit.” This means that Labour would accept any deal, however bad. Every time Labour makes a statement on Brexit it gives succour to the EU. That is not acting in the national interest – it’s acting directly against it.
May’s Chequers’ scheme is Brexit in name only. Labour’s scheme to keep us in the EU’s single market and in the EU’s customs union is Brexit in name only. And Brexit in name only means democracy in name only.
No turning back
The trouble with stage managed gatherings of like-minded people, is that home truths are often in short supply, and distortions are presented as clear pictures. One such, dusted off at the TUC congress earlier this month and elevated to the status of divine revelation at the Labour Party conference, is that the British people are so tired of protracted Brexit negotiations they would change how they voted if only they were given the chance.
Of course we are tired. The pretence of meaningful negotiation has long been discarded. Barnier and Tusk et al are stonewalling. They seek to drag the thing out so interminably that we will give up and come to heel. But ironically, their disrespectful behaviour and self-serving has only strengthened the conviction that the EU is a club to avoid doing business with.
Money, money
They want us to remain, not from admiration, but because they like to make profit from market access to Britain. Plus they really love our money – and need it desperately. There is a black hole in EU finances, largely due to their practice of paying for half of current commitments with an IOU from future budgets. The gap between income and liabilities grows remorselessly, estimated in the order of 250 billion euros by the end of this year. This practice goes by the grand French title of reste à liquider, but we would probably call it an unauthorised overdraft.
When a company like Carillion finances its present undertakings with the promise of income from future work it is derided as dodgy and ends up in liquidation. This is how the EU goes about its business and why we will be well out in six months’ time.