‘Trousers Down’ …… Regular readers of this column will know that UKIP has never trusted Remainer May to deliver the full exit from the EU voted for by the largest democratic mandate in British political history. It gives us absolutely no pleasure to have been proved right all along. The EU ‘Secretary-General’ Martin Selmayr reportedly wants the UK to receive a ‘punishment beating’ for ‘Brexit’. If so, Mrs May already has us waiting outside his office with our trousers down.
Much of May’s surrender plan will leave us in an even worse position than if we had never tried to leave, but none more so than her capitulation to the EU over financial regulation. The City of London is our biggest earner, generating a surplus (selling more services than it exports) of £70bn a year. It has long been an ambition of the EU to emasculate the City through punitive regulation and supplant it with ‘European’ financial institutions based in Frankfurt. Under ‘mutual recognition’ of systems the EU and UK would recognise that financial arrangements in Europe and the UK were equally robust and therefore there would be no need to change the current rulebook. This approach was recommended by the Bank of England in a detailed report submitted to the Treasury in April.
Now we learn that the EU’s ‘equivalence regime’ will take precedence. EU ‘equivalence protocols’ will govern the City and trading will only be allowed if it doesn’t deviate from the rules laid down by Brussels. If there are rule changes in Brussels or Frankfurt (home of the European Central Bank), the UK will be obliged to adopt them within 30 days. The City will become a ’rule taker’ not a ‘rule giver’. This is an astonishing free gift to Brussels, far beyond their wildest expectations.
It’s been clear for some time that there are no real negotiations going on here. The public are witnessing a charade. May and her ministers are sitting on the same side of the table as Barnier & Co, conducting a one-way ‘surrender process’ where our strongest negotiating cards are handed over one by one, with nothing being given in return.
Hotel California …. ‘You can check out, but you can never leave…..’ sang the Eagles in their 1977 hit, ‘Hotel California‘. If Mrs May gets her way in March 2019, it’s unlikely that there will be much to celebrate. The UK will remain in the EU in all but name; a vassal state of Brussels, parked in a holding bay pending its re-integration into the Brussels Imperium when the time is ripe. We will have the worst of all possible worlds; having to fulfil nearly every obligation of EU membership while having no say in it. Many members of the public will conclude quite logically, that if we’ve got to accept all of this, we might as well be a member and at least get something from it. No doubt that is what Remainer May is counting on too.
Rees-Mogg, Johnson and others have spotted the ’Fake Brexit’ that the government has planned. But unless they can show a far greater sense of purpose than we’ve seen so far and unite to remove May as PM this autumn, most Conservative MPs will, when the crunch comes, stick together, close ranks and support ‘The Deal’ because they are driven by fear. Wrapped up in the weird World of Westminster and blind to the world beyond it, they fear the consequences of a Labour government far more than they fear the consequences of dumping 17.4 million ’Leave’ voters.
So it’s up to UKIP to prove them wrong. People are not stupid. They know when they’re being cheated. If the letters page of the Daily Telegraph is anything to go by, the level of public disgust at May‘s ‘Fake Brexit’ exceeds that of the 2009 Parliamentary expenses scandal. Millions of voters of all parties are hopping mad at her betrayal of the referendum vote. We must stand candidates in local elections at every opportunity and hit them where it hurts.
William Hague supposedly wanted us: ‘In Europe, Not Run By Europe’. Now Mrs May wants us; ‘Not In Europe, Run By Europe’.
The Conservatives will never get it right.
Local Elections, May 2019 …. Nothing will focus the minds of the ‘Sell-Out Conservatives’ more than the prospect of losing their seats, or seeing a full slate of UKIP candidates opposing them locally. We need all hands on deck for UKIP to ensure this is achieved. Next May’s elections for the new unitary Councils in Dorset is our opportunity. If you’ve never stood for UKIP before, now is the crucial time. Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country, even if it is for this one and only occasion.
Because of boundary changes, the new wards are slightly larger than before. For Mid-Dorset and North Poole, the likely composition of our new wards will be:
Poole Unitary: (1) Broadstone & Merley; (2) Canford Heath (one ward). Bearwood goes to Kinson South.
Dorset Unitary: (1) Wimborne Minster & Colehill West; (2) Colehill; (3) Wareham (incl. Ridge, Stoborough and Arne); (4) Lytchett Minster & Upton (incl. Holton Heath); (5) Lytchett Matravers (incl. Morden and Bloxworth); (6) Bere Regis (incl. Briantspuddle, Affpuddle, Moreton and Bovington Camp). East Stoke goes to ‘Isle of Purbeck‘ (7) Corfe Mullen.
You do not have to live in the ward to stand for election, but you must be on the electoral role or have a business address within the unitary authority for which you are standing. If you want to now more about the process or what being a Councillor entails, please do not hesitate to ask the Branch Chairman (01202-602427 or e: john.butler@ukipmiddorset.org
Project Fear Mk II …… Now that the EU Withdrawal Bill has finally been passed by Parliament, even the most pro-EU MPs realise that we are leaving the EU, even if its in name only. So Project Fear’s agents have entered a new phase, spreading panic and alarm about the imaginary dangers of ‘No Deal’ next March. While it remains highly likely that Remainer May will sign whatever ‘punishment’ deal the EU puts in front of her (assuming she‘s still PM), ’No Deal’ is still a possibility.
It would in fact, be far better than any deal the EU & May are likely to grant us. We would leave the EU with no strings attached and simply get on with running our own country. The only party that has anything to fear from ’No Deal’ is the EU. They would stand to lose access to the UK single market and have to trade with us under WTO rules. Economists For Free Trade estimate this would cost EU countries £500bn. As they export far more to us than we do to them, we can be sure that a Free Trade Deal from Brussels would appear on the table very quickly after 29th March.
With ‘No Deal’, UK trade and business with Europe would continue until a new agreement is reached. Simple IT systems for digital pre-clearance of goods from the EU could be introduced at any time after 29th March, on a phased-in basis if needed. On 28th June, the National Audit Office reported that customs checks at UK borders are on track for ‘Brexit’ next March. HM Revenue & Customs has ‘accelerated preparations’ and expects to have crucial IT systems ready ‘whatever the outcome of discussions with the EU‘.
Scare stories about airspace being closed, food lorries not being able to get into Dover, medicines being unavailable, civil disorder in the streets etc; are absurd. Airlines would continue to operate under long standing international protocols that are nothing to do with the EU. BA boss Willie Walsh has dismissed such talk: ‘I’m not sure exactly what he (the Irish PM) meant, but the idea that airspace will be closed for flights is not going to happen. Aviation will continue to function .… there are issues we need to deal with, but it’s not rocket science; we’ve dealt with these before’. General Sir Nick Carter, Head of UK Armed Forces has even had to go on air to quell some of the lurid talk about using troops to deliver essential supplies: ’There hasn’t been any (such) request as far as I’m aware. The Armed Forces are always doing contingency planning but we’ve not been asked that specific question’.
Whatever happens between now and then, on 29th March, PM May and the UK will face a binary choice between ’Freedom’ (No Deal) and ‘EU Vassal’ (EU Deal). The choice that she seems set to make will seal the fate of the Conservative Party for decades to come.
Trumpquake ……. Many Britons will have felt their morale boosted by the American President’s visit this July. How refreshing to hear our political elite being given a dose of plain speaking for a change. Describing Britain as a country ‘in turmoil’, his strongest criticism was over Mrs May‘s ‘Brexit’ plan:
‘I would have done it much differently. I actually told Mrs May how to do it, but she didn’t agree, she didn’t listen to me. She wanted to go a different route. I would actually say she went the opposite way …’
‘He told me I should sue the EU. Not go into negotiations (with them), sue them …..’ (Mrs May, BBC, 22nd July)
‘(Mrs May’s plan) will definitely affect trade with the United States, unfortunately in a negative way. We already have enough difficulty with the EU ….. We are cracking down right now on the EU because they have not treated the US fairly on trading …’
Deals that take too long are never good ones. When a deal takes too long, they never work out very well ….’
’If they do a deal like that, we would be dealing with the EU rather than the UK, so it will probably kill the (trade) deal ….. If they do that, then the trade deal will probably not be made ……‘
‘The deal she is striking is a much different deal than the one the people voted on. It was not the deal that was in the referendum. I don’t know if that’s what they voted for ….. I have just been hearing this a lot over the last three days. I know they have had a lot of resignations. So a lot of people don’t like it …’
As a parting shot, the President described the EU as ‘America’s No.1 foe’ . No wonder May had a face like a smacked bum for most of his visit. No fudge, no fuss, just business. Come again soon !
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Tales From Europe ……..
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FRANCE …. ‘Recently it was reported that the Saint-Denis district (of Paris) now holds as many as 300,000 illegal migrants, many of whom rely on crime or the ’black’ economy. …. The scale of the problem grows each day. An estimated 550 migrants a week arrive in Paris; many head for Saint-Denis because of its transport links, including the railways lines heading towards Britain …. There are an estimated 135 different nationalities living in Saint-Denis, most extremely poor, including an estimated 600,000 from North African or Sub-Saharan backgrounds. ‘The challenge’ says Paris Senator Phillipe Dallier, ‘is to prevent Saint-Denis becoming a huge ethnic ghetto of 2 million inhabitants within 20 years‘ …. Having spent several days in Saint-Denis, it is clear to me that this area is already lost to France; to the rule of French law, equality, religious freedom and even access to the streets by the police .… Indeed this is a parallel state; a state within a state, with its own rules and religious courts, where allegiance to Islam comes ahead of fealty to France ‘ (Andrew Malone, Daily Mail, 28th July)
SPAIN …. ‘The mayor of Algeciras, Jose Ignacio Landaluce, has warned that his town is at the centre of ‘a new migrant crisis’, after 1000 flooded in during the past week alone …. ‘It may be our problem initially, but in a week or a month, it will be at the heart of Europe. There’s a lot of the summer left and there are thousands and thousands of migrants arriving on the coast of North Africa, with many more who have been waiting to cross for months or years‘ …… Some 18,650 migrants have reached Spain between the beginning of 2018 and July according to the International Organisation for Migration; almost twice as many as arrived there for the whole of 2017, surpassing the numbers flowing through North Africa into Italy. On Thursday, more than 600 forced their way through the heavily fortified border fence between the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta and Morocco, using circular saws, shears and mallets to cut through the wire. They hurled plastic bottles of excrement and quicklime at the police ….’ (Daily Mail, 28th July),
HUNGARY ….. Prime Minister Victor Orban has warned that countries that fail to control immigration ‘will be lost’ ‘Africa wants to kick down our door and Brussels is not defending us. Europe is under invasion already and they are simply wringing their hands’ he told a Budapest rally. ‘At times we feel as if someone is shooting us in the back for defending the interests of Europe …‘ With a thumping lead in the opinion polls and the sort of approval rating that most Western politicians can only dream of, Mr Orban is known to his friends as ‘The Viktator’. He is the longest serving national leader in Europe, apart from Mrs Merkel. Unlike her however, he hasn’t had to worry about coalitions in recent years ……‘ (Daily Mail, 1st April)
POLAND … ‘Is a source of particular alarm in Brussels. It is not only the largest ex-Communist nation in the EU, but the European Commission is now threatening to make it a ‘pariah’ state. First, Poland declined to join the euro and led the way in refusing to accept EU migrant quotas. Then last week in defiance of Brussels, it implemented legal reforms to speed up its judicial process, cut corruption and remove all vestiges of its Communist past. Outraged, the Commission took the unprecedented step of invoking its ‘nuclear option’, a 3-step process that would deprive Poland of voting rights and subsidies. Yet the more the Commission beats Poland with a big stick, the more defiant Poland becomes ……‘ (Daily Mail, 1st April)
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Rotten Boroughs ……..
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‘At first glance it looks like a string of thriving businesses, but a closer look reveals the sorry truth of Swansea’s streets. The Council has resorted to installing fake shop fronts to make its empty premises look smarter. A fifth of the city centre’s shops were empty and disused at the latest count ….. Meanwhile on the main road into Swansea, drivers views are dominated by a colossal landmark – the cavernous warehouse where hundreds of workers slog through 11 hour days to keep Amazon going. The site covers the area of 10 football pitches, meaning staff must walk up to 10 miles day picking products from the endless rows of shelves. When the site opened in 2008, politicians said it would be a shot in the arm for the ailing economy of South Wales. A decade later, and the mood has shifted against the online giant, with its tiny tax bill turning optimism into anger ….’ (Daily Mail, 4th August)
‘According to New London Architecture 511 towers of 20 storeys or more are planned for London’s horizon. In 2000 there were just 30; two years ago 115 were planned or under construction …… No-one ever asked me if this is how I wanted my city to look ……. London will look like a field of giant stubble. It is the planning philosophy of the Wild West ….. London must accept a tower wherever a developer wants one and can bribe a local Council with a few ‘affordable’ housing units on or near the site ……. These structures have nothing to do with housing need or land shortage. Almost all are luxury residential and investment properties with few permanent residents. Most estimates are that 60% of London sales go to foreign buyers. Most of them so-called ‘buy-to-leave‘. This means they are not intended for occupation and are often traded off-plan before even being built. Yet the British planning system still classes them as ‘meeting housing need’ ….’ (Simon Jenkins, The Guardian, 1st June)
‘The Chief Executive of the new Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council could be paid as much as £180,000 a year; the highest paid unitary authority boss in the south-west. …. about the same as the Chief Executive of the new Dorset Council, with a report last month recommending a salary of up to £175,000 …’ (Daily Echo, 11th June)
BOOK REVIEW … ‘The Great University Con’ by David Craig and Hugh Openshaw (The Original Book Company, £7.99)
You may remember the public meeting we had a few years ago for local author, David Craig (’The Great European Rip-Off, ‘Squandered’ and many others). Together with Hugh Openshaw, he‘s now applied his forensic skills to the rotten state of Britain‘s Higher Education. A fine polemicist, Craig orders his material concisely and readably, with clear analysis underpinned by meticulous research and ’killer’ facts. Here‘s just a few: Each year UK students borrow over £12bn. The total debt owed by UK graduates is around £100bn. The average debt of a British graduate is £50,000, the highest in the developed world. Much of this debt will never be repaid. A third of graduates from some of the most popular courses are earning much less than the national average salary. One in six call centre staff has a university education. Our young people are being exploited and let down on an epic scale. This book should be essential reading for anyone thinking of sending their children to university.
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Around The Branches ……..
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The ‘Brexit Means Exit’ shopping bags (thanks to Julia Reid MEP) have proved very popular and encouraged many UKIP branches to do street stalls. Steve Grimes, Secretary of UKIP Bath and NE Somerset reports: ‘We were out in force in Midsomer Norton High Street, meeting local shoppers. We received a very warm reaction from local people; much better than we have ever had before ! The overwhelming message was: ‘Welcome back, where have you been; we’ve missed you and we wanted to vote for you in 2017 !. Lots of shoppers found time to stop and engage with us. Our stock of Brexit bags was eagerly snapped up. We received an absolutely positive, very friendly response and we will be out again soon ‘.
Similar experiences have been reported by Jen Walsh, Chair of Torbay UKIP: ‘A great number of people came up to our table saying they were glad UKIP was still around. We had many interesting comments, some of which were repeated time and again, these being variations on the following:
‘We don’t trust politicians, we despise MPs and
politics because they don’t listen’
‘We will never vote for anyone again if we
don’t get Brexit’
‘I voted Remain but I wish I’d had the courage
to vote Leave’
‘I voted Remain but would now vote Leave because of the anti-democracy being shown’
‘It is interesting that although hundreds of people walked past our table, not one said anything remotely anti-UKIP; on the contrary, everybody who said anything at all to us were glad to see UKIP back. People took away hundreds of leaflets and we only left when we ran out. It might be of interest that on occasions we have had a table only a few yards away from the ‘Remainers’, while we always had a crowd, the Remainers did not and often sulked off early ……‘
Helen Hims (UKIP Somerset) reports: ‘A very successful stall was held at Cheddar Car Boot yesterday, with a large number of bags, T-shirts, leaflets and books distributed. It was clear from virtually everyone we spoke to (including many Tories) that patience has completely run out with May’s Brexit-shambles and they want us to get out NOW on WTO terms.’ Another successful event was the North Devon Show. UKIP North Devon Chairman Stuart Robertson reports: ‘A dozen new members were signed up and lots of people took application forms away …’
Mid-Dorset & North Poole: A fresh stock of the ‘Brexit’ bags has been ordered for our branch. We did a very successful stall at Wimborne Market back in March and are planning to do a similar stall in Poole High Street this autumn. Boxes of UKIP’s latest leaflet (‘Robbed’) have also been ordered and we’ll be having a big leafleting push this autumn. Please contact the Branch Secretary (Diana 01202-602427) if you can help..
BRANCH EVENTS (for members & supporters)
Saturday 1st September …. North Dorset UKIP Garden Party and BBQ at The Old Rectory, Mappowder, with Special Guest, UKIP Party Leader. Gerard Batten MEP. There are still a few tickets available for this prestigious event and a chance to meet the Party Leader (see attached flyer for full details)
Saturday 8th September 11am, UKIP Mid-Dorset & N. Poole, Coffee & Lunch at The Holme Bush Inn, Wareham Road, Corfe Mullen, BH21 3RZ. Contact Dave Evans 01202-602856 email: y16evanshome 28@ yahoo.com
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‘We now know that her oft-parroted ‘Brexit means Brexit’ was a sham, a meaningless soundbite calculated to deceive. Her vision of Brexit is Remain by any other name. Always was. She has sold out the 17.4 million people who voted ‘Leave’ in the Referendum. She has betrayed the 80% of the electorate who voted at the last General Election for parties committed to carrying out Brexit as advertised …… She has repeatedly misled the British people and forfeited the privilege of being our Prime Minister. If May gets away with this constitutional outrage, Britain will cease to be a proper democracy. She has signalled that the vested interests of big business, the Civil Service and the political class count for more than the views of the electorate at the ballot box …‘ (Richard Littlejohn, Daily Mail, 10th July)
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Don’t forget to check the monthly Dorset Digest (via e-mail) locally, as well as checking our branch website www.ukipmiddorset.org
Items for next Edition by 31st October to:
John Butler, 20 Nightjar Close, Poole BH17 7YN
e-mail: john.butler@ukipmiddorset.org All items in this newsletter are personal views only and do not necessarily represent the views of the UK Independence Party Mid-Dorset & North Poole
