Well, although I have lived in New Zealand since the 1980s, I confess to being a proud Brit today. Great Britain has, against all odds, thrown off the shackles of the European Union, and is going it alone. I am thrilled to see it, my heart is bursting with pride, and although I let my British passport expire a few years ago, I am now going to get one of the new, blue passports of GREAT BRITAIN!
People voted in favour of joining Europe in the 1970s, but they voted to join a common market: a trading bloc. Since that time, the juggernaut that is the EU has morphed into an organisation that overrides democracy, introduces many needless regulations, prevents countries from controlling their own borders and is guilty of severe corruption at times. Democratic countries have found themselves part of an organisation that takes priority over their democracy. Freedom to travel from country to country unimpeded has translated into Britain having prisons full of Romanians. This was never what those who voted for it envisaged.
It is clear that many Britons have been uncomfortable with the EU for some time. The surprise election win by the Conservatives in 2015 was initially put down to people voting for the ‘wrong Milliband’, which just goes to show that voters were being insulted by leftist elites long before Hillary made her ‘deplorables’ speech. It is now recognised that the reason David Cameron won in 2015 was because he promised a referendum on Brexit. He honoured his promise, and in 2016, the country voted to leave the EU.
Pandemonium, and some of the nastiest politics on the planet, quickly followed. Cameron resigned. Boris declined to stand as party leader and therefore prime minister. That brought in the hapless Teresa May to try to negotiate an exit that she personally had campaigned against. The EU smelt blood. If Britain was really going to leave, the European Union was going to make it as hard as possible. The last thing it would want would be for other countries to follow suit. Britain was going to pay for its folly, one way or another.
Remainers protested in the streets, demanding another referendum. Remainers claimed that the British people had been lied to, and were too stupid to know what they were voting for. Things got nasty. People fell out with family and friends who voted Brexit. It was generally accepted that Brexiteers were hard right-wingers, white supremacists, secret Trump lovers… in other words, deplorables. Remainers started to spread lies about chlorinated chicken and the selling off of the NHS. People began to fear food shortages, a lack of medical supplies, and a mass exodus of European workers, leaving jobs unfilled and making it impossible to get any services.
Elections to the European parliament in May 2019 showed Brexiteers had not changed their minds, giving resounding victories to the UKIP, the only party solidly behind Brexit. The writing should have been on the wall for British politicians by then, but many of them seemed determined to ignore democracy and the will of the people. This was only EU elections; the results of a local election would, of course, be quite different.
After several attempts to get her deal through parliament, Teresa May threw in the towel and resigned. In came Boris. Boris was uncompromising from Day 1. Brexit must happen. It is the will of the people. Then came the most shameful period in the history of the British parliament in at least the last 100 years. Remainer MPs did absolutely everything to stop Boris in his quest to make Brexit happen. Several Conservative MPs defected to the Liberal Democrats. Boris wasn’t worried; he forbade all defecting MPs from standing for the Conservatives again. He had detected the mood of the people. Parliament refused to allow Brexit to happen on October 31st. Boris had no majority in the House, so sought an election to give him a mandate. The House blocked his every move. By now, it was becoming obvious that, if an election was called, the Conservatives would win a clear majority and Brexit would happen. So half of British MPs knew that the majority of the people wanted Brexit, but they did their damnedest to stop it from happening. They kept promising another referendum, assuring themselves that the result would be different this time.
Finally, Boris got his election. When people were more interested in their Christmas shopping, they had to go to the polls. And they did. Remainers effectively got their second referendum, and the result was a loud and clear vote in favour of Britain leaving the EU.
And today is the day. Today, Britain takes back control of its own borders, its laws, its ability to do trade deals, its own sovereignty. Suddenly, all the fears about chlorinated chicken and selling off the NHS seem to have dissipated. Yes, the British people were definitely lied to, but it seems Remainers were the culprits. Shameful.
I am going to leave the last word to Nigel Farage, who has contributed to the success of the Brexit vote in no small way. Nigel will be out of a job tomorrow. However, I don’t think he cares one bit.
So this is it, the final chapter, the end of the road. A 47-year political experiment that the British frankly have never been very happy with. My mother and father signed up to a common market, not to a political union, flags, anthems, presidents, and now you even want your own army.
I want Brexit to start a debate across the whole of Europe. What do we want from Europe? If we want trade, friendship cooperation, reciprocity. We don’t need a European Commission, we don’t need a European court. We don’t need these institutions and all of this power. And I can promise you, both in UKIP and in the Brexit party, we love Europe. We just hate the European Union.
It puts in that front row, it gives people power without unaccountability [sic]. People who cannot be held to account by the electorate and that is an unacceptable structure.
There is a historic battle going on across the west, in Europe, America, and elsewhere. It is globalism against populism. And you may loathe populism, but I’ll tell you a funny thing. It is becoming very popular! And it has great benefits. No more financial contributions, no more European Courts of Justice. No more European Common Fisheries Policy, no more being talked down to. No more being bullied, no more Guy Verhofstadt! What’s not to like.
I know you’re going to miss us, I know you want to ban our national flags, but we’re going to wave you goodbye, and we’ll look forward in the future to working with you as a sovereign nation… [Farage is cut off by the chair]
Yes, his microphone was cut off. How very civilised. It seems that Farage was holding a Union Jack over his head as he spoke. Apparently, it is a new EU rule that national flags are not allowed in the European parliament. That is what they think about the sovereignty of their member nations.
[…] the chair seemed to have been goaded into a strongly worded response and said: “Please sit down, resume your seats and put your flags away. You’re leaving, and take them with you if you’re leaving now. Goodbye.”
Breitbart.
Well done to Nigel Farage and Boris. Here is to a bold new future for Britain out of Europe.
Can’t wait.