It is the purpose of this platform to examine the fundamentals of politics according to the Right wing perspective of the English speaking world. It is not the intention or the desire of this writer to add to the flotsam and jetsam of current media hype, but to comment on the application of conservative political principles and to identify the underlying realities at work in the world of politics.
Given the upcoming Future Relationship negotiations between the European Union and the United Kingdom, some plain speaking is in order.
The media continues to present the two sides as laying out their negotiating positions ahead of talks in March. That is true, but it is by no means the entire truth. The truth is that Brexit has yet to be secured.
The Withdrawal Agreement + Declaration re Future Relationship which came into effect on 31st January 2020 reflected much of what May and Robbins conceded to the European Union. Boris Johnson’s new government, however, appears to have achieved sufficient amendment on May’s Betrayal Deal as to be able to rescue the UK from being reduced to a colony of the EU.
That rescue, however, is yet to take place. All will depend now on the government of the United Kingdom implementing IN FULL the intentions it has declared in
- the Prime Minister’s excellent speech in the highly significant Painted Hall at Greenwich on 3rd February 2020
- the Prime Minister’s Written statement to the House of Commons on the same date
- the Brussels speech on 17th February 2020 by lead UK negotiator David Frost
Those intentions stand in stark contrast to what the EU is preparing. The Commission’s proposed mandate for their negotiators continues the approach and mindset which they so successfully adopted when faced with May and Robbins. Indeed latest indications from the EU parliament and some EU countries indicate a hardening of that approach.
The EU approach has been amply demonstrated in the last 3 years. It is characterised by The Principle that the UK should continue to be bound by EU regulations and by the superiority of the misnamed European Court of Justice [ECJ] – the EU’s political court and final authority in all matters EU.
It is the ECJ’s ideological mindset and paradigm which the UK’s Supreme Court followed in its outrageous and “revolutionary” [not my word, but former Supreme Court member Lord Sumption’s !] ruling of 24th September 2019 overturning the UK executive’s Prorogation of Parliament – a case the court had no right to hear, let alone decide under our Constitution.
As far as the EU is concerned, the UK must remain bound as a member of the EU, but deprived of any representation or say in its institutions, ie a colony in the proper sense of the term – a word used by members of the EU parliament’s Brexit team staff and revealed by Lode Desmet in his documentary screened on UK television in the Spring of 2019.
This Principle has been adopted because
- Brexit must be seen to be a failure for fear other member states will follow the example and leave the EU
- the UK must not be allowed to compete with the EU, not just economically, but as an example of an alternative successful political project in Europe
- the EU regards itself as morally and politically superior, being the mechanism by which war in Europe has been avoided since two disastrous World Wars [in fact war has been avoided because French and Germans refused to fight each other again after such carnage]
- the UK must bow to the Imperialist pretentions of the Franco-German hegemony project ostensibly known as the European Union
This explains the approach by European negotiators in areas like Fisheries. Living in France I am well aware that the French are outraged at the idea that the British should take back control of their own waters. Why ? Because the French fishing industry as a whole relies for 30% of its turnover on fishing in British waters – for some businesses in Brittany and Normandy that figure is 50%+ !
They will be devastated. They will have to endure what British fishermen have had to endure over the last 40 years ….
But you cannot explain that to the French inspired EU mindset because that mindset is like all Imperial mindsets – morally right because it cannot conceive of itself as being morally wrong; nor will it truck any affront to its power …
So what we now have is a UK government standing up for what it should have stood up for 3 years and 6 months ago. Our true and proper national interest; common sense in terms of the realities of trade for all the European economies; and the norms of sovereign nations dealing with each other.
Which is why there will be a stand off. And why the UK government must impose its terms and view of the situation on the EU. On this point there can be absolutely no compromise whatsoever.
But for a power as arrogant and self righteous as the French inspired EU, that is virtually impossible. Furthermore, they could not conceive of Brexit in the first place; they got away with the most outrageous imposition of their terms and conditions with May and Robbins; they cannot conceive of failure.
The UK government must now insist that the EU accepts the UK’s terms for the agenda and for the debate – or simply walk out at the start. Otherwise they will only encourage the false [and dangerous] notion that the EU can get its way in the end.
The EU side needs to wake up to its arrogance and what it represents. Its position is indeed as a UK government source is reported this week to have said, “unreasonable and ridiculous.”
This will not be helped by media on both sides of the Channel continuing to treat EU propaganda terms like “level playing field” as if they are the impartial truth. As Boris Johnson and David Frost have pointed out, UK standards are higher than the EU’s – inevitably when you have a system of hotch-potching the demands of 27 different countries as one standard which must inevitably result in a lower common denominator.
But the UK does not demand the EU align with UK rules and UK Court decisions !
For 3 years the EU imposed its Imperialist terms. It is time now for the UK to impose common sense terms on the EU. This is vital for two critical reasons.
Firstly, if the EU learns yet again that it can behave so arrogantly, it will only end up avoiding the critical reality check it needs to make about its own attitude and operations regarding its own internal issues and their resolution. It is time for it to rethink how it operates – for its own good.
Secondly, the democratic Brexit decision of 23rd June 2016 confirmed by General Elections results in 2017 and overwhelmingly in 2019 must be respected and properly implemented this time. Or, as David Frost stated in his speech in Brussels two days ago:
“such decisions are so fundamental to the way the population of a territory feels bound into the legitimacy of its government, that this structure would be simply unsustainable: at some point democratic consent would snap – dramatically and finally.”
Let everyone involved realise just what is actually at stake now. This is not just a set of negotiations.
It’s about key fundamentals …
Ray Catlin
Conservatism Institute 