A50 letter

Stairway to Brexit

There's a lady who knows
all that glitter's not gold
and she's climbing a stairway to Brexit.

When she gets there she knows
if the doors are all closed
with a word ('bye') she'll get what she came for.

There's a sign on the wall ('We're leaving')
but she wants to be sure
cause you know sometimes EU words have two meanings.

In a vote by the Brits
We've decided to quit
Sometimes all of our thoughts are correct ones

There's a feeling I get
when I look to the east
and my spirit is crying for leaving

In my thoughts I have seen
Threats of problems unseen
And the voices of those who stand hoping

That it won't go so well;
That we'll suffer, they'll yell
That 'we told you so' loudly and often.

But it's whispered that soon, now that we call the tune
then the PM will lead us to reason
and a new day will dawn, for those who've waited long
and the forests, hills and streets will echo with laughter.

Does anybody remember laughter?

But I've got some good news..

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now,
it's just a spring clean for the MAY queen.
Yes there were two paths we could go by but in the long run,
We're better off on the one we're on.

Your head is humming and it won't go, in case you don't know
The PM's calling you to join her
Dear Lady can you hear the wind blow, and did you know
Our stairway lies in the British winds?

And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our souls
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything will turn to gold

And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last
When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll.
To be a nation, and in control.


And she's climbing a stairway to Brexit.

I was there! :)

With profuse apologies to Led Zeppelin.

Thanks for reading.

Response Brexit positives

OK my optimism is based on where we are. The Brexit debate happened last year and the result was clear. So that debate is largely over as far as I'm concerned; I'm now looking forward and backing the UK.

I find it depressing on a human level when people want everyone else 2 suffer so they can say 'I told you so'

Firstly sovereignty- UK laws will now be made by people who live here, know our issues & we can kick out if they don't deliver what we want.

Second, control of borders does not mean no immigration (I'm an immigrant); it means control & knowing the numbers coming in so we can plan infrastructure provision for everyone, including those who pay 4 it.

Controlling borders is what a proper nation state does. It's fundamental & we've seen the mess Merkel is making of Europe by ignoring perfectly good existing laws on 'Illegals'. It's a disaster 4 Europe.

After that it's trade: Leaving EU is not leaving Europe. (I love Europe btw, have lived & worked there).

We are the EZ's biggest customer in the world. There's a £106.4bn/yr (2015 ONS) trade deficit in their favour. They simply will not mess w' their biggest customer. It's in both sides' interest 2 do a free trade deal and I'm very confident that this will happen. If not we revert to WTO rules which are fine for us too.

Meanwhile we're leaving a declining & protectionist trade bloc, free 2 trade w' whole world on our terms & the world is queueing up 2 do deals with us. As part of the Commonwealth we are at the head of a group that includes about 1/3 of the world's population. And we are able to do deals on our own behalf acting as a sinle nation state not needing the agreement of 27 other nations or, worse, regions like Walloonia - which is ridiculous.

It its also true that 90% of future global economic growth is forecast to come from outside of Europe. An ability to do trade deals on our own behalf, with the growing economies and trade blocs of the world (as a nation which boasts the global number 1 financial, legal and business services sectors and is therefore in fantastic shape to take advantage of this fact) is fundamental to ur future prosperity.

As a nation we have 10 universities in the world's top 30 (the highest EU university is Munch at 34), we have the world's #1 financial centre in London; the top EU financial centre is Frankfurt at #20. We're the 5th biggest economy on the planet, the world's 5th biggest military power and the second most influential nation on earth. Yes the EU is a market of 500m people, but 350m of them don't have two Euros to rub together and we've been bailing them out for decades.

None of the doomsday forecasts of project fear has materialised - mass unemployment, a punishment £30bn budget, a DIY recession, WAR!!

The pound has been over-valued for years; a decline is good for exports, balance of trade & UK jobs.

Finally, for now, we're now good mates with the US who distrust the EU/Germany. Biggest economy in the world.

Finally, finally, you need to understand that while I welcome Brexit, my main concern (for 30 years) is about the EU. I'm anti EU because it has not fulfilled its role to protect weaker European nations from stronger, bullying ones. It has been a disaster for everyone in Europe except Germany. Its policies have directly led to massive youth unemployment in southern Europe.

I genuinely believe (and I have been watching this very closely for 30 years) that the EU is effectively a German take-over of Europe. See next blog. (which was written as a blog rather than a staccato tweet-based piece like this - for which my apologies.


Thanks for reading.

A new Royal Yacht would be fantastic

Not a 'Royal Yacht' like Mr Green's gin palace; a place for pleasure or ridicule or contempt, but a symbol of the UK as a trading, maritime nation. A symbol of our status in the world, a symbol of our history as a global player.

Something, actually, that no other country has. A reminder, to other nations of our class and history and reliability whatever else is happening in the world.

And nor would it be a plaything for the Queen and other royals. It would not be a weekend 'toy', but a serious statment of our capability and our confidence.

Obviously not a Sunseeker or Princess Yachts' jelly-mold; nor a MacDuff shipyard trawler. These things are currently built in Germany or Holland or Italy. Usually with MTU or Caterpillar engines.

We'd need to do better than that for our Royal Yacht. It would obviously have to be British built. Could we do it? I think we could. Vospers? Babcocks? Harland & Wolff? Might just help to kick-start our national shipbuilding strategy too.

Not ostentatious, not something Abramovich would own. Something the Queen, or actually, the UK would own.

I'd go for something like this personally.

Essentially a floating advertisement for our nation. A place used by the Queen on state visits but also a floating conference & trade facility.

In short, a facility for impressing the fuck out of foreigners.

And which can be built without costing the UK taxpayer a bean.

What's not to like?

Thanks for reading.

We won't get an acceptable EU deal, but that doesn't really matter

Having said for ages that we'll get a great deal with the EU when we leave (mainly to piss off Remainers), I don't actually think we will do so. Shock horror, but bear with me.

And it doesn't matter all that much anyway. What matters is that we're leaving the EU. It's always been about that - and for me, it's actually a bigger picture thing: I am much more anti-EU than I am pro-Brexit, although Brexit is a very welcome by-product, particularly for the future prosperity of the UK.

Brexit will almost certainly mean the end of the EU project and that's the best news for Europe since VE Day. Because it will allow proud nations like France, Spain, Italy et al to once again be sovereign and stand on their own two feet rather than being taken over by Germany (which is what the EU project has really been about from the start).

I must say that it was absolute genius for Germany to mount its take-over bid so soon after the last unpleasantness and get the rest of Europe to actually pay for that take-over process to happen. Utter genius. But thankfully we have woken up to it just in time. (I think).

Anyway the deal. Two years they say. A decade at least, they say. The basis of our (UK's) deal with the EU will be clear after about an hour of negotiations. Our starting point is that we want free trade on the current basis, we want our fishing grounds back and we want to continue to be good neighbours in terms of security, environment and residents' rights. But the main thing is free trade.

The question is, can you (the EU) accept this or not? If not, (and remember this is a day one question), we walk.

And if they say yes to this, that's great and we then go into the two-year period of 'colouring in' to sort out the details, but the deal has effectively been done on day one.

The reason why this won't happen, why we won't get this 'deal' (which would, by the way, be the best thing for all concerned on both sides),  is that we will go in on the basis of wanting a professional, rational and above all fair solution for everyone involved and the EU will not. Because it is not professional or rational; it is a rag-bag of 27 countries all of whom have views and few of whom actually understand the damage that an unfair deal (which causes us to 'walk') will do to their economies. Many have nothing to lose and so very little to gain. Many will delight in being seen as being important on the world stage for the first (and probably last) time.

You see, the thing is, this is not about us trying to sell a deal to 27 disparate (and not a little desperate) members of the EU. That's what the media and Remainers would have you believe. But it simply is not. This is about us making a single, simple offer to the EU about our future relationship. Bearing in mind that we are the EU's biggest customer on the planet. It then becomes the EU's problem to sell that offer to its 27 members. If it can't do that, then it's the EU's problem. Not ours. Because if (I think when) we 'walk' they have a massive problem.

Let me just repeat that for clarity. Selling the deal to the 27 EU member states is an issue for the EU, not the UK. It's up to them to do the deal with their members not us. We are negotiating with the EU. Not each and all 27 members. That's for them to do.

If they can't do this, if a situation of non-agreement does arise then I think German industrialists will call Merkel in for a quiet chat and the problem of the deal may be solved. If you seriously think the Wallooons or some other fucking widget farmers from Slovakia will stop an EU-UK trade deal from happening, then I think you're mad. But, such is the unpredictability and desperation to punish the UK to try to stop other countries from leaving when they see us do well outside the EU, that this could conceivably happen. Particularly given the fact that the Eurocrats have nowhere else to go and have already been seen, time and again, to favour the EU and their solid gold remuneration packages over the countries they're supposed to represent. See Mandelson, Kinnock, Heseltine etc just in the UK.

So, we have three choices: We say to the EU - this is our offer, you sort it out or we walk, and then we leave the negotiations within the 27 EU members to them... or: We walk away from the negotiations with the EU and actually target those countries - Germany, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Poland, the Low Countries, Scandinavia - with whom we do want to trade, on an individual basis, deal by deal and exclude the EU... or: we revert to WTO rules and effectively consign the EU to the history books overnight - because that option will fuck them and empower the UK to trade on its own behalf with the rest of the world.

That's the choice facing the UK and the EU. I know where I'd rather be.

Thanks for reading.