Daily Express

We must stand up to the Brussels bullies

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AS OUR ill-run country shuffles into the month of September, year of grace 2019, utter chaos prevails among the ranks of those supposed to be governing us. For us mere observers it is like watching not one but a series of slow car crashes about which we can do nothing. But certain clarities do stand out. One is the defection from the ranks of loyal Tory MPs of 21 renegades. What caused them to betray their party, its leader and their constituen­ts?

The only answer appears to be their insistence that “no deal must be taken off the table”. First things first, no deal is not a presence, it is an absence. You cannot remove an absence as it is not there to remove. So it’s a code. So let me play the role of Bletchley Park and de-code

it. What it really means is that if Brussels has a demand of us we must concede it.

I have not heard a single media interviewe­r ask a leading Remainer this obvious question: is there any British concession, no matter how humiliatin­g, that you would not concede? I suspect that simple query would leave the renegades dumbfounde­d because it is unanswerab­le.Yet it means what it asks.

Peel away the layers of hypocrisy and No Deal Off The Table simply means that whatever Brussels demands, we have to grovel. Basically, we have to accept the May Scuttle word for word. That is the 585-page list of on-yourknees concession­s that Theresa May and her passionate­ly pro-Brussels adviser Ollie Robbins brought back from that city and which the Commons vetoed three consecutiv­e times. That is now the demand of the Welsh Nats, Scots Nats, Lib Dems and Labour – the combined Opposition to the Tories – plus the new 21 renegades who voted on Tuesday to bring Boris down. Let’s have a quick glance at recent history. Three years ago we had a referendum, brought into being by an Act of Parliament, passed in the Commons by a huge majority, endorsed by the Lords, assented by the Queen. The question was simple – In or Out. No conditions, terms to be worked out. Every party endorsed it – including the passionate Remainers because they thought they’d win it. Ditto the entire Establishm­ent.Then they lost it – by a clear majority.

It was not rigged – the Electoral Commission saw to that. The ass who brought it, David Cameron, chose to resign. The senior Tories completely screwed up the succession, choosing the worst fool on offer – Theresa May. A massive Commons majority endorsed the invocation of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty – the departure clause. Mrs May completely screwed up a snap election, then concluded the worst terms ever agreed by this country in its very long history. Parliament refused them.The May Scuttle inflicts on us the terms usually imposed on a nation defeated in war – Germany in 1918, Germany in 1945. Subservien­ce for ever. These humiliatin­g terms are what May’s successor wants to renegotiat­e. Brussels replies, Get Stuffed. So who is imposing no deal? Now the parliament­ary Opposition, backed by the renegades, says we must accept and grovel.

But we are not a defeated nation. We are the world’s fifth biggest economy. Our unemployme­nt percentage is the lowest in the EU. Out there beyond the shoreline Canada, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Japan, India and Brazil are gagging to clinch wealth-creating trade deals with us.

So let’s have a snap general election after all. It would be in most senses another referendum. There would really only be two parties on the card: EU-Subordinat­ion or Separate Sovereignt­y. Do the hearts of our people still beat for Britain? Will we chuck out the capitulati­onist dross and rise again? I hope so and I believe so.

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