Repeal Bill and the real enemies within

YESTERDAY’s unveiling of the Great repeal Bill marks another crucial milestone on Britain’s historic journey to becoming an independent sovereign nation once more.

Just 24 hours after theresa May served formal notice of our intention to quit the EU, here was the blueprint for restoring the supremacy of Parliament and ensuring that this country’s laws are again made in Westminster, not Brussels or Luxembourg.

For 44 years our legal system has been controlled by the unelected judges of the european Court. this Bill puts legislative power back where it belongs – in the hands of British MPs and British judges.

Negotiating it will be an awesome task. all existing EU legislation must be transferred into British law before we can begin the process of throwing out the elements we don’t want.

and with thousands of individual pieces of legislation (which speaks volumes about how Brussels has insinuated itself into the minutiae of British life), two years is a tight schedule. But it must be done and Brexit secretary david davis knows he will secure a place in history if he can pull it off.

the real threat, of course, comes not from puffed-up, self- serving and often low-calibre eurocrats. It comes from those in this country who want to do Britain down.

Unsurprisingly, their rhetoric is becoming increasingly hysterical. Former Cabinet secretary Gus O’donnell says leaving the EU will be like jumping out of an aeroplane without a parachute, while the scottish Nationalists’ disruptive behaviour is as predictable as it is cynical.

But the real enemies within are the Liberal democrats. With their pathetic little rump of MPs and pygmy leadership, they are pledging a guerrilla campaign by demanding a vote on every tiny legislative change. the Mail hesitates to use the word treachery to describe their conduct but for a party calling itself democrat, to act in such an undemocratic way is appalling hypocrisy.

What is bitterly ironic is that those who claim Parliament must now vet every aspect of this Bill are the very same people who spent so many years giving away Parliament’s rights to Brussels. It is vital these wreckers are prevented from undermining our negotiations with the EU.

It’s also vital that with our economy growing strongly, employment at a record high and the world queuing up to trade with us, we enter those negotiations with confidence and optimism.

Britain now has one of the world’s most important high-technology hubs, three of the top ten universities (the EU has none), and our life science, pharmaceutical and automotive sectors are thriving. deutsche Bank has just invested in a new London headquarters, other big financial institutions that threatened to move have not done so and the weaker pound is a huge aid to exporters.

and as we keep arguing, Britain buys far more goods and services from EU countries than we sell to them. Why on earth would German car manufacturers want a trade war that would hurt them considerably more than it would hurt us?

so Mrs May should continue to play her hand with the assurance she has shown so far. this is a time for strong nerve, a quality Mrs May seems to have in abundance.