We are a nation once again

Mission accomplished:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36615028

Now we will see all sorts of deleterious experiences that have occurred over the last forty years go into reverse.

And tired (indeed, exhausted) as we must all feel, the real work begins NOW.

We are a nation once again.

David Cameron should not be perverting the sacrifice of past generations

Disgusting and disgraceful use of the war dead by David Cameron in his latest Project Fear speech on the EU:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36243296

Three of my family died in the First World War - their deaths are sacred and should not be used by Cameron as pawns in his political manipulations.

I can tell you with ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY that they did not die for the cause of European unity, they died to protect their family and their country from European hegemony.

David Cameron should not be perverting the sacrifice of past generations.

Let me speak directly to the Prime Minister:  David Cameron you are a disgusting person to misuse the war dead in your political prancing and shenanigans.

MI5 and MI6 cannot protect the United Kingdom without foreign help

What are we to make of the claims of Former MI6 boss Sir John Sawers and ex-MI5 chief Lord Evans who have claimed that leaving the EU would make the United Kingdom less safe?

Effectively these two former civil servants are saying loudly and openly that their former organisations are not fit for purpose.

That MI5 and MI6 cannot protect the United Kingdom without foreign help.

Why can the Australian security services protect Australia, and the Canadian security services project Canada, and yet the British security services cannot protect the United Kingdom?

Is it because individuals in MI5 and MI6 are incompetent?

For that is the logical implication of what Sir John Sawers and ex-MI5 chief Lord Evans.

And does it not match what we know of the rest of the Home Office, incompetent and badly run.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36240798

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/spy-chiefs-say-quitting-eu-is-security-risk-fgzgpgkgk

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0080bbs

And look at this please:  http://www.cambridgeclarion.org/press_cuttings/mi6.eu_stel_27apr1997.html

The EU ideal (sic) has a much darker legacy

Very shallow and intellectually light-weight "historical" analysis of the EU by Gabriel Gatehouse on Newsnight this evening:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03szkkl

If he had bothered to read When Nazi Dreams Come True by Robert Edwin Herzstein he would realise that the EU ideal (sic) has a much darker legacy.

Is there anything in current EU ideology that is not consistent with the long-term post-war plans for a greater Germany, even down to fanatical insistence on a common currency, a common legal framework and even annexation of Ukraine and Croatia?

Ignore the wartime violence and horror.

Look at the long-term German plans for Europe.

EU army

Expose in the Daily Express of a German white paper proposing an EU army:  http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/666516/Anti-Brussels-fury-Germany-secretly-plans-for-EU-army-Brexit

If we remain in the EU it is inevitable that we will lose all the institutions that define the United Kingdom as a nation.

If we remain in the EU we will be effectively dead.

"Liar liar pants on fire" is a phrase one might legitimately direct towards the Remain campaign

On Channel 4 News this evening an expose of Remain side lies - the claim that everyone is £450 better off as a result of remaining in the EU was based on statistics that applied to America!

"Liar liar pants on fire" is a phrase one might legitimately direct towards the Remain campaign.

http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/factcheck-eu-raise-prices/22854

Laws should not be passed nor taxes raised except by our own elected representatives

The Spectator on the EU debate:  http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/04/live-from-the-london-palladium-the-spectators-brexit-debate/

It’s not just the financial price of EU membership – it’s the democratic price. We fought a civil war in this country to establish the principle that laws should not be passed nor taxes raised except by our own elected representatives.

It is no use the Home Secretary Theresa May wittering on about our power in theory

Andrew Neil on Twitter:  European Commission to propose visa liberalisation for Turkey even though it's failed to meet significant benchmarks it was meant to meet.

Does the United Kingdom have sufficient border controls in place to reject the inevitable attempts by these Turkish people to get to London?

We know that there is a total of about 500,000 people of Turkish origin in the UK, made up of approximately 150,000 Turkish nationals and about 300,000 Turkish Cypriots.

We know that established minority communities will attract similar migrants who in turn will attract "family reunions" and "marriage" partners in a continuing cycle - perhaps doubling every ten years.

It is no use the Home Secretary Theresa May wittering on about our power in theory to stop anyone at our borders.

The concern is that no-one at the Home Office or the border control agency has the strength of personality or necessary leadership skills to be able to make the theoretical power to stop people actually work in practice.

Is it not the case that within a few months we will have a de facto open border with Turkey?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c16cba7a-0fa5-11e6-91da-096d89bd2173.html#axzz47UDeCJrU

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-eu-turkey-idUSKCN0XS0YF

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/666197/EU-Turkey-deal-migrant-crisis-Ukraine

The Single Market is over-sold

Very interesting and important paper on why the Single Market is over-sold:  http://www.civitas.org.uk/content/files/mythandparadox.pdf

The cosy futility of life in the EU

Is there anything you could disagree with in Nigel Farage's vision of the future:  “Self-governing, self-confident and much more global in outlook,” he said.  “We have become too obsessed with Europe. It’s an important market place but there is a big world out there.”

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/01/brexit-vote-will-oust-david-cameron-as-pm-says-farage?CMP=share_btn_tw

One of the objections I have to the EU is the way in which it has encouraged dependency.  The way in which British national life has relapsed into self-indulgent apathy, the irksome disciplines of running our own nation replaced by ostensibly pleasing trivialities.  It is the cosy futility of life in the EU that makes it so noisome.

TTIP

Very thoughtful and interesting piece by Helen Lewis in The New Statesman about TTIP:  http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/04/case-against-ttip

Everyone should be concerned.

A second referendum would be justified

ENGLAND 41% to 43% to OUT
WALES 35% to 42% to OUT
SCOTLAND 51% to 34% IN
OVERALL 42% to 41% to IN

If Scotland forces the rest of the United Kingdom to stay in the EU a second referendum would be justified.

https://t.co/ZDWeh2Db1n

The Remain side is relying on Labour voters getting them over the line

Interesting too speculate what effect the current in-fighting in the Labour party will have on the EU referendum.

If the Remain side is relying on Labour voters getting them over the line this may well have been the week that nixed their chances.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/jeremy-corbyn-labour-anti-semitism_uk_5723b9ace4b06bf544e1be6b?43pzxgvi

John Major has a vested interest in the United Kingdom remaining in the EU

Forgive me for pointing out the obvious, but John Major has a vested interest in the United Kingdom remaining in the EU.

If we leave (as we must) the cornerstone of his premiership record is immediately undermined.

There will be no Major legacy of any kind (even the Cones Hotline was a flop).

Already seen as one of the shittiest Prime Minister's ever, his reputation will fall even further.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/665655/John-Major-Brexit-campaigners-NORTH-KOREA-EU-Remain-rant

https://twitter.com/BBCr4today/status/725950567072301056

They are losing the intellectual argument

What to make of this incredible accusation by John Major that the Leave campaign wants to turn the United Kingdom into North Korea?

Most people of course will just ignore him.

This is the Prime Minister whose greatest legacy was the Cones Hotline.

But when the Remain campaign resorts to abuse does it not indicate that they are losing the intellectual argument? (they've already lost the emotional argument).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj9z

"There is an institutional ganging-up against the British voter".

Wonderful interview with Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom talking about the EU on Newsnight this evening:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mk25

She was calm and rational and told us "there is an institutional ganging-up against the British voter".

If the EU protects workers rights, what do we need trade unions for?

Rather obtuse article by Kam Gill on the Left Foot Foward website:  http://leftfootforward.org/2016/04/eu-health-and-safety-laws-have-protected-workers-rights-says-tuc/

If the EU protects workers rights, what do we need trade unions for?

One rather thinks Kam Gill has just talked himself out of a job.

And he rather overlooks the fact that the TUC would have NO INFLUENCE WHATSOEVER on the EU high panjandrums.

A “Social Europe” is in practise impossible to achieve.

Candid and realistic assessment by Danny Nicol (Professor of Public Law at the University of Westminster) of the implausibility of a "social Europe" on Left Futures website:  http://www.leftfutures.org/2016/04/implausibility-of-a-social-europe/

It should be required reading for all those lefties who are thinking of voting Remain.

Particularly pay attention to the paragraph:  EU Treaties provide no means of discarding the TTIP; and the other reforms would require a complete absence of neoliberal governments throughout the EU.  Sadly these policies are so heavily protected against repeal that a “Social Europe” is in practise impossible to achieve.  No doubt “another Europe is possible” – but outside the European Union.

Dry as dust and dull as ditchwater

Pro-Remain article by Andrew Dismore for Progress:  http://www.progressonline.org.uk/2016/04/27/london-is-stronger-in/

Dry as dust and dull as ditchwater.

A succession of highly-selective stats that might be half-true or might be entirely spurious - it depends on your point of view.

But nothing that addresses the sense of bewilderment ordinary people (including ordinary Londoners) feel that their country has become an alien place where they are no longer safe or cared for.  That impersonal forces are making unaccountable decisions beyond any suggestion of democratic control.  That their country is being taken from them.

Doubt on the accuracy of George Osborne

Niamh-ni-Mhaoileoin, writing for Left Foot Forward, casts doubt on the accuracy of George Osborne in claiming the Leave campaign was causing economic slowdown:  http://leftfootforward.org/2016/04/osborne-blames-eu-for-gdp-growth-slowdown-but-what-about-his-policies/

Significant quote:

Lee Hopley, chief economist at the manufacturer’s organisation EEF commented that ‘’The extent to which this across the board weakening can be attributed to political uncertainty ahead of the referendum is open to question.’

While acknowledging that ‘referendum wobbles could make themselves felt in the coming months, she suggested that ‘global financial market volatility, stuttering world trade growth and challenges on the high street feel like more obvious explanations for the slowdown’