Show them a picture of the Queen and they will not know her

In this Independent article by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown she refers to a straw poll she conducted in "west" London:  http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/ethnic-minorities-are-being-sold-poisionous-lies-on-the-benefits-of-brexit-a6859651.html

Obviously inadequate, and presented in a rather vacuous way, the article nevertheless had the following:

I talked to Abroon, a Somali who works in a gym. He has many Polish friends but wants out: “Too many of them coming. No houses for them. Look how many shops they have. Not good. Send them back. They not refugees [sic].” 

Suresh Patel, a newsagent, is with Priti Patel and Khalid Mahmood: “Let us get out. These Europeans must go home. Send them away. So then our people can come. Our culture fits better. My brother’s family wants to move from India. No chance today. England and we have long relationship. The country got rich from the Raj. These people, who are they? Show them a picture of the Queen and they will not know her.” 

Mr Hussain, the Turkish grocer, doesn’t like the EU because they hate Turkey and those people in Brussels control everything. I argued with him but it was hopeless.

A politician of great intellectual integrity, admired by MPs across the spectrum

A rather flawed article by Matthew D'Ancona in the Guardian:  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/07/margaret-thatcher-eu-views-brexit

But it does have the interesting paragraph:

"The focus of Downing Street’s anxieties has now shifted from Theresa May and Boris Johnson to Michael Gove, the justice secretary and a key figure in the Cameron circle – social and official – since its inception. Gove is closer still to George Osborne. He behaved with great loyalty when Cameron removed him from the Department for Education for shabbily “electoral” reasons. But he is also a politician of great intellectual integrity, admired by MPs across the spectrum, and is not impressed by the Tusk deal or the arguments for signing up to it. Gove knows Cameron will be furious if he deserts him at this of all moments, and has promised an answer by the end of the EU summit, which opens on 18 February."

Is Alan Johnson running a one-man EU campaign?

Article by David Pavett on the Left Futures website which illustrates what most have us have suspected for a long while - the Labour party is lukewarm on the issue of the EU (and in  my opinion most Labour supporters will vote LEAVE):  http://www.leftfutures.org/2016/02/%EF%BB%BFis-labours-eu-campaign-a-one-man-band/


Some excerpts:

Is Alan Johnson running a one-man EU campaign?

Alan Johnson may be a very worthy man. He may even know a great deal about Europe. But is it really possible that such a large issue with so many ramifications can be dealt with by one person?

The arguments offered by the Labour website are all of the “look at all the good things that we have obtained within the EU framework” variety. At no point is there any effort to consider the obvious counter arguments i.e. would those things have been also available had we not been in the EU? In other words the arguments are based on picking out whatever suits the desired conclusion and ignoring anything which might go in the opposite sense. This sort of argument is based on the idea that the general public are stupid and that therefore only stupid arguments will convince them.

The problem with Labour’s demand for reform of the EU is that it is not based on specific proposals... many, including Labour Party members in general and the left in particular, cannot see why they need to be engaged in EU issues.

It's no different from what already exists

On The World This Weekend (BBC Radio 4) Richard Tice, Chairman of the Business Group of Global Britain, discussed David Cameron's so-called re-negotiation and said:

"It's no different from what already exists... The Prime Minister is trying to deceive the British people... the European Union is stagnating..."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnz4

The campaign will be much more personal and aggressive

Interesting article by Isabel Hardman in today's Observer:  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/07/europhobe-tories-ruin-david-cameron-dream

"Cabinet ministers who want to campaign for Britain to leave the EU are not at all happy. They had been pleased that they would get a free vote on the matter and had planned to keep up their side of the bargain by repeatedly calling for civility between the two camps in the Tory party. Now they mutter darkly that the campaign will be much more personal and aggressive. Those involved in the voluntary party are threatening to abstain from campaigning in the mayoral and local elections as revenge for Cameron’s advice that Tory MPs should “not take a view because of what their constituency association might say”.

Exactly.

I prayed for victory for the LEAVE campaign

This morning at Holy Communion as I knelt at the altar rail in that sacred moment between receving the bread and receiving the wine (the Body and Blood of Christ that keeps us in eternal life) I prayed for victory for the LEAVE campaign in the EU referendum.

And in one of the hymns I was moved by the words:

Great is thy Truth, and shall prevail
To Unbelievers shame;
Thy Truth and Years do never fail;
Thou ever art the same.
Unbelief is a Raging Wave,
Dashing against a Rock:
If God doth not his Israel Save,
Then let Egyptians mock.

England is a holy nation set apart to carry out God's purpose in the world. 

I have always believed that.  

Made me wonder if Andrew Marr was following his own agenda

On the Andrew Marr show this morning he interviewed UKIP MP Douglas Carswell about the LEAVE campaign.

It seemed an uninformative interview.

Andrew Marr wanted to talk about splits, divisions, differences of opinion.

Which made me wonder if Andrew Marr was following his own agenda, rather then trying to get at the truth about the issues involved.

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

Michael Gove would make an excellent leader of the LEAVE campaign, and an excellent Prime Minister after the referendum is over.

"Shy LEAVERS" that are not being picked up by the polls

This article by Tom Harris in the Independent on Sunday is evidence of "shy LEAVERS" that are not being picked up by the polls:  http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/eu-referendum-my-instinct-to-vote-leave-is-not-something-that-can-be-confessed-in-polite-company-a6858231.html

What the ordinary members of the Tory party think about the conduct of the EU referendum

It is worth buying the Sunday Telegraph tomorrow for an insight on what the ordinary members of the Tory party think about the conduct of the EU referendum (which is already underway but disgracefully one-sided so that one cannot really call it legitimate):  https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/696088059687890945

“...she was convinced that Britain should leave the European Union.”

An important article on Margaret Thatcher's view on the EU:  http://capx.co/what-margaret-thatcher-really-thought-about-brexit/

“...she was convinced that Britain should leave the European Union.”

The “emergency brake” will not reduce immigration

In this article in The Economist the hollowness of the "emergency brake" on immigration is exposed:  http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21690029-david-camerons-weedy-renegotiation-makes-muscular-pro-european-argument-accidental?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/theaccidentaleurophile

"...the “emergency brake” will not reduce immigration, that is because EU nationals come to Britain to work, not scrounge. The brake is unlikely to be renewed in the future because Britain will struggle to show that its migrants constitute an 'emergency'..."

Therefore immigration will not stop.

Therefore gross immigration will continue at its present excessive and outrageous rate until enough constituencies are tipped over into alien control and our country is taken from us.

No doubt the pro-immigration pro-EU lobby believes this will usher in a nirvana of pluralism, diversity and perpetual multiculturalism.

In reality we will get the same sullen communal violence (think Fiji, Syria, Rwanda) that characterises other states where the population is divided into rival interest groups.

A 9-point lead for the LEAVE campaign

The Sun reports a poll showing a 9-point lead for the LEAVE campaign:  http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/6910447/David-Cameron-hit-by-damning-verdict-as-poll-reveals-45-per-cent-would-vote-for-Brexit.html

The Referendum is the best chance the ordinary people have to say NO to the current model of globalisation, and to insist that international politics is reformed so that everyone benefits, not just the elite.

And if that means the elite are going to be hurt - well so be it, they had it coming, it's about time the elite felt some of the pain everyone else is having to feel.

The electorate is wrong

Labour MP Chuka Umuna tells us the electorate is wrong:  http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/why-you-re-wrong-to-think-immigration-is-the-main-issue-in-the-eu-referendum-a6853821.html

He also tells us you have to be "in the room" to influence EU policy.

The problem is that the ordinary people are not in the room when EU policy is being discussed.

The people in the room are the lying twisting politicians who will sell our country short for their own selfish advantage.

Chuka Umuna was part of Gordon Brown's government that railroaded through the Lisbon Treaty after promising (PROMISING) the British people would decide.

Is Chuka Umuna the sort of person you would want in a room supposedly defending your interests?

No, I didn't think so.

The fact that the Financial Times is supporting EU membership tells you everything you need to know about the way in which the United Kingdom has been taken over by big corporate special interest groups (who have bought up the Conservative Party):  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/25d9bc50-cbe6-11e5-be0b-b7ece4e953a0.html?ftcamp=published_links%2Frss%2Fworld_uk_politics%2Ffeed%2F%2Fproduct#axzz3zJPQaDXm

A fight to the death over our freedom, independence and right to self-determination

On Daily Politics (BBC2) this lunchtime Conservative MP Stewart Jackson was interviewed about the Prime Minister's EU "renegotiation".

He said he had "a sense of palpable disappointment" at the feebleness of David Cameron's offering.

And Dave's slight of hand really will not do.

David Cameron will have to go in my opinion, and go dishonoured (no House of Lords, no Order of the Garter).

Stewart Jackson later said "we've got to unite as a party of government after the referendum".

Which does make me wonder whether politicians realise how serious the referendum is.

This is not a gentlemanly game played out by MPs in the club at Westminster.

This is a fight to the death over our freedom, independence and right to self-determination.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

http://www.stewartjackson.org.uk/

The EU "renegotiation"

On Today (BBC Radio 4) this morning Mishal Husain interviewed Labour MP Alan Johnson about the EU "renegotiation".  She was pathetically inadequate.  She asked him if he was relaxed about the rate of EU immigration into the United Kingdom and he just ignored her (ignored her in an arrogant patronising let's-answer-a-different-question sort of way).  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06z4w76

Wonderful performance from Isabel Oakeshott on BBC1's Question Time this evening.  She demonstrated real passion and authority and sincerity on the subject of the EU "renegotiation".  Not for the first time, we have to rely on a free press to defend our country.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t1q9

The answer must be to turn the government out

Listening to further commentary on the so-called "deal" David Cameron has made with the EU, the question came into my mind:  what kind of people do they think we are?

Do they really think we can be fobbed off with such a sham, and our country taken out of our hands?

The answer must be to turn the government out.

Oh of course those mincing clever-dick pro-EU Tories will tell us "You can't do that because the other lot are far worse than us, tee hee hee, so you see you are stuck with us like it or not"

To which we must reply "Fuck you" and turn them out anyway.

Traitors must not prosper.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3429834/David-Cameron-faces-Tory-critics-insists-deal-EU-offers-pathway-fresh-settlement-make-Britain-stronger-safer.html

A dark and shameful capitulation by David Cameron

The so-called "renegotiations" of the United Kingdom's membership of the EU are announced.

And they will not do.

This is a dark and shameful capitulation by David Cameron.

He is being very badly advised.

And there seems to be no major politicians rising to the challenge of history and providing leadership on this most important of all issues.

What have we, the ordinary people, done to deserve this shower of shit?

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2016/feb/02/eu-renegotiation-donald-tusk-david-cameron-red-card-veto-eu-renegotiation-donald-tusk-publishes-draft-plan-to-address-camerons-concerns-politics-live

http://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2016/02/camerons-vanishing-renegotiation.html

http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/640055/David-Cameron-s-EU-renegotiation-emergency-brake-migrants-benefits-explained-Brexit

Superfluous

In case anyone was wondering, I am still around.

It's just that Jeremy Corbyn has largely made my work superfluous.

Indeed, in all three aims and objectives of the institute (countering the Labour party; helping "renew" the Conservative party from within; carrying out a transformation of society based on leaving the EU) the situation is so far advanced that we need a period of consolidation.

In 2005 who would have believed that the monolithic Labour machine would elect Jeremy Corbyn and tear itself to shreds, with resignations live on the BBC.

Who would have belived that we would have a Conservative majority government with a Conservative Prime Minister of six years standing.

Who would have believed that we would not only have a referendum on United Kingdom membership of the EU, but actually have a LEAVE side that stands a good chance of winning.

However, on the issue of the referendum I think it is unlikely that we will win first time round.  Indeed it might be better to lose by a narrow margin and wait for a larger swell (not least a swell of anger) to carry us forward.  Whatever the result, the national consensus that our future lies in the EU has been broken, and broken for the foreseeable future.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35239232