The Ashes of British Democracy

CIB’s  Hon. Treasurer John Harrison has sent the following letter to all MPs ahead of the upcoming Brexit votes in parliament, which will determine the future of democracy and sovereignty in the UK. He warns that any vote to rule out ‘no deal’ will signal the death of British democracy. 

“In Affectionate Remembrance of British Democracy which died in Westminster on 13th March 2019 at the hands of Members of Parliament who rejected the vote of 17,410,742 electors to unconditionally leave the European Union and said that leaving could come about only if they agreed a ‘deal’ which would leave us irrevocably tied to many of the EU institutions. Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances. R.I.P.

N.B.—The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Brussels.”

So runs the obituary which is a parody of the one that appeared in the Sporting Times following the loss of the England cricket team to Australia at The Kensington Oval on 29^th August 1882.  We have campaigned for five decades for the United Kingdom’s independence to be restored. Here is what we campaigned for:

1. Restoration of sovereignty of our Parliament so that our laws are made by our duly elected representatives – BY YOU – and not imposed on us by the European Union.
2. Restoration of our Supreme Court in the House of Lords and not The European Court of Injustice.
3. Control our own borders which includes those of Northern Ireland.
4. Return of our fish and to be free of the disastrous Common Fisheries Policy.
5. Control of our own farms and to be free of the Common Agricultural Policy
6. An end to our financial contributions to the unaccountable, corrupt European Union so our democratically elected government – YOU – can decide what our taxes are spent on.
7. Control of our own trade; an end to the EU tariffs on our imports which put up the living costs of all our people; and the power to trade freely with all of the rest of the world.

Any deal that is made which locks us into the customs union and single market will give away many of these freedoms that we fought so hard for and won in the referendum. What would be much better would be to announce free trade with no tariffs or quotas and mutual recognition of standards to any country or trading bloc in the world who would reciprocate with us. Only those countries who refused to reciprocate would be subject to World Trade Organisation conditions.

This would genuinely benefit the many, the people of the United Kingdom and not the few, those global corporations who demand staying in the EU single market and customs union. Please put your constituents first and do not reject a ‘no deal’ Brexit which is what we all voted for in the June 2016 referendum.