Brexit , EU in the 21st Century

The European constitution

"The most important thing the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe sets out to do is to create an entirely new, different and vastly more powerful European Union entity in the constitutional form of a Federal European State, without changing the "EU" name. Therefore people will not be aware of the constitutional significance of what is happening.'

This is the opening paragraph from a critical summary of the proposed EU constitution by the National Platform EU research and Information Centre Dublin Ireland which is affiliated to the European Alliance of EU-critical Movements (TEAM)

                                                                                  ----

In 2001 the 'Convention on the Future of Europe ' headed by former French President Valery Giscard D'Estaing was tasked with drafting a new treaty that would introduce a Constitution of Europe. What emerged was a proposal to build the long held desire of many europhiles  A United States of Europe , a single entity subjugating the language, culture and independence of the then 25 member states which would  administer and control our Laws, Economies , Rights, Defence and every other aspect of our daily lives and freedoms with a President , a Defence secretary , an Economic minister and a Commission  all   chosen by the leaders of the member states , not elected by the citizenry

Slowly but surely the long fought for Democracy of all the member states was being taken away to be replaced by an institution that was an unelected , unanswerable bureaucracy  controlling  our foreseeable future ,

                     Sound Familiar ?
If this is reminiscent of the Soviet Union and its regime , You may say that I couldn't possibly comment !

 As we all know the constitution was defeated at the polls by various member states  including the French so how come we are now living in a  system that mirrors  nearly exactly what that rejected  constitution proposed ? From it's beginning as the EEC up to the present day through a succession of small incremental changes to the different treaties already in place it has been fundamentally altering it's original mandate in order  to achieve the long term aim of a Single State Europe .



                                           Conclusion 

The UK's decision to leave the EU is fact , how it's done is still under discussion .  More effort could possibly have been made to reform the EU from within before taking the decision to leave. The UK is the largest economy in Europe and as such has the influence to recommend and maybe bring about much needed change within the institutions of  Brussels .
Having made the decision maybe the other political parties and other aspects of British society could have been involved in some sort of  'Think Tank' to come up with  ideas and suggestions of how we should approach negotiations and how our relationship with Europe would proceed after our departure .
The semi-secretive way it's been handled by a single political party has led to unrest and divisions which are going to be extremely hard to overcome, but at least we don't have Donald Trump to contend with , Now that would be a problem !!!!!!!.

   
All of the facts above are available to everyone, I did it so anyone can do it .

It takes a little more than just reading the headline or listening to a soundbite .

Brexit A simple Guide.

                        A 'Simple' Guide to Brexit   

part one

No-one has really tried to explain Brexit in an unemotional   factual non-partisan way --  So , here goes .

Prologue =     The Brexit chaos has the potential to do what the Vikings, Romans, The Civil War  and Germans (twice) couldn't do  and that is to tear apart British society and potentially bring an end to the United  Kingdom. 

(1)   The Beginning 

The right wing of the Conservative party has over recent decades   become more polarised  and more vocal on it's opposition to what it perceives to be the ever increasing bureaucracy and political interference of the EU, bearing in mind that Europe had been responsible for the demise of every previous Tory leader  from Edward Heath to Michael Howard  in 2013 the PM and Conservative Party Leader at the time David Cameron went to Brussels in an attempt to  renegotiate the British deal with the European leadership with the pledge  of a referendum if the result of his negotiations were not successful. 

 He probably thought  he was on safe ground because every opinion poll and political pundit predicted that the upcoming election in 2015 would once again return a hung Parliament and in all probability a continuation of the Tory/ Lib Dem coalition  in  which case  any suggestion of a  referendum would be vetoed in cabinet by the pro-European  Liberal Democrats  thereby giving him cover from his Euro sceptic MP's, If by any chance Labour won the election they wouldn't hold the referendum as they had consistently said  before and during the election that it was an unnecessary distraction to Government business.

In the event the Conservatives won with a working majority of twelve seats which meant that Cameron was obliged to fulfil the manifesto promise of continued renegotiation of our membership  of the European Union followed by a referendum .

After a series of fruitless negotiations he announced in the House of Commons on February 22nd that the referendum would take place on June 23rd 2016 and the choice would be a simple In -Out vote .

(2) The campaign

The official start date of the campaign  was15th April but in reality it started as soon as the announcement was made in the House of Commons .

'Britain Stronger in Europe ' was the official remain campaign

'Vote leave' was the official leave group.

The main fact to remember is that there was no single  Political philosophy driving either campaign , the only political party who were united in their remain stance were the Liberal Democrats but in reality it was a completely Non-Partisan vote with all other  major parties and their members  being divided on fairly equal terms as to the benefits or drawbacks of membership of the EU .

Referendum .

the meaning of Referendum has its base in the Latin "refero" to carry back ,It  is an adjective and must be used within a context attached to a noun  "Propositum qui referendum est populo " a proposition which must be carried back to the people , it is sometimes confused with a Plebiscite , 

 A referendum can be Binding or Advisory and this distinction was not made to the British public at any time during the campaign .

The European Union Referendum act 2015 , the law that allowed the referendum to take place stated "BECAUSE OF THE SOVEREIGNTY OF PARLIAMENT REFERENDUMS CANNOT BE LEGALLY BINDING IN THE UK AND ARE THEREFORE ADVISORY "

In 2017  the then culture Secretary Karen Brady said=

"We are delivering on the will of the British People from the BINDING referendum we had in June 2016 and we are leaving the European Union "   

                             She was wrong !!!!

I will not comment on the deceptions , obfuscations, misquotes and downright lies from both campaigns as they have become more obvious as time has gone on , suffice it to say that participants of both sides behaved with a disregard and disrespect of the British public that is staggering and morally questionable ,

 the fact that it is still going on over two years later is a damning indictment on our political and social leadership in the UK.

(3) BREXIT MEANS BREXIT .

A soundbite is normally a short phrase meant to be a pungent and compact  explanation of the main text of the speech , this doesn't do that, It has no definitive meaning and just adds to the confusion surrounding the whole Brexit debate and those three words could hang around Theresa Mays neck for the rest of her life and define her career 


The result of the referendum was close and 
the electoral commissions figures are = 

46,500,001   the eligible voting population of the UK 


33,577.342    people voted 
       25,359    ballots were spoiled 
33,551,983     valid votes decided the referendum of which

16,141,241   (48.1%)     voted to remain
17,410,742    (51.9)       voted to leave 

 1,269.501   (3.78%)      was the deciding difference , that number is the approximate population of Birmingham .

David Cameron's resignation following the result of the referendum was seen by many as an act of  cowardice and  his reasoning that he was a remainer and couldn't in good faith carry on only compounded that opinion.  
In time history will make it's own judgement 

The general chaos in the Tory party over it's EU divisions which had kick started the whole exit process was further highlighted by the Shakespearean drama over the election of a new leader , Michael Gove and Boris Johnson had jointly led the Leave campaign but now were engaged in playground antics and name calling all of which did nothing to enhance the reputation of the government .   
The eventual selection of Theresa May , another remainer , as PM
was a compromise and received with a general lack of enthusiasm , her decision to hold a general election a year later in 2017 came as a surprise and was seen by many in the country as a panic move and a gamble. 
All the major parties manifestos led with Brexit and their different policies towards achieving a successful outcome , the lukewarm reception from the public for all of their arguments  and the resulting minority Government with Conservatives  propped up by a confidence and supply agreement with the DUP only served to reinforce that and further devalue Theresa Mays  standing with the electorate .

The appointment of David Davies was seen as a positive step, finally we were going to be involved in serious negotiation .
The referendum took place in June 2016 and it was 9 months later before Article 50 was triggered and the 2 year process of leaving the EU could officially begin.
The first meeting between David Davies and the EU negotiators didn't take place until  June 2017 and the first meetings were to decide the timetable of future meetings , when and where , what form the discussions would take, what topics would be discussed .
Initially the meetings would be once a month for four days and would take place in Brussels. 
Considering the fact that there was now a limited time frame to discuss the withdrawal from a partnership that we had been an integral part of for over 40 years and in light of the consequences that would have on the business, political and social structure of our country the allocation of four days a month seems , in hindsight , remarkably inadequate .
July's session was much more detailed and involved the rights of EU citizens in the UK , Britons in the EU the NI border issue and finances , No agreement was reached on anything except to meet again at the end of August.
 From the beginning of 2018 until June of that year David Davies had meetings with the EU negotiators for a total of four hours.
His resignation in July 2018 followed a few months later by his successor Dominic Raab leaves Stephen Barclay as the UK's current brexit secretary,  more recent significant resignations from the cabinet and other ministerial positions have added to the chaos surrounding the Government and it's handling of the withdrawal process.
On the 15 January 2019  after much delay and political  chicanery 
Theresa May came to parliament with a negotiated deal for their approval , The debate was heated and the vote was lost.



Parliament and the withdrawal agreement. 

The Speaker of the House who's job is to oversee the debates , enforce parliamentary rules and to give backbench MP's access to and involvement in the business of the Commons , has been vilified by the Government for doing his job and insisting that Parliament has a part to play in the withdrawal from the EU.
During the debate many MP's argued against Theresa Mays deal and put forward different proposals , extending Article 50 , negotiating for a different customs union, a Norway style deal, Norway + , Canada or Canada+  and a  Peoples Vote which  has some support but there has been no discussion on what questions should be put on the ballot paper, a repeat of the original In/Out  choice , a vote on the deal presented by the PM , a triple choice of Brexit , No Deal , or Remain . 
The leader of the opposition Jeremy Corby, who throughout his career as a backbench MP was critical of the EU and its Bureaucracy has refused to engage in all party talks with the PM until she rules out a no deal scenario which is an important part of Article 50 , If the UK hasn't reached a deal with the EU by March 29th 2019 then we leave regardless so taking that option off the table seems to be an option for the EU not the UK Prime Minister .

The only firm outcome of the last 30 months is the polarisation of society and the loss of any semblance of order amongst the Political classes or recognition that they ultimately work for the British Public. The confidence in Parliament and our political system is at an all time low resulting in the rise of radical opposition from both sides of the political sphere each antagonising the other on social media and in public ,verbally abusing MP's and Ministers in their constituencies and at the gates of Westminster.



(4)  the EU and it's origins .

  The idea of a United Europe is not new , following the fall of Rome in the 5th century a lot of states wanted to take on the empirical mantle , the Frankish Empire and the Holy Roman Empire are two examples among many . In the 1800's following the Liberal influence which had inspired the  American and French revolutions the idea was again raised at the highest levels even being proposed in a speech by Victor Hugo at an international peace conference in Paris in 1848 where he made reference to a "United States of Europe and a United States of America reaching out  for each other across the seas" In 1920 John Maynard Keynes  advocated an Economic  European Union  proposing no protectionist trade tariffs between other members of the Union , 1n 1929 French Prime Minister Briand spoke in favour of a European Union in front of the League of Nations assembly and in 1943 during  WW11 Winston Churchill  posited the  creation of a post war Council of Europe to bring the nations of Europe together in order to build a lasting  peace and in a speech in 1946 he went further and following in the footsteps of Victor Hugo advocated a United States of Europe .   
Founded in 1949  'The Council of Europe' was primarily concerned with Human rights and Democratic values  rather than Trade and Economy. In 1952 wanting a more influential European body the six nations of  Belgium, France , Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany developed the European Coal and Steel Community with the reasonable logic that Coal and Steel were two necessities for waging war and by tying their national industries together they would avert future conflict . In 1957 they signed the Treaty of Rome which created the European Economic Community and a Customs Union. over the next four decades nearly every country in Europe joined, the UK joining in 1973 , further expansion occurred after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union .

December 2009 saw a major change in the way the EU , as it was now known , operated 

to be continued .