Jim's Loire remains European!

People's March Saturday 23rd June – photos

Mrs EU @Parliament Square 

People jam on Pall Mall

Parliament Square

We were proud to have been on the huge People's Vote March on Saturday 23rd June. There was a great friendly, carnival atmosphere. Crowd estimates vary but there were certainly more than 100,000 people marching demanding a vote on the final deal and there may have been up to 500,000 according to some estimates. There were people from all over the UK and of all age groups on the march. 

The march was so big that it took us more than two and half hours to move very slowly from the western end of Pall Mall to Parliament Square.

Here are some photos from the event. The demand is that people get a chance to accept or reject the final deal, whatever it may be with an option to keep the deal we already have with the EU. It is not a second referendum but a chance to look at what is on offer. 

Marchers meeting up outside the Ritz

People making their way down Saint James's 

to the start in Pall Mall

Banners: 

Putin – the real Mr Brexit

 

West Berks Brexitometer

Passing Downing Street

Reaching Parliament Square

The end of the March heading down 
Whitehall around 3pm 

A PS from B. Johnson, who is apparently our 'Foreign Secretary', setting out Government policy towards business and industry:

 

Escaping the Brexit lunacy

The most famous lie of the Leave campaign

Ever since the narrow result just over a year ago to leave the EU of our ‘advisory’ referendum held on 23rd June 2016 being a U.K. citizen who voted to remain it has been like living through a never-ending nightmare.

Initially it was shock that after more than 40 years in the EU we should have voted to come out in a referendum foolishly held by David Cameron. Foolish that it was held at all but even more foolish that it was held on the basis of a simple majority.

Gradually the implications of leaving the EU have become clearer to more and more people. At the same time the lies and false promises of the leave campaign have been exposed.

Unfortunately on becoming Prime Minister Theresa May, nominally a remainder, opted for a ‘hard brexit’ or even no deal. She appointed three leavers - Boris Johnson, David Davis and Liam Fox - to key positions in her Government. Over the past year it has become clear that none of them are properly suited or equipped for their roles.

Fortunately May’s gamble of holding a snap election to increase her majority backfired badly even though she got the most votes and has the most seats in the House of Commons. Instead of a narrow majority, May ended up with a hung parliament far from the thumping majority she had hoped for when she sprung the election.

The extended campaign exposed May as robotic, without empathy and keen to avoid contact with the electorate while demanding a big majority to carry out her hard Brexit or no deal. Her refusal to take part in the broadcast debates being the most obvious example.

At the same time the election campaign engergised Jeremy Corbyn allowing him as an experienced campaigner to connect with the youth vote. This was combined with a big vote registration drive. He attracted enormous and enthusiastic crowds in many parts of the country.

May's government has run out of luck – events have started to show her government in a very unflattering light. As Harold Macmillan is quoted 'Events, dear boy, events' on what blows a government off-course.  

The awful terrorist attacks in Manchester and London in the latter part of the campaign put the spotlight on Government cuts to the emergency services. 20,000 fewer police officers since 2012 involving the drastic shrinking of neighbourhood policing that brings in crucial local intelligence.

May’s arrogant and condescending speech to the Police Federation in 2015 when she scolded her audience for ‘scare mongering’ was widely tweeted and rightly came back to bite her.

The election result left May severely weakened and increasingly a figure of derision. Her pathetic reaction to the terrible fire in the Grenfell Tower coupled with evidence that Ministers had ignored recommendations from previous reports into tower block fire tragedies. It also highlighted the culture of cutting corners which incredibly allowed Grenfell to be clad with flammable material.

The now long-running negotiation with DUP illustrates May’s poor negotiating skills just at the time when we are supposed to be negotiating the very complex process of leaving the EU. 

There is a sense that the tide is turning with more people being persuaded that the best option is to remain within the EU. If a so called soft Brexit means staying within the customs union and the single market along with acceptance of freedom of movement within the EU, then why on earth are we leaving? Staying in gives us a better deal as well as being involved in discussions.

As inflation moves up, people’s wages decline, the NHS faces an increasing shortage of nurses, farmers wake up to the implications of not finding enough EU workers to work on the land and bringing in the crops, and holiday makers find that sterling buys considerably less than it did when they go abroad the idea of leaving will surely increasingly look stupid and damaging. Not forgetting the UK becoming less attractive to investors and starting to lose EU agencies based in London with Euro passporting rights moving away to mainland Europe.

MPs know that the electorate will punish parties that make them poorer.  If opinion really does swing away from leaver, MPs who know that Brexit is insanity will one hopes start to speak up, especially as there appears to be no positive arguments for leaving. Will there be cross-party alliances.

Unfortunately the Labour position on Brexit makes no more sense than the Conservative position. Corbyn’s call of Brexit for the many is just as vacuous as May’s now infamous ‘Brexit means Brexit’. If Corbyn wants to safeguard jobs and people’s living standards then the obvious course is to reverse course and stay in. Furthermore the majority of his supporters aged from 45 and below want to stay in the EU.

As long as May remains Prime Minister she appears to be determined to pursue her hard Brexit but what if she is overthrown or is forced to resign. Let’s say that Philip Hammond takes over. Since the election Hammond has already made it clear, in contrast to May that the emphasis has to be on economics rather than immigration.

What, if once in No 10, Hammond decided that the Brexit farce had run its course and that we couldn’t afford to waste anymore time and resources on negotiating a worse deal than we already have. What if he revoked Article 50 and kept us in the EU. This would completely wrong foot Labour and presumably diminish Corbyn’s current popularity with younger voter. 

May's shoddy deal today with the DUP could prop up her government for a while at huge cost – a bribe of at least a £1 billion. Who will take comments that there is no 'money tree' seriously now. Clear that there is no money tree for essential services – nurses, fire and police officers – but there is plenty to enable her discredited government to limp on. This deal threatens peace in Northern Ireland and will surely not be popular in Scotland, Wales and Northern England who will want their slice of this generous and magical cake.   


Furthermore if the Conservatives are propped up by the DUP this is unlikely to increase their popularity with much of the electorate. Vote Conservative and get the DUP will be a powerful slogan in elections to come. 

Given what has happened over the past year - Brexit and the election of Trump and Macron - i’m loathe to try to predict what the next few months will bring but it is just possible that we could be nearing the end of the UK’s nightmare.

Brexit: the lunatics set sail for Brussels

Today the UK started its divorce process from the European Union – the lunatics led by David Davis sailed into Brussels with a leaky boat. It is barely two weeks since Theresa's cynical attempt to grab a substantial majority by holding a quite unnecessary election failed spectacularly. May has been humiliated as much by the unbeliveably dreadful 

Not only, following the election, does David Davis and the UK Government have no mandate for any kind of Brexit but Davis appears to be incapable of negotiating his way out of a paper bag even with the benefit of SatNav. 

May and her Government appear not or are deliberately ignoring that the popular mood in the UK looks to be moving away from Brexit as the economic and other disadvantages become increasingly apparent. 

Both the French and Germany Governments have offered us a way out with the option for us to change our minds. I fear, however, for the moment our politicians – both Conservative and Labour – are too stupid and blinkered to grasp this gift horse with both hands. Jeremy Corbyn's – 'Brexit for the many' is as stupid as May's 'Brexit means Brexit'.

Hopefully in the time that remains between now and March 2019 when the divorce is due to be finalised, politicians will wake up and realise that the electorate is likely to severely punish fools and liars who set out to make them poorer long term. 

There is still time to own up and admit Brexit is a terrible idea and instead decide to stay within a thriving EU.       

Back in Mrs Brexit May's England

Leave voters were sold lies about NHS funding

Chief liar Johnson then promoted to UK Foreign Secretary

After five good weeks in the Loire we are now back in London. Back to Mrs May's Bedlam. Back to complete confusion over what Brexit might actually mean. After five weeks away we are no further forward in knowing what the UK government intends to do than we were back in the second week in September.

May's mantra that Brexit means Brexit is about as helpful as saying Weetabix means Weetabix or Pain au Chocolat means Pain au Chocolat. It is increasingly apparent that May is well out of her depth and her government has little nor no idea what it is doing. Little wonder that Nicola Sturgeon expressed very considerable frustration after her meeting with Brexit May yesterday.

Despite May and her government's continued inability to work out what Brexit actually means, its implications for the UK and what it will mean are increasingly evident:

• A plunging pound against both the dollar and the euro 
• Large banks considering moving HQs out of London in the next few months
• Nissan not committing to further investment in its car plant in Sunderland, whose voters opted to leave the EU.
• A marked increase in racial and homophobic attacks since the referendum of 23rd June 2016
• May looking increasingly out of her depth.
• Other EU leaders appear to have summed May up and got her number.
• Johnson, Davis and Fox appear to be ready to inflict maximum damage on the UK's economy on the Brexit altar.
• There are serious implications for Scotland and Ireland and can these be squared? May appears to think they can be fed a few talking bones and all will be OK. 

I could go on but it is too depressing.