Jim Roper

I think most, of the economic 'hit', if there is one, will be engineered by our Establishment/Civil Servants/Politicos who are remainers, to try to tell us 'we told you so'.

Empty vessels make most noise.

I have been asked to make this visible to as many as possible. It will possibly be too many characters. The White Paper is even worse than the Chequers Statement The White Paper proposes the UK staying in much of the current EU. White is the colour of the flag of surrender. Much of this White Paper sacrifices the bold idea we voted for, that we wish to be a free and independent country again. It wants us to stick with the European Chemicals Agency, European Aviation Safety Agency and the European Medicines Agency, with Europol and Eurojust, with a joint customs area, continued co-operation on energy and transport, minimum EU regulatory standards in many areas, joint military development and an EU data regime. We offer to pay for all these things! No, we voted to leave. Leave means leave. It means doing these things for ourselves, not paying the EU to do them and accepting EU rules and controls. The legal format of forcing us into an Association Agreement which bind us to all this through a Treaty is the worst of all possible worlds. We voted to be free, not to be bound in in some new way. The government says we would be able to diverge if we wished, and there would be independent arbitration. If we sign a Treaty we will be told that the people and Parliament are bound by it, and our freedoms will be circumscribed or lost again. We did not vote to come out of one Treaty only to sign up to a watered-down version of it instead. Let’s take the case of medicines. The UK has a strong position in the pharma industry, leading research universities in the field, and many experts. We should re-establish our own Medicines Agency, and sell its services to third countries who would value our skills and knowledge, and would wish to be associated with our high standards. Our own Agency could be a focus of further work to expand and improve our industry, and the money spent on it will be spent in the UK, not sent to Brussels. Or let’s take the case of Aviation Safety. The UK has very high standards which we wish to preserve and a high proportion of EU air travel, given the dominance of London as an aviation hub. Again, our global reach and ambition requires us to establish our own Agency and to work at a global level on high and rising standards. The language of the government that they will end “vast annual contributions to the EU budget” is not good enough. We voted to stop paying any money to the EU, not just to the EU budget. Offering lots of smaller sums to a range of policies and Agencies, recreates our subservience to the EU and continues the strain on our balance of payments. Where there is regulatory work to be done, let’s do it at home with UK experts and administrators. Why do large parts of the UK establishment so despise us that they do not want us to lead or to adventure for ourselves? Why do they so dislike freedom? Do they really believe the best we can do is to be rule takers, meekly paying the continent danegeld? “No Deal”, the WTO global trading option, is the benchmark to beat for leaving the EU The one good thing to come out of the Chequers meeting was confirmation that the government will speed and complete its preparations for leaving the EU without a deal. The government says it does not want to have to do that, but it needs to do it in case that it is the outcome to the slow and unhelpful talks. It is also important to put some weight behind the UK’s bargaining position. Only if the government is prepared to exercise the No Deal option does the UK have clout. We should expect to see and hear more of the successful preparations in the days ahead. No Deal delivers most of what Brexit voters want. It means we leave the EU on 29 March 2019 as promised. We leave without paying any extra money to the EU as a leaving present. We regain control of our laws, our borders and our trade policy. The only thing it does not give us is a free trade deal with the EU. I suspect if we look as if we mean to leave without a deal the EU would want to extend its current offer of a free trade deal for Great Britain into an offer for the UK, as we will of course not accept one which leaves out Northern Ireland. The biggest win from no deal is the opportunity to spend £39 billion at home on our own priorities that we would otherwise give away to the EU. £39 billion spent at home would be a big boost of 2% of GDP. It would cut our balance of payments deficit by the same amount. Depending on the mixture of tax cuts and extra spending we chose, there would be additional gains from the stimulus effect of the money. The right tax cuts could power faster growth and more business success. Well deployed spending on education and training could help more people into better paid jobs. We should also use all the £13bn we collect in tariffs on EU imports to give as tax cuts to UK consumers so we are no worse off from the tariffs. Doubtless we will also buy more UK goods when EU ones are dearer so we will be better off. The next win from just leaving will be the right to control our own borders and settle our own migration policy. I expect the government to make it easy for tourists, students, investors and people with good qualifications to come to the UK. What the public wants is a decent control on people coming to the UK to take low paid employment, when we need to up the wages and recruit more local people to do the jobs, whilst investing in labour saving automation where the jobs are unattractive. We need to alleviate some of the stresses on housing and infrastructure which high migration rates in recent years have exacerbated. We want a fair policy, which does not give priority to people from continental countries over people from the Commonwealth. The third win will be in global trade. Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada and the USA are keen to sign trade deals with us. We could join the Trans Pacific Partnership. To do such deals we need to be free to make our own calls on regulation, tariffs and non tariff barriers. Through our membership of the WTO we can create relatively friction free trade, as we enjoy today on non EU trade, with the added advantages that trade deals can bring. The fourth and biggest win of all is we will re-establish our home democracy. Our laws will be made in the UK, and can be repealed or improved by Parliaments we elect and influence. The UK will regain her vote and voice in a number of world bodies, including the World Trade Organisation and various standards bodies, so we can have direct influence on world regulation. Any deal worth accepting has to be better than this. It would need to be a very good offer indeed to be a very good offer indeed to be worthwhile paying them £39bn more.

UNLESS you come of the gipsy stock That steals by night and day, Lock your heart with a double lock And throw the key away. Bury it under the blackest stone Beneath your father's hearth, And keep your eyes on your lawful own And your feet to the proper path. Then you can stand at your door and mock When the gipsy vans come through... For it isn't right that the Gorgio stock Should live as the Romany do. Unless you come of the gipsy blood That takes and never spares, Bide content with your given good And follow your own affairs. Plough and harrow and roll your land, And sow what ought to be sowed; But never let loose your heart from your hand, Nor flitter it down the road! Then you can thrive on your boughten food As the gipsy vans come through... For it isn't nature the Gorgio blood Should love as the Romany do. Unless you carry the gipsy eyes That see but seldom weep, Keep your head from the naked skies Or the stars'll trouble your sleep. Watch your moon through your window-pane And take what weather she brews; But don't run out in the midnight rain Nor home in the morning dews. Then you can huddle and shut your eyes As the gipsy vans come through... For it isn't fitting the Gorgio ryes Should walk as the Romany do. Unless you come of the gipsy race That counts all time the same, Be you careful of Time and Place And Judgment and Good Name: Lose your life for to live your life The way that you ought to do; And when you are finished, your God and your wife And the Gipsies'll laugh at you! Then you can rot in your burying place As the gipsy vans come through... For it isn't reason the Gorgio race Should die as the Romany do.

There used to be a 7/6d bounty on them.

I had a cupboard full of baked beans, pickled eggs and pasta 8 years ago due to expecting monetary breakdown and Eurogeddon. I've just started stockpiling again because of the threats of punishment being dished out by the EU, which is becoming desperate at the thought of losing a major benefactor. It's not the first time that Germany has tried to starved us into submission. Perhaps the best thing to stockpile would be pork products that certain religious groups are not liable to steal.

Anyone remember the Millennium Bug?

Call it a Hard Brexit, or a No-Deal Brexit if you like, but I voted for a Clean Break Brexit.

About 40 years ago, I walked into a chippy in Croydon(I think) on my way home from visiting a college friend in Streatham. Everyone stared at me, and I realised that I was the only white person in the place. I felt uncomfortable! If that makes me a racist, then I hold my hands up to it. Under first-past-the-post, I would vote to stop what I don't want. Under proportional representation, I would vote for what I want. I think that's why UKIP do so well in the European elections.

Let's hope we now get the clean Brexit that we voted for.

The EU is the old Soviet Union dressed in Western clothes Mikhail Gorbachev

Ask Mikhail Gorbachev.

It's about not being sucked into a Socialist experiment of the type that took 70 years to fail the other side of the Iron Curtain. The place where women received a medal for having 20 kids, and 20,000,000 people were murdered because they didn't agree with the leader.

Getting out of the EU clutches is NOT all about MONEY.

People keep talking about the amount of Tax that the immigrants pay, but never mention the amounts they send out of the country.

Hello Sailor!

I think they used to be called 'Bread Saws'. An electric carving knife will slice, even wholemeal bread, very thinly, but some are better than others.

A friend in France was told that he was on the verge of becoming diabetic. The female doctor over there told him it could be avoided with a diet but he would never stick to it, she didn't know the person she was talking to. The remedy: Intake nothing but water 6-days-a-week for 8 weeks. JOB DONE!

Anyone who cannot see that the EU is intent on becoming a Socialist superstate, must have their head up their backside.

Better to have a short sharp shock than a lifetime for coming generations within the UESR. It took 70 years of misery, suppression and millions of murders before the USSR collapsed, and now the EU is trying it all over again.

I would have thought that there has been enough welfare savings due to shorter dole queues not to need any extra taxation to fund the NHS.

Environment Agency officers checking for Rod Licenses are having to wear stab-proof vests because of the eastern Europeans. Thank you, EU.

Here's another one: "The EU is the old Soviet Union dressed in Western clothes"-- Mikhail Gorbachev

Just about to start on the 5th 'balancing lake'. Tench up to 7lb caught last year. Perch up to c4lb in there somewhere, but so many Rudd for them to eat, they don't often get caught.

"The most puzzling development in politics during the last decade is the apparent determination of Western European leaders to re-create the Soviet Union in Western Europe." -- Mikhail Gorbachev