Brexit

[Witton Park]

You're peddling the typical ERG and hard brexshit fib by conflating that which the manifesto (I assume you meant the Conservative manifesto) set out in 2017 with Vote Leave's claims during the referendum - in 2016, THE YEAR BEFORE. During the referendum it was all about leaving, with no clear vision of how that would actually happen, except that the EU needed us (apparently) more than we needed them and so a DEAL - would be simples. But, remember the hapless faces of Boris and Gove, when the were interviewed together on TV the day after the result. Clueless. Gove subsequently supported May's deal; which was designed to avoid a no-deal catastrophe. Boris slithered off to focus on his next bout of adultery having again broken another marriage solemn promise to his second wife having already broken his marriage promise to his first - serial lies come so naturally to this bloke and how much easier when its to the wider British public - whatever fits his bloated selfish sense of entitlement.

So, no-deal doesn't have a mandate unless your claiming that every person who voted Tory in 2017, must have agreed with no-deal, which is ludicrously simple-minded.

Even during the referendum, Vote Leave said precious little that was intelligible except resorting to blaming others (foreigners in the uk, the EU politicians, etc.)for all of their woes and making false promises to the ever-gullible and pertetually disgruntled, sector of the electorate, whose motivation for voting Leave were various and complex. The only touted positive made by Leave were false claims that leaving would be straightforward and we'd all be winners soaking up the largesse. Indeed, Vote Leave then subsequently and sneakily retracted much of what they promised just after he results came out!

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-a7105546.html

What amuses me is how many Leavers, after disparaging experts prior to the referendum vote, suddenly become their own purveyors of expertise on what everyone else who voted Leave clearly understood and wanted. Strangely, the opinion seems to be that what they - the Leaver voters - wanted, always seems to accord exactly with whatever the particular Leave 'expert' believes him or herself You couldn't make it up - oh hang on, they did!

Let's just pick on a few snippets here to try and help you.

Liam Fox is the one most oft quoted as saying "it would be the easiest free trade deal in history" on the basis that everything was already at 0%, we were already in regulatory alignment, and so much of the work done in setting up deals with Canada etc would not be needed.


Fox actually said "should" and he was correct at the time. But he didn't know that Cameron would step down and duck the responsibility. Cameron promised he would stay on whatever the result. Fox didn't know that an out-of-depth Theresa May, who has a tendency to trust advisors more than colleagues in cabinet, would undermine the UK negotiating position.

So it should have been the easiest FTA in the history of FTAs and was on the table a year ago, until May undermined Davis for (at least) the 3rd time at Chequers.

Now to the mandate for No Deal, or lack of one as you say.

The only "deal" on the table is the Withdrawal Agreement. It is an International Treaty which sets out lots of responsibilities for the UK (including a large chunk of money likely to far exceed the £39 Billion) but not for the EU.

It is one side of the Article 50 process.

The side that the UK is interested in is "the deal". The EU, due to May's poor handling of the process, has wriggled out of any commitments and got away with a few warm words.

Not accepting the Withdrawal Agreement does not mean "No Deal". It means no deal yet.

And just bear in mind the indicative votes last Thursday. What seems to have escaped many people's attention is that they actually gave the Government a mandate to leave on April 12th without a deal.

The SNP amendment put forward by Joanna Cherry actually asked the Commons to Revoke Article 50 if we go to within 48 hours of leaving without agreeing a deal.
It was heavily defeated.

The final mandate to leave with No Deal flows from the General Election.

We went in to it with Article 50 triggered. We left in 2 years deal or no deal, enshrined in a Act of Parliament and passed with a huge majority.


Then at the General Election 85% + voted for parties that were standing on Brexit policy aligned with the Lancaster House speech.

Tory, Labour, UKIP, DUP, UUP all for what we might call a Clean Brexit.

Everyone had a chance to vote for LibDem, Green, SNP, PC, SF, SDLP etc but their vote share declined.

Just a final point on the rather out of context mentions of personal misdemeanours, is that some of the leading lights of Remain are hardly paragons of virtue.
We have the late Paddy Pantsdown, Sir John Major who had it away with Edwina, Mandelson who had to resign twice for a fraudulent mortgage application and having a quiet word with the home office to get passports for the Hinduja brothers.
The fact is that life is littered with people who make errors of judgement in their private life.
Criminal behaviour is a different matter. Unethical behaviour also in certain cases, but I think we have to be careful not to start throwing mud at people in this way.
We know about these instances, but how many are there we don't know about?