EU Withdrawal Bill receives government assent

The Royal Assent was given to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act earlier this week, meaning that it is confirmed that we are leaving The EU in March next year.

But are we?

The last few weeks have been dominated by manoeuvring, backroom deals and uncertainty.

Theresa May apparently gave ‘assurances’ to remain supporting Tory MP’s that she would give them a ‘soft’ BREXIT, MP’s who have since been critical of the vote that stops them having a say on the final deal.

Some media outlets have been reporting that a compromise has been made where Speaker Bercow can decide whether the Government needs to go back to The House in the event of a deal that doesn’t match what he wants – why so much influence would be vested in this pompous Popinjay, a remain supporter as seen by his vehicle stickers, is beyond me.

Labour are all over the place, an opposition that fears taking a stand either way for fear of upsetting their remain supporting intelligentsia in the South and their leave supporting core base in the North, not to mention their major donor the Unite Union who are solidly behind remain. The ‘principled’ Jeremy Corbyn, an outspoken critic of the EU when a backbencher, has been a passive remainer since before the Referendum in an attempt to put party unity before country.

One day they are saying we must leave the Single Market and Customs Union, the next they are not ruling out a further referendum.

This morning we saw Tory minister Greg Clark on Sky’s Sophy Ridge show state that a ‘transition period’ could extend beyond 2021 if the ‘evidence’ changes – a transition period that is merely a way of delaying BREXIT until the remain element can carry on their new version of project fear and either keep us in the EU by stealth (BRINO) or reverse the referendum result completely.

This whole farce is further evidence that the establishment in this country do not respect the voice of the British people who voted to leave in 2016, but it is hardly surprising. In his book, ‘The Road to Freedom’ which was published before the Referendum was even a possibility, UKIP leader Gerard Batten MEP predicted just such a response from the ruling class if we went down the road of triggering Article 50 after a successful campaign to get ourselves out of the EU.

Whilst we are officially leaving the EU, the ‘transition period’ is just what the powers that be want to try and get a second bite of the cherry – after all, the Irish were made to vote again after a referendum went against The Lisbon Treaty and the French and Dutch were ignored after votes against the EU constitution (They just changed the name and whacked it through without a vote).

Any attempt to bring ‘the deal’ back to The House will only weaken our hand in negotiations – after all, if Barnier and the Brussels negotiating team know that offering a bad deal will bring the UK back to the table and delay BREXIT then they have no incentive to offer us anything like what we are looking for.

It’s not over yet

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You can purchase a copy of Gerard Batten’s book ‘The Road to Freedom’ here for a full overview

BREXIT means Exit

The following is a guest post by UKIP London MEP and  BREXIT spokesman, Gerard Batten

The 17.4 million people who voted to leave the European Union on 23^rd June 2016 expected that to happen without delay.  But six months later Prime Minister Theresa May has done nothing to make it happen.  What is more she does not intend to do anything for another three months, and even then she will not commit to what Brexit actually means.

 

We have no reason to trust Theresa May.  She was a Remainer in the Referendum campaign, and had Remain won she would be telling us it was the right decision and in our best interests.  Having been on the losing side, she now finds herself in charge of implementing the winning sides decision.  But instead of outlining her EU exit strategy, she merely mouths the slogan ‘Brexit means Brexit’ without explaining what it means.

If Mrs May were serious she could have taken immediate action and triggered Article 50 the day after she was appointed Prime Minister, merely by writing a note to the European Council to that effect. Instead she did nothing, except to give the Remain camp the time to re-group and counter attack, which they duly did by taking their delaying tactics to the High Court.

The Supreme Court Case on Article 50

Today is the fourth and final day of the Supreme Court hearing over whether or not the Government has the ability to Trigger Article 50 of The Lisbon Treaty to start the procedure to leave the European Union or whether it has to go to a Parliamentary vote.

The Government argue that they do not need to have a vote and can use The UK Royal Prerogative in light of the Leave vote at the referendum on 23rd June, a position that the High Court has already rejected.

The case, brought by Gina Miller, argues that Parliamentary Democracy needs to be upheld and as such the Government should be accountable – indeed, she has painted herself as somebody who is fighting for our democracy.

With that in mind, it is worth both Ms Miller and the judges looking at the following instances pertaining to the European Union –

1972 – UK Prime Minister Edward Heath used the RP to sign the treaty for the UK to join the European Economic Community (Common Market) without prior UK Parliament approval

1987 – UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher used RP to sign the Single European Act without prior UK Parliament Approval

1992 – Prime Minister John Major used the RP to sign the Maastricht Treaty without prior UK Parliament approval

1997 – Prime Minister Tony Blair used the RP to sign the Amsterdam Treaty without prior UK Parliament approval

2007 – Prime Minister Gordon Brown used the RP to sign the Lisbon Treaty without UK Parliament approval

2016 – November 3rd – UK High Court decides that Prime Minister Theresa May cannot use the RP to enact Article 50 – withdrawal from the European Union – without prior approval of the UK Parliament

Surely, ‘Stare Decisis’ should come in to play – the legal principle of determining points in litigation according to precedent. Indeed, many find it puzzling that the High Court did not come to this conclusion during the original case although , as highly qualified and respected Judges, they must have had their reasons.

It also begs the question – why are these ‘Champions of Democracy’ only acting now when Parliament has been bypassed using the legislation on previous occasions pertaining to the EU? Is it because this time they do not like the potential outcome?

However, last night saw a Parliamentary vote on the Government’s timetable for activation of Article 50 and came down heavily on the side of the motion by 461 votes to 89 – irrespective of the outcome of the case they now have the Parliamentary approval to push ahead, although worryingly they accepted a Labour amendment to the motion saying that Parliament would need to be informed of the details, effectively tipping our hand in negotiations with Brussels.

The Charade of Article 50

Whilst the High Court and Supreme Court cases, plus the Parliamentary vote itself, have produced hours of media coverage and masses of newsprint, this whole charade misses a major essential point.

Article 50 was put in to The Lisbon Treaty as a mechanism that was never supposed to be used. The Government only need to send a quick fax or letter to Brussels informing them that they wish to leave to trigger the proposed 2 year ‘negotiation’ period. During this ‘negotiation’, the remaining 27 member states decide what terms they wish to trade with us under upon departure – our own team can make suggestions but will not be involved in those negotiations. Effectively, we will be twiddling our thumbs waiting for what the EU deign to come back and give us.

If the Government do get their ‘deal or no deal’ at the end of the two years then it has to come back to Parliament to repeal the 1972 European Communities Act which took us in to the ‘Common Market’ (as it was then) in the first place.

If the Government genuinely want us to Leave with the best deal possible, they could impose a three line whip to repeal the Act now and negotiate afterwards from a position of strength. After all, in the worst case scenario we go back to WTO rules immediately which would cost the country half of what our EU membership does at the moment even if maximum legal tariffs were imposed – those tariffs, as a net importer from the EU, would harm them far more than they would harm a globally trading, outward looking and independent Britain.

We have nothing to lose and everything to gain by ignoring Article 50 and triggering repeal of the 1972 European Communities Act. The question is, does this Conservative Government really want to give the people what they voted for or do they wish to fudge and delay either to a watered down version where we remain in the European Economic Area (EEA) with continued payments to and regulation from the EU or even, dare I say it, a second referendum? If so, history and the ballot box will not be kind.

The Road to Freedom

If you would like further information on how we should leave the EU, we would highly recommend Gerard Batten MEP’s book, ‘The Road to Freedom’ – this can be purchased via the following link

http://www.bretwaldabooks.com/book.php?p=221

Dispelling the myths around BREXIT

During our ongoing discussions with people on street stalls surrounding the EU Referendum a number of questions keep coming up.

Below, Gerard Batten MEP dispels the myths created by the Remain campaign about the dangers of leaving the EU

1) Would leaving the EU endanger jobs and trade, and could the EU put up trade barriers against the UK?

When we leave the EU it cannot put up arbitrary trade barriers against the UK as that would against World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, which all EU countries agree to and which govern world trade. And even if they could why would they want to? We have a massive trade deficit with the EU – they sell us far more than we sell them.

Britain currently exports goods and services to the EU to the value of £228.9 billion, whereas their exports to us amount to £290.6 billion: therefore we have a trade deficit with the EU of £61.7 billion. Germany, Spain, France and Italy etc.will still want to sell us their cars, wine and holidays etc. Trade will continue as normal. [i]

And remember, Britain is the fifth largest economy in the world and we are a world trading nation: and while we have a trade deficit with the EU we have a trade surplus with the rest of the world.   Our trading success lies in four hundred years of experience; English being the international language of business and science; and the trust that foreign companies put in the English legal system and contract law.

TTIP Update

I received the following earlier today from our London MEP, Gerard Batten, regarding the shadowy Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)

You recently wrote to me about your concerns about TTIP.  I was pleased to tell you that I will be voting against this treaty when this comes before the European Parliament, and I would now like to update you on the latest situation.

On Wednesday 9^th September Jean-Claude Juncker, President of European Commission, gave his annual State of the Union speech  to European Parliament.

In his speech Mr Juncker referred to TTIP and said unequivocally that he was “in favour of the TTIP treaty”.   I felt that you should be aware that this was his, and the European Commission’s position.

Mr Juncker further remarked that that we wanted “international representation for the euro-zone” on such bodies as the “Bretton Woods Institute and the International Monetary Fund”.  He said that he wanted a “single representation by the European Union” on these bodies.

While the UK is not part of the euro-zone, his remarks demonstrate the EU’s ambitions to replace national representation on international bodies still further, thereby further reducing the democratic accountability of national governments to their electorates’.

I will update you further on the TTIP issue as things develop.

Yours sincerely,

Gerard Batten MEP

UKIP

 

Public meeting in West Drayton

Why you should vote ‘No’ to the EU – A public meeting to outline the case for UK Independence

UKIP Hillingdon are proud to announce our first public meeting to put the case for EU withdrawal (BREXIT). This is a non-aligned meeting where people from all political parties and none are welcome to attend, listen to the arguments and participate in our popular question and answer sessions

Speakers –

Gerard Batten MEP – A founder member of UKIP in 1993 and London MEP since 2004, Gerard has seen the inside workings of the Brussels Parliament and how it impacts on our rights and freedoms as British Citizens

 

 

 

 

Mark Hughes – Listed in the Top 100 fund managers by Citywire , financial expert Mark Hughes has run his own investment company since 1997. Mark believes our businesses and economy will flourish outside of the unnecessary regulations imposed by the EU

 

 

 

 

Chaired by UKIP Hayes & Harlington spokesman Cliff Dixon

 

Date – Thursday 23^rd July – Meeting starts at 8.30pm

Venue – Yiewsley & W. Drayton Community Centre, Harmondsworth Rd, West Drayton, UB7 9JL

For further details, please contact UKIP Hillingdon

Tel – 07939 223659                Email – ukiphillingdon@tiscali.co.uk

 

UKIP public meeting in Hayes

With the by-election in Charville moving in to it’s final stages, UKIP Hillingdon are running a public meeting in Hayes at Brook House FC on Kingshill Avenue.

Starting at 7pm on Thursday 20th November, speeches will be followed by a question and answer session from the floor where you can quiz the panellists on the issues that affect you.

Headline speakers

Gerard Batten was one of the founding members of UKIP, and has been the MEP for London since 2004.

Formerly our Home Affairs and Immigration spokesman, he has a wide knowledge of law and order issues and has written a number of books on how the EU is eroding our democracy.

 

 

 

 

Richard Barnes was formerly the leader of Hillingdon council and Deputy Mayor to Boris Johnson on the GLA. He joined UKIP earlier this year

 

Chairing the meeting –

Christine Taylor

A prominent anti-3rd runway campaigner, Christine is a tireless worker for people affected by Heathrow expansion

Support speaker

Cliff Dixon is the Chairman of UKIP Hillingdon and our candidate in the Charville byelection. A lifelong resident of the borough, he is a familiar sight on the streets of Hayes

UKIP Earthquake hits UK, Tremors felt in Hillingdon

Last year saw UKIP take the media by surprise and the country by storm in the local elections, with 147 councillors elected. Many in the media questioned if this could be repeated again this year, with the locals scheduled for the same day as the EU elections on 22nd May.

After an intensive campaign, the highlight of which saw Nigel Farage totally demolish Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg in two live TV debates on our EU membership, the answer was an emphatic YES!

Local Elections

Across the country, UKIP took 163 council seats and tipped a number of councils in to no overall control. This was an overall gain of 128 of the seats contested.

In Hillingdon, we fielded a total of 24 candidates across 22 wards (Single in each, with 2 in both Heathrow Villages and South Ruislip). This was a quantum leap forward from 2010, when we fielded a sole candidate in South Ruislip (Robin Kirby) who finished 10th with 611 votes (3.9%)

Our tactics with  limited finances and a small campaign team very nearly paid off, with some near misses in Harefield, Yiewsley, Charville & Uxbridge South. Out of 22 wards, we finished 4th in 8 and 3rd in the only two councillor ward (Harefield) where our candidate Gerard Barry beat incumbent councillor and former Boris Johnson deputy, Richard Barnes.

A strong UKIP showing in Yiewsley saw a Labour target revert to full Conservative control, whilst conversely our presence in Charville, Heathrow Villages, Uxbridge South and West Drayton saw the Conservatives lose seats, most notably former Mayor Mary O’Connor in Charville.

 

In the Labour heartlands of Townfield and Botwell, UKIP are now the main opposition whilst in the Tory North we outpolled Labour in Cavendish, Eastcote & E Ruislip, Ickenham, Uxbridge North, Northwood Hills, Northwood, Harefield, Manor and West Ruislip.

 

These results have seen us become comfortably the third party in Hillingdon with over 17000 votes cast, with the Lib-Dem’s defeated in every ward where they stood against us. If we take the best performing candidate from each party in the ward to get an average vote share, UKIP took 21.6%  – Better than one in five people who voted put a cross against a UKIP candidate, an encouraging portent of things to come.

EU Elections

Hopes were high that we could improve on 2nd place nationally in 2009 and claim top spot in this contest – As the numbers came in from the count on the night of Sunday 25th , it became apparent that UKIP had become the first political party outside of Labour and The Conservatives to win a national election in over 100 years – The ‘Earthquake’ had well and truly hit!

24 UKIP MEP’s were elected, including our first in Scotland (David Coburn), with Gerard Batten holding his seat in London and Paul Oakley just missing out on joining him as our vote share increased.

In Hillingdon, we had taken 10033 votes in 2009, which we easily eclipsed this time out with 19746, just 1452 short of victory. The Conservatives finished second having lost an 8000 majority from their 2009 result in what had turned in to a tight, 3 way contest.

The night may even have had a triumphal ending if it had not been for 2 ‘spoiler’ parties at the top of the ballot paper, UK EPP and An Independence from Europe – UK Independence Now! (The latter being formed by former UKIP MEP, Mike Nattrass) They garnered over 2000 votes between them, and appeared responsible for at least 100 of the spoiled papers that were scrutinised by myself and officers from Labour, Conservative & Greens.

The Campaign

Compared to the establishment parties, we had a smaller team fighting on much more limited resources but certainly punched above our weight! In my own Charville ward, the Conservatives put out 5 leaflets in a month and had a full canvassing team at their disposal yet still lost a seat and failed to put clear daylight between their candidates and UKIP

Here is the campaign in pictures –

Braving the cold to get an early leaflet run out in Harefield with candidate Gerard Barry back in February

A decent sized team out to distribute leaflets advertising a public meeting in Heathrow Villages in February

 

We love Heathrow Villages public meeting – John Stewart from independent campaign group HACAN Clearskies addresses the audience on Heathrow expansion, whilst Gerard Batten MEP and myself look on.

Banners started popping up all around the borough in February extolling the virtues of Hillingdon Council whilst extra editions of the Council magazine ‘Hillingdon People’ were despatched to every house in the borough. Special ‘Ward’ versions also appeared (below). A freedom of information request showed that Hillingdon Council spent £97000 of public money last year (Excluding design costs) on the magazine.

During an action day in Ickenham in early March, we came across these fine fellows delivering Hillingdon People magazine. Only one spoke broken English and they enjoyed some refreshment on their rounds as can be seen in the picture.

Ilyas out campaigning in Ickenham in March sunshine. A committed campaigner, he spent every day with us in the 2 weeks before the election leafleting target wards for hours and was a prime factor in our West Drayton result.

Christine Taylor in Heathrow Villages putting out our literature in privately owned notice boards. Numerous complaints went in from the other parties about this to electoral services – When they drew a blank the boards were vandalised, triggering a round of tear it down, put it up. Much of the campaigning across the borough was good natured, but not in this ward.

The BBC paid us a visit on a street stall in Uxbridge. Here, myself and Jack Duffin are interviewed by Andrew Cryan for The Sunday Politics

Early April saw a very busy public meeting featuring UKIP Culture spokesman Peter Whittle and London Chairman Roger Gravett in Charville ward (Hayes)

The audience look on

The following week saw another meeting in Harefield, with Gerard Barry centre stage after the late withdrawal of guest speaker on HS2 councillor Chris Adams

Bryan and Christine kept the public constantly updated via their Heathrow Villages Notice Board – Here, Bryan poses with yet more dumped rubbish in the ward that the council failed to deal with

We ran a number of street stalls during the campaign – This one is in Ickenham

 

Billboards for the EU elections started to appear across the borough  in early May

With Labour terrified of the UKIP surge, they put out leaflets misrepresenting our policies. When challenged, I pointed to their pledge on tough action on immigration which immediately invalidated the authenticity of the rest of the leaflet.

The final weekend – Followed by France Channel 5, a final blitz in Heathrow Villages. A sitting Labour councillor objected to the camera crew when we bumped in to her and was extremely abusive

 

Gerard Barry out in the final leg of the campaign with London MEP Gerard Batten in Harefield

 

Polling day – Jack Duffin grabs the megaphone

A big thank you to all those in Hillingdon who voted for UKIP in these elections – We look forward to coming back even stronger next time and with your help, changing the tired two party system in effect in our borough that is stopping your voices being heard in the way our area is run.

Cameron panicked in to fresh baloney on immigration

From the website of Gerard Batten MEP

In a blind panic David Cameron is rushing through legislation before 1st January to limit benefits payments to immigrants.

He is only doing this because he is powerless to stop the next influx of migrants fom Romania and Bulgaria when the final restrictions end. He is desperate to be seen to be doing something in the face of the UKIP electoral threat.

But what do his new laws amount to? The Immigration Bill going through Parliament has been pulled from the legislative programme with no date set in 2014 for its return. The reason given is that there is too much legislation before Parliament to get it through before Christmas. The real reason is because of the growing amount of support from MPs for an amendment tabled by Tory back-bencher Michael Mills. Mr Mills amendment proposes extending the restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians beyond 1st January .

This amendment was gathering support from MPs of all parties, who caught like rabbits in the headlights, fear for their seats because of growing public anger at uncontrolled immigration. Mr Cameron could not risk this amendment becoming law because it would put him in breach of EU law, and they are the master now. Therefore it had to be stopped.

Mr Camerons emergency legislation will say that benefits to migrants will be limited for the first three months. That is not very long, but in any case migrants can still claim benefits for those three months at the rate they would be paid in their one country using the form U2 available from the EU website http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/work/social-security-forms/index_en.htm

Theoretically the UK can then reclaim the money paid from the migrants home country. This poses three questions: Why hasn’t the UK Government used this procedure before? If it has, to what extent? And if so, how much money has been repaid?

The whole thing is of course more baloney. Mr Cameron does not know how to handle the UKIP threat and immigration because he has fully surrendered to the EU. They control immigration policy not him. He is desperately trying to find a public relations stunt to divert attention – but no one believes it any more.

 

The original article can be viewed at  http://www.gerardbattenmep.com/cameron-panicked-into-fresh-baloney-on-immigration/

 

The Coalition Government has no intention of ‘repatriating powers’ from the European Union.

Re-Posted from the website of Gerard Batten MEP

David Cameron has a golden opportunity to return vital powers from the EU to Britain. These concern the Police and Criminal Justice measures that could be opted out of in mid-2014. However the Home Secretary, Theresa May, has done precisely the opposite and opted-in to those EU powers that are the most dangerous, and which are destroying the centuries old legal safeguards to our freedoms and liberties.

You can read about this in more detail by clicking on this link for Gerard Batten’s latest article in the Freedom Today magazine.

 

For more information on the work of Gerard Batten MEP, please visit his website at http://www.gerardbattenmep.com/