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Ditherers! You’ve Had Your Chance at Brexit: Now Shove-Off, It’s Boris’ Turn!
What is wrong with some people in the UK Parliament?
I’ll tell you what’s wrong; They had their chance and they duffed-it-up beyond all fixing and it took them 3-years to accomplish nothing… other than cost the UK economy £1 billion per month (totalling £38 billion since June 23, 2016) due to economic uncertainty.
To add insult to injury, over that same 3-years the UK continued to pay a £10.5 billion (average) annual net payment to the EU, for a total of £69.5 billion (so far) due to the prolonged Brexit negotiating period. A ‘negotiation’ that in the end, failed spectacularly.
And now they see Boris is going to get the job done in short order — which they imagine will have the effect of making their efforts look pathetic by comparison.
In Short; These People are Poor Losers!
And worse, they won’t allow the new team to get the job done, thereby outing themselves for the ditherers they are. (Fun Fact: The Free Dictionary cites former UK Prime Minister Theresa May 4 out of 10 times in the ‘References’ section under the word ‘ditherer’)
Remoaners… You’ve Already Had Your Chance! So Get Out of the Way and Let Boris Have His Chance!
After 3-years of trying to gain a Brexit deal these people failed to pass the Withdrawal Agreement three times in a row when they were leading the government.
The Conservative Party ‘called time’ on their efforts, because for all the bouncing around the EU and cravenly sucking-up to all and sundry, they accomplished nothing on the Brexit file. Not one thing.
It’s like the proverbial 7-year-olds who tried to play against an adult rugby team; ‘You were getting hammered by your opponents, let alone being unable to keep up with your own team members, and team management pulled your sorry behinds off the field so you wouldn’t embarrass yourselves to the point you’d get booed every time you walked onto a rugby pitch for the rest of your lives.’
In the case of the ‘Remoaner’ Brexit team, getting ‘benched’ by ‘management’ was a mercy! Do these people not get it?
Please View This Chart if You’re a UK Taxpayer & Are Concerned About the Size of the Net Contributions to Brussels (plus the Economic Uncertainty Losses Over the Past 3-Years) All of Which Total £69.5 Billion, so far…
Remember, a ‘net’ payment is the money you don’t get back. It’s a net payment. Get it?
So, Who Really, is Working for the UK taxpayer?
- On the one hand, there are those who created this entire mess by dragging Brexit out over 3-years and want the government to double-down on the failed tactics of the Remoaner Brexit team and want the new Prime Minister to tell Britons they must continue to pay insane amounts of money to the EU annually and accept economic uncertainty as a permanent state of affairs in the UK. Meanwhile, the EU continues to say there is absolutely no chance of a change in their Brexit position. So, why work for more delay? What’s to be gained by another missed Brexit deadline? What do you hope to accomplish over 3-more months that you couldn’t accomplish over 3-years? Why are you attempting to play the ball when you’ve been ordered off the field by your own management?
- On the other hand, there are those who want to stop the economic haemorrhaging by November 1, 2019 by getting Brexit done and dusted, working diligently and under trying conditions for the country’s taxpayers so that Britons can move on with their lives in a better economy and with proper UK sovereignty restored.
So, who is working for the UK taxpayer? You tell me…
Related Article:
- Brexit showdown: Who were Tory rebels who defied Boris Johnson? (BBC)
October 31, 2019 is 66-Days Away: Will Boris Johnson Keep His Brexit Promise?
New-ish Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, has promised dozens of times that he will deliver Brexit on October 31, 2019 and let’s hope he keeps his promise to the British people.
The UK people voted in a democratic referendum on June 23, 2016 to Leave the EU and won the poll with a 4 per cent margin of victory, and in the subsequent UK General Election held on June 8, 2017 — an election where all parties stood on a platform to take the UK out of the European Union — Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May won the General Election with a 2.4 per cent margin of victory.
Neither of those margins of victory are notable as UK governments have been elected into power with smaller margins of victory than those two examples.
In the UK electoral system, if you win by 5 per cent or you win by .005 per cent, you win. That’s all there is to the so-called, first past the post system employed by many Western democracies.
Therefore, all that’s required of UK Members of Parliament now in regards to Brexit is for MP’s to fulfil the mandate they were given by the British people on June 23, 2016 which was further bolstered by the 2017 General Election win by a party that ran on a platform of delivering Brexit.
Further, MP’s voted overwhelmingly (498-114) to approve the the House of Commons bill authorizing Brexit, called the European Union Bill.
From that perspective, anything less than delivering a successful Brexit in a reasonable timeframe would display either incompetence or laziness by British MP’s. And I don’t know which is worse. (Is it better that your government is incompetent, or is it better that it’s lazy?) Hard to choose.
Of course, that explanation leaves out the possibility that UK MP’s would actually betray their own country and actively work for the agenda of another country (the European Union) rather than work for their own country and the constituents who voted for them and their pro-Brexit platform as promised in the last General Election.
What Price Should British MP’s Pay Who Refuse to Honour the (Twice) Expressed Will of The People?
What should the punishment be for UK MP’s who choose to work against the 2016 referendum result, against the 2017 UK General Election result (where all parties ran on a platform of delivering Brexit) against the House of Commons bill approving Brexit, and their own constituents wishes?
- Voter recall by constituents of their local MP, forcing that MP to resign his/her seat, thereby triggering a byelection to replace that MP.
- Being held in Contempt of Parliament for ignoring a House of Commons resolution authorizing Brexit (where no preconditions had been placed on the type of exit) forcing the MP to resign their seat, thereby triggering a byelection to replace that MP.
- Being arrested by the police/New Scotland Yard/the security service for treason, forcing the MP to resign their seat, thereby triggering a byelection to replace that MP.
- Being arrested by the police/New Scotland Yard/the security service for insurrection, on account of promoting or leading public protests against the clearly and twice-expressed will of a majority of UK voters and being charged with treason, forcing the MP to resign their seat, thereby triggering a byelection to replace that MP.
One thing is for certain; The present mood in the United Kingdom is becoming more anti-government and more pro-people power every day. It’s also becoming more patriotic and less pro-EU than at any time in recent memory.
And it’s becoming more pro-Brexit — even among former Remainers — who like everyone else just want the people in government to do their jobs, which in itself would end the present economic uncertainty. That’s 3-years of uncertainty and counting!
The People, it seems, have had enough of UK politicians gassing-off about how great they are, and about how they’re going to accomplish this and that, without it ever coming to fruition.
Some 1160-days have passed since the June 23, 2016 referendum where The People instructed the UK government to take the United Kingdom out of the European Union.
I’ll remind you that it took 2041-days to defeat Hitler in World War II.
At the rate we’re moving on the Brexit file, it looks like the day will arrive when we can say it took longer to leave the European Union political apparatus during peacetime than it took to defeat the Nazis in WWII.
For now, I’ll continue to give Boris Johnson and his ‘can do spirit’ the benefit of the doubt. (But who knows what the other 650-odd British MP’s are up to, and even more worryingly, to whom are they beholden in the EU?)
Whenever any dissension appears within the UK government it plays directly into the hands of the EU negotiators tasked with outmanoeuvring UK negotiators. One wonders why some British politicians are so determined to make the UK appear weak, inept and disorganized.
Whatever! If Conservatives fail to deliver Brexit by November 1, 2019 I expect they’ll be booted from power by The People and that the UK Conservative Party will cease to exist for a generation, perhaps longer. That’s what happens when you don’t fulfil your promise to The People.
With a clear conscience have I warned the UK Conservative Party about the looming implosion of their party (that I and others foresee) should they be too weak to deliver Brexit by October 31, 2019. Let’s hope they’re ‘in-touch’ with the overall mood of the public… or they’re as good as gone.
Related Articles:
- June 23, 2016 | EU Referendum Results in Charts (BBC)
- July 13, 2016 | New UK PM: Theresa May becomes Prime Minister (CNN)
- February 1, 2017 | Brexit: MPs overwhelmingly back Article 50 bill (BBC)
- June 8, 2017 | UK Election 2017: Theresa May Loses Overall Majority (NYT)
- January 15, 2019 | May’s Brexit deal suffers worst defeat ever (The Guardian)
- March 13, 2019 | MPs reject Theresa May’s Brexit deal for a second time (BBC)
- March 29, 2019 | Prime Minister May’s Brexit deal fails for a third time (VOX)
- March 31, 2019 | Brexit day is here but Britain isn’t leaving the EU yet (CNN)
- April 12, 2019 | Brexit: UK & EU agree to delay Brexit date to 31 October (BBC)
- July 24, 2019 | New UK PM: UK’s Boris Johnson wields knife on first day (CNN)
- August 27, 2019 | Brexit: Opposition MPs agree strategy to block No Deal (BBC)
- August 29, 2019 | Prorogation of UK Parliament sparks furious backlash (BBC)
Boris Johnson Week 3: The G7 Summit in Biarritz, France
Boris Johnson has been UK Prime Minister for 19-days as this is written and enjoyed the shortest ‘honeymoon’ period ever granted by the media and world governments in British history. That’s 0-days of honeymoon if you’re counting at home.
Which is merely a manifestation of the frustration felt by Britons, the media, foreign powers, and MP’s in the UK House of Commons on account of former PM Theresa May’s 3-year saga of failed Brexit negotiations.
Alas, Theresa May (naively) sought a truly splendid and diplomatic future relationship with the EU, however, EU leaders were having none of it as their noses were so out of joint due to the fact that 17.4 million+ Britons voted in a democratic referendum to leave the EU.
Emotional people rarely make the best decisions.
But when so much is at stake(!) one must be mature enough to put aside their (understandable) human feelings and concentrate on making the best out of the situation.
How Brexit unfolds will largely determine European relations for the next 100-years. Or more.
That’s a lot at stake! Far too much is at stake to allow human emotion to rule Europe’s future. Denial is not an option.
If certain leaders (including those in the UK) can’t wrap their heads around how profound this moment in time is, they should do the honourable thing and resign. It will be better for them, for their country and for their respective political union — whether UK or EU — because no good will ever come of bickering, haranguing, resenting, and ignoring the democratic will of voters.
Let’s hope that EU hurt feelings realize that Europe’s entire future is on the line, and let’s hope that new UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson finds a way to; #1, fulfil the result of the June 23, 2016 referendum by October 31, 2019, #2, finds a way forward for Brexit without further hurt feelings on the EU side, and #3, in the post-Brexit era finds ways to make the UK-EU relationship better than it ever was.
A tall order?
Not really. By definition, British Prime Ministers (and German Chancellors, BTW) must be ‘larger-than-life’ characters as their countries are large and important — but not so huge and as powerful as say, the United States, China, Russia, and the monolithic Soviet Union in its time.
Either Boris and Angela are larger-than-life and are therefore up to the task, or they’re somewhat less than that and will therefore fail to lead their countries to a place of mutual harmony and interdependence.
I’ve used Boris and Angela as an example here, but it also applies to the leaders of all G20 nations including those living under the EU27 umbrella.
All of those countries need larger-than-life leaders due to the unique challenges they face — including trying to compete in a world dominated by a still-powerful U.S. economy, an astonishing and still-rising Chinese economy, and the new, but powerful amalgam of CPTPP economies.
Fighting between ourselves only further hands the win to the U.S., China, and the CPTPP group — all of whom we love and respect(!) — but hey, we need to eat too.
So let’s not get in our own way.
What about it, Boris, Angela, Emmanuel, and other EU leaders? What way is it going to be?
Are Europeans going to continue shooting themselves in the foot as they did in the 20th-century (this time not in war, but in endless political and economic bickering) and continue to hand the lead to the three economic superpowers mentioned above?
Or will Europeans become part of their own solution instead of part of their own problem?
Every Country Brings Something to the G7 Table. What Will Boris Bring?
All eyes will be on new UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he is the newest leader of a G7 country, to see what he will add to the G7 family. They understand that as of today he’s only 19-days into the job, but by August 24-26 he should be a little further into his new position and more familiar with the reins of power.
It should be noted that much of the work done in advance by the UK’s G7 sherpa team was done by Theresa May and under EU oversight.
But Boris intends to actually deliver Brexit, so it is incumbent upon him to show the world what the refreshed UK will bring (add) to the G7 family.
Bringing a shipload of money (spending commitments) to the G7 just won’t cut it. There’s plenty of that already in the world. What the world needs and what the G7 needs is ideas and practical plans to make the world a better place.
This year’s G7 to be held in Biarritz, France, from August 24-26, 2019. French President Emmanuel Macron will serve as the host for the summit.
This year’s G7 theme is “Inequality” and “Environment” — which are worthy and interdependent goals. And no doubt, there will be some amount of progress as Merkel and Macron have worked diligently on these issues within their own countries and across the world and are supported by many countries in this.
But what could a new British Prime Minister thrown into the mix only days ago hope to accomplish?
Let’s hope that Boris and his team are working late into the night trying to come up with something so that Britain can be seen to be part of the solution on Inequality and Environment instead of underwhelming the world at this year’s G7.
Post-Brexit, the UK Will Take Care of its Own Poor and Marginalized, and Simultaneously Work to Improve its Own Environment
Which will help the EU to focus on their own problems in that regard, as 67-million Britons will no longer be the responsibility of the EU, nor will the ecology of the entire landmass of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Which is great because it takes those problems right off the EU’s plate.
In that way, 93,628 square miles (242,495 square kilometres) of environment will no longer need to be overseen by the EU, nor will the well-being of 67,000,000 people require one moment of the EU’s time, which should allow the EU27 to concentrate on their own environmental and inequality issues.
But even that’s not good enough, because the G7 not only looks after G7 countries it also sets the bar for other developed and developing countries. Therefore, Boris Johnson must not only solve the UK’s Inequality and Environment problems, the UK as a G7 power is expected to be one of seven countries that set the standard on these important issues and it must be seen to be an important part of the solution across the world.
At the very least, the UK needs to be seen taking strong action on these issues and succeeding, and be found to be creating a working model that other countries could emulate.
The Best Time to Plant a Tree Was 20-years Ago —
The Second Best Time to Plant a Tree is Right Now
Four Step Programme to Lower UK CO2 Emissions by Half
- How to Help the UK’s Poor and Help UK Air Quality?
- Easy. Have Them Plant a Billion Trees in the UK Annually.
- One Billion Trees Will Remove 24-million Tons of CO2 from the Air Each Year.
- Over 8-years (with a bit of ‘lag time’ for them to grow) 8-billion New Trees Could Cut UK CO2 Emissions by Half
What? You heard me. If Boris Johnson were to announce a new programme to plant a billion trees every year in the UK, and hire a large percentage of those UK residents and citizens who hail from the bottom and 2nd-from-the-bottom economic quintiles he would be solving two problems in one.
Trees remove large quantities of CO2 from the air 24/7/365 and sequester it for an average of 40-years and working people face less inequality than non-working people stuck on some kind of welfare programme (no matter how well-intentioned it is) such as the UK’s valiant attempt at an anti-poverty programme, called Universal Credit.
Pay poor people to plant tree seedlings and save the environment at the same time!
It’s not going to solve 100% of Inequality. It’s not going to solve 100% of the CO2 problem. But such a programme would be a relatively cheap way to improve the lives of those stuck in the inequality trap and improve UK air quality.
It shouldn’t be a temporary programme. Rather, it should become a permanent part of the UK government’s mandate to monitor air quality across the UK 24/7/365 and to order as many seedlings planted as possible to help counter the UK’s anthropogenic (human-caused) CO2 emissions.
Fifty-years from now, the ‘UK Ministry of Ecology and Forest Creation’ (or whatever it would be called) should still be hiring individuals experiencing inequality to plant enough trees to maintain the UK’s air quality on an annual basis!
Bonus: Improving City Spaces with Urban Forests
Not only could low income workers earn plenty of money planting trees in rural and wilderness areas of the UK;
But each UK city or county could hold a referendum to decide which is their most crime-ridden or dilapidated city block (or rural area) and submit the result to their respective MP for funding to; a) mow down that city block with bulldozers, b) prepare the ground for the planting of a city forest, c) plant the trees and install a walkway such as in New York City’s Poet’s Walk (photo below) d) hire the workers from a pool of workers selected from the bottom economic quintile and the second from the bottom economic quintiles.
And, most important of all; as soon as the workers are finished creating their first city forest, have the next location already approved and ready for workers to begin transforming it into a city forest that thousands of citizens can enjoy all year.
Poet’s Walk, Central Park, New York City, USA. Central Park served as NYC’s garbage dump until 18,000 trees were planted.
Re-Tree the UK Within 20-years!
Such a programme could complement groups that are already working to re-forest Sherwood Forest in Nottingham to its former (much larger) extent, for one example.
In fact, Boris; Why not call the leader of that programme and ask for a re-foresting presentation to show G7 leaders attending the summit?
There seems to be plenty of hectares that need planting in the UK but not enough people-power to get the job done in any reasonable timeframe.
Hire the people who need to earn income to plant the trees we need to clean our air.
Now, that’s what I would call being part of the solution instead of part of the problem!
As befits the UK’s rightful place in the world.
Related Posts:
- What Trees Absorb the Most Carbon Dioxide? (Hunker.com)
- Deforestation: Did Ethiopia plant 350 million trees in a day? (BBC.com)
- How much CO2 can a giant sequoia store? [1438 tons] (DewHarvest.com)
- Tree Planting for Carbon Sequestration (Congressional Research Service)
- The National Forest (UK) 25-years of Transformation (The National Forest)
- Trees for Life – Restoring the Caledonian Forest in Scotland (Trees For Life)
- Workless households for regions across the UK (Office for National Statistics)
Letter to Britain 