Marty Caine

Well quell surprise..... Diane James has quit as leader of UKIP and to all those who gave me flack for pointing out she was not the right person for the leadership, I told you so...

I knew from day one she was not up for the role and never really wanted to do it in the first place, she is more than happy with her MEP salary, whilst doing very little to earn it. Which is why she wouldn’t stand as an MP in 2015. However, I did suspect she was going to stick it out for the 100 days, hence she constantly kept harping on about her 100 day plan, which didn’t seem like much of a plan at all really. However, it has been said that one of her nominees was not actually a UKIP member, had she formally accepted the leadership role by sending the paperwork into the Electoral Commission she could and most probably would have been found guilty of electoral fraud and I do suspect that is the real reason behind her rapid resignation. No doubt the usual suspects will shout I am wrong about this and she left because of family ill health, I seem to recall that was her excuse for not standing as a PPC in 2015, anyway it’s all pretty much irrelevant now as she has resigned and this will now mean another leadership battle will take place with the usual amount of dirty tricks and mudslinging going on within the party but I hope that many of the probable candidates won’t bother to stand to let Steven Woolfe take his rightful place, I personally think that he is the best person to lead after Nigel.

Some are already saying that Nigel will come back and if Steven Woolfe wins he will only be there holding it for Nigel’s return. To be honest I think anyone saying this really did not know Nigel at all. Nigel was never really that good nor that interested in leading UKIP the party, he had one single goal from day one, that was to get Britain a referendum and get us out of the EU. All his passion was directed at that one goal and left the running of the party to others, he did brilliantly at that and I personally think we can never thank him enough but if you think that after 20+ years of fighting for something, then finally achieving it, he is suddenly going to want to become a proper party leader and take all the flack that goes with it, I’m afraid you may just be deluding yourselves. I have no doubt whatsoever he is lapping up the celebrity status of being ‘Mr Brexit’ and as no interest in spoiling that fun. I do however think that he will happily support whoever does become the next leader, providing it isn’t Carswell, Hamilton or Evans.

I have heard through the grapevine that Paul Nuttall, Doug Carswell and Neil Hamilton are going to stand on a joint ticket. Which has quite shocked me about Paul Nuttall, I would not have put him in the same brackets as Carswell and Hamilton but that just proves I can be wrong about people the same as anyone can. At least that will mean Suzanne Evans probably wont stand against Carswell, every cloud has a silver lining 

Raheem Kassam is thinking of standing, which I hope he doesn’t if Steven Woolfe stands, However, I could see him gaining quite a lot of support if he did but that would only be taking votes of SW. 

One of the biggest problems I have seen in UKIP over the years has been the members blind loyalty to certain individuals in the party and they certainly do not seem to put very much thought into who they elect to certain roles. The NEC is only as bad as it is because the members simply voted the wrong people onto it and that was probably due to the fact that most members only voted on what they read about each candidate in the UKIP magazine just before the election. Rob McWhirter, is a prime example, not only does he not live in Britain, he doesn’t even live in the EU, he lives in Switzerland and yet a member of the NEC of the most anti-EU party in Britain, as Nigel likes to say, you really couldn’t make it up.

I remember a long time ago pointing out that Suzanne Evans was a career politician only interested in her own self interests, the type of politician that UKIP were so adamantly against and at the time I received a lot of flak from the Blind Loyalty gang and now it has to be blatantly obvious I was right as most of the party seem to want her and her boss Carswell out, “Told you so” seems to be a very common phrase of mine of late. Now I am getting the same kind of flak because of my concerns about Diane James and yet they are genuine concerns. I seriously do not think that she is the right person to lead UKIP and to be honest if she said good morning to me I would seriously consider donning my PJ’s and calling it a night. 

But before you fly off the handle I don’t base that on her as a person but simply because of what I have seen for myself over the years. I recall at the Eastleigh campaign in 2013, UKIP had rented a shop and Diane made her first appearance to go walkabout with Nigel campaigning, someone handed her a UKIP rosette to put on, which she proudly pined to her cardigan and then stood up and put her coat on over the top of it. Admittedly that could have been down to nerves but did make me think at the time, God help us. Anyway it was a close call at the end and we were only just beaten by the LibDems and I have always thought that with a better candidate or even Nigel himself we would have won that seat. There were many in the party not happy with the fact that she was at the time of her selection an Independent candidate in Waverley even though she was a member of UKIP and a lot of people in Waverley were somewhat confused about their independent Councillor suddenly announcing she was standing as a UKIP candidate in Eastleigh, which probably cost her, her Council seat in 2015 and on top of that some people in Eastleigh were talking about her past indiscretions, which is why when she stated she had no skeletons, I knew she was not being entirely honest. However, private lives and political lives should remain separate entities really.

A UKIP member at the time use to call the likes of Diane James, Suzanne Evans, etc NARPs (Newly Arrived, Rapidly Promoted) and was quite vocal about it on the old UKIP forum and as much as Nigel is a great bloke, one of of major downfalls has always been picking the wrong people around him, as we have all seen over the years. But for those of you who think I am totally wrong about Diane James and feel she would make a great leader, ask yourself this, what has she actually achieved from being pushed to the forefront of UKIP? She failed to get elected in Eastleigh, She failed to win her own council seat back in Waverley in 2015 when she refused to stand as an MP for UKIP. Yes she became an MEP in 2014 but that is only because her name was on the ballot paper, people voted for UKIP not the person and her record in parliament isn’t actually brilliant. VoteWatch figures says she has asked 1 parliamentary question since 2014, Bill Etheridge has asked 33 and he actually did manage to get elected as a UKIP councillor as well. So I do hope people are not saying she would make a great leader based on her actual performance because its not actually that good really.

Another thing that really does stick in my claw is the timing of her entry into this Leadership battle, just 15 hours before the deadline, emails were being sent out to get nominations for Diane James, apparently she managed to get her application in just 17 minutes before it ended, however that was still before Steven Woolfe had been supposedly too late getting his application in. Now even the most ardent DJ fans must agree that if it had been down to a leadership contest between Steven Woolfe and Diane James, Steven would have walked it, so what made her suddenly change her mind at the last minute to stand. Also the fact that she would not debate with the other candidates stating that it was a free for all, she had no intention of getting involved in. Another lie, because the Hustings rules clearly stipulate that personal attacks on other candidates are forbidden. To me it seems that she is simply doing the bidding of whoever is funding her one woman campaign so I do not seriously believe that voting for Diane James will actually get Diane James but a party controlled by an unknown backer and I do not think that is really in UKIP’s best interest. 

I personally believe that Bill Etheridge will put together the best team to take UKIP forward and I do know he is definitely UKIP through and through. It will take a good team for UKIP to survive and Bill has always gotten on well with some of the best people in UKIP, he has also stated that he would reintroduce the old UKIP forum to give the members a voice within the party and that gap between hierarchy and branches most certainly does need closing. I was one of the top commentators on the UKIP forum and it was a mistake to close it down because it kept members and branches connected right across the country.

I guess it really comes down to whether the members want UKIP to remain being UKIP or become a completely different party using the same name, because that is what I fear you will get with Diane James as leader.

I have had a few people tell me that I should not voice an opinion on the UKIP leadership battle because I am no longer a member of UKIP, the fact that I happen to know far more about UKIP than any of them seems to be totally irrelevant in their thinking but I have found that to be quite commonplace in political debates with any party these days anyway, yes I do also make political comments about all the other party’s so sorry UKIP you are not special in this. 

So why I am so interested and vocal on this UKIP leadership battle....

I started voting for UKIP when Tony Blair effectively turned Labour into the Old Tory Party, I voted initially because I felt there was no other party to vote for and I happen to have a strong belief that if you do not vote then you should not voice an opinion. Apparently for some in UKIP that is not the case, unless you are a member you should not have an opinion but these always seem to be the people who don’t have the first clue about politics anyway. As I watched UKIP evolve I decided to become a member because they happened to be doing something different and I knew something different was exactly what politics needed. I became a major UKIP activist and put my heart and soul into a party that I believed could actually make the change in politics that was so much needed. I became so vocal that I was attacked by the media in some sad attempt to get me kicked from the party, Nick Lowles of Hope Not Hate described me as... 

“ Marty Caine is well known for his fierce and bullish defence of Ukip. He also advocates the violent thugs of the EDL. Surely Nigel Farage and Ukip have to kick out this sick individual from their party?"

Needless to say their cunning plan never worked, however Nigel Farage kept on bringing the NARP’s (Newly Arrived, Rapidly Promoted) types like Suzanne Evans, Diane James, etc who felt that UKIP needed to more like the other political parties, the one’s we were originally against. A few of the old school members (me included) where voicing concerns on the UKIP forum about the influence that Young Britons Foundation members were having in the party and the result of that was, they closed down the UKIP forum. I felt like quitting over that but knew from a political point of view, UKIP needed to do well in the EU elections of 2014 so carried on promoting the party. 

We won the EU election and made history by doing so, the first party other than Labour or Conservative to ever win a national election but they kept on saying we needed to be more professional, more like the other parties and I knew this was wrong, people wanted something different and that is what we were offering and why we became popular. Then Douglas Carswell jumped ship, everyone thought this was wonderful, I thought it was the road to disaster. UKIP had changed, it no longer wanted to be a party that created change for the better, it wanted to be a professional political party just like the rest of them and so I quit. I had not changed my view or my direction but UKIP NARP’s had decided to take the party in a direction I had no wish to go. If I had stayed I would have probably been one of the contenders in this election campaign now but I wanted to see real change in politics for the better good of the people and UKIP had decided to drop that particular baton.  

So now we have the Leadership battle and I see an opportunity of UKIP actually realising the mistakes that have been made and they have a real chance of getting back on track to giving the people of this country something they can actually believe in and vote for. I’m sorry for those of you who feel that I should need to become a member of UKIP again to voice my opinion on this but if UKIP gets back to that original way of thinking I may well actually join but at the moment I seriously don’t hold out much hope of that actually happening! 

From what I see of the current leadership election it’s a choice between Bill Etheridge or Diane James, DJ has snubbed the other candidates by refusing to stand on the same platform as them, she has suggested there will be a General Election in 2017 which is absolute political nonsense, there is not a single electable party in the country that could even come close to challenging the Tories at the moment, and she is calling for an EGM that would never possibly take place until after there has been a new leader elected and a NEC election has taken place, probably replacing most of it. Is it really such a great idea to have them trying to take UKIP forward under a cloud of a looming EGM, it’s absolute lunacy at is very best to think that is a good idea! As for her one woman show, I have no doubts whatsoever the others would love to have their own one person campaign but unfortunately they don’t have a backer who really only wants to give the NEC a bloody nose and just imagine for one moment what would happen if she won, it would become an unrecognisable UKIP with Diane James as a puppet Leader of UKIP doing whatever her backer tells her to do, you really do have to be pretty stupid to vote for that. We all know voting for Lisa Duffy will mean a party run by Carswell and Evans and that is an even worse scenario than Diane James, so for me the only person who knows UKIP well enough to pick the right team to take UKIP forward as a party of the people trying to make real change in politics, it has to be Bill Etheridge. I do beleive that if you vote for Bill you are voting for the real UKIP, if you vote for Diane James you are voting for a totally new UKIP that most people will not recognise. 

For those of you who think that because I am no longer a member of UKIP I should not voice my opinion, guess what...... I just did in full! 

Looking at the political landscape at the moment it is really hard to work out the logic behind what is going on within the main political parties of Britain. The EU Referendum result has knocked the ruling party a massive blow and though they are currently on the ropes the opposition parties seem to be giving them every opportunity to catch their breath and get back up again, it really makes no sense at all.

Conservatives: 

Split massively over the EU issue and we all know they will be looking for any way possible to keep attached to the EU in some way or other. After all the EU is a corporatist organisation that suits the Tory agenda, so I can’t see them every really wanting Britain to leave completely. However Theresa May’s stance on Freedom of Movement not being an option is impressive but I wouldn’t think that would ever be a permanent option.

Labour:

Massively split over the EU and its current leadership battle but let's be honest here, Labour has been more like a 2nd Tory party ever since Tony Blair turned it into the ‘Old Tory Party’! They are most certainly no serious opposition for the Tories because they would not be giving them the breathing space they are doing right now, if they were.

UKIP:

Are a total mess and looking at their leadership candidates, if this is the best they can muster then it really always was a one band band. Nigel Farage was a great front man for fighting for a referendum but that has been done now and he was never really a great party leader, if he had been then they would not be in the mess they are now.  He was very bad at picking the right people around him, his paranoia cost UKIP some very good people and his henchman Steve Crowther only ever managed to qualify smears by booting people rather than using political spin to turn the negatives into positives and make UKIP shine. Now UKIP are like a pack of dogs ripping at the last bit of meat left and you have some of the leadership candidates campaigning like its a general election rather than a leadership battle, whilst at the same time making UKIP look like they really are a bunch of loons. Diane James seems tipped favourite to win this battle, funny how she didn’t want to stand but less than 24 hours before the deadline she decided to throw her name in the hat against Steven Woolfe, who would have been the ideal replacement for UKIP. They have allowed the likes of Carswell, Evans and Hamiliton to destroy UKIP from within, which has been a main ain of the political elite ever since UKIP won the EU elections in 2014, unfortunately they never had the political nouce to put a stop to it and after this leadership battle is over we will have three Tory controlled political parties to choose form. 

So is it time for a new political party? 

To rise from the ashes like the fabled phoenix, I would say there is no time better than now. With the main political parties in Britain all split, a new party would most certainly springboard to the forefront of British politics because all this mess as awoke many from the political comas they were in, they are now hungry for politics and they most certainly do not like what is currently on the political menu. The EU Referendum campaigns clearly showed us all that cross party allegiances do work when working on a common belief and that common belief should be what is best for the people, a new party now would not only attract voters and members from right across the political spectrum but would also undoubtedly provide a new home for MPs who are just as aware as the rest of us that British politics is in a complete mess and needs reshaping. A Party of the People for the People!

I really cannot see a general election happening in Britain before 2020, there is not one single party that is currently electable, so this gives a new party four years to make its mark, collate its manifesto and give the people a real palatable choice on the political menu. As with any political party it all starts with people putting their heads together and finding the right solutions and all they need to do that is a platform for debate. 

I have always kept a soft spot for UKIP because being an ex member and having a lot of good memories of trials and tribulations, doing my bit to help make it a party that people took notice of, (I still have the political scars to prove it) I've known so many genuinely decent people in the party who stood up for their own beliefs, no matter what was thrown at them. Before the likes of the Evan's & Carswell ilk came along and demanded to professionalise the party, (that actually meant destroying its core belief and making it just like the rest) UKIP were a breath of fresh air to British politics to many people and those who were against us at the time called us swivel eyed loons, racists, xenophobes, etc but we never faltered, we simply carried on the good fight regardless. I quit not long after the European Elections because I saw the party going in a direction I had no wish to go and to be honest if I really was so desperate to become just another Tory, I would have joined the Conservatives. However UKIP carried on in it’s task to get Britain a referendum and guess what..... you did it... and not only did you get that much alluded referendum, together we actually won it as well....

All of which is absolutely brilliant of course but today I am struggling to understand something, why after succeeding in those main aims have so many Kippers suddenly decided to start acting like swivel eyed loons? I’m reading comments on Twitter and Facebook and thinking to myself, are you serious? All I'm hearing across social media at the moment is how disgusted UKIP are at Andrea Leadsom being forced to step down from the Tory Leadership race, cries of how you need Nigel Farage now more than ever before and the best one ‘We must call a general election now.... Get real UKIP!

Andrea Leadsom has stepped down which has automatically made Theresa May the next PM, ask yourself, is this a bad thing or a good thing for UKIP. 

Well Leadsom stepping down has saved UKIP from oblivion, if she had stayed in the race I have no doubts whatsoever that she would have won, she would make a brilliant Prime Minister, so good in fact that many UKIPers would have torn up their purple and yellow membership cards and gone back to the Conservatives, Theresa May as PM will make the Tories far less electable in 2020 than they would have been if Andrea Leadsom had won and I’m sure you realise this as much as I do, so why are UKIPers so upset by it?  The fact that she has stepped down has also seriously sped up #Brexit, there is now a PM that will be pressured by the EU and the British people to Invoke Article 50 and start the exit negotiations, I very much doubt those negotiations will last very long because the EU will want this sorted out as quickly as possible. So really this is another thing that UKIP should be happy about, yet they are not. It makes no sense whatsoever to me....

The cries of we need Nigel back is another one that confuses me, I know and admire Nigel, he is a great person as well as a great campaigner for Brexit, that was always his number one goal and his charismatic manner served him and the party well in that endeavour but what about anything other than Brexit. What has he ever done that you would consider a political achievement, did he play his political hand well enough to stop the infighting within his own party, did he ever once point out when people were shouting about the Norway option that Britain doesn’t need it and if we are to follow any other countries example it would have to be Turkey’s, who do have access to the single market without the four freedoms, did he use the EU’s own treaties, to show people why we needed to leave the EU, in reality the OUT campaign from everyone apart from LeaveEU was pretty shoddy really. Nigel is a great bloke but he could not make UKIP the party it needs to be now and he proved time and time again that he was the worst person in the world at picking and managing a team. If that offends anyone, then so be it, being offended will not make it any less true. 

As for those currently calling for a General Election now, that really has to be the most politically stupid thing I have ever seen, the top three politic parties are in a turmoil, Labour and UKIP don’t even have a leader and there is not a single political party in Britain that you could actually class as being electable and yet I see people calling for a General Election... Seriously just shut up, it is an incredibly stupid idea, if you actually stop and think about it!

If you really want UKIP to become a party that is taken seriously in British politics then you all have to start taking British politics seriously, stop whinging and banging on about the wrong things, nothing is ever gained from negativity and if you only react to things like Leadsom stepping down in a negative way, others will only ever look at UKIP in a negative way. You really should be thanking her and the Tories for saving your party, I doubt they did that deliberately though but hey as the saying goes every cloud. You don’t just need a good leader, you need a good team steering UKIP in the right direction and you need some people at the top that are capable of political spin, especially a Chairman that can actually spin smears directed at party members and spin them in a way that makes UKIP shine. This is something that Steve Crowther was never capable of doing or if he was he was simply to lazy to bother. He found it far easier to boot whoever the smear was directed at, out of the party and that only ever qualified the smear. 

Perfecting political spin by using commonsense responses to any smear directed at a party only ever gains more respect which means more members and has the added bonus of discrediting those who try to discredit you. It’s politics and UKIP have got a lot to learn in that department. The referendum result has shaken Westminster in a big way and there is going to be massive change in British Politics, UKIP now need to step up to the mark and get their act together or simply get ready to move out of the way for a new party coming through. What you decide to do, is of course down to you but I believe it would be a real shame to see UKIP fizzle and die after achieving their main goals.

The other night on Facebook I posted a comment saying, “With all these leadership battles going on at the moment, I think I’ll start my own party, as I’m feeling left out” the comment was meant as a bit of lighthearted humour but that night, I laid in bed thinking about everything that is going on at the moment in British Politics. Labour, Conservatives and UKIP all having leadership battles, I’m sure the LibDems would have one too if they had enough members to stand and I thought to myself it is not another political party this country needs, its a new political idealism. Idealism's create change not parties!

Look at UKIP, 22 years ago, they formed a party to get Britain out of the EU and ok I will admit that due to a bit of a fluke with two foster parents in Rotherham being badly treated and the media jumping on it, thus turning UKIP into the underdog, they became the Eddie the Eagle of British politics, which spring boarded them to suddenly becoming the main topic of political conversation. 

Of course the Political Elite were none to pleased about this and soon turned the media on them, to paint them as the racist, homophobic party many Sheeples soon found them to be. Well you can always trust the Sheeples to swallow whatever the media feeds them and react accordingly. However people saw UKIP as a breath of fresh air and kept on listening regardless, much to the disdain of the political elite, so then they reversed the philosophy of ‘if you can’t beat em join em’ and decided if they can’t beat UKIP they’ll turn them into themselves and thus UKIP suddenly abandoned all that which had made them popular to try to become more like the very thing they were against in the first place. Really, you had to be there to really appreciate how it all happened and to understand how it was possible to happen. I remember Nigel Farage back in 2012/13 shouting loud and proud, Labour and Conservatives you couldn’t fit a fag paper between them, you’d be hard pushed to fit a fag paper between UKIP and the Tories now and that is a fact. So what went wrong to make it so easy to change UKIP into just another political party, no different from the rest of them? 

Well I believe it is because they never really had a core idealism, they wanted out of the EU and that was it, the main goal but it wasn’t an idealism that makes parities go the distance and stick to their core belief, Labour has socialism, Tories have Conservatism, heck Libdems even have Liberalism, UKIP had Anti-EUism, they did try to sell the idea of Libertarianism but the only true Libertarian I ever knew in UKIP was Godfrey Bloom. Most were the Butcher the Baker and Candlestick maker of Politics that didn’t have a clue who Young Britons Foundation was, so would never have seen them enter through the back door. For those who have not heard of YBF its a Tory breeding club, with people like Dan Hannan (President) Douglas Carswell (Vice President) even UKIP’s own Party Secretary, Matthew Richardson (Chief Executive Officer of YBF). 

Personally I think they want to create a New Tory Party because Eric Pickles distanced the Conservative Party from YBF, back in 2010 and UKIP were easy pickings. But like I said they never really had their own idealism that could hold the party together no matter what. Coupled with the fact they had a party Chairman that found it far easier to get rid of a problem rather than deal with it and every time a smear campaign got fired at UKIP some poor sod would be booted out of the party and rather than him having to put any real effort into political spin, he decided qualifying the smear was the easier option. Yes Steve Crowther you were only good at one thing and that was being Nigel’s henchman, which you qualified yet again by resigning directly after him. Though to be honest I’m not sure you weren't both pushed but I really don’t care enough to find out.

I’m not Anti-UKIP, I’m just sad the way it all has turned out, I did learn a great deal from UKIP’s mistakes, I learned a lot from Nigel’s strength of character, you can never fault his passion, that’s for sure. But the most important thing I have learnt from over a decade of political inquisitiveness is that to make something solid you need to have that idealism, a core belief that holds it all together. The EU referendum showed me what people of Britain really value more than anything else, that is Freedom. A freedom to be a self governing nation is what won the EU Referendum, people went to the ballot boxes and they voted with their hearts and not their wallets, well those who voted to Leave did anyway. If Freedom is the one thing that we treasure the most then surely any political idealism we should live by should be built around that, a freedom to live our lives as we deem fit, providing of course that does not have a detrimental effect on others, otherwise we’d be encroaching on their freedom. A freedom to believe in any religion we chose without fear of retribution, a freedom of choosing our own sexuality without fear of condemnation, free to express ourselves as we wish without the need to walk on eggshells in case we offend someone, heck a freedom to be offended or even a freedom to dislike things. If someone does something that you dislike, then you have the freedom to ignore that and go off and do something you do like. It is not rocket science to work out if you don’t like something you see then don’t look at it, if you don’t like something you hear then go and listen to something you do like, accept everyone's right to their own freedom’s and you will enjoy your own freedom so much better. 

Freedomism really could put Political Correctness to bed for good. Now wouldn’t that make the world a better place straight away. 

So where am I going with this idea of Freedomism, well I have a name that is always a good start.. ‘British Allegiance of Freedomism’...

British: It is what we are....

Allegiance: loyalty or devotion to some person, group, cause, or the like. 

Freedomism: A political idealism founded on our freedom to live our own lives as we see fit, within the boundaries of the laws based on that freedom.

That is the core belief of BAOF, how it grows is entirely down to the people who agree and get involved in it. I have created a Twitter account (@BAO_FREEDOMISM) I have set up a Facebook group ‘British Allegiance of Freedomism’ and I’ve started work on a website that will have a Forum where everyone involved will have the freedom to express themselves. If it gets to the stage were we have enough involved to actually create a political party, then it will be down to everyone involved on how that party proceeds and as long as we never, ever forget the core belief of Freedomism, that party will only ever grow stronger. No left, no Right, just a strong believe that everyone has the freedom to be themselves and their opinion matters just as much as yours. If that is possible I do believe we can set a standard that will improve the world.

Politically. I am an Independent who believes that the biggest problem in British politics today is in fact party political rivalry, give four parties a problem to solve and the best you can ever hope to achieve is a compromise and that to me is simply not good enough. Why can’t we have a political system that has politicians working together for the better good of the people they are elected to represent, where sensible solutions are found through reasoned debate, would that be a better system than a parliament that has Labour on the left of the speaker and Tories on the right both hurling abuse at each other? 

So lets just think about what has happened in the EU since the British people voted to leave the EU....

1) The EU has now stated it will spend €1 TRILLION on building an EU Armed Forces and all states must merge their armed forces into an EU army and navy under the command of France and Germany. (Cameron said that wouldn't happen)

2) The EU has sent us a bill for an extra £34 Billion stating it is to fill a black hole in the budget (Cameron said he would not pay the last on of £1.7 billion but he did)

3) The EU are to implement directives that could destroy our shipping industry if we do a deal that involves staying in the single market

4) France is in the middle of its biggest civil uprising since the French revolution due to Labour Law Riots, wasn't the EU supposed to protect them?

5) Junker has now push forward plans to complete the monetary union and 'ALL' states will be forced to join the Euro.

6) Our member states will be forced to scrap their national banks

7) All states must agree to taxation by the Commission.......and they propose a tax ID for everyone and banks must disclose private details

8)  Over 260,000 Austrians have signed a petition calling for the EU exit for the country, and now the Austrian parliament must discuss a referendum on the issue.

9)  Goldman Sachs has hired former head of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso to be an advisor and non-executive chairman of its international business, as the U.S. bank grapples with the fallout from Britain’s exit from the European Union.

Whats happening in the UK since the #Brexit vote

1)  We have 30,000 plus people marching through London saying that we have made the wrong decision to leave the corrupt EU. It really does defy all logic and for me is the biggest example of the ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ I have ever seen!

2) The FTSE 100 is at the highest it has been since August 2015.

3) Countries are queuing up to start trade negotiations with Britain.

4) If #EUreferendum had been a General Election, Leave would have won the biggest parliamentary majority in British political history!

5) None of the three main parties have a leader, Conservative Labour and UKIP leadership battles are all underway. Now that is surrealism for you! 

As more information comes available I will add them to either of the two lists but so far it is certainly looking like Brexit was the right decision to make and we need to get that Article 50 Invoked as quickly as posible. 

If you have not done so yet please take the time to Sign & Share this petition to put pressure on Government to get that Article 50 invoked.

On June the 23rd 2016 the people of Britain ignored the scaremongering of the media and political elite, the majority went to the ballot boxes and voted with their hearts regardless of how that may affect their wallets. The British people ignored their elected government and decided that British Democracy does not have a price tag on it, because the price paid for that democracy was already too high. They voted to keep Britain a self governing nation that can take its rightful place on the world stage and have far more influence and power than it would have ever been allowed by the European Union. The British Lion Roared and the People showed they still have pride in Britain and a strong belief in Britain's capabilities.

The aftermath of that momentous decision has rocked politics throughout the land and real change for the better is coming!

The two main parties are in turmoil, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn lost in a vote of no confidence, David Cameron cowardly resigned so that he would not have to uphold the mandate of the people and invoke Article 50, a mistake that could prove to be extremely costly for Britain. Tim Farron proving unarguably that the LibDem's are neither Liberal nor Democratic and Nigel Farage throwing his toys out of the pram because he will be excluded for the Exit Negotiations, even though the only rule of law to follow in leaving the EU is that Article 50 and he knows full well that exit negotiations will be between the EU and the UK Government.

Meanwhile the people of Britain have been awoken from the political coma that they have been in for far too long and they are now hungry for political debate but they look at the four main parties and there is nothing there, certainly nothing they they like nor feel they can connect with. People are hungry for politics but simply do not fancy what is on the menu.

This is why I believe that this will lead to the rise of the Independents and small party system of politics in Britain, people want politicians both local and national that are only going to be accountable to them and not to their chosen party. Many have come to realise that if you give four political parties a problem to solve the best they can ever expect is a compromise and that is simply not enough. Replace those four parties with Independently minded people, who by sensible debate can find the best solutions and we will see politics working far better and far more democratically. This will change British politics for the better!

If you agree with me on this then get behind Poole Independents and help to make that change happen. I would love to be in a position to field 42 Independent candidates at the next local elections in 2019. It just takes dedicated people who do have the time and energy to do the right thing by the people of Poole and want to see a better system of politics where people vote for the person not the rosette. Google 'Poole Debate Forum' and voice your opinions on local issues. You are more than welcome to do that even if you are staying with the party of your choice, because I do strongly believe that opposing views always leads to the best solutions. Poole Debate forum is there for the people of Poole to discuss local issues and hopefully find the best solutions that those we have elected can work with. Communication is the key and PDF has been designed specifically for that purpose.

This is a great opportunity to create real change, so lets grab that opportunity and together we can make a difference.

This morning (June 27th 2016) I read a long article by Boris Johnson about all the plans he has for Brexit. According to him there is no need to rush into Invoking Article 50 of The Lisbon treaty as he believes we can take control and somehow renegotiate a better deal for Britain without doing so. Sorry Boris you are either very misguided or you are a liar. The truth of the matter is, at this moment in time we cannot negotiation anything at all. We are in fact still legally bound members of the European Union and will continue to be so until we Invoke Article 50. We have countries queuing up already that are offering to negotiate trade deals with us like America and Germany that we are not allowed to do because that would be in breach of the Lisbon Treaty, however once our government does Invoke Article 50, we will be free to negotiate with anyone in the world. So what exactly is the sense in delaying Invoking Article 50 and allowing Britain to take its rightful place on the world stage? 

I have seen a petition going around that people are signing to say we should repeal ECA 1972 but this would in fact be a disastrous thing to do and would be giving the EU just what they need to not only punish us for leaving but also save themselves at the same time. The only legal way to leave is by Invoking Article 50! This is from the government website and will show you why repealing any act would be an extremely foolish thing to do.....

“The UK’s membership of the EU is established by the EU Treaties, and Article 50 is the process set out in the Treaties for Member States to follow when leaving. It is the only lawful way to withdraw from the EU. It would be a breach of international and EU law to withdraw unilaterally from the EU (for example, by simply repealing the domestic legislation that gives the EU law effect in the UK). Such a breach would create a hostile environment in which to negotiate either a new relationship with the remaining EU Member States, or new trade agreements with non-EU countries.”

Source UK Government:  

Should we repeal ECA 1972 it would be a breach of international law which would allow the EU to punish Britain with very high tariffs and trade barriers, far exceeding those that would ever be permitted by the WTO rules of trade. Also the world media would most certainly broadcast the fact that Britain breaks agreements which is hardly the best way of stepping back onto the world stage now is it. The outcome would be Britain would struggle to survive outside the EU and they EU will make sure that we are made an example of to ensure others never try to Leave. Signing that petition is in fact helping the EU far more than it will ever help Britain. Don’t Do It.

Some say, well there is no rush to Invoke Article 50, what difference will a few months makes. Have no doubt about this whatsoever, the only way the EU can stop other members from following Britain down the road of exit, is to ensure that Britain fails by doing so. There simply is no question about this because if Britain leaves and does well it will mean the end of the European Union dream, others will most certainly follow our lead. About the only truthful thing Cameron said throughout the Referendum Campaign is that Britain can lead in Europe, we are now doing so, leading them out of a failing EU political union. Many people are unaware that recently the European Central Bank implemented €1 Trillion of Quantitative Easing purely to prop up an already failed Eurozone. From that moment honest economists knew that is was not a case of IF the Eurozone collapses but WHEN. Britain voting to leave the EU will only speed up that inevitable collapse and should this happen before we have Invoked Article 50, we will be liable for massive bailout costs that would undoubtedly bankrupt Britain and at the end of it, the collapse will all be blamed on Britain voting to Leave. Would the EU force the collapse within the next three months to punish Britain and save their glorious European Union, I think they would do it without even batting an eyelid.  

What can we do about this, we can only put as much pressure on government as humanly possible to force them to Invoke Article 50. I have applied for a government petition demanding this but at the time of writing this I am still waiting to see if it gets accepted or not. We have to get the British Lion Roaring just like it did on June 23rd, use what ever means possible to pressure government, write to your MP, make sure #InvokeArticle50 is trending, shout it out wherever you can but for the sake of Britain, do not just ignore this current situation. The Majority have voted to keep democracy and we must continue the fight to ensure that our government honours that democratic decision. 

Let us not fall at the last hurdle of the race to Keep Britain British!

Update: July 1st 2016

When Cameron resigned I knew this would delay the Invoking of Article 50. I started a government petition late Friday evening and this morning recieved this reply: 

We rejected the petition you created – “Demand Government Invokes Article 50 of The Lisbon Treaty immediately!”.

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/133618

Well I have been somewhat ecstatic all day for quite obvious reasons but one thing has marred my #Brexit rejoicing and its a direct result of those that I really do despise the most in politics, The Gutter Press! Our wonderful media that go that extra mile to attack anything and anyone who tries to do the right thing in British politics and none have been smeared more so than Nigel Farage. 

Today when he should be enjoying the fruits of his labour, of over 20 years of campaigning to get Britain out of the European Union, he attends an interview on ITV and gets attacked for apparently going back on his word.   

Here is the cleverly edited part of the interview (over 60,000 views)....

The Independent picked up on it and published a story stating that he had backtracked on his promise, The Daily Star, Telegraph and Huffington Post all ran there own Nasty Nigel Stories and just like every other time the gutter press have decided to go for assassination, the Sheeples of Britain, even quite a few who voted to leave, went to social media to wave their outrage flags and voice their disgust at Nigel going back on his word, I watched it happening all day and thought to myself, seriously how stupid can people be. Read the comments left by Britain’s geniuses on that youtube video.

Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eu-referendum-result-nigel-farage-nhs-pledge-disowns-350-million-pounds-a7099906.html

Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/24/nigel-farage-350-million-pledge-to-fund-the-nhs-was-a-mistake/

Daily Star: http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/525202/nigel-farage-good-morning-britain-brexit-nhs-eu-money-referendum-itv

Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/nigel-farage-good-morning-britain-eu-referendum-brexit-350-nhs_uk_576d0aa3e4b08d2c5638fc17

So what really happened in that interview,  Susanna Reid (who doesn’t know her arse from her elbow when it comes to politics) asked Nigel about the £350 million a week and could he guarantee that the money would go to the NHS, Nigel responded by saying no he couldn’t and he felt that was one of the mistakes made by the leave campaign, Susanna retorted with “but that’s one of your adverts” and he replied “No it is not one of my adverts”. Well guess what, he was telling the truth, as he always does funnily enough, the £350 million a week was something written on the side of the big red Vote Leave bus and Nigel was never part of Vote Leave. He had no input into that and he felt that was a mistake on their part, not his. Personally I don’t think it was a mistake at all and was done deliberately by Vote Leave to distract the debate from real important issues and get everyone arguing over whether it was £350 million a week or not. A cunning plan that nearly worked actually. But Nigel had traveled up and down the country in an open top purple UKIP bus that had ‘We want our country back’ emblazoned along the side of it.

So was Suzanne Reid wrong.... Most Definitely!

Was the Gutter Press wrong.... Most Definitely!

Were the people who fell for the smear campaign hook, line and sinker wrong or stupid?.... (I’ll let you decide that one for yourselves)

Was Nigel wrong to go back on his word...  Most Definitely NOT, he never said it!

I do hope this makes you think about what the media do and most importantly why they do it, it is certainly not for your benefit nor that of their intended victim/s, whenever you see the four tabloids mentioned all go into attack mode, you can usually be pretty certain that they are not being totally honest with you, so step back and think about it before swallowing their nonsense. Most of the time that has the same effect as swallowing a stupid pill. 

The people of Britain have voted and the result is Brexit! Once again we can stand tall on the world stage as a self governing nation that will have far more influence outside the EU then we would have ever have been allowed, if we had remained it. In the world, Influence is Power and that is what the EU were robbing us of. Now as a leading sovereign nation we can once again hold our heads up with pride and make a real difference in the world. 

Cameron has said he is going to resign and lets face it, he really should hang his head in shame, a British Prime Minister who not only wanted to hand over sovereignty of this great nation of ours over to a corrupt foreign power, he was actually more than happy to pay them to take our democracy away from us, a democracy that was paid for by the lives of so many. Just think about that for a moment, are those the actions we would ever expect from a British Prime Minister, of course not. So who will replace Cameron, it is not like the Conservative party is awash with talent that is up to to the job of negotiation of our exit terms from the European Union. Most certainly do not want bumbling Boris going head to head with the likes of Junker and Tusk, it needs someone with more brains than Boris and more strength then Gove, it needs someone who is aggressive and will take no nonsense from the EU. For me that person would have to be Andrea Leadsome , I really cannot think of anyone else in the Tory party capable of taking on the EU and ensuring we leave remain good friends with the EU and also obtain the best deal for Britain. 

I am somewhat concerned of the delay tactics on invoking Article 50, this to me makes no sense whatsoever, the Brexit result will most certainly speed up the inevitable collapse of the eurozone and unless we invoke Article 50 now, we could be held responsible for the bail our costs that collapse will bring. The people of Britain have voted to leave, the procedure for that is invoking Article 50, I see nothing to be gained by delaying that and plenty to lose if it is delayed. Come on Cameron, lose gracefully and finally do the right thing by Britain!

So what will Brexit bring us the common people of this nation of ours? Well one of the best things I have seen come out of this EU Referendum is the attentiveness of the British voters, it is like many have been awakened from some kind of political coma they have been in for such a long time and this is nothing short of fantastic. Last night in my local, after we had all put our X’s in whichever box, a group of us debated the Pro’s and Con’s of Brexit, it wasn’t the kind of debate done in a hope of changing people’s minds, because we had already voted but it was a debate that went on for a long time and the group size increased as the night went on. I was amazed, I have never seen anything like it, with people of both sides of the argument expressing their own political points of view and I recall saying to everyone there, that for me the saddest part of a Remain win would undoubtedly mean that what I am witnessing here in this debate, will be lost, because a remain vote would mean we lose our democratic right to challenge. Now that the result has gone in favour of Brexit, I do hope that the kind of political debate I enjoyed last night will become commonplace throughout the land. Lets not ever let people slip back into that political coma ever again. 

We need to have a proportional representation voting system in this country, to eliminate the two party politics we have had to endure for so long, we need to change both local and national governments attitude to planning so that the road infrastructure is put in place well before ever diving head first into housing developments, we need to sort out a fairer system of education whereby students are not weighed down by massive debts before they ever earn from their education, all this can be achieved through people power, through people getting actively involved in politics at both local and national levels. People do have a voice and we should all be encouraging everyone to use that voice for the better good of all. If we were not to do so then we may as well have stayed in the EU and simply let them dictate to us what we can or cannot do. 

Brexit has saved our democracy and we must all start to use that democratic process for the betterment of all in Britain. This to me is the best thing to come out of Brexit!

Of course there are many other issues of Brexit but I am confident in thinking Britain is more than capable of ensuring that trade will continue on regardless, our economy will forever be on a roller-coaster and not having to comply to the EU’s Freedom of Movement will allow us to implement a fair system of immigration that is equal to everyone in the world, regardless of race, creed or colour. I am confident we can have a society that will make the British Lion purr with a contentment that we can all enjoy.

Tomorrow morning, June 23rd 2016, I will be going to the polling station to Vote for Britain to remain British by voting to leave the EU.

Why? Because I do have faith in Britain's capabilities, to stand tall on its own two feet on the world stage and be the great trading nation it has always been! A country that has always been admired by so many others around the world in regards to world business, trade, its rule of law and its natural sense of self determination that has always enabled us to punch far above our weight. We have enjoyed a democracy that every single Briton has the right to be proud of and that democracy was paid for by the blood, sweat and tears of so many, who all knew it was worth fighting for and so many paid the ultimate price for it. Our right to self govern has never nor will ever have a greater price tag than the price that has already been paid for it!

I have seen nothing beneficial come from our 43 years of membership in this European Union, I have seen our industries stripped and sold off, I have seen our people become subdued and lose their own pride in this great nation, not only has the EU caused recession throughout it has also been responsible for depression right across Europe. I have seen businesses burdened with unnecessary regulations that cost them time and money, I have seen riots and civil unrest throughout the EU countries, I have seen hoards of young fighting fit men cause havoc across Europe, when in fact they should be fighting to regain control of their own country and I have seen non-elected bureaucrats make demands of this country that they should never have been in a position to do as most of them had already been rejected by the democratic process of their own nations. Those bureaucrats of the EU are not just non-elected, they are in fact un-elected and as I have watched the EU grow and the more powerful it has become the worse it has become, to the point it is now quite clearly a dictatorship and I do sincerely worry what it will be like should it ever succeed in becoming that superpower it has always desired to be, because should that happen I have no doubts whatsoever it will want to test that power.

Really do put some thought into which box you put your 'X' in tomorrow because the outcome will be final and remember you will not be voting to remain in the EU as it is today but what it will eventually become and your decision will decide the future for generations of Briton's to come. I have pride and faith in my country and should leaving the EU cause an economic downside (which I do not actually believe it will) I will certainly be comforted in the thought that any hardship I may have to endure will not be anywhere near as bad as the hardship endured by those who fought for our right to be a self governing nation in two world wars.

Well it is almost upon us, the big day that many of us have been waiting for a long time and on Thursday 23rd June the people of Britain will decide on Britain’s future. IN or OUT, the choice is entirely yours and I sincerely hope everyone has put as much effort into researching the facts to ensure they know exactly what they will be voting for, unfortunately I do doubt that many actually have and instead have gone for the easier option of listening and believing what they have been spoon fed by those with a vested interest in Remaining IN. 

For me it was the Lisbon Treaty in 2009 that made me realise that the EU was not all it was being portrayed to be, Aritcle 2(4) (which now seems to be 3(4) depending where you access it on the net) clearly states “The Union will become an economic and monetary union whose currency shall be the euro” that has been there in plain view for all to see for the past 7 years. Note it does not say the eurozone, it clearly states the union, this will no doubt be used to tell people that we have always been open about the EU’s intentions and in fairness they have, they have certainly never tried to hide the various treaties from public view but I suspect they were fully aware that most people are simply too lazy to ever look at the most important documents of our lifetimes and they certainly appear to be right on that one. David Cameron has constantly shouted ‘Britain is Better Off in a Reformed Europe’, notice how the IN campaign prefer to call it Europe rather than the EU, this is because they do believe the people are stupid. However to create any kind of reform you need to have influence and here again the Treaties clearly show us we have no influence on the ruling body of the EU, The EU Commission. Article 17(3) Treaty of the Europe Union (TEU) clearly shows us that an EU commissioner is forbidden to be influenced by its own national government and Article 245 Treaty of the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) clearly shows that National Governments are forbidden to influence EU Commissioners. This means the the executive arm of the EU, the decision makers who draft and propose all the laws, set the budgets etc cannot be influenced by any national governments, no influence means no reform possibilities whatsoever. Do please google those Articles to check I am telling you the truth here, I have mentioned this to many in the Remain camp and they simply respond by calling me a liar but its all there to see in plain black and white text.

They tell me that the EU is good for British jobs and how 3 million jobs are directly linked to the EU, I do wonder if those figures were taken before the EU stripped Britain of much of its industry?  

Cadbury moved factory to Poland 2011 with EU grant.

Ford Transit moved to Turkey 2013 with EU grant.

Jaguar Land Rover has recently agreed to build a new plant in Slovakia with EU grant, owned by Tata, the same company who have trashed our steel works and emptied the workers pension funds.

Peugeot closed its Ryton (was Rootes Group) plant and moved production to Slovakia with EU grant.

British Army's new Ajax fighting vehicles to be built in SPAIN using SWEDISH steel at the request of the EU to support jobs in Spain with EU grant, rather than Wales.

Dyson gone to Malaysia, with an EU loan.

Crown Closures, Bournemouth (Was METAL BOX), gone to Poland with EU grant, once employed 1,200.

M&S manufacturing gone to far east with EU loan.

Hornby models gone. In fact all toys and models now gone from UK along with the patents all with with EU grants.

Gillette gone to eastern Europe with EU grant.

Texas Instruments Greenock gone to Germany with EU grant.

Indesit at Bodelwyddan Wales gone with EU grant.

Sekisui Alveo said production at its Merthyr Tydfil Industrial Park foam plant will relocate production to Roermond in the Netherlands, with EU funding.

Hoover Merthyr factory moved out of UK to Czech Republic and the Far East byItalian company Candy with EU backing.

ICI integration into Holland’s AkzoNobel with EU bank loan and within days of the merger, several factories in the UK, were closed, eliminating 3,500 jobs

Boots sold to Italians Stefano Pessina who have based their HQ in Switzerland to avoid tax to the tune of £80 million a year, using an EU loan for the purchase.

JDS Uniphase run by two Dutch men, bought up companies in the UK with £20 million in EU 'regeneration' grants, created a pollution nightmare and just closed it all down leaving 1,200 out of work and an environmental clean-up paid for by the UK tax-payer. They also raided the pension fund and drained it dry.

UK airports are owned by a Spanish company.

Scottish Power is owned by a Spanish company.

Most London buses are run by Spanish and German companies.

The Hinkley Point C nuclear power station to be built by French company EDF, part owned by the French government, using cheap Chinese steel that has catastrophically failed in other nuclear installations. Now EDF say the costs will be double or more and it will be very late even if it does come online.

Swindon was once our producer of rail locomotives and rolling stock. Not any more, it's Bombardier in Derby and due to their losses in the aviation market, that could see the end of the British railways manufacturing altogether even though Bombardier had EU grants to keep Derby going which they diverted to their loss-making aviation side in Canada.

39% of British invention patents have been passed to foreign companies, many of them in the EU

The Mini cars that Cameron stood in front of as an example of British engineering, are built by BMW mostly in Holland and Austria. His campaign bus was made in Germany even though we have Plaxton, Optare, Bluebird, Dennis etc., in the UK. 

The bicycle for the Greens was made in the far east, not by Raleigh UK but then they are probably going to move to the Netherlands too as they have said recently.

Anyone who thinks the EU has been good for British industry or any other business simply hasn't paid attention to what has been systematically asset-stripped from the UK. Whilst our own government who tell us we should remain in the EU conveniently turn a blind eye to it all.

Surely they must fully realise the EU idealism is purely for the betterment of Germany. Doesn’t the fact that the EU forces Britain to close three coal powered power stations using the climate change scaremongering, whilst Germany builds nine new ones show them? Or when the EU forced Greece to sell off 14 Airports now owned by Germany, then we have Dutch and German armed forces amalgamated under German command (not EU as you would expect), German finance minster dictating tax measures, surely our governments past and present must be fully aware of all of this and yet they keep on telling us that Britain is better off in the EU!

These are all things the OUT campaign should have been shouting about but instead Vote Leave have managed to run a campaign based on arguments of whether it is £350 million a week costs or not and even that figure only takes into account our membership fee, it fails to calculate all the other costs that being in the EU is costing Britain. Like the £33 billion a year costs to businesses just for the top 100 EU regulations, or the green taxes on our utility bills, or the VAT payments to the EU, there are far more costs involved than just the membership fee and yet that £350 million as been the key issue in the referendum debate, the truth is the overall cost is far greater than anything we gain out of being in a club we really have no need to be in. 

Cameron openly admits that Britain can survive outside the EU, what he doesn’t tell anyone is he doubts Britain will survive if we remain in it. The Eurozone will most certainly collapse, it is not a case of IF but When, as was clearly evident by the EU’s recent €1 TRILLION of Quantitative Easing (printing off more money) to prop up and already failed Eurozone and on June 23rd we do have a one off opportunity to get out before it does, if you are in a collapsing building you make your way to the exit door just as quickly as possible and this is what we should be doing now with the EU. It is madness not to do so and I personally believe Britain will do far more than simply survive, we will once again flourish as the great trading nation that we have always been. 

I think the EU Referendum on June 23rd will be simply show us all, who are the ones who do have faith in Britain’s capabilities and who are those who do not! 

Over the years I have debated with many people from all walks of life about the Pro’s and Con’s of our membership of the EU, one thing that has been very apparent is that the vast majority of those who think the EU is wonderful have never looked at any of the treaties, especially the Lisbon Treaty, which happens to be the most important document of our lifetime and yet isn’t it strange that all those that have take the time to analyse the rule book, want out of the EU as quickly as possible. This blog is work in progress and I will be adding different articles from various treaties that will show you why voting to remain on June 23rd is not the best option for Britain.

1) The Euro, yes it is true that at this moment we have an opt out from the euro but Article 2(4) of the Lisbon Treaty has always clearly stated “The Union shall establish an economic and monetary union whose currency is the euro.” note it does not say it will create a eurozone, it says the union. Britain will eventually be forced to join the euro and we already know that is never going to pan out good for Britain. Remember that should you vote to remain on June 23rd you are voting to agree to abide by all the treaties, forever.

2) Britain, nor any of the other 27 countries in the EU have any representation on the ruling body of the EU, the EU Commission, these are the people who draft the laws we have to abide by and yet no EU commissioner can be influenced by his or her national government, should any commissioner be found to breech this rule they can be removed by the EU President. This is clearly evident in Article 17(3) of the Treaty of the European Union (TEU) which clearly states, “ the members of the Commission shall neither seek nor take instructions from any Government or other institution, body, office or entity. They shall refrain from any action incompatible with their duties or the performance of their tasks.” and Article 245 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) which states “ The Members of the Commission shall refrain from any action incompatible with their duties. Member States shall respect their independence and shall not seek to influence them in the performance of their tasks.”

3) So what exactly does the EU have control over, well this is plain to see in Article 6 of the TFEU....

Article 6

The Union shall have competence to carry out actions to support, coordinate or supplement the actions of the Member States. The areas of such action shall, at European level, be:

(a) protection and improvement of human health;

(b) industry;

(c) culture;

(d) tourism;

(e) education, vocational training, youth and sport;

(f) civil protection;

(g) administrative cooperation.

Doesn’t leave much for our British government to do really, does it.

4)  People power, here in Britain if I wish to petition government I can start one with just 5 qualifying signatures, should that petition gain 100k it has to be debated in parliament. The EU has a similar one, however to be able to force any decision on the non elected EU Commission, it takes signatures from 1,000,000 people from an unknown number of member states. Article 10(4) of the TEU states, “ Not less than one million citizens who are nationals of a significant number of Member States may take the initiative of inviting the European Commission, within the framework of its powers, to submit any appropriate proposal on matters where citizens consider that a legal act of the Union is required for the purpose of implementing the Treaties.” 

A significant number of member states? So if one country has an issue they would need to get an unknown number of other countries to agree with their gripe before they could make the EU commission take notice, good luck with that one should anyone ever try it.

With June 23rd #EUref rapidly approaching and people on both sides shouting their own reasons why we should leave or why we should stay, it certainly seems to me that more emphasis is being given to what will happen if we leave, rather than what will happen if we stay in. This may well be because there isn’t any really good selling points to remaining in the EU. The ‘Remainers’ keep on shouting about how leaving the EU will be a leap in the dark that will be an economic disaster to Britain, but when you look around Europe today, there already seems to be an economic implosion going on. The French finance minster says the country is bankrupt, Germany is going into economic meltdown. Greece and Spain are in dire straights in regards to unemployment figures. It really doesn’t look all rosey to me, so where are the arguments being put forward for what will happen if we do remain in the EU, stating we should stay out because leaving will be bad really isn’t the best sales pitch ever! 

Lets look at the different aspects of it all....

Trade:

The trade argument comes out in the debate a lot of the time and yet we do export more to non-EU countries then we do to the EU and we do not have to pay those Non-EU countries membership fees or have them making our laws just so we can trade with them. What exactly is the sense of doing that with the EU. Some say, well negotiating as a bloc gives us better trade deals. However right across the globe today trade tariffs are at the lowest they have ever been, with many not having any tariffs at all. So the EU does not really benefit us in that factor, does it. Then you have to take into account the complexity and time of negotiating a trade deal that involves getting 28 countries to agree, it takes far more time and effort than it does for a single country to negotiate a trade deal. If there is a benefit of negotiating as a block I really don’t see it. Britain has excelled as a trading nation for 100′s of years and will continue to do so regardless of our membership of the EU and we certainly do not need the EU negotiating our trade deals for us.

Economics:

The Remain side keep on telling us how the EU only costs us £8.5 billion a year, however they only take into account the membership fee of this now 28 countries club and totally ignore all the other costs involved. Our membership fee at the moment is £12.9 billion a year (it will continue to increase), after rebates it brings it down to that £8.5 billion figure, according to the Remainers this is all we pay, that is a blatant lie! The top 100 EU regulations cost Britain a staggering £33 billion a year, that is £90 million a day conveniently ignored by the Remainers, then you have VAT payments, Green Levy taxes and all the other costs of being in the EU, which is well over £100 billion a year, why our government will not tell the people the full cost is pretty obvious really, if they did everyone would vote to leave. Where is the economic sense in paying out so much when all you really want to do is trade with them, even if they tried to charge us the highest tariffs permissible it would still work out cheaper for Britain.

Sovereignty:

Remaining in the EU will lead to loss of sovereignty because once the EU fully evolves into a full economic and monetary union whose currency shall be the euro, our national parliaments will become state parliaments and all our laws will be written in Brussels. Some do argue this point but it is a clear fact that has always been there to see in the EU’s many Treaties. Remaining in the EU is surrendering our right to self governance and that is an unarguable fact. Considering that throughout history countries have always fought for their independence, where is the sense in paying the EU to take ours away exactly?

Immigration:

Has the EU really helped us in that quarter? I don’t think so, the Freedom of Movement rights for EU citizens has caused major problems for Britain and as long as we remain members of the EU we have to accept Freedom of Movement. As the EU continues to expand the problems it causes will increasingly get worse. In fact it has already got so bad our government brought in a new law in April which means certain Non-EU migrants who are not earning at least £35,000 a year will get deported in September 2106, around 40,000 of them. Remember Non-EU includes America, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, etc and it could be you favourite waiter at the local Indian restaurant who is most certainly not earning £35K. This has clearly come about because the Freedom of Movement that has caused a massive strain on our everyday services, such NHS, education, etc. We cannot retake control of our borders and implement a points based immigration system that is equal to everyone in the world and not weighted in favour of the EU, without leaving the EU. This is another clear and unarguable fact.

EU Armed Forces:

This is the really scary one for me, they say that the EU has created peace in Europe for over 70 years, well we will just have to ignore the 40 conflicts that have taken place in Europe since WWII then and also ignore all the riots that are taking place all over Europe at the moment and just say that the EU has created peace. Now just think for a moment, if that was true then why this desire to create an EU armed forces under German command. Personally I think that the reason there has not been another world war is because the powers that be in Germany were restricted from starting one and now we have 28 countries all funding this idealism that is undoubtedly under German control, create its own armed forces. No wonder Putin has concerns, who in their right mind wouldn’t. 

In any decision we have to make throughout life, we have to weigh up the Pro’s and Con’s of that decision and as far as I can see, in this EU Referendum dilemma the Pro’s far, far outweigh the Con’s should we decide to leave the EU.

It will not be the leap in the dark the Remainers try to make out it will be, it will be the freedom to control our own destiny and considering we do happen to be exceptionally good negotiators, why would we want to limit ourselves to what the EU can do for us, instead of us doing it for ourselves and doing a much better job of it on a much larger scale, its not a leap in the dark, its stepping back onto the world stage, standing tall and proud!

There are a lot of people that keep on telling me how wonderful the EU is and yet when I quiz them on different aspects of the EU, it turns out they know very little about it, in fact most of them have never even looked at the Lisbon Treaty, which basically makes them sales people trying to sell me a product without ever looking at the instruction manual. They just reiterate the selective nonsense that they have been fed by the media and have never bothered to look any further than that. If you happen to be one of those then do pull your head out of the sand and take a real look at the EU before you put your X in the box on June 23rd, do the research for yourself and everyone else that your decision will affect. 

There is no excuse for ignorance in a world that has Google.... 

Most people are already fed up with the different arguments put forward from both sides of the debate and there is certainly a lot of misinformation and exaggeration being spouted by both sides but the reality of it is, much of it is simply irrelevant nonsense. How many of you ponder over your first cup of coffee in the morning about international trade deals, how many can’t go to sleep at night without first checking if Britain is still the 5th strongest economy in the world or not, its all political nonsense just to muddy the waters and distract people away from the important question they are being asked on June 23rd....

WHO DO YOU WANT MAKING THE LAWS THAT YOU HAVE TO LIVE BY!

That is it folks, that is the only real decision you have to make when you put your X on the ballot paper. You are simply choosing on whether Britain should be ruled by a UK Government or an EU Commission. So what is the difference between the two?

UK Government:

Every five years we trot along to the polling stations to chose which party we want making the laws we have to live by. We all know deep down, it really doesn’t matter that much anymore who gets in, they will all take money from us its just how they do it, that changes. For the past 15 years its felt to me like we have two Tory parties anyway. However whoever it is that is in power they are still accountable to the people, we have the power to petition government by collecting signatures of 100K people and force the debate in parliament. That is democracy and it is what so many people give their lives for in the past.

EU Commission:

You may wonder why I say EU Commission and not just EU, well The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the EU treaties and managing the day-to-day business of the EU. They are for all sense and purpose the dictators of the European Union. You do not get to elect these EU commissioners, they are hand picked from the member states and the first rule they must abide by when becoming an EU commissioner is to let go of all allegiance to their own country. Article 17 of TEU clearly states... “ the members of the Commission shall neither seek nor take instructions from any Government or other institution, body, office or entity. They shall refrain from any action incompatible with their duties or the performance of their tasks.”, in other words they are not there to represent you, they are there to represent the EU and nothing more. Should they not do so they can be removed by the EU President. That is not democracy, that is a dictatorship! 

So on June 23rd 2016, forget about economic, trade, migration arguments or anything else being bandied around by both sides of the campaign and simply decide who you want making the laws you have to live by, who do you want deciding how much tax you should pay, because that is without doubt the most important decision you have ever been asked to make for Britain, not just for yourself but future generations to come.

So we’ve had the designation and low and behold the winning OUT campaign group just happens to be Vote Leave, well I certainly predicted that one right. In fairness that wasn’t too difficult for anyone to work out. A government body, namely the Electoral Commission, picks the governments preferred OUT campaign group, that David Cameron has been throwing some big names at to help qualify Vote Leave’s designation win. I bet there will be some rather nice jobs for those big names after the EU Referendum, of course that will be a form of admission but after the referendum it will no longer matter how blatant they are about showing off how clever they have duped the British public. 

Just look at the General Election 2015, the Tories won what I believed was an impossible majority, how was that possible? Well quite simply it could not have been achieved without Labour’s help to make it happen, easily done when you control both sides of the game and lets face it Tony Blair turned Labour into the old Tory party when he came to power. 

Anyway the playing field is all set, on one side we have Cameron’s team playing towards the ‘REMAIN’ goal and we have Vote Leave supposedly playing towards the OUT goal and unfortunately poor Nigel Farage is not even on the substitutes bench. By Vote Leave getting that designation it meant the David Cameron was totally protected from ever having to debate Nigel Farage on the EU, a debate Cameron could never win in a million years, I do suspect that there will be a one on one debate between David Cameron and his mate Boris Johnson and no prizes for guessing how that will turn out. 

So lets see if I can second guess how this referendum will be played, it wasn’t even 24 hours after designation that Vote Leave start taking shots at UKIP and Nigel Farage, even Dan Hannan had to have a quick rethink and delete a tweet where he got a little over excited over winning and un-losable contest.

http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/04/15/i-told-you-so-euref-day-one-and-vote-leaves-hannan-and-stuart-are-already-slagging-off-ukipers/

Now today Raheem Kassam’s Breitbart released an interesting exclusive on how Vote Leave doesn’t really want to leave the EU but wants to push the idea of joining the EFTA (European Free Trade Association) 

http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/04/26/exclusive-establishment-vote-leave-camp-admits-not-want-leave-eu-wants-negotiation-27-eu-member-states/

So whats that all mean in simple terms, well if Vote Leave hand David Cameron the very thing that he can use to destroy their argument, he will win. What easier way of doing that than Vote Leave leaking their own letter to let everyone know they want to leave the EU but afterwards not invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty but want to join the EFTA (European Free Trade Association) instead, all David Cameron has to do is clearly point out that would mean we will have lost our negotiating power within the EU but yet still be controlled by the EU’s four freedoms including the most damaging one, Freedom of Movement. Seriously given that option who is not going to vote to remain in the EU. 

However, that has not happen yet and what happens next is down to the British people, I personally think they have played their hand way too soon and this is something that the genuine OUT campaign groups need to capitalise on. They need to get out there and show the voting public the importance of voting to leave the EU, this is without doubt Britain’s one and only chance of getting out. It has to be made very clear to government that out means out, with no EEA or EFTA ideas involved! We are the 5th strongest economy in the world and it is about time our government started standing up for this country of ours in a way the portrays that clearly to the world. David Cameron has had this campaign message for quite sometime now “We’re In It Together”, well it is about time we started reminding those we elect to represent us that “They Work For Us” and the best time to get that message over is to Vote to Leave the EU on June 23rd.

Forget about complex trade deals you’ve never ever thought about before, ignore the economic disaster scaremongering and just remember one simple thing, on June 23rd 2016 you only have two choices, you can vote for Britain to remain British and take our rightful place on the world stage or you can vote to remain and succumb to an EU rule, that for the past 40 years has only ever got worse, it will undoubtedly continue to get worse with every new country they pull into it. When we joined the EU we had 20% of the vote share, today we have 9.5% and they are looking at five new countries joining. 

If like me, you do have faith in Britain’s capabilities to not only survive but to prosper outside the EU, then ensure you get as many people on board to vote to leave on June 23rd, it really does not matter what banner you do this under as the end goal is all the same for the genuine OUT campaigns.