Bremainers Ask ……. Peter Corr

Bremainers Ask ……. Peter Corr

Nov 1, 2022 | Bremainers Ask, News

Peter Corr is an ex-army HGV driver who lost his job thanks to Brexit and decided to do something rather special to protest about that. He set up the campaign group ‘UK Rejoin the EU’ to fight against Brexit and recently organised the National Rejoin March – the biggest pro-EU, anti-Brexit demonstration and rally the UK has seen for years.

Lisa Burton: Through organising the National Rejoin March, you have been collaborating with many groups and organisations and therefore hearing a lot of voices and opinions. How have you found the experience?

I found the experience to be a huge learning exercise and really fun.  I’ve met lots of different people, every single one of them enthusiastic and infinitely more knowledgeable than me.  In just a few short months, I feel I’ve made more genuine friends than I have ever had before and it has shown, in my opinion, that working together in an equal and collaborative way can really get things done.

Did serving in the army have anything to do with your passion for being part of the EU?

Until recently if you’d have asked me that, I would probably have said no.  But recently I began to think it has quite a lot to do with it.  No matter what people think about the armed forces, while you are serving you genuinely feel like you are doing a public service, protecting your country and its people.  It gets kind of engraved into you.  Since leaving the Army, I can’t honestly say I continued that public service in any meaningful way.  But seeing the country I love being utterly destroyed by politicians lying to win goals that can do nothing but harm made that sense of public duty kick back in.  I wasn’t prepared to sit back and give up.  I wanted to fight for what is clearly right for our country and the people in it.  I think that sense of public duty is still in me and that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing.

 

Valerie Chaplin: What are your plans for the future re marches, protests and campaigning?

This is genuinely the start of something I want to continue and grow for as long as necessary until we have rejoined the EU.  Not the single market.  Not the customs union.  But fully Rejoined the EU.  Direct action takes many forms, from protests and marches like we started with (NRM London), to street stalls, concerts, petitions, lobbying, anything and everything we can think of, and as often as humanly possible.  We all sat back and practically gave up for too long, mostly due to Covid in reality, but we need to now continue campaigning much stronger than we ever have and not give in.

 

Ruth Woodhouse: In June 2021 you organised the online event “Music Sounds Better with EU” to highlight the problems faced by musicians post Brexit. Has the situation for artists changed at all since then and what is the government’s current position?

Unfortunately no, not really.  The creative industry is close to my heart, so I sometimes may give more precedence to it than other industries.  Any job which involved working across Europe has been affected by Brexit.  But back to the creative industries, for up-and-coming workers or artists (it affects everyone in the industry, from lighting technicians to DJs to full orchestras) it’s just over.  A new artist can no longer afford to have a mini tour across Europe to help kick start a career like so many did during our time in the EU.  It’s having an affect the other way round too.  At festivals in the UK, for example, we’re missing out on seeing some amazing artists from Europe.  It genuinely breaks my heart, and Music Sounds Better With EU is another thing which is just the start and we have plans for in the near future.

Steve Wilson: Did the National Rejoin March day go as anticipated and how do you feel about the fight to rejoin the EU going forward?

The first National Rejoin March honestly went way better than I or the team could have possibly hoped.  The numbers that attended were phenomenal (50,000 according to our Police Liaison), the entire day was extremely positive and fun, and the goal was met – which was to get the word ‘Rejoin’ in as much of the UK media as possible.  Even this exceeded our expectations, as we reached the news all over Europe, Australia and even America.  The overwhelming message from the feedback since the day, is that people have ‘hope’ again, including me.  We are going nowhere, until we’ve rejoined the EU.

 

David Eldridge: With the Labour party and Rejoin both polling at over 50%, surely Starmer can afford to lose a few pro-Brexit voters and adopt a more EU friendly stance. What do you think the Labour party should do now?

I completely agree that Labour can afford to lose the diminishing number of people who still, despite everything, support Brexit.  The polls as I type this suggest a 57% support for Rejoining the EU.  That is without ANY mainstream campaign.  That is without ANY mainstream politician punting for it.  It’s without practically anything at all advertising Rejoin as the solution to the problems we face.  I honestly believe, with just a little bit of the above, that 57% number will rocket, and the first party to adopt a full-on Rejoin policy will massively benefit from it at any general election.  We can ALL see now with our own eyes what life is like out the EU and compare it directly to what life was like in the EU.  This makes for such an easy campaign for Rejoin, in my opinion, that it baffles me why the parties are still holding back from it.  Just do it!  People need you to do it.  Now.

 

It’s clear that rejoining the EU will be a step-by-step process. What should the first steps be?

I don’t personally believe it is.  For example, the single market.  One of the biggest lies Brexit was won with, was that we can’t make our own rules and laws.  So, if we were JUST in the single market, that lie would become a truth.  We’d be accepting rules and laws made in the EU and we’d have no say in them, being out the EU.  To me, that’s a harder thing to sell than just Rejoining the EU.  Rejoin the EU and we have the single market, but with seats at the table (again) writing those rules and laws.  If the UK-wide parties don’t step up and fast, then the first ‘step’ should be fighting for PR so those parties no longer hold the full power they used to.  Then Rejoiners can get people in Parliament who are not from the traditional parties, such as people in the Rejoin the EU Party, who would argue for us.  This is my personal view, not that of ‘NRM’.

 

Helen Johnston: Do you feel the public mood is changing in the UK as the harm Brexit has caused becomes more apparent and harder to blame on covid, Ukraine, etc.? 

Absolutely!  And it’s undeniable.  Research piece after research piece clearly shows how economies in the rest of Europe and other parts of the world have almost recovered to pre-pandemic levels in so many ways, while the UK still lags behind.  There’s only one thing different in the UK, we’ve imposed economic sanctions on ourselves.  We’ve added costs to our imports and exports.  We’ve ruined relationships with our biggest trading partner.  We’ve opened up workers’ rights to a more and more far-right government that just wants to trash them.  Again, the list is endless, and undeniably because of the effects of Brexit.  Of course, other factors affect us too.  But everything bad happening in the world is made worse in the UK because of Brexit.  The polls clearly show people are waking up to this fact.

 

What do you think campaigners need to be doing to persuade more people to support the Rejoin movement?

Be positive.  ONLY positive.  No more “this is what we lose” campaigning.  Flip it to “this is what we gain if we rejoin” campaigning.  So ,don’t say “we lost freedom of movement because of Brexit”.  Say “we will gain freedom to live, love and work in 27 other countries if we rejoin”.  Don’t say “our NHS is crumbling due to staff shortages because of Brexit”.  Say “Let’s Rejoin the EU to help the staff shortages in the NHS”.  Every negative thing caused by Brexit can be flipped to be a positive for Rejoining the EU, and I believe that’s how we should all conduct the Rejoin campaign.  Purely positively.  And do it as often as possible, not just online in our bubbles, but offline, outside the bubble.  Direct action.  That’s what ‘National Rejoin March’ as a “brand” is all about.

 

Anon: Many seem to believe that the EU would be wary about any future application from the UK to rejoin. Are they right to be concerned, and if so, how do we convince the EU otherwise?

I don’t believe they are right to be concerned.  But I understand why they are.  Who would honestly blame the EU for not ever wanting us back after the nonsense we’ve caused for years now?  However, the EU doesn’t work like that.  It’s not working based on silly rhetoric or ‘feelings’.  It works on reality, truth and what’s good for its citizens.  The UK rejoining the EU, but taking it seriously this time, electing MEPs who want to go to the EU Parliament to help build futures, not wreck the place like Farage and co. did: that is a good thing for the UK, the EU and the world.  We had both Guy Verhofstadt and Terry Reintke speak at the National Rejoin March, and we deliberately picked them because they both often say, as sitting MEPs, that the EU will take us back, that they’ve left a light on, and it will not take as long as some people say.  So, use them as examples when you hear the argument that the EU wouldn’t have us back.  They will, as soon as they know we want to – and we mean it.  Check out both their speeches as soon as we release them, they should fill you with hope.  They did for me

Finally, I would just like to say thank you to everyone at Bremain in Spain, for everything you’ve done for the NRM and everything you’ve been doing in your many years of pro-European campaigning. You are honestly an inspiration to us all.

 

Coming next month:

 

We are delighted to welcome Marina Purkiss – Political commentator, broadcaster and co-host of The Trawl Podcast. Marina is active on social media, with 288,000 Twitter followers, and has recently appeared on Bylines TV and the Jeremy Vine Show. If you wish to put a question to Marina, please email us at enquiries@bremaininspain.com before 8 November. 

UK economy is “frankly doomed”

UK economy is “frankly doomed”

Oct 24, 2022 | Bylines, News

Billionaire investor and Tory supporter Guy Hands says the UK economy is “frankly doomed” and has been this way since the failed Brexit deal writes Bremain Chair Sue Wilson MBE for Yorkshire Bylines.

The UK economy is “frankly doomed”. So says billionaire investor and former president of the Oxford University Conservative Association, Guy Hands. Speaking to the BBC’s flagship radio news programme on BBC Radio 4 on Monday, Hands said the reason for the UK’s dire economic state was the “completely hopeless” Brexit deal.

The situation is so serious, claims Hands, that the UK could need a financial bailout from the International Monetary Fund. That’s unless the new prime minister can renegotiate the deal with the European Union. Without a new deal, Hands says, the UK is on a path to being “the sick man of Europe” – a characterisation of Britain from the 70s, at a time of industrial upheaval and poor economic performance.

Conservative Party should own their mistake

Hands, chair of private equity firm Terra Firma, made his comments following a tumultuous period of financial instability, brought on by the recent ‘mini-budget’. However, he believes the causes of the UK’s economic problems go back much further.

Hands holds the Conservative government completely responsible and said they must “own up to the mistake they made in how they negotiated Brexit”. He added, the government must move on from their “own internal wars”. Failure to do so would result in “steadily increasing taxes, steadily reducing benefits and social services, higher interest rates” and “increasing levels of poverty in the UK”.

Based on the last 12 years of Tory rule, the chances of the government accepting any responsibility for the state of the nation, or apologising for the harm done, seem extremely remote. More likely, even with a new PM, we’re in for more denial and delusion, especially when it comes to their failed Brexit project. The Tories don’t do sorry. Or reality, it would appear.

Another costly failed experiment

Short-lived former PM Liz Truss was an avid advocate of a low-tax, high-growth economy, despite no evidence that a ‘trickledown’ policy works. Professor Nicholas Barr of the London School of Economics said recently “there is a wealth of evidence against tax cuts alone producing growth”.

In his interview today, Hands also commented on the government’s “dream of a low-tax, low-benefit economy” – the whole ethos behind Brexit. In regard to Truss, he said the trickledown policy had been tried but was something that was clearly “not acceptable to the British people”.

In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, Hands said it was not just those at the bottom that are suffering the consequences of “a disastrous economic state” caused by a “completely hopeless” Brexit deal. Poverty was now “moving up the economic level” and affecting “middle class people who will not be able to pay their mortgages” and are “finding it difficult to make ends meet”

 

The truth about Brexit cannot be hidden any longer

According to Hands, there is a “possibility of turning around the economy”. It would, however, require leadership from someone with the “intellectual capability to renegotiate Brexit”. Whether or not he believes our new PM fits the bill, or can pay it, is not clear.

What is clear is that, new PM or not, the Brexiters are still in charge. Based on earlier evidence, they do want a new deal, though not necessarily one that Hands would approve of, that the EU would accept, or that would benefit the UK economy.

Until the government – whether this one or the next – starts being honest about Brexit and our relationship with Europe, it is difficult to see how the situation can improve. Brexit has proven to be as damaging and disastrous as pro-Europeans said it would be.

The government will no doubt claim they have a plan, that everything will be fine given time, and that they know what they are doing. They will continue to blame anyone but themselves for the state of the country.

But, the damage wreaked by Brexit cannot be hidden any longer. The rest of the world can see it, and increasingly, so can the British public. It’s high time the government, the opposition and the mainstream media, opened their eyes too.

There is a better deal to be had. As members of the European Union.

 

Triple lock pensions at risk

Triple lock pensions at risk

Oct 20, 2022 | Bylines, News

The triple lock on pensions has been a long-held Conservative Party commitment and manifesto promise. But not any more it seems.Bremain Chair Sue Wilson MBE writes for Yorkshire Bylines.

Whilst financial markets may have felt some relief at the arrival of Jeremy Hunt, the new chancellor, British pensioners are fearing the worst. It seems that, for the second year running, the triple lock on pensions could be at risk. The chancellor refused on Tuesday, in front of both the media and parliament, to “commit to anything” or to make any promises. His comments were being backed up, at least on the day, by Prime Minister (for now) Liz Truss.

 

Triple lock pensions at risk: another broken manifesto promise?

The triple lock on pensions has been a long-held Conservative Party commitment and manifesto promise. The lock commits the government to upgrading state pensions annually by 2.5%, average earnings, or inflation, whichever is the highest. However, the last annual review – effective from April this year – saw the triple lock downgraded to a double lock.

Boris Johnson’s government claimed that the cost-of-living crisis was to blame – all down to Covid and no mention of Brexit, of course. Despite considerable outrage at having the inflationary element of the lock removed, Johnson rode out the storm with a promise of a return of the triple lock next year. It would now appear that both Truss and Hunt may have other ideas.

 

On Tuesday, Labour’s Emma Hardy asked the chancellor for confirmation that the state pension would rise with inflation next April. Hunt said he was “very aware of how many vulnerable pensioners there are and the importance of the triple lock” but would not be making “any commitments on any individual policy areas”.

 

The cost of inflation

When the inflationary element of the triple lock was abandoned this year, state pensioners saw their income rise by just 3.1%. At that time, the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) was recording inflation at 9%. With anticipated rises in fuel and energy costs this winter, inflation is expected to continue to climb. Just this week, the CPI rose to 10.1%, according to the Office for National Statistics. The Bank of England expects inflation to reach 11% by the end of the month.

US financial services firm Citi is predicting that the CPI will reach 18% in the first quarter of 2023, while the retail prices index could climb to 21%. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund believes the UK will have “the most persistent high inflation in the G7”

 

British pensions fall short

Over 12 million pensioners receive a British state pension, and the population is ageing. Like other vulnerable groups, whether working or not, any failure to increase income in line with inflation is going to hurt. With the energy and cost-of-living crises, many are already having to make difficult decisions about where to cut back, such as choosing between heating or eating. Without inflationary increases to wages, benefits and pensions, many more will fall into poverty.

The fact that the UK state pension is pitifully low by comparison to other industrialised nations only adds to the problem. The basic state pension in the UK, for those who have made full national insurance contributions, is just £141.85 per week. As a percentage of average wages, the difference between our state pension and that of other countries is stark. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a typical British worker’s pension equates to just 29% of average wages. Compare that to Japan (40%), USA (49.1%), Germany (50.5%), France (74.5%), Spain (81.8%) or the Netherlands (100.6%) and you begin to understand how far Britain lags behind.

 

Meanwhile, as British state pensions shrink in real terms, MPs are quite happily awarding themselves annual pay rises and, according to the Telegraph, are enjoying pensions “five times more generous than those of private sector workers”. In effect, the average worker would need to contribute 43 years longer than a British politician for the same pay out.

 

Risking core support

Of course, not all pensioners rely on a state pension alone, and not all pensioners vote Conservative. But many do. If this government’s policies have not already driven away many of their core supporters, the triple lock threat could finish the job.

If all goes to plan – which cannot be taken for granted – the right to vote will be restored to hundreds of thousands of pensioners living abroad, in time for the next scheduled general election. As the vast majority of them were anti-Brexit – even if unable to vote against it – they already hold a major gripe against the Conservative government.

The devaluation of the pound since the referendum in 2016 has already caused the pensions of British emigrants to shrink. Any further reduction of pension values in real terms would go down like a lead balloon. Or the Brexit pound. Despite that, the government seems intent on further undermining its core over-60s support at home and abroad.

 

Another U-turn or another lie?

When the topic of the triple lock was raised at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, the response from Truss was rather different from the day before. Another U-turn perhaps or just another attempt to mislead?

The SNP’s Ian Blackford asked Truss a direct question about the government’s commitment to the triple lock. Blackford said that the latest broken promise would “put pensioners in the front line of Tory cuts” and asked the PM to commit to “raising the state pension at the rate of inflation?” In response, Truss said the government had “been clear in our manifesto that we will maintain the triple lock” and that she was “completely committed to it”. She added, “so is the chancellor”.

Sadly, most pensioners across the country, or abroad, won’t believe a word of it. We know from past, bitter experience what government platitudes and promises are worth, and who pays the price for their mistakes.

Come the next election, it will be Tories paying the price for those mistakes. Unfortunately, it’s the country that will be saddled with the bill.

Open letter to Truss #3 – October 2022

Open letter to Truss #3 – October 2022

Oct 10, 2022 | News, Sue Wilson Writes

by Sue Wilson MBE

Dear Liz,

Since our earlier correspondence, (December 2021 and January 2022) it’s good to see that you have finally ditched the multiple hats and roles in favour of focussing on just one job. The big one. I guess I should start by offering my congratulations, but as you have been under-performing so spectacularly, that wouldn’t seem appropriate under the circumstances.

Given that you have only been in the job such a short amount of time, (is it really only a month? – it seems so much longer), I have held off from writing until now. Let’s wait until after the party conference, I told myself, and give her a chance to turn this thing around and show us what she’s got. Sadly, it seems, we had already seen the best you had to offer. Though frankly, you and I had far more in common before the dreaded (don’t worry, I won’t mention the ‘B’ word) referendum.

So, let me get to the reason for my missive. I am writing to complain. I appreciate this will not come as a surprise as I imagine the vast majority of your correspondence is made up of complaints of some description. In addition, in light of your recent party conference speech, the list of those with genuine reasons for complaint has increased exponentially.

It seems that the list of your supposed enemies has expanded considerably, and we all share a shiny new label. Not only is the previous insult de jour of “Remainer” no longer in vogue but now I’m a “Br*x*t denier” and a member of the “anti-growth coalition”! At least your name calling is not limited to us pro-Europeans. It now also applies to Labour, the unions, environmentalists, think tanks and talking heads.

I’m sure if you, or your script writers had taken just a bit of time, you could have swept up a lot more supposed enemies in that meaningless list. After all, considering the state of your party at the moment, surely you could have included a few disloyal backbenchers in your catalogue of reprobates.

Of course, there will always be a ready supply of useful idiots, like Nadhim Zahawi, to defend your nonsense, and I can live with that. After all, when you fall, you’ll be taking a lot of them with you. Even your former candidate for the top job, Tom Tugendhat, has been waffling on about growth in your defence. Apparently, growth grows opportunities, lives and futures, and you are right to be focussing on delivering it for everyone. Well, everyone except the poor, the hungry, the disabled, the needy etc., etc. Well, speaking as a non-economist, non-expert I can assure you that is complete “bollocks”, as we’ve been saying about Br*x*t (enter six letter word beginning with ‘Br*’ and ending with ‘x*t’ here).

To your credit, I don’t doubt for one minute that you believe all this rhetorical horse manure you are spouting, even in the face of ample evidence to the contrary. Certainly, the Bank of England doesn’t believe it, nor the financial markets. But I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt as you are still relatively new at this game. After all, it’s only a maximum of two years until the country decides on our next PM, rather than a few thousand elderly, white, wealthy right-wingers. Assuming, of course, that your party doesn’t decide before that to give another ERG supporter a go at running the country.

Another complaint, before I toddle off to count what’s left of my diminishing state pension. Could you please instruct your cabinet and ministers to stop pretending that this is a brand-new government. Anyone would think you were trying to suggest there has been a different party/government running things for the last 12 years. As the longest serving member of the Conservative government that is currently in power, and has been for over a decade, I’m sure you will agree. After all, there is so much (not!) to take credit for.

Finally, could we please stop with the three-word soundbites and slogans like the irritating “getting Britain moving” nonsense. Laxative commercials have had more convincing slogans. As for answering questions, let me be very clear (see what I did there?) – your stock answers are now so familiar that there’s really no point giving any more interviews. The whole country can predict how you will respond with considerably more accuracy than you can predict the economy or public opinion.

Despite your protestations that you are “listening” and you “get it”, I’m afraid I remain (no pun intended) sceptical. I don’t believe you have a “clear plan” (unless you mean one that you can see through), I don’t believe your party has the “determination to deliver” or that you can “unleash the full potential of our great country”.

If I’m being totally honest, I don’t think you do either. So, why not save us all two years more nonsense and go for the mandate from the country you already claim to have. Call an election. Put your money – rather than ours for a change – where your mouth is. If you don’t mind me finishing with one of your own quotes, “that is how we will build a new Britain for a new era”. You know it makes sense, and I’m sure, in the end, you’ll be only too glad to see the back of that wallpaper when you are “moving on up” and out!

Yours hopefully,

Sue Wilson MBE

We get it, and we have listened: government U-turn on uncosted tax cuts

We get it, and we have listened: government U-turn on uncosted tax cuts

Oct 3, 2022 | Bylines, News

The country gets it. We have listened. Can we now bring on the general election and rid the country of Trussonomics and KamiKwasi thinking? Bremain Chair,Sue Wilson MBE, writes for Yorkshire Bylines.

One of the most unpopular decisions made by the Liz Truss government has resulted in a screeching U-turn in the middle of the Conservatory Party conference. The decision to abolish the 45% tax rate for the highest paid 1% of the country has been reversed. While Truss, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and Treasury Secretary Chris Philp argue about whose daft idea it was in the first place, the spin machine is going into overdrive.

One of the most unpopular decisions made by the Liz Truss government has resulted in a screeching U-turn in the middle of the Conservatory Party conference. The decision to abolish the 45% tax rate for the highest paid 1% of the country has been reversed. While Truss, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and Treasury Secretary Chris Philp argue about whose daft idea it was in the first place, the spin machine is going into overdrive.

Humility and contrition but no apology

An official statement from the chancellor described the 45p tax rate as a “distraction” from the government’s “overriding mission to tackle the challenges we face”. In a quote re-iterated by Truss herself, Kwarteng said “we get it, and we have listened”. However, who they had listened to wasn’t made clear. It’s unlikely that they listened to the public if, indeed, they ever engage with them on anything. Their recent mad-cap ideas would suggest otherwise.

Perhaps, instead, they had listened to the markets. Or perhaps to their donors, who journalist Robert Peston said had told the party “We don’t need the money, we don’t want the money and you are bringing us into disrepute”.

Or, heaven forbid, did the government listen to some genuine economic experts? Or was it just the cries from their own, baffled and worried backbenchers that caused the reversed ferret?

What we do know is that Kwarteng is “happy to own the humiliation” but not willing to say sorry for the worry or the damage. Presumably because, like Truss, he genuinely believes it was the right move in the first place and it’s just that the country doesn’t understand his genius.

The damage is done

Despite subsequent efforts to downplay the significance of the proposed tax cuts, Kwarteng had saved that particular announcement until last in his mini-budget speech last Friday. The tax cut proposals drew immediate and vehement criticism, not least from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The pound responded so badly that the Bank of England was forced to take the unprecedented step of a £65bn emergency intervention, in an effort to restore order.

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the abandonment of the policy comes too late for families paying higher mortgages and prices. The Tories, she said, “have destroyed their economic credibility and damaged trust in the British economy”. The whole strategy of trickle-down economics had been “discredited”, she said, with the government “making it up as they go along”.

Labour MP Chris Elmore also expressed concerns about mortgage rates, after lenders withdrew hundreds of mortgage products as a direct result of the chancellor’s actions. Not only were many facing “massive hikes in their mortgages”, Elmore said, but first-time buyers were being “frozen out”. He added, “the damage is done”.

 

Pressing on regardless

Of course, the abandoned tax cut was not the only issue of concern over the government’s economic policies. If you can call them that. The whole idea that cutting taxes will stimulate growth would be laughable if it wasn’t so scary. Worse still is the prospect that any cuts in tax will be funded either by increasingly expensive borrowing or by public sector cuts. And let’s not forget, borrowing has now become more expensive thanks to rising inflation caused largely by [checks notes] government actions.

But, never fear. Truss and Kwarteng have everything under control. Their energy price guarantee “will support households and businesses with their energy bills”. Better yet, their policy of cutting taxes will “put money back in the pockets of 30 million hard-working people and grow the economy”. Not sure what will happen to all those who don’t ‘work hard’, but then you can’t win them all.

Finally, in his U-turn statement the chancellor said the government was “driving supply side reforms”, whatever that is supposed to mean. Apparently, that includes accelerating major infrastructure projects – “to get Britain moving”

 

Move along now

The government will be hoping, if not expecting, that this latest U-turn will draw a line under its recent, and catastrophic, misjudgements. Even if some are prepared to give Truss and Kwarteng the benefit of the doubt, for others this latest debacle will just be the straw that finally broke the camel’s back.

The public are waking up, Tory donors included. Multi-millionaire and former Conservative Party donor, Gareth Quarry, has just defected to Labour. He described Truss and Kwarteng as “two zealots” following a policy of “GCSE economics”. Quarry said their proposals were like “a game of roulette where they’re just betting everything on one number coming up in the next spin”.

 

While Truss and Kwarteng may hope for forgiveness, or at least for short memories, they are ignoring what, for most of the country, is the bleeding obvious. Even though the tax cut for the relatively few paying the highest rate of tax has been abandoned, it is what this government wanted. Truss’s government believed in it – and still does.

Truss and Kwarteng might now expect credit for doing the right thing, but they were forced into it and it was against their better judgement. The Conservative Party is now seen as the party that tried to cut taxes for the very richest people in our society in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis affecting millions. Not only would they have forced further hardships on those already facing poverty, but they expected us all to pay for it, not just now, for years to come.

So, please, can we just bring on the general election and let’s rid the country of Trussonomics and KamiKwasi thinking. The country gets it, and we have listened. And we don’t want to hear any more.

Bremainers Ask….. Baroness Sarah Ludford

Bremainers Ask….. Baroness Sarah Ludford

Oct 3, 2022 | Bremainers Ask, News

Since 1997, Baroness Sarah Ludford has been a member of the House of Lords and is currently the Liberal Democrat’s Europe and Brexit spokesman.

She was a Member of the European Parliament for London from 1999 to 2014, working mainly on EU security, justice and human rights issues and on EU foreign affairs including as vice-chair of the EP delegation to the US.

A qualified barrister, Sarah has worked in Whitehall, in the European Commission and in the City for Lloyd’s of London and American Express. Sarah was a local councillor for 8 years during the 1990s in the London Borough of Islington.

Keith Glazzard

Is there any justification at all for changing Human Rights legislation in the UK?

Thankfully, one of the few sensible things the Truss government is doing is drop the Bill of Rights Bill which would have gutted the Human Rights Act. However, we cannot lower our guard because the fear is that this right-wing government will simply try to insert into a range of new legislation the horrors that the BORB would have delivered in one place.

There is no justification for substantially changing the Human Rights Act, which has proven its value for nearly a quarter of a century. In particular, it ‘brought rights home’ so that claimants no longer have to make the long and expensive trek to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (which of course is separate from the EU) to seek to enforce their rights, but can do so in domestic courts.

I thoroughly concur with the views expressed in this letter in June from the Joint Committee on Human Rights, on which I sit.

The Independent Human Rights Act Review led by former Appeal Court judge Sir Peter Gross – ignored by the unlamented Dominic Raab as it largely gave the HRA a clean bill of health – suggested just a few relatively minor reforms, which can be read in the executive summary of their report. Sir Peter also gave evidence a few weeks ago to Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights (on which I sit). Here are the transcript and the recording.

A major recommendation of Sir Peter’s review was to increase ‘public ownership of rights’ through greater public and civic education. I thoroughly endorse this call, as the myth peddled by much of the press that the HRA only assists criminals and illegal immigrants is untrue but highly persuasive and corrosive. As we saw, the rights of people in care homes – not least, their right to life – was a big casualty of the Covid pandemic.

 

Michael Soffe

How would you convince me (as a 110% “Rejoiner”) to vote for the Lib Dems in the next election?

Valerie Chaplin

Why are the LibDems not supporting the call to rejoin the EU when the majority of the British public now think Brexit was a mistake?

Lisa Burton

It was good to see you speak at the National Rejoin March. What would you say to those who say it is too early to discuss re-joining the EU?

I am grouping these three questions together as they raise essentially the same ‘Rejoin’ issue. The Liberal Democrats have passed several conference motions post-Brexit, but the latest one was in March 2022 which reaffirmed the party’s support for a longer-term objective of UK membership of the EU.

I think a key paragraph is “Conference therefore recognises that as the UK seek to build a closer partnership with Europe, it must first convince EU member states that the UK is serious about rebuilding the relationship and forging stronger links, which can only be built back gradually over time.” The same applies to public opinion in the UK. The full policy paper which the motion endorses is here.

Given the awful mess Liz Truss has got us into in terms of our EU relationship, seeking to breach the Northern Ireland Protocol unilaterally – and unable even to say whether President Macron is friend or foe! – a gradual ‘road map’ approach simply reflects the political and economic realities.

Had it not been for our September conference having to be cancelled due to the sad death of the Queen, we would have debated (and undoubtedly passed) our first ‘sectoral’ motion deriving from our road map policy, on UK-EU cooperation on foreign and security policy.

I would also draw attention to this excellent Times article (26 September) by Edward Lucas, a senior journalist as well as LibDem parliamentary candidate in City of London and Westminster, on LibDem policy.

So while we do not call for ‘Rejoin Now’ as that is simply impractical, our commitment to the end goal of rejoining is not in any doubt whatsoever, and I shall be speaking at the rescheduled National Rejoin March on 22 October.

Sue Scarrott

Can the Labour party be persuaded to dispense with the undemocratic first-past-the-post voting system in favour of proportional representation?

The jury is out on whether Labour can be persuaded to abandon FPTP in favour PR. John Harris observed in the Guardian that ‘Polling suggests that 83% of Labour members now support electoral reform. In the build-up to its conference this week, about 140 constituency parties have submitted motions calling for exactly that’ but ‘Unfortunately, Keir Starmer and his allies still see changing our systems of power and politics as an irritating distraction, and are clearly terrified that any conversations about coalitions and partnerships will be a gift to the Tories.’

A conference resolution proposing a new voting system is due to be debated as I write this. The deputy political editor of the Guardian tweeted that she expected it to include ‘Labour must make a commitment to introduce proportional representation for general elections in the next manifesto’ – but we will see!

 

David Eldridge

What, for you personally, has been the worst aspect of Brexit?

We are all losers in a material sense, as imports and exports have become more expensive and burdened by red tape, through the loss of amenities we used to enjoy in the Single Market and Customs Union such as free data roaming, pet passports or EU border channels. I entirely sympathise and seek to support those who have experienced the worst effects, whether businesses ruined, or lives disrupted, by the loss of free movement and having to go through the settlement schemes.

For me, the worst part of Brexit has been an emotional wrench, a kick in the guts. I lost my husband three years ago and so it has been a period of intense grief from all directions.

I first felt ‘European’ nearly 60 years ago, on our family camping trips down through France to Spain, thinking ‘I belong here’. Then as a student I studied European history and current affairs, was an intern (‘stagiaire’) then for seven years an official at the European Commission, and later for 15 years an MEP. So it is a strong part of my identity. I have been able to reclaim my European citizenship by getting my Irish passport; I did not have to apply for citizenship as I am Irish from birth due to my mother having been born in Dublin. (I realise this understandably arouses jealousy, but it’s not from anything I did myself!). As I have no intention of ever moving from London, the main value to me is that it restores that part of my identity that was brutally torn away. I hope by working towards Rejoin to get it back for all Brits.

In next month’s newsletter we are delighted to be featuring National Rejoin March founder, Peter Corr.

Peter is a former soldier and lorry driver who lost his job thanks to Brexit and decided to do something rather special to protest about that. Peter is organising the biggest pro-EU, anti-Brexit demonstration and rally for years.

As the march is scheduled for October 22 in London, we are delighted that Peter has agreed to be our next featured campaigner in Bremainers Ask, especially at this very busy time.

Please note that the feature will be published after the march, at the end of October, but your questions will be submitted to Peter before the march takes place, so please bear this in mind when you submit your questions.

If you would like to put a question to Peter, please email us at enquiries@bremaininspain.com no later than Thursday 6 October.