Brexit vs Common Sense
Here's a Conservative minister showing a lot more sense than the leaders of his own party - or that of Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party it has to be said.
The shocking revelation is that Philip Lee is saying that the Government should not proceed with Brexit if there is hard evidence to suggest that leaving the EU is not in the country best interests.
Given that the evidence is piling up all the time, Mr Lee's suggestion seems perfectly reasonable and if the Government can change its mind, then surely the people can as well via a referendum on the final terms of Brexit - if any future government, including a Labour one, were minded to proceed.
https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/conservative-party/news/92477/tory-minister-suggests-government-could?
Tory minister suggests government could reconsider Brexit in 'country's best interests'
By Kevin Schofield - Politics Home
A Conservative minister has suggested the Government should reconsider going ahead with Brexit if the evidence suggests leaving the EU is not in "our country's best interests".
A Conservative minister has suggested the Government should reconsider going ahead with Brexit if the evidence suggests leaving the EU is not in "our country's best interests".
Theresa May in Brussels - Credit: PA Images
Philip Lee's remarks, posted in a series of tweets, threaten to open a new front in the civil war threatening to tear the Tories apart.
Mr Lee, a junior justice minister, spoke out in the wake of Buzzfeed publishing leaked government analysis indicating the UK economy would suffer under any Brexit scenario.
Former Brexit minister accuses Theresa May of trying to 'muddle through' to avoid Tory civil war
Government turmoil as minister says EU analysis papers were released to 'undermine Brexit'
Lord Adonis urges peers to back a second EU referendum as crucial Brexit bill hits House of Lords
Brexit minister Steve Baker today suggested the papers were leaked to "undermine" Brexit, and also said government economic forecasts were "always wrong" and should be ignored.
He also insisted the Government's full analysis on the potential impact of Brexit would not be published until after the negotiations with Brussels were over.
But Mr Lee, who campaigned for Remain in the EU referendum, said: "We can't just dismiss this and move on. If there is evidence to the contrary, we need to see and consider that too."
He added: "If these figures turn out to be anywhere near right, there would be a serious question over whether a government could legitimately lead a country along a path that the evidence and rational consideration indicate would be damaging. This shows the PM's challenge.
"The PM has been dealt some tough cards and I support her mission to make the best of them. It’s time for evidence, not dogma, to show the way. We must act for our country’s best interests, not ideology & populism, or history will judge us harshly. Our country deserves no less."
On another day of vicious Tory in-fighting, former Brexit minister Lord Bridges accused Theresa May of "muddling through" in an attempt to avoid a civil war in her party.
In a House of Lords debate on the EU Withdrawal Bill, he said: "With under 300 working days until we leave the European Union, we need to know the Government's answers to these simple questions. They go to the heart of the matter, the powers of this parliament and parliamentary sovereignty.
"The Government must be honest with themselves and the public about the choices we face and then the Prime Minister and her Cabinet must make those choices.
"To govern is to choose and as we face the biggest challenge this country has faced since the Second World War, keeping every option open is no longer an option."
Philip Lee's remarks, posted in a series of tweets, threaten to open a new front in the civil war threatening to tear the Tories apart.
Mr Lee, a junior justice minister, spoke out in the wake of Buzzfeed publishing leaked government analysis indicating the UK economy would suffer under any Brexit scenario.
Former Brexit minister accuses Theresa May of trying to 'muddle through' to avoid Tory civil war
Government turmoil as minister says EU analysis papers were released to 'undermine Brexit'
Lord Adonis urges peers to back a second EU referendum as crucial Brexit bill hits House of Lords
Brexit minister Steve Baker today suggested the papers were leaked to "undermine" Brexit, and also said government economic forecasts were "always wrong" and should be ignored.
He also insisted the Government's full analysis on the potential impact of Brexit would not be published until after the negotiations with Brussels were over.
But Mr Lee, who campaigned for Remain in the EU referendum, said: "We can't just dismiss this and move on. If there is evidence to the contrary, we need to see and consider that too."
He added: "If these figures turn out to be anywhere near right, there would be a serious question over whether a government could legitimately lead a country along a path that the evidence and rational consideration indicate would be damaging. This shows the PM's challenge.
"The PM has been dealt some tough cards and I support her mission to make the best of them. It’s time for evidence, not dogma, to show the way. We must act for our country’s best interests, not ideology & populism, or history will judge us harshly. Our country deserves no less."
On another day of vicious Tory in-fighting, former Brexit minister Lord Bridges accused Theresa May of "muddling through" in an attempt to avoid a civil war in her party.
In a House of Lords debate on the EU Withdrawal Bill, he said: "With under 300 working days until we leave the European Union, we need to know the Government's answers to these simple questions. They go to the heart of the matter, the powers of this parliament and parliamentary sovereignty.
"The Government must be honest with themselves and the public about the choices we face and then the Prime Minister and her Cabinet must make those choices.
"To govern is to choose and as we face the biggest challenge this country has faced since the Second World War, keeping every option open is no longer an option."
Corbyn's Labour (30/01/18)
I don't know Nora Mulready, but she makes a compelling case explaining her reasons for parting company with Jeremy Corbyn and the band of leftist ideologues who now control the Labour Party.
The reality is that Corbyn & Co. are not reflecting the views of the wider Labour membership as they support the Conservative Government in its mad, headlong rush towards Brexit.
Whereas back in the real world:
- 87% of Labour members support staying in the EU Single Market
- 85% of Labour members support staying in the Customs Union
- 78% of labour members support a second referendum on the final terms of Brexit.
https://noramulready.com/2018/01/28/today-i-resigned-from-the-labour-party/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
Today, I resigned from the Labour Party
By Nora Mulready
Today I resigned from the Labour Party. The Party I have been a member of for the best part of 20 years no longer exists, and I can’t in any good conscience pretend to support the one it has become. This is sad for me personally, the Labour Party has been part of my life since I was child, and I have supported it, campaigned for it, stood for it, and even loved it, for most of my life. In recent years and months, I have done my best to help in the battle for Labour’s soul, but my Labour Party has now gone, and I have reached the end of the road.
The controversy over regeneration in Haringey is a perfect example of the conflict at the heart of the Labour Party. Those who believe in picking up any tool you can find to make people’s lives better now, and those who believe it’s the statist nature of the tools that matters. In their campaigns against the regeneration of some of the most deprived parts of the borough, those who now dominate Labour revealed an unforgivable willingness to exploit. They fought, (and have probably won), to keep people in positions of deprivation. Why? To manufacture anger and hatred as fuel for their desired class war. I have nothing – nothing – but contempt for these politics, which only achieve keeping the downtrodden, downtrodden. These politics are immoral, are destructive, cause great harm to the poorest, and great harm to society, and they now dominate the Labour party.
In recent weeks, Labour could not make a simple statement in support of those protesting for freedom in Iran. It couldn’t give a straightforward condemnation of a regime that stones people to death for adultery, publicly hangs gay people, and forces women by threat of criminal punishment to wear headscarves in public. The hard left’s virulent anti-Americanism renders it ‘just not that simple’. No, with the influence and influx of ‘Stop The War’ ideologies, Labour has been dragged so deeply down the rabbit hole of anti-imperialist theories that they cannot condemn dictatorial, theocratic, repressive Iran in case it somehow strengthens, or implies support for, democratic, secular and free America. My Labour would see America is a necessary bulwark against Iran, yet the Labour we have sees Iran as a necessary bulwark against America. I cannot in all good conscience tell a single person to vote for that.
Then there is the moral deterioration within the organisation itself. I have seen members who have given entire lifetimes to the Labour Party, not just ignored or thrown by the wayside, but deliberately targeted with malicious complaints and oppressive disciplinary action for standing up to the hard left who now run Labour. I have seen people in their 60s, 70s and 80s, who were manning barricades in Labour rosettes long before their accusers were even born, being subjected to politically motivated complaints and campaigns by hard left activists who just a few years before, were damning Labour to hell. And I have seen the Labour Party as an institution, now so structurally suffused with the hard left at every possible level, being unable to find the strength to protect these members from these attacks. I am someone who speaks out, I believe in debate, I believe in saying what you think, and right now I don’t think the Labour Party is safe for those who do that.
So, after almost 20 years as a member, I have today resigned my membership of the Labour Party. I make no judgments against those who are staying, everyone has to tread their own path here. But the Labour Party I supported is gone, and as hard as it is to do, it’s time for me to let go.
Unrepresentative Representatives (23/01/18)
Jeremy Corbyn allies have been celebrating their tightening hold on the Labour Party after the Momentum group swept the board in recent elections to Labour's national executive committee.
Now what puzzles me is that the Labour leader is completely out of step with Labour Party members, the vast majority of whom (87%) support staying in the EU Single Market and having a second referendum (78%) on the final terms of Brexit.
So while the Corbynistas celebrate their victory, arguably, the real significance is that the Labour leadership is becoming an elite group with very scant regard for the views of the wider party membership.
Which sounds about right if you ask me, because the key people around Jeremy Corbyn believe in what's known as 'vanguardism', a political term which justifies small and highly organised groups winning control of institutions, even though their political aims and objectives are not widely shared.
In days gone by, the concept of 'vanguardism' focused mainly on the trade unions because the small turnout in most union elections (local and national) meant that very small groups of politically motivated activists could punch well about their weight.
Labour has been here before, of course, with the fierce battle fought by Neil Kinnock against Militant in the 1980s, but it has returned with a vengeance under Jeremy Corbyn.
The Sunday Times had an interesting article the other day on Momentum flexing its muscles against a 'hit list' of Labour MPs and in the London Borough of Haringey - which you can read via the link below.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/jeremy-corbyn-allies-plot-to-oust-50-labour-mps-87bkrv7l7
Jeremy Corbyn allies plot to oust 50 Labour MPs
Secret hitlist of moderates for deselection
By Caroline Wheeler and Andrew Gilligan - The Sunday Times
Chris Leslie, left, and Hilary Benn are believed to top the list
Up to 50 Labour MPs are on a deselection hitlist drawn up by left-wing supporters of Jeremy Corbyn, it has been claimed.
Moderate Labour MPs have been warned that Corbyn’s allies want centrist candidates replaced with more left-leaning ones.
A Labour Party whip has been privately telling moderate MPs not to rock the boat or they could face deselection, amid fears that up to 50 will be targeted if rule changes are pushed through this autumn.
Chris Leslie, the former shadow chancellor, and Hilary Benn, the former shadow foreign secretary, are believed to top the list. Angela Eagle, who challenged Corbyn for the leadership in 2016, and her sister Maria Eagle, the former shadow culture secretary, are also thought to be vulnerable.
“Allies of Corbyn have admitted they have a list of MPs they want to get rid of,” said a source.
Momentum members have sought to make it harder for MPs to be confirmed as candidates for the next general election.
An MP now needs to win only a simple majority of nominations from local party branches, affiliated trade unions and socialist societies in a “trigger ballot” to confirm them as the candidate. But Momentum is expected to campaign to raise the threshold to two-thirds.
The Sunday Times can reveal that head teachers’ salaries may be cut by up to two-fifths in a war on “fat cat” pay when Momentum takes over its first council in May’s local elections. The policy is being considered for the Labour manifesto in the north London borough of Haringey.
Momentum is almost certain to control the council, which is safely Labour, from May after 17 sitting Labour councillors were replaced with pro-Momentum candidates in a series of purges and resignations. About 21 sitting councillors already support the group.
The manifesto is not yet finalised but if the pay cut becomes part of it, at least 270 staff will be worse off, including dozens of heads and senior teachers.
@cazjwheeler
Up to 50 Labour MPs are on a deselection hitlist drawn up by left-wing supporters of Jeremy Corbyn, it has been claimed.
Moderate Labour MPs have been warned that Corbyn’s allies want centrist candidates replaced with more left-leaning ones.
A Labour Party whip has been privately telling moderate MPs not to rock the boat or they could face deselection, amid fears that up to 50 will be targeted if rule changes are pushed through this autumn.
Chris Leslie, the former shadow chancellor, and Hilary Benn, the former shadow foreign secretary, are believed to top the list. Angela Eagle, who challenged Corbyn for the leadership in 2016, and her sister Maria Eagle, the former shadow culture secretary, are also thought to be vulnerable.
“Allies of Corbyn have admitted they have a list of MPs they want to get rid of,” said a source.
Momentum members have sought to make it harder for MPs to be confirmed as candidates for the next general election.
An MP now needs to win only a simple majority of nominations from local party branches, affiliated trade unions and socialist societies in a “trigger ballot” to confirm them as the candidate. But Momentum is expected to campaign to raise the threshold to two-thirds.
The Sunday Times can reveal that head teachers’ salaries may be cut by up to two-fifths in a war on “fat cat” pay when Momentum takes over its first council in May’s local elections. The policy is being considered for the Labour manifesto in the north London borough of Haringey.
Momentum is almost certain to control the council, which is safely Labour, from May after 17 sitting Labour councillors were replaced with pro-Momentum candidates in a series of purges and resignations. About 21 sitting councillors already support the group.
The manifesto is not yet finalised but if the pay cut becomes part of it, at least 270 staff will be worse off, including dozens of heads and senior teachers.
@cazjwheeler
