Article 50, #Brexit - all systems go! High Court case starts on Monday 5th, call your MP to account!

There had been a suggestion that Nigel Farage would lead a march in London near the Supreme Court when this case started. This has now been entirely discounted - there was not time to address all the issues that such a (potentially huge) event would have raised regarding planning, safety etc.

However, here in Brighton we have been working on other plans partly because not everyone can spend a weekday in London at the drop of a hat - it is expensive and 'leavers' (unlike remainers) generally have jobs and work to do! And partly because the idea of marching on the courts seemed a bit off as at the end of the day it is MPs who are accountable to us and have the power...

The Constituency Flash Rally - local constituents gathering for half an hour (12:30-13:00 so working bods can do it in their lunch hour) to put on a bit of a show and sign a petition specifically for their MP. So not just names, but constituents petitioning their own MP to act in accordance with the Referendum Result!

We have held one, and now have one planned for Monday, 5th December (12:30-13:00) this is for constituents of Hove and Portslade (Kyle, Labour), Brighton Pavilion (Lucas, Green) and Brighton Kemptown (Kirby, Conservative) - if one is your MP, would be great to see you, if not why not organise your own the date/time are set, just select a suitable location in your constituency and get people along!

This is a petition:-

And here's our flyer! (online at http://eepurl.com/cqCrhb - facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/583692151826921)

MPs must respect the democratic will of the People. They must respect the EU Referendum result. Monday 5th Dec 12:30-13:00 Steine Gardens. Together we can make our MPs listen. Today the Supreme Court starts hearing the governments appeal against needing a parliamentary vote on invoking Article 50 and starting the UKs exit from the European Union But it is not the courts or judges who will decide whether we leave or not, we have already made that decision - we will be leaving on WTO terms plus whatever is negotiated in the two year, Article 50, notice period. Our MPs voted 6 to 1 to let us, the public, decide if we should stay in or leave the European Union. 33.6 million votes were cast and the choice was clear, that we should leave the European Union. We were told that once we had voted the government would promptly invoke Article 50 and we would start the process of leaving. Not one person at the time suggested there would be any further vote or debate - quite the reverse - we were told over and over that it was a one off, irreversible choice. We made our choice. We have already waited too long to have our decision implemented - the government and parliament are not just ignoring the 'leave' voters, they are ignoring all voters, the whole democratic process of the referendum is being challenged. The British public's democracy and sovereignty is being challenged by parliament - the very MPs who are supposed to be acting on our behalf. We are organising this our second 'flash rally' - just half an hour, in your lunch hour, join us and sign a petition - specifically for your own MP, the person elected to parliament to represent you.  Our event is for constituents of Hove and Portslade, Brighton Pavilion and Brighton Kemptown. And we hope other constituencies will copy the idea and have their own, one per constituency at the same time right across the country - even if not this time, maybe next or the next or the next... Just turn up at Steine Gardens (the bit of green in Old Steine nearest the sea down from the pavilion with the big fountain!) and join us for half an hour from 12:30 to 13:00 on the Monday the 5th of December. This is for everyone - leaver, remainer or even non-voter who simply wants the democratic referendum result of the British people to be implemented without further interference. Bring family, bring friends, bring neighbours. If you have friends in other constituencies - get them to select a location in their constituency for a similar rally at the same time 12:30-13:00 on the 5th,, and get their fellow constituents along. Lets make this one of the first of many multi-sited national events for voters to call their MP's to account!

The People Have Spoken, Brighton Flash Rally. Steine Gardens at 12:30 to 13:00 on the 5th December - bring friends, family, neighbours and anyone else you know who lives in Hove and Portlsade, Brighton Pavilion or Brighton Kemptown.

Paul Nuttall elected leader of UKIP

Paul Nuttall MEP has been elected leader of UKIP by a huge majority.

Paul Nuttall	62.4%
Suzanne Evans	19.3%
John Rees-Evans	18.1%

The new leader's first appointments are Peter Whittle AM as Deputy Leader, Paul Oakden as Party Chairman and Patrick O'Flynn MEP as Principal Political Advisor.

Paul has used his acceptance speech to call for unity and warned that members who just want to cause trouble will not be welcome in the party. The time for infighting and factionalism has come to an end.

Leadership election result today

The results of the leadership election will be announced at lunchtime today with Paul Nuttall the bookies' favourite by a wide margin.

Most bookies are offering odds of 1/7 for Paul Nuttall with John Rees-Evans at 6/1 and Suzanne Evans at 8/1. Nobody is going to get rich backing Paul Nuttall!

John Rees-Evans has made a preemptive complaint about the election process as some members didn't receive their ballot papers from the Electoral Reform Service and were allowed to vote by email to the returning officer, Paul Oakden. The number of eligible members who didn't receive a ballot paper is unknown but not thought to be significant.

Due to the number of candidates and the impracticality of voting by email for the NEC election, that deadline has been extended to 9th December.

MEPs approve "dangerous fantasy" EU army

A fairly narrow (by EU standards) majority of MEPs have tonight voted for an EU army.

Nick Clegg described an EU army as "a dangerous fantasy" and denied the existence of plans to create one. Even when the plans drafted by the Germans were leaked before the referendum, Project Fear still denied the EU would be getting its own army. Now they're getting their own army in the next 12 months with a £76m budget and a mandate to operate outside of, and contrary to, NATO.

Oh and we'll be paying for it.

Diane James resignation, the NEC and the heart of UKIP

Diane James has resigned from UKIP, citing an "increasingly difficult" relationship with the party and lack of support from the NEC during her brief stint as leader.

There have been a few senior resignations or defections since the referendum which, whilst disappointing, isn't particularly concerning. What we're seeing is the Tories in UKIP clothing and protest members going back to their old political lives and those who are left behind are the real UKIPpers.

What is of concern is Diane's comments about the NEC. It's a common criticism amongst those that are leaving the party under a cloud that the NEC are making irrational decisions and are impossible to deal with. The NEC can't keep lurching from one disaster to the next and not take responsibility. We need to not only bring in fresh blood in the NEC elections that close this week but look at how the NEC needs to change to make it work better for the party and its members.

Leadership contender, Suzanne Evans, has suggested that Diane Evans should resign along with Steven Woolfe, Amjid Bashir and Janice Atkinson as UKIP was elected not them as individuals and she's right. UKIP won 24 seats in the EU elections and those seats should be filled by UKIP MEPs. That's what people voted for and that's what they should get.

There will probably be more people walking away from UKIP in the coming months who came along for the ride but were never really UKIPpers at heart. UKIP is its grassroots members and supporters - those of us who stand in council elections, hang around on street corners giving out leaflets, put up posters and work for the communities we live in - and while we're still doing our bit on the ground the party will survive and thrive despite the tantrums, politicking and manoeuvring at the top.

UKIP motion to abolish Severn Bridge tolls passed in Welsh Assembly

A UKIP motion in the Welsh Assembly to abolish tolls on the Severn Bridge has been passed by AMs without opposition.

Mark Reckless AM put forward the motion, describing the tolls as "a tax on Wales". After accepting a Labour amendment the motion passed 45 -0 with one abstention and 14 AMs not bothering to turn up. The Welsh government doesn't control the bridge but it will apply pressure on the British government when they take back control of the crossing next year.

UKIP policy is to abolish all tolls on publicly owned roads in the UK.

Google and Apple investing £8bn in UK offices

There has been more terrible news for the economy this week with the announcement of a £1bn investment by Google and a £7bn investment by Apple in new London headquarters to house 3,000 staff each.

Google is building a new 10 storey, 650,000ft² office next to its existing offices in Kings Cross. Tech City UK - a government quango - put out a press release on the day of the EU referendum claiming that Google could relocate out of the UK if we voted to leave.

Meanwhile, Apple is taking 500,000ft² of floor space in the former Battersea Power Station to replace its existing 7 offices in the capital.

State of play #Brexit - what the judge lady let slip.

If this judges view is correct, then brexit may be delayed indefinitely unless we replace our MP's and government with one that is committed to brexit. Simply replacing MP's in not enough - this Conservative government under David Cameron and Theresa May are as much barriers to Brexit as the Liberal Democrats are - just more sneaky and underhand about it.

I get so fed up with the drip, drip from the media - giving half a story to support their headline but making no attempt to genuinely inform.

Anyway that is why I launched RadioFreeUK (RadioFreeUK.org) - to provide an alternative media channel for UK libertarians... or at least UK bods who aren't raving progressive (read: regressive) Social Justice Warriors. But enough of that on with the show (or blog...).

Under Theresa May Brexit has stalled because the EU Referendum Bill was very badly written for those who support brexit. As far as I can see this was a deliberate act of sabotage by David Cameron and his Conservatives to act as a safety back stop in case they lost the referendum - which they did. It is unfortunate that those we would expect to cover this didn't pick up on it... But now we are where we are.

The Government have been challenged in court over whether they can invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and so give notice that the UK is leaving the EU.

In the first court three judged unanimously ruled that the Government cannot invoke Article 50, and that it must be explicitly agreed by the whole of Parliament (all our MP's), despite us having already directly said that we want it done.

An appeal is going directly to the Supreme Court (skipping the court of appeal as it is such an important case, it is going directly to the organ grinders) where the case will be heard by a dozen judges.

Despite earlier claims of 'confidence' in its own case, the government now appears to be less confident and if flapping around looking for other ways of appearing to support the invoking of Article 50.

As it happens I wrote to my MP (a front bench government bod) calling for a one line bill saying 'this house supports the government implementing the will of the people and invoking Article 50 at the earliest convenient opportunity' or similar, it would be a brave MP who voted this down... My MP suggested such a bill was unnecessary, we shall see...

The headline that prompted this blog post was regarding one of the dozen judges that will hear the appeal in the Supreme Court making comments on the case in a speech to students abroad.

Her comments are being drip fed to us by the media.Initially it looked like she only mentioned it in passing, but later drips show she went into some detail (I want a full transcript!).

The big issue she raised was that as only parliament can make and repeal UK domestic law. And while treaties don't usually impact domestic law, so can be entered into and broken by the government using royal prerogative, the 1972 EU Legal supremacy act apparently means EU treaties do impact domestic law so need parliaments assent.

She suggested the implication of this may be that the 1972 act may have to be repealed before Article 50 is invoked. Repealing the 1972 act itself is quite simple, but the consequences of doing so are potentially extensive. Theresa May's original plan was to move all EU law into UK law to mitigate these consequences (200,000 pages and growing of new law). However the Judge has suggested that each individual law may need to be itemised for debate by parliament before being accepted/amended/rejected - a process that could take many years, and as the EU creates new law endlessly (a reason for leaving), it may be a never ending process - and it may all need to be done before Article 50 can be invoked.

I suspect this was the plan all along - and the pro-EU establishment knew this when the 72 act was created and have lied to us all along about it being a simple vote to repeal it 'if we wanted to'.

If this judges view is correct, then brexit may be delayed indefinitely unless we replace our MP's and government with one that is committed to brexit. Simply replacing MP's in not enough - this Conservative government under David Cameron and Theresa May are as much barriers to Brexit as the Liberal Democrats are - just more sneaky and underhand about it.

Sign up here to get inspiration to write to your MP! And/or Sign up to get info on Brexit events! I run a load of lists - do sign up to at least one - having made contact, it would be a waste not to keep it!!
Join a list - keep in touch at RadioFreeUK.org


[First published at: http://free-english-people.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/state-of-play-brexit-what-judge-lady.html]

Nick Clegg supports "dangerous fantasy" EU army

Last year Nick Clegg responded to Nigel Farage's warnings about plans for an EU army by describing it a "dangerous fantasy". He went on to say "it's not going to happen" and that Jean Claude Juncker "can't create an army".

Perhaps it was the shock of finding out that not only can Jean Claude Juncker create an EU army but that he's actually doing it that resulted in Nick Clegg enthusiastically calling for the UK to join the new EU army despite voting to leave the EU.

Details of plans for an EU army headquartered in Germany (of course) were leaked in May but to prevent full details being exposed before the referendum the EU refused to send them to national governments until we had voted.

There is a Trump's toupee breadth between UKIP and the Front National

Marine Le Pen has claimed that there is "not a hair's breadth" between the Front National and UKIP. She's right: it's more of a Trump's toupee between the two.

Le Pen has made a lot of progress in bringing her party into the mainstream and expelling members with more extreme views - including her father - but there is still some way to go before the Front National and UKIP could be considered that similar.

First Trump and now Le Pen - it looks like all the outsiders are going to be channelling Farage in the hope of electoral success!

Shropshire Conservative councillor under investigation for planning irregularities

The wife of the disgraced former Conservative leader of Shropshire Council is to appear before the council's standards committee over alleged planning irregularities.

It is believed that two complaints have been made about Cllr Joyce Barrow's conduct but the council says it is unable to comment. Her husband, Keith Barrow, was last year forced to resign after a former UKIP councillor reported him for misconduct in public office and the police opened an investigation.

Donald Trump is Mayor of Trumpton

Donald Trump is just 4 electoral votes short of the 270 needed to be declared winner of the US presidential election and those votes are in the bag.

The choice facing Americans was a pretty poor one. A Republican nominee who makes Boris Johnson look normal and a Democrat nominee as crooked as her husband.

There were, of course, alternatives to Trump and Clinton as there are in every presidential election but the two party system is so ingrained in the American psyche that they could never win. All that might change over the course of the next few elections with so many people this time voting for one of the candidates just because they're not the other person. Perhaps the most positive thing to come out of Trump's victory is the realisation that you don't have to be a career politician to win elections and that two party politics doesn't work when both the candidates are terrible.

The news will no doubt be awash with reports of people threatening en masse to leave the country and dire warnings of this and that just like the aftermath of the EU referendum but in reality very little will change and tomorrow will be the same as yesterday.

Hitachi building £5.7bn of new trains in the UK

122 new Hitachi Class 800 trains will be built in the UK as part of a £5.7bn deal to upgrade the rolling stock on the Great Western and East Coast Main Line.

The trains will be built at their new facility in County Durham and will be put into operation over the next two years. Hitachi has already moved its global train manufacturing operation - including production of its world famous bullet train - to this facility.

The trains are hybrids meaning they will be able to use electrified and non-electrified tracks, opening up more opportunities for rail services to the forgotten parts of the country where investment in rail has been practically non-existent.

Project Fear keeps repeating its warning that Japanese companies will leave the UK when we leave the EU but the investment keeps coming in.

Pepsico try to blame Walkers crisps profiteering on Brexit

Pepsico are trying to force up the price of Walkers crisps and blame it on Brexit.

Like Unliver's Marmite, Walkers crisps are made in the UK using ingredients sourced in the UK and like Unilever, Pepsico are trying to profiteer at our expense. Pepsico report their profits in dollars and the pound is weak against the dollar. This doesn't make Walkers crisps any more expensive to produce, it just means they get less dollars when they transfer their profits to their parent company in America.

Romanian sex offender to be deported for seond time

A Romanian sex offender is to be deported for a second time after receiving a prison sentence for assaulting his housemate.

Cornel Popa had already been convicted of attempted rape in his home country of Romania and sentenced to 5 years in prison before moving to the UK. After moving to the UK he was convicted of a number of sex offences and put in prison again. After two years in Highgate prison he was deported but returned shortly afterwards using his own passport and the authorities only noticed when he was arrested for assaulting his housemate and threatening him with a broken bottle a couple of weeks ago.

Popa will now spend 3 weeks in custody before being deported once again.

EU Referendum - what a mess, a dogs #Brexit'fast : @pperrin @rfreeuk

This was a deliberate and cynical ploy by David Cameron, the Conservative government and our MP's to pretended to have given us the choice, but with a disguised escape clause in case we didn't give them the result they wanted.

Stitched up like UKippers by Dodgy Dave and the Con-servatives.

The public believed that the UK would leave the EU with no further ado if there was a leave vote.
  Governments Full Leaflet as delivered to every household in the UK (pdf)



Jeremy Corbyn though so...

Cameron had said so (said in parliament, published Feb 2016)... Governments Document: The_process_for_withdrawing_from_the_EU (pdf)


But what had actually been passed in parliament said nothing about this, the bill just covered the mechanics of running and counting the referendum...

Moreover, the briefing notes (issued to MP's ahead of debates because bills are usually too complicated and legalese for simple MPs to read and digest themselves) specifically said that the referendum was not binding, implied no time scale and contrasted this with the AV referendum in the previous parliament (also overseen by David Cameron) that would have changed the voting system with no further enabling legislation.

MP's Briefing Notes on EU Referendum Bill (pdf)

David Cameron oversaw this referendum and the AV referendum, he must have well known what he was doing by making this different to the previous one. Given the rapid repudiation of the result by certain MPs is seems certain that MPs were clearly and specifically briefed about this before the vote...

This was a deliberate and cynical ploy by David Cameron, the Conservative government and our MP's to pretended to have given us the choice, but with a disguised escape clause in case we didn't give them the result they wanted.

It seems quite probable that the case brought against the government in court was prepared ahead of time by agents of David Cameron (as PM) and given to them to present in court.

Stitched up like UKippers by Dodgy Dave and the Con-servatives.

[First Published at http://www.radiofreeuk.org/blogs/paul/2016/11/07/eu-referendum-what-a-mess-a-dogs-brexitfast/]

Tory MP Ben Howlett questioned over sex offence allegations

The Conservative MP for Bath, Ben Howlett, has been questioned by police over sex offence allegations.

Howlett has denied any wrongdoing and won't be making further comment. Avon & Somerset Police have confirmed that he wasn't arrested and attended a police station voluntarily to answer questions.

The allegations relate to a Eurovision results party he hosted in his constituency in May.

What are you waiting for Prime Minister?

Yesterday's ruling on the legality of Theresa May invoking Article 50 to start the process of regaining our independence from the EU is an unwelcome delaying tactic but doesn't actually prevent the Prime Minister from invoking Article 50 using the Royal Prerogative.

The argument put forward by anti-democracy campaigner, Gina Miller, was that by using the Royal Prerogative to rescind the Lisbon Treaty, rights that were granted to UK citizens by Parliament when they legislated for our EU membership would be lost and that the Royal Prerogative can't be used to remove rights granted by an Act of Parliament.

The three High Court judges (all three of them known europhiles) ruled in favour of Miller, saying that removing those rights that originated from membership of the EU would go beyond the lawful limits of the Royal Prerogative in respect of treaties. However, Theresa May has promised a Great Repeal Bill which will adopt all EU law into domestic legislation before independence day. With this piece of legislation in place, triggering Article 50 won't remove any rights that UK citizens have from EU membership because they will have been transposed into domestic legislation and as it's adopting all current EU law, there is no reason why Remainiac MPs should oppose the introduction of this bill as a matter of urgency to guarantee the rights that they don't want us to lose. The prime minister would then be able to invoke Article 50 lawfully according to yesterday's judgement.

So what are you waiting for Prime Minister? Get the Great Repeal Bill in front of MPs and let's get our independence back.

Stephen Phillips MP resigns over irreconcilable differences with his party

Conservative MP, Stephen Phillips, has announced his intention to resign as an MP.

He has told whips that his values are no longer those of the government and that he disagrees with Theresa May's decision to oppose attempts by anti-democracy to delay or overturn the Brexit vote through the courts.

Phillips represents the safe Tory seat of Sleaford & North Hykeham which the Conservatives will safely retain at the ensuing by-election.

Peter Whittle drops out of leadership race

Peter Whittle is the latest contender to drop out of the leadership race and is giving his support to Paul Nuttall.

Whittle is one of UKIP's two members on the London Assembly and one of the UK's most senior openly gay politicians. He is the the party's culture spokesman.

There are now just three contenders in the race: Suzanne Evans, Paul Nuttall MEP and John Rees-Evans.

EU campaigning High Court judge rules MPs must be allowed to block Brexit

Three High Court judges have ruled that the Prime Minister can't invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to begin the process of leaving the EU without parliamentary approval.

The judges have thrown out 800 years of precedent in ruling that the Crown can no longer enter into or repudiate treaties without the permission of Parliament. Ironically, the Remainiacs behind the case have been spinning the Royal Prerogative as a 13th Century anachronism that has no place in a modern democracy had their case heard by three unelected judges representing offices created in the 13th Century, sitting in a court that dates back to the 12th Century.

The ruling came as a surprise to most people and has been described as judicial activism. Lord Thomas, who led the hearing, is a founding member of the European Law Institute which was set up to promote the integration of legal systems in the EU.

The British government is appealing the decision to Supreme Court and farcically it could even end up in the European Court of Justice as the final court of appeal. The pound has experienced a temporary bounce as big business weighs up how much influence they're going to have in the decision through their extensive lobbying networks and the probability of Remainiac MPs keeping us tied into the protectionist single market.

It is unlikely that MPs will vote to block our independence but rather introduce so many amendments that whilst we'd technically be out of the EU there would be very little difference between being in and out. In the British government's £9m propaganda booklet they were very clear that the decision on leaving the EU was ours not theirs. They were also very clear that they would do what we decided. MPs have no moral right to block Brexit and judges have no legal right to change government policy.

UKIP should now be leading efforts to organise pro-Brexit protests all over the country. We have sat back and watched the Remainiacs protest against democracy confident that the clearly expressed wishes of the electorate would be honoured but with an increasing number of Remain supporters being placed on Brexit committees, a Remain-supporting Prime Minister and a High Court judge who actively campaigns for more EU integration overturning several centuries of precedent to try and stop Brexit it is clear that we now need a show of force against the corrupt establishment.

SNP councillor suspended over police investigation into "irregularities"

An SNP councillor in Glasgow has been suspended over allegations of irregularities in his personal details.

Cllr Shabbar Jaffri has been reported to the police over the irregularities, details of which have yet to be revealed. All that has been made public is that suspected council tax irregularities led to a wider investigation which concerned the council's audit team enough to warrant handing over a dossier to the police.

SNP councillor facing deselection for lying in court

An SNP councillor is expected to be deselected by his party for lying in court in divorce proceedings.

Dr Imtiaz Majid was severely criticised by a sheriff for lying in his testimony in divorce proceedings earlier this year. The sheriff said that Majid had lied and fabricated evidence to try and deny his wife a fair divorce settlement.

Majid lied about gambling away his fortune, involved his brothers in the deception and tried to hide his business interests.

Screw FIFA, our footballers should wear the poppy on November 11th whatever the consequences

FIFA has refused to allow English and Scottish football players wear poppy armbands at their world cup qualifier on 11th November.

The disgraced football world governing body claims that the poppy is banned under rules forbidding political, religious and commercial messages on shirts.

The poppy is not a political, religious or commercial message, it's a symbol of remembrance of the millions who died fighting for our freedom. The FAs of all the home nations should wear a poppy armband and screw the consequences, even if it means boycotting the tournament.