EARLY ONE MORNING.........................
Cllr Alan Dean
Liberal Democrat Councillor for Stansted North on Uttlesford District Council and former Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group Learn more
A DISHONEST COUNCIL IN DECLINE, A CHINK OF COMPASSION TINGED WITH AUTHORITARIAN RULE (PART I OF III)
AIRPORT PLANNING DEBACLE CONTINUED - WITH £££££ STILL TO PAY
EARLY ONE MORNING.........................
A DISHONEST COUNCIL IN DECLINE, A CHINK OF COMPASSION TINGED WITH AUTHORITARIAN RULE (PART I OF III)
AIRPORT PLANNING DEBACLE CONTINUED - WITH £££££ STILL TO PAY
Dunmow take EU #INtogether stickers like hot cakes. Many remain sceptical or for OUT
by Alan Dean on 14 May, 2016
This merry band of #INtogether campaigners for staying in the European Union stormed the centre of Great Dunmow this morning.
Eight Liberal Democrats spent two hours today talking to Saturday shoppers in Dunmow. A Labour Party team also joined in. Compared with shoppers in Saffron Walden last Saturday there were more people for OUT but a majority still for IN. I gave out long strips of IN stickers to people who were enthusiastic to wear them to spread the word that it’s not just Brexit OUTERS who can wear their convictions on their lapels. One lady came back for another sticker and to tell me that three generations of her family definitely for remaining IN the EU.
There were more angry people in Dunmow than I found in Saffron Walden last Saturday. One man was voting OUT because he hadn’t had a pay rise since 2008. Another was for OUT because he thought the UK was spending too little on defence. A woman felt that she no longer lives in the country that she grew up in. There is a wide anger amongst many people about how they feel life has treated them. But why blame the EU?
In the UK we have been treated for decades by much of the media – Mail, Sun, Telegraph – and by many politicians to myths and untruths about the European Union. It’s become a whipping boy for anything that goes wrong. So it is not surprising that less fortunate citizens now want what is really a scapegoat for their grievances. Just look at this Brexit-donor and billionaire. He wants financial chaos to follow Brexit so he can make more millions out of the misfortune of ordinary citizens IF we leave the EU. People like him don’t want the EU to take the lead in a real clamp-down on overseas tax havens that favour the rich.
There are just under six weeks left to get across a truer story and to debunk some of the myths and lies.
18 Comments
Today Yvette Cooper attacked Boris Johnson as ‘nasty’ for comparing the colonial ambition of the EU with Hitler (and Napoleon, and others)
I would state immediately that if Napoleon had succeeded in unifying Europe then history may well have been completely different. Napoleon was a truly great man, a superb organiser, motivator and initiator. Examine his time on Elba to see what he was capable of, he left the islanders in a far better place than he found them.
Yvette naturally accuses Boris of not understanding history, not that she exhibits any particular expertise in the subject. His point was that there is NO particular desire in any single European country to subvert their national identity to Europe. The politicians and bureaucrats forget this at their peril.
The Remain argument is based purely on negative propaganda, claiming that the UK will suffer the plagues of Egypt, famine, recession and the like if we have the temerity to leave a bunch of twerps. Christine Lagarde was wheeled out to tell a few economic porkies. Word to the wise, Christine, get the bloody IMF in order before trying to lecture those of us that can balance a budget.
If Cameron had carried out his ‘negotiation’ in good faith and obtained some genuine traction then I would be prepared to listen to him. But no, the oily spiv relied on his usual smoke and mirrors routine and therefore he can get stuffed.
A vote for Remain is a vote for cowardice and ignorance.
Vote Leave and let’s see just how well this country can do outside a corrupt, inefficient, fundamentally flawed organisation that was only ever intended to stop the Germans kicking seven shades out of the French. The rest of us seem to be paying a high price for preserving French prestige.
Oh yes, the argument that the EU has ensured peace for the past 70 years or so since the end of WW2. Well in the first place the EU dates from the late 50s in its earliest form and in the second place, peace has been assured by NATO and the fact that the Americans were prepared to base large numbers of troops in Europe.
I don’t recall the EU contributing a damn thing to the Berlin airlift or challenging the Berlin Wall. The EU is a show pony in a world that needs working horses and any argument to the contrary ignores the facts. The EU is systemically corrupt, the budget has not been signed off as correct for over a decade. The idiocy of moving between Brussels and Strasbourg intermittently (at considerable cost) simply to humour the French is a symbol of the false grounds to the EU project.
Ignore the clowns who prophesy doom if we leave the EU, generally they share an inability to predict anything with accuracy (how many Remain wonks insisted that joining the euro was vital, that austerity would never work etc etc etc)
I believe this is a great country, prevented from realising our full potential by being shackled to a useless, pointless and fundamentally flawed organisation. Leaving would give us the opportunity to regain control of our borders and our laws (maybe the right to catch OUR fish in OUR waters) and let the EU monolith proceed with Project Titanic.
Vote LEAVE, vote for hope and brighter days.
The trouble with the most of the Brexit camp is they are so embittered and negative they attack the messenger because they have few answers to counter the opinions of well regarded experts. They have lost the economic debate.
As for Boris Johnson calling upon Adolf Hitler to justify his anger and confusion, I go with Tim Farron’s rebuttal:
“Under Hitler, Europeans were killing each other, now they are arguing over Eurovision.
“The European Union is what happens when countries seek to learn from the past and work together. Boris Johnson’s latest intervention is what happens when people refuse to learn the lessons of the past and seek to spread discord by inventing conspiracies.
“The EU has helped secure peace; Hitler destroyed peace and killed millions of innocent people. It is extraordinary that anyone even needs to point this out to him.”
What economic debate? Meaningless predictions from the likes of Christine Lagarde and Mark Carney (both foreign, so why can’t they keep out of the argument which is SFA to do with them?) along with the pathetic nonsense trotted out by Osborne and Cameron do NOT constitute the grounds for any reasonable discussion of the economic consequences of leaving the EU.
As to the confected outrage about Boris drawing a resemblance between the EU and Hitler (he mentioned Napoleon and others but naturally the outraged clown army ignore that) one can only observe that if that is the best they can manage then this country will indeed be voting to leave.
Incidentally, on the economic matter, does anyone in the apocryphally pessimistic Remain mob seriously suggest that Europe will stop selling us cars, white goods and food? Any more than they will stop buying our goods and services? The Remain camp insult the intelligence of the electorate with their whining and distortions.
And of course it must be a true honour to be on the same side as Cameron now that his duplicity has been revealed. The man is a principle free zone (Europe was made for him) along with his oily chum Osborne, sharing a platform with his natural allies, Balls and Cable. Actually those three do have something in common, economic illiteracy and an abiding contempt for the electorate.
Overwhelming support (more than 2:1) for Remain/Better IN last night from canvassing in Saffron Walden. Remain is winning and Brexit is losing the debate.
There is no ‘debate’, just Project Fear and lies from Cameron and his crew.
Vote for optimism and leave the corrupt, sclerotic, anti-democratic EU. We have a chance to get off the Titanic before it meets the iceberg.
Consider the ineptitude with which the EU has dealt with Greece and the migrant flood. Does this really impress you as an organisation that understands economics, economies and mass movement of people?
The obvious question is would we join this useless mess under current conditions if we were not already saddled with membership?
This response from the USA hits the target:From this side of the Atlantic, it appears that the UK is facing a similar question to the one we have been seeing here: to have a temper tantrum, or to live with the real world. I hope for your sake that the tantrum faction is lower there than it has been here.
Who gives a toss what the USA thinks? It is nothing to do with them and incidentally, what sovereignty does the USA allow others to wield over American domestic policy?
All we get from Remain trolls is personal attacks and cretinous claims. According to that oily spiv Cameron, if we leave the EU then there is a heightened chance of war and genocide. As Oscar Wilde put it, one would need a heart of not to laugh.
Disregard the propaganda and consider the facts. In the EU, unemployment is significantly higher than in the UK. The Greek economy has been devastated by the requirements of the EU. The migrant crisis has not been addressed by the EU, indeed the mindless opening of borders by Merkel has worsened matters immeasurably.
The original intentions of the EU (formerly the EEC, European Economic Community…there is a clue there) were laudable. The imperial aims of current EU addicts are totally different and totally reprehensible.
I am European geographically, but I am British politically. I have no interest in being part of a European super-state that is neither super or a fit state.
Alan may be blind to the failure of the EU but I am not. If this country is foolish enough to ignore the opportunity that is presented to us in June then I shall be making plans to live elsewhere. Uttlesford has already lost its charm as far as I’m concerned and I have experience of living abroad quite happily.
Who gives a toss what the USA thinks? It is nothing to do with them and incidentally, what sovereignty does the USA allow others to wield over American domestic policy?
All we get from Remain trolls is personal attacks and cretinous claims. According to that oily spiv Cameron, if we leave the EU then there is a heightened chance of war and genocide. As Oscar Wilde put it, one would need a heart of stone not to laugh.
Disregard the propaganda and consider the facts. In the EU, unemployment is significantly higher than in the UK. The Greek economy has been devastated by the requirements of the EU. The migrant crisis has not been addressed by the EU, indeed the mindless opening of borders by Merkel has worsened matters immeasurably.
The original intentions of the EU (formerly the EEC, European Economic Community…there is a clue there) were laudable. The imperial aims of current EU addicts are totally different and totally reprehensible.
I am European geographically, but I am British politically. I have no interest in being part of a European super-state that is neither super or a fit state.
Alan may be blind to the failure of the EU but I am not. If this country is foolish enough to ignore the opportunity that is presented to us in June then I shall be making plans to live elsewhere. Uttlesford has already lost its charm as far as I’m concerned and I have experience of living abroad quite happily.
I don’t understand the dismissal of the USA. I thought that part of the Brexit theme is that the UK should cast itself adrift the the continual EU and instead align itself with the USA and the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth has said “stay put in the EU”. If the USA is to be dismissed for saying the same, it seems to me that a post-Brexit risks being isolated and friendless. Is that the plan?
I wasn’t so much dismissing the USA as their useless, lame duck president, a man who promised so much and delivered so little. Under his stewardship, the USA has lost credibility and prestige around the world, unable to respond to Putin, the Chinese or even pathetic dictators like Bashar Assad. As I recall, Obama clearly stated that the use of chemical weapons would be crossing a line. Well, Assad used them and Obama did nothing, which demonstrates his fundamental lack of principle. The sooner he is out of the White House and devoting more time to his golf, the better.
And the likely successor, Trump, has indicated that he would favour Britain leaving the EU. Naturally all the bien-pensant lefty commentators have written him off but then they wrote off his chances of nomination and they were wrong then.
Returning to the domestic debate: I have not heard a single credible suggestion from the Remain crew regarding the positive advantages of staying in the EU. Instead they rely on dreary and unconvincing claims of the horrors that will come about if we leave (including war and genocide according that oily spiv Cameron) I was always told that you sell things by extolling their benefits and not by rubbishing the competition but the benefits of remaining in the EU seem illusory.
Consider the costs of the bureaucracy of the EU, absurd creatures like Lady Ashton or von Rompuy. Why does it have to sit in Brussels and Strasbourg turn and turn about? When are they going to acknowledge that Greece will NEVER repay its debts? When are they going to acknowledge that their policy on migrants is an abject failure? When are apologists for the EU going to start being honest?
Following discussion with interest. Still undecided about how to vote, or even whether to vote – I’m opposed to referenda in principle, and the national “debate” is silly, and short of reliable facts.
It does however occur to me that if Cameron and Osborne want us to Remain, then it may be best to vote for the opposite, as I don’t trust ’em!
That’s one way to work it out, but on this occasion I shall hold my nose and join them in the same lobby:)
You only have to consider the ludicrous claims made by the pair of spivs to recognise that their arguments are totally without foundation,
According to Cameron, leaving would raise the risk of European war and genocide, that the leaders of ISIS and Russia want us to leave. His oily little chum claims that the economy would essentially collapse, every family would lose £4300 and house prices would fall by nearly 20% in the next two years. If Osborne had been a half useful chancellor one might have given credence to his nonsense but he ain’t so why waste time on the clown?
I repeat, the Remain mob have not put forward a single positive argument for staying in the EU, just increasingly demented threats of the consequences of leaving.
Since one of the immediate benefits of leaving would be getting rid of the two spivs, that alone would swing the argument for me.
Whatever one thinks about David Cameron and his near colleagues, this vile, xenophobic propaganda from the Leave campaign should make anyone think very carefully indeed about supporting it: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=949213945176847&id=794492093982367&refsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com%2Fleaveeuofficial%2Fvideos%2F949213945176847%2F&_rdr
My understanding of putting forward a good sales pitch is that you do not rubbish the competition, rather you acknowledge that they have merit but extol your product as better than theirs.
I have not heard a single argument from the two spivs or their propagandists to suggest that there are ANY benefits to remaining in the EU, just dire prophesies as to the horrors that await us if we are daft enough to leave (war, genocide, austerity, collapsing house prices, tax increases etc etc etc)
The intellectual poverty of their arguments, the sheer lack of content, speak volumes for the genuine argument for leaving a political union that has lost its way and is actually harming its members. Greece should never have been allowed to join the EU, it never met the economic criteria (indeed the same could be said for most of the newer entrants, as well as Spain, Portugal and Italy)
I wonder how many Greeks would claim that their lives have been enriched by the EU? Then are the millions of youngsters across the continent who are unemployed and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.
If the EU had a coherent and credible plan for accommodating this massive influx of migrants, many of whom have no understanding of European culture and lack education then one might be persuaded that there was a case for remaining. Merkel clearly demonstrated her ignorance by simply throwing open German borders and the consequences have been dire. Other states are now closing their borders, Austria very nearly elected a fascist president.
Come on Alan, if you are so enamoured with the EU, explain the benefits of remaining……if you can.
The lack of response from Alan is disappointing but not particularly surprising. Cameron may be willing to prostitute himself on the altar of Remain but Alan always had principles so it would be difficult for him to spout the lies and distortions that Cameron finds so easy.
Incidentally, in my first post on this thread I said that the EU has ignored the concerns of ordinary people. Naturally I was heartened when Donald Tusk, the current president of the EU, conceded the same point, declaring that the drive toward closer union was not shared by members of the various European states.
As to the latest load of garbage from the Remain mob, Osborne has shafted himself completely, good riddance.
Congratulations to Alan on snuggling up to Rolfe, a man with no principles and no discernible talent.
To think that the Remain camp can find room for the likes of Cameron, Osborne, May, Brown, Balls, Blair and now Rolfe and Alan. What a toxic stew of petty egoism, dishonesty and misfeasance.
I hope that if Brexit is the outcome, these petty individuals will have the decency to admit they were wrong (fat chance) and those currently in public office will do the right thing and resign.