What has Brussels, with the likes of Michel Barnier, the European Commission's chief negotiator with the United Kingdom (UK) over leaving the European Union (EU) under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty of 13 December 2007, Jean-Claude Juncker, former President of the European Commission, and Donald Tusk, former President of the European Council, not said and done to frustrate the democratic will of the British people to come out of the EU as expressed in the 2016 referendum?

Michel Barnier insults the British people and government, saying Brexit was the result of the British colonial past. Donald Tusk said there was a special place in hell for those who promoted Brexit. At a press conference in Strasbourg, Belgian MEP and European Parliament Brexit Coordinator Guy Verhofstadt compared Boris Johnson to Georges Danton and Maximilien Robespierre who “ended up on the guillotine”. He also claimed “Lucifer would not welcome” Brexiteers who backed leaving the EU and accused Boris Johnson as being a “traitor”, to the delight of the Barnier’s, the Juncker’s and the Tusk’s. Now that Juncker has been replaced with German politician Ursula von der Leyen, and Donald Tusk replaced by the Belgian politician Charles Michel, the tune has not really changed. They are still resorting to insults, threats and bullying to keep the UK under EU control.

It should be remembered that politicians, not the people, took the UK into the EU. The UK was already in the European Economic Community (EEC) since 1973, which the people approved in the 1975 referendum. But when politicians took the UK into the European Union after the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, the people were not told that UK was signing away its sovereignty, its laws, the control of its borders and the control of its waters rich in fish stock, to the EU. Moreover, they were not told that they would have to pay £19bn (less rebate) of British taxpayers’ hard-earned money to the EU. The then Conservative PM John Major, who fought for the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty (Treaty of European Union) in British law, effectively lied to the British people. No wonder he has been working so hard to prevent Brexit. Margaret Thatcher declared in a speech in the House of Lords that she «could never have signed that Treaty».

As time passed and people came to know how much they have been lied to by politicians, the desire to put the matter before the people in a referendum grew. The then Conservative PM David Cameron finally gave way and a referendum was held on 23 June 2016. Cameron himself campaigned for Remain. He felt that the Remain camp would win. But he was mistaken. He lost as the people voted to leave. He had no choice but to resign. He was then replaced by Theresa May, another Remainer. But she did promise to deliver Brexit and clearly stated «Brexit means Brexit». She called snap general elections in 2017, which she did not have to, allegedly to obtain a bigger mandate to secure the ‘best’ deal from the EU. Although the Conservatives won, they did so with a reduced majority – it was a hung Parliament.

This was a gift to the Remain politicians in every party and they voted down Theresa May’s deal three times, which forced her to resign too. Former London Mayor and Conservative MP Boris Johnson, who led the campaign in favour of Brexit in the 2016 referendum, was selected as new PM to replace Theresa May. The Labour Party demanded general elections as it changed its strategy from respecting the will of the people to another referendum between an agreed Deal or Leave, effectively throwing Leave out of the window. For its part, the Liberal Democrat party, led by Jo Swinson, branded itself an «anti-Brexit Party», which is effectively an anti-People party.

The People v/s Politicians

Although 17.4 million (52%) and 406 constituencies (63%) voted leave, the majority of MPs (83%) were in favour of remain. It can be argued that the real culprits are none other than the majority Remain MPs in the House of Commons prior to the 12 December 2019 general elections, when the Conservatives swept to power with a landslide majority to get Brexit done. Those Remain MPs were dead against Brexit and they did everything in their power to prevent it from happening. Furthermore, they had the support of a section of the media such as the BBC, Channel 4 and Sunday Times which, for over three long years, have displayed their anti-Brexit bias to boot. And, like the EU, they are still at it.

Even the Supreme Court, the highest court of the land, is said to have delved in politics when, in a judgment delivered by Lady Hale, it overturned the judgment of the Master of the Rolls and declared unlawful the PM Boris Johnson’s political request to the Queen to prorogue Parliament for five weeks and the granting of the same by the Queen, and declared that there was no prorogation in the first place. Lord Kerr, one of the 11 judges, asked during the hearing whether prorogation could have been for a year, which was seen as a sarcastic comment made by a judge who was involved in the drafting of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty 2007. Many politicians and the majority of the British people screamed that the Supreme Court judges were all ‘Remainers’.

Yet, in her opening speech, Lady Hale emphasised that the ruling the judges must deliver, is not actually about Brexit. She said the court was “solely concerned” with whether it is lawful for Boris Johnson to suspend Parliament through a process called prorogation. The Daily Express of 24 September 2019 reported: «A panel of 11 justices at the Supreme Court in London ruled unanimously that the Prime Minister’s advice to the Queen to suspend Parliament until October 14 was unlawful because it had the effect of frustrating Parliament.»

Although the Supreme Court did not specify what parliamentary issue Boris Johnson was trying to frustrate, it is clear to everyone that this was about the politics of Brexit. Remainer businesswoman Gina Miller, who is described as “the woman who took Brexit to court”, supported by John Major, the former Conservative Prime minister who backed her submissions, brought the Supreme Court case to block Brexit [Financial Times, 24 Sep 19] under the guise of allegedly fighting for democracy when the British people democratically voted for Brexit.

It is quite normal for Parliament to be prorogued before a Queen Speech. This is always a political decision. In this instance, Parliament was prorogued for five weeks, longer than usual, “at a time of momentous political upheaval” after a long parliamentary session and given the government hefty agenda to make new laws to take the country forward, so far neglected because of Brexit, and to see the UK through Brexit after Parliament has been debating Brexit for over two years, Brexit which Remainer politicians and Remainer activists like Gina Miller have been desperately trying to block. To say that Boris Johnson was trying to frustrate Parliament was clearly inappropriate and wrong.

Prior to the 12/12/19 general elections, Conservative politicians promised to reform the Supreme Court to ensure judges are not allowed to delve in politics and to bring changes to the way the BBC is run, and they have been given a huge mandate to do so. The British people saw those developments as a fight between Remain politicians and the Remain establishment against the democratic wishes of the people, hence the term The People v/s Politicians.

«Get Brexit done»

Boris Johnson knew what the issue was all about and he had no problem in assuring the people that their wishes would be respected. His motto was «GET BREXIT DONE». General elections were held on 12/12/2019. The Conservatives won a landslide majority and the UK finally came out of the EU on 31^st January 2020, at 11pm. The UK and the EU now have 11 months, called the transition period, to agree a trade deal as the deadline for a deal (or no deal by default) is set for 31 December 2020.

In Nigel Farage’s final speech in the European Parliament on 29 January 2020, he said:  «My mother and father signed up to a common market [the EEC] not to a political union [the EU] (..) Once we have left [on 31.01.20 at 11pm] we are never coming back (..)». Regarding referendums, Farage told the European Parliament that they are very good at making people vote again when referendums do not go their way, but that «the British are too big to bully».

Farage said that he wants Brexit to start a debate right across Europe: «If we want trade, friendship, co-operation, reciprocity, we don’t need a European Commission, we don’t need a European Court, we don’t need these institutions and all of this power.» He said he is hoping Brexit begins the end of the European Project because «It is a bad project. It is not just undemocratic, it’s anti-democratic. And it puts in that front row, it gives people power without accountability, people who cannot be held to account by the electorate». When Farage and the Brexit MEPs waved the British flags, he was ‘ordered’ from the chair to remove the flags as it ‘infringed EU rules’.

All the fear-mongering, insults and blackmail from the EU and the local Remainers about queues at the ports, medicine shortages, empty shelves in supermarkets because of acute shortages of food, loss of tens of thousands of jobs, the collapse of the UK economy, which have been going on for over three years with the help of a section of the media since the days of the 2016 referendum, turned out to be very misleading, tantamount to fake news. Now that the UK has left the EU and is a sovereign and independent country again, the 27 EU members are in total disarray as who will have to foot the bill for the billions the British people will not have to pay to the EU anymore.

The EU’s next budget cycle runs from 2021 to 2027. After Ursula von der Leyen left the European Commission’s New Year reception, a senior EU official pronounced that “The blood will flow”, reported the Spectator of 18 Feb 20, and “The knives are out”. A summit of EU leaders held on 21 February 2020 seeking to fill a €75bn hole in the bloc’s budget left by Brexit dramatically collapsed as it involved increased contributions to which many EU members did not agree. Some are even predicting the collapse of the EU.

Countries always trade with one another. The UK has always traded with European countries before it joined the EU in 1992 as a result of the Maastricht Treaty. Yet, now that the UK is out of the EU, the EU stance in negotiating a trade deal with the UK is intransigent. They are imposing unrealistic and unacceptable conditions, such as level playing field, a trade-policy term which prevents competition and under which the UK will have to agree to EU’s rules and regulations on the environment, labour, taxation and state aid, which will prevent the UK from striking deals with the rest of the world. They want to have access to UK’s territorial waters to benefit from the fish stock when Brexit is about taking control and to be free to trade with the world. The UK proposed a Canada Plus trade deal where Canada has not traded its territorial waters nor agreed to EU rules and regulations, but the EU refused on the ground that the UK is too close to the EU. When asked if the EU will abide by UK’s rules and regulations in any trade deal, the EU replied in the negative.

No wonder, Downing Street expects talks with the EU to blow up almost immediately, even before official negotiations begin. Yet, the UK is a net importer from the EU and a no deal scenario will hurt the EU much more. PM Boris Johnson is confident his government will call EU’s bluff and ride the storm like he did when he took the UK out of the EU on 31 January 2020.