On Sunday morning, 6th March 2016, Boris ‘Bo-Jo’ Johnson appeared on the Andrew Marr show.
He was there to speak against Britain’s continued membership of the EU, and he made a complete arse of himself.
Johnson likes to give the impression that he is a voice for Britain, that somehow he ‘speaks for England’. Quite where this self-anointed mantle of authority has come from is a mystery to me. As far as I am concerned, Johnson is a buffoon, a charlatan and a ‘little englander’!
However, that is not to say that he is not a very dangerous commentator.
He possesses that style of speaking which many uninformed British observers mistake for deep knowledge trying hard to appear as the voice of the common man.
In reality, Johnson is a composite ‘chancer’ who has seen an opportunity to set his cap at becoming the next Prime Minister, and he is using the excuse of ‘Brexit’ as a means of promoting his own campaign for PM.
The really evil element to Johnson’s rhetoric is that no-one exactly knows quite what he stands for. Frankly, I doubt whether Johnson himself knows who or what he is and what he stands for, apart from the best interests of Bo-Jo!
Nevertheless, he may have influenced a lot of watchers, and particularly, the old guard of the Tory party, none of whom have ever really reconciled themselves to being part of the EU.
The primary problem with all the EU ‘Nay-sayers’ is that none of them has the slightest clue what will happen when and if this country were to stupidly decide to vote against remaining a member.
They do not have any idea how or what will happen to our existing membership status, and as a result, they have no practical suggestions or recommendations to make, apart from a generic catch-all ‘we must leave the EU’!
On the Marr programme, Bo-Jo characterised the EU as a ‘prison’. He then proceeded to shamelessly mix his metaphors, (which is something that Bo-Jo does with impunity), by saying that Britain had lost a golden opportunity to get out of the prison because Government lawyers had recently vetoed a plan to assert that Parliament could overrule EU law.
Ignoring the fact that the UK Parliament cannot overrule EU law when it does not suit them, Bo-Jo disingenuously treated this non-sequitur as a terrible lost opportunity, claiming that it was his road to Damascus which had converted him to a Brexit believer.
He described the facility to get out of this prison thus;
“...Actually, it will be wonderful, it would be a huge weight lifted from British business...”
Here is a typical Bo-Jo, and by default, very common feature of these pro-Brexit clowns, who steadfastly refuse to see the many benefits that membership of the EU has brought the UK, and who then engage in a piece of special pleading on behalf of ‘British business’. This is entirely contrary to the views of the vast number of established British businesses who have voiced their opinions that remaining in the EU is by far the better option for this country!
It is this shameless appeal to some form of petty patriotism which so identifies the Bo-Jo tendency (along with Nigel Farage, Jacob Rees-Mogg, M.P for the Eighteenth Century, Iain Duncan-Smyth et al). Clearly these men have not appreciated Dr Johnson’s (no relation) observation that patriotism was the last refuge of the scoundrel!
It all stems from the idea that somehow, by aligning ourselves with the EU, we have somehow lost a chunk of our much vaunted Sovereignty, and that Johnny foreigner is making laws which we must obey, but in which we have had no chance of debate!
Well, what is the reality of the laws which the EU enacts with which we have to comply?
First of all, all EU laws debated in the EU Parliament have a UK component participation from our MEPs. Sadly, too many of them are members of UKIP whose actions are aimed at constantly disrupting and obstructing the EU process, rather than working in an harmonious and practical manner.
1: Acts put in place by UK Parliament with EU influence — account for between 10-14% of our laws.
2: Regulations influenced by or related to the EU — account for 9-14% of our laws.
They are all almost exclusively focused on areas of administrative reform and designed to bring us into common parity with other members of the EU. They are one of the costs of belonging to the EU Club!
All these laws have to be debated in the UK Parliament before they can be enforced in UK law and they have to be passed just like any other law.
The EU cannot change our tax laws or our criminal laws. So where is our much vaunted sovereignty being impacted?
What else does the EU effect?
Free trade - The EU is a trade bloc which means there are no quotas or tariffs for companies exporting goods and services within the EU. This makes it easier for UK businesses to trade across the EU's 27 states.
Common commercial policy - these are rules put in place to protect EU businesses using things like tariffs, subsides and quotas on imports from outside the eurozone.
EU competition law - this means that if you have a company you should have the opportunity to do business across the EU.
The law is designed to stop bigger firms abusing their power by setting up cartels and monopolies.
The internal market - the single market means UK citizens are free to move, live, study and trade anywhere within the EU.
This also affects you when you go on holiday within the European Union because there are no customs limits.
There are also no border controls across most of the EU either - the UK is one exception to that rule, because we have refused to adopt the Schengen Principles.
Trans-European networks - many areas of Europe have benefited from this policy with new roads and transport networks designed to make it easier for the different countries to transport goods and services across the EU. Hence the suggestion that the Cross-Rail link be made larger to accommodate German trains!
Energy - this is a common policy for European energy needs and proposals for making energy greener.
EU energy labels have also been introduced on all electrical goods like washing machines and even light bulbs to try to make us all more aware of what energy we're using.
Area of freedom, security and justice - this is designed to make it easier for police across the EU to cooperate but also to ensure fair treatment in different judicial systems for all EU citizens.
There is a European arrest warrant that means you can be arrested anywhere in the EU for more serious crimes committed in another EU country.
Common fisheries policy - every EU state must stick to rules on fishing set by Europe. This affects fishermen in the UK, who are only allowed to fish for certain types of fish at certain times of the year to conserve stocks. This has had a hugely beneficial effect on conserving Cod stocks in the North Sea.
There are also understandings on public health, the environment, consumer protection, transport, social policy, plus economic, social and territorial cohesion.
There are common foreign, security and defence policies which run alongside the policies of member states although there is no European army or single European foreign policy.
Euro MPs don't set our taxes or decide if a local school or hospital's going to close, but they can have an influence on how we live our lives.
MEPs passed a law a few years ago significantly cutting the cost of texting from abroad. Roaming rates were also cut.
The Working Time Directive - which gives workers the right to certain amounts of rest, stops excessive night work and gives people a minimum amount of holiday every year – It also that means nurses and doctors are limited to a 48-hour working week.
Of course Bo-Jo just failed to mention that even if we do leave the EU, we will still be expected to pay a significant contribution to Brussels in order to be allowed to trade with the market, and on less favourable terms. Somebody tell me how that is beneficial to us in any way?
We will also be required to allow free movement of people in order to trade with them, so in fact nothing will have changed, except it will have cost us a great deal of money in terms of lost opportunities. The Pound will have suffered badly on the world’s markets while all the uncertainty about our future commercial stability was debated, and we will be in exactly the same position, except this time. outside the Market.
It is vital that we keep in mind at all time that the vast majority of those in Parliament who are shouting for Brexit, have alternative agendas. Bo-Jo believes he can use this destabilising process to undermine David Cameron and thus promote his own case for Prime Ministership.
We have been members now for 40 years and we have become, or so we are told the 5th largest economy in the world. How is that going to be enhanced if we cut and run from our primary trading market?
Ordinary people must consider that outside the EU, we will be cut off from all those provisions that protect our rights, rights which have been protected by EU involvement. At the same time, we will still be subject to immigrants seeking to come here, they aren’t going to stop and go elsewhere.
We must demand that those who oppose our rights ro remain within the EU, tell us exactly what they propose will be the way in which we will function in the future. Most of the loudest nay-sayers (Bill Cash, Liam Fox et al, ) are wealthy men to whom the protections afforded by Brussels do not matter. But they matter to me and to you, and I am not going to lie down and let these rights get taken away from me by a clown like Bo-Jo!
He was there to speak against Britain’s continued membership of the EU, and he made a complete arse of himself.
Johnson likes to give the impression that he is a voice for Britain, that somehow he ‘speaks for England’. Quite where this self-anointed mantle of authority has come from is a mystery to me. As far as I am concerned, Johnson is a buffoon, a charlatan and a ‘little englander’!
However, that is not to say that he is not a very dangerous commentator.
He possesses that style of speaking which many uninformed British observers mistake for deep knowledge trying hard to appear as the voice of the common man.
In reality, Johnson is a composite ‘chancer’ who has seen an opportunity to set his cap at becoming the next Prime Minister, and he is using the excuse of ‘Brexit’ as a means of promoting his own campaign for PM.
The really evil element to Johnson’s rhetoric is that no-one exactly knows quite what he stands for. Frankly, I doubt whether Johnson himself knows who or what he is and what he stands for, apart from the best interests of Bo-Jo!
Nevertheless, he may have influenced a lot of watchers, and particularly, the old guard of the Tory party, none of whom have ever really reconciled themselves to being part of the EU.
The primary problem with all the EU ‘Nay-sayers’ is that none of them has the slightest clue what will happen when and if this country were to stupidly decide to vote against remaining a member.
They do not have any idea how or what will happen to our existing membership status, and as a result, they have no practical suggestions or recommendations to make, apart from a generic catch-all ‘we must leave the EU’!
On the Marr programme, Bo-Jo characterised the EU as a ‘prison’. He then proceeded to shamelessly mix his metaphors, (which is something that Bo-Jo does with impunity), by saying that Britain had lost a golden opportunity to get out of the prison because Government lawyers had recently vetoed a plan to assert that Parliament could overrule EU law.
Ignoring the fact that the UK Parliament cannot overrule EU law when it does not suit them, Bo-Jo disingenuously treated this non-sequitur as a terrible lost opportunity, claiming that it was his road to Damascus which had converted him to a Brexit believer.
He described the facility to get out of this prison thus;
“...Actually, it will be wonderful, it would be a huge weight lifted from British business...”
Here is a typical Bo-Jo, and by default, very common feature of these pro-Brexit clowns, who steadfastly refuse to see the many benefits that membership of the EU has brought the UK, and who then engage in a piece of special pleading on behalf of ‘British business’. This is entirely contrary to the views of the vast number of established British businesses who have voiced their opinions that remaining in the EU is by far the better option for this country!
It is this shameless appeal to some form of petty patriotism which so identifies the Bo-Jo tendency (along with Nigel Farage, Jacob Rees-Mogg, M.P for the Eighteenth Century, Iain Duncan-Smyth et al). Clearly these men have not appreciated Dr Johnson’s (no relation) observation that patriotism was the last refuge of the scoundrel!
It all stems from the idea that somehow, by aligning ourselves with the EU, we have somehow lost a chunk of our much vaunted Sovereignty, and that Johnny foreigner is making laws which we must obey, but in which we have had no chance of debate!
Well, what is the reality of the laws which the EU enacts with which we have to comply?
First of all, all EU laws debated in the EU Parliament have a UK component participation from our MEPs. Sadly, too many of them are members of UKIP whose actions are aimed at constantly disrupting and obstructing the EU process, rather than working in an harmonious and practical manner.
1: Acts put in place by UK Parliament with EU influence — account for between 10-14% of our laws.
2: Regulations influenced by or related to the EU — account for 9-14% of our laws.
They are all almost exclusively focused on areas of administrative reform and designed to bring us into common parity with other members of the EU. They are one of the costs of belonging to the EU Club!
All these laws have to be debated in the UK Parliament before they can be enforced in UK law and they have to be passed just like any other law.
The EU cannot change our tax laws or our criminal laws. So where is our much vaunted sovereignty being impacted?
What else does the EU effect?
Free trade - The EU is a trade bloc which means there are no quotas or tariffs for companies exporting goods and services within the EU. This makes it easier for UK businesses to trade across the EU's 27 states.
Common commercial policy - these are rules put in place to protect EU businesses using things like tariffs, subsides and quotas on imports from outside the eurozone.
EU competition law - this means that if you have a company you should have the opportunity to do business across the EU.
The law is designed to stop bigger firms abusing their power by setting up cartels and monopolies.
The internal market - the single market means UK citizens are free to move, live, study and trade anywhere within the EU.
This also affects you when you go on holiday within the European Union because there are no customs limits.
There are also no border controls across most of the EU either - the UK is one exception to that rule, because we have refused to adopt the Schengen Principles.
Trans-European networks - many areas of Europe have benefited from this policy with new roads and transport networks designed to make it easier for the different countries to transport goods and services across the EU. Hence the suggestion that the Cross-Rail link be made larger to accommodate German trains!
Energy - this is a common policy for European energy needs and proposals for making energy greener.
EU energy labels have also been introduced on all electrical goods like washing machines and even light bulbs to try to make us all more aware of what energy we're using.
Area of freedom, security and justice - this is designed to make it easier for police across the EU to cooperate but also to ensure fair treatment in different judicial systems for all EU citizens.
There is a European arrest warrant that means you can be arrested anywhere in the EU for more serious crimes committed in another EU country.
Common fisheries policy - every EU state must stick to rules on fishing set by Europe. This affects fishermen in the UK, who are only allowed to fish for certain types of fish at certain times of the year to conserve stocks. This has had a hugely beneficial effect on conserving Cod stocks in the North Sea.
There are also understandings on public health, the environment, consumer protection, transport, social policy, plus economic, social and territorial cohesion.
There are common foreign, security and defence policies which run alongside the policies of member states although there is no European army or single European foreign policy.
Euro MPs don't set our taxes or decide if a local school or hospital's going to close, but they can have an influence on how we live our lives.
MEPs passed a law a few years ago significantly cutting the cost of texting from abroad. Roaming rates were also cut.
The Working Time Directive - which gives workers the right to certain amounts of rest, stops excessive night work and gives people a minimum amount of holiday every year – It also that means nurses and doctors are limited to a 48-hour working week.
Of course Bo-Jo just failed to mention that even if we do leave the EU, we will still be expected to pay a significant contribution to Brussels in order to be allowed to trade with the market, and on less favourable terms. Somebody tell me how that is beneficial to us in any way?
We will also be required to allow free movement of people in order to trade with them, so in fact nothing will have changed, except it will have cost us a great deal of money in terms of lost opportunities. The Pound will have suffered badly on the world’s markets while all the uncertainty about our future commercial stability was debated, and we will be in exactly the same position, except this time. outside the Market.
It is vital that we keep in mind at all time that the vast majority of those in Parliament who are shouting for Brexit, have alternative agendas. Bo-Jo believes he can use this destabilising process to undermine David Cameron and thus promote his own case for Prime Ministership.
We have been members now for 40 years and we have become, or so we are told the 5th largest economy in the world. How is that going to be enhanced if we cut and run from our primary trading market?
Ordinary people must consider that outside the EU, we will be cut off from all those provisions that protect our rights, rights which have been protected by EU involvement. At the same time, we will still be subject to immigrants seeking to come here, they aren’t going to stop and go elsewhere.
We must demand that those who oppose our rights ro remain within the EU, tell us exactly what they propose will be the way in which we will function in the future. Most of the loudest nay-sayers (Bill Cash, Liam Fox et al, ) are wealthy men to whom the protections afforded by Brussels do not matter. But they matter to me and to you, and I am not going to lie down and let these rights get taken away from me by a clown like Bo-Jo!
2 comments:
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