Progress

David Cameron appeared on a BBC Question Time special last night and I reckon he got a shock. Despite assembling a balanced audience of Remainers and Leavers the questions were generally hostile. Even the Remainers were pissed off at the lack of a positive vision for a UK locked into the EU after the vote. While the Leavers were openly scathing and critical, the Remainers – the few of them who tried to ask supporting questions – seemed to be seeking reassurance and replies they could believe. He was wholly unconvincing and may have done his bit to put the Brexit case back on track. Let’s hope so

In three days’ time we get the only chance many of us will ever have to see this country regain its rightful place in the world we were instrumental in shaping. If we vote to Remain, the divisions within the EU and within Britain itself will continue. Toynbee et al were dead right to say that there is a mood of helplessness and despair abroad; this is a direct result of the unchecked pursuit of a progressive agenda. In the true spirit of doublespeak ‘progressive’ means the exact opposite of advancement, unless you see progress towards national oblivion as a good thing.

Progressive means denying your children a decent education by abandoning what was proved to work and adopting every unproven faddish tenet of academic pedagogic dogma. Packing the classrooms with flush-cheeked but semi-literate teaching assistants on minimum wage; providing ‘support’ for legions of kids with dubious statements of ‘special needs’ when all they need is a return to discipline and rigour and keeping politics out of the classroom. Child-centred education has facilitated the emergence of an infantilised population, taught that they have inalienable rights to a self-centred existence regardless of the cost to society. Just how many graduates of The Science of Harry Potter does society really need? 

Progressive means being labelled as a racist because you have pride in your origins; this carries a caveat that it only applies if you are white and born in Britain. If your origins or heritage are from elsewhere, then not only is your clinging to your roots admirable, you are considered brave to do so openly and loudly in the face of so many British people trying to quietly do the same. Such people as you are bigots and must be shouted down, for every single one of your opinions and values is worthless when compared with the opinions and values of ‘diverse’ and ‘vibrant’ multiconfusionism.

Progressive means the pursuit of equality uniformity at any cost. In the textbook this suggests they would rob the rich and give to the poor, but in reality the rich are good at hanging on to their gains (all of which are ill-gotten in progressive folklore). No, it is far easier to make everybody equally dependent on state largesse by expanding the welfare state to accommodate not just those who don’t wish to work but also those who do work, by paying them more in tax credits than they pay in tax, magically conjured by the economic alchemy of importing ever greater numbers of cheap workers who also pay less in than they cost the system. Nobody understands how this works, least of all the experts of David Cameron’s fantasies.

Incidentally, those who have grown rich via the public sector – the aforesaid experts along with advisors, commentators, heads of departments, state-aided charities and officials of the Eurocracy – are honourable heroes of the struggle, who deserve every penny they have been paid even though such receipts represent a near total loss to the economy. The progressive system will spend whatever it needs to do in order to maintain the illusion that Neil Kinnock is a price worth paying for peace, harmony and contentment, even though said peace, harmony and contentment are his and his alone.

"I'd like to renegotiate the arrangement of our deckchairs"

So, when you are berated for being a Little Englander. When you are patronised for not understanding ‘complex’ issues that seem pretty straightforward to you. When you feel bullied for having an opinion when all around you are allowed opinions you find distasteful or wrong. When you are told that you are wrong even as the evidence of your existence is that the peaceful and tolerant country you used to love is disappearing in front of your eyes remember that all of this is happening by design and with the complicity of ‘your’ government. And when today’s Dianafication of Saint Jo in Parliament is used to accuse you of being complicit in her death, make a decision to reject the lot of it and vote to Leave on Thursday. 

Play your cards right Cameron!

Yesterday ‘Deal-or-No-Deal’ Dave had 24 hours to come up with an agreement to be presented to a bunch of countries who have no real interest in negotiating Britain’s relationship with the EU. Today, he probably still has 24 hours; time is elastic in political crises. But over the last few weeks of talking about it most of us have forgotten what he said he was setting out to achieve. Does he have a raft of powers to be handed back to the UK Parliament? Wasn’t there something in there about limiting migrant numbers? I really don’t remember.

Actually that’s not altogether true – I do have a vague memory of a list of four key demands he set out to argue, three of which we effectively had control over anyway and the fourth was some inconsequential smoke and mirrors about paying migrant benefits which appeared to have absolutely sod-all to do with restricting free movement of people across our borders. While there is a natural focus on the Calais swarm, without having control over our borders the hundreds of thousands of new ‘EU citizens’ invited in by Angela Merkel will quite soon be able to come here without challenge.

But what does David Cameron really want? If it’s legacy then staying in the EU isn’t one; it is just, really, doing nothing. Oh there is much chatter around the reported desires of the other EU countries for Britain to remain onside but haven’t we always been a thorn in that side? Some say untying the Gordian knot that represents our involvement in Europe will take years. I say, take a pair of scissors to it, set fire to it, hack at it with a machete; the mooring ropes will still be there, we would not be setting ourselves adrift. Britain has been a part of political Europe for centuries, forming allegiances, breaking them, inter-marrying our royalty. None of that will change. Just as before, we can advance or retreat at will, not as pressed men.

There is nothing, I repeat nothing, which we get from our part in the EU that we couldn’t have as an independent wealthy nation. And there is much we would gain from having the ability to set our own course. Will we still be friends? I see no reason why not. Would we still cooperate on defence, justice, financial and other issues? Of course we would. But without total control of our own perimeter and policies we are not a sovereign nation and nothing less should be on offer.

Lest you are inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt the Conservative Home website lists ten negotiation aims Cameron has dropped:

• Taking back control over social and employment laws.
• A complete opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
• Stopping the ECJ overruling our criminal law. 
• Changing the EU treaties before the referendum. 
• Stopping EU migrants coming to the UK without a job offer.
• Removing EU jobseekers after six months. 
• Reforming the Working Time Directive.
• Stopping the European Parliament meeting in two places. 
• Reforming the Common Agricultural Policy. 
• Reforming the EU’s Structural Funds.

All gone, forgotten, crumbled into dust...

In the end he has asked for nothing and been turned down. Pursuing Britain in a reformed Europe is a strategy that will make him the new Ted Heath (remember how well respected his footnote in history is?) The only hand that may yield a worthwhile result is the genuine threat to lead Britain out of the EU. In that game all the cards are on our side. We can easily do without the EU; can the EU survive the next turbulent decade without us? But it seems Cameron would sooner fold than do the one thing that would actually earn him a deserved place in history.