If you head to the Royal Mile at about two in the afternoon, you’ll be in for a big surprise. Our Alex Cole-Hamilton is one of the speakers at a Rally for Europe but he won’t be delivering the Europe stump speech many of us have heard many times. In fact, I’m probably more word perfect on it than I am the Sound of Music or the words of Abba Gold.
Today a new version of the Cole-Hamilton Euro speech takes centre stage and it’s just as good.
Here’s an extract.
Now I heard that Boris Johnson said that if we had to, in the event of no deal we could live without our EU workforce, that they only make up 3% of our health and social care workforce so we could probably tough it out. Boris, your spinal column makes up 3% of your body mass, try functioning without that.
“You all know my party’s policy. The Liberal Democrats believe that a process begun by the will of the British people must be concluded by the will of the British people.
“That we must put the final terms of the Brexit deal or the reality of no deal to them in a referendum, and on that ballot paper they should have an unambiguous choice to reject Brexit and remain in the EU.
“I believe that when credited with the facts, the people of this country will reject the lunacy of Brexit and return to the fold of what has become quite simply the most important project for peace and freedom in the whole of human history,
“So when the full hideous calamity of Brexit is laid bare, we should ask the people of this country, in the solemnity of the polling stations where this first started, is this really what you want? Is this what you imagined taking back control would look like? And if it isn’t then you should exercise your democratic right to stay.
“We meet in extraordinary times, historic times and you will each look back on this period and ask yourself, did I do my part? Don’t leave that question unanswered, it’s time to dig in and fight, it isn’t just a mountain we have to climb, this is our Everest.
“For all the dismay I’ve felt since June the 24th, I still fundamentally believe that Britain has the capacity to be decent, open and outward looking. That with every passing week more people are rediscovering that inside themselves and regretting the vote they cast
“With your grit and determination, that the best days of our European identity can still lie ahead of us.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
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8 Comments
Brexit isn’t the will of the British people; only the English and Welsh ones. Scotland voted 62% remain. The Liberal Democrats voted against a referendum safeguard proposed by the SNP that would have ensured that all three parts of Britain and that of Northern Ireland had to agree to leave the EU before it could take place. Instead, they decided that it was a higher priority for them to ensure that Scotland and Northern Ireland should not be considered equal partners in the UK union than continued membership of the EU. It is time for Liberal Democrats to accept responsibility for their own actions. In prioritising their extreme form of unionism, Brexit is as much their mess as it is of Labour and the Tories.
Al: there were no “safeguards” in the referendum bill because it was non-binding. See section 5 of http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7212
Cameron’s government decided to pronounce it “once in a generation” and promised “the government would implement”. That’s on them.
Just a thought, the EU should turn around and say we can’t have a interim period but they will extend the brexit negotiations to the end of their fiscal cycle (two extra years) and we can of course leave at any moment but would have to pay the remaining contributions up to that date. Also clarify that if we wanted to cancel brexit we can do so and carry on with the same terms as before. Not sure what would happen with UK MEPs elections in 2019 but suspect that the gov would be happy to opt out rather than suffer electoral slaughter to Labour and UKIP.
No parliament majority for a cliff-edge exit so every hope that we would meander towards another election and Corbyn now seems slowly inching towards staying in the single market and if you are going to do that you may as well stay in the EU but he would only go against democratic mandate if there was a 2nd referendum unless Labour went into the election saying they would stay in and got a huge majority. Of course, May might short-circuit the system by calling a second referendum herself and saying she would do whatever the people said – not total suicide as her right-wingers will not want to let Corbyn in on the back of saving the country by staying in EU.
If the EU were very clever they would let Corbyn take the credit for getting a concession on free of movement to limit access to benefits etc for the first five years, appeasing his core voters.
Unfortunately, if voting LABOUR meant staying in the EU, LibDems would be wiped out!
Latest monthly poll by YouGov may be significant. It asks with hindsight was the Referendum result right or wrong. 47% say it was wrong and 42% right. The biggest gap so far and for the Remain side. 23% of Conservative voters say it was wrong.
Barnier is ready to push the UK off a cliff: Top EU negotiator is ‘happy’ to see a hard Brexit because he wants to punish Britain for quitting
Michel Barnier would be ‘happy’ for Britain to fall out of the EU on ‘hard Brexit’
Source claims Barnier thinks Britain must be seen to ‘pay a big price’ for quitting
Ex Tory cabinet minister accused Brussels of ‘Al Capone’ tactics in exit bill row
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4981182/Barnier-ready-push-UK-cliff.html#ixzz4vWg5Jlcd
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Note to the Daily Mail brave Brexiteers don’t need to be pushed off any cliff they are more than happy to jump, they believe they can fly and Tinkerbell will show them how. Interesting to see that which they most wanted is now a threat from the EU, no it isn’t it is what you voted for. As the saying goes “be careful what you wish for, it might just come true” as the poor Brexiteers are finding out.
So where will DUP stand if hard brexit means NI then favours joining up with Ireland rather than joining in with the suicide dive… then EU says Scotland is welcome to join EU on fast-track terms… some good work for construction companies making a hard border between Scotland and England, anyway!
Is the UK too big to fail, interest payments on National Debt are approaching a level that if they were placed on hold – causing chaos in the financial system – the UK would not actually need to borrow any money as it would have a balanced budget. The fact that they could not borrow money in the future would be an excellent result from the Conservative point of view as it would stop Labour’s spending promises in their tracks.
William,
Having no money is not good from anyone’s view point as we are all about to find out. As to stopping Labour’s plans havn’t you heared of nationalisation with out compensation, I’m sure in a situation you describe that would come into play, or just pay them in worthless government bonds.