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Chair: “Now as we are preparing to leave, we are met with the so called ‘withdrawal agreement’, which is actually nothing of the short. It is in fact a surrender document. It oversees our transition to a vassal state.”
Chair: “I have no doubt that if we attempt to overcome this Withdrawal Agreement we will be overcome by the judiciary, which is dominated by remainers.”
Chair is constantly invoking Thatcher. But there is no way she would have denigrated judges in this fashion.
John Redwood: “I’m sorry that some of the clever well educated elites in our country don’t seem to understand the verb to leave.”
Just for context, Sir John has been an MP for decades and a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.
Just for context, Sir John has been an MP for decades and a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.
Redwood: “There are plenty of projects in Wokingham that need a bit more public spending which we can do once we leave.”
The transformation of Redwood to a big govt spender has been something to behold, of late. Wonder how long it’ll last after Brexit.
The transformation of Redwood to a big govt spender has been something to behold, of late. Wonder how long it’ll last after Brexit.
Event has just been told something I didn’t know. Mark Francois beat Boris Johnson for the selection of Rayleigh and Wickford in 2001.
He also has a degree in War Studies.
He also has a degree in War Studies.
Huge applause when it’s noted that Francois and the DUP voted against the Withdrawal Agreement three times: “Mark and his colleagues are heroes...without them we would now be living in a vassal state.”
There ain’t ever gonna be a deal which gets through.
There ain’t ever gonna be a deal which gets through.
Now don’t be cruel. 
Francois: “Here is the shocking thing I crave. I want to live in a free country.”
Mark Francois encourages audience to boo for Blair, Benn, Cooper, Swinson, Hammond and Grieve.
They happily oblige.
They happily oblige.
Mark Francois says he thinks it’s unlikely that enough Labour MPs will back a deal and he won’t either “unless we actually leave...and no amount of brow beating will make me change my mind.”
Ah here we go
Francois: “Those who have sought in the past to bully us in these islands have failed. And they will fail again now.”
Francois: “Those who have sought in the past to bully us in these islands have failed. And they will fail again now.”
Francois quoted Robert Frost
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
Yes, it is, needless to say, getting rather odd.
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
Yes, it is, needless to say, getting rather odd.
Now light booing for John Bercow.
Arelene Foster up next. Chair says: “Arlene, we owe you and your colleagues a huge debt of gratitude.”
Foster: “During the referendum we had Tony Blair and John Major telling the people of Northern Ireland that if we voted to leave, the terrorism of the 1980s would return. That was quite disgraceful.”
Foster: The EU “fundamentally misunderstands the British psyche.”
Foster: “the backstop is a consequence of the sequencing of the negotiations...how can you sort the border out if you don’t know what you’ll be doing in the future? It was the wrong thing to do by our government.”
Foster: “The backstop is anti democratic, it’s inconsistent with NI’s place in the UK. The EU says they love the Belfast Agreement. Well if that is the case they cannot support the backstop. The unionist community do not support it. So we need to move on.”
So Foster seems to be digging in on the backstop, not slackening as it was said yesterday.
Rereading Thatcher’s Bruges speech today, this paragraph rather stands out.
Big applause for Martin Howe QC: “once we’re done with Brexit, we need to repair the terrible damage the remainers have done to our constitution.”
Things which the speakers at the Bruges group don’t like:
-Parliament
-the judiciary
-the Supreme Court
-the Fixed Term Parliaments Act
-Parliament
-the judiciary
-the Supreme Court
-the Fixed Term Parliaments Act
Foster: “I never said we would accept a time limited backstop. I said I would look at it. There’s a world of difference.”
Foster: “*This* prime minister won’t be leaving NI behind in an EU customs union.”
Francois: “I’ll look at a deal if there is one. My acid test will be does it mean we genuinely leave the EU? I want nothing more than to see the sunrise on 1st November on a free country.”
Hmm. the fact we are able to ourselves “free”, must mean by definition, we are already?
Hmm. the fact we are able to ourselves “free”, must mean by definition, we are already?
Huge boos and shouts of “shame!” And “shame on you!” For @PippaCrerar when she asks perfectly legitimate question about PM’s choice of language in the Commons and answer to @paulasherriff question on Jo Cox.
Mark Francois: “What you saw from Labour benches was a sort of cri de coeur. Those Lab MPs are now aware of the fact that because of the way they’ve acted over the past three years, many of them aren’t coming back. And many of them don’t like it and don’t like being called out.”
Extraordinary question from man in the audience, slamming “establishment”, then asks Arlene Foster if she thinks “it would be better long term if Ireland left the EU?”
Revelation of the day.
Mark Francois is writing a book, to be published next summer.
It’s called: “You couldn’t make it up.”
Mark Francois is writing a book, to be published next summer.
It’s called: “You couldn’t make it up.”
Mark Francois: “I went to the book store for @David_Cameron’s book. I did what all MPs do. I went to the index. I went to F. I looked for my name. It wasn’t there. So he can keep his 25 quid.”
More boos for Dominic Grieve.
Ok now someone has just half jokingly suggested we apply to become a province of Canada because we’d have more freedom than we do in the EU.
Maybe time to leave
Maybe time to leave
