THE BETRAYED NATION April 2019 News and views from The Freedom Association Theresa May’s treachery goes on . . . and on THE BETRAYED NATION
J’Accuse . . . !
The duplicity and treachery of Theresa May appears to know no bounds. Yes she is dishonest, yes she has betrayed both her party and her country, yes she is the worst Prime Minister ever. But her deceitfulness has been aided and abetted by her fellow travellers in the Conservative Party. Her betrayal of Brexit could never have been achieved without the complicity of those who willingly do her bidding. For nearly 30 years, the Conservative Party has betrayed and undermined almost everything that its members and voters believe in and care about. It took us into what was then the EEC, it signed away so much of our independence at Maastricht, it cut our armed forces to the bone, it has undermined the fight against crime, it has increased taxation to record levels and has interfered in our lives more than Labour ever did. We were expected to swallow this because we were told that a Labour Government led by Jeremy Corbyn would be even worse. Now even that has been shown to be a cynical ploy to justify Brexit betrayal. Appalling though Theresa May is, a majority of her MPs have kept her in place, seemingly more fearful of the prospect of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister than they are of a woman prepared to go cap in hand to Jeremy Corbyn, whom the Jewish Labour Movement has declared, “unfit to be Prime Minister”. There is something of a French theme to this edition, which includes a report on the shocking violence that President Macron’s Government has been using against Gilets Jaunes protesters. Last month our group of thirty Freedom Association supporters visited Strasbourg, where, out of respect for our hosts, we sang the stirring, bloodthirsty French national anthem, the Marseillaise, which was composed there. The chorus runs, “Aux armes, citoyens, Formez vos bataillons, Marchons, marchons!” It’s time we learnt from our French friends across the channel how to stand up and fight for what we hold dear. We certainly cannot rely upon the Conservative Party to defend our country or our values. Simon Richards Chief Executive, The Freedom Association
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The Greatest Spendthrifts In each issue, I include an extract from ‘Take Upon Retiring’, an anthology by our Patron, Lord Vinson, because I think that its contents deserve a wider audience. Here he quotes from Adam Smith about the way that those in government misspend other people’s money. This certainly applies both to the present ‘Conservative’ Government and to the Opposition.
Great nations are never impoverished by private, though they sometimes are by public, prodigality and misconduct. It is the highest impertinence and presumption, therefore, in kings and ministers, to pretend to watch over the economy of private people. For kings and ministers are themselves always, and without exception, the greatest spendthrifts in the society.
Adam Smith
The wit and wisdom of Jacob Rees-Mogg “If a long extension leaves us stuck in the EU we should be as difficult as possible. We could veto any increase in the budget, obstruct the putative EU army and block Mr Macron’s integrationist schemes.” Tweet on @Jacob_Rees_Mogg 5th April Listen to Jacob’s weekly radio show on LBC at 6 p.m. every Friday.
QUOTE TO NOTE “You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!” Oliver Cromwell quoted by Leo Amery in 1940, at the conclusion of a devastating speech attacking Neville Chamberlain’s Government.
Please send me any quotes you would like to be considered for inclusion in future issues.
A site for your eyes: https://twitter.com/verumandverus Statisticus Collegium is a Twitter account with a title of which Jacob Rees-Mogg would doubtless approve. It performs one simple but important function - listing the Brexit voting records of every MP, in alphabetical order, naming, shaming and - on occasion - praising each according to his or her voting record. It is an invaluable resource and clear, simple and easy to use. Conor Burns, for example is described as a Brexit Legend, whereas Steve Brine is listed as a Brexit Wrecker. Check up on your own MP’s voting record.
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Peter Mullen writes: Looking forward to the end of May I was about to type ‘The Free Nation, May’ when I realised it should be ‘The Free Nation, April’. When I got to the word ‘May,’ an icy chill ran all down my back. But there’s no avoiding it and for thirty-one days ‘May’ will sit there on the front of the calendar like an accusation, like a vile expletive. Twenty times a day newsreaders will announce such as, “It’s . . . day the umpteenth of May.” So there’s no escape. I don’t know about you, but there’s no doubt in my mind that the Maybot is - I hope by the time this article appears it’s was - our worst prime minister ever. They used to ask the question of Richard Nixon, “How do you know when he’s lying?” And the answer was, “Whenever he’s moving his lips.” That was pretty unfair even on Tricky Dicky - but it applies to Theresa May with a vengeance. Let me repeat myself: more people voted Leave than have ever voted for anything in this country. Mrs May promised to deliver Brexit yet, even as she was speaking, she had no intention of keeping that promise. She was always a Remainer. She has lied through her teeth - not once but several times every day from the referendum in June 2016, and she is still lying today. Dear reader, you have been had, cheated, stuffed and betrayed by the woman who promised on oath to be faithful to our country and to its people. The worst prime minister ever? Well, let’s see . . . Worse than Michael Foot in his donkey jacket at the cenotaph? And there were rumours that he had more than a soft spot for the USSR. Was he a traitor? Well, he told us: “In my opinion, Marxism is a great creed of human liberation. It is the creed which says that when all other empires fade and vanish, our business is to enlarge the empire of the human mind.” Yes, with the help of concentration camps and the gulag. And yet for all that superior, patronising snobbery and the stinking hypocrisy of his Hampstead socialism, he never did the country as much harm as May has done. I don’t think that Michael stooped so low as actually to hold the British people in contempt. May does. There you are: despite my best intentions, I’ve written “May” again. I’ll be glad when it’s June - and we get some Ashes cricket! Then who can forget Sailor Ted Heath who suffered chronically from EU-philia and made our flesh creep with what he got up to on his organ. And in 1973-74 when he put the nation on a three-day week, we had to turn the lights out early. He called himself a Conservative but then deplored, “the unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism.” He too lied to us about our membership of the EU: “There is no question of any erosion of national sovereignty.” No, Ted, it’s quite definite; the EU erodes every bit of our national sovereignty. But at least Heath was in charge for only four years and then we got the mixed blessing of Harold Wilson back. Harold was half-redeemed by his sense of humour. Those were the days when, during election campaigns, leading politicians delivered hour-long lectures in town halls up and down the country. These were televised and they were terrific entertainment. One night, Wilson was speaking before a massed audience in Sheffield and a heckler called out, “Have
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you never read Karl Marx?” Harold was the king of cool and his reply came instantly, laconically: “Only as far as that footnote on page two of Das Kapital. A lot of readers fall there, you know.” For a short interval around that time, we were led by the shuffling, cadaverous toff Sir Alec Douglas Home - pronounced “Hume.” Wilson used to mock Home’s aristocratic mien, calling him, “The fourteenth Earl of Home.” Ah yes, but Sir Alec was quick off the mark: “Have I the honour of speaking with the fourteenth Mr Wilson?” Any one of these predecessors was worth twice as much as Mrs M who, you will recall, concocted a “deal” to get us out of - actually it was always meant to keep us in – the cursed EU. This deal was such a consummate betrayal that it compares with Neville Chamberlain’s capitulation to Hitler at Munich in 1938 when he waved his bit of paper about and claimed that he and his pal Adolf had concluded “Peace for our time.” This was followed by six years of the most destructive war the world has ever seen. Or, if we go back still further, we come to the regicide of 1649 followed by eleven years national servitude under Oliver Cromwell. At least the Lord Protector gave us that 17th century sound-bite: “Work hard, trust in God and keep your bowels open.” I described Cromwell’s rule as servitude and another word for it is bondage. The bondage in which Mrs M is determined to keep us in the EU has echoes of that ancient captivity 2500 years ago when the Israelites were carried off into Babylon. Their cry went up: “By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we remembered thee, O Zion.” Let this episode be - so to speak – the text I shall end with. And grim as it sounds, there was hope even in Babylonian captivity. For, after the exile, came return and restoration. Restoration of our national freedom will come too - if we believe in it strongly enough. And if we possess our tortured souls in patience and work for it. Whatever you do, don’t give up. I believe that someone - perhaps a few men and women - of honour, integrity, intelligence and courage will emerge and we shall be delivered. What was that other phrase of Cromwell’s? “Trust in God and keep your powder dry.” Rev. Dr. Peter Mullen Peter’s blog, All Things Considered, is at www.revpetermullen.com
Brexit News and Comment As I write (Monday 8th April), Andrew Bridgen, Liz Kendall, Danny Finkelstein, and Faiza Shaheen are going at it hammer and tongs about Brexit on Politics Live on BBC2. Andrew wants Theresa May out, and also wants a clean Brexit. Liz Kendall wants a second referendum and doesn’t think a general election will solve the issue. Danny Finkelstein still supports the Prime Minister and her strategy of negotiating with Labour. Faiza Shaheen, Director of CLASS and a Labour Party candidate for the next general election, thinks, unsurprisingly, that a general election would be a good idea. A Conservative MP, a Conservative Peer, a Labour MP, and a Labour candidate, and none of them agree with each other. Is it hardly surprising that the public are fed up with all of this? Theresa May repeatedly told us that ‘Brexit means Brexit’ and that ‘no deal is better than
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a bad deal’. Meaningless words, although we now know that she is determined to make sure that Brexit means Brexit in name only, and as she admitted recently, any deal is better than no deal. Jeremy Corbyn’s version of Brexit requires us as closely aligned to the EU as possible by being members of the Customs Union and the Single Market - Brexit in name only again. Very few of our politicians are interested in what was said during the referendum campaign and what voters did vote for. We were repeatedly told by figures such as David Cameron, George Orborne, Nick Clegg, and Peter Mandelson that a vote to leave the EU was a vote to leave the Customs Union and the Single Market. We were told that we would be much poorer if we voted to leave the EU; that there would have to be an emergency budget and that there would be an immediate recession. We were even told by some that if we left the EU, the project would collapse and lead to war on the continent of Europe. Short of a plague of locusts, everything was thrown at us, and yet 17.410.742 people still voted to leave the EU. They knew that it meant leaving the Customs Union and the Single Market. They knew that they could, in the short term, be poorer. They took that risk. So when I hear politicians trying to tell me that the public was conned, I know it is rubbish. When Labour MPs queue-up to say that “my constituents didn’t vote to make themselves poorer”, the reply has to be that they knew that could be a possibility, but they felt that because we would become a sovereign nation once again, deciding our own destiny, it was worth taking that risk. The reason Remainers behave in the way they do is because even after almost three years, they still want to overturn the result. At least, on this issue, the Lib Dems and the SNP are honest! “Enough is enough! If she goes by Wednesday we can Leave on Friday”. Typically blunt words from Mark François MP in a letter to Sir Graham Brady MP, Chairman of the 1922 Committee, calling for an indicative no confidence vote in Theresa May’s leadership of the Conservative Party. By the time you read this, I am sure that Theresa May will still be in office, but not in power, however, Mark is merely highlighting what many of his colleagues, party members, and voters think. In his summary at the end, he says: “We simply cannot go on like this, with a weak leader, a riven Cabinet and a Party in despair. I believe Theresa May has been a failure as Leader of our Party, which she now threatens to destroy. Hers is a classic example of hubris – and after hubris, comes nemesis. After the disastrous 2017 General Election, which she embarked upon, as ever, as the behest of a very small number of advisers (cutting out the entire Cabinet in the process), she subsequently told us at the 1922 Committee “I got you into this mess – and I’m the best person to get you out of it”. How hollow those words ring now. In addition, she said “I will continue to serve for as long as you wish me to”, it is now time to test that wish”. Like many people, I wish that Mark was back in Government, leading the charge as Brexit Secretary, although it would have to be under a Prime Minister who was serious about delivering the will of the people. David Davis and Dominic Raab will testify to that.
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It now looks highly likely that the UK will take part in the European Parliament elections at the end of May, something which neither Labour nor the Conservatives want. As Mark François said in his letter to Graham Brady, “Nigel Farage and his nascent Brexit Party are clearly licking their lips at the prospect of fighting European Elections, during which, in the current climate, our MEP candidates would likely be slaughtered”. A political party has never broken through at the first go and won a tranche of seats in Westminster. Labour did increase the number of MPs from two to twenty-nine in 1906, and it didn’t take them long to become a party of government, but for that we have the Representation of the People Act 1918, which not only gave women the right to vote for the first time, it also extended the franchise to millions of working class men. I think that the Brexit Party is going to do extremely well in the European Parliament elections, but with the state of the two main parties at the moment, and with the Liberal Democrats still unable to get any meaningful bounce in the polls, it is possible that the Brexit Party could make history at the next general election. Andrew Allison Head of Campaigns at The Freedom Association
A Dutch perspective on Brexit When the Brexit referendum was announced on February 20th 2016, I was working for UKIP in the European ‘Parliament’ and was exceptionally privileged to have a front row seat to all the excitement and developments that occurred from that moment on. One of the highlights definitely was the day on the Thames when we joined the flotilla of fishermen in their rally for Brexit. It was fantastic to see the passion and enthusiasm, which were highly contagious. The downside was of course the performance of the ever so tolerant left, literally captained by Bob Geldof, whose behaviour, and that of his posse, was abhorrent to say the least. Absolutely ‘Sir’ Unworthy. Look up ‘sore loser’ in your dictionary and I swear you will find a picture of that lot. The thought of what the morning of June 24th must have been like for them only brings a big, fat smile to my face. Another thing that took place on the Thames that day, was that our vessel was being surrounded by dinghies, hindering us, in our way, and making sure that we knew they did not agree with our campaign. At all. One of the dinghies had a family on board. A mother, a father and two small children. That family, as we learned later, was the Cox family. My presence on that ship that day was as part of a Dutch delegation helping Nigel Farage with the Brexit campaign. This was a return favour as Nigel had supported their referendum campaign earlier that year, in April, against the Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement. The Dutch won that referendum, however, as was the case when the Dutch voted against the European Constitution in 2005, its outcome was completely ignored and the Agreement was implemented despite the huge objection. What else is new? We had been in the UK campaigning with Nigel for three days and were on our way back in our touring car, when the news broke about Jo Cox’s murder. I can still recall the mood that came over us in that very moment. The quiet, the disbelief. It left everyone alone with
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their own thoughts for a long time during that drive back. Then came June and the night of the Brexit vote. Again I was at the forefront of what was no doubt going to be a very memorable moment in the history of the United Kingdom. At the start of the evening it didn’t look good and I can still see Nigel pacing back and forth, not knowing where this was going to go. As the evening progressed all of us travelled to the Millbank Tower numerous times and it was well after midnight that we finally stayed put to watch the votes come in. I don’t remember which area was first but I do remember that it was a Leave vote and when it came on the screen the cheer was absolutely deafening! And as the evening went on, many more cheers would follow. It was one of the most amazing, craziest, euphoric things I have ever experienced in my life. History was written, and I was there. How on earth did I get to be this lucky. It was just incredible. To this very day I tell my children I get to brag about that to my grandchildren for they will learn about this in school some day. And now it is almost three years later and look where we are. In 2017 I literally escaped Europe altogether, because I didn’t like where things were going. When Trump was elected I knew that that was where I wanted to go. So I did. Nine blissful, beautiful months we were in Trump country, only to be forced to go back to Europe due to unforeseen circumstances. Having to end up in May country was beyond devastating. It took us quite some time to come to terms with that. But eventually we did. And now Brexit is again a hot item in my life. At work the other day, Brexit came up in conversation with a colleague, who obviously was a Remainer. She told me how she couldn’t understand the whole problem with immigration these ‘Leavers’ seemed to have. According to her all these numbers were heavily exaggerated for she had lived in this big city for more than twenty years now and she didn’t know any immigrants nor had she ever seen one. Mind you, this is Bristol we are talking about. You must be utterly blind not to see immigrants here. But her philosophy was: I don’t know them, I don’t see them, so they’re not there. And that’s that. A good moment to end the conversation right there and change the subject, so I decided. This was never going to go anywhere meaningful. It frightens me sometimes though, the level of ignorance of some people. Or is it just utter contempt for common sense? Either way, the mere thought of sharing this world with minds like these, many of which find their way into politics, at times is a paralysing one. It makes me feel alien, displaced, as if being caught in a bad dream. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. People are waking up. Look at France, the yellow vests, how they stand up to their government. We could do with their level of patriotism. Look at the US, the immense crowds that go out to see and cheer on Trump. There definitely is a shift taking place. Meanwhile the Europhile governments keep shooting themselves in the foot and their arrogance prevents them from seeing that. And that is good news for us. It brings hope that all is not lost, and that perhaps those grandchildren of mine get to see the world we wish for them - the world we fight for them to have. One can only hope and soldier on in trying to make this world a better place. And Brexit would be the perfect start! Let’s hope and pray that on April 12th we will finally be free. No deals, no ties, no links, just delicious, untamed FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE! Freebird
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CALENDAR OF FUTURE EVENTS ★ Friday 26th April 2019 12 noon to 3:00 p.m. Freedom Forum: Derby, with Andrew Allison (venue to be confirmed). ★ Friday 10th May 2019 12 noon to 3:00 p.m. (coffee available from 11:30 a.m.) Freedom Forum: Savoy Suite, The Sefton Hotel, Harris Promenade, Douglas, Isle of Man IM1 2RW. Guest speaker: EDWARD SPALTON, Chairman of the Campaign for an Independent Britain (C.I.B.). Members with an IM postcode have been sent an invitation. ALL PLACES NOW TAKEN. ★ June 2019 Second Jillian Becker Annual Lecture. London. Date, time, venue etc. to be confirmed. ★ June 2019 12 noon to 3:00 p.m. Date to be confirmed. Freedom Forum: with Andrew Allison (location and venue to be confirmed). ★ July 2019 12 noon to 3:00 p.m. Date to be confirmed. Freedom Forum: with Andrew Allison (location and venue to be confirmed). ★ September 2019 12 noon to 3:00 p.m. (coffee available from 11:30 a.m.) Date and venue to be confirmed. Freedom Forum: Rochester, with Simon Richards. Members with ME, CT, DA, SS and TN postcodes will be sent an invitation. Others: please contact us if you would like to be sent an invitation. ★ October 2019 12 noon to 3:00 p.m. Date to be confirmed. Freedom Forum: with Andrew Allison (location and venue to be confirmed). ★ November 2019 12 noon to 3:00 p.m. (coffee available from 11:30 a.m.) Date and venue to be confirmed. Freedom Forum: Lichfield, with Simon Richards. Members with ST, CW, DE, SK, TF, WS and WV postcodes will be sent an invitation. Others: please contact us if you would like to be sent an invitation. ★ January 2020 12 noon to 3:00 p.m. Date to be confirmed. Freedom Forum: with Andrew Allison (location and venue to be confirmed). ★ February 2020 12 noon to 3:00 p.m. (coffee available from 11:30 a.m.) Date and venue to be confirmed. Freedom Forum: Plymouth, with Simon Richards. Members with PL, EX, TQ and TR postcodes will be sent an invitation. Others: please contact us if you would like to be sent an invitation.
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The story behind the French Gilets Jaunes demonstrations In November 2018, many French citizens decided to protest in the streets throughout France. Called ‘yellow vests’, they wanted to be acknowledged by their President and not to be ignored by him. They protested against tax policy, which mostly affected workers of the middle or lower classes and retired people. Fuel prices took off, so that it became very hard for citizens to go to work, especially those far away from the big cities, with no public transport available. Simultaneously, prices significantly increased for essential products: food, electricity, gas. For the first time since the struggle for women’s suffrage, finally granted in the 1940s, demonstrators included many women, who worried how they could feed their children tomorrow and pay their bills; often they are single parent homes. Most yellow vests had never demonstrated in their entire life before and had voted for Macron, but they soon felt betrayed. President Macron often makes disparaging comments about French people, comments that receive good coverage in the media. He called women workers in Factory Gad “illiterate”, people from the North of France - a former mining area - “alcoholic”, French people “lazy”, “cynical”, “refractory gallics”, who had “lost the taste for effort” and he said “In a railway station, we meet successful people and people who are nothing”. French people felt insulted and despised and more and more felt close to breaking point. When, without warning, he increased fuel taxes, he struck at people’s ability to earn a living and they spontaneously took to the streets to protest. But Macron ignored their legitimate concerns. Instead of easing tensions, his Government launched a massive repression against protesters, violating constitutional freedom of demonstrating, injuring peaceful people, especially young people, using special police units called ‘Rapid Reaction Detachments’. These groups of ultra-violent policemen, hooded, wearing helmets, red armbands, civilian dress without service number (for identification), use tear gas or sting-ball grenades and assault rifles like HK 416, and the latest model of defence-ball launchers, No..40 (often called Flashballs), LBDs in French, with laser-guided aiming. They can target the head, regardless of the rules of usage. Twenty-one protesters have been enucleated according to the independent news website, Mediapart. Policemen purposely avoided those rioting who came from outside the movement - who committed criminal and material damage, only Yellow Vest peaceful demonstrators (the suspicion is that they might be agents provocateurs). The police ordered medical services not to provide care to injured protesters and refused to receive their complaints. ‘Street medics’ (first aid volunteers), tried to help the injured with disinfectant sprays, plasters and bandages but the police often confiscated their medical kits. In Paris, policemen stood in front of protesters and if those protesters moved to demonstrate peacefully, without any aggressive act towards the police, officers stopped them from marching and kept them confined inside an area, often a roundabout, like around the Arc de Triomphe, putting a roadblock in every street around so that protesters could not
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escape (kettling). If citizens tried to move, the police engaged in hostility with LBDs, gas and sting-ball grenades. That was not safeguarding public order, that was a massive and bloody repression. The police were not acting defensively but proactively in attacks against protesters (you can see that regularly in the online videos). On 28th February 28, David Dufresnes, a journalist, counted more than two thousand injured among the protesters, including 220 seriously. 21 lost an eye (since police have laser guided weapons and are directed to aim only at the torso or limbs, it cannot be by accident that so many yellow vests have lost and eye - this is horrific and shows disdain for peaceful demonstrators). Five have had their hand torn off and an 80-year old woman died, after being hurt by a tear-gas grenade. It is claimed by the authorities that 1,200 policemen have been injured since November, but the ministry cannot provide any information on the context of these injuries, the weapons that may have caused them and they do not distinguish between serious and minor injuries. On 9th March, in a major speech, Professor Thines, an eminent neurosurgeon, declared that LBDs caused real war-wounds, fractured skulls, irreversible brain damage, enucleations, disfigurements, maxillofacial traumas, mutilations and loss of limbs. According to the British Medical Journal, a victim wounded by LBDs has a one in five chance of dying or becoming severely disabled. He earnestly appealed to the Government to ban these flashballs. Citizens have been massively and indiscriminately arrested, even tourists or passers-by. Since the beginning of the movement, according to the Ministry of the Interior, there have been more than 8,000 arrests, 7,700 in police custody, 1,796 convictions and 316 imprisoned. Instructions were given by the prosecutor of Paris on Yellow Vests. According to the independent newspaper, Le Canard Enchaîné (30th January 30th) even if someone was mistakenly arrested, written instructions were given by a Prosecutor: ‘preferably to maintain’ registration in the police record ‘even when the facts haven’t been established’ or ‘are tenuous’ or ‘if a procedural irregularity has been ascertained’. They were also requested to ‘lift the police custody’ only ‘on Saturday night or Sunday morning, so as to avoid protesters joining the ranks of the troublemakers again’. The Government also discredited the Movement, conflating Yellow Vests with rioters. The Main Stream Media (MSM) has propagated fake news, especially to mislead foreign observers. Macron, in his New Year address, called Yellow Vests a “hate crowd” opposed to “journalists, Jews, gays and foreigners” without any fact or proof. Yellow Vests are a peaceful and non-political movement including many workers that pay taxes and have demonstrated to shelter and feed their children and to provide for their futures. They protested because taxes took off while public services remain in a dreadful state. Public money no longer serves the public interest; instead France is the second country after USA, to provide the largest dividends to shareholders. On 7th March, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called on France for a “thorough inquiry” about police brutality during the “yellow vests”
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demonstrations since mid-November and on 26th February 2019, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights recommended “that the authorities suspend the use of LBDs during operations aimed at maintaining public order . . . extremely concerned about the number of serious, concurring and credible allegations of police violence causing mutilation and serious injury, particularly to the head.” She considered “that head wounds caused by LBD fire show a disproportionate use of force and the unsuitability of this type of weapon in the context of operations aimed at maintaining public order”. Security without freedom is tyranny. An anonymous French writer
FREE PRESS:ANDREW ALLISON ON MEDIA MATTERS ‘DESPITE BREXIT’: I am sure that you will have read quite a few good news stories in the newspapers and on websites that include the words “despite Brexit”. For your entertainment, here are a few headlines that have caught my eye in the last month. ★ The Daily Mail recently reported that “Labour LOSE votes to the Tories in crunch by-election despite Brexit chaos in Westminster”. I know the Mail isn’t what it used to be, but does it really think that the voters are stupid enough to believe that Labour has coherant Brexit policy? ★ And there is this one from The Northumberland Gazette: “Dog holidays still booming, despite Brexit uncertainty”. Presumably the newspaper thinks that dog owners will instead spend their money on stockpiling Pedigree Chum! ★ The Thurrock Gazette reported the good news that 50 new jobs are about to be created by a Hong Kong based logistics company with this headline: “New jobs near London Gateway port despite Brexit uncertainty”. It wasn’t just in the headline, either. “Despite Brexit uncertainty” was mentioned a further two times. ★ The Guardian reported that “UK unemployment falls to 44-year low despite Brexit fears”; World Nuclear News said that “UK fusion scientists secure new funding despite Brexit”, and the FInancial Times said that the “UK still leads EU millionaire banker list despite Brexit”. ★ In other words, life has been continuing as normal. Top scientists are still being awarded grants, overseas investors still want to create jobs in the UK, and it is still a great place to live and work. All of this despite Brexit - or maybe because of it. BBC BIAS: I received a message from one of our members, Andrea Jenkyns MP, recently. She told me that she had been invited to appear on the BBC Any Questions panel on Good Friday. The other three panellists are going to be Lisa Nandy, Anna Soubry, and Owen Jones. She rightly, in my opinion, politely told them where to go. It is obvious to anyone that the BBC are attempting to make her a lamb to the slaughter. All Brexiteers who are invited on this and similar programmes should refuse to appear if the panels are not balanced. After Andrea appeared on Question Time last year, I complained to the BBC about the bias showed, particularly from the then host, David Dimbleby. The
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reply I received (and I know that many TFA members who complained received the same reply) was that as Brexit is not the only issue debated, they don’t feel that they need to provide a Brexit balance. My reply to the BBC is that as Brexit dominates every panel discussion show, it is vital that there is a balance, but I may as well be banging my head against a brick wall. They simply refuse to listen. THE NOT-SO-BRIGHT LIGHTS OF BEVERLEY: And finally something close to my heart. In an article in The Daily Telegraph on 8th April, Martin Cassini asks, “Will our nanny state ever admit to the advantages of scrapping traffic lights?” I agree with him, especially when he started off using Beverley as an example. “In 2015, when the traffic lights failed in Beverley, the surprising thing wasn’t that congestion disappeared, but that anyone was surprised that it did so”. There is a junction in Beverley that is colloquially known as spaghetti junction. It used to be a roundabout, but the boffins at the council decided that as there would be more traffic using the roundabout once a new relief road opened, the junction needed redesigning. Out went the roundabout, and in came a junction with 42 sets of traffic lights. And it’s not that big a junction. It is crazy and has found fame across the world for all the wrong reasons. When the lights fail (which they occasionally do), the traffic, even at peak times, flows smoothly through the junction. Drivers slow down, give way to each other, and give way to pedestrians. Traffic lights working = queues of traffic. Martin Cassini is right when he says that instead of councils and the Government trying to dictate how many cars should go through junctions at any particular time, they should just leave it up to drivers to get on with it. Doing is this way means less congestion for all. Only those really busy multi-lane junctions require controlling. I think this is one for our friends at the Alliance of British Drivers. Ian Taylor - over to you!
Sold Down The River: The Galley Slave’s Tale Back in 2017, within days of 29th March 2019 being declared as the date on which we would gain our independence from EU rule, I booked a River Thames party boat to celebrate the historic day. Because of Theresa May’s lies, what I had planned as a joyous occasion had to be hastily turned into the Sold Down The River protest. Instead of singing ‘Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves! Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.’ I found myself, perhaps not inappropriately, given the circumstances, working as a galley slave in a galley too small to swing the tiniest of kittens, churning out 108 of Theresa May’s Porky Pies, a similar number of Angela Merkel’s ‘Wurst Deal Ever’ hot dogs, Michel Barnier’s Hard Cheese and more of Dave Cameron’s Eton Messes, featuring Boris’s meringues (which crumbled easily under pressure) than I could count. Despite it being Brexit Betrayal Day, there was a strong sense of determination aboard, as the assembled Brexiteers gave a lusty rendition of all three verses of the national anthem. Simon Richards
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Simply Simon: Strasbourg Special IT is a sign of how rapidly Theresa May’s house of cards - a pack of lies - has collapsed, that only a few weeks had passed since I reported on my recce trip to Strasbourg in preparation for our Farewell to the EU visit to the principal home of the European ‘Parliament’. By the time our group of thirty headed for Alsace, it was already apparent that the Prime Minister’s breach of her endlessly repeated pledge to leave the EU on 29th March had been cast in the dustbin along with so many of her other ‘politician’s promises’. It was greatly to the credit of the indomitability of those in our group that they coped so well not just with May’s betrayal, but with the almost inevitable strike action by French customs officers, which wrecked many a plan to travel there and back by Eurostar. Despite not Brexit but Theresa May, I think that most of the group enjoyed their visit to the beautiful and historic city of Strasbourg, whose magnificent Cathedral is shown, above right. With plans afoot to hold elections to the European ‘Parliament’ (what a disgrace that this should be happening!), our ‘farewell to the EU’ might actually turn out to have been a familiarisation trip in preparation for future protests against the betrayal of Brexit. THE success of internet phenomenons such as Airbnb and Uber has helped make travel and transport easier and cheaper for hundreds of millions of people. As I was staying in an Airbnb apartment myself, I can vouch for the quality and value that they offer. Another new concept along similar lines is the fast growing ‘Free Tours’ concept. Now available around the world in cities popular with tourists, they are walking tours where you just show up and, at the end, pay as much - or as little - as you think the tour is worth. If you don’t like the experience, you don’t have to pay a thing. I went on a couple of these tours in Strasbourg (above right), partly to see what they were like and partly to pick up tips for the guided tours I was planning to subject our own group to. I was glad I went on them, but was also flattered that those who came on the tours I led seemed to think that they were better than the ‘Free Tours’: so much so, in fact, that I rather regretted not passing a hat around at the end!
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THERE was, of course, a serious purpose to our visit. It was a mark of The Freedom Association’s close links with pro-Brexit MEPs that so many made time to meet us, in what was a very difficult week for them, when they literally did not know whether they were coming or going. Special thanks are due to Rupert Matthews (on the right of this photograph), who hosted our visit. A highlight was a talk from Daniel Hannan (above right) - as brilliant as ever, explaining why he believes that Theresa May’s ‘Withdrawal Agreement’ is even worse than our current EU membership. Gerard Batten, Leader of UKIP, joined us for dinner on the Monday of our visit, while the following evening we were joined by Stuart Agnew, Tim Aker, Jonathan Bullock, Bill Etheridge, Paul Nuttall and Julia Read. At the European ‘Parliament’ on Wednesday, we also met James Carver and Jonathan Arnott and, at a dinner sponsored by the ECR Group that evening, Syed Kamall (right), Leader of the ECR Group, joined us, along with David Campbell Bannerman (who made a strong case for accepting the ‘Withdrawal Agreement’, for fear of something worse), Amjad Bashir and John Flack. AT the European ‘Parliament’ - a hideous glass, steel and concrete monstrosity bearing an uncanny resemblance to Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s famous painting of the Tower of Babel in Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum - our group was suitably shocked and disgusted at witnessing the farcical voting in the ‘hemicycle’, which reminded me of a cross between a game of bingo and a cattle auction. It has to be seen to be believed; only the day before, a whole load of MEPs had accidentally voted the wrong way. Afterwards, members of our group posed (left) for a group photograph, before turning to face the building, in order to deliver an ‘Up Yours Delors’ V-sign salute (right).
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16 of 16 The Freedom Association’s Eight ‘Principles of a Free Society’ 1. Individual Freedom 2. Personal and Family Responsibility 3. The Rule of Law 4. Limited Government 5. Free Market Economy 6. National Parliamentary Democracy 7. Strong National Defences
8. A Free Press and other media
The Freedom Association, 122 Winchcombe Street, Cheltenham GL52 2NW Telephone: 01242 235333 Email: [email protected] Website: www.tfa.net