The Bramble Bush

A Response To Janet Daley Of the Daily Telegraph

Janet Daley of the Daily Telegraph posted a rather apologist article regarding David Cameron's U-turn on Europe.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/janetdaley/6521517/Hate-the-EU-Then-I-beg-you-to-vote-Tory.html

 

An associate of ours at The Bramble Bush posted this response.

 

@Janet

 

So… let’s get this straight… you believe that the EU is fundamentally anti-democratic, directly opposed to the will of the people, and deliberately designed to “dismantle the great 200-year-old experiment in modern democracy”.

 

OK, got that and personally I agree with every word. What I fundamentally disagree with you about (and I am not alone in this) is the way forward from this point.

 

I also agree with you that a referendum on Lisbon is now an exercise in futility. It is fact and it is fact NOT because of Cameron and chums but because of Brown and chums, we should not and many of us never will forget that fact nor forgive them for their betrayals, but that’s them, that’s a different argument altogether. However, having acknowledged that questions over Lisbon are futile that does not mean the arguments for a referendum are dead. We were promised a referendum by all the main political parties and one by one all of them have let us down. Having acknowledged and I presume factored in the cost of a referendum on Lisbon, the cost would be no different therefore in asking the people a different question, Eu in or out? Maybe. What type of relationship do we want with Europe? Possibly. Whatever question was proposed would have fulfilled their promises, put Gordon Brown on the back foot, satisfied the Eurosceptics, coalesced the party and also gone a long way to restoring faith in politicians. And lets face it our sovereignty and self determination should have no price tag attached to them. Isnt this exactly why we are told, our brave men and women are fighting and dying in Afghanistan? To preserve Afghan soverignty and protect their right to self determination? Ditto for Iraq?

 

The reason why many of us are disappointed and frankly very angry with Cameron and chums is that we believe he knew very well that there was no way his cast-iron guarantee would ever come true. His cast iron guarantee was very clear and many applauded it, but his retrospective caveats were less so. Sophistry at best and any misinterpretations thereof were actively encouraged. When it became more and more obvious that the Czechs would finally give in the press, rightly so, became very interested in what the Conservative position would be, what indeed would “not let the matter rest” actually mean? Well… now we know.

 

You say yourself that you are unsatisfied with many of the new proposals and you are right to be. The vast majority of those proposals would require the explicit permission of all 27 members to come about. Do you really think that’s going to happen? Even once? The rest is window dressing. More sophistry I’m afraid Janet. Furthermore, there will be no more treaties to get worked up about any time soon in order to fulfil the promise of future referenda simply because under a self amending Lisbon, the EU now has all the power it needs to grab all the power it wants.

 

I just watched William Hague on the Andrew Marr show, and when asked about this very issue he said “we will certainly try to get these things pased into law…” Not we will get … or we are determined to get… but we will try…

 

Sounds like another cast-iron guarantee to me.

How To Snatch Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory (Or How David Cameron Got It So Very Very Wrong)

The Bramble Bush recently posted a piece critical of the Labour Party for it's betrayal of it's core values, core mission and core support in pursuit of power at all costs. This has led in some areas of our country, directly or indirectly to an ebbing away of support from Labour to mainly, though not exclusively the BNP. Spin meisters feverishly toiled, long into the night to find ever more weak and inept reasons for their disastrous showing. Reasons of course which largely excluded anything approaching the truth. But then we are talking NuLav what else do you expect.

Unless NuLav is capable or willing to examine questions of why the traditional working classes are deserting them in their droves, then it will remain a discredited and disreputable organisation, more interested in remaining in power than being powerful. After all you cannot fix a punctured tyre by fiddling with the spark plugs.

One would have thought that these lessons would have been learned by the other main political parties in our once great country, or rather, one would have hoped that the right lessons would have been learned. Sadly this doesnt seem to be the case. In announcing his rather meaningless new policy on Europe, David Cameron (or should that now be Cast-Iron Dave?) stood shoulder to shoulder with each and every deceiver and betrayer of our country's sovereignty who has gone before him. The lesson he learned is that it is better to pursue power no matter the cost (integrity, honesty, credibility) than to make good on promises, pledges and yes "cast iron guarantees".  He has now painted a glowing, neon lit sign on his back saying "KICK ME" and boy oh boy has the despicable Broon and his pack of lickspittles enjoyed the last few days. Well, Kick Me Dave has brought this upon himself, has only himself to blame and deserves everything coming to him. Sympathy meter at 0.

We at the Bramble Bush accept that, in the light of the Czechs signing off on the European Constitution (for that is exactly what it is, regardless of what the swivvle eyed Europhiles and semanticists would have you believe) any referendum on it would be rather meaningless and a huge waste of time, effort and money. However, what we do not accept is this argument that somehow the case for any referendum is now dead. Of course we would have preferred a simple yes/no, in/out question in the first place. However, having given a "cast iron guarantee" on a referendum he could have, no, SHOULD HAVE gone ahead with "plan A" but merely altered the question to take into account the change of reality on the ground. Imagine the headlines the following day "SHOCK HORROR PROBE: Politician Is A Man Of His Word" and so on, it would have been a vote winner, in fact it would have probably given DC an absolute landslide victory at the next GE and probaly have caused Michael White over at the Grauniad to choke on his muesli. Instead of which, this inept and wishy washy wish list of a policy has probably handed the keys to No10 to a rag tag coalition of NuLav and the Clegganistas NOT because the issue of Europe dominates the day (although it probably should) but because the issue of integrity and trust in our politicians does.

Nor do we accept the facile argument that it's the economy stupid. On the one hand Kick Me Dave stood there and said he would have found the money to ask the people a question on Lisbon BUT he wouldnt be able to find the money to ask the people a different question...?? But then we are idiots, stupidistas, vote cows, we arent supposed to notice such flummery, such clumsy sleights of hand. Oops.

Nor do we accept that just because Broon & Co have sent this country's economy to hell in a hand basket (we couldnt afford the hand cart) that this supercedes any and all other issues. Rubbish! Without our sovereignty we are nothing, it is from our sovereignty that all else flows NOT the other way round and if Kick Me Dave cannot understand that his prime responsibility as PM would be its protection and preservation then he truly is lost.

Cameron is living in cloud cuckoo land if he thinks he can deliver on any of his new raft of cast iron guarantees. I'll put it simply, there will be no new treaties passing power and sovereignty to the EUSSR, there will be no new treaties passing power and sovereignty to the EUSSR because there is no need for any new treaty to pass power and sovereignty to the EUSSR, there is no need for any new treaty to pass power and sovereignty to the EUSSR because Lisbon is self amending. IT DOES NOT NEED any new powers, it has all the power it needs to grab all the power it wants. Seemples. And if he thinks for a single second that any of our compatriots in the EUSSR will allow any repatriation of any power to the UK well... the poor lad is frankly delusional. As you will be able to see from the following paste from todays Guardian.

Europe ministers from Poland, the Netherlands and the Irish Republic – historically among the friendliest to Britain in the EU – as well as Spain, said Cameron would not achieve his demand to repatriate social and employment laws to Britain. His plans would need the agreement of all 27 leaders of the EU because they would involve rewriting the union's treaties.

Frans Timmermans, the Dutch centre- left Europe minister, told the Guardian the Tory plans would have a "paralysing effect on Europe … There is more chance of a snowball surviving hell than the EU restarting debates on treaty change."

Timmermans said no EU leader would want to reopen treaties to accommodate the Tories. "You can still hear the sigh of relief across Europe that we have finally finished with treaty change. Everyone is so relieved that we can finally stop talking about the internal rules of the EU and start doing something about the crisis, something about the climate change issues and about international affairs. There is no member state that wants another round of debate about the rules of the game." 

BUT let us never forget who has got us here, Broon and Bliar before him are directly responsible for this. THEY are the ones who truly deserve our most vicious bile for their betrayals and lies but Cameron, faced with (so far) his only statesman like moment completely blew it and became an enabler post facto.

Thanks only to the Daily Telegraph, to whom we all owe a huge debt of gratitude, we have had to endure months of sleaze, and lurid tales of trough snufflers gorging themselves at tax payers expense while millions lost their jobs, bankers, richer than Cresus, fleecing the tax payer for every panny their ludicrously overpaid and laughably incompetent hands could grasp because the regulations put in place by those very same trough snufflers were so weak and ineffctual that they were ripe for abuse, and Boy Oh Boy were they abused. Green Book anyone?

Against this backdrop politician after politician has promised to clean up politics and reduce the democratic defecit that this country has in spades. But how can you do either of those things, how can you even attempt to restore faith in politics if politicians continue to treat those they hope will lend them their democratic madate like total fools? An accusation Cameron himself has used time and time again against Golden Gordon, how hollow it now sounds, and I suspect we will not be hearing it again any time soon. In this respect Cameron has now conjoined himself as the siamese sibling to Bliar, Broon, Clegg et al, he has firmly cemented another brick in the "They're all the same" wall.

Fortunately they are not all the same. Fortunately we do have a choice away from the three main parties who have all betrayed us to an ever encroaching Euro Federalist future for let us not be under any illusion, this is the future that others have marked out for us never once giving us the opportunity to decide our own future for ourselves. Luckily, those nice people at UKIP have decided that the British electorate are not children, or fools to be brow beaten and frightened into meek acquiesence. Almost alone now, UKIP stands not only for the (forced if necessary) repatriation of power and sovereignty ceded to an unelected and fundamentally corrupt monolith but for a return to honesty and integrity not only in politics but also in politicians themselves. It is easy for detractors and fear mongers to spout lines like "a vote for UKIP is a wasted vote" or make accusations of UKIP being a one trick pony. Neither are true, and the fact that so many try to make this kind of mud stick is testament to the fear that honesty causes in politics and politicians. Contrary however, it is becoming increasingly obvious that a vote for any member of the LibLabCon Alliance will be a wasted vote. None of the main three parties are offering anything near the radical and fundamental changes our society so desperately needs and deserves. Vote for any of them and you will get a continuation of the status quo, some window dressing maybe, some tinkering at the edges of course but meaningful? Not on your life!

The senseless misadventures in foreign lands will still continue, the sight of our young men and women sent to die ill-equipped in the deserts and oil fields of foreign lands to prop up despicable and corrupt regimes will continue. The weekly heartbreak at Wooton Basset will continue, the breaking of the military covenant will continue, the ceding of what is left of our sovereignty to those who care naught for it will continue, the depravation prevalent in large swathes of our country will continue, the drunken mob rule in most of our towns will continue, the mindless thuggery perpertrated against the weak and innocent will continue, the inability of our police, our teachers, our parents to do anything meaningful against the rising tide of yobbery perpertrated by a generation well versed in their rights but ignorant of their obligations will continue. The rape of our seas, the destruction of our sea-beds and the marginalisation of our farmers will continue. The bonuses will continue, the propping up and bailing out of an inept banking system will continue while the bankruptcies and hardships suffered by solid, honest, going concerns will continue. The spin, the lies, the deceit and betrayals WILL continue.

All of the above and much much more will continue if you dear voter persist in the blind tribalism that brought us here in the first place and press the "business as usual" button at the next General Election.

Hell Hath No Fury Like A Luvvie Scorned

Talk about an opportunity missed!

Sheesh, here we are with a deeply unpopular, unelected Prime Minister leading one of the most distrusted and unpopular Governments in our history, during the worst financial climate in living memory. If anyone, ever, needed a PR boost it’s our Gordy but incredibly, he seems hell bent on serially missing the boat.

Whilst Dubya may have had Karl Rove as Brain-in-Chief, Damian McBride was well known for being “His Masters Voice”, if security had patted him down before he hot footed it out of Downing Street with his tail between his legs they may have found him to be in possession of our Great Leader’s spine as well as his much vaunted “moral compass” as both, seem to have mysteriously deserted him in recent months.

On one issue, that of the shameful treatment of the Gurkhas, (admittedly not just by this particular Government), the Great Clunking Fist has had opportunity after opportunity not only to chime with public opinion but to get ahead of the curve, take command of the situation and do the right thing by these men who, for over 200 years have fought and died alongside British and Commonwealth troops in conflicts from Malaya to the Falklands and continue to do so in Iraq and Afghanistan to this day.

Imagine what a coup it could have been, if only our wise and benevolent leaders had actually seen this coming. Not like they didn’t have adequate warning after all. The court of public opinion, much loved of Harriet Harman, has been foaming at the mouth for months through the red tops and broadsheets, don’t these people read?

On matters of morality it seems that while the British people get it, whether it’s a million marchers against the war in Iraq, snouts in troughs, bent bankers screwing the world up for the rest of us, the 10% tax fiasco, the breaking of the military covenant, the reneging of promises on the Lisbon Treaty, 42 days detention, ID cards, Equitable Life or indeed the issue of the Gurkhas it is increasingly obvious that the current crop of Whitehall occupants simply don’t.

By trying to make the argument against Gurkha parity with other Commonwealth soldiers one of finance over morality the Government has painted itself as a bunch of penny pinching, mealy mouthed accountants rather than the Guardians of the Nation’s morality it should be. Against the trillion pound bail-out of the finance system, the far-fetched £1.4 billion worst case scenario scare tactic figure spouted by various immigration figures pales into comparative insignificance.

Not content though, with over egging the cost pudding, more sinister Nu-Lab tactics seem to be rearing their ugly but unsurprising head. At the recent commons committee meeting, it was suggested that should the Gurkhas become too expensive it may be financially expeditious to cut the Regiment, the sub-text unmistakable. Scandalous.

By way of contrast, the spokespeople for Gurkha Justice have conducted a brilliant campaign in a spirit of dignity and integrity throughout, neatly marrying up the outrage of the general public, the mood in the commons and the support of the entire Fourth Estate to devastating effect, culminating in defeat for the Government and an embarrassing set of U turns and climb downs. Thank Heaven for La Lumley.

Where Gordon Brown’s shame really lies on this, and other matters alluded to above is that he just couldn’t see it coming, his cronies couldn’t see it coming, his whips couldn’t see it coming. Nick Clegg could, David Cameron could, the Press could and bet your bottom dollar Tony Blair could have and would have used them to dig himself out of this hole should he still have been PM, just like he used the death of Princess Di to ingratiate himself with the British people. People’s Princess my arse, oily bastard he may have been but astute enough to have recognised manna from heaven when he saw it.