UNELECTED LORDS DEFY DEMOCRACY.

The House of Lords vote to ask the government to make a statement about its proposed future trade relationship with the European Union is yet another attempt by committed Europhiles to derail Brexit.

It may well be that those in parliament are more in favour of remaining in the EU than leaving it, but the people made a clear decision back in June 2016; that decision was that a majority of the British electorate wanted to leave. Ever since, much noise has emanated from certain quarters suggesting that the people were too stupid or ill-informed to make the decision, that the referendum vote was not binding on the government and that the people simply got it wrong as leaving the EU will irreparably damage the British economy.

The Lords' vote was simply another attempt to obstruct, or reverse, the result of the Brexit referendum. An assortment of former senior Conservatives, whom Mrs Thatcher would have undoubtedly labelled 'wets', teamed up with others in a vote designed to pressure the government into remaining in the EU's Customs' Union, a move that would effectively mean that the UK would stay in the EU. Labour's Brexit minister, Keir Starmer, later made his own noises, telling us how damaging a failure to remain in the Customs' Union would be, while ignoring arguments to the contrary. Starmer, of course, was previously Director of Public Prosecutions and his migration from that role to a role on the extreme left of British politics as one of Jeremy Corbyn's leading lights must raise serious question.

It seems that those of the left, who previously despised the EU, are now only too keen to keep us in it. Assorted wishy-washy liberal types', including a fair few centrist Conservatives, have always seen the EU as a gravy train and an alternative place from which to exercise power without ever really reflecting the views of the general population or being properly accountable to them. These elitists have always believed that the common people should do as they're told and not be the ones to do the telling; the result of the referendum was a nasty shock that they've yet to accept.

It's yet to be seen how the government will deal with this assault on democracy by an entirely unelected and unrepresentative body. If it was up to me, I'd throw the whole lot out and start again with an elected upper chamber. Perhaps now is a good time to do just that.