UKIP IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER.

Those who have been claiming that UKIP has served its purpose and is now a 'dead duck' need to think again.

The result of last week's General Election has brought die hard 'remainers' flooding out of the woodwork in droves. The spurious differences between 'hard Brexit', 'soft Brexit' extreme Brexit' and even 'Mrs May's Brexit' are being trumpeted and an assortment of voices are demanding all manor of supposed softening of the approach to negotiations such that the UK would never actually leave the European Union at all.

John Major and David Cameron have both made their latest contributions, calling for some sort of cross-party consensus on the 'type of Brexit' that is negotiated, really meaning that they don't want us to leave; Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Conservatives in Scotland also seems to favour not really leaving and is making veiled threats about the extent to which Scottish Conservative MPs will support Theresa May's administration. Additionally, some voices from Europe are again threatening our financial market, while French and German politicians are starting to suggest the possibility that the UK may change its mind about leaving.

Most of the British voices now coming to the fore talk of the UK staying in the 'single market' and / or 'customs union. None of these voices let on that such arrangements are impossible for a country outside of the EU unless they :

 (1) pay a membership fee and

 (2) accept unlimited movement of people and

 (3) accept the EU's rules and regulations and

 (4) accept the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice

Given that these are points which the population voted against in the referendum, it's clear that Cameron, Major and the rest continue to do everything that they can to ignore the democratic vote and thwart the will of the people by effectively keeping us in the EU.

When Theresa May said that 'Brexit means Brexit' she was making a simple statement of fact. Leaving the European Union is a case of leaving the European Union, no more and no less. What access can then be negotiated for subsequent access to whichever of its various organs is a separate issue. Of course it would be beneficial to all if a sensible deal can be struck but we must not be diverted by this bombardment from the political elite who, themselves, have benefited hugely from our membership and who are hell-bent on keeping things as they are.

Sadly, the failure of the Conservatives in the General Election has gifted these vehement 'remainers' the whip hand. It is highly unlikely that Mrs May would be able to get anything through Parliament other than the smallest nod towards 'Brexit' that is, in reality, not 'Brexit' at all. With this in mind, it's clear that UKIP has never been more important and the sooner it sorts itself out, gets a new leader (Nigel Farage, again ?) and sets out to harry the government and combat the 'remainers', the better. If they don't, be in no doubt that we will never leave this interfering, bureaucratic, anti-democratic and orrupt institution.

EU REFERENDUM : IT'S 'BREXIT' !!

The Referendum is over, now the real struggle begins.

Last night's events were astonishing and momentous as millions of ordinary people finally made their voices heard. Europe has been shaken to its core as voters gave the '2-fingered salute' to both the UK government and its counterparts in the European Union. European politicians and bureaucrats are stunned and horrified but it's no more than they deserve after months and years of unaccountable diktats and appalling complacency; for years they have ignored their people and their arrogance has now come back to bite them very hard indeed. Anti-EU factions in other European countries are now demanding their own referendums, particularly in France, Italy and the Netherlands as the much-feared 'contagion' takes hold.

Financial markets had made an early judgement that voters would opt for the status quo and, possibly reluctantly, vote for 'Remain'. The UK stock market had experienced several days of steady rises and the pound soared to levels not seen since late last year; so much for experts. Once it became clear that 'Remain' was in trouble the pound began to fall, precipitately at times, and the FTSE 100 stock market index dropped by over 500 points, or 8%, at it's opening. BUT both have shown some resilience already, the FTSE 100 regaining ground to stand higher than it was a week ago, and the pound also recovering to only a little below the levels of recent weeks. In contrast, foreign markets, particularly in the EU, have fallen harder and further, indicating where the real problems are. BREXIT is more of a problem for the other EU nations and to suggest that these countries will risk their own economies by being difficult over the matter of the UK's exit is ludicrous.

On the back of the result, David Cameron has announced that he will resign once a new Conservative Party leader has been elected, but he's done this in a way which is indicative of the arrogance of modern political leaders. Standing at a lectern in Downing Street, in Presidential style and accompanied by his wife, Cameron made his announcement; why on earth was his wife there ? This is not the USA and Cameron is not a President with a 'First Family' around him, but the way in which he and some of his recent predecessors have acted has created that illusion. How the mighty are fallen.

The UK government will now have to consider exactly how it proceeds. Legally, nothing has yet changed and nothing will change until the EU is served an appropriate 'Article 50' notice; this could happen within days but it will more likely be months. Once this is done, renegotiation will begin and the shape of the future  will begin to unfold. Who will lead this process is yet to be decided, there will undoubtedly be a new leader of the Conservative Party and a new Prime Minister; there could be an early General Election, and Jeremy Corbyn's position as leader of the Labour Party could be threatened.

The nest few weeks, months and even years may well be uncertain and rocky but, ultimately, the UK will be in control of its own destiny. Bring it on !

EU REFERENDUM : THE SKY WILL FALL IN, SAYS CHICKEN LICKEN.

Yawn !

Thank heaven the referendum is not far away now. Yesterday, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, teamed up with one of his Labour predecessors, Alistair Darling, to tell us more horror stories about what might happen in the event of the British people voting to leave the European Union. As usual from the 'Remain' campaign, it's a long list of frighteners.

According to these 2 economic giants, a 'Brexit' vote would mean an emergency Budget with the most terrible effects on us all. We'd have massive tax rises, huge cuts in public services, particularly the highly sensitive NHS, but also education and the police, and all be much worse off as our economy crumbles. These pseudo-predictions are, of course, based on the same negative assumptions as the forecasts issued by other Government directed bodies, pro-EU politicians and establishment organisations, and are every bit as debateable.

Former Chancellors of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson and Norman Lamont, plus former Conservative Party leaders Ian Duncan Smith and Michael Howard, have all condemned this invented picture of the future saying that it displayed "startling dishonesty" and was "born of desperation". Quite clearly, it is designed to frighten voters into doing what they're being told by those who have a vested interest in keeping the status quo, from which they benefit massively.

George Osborne and David Cameron have nailed their colours to the mast and know that their political futures are in the balance. Cameron has already said that he will not lead his party into another General Election, so his political future is already limited unless, of course, he expects to follow Tony Blair's example and become some sort of international political guru, paid insane amounts of money by organisations such as the European Union for doing very little. A vote for 'Brexit' would certainly upset this particular apple cart.

In Osborne's case, 12 months ago he had solid expectations of becoming the next leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister; today, this ambition has been blown apart and his only chance of any sort of future position in British politics is for there to be a vote to stay in the EU. Even then, he has so damaged his reputation within his party that there will be huge opposition to him and it could well be that, whichever way the vote goes, his position will, very quickly,prove to be untenable. Osborne's career in politics is surely over.

Amidst the lies and hypocrisy, one question remains supreme. Do we want to govern ourselves and make our own decisions, laws and rules, or do we want to let a load of faceless and largely anonymous people from across Europe do it for us ?

VOTE LEAVE !!

EU REFERENDUM : NOTHING BUT LIES, CONTRADICTION AND HYPOCRISY.

As the EU Referendum campaign rumbles on, it is increasingly dominated by vitriolic personal attacks and scaremongering of every sort.

Last night, on independent television, a host of 'Remainers', launched personal attacks on Boris Johnson rather than really say much of substance about why we should vote to stay in the Union. Today, a bunch of senior Labour party figures is telling us that a vote to leave will lead to an emergency budget, tax rises, spending cuts, job losses and, quite probably, famine, floods, plagues of locusts and anything else they can conjure up. What a farce !

Meanwhile, another Labour figure, John Mann, and MP who made the news recently for berating Ken Livingstone very much in public, has said theta we should, indeed, vote to leave, and that a "peoples' revolution is under way". If only that were true as it is surely time that voters gave the 2-fingered salute to all of the doom-mongers, liars and self serving elitists who want everything to stay just as it is, with themselves on the top of the pile and the rest of us firmly under control.

It also occurs to me that it's only a few days ago that David Cameron said that "of course" the UK would survive and do well outside of the EU, adding, however, that he thought it would do better inside. Putting the latter sentiment aside for a moment, if his initial remark is true and if his previously expressed position of being fully prepared to campaign to take the UK out of the Union in the absence of an acceptable 'renegotiation' was also a true one, then how can it now be claimed that leaving would be as utterly catastrophic as some are now saying ?

If leaving the EU would lead to national disaster, clearly the Prime Minister should never have indicate that leading the country out of it was an option. If the country can survive quite well out of the EU, why are so many on the 'Remain' side continuing to say that leaving would be so dreadful ? Quite clearly, we have a mixture of lies, contradiction and hypocrisy emanating from the 'Remain' campaign and that, alone, should be enough to convince voters.

VOTE LEAVE.