LIVE24SEVEN // Lord Digby Jones
Digby Lord Jones THOUGHTS FOR AUGUST 2016
Now whilst that might be the wishful thinking of some, to a reluctant leaver, but proud Brexit-voter like me, experiencing no buyer's remorse, one aspect of all that happened on that Thursday in late June shines through and stands out as a characteristic of the British people of which I am so enormously proud: Democratic Freedom is NOT for sale. By a majority of over a million people in a turn-out arger than in most General Elections, the Electorate put being told what to do by people their domestic system has elected, ahead of economic stability. The UK (and not the unaccountable and unelected from other countries) is in control of the UK once more. (Note to the cynical: yes, as a Member of the House of Lords I am an unelected member of the body that makes this country's laws, but have never overruled and will never overrule (as opposed to advise, |revise and question) the democratically elected politicians who make the laws that govern all of us).
The Establishment Elite has been given a right kicking; from trade unions to most of the London-based media, from the bosses of big business to the majority of the political class, the ordinary woman and the average man in the street has taken a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have their say mean something.
If you deny people in a democracy a say for decades, if you compound that situation by telling them you know best and they basically can't be trusted with a big decision, if you ignore good, decent, non-racist people who live every day with real, major problems in their community which the elite patronisingly say either don't exist or are good for them ( the "I understand your problem but..." arrogant guff that echoes from the dinner party tables of Islington and lands like so much tumbleweed in North England) then please don't be surprised when those same people see through the doom-laden forecasts of, "Death of the Firstborn by Friday week" and vote to get back control of their lives.
Our country is the most globalised, open economy on the planet. We were made for the opportunities Asia's century afford the developed world.
Not for us anymore the stifling protectionism of the European Union; let's use tariff-free trade to create real, sustainable wealth in poor countries, not held back by the selfish protectionism of France & Southern Europe.
Let us make the most of the Commonwealth. Let us humbly renew great business ties with so many places we turned our back on in 1973.
/ 56
of Birmingham
"In generations to come children will ask their parents why 23rd June is a Public Holiday and known in some circles as Independence Day."
Let us trade freely with our friends and partners in the European Union. They haven't overnight become enemies, they are just the same good people they were on 22nd June and they need us and we need them.
And let us, through our democratically-elected leaders, have complete control of who comes to live in our country, what they do when they get here, from where in the world they come and when. We need immigration, but only one thing should matter (genuine asylum seeking apart)
...the skill immigration brings to us. Immigration to the UK should be blind to colour, race, religion or country of origin; we
need quality, not quantity and we need it controlled from wherever in the world it originates.
That is the opportunity that lies before us. What a fabulous time to be a Brit! And so, Dear Reader, the GRS has to stop at once. GRS? The Great Remain Sulk!
• Glorifying in the "I told-you-so" of self-fulfilling prophecies about the economy. (Note: if you spend three months telling everyone around the world that there will be financial Armageddon if we leave, don't be surprised when the markets decline and investment decisions are put on hold when we do!) The economy will stabilise – and more quickly than the doom-mongers forecast.
• Calling for a rerun of the Referendum. Ah! If the Remainers had won 52-48 they would of course have allowed a rerun called for by the
Leavers...Not! We would have been told, "That's democracy, accept it and move on". I even heard the other day a fully paid-up member of the Establishment Elite from London say (and I still can't believe my ears) that this country shouldn't have its future determined by ignorant people from the north of England who don't understand these things!
• So the under-thirties feel their futures have been stolen by the over-fifties do they?! Of the former, 70% voted to remain, BUT only 30% of all the 18-30-year-olds in the country whose future they evidently care so much about bothered to get out from under their duvets and go and vote at all! A 55-year-old in the UK is looking at having another 30-35 years alive and taking part in proceedings; isn't she entitled to a vote in her future as well?
So I now call on the powers-that-be to do three things in short order:
• Bang up (and throw away the key) anyone found guilty of any form of hate crime or verbal/physical racial abuse. (Dear Reader: if you see it or, worse still experience it, tell the police at once and take prosecution all the way).
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156