It was a huge mistake made by David Cameron to label UKIP supporters as “Fruitcakes” This insult to millions of people around our country who lent their support to Ukip at countless European and General Elections is something I will never forget nor forgive. If it wasn’t for them we would never have had a referendum on this issue becoming for the first time in my lifetime a truly independent sovereign nation.
We joined the EEC in the year I was born 1972 and ever since then in a carefully planned and ruthlessly executed way the Von der Leyen’s of this world have taken away more and more power from elected Parliaments like ours and secreted them within their Commission which is neither voted for by the people nor accountable to them. Lets not forget in 1980 the EEC which was half the size it is today represented 25% of the world’s economy, today that figure is 15% and falling every year. The only continent which will grow economically slower than the EU over the next 30 years is Antarctica.
Thanks to Brexit we have been invited as the sole European country to join the world’s largest trading block the CPTPP. This major trading block has some of the fastest growing economies in the world including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. What are the long term consequences for Britain being the sole European country to enter a trading block where 99% of goods are now traded tariff free.
The Conservatives were wrong to dismiss Nigel Farage and UKIP voters.
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The Far East has hundreds of millions of middle class consumers coming onstream every year as their populations increase hungry for high quality British goods. Having been one of the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoys for four years I experienced at first hand how strong the British brand is overseas and how unique our reputation is for quality and after sales service. The Remainers predicted that our exports would collapse if we voted to leave the EU. In fact the exact opposite has happened namely we have moved from 7th largest global exporter to become the 4th and since Brexit!
The EU told us we were too small to negotiate our own trade agreements but in fact we have negotiated nearly 100 and all of them commensurate or slightly better than we had through the EU an entity at least 5 times our size. Finally we now have an opportunity to turn the Commonwealth into something meaningful. By slashing our tariffs for the 56 Commonwealth countries around the world who between them represent one third of the world’s population. They also have some of the fastest growing economies in the world countries like Nigeria which I hope to visit this year.
These are just a fraction of the opportunities we now have as an independent sovereign nation, and we have these good people who voted for UKIP to thank for. As Conservatives we should recognise that many people in today’s Reform Party also share our views not only about the failings of the EU but also on the key importance of nurturing our single most important alliance namely with USA.
Britain will suffer under four more years of a Labour government.
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We also agree that immigration must be cut both legal and illegal we also share beliefs that we must stand up to the pernicious and excessive demands of Trade Unions, must cut the welfare bill currently standing this year at a staggering 258 billion GBP. The list goes on with regards to the many things that unite us rather than separate us especially when both sides Reform and Conservatives are starting to see just how bad Starmer is and the untold damage he is already doing to our nation.
Four more years of Starmer will leave both sides I hope more willing to at least talk to one another in an open frank and yet mutually respectful way to try to build some contact and mutual respect. My friend Lee Anderson MP addressed my local Conservative Party Association in Shrewsbury when he was still a Conservative MP all sold out and there was a waiting list for cancellations, and he was one of the most popular speakers we have had according to the feedback I received.
It was a huge loss of our Party to lose him. I hope we Conservatives win a majority at the next election but what happens if we are 30 or 40 seats short. In that case we would need to broker a coalition with Reform, and I hope by then we could have established some sort of modus operandi to communicate as right of centre parties have done with one another in the past in other nations. Insulting them as Cameron did was a disaster, ignoring them doesn’t seem to be working either.
Let’s always have a strong and robust debate but let’s all remember who the real opponent is and the real threat to our nation and that would be a second Starmer government. A second Starmer government either alone or in a rainbow coalition with Lib Dems, Greens, SNP and others would surely start the process of trying to reintegrate the UK into the failing EU. This alone should be the wake-up call for those of us on the right of centre of politics. We will no doubt maintain our own separate Parties and policies what I am calling for is simply dialogue and courtesy as we jointly fight against today’s Socialist government.