Thoughts of Non-BREXIT-Mann

IDS and the back stop

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Godwin) — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 20:39:00 +0000

The BBC interview between Ian Duncan Smith and former World Trade Organisation leader Pascal Lamy is a classic from today 29 April.

Betty Boothroyd

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Godwin) — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 20:27:00 +0000

It was a pleasure to hear her speak in the Lords. If you havent seen it here it is

Order! Order!

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Godwin) — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 20:25:00 +0000

I had some good moments watching speeches from the Commons in the debates. I was convinced that all over the country people were shouting " DIVISION! CLEAR THE LOBBIES!" and OrDER! OrDER!" as the Speaker kept saying!

Referendum March

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Godwin) — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 20:15:00 +0000

My next memory : the march attended b y ab out a million people on Saturday 23 March 2019. It was a week before we were to hit the wires so we all marched! Well many oif us did. I hadnt done this for over 40 years. It was a slow business and our party from St Albans started near the Dorchester Hotel about 1.00 in Park Lane and ended up in Pall Mall near the bottom of Lower Regent Street! Here are a few pics to prove it! I was otherwise carrying half the wide banner you can see on the first picture. It was like being part of a pantomime horse.

They just want us to get on with it!

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Godwin) — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 20:00:00 +0000

I am going to share with you some of my memories of BREXIT over the past few months.

"They just want us to get on with it!"

That's what Mrs May said and it sparked off this very funny little spoof video with the main protagonists doing a little dance!

Unbelievable!

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Godwin) — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 20:28:00 +0000

If only I had collected the twists and turns, the jokes, the clips of the last two and a half years! I always seem to be reading about it, watching news about it, chewing it over with my long suffering wife!
Brexit has become like a swear word! People are frd up woth it! Yet it is so important.
We have a whole new vocabulary - backstop, hard Brexit etc etc.

It looked likely that the deal that Mrs May was championing would go down. As Lord Heseltime said weeks ago “Its dead!”.

Now tonight we had the vote and it was lost by 230. I was Shocked! Yes Shocked!

Its the biggest Government defeat since 1920......

Finally do watch this clip in which the PM speaks about every deal except a meal deal!

https://news.sky.com/video/watch-theresa-may-say-deal-13-times-in-43-seconds-11603950

Is there light at the end of the tunnel?

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Godwin) — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 06:57:00 +0000

Last night I slept badly. This is very unusual. Yet I should have slept soundly because it might just be that the pundits on Newsnight last night were right.

Mrs May's deal will be thrown out.
Parliament have taken control.
It will not allow a No Deal Brexit.
There will be no hard Brexit now.
Parliament can pull the plug on Article 105 so the EU legal gurus say.
Nigel Farage has resigned from UKIP.
A second referendum is more likely.

Is Brexit dead and the nightmare over!!!!

What ever happened to David Cameron?

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Godwin) — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 11:13:00 +0000

We haven't heard much from David Cameron lately have we? He's the one who sort of propelled all this BREXIT nonsense, remember?

Dont worry : its a sculpture in a demo garden at Hampton \Court \Flower Show!

The only good thing about BREXIT

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Godwin) — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 15:13:00 +0000

I just cannot believe it is only a year and half since the dreaded referendum! I have realised it has been like a recurring nightmare - a state of paralysis and irritation that we have been living through : I think it has actually succeeded in slowing down the passage of time for me!

This is good!

But the only good thing cos there is no good BREXIT deal - that seems the worrying conclusion at the moment. What an unspeakable year 2016 was! And Trump....

It gets worse!

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Godwin) — Sat, 10 Jun 2017 15:48:00 +0000

I am regretting that I did not post regularly through this climatic BREXIT year, but then I am not too good at doing things regularly. Shaving and taking the medicines that I seem to require to keep going is enough!
We have had the Trump whirlwind and then Mrs May surprised us with this surprise snap election. Eberyone thought it would be a walkover. How wrong they were. Guess people dont like being forced into a vote they didn't want. And that campaign...and hats off to Jeremy Corbyn. Really glad that that blip on the radio made no difference.I get sick of those smart snappy questioners.

Of course my party didnt do too well but they did increase their Westminster representation by 50%
And they came "quite near to winning St Ives" according to a smarmy woman commentator at breakfast time on BBC1 on Friday : 300 votes in fact you miserable creature! And while I am on my bias bandwagon what had Tim Farrom's views about homosexuals got to do with the election? Early on even Channel 4 News got their teeth into this. This was blatantly unfair.
Back to the present is there any good out of all this?

Scotland looks less likely to break away now via another referendum.multiparty politics have returned to Scotland. I always knew it was only a matter of time.
Ruth Davidson is a real star.
The unthinkable has happened again with Mr C proving his colleagues wrong and showing that another way may not be impossible electorally.
Best of all the gutter press like the Daily Mail and the Sun got it completely wrong. Their treatment of Mr C has been appalling and no-one is happier than I to see them given the two fingers by the electorate.

If only it had been just a bad dream

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Godwin) — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 06:15:00 +0000

I wish now I had done more posts in the last few months. It has been such a dreadful year since that BREXIT vote. I keep thinking when i wak up I wil pinch myself and it has all been a bad dream : that we have no President Trump and that we are still in the EU with no prospect of BREXIT!
At least the Netherlands sort of got their vote right. Now we have the French this weekend....
This week took us all by surprise with another General Election in June!

You may not agree with the conclusion of this Party political which I saw last night but the initial sentiments are very like mine above....

The new Runway

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Godwin) — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 08:16:00 +0000

BREXIT was the archetypal example of shooting ourselves in the foot. This week I heard on the BBC News that Heathrow was just bursting at the seams and needing relief. Commentators reckon it will be ten years before any planes take off from a third runway there (if it is built at all). So the Government decide to choose it for expansion, when if Gatwick had been chosen work could start this year. Also the M25 will have to be MOVED! I don't understand it!

Foreigners are supposed to think it shows we are open for business etc.

Looks to me like its another case of shooting ourselves in the foot!

Must watch Question time tonight!

The BREXIT frog

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Godwin) — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 07:20:00 +0000

When we were camping in the Netherlands at BREXIT time we noticed a little frog when we struck camp. Two days later in Luneburg, north Germany, we thought there was a bump under the waterproof floor near the inner door of the tent. Two more days later a little frog stumbled out. It had survived all that time : presumably by burrowing in the ground and eating insects! I watched him for about half an hour getting acclimatised. Last thing he crawled under a huge tree root, followed by furious burrowing. There was a pond nearby. I hope he survived his change of nationality.
I guess if he can survive that we will survive BREXIT!!!!

The New European

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Godwin) — Fri, 05 Aug 2016 20:16:00 +0000

I did a double take the other day when I thougt I had seen the old "European" newspaper on a newsstand! But it was sort of true because there is a newspaper called the "New European" specially for us non-BREXITers! I bought a copy and it is full of good articles.Can recommend!!
Access it here at the New European

Life carries on

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Godwin) — Tue, 19 Jul 2016 08:24:00 +0000

We have now a new Prime Minister and a Labour Party likely to splinter. At least the Conservatives sorted their leadership quickly (they are a vicious lot!) and we have a team (again pretty vicious and where is Mr Gove....ha!)And that nice Mr Osborne is young enough to bounce back again.on holiday.

All is not lost after BREXIT I suppose

I shall continue to go to Germany for holidays and the French will keep on making Camembert.

I still believe one of the greatest inventions of mankind was the creation of Camembert cheese!

Unbelievable!

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Godwin) — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 09:31:00 +0000

Who would be a political commentator? The speed of change is really incredible this last week. We have seen the exit of Nigel Farage, then the Conservative leadership contest cut back to two women and the Labour leadership under siege! Now yesterday Angela Leadsome withdrew and by default we will have a new Prime Minister, Theresa May, this Wednesday! And Angela Eagle is going to challenge Jeremy Corbyn's leadership! Wow what a week.

At least it must help cure the uncertainty that would have plagued us til Septembet waiting for the Conservative membership. Davis Cameron looked drawn and sad I thought. As for the Labour party we await more antics later this week.

Referendum day in Luneburg

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Godwin) — Tue, 05 Jul 2016 10:06:00 +0000

I have been thinking for a while of creating a new blog where I could have the occasional rant and even amuse you. Well this is too good a chance to miss.

We were in Germany during that catastrophic week of the BREXIT vote and I want to share that experience!

It was quite exciting getting a postal vote for the first time. I was disappointed that they wouldn't give 200 votes that I wanted, but made do with the one : firmly dispatched into the post well before departure.

The fateful day of voting began for us in a restored 15th century inn in the Alt Stadt part of Luneburg.It was our piece of luxury after a 340 mile drive from the Netherlands and it was so tempting to add another night so I could watch the votes coming in via the special CNN programme fronted no doubt by the ever hyperactive Richard Quest. I did enjoy his shredding of the two former crumbly old Tory Chancellors Lords Lawson and Lamont the night before though.

So it was back to the tent in the delightful Rota Schleuse campsite two miles south of the city. I should have known the portents were not good as during that Thursday night the rain came down, accompanied by the low rumble of brrrrrrrrrEXIT as the lightning flashed.. BrrrrrrrrrrrrEXIT.

Next morning I hastened to the car radio before 6.00, but it was all so German and so quick.Then I thought I heard "Triumph fur Nigel Farage". I kept trying to find an English voice but no good. At last I found a North German radio newscaster who was clear and non frenetic. It was clear BREXIT had won.

I was devastated.I have been a European since my school days arguing with my old school friend about the then Common Market.

Reactions

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Godwin) — Tue, 05 Jul 2016 09:47:00 +0000

How could they have done it? Those people that I know...how could they have done it? I think most people expected the vote the other way round with a small majority to remain.

I found it hard to face local people. We had seen no other British cars in either the Netherlands or north Germany. What would they think of us? I was now embarrassed as well as gutted.

We were in Worpswede a few days later and the great statue by Bernhard Hoetger summed up my reaction at last. it is called Wut (RAGE)!

When we did speak to Germans there was sympathy and great interest. One guy said it was the best thing : get rid of UK and Denmark out of the EU (implying we were trouble) and as for those Greeks........ I could see where he was coming from. The German papers were full of it. Headline news and pages of it. "Schwarzer Tag fur Europa" it said (blacker day for Europe). Perhaps some Germans were thinking like one I had met in St Albans doing my Abbey guiding : he had said "at least you have a vote. We have no say, and he had no time for Angela Merkel. Clearly our decision mattered a great deal to them too. Plenty of pictures of ex-Burger Meister BREXIT-Mann Boris in the papers too.Here is what Germans said on Deutsche Welle

Our Prime Minister even seemed to crop up on a menu in Zwolle (Netherlands) : it was offering "Cameron Freit" (a new type of fry up? I didn't try it).

And there was more!

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Godwin) — Tue, 05 Jul 2016 09:33:00 +0000

As the week after went on it became clear that the country seemed to have gone mad! At last I got sight of British papers to try to catch up. I was able to watch the English speaking Russia TV series later last week .Here is an example

The farcical plot around Jeremy Corbin and shadow ministers going down like ninepins ; Cameron announcing he was going, after being stabbed by Gove and then to cap it all : Gove is standing for leader but Boris is out of it. Why? Things were really bad. Lord Heseltine puts the knife in too.

When we got home Sunday 3rd July I was reading papers and watching the lead players twitching on the TV screen most of the day!

BREXIT is to blame

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Godwin) — Tue, 05 Jul 2016 08:52:00 +0000

I gather that people are beginning to blame BREXIT for everything! Has our pitiful display of football against Iceland in the European Cup been part of this?

I have been more amused by how useful a word BREXIT can be.

When did you last BREXIT? After breakfast this morning.

It makes a good swear word too when filling in online accounts which keep bouncing back. BREXIT!

More seriously I used to blame David Cameron for all this referendum nonsense. He called the referendum in the first place. Partly because of the fear of UKIP : always unnecessary in my view because of our voting system. And because he had promised the country a chance to vote. (Come on he could have reneged on that one easily enough). Then he did try very hard shuffling round Europe to get us a deal, and the leaders round Europe must have been sick of all that. What a colossal waste of time when there were more important things like Syria and the refugee crisis to address. He did get some concessions but they didn't impress the public.But the big mistake was that it was too big a gamble with the referendum date far too far ahead to ensure any result for which he might eventually campaign.

So here we are! I love the cartoon I found in BILD-Deutschland 25 June 2016.