Split the Tories and banish the Sprouts

Last February 22nd, I predicted in a Slogpost that the Brexit debate would produce a Conservative PP outcome as follows: ‘a pretty unedifying bunfight..a Party split down the middle about EU membership’. So it has proved. I’m delighted about this: not to be proved right, or out of Socialist sympathies (I’ve never had many) but for purely constitutional reasons. If there are two things the United Kingdon needs now, it is to get the unelected Brussels clique off our backs, and the unrepresentative Whiteminster gang squabbling among themselves. These two eventualities will do more to restore real, devolved liberty and democracy in Britain than anything else likely to come along in the next twenty years.

This is not to suggest that my enthusiasm for Brexit is purely tactical. Far from it: living as I do in the eurozone, Brexit would probably involve me in a lot of personal inconvenience. But right from the outset, I have believed that most of those keen to Leave are voting on the bases of self-determination and a dislike of illiberal bullies sympathetic to corporatist global ideals; whereas those in the Remaindeer herd are either the usual naive Left hopefuls, or those who only ever vote in favour of their own convenience.

That Camerlot and Camerlot-friendly media have appealed at a level entirely down on all fours with Essex white van man and Clio woman is clear for any and all to see. Today’s scare headlines alone demonstrate it with devastating clarity:

Hold it up to the light….not a principle in sight. It is the politics of convenience, smear and wallet: passports, border controls, cheap flights, Little Englander nutcases, tax bills and the trade deficit. We must all keep the practical realities of life in mind…but not to the fore, and at the exclusion of higher values.

Ten months ago, The Slog set out to come up with 100 sound, reasoned and verified facts about why, as I put it at the time:

This is not a huge, million-readers blog: I reasoned that I might reach 100, but what the hell – it would be there as a testimony to something or other. In fact, the total reached 100 by last October. Today it stands at 177. Show me one Remain site on the planet that can offer anything close to 100 reasons to stay in the EU….and by ‘reasons’, I mean likely-to-probable outcomes of moral, democratic, ethical, libertarian, economic and fiscal relevance based on history and fact – not barmy scare stories about Europe blockading our island.

As of Wednesday, we will all have a little over three weeks to mull this, the biggest decision in at least a generation, about our future direction. I spent some time this morning updating and de-duping the dedicated page here. The link to it is at the end of this post.

“Escaping the EU disaster is not an option, it’s obligatory,” I said at the time. The obvious nature of that assertion is far more apparent now than it was in the summer of 2015. Vote to Leave the past behind. Vote for a future of entrepreneurial balls, not multinational serfdom.

Freshly Updated: all 177 reasons to vote LeaveEU