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Quick Brexit facts from official sources
Read by Ministers, MPs, MEPs, peers, ambassadors, journalists, and the public
BREXIT NEWS  
 YES, YOU CAN RE-USE OUR MATERIAL
If you’re a journalist please get in touch if you would like to re-use any of our material. All we ask is prior contact and full attribution with a link. Likewise if you’re from another pro-Brexit organisation.
Best regards, the Brexit Facts4EU.Org team, 2018
 ‘THE BIG BREXIT BITE-BACK’
STARTS TODAY
“Packed lunch?”
Check
“Marching kit?”
Check
“Soppy attack dog?”
Roger that
PREVIEW COPY OF
BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG’S
“BREXIT BATTLE PACK”
IS LAUNCHED
Don’t get angry, do something!
Today we launch the preview copy of the “Brexit Battle Pack”, for supporters who would like to fight back against the Establishment’s attempts to dilute and thwart Brexit.
The Brexit Battle Pack contains practical information and is designed to be used. You can read commentary about Brexit everywhere. This Pack is about taking action.
If you have emailed us and requested a copy, and you have already made a donation to support our work, you will receive a link in an email today.
If you read us but haven’t yet got around to making a donation, don’t worry! You can still donate using the links below and you will receive the special advance copy of the pack if you request it.
If you’re frustrated, the Brexit Battle Pack is the perfect antidote!
       07.15am, 11 Aug 2018
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READERS' COMMENTS
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 "TICK TOCK"
EU COUNCIL ‘CRUNCH’ MEETING
© EU Council
LESS THAN 50 WORKING DAYS TO GO
On 18 October 2018, in 49 working days’ time, the European Council of the 28 leaders will meet in the Europa building in Brussels, ostensibly to discuss and agree Brexit.
‘LE CRUNCH’
The October Summit is scheduled to discuss the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, the Transition Period, and the framework for the future relationship between the EU and the UK.
In reality most observers have little confidence that anything will be finally agreed at this summit. Nevertheless it is slated to happen then, in order to give time for the various ratifications – including that of the EU Parliament – to take place.
EN VACANCES
With under 50 working days to go, the British and EU governments are mostly all on holiday. British political life is currently dominated by Theresa May’s attempts to discredit one of her most likely challengers, former Foreign Secretary the Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP.
THE ADVANCE PARTIES
Prior to the above summit, the EU’s General Affairs Council will meet twice: on 18 September and on 16 October, to discuss Brexit. These Councils involve minsters below prime ministerial level.
On 19 and 20 September, an “Informal Meeting of Heads of State or Government” will take place in Salzburg, Austria. Whilst there is as yet no formal agenda, it is expected that Brexit will be a major topic of conversation.
FORMALLY, THE OCTOBER EUROPEAN COUNCIL IS THE KEY DATE
The formal summit of the 28 leaders on 18 October is the summit at which it has always been hoped that the final terms of Brexit would be agreed.
This will take place in the European Council’s luxurious new headquarters which the Council moved into last year, 13 years after the decision was taken to build it.
Construction took 10 years and it has notionally cost the taxpayer well over £1/4 billion pounds, although the Belgians are apparently still in the process of totalling up all the extras so the total will rise.
© Samynandpartners
OBSERVATIONS
If the UK were a business and we were the Board of Directors, we would now be finalising details for an orderly departure from EU membership on WTO terms.
A QUICK ‘NO’ IS BETTER THAN A SLOW ‘YES’
Given that it was apparent over two years ago that the EU intended for Brexit to become a political game where the UK were to be punished, a decision would already have been made by the Board to proceed to exit the EU without any special, all-encompassing ‘deal’.
All departments would have already been instructed that a smooth exit on WTO terms was their first priority. Key areas requiring separate, side agreements with the EU, such as citizens’ rights, over-flying arrangements for air traffic, etc, would be well-advanced.
IRELAND
The Irish government would have been notified that no substantive change was proposed to the current border arrangements other than an adaptation of the existing customs procedures, allowing more firms to declare cross-border exports electronically and for small firms to be exempt.
BREXIT BUDGET
The Finance Director would already have been signing off all short-term - but significant - expenditures required by departments to facilitate a smooth exit. These would have included a large increase in key contract personnel with the required experience.
In particular, the HMRC section of the Operations Dept would have been given virtually unlimited resources to ensure it could deliver what was needed.
LEGALITIES
The Legal Dept would have already made a proposal to the EU to continue a variety of existing arrangements on the basis that all UK laws and standards on exit already match those of the EU. All preparations with the WTO and its members would already have been made, ready for a switchover on 29 March 2019.
INTERNATIONAL SALES AND MARKETING
The Export Sales & Marketing Director Liam Fox would have the first of his new free trade deals ready to sign and implement on 30 March 2019. All those countries with existing trade deals with the EU, who wished these to ‘roll over’ to an independent UK, would have agreements in place ready to implement on day one.
Finally, the Corporate Communications Dept would have doubled in size two years ago. It would have spent two years ensuring that a series of accurate and positive messages were communicated across the globe about the newly-independent and exciting United Kingdom. These messages would focus on the UK being back on the world stage as a voice of reason, reliability, innovation, and economic, diplomatic, and military power. The messages would stress the massive buying power of the UK.
The global economic markets would be reassured by numerous campaigns highlighting the economic performance of the UK, and the relative ease with which the UK would continue trading globally, as well as the tremendous growth potential of UK PLC when freed from the yoke of the bureaucratic EU.
CONTINGENCY PLANNING
The Communications Dept would also have in place reassuring campaigns in case the political elites in the EU deliberately tried to make life difficult in the last 6 months and in the period following the UK’s exit.
Equally, all Departments would have contingency plans prepared, to deal with any self-harming and political games that the EU elites might wish to play.
BEHAVING REASONABLY
The Board of UK PLC would of course still leave the door open to the EU to come to the table with a trade offer, if they wished. A free trade agreement is now impossible on departure, but a simple replication of tariff-free trade would have to be the basis for any such future agreement.
One possibility would be the SuperCanada deal proposed by British MEP and EU Parliament International Trade Committee Member, David Campbell Bannerman. This is not far off what the EU itself proposed to the UK back in March.
ABSOLUTE FOCUS AND CERTAINTY
Overall, the Board would exude a sense of confidence and assurance. The strength of UK PLC would shine through to UK citizens, to citizens of the EU, and importantly to the global audience.
The certainty of knowing that the UK was fully prepared, and was going to exit the EU on the same trading basis as the vast majority of the world, would be reassuring for the people of the UK, as well as all its many admirers around the world.
[ Sources: EU Council ]        05.50am, 10 Aug 2018
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READERS' COMMENTS
Please send us your comments and we will publish them here. You can of course use a pseudonym if you prefer, and it's always nice to know roughly where you're writing from. Please always state the headline of the article you're commenting on.
Name: NOT4EU, London, UK      Date/Time: 10 Aug 2018, 08.30am
Message: Another excellent article. The observations are precisely the actions and activities that those who voted to leave expected from a Government 'committed' to implementing the referendum result and restoring our independence.
When it is compared to the real and on-going actions taken, there can be no other conclusion other than it is the intention of our Government to betray the country and its people and pass control to a foreign power. We need someone now to step up to the plate, rip up the engineered 'negotiations' and state that we are leaving on 29th March 2019. The EU's posturing has left no time for a sensible FTA to be discussed, analysed and agreed in the remaining timeframe so we will just leave and WTO rules will apply until such time as a trade agreement is reached.
 ‘BREXIT BATTLE PACK’
THE EXCITEMENT BUILDS
We are about to launch our ‘Brexit Battle Pack’ to a selected audience for peer review, prior to a public launch a few days later.
GET YOUR FREE ADVANCE COPY
If you would like an advance copy, this is available to all donors to the Brexit Facts4EU.org site. If you’re not yet a donor, donate something today and request a Pack! (See below for details.)
This Pack is designed for ordinary people who want to ensure that Brexit – a true, clean, normal Brexit – is delivered.
WHAT IS IT?
It’s a package of tools which puts the power in the hands of the people, where it belongs. It contains some very useful guidelines and then some practical things that you can do, to try to bring things back to where they should be.
We’re aiming to make it as simple as possible, but there’s no getting away from the fact that if you want to influence Brexit you have to make a bit of an effort.
There’s no “click here and it will all be done for you” button!
Nevertheless, the Pack summarises and puts a package of great ideas into a usable format, and we’re going to be asking all Brexit organisations to promote it. As someone once said, “this is about people power!”
(More information is available here)
COMING IN THE NEXT 24 HOURS
No other Brexit organisation has produced anything like this. If you want to be part of the action, please let us know (if you’re already a donor) or please donate something and then ask (if you’re not).
In the next 24 hours or so you will then receive a link to the draft Pack, giving you a chance to comment and maybe to improve it.
We’re not arrogant or elitist and we don’t pretend to have all the answers. Our expertise over the last few years has been in producing excellent summaries of all aspects of Brexit and what it means to be a member of the EU.
That said, the team also have business experience with some considerable marketing expertise. We hope the draft Brexit Battle Pack will appeal, maybe with some tweaks suggested by you?
WANT A PACK?
       05.50am, 10 Aug 2018
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READERS' COMMENTS
Please send us your comments and we will publish them here. You can of course use a pseudonym if you prefer, and it's always nice to know roughly where you're writing from. Please always state the headline of the article you're commenting on.
WE THOUGHT WE COULD GO BACK TO OUR CAREERS
AND OUR LIVES AFTER THE EU REFERENDUM
Unfortunately this was wildly optimistic.
We've had to give another two years to this fight, and it isn't over.
It has never been more important for us to keep fighting, bringing readers well-researched facts from official sources, punchy bullet points, and simple charts.
Politicians, journalists and members of the public have come to trust us on Brexit as the definitive source of accurate analysis of data from official sources, presented in a user-friendly way. We inform the Brexit debate.
We're planning a major campaign directed at MPs and the media, who are currently the main stumbling blocks to a clean Brexit. Alas we're broke and we need your help.
We really do make a difference.
Can you make a difference too, by supporting our work? We really need you.
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WE'RE VERY GRATEFUL TO OUR RECENT SUPPORTERS.
UNFORTUNATELY THIS REPRESENTS A THIRD OF WHAT WE NEED TO SURVIVE.
CAN YOU HELP?
(Anonymity respected completely if you prefer to remain private)
       Best regards, the Facts4EU.Org Team
 UK ‘MUST OBEY RULES’
SAYS THE EU
© EU Parliament
BUT WHO ELSE
OBEYS THE RULES IN THE EU?
It is often said that the UK has a natural tendency to obey the rules, compared to other EU member states.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org takes a look at the latest EU-wide ‘infringements’ launched by the EU Commission against member states for last month.
The EU has 3 main categories of ‘infringements’: Letters of Formal Notice, Reasoned Opinions, and Referrals to the ECJ, in ascending order of importance.
BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY – INFRINGEMENTS OF EU LAW IN JULY 2018
  • 172 total infringements by all EU28 member states:
  • 6 infringements by UK:   (3.5% of the total)
  • 4 of the 6 infringements were common to other member states
  • 5 were minor and some relate to matters irrelevant after Brexit
  • UK had just one ‘Reasoned Opinion’ and ZERO referrals to the ECJ
© Facts4EU.Org 2018
There were a total of 172 ‘Infringements’ issued by the EU Commission to all member states in the month of July.
Of these, the UK received just 6 infringements, or 3.5% of the total for the whole EU. The UK has been issued with 5 “Letters of Formal Notice”, 1 “Reasoned Opinion”, and no referrals to the ECJ.
The UK represents approximately 13% of the EU’s total population and over 15% of EU GDP.
THE UK’S ‘LETTERS OF FORMAL NOTICE’ FROM THE EU
One of the Letters of Notice received by the UK from the EU Commission was issued to all member states with the exception of Lithuania. This relates to the recognition of professional qualifications and requires the UK to issue a “European professional card” to all professionals with recognised qualifications.
In fact the UK has a reputation for accepting professional qualifications, in contrast with most other EU countries.
The other 4 Letters of Formal Notice received by the UK were in respect of:-
  1. Failing to implement the EU’s Energy Efficiency Directive in full, for targets after 2020 when the UK will have left.
  2. Failure to implement the EU’s required quality management system certification for shipping. (This is an area in which the UK is a renowned international expert and the EU’s system is an administrative matter, not a matter of safety.)
  3. Failing fully to align its rules with EU law on income tax relief for losses on disposals of shares. This will be irrelevant post-Brexit.
  4. Failure to apply (for EU corporates) the UK’s law on corporate tax relief for loans to traders, where a "qualifying loan" has become irrecoverable. Again this will be irrelevant post-Brexit.
THE ONLY ‘REASONED OPINION’ INFRINGEMENT
The sole ‘Reasoned Opinion’ (the second of the 3 categories) was for “failing to collect and transmit to other Member States the bank account details for each taxable person registered for the EU-wide system for VAT collection on online sales of e-services (VAT Mini One-Stop-Shop)”.
This is a technicality and it is worth noting that the UK is one of the only member states which is on target for the implementation of the EU’s new paperless customs procedures – a far, far more significant area when it comes to VAT.
NO REFERRALS TO THE COURT OF JUSTICE OF THE EU
Importantly, the UK received no referrals to the ECJ, which is the most serious of the 3 categories.
WHO WERE THE NAUGHTIEST COUNTRIES?
Hungary received the most overall infringement notices (see ‘Observations’ below). Here are the 10 countries with the highest number of infringements:-
Hungary
Spain
Romania
Slovenia
Cyprus
Belgium
Greece
Luxembourg
Malta
Ireland
When it comes to the two more serious categories, the worst offenders were Hungary, Spain, and Ireland.
OBSERVATIONS
The EU’s data on the above was in the form of a document of 11,300 words, or 23 pages. There was no summary by country, nor by type of infringement.
To produce the above summary for readers we undertook the laborious task of identifying each of the infringements, by type and by country, and putting these into a spreadsheet.
We have found over the years when analysing information from the EU, that by doing the hard miles the results are usually interesting. The more difficult the EU makes it, the more it is likely that they don’t want the analysis done.
And in producing a document of 23 pages, they can be fairly certain that no journalist will bother to try to make sense of it. No-one except members of our team, of course.
HUNGARY GETS IT IN THE NECK
The ‘bete noire’ of the EU fanatics in Brussels is the government of Viktor Orban in Hungary. Mr Orban’s views about the EU’s open borders, anti-nation state, and totalitarian ideology reflect those of the majority of Hungary’s voters. Worse still for EU bureaucrats, Orban says what he thinks.
Unsurprisingly then, Hungary was given the most infringement notices by the EU Commission last month. We doubt that Mr Orban will be too surprised by this news, nor that he will be greatly troubled by it.
THE UK OBEYS THE RULES
In this case the results are not particularly startling. They confirm what most readers will have suspected – the UK tends to obey EU rules. However readers now have some hard data for last month, which we believe to be fairly typical based on our previous research into this area.
The UK was responsible for just 3.5% of all EU member state infringements, and
4 of the 6 infringements were common to other member states, and
The UK was not responsible for a single one of the most serious infringements.
For anyone who wonders if the number of UK 'infringements' isn't simply proportionate to the number of countries in the EU, we need to point out some things.
Firstly it must be remembered that there are member states in the EU that would only qualify as towns, if they were part of the UK. Implementing EU laws and directives for the UK can be a massive undertaking in such a large and diverse country like the UK, with its four constituent parts. In other words it's much more difficult for the UK to implement some directives and laws in full.
Secondly, the UK's infringements are on minor matters, compared to some of those listed for other member states.
Thirdly, the UK only has one infringement in the middle category and none at all in the most serious category.
Fourthly, whilst we obviously have no evidence for this, if the EU could hit the UK with more infringements, we believe it would. This is based on our years of experience and particularly our experience of the way the EU has treated the UK since the Referendum. And no, we don't expect Remoaners to believe this, but our view is based on far more knowledge than the typical Remainer MP has of the EU's ways of working.
Finally, the point of this article is that the EU constantly wishes to present itself as a body where the rules are rules. This is especially relevant when it talks of Brexit. In reality the rules are applied in a highly variable fashion, as we have demonstrated in many other articles other than this one.
[ Sources: EU Commission ]        06.55am, 09 Aug 2018
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READERS' COMMENTS
Please send us your comments and we will publish them here. You can of course use a pseudonym if you prefer, and it's always nice to know roughly where you're writing from. Please always state the headline of the article you're commenting on.
Name: Brexiteer, Braintree, Essex      Date/Time: 09 Aug 2018, 2.29pm
Message: It's a fallacy that the UK couldn't survive without the EU's guiding hand supporting us. Why does our Parliament need the EU's Energy Efficiency Directive, are our MPs incapable of making decisions like this for the UK themselves? All this control is solely part of the drive to a Federal European Union, something that the UK electorate is opposed to. All these petty rules treat nation states almost like naughty schoolchildren. The sooner we reject them and return to an independent sovereign country, the better.
Name: John Charlton, Sussex      Date/Time: 09 Aug 2018, 10.40am
Message: I read the the Government was "stockpiling drugs and medicines" in advance of Brexit. Why? Are drug companies in the EU going to be prevented from selling to us? If so, on what grounds? There might be an extra few minutes paperwork, but only if the UK imposes it.
Name: Miss Eva, Budapest, Hungary      Date/Time: 09 Aug 2018, 08.28am
Message: Yes, as a Hungarian I think we learn our lesson thanks to the Russians. My and my parents's generation experienced what it means and how it feels to have our national identity, culture and history taken away, re-written and distorted. I think and I hope that we will not allow something similar to happen to us again.
We felt we can breathe again when finally it was all over. We were happy and excited to rebuild our long-longed freedom and re-discover who we really are as a nation. Now it starts looking so different and the EU looks like Russian control.
Dear great UK, of all countries, do not give your freedom away now you voted for it. I really don't think you will like it. With kind regards from Hungary.
Name: Patrick F, Kent, UK      Date/Time: 09 Aug 2018, 08.19am
Message: Your piece prompted me to read some of the words of Martin Howe QC, Chair of Lawyers for Britain.
This extract is taken from a speech he gave in response to an address from your friend and mine, M.Barnier. The words in square brackets are my own.
"The UK's departure from the EU is not born from any hostility towards the EU, still less towards the peoples of Europe.
It is just that our future paths are so different [ours successful, yours a failure] that it serves neither the interests of the UK, nor of the EU for our membership to continue."
(27th May 2018, speech made at the XXVIII Congress of FIDE (Federation Internationale pour le Droit Europeen/International Federation for European Law) at Estoril, Portugal)
I suggest the new chief Brexit negotiator starts with these words.
Name: NOT4EU, London, UK      Date/Time: 09 Aug 2018, 08.03am
Message: The 'Letters of Formal Notice' regarding income & corporate tax relief just goes to show how deeply the EU's hands are in our pockets. Despite claims to the contrary, that income/corporate taxes are fully under our control, the EU ARE 'interfering' with our tax regime and thus the economy.

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 “BREXIT BATTLE PACK”
– UPDATE –
“Packed lunch?”
Check
“Marching kit?”
Check
“Soppy attack dog?”
Roger that
Don’t get angry, do something!
We thought we’d give you an update on the “Brexit Facts4EU.Org Battle Pack”.
Every day, people read or watch the news and if they’re pro-Brexit they either get exasperated or get very angry, depending on their temperament. Brexit is simply not being delivered and the majority of the media are even more biased against it than they were before the Referendum campaign.
READING, WATCHING, OR TWEETING ISN’T GOING TO CHANGE ANYTHING
Most of the major Brexit organisations publish something daily, although we still seem to be the only ones producing and publishing original, researched content ourselves each day. We don’t rely on politicians writing articles for us to bring you informative and important information. We do the work ourselves, and we try not to replicate what you can read in the papers.
We’re proud of what we do, but we want to do more. Since we suggested this initiative many of you have told us that you’re frustrated and would love to do something to make a difference too.
THE ‘BREXIT BATTLE PACK’ ISN’T EVERYTHING, BUT AT LEAST IT’S SOMETHING
The “Brexit Facts4EU.Org Battle Pack” aims to be one answer. We’re assembling a variety of methods which you can use to influence what happens next on Brexit. And for most of it you don't even need to leave your chair.
What could an individual reader realistically do in practice, which might influence the outcome of the current Theresa May shambles? Where are the levers of power and influence, and how can you reach them effectively?
THIS ISN’T JUST CLICKING A BUTTON
Make no mistake, this is a practical set of suggestions. You could just read it with interest and do nothing, and that’s your choice. If you decide to do that, please don’t then email or tweet us complaining that the government and parliament aren’t doing what they’re supposed to be doing.
However if we all want things to happen, then together we have to make those things happen.
COMING IN THE NEXT WEEK
The Brexit Battle Pack isn’t a work of genius. Rather it’s a bit of a chore, but then we feel the common sense approach often works best in many areas of life.
Watch this space. We hope to have things ready in the next week.
WANT AN ADVANCE COPY?
We plan to send an advance link to the Battle Pack to anyone who is already a donor or who becomes one, and who wants one. All you have to do is ask, using our standard contact form here.
This gives you the chance to comment on the Pack, make suggestions, and maybe improve it, before it gets released to the public.
We’ll be launching this on our site and on social media immediately after the consultation period, whilst at the same time making an effort to get all Brexit organisations to work with us on this.
DONATE AND GET INVOLVED
If you haven’t yet donated, please consider it now. You will be supporting our daily work, supporting the Brexit Battle Pack, and you will also get an advance copy electronically. The links are below!
OBSERVATIONS
Two years ago when Vote Leave sat back and thought its job was done, the Remainers sprung into action. Law suits were launched in the High Court, money was raised, and since then the arguments of Remainers have dominated parliament and the airwaves.
(Incidentally we weren't so complacent. We continued publishing on 24 June 2016 and every day since. But hey ho.)
Remainers have organised marches where over a dozen different Remain organisations came together to swell the numbers. Imagine that? Organisations coming together in a common cause!
Remainer organisations have stopped at nothing to thwart Brexit and now they have huge funding, thanks in part to the foreign billionaire George Soros.
We really hope that thousands of pro-Brexit people will now say 'enough is enough' and decide to do their bit to ensure the result of the Referendum is respected.
And that does NOT mean Theresa May's 'Chequers Plan'. It means leaving the EU, its institutions and laws, its control over our country and our lives, and its incessant demands for massive and growing annual payments.
Maybe our 'Brexit Battle Pack' will be the start of the true fightback.
Please help us to make it so.
       06.55am, 08 Aug 2018
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READERS' COMMENTS
Please send us your comments and we will publish them here. You can of course use a pseudonym if you prefer, and it's always nice to know roughly where you're writing from. Please always state the headline of the article you're commenting on.
WED 8th AUG, 3PM:  We have received many requests for advance copies of the Brexit Battle Plan. Thank you to everyone. A link to this will be sent out as soon as the draft Plan is ready. Please note that an advance copy is only available to those who have made a donation, but it's still possible to donate something and be included!
Name: Steve, Yorkshire, UK      Date/Time: 08 Aug 2018, 08.52am
Message: I think the question 'you are suggesting that having unelected unaccountable leaders who are practically immune from prosecution is a good thing?' may be included. You might also take a leaf out of the remoaners book, and point out that they voted for an unelected leader and the comparisons to hitler in 1930's germany.
Name: Liz F, Kent, UK      Date/Time: 08 Aug 2018, 12.59pm
Message: Thank you for persevering in the fight (which I feel it now is) to keep us moving towards the Brexit that 17.4 million people in the UK voted for. Onwards and upwards!
Name: Sylvia L, Northants, UK      Date/Time: 08 Aug 2018, 08.52am
Message: I need the Pro-Brexit pack, I want to be one step ahead!!!

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 REMAINER FAKE NEWS
A SMALL EXAMPLE OF
WHAT BREXIT IS UP AGAINST
In any consideration of the anti-Brexit propaganda being aimed at the British public on a daily basis in the last two years, there would be many thousands of examples to choose from.
As ever, we’ve picked an example which is not well-known or talked about, which perhaps makes it more interesting.
TV ‘CELEBRITY’ DEBORAH MEADEN, DRAGONS’ DEN
© Twitter
This is of course completely wrong. The EU does not represent 44% of the UK’s GDP. Even the EU Commission itself doesn’t claim that the EU represents more than 7.3% of UK GDP when it comes to goods exports.
In response to this, both David Campbell Bannerman MEP and our Twitter editor corrected Ms Meaden on her grossly inaccurate tweet. Here were our responses:-
© Twitter
For Deborah Meaden to have claimed that “We are approx 4% of EU GDP and they are approx 44% of ours” was clearly a big error.
Needless to say, Ms Meaden didn’t respond to DCB’s tweet or our tweet. Later she responded to an ordinary member of the public who also picked up her error. This was her response:-
© Twitter
Instead of checking that her original tweet was accurate, she told the member of the public to “Google it”.
Later that day in response to another member of the public she carried on:-
© Twitter
Readers will note that this wasn’t an apology nor did she admit she had made a mistake and had given misleading information.
Ms Meaden has 267,000 followers on Twitter, who see her tweets daily.
OBSERVATIONS
TV CELEBRITIES
We all make mistakes and we’re sure that, if asked now, Ms Meaden would admit that she made a mistake on this occasion.
Please bear in mind that a respected British MEP and a respected facts-based Brexit news team gave her an opportunity to correct her first tweet. She ignored the MEP and she ignored us.
If we had made an error of this proportion and someone queried it, we would have immediately double-checked what we had written. If what we had written was wholly incorrect – as in this case - we would have apologised, immediately deleted the original tweet, and stated the true position.
THE POWER OF CELEBRITY
The problem with Ms Meaden tweeting her views on Brexit many times each day is that she’s a well-known celebrity who regularly appears on the BBC on a programme which might give viewers the impression that she knows what she’s talking about when it comes to numbers.
Whilst we’re sure Ms Meaden is 100% correct and accurate when it comes to her own business dealings, on questions of EU membership she does not claim to be an expert. We would agree with her self-assessment.
The problem is that she has 267,000 followers on Twitter. Would a businesswoman have this many followers if she were not regularly on the BBC?
Naturally Ms Meaden is not alone and the above case is just an example. There are many other 'celebrities' who have been even more vocal in using their fame to advance their political opinions.
Is it in any way right that this celebrity status gained via the BBC is used to promote a daily agenda of political views which are strongly anti-Brexit?
This is just a small example of why we need to continue to pump out the real facts of EU membership. It is also an example of why our “Brexit Battle Pack” is needed so much.
       06.55am, 08 Aug 2018
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Name: Patrick F, Kent, UK      Date/Time: 08 Aug 2018, 12.51pm
Message: Truth DM? Just Google it....

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 ENGLAND, ENGLAND,
UBER ALLES
© EU Council
UK IS BIGGEST EARNER IN EU
FOR GERMAN INDUSTRY
BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG REPORT ON GERMAN TRADE – PART 1: THE UK
The latest trade figures for Germany in 2017 have just been published by its national office for statistics, Destatis. In a 2-part article we bring you the highlights.
BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY – GERMANY’S TRADE WITH THE UK
  • UK is ahead of all other EU member states as the biggest earner for Germany in the EU
  • After the USA, the UK is the second-biggest earner for German industry in the world
  • Germany sold goods worth €84.45 billion euros to the UK in 2017
  • Germany’s trade balance (exports minus imports) with UK was +€47.27 billion euros
  • UK represents 11.3% of Germany’s total EU goods export market
The picture for Germany as a whole is especially interesting when we look at those EU member states which represent the biggest earners for Germany, rather than simply the value of its exports.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EXPORTS (ie ‘SALES’) AND TRADE BALANCE
In our articles on trade we generally aim to show two indicators: exports and the trade balance.
Exports are the equivalent of a country’s ‘sales’, whilst the trade balance shows what the country ‘earns’ when you subtract the value of imports (ie ‘purchases’).
Both of these are useful. It’s particularly important to know which markets are the biggest customers and the value of exports shows this. We cover this in Part 2 of this report, below.
However it’s equally important to know which markets represent the biggest ‘earnings’ for country, and this can be simplistically represented by the trade balance, which is exports minus imports.
Below we show the latter of these two indicators (the trade balance) for Germany, by country. In the next article we widen the picture for readers, to show Germany’s exports to EU member states. The chart below shows the trade balance, rather than purely the amount of German exports.
GERMANY'S BIGGEST EARNERS
© Facts4EU.Org 2018
The UK is by far the biggest earner for Germany in the EU, in terms of its trade in goods. Last year Germany sold the UK €84.45 billion euros worth of goods.
In return Germany only bought €37.2 billion euros worth of goods from the UK.
This makes the UK the biggest earner for German industry in the whole of the EU,
with a trade balance of +€47.3 billion euros in Germany’s favour.
OBSERVATIONS
WHO DO YOU BELIEVE?
It can be difficult for the British public to know what to believe. The Hard-Remainers are forever quoting figures which simply aren’t true, and regrettably the majority of TV interviewers simply don’t have the knowledge to question these people properly, to call out their lies and inaccuracies.
At Brexit Facts4EU.Org we only use official figures from the EU itself, from national governments, and occasionally from international bodies such as the World Bank, IMF, OECD, the UN, etc.
A good example of this is on the subject of trade, about which a lot has been written in recent weeks.
The problem is that articles written by learned folk (some of whom we admire enormously, such as Professor Patrick Minford and his colleagues at Economists For Free Trade), simply don’t reach the majority of the public.
In our piece above we have clearly demonstrated that the UK is the biggest earner in the whole of the EU, by some margin, for German industry.
In fact Germany earns more from the UK than from those 10 EU countries ranked from no.5 to no.15 on its list of earners - put together. And that includes the EU’s third-largest economy after the UK leaves: Italy.
The key facts to remember are :-
The UK is by far the biggest earner in the EU for German industry.
Germany alone sold us €47bn more goods than we sold to Germany in 2017.
And that’s without all the other EU countries selling us more than we sell to them.
In Part 2 below we show how Germany is doing with the EU as whole. It helps to shed some light on why the German government is keen to keep the whole EU Projekt alive....
A post script, 08 Aug 2018: Regular readers know that we have no issue with the peoples of all the EU27 countries, including Germany. Regrettably whenever we run an article about the EU which mentions a particular member state we always get emails accusing us of attacking the people of that country. For the avoidance of doubt, we love Europe but are against the monolithic, anti-democratic, and increasingly totalitarian structure of the EU.
[ Sources: German Office for National Statistics (Destatis) ]        06.55am, 07 Aug 2018
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 HOW’S THE EU DOING
FOR YOU, GERMANY?
© EU Commission
“SEHR GUT, DANKE”
BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG REPORT ON GERMAN TRADE – PART 2: THE EU
Following on from our article above, we now look at Germany's exports to the EU as a whole.
BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY – GERMAN TRADE FIGURES WITH EU, 2017
  • The EU is the biggest earner for German industry
  • Germany exported goods worth €749.7 billion euros to the other 27 EU Member States in 2017
  • EU exports accounted for 58.6% of German’s total exports
  • Top EU markets are France, Netherlands, UK, Italy, Austria, Poland, Belgium, Spain, Czech Rep, Sweden
  • Germany’s trade balance (exports minus imports) with EU was +€159.2 billion euros in 2017
© Facts4EU.Org 2018
In the above chart readers can see that the 27 EU member states represent the most important market for German industry. Germany earned €159 billion euros net, from trading with the other EU member states in 2017.
GERMANY’S BIGGEST EXPORT MARKETS IN THE EU
© Facts4EU.Org 2018
IMPORTANT NOTE: The above figures are distorted for the Netherlands and Belgium. These contain goods which are sent to those two countries' ports, for onward shipment elsewhere in Europe and to the rest of the world. This is down to the German statistics authority, not us.
OBSERVATIONS
Germany has had a trading surplus with the EU for decades. In 2017 it sold the other EU states €159 billion more Euros of goods more than it bought from them. That includes the UK.
Germany is part of the Euro, which has the effect of making German products comparatively cheap on the world markets. This is because the value of the Euro is marked down on the world markets as result of the poorer performances of the weaker economies in the Eurozone.
One of the reasons why Germany has been happy to subsidise the whole ‘EU Projekt’ is because it does so well out of selling to poorer EU economies, whilst at the same time benefiting from a lower exchange rate making its goods cheaper elsewhere in the world.
Simplistic analysis? Perhaps, but no less true for that.
IMF CRITICISES GERMAN GOVERNMENT
Yesterday Germany came in for criticism from the IMF, for failing to stimulate its domestic market to consume more of its own goods, and for failing to invest in its infrastructure. Given all Angela Merkel’s problems trying to keep her shaky coalition together, this will be the least of her worries.
The simple fact is that the Single Market and Customs Union have been a fabulous boon for German industry and commerce.
The same is most definitely not true for the UK. While Germany has a £142 billion GBP (€159 bn euro) surplus in its trade in goods within the EU, the UK has an £95 billion deficit. [Source: House of Commons Library.]
REMAINER MPS MUST ADDRESS FACTS LIKE THESE
As ever we have worked through the night to bring you what we believe to be important basic facts about Germany’s trading relationship with the UK and with the rest of the EU, based on the latest data from Germany.
The figures are unimpeachable, coming from the German government’s official statistics agency Destatis.
The simple fact is that the UK’s membership of the EU isn’t what Remainer MPs would like to think it is. It’s what it is.
The facts may not be comfortable for Remain-supporting MPs, but the facts are the facts nonetheless.
FINALLY
If you want to keep us producing devastating facts like these, there’s only one way to ensure this. And that’s by using one of the donate buttons below. We’re close to the edge right now.
[ Sources: German Office for National Statistics (Destatis) | House of Commons Library ]        06.55am, 07 Aug 2018
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AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY
RESULTS OF LONG-TERM PROJECT BY FACTS4EU.ORG TEAM REVEAL
FACTS DON'T RESEARCH AND WRITE THEMSELVES
The latest pieces of work from the Brexit Facts4EU.Org team have been met with a variety of reactions from world leaders, ranging from celebration to incredulity to resignation to abuse.
Alas none of us are hedge fund managers... or married to one. The Team (and one member in particular) has donated as much as it can. Can you please help fund our work?
Unlike many Brexit websites, we write our own content and create our own graphs, by researching deeply into official UK and EU official sources. Unfortunately we barely make it from one week to the next and we rely 100% on voluntary contributions - small or big.
We really could use your help in working for a clean and true Brexit.
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WE'RE REALLY GRATEFUL TO OUR SUPPORTERS.
UNFORTUNATELY WE ONLY RECEIVE A QUARTER OF WHAT WE NEED TO SURVIVE. CAN YOU HELP?
(Anonymity respected completely if you prefer to remain private)
       Best regards, the Facts4EU.Org Team, 2018
 THE “BREXPORTERS”
© DIT / Crown
INTERNATIONAL TRADE DEPT IS MAKING EXPORTING ‘SEXY’ AGAIN
MOST POSITIVE DEPT IN GOVERNMENT PASSES SECOND BIRTHDAY
Following the Leave vote in the EU Referendum, a new ‘Department for International Trade’ (DIT) was founded on 14 July 2016. Its first Secretary of State was, and remains, the Rt Hon Dr Liam Fox MP.
BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY – FIRST 2 YEARS OF DIT
  • Exports have grown by an average of £7 billion per month
  • DIT involved in £70 billion worth of export wins
  • Boom in total trade, growing by 15.7%
  • Total exports of goods and services in 2017: £615.9 billion
  • 4,337 investment projects were recorded over the last 2 financial years
  • These created 151,194 new jobs and safeguarded 47,735
  • Nearly 1,500 new jobs per week
  • Non-EU exports in 2017 outstripped exports to EU for 9th year running
  • In 2017: £342bn to non-EU, £274bn to EU (44.5%)
Below is a chart demonstrating that despite the dire predictions of the Remain campaign, the British export economy is healthier than ever.
© Facts4EU.Org 2018
OBSERVATIONS
The Brexit Facts4EU.Org team does not work in the media and political bubble of Westminster.
We have little interest in the intrigues, gossip, in-fighting, and suffocating group-think of the media and political elites. We breathe fresh, invigorating, Brexit air.
(Except when we’re doing our deep research of EU documents and data, of course.)
Dr Fox’s government department has stood out for us over the last two years as being the most positive and optimistic of them all. If readers want an antidote to the misery of Remainer MP pronouncements, they could do a lot worse than look at the news coming out of DIT each week.
THE “BREXPORT EFFECT” - A BREXIT SPIN-OFF DIVIDEND?
Several times we have suggested that an additional, ‘spin-off’ benefit of Brexit is the renewed appreciation for British businesses of the world of opportunities out there in the real world. We call this the 'Brexport Effect'.
(Note to other Brexit organisations, if you use this term please remember who invented it and maybe credit us for it? We're forever seeing our creations copied, with no accreditation given! )
The UK has a long history of being a global trading nation. One of the many downsides of having been members of the EU for the last four decades is the limiting effect it has had on people in the business world.
Where once, British business people would have looked to all four corners of the globe to seek out export opportunities, in recent decades it seems that horizons have been brought in much closer. Almost as if trading with the EU were the de facto first choice, regardless of where growth opportunities lay.
With Brexit, we gain the strong impression that business people are once again raising their eyes to the fastest-growing markets across the globe.
As Crawford Falconer, the UK’s Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser and Second Permanent Secretary at DIT, told the Sunday Times last week:
“The opportunities are enormous. In ten years, maybe even quicker, people will look back and say: ‘Oh, why were we so negative about our future?’”
[ Sources: Dept for International Trade | ONS ]        06.55am, 06 Aug 2018
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Name: Chris, Devizes, UK      Date/Time: 06 Aug 2018, 1.33pm
Message: Great article. I like Liam Fox, he always talks a lot of sense. I was surprised that he seemed to endorse the Chequers plan, but maybe that was just down to the lies peddled by May. What a difference in reporting compared to that dreadful Marxist Remoaning rag The Independent.
Name: Brexiteer, Braintree, Essex, UK      Date/Time: 06 Aug 2018, 09.46am
Message: Perhaps it might dawn on politicians they don't trade, they legislate rules and laws to enable business people to trade. You don't need complicated free trade agreements between countries. The politicians' job should be to help reduce or remove tariffs for mutual inter-country trade. Then create an environment to encourage traders and business people to get out to sell British companies' products throughout the 140 countries worldwide, not just the 27 highly regulated countries on our doorstep.

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 GERMANY WARNS OF
FRESH BORDER CONTROLS
© DW.Com
AS SPANISH MIGRANT SURGE EXCEEDS ITALY’S IN 2017
Speaking to a German newspaper yesterday, State Secretary for Migration Helmut Teichmann warned that German authorities are now considering stronger border control measures on its borders with France and Switzerland.
His warning comes as the UN’s “International Organisation for Migration” issued a report stating:
“As remarkable as Spain’s rise in irregular migration activity has been through 2018, more significant is this summer surge.”
“Arrivals to Spain in July overtook those to Italy and have surpassed the total number of arrivals (22,108) recorded in Spanish waters during all of 2017. This year almost 40 per cent of all Mediterranean irregular migrants have come via the Western Mediterranean route, whose irregular migration volume has more than tripled that registered on the route by this time last year.”
- UN's 'International Organisation For Migration (IOM), July 2018
Our chart below shows the rapid rise in illegal migrants entering Spain this year. In the last two months the daily rate has soared to 243 per day, compared to an average of 54 per day in the preceding 5 months.
© Facts4EU.Org 2018
BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY - MIGRANT SURGE HOTSPOTS
  • In 2015 and 2016, it was Greece which was experiencing the biggest numbers
  • In 2017 it was Italy in the headlines
  • This year it’s Spain’s turn
On Saturday we reported on the massive financial support the EU Commission is giving to the pro-EU Spanish government. We showed how Friday’s EU announcement of an extra €3 million for Spain in emergency EU funding for migration was hiding a total in excess of €0.8 BILLION.
Below we show the huge increase in the numbers of illegal migrants making it into Spain in the first 7 months of this year, compared to the same period last year. As readers can see, it has increased by more than 2.5 times.
© Facts4EU.Org 2018
GERMAN GOVERNMENT WARNS OF BORDER CONTROLS WITH FRANCE
Despite both being in the free movement Schengen area, the German authorities are ready to introduce stronger border controls on its border with France. It is adopting the same stance with non-EU Switzerland.
State Secretary for Migration Helmut Teichmann said authorities are alarmed by the increased number of migrants arriving in Spain after the new Italian government started preventing NGO migrant boats from docking at Italian ports.
"We fear that many migrants could make their way to France, the Benelux countries and Germany," said Teichmann.
In fact, the increase in numbers entering Spain has almost nothing to do with NGO boats arriving after being prevented from docking in Italy. The reality is that the number of migrants boats making the crossing to Spain from North Africa has soared, and this started before Italy stopped NGO boats from docking.
Immigration is finally a hot topic in Germany, as the effects of Mrs Merkel’s disastrous and unilateral tearing up of the EU’s ‘Dublin protocol’ in 2015 start to be seen by more and more of its ordinary citizens.
Germany’s official opposition party in the Bundestag, the Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) party, has now reached the same popularity rating as the main socialist party (SPD). Depending on which poll you look at they are both running on about 20%, however the AfD’s popularity is increasing while the SPD’s ratings have fallen since the election last year.
OBSERVATIONS
Three years after the EU’s migrant crisis which reached its peak in summer 2015 to spring 2016, the EU continues to struggle with solutions. This is despite its regular pronouncements of unity.
EU’S FAVOURED COUNTRIES CAN BREAK THE RULES
Whilst the EU Commission is obsessed with punishing member states such as Hungary and Poland for alleged transgressions of EU law, other member states have been breaking EU laws and protocols with apparent impunity.
On the one hand the EU Commission is pursuing Central European member states for refusing to accept migrant quotas, while on the other hand it has turned a blind eye to other states erecting border controls within the supposedly open border Schengen area.
Now it seems that Germany is ready to take further unilateral action, as it eyes large and increasing numbers of predominantly young African men entering Spain illegally. It believes, with some justification, that many of these men will make for Germany. Those who do not will travel up through France in an attempt to make it across into the UK.
MEANWHILE, UK IS TOLD “WE HAVE RULES”
In the meantime, the EU Comission is constantly telling the UK that the EU is an institution of inviolable rules and order, and that these must be obeyed by the UK within any Withdrawal Agreement.
Once again, the reality of the EU is very different to that which is imagined by Remainer MPs. We only wish they would start educating themselves. We’re happy to help any open-minded MP who has previously supported Remain.
[ Sources: EU Commission | UN International Organisation For Migration (IOM) | Bild Am Sonntag ]        06.55am, 06 Aug 2018
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 THE TIME PARTY
BRITAIN’S NEWEST POLITICAL PARTY
SPEAKS TO BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG FIRST
The Time Party
talking exclusively to Brexit Facts4EU.Org
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH THE LEADER
OF THE TIME PARTY, ROBERT KIMBELL
On Wednesday 01 August, Britain’s newest political party – the Time Pary - was launched.
On the party’s first morning in the public limelight, Brexit Facts4EU.Org was granted the first media interview with the new party’s leader, Robert Kimbell.
BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
WITH ROBERT KIMBELL OF THE TIME PARTY
“Chequers is a complete capitulation and it doesn’t deliver a clean Brexit”
Photo right: Time Party Leader Robert Kimbell
F4EU: Why does the UK need a new political party?
 
RK: Because we are at a very unusual point in our history, in that the two main political parties who largely have been part of the past century have both become uncredible and divided.
And neither of them have a programme for the change in a form that the United Kingdom needs in order to proceed and become the competitive entity that it should become, as the World changes at this rapid pace.
F4EU:    It has taken UKIP around 25 years to get to where they are today, yet they have no MPs. What makes you think that you could drive the Time Party in a way that would be more successful in that regard?
RK:   There are two things. First of all UKIP is essentially a single-issue party, or has been driven by that single issue, which is Brexit. But more importantly they have been - as I understand them - not particularly well-organised and they have not allocated their funds in a particularly efficient fashion.
They have also spread their army of supporters too thinly, so that they’ve not been in the position to do what either the Greens did, which is to win one seat, or the Liberal Democrats did which is to win sixty-odd seats, by concentrating support in particular areas.
F4EU:    Is that what you plan to do? Concentrate geographically?
RK:   Well, I would love to be in the position to answer that, but that is actually privileged information in a sense, because that’s a strategy issue and one that we’re going to be developing over the next period of time before the next general election.
BREXIT
F4EU:    Your website makes clear that you are emphatically a pro-Brexit party. How do you intend to campaign on Brexit to assist in its delivery?
RK:   Essentially Brexit is out of all of our hands, it’s in the hands of the government.
All we can do is to promote a particular line that we feel is the most sensible line to promote, which is the conclusion of a free trade agreement with the European Union. And if that is impossible, then to go to WTO terms.
What we are keen on is a clean Brexit, so that we’re in a position to control the aspects of the things that have been discussed on numerous occasions, such as the borders and the ability to be able to strike free trade deals. It’s interesting that the Japanese have come forward yesterday with a proposal that they act as a sponsor for the UK to get involved with the Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement, which is huge.
F4EU:    What are your views on Theresa May’s Chequers Plan?
RK:   In simple terms Chequers is a complete capitulation and it doesn’t deliver a clean Brexit. All it does is lock us into agreements with the European Union, which we will then need to unravel later. So it’s actually going to be inhibitive.
F4EU:    There is much talk of a move to replace Theresa May. What would be the Time Party’s positioning on that? Will you be backing one or more Conservative candidates to replace Mrs May as Prime Minister?
RK:   I don’t think that we should be influencing the outcome of an internal Tory squabble over who they need as their leader. Indeed they’ve proven themselves from their past actions to be a political party unworthy of support.
If you monitor Twitter closely, the number of people who’ve said that they’ve spent their entire lives voting Conservative and will never do so again are legion. They’re looking for another home.
In order to answer your question directly, we would not be supporting any particular person for leader. We might have private preferences, but we wouldn’t be promoting those people.
F4EU:    What plans, if any, do you have to make sure that we do have a clean Brexit?
RK:   The more support we get as a political party the less support will be available for the other political parties and therefore they will start worrying about why they’re losing support. And that is their life-blood.
GENERAL QUESTIONS
F4EU:    Is your party intending to be a national party that will field MPs across the country?
RK:   We have a plan to stand in a range of seats in Great Britain, not in Northern Ireland at this stage.
F4EU:    You’re not part of the Westminster cabal. Does anyone in the party have any political experience? And if not, what are the pros and cons of this?
RK:   I think it’s a terrific advantage not to be part of the Westminster bubble and whilst at some point we’re obviously likely to attract some of these people into the party, we want this to be a people’s movement and not to be an elite-driven operation.
F4EU:    In terms of developing the party then, how are you planning to promote yourselves and get support?
RK:   We will be promoting it through social media platforms, and also on YouTube. We have a film crew waiting to assist with that.
F4EU:    Since you announced the launch last night, has there any mainstream media interest at all?
RK:   No, not yet, but I don’t think we will have much of that until we start making announcements that we’ve begun to develop a much larger membership. That was not possible until we launched so one will follow on from the other.
F4EU:    It costs a lot of money to launch a political party, doesn’t it?
RK:   I think that’s a misconception. People can fritter away a lot of money on the establishment of a political party, but if it’s done sensibly and with voluntary help, then obviously it’s not going to be so expensive.
F4EU:    Are you generating financial support from wealthy individuals, from company donations?
RK:   We’re not going to turn away donations - unless of course if they’re against Electoral Commission rules and those are stated in the public domain. However what we’re keen on doing is ensuring that we aren’t beholden to those who donate. They should not be dictating policy on the back of a donation.
F4EU:    Everyone says that – why should readers believe you?
RK:   Because that’s what we’re going to do.
WHAT DOES THE TIME PARTY STAND FOR?
“The Time Party intends to deliver lasting change in the United Kingdom that will benefit all of its citizens and residents. Structural reforms and improvements to the political system, society, the country’s infrastructure and economy are needed to achieve this aim.”
The party’s first two objectives are:-
  • To preserve protect and defend the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of the United Kingdom
  • To advance the well-being and safeguard the freedom of British citizens via democratic government
For Brexit, you can read about the Time Party’s approach here.
WHO IS BEHIND THE PARTY?
The party’s leader, Robert Kimbell has a significant following on Twitter, where he posts upbeat information on the UK in relation to the global scene. His background is in global executive search and management consultancy, and he has worked in London and the Far East.
The other founding members are Craig Whitington (Chief Operating Officer), Martin White (Treasurer), and Daniel Lee (Honorary President of the Youth Wing). You can read all of their profiles here.
OBSERVATIONS
Any new political party which is pro-Brexit will naturally be of interest to Brexit Facts4EU.Org readers. The Time Party has policies on all other major areas of public policy and is not presenting itself purely as a pro-Brexit party. Unsurprisingly in this interview our focus was on Brexit.
It’s important to note that the interview was time-limited because of the difficulties of scheduling Robert Kimbell’s time - as well as that of our editor - on the morning of the party’s launch. Nevertheless we thought you would want to know the essentials.
TRUE BREXIT
One thing is clear from our knowledge of the party’s leader. Robert Kimbell is a true Brexiteer. There is no question of him compromising on what most readers would consider to be the fundamentals, unlike people such as Michael Gove and others.
Kimbell is also a long-term analyser of the facts surrounding Brexit. Like us he draws on official sources and aims to present these in an accessible way using his personal Twitter account @redhotsquirrel.
Here is an example from the Time Party website:
“More than 40 countries around the world have offered the UK the opportunity of Free Trade Arrangements. The largest of these is the USA and the smallest the Maldives. On its own the USA has a larger economy than the EU and the combined economies of these 40+ countries amount to almost four times the economy of the EU27.
“90% of global economic growth is occurring outside the EU27 and we want Britain to capture some of that growth for itself.”
OTHER POLICY AREAS
Being party-neutral we will not comment on the new party’s policies other than those relating to Brexit. However it would be fair to say that all of these are in development. It was clear from our interview that Kimbell and his team are keen to put more meat on the bones as the membership grows and as members express their ideas.
Readers can go to the website of the Time Party, to learn more about its policies in non-Brexit areas. You can follow the party on Twitter at @TimePartyUK.
[ Sources: Robert Kimbell | The Time Party ]
     Journalists and politicians can contact us for the full list of links, as usual.
       08.15am, 05 Aug 2018
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Name: Roger, Hampshire, UK      Date/Time: 06 Aug 2018, 9.24pm
Message: Your article mentioned that the Time Party has Policies - this is incorrect as they are Proposals that the membership can amend into Policies.
Keep up the great work that enlivens our understanding of the EU juggernaut and the way our politicians are clearly lying to the electorate.
Name: Emajykay, Leicestershire, UK      Date/Time: 05 Aug 2018, 6.24pm
Message: This is now the 3rd party in a short time to come on stream looking to deliver Brexit with a centralist agenda: Veteran and Peoples Party & Sovereign. Why split the vote? If we didn't have a 1st past the post system this may work but without proportional representation it'll just split the vote and allow the likes on Corbyn to win by default.
I was generally waiting to see what Robert's party had to offer. Indeed I was really looking forward to it. One of their 1st manifesto commitments was a parliament in York for Yorkshire. Have we not got enough other issues to deal with in the UK. The West & South Yorkshire are not best pleased.
Name: Cornishstu, Cornwall, UK      Date/Time: 05 Aug 2018, 10.42am
Message: I am always a little suspicious when new parties pop up like this one. We would not have had a referendum if it wasn't for UKIP, whose voters then lent their votes to the conservatives when Cameron promised said referendum. I would also like to dispel the myth that they are a single issue party. Go read their manifesto I believe their latest one even looks to privatise the BBC. Call me cynical if you like but it's a little too convenient just as UKIP seem to be back on the rise and getting their act together. We need one party for the country to get behind if we are to change the current liblabcon face of politics and all this will do is split the vote and so we end up with the status quo.
Name: Steve, Yorkshire, UK      Date/Time: 05 Aug 2018, 09.33am
Message: Other than the obvious removal from the undemocratic organisation known as the EU, any party that chooses equality for people and doesn't elevate religious people above others I feel will do well, but the best way to succeed would be to adopt a system of crime and punishment similar to Singapore whereby people decide the punishments for common crimes, and thus create a just society to live in. Not only can we thrive economically like Singapore we could also be as safe as Singapore.

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 POLITICAL PYGMIES
WHERE ARE THE LEADERS?
Chequers                   © Stephen Simpson
CHEQUERS – ONE MONTH ON
A BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG REFLECTION
ON A LOW POINT IN BRITISH POLITICAL HISTORY
It is universally accepted that Brexit represents the most important change in our country for generations. It dominates the airwaves, as well as the newspaper and online columns.
In previous times of turbulence and conflict, leaders have emerged. They may initially have been controversial figures of their day, but history has often vindicated them and many are now looked upon as heroes.
A NATIONAL VACUUM
Alas in today’s world at a critical time in the United Kingdom’s history, Parliament (with a few notable exceptions) appears to be populated by pygmies – in intellectual, moral, and leadership terms.
THE CHEQUERS PLAN – A MONTH ON
It is over 2 years since the momentous EU Referendum, when we rapidly learnt that neither the government nor the civil service had put any plans in place for a Leave result.
It is over 1 year and 4 months since Theresa May finally invoked Article 50, after a 9 month delay.
And it is 1 month since the abject capitulation and abomination that is Theresa May’s and Olly Robbins’ “Chequers Plan” for (no) Brexit.
Let’s be clear. The Chequers Plan wasn’t merely a different nuance on an approach to delivering Brexit, it was a volte face. It is a plan for Remain, red in tooth and claw. Even if the EU accepted it, which they are not doing, it does not ‘take back control’ in any meaningful way. Here is how we described it a month ago:-
BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY
KEY IMPLICATIONS OF MRS MAY’S ‘SOFT REMAIN’ CHEQUERS PLAN
  • Free movement will continue forever, re-badged as “labour mobility framework”
  • Rules of the Single Market will continue, with UK businesses obeying EU laws in perpetuity
  • ECJ will continue to adjudicate these laws
  • UK must not compete against the EU - no lower taxes or other ways of making the UK more competitive in the future
  • UK will continue to apply the Common External Tariff on imports for many more years
  • At some undetermined future point, UK can apply its own tariffs for UK-bound goods only
  • UK will act as tax collector for the EU
  • The only possible trade deals would be almost worthless, as the UK would be negotiating under EU rules
BUREAUCRATS ARE NOW THE BOSSES
Chequers looks like a method to drag things out once again with a view to Brexit being abandoned completely as soon as the PM judges she can play the “well, it’s now too late” card.
It also put a group of unelected civil servants in No.10 called ‘the Europe Unit’ in charge of Brexit negotiations.
“the Europe Unit will have overall responsibility for the preparation and conduct of the negotiations”
- Theresa May, 24 July 2018
Two of the most senior cabinet ministers resigned in protest over the Chequers Plan, followed by numerous other ministers, parliamentary private secretaries, and even vice-chairmen of the Conservative party.
AND WHAT HAS HAPPENED SINCE?
Nothing. Possibly the most disastrous Prime Minister in modern history remains in her post. Her plan, drawn up by the unelected Remainer Olly Robbins and his colleagues, is still the official plan for ‘exiting the EU’ in under 8 months’ time.
Since Chequers, this plan has been touted to the EU Commission – who have rejected it – and to various government leaders in various capitals across the EU, who have supported the Commission’s position. Most recently on Friday, Theresa May visited French President Emmanuel Macron at his grace and favour island retreat in the South of France in an attempt to sell him her plan.
The silence has been deafening, with only off-the-record briefings from the French confirming that if Mrs May’s plan were a balloon, then it’s a lead-lined one.
WHERE ARE THE MEN OR WOMEN OF STEEL, STANDING TALL?
It appears that true Brexiteer MPs, and even Brexiteer MPs with less consistent reputations on Brexit, are happy to sit back and let the Chequers abomination be sold across the EU as official UK government policy for the remainder of the summer.
Our view is simple. Mrs May has now proved herself to be both incompetent and to be pursuing a Remain agenda. The country simply doesn’t have time for MPs to plot and scheme, working out what is the best moment for them personally to act.
This isn’t – or shouldn’t be – a time for MPs to think about their careers. This is rapidly becoming a national emergency.
Real men and women with a chance of becoming Prime Minister should now stand up tall and declare themselves. Honesty and openness are what the country is looking for. A sense that a person knows his or her mind and will march forward regardless of personal considerations would gain some respect, in a House of Commons which is woefully lacking in all these qualities.
We strongly believe that the public would get behind a true leader. And yes, this person would have to be a Brexiteer. We tried a Remainer and look how that turned out.
Time and again polls have shown the public just wants the government “to get on with it”.
Well that’s what we’re now saying to any pro-Brexit MP with the ambition to lead us to the basic, true exit from the European Union which the majority voted for in June 2016.
[ Sources: UK Government ]
     Journalists and politicians can contact us for the full list of links, as usual.
       07.15am, 05 Aug 2018
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Name: Chris, Devizes, UK      Date/Time: 06 Aug 2018, 10.34am
Message: Replying to Big Mach: Useful info. Let's hope it all pans out as you describe. Hungary should also be very sympathetic to the Brexiteers of course. An FTA based on the Canada model would be ideal. I think that Boris would make the best PM, with JRM and John Redwood interchangeable as Chancellor and Brexit Secretary.
Name: Big Mach, Cheshire, UK      Date/Time: 05 Aug 2018, 4.46pm
Message: It is not enough to get 43 MPs to submit letters to the 1922. There must also need to be 159 MPs who are prepared to vote against May in a confidence challenge.
At least one senior Conservative in the Lords is now saying that they have the numbers and I have heard from other sources, not just Simon Heffer, that it is 100% certain that May will be gone by the Autumn. Timing is everything and it seems that the failure of her Chequers plan in both the EU and at home will trigger the challenge.
When May is replaced, the 5th column on the Conservative back benches, with the support of the Labour Party, will initiate a humble address to extend Article 50. This can only be done if all 27 members of the EU agree and I doubt that they will. I suspect that Italy would be happy to support those of us who want a clean Brexit and will therefore refuse to agree to do the bidding of the establishment. France may also take a stand. We will then leave on March 2019 with a hastily assembled FTA.
Name: Grumpy Brexiteer, Croydon, UK      Date/Time: 05 Aug 2018, 12.43pm
Message: It is imperative that Mrs May is replaced before before she signs a Withdrawal Agreement that is legally binding on the UK. Otherwise she will give away our money, agree to ridiculous terms as an Irish border backstop and accept ECJ jurisdiction over UK affairs.
Name: Chris, Devizes, UK      Date/Time: 05 Aug 2018, 11.10am
Message: An excellent summary.
Under the 1922 Committee rules, a leadership contest can only be held 'when practical', so that means when Parliament reconvenes in September. We just have to hope that Tory MPs are holding off submitting their letters before then, just in case the Whips try to intimidate them. Apparently, JRM is coordinating a WhatsApp group for the Brexiteers. You have to wonder has there ever been a worse PM than May? Chamberlain springs to mind of course, but I think he was just trying to maintain peace, rather than actively subvert democracy as May is doing. I think that if the Speaker was truly neutral (and not an arch Remoaner), May would have been forced to resign by now for constantly lying to the House (and the people).
 EU MATHS
FOR REMAINER MPs
THE EU AND THE ‘TIP OF THE ICEBERG’
EU announcement yesterday
HOW €3 MILLION FOR SPANISH BORDERS
BECOMES €810 MILLION
A small example of how the EU doesn’t want you to know the big picture
Yesterday the EU Commission announced an extra €3 million in emergency aid to Spain, in response to the huge surge in arrivals of illegal African migrants this year.
“The Commission stands side by side with Spain and fully supports the efforts of the Spanish Government to develop an effective response to the increased number of arrivals in the past months and to protect the external border of the European Union, in particular the coast of Andalusia.”
“The European Commission and the Government of Spain considered it necessary to increase cooperation with all African countries of origin and transit in order to further develop their capacities to manage their borders and address the root causes of migration.”
- EU Commission statement, 03 August 2018
SO WE START WITH €3 MILLION, ANNOUNCED YESTERDAY
This assistance will mainly support the costs linked to the deployment of extra staff from the Guardia Civil to the southern borders of Spain.
€3 MILLION BECOMES €28.6 MILLION
The amount of €3 million which was announced yesterday was on top of another EU emergency aid package for migration issues last month to Spain of €25.6 million.
This brings the total to €28.6 million.
€28.6 MILLION BECOMES €83.6 MILLION
In addition to the €28.6 million, there is also an EU grant of €55 million for an EU-funded ‘border management programme’ for Morocco and Tunisia, approved under the EU’s Emergency Trust Fund for Africa. This is designed to prevent illegal migration from those two countries into Spain.
So the headline news announced by the EU Commission yesterday of €3 million is in fact already €83.6 million, of which 66% is being spent on two north African countries outside the EU.
So the total is now €83.6 million, but it doesn’t stop there.
€83.6 MILLION BECOMES €775.3 MILLION
The financial assistance from the EU referred to above comes on top of €691.7 million allocated to Spain under the EU’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and the EU’s Internal Security Fund (ISF).
Please note that all of this analysis only refers to EU expenditure on (mostly illegal) migration.
This brings the total up to €775.3 million – over a quarter of a billion euros.
€775.3 MILLION BECOMES €810.3 MILLION
In the current ‘MFF’ budget cycle the EU has allocated up to €890 million to Morocco and up to €886 million to Tunisia, as part of its “European Neighbourhood Instrument” (ENI) bilateral assistance.
Note that this only refers to the ‘ENI’ and does not include other EU funding programmes for these countries.
Of the EU’s European Neighbourhood Instrument funding, an extra €35 million was specifically dedicated to migration issues in the case of Morocco. The specific migration-related funding for Tunisia is not provided.
Looking at some of the other alleged uses of these “Neighbourhood Instrument” funds, such as “gender equality” and “social protection” programmes, it might be asked whether in fact other parts of the €1.78 billion being provided to Morocco and Tunisia under this set of funds alone are not also being used by those two governments for migrant issues, regardless of their intended use.
Sticking to facts available from the EU Commission, however, we can only add an extra €35 million to our total in respect of migration, even though the actual amount from this source of EU funding will undoubtedly be much higher.
This brings our running total of EU funds to prevent illegal immigration into Spain from North Africa to €810.3 million in respect of migration issues.
© Facts4EU.Org 2018
THERE CAN’T BE MORE, SURELY?
Oh yes, there’s more. Spain has been allocated €37.4 billion from European (ie ‘EU’) Structural and Investment Funds (ESI) for the period up to 2020. This compares with just €16.4 billion for the UK, despite the UK being larger in almost every respect.
It is inevitable that Spain will use at least a small part of this funding for infrastructure in relation to the management of its borders.
AND FINALLY
"The Commission will continue to show solidarity with Spain, which proved an exemplary European spirit when faced with migration challenges, and is ready to provide further financial or technical assistance.”
In other words, more monies will be forthcoming from the EU to Spain, as the crisis there worsens.
And for the avoidance of doubt,
these 'EU funds' are being paid for by the UK taxpayer.
OBSERVATIONS
DEAR REMAIN-SUPPORTING MP,
We know you’re busy, and perhaps you don’t have time to study the true picture of what the EU does each week.
The problem is that you insist on pronouncing about the EU, without having this fundamental knowledge which the electorate might expect you to have.
FACTS ARE GOOD – THEY GIVE YOU CREDIBILITY
Here at Brexit Facts4EU.Org we have this strange principle that we don’t talk or write about matters unless we’re pretty sure we know what we’re talking about. But hey, call us old-fashioned.
We have been researching, condensing, and producing thousands of facts in the last 3 years, most of them directly from the EU itself. We haven’t manipulated them; they are real.
Yesterday if you saw the EU’s announcement of an extra €3 million in emergency funding for Spain, you probably dismissed it as being too small to take notice of.
Well we’ve given you a wider picture above. We’ve shown you, using one small example, how €3 million is just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve shown you how this €3 million is in fact part of EU funding for Spain – purely in respect of the EU’s migrant crisis – of more than €0.8 billion.
That’s 270 times larger than the headline figure in their tweet above.
IN MIGRATION TERMS, SPAIN IS SMALL PATATAS
Spain is a country which until this year has suffered a relatively tiny amount of illegal immigration, compared to Greece and Italy.
This should give you some idea of the horrendous costs the EU is incurring, thanks to a crisis caused in major part by the wild announcement of Angela Merkel in 2015 that she was unilaterally tearing up the EU’s Dublin Protocol, with no agreement from other countries.
WHERE WAS YOUR CHANCE TO SCRUTINISE AND VOTE ON ALL OF THIS?
Crucially, there has been no possibility for you to scrutinise any of this in Parliament. Next time you stand up and demand a ‘meaningful vote’ on Brexit, or call for a second referendum, we respectfully suggest that you might first reflect on just how powerless you are in the face of the EU machine.
You might also want to become someone who has knowledge of the facts, before you start speaking.
There is still time for reasonable politicians who supported Remain to alter their position based on all the facts that have emerged since the Referendum.
We urge Remain-supporting MPs to think again, before it’s too late. Don't be on the wrong side of history.
[ Sources: EU Commission ]        06.55am, 04 Aug 2018
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Name: Brexiteer, Braintree, Essex, UK      Date/Time: 04 Aug 2018, 11.37am
Message: The EU is only interested in the European project, the Euro is what binds them they will do anything to protect the Euro and countries that use it. They have got to have more EU to try and make the Euro work. Spain has massive problems, high unemployment, banks that are exposed to toxic debts from housing development. But they are members of the Euro, so must be supported and bailed out at all costs, failure to do so would see the Euro fail, and bring down the whole European project. As France and Germany are the driving forces behind the EU and the Euro they will spend and do anything to keep the single currency afloat. Immigration from Africa is welcomed, the socialist government of Spain is spouting the same mantra that Merkle has to unlimited immigration "we need immigrants because of our low indigenous birthrates, we need these immigrants to pay our pensions". The same tactics that were used by NGO's to bring migrants into Italy are being used to bring migrants to Spain, people smugglers tipping off coastguards and NGO's after boats have been launched from Morocco so they get "rescued" and brought to safety. The UK taxpayer is not only supporting himself, benefits recipients in the UK, but benefits for Africa as well as overseas aid no wonder the level of taxation in the UK is the highest in 40years.
Name: J Slater, Essex, UK      Date/Time: 04 Aug 2018, 10.28am
Message: I don't get it. Why on earth is the EU spending vast sums to protect external borders, e.g. Andalucian coastline of Spain (810 Million Euros) and YET at the same time the EU are signatories to the Marrakesh Agreement, which invites Africans legally to come into the EU? They are sending mixed messages to the African people and to us. The only conclusion I can form is the whole 810 Million Euros is a pretence that the EU Bureaucrats are solving a problem which actually is of their own making.
Reply: Yes, the Marrakesh Agreement is one of many items on our list to tell readers about. As ever it's a question of resource. We'll get there.
Name: Don, Brisbane, Australia      Date/Time: 04 Aug 2018, 08.38am
Message: I'm emailing to say your site appeals because it covers issues which resonate even in our part of the world. Good luck with what you're doing. I think most of us would love to see the UK back as an independent country again. I found your articles a few months ago on Australia's trading relationship with the European Union very interesting, thanks.
Name: Suzie Q, Lancs      Date/Time: 04 Aug 2018, 08.27am
Message: Loved this. I know you say it's a small example but its a really good one and it shows we don't know how the EU spends our money. Also shows Remoaner MPs they have no control while we're a member. Some of them sound so stupid when they talk about 'democracy' in parliament when they can't even vote on stuff whilst we're members of the EU! Pathetic!!! Another great artcile thank you.
 BARNIER DOUBLES DOWN
ON FLAWED CHEQUERS PLAN
EU UPS ITS UNION-WIDE PROPAGANDA,
PM MEETS MACRON
Yesterday the EU’s Chief Brexit Negotiator upped the Brexit stakes again, sending an opinion piece to newspapers right across the Union.
In it, Monsieur Barnier reiterates the EU’s opposition to the central premises of Theresa May’s Chequers Plan. He also states categorically what Mrs May continually denies, and wholly vindicates the analyses that we and most other commentators have produced.
A BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY - BARNIER'S OP-ED PIECE
  • “UK would stay in our Single Market and Customs Union until 31 December 2020”
  • “We will not know what the future relationship will bring by Autumn 2018”
  • “We need to have a "backstop" solution in the Withdrawal Agreement. The UK agrees with this”
  • “[The UK] cannot ask the EU to lose control of its borders and laws”
Theresa May is insistent that under the Chequers Plan the UK will be out of the Single Market and out of the Customs Union, yet the EU states the opposite. Any reasonable interpretation of the post-Chequers White Paper makes it clear that the EU is right.
Monsieur Barnier states that the UK has agreed to a backstop agreement on Northern Ireland. He goes on to say that the EU are prepared to “improve the wording” of the backstop agreement. However any such agreement would be unacceptable to the people of the UK, despite any wording being ‘improved’, as it would involve a partial break-up of the United Kingdom.
In regard to Theresa May’s much-criticised proposal to collect import tariffs on behalf of the EU on goods destined for the EU, Monsieur Barnier makes clear that this would involve the EU losing ‘control of its borders’.
OTHER KEY STATEMENTS OF NOTE
“We need to find solutions for specific British territories, such as the UK's sovereign bases in Cyprus, and Gibraltar on which bilateral negotiations are ongoing between Spain and the UK.”
The status of both the UK’s Cyprus military bases and Gibraltar are the subject of bilateral agreements between the UK, and Cyprus and Spain respectively. Nevertheless they were included by the EU from the start of their pronouncements on negotiating guidelines last June, as we pointed out at the time.
Despite this, these two issues have received very little attention from the British media and little has been said by the British government on these matters.
OBSERVATIONS
THEY STILL WANT THE MONEY FIRST
Monsieur Barnier is fond of repeating that “the UK has agreed to honour all its financial obligations” and yet we hear no contradiction of this statement from the British government.
Putting aside the fact that no financial pay-off to the EU is required by the Treaties and should not in our opinion have been offered, Theresa May’s offer is – as far as we understand – conditional on agreement of all other withdrawal issues being agreed, in addition to being conditional on agreeing a future trading arrangement.
THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION
Despite this, all that EU27 citizens hear is that the UK has agreed to pay. Imagine how the peoples of the EU will react if we have a change of Prime Minister and a change of negotiating position, with the money being off the table?
EU citizens would of course see this as the UK reneging on a commitment. The government should instantly issue a rebuttal each time Barnier and others repeat their claim, stating that Theresa May has only agreed this in principle, subject to all the other issues being agreed at the same time.
It should also be clearly stated that there is no legal obligation for the UK to pay anything at all. The EU has never been able to come up with any legal justification for their demands, and trust us they would have done this had one existed.
MAY MEETS MACRON
Today Mrs May will meet President Macron of France at his French Presidential summer retreat in the South of France. During this visit she will aim to persuade him of the merits of her Chequers Plan. Last night a No.10 spokesman said that she will tell him that Chequers must be accepted.
Good luck with that, Theresa.
It must be said that we find it appalling that numerous government ministers including the Prime Minister herself are spending the summer on begging missions around the EU. This personifies the supplicant nature of May’s entire approach to Brexit.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org has said from the beginning that the EU would never offer any form of reasonable deal to the UK and we maintain this view. It continues to be our position that an exit on normal WTO terms should be the primary stance, with some side deals being negotiated on the rights of citizens, flights over each other’s territories, and other practical issues.
The EU’s main aim is and always has been to secure a Punishment Brexit. In this, they have found the perfect patsy in the form of Theresa Mary May.
[ Sources: EU Commission ]
       08.45am, 03 Aug 2018
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Name: Brexiteer, Braintree, Essex, UK      Date/Time: 03 Aug 2018, 12.43pm
Message: All that matters to Barnier and the EU is the "European Project", the UK has rejected this and wants to leave. He will try to make it as difficult and expensive as possible. The UK figures from the Economists for Free Trade Group published today show British exports to countries we trade on WTO terms with average 2.9% growth over the last 23 years, whilst growth to EU countries over the same period is 0.9%. The EU don't want to trade with the UK on WTO terms because they know outside their rigged market they cannot compete. Why is it Australia, New Zealand and Japan are desperate to form trade relations with the UK? It's because Britain as an advocate of free trade will help grow their economies and ours. The UK can buy many goods from these countries cheaper and the same quality as in the EU, without paying £8billion each year for the privilege, without free movement of labour, without signing away our sovereignty and legal system. To many other than our political class that sounds a no brainer.
Name: NOT4EU, London, UK      Date/Time: 03 Aug 2018, 09.33am
Message: I came across this statement on a Govt website when I was looking up something unrelated... "There will be no change to the rights and status of EU citizens living in the UK until 2021. You and your family can apply for ‘settled status’ to continue living in the UK after June 2021. The scheme will open fully by March 2019."
This is an admission that we will be under CJEU rules until 2021 as 'rights' will not change. There is not yet any agreement on any 'transition' period, and I think that the last formal 'proposal' was still Dec 2020. Further proof that we are being shafted.

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 GOVE HINTS AT EEA 'BREXIT'
BUT WHAT IS THE EEA?
Rt Hon Michael Gove MP
(AND WHY IT ISN'T BREXIT)
Another simple explainer from the Facts4EU.Org Team
Every six months or so, the question of membership of the ‘EEA’ and 'EFTA' is raised as a possible route to Brexit. This week a leak to the Financial Times gave details of a private dinner meeting attended by Michael Gove, former Vote Leave leader. One MP who attended told the FT:
“[Gove] was steering the conversation towards the EEA idea.
There's no doubt about that.”
SO WHAT IS THE EEA AND WHY IS IT SHOCKING IF GOVE EVEN CONSIDERS IT?
We look at some key questions.
  • What is the EEA?
  • What is EFTA?
  • Does EEA membership give the UK control of its own laws?
  • Does EEA membership stop freedom of movement?
1.  WHAT IS THE EEA?
Norway
Pop'n: 5.2 million
1/2 size of London
Iceland
Pop'n: 334,000
1/4 the size of Glasgow
Liechtenstein
Pop'n: 37,000
1/14th the size of Leicester
“The European Economic Area (EEA) unites the [27] EU Member States and the 3 EEA EFTA States (Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway) into an Internal Market governed by the same basic rules.
“These rules aim to enable goods, services, capital, and persons to move freely about the EEA in an open and competitive environment, a concept referred to as the four freedoms.”
- EFTA website
The European Economic Area (EEA) was set up in 1994 to extend the EU’s provisions on its internal market to the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries. Switzerland is a member of EFTA but does not take part in the EEA.
The EEA consists of the 28 EU countries, plus 3 non-EU countries of Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland. That’s 31 countries in total, but just 3 are not full members of the EU.
The UK is already member of the EEA by virtue of being a member of the EU.
2.  WHAT IS EFTA?
The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) consists of 4 countries: The 3 EEA countries of Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, plus Switzerland. The UK was a founder member in 1960, when EFTA was established. EFTA describes itself as:
“a framework for the liberalisation of trade in goods amongst its Member States” and “an economic counterbalance to the more politically driven European Economic Community (EEC).”
- EFTA
As EFTA countries like the UK started joining the EU, they left EFTA, which is why it now contains only 4 countries.
Over the decades EFTA has become more like the EU, with its own court adopting the rulings of the ECJ. EFTA’s countries are all members of the EEA (see below) except Switzerland.
3.  MEMBERSHIP OF THE EEA MEANS LIVING UNDER EU LAWS
Both Remainers and ‘soft’ Brexiteers have consistently spread the myth that if the UK left the EU but stayed in the EEA and also joined EFTA, then it would have escaped from the binding decisions of the EU’s Court of Justice (ECJ).
In theory it’s true that the EFTA court may shadow the ECJ and its decisions are only ‘advisory’, but the reality is very different.
Here is the Chef de Cabinet of the EFTA Court in Luxembourg, Michael-James Clifton, writing in a personal capacity and stating that EFTA’s ‘Surveillance Authority’ must :
“ensure that the EEA/EFTA States live up to their obligations under the EEA Agreement by fully, correctly and timely transposing the common Internal Market rules (the acquis communautaire) into their domestic legal order and by applying these rules correctly.”
He goes on to say:
“The EFTA Court was founded in 1994 and shall follow relevant ECJ rulings handed down prior to the date of signature of the EEA Agreement (2 May 1992). This aimed at ensuring that from the outset the Single Market playing field was perfectly flat. The EFTA Court is required also to pay ‘due account’ to all subsequent relevant ECJ jurisprudence.
“In practice, the EFTA Court makes no distinction between the two and pays equal regard to post 1994 ECJ case-law.”
EFTA is governed by the EFTA Surveillance Authority and the EFTA Court. Whilst the EFTA Court is ostensibly separate from the EU’s European Court of Justice (ECJ), in practice it adopts its rulings.
4.  DOES EEA MEMBERSHIP STOP FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT?
Put simply, no it doesn't.
Membership of the EEA means membership of the EU's Single Market, which means accepting the four freedoms including the freedom of movement of people.
Some have argued that there is an emergency opt-out clause contained within the EEA agreement, whereby a country can suspend freedom of movement. This is wholly disingenuous. This was drawn up for little Liechtenstein, a 'country' of only 40,000 people. And it is for emergency use only. Any idea that this clause could be used by the UK to suspend permanently the obligation for freedom of movement of citizens from the UK is completely implausible.
OBSERVATIONS
As stated above, Switzerland is a member of EFTA but not of the EEA. However Switzerland has over 120 bilateral agreements with the EU in relation to trade and other matters.
Any suggestion that the UK would wish to embroil itself in negotiations with the EU over a similar (or probably much larger) number of bilateral agreements is fraught with danger.
The EU is deeply unhappy with Switzerland’s current status and it’s certain that they would not wish to see another country go down this path. Specifically the EU is in dispute with Switzerland because of the principles of free movement and the single market.
The Swiss people had the temerity in 2014 to vote against free movement, which has put the country into increasing conflict with the EU ever since.
CONTINUING JURISDICTION OF A FOREIGN COURT, CONTINUING FREE MOVEMENT
A small minority of pro-Brexit campaigners have always advocated an EFTA/EEA arrangement as a halfway house on the way to full Brexit. They and an increasing number of Remainers suggest that converting to an EFTA/EEA status would somehow be easier.
However any possible EFTA/EEA option immediately comes up against the EU’s four freedoms including freedom of movement, and as EFTA themselves say: “the common rules of the EEA Agreement are updated continuously with new EU legislation.”
In effect, access to the Single Market via EFTA and EEA membership leaves the UK where it was in many respects, and it would still require an enormous amount of negotiation.
A look at the breakdown of the EFTA countries shows how strange it would be for the UK to join. Two of the four countries are tiny – Iceland with a population of 320,000 and little Liechtenstein with a population of just 37,000. The economies of Norway (5m people) and Switzerland (8m) are both very different to that of the United Kingdom.
CONCLUSION
EEA membership – and the associated membership of EFTA – is nothing but another poor relation to Brexit. The UK would continue to suffer free movement and would continue to suffer the indignity of its laws being made by a foreign court.
This is not any form of realistic Brexit.
NOTE: As with anything connected to the EU, the picture is always complicated. The above simplifies just some of the key problems with the EEA route, but the full picture is more complex.
[ Sources: EFTA | EEA | EU Commission | Personal legal opinion by Barrister Michael-James Clifton, Monkton Chambers, Chef de Cabinet of the EFTA Court]
       06.55am, 03 Aug 2018
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Name: Keith, Wiltshire, UK      Date/Time: 06 Aug 2018, 10.13am
Message: How can we get mutual recognition? Will the UK need this or can we get the necessary regulation and licensing bodies in place? I would have thought EEA/EAFT would have been ok for the implementation 2 years. Then there could be managed divergence of regulation.
Otherwise how do we manage aviation, pharmaceuticals, nuclear transport after no-deal Brexit?
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 HOW CENTRAL EUROPE IS WEAKENING THE EU, PRE-BREXIT
“THE COMMISSION’S DAYS ARE NUMBERED”
Viktor Orban with his family                                    © Viktor Orban
HUNGARY’S VIKTOR ORBAN SLAMS EU IN POSSIBLE BREXIT DIVIDEND
“Central Europe’s path is the path
of an alliance of free nations”
Now in his fourth term as Prime Minister of Hungary, Brexit Facts4EU.Org takes a look at the defiant views of Mr Viktor Orban and how they could help Brexit, if the UK had a pro-Brexit Prime Minister.
In particular we will consider the re-emergence of Central Europe – mostly former Soviet bloc member states – and how the region's values and ambitions cannot be easily reconciled with the EU as currently structured.
“The European elite has failed, and the European Commission is the symbol of that failure. This is the bad news. The good news is that the European Commission’s days are numbered.”
- Viktor Orban, Hungarian PM, 28 July 2018
So said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban during a keynote speech delivered in a predominantly Hungarian part of Romania at the end of last week.
Speaking to a gathering of ethnic Hungarians in what used to be part of Hungary, Mr Orban set out a vision of Europe which runs entirely counter to the direction of the EU elites based in Brussels, Berlin, Paris, Den Haag, and other Western European capitals.
Viktor Orban speaks with some authority. Below are the results of his latest victory, in the general elections held in May this year.
© Facts4EU.Org 2018
This was his fourth win in total, having first been elected in 1998, then a gap from 2002-2010, then elected again in 2010, 2014 and now 2018. The latest re-election of his Fidesz party coalition government produced a result giving him 2/3rds of the seats in the Hungarian parliament.
THE RELEVANCE TO BREXIT
There are significant elements to the political philosophy of Viktor Orban and his ruling Fidesz party which echo some of the views of a substantial proportion of those who voted Leave in the UK’s Referendum on EU membership in 2016.
On uncontrolled mass immigration and the concept of the nation state, Mr Orban’s words at Tusnádfürdő on Saturday would not have been out of place at a pro-Brexit rally in the UK. We summarise these below in this article.
‘MY ENEMY’S ENEMY IS MY FRIEND’
What is of interest to Brexiteers, perhaps, is the growing rhetoric coming from across the EU which challenges the core of the EU mindset, beliefs, and the entire direction of the EU’s whole ‘Projekt’.
Embodying this, Mr Orban could perhaps be said to be opening a ‘second front’ against the EU hierachy, drawing away resources and weakening it, as it tries to act tough on Britain and as it tries to proclaim its ‘unity’ and ‘solidarity’.
Hungary is a key member of the Visegrad Group (see below), which makes Mr Orban even more of a problem for the EU elites.
SO WHAT DID VIKTOR ORBAN SAY ON SATURDAY?
VIKTOR ORBAN'S SPEECH, 28 JULY 2018
“Central Europe is a region which also has a special culture. It is different from Western Europe”
“Every European country has the right to defend its Christian culture, and the right to reject the ideology of multiculturalism”
“Every country has the right to defend the traditional family model, and is entitled to assert that every child has the right to a mother and a father”
“Every Central European country has the right to defend the nationally strategic economic sectors and markets which are of crucial importance to it”
“Every country has the right to defend its borders, and it has the right to reject immigration”
“Every European country has the right to insist on the principle of one nation, one vote on the most important issues, and that this right must not be denied in the European Union”
“We Central Europeans claim that there is life beyond globalism, which is not the only path”
“Central Europe’s path is the path of an alliance of free nations”
“We can see that a shift to the right is a general trend across the whole of Europe”
On Trump:
“The European elite dismissed the US president’s goal to transform the multilateral world order – the world order based on multilateral agreements – into a system based on bilateral agreements”
“The US president has made good on his promises”
On the world we live in:
“Civilisations are entities of a spiritual nature. They are formed from the spirit of religion, the spirit of creative arts, the spirit of research and the spirit of business enterprise. These are the spirits that can form a civilisation”
“There is censorship, and political correctness is forced upon us”
On the EU:
“Instead of the spirit of business, today Brussels and economic regulations are ruled by the spirit of bureaucracy”
“We must face up to the fact that Europe’s leaders are inadequate, and that they’ve been unable to defend Europe against immigration”
“The European elite has failed, and the European Commission is the symbol of that failure. This is the bad news. The good news is that the European Commission’s days are numbered”
“Today the European Commission is partisan, because it sides with the liberals. It is biased, because it is working against Central Europe. And is not a friend of freedom, because, instead of freedoms, it is working towards building a European socialism”
On traditional values:
“In Christian Europe there was honour in work, man had dignity, men and women were equal, the family was the basis of the nation, the nation was the basis of Europe, and states guaranteed security. In today’s open-society Europe there are no borders; European people can be readily replaced with immigrants; the family has been transformed into an optional, fluid form of cohabitation; the nation, national identity and national pride are seen as negative and obsolete notions; and the state no longer guarantees security in Europe. In fact, in liberal Europe being European means nothing at all: it has no direction, and it is simply form devoid of content”
“The situation in the West is that there is liberalism, but there is no democracy”
“In Western Europe censorship and restrictions on freedom of speech have become general phenomena”
“Liberals see diversity of opinion as important up until the point that they realise, to their shock, that there are opinions which are different from theirs”
“Liberals’ vision of press freedom reminds us of the old Soviet joke: ‘However I try to assemble parts from the bicycle factory, I end up with a machine gun.’ However I try to assemble the parts of this liberal press freedom, the result is censorship and political correctness”
“Christian democratic politics means that the ways of life springing from Christian culture must be protected. Our duty is not to defend the articles of faith, but the forms of being that have grown from them”
“We are on the threshold of a great moment, and we’ll see whether or not it comes to fulfilment”
WHAT IS THE ‘VISEGRAD GROUP’?
The Visegrad Group of four Central European member states of the EU is so-called after its inaugural meeting in the Hungarian town of Visegrad.
The group is a formal alliance between Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. All four are members of both the EU as well as NATO, and have been working together on their agenda for economic, cultural, energy and military cooperation.
INFORMAL ALLIANCES
Since the election of the conservative ‘populist’ government in Austria in October of last year, ties between the Visegrad Group and Austria have clearly strengthened, with Austrian Chancellor Kurz attending its last summit.
Dialogue is also happening with the new eurosceptic ‘populist’ Italian government of Matteo Salvini and Luigi di Maio, since it was formed on 31 May this year.
In particular, common ground exists between the Visegrad Group, Austria, Italy, and even the Bavarian CSU government (part of Merkel’s coalition government), on the key question of EU immigration policy. This is also true of the Sweden Democrats – now the most popular party in liberal Sweden and likely to come top in their general election next month.
HOW THE EU MACHINE IS BEING OVERLOADED
The Central European member states are starting to occupy more and more of the EU Commission’s and EU Council’s time. The Commission is taking formal and serious action against some of the countries, in relation to their domestic policies and programmes. The reaction out of Poland and Hungary in particular has been robust and defiant.
“POLAND IS NOT NEEDED FOR THE EU”
These problems for the EU have steadily been escalating. One year ago this week we reported on EU Council President Donald Tusk’s appearance at a Polish court, where he was barely able to contain his anger.
Interviewed outside the Warsaw courthouse, EU Council President Donald Tusk said: “There is a question mark over Poland's European future today.”
“I do understand emotions of Poles who are concerned about courts, or Poland's future in the EU.”
Poland’s former prime minister continued: “It smells like an introduction to an announcement that Poland does not need the European Union and that Poland is not needed for the EU.”
“I am afraid we are closer to that moment.”
Photo right: EU Council President Tusk last year - screengrab © Polish TVP
 
With an unprecedented invocation of Article 7 of the EU Treaty, the EU Commission is now pursuing Poland through the Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ). The rebellious countries of the Visegrad Group have been threatened with having their EU funding withdrawn if they don’t start doing what Brussels wants.
IF IT WEREN’T FOR THE BILLIONS IN FUNDING....
In all of this it’s important to recognise that the countries we are talking of have been massive net beneficiaries of the largesse of Germany, the UK, and the small number of other countries which fund the EU in net terms.
Poland is by far the biggest net beneficiary of EU funds, receiving €8.6bn euros net in 2017 alone, according to EU Commission data. Hungary received €3.1bn net.
Were it not for the tens of billions which the EU budget has been pouring into the former communist Central European member states since they joined, it seems unlikely that these countries would retain much allegiance to the EU as currently constituted.
OBSERVATIONS
Many ‘political correspondents’ appearing on TV these days seem to be barely out of children’s television. Most of them will never have experienced the sense of constant vigilance - and sometimes fear – of being behind the old Iron Curtain, even for short visits.
Two of our team have, and it gives a different perspective when looking at the still-nascent democratic politics of former Soviet bloc countries.
Most British people have grown up in a relatively stable domestic world and are imbued with values commensurate with an established democracy. The citizens and politicians of Central Europe have had a different cultural and historical socialisation process.
Just as we deplore Theresa May’s evident and complete lack of understanding of the mindsets of the EU elites, and of the politicians of Western European countries, so it is important to view the comments of Viktor Orban in the context of a man who spoke publicly in the year before the wall came down, calling on Russian military forces to leave Hungary.
“HELLO DICTATOR”
This is how Viktor Orban was greeted by a clearly intoxicated EU Commission President Juncker at the start of an EU summit last year.
There are concerns about the state of true democracy in Hungary and some other EU member states, but these must be viewed against some of the actions and policies now being pursued by the EU. The latest attacks on freedom of speech on the internet are a classic example of this.
As the old saying has it: “People in glass houses…”
YOU CAN VOTE ALL YOU WANT
Readers only have to look at the number of referenda in EU member states which have been ignored and/or overturned in recent years, because ‘the people’ voted the wrong way. Here is just one example that most people have never heard of:
A referendum took place on 6th April 2016 in Holland about the ‘EU-Ukraine Association Agreement’. This was rejected by the Dutch people by 61%-39%. Months of discussions took place between the Dutch government and the EU. As ever with the EU, a fudge was organised whereby some wording was changed in the Agreement.
On 30 May 2017 the Dutch Senate gave final approval to the deal. The Dutch people were not given a further say on the matter.
BREXIT
For the past two years this anti-democratic approach has been clearly observable in the United Kingdom too, and some statements by MPs have been simply deplorable. MPs who can’t respect the vote of the people have no right to hold office, in our view.
When it comes to the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, do not be surprised if Hungary, Poland the other countries toe the line. Like Mr Trump in the USA, they will be putting the interests of their countries first. This means them keeping a very keen eye on the financial settlement of almost £40 billion which Theresa May appears to want to give away to the EU. After all, it's countries like those in Central Europe who will be the biggest beneficiaries.
If the Prime Minister had the slightest knowledge of - or interest in - foreign affairs, she might have arranged a meeting with the Visegrad Group by now. But then, that's a bit much to hope for.
We hope you enjoyed this different perspective on the state of the EU, seen mostly from the eyes of a 4-times elected leader 1,000 miles away, who holds a 2/3rds majority in his own parliament.
We would like to leave you with the words of a well-informed Brexit Facts4EU.Org reader: Mark Higgie. Mr Higgie was Australian Ambassador to the European Union, NATO, Belgium and Luxembourg from 2014-2017 and so he knows a thing or two.
“Before German Chancellor Angela Merkel picked a fight with her Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orbán in 2015 by opening the floodgates to a torrent of Third World migrants who had reached Hungary, she should have remembered the old line that a Hungarian is someone who enters a revolving door behind you and emerges in front of you.”
“The Euro-elite has never been more distant from ordinary voters than on the immigration mess of recent years, and it’s been Orbán not Merkel who’s been vindicated when it comes to voters’ views.”
You can read Mr Higgie's thoughts in full in a piece he wrote for the Spectator in June, which we highly recommend.
[ Sources: Hungarian government | Hungarian National Election Office | EU Commission | Dutch government | Polish TVP ]
       06.55am, 02 Aug 2018
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Name: Sylvia Lerigo, Northants, UK      Date/Time: 02 Aug 2018, 6.19pm
Message: After a two-day break from everything, my first port of call was to take a look on facts4eu site and I wasn’t disappointed. Not that I ever am. The article on Hungary’s PM Viktor Orban was uplifting and inspiring but also gave me hope for the future for if men like him can be bold, honest and unafraid in the face of the elitist bullies then maybe the human race has a chance. Suffice to say if only we had a NOBLE person like this as PM. Sadly we haven’t.
ONCE AGAIN your team have clearly burnt the midnight oil to deliver such valuable information denied us by the media and governments, who have ‘ME, ME, ME’ running through them like a stick of seaside rock. Viktor Orban may just be the man we need to help our PM wake up from her trance of appeasement. Keep up the excellent work, as always much appreciated. A further donation of £25 goes to you today, without you we would be like mushrooms piled high with manure on a daily basis, and kept in the dark.
Name: Shieldsman, Surrey, UK      Date/Time: 02 Aug 2018, 11.58am
Message: Not a word from the BBC on the disenchantment of the Visegrad Group. To them its all a big happy family. The sticking plaster is the billions of Euros pouring in from Brussels.
Name: Patrick F, Kent, UK      Date/Time: 02 Aug 2018, 07.40am
Message: Another outstanding piece, thank you.
£25 donation sent, to be spent on doughnuts please.
Doughnuts are not to be confused with TM's Cabinet.

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 'THE FACTS ABOUT CHEQUERS'
Ross Thomson MP                              © R Thomson
THE THOUGHTS OF SCOTTISH CONSERVATIVE, ROSS THOMSON MP
On Monday, the Scottish Conservative MP for Aberdeen South, Ross Thomson, wrote his thoughts on Theresa May’s Chequers agreement.
A BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY - Ross Thomson's views on the Chequers plan
  • It’s the status quo but with none of the benefits
  • This is staying in the single market in all but name
  • The U.K. will become a voiceless rule taker
  • The U.K. will still be subject to rulings of a foreign court
  • It’s an opening offer to the EU to be compromised and watered down
  • If Brexit is not delivered properly there will be consequences at the ballot box
Mr Thomson wrote his comments on Theresa May's Chequers plan as a Twitter ‘thread’, which means a large number of individual tweets because the number of characters per tweet is limited.
Many of our readers don’t use Twitter so we have converted Mr Thomson’s thoughts into ‘long-hand’ and they appear below. Please note that whilst this looks like an article, it was written as a series of points. Nonetheless we think it reads well and that Mr Thomson condenses many important observations about the Chequers agreement.
We have only turned abbreviations into full words and added obvious link words. Other than that, the headings are ours, to break things up and make Mr Thomson’s piece easily readable.
THE CHEQUERS PLAN - THE VIEWS OF ROSS THOMSON MP
“The spin around the Chequers Plan is that it is a pragmatic compromise deal. It’s simply not.
Rather it’s an ‘evolution’ of the PM’s clear pledges at Lancaster House. It’s the status quo but with none of the benefits. So here are the facts about Chequers and what it means.
When we leave the EU’s institutions we will sign up to the EU’s rule book on goods and agri-products, meaning that the UK will have to apply the same bureaucratic EU rules to all goods produced domestically for the UK market. This is staying in the single market in all but name.
A VOICELESS RULE TAKER
Not only will we stay tied to bad regulations such as the EU ban on hoovers with motors more powerful than 900w, but we will also be compelled to follow future EU regulations. Having left the EU’s institutions where these rules are decided, the U.K. will become a voiceless rule taker.
It’s argued that in future the U.K. can choose to diverge from EU rules. Yet as set out in the White Paper our refusal to implement regulations or to change them will result in consequences, with the EU imposing penalties.
UK SUBJECT TO RULINGS OF A FOREIGN COURT
The proposed independent arbitrator will act as a postbox for referring issues to the ECJ and issuing judgments which simply rubber stamp the ECJ’s rulings. Thereby the U.K. will still be subject to rulings of a foreign court.
Brexit should mean the supremacy of our Parliament. Yet with Chequers the ECJ will continue to work under the principle of the supremacy of the ECJ. Its scope won’t be limited to the EU rule book but also to environment, climate change, employment and consumer protection.
The PM pledged to end the rule of EU judges but Chequers means the ECJ will be the final arbiter in disputes about our £39bn Brexit bill, whether U.K. services regulations are deemed “equivalent”, and the wider workings of Brexit. This means ECJ jurisdiction in perpetuity.
FREE TRADE DEALS WILL BE LIMITED
The prize of Brexit is regaining our ability to sign new trade deals. However, being aligned to the EU’s regulations makes a free trade deal with the US difficult. The US will expect mutual recognition of each other’s regulatory standards which we won’t be able to offer.
CONTINUED FREE MOVEMENT
Brexit means taking back control of our borders. Yet a mobility agreement with the EU will again mean preferential treatment for EU nationals and even the White Paper indicates continued access to benefits for EU citizens after Brexit.
ALTERNATIVES TO THE CHEQUERS PLAN
We are told that the Chequers Plan should just be accepted (despite how bad it is) because no alternative plans have been submitted. This is total rubbish. Here are the alternatives:-
  • Status Quo
  • Comprehensive Free Trade Deal (preferred by all sides)
  • DExEU plan (worked on by David Davis based on the widely welcomed mansion house speech)
  • Chequers Plan (which pleases no one)
  • WTO rules (On which we already do trade with the US and China)
The Government should focus on the issues around the border between the U.K. and Ireland in order to secure a Advanced Free Trade Agreement (CETA +++). Currently a border already exists – in currency, VAT, excise duties and security which do not present any problems.
Using new technology as well as extending schemes such as the Authorised Economic Operator Scheme means any post Brexit customs checks can be done without a hard border. The EU insists on customs checks but in reality no U.K. or Irish government would ever accept a hard border.
THE CHEQUERS PLAN CAN ONLY GET WORSE
Remember that the Chequers Plan is not a deal. It’s an opening offer to the EU to be compromised and watered down. Already the EU is pushing the UK towards a combination of EEA and Customs Union membership which is an unacceptable undermining of the vote public vote to leave.
The commitments, promises and pledges given either at the dispatch box or in speeches by the PM have now ‘evolved’. In cute language that means the Chequers Plan hands away the prizes of Brexit. We will have the status quo but be worse off. It’s not in the country’s best interests.
VOTERS ARE UNHAPPY
Don’t just take my word for it. The Times recently reported that “By more than two to one, voters do not believe [Theresa May’s] plan keeps faith with the referendum result.” Polling since Chequers shows the Conservatives have averaged 37% and not led Labour in a single poll.
The voters are unhappy with the Chequers Plan and their confidence in the government’s ability to deliver Brexit has plummeted. The people by 17.4m voted for the U.K. to leave the EU. If Brexit is not delivered properly there will be consequences at the ballot box.
We’re told to back Chequers or we’ll get Corbyn. That’s ridiculous. In reality if we don’t deliver Brexit fully we will lose seats like Mansfield, Middlesbrough, Banff and Buchan and much more. To fail on Brexit will usher in the chaos of Corbyn.
THERE’S STILL TIME TO CHANGE
There is still time to ditch Chequers and take a different approach to deliver the Brexit articulated so well by the PM at Lancaster House.
It’s right that colleagues have voiced concern and I’ll work with them to constructively engage with the government for it to change course.”
OBSERVATIONS
Ross Thomson has been the Member of Parliament for Aberdeen South since the June 2017 general election. He’s the first Conservative MP elected for that constituency since the 1992 election.
As an MSP before becoming an MP, Mr Thomson was a Vote Leave spokesman in 2016, being one of the few members of the Scottish Parliament supporting Brexit.
He has spoken out many times on the subject of Brexit and we felt it appropriate to highlight his contribution after reading his long series of comments on Twitter.
If you wish to tweet him to indicate your support you can do so using @RossThomson_MP.
We would not be surprised if this new MP goes places.
[ Sources: Ross Thomson MP ]        11.20am, 01 Aug 2018
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Name: Brexiteer, Braintree, Essex, UK      Date/Time: 01 Aug 2018, 1.43pm
Message: The Chequers White Paper was stitched together by remainers in May's office, Robbins and Barwell. It leaves the UK tied to the EU as a vassal state, the reason is so that the UK cannot be a threat by competing with the EU. We don't need to pay money to trade, everybody else in the world seems to be able to survive quite well without free movement, customs union, and without single market access. The Chequers White Paper is not the only game in town, despite what May says, and as for all this madness about no food, no sandwiches, what planet are these people on? Who pedals this fake news? When it was revealed that the boss of sandwich maker Greencore, Patrick Coveney, a Dublin company, is the brother of Deputy Taoiseach Simon Coveney all becomes clearer. A no deal Brexit would hit Ireland very hard, so scare stories might be in their interest as the UK is their largest customer. There is no shortage of ingredients for sandwiches. Avocados, lettuce and tomatoes are grown all over the world other than the EU, I am sure producers will be queuing up to supply sandwich makers with raw goods at competitive prices. It has also been revealed that UK negotiator Robbins has been told not to tell other EU countries what a no deal would cost them. Well it might concentrate the minds of the Dutch Prime Minister Rutte that Holland sells one billion Euros of plants and cut flowers to the UK. The third biggest buyer of German cars in the world is the UK, I wonder how that will be received by car makers when a 10% tariff is imposed. Trying to railroad the UK into a bad deal will not work, there is too much information and informed people out there. This is a once in a lifetime decision for the UK we must get it right.

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 MASSIVE JUMP IN
NET PAYMENTS TO EU
UK’S NET CONTRIBUTIONS TO EU
SET TO SOAR 51% BY 2019-2020
Chancellor Philip Hammond            © UK Parliament TV
HM TREASURY OFFICIAL FIGURES SHOW UK CONTRIBUTIONS ROCKETING
The latest edition of HM Treasury’s “Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses” for 2018 shows a rapid and massive increase in the cost of UK net contributions to the EU budget.
Once again however, the Treasury has failed to show the UK’s additional payments to the EU for the EU’s ‘off-the-books’ funds. Had the done so, the picture would be even worse.
BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG SUMMARY OF HM TREASURY FIGURES
‘NET CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE EU’
  • 2016-2017 - £8.088 bn - actual
  • 2017-2018 - £8.777 bn - actual
  • 2018-2019 - £10.805 bn (forecast)
  • 2019-2020 - £12.221 bn (forecast)
© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2018
A 51% jump since the Referendum year
The official HM Treasury figures show that by 2019-2020, the UK’s net contributions to the EU will have soared 51.1% since 2016 when the EU Referendum was held.
These figures are based on the UK continuing to pay EU annual contributions until 2020, which is Theresa May's current policy.
CONFIRMATION FOR REMAINER MPS
It is a sad fact that any figures like those above are dismissed by Remain-supporting MPs as being distortions of some kind.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org is therefore showing below a screenshot of the table from HM Treasury, which proves the figures conclusively.
© Screenshot - from HM Treasury
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN IT LOOKS
Very regrettably, in its “Transactions with the institutions of the European Union”, HM Treasury continues not to show the additional payments to the EU which are made by the UK government.
In its summary of transactions with the EU, HM Treasury declines to give a total for these extra payments to the EU. These are payments which are to funds outside the normal EU annual budget.
We have repeatedly reported on several ‘off-the-books’ EU funds to which the UK contributes but about which nothing is said in the Treasury’s summaries.
This has the effect of disguising and artificially reducing the ‘total net contributions’ figure. The true total of payments which the UK makes to the EU each year is significantly higher.
These funds include the “European Development Fund” which is nothing of the sort – it’s an overseas aid fund not included in the EU’s official annual budget. This amounts to a total of 30.5 billion euros for the period 2014-2020 and the UK is contributing approximately 15% of this, making an additional £4 billion GBP of UK contributions to the EU.
There is also the “Facility for Refugees in Turkey”, which comes in at 6 billion euros and Theresa May has just agreed to pay the EU another tranche of £1/3 billion GBP to the EU as another payment towards this fund.
Finally, there’s the EU’s “Trust Fund for Africa” which totals another €2.9 billion.
OBSERVATIONS
We would like to ask readers when they saw the BBC, Sky News, or ITN report on a 51% increase in the UK’s net contributions to the EU, from the year of the Referendum to the year starting 2019, when the UK is supposed to be leaving?
Surely this is a massive story? Can you imagine the coverage if the story had been the other way around? Imagine if the UK's net contributions were going to fall by 51% instead of increasing by that amount. The BBC would have been all over it like a rash.
GETTING THE MESSAGE OUT
It is a fact that despite the rise in internet usage, the majority of British people continue to receive their news from the main television bulletins. In 2016 around 70% of people watched TV news, according to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University.
This is something which many MPs and the Westminster commentariat do not seem to appreciate.
Being heard on the morning Today programme on BBC Radio 4 may guarantee that MPs’ colleagues hear what they have to say, but it reaches a very limited number of the public.
If BBC TV news will not cover a significant story such as HM Treasury’s forecast of a 51% rise in the UK’s net contributions to the EU since the Referendum and up to the supposed end of Theresa May’s ‘Transition Period’, is this not a scandal?
THE KEY FACT TO REMEMBER
Above we mentioned the extra payments which the UK makes to the EU each year, which are never included in any of the summaries produced by Philip Hammond's discredited Remoaner Treasury mandarins. (Discredited because their Project Fear claims before the Referendum vote have proved to have been wildly untrue.)
Even without these additional costs of EU membership, the important fact to remember from this article is that HM Treasury forecasts :-
A massive 51% jump in the costs of EU membership
from the Referendum year to the year starting April 2019.
HAS ANY OTHER ORGANISATION COVERED THIS?
We would be interested to hear from any reader who read or saw the above facts anywhere else. We have not been able to find it anywhere.
If you would like us to continue to expose stories like the one above, then you probably know what we’re going to say next.
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[ Sources: HM Treasury | EU Commission ]
     Journalists and politicians can contact us for the full list of links, as usual.
       06.55am, 01 Aug 2018
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 COMING THIS MORNING
We are producing another very interesting article this morning - please come back shortly!
Best regards, the Brexit Facts4EU.Org team, August 2018
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