FBPE need to wind their necks in
By Pete North - April 21, 2021
If you look at the Brexit hashtag on Twitter lately, it’s usually wall to wall remainers posting just about anything if they think it vindicates their position. This week it’s the news that a trillion in banking assets have moved out of London.
It’s ironic that a movement that generally gravitates to the left on most issues should now be one of the staunchest defenders of global capital, but then it is a Blairist sort of crowd who want a big spending state and you can’t have that without the City of London.
As it happens the movements amount to about ten percent of banking assets held in London, and I’ve seen arguments that it’s even less than that. I’m not going to argue the toss. The fact remains that it is an economic loss, Vote Leave politicians did say the City would be unaffected, and though this loss was preventable, the loss is directly attributable to the mode of departure chosen by the Tories. You can have that one.
If I had the energy I might argue the toss over bivalve molluscs and it is my view that the “ban” is in contravention of WTO rules and eventually the EU will have to address the inconsistency. But whatever. It is still the case that our exports are being hammered because the Tories unwisely decided to quit the single market. You can have that one too.
Where I make no concession is on Northern Ireland. The news last night that a “viable” explosive device had been planted beside a car in County Derry, put there in an attempt to kill a police officer and her toddler daughter, can in no way be attributed to Brexit.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but police believe the New IRA dissident group is behind the attack, its first in over a year. But then this goes back as far as 2009, with the PIRA having an accomplished CV of these such attacks.
In May 2015, two bombs were found close to an Army centre in Londonderry, left 20 metres from nearby homes. In June 2015, a bomb was found under a police car in Eglinton, Londonderry. In August 2015, police say a mortar bomb found in a graveyard in Strabane, was an attempt to kill officers. That’s just a sample.
Though the NI Protocol has certainly exacerbate political tensions and provided a pretext for rioting youths in Belfast, the planting of IEDs is part of the background noise of the post-GFA “settlement” but generally goes unreported and unnoticed by the likes of FBPE. Only now it’s useful to them do they pay it any attention.
It should also be noted that there was an alternative to the Protocol in the form of Efta/EEA and leading FBPE voices campaigned against that and remainer MPs voted decisively against it. And Remainers should be very careful about pegging Irish republican violence on Brexit. The absence of such violence is the pretext for maintaining a sea border instead of a land border. If that deal is off, then so is the Protocol.
The one thing the situation doesn’t need is remainer Waitrose Warriors adding their ignorance to the mountain that already exists, pouring petrol on that particular bonfire. There is plenty of criticism that can be levelled at this government for its failure to implement the Protocol and observe the rule of treaty law. It can be criticised for wailing about the Protocol when they along with the ultra Brexit propagandists recommended it to the country. That’s all fair game.
Promoting the idea, though, that British people voting to reclaim their sovereignty from Brussels are in any way responsible for the long running campaign of terror by Irish “dissidents” is sick, cynical opportunism – and from people who ought to know better. It’s actually not surprising that even Keir Starmer had to distance himself from legacy remainers. They’ve become even more toxic than the Corbynistas.
