By Julian Lewis

Southern Daily Echo – 28 January 2019

For more than 40 years, politicians and big business have been in love with the European project despite its conveyor-belt to federalism. First, it was called the European Economic Community, then just the European Community, and finally the Europeans Union – designed to achieve a political superstate under a single European Government.

You hear nothing of this from desperate Remainers determined to reverse the Referendum result. Those who predicted ‘Disaster’ if we did not join the euro, and ‘Economic meltdown’ if Leavers won the Referendum, now cry ‘Catastrophe’ if we exit on World Trade Organisation terms.

Frankly, I don’t believe a word of it – and neither should you. Two years ago, Parliament voted overwhelmingly, and unconditionally, to trigger Article 50. This meant that our departure date was set as 29 March 2019, whether or not an exit deal was reached.

The Prime Minister assured us that “Brexit means Brexit”. This suggested that she would resist attempts to undermine or dilute what most people had chosen to do in the biggest ‘People’s Vote’ in our political history. She also declared that “No deal is better than a bad deal” – in other words that, if we could not reach a good departure deal with the EU, no deal would not be disastrous. She was right in both respects.

Normally, MPs take political decisions in Parliament on the basis of manifesto pledges and face the verdict of the voters, at the next election, on whether they exercised their judgement appropriately. This time it is different, because Parliament agreed in advance to be bound by the decision taken directly by the electorate in the EU Referendum.

Sadly, in Parliament we have a majority of Remain-voting MPs who are now trying to override rather than implement the Referendum result. They pretend to “respect the result” whilst straining every sinew to stop Brexit completely or to give us an alternative which amounts to Brexit-in-name-only.

Theresa May has told Parliament more than 100 times that we are leaving the European Union on 29 March. That date is enshrined in law and that law would have to be changed in order to alter it. Not one vote in Parliament is swayed by the endless empty rhetoric of people who made up their minds a long time ago. A Parliament of Remainers is trying to thwart the people’s vote to leave.

Fortunately, the British people are better democrats than many MPs. Rather than being bullied, they would vote to leave in even greater numbers if forced to endure a second Referendum. It would simply waste even more time. 'No deal' can actually lead to a very good deal – but only after we escape from the clutches of the European Union.