Britain leaves the European Union

[Blackleaf]

The UK has officially left the European Union after 47 years of membership - and more than three years after it voted to do so in a referendum.

The historic moment, which happened at 23:00 GMT, was marked by both celebrations and anti-Brexit protests.

Candlelit vigils were held in Scotland, which voted to stay in the EU, while Brexiteers partied in London's Parliament Square.

Boris Johnson has vowed to bring the country together and "take us forward".

Brexit: UK leaves the European Union

BBC News
1 February 2020

The White Cliffs of Dover in Kent announce Brexit has happened

The UK has officially left the European Union after 47 years of membership - and more than three years after it voted to do so in a referendum.

The historic moment, which happened at 23:00 GMT, was marked by both celebrations and anti-Brexit protests.

Candlelit vigils were held in Scotland, which voted to stay in the EU, while Brexiteers partied in London's Parliament Square.

Boris Johnson has vowed to bring the country together and "take us forward".

In a message released on social media an hour before the UK's departure, the prime minister said: "For many people this is an astonishing moment of hope, a moment they thought would never come.

"And there are many of course who feel a sense of anxiety and loss."

He said some had worried the political "wrangle" would not end but it was his job to take the country forward.

How did the UK mark the moment?

Brexit supporters held a party in Parliament Square

Brexit parties were held in pubs and social clubs across the UK as the country counted down to its official departure.

Hundreds gathered in Parliament Square to celebrate Brexit, singing patriotic songs and cheering speeches from leading Brexiteers, including Nigel Farage.

The Brexit Party leader said: "Let us celebrate tonight as we have never done before.

"This is the greatest moment in the modern history of our great nation."

Pro-EU demonstrators earlier staged a march in Whitehall to bid a "fond farewell" to the union - and anti-Brexit rallies and candlelit vigils were held in Scotland.

Police in Whitehall arrested four men and also charged one man with criminal damage and being drunk and disorderly, while in Glasgow one man was arrested.

Meanwhile, other symbolic moments on a day of mixed emotions included:

The Union flag being removed from the European Union institutions in Brussels
The Cabinet meeting in Sunderland, the first city to declare in favour of Brexit when the 2016 results were announced
A light show illuminating 10 Downing Street and Union flags lining The Mall
A 50p coin to mark the occasion entering circulation
The building of the UK government's delegation to the EU changed its name and sign

The government's EU delegation has changed its name from "representation" to "mission"

In Northern Ireland, the campaign group Border Communities Against Brexit staged a series of protests in Armagh, near to the border with the Irish Republic.

The Irish border - now the UK's land border with the EU - was a major sticking point in the Brexit divorce talks.

NI and the Irish Republic "will continue to remain neighbours", said NI First Minister Arlene Foster on RTÉ on Friday.

At 23:00 GMT, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted a picture of the EU flag, adding: "Scotland will return to the heart of Europe as an independent country - #LeaveALightOnForScotland".

Ms Sturgeon is calling for a new referendum on Scottish independence, arguing that Brexit is a "material change in circumstances".

Speaking in Cardiff, Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford said Wales, which voted to leave the EU, remained a "European nation".

Labour MP Hilary Benn, who chairs the Brexit select committee and backed Remain, said he was "sad last night... but we have to accept it".

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the UK was always a "reluctant" EU nation, adding: "We joined late and we left early."

Pro-EU campaigners take part in a "Missing EU Already" rally outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh

What now? It's happened.

A dreary night didn't discourage those celebrating in Parliament Square. We wake this morning out of the European Union. But we follow their rules until the end of the year, without a say.

We are separate after more than 40 years, but remember much of the status quo will hold for now - the UK and the EU, the awkward couple, finally divorced - but still sharing a house and the bills.

But what the prime minister hails as a new era, a bright new dawn, starts months of hard bargaining with our neighbours across the Channel.

The UK's requests: a free trade agreement, cooperation on security, and new arrangements for fishing are just some of the vital arguments that lie ahead.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51333314

Behind the scenes at PM's Brexit party: Boris Johnson told ministers and aides including an emotional Dominic Cummings 'we did it!' as they sipped English sparkling wine in No10 - but had to count down to historic moment himself after TV failed



Boris Johnson marked Brexit by drinking English sparkling wine with his team, including chief adviser Dominic Cummings, who is said to have been close to tears.


'Woken up to find the sky hasn't fallen in': Jubilant Tories welcome first day of Britain outside the EU after night when even Boris Johnson's DOG was celebrating alongside thousands at parties and pubs


Defence minister James Heappey joked that the 'sky has not fallen in', tweeting that it was a 'big relief'. Meanwhile, Steve Barclay and James Duddridge have expressed joy despite their jobs as Brexit Secretary and minister having been axed on the stroke of 11pm - when the government department was abolished. It has also emerged that even Boris Johnson's dog Dilyn was partying last night. The PM's partner Carrie Symonds posted a picture of their pet clad in a Union flag coat, apparently taken at a reception held in No10 last night.


Brexit got done! The UK FINALLY leaves the EU as Britons celebrate in jubilant scenes across the nation when clocks hit 11pm - from Nigel Farage in Parliament Square to ordinary people up and down Britain



On the stroke of 11pm, the UK officially divorced from the bloc after three years of bitter political struggle that split families and paralysed Westminster. Jubilant Brexiteers heralded the moment with celebrations across the country, including a flagship bash in London's Parliament Square where Nigel Farage led a chorus of God Save The Queen. The last moments were ticked off in a light show projected on to the famous black door of Downing Street, where Boris Johnson held a muted party for his staff after releasing a pre-recorded address to the nation. The Prime Minister hailed the 'moment of hope, a moment many people thought would never come' and said Brexit would 'unleash' the UK's potential - but warned there will be more 'bumps in the road'.


Party like it's January 31! Brits far and wide including in London, Warrington, Boston and Glasgow celebrate Brexit in style with festivals and pub crawls to mark history



Britons last night toasted in a new era for the UK outside the European Union with parties, pub crawls and rallies across the country. The celebrations got into full swing well before the 11pm, when Britain finally divorces from the bloc after three and half years of wrangling. From the central Leavers party in London's Parliament Square, to the social clubs of Warrington in the North West, merry revellers waved Union Jacks and wished each other a 'happy Brexit day'. People have also decorated their homes for Brexit-themed dinner parties and have erected British flags along their streets as the country comes together for an evening of revelry.

 

[Serryah]

Never looked that close to the results of Brexit until now; got curious as to the ages of the voters and the numbers.

Wonder if those who are old enough to remember the UK before the EU and after will notice a difference. Also wonder if they voted to leave because of how things went to begin with, or maybe disillusionment...

Also wonder what the younger generation will do now that the EU is gone. Will they give the UK on its own a chance or will it be a grudge held they won't let go of for a while.

Should be an interesting next few months to see what happens.

 

[Blackleaf]

The Brexit Party have left the Brussels headquarters for the final time. Led by Brexit Party member Anne Widdecombe and a piper on the ‘Brexodous Express’, they made a “farewell march” from the parliament building to the Eurostar.

Ms Widdecombe led the party’s departure after leader Nigel Farage left Brussels for the last time as an MEP on Wednesday evening following the final vote on the Withdrawal Agreement.

 

[Blackleaf]

Also wonder if they voted to leave because of how things went to begin with, or maybe disillusionment...

Maybe they voted to leave because they are older and wiser.

Also wonder what the younger generation will do now that the EU is gone.

Maybe they will do what youngsters in the 200 or so countries outside the EU do. There's a thought. How do kids in Canada or New Zealand or Japan or Norway or Switzerland get by without being in the EU? Is it such a burden?

The younger generation has, of course, been brainwashed by teachers at school into believing the EU is the greatest thing since sliced bread. They haven't thought for themselves. Of course, they won't always be young. They'll grow older eventually and start to form different opinions.

 

[Blackleaf]

Let Britain not be the last to leave

The battle for Brexit has shown the EU is incapable of change.

PATRICK WEST
31st January 2020
Spiked

So the day of liberation has finally arrived. Or the day of isolation. It depends on your political persuasion. Today marks the date the UK finally leaves the European Union. What a glorious time to be alive. Or what terrible times we live in.

In truth, many Brexiteers will today have some pangs of regret. As joyous it will be to sever our association with this wretched, bullying, anti-democratic behemoth, there will still be that nagging feeling that we are parting ways with our continental European cousins (some of whom suffer from the delusion that the EU is the embodiment of Europe). There will also be the remorseful reflection that it didn’t have to come to this.

If only the EU had been a little more conciliatory and less dictatorial in the past three-and-a-half years. If only it had listened more and hectored less, then many liberal Brexiteers would have been prepared to listen. Maybe if the EU had given David Cameron some return of powers in 2013, as he asked for, many Britons would have felt placated, satisfied that they had ‘taken back control’. Maybe if Tony Blair hadn’t let in two million migrants, who he hoped would be cheap labour for big business and potential Labour voters, but whose presence also alienated a lot of people in northern towns.

Maybe if those who had voted for Brexit hadn’t spent the past three-and-a-half years being told that they were thick, low-information, racist, soon-to-be-dead rogue and peasant slaves. Even then we might – just might – have been persuaded of the virtues of a second referendum. But that haughty misnomer, ‘The People’s Vote’, gave it away. A small, noisy, arrogant coterie of intransigent Remainers thought they knew what was best for ‘the People’, an abstract noun so beloved of dictators who believe they know what’s good for folk.

Their recent spiteful and bilious behaviour as they have realised the end is nigh – the petulant ‘Bollocks to Brexit’ sloganeering, the tears and collective mental breakdown witnessed in the European Parliament on Wednesday, Terry Christian wanting elderly Brexiteers to die of the flu and for the rest of us to lose our jobs – are symptoms of babyish fanatics who weren’t to be reasoned with in the first place.

To be fair, Christian and the like represented a hardcore minority. And maybe a compromise could have been reached. But in truth, compromise was never going to happen between the UK and the EU. The European Union dogmatically adheres to its ‘four freedoms’: the free movement of goods, labour, services and capital over borders. These have been enshrined in a number of treaties, including the Maastricht Treaty of 1992. They are inviolable, being the logical consequence of the desire to create a united Europe, which was the real endgame of the so-called Common Market in the first place.

Today, the first of the EU’s members has declared self-determination and a return to democracy. Let it not be the last.


The EU is not Europe

It is perhaps ironic that this year marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven, whose last movement from his 9th Symphony – ‘Ode To Joy’ – has been appropriated by the EU as its anthem. This is characteristic of the organisation, which likes to portray itself as an inherently benign force, the guarantor of peace on the continent and the custodian of European civilisation (even though it can’t agree to have any real symbols of European civilisation on its banknotes for fear of causing denominational competition – a symptom of the EU’s inherent instability).

Beethoven, who brought classical music from the classic era to the romantic, and who invented the ‘shock and awe’ symphony as we know it today, is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers, if not the greatest composer. But he’s more than that. He is the quintessence of both German and European civilisation. He is of the Pantheon that includes Plato, Da Vinci, Shakespeare, Voltaire, Mozart, Picasso and the rest: creative geniuses who gave us our civilisation’s finest art, music, literature, philosophy and architecture.

They represent Europe at its apex of genius and creativity. They have nothing to do with the EU, which has given us tariffs, directives, treaties, legalese, harmonisation laws, centralising technocracy, external borders, economic misery in Greece, and endless speeches from bureaucrat-kings. It is worth repeating this, because people continue, willingly or not, to make the confusion: the EU is not Europe. We are leaving the former. We remain at the heart of the latter.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/01/31/let-britain-not-be-the-last-to-leave/

 

[pgs]

Maybe they voted to leave because they are older and wiser.



Maybe they will do what youngsters in the 200 or so countries outside the EU do. There's a thought. How do kids in Canada or New Zealand or Japan or Norway or Switzerland get by without being in the EU? Is it such a burden?

The younger generation has, of course, been brainwashed by teachers at school into believing the EU is the greatest thing since sliced bread. They haven't thought for themselves. Of course, they won't always be young. They'll grow older eventually and start to form different opinions.

Has the world as we know it come to an end yet ?

 

[Blackleaf]

Has the world as we know it come to an end yet ?

Nah. The world's still fine.

The only thing that's changed is the EU is now 94,000 sq mi (a quarter of a million sq kms) smaller, 66 million people smaller and $3 trillion poorer.

 

[Colpy]

 

[taxslave]

The UN is next on the list of useless parasitic institutions to abandon.

 

[DaSleeper]

I hope Blacky doesn't get screwed when he changes his euros to pound sterling!

 

[Blackleaf]

I hope Blacky doesn't get screwed when he changes his euros to pound sterling!

There's not much difference between the two currencies. They are almost at parity. One pound is one euro and 19 cents.

The major difference is that the 19 member states of the EU which have the euro aren't able to control their own interest rates to suit their economies as Britain can. All the member states have the same interest rates set by the ECB in Germany to suit the German economy.

 

[pgs]

You can probably go back further . Agincourt .

 

[pgs]

There's not much difference between the two currencies. They are almost at parity. One pound is one euro and 19 cents.

The major difference is that the 19 member states of the EU which have the euro aren't able to control their own interest rates to suit their economies as Britain can. All the member states have the same interest rates set by the ECB in Germany to suit the German economy.

One of the reasons that it is bound to fail .

 

[Blackleaf]

You can probably go back further . Agincourt .

The Battle of Agincourt, whilst a notable English victory, was part of the Hundred Years' War, which England lost.

 

[Blackleaf]

One of the reasons that it is bound to fail .

The one-size-fits-all policy doesn't work. It's set up to suit the German economy at all times and not the others. Britain was right to stay out of the euro. Blair wanted Britain to join, but the then Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown told him it would be better if we kept the pound.

 

[Blackleaf]

Mainstream Media’s Lies About Brexit EXPOSED

Now that the UK has officially left the EU, we look at how the BBC, Sky News and other outlets have conducted the Brexit debate since the referendum. Last night's celebrations included a rally in Parliament Square as well as an official speech by Boris Johnson from Downing Street. In this video, we’re joined by Douglas Carswell.

Remainers’ EMBARRASSING Meltdown Over Brexit Becoming International Law.

European Parliament have officially voted for Brexit and Remainer MEPs seemed a bit upset. But insulting the British flag was unnecessary. A special thanks to all Brexiteers who made this happen, from Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson and to all ordinary people out there who came out and campaigned. The EU now has a difficult road ahead while Britain becomes a global nation.

 

[Blackleaf]

Anyone watching the second video will likely be shocked to discover that you can't use the word "hate" in the EU Parliament, according to Speaker Mairead McGuinness (Rep of Ire) in response to Farage saying he "loves Europe but hates the EU." Also banned is the waving of a national flag, as the Brexit Party discovered - the EU hates the nation state, of course.

MEPs all around the Parliament got up and started singing Auld Lang Syne to show they are against Brexit. Singing in the EU Parliament is forbidden, yet Speaker McGuinness allowed them to continue. It seems anti-Brexit MEPs are allowed to break the rules!

While Auld Lang Syne was being sung, Britain's Brexiteer MEPs defiantly cracked open the bubbly, just ignoring them.

Dramatic scenes in the EU Parliament.

All I can say is: "Thank God for Brexit." Now you know what we have had to put up with.

 

[Blackleaf]

They are not your friends anymore! Dominic Raab orders UK diplomats not to SIT next to those of EU states at international functions as part of a plan to show Britain is a 'confident independent country'

The Foreign Secretary sent a message to UK representatives telling them to 'sit separately' from those from European nations at international events after Brexit happened on Friday.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ab-orders-UK-diplomats-not-SIT-EU-states.html

 

[Blackleaf]

TONY PARSONS The night Britain left the European Union my beloved country got its mojo back

COMMENT
Tony Parsons
The Sun on Sunday
2 Feb 2020

AFTER 47 years, the UK finally left the *European Union – not with a defiant “Up yours, Delors!” but with a softly spoken, “Auf wiedersehen, pet”.

The church bells rang in Norwich and Newcastle and Cardiff and Bristol. Brexit parties were held from Cornwall to Cumbria.

Parliament Square was awash with Union Jacks as Nigel Farage had a beano that he had been planning for 30 years Credit: PAress Association

Parliament Square was awash with Union Jacks as Nigel Farage had a beano that he had been planning for 30 years, chucking a metaphorical milkshake over everyone who ever dissed him.

But this was not VE Day.

Where Brexit was celebrated, the mood was one of patriotic pride rather than euphoria unbound.

This was a very British departure — respectful, self-effacing and anxious not to cause offence.

We refrained from sticking up two fingers. We were scrupulously polite.

The UK started life outside the EU with no Big Ben ringing the chimes of freedom, no firework display setting the post-Brexit sky ablaze, no laser show on the white cliffs of Dover.

The big moment came at 11pm rather than midnight — the UK, now as always, a little out of step with our continental cousins in Brussels — so it did not even feel like New Year’s Eve.

By midnight — already 1am in sleepy old Brussels — the party was winding down.

As we left the EU, Downing Street lit up with red, white and blue lasers and an image of Big Ben, complete with a recording of the bongs.

But the door of 10 Downing Street stayed firmly shut as the Prime Minister hosted a private party for staff.

For all the nation knew, Boris could have been having an early night with Carrie and Dilyn the dog.

Downing Street was as deserted as the Marie Celeste.

BIGGEST MANDATE

Here was the strangest thing about Friday night — the total absence of Boris Johnson.

The PM had recorded a speech full of optimistic talk about making Brexit a “storming success” and bringing the nation back together.

But the BBC and ITV both refused to broadcast the speech, as Downing Street aides had refused to let them film it.

So if you wanted to see what the British Prime Minister said about this truly momentous moment in British history, you could not have seen it on our state broadcaster’s channels. UNBELIEVABLE.

The BBC news studio was bathed in Brussels blue, as if in mourning — so censoring Boris felt small-minded, *churlish and petty beyond belief.

I strongly suspect that *refusing to broadcast Boris’s big Brexit-night speech will turn out to be the beginning of the end for the licence fee.

If the BBC cannot look like a state broadcaster on a night of historic national importance, then it never will.

But we didn’t need the Beeb to tell us that this was history happening before our eyes.

The biggest mandate for anything in British history had FINALLY been honoured. Democracy had triumphed.

After more than 47 years inside the European federalist experiment, the British people were masters of their own destiny once more. And while the national mood on Friday night was respectful for the feelings of the losers, perhaps that was because there is no need for *triumphalism when you know you have won.

HISTORIC MOMENT

The clock struck 11pm and Leavers and Remainers were all suddenly extinct.

All those eye-swivelling nutjobs threatening to shove a Brexit 50p coin up their pious rectums in protest no longer seemed like a threat to *democracy.

They seemed worthy of pity.

But after all the toxic *divisions of the past four years, the wounds will not heal quickly.

The most vicious insult thrown at those of us who dared to vote to leave the EU was that we would all soon be dead. And so it is a bitter irony to reflect that Tony Blair, Michael Heseltine, John Major, Lord Adonis, Gina Miller, Anna Soubry and all the rest will never live long enough to drag us back into the European Union.

At long last, Brexit’s uncivil war is done.

And why?

Because the roots of British democracy run deep.

Once we had voted to leave, it was ultimately unthinkable that we would ever remain — despite the fervent wishes of almost the entire British establishment, from the House of Lords and House of Commons to the civil service, the BBC and big business.

Once the people had spoken, in the end they had to be obeyed.

No parliamentary paralysis could ever stop Brexit. No clever lawyers could thwart it forever.

That historic moment on Friday night felt it had an historic inevitability about it.

British democracy could not be denied. How did the arrogant, out-of-touch establishment ever imagine they could overrule the largest vote for anything in our history?

LOUSY FIT

So au revoir, monsieur, and adios, senor and bye-bye, mein liebe herr. Except — we are not leaving Europe, are we?

We are only leaving the European Union — that unloved, corrupt, expansionist empire.

And the British people have nothing but love in their souls for Europe.

Here’s the great Brexit irony. The British are probably the most pro-European nation on the continent. We revere European culture, drink their wine, holiday at their beaches, cities and moun-tains, eat their fruit, vegetables and cheese and buy their cars.

But the British have always been a lousy fit in the EU.

We do not like having leaders who we cannot kick out.

We do not enjoy unelected old geezers in foreign cities telling us who can and can’t come into our country.

We — one of the oldest democracies in the world, a country that has not been invaded for 1,000 years — truly do not need anyone else to make our laws or to tell us what justice looks like.

The EU just lost its second-largest contributor while the largest contributor — Germany — teeters on the edge of recession.

We should try to be understanding if they sound bitter.

Our stormy relationship with the EU has lasted all my adult life.

The first time I ever voted was in the 1975 referendum, when I girded my flared jeans and enthusiastically voted “Yes to Europe”.

But like my nation, over the course of the decades I fell out of love with the EU.

The extremist voices - on both sides of the Brexit debate - will fade away because extremism is never the British way Credit: Getty Images - Getty

The EU just lost its second-largest contributor while the largest contributor - Germany - teeters on the edge of recession Credit: Getty Images - Getty

Like my nation, I began to feel that I had been lied to about what the project really meant.

Like my nation — and around 17.4million of my countrymen in 2016 — the thought of “ever greater union” made my skin crawl. For I believed with all my heart and soul that my great nation’s identity is worth preserving.

Leo Varadkar, the Irish premier, sneers that the UK must “come to terms with the fact that it is now a small country”.

Leo’s line is that the UK is now an isolated little rain-lashed rock, cowering timidly off the coast of the mighty European Union empire.

But it doesn’t feel like we are a small nation today.

It feels like we are a global nation once again, open for business with the world.

It feels like we are the world’s sixth-largest economy, a cultural superpower, a warrior nation with a nuclear deterrent and the best armed forces in the world, the oldest parliamentary democracy on the planet and the longest-reigning monarch in history.

All of that, plus the new added ingredient of post-Brexit va-va-voom.

And in a Europe blighted by fragile coalitions and leaders with feet of blancmange, the UK boasts a popular Prime Minister presiding over the strongest, most stable government in Europe.

CHURCH BELLS

British democracy has a far longer history than the European Union.

If we were a small nation, then we would never have had the guts to leave the EU.

If we were a small nation, then after the EU referendum of 2016, we would have done what all those other EU countries did when they came up with a referendum result that Brussels didn’t like.

We would have voted again, until Michel Barnier put down his cane.

But the UK was always different.

Unlike so many of our neighbours, we have not known the terror of fascism and communism, we have never experienced the jackboots of an invading army on our land, we have never seen our country chopped up by cruel foreign conquerors.

We are a small nation in size but, through the centuries, we have always proved too big to bully.

And what now?

The extremist voices — on both sides of the Brexit debate — will fade away because extremism is never the British way.

Even with a year of transition and haggling about trade ahead, Brexit feels like it is slipping into the history books.

The EU referendum in the summer of 2016 seems long ago now.

But as I recall, all we ever wanted was for our country to be a self-governing, sovereign nation once more and to restore the freedoms bought with the sacrifice of the generations who came before us.

Big Ben was silent on Friday night, but did you hear the church bells ring in all the faraway towns?

That is the sound of a country that just got its mojo back.

We are a small nation in size but, through the centuries, we have always proved too big to bully Credit: Getty Images - Getty

It feels like we are a global nation once again, open for business with the world Credit: Reuters

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10872922/brexit-european-union-mojo-back/

 

[Blackleaf]

The BBC's latest episode of children's history series Horrible Histories on Brexit day was vile anti-British, anti-Brexit, propaganda.

Of course the BBC have to start lying about British history in order to denigrate Britain and try and ruin Brexit.