Following the rejection of the UK’s very generous offer to the EU by the Commission and the Parliament, I am reminding people why we voted Leave by publishing the relevant section from my recent lecture.
The negotiating mandate put out by the EU falls well short of a Good Deal for us and for them, as it seeks to tie us down in far too many ways without offering a good reason to accept their terms.
The main benefits of Brexit come from once again being a self governing country
I find it extraordinary that so many who make their living out of government and politics
Are so defeatist about this greatest of countries
Why do they doubt our abilities to shape good laws
Frame a good economic policy
And trade with the five continents of the world based on what we are good at?
Why do they both say they love the EU
Yet have such a low view of it that they think its main aim will be to do us down
Why do they tell us every clause and line of the Treaties has to be enforced against the UK
Yet all those great clauses in the Treaties that require the EU to be a good neighbour and trading partner of nearby states will in their view go unenforced and unheeded
If the EU is as logical and legal as they say our future friendly relationship is assured
And if it is not and the Treaty is made for breaking, it need not concern us what it says, especially once we are out
Anyone who walks the corridors and great rooms at Westminster
Must see there the heroic story of our islands
There on the walls and in the sculptures are the establishment and the rebels
The winners and the losers, the great moments of our history
There is the signing of Magna Carta, the taming the King in the seventeenth century,
The union of the crowns,
The saving of Europe from Napoleon,
The passage of the Great Reform Bill and the triumph of the suffragettes
So many made common cause to put the people in charge through their vote
And to put Parliament in charge of carrying out their wishes
All the time we remained in the EU there were an increasing number of laws we could not change
More taxes we could not control. More money that someone else spent away from our shores
This system took away the very freedoms our ancestors fought for and established
Once back these powers will be used well and sometimes badly, but always as a result of strong argument and heated votes here at home,
We will doubtless have economic reversals out of the EU as we did in it
But the difference matters
Next time when mistakes are made they will be our mistakes
They will be mistakes the British people can punish and put right
More importantly
Taking back control gives us immediate opportunities
To legislate wisely
And to grow our prosperity
That is why I voted for Brexit
That is why many of the 17.4 million voted for Brexit
That is why many who voted Remain
Will be winners too from this course
Once we are at last out of the EU.
This great people
This once and future sovereign
Will have many contributions to make to the world
As we have in the past
Let us be a voice for freedom
A strong arm for peace
And a force for good around the globe
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