Too many are desperate to run back to Ursula von der Leyen’s EU (Image: Getty)
I have written many times that everything that government wants to do and the prosperity and the security of the British people depends upon business success and growth in the economy. Many woes of the current government and their apparent desperation to get close to, or even rejoin, the EU is a consequence of the failure to grasp this simple fact. In the case of Labour and those in the liberal-left camp, ideology trumps all else, hence they are incapable of delivering. It is a vicious cycle that will lead to economic stagnation, a diminution of Britain and poverty. But why does government seem unable to break out of this significantly even if they do “get it” and want to make changes?
The Starmer-Mandleson affair has helped to lift the lid off one aspect of the sclerotic state. The simple truth is that the Whitehall blob has got itself tied up in knots, is not fit for purpose in the 21st century and sometimes these knots are used by the blob to stop things that they do not want to happen, even if the government of the day was explicitly mandated to make them happen, as was the case with Brexit. If the current government will not tackle this, the next will have to take a sword to these Gordian knots if Britain is to have any future.
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It is a bizarre state of affairs that Britain ended up with a US ambassador who couldn’t even pass security vetting. Notwithstanding that the PM may have applied very poor judgement, it’s clear that the Whitehall “process” is not fit for purpose.
On other occasions it’s been clear that processess allow unelected civil servants to rule the roost. Sounds almost as bad as the EU, except that is how the EU operates as a matter of course.
At the same time we read in the press from a former employee of the Foreign Office that they have no objectives, no performance management, no results-based career progression, no specialist expertise, even that employees were allowed to work from home because colonial buildings triggered them!
A cynic could argue that the decline of Britain stems back to the establishment of the Civil Service in 1854 and has resulted in periodic reviews. There is now an overriding need for a review of the civil service. It isn’t working.
That brings us to the sudden revelations regarding Brexit. The EU is entirely a civil service ruling over politicians and bolstered by lawfair, injunctions, the ECHR, the WHO and a lew of other international agreements tying the hands of politicians, whatever the electorate may have wanted.
It is no wonder many in Whitehall love it and recommend to their so-called masters that we should be closer to it. Olly Robbins himself was instrumental under Theresa May in trying to negotiate us back in – Brexit in name only.
These characters are still in Whitehall and government and should have been swept away. In fact there has been a well-funded campaign to rejoin, claiming that the majority of people want it and that somehow our economy has suffered as a consequence of Brexit. There is credibility in either of these claims.
The underperformance claim is based on a shaky alternative reality whereby Britain would have grown many times faster than Germany or France by staying in. That’s just not credible.
The claim that people want to rejoin is instantly defeated by the proportion of voters supporting pro-Brexit parties in the opinion polls and also contradicted as soon as they are asked whether they would support what it would mean: losing the pound, no control over interest rates, paying at least £35billion per year to the EU, liability for EU/ECB debts, a Euro army, over 400 new regulations, losing our very good trade deals, tariffs on imports to protect expensive EU producers and open borders with free movement.
What a confident Britain should be doing is removing tariffs, trading with the world, cutting taxes, cutting welfare, cutting red tape, drilling for oil and gas, promoting business and growing the economy. Why would we want to give decision-making to an unelected EU Commission we cannot remove rather than deciding our future for ourselves? It is pathetic. We may have bad governments at home – but at least we can throw them out.
Finally, the whole Hermer affair and the pursuit by the now Attorney General of British war heroes is indicative of the rot at the heart of the establishment. It reflects why we need to clear out those who hate our country. Our current Marxist-leaning government is classic of communist regimes whose cronyism and ideological superiority overrides practical reality.
If it were not so painful and so damaging. We should probably thank the heavens that we have experienced all of this since it gives license for the necessary change to come. The similar experience of the late 1970’s demonstrates that change can occur out of chaos, but this time we must not choose the failing EU.
Britain needs to have the confidence to be a fast-growing economy, non aligned and trading with everyone as long as national security is not put at risk. Armed to the teeth, we should define ourselves as a “re-emerging” nation in the same was as we were an emerging nation from 1688 onwards, a time when China and India were mega-powers. Change is uncomfortable but the alternative is relative poverty and irrelevance.
John Longworth is an entrepreneur, businessman, Chairman of the Independent Business Network of family businesses and a former MEP