CHAPEL END CHARLIE

I see that Angela Merkel has confirmed today in the Bundestag that (as far as she is concerned anyway) the UK will not be granted access to the EU Single Market without accepting the 'free movement' component of that concept. In truth this has been perfectly clear throughout the referendum campaign as some of us have pointed out. However, that did not stop some from attempting to dispute it of course ...

Why do I think that forms of international co-operation are desirable? First off, as a amateur but life-long student of history I've seen what so often happens on our continent when European nation states choose not to cooperate peacefully with each other. Our fathers and grandfathers learnt this old lesson the hard way. However, so debased as debate become in the UK recently that this line of argument has come to be (glibly) misrepresented as tantamount to claiming that "World War Three" would rapidly break out should the UK vote to leave the EU - which is nonsense of course. But the EU can trace its roots back to the aftermath of the most terrible of all wars and assumimg that Europe is free from that ancient curse for decades and centuries to come is the height of folly: Only the dead have seen the end of war - Plato Secondly, once nations learn to live and trade together peacefully then history shows us that the prosperity of their citizens can be expected to increase in step with their enhanced security. The tarrif-free EU 'Single Market' area has been one of the principle reasons I think why the UK economy has emerged from its seemingly remorseless post imperial decline to become the broadly successful force it was until last Thursday. How can you practically organise such a huge enterprise - and the rules required to make it work effectively - in a Europe of 30 (or so) different nation states without some specificaly european body being formed to make it all work? No, if the EU did not exist then we would need to invent it, and if we were inventing it now with all the benifits of 20/20 hindsight then we would do well perhaps to make it a smaller and more responsive organisation that was capable of adapting faster to changing circumstances. For example, the free movement of people concept worked well before the end of the Cold War and the entry of poorer eastern european states that followed in its wake. So why then did the British people (narrowly) vote to leave the EU when their own enlightened self-interest surely dictates the opposite course of action should have been selected? Well some shared your apparent dislike of the EU and internationalism in general - there is no denying that. Others exhibit the innate suspicion and fear of foreigners common to island peoples everywhere. But the matter is a deeper one than that I think and many seem to have used their vote as a kind of protest against what they see as the inequitable nature of the modern world. On here I've seen the EU/foregners blamed for virtualy ever problem in modern British society - from GP waiting times, housing shortages, to a air accident - often without any evidence or even rational argument. For both nations and induviduals blaming someone else for your problems is always easier than looking at yourself is it not? What people really object to methinks is globalisation and how not everyone gets to fully share in all the benifits that process brings. But no one nation can stand against a force of that scale any more effectivly than King Canute could resist the tide. And while the British people - in truth more the English people - have registered their disapproval of the world it won't do them any good of course.

I don't mind managers making selection mistakes so much - they all do. But when a manager insists on repeating the SAME mistakes time and time again then that does certainly annoy. Harry Kane - Good player but did nothing in the group games. Selected again tonight for some inexplicable reason. Raheem Sterling - Back in the team after having failed in the group stages. Inexcusable. Daniel Sturridge - A effective centre forward of very little use out on the right. Jack Wilshere - One of the most baffling England substituions I can ever remember. Adam Lallana - Okay he is unlikely to score, but we looked a much worse team without him. Joe Hart - The ego has landed. Marcus Rashford - Did more in 5 minutes that Kane did in 90. Should have started this game. What with one thing or another the last five days have not exactly been a fun time to be English.

Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and former Corbyn loyalist Tom Watson now apparently telling his boss to quit according to the BBC.

Not knowing you I really can't say why you think what you think - this is very much a case of 'you tell me'.

Those on here attempting to convince themselves that our old nation is not hurtling down a road that heads towards disintegration are delusional I think. If you actualy think through the profound consequences of that for us all ... well then you really should be as worried tonight as I am.

If you seek to score a few cheap debating points by focussing on the non emerge of Osborn's so-called 'Emergency Budget' then fair enough that was bull. Look a little more deeply into the matter however and the (soon to be former) Chancellor of the Exchequer was probably right because lower growth will surely have a impact on the government's financial situation and therefore welfare spending. The poor and elderly sections of society who voted so heavily for Bretix will ironically be the hardest hit by that decision.

The BBC is now repoting that up to HALF the Shadow Cabinet is expected to resign this morning #Becarefullwhatyouvotefor

I thinking that all those eurosceptic types wetting their lips about the prospect of the fall of the European Union might do well to spare a thought for the fate of their own nation.

Of course - as they celebrate their 'great protest' vote half the British people may not have come to realise this truth just yet, however we all lost last Thursday. How depressingly ironic it is that a once great nation that defended itself against foreign aggression so successfully throughout its long history should in the end defeat itself. So farewell then the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and hallo little England. It turns out that self-inflicted wounds cut the deepest.

The record shows that the UK has been a leading destination for attracting inward investment for many years now - you can trace that back at least as far as Thatcher getting the big Japanese car makers to set up shop here back in the 1980's. But why would any foreign investor choose to come to the UK now when we are in the process of retreating from the EU and there is no certainly as to what trading arrangement with that body will follow? There are afterall plenty of other places they can go without such risk. All those people celebrating Bretix in Sunderland might have something else to think about if (Renault owned) Nissan move car assembly to France. The big banks need to have a presence in the Single Market area in order to trade freely across Europe, and while the needs of our financial services sector based in the City of London may no resonate very strongly on the housing estates of Hull or in the retirement homes of Tunbridge Wells, that activity actualy contributions significantly to the tax receipts that pay for the welfare state so many do rely on. Some fool on here today described the 48.1% referendum minority in this disunited kingdom as the "losers"- as if the fate of our nation has been reduced to some purile computer game. The truth that this person obviously lacks the brainpower to comprehend is that we are ALL losers in this situation. Britain lost that referendum.

My much loved - if utterly incorrigible - 9 year old Godson is at this very moment sat happily with his best friend 'Wiktor' from Poland, both of them watching and cheering-on Poland in the Euros. The Poles are his second team after England. Why is it I wonder that our children adapt so easily to living alongside others who come from different lands and cultural backgrounds, while so many grown adults in this society seem to view foreigners as some kind of existential threat? You should watch your children carefuly people - there is much we can learn from them.

Edit

So "falls short of a lie" and "not a promise" then? Perhaps in a sematic sense, but the implied commitment to increase NHS spending is beyond obvious and in every way that really matters not only is that a lie, it is a huge one. I think all people of good faith - regardless of how they voted last Thursday - shouldn't be afraid to condemn those in public life who would stoop to such depths over a issue as momentous and important as this one. There is no excuse for this. As I said before, if you were selling a can of beans to the British public with a pack if lies written all over the can then you'd soon find yourself up before the Trading Stardards Authority. On the other hand "industrial scale" lying to the British people in order to change their nation's destiny and further one Tory politican's ambitions and that seems to be OK with you. As for taking back control, the truth is we ALWAYS had control over everything that really mattered - be it economic, defence, foreign and domestic policy. In those (mostly techinical) areas where we did comply with EU law that was agreed to by various (elected) UK governments over time and in our interest most of the time. But yes we are now free of the ominous threat of the more EU Digital Tachograph regulations being impossed upon us - so well done.

Well for a start how about that one written on the side of Boris's bus - and then we can go from there. While you are about it, can you explain to me what all this talk about "national identity" and "taking back control" even means?

^ The new statesman in action and a man who holds the welfare of poor working class people in Sunderland close to his heart I'm sure.

Well I expect the EU have bunged them a brown envelope stuffed full of euros just to make us feel bad - it certainly can't have anything to do with our nation being of the verge of breaking up and facing a poorer future. The big ratings agencies are like that ...

Well yes, many fell for the con - what point are you trying to make?

I have the last received (of many) Vote Leave campaign leaflets before me as I write this - on the front is written: We send the EU £350 million a week - let's fund our NHS instead Ignoring the small matter that this "£350m" business is factualy untrue of coure, I'm thinking that many ordinary people might read that as a promise to massivly increase NHS funding. That may in turn have influenced the way they voted on Thursday. Or am I being utterly unreasonable here?

I said it was "akin" to a manifesto. Do what try reading what people say before replying to them. I also say again that this campaign was far more a Tory leadership bid than anything else - and what a brilliantly successful one too given yesterdays events. Evidence to support that is that many eurosceptic Tory MPs are apparently reluctant to support Boris Johnson's coming leadership campaign because they know at heart that Coco The Clown doesn't believe a word of the tosh he has been so busy selling to the British people in the last months. And they're right because methinks that he will sell you 'true believers' right down the river at the very first opportunity.

Oh come, come. The referendum campaign was always a Tory leadership campaign is cunning disguise and many of the promises made by Bretix leaders to the British people very much akin to a manifesto. Did you not notice this?

The observation that the UK is now in a "post rational" state is both an acute and a worrying one. I realise now that attempts from we "48% percenters" to argue against the irrationality of our fellow citizens were always doomed because they just weren't listening - a conversation with the deaf. A dear friend of mine told me yesterday that her vote to leave would help make everything "better" somehow. When challenged to explain why that should be she had no meaningful answer. I see that Bretix leaders are now busy rewriting yesterday's history and admitting that immigration may not change much afterall and that the promised massive increase in NHS spending will never become a reality. Not exactly a surprise to me but when the truth of this dawn's on Bretix supporters I wonder how will this strange coalition of white working class peope and elderly conservatives that form the core of the Bretix vote react? And then there is the small matter of my country being torn apart. #Whatthefookhavewedone.

So tonight our ancient nation looks set to distintigrate. The Prime Minister is going. No bugger knows what will happen to our economy ... and Boris Johnson may well be our next leader. #Whatthefookhavewedone

If the NHS ever get that extra '£350m a week' EU money then I'll eat Paddy Ashdown's hat.

As predicted, Nicola Sturgeon is on TV now saying that a second Scottish Independence referendum now very likley. Vote Bretix get Scotix too is seems.