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Karl McCartney

Karlmccartney

Karl McCartney was the Conservative Lincoln MP between 2010 and 2017. He is now the Conservative candidate for the city for the next general elections.


The readership and commentators on The Lincolnite website were quick to castigate Lincoln’s Labour MP, who has done everything she can since being elected to stop us leaving the EU, when she quickly submitted a column yesterday to try and justify her latest actions in the House of Commons to stop us leaving the EU.

I was very active for the leave Campaign in 2016, and for many years before the Referendum. On the opposite side of the campaign was Karen Lee and her acolytes campaigning to Remain. Whilst Lincoln was a slightly smaller majority to Leave than many other constituencies across Lincolnshire, the c.60% of people who voted to Leave in the Lincoln constituency sent a strong democratic message: ‘to Leave’, to both myself and Karen Lee (who left the Count in 2016 within an hour along with all her Labour supporters, once they saw the level they had lost by).

Like many involved in politics, I do not have any ill-will towards those that disagree with me – I don’t even think they are bad people – I just agree to have a different opinion on an issue and move on. I respect everyone’s opinion, even those I vehemently disagree with. In politics you have to be pragmatic in order to get things done. The ongoing refusal to accept the Referendum result has not been the finest hour for those who have refused to allow us to leave the EU, and who we elect to represent us.

Since that night in 2016, Karen Lee, on may occasions – including in a video interview with The Lincolnite (which many have seen and continue to watch) – claimed and said that she accepted the Referendum result and would abide by the decision of Lincoln (and UK) voters. That is clearly and demonstrably a lie, and she has tied-in her recent justification for voting against the deal and defeating the ‘programme motion’ in Parliament yesterday as it was because the Government was giving insufficient time for MPs to scrutinise the legislation. However, any Labour figure making this claim needs to explain why, if their colleagues were so keen on scrutinising the Bill yesterday, a full three quarters of an hour before the debate came to a conclusion, there were no further Labour MPs wanting to speak in the debate, meaning the final backbench contributions were a series of speeches from Conservative MPs? A paper tiger and a tissue of lies as ever from Miss Lee, especially as in the past three and a half years over 500 hours has been spent ‘talking’ about Brexit in the House of Commons.

Earlier today, Labour Leave’s Brendan Chilton had a warning for those in the Labour Party still pursuing the ambition of UK membership of an EU customs union post-Brexit. He cites a number of reasons on the BrexitCentral website as to why it would be a bad policy per se, but goes on to point out – and Karen Lee and some of her former city council colleagues would do well to take heed:

“In order to win the next general election, Labour must win seats from all parties, but the bulk of those seats we need to win voted Leave by a very significant margin. Seeking to maintain British membership of the customs union would not ensure Labour is able to gain the support of those voters when the election comes. If Labour MPs continue to support amendments that seek to hinder the progress of Brexit or water it down, we will face the consequences at the ballot box from an already angry public.”

The Prime Minister and the Conservative Party are very clear. Last night, MPs backed our new deal (which is the only deal that have secured a majority in Parliament) which could have guaranteed we would have Brexit done on October 31. But once again, Labour voted for more dither and pointless delay. Ordinary people, from across society, including business owners and leaders, are exasperated – they want Brexit done, and wish for our country to move on and for Parliament to move on too.

The Prime Minister and his colleagues in the Conservative Government have done what many said he could not; we have renegotiated a great new deal which allows us to leave the EU without disruption and has now won the support of the House of Commons. But because Labour and the Liberal Democrats failed to back our timetable to have Brexit done on October 31, we now face further uncertainty as a country and the EU must now make up their minds over how to answer Parliament’s request for a delay – our policy remains we should not delay, and we should leave the EU on October 31.

As a result, we are taking the only responsible course of action and accelerating our preparations for a no deal outcome. Only by getting Brexit done can we address the issues that matter to people and move on with delivering the brighter future all residents of Lincoln and the country deserve.

And if there is to be a General Election, I am ready for one.

Karl McCartney was the Conservative Lincoln MP between 2010 and 2017. He is now the Conservative candidate for the city for the next general elections.

Can we go to war on the chattering class of EU/Brexit ‘commentators’ who peddle doom and pestilence, and are obviously professional naysayers? There are some serious issues to be addressed as we approach the 31st October and maybe some who are elected to represent us should take a more statesman-like view of certain issues.

This week and for the past few weeks (and if we are honest for far too much of the last three years) we have heard wall to wall ‘Brexit mania’ in all media and mostly from the doom-mongers and naysayers (‘bad news sells’?) who continually talk down the capability of our country, the United Kingdom.

We need to be optimistic, to believe and be positive that the fifth largest economy in the world will survive, and thrive and prosper, as our own sovereign nation once we have left the EU.

The past few days especially has seen us reach ‘peak hysteria’ (or at least I hope it has peaked) of those who wish to ‘do down’ our fine nation and various business sectors with their doom laden predictions of woe and pestilence, that at times take on biblical proportions.

They are trying to fulfil their own false prophecy, heightening unfounded fears and escalating the nervousness, and playing on the insecurities of those who will never willingly embrace change.

Let us be clear, the vast majority, and probably nearly all of the businesses who export to the EU (and import from them) and around the world in many cases too, had prepared quite well for the initial leaving date of 29th March, and were fully prepared that it might happen with a ‘no-deal’ scenario.

What was most damaging was having led these businesses up the hill of the ‘leaving’ issue, Parliament, with some of its ‘we know best’ MPs from all sides, decided that actually a delay was what they wanted, as they desperately continued to search for ways to ignore the democratic will of the people of the UK and the result of the referendum of 2016.

So back down the hill these business all marched again.  The Continuity Remainers’ negative and ‘the end of the world is nigh’ doom-laden exhortations on any media that will embrace and trumpet their minority views, will, in the fullness of time, be exposed for what they are and were.

I am an optimist. I firmly believe in democracy and the rule of law in this proud country of ours that I have had the honour of serving in various ways over the years, and I offer a positive view of the future, realistic, yes, but definitely optimistic, and I beg to differ with all those naysayers who are so shouty and ranty.

I want however in this article to offer a specific view of a niche issue perhaps, but one that is deadly serious and of utmost importance, on the world stage. In the midst all the EU and Brexit ‘chatter’ I would like to highlight an alternative and geopolitical view.

For over two years now a number of my former City colleagues and I who worked together in the City and dealt extensively with the EU back in the late 1990s, and early part of this century, have been clear in our belief that following our vote to leave the EU needs (or wants) to put us – the UK – on our knees to ensure no other of the 27 countries in the EU tries to ‘leave’.

Some EU countries have strong ‘sovereignty’ believers who actively want to see the UK achieve a departure from the EU, as they believe that their own countries can then emulate the UK and free themselves from the tyranny of the EU’s stated ‘master plan’.

However, the EU, or parts of it, realise we in the UK are the only country in Europe, and ergo the EU, capable of ‘war’ fighting – and we have one of the busiest RAF bases in the Lincoln constituency at RAF Waddington, with numerous other bases in the county and nearby.

As night follows day there will certainly be another situation, possibly soon, where our armed forces are needed, perhaps multi-faceted, and maybe, initially, for ‘show’ but they will be needed, and be needed to be credible too.

Potentially they will also be needed, practically, to demonstrate their, or more correctly, our, realistic capability. Without the UK the EU has no hope of being able to field any military capability, of any worth, at all, and it never will have due to the political orientation and history of the vast majority of the other 27 member states.

Putin knows this, and so do the Chinese. British forces have time and again come to the rescue of Europe, from the period of the Catholic Succession when we in the UK defended the Protestant Low Countries from domination by the stronger and larger Catholic powers, through to Napoleon’s attempt to dominate Europe from the Iberian Peninsula through to Moscow, as well as the more widely recognised both World War I and World War II, and then throughout the Cold War towards the end of the 20th Century.

If they, the EU, and their failed German ex-Defence Minister as the new EU President, put the UK on its knees, we shall be less able to help Europe in the future; if they try and fail to put us on our knees, people, especially in the UK, will be less inclined to help Europe, when it needs help; and in behaving like this the EU shows it is just a power whose only concern is its own survival.

And if it behaves in this way to an erst-while proud and sovereign nation, the blood of whose citizens have been spilt over centuries to protect and create a better Europe – what rights and protections can present day ordinary people rely on for their freedoms and liberties looking forward?

We in the UK, may well be relatively or marginally poorer, perhaps*, for a while after leaving the EU, but we will be freer.

* …but it is by no means certain. For example in the longer term, today, DB in Germany have stated that the UK will be in a very positive and ‘richer’ position after leaving the EU.”

Karl McCartney was the Conservative Lincoln MP between 2010 and 2017. He is now the Conservative candidate for the city for the next general elections.

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