Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2016-10-26-Speech-3-039-000"
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"en.20161026.4.3-039-000"2
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"Mr President, so Mrs Smith goes to Brussels and is given five minutes to speak at one o’clock in the morning. It is the same treatment that David Cameron got when he came to announce the referendum, although at least this time the French President did not leave the table to go to the bathroom. When Mr Juncker was asked by a British journalist how the negotiations were going, he said, ‘Pffft’ – well, I can’t really do Gallic shrugs very well – and the impression is that you are simply too busy to even discuss Brexit or to take it seriously.
Basically, you are hoping that we will change our minds – Mr Tusk alluded to that a couple of months ago. I know there has been a long tradition here, whether it’s with Denmark, France, Ireland or the Netherlands, that when there is a democratic referendum you try to either ignore it or overturn it. Today again, we heard Mr Juncker urging the Dutch Government to ignore the referendum result on the Ukraine. Frankly, the whole thing is a disgrace. It is even worse that it is supported by quislings in the British Parliament – people like Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband, who are desperate to keep Britain inside this awful single market. Well, I am sorry but it simply isn’t going to happen. There are 17.4 million people who could not have been clearer. We voted to say that we want our country back, and in the end that is what is going to happen.
I have to confess, though, that Mrs May’s position in her five minutes was somewhat curious. For her to be arguing that Britain must have a full vote and a full say in all EU affairs up until the time we leave is a very mixed message, and I have already seen this morning that some here take it as a sign of weakness. We need to get on with it. Every single day that goes by is a lost opportunity. The proposed trade agreement with Canada having been vetoed by Walloons after seven years of negotiations absolutely proves to you that, in a modern 21st century global economy, the European Union is simply not fit for purpose. I want us to get on with it, because this club is very expensive. We are paying in net GBP 30 million every day. Some will argue it’s a bit less, some will argue it’s a bit more. Either way, it is too much. We are helping to finance this monthly travelling circus to Strasbourg and, worst of all, I have now discovered that in your staff regulations up to 5% of employees every year are allowed to retire five years early and receive full pay and entitlements for five years for doing absolutely nothing. Nowhere else in the world would allow this sort of thing to go on. So I want us to get on with it.
Interestingly, I met a large number of Scandinavian businesses the other day. They are worried. They are anxious. And why? Because they know that the United Kingdom is the eurozone’s biggest export market in the world, and they want to crack on. They know that the EU has trade deals with several countries in the world which involve no free movement of people, and their logic is: if we can do a deal like that with Mexico, why on earth wouldn’t we do it with our most important trading global partner? That is common sense coming from European businesses and common sense coming from most people in the United Kingdom. The only obstacle appears to be the high priests of Euro—federalism in this room today. If you think that by delaying or stopping Brexit you are going to help your own businesses and your own industries, you are wrong. It is in the mutual interest of all of us to get on with this and conclude a sensible, straightforward tariff—free deal."@en1
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