BASIC COMPETENCE

The other day our friend Dr North wrote another blistering post (HERE) about the incompetence of politicians. This is specifically the present crop which he has referred to as 'stupid' and laments the last three years of being 'messed about by idiot MPs'.  I agree with much of what he says but this was always one of my major concerns during the referendum: that by voting leave we would be putting ourselves into the hands of men and women totally incapable of governing anything.

THE NORTH WIND BLOWS AGAIN

Dr Richard North of the EU Referendum blog, in yesterday's post (HERE) is again starting to look like a nihilist. OK, he's been a staunch advocate of Brexit for a very long time and one must respect his views. But he has always proposed a route out of the EU that minimises the economic damage - he calls it his Flexcit plan. It's a gentle levering of the UK away from Brussels over a period of years involving temporary membership of EFTA and the EEA. I'm not convinced it's feasible or even politically acceptable to most people. The best you can say about it is that at least it's a plan.

DR NORTH

The more I read of Dr Richard North on his EU Referendum blog, the more he begins to sound like Oswald Moseley only more extreme. In a blog post he mentions the remainer Matthew Parris, a former Tory MP and now a Times columnist, who has suggested parliament should now take over Brexit and put the question back to the people. There are a lot of remainers reading North's blog and several of them commented on the Disqus thread, supporting Parris and provoking a furious response from the doctor.

THE EFTA/EEA OPTION RESURRECTED

Peter Hitchens in The Mail on Sunday (HERE) has an article pushing the EFTA/EEA option as proposed by Dr Richard North. In fact North and Christopher Booker, who co-wrote a book about it and have developed a model called flexcit to describe the process, are mentioned twice in the article. This is the exit route now being openly talked of by senior Conservatives Nick Boles and Stephen Hammond. There are several problems as I see it.

ARE REMAINERS "AN IRRELEVANCE"?

Dr Richard North, who writes the EUreferendum blog (HERE) thinks Brexit, something he actually campaigned for, will be a catastrophe for the nation because of the way the government is handling it all. He also thinks we remainers are an "irrelevance" (HERE) and believes the problems are all on his side of the argument.

RICHARD NORTH

Richard A E North is a blogger, but a knowledgeable one and highly respected. He was a local government officer and has a PhD in public sector food surveillance. He worked as a research director at the European parliament, once sharing an office with a Mr N Farage. In 2004 he was a UKIP candidate in the European elections so clearly he is euro sceptic, but his blog is unremittingly critical of the government. There is a link to his blog (EUreferendum) on the side bar under My Blog List.