A video has emerged from 2010 (HERE) showing Steve Baker, now a DEXEU minister, addressing a Eurosceptic group called the Libertarian Alliance and telling them he wanted the EU "wholly torn down", saying it was an "obstacle" to peace and "incompatible" with a free society. This will shock most people but it will polish his credentials among Brexiteers. What the EU will make of it will be interesting.
This comes to light in the same week that Aaron Banks appeared on Russia Today to tell viewers that he expected the Euro to collapse in 3-5 years time.
One wonders first of all what is wrong with these people that they cannot see the EU, for all its faults, is a force for good in the world. How can they have such a distorted world view? It is surprising anyone on the planet would think the EU is an obstacle to peace. I have never heard anyone make this argument before of an organisation specifically conceived to bring peace to a war torn continent.
But more than this, when seen alongside the mendacity of the referendum campaign, one is amazed that the Brexiteers ever thought they could get away with it. Against all, or nearly all, of the expert evidence they managed to convince 51.9% of the voters that leaving the EU would be a good thing for them and this country. We will supposedly be more sovereign, better off, stronger and more influential after Brexit.
It did not apparently occur to them that very soon they will have to demonstrate these things are coming or the voters will realise they have been duped.
In truth, the reverse is happening. Nationally we are poorer by virtue of the collapse in the pound. Our economy is slowing down just as predicted while in the Eurozone growth is at its highest for six years (HERE). The pound is losing ground to the Euro, that's the currency Mr Banks thinks will soon fail. China is ignoring the treaty signed in 1997 on Hong Kong and say it has no practical value. So much for our influence outside the EU.
Wage growth is at the lowest rate since the 1970s and is presently below inflation so disposable income is falling. The savings rate has dropped to 1.7%, the lowest since records began in 1963, and well below the long run average of 9.2%. Consumer borrowing is nearing a peak but must surely come to a painful end sooner or later. Exports were supposed to replace consumer spending as the engine of growth in the economy boosted by the pounds fall in value but manufacturers are reporting sluggish growth (HERE).
What does this tell me? Brexit always was and always will be a disaster for the UK. Cameron's wish that a referendum would finally end the Eurosceptic cancer gnawing away at the Conservative party will actually come true but not perhaps in the way he thought. The Eurosceptic victory and the disaster of Brexit will eventually lead us back into the EU and it will thereafter be impossible for UKIP or any other anti EU party to ever make the same arguments ever again.
