On Friday, January 31, at 11 p.m. local time, the U.K. will at long last leave the European Union. Brexiteers will celebrate all across the country, with a big event sponsored by Leave Means Leave organization in London’s Parliament Square from 9 p.m. to 11:15 pm.
Bitter bureaucrats have prevented the chiming of Big Ben or fireworks, but it will nonetheless be a festive occasion as Britain finally regains its independence from what became known as the European Project.
Watch the live stream below.
The House of Commons and the House of Lords approved Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s withdrawal agreement. It has also won the approval of the European Commission and the mostly ceremonial European Parliament.
Johnson’s Conservatives in the Commons, which is the rough equivalent of the U.S. House of Representatives, won a “stonking” majority in the December 12 general election with the “get Brexit done” slogan.
Brexit Party Leader Nigel Farage’s decision to stand down in 317 Conservative (a.k.a. Tory) constituencies plus winning a huge chunk of the Labor Leave vote elsewhere enormously helped the Tories gain their majority.
It’s inexcusable that it took nearly four years to implement the Brexit referendum, however.
The previous Remain-dominated parliament (the Remoaners or Remainiacs) along with the globalist establishment cohort in the media, in big business, and the U.K. version of the Deep State engaged in all kind of underhanded tactics and fear-mongering to prevent Brexit from becoming a reality.
This is just the beginning, however. A U.K.-EU agreement that defines the final relationship could take up to a year in a transition phase to consummate.
It remains to be seen if in actual practice, i.e., the facts on the ground, whether the U.K. will actually regain control of its own regulatory regime, its fishing industry, farming, the ability to strike trade agreements with individual countries like the U.S, and de-couple from the jurisdiction of the European courts. Otherwise, Brexit could mean BRINO (In Name Only).
The June 23, 2016, Brexit referendum never would have happened without Nigel Farage championing it in a nearly three-decade journey. A longtime member of the EU Parliament, Farage is perhaps the most influential U.K. politician never to have been elected to the Commons.
The influential Spectator news outlet just named him the “disruptor of the decade .”
Watch Farage’s triumphant farewell speech at the Brussels-based EU Parliament:
In his new gig as a senior editor for Newsweek, a cautiously optimistic Nigel Farage reflected on the Brexit Day and its potential ripple effects:
My own fight with the EU came about because of a wish to be free of the bureaucratic, anti-democratic, supranational structures based in Brussels. This battle has dominated my life for the last 27 years.
For much of that time, I felt that I might become a patron saint of lost causes. Indeed, even as I face my last few days as a Member of the European Parliament, it is still hard to believe that Brexit is really happening. There are skirmishes to come over fishing rights, the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, and the extent to which we break away from alignment with the EU’s rules. Friday 31 January marks a point of no return, however.
The abuse that I have received over many long years is, finally, diminishing as Brexit has become the mainstream view. The globalist establishment’s threats and warnings of impending financial doom being inflicted upon our country have receded. Our parliament, which for 30 months indulged in the political equivalent of trench warfare, has been hosed down and brought to heel following last month’s general election. The war is over, even if some people, like Labor Party peer Lord Adonis, have childishly refused to use the new 50p coin commemorating Friday’s momentous date—an exercise in denialism akin to signing up for the Flat Earth Society.
There is a new mood of optimism in the U.K. This is already being felt in the property market. Similarly, long-term investment decisions are coming out of mothballs. Populism has triumphed as we return to being a self-governing, independent, normal nation…
Eurosceptics from many countries told me that if the U.K. is seen to prosper having released itself from the EU’s tentacles, their own countries will follow suit. At the moment, they all criticize the centralization of power and the undemocratic nature of decision-making, but none dare to suggest leaving…
The EU’s single market, with its level playing field, regulations and protective tariffs, is designed to stop competition. It is a new economic model of corporatism where a few big businesses work with big politics to their own advantage. For small and medium-sized businesses, however, the whole thing is a nightmare.
If Boris Johnson keeps his promise for Britain to be free of the EU rule book, we can implement a model of capitalism that will hasten the end of the European project. The U.K.’s economy is the equivalent size of the 18 smallest member states of the EU. Make no mistake, our departure is a fatal blow to the concept of the European single market and a shattering blow to Brussels generally…the truth is that I want Europe to leave the EU so that this supranational body can be dislodged and countries can return to being sovereign, independent and happy to co-operate with each other, like neighbors living in the same street. Indeed, over the course of the next few years, I will try to help democratic groups across Europe to achieve their independence as well.
The populist wave that also enabled Donald Trump to win the White House “has only just begun building,” Farage concluded, “and I feel honored to be one of its early exponents….Once, everybody laughed at my speeches. They aren’t laughing now.”
I was looking forward to the live stream rally, and the happiness of the majority who are attending this event, but this person is streaming is the few who want to cause friction to those around. PLEASE concentrate on the wonderful event, or go off line!