Boris and his blunderbus

There is a saying that "When war is declared, truth is the first casualty". My Oxford Dictionary of themed quotations claims that it is an anonymous quote but I am sure one or two of you out there will have a preferred source.

This was the best I could find

The pertinence of this quote is that today one Boris Johnson launched his Brexit "Battle Bus" with a quote emblazoned on the side as to how much the weekly cost to the UK of being in the EU is. The ITN reporter who was interviewing him had to point out the true figure is much lower and he was thus travelling around with a lie printed all over his bus.


Here is a link to a political party's website where they offer rebuttal information to most of Boris Johnson's claims. To those not from the UK the Liberal Democrats were a major opposing force to the Conservatives until 2015 where they were wiped out from Parliament. The joke went like this " I didn't vote for a political party - I voted Liberal Democrat"

However the battle bus and the corresponding website of rebuttal just goes to prove my initial point.

And to be fair the "Remain" campaign have been at it too. With the threat of war more likely etc etc.

So what is a person to do when faced with such choices? The call from people is that they require more information. But this sort of information , or "spin" as it used to be called does no one any good.

So where do I stand?

Well I am a "Remain" fan. Mostly.

The only concrete argument for leaving the EU is sovereignty. It is a fact that currently the UK government must enact ALL EU law and the European court of Human Rights is the ABSOLUTE last word in ALL legal matters. No matter what our elected Parliament decides to do if it contravenes the above it will be unlawful and can be challenged. UK government MUST comply.

This is what vexes people like UKIP. It is a fair point. Thus far though this has largely been a beneficial thing. As a for instance, back in the 70's, the rear fender of a truck was less likely to stop you from running underneath it, during a tailgate accident, resulting in a rather unpleasant decapitation, if it was built in Britain. European trucks had better fenders. I challenge you out there to disprove me. I would be genuinely interested.

Look don't get me started on the Human rights thing. Successive (Conservative) governments refused to consider being part of such legislation. It is a long held belief of mine that this country still hasn't shrugged off Victorian attitudes in many spheres of life

As I have stated I do have a problem with the way our governments are elected at the moment. I think the day of "first past the post" is over. We currently have a government elected on the votes of one third of the population and yet they hold over half the seats in parliament. It has been so for some time. Thatch was the last to have had more than 45% of the vote.

So I would only consider our Parliament to be a more attractive prospect if I believed it was truly democratic and represented the will of the people. Which it doesn't.

Every other argument against the EU can be countered with an argument for staying in that is just as valid and/or not an outright lie.

Given this argument I would stay in the EU because it is jolly useful to travel so easily within Europe.

Surely the free movement of population also helps to promote understanding between cultures and countries because we will have greater exposure to them?

So what ever freedom the Brexit people claim we will gain, surely in fact we would actually become less free as our right to travel amongst the EU nations may well be curtailed?

Samuel Johnson wrote that "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel"

Let battle commence.