Quote of the day 23rd July 2018

"As Conservatives, we should know better than anyone what a parliamentary party in revolt over Europe leads to. 

Labour is now leading in the polls and Jeremy Corbyn is so emboldened that he’s summoned his front bench to start planning his first 100 days in power. He has taken advice from former prime ministers and civil service chiefs about which laws to bring forward first. 

If that doesn’t give some of the louder or more tribal voices pause, I don’t know what will. This is a man with a self-confessed Marxist as Shadow Chancellor and outriders who are now wearing ‘I am literally a communist’ T-shirts. A Corbyn government would be catastrophic for our country. 

We have a duty to serve the public in the national interest, to deliver the Brexit referendum result in a way that mitigates risks and maximises opportunities, and keeps the fabric of our own United Kingdom together. 

That means compromise, whichever side of the debate we were on two years ago. And, for all the siren voices, in those two years no one has brought forward a serious, detailed alternative plan. The Prime Minister has one on the table. 

Yes, it requires compromise, but it is now crunch point. 

We are sending our Prime Minister to negotiate on the nation’s behalf against the massed ranks of 27 other countries and the entire apparatus of the EU. It is time to get behind her."

(Ruth Davidson MSP, Scottish Conservative Leader, extract from an article which you can read in full here)

Comments

Jim said…
The only part I would argue with is, well Chris you know what it is.

So for the benefit of other readers, its "And, for all the siren voices, in those two years no one has brought forward a serious, detailed alternative plan"

Its name is Flexcit, though its a long read at 407 pages, its all detailed, and very serious. We shouted as loud as as we could, but selective hearing is quite prominent in the Westminster bubble.

or perhaps the only serious plan is just a 'siren voice' with out enough prestige to be taken seriously.
6:13 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
That's a fair comment, Jim.

You will remember that I have frequently referred to the Leave Alliance's Flexcit plan as the only serious attempt by anyone on the Leave side to come up with a credible, detailed plan for what they actually want to do.

There are actually some similarities between the Chequers proposals and Flexcit and depending on what happens in the forthcoming round of negotiations it is far from impossible that something which looks a lot like Flexcit might and up being adopted.

Unfortunately Flexcit will not satisfy the ultras who will yell "betrayal" and "sell-out" just as they are hurling the same accusations at the Chequers plan.

I don't know whether Ruth Davidson is aware of the Flexcit proposal and I suspect she might not be. If she meant "Nobody in parliament has brought forward a serious, detailed alternative plan" then she was right.
12:15 am
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the
Read more

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Image
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."  ( Cato the Elder , who lived 234 BC - 149 BC, quoted in "Lives" by Plutarch.) There is a similar saying by Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck: Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have put the same saying in a more humorous form: "Wise men profit by the mistakes of others, while fools will not learn even from their own blunders." See also this thread on the "Quote Investigator" website . Let us all be wise and learn from the events of the last few days.
Read more

Quote of the day 24th July 2020

I was moved to put the passage below forward as a quote today when I saw a horrible post on twitter from someone writing that it was "excellent" that someone who took a different view from her about Brexit had died. I won't write which way round it was so that all the Remain supporters can assume the post was from a Brexit fanatic welcoming the death of a remainer and all the Leavers can assume it was a Remainiac welcoming one less Brexiteer. There's been plenty of nasty stuff on both sides but if you catch anyone of your own viewpoint  posting something like that who might listen to you, please do call them out on it - and point out that they're giving everyone on your side of the argument a bad name. Anyway, here's the quote from John Donne.
Read more