This letter was written when frustration at the way matters were progressing finally overwhelmed me. I was still under the impression that our Prime Minister was trying her best to deliver Brexit – daily she told us she was while she was lying through her teeth. Truly, I cannot understand why she has not been tried for treason.

Letters Editor
Daily Telegraph June 2017

Sir

It is sad to see the way that Britain is being torn apart by a media that is acting in a way that might even be considered treasonous if we were at war with Europe as well as by puffed up politicians desperate for advantageous photo opportunities who are now showing their true colours. If we are to secure the very best trade agreement with the EU we need to present a united front and to demonstrate in every way possible that our negotiators have our fullest confidence. Through no fault of her own, the PM has been forced to confront one disaster after another these last few months and far too many desperate people needing to find someone to blame are all too willing to believe the cheap insinuations the media drip like poison each day. When Jeremy Corbyn, in between cuddling victims, claims he is ready to form a government and that the PM should step down because she doesn’t have a mandate and is disbelieved by so many, demonstrates just how deluded he and they are.
Theresa May achieved a very high proportion of the last vote and only narrowly missed out on a convincing majority. Even after making vote losing promises that were misunderstood by many, and would have been disapproved of by many of her core vote, while opposition politicians, confident they would never have to follow through on any of the outrageous promises they made, across 8 seats where the conservatives came second, they lost those 8 seats by a combined total of 500 votes; that’s how close it was.
The Prime Minister deserves unflinching support during the Brexit negotiations from the press, TV stations, politicians of every hue and the public. Anything less and this once great country will get exactly what it deserves. In that case, don’t blame Brexit, blame the bleating remoaners who clearly don’t even know what time of the day it is.

Bernard Gallivan
Edinburgh

This letter followed a month later.

Sir
In a vain attempt to prove their relevance, one Lib Dem leader after another has made unfounded claims and lurid predictions. So it is with Vince Cable’s remarks about older people destroying the opportunities and lives of young people here in Britain because they voted for Brexit. What utter tosh. As one of those older persons, I voted, reluctantly, for Britain to join the Common Market some 44 years ago. What we joined then is far removed from the unelected, undemocratic, bullying , self-serving institution that is the E.U. today. I would have thought any right thinking person would have realized that after all our interactions with the E.U. during this past year. The brutal truth is that Britain’s membership of the E.U. has always been strained and, frankly, we are disliked by the other members. As, thank God, we never joined the EuroZone or Schengan, we have been and always would be relegated to the margins of E.U. decision making. In fact, the only thing the E.U. likes about Britain is the excess money we bring to it, which is why, now they are about to lose it, they are making life so hard for us.
Instead of backing Britain’s attempts to secure the very best deal possible when we finally break from the E.U. far too many politicians, like Cable, go out of their way to spread dissent. If they have nothing supportive to say, I suggest they keep their opinions to themselves.

Bernard Gallivan

This letter is about that silly man, Blair.

Sir
You might have thought that someone who unnecessarily cost the U.K. £100’s billions pursuing ill-considered wars and who’s actions caused 100,000’s of innocents their deaths might have kept his head low and his opinions private. Not so Tony Blair, proving what a dangerous megalomaniac he is. Under his stewardship, not including the wars on which he embarked, immigration went from the low tens of thousands to three hundred thousand. He also approved the giving away of a substantial chunk of our gold reserves as well as a large part of our E.U rebate. He even left us Gordon Brown. Now he has the temerity to tell all UK politicians to get behind the remain camp on Brexit. Having been wrong on so many things, at least he is consistent. In the face of so much intransigence and obstruction from the E.U. negotiators, any self respecting politician having Britain’s best interest in mind should now be getting behind the Government to help them secure the very best deal for Britain. Ignore this silly, self-seeking man who should now be consigned to the dustbin of history.

Sincerely

Bernard Gallivan

Letter dated October 2018 about Dominic Grieve’s appalling behaviour. He has since been deselected by his voters but still commands the love and support of Mrs May whose dirty work he had been doing for her for the previous two years.

Sir,

Today, Sunday, on BBC Radio 4, one arch Remainer (The BBC) interviewed Dominic Grieve, another arch Remainer on Brexit. I was staggered to hear Grieve say that, while he acknowledged that a majority voted to leave the E.U. the reality is that it is actually far too difficult to leave, so people will just have to accept this is the case and forget Brexit.
Nothing could be further from the truth. We can easily leave the E.U. and save ourselves billions as well as taking back full control of our borders, our economy including trading, and our laws which, of course, is what 17.4 million of us voted for. What we cannot expect is that access to the E.U. market will continue exactly as before. This, again, is what leavers expected and, in fairness to the E.U., this is exactly what they told us on day one after Brexit was announced. Unfortunately, we allowed one Remainer to become Prime Minister and another Remainer to become Chancellor of the Exchequer.Philip Hammond has done everything he can to thwart the democratic decision of the British people, but at least he has done so comparatively openly. Theresa May, on the other hand, has proved to be a master of dissembling. While telling us one thing she has secretly done the opposite leading us finally to the Chequers Plan. She knows the Plan is seriously flawed and will do lasting damage to the U.K. which is why she has never once tried to defend or explain it.
What is the definition of the word “traitor”?

Bernard Gallivan

Letter dated November 2017

Sir
On paying the EU’s blackmail.
Can anyone explain to me why Britain which, on today’s values, has already made a net contribution to the E.U. – i.e. a contribution in excess of what we have taken out – of more than £400 billion during our 44 years of membership, now needs to make an additional payment of many more tens of billions because of undefined “commitments”. I see this as no more than a brazen attempt at blackmail by unelected E.U. politicians running scared at the thought of the hole we will leave in their budget. Perhaps someone knows better. How much did the USA have to pay the remaining members when it recently withdrew from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)? Are there any rules for leaving the E.U. or does it depend on how much E.U. politicians believe they can screw out of the leaving nation? If there aren’t any, and it is patently obvious there are none, these same politicians must be inventing them to embarrass us.
We make great capital out of never paying ransoms. We should stick to that principle.

B Gallivan

The mask had finally slipped and we all now could see May for what she was and still is. Leave means Leave was but a distant slogan she had never believed and she was now determined to shove down our throats the deal she had concocted with Robbins, et al, and Merkel. She seemed oblivious to the fact that this deal, like its close companions, was a thoroughly bad deal for Britain and nor did it respect the referendum logic of leaving the EU.

Sir
Theresa May continues to play Chequers while Britain burns and it is high time someone (or even a coalition of interim leaders) in the Conservative Party takes control of the ridiculous situation in which we find ourselves. The mean-minded, punitive E.U. has been a revelation and I am surprised we are still trying to negotiate with them. The sad fact is, both the E.U. and our Prime Minister have achieved their aims. They have managed to run down the clock so that the U.K. has simply run out of time. We now need someone to tell the E.U. that we have come to the limits of our patience and have decided to end trying to find solutions to the impossible situations they invent. Instead, we will refocus our energies until next March on establishing trading partners in the rest of the world.
This hideous brinkmanship could and should have been avoided had we been as firm two and a half years ago because, even then, for those with eyes to see it was clear we would eventually find ourselves where we presently are.

Bernard Gallivan
7 Nov 2018

The gloves are off.

Sir
On Lies and Deceit
Over the past almost three years, we have all repeatedly listened to Mrs May’s lies through reports in newspapers, the radio and the TV. Her Majesty, the Queen, however, has had to sit directly opposite this woman, her Prime Minister, week after sorry week during their private briefing sessions together. As they sipped their tea she will have watched Mrs May as her very own Prime Minister looked her in the eyes and repeated those very same lies directly to her face. She will even, no doubt, have tried to persuade the Queen that her Withdrawal Agreement is actually good for the U.K. when the Queen’s advisors will have been telling her the complete opposite. How can Her Majesty tolerate being in the same room as this stubborn, conniving woman?

Bernard Gallivan

March 2019

A Brexit Mystery

What continues to mystify so many people is why Mrs May, in the face of so much intelligent, informed opinion that the Withdrawal Agreement is not only very one-sided in the EU’s favour, it is actually extremely damaging to UK interests. Nevertheless, she continues to insist that it is her WA or nothing. The EU, too, insists that after two years work on it, they will not open the WA for any modification whatsoever. If she sincerely believes the WA is actually a good agreement, why does she refuse to address the repeated concerns of those who believe it to be a very bad agreement. Instead, when asked, she goes into parrot mode and says it delivers on this and that but never addresses people’s real concerns.
If the WA is as bad as most people say, and I believe it is, to agree to it would be to shove the UK into the invidious position of being a vassal state to the EU with no escape and with no say in our future. We would simply become a pawn of the EU. Even remain preferring MPs cannot stomach doing that to their country, yet our Prime Minister has no such compunctions.
Are all the delays she has negotiated with the EU further opportunities for her to shove her dreadful WA down MPs collective throats because she actually has already signed the Agreement without waiting for her Cabinet to approve it and is now desperate to hide her foolishness behind a block vote in favour of it, even if it takes ten or more attempts to wear MPs down? Perhaps she has come to some sort of agreement with the EU that they won’t reveal some ghastly secret she has in exchange for her selling her country down the river or perhaps it is something even nastier. Of course, it might simply be that she is genuinely unable to see the damage she is doing to the UK. Whatever the reason, she must not be allowed to continue as Prime Minister. and must be got rid of at the earliest possible time. Quite clearly, she has lost the plot.

B. Gallivan

End March 2019

Sir
It now seems certain that we have lost Brexit, at least for the time being, but despite constantly carping and talking down the UK, as practiced by many politicians, the BBC, the Governor of the BoE and the CBI, which latter only represents a tiny percentage of British business, the economy continues to flourish; unemployment continues to fall; and inward investment continues at an even faster rate than before. Imagine what it would now be like had all the above, who have done nothing but damage the UK, got fully behind Brexit. There is even talk now of illiterate politicians trying to ensure that a future Government will never be allowed to extract us from EU clutches. Are they brain-dead?
Quite clearly the majority of politicians presently sitting in Parliament who have shown such clear disdain for those who elected them to that high, responsible office, are unfit to continue as MPs and must never again be allowed to represent anyone.

Bernard Gallivan

May 2019 written immediately following the success of the Brexit Party in the EU election

Sir
The EU Election – What now?

MPs, generally, have shown and continue to show themselves to be thoroughly mediocre people content to hide behind the skirts of a suffocating EU who make all the rules while our pathetic MPs, who lack the competence to govern, sit back and enjoy their large salaries and generous expense accounts. Sadly, the great British public seem just as pathetic when they believe all the project fear claptrap dished out by their politicians and the media. How many times have we heard these mediocre people claim that no greater disaster could fall on the UK than to leave the EU without a deal? Yet never do they clarify that assertion and explain why. Clearly it has nothing to do with jobs because employment has never been more buoyant and is running at a record high. Nor can it be the economy: inward investment is at record levels and British firms are exporting at record levels. Wages are rising and foreigners are falling over themselves to get into the UK. So, what disaster are they talking about?
Clearly, the world has moved on and Britain will never again be as great as it once was but that is no reason for our politicians to slither back into their murky little shells and hand everything over to an outside organisation that has shown its intention to humiliate us. We are still the 5th largest economy in the world and we still wield an influence on the world stage far greater that our geographical size might suggest.
It is much more than a generation since we had a leader we could be proud of and it is high time that changed. We now desperately need someone who will stand up for Britain and who will take back our sovereignty as well as our borders. We need a leader who will support our industries and who might well have saved British Steel had he or she already been in post. Our new leader must do whatever is needed to rebuild Britain but who won’t waste time and money posturing on the world stage as some recent leaders were fond of doing.
It is time for change and since we are all in it together, everyone has a role to play. There is no place for dissenters.

Bernard Gallivan

June 2019 immediately following Carol Fairbairn’s Today interview.

Sir
According to Carol Fairbairn, DG of the CBI, that august but severely biased group, will not support any Conservative Candidate who countenances a no-deal Brexit. A corollary to this extremely un-business-like statement is that no matter how bad the deal is that the EU offers the UK, the CBI will accept it before no deal, which makes negotiation totally irrelevant.
Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. It must be clear to everyone by now that they (the CBI), our Prime Minister, and the civil servants who were part to the failed WA, were actually colluding with the EU to create that appalling document so, as far as the CBI is concerned, it is “The WA” or no Brexit which latter, anyway, has always been their preferred result.
The CBI speaks only for a tiny fraction of business here in the UK. Indeed, they only represent big businesses which essentially work for their shareholders. These businesses have absolutely no loyalty to the UK and, as we have seen, will close down factories or move elsewhere in the world if that is beneficial for their shareholders. They are not at all like the other 95% of UK businesses which are firmly committed to the UK but which, of course, are not represented by the CBI.
About Brexit, it is wise to ignore the utterances of the CBI.

Bernard Gallivan

 

This letter was sent today 8 September 2019 in support of Boris Johnson, our new Prime Minister. The Brexit situation looks bleak because our Prime Minister is trying to bring into law what the electorate requested in 2016. But remainers are so frightened by the consequences (they will be required to run the country again rather letting the EU do so for its own good and they know they are completely incompetent for the task) they have imposed impossible conditions on the PM and have threatened him with jail should he refuse to accept what they have cooked up. You couldn’t make it up.

Ten Facts about Brexit

Sir

Fact 1. Even now, very few MPs will have fully read and understood Mrs Mays disastrous Withdrawal Agreement. They certainly hadn’t read or understood it when they were first asked to vote for it. This is why some of them are still considering voting for it even though they must know it would do considerable damage to the U.K.

Fact 2. Remainers do not want to leave the EU, period; which is why they constantly seek to overturn the democratically agreed decision of the British people.

Fact 3. Remainers say the UK must not leave the EU without a deal, deliberately throwing away our best and most fundamental negotiating strategy to get a deal, i.e. the power to walk away.

Fact 4. Because of Remainers very unhelpful interventions, the EU now is only prepared to offer the UK Mrs May disastrous Withdrawal Agreement, wrongly called a deal, and which parliament has already rejected three times.

Fact 5. If they can somehow persuade the EU to allow the U.K. back into the fold, even if it is on the same terms as before, Remainers are clearly prepared and willing to give away control of our fishing waters; to continue trading with the EU, even with a trading deficit of £97 billion/p.a. and rising; to lose control of our sovereignty and our laws; to lose control of our armed forces; and to bind us permanently into an undemocratic organisation that is intent on becoming a multinational state operating under one set of rules imposed by the unelected EU Commission, most rules of which would be anathema to the UK.

Fact 6. As the price for new membership, it is likely that the EU will require the UK to become full members of the EU including acceptance of the dreaded Euro and the Schengen Agreement. If we cannot accept these terms, but are still allowed in, it will be as a satellite member with no power to influence developments in the EU but still as the second largest contributor to EU funds.

Fact 7. Remainers are mindlessly intent on imposing all the above on the UK. WHY?

Fact 8. An ex Chancellor of the Exchequer as well as the Governor of the Bank of England were wildly wrong when they predicted the UK going into meltdown should we choose to leave the EU. It didn’t happen. They and others predicted 100’s of thousands of job losses. That didn’t happen. They also predicted no inward foreign investment. That didn’t happen, either. Why should their new projections be any better?

Fact 9. It is true we didn’t vote for a no-deal exit. But nor did we vote for a deal, either. Deal or no deal were not on the ballot paper. The only questions on the ballot paper were, “Do you want to stay in the EU?” and “Do you want to leave the EU?” After assessing the pros and cons of both choices, a majority of us decided we wanted to leave the EU and that is what we voted to do. It was as simple as that.

Fact 10. Both Conservative and Labour politicians explicitly agreed to abide by the result of the referendum and a year later they stood for election on manifesto promises to leave the EU. Many have shamelessly broken both those promises to their electorates and hypocritically pretend that what they are doing is in the best democratic interests of the people.

Let there be no doubt about it. The above are unadulterated, undeniable facts.

If we don’t leave on 31 October 2019, there will be a reckoning. One additional FACT.

Bernard Gallivan