This first letter was written to the Prime Minister (Theresa May) in January 2017, six months after the Brexit referendum had taken place and when we still believed she was intending to honour the terms of the referendum. Every day she told us she would.
Rt. Hon. Theresa May MP
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London WC1A 2AA
Dear Prime Minister
Brexit
I write to wish you a happy and successful 2017. I realize what pressures you have been and continue to be under but I am confident you will remain firm and committed despite the constant negative mutterings issuing from the opposition, the media and even from some of your own colleagues who, by now, should be showing full solidarity with their Government and their country. May I also say, the resignation of Sir Ivan Rogers is no great loss since, clearly, he had been irresponsibly feeding negative thoughts to the press for far too long. It will be much better to have someone trustworthy in post even if that someone is somewhat less experienced in the workings of the E.U. than was Sir Ivan.
I was delighted to hear your recent statement reaffirming your position of wanting the very best trading agreement with the E.U. after we leave the E.U. at which time we will properly become a sovereign nation once again. We joined a free trading area as a sovereign nation and that is what we would like to see continue. Unfortunately, that no longer seems to be on offer. It is the E.U. and not us that is changing the rules of participation and some of those new rules are not acceptable to us. It is also a fact that the free movement of people across the E.U. can only damage the U.K. since we are probably the most attractive country as far as those newly joined members countries are concerned. Many of their citizens speak some English; we have almost full employment; we provide the sort of health service they can only dream of; and we don’t even have identity cards. Is it any wonder that most eastern European member states wish free movement to continue. It is unfortunately the case that the least skilled migrants seem to want to come to us while the more skilled go to Germany.
On a slightly more negative note, I am disappointed that those tasked with driving Brexit forward seem to be overly reticent about rebutting the many distortions the media and the opposition parties constantly put out. One recent example is that the U.K. will still have to pay the 50 billion Euros we have already committed to the E.U. before we can be allowed to leave. Those commitments, presumably are in areas such as scientific research though not exclusively so. In which case, they surely will be honoured because the U.K. will, presumably, derive benefit from them. Why wouldn’t we continue to pay? Of course, if we are simply asked to pay but are denied access to the fruits of those commitments there would be no reason to continue paying. Such clarifications would do much to placate the academic communities who are very concerned about this matter.
It might surprise you to read that a full professor of Psychology at one of our universities was under the impression that research establishments in Britain actually receive more back from the E.U. than we pay in. He seemed unaware that as a net contributor to E.U. funds, that could not be the case. Such clarifications would also reveal the E.U. negotiators and the many other home-grown nay-sayers in their true colours.
Then there is the Scottish question. Scotland’s First Minister talks a lot of nonsense about second referendums if the U.K. leaves the E.U. when there is no stomach in Scotland for another referendum. All except die-hard SNP supporters realize that Scotland could never thrive outside the U.K. particularly when they almost certainly would not be welcomed into the E.U. for many a long year, if ever. In the U.K. they have the opportunity to influence policy. They would have no such opportunity in the E.U. I am sure you, as I, realize it is just an empty threat but have decided not to embarrass the First Minister by calling her bluff.
I briefly mentioned Identity Cards above. I was disappointed the scheme to issue all British nationals with identity cards fell through. The main argument about losing one’s privacy surely would no longer apply with everyone on Facebook or Twitter telling the whole world everything about themselves. If the problem is one of cost, could the scheme be reintroduced for those willing to pay for their cards in the first instance before being made freely available to everyone? We definitely need identity cards if only to control the employment of illegals. Speaking of which, far more stringent penalties must be imposed on employers using illegal immigrants. A small fine is not enough. They should lose their businesses as well as being fined.
Finally, this constant demand from Remainers on both sides of the channel for you to reveal all, is simply a desperate attempt to embarrass you into weakening your bargaining position. When the British public voted to leave the E.U. it made no conditions or ifs or buts about the matter and it is ingenuous of anyone to pretend that we would only have voted to leave if we could have been guaranteed continued unfettered access to the single market. I guarantee, the single market was way down the priority list of the average voter. Give those who wish to thwart your efforts nothing until you are ready.
I wish you continued success.
Yours sincerely
Bernard Gallivan
This second letter to the PM was written in April 2017 when the Remainers were beginning to cut up rough. My letter was to show some support, little realizing just how much she was enjoying/appreciating the negative vibes issuing from Parliament, the EU and the press.
The Rt. Hon. Theresa May. MP
10 Downing Street
London SW1A 2AA
Dear Prime Minister
On Leaving the E.U.
Unless the information has been destroyed in the same way that Tony Blair’s expenses claims were so unfortunately destroyed, it should be easy to do the calculation. Nevertheless, I believe that over the 44 years Britain has been a member of the Common Market/E.U., we have been a net contributor to the tune of €3 billion or so per annum on average, accumulating to over €100 billion. In addition, there must be many assets littered about Europe to which Britain has made a small or even a large contribution and from which we will walk away. These assets will also amount to a considerable sum, I am sure.
I also believe it is still the case that the E.U’s annual accounts have never been audited because they have never been competed which will make it difficult for them to make an accurate estimate of what they think we owe. Nevertheless, E.U. Brexit administrators as well as E.U. leaders continue to make wild, unsubstantiated claims that we owe €60 billion or more. At the same time they tell us they do not want to punish Britain for leaving their wonderful club. If it is so wonderful, why are they so fearful that other members will follow Britain’s lead? Is it possible that they know just how flawed it has become? It is also the case that we never actually joined the E.U. as many of the existing members did. We joined the European Common Market which, against our wishes, has been transmogrified by those with their own agenda into a complicated federation of different states with even yet grander ideas in the wings.
In a divorce, there usually follows a redistribution of assets. It is never the case that one party gets to keep everything as well as receiving a massive fixed penalty from the other party simply because they initiated the divorce, especially when it can be proved that one party (the E.U. in this case), has so dramatically altered the terms of the union that it has become unacceptable to the other party. Which is, of course, the case here. We even tried our best to make the E.U. modify some its rules that particularly and unfairly penalise the U.K. but to no avail. We did what we could but it was the E.U. leaders’ intransigence to modify anything that precipitated Brexit.
You have done everything by the book because I know you want as smooth an exit as is possible. I am also aware that all your negotiators are trying hard not to take offence and to keep smiling in the face of extremely bad behaviour from the other side – not to mention the many British fools who seem determined to ensure you get as bad a deal as is possible. They are now even using Gibraltar as a weapon. How low will they sink? Frankly, the sooner we are shot of this bunch of silly, playground bullies, the better. Ordinary people in the various E.U. countries must also be learning an important lesson from what is presently going on. They must also be wondering at the vehemence with which the E.U. negotiators are pursuing their task. It must be becoming clear to them that, as far far as they are concerned, (they are locked in through use of the Euro), the E.U. is a club from which there is no escape.
What is clear is that it will not be possible to leave the E.U. in a friendly manner. That we have called into question their grand idea by refusing to be part of it is sufficient to make those with central roles in the E.U. try hard to make us suffer. You now face two years of no-holds-barred negotiations from the E.U. and you must be prepared to be just as ruthless and to use every one of our strengths to achieve a satisfactory conclusion.
If only the Cleggs and Farrons of this world, as well as that silly woman up here in Scotland whose name escapes me at present, could be as committed to Britain achieving the best deal possible or, at least, could stop their constant carping so that Britain could present a united front, your task would be considerably easier. Is there any chance of bringing the Tower of London into use again?
You must also make it clear that E.U. negotiators will allow nothing less than a Hard Brexit if we continue to refuse unrestricted migration into Britain. It is their intransigence that dictates the degree of hardness of our leaving terms and is not something we have chosen.
One final point. Every few days I hear someone complaining that Britain has set itself an impossible task by trying to complete Brexit in 2 years especially when both France and Germany have important elections coming up which will rob us of about six months of our 2 years. Please ask your spoke-persons to make it clear that the 2 year deadline is one imposed by the E.U. and is not one chosen by us. E.U. leaders believe it is almost impossible to achieve but just in case, there is no talk of extending it a little to compensate for those two elections, which again proves that while the E.U. is a club of equals, some are more equal than others.
Yours sincerely
Bernard Gallivan
The following letter was written to David Davis when he still was Brexit Minister. That was before he was stabbed in the back by Mrs May and her secret Whitehall team headed by Olly Robbins.
4 May 2017
The Rt. Hon. David Davis, MP
DExEU
9 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AS
Dear Mr Davis
Brexit and our European “Colleagues”
If you haven’t already got one, I suggest you get yourself a punch-bag in order to take out your anger and frustration after a difficult day in the office. It beats kicking the dog!
Seriously, I am amazed you can appear so relaxed in the face of such silliness and nastiness from your counterparts in Europe. Each week they think up yet another schoolboy “wheeze” to frighten the great British public. If it isn’t a massive exit fee, it’s the Gibraltar difficulty, then it’s the Irish border problem before they go back to the exit fee which they almost double. Isn’t it time we did some frightening ourselves?
As a start, I recommend we go on the offensive regarding the position of E.U. migrants. One of the E.U’s claimed priorities before we can begin talks about trading relations is their anxiety to secure the rights of E.U. citizens living here in Britain. I believe this can be resolved quickly in two sentences.
“The issue of E.U. migrants wherever they reside in the E.U. is important to Britain so we will guarantee to give to established E.U. citizens living here in the U.K (those having lived here for at least five years and having had a job that covers all their expenses or alternatively, having the means to fully support themselves) exactly the same rights as the E.U. gives to U.K. citizens living across the E.U with the same or similar qualifications to those outlined above. If this is unacceptable, we will return the 3 million E.U. migrants living here in Britain and will take back the 1.5 million British migrants living across Europe.”
Providing a reasonable and fair carrot as well as a nasty little stick should get the job done, at least as far as that priority is concerned.
We could also suggest that unless the E.U. begins to take the subject of Brexit seriously and stops making silly unsubstantiated statements that fool no one but do give artificial succour to the so-called Remoaners here in Britain, we will remove our troops from Europe’s eastern border with Russia and relocate them to Gibraltar and to Northern Ireland where it seems, according to the E.U., there might be problems. We might also threaten to reduce our payment to NATO to the E.U. average or even to cancel it altogether. This would immediately cause the USA to threaten to leave as well and would force everyone to pay the equivalent of Britain’s 2.5% of GDP towards NATO. If we want to do so, there are many ways we can make life difficult for our European “Colleagues” so I say, let’s go on the offensive.
Next we come to the matter of the exit fee. I’m pleased to read that you will agree to pay whatever Britain legitimately owes but not a penny more. The fact that Britain (and, of course, Germany) is only one of two E.U. nations that has never been anything but a net contributor into the E.U., in the 40 years plus we have been members, I calculate that over and above what we have taken back from our membership fee in terms of farm subsidies and so on, we have made a net contribution in the region of €100 billion. How can they claim we owe them anything? I realize they will be almost €10 billion p.a. worse off when we leave which money has to be found from somewhere but I can see no justification for that somewhere being the U.K. You might also point out, and with some force, that we in Britain offered up in sacrifice horrifying numbers of our young men and women as well as paupering ourselves when, twice, in the last century we went to the aid of our European colleagues when they were in danger of being overwhelmed by Germany’s desire to grab more land for itself. Twice we lost a generation of young men and women when we went to war to help our neighbours and not for us was there the luxury of being rebuilt out of a war reparation fund. No one has ever come to our aid or offered to help pay off the huge war debt we built up with the USA while fighting for our neighbours and nor have we ever asked for such help. We stand on our own two feet and it’s about time the E.U. did the same.
It should also be pointed out, and with equal force, that we would never be in this position of leaving the E.U. if the E.U. had not changed so much since we joined the Common Market; changes that might have been good for Europe but which have been detrimental for Britain. The E.U. had the chance to help us when David Cameron tried to persuade E.U. representatives either to modify those damaging (to us) rules or to allow us an opt out. Neither was given, which forced us into Brexit.
If the huge sum identified by the E.U. as our exit fee comprises our subscriptions for the next two or three years while we continue to be members, provided we are treated as full members and not as pariahs during the coming period, I am happy for us to make such payments (less our rebate of course). We might struggle to get back any of that rebate if the full subscription is paid in advance unless we receive a written guarantee it will be repaid in full. I can see no justification for paying out a single euro more. Membership fees for 2018, 2019 and possibly 2020, should we still be a member in 2020, must be the full extent of our commitment to the E.U. and just to repeat, they have forced us to leave so we owe them nothing. It is also interesting that both of the remaining French candidates in the forthcoming election, either want to leave the E.U. or has threatened to leave if the E.U. doesn’t change. Lots of people across the E.U. are unhappy with many aspects of the E.U. and are calling for reform. So, we are not alone. But, wouldn’t it be a pity if, a year or so after Brexit, the E.U. is forced to change in a manner that would have suited us. If that should happen, and I feel strongly that it will but only if we leave, they will have caused us unnecessary disruption, anxiety and expense.
It might also be interesting to ask, what would happen, regarding an exit fee, should Germany wish to leave. Presumably, as Germany is an even larger contributor, it would be substantially more than they are asking us to pay. Which begs the question, if a member, like Ireland or Spain, both large beneficiaries from the German/UK pot, wish to leave, as they have never ever made a single net contribution, will they be asked to pay back all they took out?
I have no recommendation on the thorny problem of Ireland so I will leave that one to you. Keep strong and get that punch-bag. I suspect my views simply endorse those you already have but I do think we should begin wielding the big stick as well as the occasional carrot.
With every best wish for a successful Brexit.
I remain,
Yours sincerely
Bernard Gallivan
It is at about this time that I began to suspect that Mrs May did not have the best interests of the country at heart.
October 2017
Rt. Hon. Theresa May MP
Prime Minister–
10 Downing Street+
London WC1A 2AA
Dear Prime Minister
What the U.K. must do next.
Like many people, I am taking a very close, hopefully intelligent, interest in Brexit. I voted for Brexit and I have neither seen nor heard anything yet that would make me change my mind. Indeed, the way the E.U. is intent on humiliating the U.K. and embarrassing you, both reinforces my earlier decision and makes me see red.
Twice in the last one hundred years we have saved Europe from German aggression at a huge cost to ourselves in terms of lives lost , an Empire lost and almost bankrupting ourselves on both occasions. Not for us the luxury of a war reparations fund to help us rebuild. We did that ourselves with no outside help. In addition, in the 44 years we have been members, only we and Germany have consistently been net contributors to E.U. funds. At today’s rate of exchange, I estimate we have contributed in the order of an extra £400 billion to help our European neighbours build such things as high speed rail systems, new roads and other infra-structure projects when our own infrastructure is in urgent need of cash. We have also acted as a moderating voice in the E.U. and have stopped smaller nations being frog-marched into situations that were not to their advantage. Nevertheless, our erstwhile “friends” have now all turned on us and seem to be taking a malicious delight in watching us squirm. I say, enough is enough. We are not supplicants and nor should we act like supplicants.
When we voted to leave, but only after David Cameron was treated with complete contempt and sent packing with nothing, even though his request was modest, there were no rules governing what should be done should a nation wish to leave the E.U. Those at the centre of the E.U. had never thought this was even a possibility. They have since been making up the rules as they go and we, stupidly, have gone along with their demands. Clearly, it would be better to leave without acrimony so we can continue to benefit from a good trading relationship, but the E.U. is making that impossible. Look at the way they have acted in the last 18 months since David Cameron returned with nothing. They exclude you from meetings and, only yesterday, they took just 90 seconds to agree to tell you the U.K. has to offer more money, ignoring everything else you said.
I understand your need to put as good a gloss as possible on how they treated you, in the same way David Cameron did but the truth is they are only interested in getting their hands on our money and, at the same time crushing us as an example to the other members. We cannot do business with such people and nor should we wait until it is too late to come to that realization. We need all the time and money possible to make a success of Brexit so we must not make additional cash offers when I know, and I am sure you do too, that whatever we offer will not be enough because, while they want our money, they also want us to scream and squirm on their hook for as long as possible.
Stop playing their silly, expensive game. If they are unwilling to tell us what sort of trading relationship we will have post-Brexit and are also unwilling to tell us exactly how much they expect us to pay (having identified and costed each and every commitment) we must give them an ultimatum that by the end of this year, if the above information has not been provided, we will discontinue talks. Regardless of his personal reservations, the Chancellor must make sufficient money available to strengthen our borders and we must work hard to make more use of the Commonwealth while also seeking new countries with which to trade.
I believe, if you agree with my analysis and if you told the country what you intend doing and why, you will receive a warm response from the vast majority who can also see what is happening but, like me, are powerless to do anything about it. You will lose support if you seem weak and agree to whatever the E.U. feels fit to throw at you. You, as our representative, must stand tall and be firm. There will be those who refuse to see what is so clearly written on the wall and who have their own private reasons for wanting to disrupt whatever negotiating stance you choose to take. Such people are traitors to the U.K. and if nothing else, their names should be remembered (although dismembered might be a better alternative) and they should never be offered an honour.
Yours sincerely
Bernard Gallivan
At this stage, 2 years after the referendum and just before the awful Chequers Agreement was presented to and rejected by parliament, I detected a marked weakening in May’s resolve so I tried to stiffen it. Of course, her civil servants who interpose themselves between her and you (whoever you are) intercept and destroy letters like mine, factual and supportive though they might be. It was also only just becoming clear that Whitehall mandarins were actively seeking to destroy the Brexit cause. The ordinary man and woman must be allowed to communicate with the leader for democracy to work.
May 2018
Rt. Hon. Theresa May MP
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London WC1A 2AA
Dear Mrs May
An Open Letter to the Prime Minister
Your Premiership is at a crossroads. You can reject the frivolous, time-wasting efforts of the E.U., deliver the Brexit 17 million plus British people voted for and, along with Churchill and Thatcher, be remembered as a great, inspirational leader. On the other hand, you can roll over, accept all the insults the E.U. chooses to throw at us, embarrass both yourself and Britain and be remembered, along with Blair and others I could name, as weak and duplicitous. The choice really is in your hands.
We are a strong, wealthy and inventive nation so you can and must deal with the E.U. from a position of strength and not as the pathetic supplicant they have been led to believe we consider ourselves to be. Even if, personally, you don’t agree that Brexit is the best alternative for Britain and even if, at some time in the distant future, we, as a nation, decide Brexit was a mistake, no one will blame you if you have done what the nation asked you to do. However, if you don’t, and regardless of your personal opinion, you will be reviled for all time. You cannot now even escape because if you shirk your responsibility and hand over to someone else, your failure will still follow you to the grave.
But take heart. It need not be all that difficult, but only if you are strong, determined and willing to call the E.U.’s bluff. To do this, you must show you are prepared to go to the wire. You must also make it clear that all the time-wasting and preparations for a no-deal we have been forced to suffer come at a cost and that we will have to deduct those costs from our final payment to the E.U. They must learn, and learn quickly, that they will not be allowed to mess us about with impunity.
At the end of the day, however, it is much more likely that Brexit will prove to be a huge success just as the E.U. crumbles to its knees. So, there you have it. Make the right decision and be hailed as the greatest Prime Minister of the 21st century. Alternatively, make the wrong decision and forever be reviled.
Yours sincerely
Bernard Gallivan