Great British PAC Kent Director Kim Rye delivers a scathing critique of Keir Starmer’s EU overtures, recalling the passion and pride of the 2016 Brexit campaign.
Most people are familiar with the expression: “The lights are on but nobody’s home.”
But it would appear that in Keir Starmer’s case even the lights aren’t on!
Just how this man failed the “read the room test” is a mystery to me. However, I have to state, his sheer audacity at EU HQ last week was a supreme act of unmitigated off-the-scale arrogance.
The bombastic brazenness of an individual who took it upon himself to ingratiate himself to his Brussels buddies, cap-in-hand, in order to sabotage the biggest decision the people of this country ever made outside of a general election – on 23rd June 2016 – to leave the European Union, is truly astonishing.
Not only has he failed to “smash the gangs” (although he did propose to release a few sausages!) and properly address the grooming gang scandal, two of the things he and his party promised to fix prior to the July 4 general election last year, he has stuck two fingers up at all 17.4 million of us who collectively declared: “up your Juncker” on that rainy day in 2016.
I remember it well, I was out on that day, in my “Vote Leave” rain mac, on the doorsteps for the umpteen-thousandth time drumming up some last-minute support.
This followed months of all-weather campaigning on the streets of the London Borough of Hillingdon, running UKIP street stands, knocking on doors, dealing with the ubiquitous letterbox guard dogs and fielding hundreds of questions from an inquisitive public.
I took part in launches of all the individual leave campaigns, VoteLeave, Leave.EU, Grassroots Out – and others; some of these launches were in the House of Commons itself, others in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Westminster. It was an exciting time – a time of great hope. It was all there for the winning. I still have my “Brexit box” – filled with mementoes and treasures for my grandsons – and posterity!
It was all there for the winning. I still have my “Brexit box” – filled with mementoes and treasures for my grandsons – and posterity!
On the whole, both the people involved in the campaigning and those who came to chat to us were fully engaged with the discussions, questions, friendly debate, and just a few blank faces that walked on past our street stands.
There was banter, good-humoured arguments and genuine questions and, on the whole, those of us engaged in the project fully enjoyed the feeling of anticipation and excitement.
However, there was one particular aspect that soon became surprisingly evident – not everyone doing the campaigning to leave was a right-winger! There was another outfit called “Labour Leave”: we worked alongside their street stands, even swopping leaflets. Yes, members of your Labour party also campaigned for – and voted to – leave the EU too Mr Starmer! And so did George Galloway who turned up at the launch of Grassroots Out! Also the delightful ex-Labour Baroness Kate Hoey. So we were quite an interesting – and diverse – mix!
One day, after President Obama, visiting from the US had gone on live TV to tell us Brits not to vote to leave, we were deluged with angry locals: “No xxxx of a US President is going to tell ME how to vote”, growled one onlooker. “No way”, chimed another. “He can stick his advice up his sphincter of stars,” he grinned cheekily!
And this, folks, was the REALITY of the great Brexit referendum campaign of 2016.
The London Borough of Hillingdon was one of five London boroughs to vote to leave the EU. The vote was taken by individuals who HAD considered, and studied the subject, another factor that became clear to us during the campaign. People HAD done their homework. They had read literature, watched documentaries and viewed Brexit the movie online.
Therefore, the sheer audacity and arrogance of a man who takes it upon himself to reverse a vote taken by 17.4 million (51.9%) people is breathtaking. Especially as Labour won the 2024 general election with a paltry 9,708,816 (33.7%) votes in comparison!
The sheer audacity and arrogance of a man who takes it upon himself to reverse a vote taken by 17.4 million (51.9%) people is breathtaking. Especially as Labour won the 2024 general election with a paltry 9,708,816 (33.7%) votes in comparison!
This is an individual who is clearly incapable of acknowledging alternative views, and totally unwilling to listen to reason. Like many of the woke left brigade he appears to assume that everyone who voted to leave was not only white and British, but a fascist thug, rather in the same vein as those he perceived to be doing all the brick-throwing during the Southport riots.
Starmer makes far too many assumptions. He lacks the imagination and personality to view anybody outside his own narrow political sphere as decent, hard-working, level-headed human beings, and sees us instead as a collective of knuckle-draggers, complete with braces and bovver boots, straight out of the skinhead subculture, stuck in some1970s timewarp. (Funny that, as it was Labour in office from 1974-79!).
This is how Starmer appears to imagine us plebs really are, those of us whom his supporters like to label “boomers”.
Actually, I am personally offended when people call me a “boomer”. I expect to be given my full title, “post-war baby boomer”. I am the progeny of those who fought in two world wars and bloody proud of it!
Back in 2016, I worked damned hard, alongside the likes of Peter Whittle and David Kurten (who were both standing for the London Assembly at the same time); Steven Woolfe and Gerard Batten were also involved. We also spent a day with Boris Johnson’s team, knocking on doors – and enjoying a great reception among the black schoolchildren who were just coming out of school one afternoon, calling out “Cool Boris bro…” and crossing the road to shake his hand vigorously.
Not one argument, not one cross word (friendly differences of opinion yes!) did we have with members of the public, and the people of Hillingdon responded to us positively. It was a fantastic time, upbeat and everything there for the winning.
In one gratuitous act of arrogant abhorrence and loathing of anybody who did NOT fit his narrative and personal ambition last week, Starmer spat all over that goodwill and bonhomie of those halcyon days of 2016 we ALL worked for.
I will express my final thoughts in the words of G K Chesterton:
They have given us into the hands of the new unhappy lords,
Lords without anger and honour, who dare not carry their swords.
They fight by shuffling papers; they have bright dead alien eyes;
They look at our labour and laughter as a tired man looks at flies.
And the load of their loveless pity is worse than the ancient wrongs,
Their doors are shut in the evenings; and they know no songs.
By Kim Rye.
