Is this how Jeremy Hunt respects the EU? By insulting it?
“I have treated the EU with nothing but respect,” lied Theresa May, only 10 days ago as I write these words.
She had not; in fact, she had behaved like the “bloody difficult woman” she claimed to be when she became prime minister in 2016. Perhaps this was an indication that she intended to lead by example in future relations with the EU?
Perhaps not. Because in his speech to a half-empty Conservative Party Conference, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt made it perfectly clear that, again in the words of Mrs May, “Nothing has changed.”
"If you turn the EU club into a prison, the desire to get out won't diminish it will grow" – Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt addresses EU leaders during party conference speechhttps://t.co/38WiYKjgPY #CPC18 pic.twitter.com/Fa9qitmk8V
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) September 30, 2018
Hang on! It isn’t the European Union that is insisting on driving an artificial border down the middle of the Irish Sea, or a hard land border between Northern Ireland and the Republic – British citizens did that (although not those from Northern Ireland; they understood what Brexit would mean, even though politicians like Mr Hunt don’t seem qualified to say the same).
And the EU isn’t trying to turn membership into a prison sentence, either – again, it is Tory politicians like Mr Hunt who are making that claim, most likely because they think it will earn them support from a jingoistic public.
He compared the EU to the Soviet Union and invoked the Dunkirk spirit in what This Writer can only imagine was an attempt to ignite some form of sympathy in the crowd.
But this kind of sabre-rattling is foolhardy in the extreme. The Dunkirk spirit? What, is Jeremy Hunt proposing that we wage war against the EU in order to sort out our own border? If so, then his comparison with the Soviet Union, a country whose military might always eclipsed our own, suggests the UK would lose.
It seems Mr Hunt is a highly confused individual. And it has been noticed:
Theresa May: ‘We have always treated the EU with respect’
Jeremy Hunt: ‘The EU is like a prison’
I wish the Tories would start addressing the concerns of our nation, instead of trying to appease the ERG. This kind of provocative BS is pathetic, unhelpful and dangerous. https://t.co/P47H7YqZ1A
— Damon Evans (@damocrat) September 30, 2018
Arrogance, ignorance and stupidity from @Jeremy_Hunt
One very big difference is that refugees want to enter the EU, but wanted to leave the Soviet Union🙄#CPC18 https://t.co/txIgKScX6v— Sasha Clarkson 💙🏴☮️Wokerati🐰🤗🌳🫂 (@SashaClarkson) September 30, 2018
Caught Jeremy Hunt's speech to the #cpc18.
He is so darned PLAUSIBLE and the audience in the half empty room is so darned GULLIBLE.
He does a great line in jingoism.— Clare Hepworth OBE (@Hepworthclare) September 30, 2018
As Mr Hunt was delivering his pathetic speech, it was announced that the cost of Brexit has now reached £500 million per week – £150m more than the £350m per week that Brexiteers promised could be diverted to UK causes like the NHS in their lying EU referendum campaign.
That is the recorded effect on the UK’s economy, when considered in comparison with the economies of similar nations.
The conclusion is obvious:
Our public purse is £26bn per year smaller because of Brexit, we haven't even left yet.
We could have given a £3,000 per person pay rise to the 20% lowest paid people in our country, for the rest of their lives.
We don't have to do this.#PeoplesVotehttps://t.co/8dus4cqQqP
— Labour for Europe (@Labour4EU) September 30, 2018
But Jeremy Hunt and his leaderene would rather rant about the Dunkirk spirit.
Visit our JustGiving page to help Vox Political’s Mike Sivier fight anti-Semitism libels in court
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
You have missed from this the single most offensive thing about the speech = Hunt actually used the phrase “Soviet-style prison” – and Donald Tusk’s political life began as student co-ordinator for Solidarnosc, which means that at considerable risk to his own life he played a substantial part in the downfall of the Stalinist states.
These odious and loathsome nasties have been throwing sneering insults at the EU for two years. They can’t even work with and alongside each other, never mind with our European friends and neighbours.
Once a clown….always a clown. Old habits die hard with this Hunt.
It seems remainers always get the wrong end of the stick, they post pictures of a bus asking why the money isn’t going to the NHS, completely forgetting it is going to the place they voted for it to go, Brussels. Now they are making out that the EU attempting use economic warfare and demanding we vote again, is somehow different in its intent to Russia sending in the tanks. What they also seem to forget it that Hunt is was and always has been a die hard remainer, he is one of you not a leaver.
I really wish you would stop lying to us, Barry. I think it is indicative of desperation; that you are lying to yourself as well.
Nobody has asked why no money has yet been diverted to the NHS because we all know the UK has not left the European Union at this time. Our point is that the claim on the side of that bus was a lie, firstly because the UK never gave £350m a week to the European Union, secondly because any money that would come back to this country would have needed to be distributed among the priorities that would no longer receive EU funding, and thirdly because – as we can see from the facts in the article – leaving the EU is already costing us £150m more, every week, than even the silly Leave battle-bus slogan said we’d get back.
The EU is not using economic warfare, as you describe it. That organisation has put no economic pressure on the UK at all. Nor has any member of the EU organisation demanded that we hold another referendum. So your claim that “remainers” are saying such actions are different in intent to Russia sending in the tanks is false.
And yes, we know Mr Hunt voted to remain. That does not change what he said or the meaning of it.
Please respond with an indication that you understand what I have told you and accept that you were mistaken.