Under Council Procedure Rules:
10.13 Points of Order or Personal Explanation.
A Member may raise a point of order or make a personal explanation at any time.
Personal Explanation in response to a public question from Warren Bates
Thank you, Madam Mayor, for giving me another opportunity to clarify what I very clearly meant in my question to the Leader of the Council at our meeting in December 2018.
Can I also thank Mr Bates for asking this question allowing me to further clarify any confusion that may have been caused the good citizens of our Borough.
Members will be aware that I responded to a near identical question to this one from Mr Charles Garrity at the March 2019 Council meeting.
At that time, I made clear that my comments were directed at the politicians who brought us Brexit, the very people who have brought us to this point’, rather than being directed at individual voters in this Borough, whether they voted leave or remain.
For the benefit of questioner Mr Warren Bates, a former UKIP Councillor, I am happy to once again to clarify this matter and hopefully put this matter finally to bed. But I suspect not!
Mr Bates only quotes an extract of my question, and one might speculate that this is for the purposes of mischief-making and mis-representing what I said.
As with any question, it is important to look at this extract in the context of the entire question to properly appreciate it.
So I would first urge anyone with an interest to view the entire question on the Council’s website at https://www.oldham.gov.uk/info/200608/meetings/1940/live_council_meetings_online
And do look at it on the council web site not the edited versions and extracts that UKIP and its supporters have posted!
To aid viewers, I asked the question 1 hour, 42 minutes and 36 seconds into the proceedings.
Viewers may also wish to refer to my earlier reply to Mr Garrity’s question submitted to the March 2019 Council which can be found using the same link.
The question was read out by the Mayor in Mr Garrity’s absence, starting at 17 minutes and 28 seconds into proceedings and I provided my personal clarification from 19 minutes 53 seconds.
I would now like to spell out what I meant with specific reference to the extract quoted by Mr Bates in his so-called question.
Given that I previously referenced the former Soviet Union and the Western allies in the context of the Cold War, the ‘Here’ Mr Bates highlights clearly refers to is the UK, not Oldham, and the UK’s political establishment rather than its people.
I am personally convinced that to remain within the European Union is in the best interests of our Borough and its people.
As a member of the largest trading bloc in the world, Britain benefits from the most favourable terms of trade with its European neighbours, trade that is free of red-tape and bureaucracy.
In addition, millions of British citizens every year enjoy the benefits of membership by being able to travel, learn, work, holiday, fall in love, marry, raise a family, and live freely in any of the European member states.
And, lastly and most importantly, we should not forget that the European Union, and before it the EEC, has ensured that the member nations of Europe have never gone to war since 1945 – a blessed and unprecedented 74 – years of peace that our forebears in 1914 and 1939 must have desperately hoped for.
Consequently, my reference to ‘Little Englanders and Swivel Eyed Loons’ was specifically directed at those of our country’s political leaders who want to jeopardise this by so wilfully wishing to cast aside the many benefits of European Union membership.
And they are also very happy to mislead the British public in order to do so. So they spoke of an illusory ‘£350 million a week for the NHS’ as a promise to the British people if we abandoned the club – or, as I put it, ‘breaking faith with the neighbours’ – even though our net financial contribution per annum, our membership fee so to speak, is only half that much!
What they did not speak of were the consequences of a No Deal Brexit.
This scenario is what I refer to as ‘frightening stuff’.
A scenario where medicines are in short supply.
Where there are food shortages, especially of perishable food, and price rises as a result.
Of passenger jets and air freight being delayed, even assuming they have the right permits to fly.
Of long queues of holidaymakers awaiting greater scrutiny of their new Blue passports by overzealous border officials.
And of lorry parks and traffic jams tens of miles long along the highways of Southern England and Northern Ireland because of the many new checks that will need to be carried out as a result of new ‘hard borders’ being created between mainland Britain and mainland Europe, and between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
This is indeed ‘frightening stuff’, Madam Mayor.
This is not Project Fear, this is the Project Reality of a No Deal Brexit.
I hope and trust that this will provide final clarification on this matter for Mr Bates and others with an interest in this matter tonight, and that we can now move on in this Chamber to addressing our other pressing business matters that impact on the lives of our Borough’s citizens tonight.