Britain’s 100 DAY revolution
Since the Brexit vote, we’ve seen a seismic shift in power with a discredited ruling elite crushed. No wonder QUENTIN LETTS has never felt more optimistic about the future
TODAY it is exactly 100 days since Britain voted to leave the European Union. The final confirmation came just before dawn the morning after the polls closed, when David Dimbleby turned to the BBC cameras and ‘called’ the referendum.
‘And the answer is: We’re out,’ said a funereal Dimbleby. The time, which some of us will never forget, was 4.40am on Friday, June 24.
For my own part, I had spent a fitful night in a poky hotel room in London’s Fitzrovia, occasionally switching on the television for an update on results.
When Dimbleby uttered the BBC’s verdict, I sat on the bed and burst into tears of joy. Our country had voted to escape the alien prison of Brussels and its antidemocratic Commission. We were free.
A hundred days is, by most measures, not long. It is 50 days shorter than the gestation period of the domestic goat. It is the lifespan of a lucky mosquito. That has not stopped some Brexit enthusiasts from urging the Government to ‘get on with it’ and enact Article 50, the legal formality kick-starting our EU departure.
Such impatience is understandable. But today, in this transformed landscape, take a moment to consider the remarkable changes that have already occurred in our politics and public life since the referendum vote. Because, my friends, you should be in no doubt: the tectonic plates are grinding. These have been 100 days that have shaken our citadel.
London’s ruling elite has been shocked and shamed. Whitehall reconfigured. The economy has been rebooted, inertia dispelled — and the swaggering conceit of the Notting Hill Set has vanished. From quangocrats to BBC grandees, the House of Lords to the Inns of Court, a realisation is sinking in that the comfortable old arrangements will no longer suffice.
Boy, did our elite deserve a kick up the pants. Brexit voters were making clear their exasperation at decades of oh- sosuperior political correctness, a system run for the convenience of the lecturing few.
No wonder, as the Mail reported yesterday, the only income group to vote Remain was that from households with an annual income of more than £60,000.
AT THE same time, events such as Britain’s success at the Olympic Games and a benevolent summer have cemented a quiet sense of optimism. William and Kate’s joyous family outing to Canada has helped to remind us that there is a world of allies beyond Europe.
With so many pre-referendum politicians now looking distinctly old-fashioned, these 100 days may have seen one of the greatest shifts in British politics for generations.
Yet it may still take us years to grasp fully the immensity of what has happened.
Things moved fast that morning of June 24. Less than four hours after Dimbleby’s declaration of the result, Mr Cameron stepped out of 10 Downing Street to announce his resignation, a snuffling Samantha at his side.
This unexpected departure jolted the City. Markets briefly nosedived. Europhiles adopted ‘told you so’ postures and said it all showed what a disaster Brexit was going to be. They crowed too soon.
Share prices soon recovered, then surged — they are well above where they were before the vote. Employment figures have continued to rise. Prices are steady, shoppers have reopened their wallets and government borrowing (though still far too high) has moderated slightly. Yesterday brought further cheering news on UK growth.
In the first days after the Brexit vote, a still self-assured Cameron expected to hand over to the new Tory leader in early September. He sorely underestimated the pace of change.
After a turbulent Conservative Party leadership process, the Camerons were bundled out of Downing Street in less than a month. We had a new PM, Theresa May, by the second week of July.
Some claimed it was a continuity Conservative government, ‘ the same old Tories ’. That, again, underestimated the revolution that was occurring.
Mrs May did not just tinker with the team. She appointed a new Chancellor, Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary, Chief Whip and Lord Chancellor, along with many junior positions.
This was a steam- clean job — and, my goodness, did we not need to feel cleansed after the appalling resignation honours list submitted by Mr Cameron?
That stinky exercise in cronyism, along with the boosted pay-offs to his key aides, made Mrs May look all the fresher and more necessary. Policies went back to the drawing board. Certain Cameron favourites were ditched (and no one outside the M25 even noticed). The Climate Change Department was closed. A new Whitehall emphasis was placed on international trade.
In officialdom and its corridors there was a rare realisation that ‘the people’ had spoken.
That is why there were scenes of such jubilation in Sunderland, when the first significant Leave vote was announced 100 nights ago.
The people of England and Wales had spoken. They were firmly, proudly asserting their sovereignty, not just in the sense of national sovereignty, but the sovereignty of the voters over the politicians.
The Brexit vote caused panic in the Parliamentary Labour Party — from which point it has spun off into ever-more distant orbits of irrelevance. For the Tories now, unless they wish to revive Ukip, the only game in town is a proper Brexit which delivers the demand of 17.5 million voters for an end to freedom of movement and full escape from Brussels rule.
Multinational bigshots, charity chief executives — from such sources we still hear some criticism as they try to sow doubt about a ‘ hard Brexit’. Project Fear has not entirely closed shop.
ONLY a Pollyanna would claim the coming trade negotiations with the EU will be easy, but once again our Government is operating solely in the national interest, rather than having to compromise its demand to suit 27 fellow members of the EU club. And isn’t that rather admirable?
Plenty of Eurosceptics on the Continent have looked at Brexit with envy. We Outers should draw pride from having been the ones who, like the little boy in the fable, pointed out that the European Union emperors had no clothes. British voters defied all the bullying and blus-
TORY grandees are campaigning for a £1million Spitfire monument to be built in Hyde Park to honour Polish pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain.
Former party chairman Lord Tebbit is backing the plan and ex-deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft has offered to help fund the memorial to the 145 airmen who played a vital role in defeating the Luftwaffe.
Campaigners also want the Polish contribution to the war effort to be included in the national curriculum to highlight the historical alliance between the countries following a spate of xenophobic attacks on Poles in Britain in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote.
Designs for the memorial, which are also backed by a Polish government minister, are still being considered, but the initial proposal is for a structure representing a Spitfire, the iconic aircraft that played a vital role in thwarting the Nazi airforce between July and October 1940.
It is hoped it will be built in time for the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain in 2020.
Polish pilots destroyed more than 200 Luftwaffe planes during the Battle of Britain and the Polish Squadron 303 became Fighter Command’s most successful unit in the battle with 126 ‘kills’ in 42 days.
Lord Tebbit, who was an RAF and airline pilot before entering parliament, said that without the support of the Poles the battle would have been lost, leaving the country exposed to a planned invasion by Hitler.
‘By sheer weight of numbers, the Luftwaffe were winning,’ he said. ‘We had no shortage of aircraft, but we were running out of pilots… Just in time, came the battle-hardened Poles, who had escaped the Germans and were here, eager, skilled, to fight for their country and ours.
‘They turned the battle. The Luftwaffe backed off. The invasion of Britain was cancelled.’
In total, 200,000 Polish servicemen fought in the Second World War under the British High Command, more than the total number currently in the British Armed Forces.
Despite their heroic contribution to the war effort, Polish servicemen were banned from taking part in the London Victory Celebration of 1946 for fear of offending Stalin, whose Soviet forces were occupying Poland.
A monument to the Polish airmen exists outside RAF Northolt beside the A40 in West London, but campaigners do not believe this is prominent enough.
Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski, who was born in Warsaw, said: ‘These truly were “the Few” that Winston Churchill referred to, and without these brave men the war would have been prolonged and many more men, women and children would have been killed. That is why I am calling on the British Government to make this symbolic gesture by erecting a monument in a central London location, such as in the vicinity of Buckingham Palace or the Parliament, which will commemorate the Polish pilots.’
Ben Harris-Quinney, chairman of the Bow Group, the Tory thinktank, which is organising the campaign, said: ‘We proudly campaigned for Brexit, but we didn’t campaign to make Polish people feel unwelcome in Britain…
‘No one can deny the significance of the Polish contribution to the Battle of Britain, and it’s a story everyone in Britain needs to hear.’
Lord Ashcroft has said: ‘I would gladly contribute to a memorial to the many Poles that fought with us in World War II.’
Senator Anna Maria Anders, Polish minister for international dialogue, hailed it as a ‘tremendous idea’. She said: ‘There is a lot of concern in Poland about what has been happening in the UK. A gesture like this would serve to calm everybody down. The UK still loves Poland and Poland still loves the UK.
‘The Poles turned the battle’