Here we are.
I’m proud to be with you. And I’m proud to have walked with you. And I’m proud to stand with you. And I’m proud to talk to you.
Because when we work together, when we share our wealth, we all prosper. When we live as a community, all our lives are better. When we stand together we are all protected.
Sixty years ago today our community was created. Sixteen years later we joined it.
And it isn’t perfect. Francis does spend all the parish funds on his allotment. Jean Claude is very bossy. And they do come stay a lot.
But we’re not perfect either. We’re always wanting special rules, just for us. And it bugs our neighbours. But we rub along. And we prosper.
Together we are stronger. We make our garden grow.
Next week, we’ll tell everyone we’re leaving. We’re going to live on our own. All the faults are theirs. We’ll do better by ourselves. That nice Mr Trump, he’ll look after us.
But we haven’t left yet.
Next week will also see the next step in our case to establish that Article 50 is just the beginning of a journey. We have new additions to a very powerful legal team. We will file our written case. We will seek a hearing date in June. Ireland has said it wants to discuss the way forward.
The Claimants – me along with three very brave politicians from the Green Party who came forward when no one else would – are bringing this action to give the people of this country a choice. A choice they must have. A democratic choice. To remain if they want to remain.
I can’t tell you what answer the courts will give. But what I believe is that pushing the Article 50 button is like starting a journey. If we want to turn around, we can turn around.
Will we turn around? No one knows. No one knows what the future holds.
We voted to leave in a very different world. No President who thought NATO obsolete. No one threatening to tear up trade rules. And we did not know what Brexit meant for the country. And we still don’t know now.
I’m not in the crystal ball business. I don’t know what the future holds. I don’t know what will happen. But I will say this: no one else does either. Anyone who tells you they know the popular mood will remain the same is lying to you. Because they do not know. Because they cannot know. Because the only certainty you can rely on is change itself.
But I’ll tell you this.
What will make Brexit happens is if you give up. If you give up now. Now, at their last moment of control. The last moment before real life walks in on their fantasy.
And takes their cake away.
It’s the hope that kills you, they say. They say that but they’re wrong. The hope will save you. It will save you. And there is hope. There is real hope. Don’t give up.
Fight for your country. Fight for our children. Fight for our future.
Thank you.
Postscript: you can watch a recording of the speech here https://youtu.be/Q4ehBWt-bpY
Waiting for Godot 
Wish I could have been there to hear it, but I completely agree with this. It’s going to be a rocky road but we can defeat this nonsense. Thanks for what you’re doing, it can’t be easy sticking your head above the parapet. Good luck.
Well said, Jolyon. You struck an appealing, slightly mocking note. Our European citizens initiative on retaining European Citizenship’ was registered on Wednesday, and Barnier welcomed it in his speech about art 50 that day. We’ve received the Commission’s decision on registration, which suggests that third country national status is one possibility for UK citizens resident elsewhere in the EU post Brexit. Greetings! Tony Simpson
Great speech. I was there. Good to hear you in person. Many thanks for going through the courts to try and sort this mess out.
I liked the last line. That is why we must leave the sinking ship that is hell bent on taking more of our birthright freedoms. It is sinking because it is not working. All the EU wants and indeed has ever wanted is ever closer union.
Our Parliament, the oldest in the world, is now dictated to by an unelected Commission and an unaccountable ECJ. Why unaccountable?
There is no democratic mechanism for the EU parliament to propose, amend or repeal legislation without the Commission’s permission. That is no future for our children or this great nation of ours and that is before we look at the constitution which can be suspended on a whim and a police force that is immune from prosecution, like so many other areas of the EU.
Then we have the catastrophic euro. Sadly for the UK, there will be no escaping this catastrophe when it finally plays out because we will all be caught up in the fallout which will be truly appalling.
“Where are the statesmen nowadays”, people ask. Well, here’s one!
Proud you are doing this. Proud you’re the kind of Brit we should all wish the world to see.
Thank you!
Reblogged this on adriands3's Blog.
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I like the contradiction between paragraph 2 ( ‘sharing wealth’ ) and paragraph 4 (‘spending all the funds on his allotment’). That’s quality mick taking of those who turned up.
Yet again you had the chance to sell the EU in a positive way, and you didn’t take it. Why not? Why not sell the single currency which is so good? Sell the Common Agricultural and Fisheries policies that serve our farmers and fishermen and fish stocks so well. Sell the enlightened actions of the ECB, buying EU government debt so smartly. Sell the fiscal rules that mean no EU government can borrow cheap money to invest in the future like Jeremy C plans to do. Sell the free movement of labour so IKEA can use delivery drivers in the U.K. at Romanian rates of pay (so good for our economy!). And sell the benefits we pay to families right across Europe. And sell the net financial contribution we make as such a great act of charity to spread our wealth to other member states.
You had this opportunity, and you didn’t take it. You just negatively campaigned, like a politician does.
I thought this was beautifully constructed Jolyon: “The Claimants – me along with three very brave politicians from the Green Party who came forward when no one else would – are bringing this action to give the people of this country a choice. A choice they must have. A democratic choice.”
How would you propose we offer this democratic choice? Perhaps a free and fair referendum? Perhaps a vote in our sovereign Parliament?
Hang on, what’s this: “… To remain if they want to remain.”
Aah, the choice to do what I want; not so beautiful.
Your ugly sarcasm founders on the rocks of your apparent inability to read. Here’s the passage: “to give the people of this country a choice. A choice they must have. A democratic choice. To remain if they want to remain.”
“we leave in a very different world”
Hi Jolyon – You’ve referenced Trump up there, said that the referendum decision to leave was taken before we knew who was going to be US president. Are you saying you wouldn’t be part of this continuing remain campaign had Clinton won?
Are you suggesting that we ought to hold a fresh referendum every time there is a new USA president, or something happens somewhere in the world that might at some point impact on the UK’s future?
Let’s be honest, the world is very different from when we joined the EU. So is the EU. So what? I’m sure the UK populace was aware that the world might be different in the future than it is now. Despite all that uncertainty, they still voted by a majority to leave. THEY want to leave.
The world really is different since we joined. For a start, the proportion of world trade and production carried out in Europe is declining. We need to build our trading and political relationships with those parts of the world that are growing, not shrinking.
I have no problem with Mr. Maugham’s request for another referendum. Perfect right of every citizen.
But really, suing for it is so enormously, offensively, amusingly, lawyerish as to bring the whole project into disrepute.
I’m not suing for another referendum. And thanks for your support.