Then there was one...

Welcome to the Democratic Republic of Britain. Be calm, your Government knows what you want, and if they get it wrong, fear not - there's a 50/50 chance that they'll be another General Election within the next 12 months where you can get rid of them. BoJo has already set out his stall this weekend, of course.

But of course, the UK is neither a republic through the sovernign monarchy or democratic after the Conservative's latest power grab. How can we be in a position following the referendum, very much a call to "bring democracy back to the UK", where we now have the ruling party, who's majority took a hit only a few weeks ago now pushing through a bill which gives them the ability to create, remove and amend laws as they see fit? Not only that, the European Union (Withdrawl) Bill opens up the possibility of the use of Henry VIII powers, which allow the Government to effectively bypass normal Parliamentary procedure. That has, of course, happened in the past, but not on the same scale as is planned now. As a result of this Bill, we will see extensive use of those powers - some 12,000 EU-orginated regulations will be brought up for discussion. Some of them will make changes for technical reasons, however as the most recent paper from the House of Commons Library states, it's anticipated that others will enable “substantive policy changes” to be made by the Government. So changes are likely to be introduced through Committees, which is why the Government are doing their best to pack those Committees with their own MPs, against the established procedure of Parliament. For those who are a fan of the devolved administrations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the Bill does not return powers from the EU to ​the devolved institutions as promised. Instead, in devolved legislative areas such as agriculture and the environment, the power is going from Brussels to London, bypassing and therefore undermining devolution. So what we essentially have as the first attempt to "take back control" and to "set our own laws", two statements that were regularly mentioned during the referendum by the Leave side, is the removal of powers from the provinces of the UK back to London. If that's the sort of self-governing democracy that we have to look forward to, I worry for the future.

Tomorrow will see the publication by the UK of a proposed UK-EU position paper on post-Brexit security matters. It seems that the cabinet are either realising, or now admitting, that the UK's withdrawl from the EU also means that we will no longer be able to be a full member of security sharing and coordination organisations such as Europol and the Schengen Information System (SIS). To quote the home secretary herself only a year ago, "existing security arrangements within the EU are some of the world's most sophisticated cross-border systems in the fight against crime". Without access to Europol or the SIS, information sharing will be severely limited. Non-EU but EFTA members such as Norway do have partial access to Europol systems but only on an operational basis, rather than in a consultative or strategic manner. The paper tomorrow is likely to suggest continued working together, which would mean the UK paying into the EU budget for security matters. So why are we leaving again? That 350 million windfall is getting smaller and smaller...

So if we want to continue to play on the European scale for security, then we have to continue to pay. But not only for security - cabinet ministers over the last few weeks have signalled that they'd like to see continued collaboration on science and research, infrastructure and transport projects. All of which would require the UK paying into the EU coffers. So why are we leaving again?

Another big referendum promise was that immigration would fall to "manageable" levels post-Brexit. It should be pointed out that the UK is in the position, right now, to address immigration by both EU and non-EU nationals. You heard me right - we can already control EU immigration. I've already addressed the issue of ID cards into another blog post, however in order for an EU national to move from one EU country to another, they need to be able to meet at least one of the following three requirements - 1) they need to be economically active, i.e. working and paying tax, or 2) they're a student on a recognised course, or 3) they have sufficient funds to be able to support themselves without becoming a burden on the state. This means that if after 3 months a person has not found a job, they can be deported. If they leave their course of study without then finding a job, they can be deported. This is emphasised by the fact that EU nationals cannot claim benefits until they have worked and paid into the system - this dispells the myth that the UK is full of Eastern Europeans who have never worked in the UK claiming benefits. Essentially the UK has chosen not to enforce the rules that are already available to them, so how can we trust the Government to fulfill their pledge once we leave the EU when they already have the means to do so but chose not to enforce the existing rules?

I've come to terms with the fact that Brexit will happen, however I strongly believe that those who voted Leave for matters of returning democracy to the UK or to "take back control" of our borders are in for a shock. The Government is choosing to push Brexit policies through Parliament without the standard oversight, pushing the opposition parties to mere observer status, and those promises of more funding for UK services will not materialise. Will we see some headline catching increases in funding post-Brexit? Yes we will, but I would bet my next salary payment that the increase in one area will come throgh the decrease in another area.

Don't like what's happening? Then speak up! The UK is going down a path that many feel is more akin to China than the Britain of old. As Brian Vaszily once said, "Yes, things beyond your control happen to you. But you alone own how you respond".