Critics Of The European Union

"Uncontrolled migration from the EU drove down wages, undercutting UK workers, and increased the cost of living which hit the poorest hardest. There is an increasing divide between people who benefit from the immigration of cheap nannies and baristas and labourers - and people who can't find work because of uncontrolled immigration"

"Always leave them wanting more."

"Iain and Duncan Smith: it's the first time identical twins have ever lead a major political party."

"Buried in the fine print, unnoticed by many, is the fact we remain hooked into the EU's loan book. You can't be half in the EU & half out, the problem is the WA. It costs too much & it denies us true national independence."

"The truth is that our sovereignty was given away a long time ago, and the Lisbon Treaty was the final nail in the coffin for Ireland’s independence."

"The funding being lavished on abortion campaigners amounts to unwarranted and unwanted interference in Ireland’s affairs in a bid to smash the pro-life ethos that protects both mothers and babies. Two decades of persistent public engagement and education has maintained Ireland’s pro-life majority, and, in that time, abortion campaigners have failed to win the necessary public support to build momentum for abortion legislation. But they are now openly availing of the massive global funding being made available to efforts to overturn Ireland’s pro-life laws. As in many other jurisdictions, since they cannot get the people to agree with abortion, they want to use the courts and the massive wealth and power of a tiny elite minority to foist abortion on the nation."

"Nobody has ever said the negotiation would be straightforward and simple."

"It's not us that loses financially if we don't have a free trade agreement, it's Germany and France and other European countries, and that's why of course there will be a free trade agreement that allows all our business to trade freely to and from continental Europe. It will take a relatively short period time in my view because they lose financially."

"Finally we have a confirmed use for Chris Grayling. He is the government's secret weapon to make even the most incompetent and second-rate of ministers feel good about themselves. Not content with having wasted the best part of £14m on the government's first-ever roll-on, roll-off pizza delivery service – all toppings guaranteed to be ferry free, the transport secretary has now spent more than £50K on failing to organise a lorry jam in Kent."

"Did anyone honestly think we were going to walk into a room with the European Union, shake hands, and do a deal in half an hour? These are going to be lengthy negotiations, they're going to challenging negotiations."

"[A new runway at Heathrow is needed to secure] a clear path to our future as a global nation in the post-Brexit world."

"Project managers who believe that closing down a project will wreck their careers are tempted to carry on in the hope they will have a slight chance of saving their reputations. Both courses carry the risk of disaster for those responsible for a project, but one—abandonment—is often far better for the company."

"If a democracy cannot change its mind, it ceases to be a democracy."

"DD [David Davis] is manufactured exactly to specification as the perfect stooge for [Cabinet Secretary Jeremy] Heywood: thick as mince, lazy as a toad, & vain as Narcissus."

"He's the only man I know who can swagger while sitting down."

"He works incredibly hard but he always likes to take August off."

"[On concerns over reputed rising authoritarianism in the UK] We're never going to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, despite all the waffling on about it. It's not going to happen. So there’s always that backstop."

"Free speech is one of our fundamental rights — it is not a gift from the state to be withdrawn at the whim of a government, but the birth right of our citizens. I sympathise with the aims of this government to maintain law and order — but that must not be at the expense of our precious rights and freedoms..."

"[E]very law we write must be written on the presumption that it will be a government very unlike ours who will be in charge at some point in the future."

"You can change the leader, you can't change the numbers. We've got to focus on the issue here, which is delivering on the Brexit demand of the British people. That means leaving the customs union and leaving the single market."

"Nobody has ever pretended that this will be easy. I have always said that this negotiation will be tough, complex and, at times, confrontational."

"Our laws will then be made in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast and interpreted not by judges in Luxembourg but by judges across the United Kingdom"

"The simple fact is that the mandate (in June's referendum) was to leave the European Union - full stop. We need to keep that in mind when we are going through that process."

"There will be no downside to Brexit, only a considerable upside."

"If we do a free trade agreement with Europe it will be beneficial for both sides, as it were, on its own two feet, without having to pay anything to do it. That's what we're aiming for."

"There is a proper role for referendums in constitutional change, but only if done properly. If it is not done properly, it can be a dangerous tool. The Chairman of the Public Administration Committee, who is no longer in the Chamber, said that Clement Attlee—who is, I think, one of the Deputy Prime Minister's heroes—famously described the referendum as the device of demagogues and dictators. We may not always go as far as he did, but what is certain is that pre-legislative referendums of the type the Deputy Prime Minister is proposing are the worst type of all. ¶ Referendums should be held when the electorate are in the best possible position to make a judgment. They should be held when people can view all the arguments for and against and when those arguments have been rigorously tested. In short, referendums should be held when people know exactly what they are getting. So legislation should be debated by Members of Parliament on the Floor of the House, and then put to the electorate for the voters to judge. ¶ We should not ask people to vote on a blank sheet of paper and tell them to trust us to fill in the details afterwards. For referendums to be fair and compatible with our parliamentary process, we need the electors to be as well informed as possible and to know exactly what they are voting for. Referendums need to be treated as an addition to the parliamentary process, not as a substitute for it."

"It is time for Britain to take control of its own destiny."

"There is a 60‑40 chance of no-deal Brexit."

"Most new immigrants move into the private rented sector which has grown as the immigrant population has grown. Competition for rented accommodation obliges all those in the private rented sector to pay high rents which take a large share of income and makes saving to buy a home even harder. These resulting high rents and a shortage of housing make it much more difficult for young people to set up home on their own so they have to spend more time in house shares or with their parents."

"This country is not the free-trading nation it once was. We have become too lazy, and too fat on our successes in previous generations, companies who could be contributing to our national prosperity - but choose not to because it might be too difficult or too time-consuming or because they can't play golf on a Friday afternoon - we've got to be saying to them if you want to share in the prosperity of our country you have a duty to contribute to the prosperity of our country."

"As a newly independent WTO member outside the EU, we will continue to fight for trade liberalisation as well as potentially helping developing markets trade their way out of poverty by giving them preferential access to our markets. I believe the UK is in a prime position to become a world leader in free trade because of the brave and historic decision of the British people to leave the European Union. We are leaving the EU, we are not leaving Europe and we are ready to take our place in an open, liberal and competitive globalised trading environment."

"The free trade agreement that we will have to do with the European Union should be one of the easiest in human history.../ /....The only reason that we wouldn’t come to a free and open agreement is because politics gets in the way of economics."

"You can not leave the European Union and be in the single market and the customs union."

"[Failure to agree a deal is] not exactly a nightmare scenario"

"[Talks would only be complicated if the] European elite tried to punish Britain for having the audacity to use our legal rights to leave the European Union"

"We don't want there to be a hard border but the United Kingdom is going to be leaving the single market and customs union."

"a customs union means no independent trade policy"

"You've got a Leave population and a Remain Parliament."

"Parliament has not got the right to hijack the Brexit process because Parliament has said to the people of this country: 'We make a contract with you, you will make the decision and we will honour it.' What we are now getting are some of those who were always absolutely opposed to the result of the referendum, trying to hijack Brexit and, in fact, steal the result from the people."

"To attempt to have a delay mechanism in order to thwart the process of Brexit itself is actually politically completely unacceptable"

"It's time we went back to a proper Brexit."

"A tall, restless, nail-biting man, expensively dressed, he looked at least ten years older than forty - three. His face was tanned, his eyes steely blue. In repose, his expression was peculiarly dead. But his face would frequently crinkle into a smile and — which was disconcerting — from time to time he looked straight across at me, nodding and grinning, as if trying to convey a message of some kind."

"I remember knocking on doors in Putney, asking people to vote for him. Some people loved him, other people thought he was the most terrifying creature they had ever heard of, and they thought he wanted to became a sort of dictator of the country. And you can understand that. He was a very exotic character. His family life was exotic. Everything he did was different. I have never met anyone like him and I shouldn't think I ever will meet anyone like him. So I am not surprised he had a rough time. He didn't mind that. He was sort of like a military commander. He was used to hostility."

"He was a very odd character."

"There was a period, from 16 to 19, where we really hit the rocks in terms of our relationship. But even at the worst times, following a monumental row, you couldn't not respect him. I always saw in him - and I would have been a fool not to have seen in him - a greatness."

"[About Goldsmith's long absences owing to having three families] It was normal. I considered other people's families to be slightly odd. I certainly never resented it, because I get on so well with my brothers and sisters, from the youngest, who is 10, to the oldest who is 45.""

"I think reporting in England is a load of filth, and that's why I'm going into the newspaper business there."

"I'm not a great believer in the see-through society."

"When you marry your mistress you automatically create a vacancy."

"The awful thing is, I find I feel sorry for him. ..."