Rationale: In this most important general election for decades, the UK voters have several stark choices: do we want to leave the EU or not ? Do we accept Scottish independence and all that will follow from that ? Do we accept the right of Northern Ireland and Scotland to decide their own democratic futures inside or outside the UK and the EU ? It is our belief that only a reforming progressive alliance of parties all pledged to reverse and prevent Brexit can defeat the Conservative Party, who have taken us to the very brink of leaving the EU. This in turn has pushed forward the momentum of Scottish independence that is now almost unstoppable. Only an entirely new written constitution for the whole UK might persuade the Scottish voters to remain inside the UK. Brexit has shocked the normally quiescent British voters into unrivalled activism and anger. Years of Tory austerities have awakened the liberal and social democratic and socialist conscience of our nation and millions and millions of voters throughout the Uk are determined to stop Brexit, hold a second democratic referendum on this issue, and to end years of Tory austerity, and to prioritise a Green New Deal where we readjust our relationship to nature as a whole and prevent further environmental catastrophes. This Manifesto, if adopted by all reformist and Bremain parties, would lead to their not standing against each other in the forthcoming general election and would lead to a Tory defeat and the coming into power of a reformist alliance of progressive parties who could stop Brexit (democratically), see justice done against law breakers (in the 2016 referendum), write and agree a written constitution for the UK, let Scotland have her second independence referendum, and prioritise peace and justice for the UK’s foreign and domestic policy agenda, and insist on the veracity of parliamentarians henceforth by law. These are momentous proposals for momentous times. To demand anything less is foolish in these end-full times. SUGGESTED GOVERNING PRINCIPLES FOR THE BREMAIN PACT OF PROGRESSIVE REFORMIST PARTIES IN THE UK GENERAL ELECTION DECEMBER 12, 2019 1.Suggestion that Bremain parties and election candidates form a Bremain Alliance and agree to stand only one authorised candidate in each constituency, this would (could) include candidates from the Liberal Democrats, the Greens, the Labour Party, SNP Plaid Cymru, Change UK, the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). Even some unionist candidates in Northern Ireland might back the Bremain Alliance, along with some more moderate Conservatives. Might have to be negotiated at grass roots level in some cases. If individual MP candidates agree to back this Manifesto, and more than one per constituency does, then the official Bremain Alliance candidate would be the one whose party won most votes last general election in 2017 (or the last time the seat was fought for). Easy to work out. 2. Whichever of these parties came first at the last general election, their candidate would be endorsed by the Bremain Alliance, and all Bremain supporters would be asked to vote for them (providing they were actually genuine Bremain candidates, pledged to either a second referendum and /or revocation of article 50.) Websites to calculate this include: https://tacticalvote.co.uk/ 3. All candidates elected to the House of Commons, would pledge to enact legislation for a second referendum and /or to simply revoke article 50 immediately 4. All Bremain candidates would pledge, if elected to authorise the creation of a Royal Commission For A Written Constitution For The UK. If Scotland votes for independence in 2020, the Commission would have two sections, and one would concern solely a written constitution for Scotland. 5. All Bremain candidates would pledge to fast-track legal and Police Enquiries into all illegal actions undertaken by leave campaigners during the 2016 EU referendum. 6. All Bremain candidates would pledge to introduce new legislation before the second referendum:- a) No offshore money from persons not entitled to vote in the referendum permitted for advertising and promotion in any shape of form. b) All UK citizens, wherever domiciled, entitled to vote, and whatever age. c) 16 and 17 year-old UK citizens also entitled to vote. d) All EU citizens resident in UK for more than 6 months entitled to vote. 7. Bremain Alliance to pledge an end to austerity and to scrap immediately Universal Credit and replace it with a Citizens Income Scheme, whereby all UK residents receive a basic living wage, whether in paid work, voluntary work or self-employed. 8. Bremain alliance to pledge it would authorise, if requested, a second Scottish Independence referendum and would abide by its result (all UK and EU citizens resident in Scotland for the previous 6 months to vote, all 16 and 17 years olds to vote) 9. If Scotland votes for independence, and to leave the UK, but to remain in the EU, the Bremain Alliance would pledge to honour and expedite that wish and to facilitate a swift, fair and just independence process for Scotland, and not to block Scotland becoming an independent member country of the European Union. 10. If an independent Scotland insists, all UK nuclear weapons are to leave Scotland, and the Bremain Alliance would expedite this ASAP and hold a referendum on whether the remainder of the UK still wishes to be a nuclear weapons state. If that referendum declines the continuing membership of the UK in the nuclear weapons club, then both Scotland and the rest of the UK would expedite the transformation of the Armed Forces into Non-Nuclear weapons status, and organise a Universal Nuclear Disarmament conference and sign the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), becoming the first UN Security Council member to do so. 11. The Bremain Alliance would also pledge to establish an Institute of Peace in London, with branches in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast whose purpose would be to marshal the most accurate up-to-date and visionary scholarship and scientific research into all aspects of peace, conflict resolution, mediation, arbitration and international peace law, non violence, disarmament and arms control, inter-faith and ethical peacebuilding, inter-disciplinary peace research etc. IOP would also house a postgraduate research institute and grant higher academic degrees. It would have the statutory duty of proving advice to the FCO on peacebuilding and peace-making strategy, peace diplomacy and mediation and in the run up to any combat involving the UK would be consulted as to non-violent alternatives. It would be funded with 1% of the budget of the MOD in any given year. Its academic independence from the UK government would be assured and guaranteed by law. 12 The Bremain Alliance would pledge to work with our EU partners for a gradual process for EU reform, e.g. Freedom of Information legislation, more democratic participation in decision making, and a more positive role for Europe in global problem solving -- e.g. environmental challenges such as climate change and global warming, social and political challenges. 13. The Bremain Alliance would pledge to work with the European Union to create a new statutory body to be called the European Union Mediation Service. This body would be tasked with mediating conflicts in countries bordering on the European Union (e.g. Ukraine, Syria and Libya) and also conflicts occurring within European Union member states [ e.g. Spain / Catalonia.] Eu member states would bid where it was to be headquartered (eg Edinburgh). 14. Bremain Alliance candidates would pledge to introduce in the first week of parliament a Parliamentary Duty of Veracity Bill, whereby any MP or Lord found to have lied on matters discussed parliament would automatically lose office. The legal right of parliamentarians to claim matters are sub-judice or subject to legal privilege would be overruled by the Duty of Veracity. 15. Bremain candidates would pledge to overhaul the UK National Curriculum and to increase the moral philosophical and inter-religious content of the curriculum so that young minds are led to realise that the moral distinctions between lies and truth, harm and harmlessness, violence and non-violence, and good and evil are at least as important to human civilisation as mathematical equations or IT. As much time and funding therefore would go to Religion and Philosophy teaching in UK schools as to mathematics. Religious and moral education centres would be established in each SACRE nationwide. The arts and humanities would also be increased in schools with music drama, poetry, literature and languages, history and geography also given equal status to natural science and technology subjects and all pupils would be given a fully rounded education to equip them for life’s complex moral, spiritual and intellectual challenges. Sex education would include love education. 16 The Bremain Alliance would pledge to bring in a Gifted And Talented Scheme for all Universities throughout the UK and try to and persuade our EU colleagues to adopt it throughout the European Union once we had established it successfully. 17. Bremain candidates would pledge to implement a Green New Deal, so all unemployed graduates and qualified candidates would be offered launch funding, to contribute creatively to the economic advancement of the UK in a way conforming to environmental needs. Living “off grid” in eco-homes would be encouraged.; Planning restricting on eco-homes would be much relaxed. Forest gardens and similar agricultural experiments would be encouraged. 18 Bremain candidates if elected would pledge to introduce strict regulations for the offshore banking and financial services industry. Such funds would all be taxed fairly and properly henceforth. Tax avoidance schemes would be deal with rigorously and the law tightened up and enforced effectively against major corporations. A penny would be taxed on every single email exchanged on the internet passing through the UK and the money raised would be in the billions. It would also stop spam in its tracks. 19. The National Health Service will be reaffirmed as an important service to the people of the UK, and proper funding will be guaranteed long term; a new emphasis however will be put on preventing illness and a wider range of medical regimes made available including alternative and complementary medicine such as Homeopathy, acupuncture, Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, therapeutic massage, clinical hypnotherapy, psychotherapy, naturopathy, herbal medicine, spiritual and other parallel healing systems with proven capacity to heal patients with particular conditions. Patients using the NHS would be entitled to request such healing regimens. The NHS would be renamed the National Healing Service with the greater emphasis on the dynamics of healing, and an acknowledgement of the importance of doctor/healer/patient relationships. Medical training for doctors and nurses would include options to include these healing practices in their tuition and clinical experiences. 20. A new law guaranteeing safety to whistle-blowers and truth-tellers reporting illegal and mendacious and malevolent actions in any part of the Uk state apparatus, or among nations with whom we are in supposed alliance: this new law would guarantee freedom from prosecution int eh event of reporting wrongdoing, such as Katherine Gunn, and would cover all branches of the police, intelligence services, judiciary, parliament, local and regional councils etc. The same law would guarantee freedom of sanctuary to whistle-blowers from other nations reporting on illegal and actions actions by other governments or their state apparatuses. Any foreign whistle-blowers seeking sanctuary in the UK, provided their caser was genuine, would be guaranteed sanctuary and not deported. Julian Assange would be released under this legislation immediately the Bremain Reform Alliance come into office following December 12th election victory. 21. It will be made a criminal offence for lawyers to lie or act mendaciously, on behalf of clients, or at their bidding, in any court or judicial process in the UK. Ethical education and instruction in the history and the philosophy of law will also be made mandatory for all trainee lawyers (solicitors and barristers) in the UK. 22. The silencing of discussion in parliament of cases and issues which are being investigated legally as sub-judice will be ended. Parliamentary discussion will supercede and take precedence over all legal procedures underway, and free and unfettered discussion of all issues, with truth telling being mandatory, will be resumed to the mother of parliaments. Likewise, the Parliamentary Protocol that does not permit MP’s to take on cases for people who live outside their constituencies will be ended. All MP’s can respond (if they wish) to communications from any UK Citizen and deal with their issues as they see fit. It might be an issue they are personally interest in, in which case they would work with the citizen’s local MP to get some forward movement on the issue. 23. State pensions will be increased 100% in size by the Bremain Reform alliance as a way of giving thanks to the elderly people of Britain who have sacrificed so much for the current generation. Women and men will be treated equally in all pension matters. The pension age will be set at 65 and kept there indefinitely, for both men and women. If people want to go on working after that age they can of course. 24. UK foreign policy will shift 100% towards a peace oriented policy, with emphasis on resolving and healing conflicts in nations around the world, with a priority on Commonwealth countries, but also throughout the Middle East and wherever countries are experiencing civil wars or violent conflicts The UK will make available its 3 centuries of experience in building and maintaining the largest Empire the world has ever known, and give advice and help and assistance to all countries who ask for mediation and peace-making assistance. The UK will support the coming into being of the European Union Mediation Service and make its expertise in conflict resolution and mediation available to it also. The UK will also support and advance peace-making and mediation structures inside the United Nations, and help bring into being a UN Intra-National Mediation Service. The UK will double it contributions to the UN and towards UNESCO and help set up an Education Aid programme through UNESCO whereby all children in participating country’s are given a special day off per year for fundraising (“Education Aid”) on the model of Live Aid. 25. The legalisation of soft recreational drugs (cannabis, ayahuasca, magic mushrooms, and similar) will end the criminalisation of millions of people and enable the medical and social benefits of their judicious use to benefit the treasury, as in the Canadian model brought in by the Canadian Liberal Party of Justin Trudeau. This will bring millions of pounds to the exchequer through taxes and stimulate a legal cannabis industry in the UK. Cannabis would be available for sale in special shops nationwide to over 18 year olds, with their contents and quality carefully monitored for excellence, but would come with due health warnings, just as alcohol and tobacco do, and not be sold to minors. Intelligent drugs education programmes would give the people the knowledge on which to base lifestyle choices and proper help would be given for all addiction and mental health problems. The war on drugs would be ended and peace declared instead. Parliament to play the Beatles All You Need is Love on the loudspeakers on day one of the Bremain Reform Alliance taking office. 26. The people of Northern Ireland would be asked again at a second referendum if they wish to a) leave the European Union as part of the UK or if they b) wish to stay as part of the European Union as a continuing part of the UK or c) if they wish to remain as part of the EU but as an integral part of the Irish republic. This three way referendum would be unique to the people of Northern Ireland and would be held at the same as the overall UK referendum on the EU. 27. The workings of the Privy Council would be televised and recorded in Hansard, and subject to freedom of information legislation and would also be subject to the Parliamentary Duty of Veracity Bill. Lying would lead to instant dismissal of any member of the Privy Council up to and including the Monarch. 28. The written constitution would include a new definition of treason, encompassing not only acts injurious to well-being of the monarch but also acts injurious to the well-being of the people of the UK as a whole (Genuine lawful democratic independence movements (such as the SNP) would be excluded from this bill.). The Supreme Court would have responsibility for cases of treason brought under this act and the Supreme Court would also act as the Constitutional Court of the UK henceforth for all disputes concerning interpretation of the new written Constitution. 29. The ancient monasteries and Abbeys of the UK which were destroyed previously and are now in ruined state, would be restored as Spiritual Retreat Centres, run loosely and conscientiously by the Church of England / Church of Scotland / Church of Wales / Church of Ireland on behalf of the well being of all the people of the UK, and set up as ecumenical open retreat centres for spiritual pilgrims throughout the UK. Young unemployed people would learn craft skills to rebuild these monasteries throughout the land, taking pride in their work, and architects and skilled craftsmen would all be invited to play a role in rebuilding such sacred places as Glastonbury, Rievaulx, Lewes Priory, Abbey Cwm Hyr, Reading, and many more. Each restored Spiritual Pilgrimage Centre would have a library, scriptoria, bookshop, healing clinic, herbal garden, dormitory, refectory, chapter house, prayer chapel and meditation spaces, and would be open to Christians of all denominations, and also to people of all other faiths, to come on retreat, and stay and help with tasks on a voluntary basis. Daily prayers for peace and healing would form the core of their renewed mission in the life of the nation. Author, Dr Thomas Clough Daffern, PhD, PCGE, B.A. (Hons) D.Sc (Hon) Director, international Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy (IIPSGP) Director, Centre for Bremain Studies and Action, UK and France. www.educationaid.net https://centreforbremainstudies.weebly.com/blog Please send any comments or suggestions for improvements or extra clauses you wish to see added, and also any reports of successful use of this MANIFESTO FOR A REFORM BREMAIN ALLIANCE in inter-party negotiations to: [email protected] or [email protected]
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THE CONSTITUTIONAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF 28 AUGUST, 2019 IN UK POLITICAL AFFAIRS8/28/2019 Colleagues are asking me for my response to the news that a small group of Privy councillors including Rees-Mogg, the arch brexiteer and ante-diluvian right-wing conservative financial profiteer from Brexit, have been with the so called "Prime Minister" to Balmoral to demand that the Queen prorogue parliament and that the Queen has apparently given way and signed this into effect without blinking an eyelid. She has also apparently ignored a request from the Leader of the Opposition to hold a meeting. So what do I think ? What is my response, both legally and philosophically? Ok let me put you into the picture. Last year, in 2018, after campaigning against Brexit strongly for 2 years, I wrote to the Queen, finally, in frustration and told her that in my view, Brexit was an immoral, unethical and constitutionally unsound project which would lead to the break up of the UK. I expressed my view that the referendum of 2016 result ha been misinterpreted for reasons that are inexplicable and by interests who do not have the well being of the Uk at heart, in such a way that it will lead to the inevitable break up of the UK. I appealed to her as sovereign to resist the rush to brexit as her constitutional duty was to defend the realm, which meant that to ensure its continuation as a state came foremost before all else. She kindly had a correspondence secretary write back and tell me, that although she appreciated hearing my views, and had taken careful note of them, "as a constitutional sovereign, Her Majesty acts on the advice of Her Ministers and remains strongly non-political at all times". I mulled over this response and watched events. Then when I saw that the Conservatives were continuing to act as if their interpretation of the outcome of the 2016 advisory referendum was the only permissible one, and as the BBC continued to give no air time to any effective opposition, and as parliament continued to be shackled, I then wrote again a long letter in which I made several points to her Majesty, even more specifically. Now I am putting into the public view this letter in full for the first time, on this same day August 28. St Augustines Day, 2019, as a result of her actions, which I regard as mistaken and unsound constitutionally. Here is the letter in full:
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR PEACE STUDIES AND GLOBAL PHILOSOPHY Director, Dr. Thomas Daffern B.A. (Hons) D.Sc. (Hon) Ph.D. French office: European Peace Museum, 13 Grande Rue, Betete, Limousin, 20270, France UK office: 213 Ham Road, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 2QB Email: [email protected] websites: www.educationaid.net www.lulu.com/iipsgp http://thomascloughdaffern.wordpress.com/ http://musespress.wordpress.com/ http://daffernfamily.wordpress.com/ https://trcme.wordpress.com/ http://www.globalgreenuniversity.com/ https://ceppr.wordpress.com https://goldengateproject.wordpress.com https://interfaithpeacetreaty.wordpress.com https://multimediationservice.weebly.com https://europeanpeacemusaeon.weebly.com https://transpersonaltherapy.weebly.com/ Private email: [email protected] Facebook: International Institute of Peace Studies YouTube: IIPSGP1 October 2018 Dear Queen Elizabeth 2nd, Further to my previous letter of 28 June 2018, in which I warned of the likely consequences of Brexit and the break up of the UK with the secession of Scotland and the reunification of Ireland as an independent Republic, as well as the impoverishment and the people of the remaining England and Wales. You kindly replied in August and thanked me for expressing my views. I stated as follows: “It is my understanding that you have a constitutional duty as Monarch to defend the integrity of your realm. Your Privy Councillors have a sworn duty to protect Your Majesty from all enemies, foreign and domestic. I am writing to you not as a Privy Councillor but as a loyal subject, to warn you of the impending danger which I foresee for your kingdom.” I am forced to write again however because the Prime Minister shows no sign of listening to the facts of reality, she is ignoring the will of the House of Commons and the House of Lords (which is against either the Brexit deal she negotiated or a hard Brexit) and is doing her best to implement a falsely held and illegal engineered referendum which took place back in 2016 against the will of the vast majority of the people of the UK, and against the expressly declared will of the people of Northern Ireland and Scotland. You have told me in your letter that there is nothing you can do, and in effect that as a constitutional monarch you are duty bound to follow the instructions of the leader of the largest party in the House of Commons, who has the right to simply do whatever they want, and over-ride any views you may have yourself. With all due respect I am myself duty bound to point out this is not strictly true. We are all duty bound by our own consciousness, and by our loyalty to the cosmic codes of honour, duty and, truth and divine law, as have been all previous generations of human beings who have ever walked on earth. All monarchs who have ever ruled are also duty bound to uphold the spiritual law in the light of which they themselves were anointed and rule, in your case, the spiritual laws of Christianity, which are based on love, as you so eloquently make the point year after year in your Christmas addresses to the Commonwealth. To allow or permit your Prime Minister to wilfully implement a policy which is causing massive suffering to the people of the UK, including those many UK citizens who now live in Europe, as well as EU citizens who live in the UK - and to implement an ill thought out policy which will result in massive destabilisation to our nation, which will lead to the withdrawal of Scotland from the UK, which will lead to the people of Northern Ireland to leave the UK (although this will probably be accompanied by a resumption of violence) – is with all due respect going entirely contrary to your actual duties as a Queen. There is always an unwritten covenant between a monarch and his or her subjects, overseen by the Divine. I am writing to you as a loyal Anglican Christian layman, but also as an Archdruid, indeed the Archdruid of both the Uk and Europe when it comes to peace matters. My concern is that Theresa May’s actions are going to precipitate untold future violence on the UK, and that is what we must share a common commitment to preventing. You can say to me, I have no authority to write to you, I am simply a citizen with no political power, and you must do what your prime minister tells you. But I would say that your right to rule as Monarch stems from the divine realms, and that whereas the British Isles have been a Christian land for nearly 2000 years, for approximately 10,000 years of settled habitation before that time, they were a pagan and Druid land, and thus I am writing with the authority of those accumulated 12,000 years of history, custom and law behind my words. I would beg you therefore to listen carefully. In the ancient law of Britain, if a monarch acted against cosmic law, the Druid council had the duty to request them to resign and abdicate and to replace them with another monarch who could actually discern the cosmic law more properly. I had always thought you were a good and true monarch to your people, but in not standing up to this wilful, morally blind and future-ignorant Prime Minister (forgive my frankness, but I am duty bound to speak the truth) and the hard right wing of the Conservative party, you are dangerously close to colluding in an act of national vandalism that is frankly toxic to the future wellbeing of all your people and your own descendents. Do you not care about the impact this will have on the poor, the homeless, the less fortunate, the disabled, the unemployed ? Do you have no compassion, as monarch, for the horrendous backward step that leaving the EU will have for the rights of workers and all the less well off people in society ? In ancient times, the greatest monarchs of all lands have always made it a habit to walk incognito amongst their subjects and to find out how they actually live, and what kinds of problems they were facing. I think it is time this custom was brought back into play. You of course would have to be in disguise since you are so well known ! I am pleading with you whilst there is still time, to use your influence to try to persuade Theresa May to hold a second referendum, which is the only democratic fair and just way out of this constitutional crisis. It is not against your duty as monarch to ask her to do this, but on the contrary, it is directly and properly in your direct right and line of duty to ask her to do this. Your subjects would love you forever if this were to happen and breathe a huge sigh of relief. All the polls show that the UK would then not leave the EU after all, the economy would gradually restore itself and the lives of countless millions of people would be restored to their own sovereignty and happiness. A very small number of Brexit fanatics would be disappointed, but frankly they are not the sort of people one would want round for tea. And one should certainly not be afraid of such extremist types. That is why we have police and intelligence services and laws: to protect us from such people. There is however another possibility here: it is just possible that you have yourself been persuaded, by advisers, friends, family, etc. that then Uk should indeed leave the EU as soon as possible, and that once we leave everything can then settle down and go back to normal – and that the people of Scotland will simply accept this, and the people of Northern Ireland can be made to accept it, if necessary by troops once more on the streets of Belfast. It is possible that it is your intention to force Brexit on the people of the UK and turn it into a personal loyalty conundrum – “if you are loyal to me as Queen then you must accept brexit, if not you are a traitor” etc. Is this possibly the case ? If so, then with all due respect I can only repeat that you have been catastrophically badly advised. The people of Scotland only very narrowly voted to remain in the UK, and largely only because they were told they would automatically be thrown out of the EU if they left the UK. Now this is reversed entirely. Likewise with the people of Northern Ireland. I would put it to you therefore that for your own good, as well as or your heirs and successors, you would be advised to do all you can to immediately prevent brexit happening, by advising your prime minister to hold a second referendum and to enact the necessary legislation at once to make this possible (including suspending article 50).. Finally, if you are convinced finally by the veracity of my word (and I swear on the throne of all the Gods and Goddesses that I am speaking 100% truthfully to you), then you have one last constitutional procedure open to you. You can threaten to the Prime Minister to abdicate rather than signing the final legislation to enable the Uk to leave the EU. You can say that in all conscience you cannot and will not tolerate this act to take place under your reign and therefore, you will abdicate unless she calls a second referendum. Finally, if she refuses to back down in private, then you can go public with this threat, and I believe that the vast mass of the British people will be supporting you in this brave and defiant act of common sense. Millions of ff people would surround Buckingham Palace to support you. We love you as our Queen, we love the Uk and we also love Europe and its European Union. We do not want to be tortured any more by the Brexit nightmare. Yours truthfully, loyally and advisedly, Dr Thomas Clough Daffern So that was the letter I sent about a year ago. And her reply ? Nothing, zero. Not even a polite response, like I got to the last letter. And now this. It its beginning to look therefore to me that she has indeed decided to collude as much as possible in Brexit and to enable the hard-right coup to succeed. As she has ignored, blatantly and without even the courtesy of a reply. my moral and philosophical and constitutional advice. of course, I have no "power" in any formal political sense, but I do have the power of a clear conscience before God (Ultimate Truth) and the power of having thought this through at the deepest possible level of analysis as a moral philosopher. I also believe that the Queen has been terribly badly advised that it is her duty to just do whatever Boris Johnson wants, and to sign into effect anything he deems appropriate. This is simply not the case. She has a duty as head of state to allow the commons to debate this matter in detail and see if a hard brexit, or any brexit, really is the will of parliament. To have intervened as she has done on the side of the hard brexiteers is a total usurpation of the rights of parliament, in my considered option, and to say otherwise is to distort the facts. How have we got to this place, how has it been possible? think we cannot ignore the role of the media in this, including al the mass media of the Uk, such as the BBC, and al the television and print and on line media. Nearly all of them have since 2016 been driving home a relentless message that the "will of the people" is to leave the Eu adn this must be respected and implemented. This is a travesty. It was not the will of Scotland and not the will of Northern Ireland, and it was not the will of many other UK citizens. in fact the figures are as follows: The majority of registered voters in fact, did not vote for this outcome in the Referendum in 2016: of all registered voters only 72% actually voted, meaning that 28% didn’t vote at all for whatever reason (an abstention is actually a vote for the status quo, which is to remain in the EU). Of those who did vote, 35% voted to remain, 36% voted to leave. This means that 64% of the total voters registered to vote in your kingdom did not vote to leave the EU. In addition, the majority of voters of Northern Ireland voted to remain in the European Union. The majority of voters of Scotland chose to remain in the European Union. The great majority of British citizens now want a second referendum of this most vital of political questions. This accurate depiction of the 2016 referendum result is never given by the Uk media. Instead, it is endlessly repeated that the figures were 48% and 51% =- but this is a distortion of the facts as explained above,. The figures should be given as 35% voting to remain, and 36% voting to leave. but people have been literally brainwashed into thinking that 48% and 51% is factual. it is not, it is a distortion, that has been repeated so often, it has become "true". the British people are known for their fairness and sense of justice, or at least they used to be, yet the way the 2016 was hijacked and misinterpreted by the Tory Party is so scandalous that it has forever brought that into question. The events of today just confirm this even further. Am I shocked at today's events? Yes, of course. Am I surprised? I am not surprised that the Tory hard right coup leaders have gone to the Queen to ask them to prevent parliament from discussing Brexit properly. I am surprised that the Queen has so casually acquiesced to this request, and this has confirmed in me a growing sense of unease that she has now come down on the side of the Tory Brexit extremists, and has accepted their narrative of events, based on totally fake history. Why would she do this, a woman we assumed to be intelligent and morally sound? Each of us must draw our own conclusions about this. Perhaps the queen is not as morally intelligent as we thought, which is a bit of a shock to the Anglicans among us who assumed she was, or perhaps she has been blackmailed and leaned on by some nasty (offshore ?) intelligence agents who have compromising pictures of some of her relatives in strange sexual postures (perhaps her son Prince Andrew for instance, in connection with the Epstein case) and for her own domestic peace of mind, she is willing to do whatever is requested of her. This raises a profound constitutional question - if a monarch can indeed be blackmailed into committing acts of treason against her own subjects, at what point is it necessary to blow the whistle. What do honest patriots do at such a time ? in John Locke's political philosophy, if a monarchy commits acts of treason against the well being of the peoples of a given country, then those people have the right to rebellion and to disavow loyalty to such a treasonous monarch. Why ? Because obedience to the laws of morality superseded all other mere legalisms, according to the philosophical tradition that John Locke represented, which was the very foundation of modern notions of human rights. His ideas were taken up by all subsequent revolutionary attempts, including the American revolution, and its premise that government is instituted in order to preserve the freedom, liberties and happiness of the people in general. Leaving the EU is so grossly undercutting this compact, this unwritten law of our basic constitution as a country, that the entire edifice of the constitutional monarchy on which we thought our country was based, has now to be called into question. So if John Locke was right and we have a right to rebel and withdrawn obedience from a corrupt and compromised feudal hierarchical system, that has today declared war against the well being of its own people, in what form should that rebellion manifest? In my opinion it should take the form first and foremost of intellectual dissent, and truth seeking. Gandhi called active nonviolence resistance to oppression, the force of satyagraha. The people of the UK, all of us, the millions who voted to remain and the millions who have now decided remain is indeed in the best interests of the happiness of the vast majority of UK citizens, all have a duty to hold onto truth, and not allow the poisonous discourse of the extreme right, led by Johnson, Cummings, Farage, Bannon, Rees-Mogg, and yes, in her own way Queen Elizabeth, it now seems - to disallow our right to our own knowledge, our own mind and our own conscience. Ultimately, as I have said in many of my philosophical works, especially my epic Being and Knowledge, the most important right of all, the one that underlies all others, is the right to wisdom. It isn't a given and it is isn't easy, like the right to enlightenment - we have to claim it. Kant said that we have to dare to be wise.. This is the foundation of the entire liberal democratic and social democratic and indeed Christian democratic tradition that underlies modern political thought. This has now been kicked in the teeth by an outdated feudal extreme right-wing idea of royal prerogative which is more outdated than Heath Robinson's idea of a pop-up toaster made with rubber bands and balsa wood. Sorry ma'am, but you've got this one wrong, and it might have incalculable consequences. Please do write back and reply to my letter of last year, and let's have a philosophical dialogue about ultimate truth, and its political implications, before its too late... https://thomascloughdaffern.wordpress.com/2019/08/28/a-measured-intellectual-and-legal-response-to-the-pro-brexit-coup-attempt-of-august-2019/
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AuthorDr. Thomas Clough Daffern B.A. (Hons.) PGCE. D.SC. (Hon), PhD. is a philosopher, historian, teacher, poet, author, lecturer, musician, thinker, educator, consultant and peace studies specialist. His academic background includes degrees in European and world history (with political philosophy) and religious education, plus a long period of intense personal study in philosophy, religion and the history of ideas – together with over 30 years teaching experience in the same fields. He has also trained and practised in conflict management within communities and schools, specialising in multifaith and multicultural mediation. He is also a trained and experienced teacher in secondary schools, specialising in philosophy, religious education, history and citizenship studies. He was awarded his PhD from the University of London for a thesis which explores the history of the search for peace from 1945-2001 and which proposes a new field of historiography, Transpersonal History, as the best way to establish a rigorous discourse on peace among rival and contending spiritual and intellectual traditions, currently battling for hegemony on the planet. He is an expert in research techniques and methodologies on all aspects of history, religious studies, the history of world philosophy and transpersonal psychology. He has lectured in peace studies, philosophy and religious studies for many years at the Universities of London and Oxford, and has spoken twice at the UN Headquarters about the role of Universities in changing the climate of fear and violence on the planet to one of trust and wisdom-seeking. He is a founder and coordinator of International Philosophers and Historians for Peace and has worked with philosophers and intellectuals from many countries worldwide to help establish intellectual and spiritual networks for peace and goodwill. In 1990 he was elected in Moscow as Coordinator of International Philosophers for Peace, a specialist body of philosophers worldwide searching for peace and international understanding. ArchivesCategories |