Founded 1998. Working together on campaigns to defend & improve democracy. #Elections | #Parliament | #Democracy Tweets: @StuartCoster
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Joined July 2012
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Brexit restored one of the biggest freedoms of all; the freedom to hold our lawmakers to account. The power of our votes. The ability, peacefully through the ballot box, to remove those who make our laws and induce change. In essence, democracy.
#Brexit #democracy
The EU Commission is unelected but has the sole power to propose EU laws; its Council of Ministers can over-rule member govts now in almost all policy areas; its parliament isn't underpinned by a demos (half the actual word "democracy"); yet, together, these institutions hold legal supremacy over elected govts. The EU is dangerously undemocratic & the inevitable political effects are worsening.
#EuropeanUnion #democracy
The Democracy Movement retweeted
This illustrates my point. Most of the country had moved on by & large.
But not extremist & influential remainer politicians like Osborne, Major, Burnham & more.
Now the rest of us are going to have to pay the price for their unwillingness to accept the 2016 referendum result.
Political spin, EU style ...
EU was desperate to bury Iceland's August decision to reject EU membership.
So up stepped Carney, gifting the embattled and unelected von der Leyen some positive PR around her September State of the Union speech.
It worked. Media brands the world over painted EU as something even democratic Canada wished to join.
And now, just a month later, the silly and unworkable proposal is quietly killed, to little media attention.
The Democracy Movement retweeted
Some of the 'Brexit benefits' in today's Budget...
1⃣ strong commitment to 'Buy British' (hard to square this with EU procurement rules)
2⃣ additional funding for 'PuFIns', such as the British Business Bank (hard to square with EU rules on state aid)
3⃣ more cuts in UK tariffs on imports of food, drink and energy (not possible if the UK were still a member of the EU, or even a customs union)...
The Democracy Movement retweeted
Burnham keeps going on about how we ended up with a "harder Brexit than was promised at the Referendum". Nothing was promised at the EU Referendum other than that the government would implement the decision the public made.
The Democracy Movement retweeted
What has the OBR said today on Brexit in the Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO) accompanying the Budget? Not a lot...
1⃣ As expected, the OBR has ducked any assessment of the UK-EU 'reset', simply saying "the economic impact will depend on the outcome of these negotiations' (EFO, p.77)
2⃣ There is just a passing reference to "rising barriers to trade after EU exit" as one of the many shocks which have hit the UK since 2008 (EFO, p.10)
3⃣ The word 'Brexit' itself only appears three times in the entire EFO, each in the context of the "post-Brexit change in the migration regime"
4⃣ Unless I've missed them, I can't find any reference to the assumed "4%" long-term hit to productivity or the assumed "15%" hit to the UK's global trade; these do still appear in the OBR website's collection of 'Brexit analysis', last updated in July, but the OBR doesn't seem keen to draw any more attention to them... 🤔
#Budget2026
EU eyes slice of corporate tax revenue in desperate bid to fund a massively increased new €2 trillion budget, knowing that once new EU taxes are conceded, they will quickly go upwards in line with the EU's voracious hunger for wasting public money. share.google/9fo2kOa57zLxx2d…
The Democracy Movement retweeted
Why was the EU referendum decision not about our "long term future"? I think most will have considered it to be exactly that. That's also what we were told. We've since only been out for six years. This is all so shockingly dishonest, duplicitous and anti-democratic from this PM.
The Democracy Movement retweeted
Most fundamentally, if you arrive in a Downing Street promising to pass power down from the centre to the people, but instead pass it up to Brussels, you aren’t Mr Localism any more.
Rejoining the EU might help Labour squeeze the Lib Dems - but it would also mean gutting Andy Burnham’s own policy agenda, from devolution to reindustrialisation to trade to regulation. My latest for @theipaper inews.co.uk/opinion/burnham-…
The Democracy Movement retweeted
Not only that, those Labour votes were cast on the basis of a manifesto which was and remains to stay out of the EU
This government is starting to look as gaffe-prone under @andyburnham's leadership as when Keir Starmer was in charge.
Burnham has spent the day going on about how the only way for the UK economy to survive is to get close to the collapsing EU
The he announces a policy of cutting import tariffs, something he can only do because of Brexit
It’s not so much that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing but the left hand not knowing of the existence of the right hand & denying that it even exists in the first place
Has @jreynoldsMP forgotten his party's own election pledges, or does saying one thing to voters and doing the opposite mean nothing to this minister?
Shockingly overt lack of respect for democracy, both 2024 and 2016. 17.4m people voted Leave (vs 9.7m for Labour in 2024 and zero for Andy Burnham as PM) and we've since only been out of the EU for six years.
Yet already, despite the EU's record of failure and plans to nearly double its budget, all the same people who never respected that majority vote are pushing yet again to cast it aside, as if it never happened.
Brexit exposed a disturbing anti-democracy undercurrent in Westminster and Whitehall, coupled to a bizarre EU fixation irrespective of its failures, which is evidently still there.
How can we clean up our politics, so that it respects democracy and, odd to contemplate, those in office actually want to govern?
Growing disquiet amongst Labour MPs at Andy Burnham's anti-Brexit moves.
🚨 Labour MP: EU freedom of movement debate risks undermining voter trust
Melanie Onn, the MP for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes, argues:
- “Just as the wounds of Brexit begin to heal, there is a risk of pulling out the staples prematurely.”
- “Freedom of movement was one of the defining issues” of the Brexit referendum
- “Reopening freedom of movement risks reigniting divisions when the country desperately needs a more constructive conversation”
- “The perception that promises made at elections can subsequently be revisited by a political establishment removed from the realities of working communities has left lasting scars.”
@Politics_co_uk
politics.co.uk/2026/10/melan…
The Democracy Movement retweeted
There is a fundamental problem with another referendum on EU membership.
Those who want another one, didn't accept the result of the last one. So why should leave voters not only let them have something that they didn't honour last time, let alone honour any outcome this time?
The Democracy Movement retweeted
No they won’t. They’ll put it in their manifesto and when they win, they’ll say we voted for it.
One to watch out for in this week's Budget - more money for the British Business Bank? Latest example of @andyburnham pushing rejoin on the one hand, while on the other his government's policies are only possible due to Brexit.
#Budget2026 #Brexit @peston @SamCoatesSky @afneil @SophyRidgeSky @faisalislam
The British Business Bank (BBB) is expected to receive another £5bn in the Budget, but would this be compatible with EU rules on state aid? 🤔
The BBB had to be cleared with the EU when it was set up in 2014, which limited its funding and activities 👇
But thanks to Brexit, the UK can now increase funding for the BBB without EU approval...
#brexitfreedoms #brexitbenefits
british-business-bank.co.uk/…
The Democracy Movement retweeted
The UK joining the EU might benefit just over 10% of firms (the ones that export to the EU), but it would harm nearly 90% of firms (the ones that don't export to the EU). We already have a comprehensive free trade agreement with the EU. Let's leave things where they are.
🙏
We need to rally behind organizations that are working hard to defend our place outside the EU.
I'm going to post links every day for a few weeks, to those who deserve your support and will no doubt be making great content.
Today's heroes: @GlobalBritain @DemocracyMovemt
The Democracy Movement retweeted
NEW
There is some confusion over Andy Burnham's position on Brexit
Earlier this morning:
Reporter asks: "Will you allow the UK to join the EU freedom of movement without a referendum?"
Andy Burnham says: "No. And I wasn't saying that", adding that he would "never move ahead of the British public when it comes to Brexit".
11.30am Lobby briefing:
Number 10 will now not say whether the British public will get a referendum on rejoining EU freedom of movement.
A spokesman says: "The process will be set out in due course ... He wants to have an open debate about this.... there are no options on the table."
What do you think? More now on @GBNEWS.