Let’s be men – Let’s be Ryers
Ryers by birth or by choice are all Ryers if they love this old town and what it stands for.
By Jim Hollands
Our ancestors stood together for independance 200 years ago
Over Two hundred years ago, direct relatives of myself, Bill Waters, Alec Tiltman, Jimper Sutton, Bernard Clark, Terry Curd and many other well known Ryers became part of the Rye Company of Sea Fencibles that drilled in the Gun Garden and waited to take on Napoleon Bonaparte, who stood with his armies on the French Coast. Bonaparte did not arrive, he decided to go to Russia instead.
His Navy was defeated at Trafalgar in 1805 and the Duke of Wellington, later to become MP for Rye, defeated him at Waterloo, putting an end to his war againstEngland. In 1914, many of those same names from Rye, stood hand in hand with
the French facing up to a mighty German Army.
In 1940 more of those same Rye names reported for duty in France and were pushed into the sea or taken prisoner at Dunkirk after the defeat of the French
Army and their vaunted ‘Maginot Line’ by Hitler’s fanatical Nazi’s.
In 1945 many of those same Rye soldiers were on the beaches of Normandy
playing their part in the Invasion that was to set France and most of the rest of Europe free. More names on the Rye Memorial.
True Friends of Europe
I say that makes us ‘True friends of Europe’, but we must not be bound and restricted by European Union rules devised by an idealistic bunch of non elected bureaucrats organised and over-seen by big business.
Now in 2018, after the people of Rye and millions more from all over Britain, voted in a majority to come out of the European Union, the French, who we set free, the Germans, who we forgave and helped to rebuild, and the Belgians, who refused to let our army in to protect them in 1940 until they were attacked, are playing hard ball. They do not want us to leave the EU because we are paying more than our fair share for a bureaucracy that had become too powerful, too expensive and non democratic.
We voted to make our own laws again, run our own affairs and do unfettered
trade with any country in the World we choose. “Brexit means Brexit” cried new Prime Minister May.
Lets get on with it then. Get out of the habit of taking orders and being intimidated by Brussels.
Its all very complicated they say
Where is the complication? Let me make it simple. It is very obvious what we want. We choose unfettered trade with Europe, very much to their benefit as we buy 30% more from them than they do from us. We want full control of our own borders, to say who comes to work or live here, we want our fishing grounds back and we want full Sovereignty. What could be more straight forward?
What if the EU will not play ball? The negotiations will finish, what then? Article 50 does not say we HAVE to negotiate for two years.
We could be out in a month
The uncertainty would be gone, so would the UK’s EU membership fee. The UK pays more into the EU budget than it gets back. In 2015 the UK government paid £13 billion to the EU budget, and EU spending on the UK was £4.5 billion.
So the UK’s ‘net contribution’ was estimated at about £8.5 billion. (Government figure issued on 25 Feb 2016). Just over £33,000.000 (£33m) per day. (Boris claimed £50,000,000 per day but he included the rebate which is deducted before we pay each installment ).
What about manufactured goods and produce? At present 9% sold to EU countries, 11% to the rest of the World, USA is our largest customer. 80% is purchased and consumed in the UK!
Germans sold us £17.5 Billion worth of motor vehicles in 2015. Would Donald Trump offer Tariff Free Trade to UK if he could manufacture this amount of vehicles for us from the once mighty USA motor manufacturing areas in the Mid West and restore work and pride to that area?
It’s all very well finding fault with the new President, but he was voted in by the American electorate. All this moral judgement of other countries is out of order. We should set the standard by example and stop throwing stones in our own glass houses.
Much of our meat and fruit comes from France but by the end of the last war this country was almost self sufficient in food. If France can’t supply tariff free we can purchase from the world market and produce much more at home.
They are telling us now that this country has had a worse last ten years than in the 1920’s and seem to be blaming it on Brexit! Let’s direct the blame where it should lie. The European Union doctrine enforced by five non-elected Presidents, who all take home more cash than the President of the USA, are the culprits. They have thrown our money away. Their rules and regulations have been taken to the
extreme, often for the benefit of big business. Now the miles of red tape, bureaucracy and rigid idealistic dogma are bringing the EU to its knees.
Thanks to the common sense of the British people, we have the opportunity to escape.
The old relatives of ours, who fought those wars for freedom, had a saying. ‘Lets be men, lets be Ryers’. Come on Mrs. May, we British are made of sterner stuff. Don’t go soft on us now.
From an article that appeared in the January 2017 Issue of Rye’s Own.
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