Iain Mansfield was announced winner of the Brexit Prize on Wednesday for his excellent submission A Blueprint for Britain: Openness not Isolation. The Rt. Hon Lord Lawson awarded Iain the €100,000 for his prize winning entry.
His winning submission calls for the UK to join the European Free Trade Association, as well as for the introduction of a ‘Great Repeal Bill’ to bring about a comprehensive review and, where appropriate, repeal, of EU regulations.
These measures would prevent economic shocks in trade and would reduce the bureaucratic burden on British business, unshackling the wider economy. It concludes that a Brexit must ultimately be a political rather than an economic decision, yet calculates that if it occurred, the UK economy would experience a £1.3bn increase in GDP.
Significantly fewer regulations, coupled with greater trade with emerging economies, could provide an overwhelmingly positive future outlook for an independent Britain.
Iain is clearly a young (he is only 30), highly intelligent British diplomat – the Director of Trade and Investment at the UK’s embassy in the Philippines and has previously worked for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.
His entry was clearly made in a personal capacity and did not represent the formal position of the British Embassy Manila, Foreign and Commonwealth Office or Her Majesty’s Government, yet Hague and Iain’s bosses have now decided to intimidate and silence him. Multiple press interviews have been cancelled as a result and he has effectively been put on lockdown.
It is an outrageous decision on the part of the Coalition Government. Mansfield is practically being punished for thought crime: entertaining the idea of a beneficial withdrawal from Europe!
It’s a disgrace against Euroscepticism – let alone freedom of speech, and follows other misdemeanours by our government. Only this week we have had allegations that a third of Westminster aides (both male and female) get sexually harassed by MPs in Westminster, and Maria Miller’s expenses scandal erupted along with the Prime Minister’s tepid response.
UKIP MEP William Dartmouth reacted furiously at the silencing of Mansfield, saying: “It is ludicrous that William Hague and the Foreign Office are hounding this man and censoring his voice simply because he put forward a case for Britain to leave the EU…
“It seems to me that the government are getting increasingly twitchy about the possibility of Britain leaving the EU as it becomes more and more compelling to the British people.”
The remaining mainstream parties have not publicly commented on the matter.
We have to wonder where democracy is going when British citizens get silenced for voicing views those in power are uncomfortable about hearing or entertaining. Such censorship might be worthy of the Kim regime in North Korea, but it is unworthy of Britain. The hypocrisy of the EU and the lapdogs who serve it is beyond belief.
Meanwhile, the EU shamelessly appropriated democracy as one of their ‘values’, as if the concept of popular self-rule was conceived by an anonymous Eurocrat a few decades ago!
The irony is the EU is far from democratic; it is an authoritarian institution which makes a mockery of national sovereignty. Their parliament in Strasbourg is like no other national parliament; it can neither initiate legislation nor repeal it.
Yet they consider themselves the guardians of ‘democracy’ around the world. It is a strange paradox indeed. Our leaders will find themselves on the losing side of history if they ignore the public’s growing disillusionment with the EU and persist in mindless and unconditional support of Brussels.
Get Britain Out speaks out for ordinary Britons who do not see their future and destiny in depraved subservience to Brussels. The government wants people to be afraid of leaving the EU, misinformed and ignorant about what will happen if we left, and uncertain about their future. It is natural for them to silence their opponents and stifle debate on the issue.
Get Britain Out insists William Hague should join Maria Miller in resigning his post! The Foreign Office has long worked against Britain’s national interests. We believe the Great British Public deserves better and we have a right to the truth. The faster we Get Britain Out of the EU the better.
Alan Murad, Acting Campaign Manager, Get Britain Out
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