As the clock ticks relentlessly towards the day when the UK government finally presses the button on Article 50 to initiate formal talks about about how the UK might leave the European Union, there seems to be less consensus and more confusion about that process than ever.
In the midst of this confusion we have lawyers trying to put Article 50 in a straitjacket. This will not do anyone any favours.
The case being drawn up in Ireland may seem admirable in its intentions but it could so easily backfire. Those who want to keep open the slim chance of a second referendum to review whatever deal is negotiated by the end of the Article 50 process or who, despite favouring Brexit, want a sensible transition to life outside the EU will not thank anyone who comes out with a court ruling that Article 50 cannot be varied from its strict two-year deadline.
Everyone needs as much flexibility as we can muster to make this work, otherwise it will just turn into a series of rhetoric-filled empty gestures as politicians on all sides play to their own galleries of public opinion.
Article 50 ‘made by politicians, can be unmade by them’
Last week Nick Clegg, speaking at a Liberal Democrats in Business meeting at the National Liberal Club, was absolutely clear that he did not want the lawyers anywhere near Article 50. His argument, right in my view, is that Article 50 was made by politicians and can be amended or undone by politicians. Without that flexibility there is very little hope of preventing anything but a hard Brexit.
Clegg was backed up this week by constitutional expert Professor Vernon Bogdanor who told an Association of European Journalists lunch that it isn’t a legal text. He also challenged assertions that once started the Article 50 process was irrevocable although he wasn’t hopeful on the prospects of a second referendum: “A second referendum would only be possible if there is a major shift in public opinion. That would take some major concessions on free movement to be offered which looks unlikely”.
We’ve got one year, not two
The other point on which both Clegg and Bogdanor agreed was the short window there will be for proper negotiations.
With France, Holland, Germany and, probably, Italy distracted by national elections, serious talking is very unlikely to start before the autumn now that Theresa May’s government has delayed so long in starting the Article 50 process. There will then be little over a year to get the main terms of the UK’s exit settled as the deal will have to go to both the UK Parliament and through the rather longer approval process in Europe, involving the Commission, Council of Ministers and European Parliament.
Clegg’s redemption
As a footnote, let me praise Nick Clegg. I have made no secret of my view that he was a poor leader of the Liberal Democrats and ineffectual as Deputy Prime Minister. Brexit, however, is an issue on which I have heard him speak a few times and he is spot on in his analysis, prognoses and fears. He clear, sincere passion on the topic is making people listen to him and we will all be better for doing so.
I’ve commented before on how the modern author has to be a marketer as well as a researcher and writer. For me that phase is still building momentum as I get more invitations to speak about my book, Fighting for the Empire, the amazing story it contains and the extensive research that went into pulling such a complex story together.
As well as invitations to speak to specialist groups such as the Brentwood Military History Book Club, I have decided to be bold and put on a public talk next month. This takes place on Tuesday 7 March at Brentwood Cathedral Parish Hall, starting at 7.30pm. I’ve entitled it From Galway to Empire as an audience drawn partially from the many people I know in the congregation at Brentwood Cathedral should be particularly interested in Kelly’s Irish Catholic routes.
However, it will also look at the extraordinary range of conflicts and adventures he was involved in, many of them illustrated by unique photographs and documents from family collections. For those interested in the artifacts from the Kelly story I’ll be bringing along some of the albums, his wife’s fascinating collection of autograph books from WW1 and his ceremonial sword worn at the famous Delhi Durbar in 1911.
I’ll also be happy to answer questions about the research, how you build an authoritative story from a fragmented, largely oral, family history and how you go about getting it published.
Admission is free and 25% of the money from all books sold on the night will go to the Cathedral’s charity for 2017, Bridge2Aid.
If you are interested in the the two world wars, India, Ireland, Empire history, military medicine and the Merchant Navy they’ll be something in the talk for you.
If you would like me to come and talk to your organisation have a look at the range of topics I can cover.
Fighting for the Empire is available direct from the distributor Casemate and Amazon. It is also available through all bookshops.
Brexit continues to divide the country. The cancer of ignorance and intolerance unleashed by last year’s referendum shows no sign of receding. It has poisoned political discussion and debate to an extent I cannot recall in my many decades following, being involved in and writing about politics.
The Supreme Court decision yesterday that Parliament must have the initial say in triggering the Article 50 process to leave the European Union has just stirred the whole malodorous pot further.
Let’s look at some of the nonsense being spouted today by those so blindly in favour of leaving the EU.
First, the demand that Remainers mustn’t use the Supreme Court decision to delay Brexit.
So far, the delay has all been as a result of the dithering of a Prime Minister and a government who until last week couldn’t get beyond the ridiculous mantra of “Brexit means Brexit”. It will be a full nine months from the referendum before serious negotiations start and responsibility for that long delay must be laid firmly at the door of 10 Downing Street.
The irony of this is that the threat of a further delay if Parliament prolongs the Article 50 debate could have been avoided if May hadn’t dithered so long. There was an opportunity to start the Article 50 process immediately after she was installed as Prime Minister. Opponents of Brexit were in disarray, the legal challenge in its infancy and the pressure from Europe to get on with it quite intense. She could have done it without consulting Parliament. It would have been wrong to bypass Parliament but she could probably have got away with it.
What is being watered down?
Similarly, the defiant noises about not watering down Brexit are rather nonsensical. Precisely what is in danger of being watered down? Until last week when May sketched out a route map towards a hard Brexit nobody had a clue what sort of Brexit we were looking at. The trouble with this plan is that it is very vulnerable to legitimate challenge. All the way through the referendum campaign the leaders of the Leave campaign were at pains to stress they were not looking to leave the Single Market. They constantly talked about the Norwegian option as being the most attractive to the UK. That would mean remaining part of the Single Market through membership of the European Economic Area.
Watering down May’s hard Brexit option to retain access to the Single Market is surely much closer to what Farage, Johnson, Gove et al campaigned for? It is hardly the fault of Remainers that they conveniently forgot that EEA membership also means accepting the free movement of people.
Finally, we come to the dramatic threats around the consequences of thwarting the “Will of the People”. These go far beyond the merely nonsensical: they are hysterical and dangerous.
Tyranny of the Majority
Over 16m voters still want to be part of the EU
We seem to be in danger of forgetting that the result of the referendum was very close. Almost half of those who voted were in favour of staying in the EU. Those 16.14m people have a voice too in a pluralist democracy. We are in grave danger of turning the “Will of the People” into the “Tyranny of the Majority”. Like all tyrannies that is already showing itself to be intolerant, brutally ignorant, dismissive of democratic processes and the rule of law.
That is not a Britain I feel very comfortable in.
So, where to we go from here?
Parliament now has a say and it should insist on the fullest possible information on the government’s strategy and objectives. I would prefer if the final decision was also made by Parliament but I fear the tone of the debate and the myth that the Brexit lobby has built up about the legitimacy of the referendum means that the final terms should also be submitted to a plebiscite. That guarantee should be sought now, as Tim Farron and the Liberal Democrats have urged.
Brexiteers should welcome a second referendum
Those who want to leave the EU should welcome this, not decry it. Victory for them in a second referendum to endorse the outcome of the negotiations would legitmise their cherished objective of a United Kingdom outside the EU. Are they such faint hearts that they doubt whether the British people will buy what looks increasingly likely to be a hard Brexit? Surely, they are made of sterner stuff than that?
Christmas Day 1942 for Thomas Kelly was celebrated on board the troopship Rangitata, making its way up coast of south America to New York to collect American troops coming to Europe.
The Rangitata left the Clyde in August 1942 as part of one of the Winston Specials convoys taking the 8th Army to North Africa. On its return journey it was sent with additional troops to reinforce Diego Suarez on Madagascar, which had recently been seized from the Vichy French to prevent it being used as a base by the advancing Japanese forces. While there it collected a troop detachment to take to Mauritius.
It then eventually continued as originally planned to Uruguay and Argentina to load up with food to bring back to the UK but was then unexpectedly diverted to New York. These various diversions meant that Kelly missed his daughter Rosemary’s wedding in London on 11 January 1943.
Kelly continued serving on troopships and Atlantic convoys until the middle of 1944 when, aged 74, he returned home to London.
His wife Gertrude for the first time in her married life then enjoyed an unbroken period with her husband. As well as the arrival of grandchildren there was the novelty of being together to celebrate a succession of landmarks in their lives: his 75th birthday in March 1945, her 60th the following year and their 30th wedding anniversary in April 1948.
This happy postlude came to an abrupt end on 29 January 1949.
While shaving at home in Paddington Kelly suffered a massive heart attack. The curtain was thus lowered on a life of adventure, courage and service to country and his fellow human beings of many races.
The Kelly story is told in Fighting for the Empire.
Follow his remarkable life through 12 Christmas Days.
Previous: No 11, London 1939
The Kelly family spent the first Christmas of the Second World War together at their new home in Paddington, having left Jersey the previous year as the storm clouds of WW2 gathered.
Kelly may have been almost 70 at the end of 1939 but his mind was turning to the war and, in particular, how he could serve the British Crown once more. He initially volunteered for service with the Royal Navy but was rejected on grounds of his age so he turned his attention to the Merchant Navy instead. By February 1940 he was on board the SS Madura as Ship’s Surgeon and would soon find himself being dive-bombed in Bordeaux harbour.
He spent almost the whole of WW2 at sea.
The Kelly story is told in Fighting for the Empire.
Follow his remarkable life through 12 Christmas Days.
Next: Come back tomorrow!
Previous: No 10, Jersey 1936
Thomas Kelly’s 30 year service with the Indian Medical Service came to an end in the summer of 1926 and by Christmas Day that year he was with his family in their new home in Jersey.
He signed up as a ship’s surgeon with the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company and by Christmas had already completed one two-month voyage to South America on the 900-passenger liner SS Orduna. This was the start of a regular engagement with the shipping line (which was about to become the Pacific Steam Navigation Company – PSNC) and he spent two to three months every year for the next decade either on the Orduna or its sister ship the Orbita, increasing the number of voyages he undertook later in the 1930s so that he was then at sea for most of the year.
His daughter Rosemary (pictured on the left with her father and late sister Brigid) saw snow for the first time that Christmas.
The Kelly story is told in Fighting for the Empire.
Follow his remarkable life through 12 Christmas Days.
Next: Come back tomorrow!
Previous: No 9, Rawalpindi
Thomas Kelly’s life changed dramatically after the First World War as he married and quickly had two daughters, Brigid and Rosemary, both born in India. He had also managed to serve in another war – the 3rd Afghan War in 1919.
After visiting the UK and Ireland on leave with his new family in 1922, they were back in India by Christmas at home at 2 The Mall, Rawalpindi. He was Commanding Officer of all the Indian Army hospitals in that part of India (now Pakistan).
He was contemplating another move, this time to Lahore where he took up the post of Commanding Officer of the Indian hospitals in January 1923. His status and reputation also earned him an appointment as Honorary Surgeon to The Viceroy, by now Lord Reading, the former Rufus Issacs who had served as Attorney-General in the pre-war Liberal government. This would have taken him and his wife, Gertrude, to many government functions at Delhi and Simla, especially after his promotion to full Colonel later that year.
The Kelly story is told in Fighting for the Empire.
Follow his remarkable life through 12 Christmas Days.
Next: No 10, Jersey 1926
Previous: No 8, Mesopotamia 1917
Kelly was still in Nasariyah in 1917 but now confirmed as a Lieutenant Colonel and in command of the 1000-bed 83rd Combined Stationary Hospital and its field units spread along the Euphrates towards Baghdad.
Christmas Day 1917 was celebrated in some style with choice of curried chicken, duck or roast beef with Yorkshire pudding for all the staff and patients not on a special diet followed by plum pudding, stewed peaches with cream or fruit jellies. The Indian staff and patients were also offered an extended menu for the day, which finished with a concert in the evening. Life was clearly much more relaxed in the cool, damp winter weather with the Turkish forces no longer posing any threat. The previous summer had seen record temperatures causing major problems with severe heatstroke.
The 46 year old Kelly was soon to be awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his role in the aftermath of the Siege of Kut and was about to propose to Gertrude Fenn, a nurse from Essex, who served at the 83rd CSH earlier that year.
The Kelly story is told in Fighting for the Empire.
Follow his remarkable life through 12 Christmas Days.
Next: Come back tomorrow!
Previous: No 7, Mesopotamia 1916
The 105th Indian Field Ambulance had been on active service for over two years by time Christmas Day 1916 approached and was now based in Mesopotamia (present day Iraq), still with Thomas Kelly as its commanding officer.
It had been sent from Egypt to Aden where it was a the centre of fierce fighting. In early 1916 it arrived in Mesopotamia to help with the appalling crisis in the aftermath of the infamous siege of Kut, one of Britain’s great military disasters. Thousands of sick and wounded had to be evacuated and the 105th IFA was flat out for months.
By Christmas Day 1916 things had calmed down and it had moved to Nasariyah on the Euphrates River and been re-designated the 105th Combined Field Ambulance.
For the first time since the war started Kelly recorded in the official War Diaries that they were able to celebrate Christmas with some modest entertainment – improvised by themselves – and a Christmas lunch, albeit lacking anything that resembled a traditional Christmas meal back home. It was, however, a far cry from the horrors of the aftermath of the fall of Kut six months earlier.
The Kelly story is told in Fighting for the Empire.
Follow his remarkable life through 12 Christmas Days.
Next: No 8 – Mesopotamia, 1917
Previous: No 6 – Egypt, 1914
Acting Lieutenant Colonel Kelly was commanding officer of the 105th Indian Field Ambulance on the Suez Canal on Christmas Day 1914.
He had been on only his second period of leave home to Ireland since 1897 when war was declared and was immediately recalled to India. Already a Major he was promoted so he could take charge of a large medical unit and was quickly on his way to Egypt with them.
By December 1914 they were stationed at Ismalia on the Suez Canal, soon to be the front line as the Turkish Army launched a major attack against Egypt. Kelly was determined his unit would be ready when the fighting started. He was so concerned about the challenges of moving casualties from the first aid posts he had established along the long frontline to the field hospital that he even arranged a training exercise for Christmas Day 1914.
It proved worthwhile as the fighting erupted early in February and Kelly’s unit was in the thick of it, winning praise for its efficiency, including for coping with large numbers of Turkish casualties. He was Mentioned in Dispatches for his part in the fighting.
The Kelly story is told in Fighting for the Empire.
Follow his remarkable life through 12 Christmas Days.
Next: No 7 – Mesopotamia, 1916
Previous: No 5 – Iran, 1906
David Worsfold 