Yorkshire cycling website
15th March 2019, updated 28th March 2019
Andrew Jones MP last night voted against all Brexit options, in MPs' indicative votes.
It was reported that none of the options won a majority. Well, no wonder if there are MPs like Mr Jones voting against all the options, when they cannot in reality be against everything.
Andrew Jones MP was, I suggest, engaging in shenanigans to try to frustrate the process. Was that for party political reasons? Was it in the hope of personal career advancement? In any case, he is going off to Westminster, and NOT representing the interests of his constituents.
On Wednesday 13th March 2019, Harrogate & Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones voted for a no-deal Brexit.
He supported the Malthouse amendment, which proposed seeking an extension of Article 50 until 22nd May 2019, then leaving the EU without a deal. Other supporters of this version of no-deal Brexit were European Research Group members Steve Baker, Jacob Rees-Mogg, and Iain Duncan Smith, as well as all 10 DUP MPs.
In a video on 5th January 2019, Jones calls himself a remainer, but that is difficult to square with his vote in Parliament on 13th March. 'We are all now implementers,' he says in the video. What then is the difference between Andrew Jones and a UKIP politician? He's trying to dine out on having being a remainer in 2016, while his actions in 2019 show him to be an extreme leaver.
He claims that there is a consensus that we must set our immigration policy, not receive any EU laws, and stop paying EU membership fees. If he believes there is consensus on this or any other aspect of Brexit, he is wrong. It appears to be part of a Conservative propaganda strategy of claiming that 'the British people' all think the same thing. This involves pretending that remainers do not exist.
It's plainly not true that 'the people' all think the same thing, and it is one of the main reasons why many of them are so furious with Theresa May, and a Conservative Party that has ripped the UK apart over the last 3 years, and still puts its own party interests ahead of the national interest. Andrew Jones MP is an integral part of that.
It's all very well saying you want to bring people back together, as Mr Jones does, but to do so, there has to be an acceptable compromise. You do not bring people back together by choosing the most extreme version of one side of the argument, and totally ignoring the other half of the population and pretending those people do not exist.
As at 25th March 2019, over 5 million people have signed the petition to revoke Article 50.
A no-deal Brexit is likely to cause food shortages; according to the British Medical Association, it would have a catastrophic impact on the nation's health; and it would cause a profound crisis for the UK's farmers. The government's own figures show that Brexit will damage the UK economy, but the damage will be much worse in the case of a no-deal Brexit, with the economy 9.3% smaller than if we remained in the EU.
In the EU Referendum in 2016, Harrogate voted to remain.
Andrew Jones's voting record includes voting against measures to combat climate change, and voting in favour of killing badgers.
7th January 2019
Sir Gary Verity says 2019 will be huge for Harrogate, as it will be the centre of the cycling world. He wants local businesses to seize the opportunity.
Read about Verity: 2019 huge for Harrogate.
29th January 2019
NICE recommendations on physical activity have some truly revolutionary ideas in them, about reallocation of road space, and priority for active travel over private cars.
Read about NICE physical activity recommendations.
