Don’t listen to the “cabal” of elites trying to keep us in the EU, says Wetherspoon boss
The boss of Britain's largest pub chain has attacked a "cabal of politicians and elite groups… fighting to overturn the [Brexit] decision" comparing them with "undemocratic and totalitarian" regimes of the past.
Wetherspoon's chairman and founder Tim Martin, who was vocal in campaigning for Britain to leave the EU in the run-up to the Brexit vote, warned against backtracking on the outcome of the referendum.
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Writing in his company's magazine Martin reiterated previous rhetoric of calling the EU undemocratic and went on to made a bold historical comparison.
He highlighted "the meteoric rise of formerly undemocratic countries like Italy, Japan or Singapore, once democracy was introduced" and said Britain now has the chance to break out of the undemocractic shackles of the EU and prosper similarly.
The comments come just weeks after a High Court judge ruled Britain's triggering of Article 50 – the starting gun for the exit from the EU – cannot be undertaken until Parliament has given its backing.
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"Most people accept the referendum result," Martin wrote, but he added there was a small elite group who want the decision overturned or "to water it down so much that we remain subject to most EU laws in future."
The rationale? So the political can maintain the status quo and their power, Martin said:
The sad reality is that the current battle for democracy has echoes of similar battles in previous centuries. Those in charge almost always try to consolidate and increase their power, as the suffragettes knew.
Certain sections of society, today, feel strongly that it’s better for power to reside in highly educated elites, closely connected to big business, to major universities and to influential politicians – ‘les enarques’, as our French friends call them.