Henry Reilly: A bright future for all after Brexit

It is also quite sickening that some senior politicians both here and in Scotland seem determined to try and delegitimise those Northern Irish and Scottish people who voted leave because there were pro-Remain majorities in the two countries.

The Remain camp are clearly sore that their predictions of 80% of people here voting to stay were dashed with only 56% voting Remain despite their incessant fear mongering about huge security and customs posts causing tailbacks at the border.

World War III starting, the pound collapsing, pensions being lost, ports shutting down, economic collapse, emergency budgets and all the rest of the rubbish statistics and supposed consequences they peddled.

The 56% did not vote remain because of a love for the EU but out of fear however the doom and gloom stay merchants have been proven to have been completely wrong with the pound and markets stable and all political parties in the British Isles signed up to retain borderless travel throughout the British Isles and the most vibrant and expanding economies in the world queuing up to get trade agreements with the UK.

I have no fear of referendums on the back of Brexit because I am certain that the Northern Irish and Scots would vote to maintain the United Kingdom.

Why would we leave what is a growing and dynamic nation where local politicians will soon have real power to evoke positive change returned to them and go into the stale and failing EU superstate and be subservient to the suffocating bureaucratic dictates of unaccountable Brussels?

It is a fact that the total Northern Ireland and Scotland Leave vote was 1,367,764 with the UK-wide overall Leave majority being 1,269,501. If we ignore the spin it is a fact that without the Northern Ireland and Scotland Leave vote ‪Brexit‬ would not have happened.

The pro-EU lobbyists must now accept that UK national self determination will be a reality and join with those of us who worked to achieve Brexit to get the best possible outcome for all our people.

We need to ensure that getting control of our fishing grounds and territorial waters is a red line issue and work to get a domestic agricultural support policy in place that suits our farmers and not the whims of Brussels.

We must pull out every stop to ensure that our business community get a fair share of the inward investment that will flow from the new worldwide trade deals and business that will be generated from us leaving the EU.

We must ensure that we get an early audit of the thousands of rules and regulations that have been imposed by the EU that will allow businesses and local councils to unburden themselves of the costly bureaucracy that holds us back.

It must also be acknowledged that a devolved Northern Ireland within a independent UK will have far more real executive power to bring about real change than our friends and neighbours in the Republic of Ireland who will remain shackled to dictates of the EU.

This gives us a huge opportunity to build an economically progressive and stable Northern Ireland that is anchored and sheltered in the fifth largest economy in the world as part of the UK.

I as a democratically elected representative fully recognise that all people do not share my views on Brexit but I ask people to be confident and look forward to a bright future for all our people be they Protestant, Catholic or other.

We now have a tremendous opportunity to build a better future so lets grasp that opportunity and move forward together.

The future is bright.

Henry M Reilly, Councillor Co Down, Organiser leave.eu