For the Lion to roar, it must be set free
Boris Johnson's rousing speech at Conservative Party Conference went down well with the Tory faithful, but to bring the real benefits to Brexit Britain the government needs to set the lion free.
The speech that Boris delivered at the Conservative Party went well away from his brief as foreign secretary at times, however, that didn't matter as bold and bullish thinking is needed to drive forward the benefits of Brexit Britain.
I say this because it seems that we are trapped in a vicious circle. We, as a country, voted Leave last year in the greatest showing of democratic will this nation has ever seen. Now, many people – outside the conference hall and elsewhere – try to undermine (or even try to reverse!) the decision. What we should be doing is looking to what we want to see as a nation, not rehashing the arguments made during the campaign.
With that, bold and well thought through ideas on the next steps for Britain need to be made. Boris's speech gives that concept a push in the right direction. However, what both he and others in government need to recognise is that to let the lion – the British people – roar, we need to be set free.
Yes – we need to be free from the suffocating rules and red tape of Brussels, in that we need to take back control of our fishing, farming, trade and many other policy areas. But we must also deregulate and throw away the sandbags that weigh heavy on the British entrepreneurship.
These sandbags don't come exclusively from Brussels. Certainly, The Freedom Association has never thought that. In many cases, the fault has been with politicians in Westminster who make poorly thought through policies that take away freedom from the individual. Of course, the benefit of leaving the EU is that we can change these decision makers on the back of the policies they seek to introduce. However, we the people should not be complacent.
What we need is a new beginning after Brexit. An approach from government that gives back freedom to the people. It should, as the Prime Minister said in her leader's speech, put the British people firmly in control. It should not, however, be an excuse for further unnecessary regulation and bureaucracy coming from Westminster rather than Brussels. We've had enough of that, thank you very much.
To read about some of the ideas on how to achieve this, please look at what Iain Murray and I set out last year in Cutting the Gordian Knot: A Roadmap for British Exit From the European Union.
We must take this opportunity to let freedom reign – and the lion to roar – not adopt the nine most terrifying words in the English language: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
