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SENIOR TORIES ARE being asked whether they want “Big Ben to bong” at 11pm on 31 January to mark the UK’s exit from the European Union.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Iain Duncan Smith this morning confirmed they back Leave campaigners’ “Bells for Brexit” proposal.
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage told LBC that if Big Ben doesn’t strike at 11pm, “our country looks like a joke”.
He also said: “I have put in an application through Leave Means Leave to book Parliament Square for the evening, to put up some staging, to have some singing, to have some music, to have some speeches.
“I’ve also applied to have some fireworks, which has been refused point blank.”
Yesterday morning, Boris Johnson said that the problem with the proposal is it would cost £500,000 to make Big Ben ring on the day. His official spokesman insisted that Brexit would be properly marked, but said there was not a specific government fund.
This morning, there were around 25 active pages on the crowdfunding website GoFundMe attempting to raise cash for the “Big Ben bong”. But the majority had received no donations at all, and the most successful page so far had only attracted £220.
The iconic clock tower hasn’t rang since 2017 due to extensive restoration works being carried out, and which aren’t due to be completed for several years.
“But we’re working up a plan so that people can ‘Bung a bob for a Big Ben bong’,” Johnson said.
Johnson said that during the refurbishment, the clapper of the bell was taken away, !so we need to restore the clapper in order to bong Big Ben on Brexit night.”
Meanwhile, The Times reports that a group representing Britain’s bell-ringers are opposed to the idea, as they wish to remain apolitical. Bishops and vicars back that stance, according to the paper.
No official funding plan
Restoring the bell was discussed at a meeting of the House of Commons Commission on Monday, but it was ultimately ruled out after it was revealed that it could cost £500,000.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who is chairman of the Commission, said they believed “it is important to weigh up the costs”.
“We also have to bear in mind that the only people who will hear it will be those who live near or are visiting Westminster,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Leave.EU campaign has called for churches across the nation to echo their reaction to the Allies’ victory against the Nazis in the Second World War.
“Whichever way you look at it, February 1 will be the most momentous morning in British history since the glorious day in 1945 when our country celebrated victory over the Nazi regime in Germany,” the group said.
But the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers declined to give its backing.
“There are historical moments for which bells have been rung – end of world wars for example. In 2018 the Central Council worked with the Government on a recruitment and awareness campaign to recognise 100 years since WW1 Armistice,” a spokeswoman said.
“However the Central Council, as a principle, does not endorse bell ringing for political reasons. Individual towers have discretion to ring for such occasions but is on a case-by-case basis and typically needs permission from the incumbent.”
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Bong for the bell ends
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage told LBC that if Big Ben doesn’t strike at 11pm, “our country looks like a joke”.
Well he is right about the ‘Joke’
And I thought Ireland had problems. Jeez.
Cant they borrow the sound recording from News at Ten and amplify it
@Paul O’Sullivan: Or maybe borrow our 6 o’clock bell from RTE , The Angelus.
£500k to celebrate the start of two years of exit/trade talks and then another 15 years of talks to join the EU again.
Sounds right.
Delusional
Is this a joke ?
@Barry Teehan: sadly not
Absolutely mad stuff. They really are going to implode.
One would think Rees-Mogg would be happy to fund it. He’s earned over £7 million from one of his investments due in no small part to the fall in the value of Sterling since the referendum.
@EillieEs: Fair play. Smart man who obviously judged the mood of the country and made investments based on it.
If only others had such foresight, things could have went differently…
Sure I can bong Boris’ head off big Ben if he wants?
For whom the bell tolls
Nigel Farage “this country will look like a joke” too late for that!
@Seán Dillon: I doubt he’ll hang around to see the results. It’s the people at food banks that will take the worst of it.
Wonder will Nigel charge the attendees an admission fee, like other gatherings he has arranged?
What a daft idea
£220 ffs.
@Michael Lynch: you would think, johnson farage, rees mogg et al would pay for it.
They can all wave their blue passports while the bell rings. Hooray, see you all in Berlin for coffee and cakes.
This is splendid comradely news! Together we’ll fight for king and country and be sucking sausages in Berlin by teatime.
So many working poor having to use food banks. How about you raise £500,000 to put food in the bellies of British children. Boris the Bell End.
They should ask for an extension while they decide wheather to ding dong big Ben…
They’ll be still in it next January
Maybe it would cost less if they deferred it until April 1st :-]
Ummm…. a recording & speakers up where the bell is?
Don’t know why they haven’t got this in place already TBH?!?
‘Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage told LBC that if Big Ben doesn’t strike at 11pm, “our country looks like a joke.’
That ship has long sailed, Spode.
Restoration began in 2017 and won’t be completed for several years.. they would have built it faster than that, back in the Stone Age..
Reading the part where Farage says he wants to have music, speeches & fireworks in parliament square on January 31st, made me think of Nero and a violin. I don’t know why?
Borrow a sound recording of Ballymote Catholic Church that rings Big Ben.
Death knell of the precious union and an alarm bell to get out for all those big multinationals paying the wages in all the brexit voting gammon towns up and down England.
Try saying that headline after ten pints and a few brandy chasers
I know it’s another country and it’s their business but has anyone got any ideas as to how the hell this could cost half a million pounds ?!
And we though we had cost problems
They just get sadder by the day. They can put on a show of all the bells and whistles they like but I doubt they will actually be leaving on that particular date, unfortunately. The sooner they go the better as far as I’m concerned but they have to do a deal with the EU first.
He’s got his priorities sorted then… oh dear God
Why is it that Politicians worldwide that they can spend Taxpayer money so nonchalantly on idiotic things like this? Better that they spent it on the homeless lying near Big Ben.
Raving lunatics
2thFairy and some others on here, your comments on here are always laughable and akin to a bitch session on the Dublin gay scene. Get over yourselves! You want to see the back of us, ”
The sooner they go the better,” really? So who will you export to instead then? Perhaps you can make something up as you usually do
The British voter has to put up with the bunk discussed here in Ireland but some reality for you – The British voter is well clued up and on BREXIT the UK WILL be better of out. Let’s face it any European Commission that can mispend over 76 Billion Euros in ten years and suspend their own Chief Financial Accountant for whistleblowing is a joke. It’s just more sour grapes from you and the European Commission! Good luck with paying more into the EU budget! Germany’s been ask already to pay DOUBLE! That means lower public spending and a lower standard of living. Hope your ready for company HQ’s to pull out from Dublin in 2025 when EU Corporation Tax is harmonised at 30%! Don’t bother trying to veto as on European Tax that right was revoked in 2919!
Why is it that some politicians think the can spend taxpayers money on idiotic ideas like this while their own countrymen and women lie on their streets?
What really gets me is all that building in Dublin City. If i was a venture capitalist or CEO, Dublin would be one of the last places I’d out a brick down in. If you know your tax cost base will up from 12.5% to 30% (in 2025) so in only five year’s time, why on earth would you make a long term commitment in terms of building anything knowing you’ll probably up roots way before what you’ve built even pays back. That’s how British thinking differs, we’re already thinking 5, 10 or more years ahead now for all the unwarranted criticism we get
have your say