Project Fear from the EU is just absurd

I guess much of the latest round of Project Fear, now in its extreme phase, comes from EU sources. They are clearly worried that we might just leave without making them a large payment and without staying in their system for another 21 months. They seem to be  trying to shock UK public opinion into buyer’s remorse on Brexit. Their efforts are silly.

Doubtless some of the most ardent Remain MPs and peers, many of them on the Opposition benches, seek to play up any negatives the EU might throw them as they seek to disrupt the country and its government over Brexit. The latest scare stories do not merit the attention they get in some newspapers and in some of the media. A cursory questioning of any of these  stories would show it is without substance.

Let’s take the latest scares that we will run out of drugs and food. How could that possibly happen? Continental suppliers want to sell us their goods after March 29th 2019, as they do now. The EU does not have the power to ban them selling to us. We will control all the ports for the receipt of these goods, so we will decide what checks and payments will be required. We can appoint whatever people and deploy whatever technology we want to ensure smooth running of the import process under WTO rules. Why would we want to introduce new checks and taxes that make it difficult to import things we want?  I was glad to see that No 10 has at last  briefed that there are no stand by plans for the army to move food, as food will of course continue to roll in on ships and trucks as it does today. Our non EU imports come in smoothly at the moment showing we know how to do it, even with tariffs where the EU requires them.

Or lets examine  the stupid idea that France and Germany will ground all their plans that currently fly to the UK in order to stop our planes flying to their airports. They are not going to want to cut themselves off from the UK market, from London and the large international hub at Heathrow, and their airlines will not want to have to cancel all the tickets they  are selling for flights after March 29th 2019. The EU does not have the power to stop planes flying between member states. What would they say to the Spanish co owners of BA if they wanted to damage  BA, the main UK airline? How would they put up a case in court when an airline sued them for attempted damage to its business?

Then there is the wrong  notion that EU citizens living in the UK and UK citizens living in the EU would be at risk of removal. The UK has made clear it is  not going to ask people legally settled here under EU rules to leave, and I expect the rest of the EU to behave in the same manner towards UK people living on the continent. Advanced democratic countries obey international law, which does not permit mass deportations. Nor I am glad to say have I ever heard a mainstream UK or EU politician advocate anything so unpleasant.

During the referendum campaign when I was speaking to a public meeting in my own area, the Remain spokesman was a civilised former senior civil servant. He delivered a mild version of Project Fear about the job losses, recession, falls in house prices and the rest that his side forecast for the winter immediately after the vote. We  now know that was all wrong. The public reaction in a mixed audience was fascinating. They laughed at the silliness of Project Fear.

314 Comments

  1. Peter Wood
    August 1, 2018

    Dr. Redwood,

    There really is only one obstinate person whom you need to persuade of this argument, and at present she’s wandering around northern Italy, perhaps she might stay there!

    1. Graham Wood
      August 1, 2018

      Or as somebody else suggested – perhaps she could try walking on to Vladivostok !

      1. Hope
        August 1, 2018

        Oh come on JR. Cameron and Osborn were encouraging foreign leaders to make veiled threats against our great nation. Cameron is on video warning us of the dangers from Lisbon Treaty saying he would overturn it or give referendum. He lied to say he reformed the EU and campaigned to remain in knowing he had warned us of the dangers of Lisbon! Look at all the fake reports from the Treasury starting from osboen contiuning under Hammond and now slowing the economy!

        May dimdnot deny the scare stories of food and medicine shortages she said it is right o be prepared! May has lost the trust of the nation, there is no coming back from that.

        Your party will need to oust her if they are to survive. MPs are now waking up to this with the stark opinion polls. Your party should be way ahead by now with the vile racist anti Semitic Labour Party in opposition. What does it say that your party is behind in the polls!

        Oust May, get a leave PM and leave the EU. Everyone I speak to no longer wants any deal with the EU before leaving, no one wants a punishment extension either. No one believes the Irish border sham cannot be solved easily by good faith by both parties. The EU and May have created this as a problem. That is because. Both want us to remain. Both want an extension to change our minds.

        No one would beleive any policy announcement by May. She has made herself completely toxic to the public by her betrayal and her lies to say she has kept faith to the voters. It is breathtaking dishonesty.

        To be very clear, Cameron, Osborn, May, Hammond, Rudd and all other incompetents at the helm of your party have tried to scare us o remain in the EU. It is up to you and your coleagues to exercise some moral fortitude fight back and get rid of May. The public will love it and it might stop the UKIP rise again.

        1. Hazel Bland
          August 4, 2018

          How right you are.

        2. brian
          August 5, 2018

          Stop the Ukip rise again ??? So you`ll continue to vote Tory then ? You confound me ! For goodness sake get real .

      2. Vlad
        August 1, 2018

        Tell her to bring back the only decent vodka you can get hold of, made in villages by craftsmen in indeed!

    2. bigneil
      August 1, 2018

      She isn’t obstinate. She wants her reward ( a seat at the top Brussels table ) in exchange for the destruction of Britain and the extermination of the British.

      1. eeyore
        August 1, 2018

        Mrs May should be asked in Parliament what plans the government has for celebrating Independence Day next March 29. Day off school? Bank holiday? Street parties? Fireworks? Flypast? Bells? Flags? Parades? Solemn service of thanksgiving in St Paul’s?

        Or (let me guess) absolutely sod all.

        1. Adam
          August 2, 2018

          eeyore:

          Little has so far been raised, yet something is bound to be done to mark the importance of difference on the first day.

          The Govt might be considering changing the unofficial national anthem from ‘Land of Hope & Glory’ to Monty Python’s ‘Always look on the bright side of life’, sung under water at the entrance to Traitors Gate.

      2. Richard Evans
        August 1, 2018

        JR, Your comments fall on deaf ears within your party and look at the front bench? Theresa May is the establishment choice and will do all she ordered to do by the “Deep State”. Yes people, we do have one.
        As to Project Fear and the remain campaign, they have 98% of the MSM platform. In comparison BREXIT has a miniscule platform within the MSM. ALL planned.

    3. Bob
      August 1, 2018

      Guido mocking the Tory website which has a petition asking Labour to respect the result of the referendum.

      “Labour’s position could mean accepting free movement and continuing to follow a swathe of EU rules with absolutely no say in them.

      This breaks Labour’s Brexit promises and does not respect the referendum result.

      Why won’t you back the Conservative Government in delivering on the decision made by the country in the referendum – to leave the EU and take back control of our money, laws and borders?”

      I expect that will be removed now to conceal their duplicity.

    4. PrezleB
      August 1, 2018

      She’s marking time in a real way..she’s had to listen to the Tory backbench / UKIP whingers for the past twenty years and more and now she’s going to deliver it up to them..brexit with no deal in March 2019..She’ll deliver it and it will be then up to others to work out the future..that is what we voted for- brexit..so the future won’t matter to her..in fact nothing to do with her..she’ll be gone..she cannot lose.

  2. Newmania
    August 1, 2018

    Saying” Project Fear”, is not the same thing as making an argument and ” expecting ” is worthless. These stories emerge from the government’s own emergency planning; fact . The current problem is that the Brexit people voted for does not exist, we have no power to make it exist as a result and we are likely to slide out onto WTO.
    WTO is not fine. You are risking jobs , services security and our children`s future . In retrun we get a few less Poles around the place to please old Mrs Hate in her bungalow
    This is the worst deal in the history of deals.

    1. Denis Cooper
      August 1, 2018

      “These stories emerge from the government’s own emergency planning”.

      Many start with the government, some have other origins, but the big picture is that almost all of it is coming from, or is being allowed and encouraged or arranged by, a post-referendum Tory government which is lying about the EEC/EC/EU/USE project in much the same way as the pre-referendum Tory government, and indeed as all Tory governments since Eden stepped down after Suez in 1957.

    2. Anonymous
      August 1, 2018

      Old Mrs Hate in her bungalow doubtless has kids and has probably already become Bank of Grandma.

      My pension lump sum is already allocated to my kid’s first house deposits, when I get it.

      This was not the plan and nor was being a borderless country with no upper population limit when the Common Market was originally sold to us.

    3. mancunius
      August 1, 2018

      You do realize I hope that all that nonsense of yours is a wasted effort.
      The EU confirms daily through its boneheaded, aggressive stupidity that it is prepared to risk the jobs and security of its citizens merely to bolster the Brussels bureaucracy.
      WTO is a perfectly fine basis for trading, and FTAs with many other countries will follow in the course of time.
      Your obsession with Poles and bungalows suggests you have a rather narrow and clichéd mind-set.
      That you expose your illiterate, misspelt rubbish to public view is a matter of general wonder.
      3/10.

      1. meAgain
        August 1, 2018

        mancunius..what a dumbass you are..but self educated too by the looks of it

        Am looking forward to the day when you get your noses rubbed – 30th March 2019

    4. Jagman84
      August 1, 2018

      It is worth repeating that all of our non-EU trade is via WTO. A system that yields us a healthy surplus. Our ‘superior’ EU trade is at a large deficit and includes a hefty bill for the privilege. Your Brexit must be in a parallel universe!

      1. Stephen Priest
        August 1, 2018

        “It is worth repeating that all of our non-EU trade is via WTO.2

        You won’t hear this on the BBC, SKY, ITV News. IT won’t be said once, let alon repeating.

      2. NickC
        August 1, 2018

        Jagman84, Yes, it is the alternate Remain universe. Like Newmania, other Remains also parrot out their propaganda that the WTO system “is the worst deal in the history of deals”. Yet it is the system we currently use for c61% of our exports (and even the c39% that go to the EU must comply with the WTO system as well). This year sees the 70th anniversary of the (WTO) multilateral trading system.

    5. DaveM
      August 1, 2018

      Brilliant. A perfect example of why the negative, EU-sponsored, pro-EU propaganda currently being disseminated by parts of the U.K. establishment and MSM doesn’t work.

      1. Mr Redwood spends his whole life “making arguments”, whether you agree with them or not.
      2. These stories are largely fabricated by individuals – usually with no substantial authority – and subsequently leapt upon by pro-EU sections of the MSM.
      3. The British people didn’t vote for “Brexit”, they voted to leave the EU. And if – as you seem to be inferring – life outside the EU doesn’t exist, you are wrong. There are 167 countries which prove that.
      4. The next inference you make is that voters were expecting to stay in the SM and CU. That is also incorrect – I can find no single statement or written document stating that that would happen.
      5. Where is your proof of the risks you mention? No, I didn’t think so…,,
      6. Very few people object to the Poles or the Latvians, or indeed other hard-working European immigrants. Although my kids (yes, we have them too) would have found it a lot easier to find summer jobs if it weren’t for the mass immigration policy.
      7. The only person I detect who has hate in their heart is you.

      If leaving the EU is affecting you that much, you need to relocate to somewhere prosperous and perfect……like Greece or Italy.

      In the meantime, your attempts to appear intellectual and superior would bear a lot more credence if you learned how to construct sentences and punctuate correctly.

    6. Stephen Priest
      August 1, 2018

      The latest Project Fear is something like: “France and Germany are prepared to destroy their own economies as long it destroys Britain’s economy as well.”

    7. libertarian
      August 1, 2018

      Newmania

      It would help if you knew what you were talking about

      Most of us that voted to leave are quite happy to go the route of WTO

      For those of us who actually run businesses we know that WTO present no problem , 60% of our exports have been under WTO rules. The EU trades with its biggest trading partner the USA under WTO rules.

      There is no risk what so ever to jobs ( we already have a skills shortage unlike the rest of the EU) 749,000 unfilled jobs. There is no risk to security, the UK is a full member of NATO oh and pays 26% of total budget into EU security too.

      Just making stuff up has become the main pastime of remainers. The problem is that the facts prove you wrong time after time. Staying in a Federalist , undemocratic , job killing, backward looking bureaucracy, just so Numania can have a Polish cleaner earning less than minimum wage is good for our long term future

      1. Edward2
        August 2, 2018

        Well said again Libertarian.

    8. L Jones
      August 1, 2018

      Newmania – a bit like the fact that the EU the Remainders voted for doesn’t exist?
      There never was a status quo with the EU – it was madness for you people to speak as if there were.
      My children will thank me for voting ‘out’. I wonder when your children will begin to see you as a flat-earthling (ie believing that nothing outside Europe and the EU could possibly exist)? Perhaps they’ll be forgiving – I hope so.

  3. Newmania
    August 1, 2018

    …PS Sorry and a Blue Passport ! Whooppeee!
    On the subject of WTO , a letter was written last September to the UK’s WTO representative in Geneva, by 7 countries including the USA, Canada and New Zealand, objecting to the proposed EU/UK plans for Tarriff Rate Quotas. http://src.bna.com/thd
    Now the EU and UK have both officially lodged their respective plans with the WTO.

    The EU submitted a detailed Article 28 submission under which it “is prepared to enter into negotiations and consultations with the appropriate Members … for the modification of concessions” http://src.bna.com/AA3
    This has already received objections from several countries, including Australia. So now the top 4 countries that we want do an FTA with have objected to the plans.

    As predicted , now we will be taken to the cleaners by the rest of the world

  4. Mark B
    August 1, 2018

    Good morning

    No matter how we leave there is going to be some disruption. This will because we, and others, will have to readjust to our new and hopeful situation of being an independent country outside the EU.

    The Glorious Referendum was not just about Leaving or Remaining in the Stupid Club, it was a rejection of an establishment idea. Whatever happens no one can ever claim that the UK membership of the EU has universal approval or support. They cannot even claim as they have in the past that people are just not interested in the EU.

  5. oldtimer
    August 1, 2018

    Unfortunately Mrs May is PM and in charge of the UK end of the negotiations. This does not, on her past form, bode well for the future.

  6. Fedupsoutherner
    August 1, 2018

    Very clearly and concisely put John. Thank you for clarifying the situation for both Brexiteers and Remainers. As you say the scare mongering has reached a ridiculous scale and for sensible people it is hilarious. As I commented last night, these scare tactics belong in a boys comic written by the likes of Andy.

    1. Mitchel
      August 1, 2018

      I often wonder whether “Andy” is one of those what used to be called alternative(now very much mainstream) comics,preparing a show for the Edinburgh Fringe:”Diary of a Brexiteer-baiter”.Some of you might find yourselves famous in a few weeks time!

      1. graham1946
        August 1, 2018

        You could be right – his material is a lot funnier than anything modern comedians do on telly.

        1. L Jones
          August 1, 2018

          I wonder if his/her children will think so? Or if they’ll feel embarrassed by him/her?
          Let’s be charitable here – perhaps he/she is simply an agent provocateur, who simply throws things in deliberately to get us riled!

      2. Prigger
        August 1, 2018

        @Mitchel) True.
        No one human being is entirely OTT . Outdated humour.
        “Andy” could try litotes instead of hyperbole. But it too has been done to death.
        He could try telling the absolute truth which always gets chuckles, guffaws and OTT responses from Remoaner MPs after they have been changed in the Mothers Room adjacent to Parliamentary toilets

  7. Denis Cooper
    August 1, 2018

    No, JR, much more of this misinformation and doom and panic mongering is coming from our own despicable government and its civil service than from the EU. There is in fact little need for the EU to add to the volume of unspeakable garbage being generated internally. And those scare stories which do not actually originate from our own official sources, at taxpayers’ expense and in direct contravention of our codes of good government, are tolerated and very rarely rebutted in any effect way if at all – as I have repeatedly complained here.

    1. Rien Huizer
      August 1, 2018

      You are quite right. In fact the EU would be unpleasantly surprised if the outcome of current political processes in the UK would be a wish to simply disregard the art 50 notice and stay in. That would immediately raise the spectre of endless repeats of the Brexit soap in the future. Too distracting. Their interest is getting a British exit with minimal damage to the Union and its remaing members. Barnier’s brief is clearly not to make it hard for the UK to depart, but making it hard to do so without proper care.

      1. Tad Davison
        August 1, 2018

        ‘Their interest is getting a British exit with minimal damage to the Union and its remaing members.’

        In that case, the EU should give us a tariff-free free-trade deal with no problem at all. However, trade on WTO rules is not as daunting a prospect for the UK than some would have us believe. That scenario has been discussed at length, and is entirely workable.

        Maybe that is why there is a plethora of scare stories around right now, because the remainers have no credible arguments left so they depend upon peddling myths.

      2. Yvybybgh
        August 1, 2018

        More EU propaganda from their paid troll.

      3. Anonymous
        August 1, 2018

        We also understand that a departing member cannot be allowed to succeed.
        That would certainly damage the Union.

        A bad idea that was built on deceit.

      4. mancunius
        August 1, 2018

        Proper care? Between them, Barnier and Merkel have just lost the EU the sum of ÂŁ39bn. No agreement, no payment.
        We shall make a FTA in the course of the next few years with one of his successors. We have plenty of time. The EU has not: the euro has even less.

      5. Original Richard
        August 1, 2018

        “Barnier’s brief is clearly not to make it hard for the UK to depart, but making it hard to do so without proper care.”

        A majority of the EU countries may desire an FTA with the UK but the EU Commission does not.

        They ideally want the UK to be a member of a/the CU, or failing that trading on WTO terms.

        This is because they want to ensure they continue to receive as much revenue as they can from the 80% of import duties they collect – either from the UK when it belongs to the/a CU or on the duties collected on the WTO tariffs from goods imported into the EU from the UK.

        They also want to punish the UK, “pour encourager les autres”, if possible by keeping as much control over the UK as possible such as by keeping the UK in a/the CU.

        This is why the EU is weaponising the Irish border and refusing to come to an agreement on the future trading relationship when this must be known before the Irish border issue can be sensibly settled.

    2. Hope
      August 1, 2018

      Well said Dennis. It is shameful of JR to pretend it is not his Tory govt past and present who is doing this and the total silence to rebut is obvious.

    3. Tad Davison
      August 1, 2018

      Please see my later post Denis.

      These scare stories are best rebutted by those with the highest public profile as that way, the rebuttal reaches many more people. If done properly, it increases an individual’s political capital as well as that of their cause, whilst it has the opposite effect upon their opponents. And we have right on our side which is a big asset.

      Personally, I think they’re scared that a Tory leadership contest might trigger a General Election and thereby favour Corbyn, although it clearly need not do so.

      They just need the guts to call May out, and rather than be seen as divisive figures who would destroy Tory party unity (laughable I know), by showing the ‘Leavers’ to be wholly wrong, the Brxiteers would in fact be seen as the party’s saviours. As it stands, May has made the Tories so toxic, they look like being all-but wiped out so anything is better than that!

      The people of this country are in a political wilderness right now with no really good politician to lead them. Here is a good articulate Brexiteer’s chance not only to gain and keep the high ground, but to build an impregnable fortress upon it. We must not allow others to step into the breach simply because of the convention that it is somehow ungentlemanly to criticise the party leader, especially when that leader is so clearly wrong (and I hope Tory MPs get to read these comments).

      For me, the turning point was the Boris resignation speech, which was almost grovelling in its lack of vitriolic condemnation of Theresa May and the way she operates. That capitulation gave her a free hand to dither and obfuscate even longer in the hope the people would change their minds. But it is not too late to see off this campaign of misinformation once and for all.

      Tad.

    4. Newmania
      August 1, 2018

      Willy of the People: Damn those remainer traitors , their failure to plan for no deal has fatally weakened our power to negotiate !
      Patience: Good news, Willy , we are stockpiling food and medicine and setting aside the M25 as a long term parking lot !
      Willy of the People: Damn these remainer traitors, spreading panic with their entirely unnecessary preparations for no deal
      Patience : Oh ..

      1. Edward2
        August 1, 2018

        Calm yourself.
        It is a frenzy of project fear at the moment.

      2. Anonymous
        August 2, 2018

        You take a direction. You take it whole heartedly and you stick to it.

        YOU are keeping us stuck in the catflap.

  8. Mike Stallard
    August 1, 2018

    “The EU does not have the power to ban them selling to us.”

    Yes.
    It does have that power.

    Food moves in lorries, planes and ships.
    There is paperwork and bureaucracy involved. This speeds the transit through frontiers. Goods are placed in these containers and moved freely across Europe without hindrance – so long as the computers say, “Yes.”
    It takes about 20 minutes at Calais, I heard yesterday on LBC from a lorry driver, to pass through customs.

    When Mrs May’s proposal is rejected on 11th October, we face a shut down of the computer system on 30th March next year.
    Instead of 20 minutes, we will get the situation on the Turkish border where each individual lorry is checked and waiting will take up to a whole day. The tailback will be very quick to form and very long.
    Think traffic accident on the M25.

    Lorries, often full of perishable food, will be held up in a huge queue.
    How will they get back, loaded, from Europe? European lorries, of course, often trying to trade in Ireland (EEA), will suffer the same problem at the Irish border.

    We must join Efta to stay in the EEA when we leave.

  9. Lifelogic
    August 1, 2018

    The problem is that project fear is not just coming from the EU but also from Brexit means Nothing T May, the treasury, many MPs, the Lords and especially the BBC both of which are absurdly pro EU.

    On Marr she said “many (Brexit) people voted from the heart
 My job as Prime Minister is to deliver for them, but also I’ve got to be hard-headed and practical about this, and do it in a way that ensures we get the best interests for the UK”.

    No Theresa the Brexit people voted with both their heads and their hearts. When we get real democracy, and freedom back we will be far better off. Though we will also need a sensible government not the current tax, borrow, regulate and waste socialist one.

    They expected government to serve the notice the day after the referendum as promised and to deliver a real and clean Brexit. Not May’s leave in name only and become a vassal state sick joke.

    1. Bob
      August 1, 2018

      I saw this tweet from BBC’s Andrew Neil

      “A new story about terrible consequences of Brexit with no deal now appearing on average every 12 hours. Some are genuinely worrying, some clearly drivel. But I’m told government behind a number of them to dragoon Tory MPs behind Chequers Agreement. Surely not.”

      1. Lifelogic
        August 1, 2018

        Indeed that is what has been going on. Appeaser May thinks Brexit voters think with their hearts and she is “hard-headed”. In fact she is a hopeless lefty, pro EU dope who is totally misguided on almost every issue she touches. Perhaps she meant “bone-headed”.

        1. Beecee
          August 1, 2018

          And way, way beyond her level of incompetence!

      2. Tad Davison
        August 1, 2018

        I don’t know the origin of Andrew Neil’s sources, but I know the origin of mine and I bet they are as politically prominent as his. Whether they are one and the same, I don’t know, but I DO know they are saying the same things.

        This has got to stop! Alas, we hapless plebs can’t stop them, it is down to Tory Brexiteers to stop them, even if it means walking up and down Whitehall with placards denouncing this orchestrated chicanery and obfuscation – but we plebs will surely follow, and in our droves!

        Tad

    2. Steve
      August 1, 2018

      “On Marr she said “many (Brexit) people voted from the heart
 My job as Prime Minister is to deliver for them, but also I’ve got to be hard-headed and practical about this, and do it in a way that ensures we get the best interests for the UK”.

      Patronising cow.

    3. Tom Rogers
      August 3, 2018

      Notice how she uses that modish expression, “…for the UK”, like a foreigner would, as if she is talking about the commercial prospects of a middling chain of supermarkets.

  10. Denis Cooper
    August 1, 2018

    And as I pointed out in a still unpublished comment on this earlier thread:

    http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/07/30/going-for-faster-growth-how-the-government-can-help/#comment-951108

    people are not just laughing it off, on the contrary it is clear that Theresa May and her favourite Olly Robbins are starting to succeed in their constant efforts to turn around public opinion in preparation for the second referendum, and morover:

    “This is not the first time that a Tory Prime Minister has used the civil service to mount a successful propaganda campaign against our national sovereignty and democracy and in favour of our subjugation in a pan-European federation, the main difference being that Edward Heath did it before we voted in the 1975 referendum while Theresa May has had to play catch up after her predecessor lost the 2016 referendum.”

    1. Peter Wood
      August 1, 2018

      It is exactly this risk that we should be happy that Mrs. May DIDN’T win a large majority at the last GE. Now we have 60 odd(?) ERG MP’s who, behind JRM, won’t let her abuse the system. Let’s hope! If the 1922 listen to their constituencies, as they should, she’ll be gone by October.

    2. Tad Davison
      August 1, 2018

      Absolutely agree.

      We know this scaremongering is balderdash, and no doubt they know its balderdash too, but they persist with it so perhaps we need to examine their motives. We can quickly deduce these are less than scrupulous people who have a hidden agenda which is a pretty easy conclusion to arrive at I grant you. But these officers of state are supposed to be working for us, not against us. They are supposed to be of the very highest integrity, but they are clearly not so disposed.

      Where inadequacy exists in the highest offices in the land, or worse still, downright dishonesty, it is in the national interest to replace them with people who are up to the task. I have been talking to a police office this lunchtime to get some idea of what is it like on the front line in the fight against crime. I will not compromise him, but I can say in no uncertain terms that Theresa May is detested and held in the highest contempt by many policemen for the appalling way police numbers have diminished under her watch, despite assurances the cuts would only affect back-office staff. And this is the best the so-called party of law and order can do! Great God almighty, they have sunk so low they are crawling on their bellies!

      Theresa May and her remain-leaning civil servants should be gone now as a matter of honour! This instant! They are not worth a candle, but Tory MPs need the guts to move against her and so far, I haven’t seen much evidence of that. Maybe they need to listen more closely to what the people are telling them if they wish to avoid an alternative government.

      Tad

  11. Javelin
    August 1, 2018

    John, Brexit means making the EU split in the Conservative party explict, tangible, real. This means laying bare the difference between “Progressive Conservatives” like May and Hammond and “Sovereign Conservatives”, like yourself.

    The problem you have is not the MPs reaction to this split but the public reaction to Progressive Conservatives being in power (by civil servants). The fate that lies in wait for Progressive Conservatives has been seen before in Canada in 1993 where they were in power on day and lost half their votes and all but two seats the next, with a female PM implementing the same style of politics as May. I will confirm not 50% but 95% of comments in mainstream online media are strongly anti Progressive Conservative. Beware the fate of all Progressive Conservatives.

    1. Original Richard
      August 1, 2018

      I see nothing progressive about wanting to remain in an increasingly federalist and anti-democratic EU where the directives, rules and regulations set by people we do not elect and cannot remove are stifling our country’s ability to succeed.

      1. Steve
        August 1, 2018

        Progressive is not really the correct description. Seditious seems more appropriate.

    2. Tad Davison
      August 1, 2018

      Well put!

      Tad

    3. Rien Huizer
      August 1, 2018

      What would you consider mainstream online media? Breitbart?

  12. Nig l
    August 1, 2018

    Yes, they are like April Fool jokes, everyone knows they are coming, they are easy to spot and no one believes them.

    1. Anonymous
      August 1, 2018

      Let’s hope so.

      A few of them are genuinely concerning to me though.

  13. Narrow Shoulders
    August 1, 2018

    Project fear could easily be countered by the Department for Exiting the EU with press releases and statements about specific mitigations and potential measures (including novation) for the fears that are emerging.

    Tony Blair would never have lost control of the narrative like this. Time to take a leaf out of his book unless your government is happy for project fear to lead.

    I though Jeremy Hunt’s intervention yesterday was useful.

    1. Denis Cooper
      August 1, 2018

      Correct.

      https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/food-and-drink/why-britains-food-manufacturing-chief-wants-to-meet-the-government/

      “Revealed: Britain’s food manufacturing chief calls for crisis meeting with government over Brexit”

      “Dominic Raab has been warned that Brexit could become the ‘stuff of nightmares’ if there are food shortages.”

      “Ian Wright, chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation which represents the sector, wrote to the minister a fortnight ago urging a meeting with leaders from across the industry to address concerns.”

      “We have not yet had a formal conversation with the government about the major concerns for my members and the wider food chain. I think that’s pretty essential.”

      Look at the feeble response from the government.

      There is a reason for all this, it is not just incompetence it is the fact that we have a Prime Minister who was a Remainer and still is an unreformed Remainer.

    2. Sir Joe Soap
      August 1, 2018

      The problem with this government’s approach is that it generates scepticism about anything they do or say. Even Hunt warning about “no deal” – is he saying this just to appease Mr Redwood and his followers whilst they have no intention of not caving in?

      A chap who can get his wife’s nationality wrong isn’t really the one you want telling you “OK left”, or anything important.

    3. NickC
      August 1, 2018

      Narrow Shoulders, “Time to take a leaf out of [Blair’s] book unless your government is happy for project fear to lead”. The government, with Theresa May taking full responsibility, does want project fear to lead. I know of no other explanation. Apart from the century of Tory eurosceptics, the rest of Parliament is determined to deliver Remain.

      1. Tad Davison
        August 1, 2018

        There’s an old saying in US politics, ‘When you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow’.

        We could have remainers by the short and curlies this very day such is the weakness of their arguments, but I can’t yet see the ‘blood and guts’ politicians on the leave side (Nigel Farage excepted) who are prepared to make an aggressive and determined stand against them. This reticence is our weakness and will prove costly unless we correct it.

        Tad

    4. L Jones
      August 1, 2018

      Well said, NarrowShoulders. What a pity it is that we can’t see a bit of counter propaganda. We’re in sore need of it right now. But it seems our own government would much rather we were made despondent by this constant flow of misinformation from Project Fear. Many of us know we can simply laugh it off, but others need more convincing.

    5. forthurst
      August 1, 2018

      I agree Jeremy Hunt is doing a manful job in flogging May’s totally unworkable capitulation in return for nothing. Doing a much better job than Boris who wanted a Brexit that 17.4 million people voted for not a continuance of Brussels rule by deceit. The Tory party is full of the most appalling trash that would sell their souls to the devil to get to the top of the slippery pole. Nauseating.

      1. Narrow Shoulders
        August 1, 2018

        If Boris really wanted that exit he would have resigned at Chequers not three days later.

        1. rose
          August 1, 2018

          Nonsense: he hadn’t had time to take it in or talk it over with anyone. Department, colleagues, family…Once having taken it in, resigning as Foreign Secretary was not a trivial decision. He was also in the middle of other things – like the Western Balkan Summit.

          Three days was quite quick, just as three weeks was quite quick to move house.

          1. Narrow Shoulders
            August 2, 2018

            “He is not the Messiah he is a very naughty boy”

  14. eeyore
    August 1, 2018

    The one thing Project Fear got right was the threat of an EU punishment beating. Now even that fades as the real people of Europe get a grip on their absurd bureaucrats.

    But there’s life in the old dog yet. Project Fear is turning into Project Stitch-up. M. Barnier, all smiles now Parliament’s in recess, makes soothing noises about Chequers. Mrs May’s walking tour takes her to half the capitals of Europe. How she loves walking!

    “At last we’re talking tough” crows one national paper. Ha! Believe it when you see it.

    1. NickC
      August 1, 2018

      Eeyore, Errr, cough, cough, I did warn, on here and elsewhere, that the EU was likely to try “punishment beatings”. I said: “if you think the EU will be fair to us you haven’t being paying attention for the last 40 years”.

      That is why I said we should give 12 months diplomatic notice and just leave. And not engage in negotiations with the EU about it. International agreements (eg flying) would be made at the level of the international institutions. That would not involve us being a supplicant to the EU, so limiting the damage the EU could do to us.

      After the fact of our independence was established, I would have been quite sanguine about a trade (only) deal with the EU, but alongside other more important free trade deals.

    2. Rien Huizer
      August 1, 2018

      What are the “real people of Europe”?

      1. Yvybybgh
        August 1, 2018

        Anyone except the EU technocrats.

      2. NickC
        August 1, 2018

        Rien, Real people who really vote for real EU-sceptic parties? Or are they unreal to you in your EU fantasy land?

        1. Rien Huizer
          August 2, 2018

          Re: tariff-free deal. You are well aware that that raises two problems for an entity like the EU: rulues of origin+standards and cherry picking. I am not arguing that the EU position is fair (fairness is a rhetorical tool in politics) just that some things are simply not feasible. Getting the all EU countries (and their parliaments) to agree on a “deal” is extremely difficult. That is one of two negotiating strengths any EU opponent in trade negotiations must be aware of. The UK spent decades on the other side of the table. And of course the EU has mentioned Canada and Norway as possible templates. Those are essentially (limited) tariff-free deals.

          I would not be so confident that the peddlers of scare stories are wrong, though. The UK is its own worst ennemy in this case. And all for a few political careers, satisfying people susceptible to nostalgia for a heroic past that never existed and maybe some serious incentives from abroad.

        2. hans christian ivers
          August 2, 2018

          NIckc,

          More superficial nonsense

          1. mancunius
            August 3, 2018

            AfD support well up, 17% support, both Italian eurosceptic parties increased in support, Ukip support well up since Chequers.
            Not such ‘nonsense’ then. Nick C is absolutely correct in spotting the trend.
            One large Scandinavian country will surprise everyone at the next election.

      3. L Jones
        August 1, 2018

        Try thinking of the ”real people of Europe” as those who actually believe in their countries and dislike the route the EU is taking them. Not that many of them can do anything about it, as they are now in economic thrall to this German-led ‘organisation’. Try thinking ”Mitteleuropa”.

      4. graham1946
        August 1, 2018

        They are those without a snout in the Brussels trough.

  15. Lifelogic
    August 1, 2018

    So T May is to meet Macron on Friday at Fort de Brégançon in the Var. Doubtless she will come back even more absurdly EUphile after being wined and dined, perhaps dipping her feet in the Med from the private beach (or in his newly constructed, tax payer funded, swimming pool).

    Last time I was there I was held up in a traffic jam by French Police who were escorting the VIP Cameron to stay at the Fort (back in Sept 2010). This when his father fell ill and later died in Toulon Hospital. Cameron had only been PM for only four months but he had already ratted on his “cast iron promise” and it was now very clear he was going to be another wrong’un. He later went on to appoint Lord Patten of Barnes to be new BBC chairman so there was then no doubt what so ever that he was other remainer (pretending not to be to just to get elected). The sick joke continues with Brexit means nothing T May.

    If only Cameron has been the “Cast Iron, low tax a heart, EU sceptic” that he had claimed to be instead for another EUphile, tax increasing fraud. He had a massive opportunity and two open goal elections that he botched, just for the lack of a working compass.

    1. Tad Davison
      August 1, 2018

      Wot’s that you say LL? A Tory ratting on something? That surely cannot be right. Don’t ya know they are the most upright and erudite people in British politics? They are staid and loyal to the crown. They stand up at the Last Night of the Proms, wave their Union Jacks and sing ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ as all good patriots should do. They are the establishment party. The party of law and order. They show the others how politics should be conducted, with a stiff upper lip and self-sacrifice their watchwords.

      Now back to reality. The Tories must be the only ones who still believe that BS. They only get elected because the other shysters are even worse and the electorate are so perplexed.

      Tad

  16. Nig l
    August 1, 2018

    Taken from the Lloyds Bank half years results. The U.K. economy remains resilient with robust growth and unemployment at a 50 year low with family debt below pre crisis levels.

    So much for the Project Smear b.s. we need stuff like this Trump-eted

    1. fedupsoutherner
      August 1, 2018

      Nice one Nig1

    2. Mitchel
      August 1, 2018

      Or an alternative view of our prospects from SEEDS (Surplus Energy Economics)#131 July 20,2018 :”Not about Brexit”.

      “Prosperity per person in the UK has been declining relentlessly since as long ago as 2003.Over the period since then,reported GDP has risen by ÂŁ386bn(23%) to ÂŁ2.04tr last year from ÂŁ1.65 tr(at 2017 values)in 2003.Against this,however,aggregate debt increased by ÂŁ2tr (62%).

      This means that each ÂŁ1 of reported growth has been accompanied by ÂŁ5.20 in new borrowing.It also means against current growth expectations of about 1.4% the UK typically borrows 5.7% of GDP each year.

      The stark implication is that,like many other western countries,Britain has been pouring cheap credit into the economy to shore up consumption.In short,most of the supposed “growth” of recent times has been nothing more substantial than the simple spending of borrowed money.

      Stripped of this borrowing efect,SEEDS calculates that within recorded growth of ÂŁ386bn since 2003,only ÂŁ77bn can be considered organic and sustainable.This puts “clean”(borrowing adjusted)GDP for 2017 at ÂŁ1.59tr barely ahead of the 2003 number of ÂŁ1.53tr.On this basis,underlying growth has not kept up with increases in the population so that clean GDP per capita has decreased by 5.1% since 2003”

  17. Matthew MacKenzie
    August 1, 2018

    It is hardly reassuring to read your glib dismissal of these serious concerns, raised in the UK media on the basis of UK government reports and leaks, with “I guess ” before the inevitable blaming of the EU.

    The Dutch government here, which has more reason to fear the economic hit of Brexit than most, is already warning exporters, like Market Gardeners, that their ability to export fresh produce to the UK looks set to be severely limited if a ‘Hard Brexit’ takes place. Predictably one of the tips offered is to look for replacement markets, like those likely to become available if/when British exporters can also no longer provide ‘just in time delivery’.

    “Project Fear”? More like “Project Wake Up and Smell the Coffee”.

    1. Edward2
      August 1, 2018

      Why would Dutch market gardeners not be able to continue to sell their goods to us?
      I haven’t heard anyone in the UK saying they want to stop buying their produce.

      1. hefner
        August 1, 2018

        Does anybody realise that when Steve Baker said he wanted reports on the impact of Brexit not only on the UK economy but also on those of the EU27 he just showed how uninformed/vacuous/clown-like he is: such reports have been researched starting in summer 2016 (and some of them published in 2017) in a large number of the EU27 countries, particularly for those countries most likely to have their GDP growth reduced by some percent. So maybe he could ask his (multilingual) buddies to explore the Internet and translate these documents instead of spending more tax-payer money on information already available.

        1. Edward2
          August 2, 2018

          They all use the same dodgy data
          They all get the same results.

      2. Denis Cooper
        August 1, 2018

        Apart from me, and my wife when I am keeping an eye on her shopping. But then we try to avoid buying anything from the EU, including Ireland since Leo Varadkar started being obstructive.

      3. L Jones
        August 1, 2018

        To be honest, until we’re out proper, I’m buying British wherever possible! (I may relent later.)

    2. Denis Cooper
      August 1, 2018

      So why, precisely, should Dutch market gardeners encounter any new difficulties in exporting their fresh produce to the UK, that is apart from the possibility that some UK consumers may get so annoyed with the Dutch that they decide to boycott their products? Is the EU going to ban Dutch exports to the UK? Or will it be the Dutch government which tells the Dutch producers to stop supplying the UK? Because I can’t see the UK government actually putting a stop to imports of Dutch food, they will stop at trying to convince people in the UK that it could happen unless we all get behind the Prime Minister and her Instrument of Surrender. Or will it be the UK government arbitrarily deciding that all the Dutch stuff produced under the same Single Market rules as rules as now will need to be double checked after we have left the EU, even though it has hardly ever been checked even once for the past 26 years, that is since 1992 when the Single Market was established? Which will it be, then? EU stupidity, Dutch stupidity, or British stupidity?

      1. Matthew McKenzie
        August 1, 2018

        Leaving the Single Market has serious consequences. If it didn’t, why bother doing it? Of course the United Kingdom could choose to impose no import duties, no taxes, no customs clearance controls etc, but no serious export business (or government) can cross its fingers and hope for the best. The EU certainly won’t adapt this strategy and why should it. No self-respecting organisation grants a departing member continued access to benefits, cost-free. This is not how the world works.

        Even with a Brexit-deal, exporting goods to the UK will almost inevitably be more expensive. How much more expensive depends on the deal. The Dutch Market Gardeners are well advised to seek new markets. Even if fresh produce can still be exported rapidly – despite the chronic lack of UK preparation – costs will rise. The adjustment period will present many challenges. I advised my eldery parents in Yorkshire to stock up on essentials months ago just in case. This is all terribly sad and all so unnecessary.

        1. Denis Cooper
          August 3, 2018

          It does indeed have serious consequences, such regaining control over our immigration policy and freeing 94% of our businesses from the counterproductive burden of ill-designed EU regulation.

          It is you advice to your elderly parents which is sad and unnecessary, and if we had a government which actually believed in Brexit it would have said so long ago.

    3. Denis Cooper
      August 1, 2018

      Well, I’m getting fed up with all this nonsense, thanks a lot bloody Therolly, and so I’ve dropped a line to the Dutch Ambassador in London, as follows:

      “Dear Ambassador

      In the light of various media reports circulating in the UK, I would be obliged if you could clarify:

      In the event that the UK left the EU without any agreed deal, would it be the policy of the Netherlands government to immediately ban all exports of food to the UK?

      Would the policy of the Netherlands government in that regard be determined by any trade sanctions policy of the EU as a whole?

      If the policy did not involve a complete blockade, as some suggest, would all the food exported to the UK still meet the high standards required by the EU Single Market, of which the Netherlands would of course still be a part, or would Dutch suppliers be permitted to send sub-standard and possibly hazardous produce to the UK once it was a third country outside of the EU and its Single Market?

      Thanking you for your assistance in this matter.

      Yours etc”

    4. Rien Huizer
      August 1, 2018

      The most likely impact of Brexit for Dutch market gardeners (who survived a bigger hit when Russia became subject to trade sanctions) is that the price of their produce in the shops will go up as a result of trade friction and tariffs. A supply response from domestic sources needs quite a bit of time and it remains to be seen that such a response will occur. A trade agreement with the US with agriculture included would be different but that would hurt UK farmers more than it would help UK consumers.Of course if there would be a wholesale ban or an equivalent (so slow that produce would not survive) sanitary inspection regime would be adopted, there might be shortages. One cannot rule out shortages but they are unlikely. Supermarkets would prefer to raise prices.

      1. Edward2
        August 1, 2018

        Have you heard any comments from the UK government saying they wanted to add tariffs onto Dutch market garden produce?
        Because I haven’t.
        Trade friction:-
        Again I have yet to hear anyone calling for the UK to be awkward towards Dutch market gardeners imports and try to delay them.
        Have you?

        1. mancunius
          August 3, 2018

          But Edward, EU countries see it in terms of punitive trade boycotts and trade wars masquerading as ‘rules’. They pretend they can’t see that they will lastingly damage their own economic futures – well after the EU and the euro are long gone and forgotten.

      2. Yvybybgh
        August 1, 2018

        The US and Dutch are not the only suppliers of plants and flowers. Other countries will exploit any vacuum. It’s called global free trade.

      3. Anonymous
        August 1, 2018

        I don’t want us to fall out with the Dutch. I have several friends from Holland.

        I didn’t take to being lectured by a Dutch woman on the camp site I stayed at recently – then she went on to tell us how awful our roads are.

        Did she not see the connection ? That the EU might not have been as good for us as it was for her ?

      4. libertarian
        August 1, 2018

        Rien

        Or as I suspect and would be the most sensible approach the UK will decide not to impose tariffs on Dutch imports, but then of course the Dutch flower market might come under competitive pressure from Kenya who are currently excluded because of the tariff protections imposed by the EU

        The largest market garden greenhouse producing, salads, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers etc and covering 220 acres is in fact in KENT . I think they are fairly domestic . The main food import from Holland though is chicken and there are umpteen sources of chicken although Holland are the worlds largest exporter of chicken and the UK is their second largest market

        1. Rien Huizer
          August 2, 2018

          Libertarian, your comments are a cut above the rest here, I looked into the chicken claim and although the UK is Netherlands’ second largest EU export market ( a long way behind Germany though) with about 300K tons I would like to add that a very large portion of Dutch chicken exports are re-exports from countries like Brazil and Thailand. The port of Rotterdam again. There are no breakdowns so how much of the 800K tons of chicken imports from outside the EU goes to the UK is anyone’s guess. Given the very high value per ton compared to Germany it could be mainly Dutch produced chicken gracing your tables. But even that represents only 5-6% of Dutch production.

          Incidentally this illustrates that the overall picture for damage to the Dutch economy tends to be vastly overestimated by people who look at the large BOP surplus. If one takes re-exports (commodities, containerized freight from China, cars etc) out of the UK/Netherlands figures, trade is quite balanced. Both countries would have some damage in a “trade war” but the Dutch fiscal position is much healthier and the government is used to provide sector relief, as they will in the case of Dutch chicken farmers should the UK go further than tariffs and allowing imports of, say US chicken. I suspect that the same applies to Germany (but would you forego the delights of driving a BMW if it became a little dearer?) My -somewhat educated- guess is that the damage to the UK (of a “civilized” no deal) would be highly concentrated in certain sectors and furthermore manifest itself in (1) temporaryly higher inflation (2) higher interest rates (both the need to prevent outflow of funds and combat inflation (3) occasionally high impacts , for instance the car industry, if Honda, Nissan, Toyota, PSA and BMW and large suppliers such as Aisin and Denso would all taper off production for export to the EU. And in that case Tata might have aproblem too.

      5. Sir Joe Soap
        August 1, 2018

        Where has the UK government mentioned that it wishes to place tarriffs and friction on Dutch imports?
        Unfounded lies define Project Fear.

      6. Denis Cooper
        August 1, 2018

        Why should there be any significant increase in trade friction, and why do you assume that the UK would impose tariffs on imports that we want? Both of those contingencies seem to be based on a presumption of stupidity, in the first case stupidity by the EU, the Dutch government and/or the UK government, in the second case just stupidity by the UK government.

      7. graham1946
        August 1, 2018

        A price rise will only occur if the EU impose tariffs and we respond. We want a FTA. The EU did one with Canada, why not with its biggest customer, other than a childish wish to try to hurt the UK, which in any case we will survive?

        Is the Netherlands planning on producing rubbish just for the UK market and in the long run losing it’s market share? We will trust you to keep supplying quality according to EU standards which will suit us just fine, without inspections unless it turned out they are out to cheat us, in which case we will simply stop buying.

        1. Rien Huizer
          August 2, 2018

          As Mr Barnier has said repeatedly, Canada is on the menu. “Hurting the UK” is a UK tabloid invention. NTB’s affecting Dutch agro exports to the UK are entirely hypothetical of course. Baring those you would continue to enjoy the best the EU has to offer at areasonable price…

          1. Denis Cooper
            August 2, 2018

            As I recall it was first said by a eurofanatic Labour MP …

          2. Edward2
            August 2, 2018

            Always happy to buy good quality products at a fair pricewherever they come from.
            That’s the basis of free trade which is making the people of the world better off.
            Let’s assume goodwill for trade exists in both the EU and UK

    5. Fedupsoutherner
      August 1, 2018

      Matthew. Perhaps you’d like to explain why it will be difficult. I really don’t get it. What’s so different?

      They will still want to sell and we will buy. Simple! Why is everyone making it so complicated?

      1. Matthew MacKenzie
        August 2, 2018

        Fedupsoutherner. Let me try.

        The EU’s Single Market brings simplicity to internal EU trade. Once Britain has left the the complications it eliminated -tariffs, customs duties, paperwork – all return. A deal of some sorts may reduce these but whatever arrangements are left in place it will never be as ‘simple’ being in the Single Market.

        Fantasizing that the EU will simply continue offering unfettered access to the Single Market, no strings attached, after the UK has left, is so unbecoming.

        1. Edward2
          August 2, 2018

          I don’t notice any shortages of products from non EU countries in the UK.
          China, America, Korea, Japan, India, their goods are everywhere in shops here in the UK.
          Having exported as a business owner,I found the paperwork and refulations just as complicated for EU countries as for sending goods elsewhere in the world.

        2. NickC
          August 2, 2018

          Matthew MacKenzie said: “The EU’s Single Market brings simplicity to internal EU trade.” Simplicity??!? Oh, oh, hahhahaha.

          It’s so “simple” that we export about 50% more to the rest of the world using the WTO system than we do to the EU on our doorstep.

          1. Matthew MacKenzie
            August 2, 2018

            NickC said: “It’s so “simple” that export about 50% more to the rest of the world using the WTO system than we do to the EU on our doorstep.”

            A few ‘simple’ statistics from the Office for National Statistics over UK Exports in 2016.

            Total exports: ÂŁ547.5 billion
            Exports to EU ÂŁ235.8 billion
            Exports to EFTA ÂŁ27.5 billion
            Exports to the Rest of the World ÂŁ284.1. billion

            (source
            https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/internationaltrade/articles/whodoestheuktradewith/2017-02-21)

            50% more, I think not.

            It is a real shame you are so dismissive of the value of Single Market given Britain’s historic role in its development.

            It was the United Kingdom that was the instigator. It was that Margaret Thatcher lobbied strongly for it and commissioned Arthur Cockfeld – ‘the Father of the Single Market’ – to produce a paper and begin work on persuading the Commission.

            The Single Market was a British triumph, yet here you are, dismissing this substantial achievement and ridiculing it using false statistics.

        3. Denis Cooper
          August 2, 2018

          Your original comment was about putative obstacles for Dutch exports to the UK, not the other way round.

          1. Matthew McKenzie
            August 3, 2018

            Indeed it did. My original comment referenced advice the Dutch government gives its own exporters on the probable impact of Brexit. Advice that I might have thought cannot be dismissed as ‘Project Fear’ or ‘Remainer Scaremongering’.

            Now, however, I understand that exiting the Single Market and Customs Union represents no real impediment to frictionless trade with the UK. If it does it will be entirely the fault of the EU which will sooner or later come begging for special access to the UK markets, if the entire rotten system hasn’t collapsed by then. Or something like this.

            Entering this ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’ world has been enlightening. Reluctantly I have come to realise Rien Huizer is entirely correct. The EU has no interest in Article 50 being withdrawn or overturned, only in getting a British exit with minimal damage to the Union and its remaining members. As a Remainer this is a bitter pill to swallow, and heartbreaking for many of my fellow 1.3 million British expats in the EU facing deeply uncertain futures. Still, Brexit must mean Brexit.

          2. Denis Cooper
            August 3, 2018

            Now you’ve degenerated into childish nonsense.

        4. Fedupsoutherner
          August 2, 2018

          Reply to reply. They will make it as simple as possible because if they don’t we will go elsewhere and a lot of companies profits will plummet.

  18. Old Albion
    August 1, 2018

    The big problem is that ‘project fear’ is wholeheartedly lapped up by the media and presented as facts.
    Anyone with an opposing and sensible view is never given airtime. Someone such as yourself perhaps.

    1. Gary C
      August 1, 2018

      @Old Albion

      Your right the media are lapping it up, take a look at what rubbish the Irish are being fed :rolleyes:

      https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/keep-calm-and-stockpile-an-irish-parcel-for-brexit-britain-1.3582301

      1. Denis Cooper
        August 2, 2018

        That’s quite funny.

  19. agricola
    August 1, 2018

    As you say ,all a load of froth. The key to many scenarios is what Mrs may and her remainer civil servant Robbins agree to on our behalf in the next three months. Based on the rubbish that came from Chequers I am not optimistic.

  20. George Dunnett
    August 1, 2018

    I left my former employer a few weeks prior to the June referendum and didn’t make any more contributions to my Blackrock pension. The pension policy is now worth £17,000 more than in June 2016!! How odd!!

    I for one am so excited about leaving and seeing us prosper that I can hardly contain myself.

    Mr Redwood, do you know what the best bit will be?

    Proving the Remainers and EU elites wrong!!

    I predict the EU project will quickly unravel as our friends (meant sincerely) in Europe demand to have free and unfettered access to our lucrative single market.

    1. Matthew MacKenzie
      August 2, 2018

      Mr. Dunnett, if you wish to see a polity unravelling at an alarming rate I would suggest you look closer to home.

  21. Graham Wood
    August 1, 2018

    John. It was a ‘typo’ I know, but where you say above:”or let’s take the stupid idea that France and Germany ground all their plans”. I think we would all agree to that !

    1. L Jones
      August 1, 2018

      Ah, yes!
      In the words of the great (but not late, thankfully!) Gary Sheffield on the situation before WW1 – ‘…Belgium would become a ‘vassal state’, and French power would be crushed ….. to exist as a third rate power that posed no threat…” to Germany’s ”Mitteleuropa”.
      ”… a central European customs union…. would stabilize Germany’s economic dominance over central Europe….” (quoting Stevenson).

      What goes around, comes around. Nothing new here, then.
      So where do they go from here?

  22. Nicholas Murphy
    August 1, 2018

    Project Fear continues on Radio 4. This morning there was a report which gave some support to the worst case estimate of 75,000 job losses in the City, while suggesting that a more likely figure was less than 10,000. But some Frankfurter, a few days ago, had said that only 1000 jobs had moved to that centre of European finance – and that he expected only another 1500. And a little further back, a prominent German businessman had, correctly, observed that the EU couldn’t, for example, stop a German company going to a post-Brexit British bank and seek a loan, or engage a British law firm to act for it. But the key bit of context in all these bits of coverage is this: just how many jobs are being created in the City to service non-EU FS trade – and are these job creations balancing, or exceeding, the exodus of unhappy, EU nationals being herded out of vibrant London towards dull Frankfurt? I wonder if the BBC will ever think to ask and answer that question.

    1. libertarian
      August 1, 2018

      Nicholas M

      City of London job vacancies rose 13% this year.

      Oh and by the way the UK is now the number one global centre for Fin Tech , attracting FDI of 2 times more than anywhere else and a new Fin Tech company launches every 50 minutes in the City of London

      The EU is a backwater, EU financial services have always been miles behind the curve, the technology, infrastructure and talent all reside in London. People aren’t going anywhere in any number in to EU centres

  23. alan jutson
    August 1, 2018

    Amazing how using similar words can mean very different things if said slightly differently.

    Instead of Mr Hunt saying to the EU, you are forcing us into WTO terms so please do not let it happen by mistake.

    Why not simply say to the EU we will be going to WTO terms if we do not get a sensible free trade agreement.

    The first option is begging and subservience, the second shows strength and character.

    Paper bag and negotiation skills come to mind !.

  24. Sakara Gold
    August 1, 2018

    When “B” day arrives next March I hope that we immediately take back control of our fisheries. I’m a bird lover and I was disturbed to read recently that the Danes control 94% of the quota for UK sand eels and last year, persuaded the EU to let them increase their annual take from 82,000 to 458,000 tons a year – worth about ÂŁ80m. This leaves very few sand eels for our puffins and kittiwakes.

    Most of the catch, taken around Dogger Bank in the North Sea, was crushed into fishmeal for Denmark’s intensive salmon, mink and livestock farms.

    1. Nicholas Murphy
      August 1, 2018

      I have yet to see any coverage on how much the UK will be charging the EU for fishing licences to access our waters. Perhaps we should look out for May giving free access in exchange for our boats having free access to EU waters. That would be a disgrace: this mariner has never once seen a British F/V fishing in any waters other than those of non-EU Norway. Ou waters, on the other hand, are inundated with the French, the Spaniards, the Belgians, the Dutch, the Germans and the Danes. We also need to take action so that what purports to be a British boat is owned and manned by the British.

    2. hefner
      August 1, 2018

      SG, are you sure you want to call the event at the end of March ’19 the B day? the bidet?

    3. Original Richard
      August 1, 2018

      Sakara Gold,

      Thanks for this information.

      The increase in quota allowed by the EU is an EU policy to exhaust our fishing grounds before we take back control.

      We also need to stop the illegal Dutch pulse fishing currently taking place in our waters.

    4. Fedupsoutherner
      August 1, 2018

      Sakara. Disgusting.

  25. Ian wragg
    August 1, 2018

    The noises are becoming more shrill by the day.
    Second referendum.
    Extend article 50.
    Indefinite backstop.
    Remaining in the Customs Union.
    Non regression clause.
    The list is endless and all having tacit support by our own PM and her u elected henchman.
    The withdrawal agreement is now 90% capitulated. No doubt the other 5% will be agreed after Macron gives May her instructions.

  26. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
    August 1, 2018

    The fearless Dutch are all on holiday! The source of scaremongering is really UK based.

    1. Anonymous
      August 1, 2018

      Don’t doubt it at all.

    2. Ed Mahony
      August 1, 2018

      @Peter,

      The fact that the number of dementia patients killed by euthanasia in Holland has risen fourfold over the past five years is a lot more worrying to me than whether the UK is in or out of the EU.

      1. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
        August 1, 2018

        @Ed Mahony: There has only been one case in which a dementia patient was already incapacitated (not able to make his/her own decision anymore) where euthanasia was applied (doctor convinced by family that the patient had really wanted this) and this case was referred to court and the doctor was consequently disciplined. In the other cases patients took the decision in an early stage of euthanasia symptoms.

        1. Ed Mahony
          August 2, 2018

          @Peter,

          Euthanasia just gives me the creeps (at every level). And is a major black spot on Holland, I think (again I think Holland and its people are great).

          We in the UK might be ‘muddling along’ (or not, depending on who you are) about Brexit / the EU, but at least it’s not leading to the direct / deliberate / pre-mediated killing of another. And only increasing the vulnerability of the most vulnerable (the old and people with mental issues, and others).

          1. Ed Mahony
            August 2, 2018

            ‘And only increasing the vulnerability of the most vulnerable (the old and people with mental issues, and others)’ – euthanasia, I meant.

            (And I won’t forget Holland introducing gay marriage back in 2001 – helping to only undermine more and more traditional, heterosexual marriage. If gay people want civil partnership, fine but to the determinant of traditional marriage).

            Holland has a lot to answer for its social liberalism – which, I think, has been very damaging to Holland, and in those countries around it which it influences.

            So let’s put the focus on Holland for a change, and not on the UK and Brexit.

        2. NickC
          August 2, 2018

          PvL, Patient dead; doctor disciplined. About equal for Dutch justice, is it? You are on the slippery slope . . . .

    3. L Jones
      August 1, 2018

      Oh dear, Peter. Haven’t you heard of the internet? But, you’re right. It’s nothing to do with you – so enjoy your holidays!

  27. Richard1
    August 1, 2018

    It seems the plan is to include a vague statement on future trade relations and then negotiate after March 19. That way the EU gets the U.K. under control as a non voting vassal state for 21 months and gets most of the ÂŁ39bn and only then starts talking About Trade. How is this better than staying in the EU for those 21 months instead – it would probably even cost less?! Mrs May was very foolish to agree this sequencing. It is extraordinary that MPs are likely to vote for handing over ÂŁ39bn for nothing – in fact to put us in an inferior negotiating position.

    1. Student
      August 1, 2018

      Future generations will not forgive this batch of MPs if things are not sorted quickly before March 2019.

  28. Andy
    August 1, 2018

    ‘They laughed at the silliness of Project Fear’. Yeah – but next year they won’t be laughing at the reality of Brexit.

    House prices have fallen, foreign investment has dried up, growth has massive slowed, the pound has plummeted. All predicted by Remain. We avoided recession only because anaemic Britain is being dragged along by the rest of a powerfully growing world

    But you are right: one Remain prediction has not yet come true – mass unemployment. We have indeed lost lots of good, high paid jobs in banking, science, manufacturering and tech.

    What we had not forecast was the surge in hate towards forigners from the Tory and UKIP right and Labour left which caused many EU citizens to go home. This has left plenty of job vacancies in cleaning, coffee shops, care homes, the NHS and fruit picking instead.

    Perhaps some of the contributors to the site could do these sort of jobs – seeing that most don’t work anymore. Certainly, this new band of heroes will have some help after the next election from the swathes of unemployed former Tory MPs. A modern day ‘Brexit Dad’s Army’ keeping the country supplied with strawberries and cappucinos. Mine’s a medium vanilla latte please. Don’t panic Mr Mainwaring!

    1. Edward2
      August 3, 2018

      Wrong again Andy
      House prices are still rising
      Foreign investment has not dried up
      We still have growth, you predicted recession.
      The pound has not plummeted.
      We have not list lots of jobs in the sectors you claim.
      Numbers coming here are similar to pre referendum figures.
      There are always vacancies in the sectors you mention.
      If you are going to post try to get the basic facts right.

  29. Kevin
    August 1, 2018

    JR writes: “They seem to be trying to shock UK public opinion into buyer’s remorse on Brexit”; and,
    “Let’s take the latest scares that we will run out of drugs and food.”

    Surely, if these scares were valid, the buyer’s remorse would arise from discovering that, in 1972, you had signed a contract with this kind of penalty clause.

  30. A.Sedgwick
    August 1, 2018

    Lord Owen summed up the situation very recently, many vocal Remainers have a religious fervour towards the EU, which the facts do not support. Even the normally very crafted Lord Mandelson has lost the plot.

    1. Anonymous
      August 1, 2018

      Shhh. Let Lord Mandelson carry on.

  31. formula57
    August 1, 2018

    Project Fear is no more absurd (and considerably less damaging) than the UK government’s Project Capitulation Because We Can’t Stand-up For Ourselves.

  32. Jacey
    August 1, 2018

    Yes indeed the purveyors of Project Fear are still with us. There is also a Project Denigrate alive and well I am afraid to say. Lord Mandelson chipped in this week adding to my vocabulary by talking about ” Brextremists ” . He didn’t name names but you know who you are.
    Vince Cable the leader of the Liberal Democrats appears to be another subscriber to Project Denigrate. He recently characterised ” Leavers ” if I understood him correctly, as old, backward looking and not the brightest. It must be quite a skill to be able to characterise 17.4 million people so readily.

    1. Rien Huizer
      August 1, 2018

      Are all Brexiteers alike. Some may be moderates and some may be extremists. What is wrong with calling an extremist brexiteer (a minority probably) a brextremist?

      1. Yvybybgh
        August 1, 2018

        Brexiteers voted to leave the EU. There is only Brexit or remain. The EU, on the other hand, is an extremist organisation full of fascist and communist globalists.

      2. Tad Davison
        August 1, 2018

        I could understand it were one or two people regarded as ‘extremists’ but 17.4 million people who wanted the same thing?

  33. VotedOut
    August 1, 2018

    Whilst I fully agree with your logic, do please take note that mainland Europeans are not fixated on economic issues to the extent that UK politicians are.

    This is not to say that all this is not important to the EU. Of course it is.

    Just do please factor into your thinking that mainland Europeans see the EU as the only thing that stands against anarchy – by that they mean a return to fascism, or communism. This is why the Greeks are prepared to continue sucking up pain rather than attempt the Varufackis plan or equivalent.

    The UK was not occupied during that last big European wars and so we do not have the emotional angle to this thinking. Never underestimate this. Even people who were not born during those times have it all drummed into them.

    This is why we should leave with no deal. It will be bumpy. There will be disruption over a few weeks, be sure of that. But, with a strong leader and a refocus to the global market we can ride out this and have sensible ‘negotiations’ with our EU partners. I’m sorry but we do need that strong leader. When I look around I don’t see many giants to step into that role…

  34. Rien Huizer
    August 1, 2018

    Mr Redwood,

    You know very well that the UK will not be able to depart without any (net) payment without damaging its reputation in the financial markets. A reputation it will need once an orphan in the international economy where the vast majority of trade in goods takes place witin trade blocs or under bilateral agreements (commodities and oil excluded), while trade in services is usually regulated in such a way that bi- or multilateral agreements are necessary to afford foreign providers regulatory treatment that allows them to operate within (usually limited) the home regulatory environment. As the UK will not have any agreements in place and ratified when doomsday comes, that “orphan” status will almost certainly (barring an expensive helping hand from Mr Trump who is not used to handing out presents) materialize. Soon.

    Maybe a suggestion for a puture post: you may have noticed that the GBP/EUR rate has been trading in a very narrow range during the past 12 months. I suspect that the Treasury and BoE have a contingency plan that includes applying for readmission after the UK crashes out of the EU in a few months and the worst fears turn out to be justified. Reapplying would entail of course (only thing on the menu) Schengen, no discounts and.. EUR membership. The current stable GBP/EUR regime must be a precursor of such a reapplication… Cheers.

    1. mancunius
      August 3, 2018

      Impudent nonsense. There is no justification at all for such a payment in international law, and nobody will be interested in the EU’s cries of woe.

      Neither the Treasury nor the Bank of England can apply to join a scout group or a WI branch without having the support of parliament.

      It is far more likely that other EU countries will leave the EU.

  35. helterskelter
    August 1, 2018

    Not so- Project fear is not coming from the EU side it is being drummed up from within the UK itself, all of this I see is in the UK press and on UK tv..I don’t see anything to match it in the various EU outlets, it’s like they have gone on holidays?

    In the event of leaving abruptly any disruption to trade at the ports will come about because of overzealous officials very probably on the French side which we will have no control over and neither will Brussels..we should prepare for this because there will be tailbacks very likely both sides..after fifty years in the import export business I have seen both times, the EU before joining and after- I can readily vouch for this.

    Yes the WTO will be there but it will not be the answer to all of our needs, from what I hear their rules don’t cover flight control..once again the problem of airports and flying, if any, will come from the traffic controllers on the ground in Europe, and from the immigration officials in the various European countries and will be nothing to do with Brussels EU itself. For any correction of the situation things would have to go to the ECJ for a ruling. UK will be outside so will not have access to the ECJ

    We have absolutely no idea about how this is going to play out..one thing we know is we are going to leave March next..how we are going to leave has not yet been decided..we should be looking at the worst scenarios and planning just in case. My feeling is that we are not going to get a deal of any sort because it’s all about EU politics not common sense or economics..they are going to call a halt to these ongoing talks very soon..probably October. Scouts motto

  36. Andy
    August 1, 2018

    I note a story in Brexit-backing rag The Sun today. Mrs May has overruled Sajid Javid and demanded British passport only lanes at airports after Brexit.

    A study by the Home Office and evaluation by airports shows that because the majority of people arriving at UK airports are British, this will lead to LONGER queues for Britons. Airports will also need more staff, so it is more expensive and more bureaucratic.

    Still – I suppose it will give you all extra time to admire your new and oversized (but less useful) French made blue British passports.

    Brexit Britain is more than a little bit pathetic – don’t you think? Is this what you voted for Mr Redwood?

    1. Edward2
      August 1, 2018

      You can use any lane Andy.
      If there is a queue in the lane designated for UK passport holders you just use any of the others.
      Most airports have machines to read passports now.
      Have you not travelled recently?

      1. Andy
        August 1, 2018

        I have travelled recently. I flew in to Heathrow last Sunday. And although I have an ePassport you are not allowed to use them if you are travelling with children under 12. My son is 6 – so I have 6 years using your special Brexit queues.

        Incidentally my son, as I said is 6. He will be in his 50s when his generation has finished paying off your Brexit bill in the 2060s.

        1. Edward2
          August 1, 2018

          Well that is poor administration, nothing to do with the EU nor brexit.

          PS what brexit bill are you talking about?

          1. hans christian ivers
            August 2, 2018

            the one that has made us all that much poorer through falling confidence and therefore already fallen investments. (CBA)

          2. Edward2
            August 2, 2018

            Growth good
            Employment up
            Exports up
            Numbers in work at a record high.
            Standards of living up.
            Wage growth now developing.
            Investment levels are still good.
            We are not “much poorer”

        2. mancunius
          August 3, 2018

          “My son is 6”

          So why was your son “12 years old” when you last told us his age?

          You don’t seem to be able to keep up your story consistently.

    2. Brit
      August 1, 2018

      They are putting everyone in one queue with multiple desks staggered on either side in a forward walk-through. Do think!

    3. Anonymous
      August 1, 2018

      No, it’s not what we voted for and they full well know it’s not what we voted for.

      “We won’t be able to get any vets to inspect our exports” was another.

      We wanted *selective* immigration. They know this. What we’re getting instead is “we told you so” and awkwardness.

      The Brexit population are fully aware what the awkward squad are up to.

    4. Roy Grainger
      August 1, 2018

      Come on Andy, even by Project Fear standards that is a poor effort. When did you last fly ? After a few years of teething problems the automatic passport readers at Heathrow are now reliable and fast, I use them every time with minimal delay. At airports here in Germany they are even better and border staff numbers have been reduced as a consequence. Proof automated border checks CAN work.

    5. DaveM
      August 1, 2018

      More staff? Excellent news – more jobs!

      Although the 15 times I travelled into U.K. airports last year I used one of the ePassport lanes.

      Even you can come up with a better comment than that Andy. Tut tut.

  37. Rien Huizer
    August 1, 2018

    Mr Redwood,

    You know very well that the UK will not be able to depart without any (net) payment without damaging its reputation in the financial markets. A reputation it will need once an orphan in the international economy where the vast majority of trade in goods takes place witin trade blocs or under bilateral agreements (commodities and oil excluded), while trade in services is usually regulated in such a way that bi- or multilateral agreements are necessary to afford foreign providers regulatory treatment that allows them to operate within (usually limited) the home regulatory environment. As the UK will not have any agreements in place and ratified when doomsday comes, that “orphan” status will almost certainly (barring an expensive helping hand from Mr Trump who is not used to handing out presents) materialize. Soon.

    Of course you are right that as far as imports are concerned, it will be up to the UK to have tariffs and NTBs wrt EU products (under WTO rules those freedoms will have to be extended to all WTO members). The problem is exports and imports that require inputs exported by the UK to the EU. As to aviation and a few other specialized areas, in the absence of specific rights under treaties, there cannot be trade. If the UK ceases to be a member and does not obtain an equivalent status, UK aircraft will be restricted (of course the UK can allow whatever it wants unilaterally for its own territory) and are unlikely to be able to fly between EU destinations. Overflight rights are of course a separate issue.

    Maybe a suggestion for a future post: you may have noticed that the GBP/EUR rate has been trading in a very narrow range during the past 12 months. I suspect that the Treasury and BoE have a contingency plan that includes applying for readmission after the UK crashes out of the EU in a few months and the worst fears turn out to be justified. Reapplying would entail of course (only thing on the menu) Schengen, no discounts and.. EUR membership. The current stable GBP/EUR regime must be a precursor of such a reapplication… Cheers.

    Reply If we leave without making payments I would expect UK debt to be more highly rated by the markets

  38. NickC
    August 1, 2018

    The EU has been “monitoring” the Zimbabwe elections. No, really, the political construct invented to by-pass electoral censure; make voters vote until they get the “right” answer; which has multiple unelected “presidents” has the outright cheek to lecture Zimbabwe on democracy.

    That’s why Remain needs Project Fear – because there is no positive reason to support the EU at all. From stolen rights, via rampant corruption and a fig-leaf parliament, to massive unemployment in the south, the EU is just a crock of the brown stuff. And like all political failures it can only fall back on fear and authoritarianism.

  39. Adam
    August 1, 2018

    The EU itself is absurd.

  40. libertarian
    August 1, 2018

    Agree with this analysis John except a lot of the Project Fear is being put out by the May government. Sarah Wollaston is one of the main culprits. Posting totally fake news on social media about drugs and NHS staffing

    We really do need to resurrect the Vote Leave group to start countering this nonsense. The thing I’ve learned through all of this is how little 90% of the public understand about trade, trading systems and business . The problem is every project fear social media post gets shared 1,000’s of times and people believe it. The left have now ganged up on IEA and TPA too, we have no one putting the case for the benefits of free trade and thats a very dangerous road. The Conservative party needs to wake up and take action. May and her advisors have been a disaster. Everything she’s touched, immigration, dementia tax, stamp duty , election and Brexit have all gone horribly wrong. Hammond has U turned so often he’s in a permanent spin. Get rid and do it quickly

    1. Tad Davison
      August 1, 2018

      Don’t forget law and order lib!

      She lost the support of the police years ago when she did an appalling job as Home Secretary. The Tories clearly learned nothing from the disasters of Hurd, Brittan and Waddington. Consequently, she’s losing the support of the victims of crime too of which there is an uncomfortably large and growing number. We look to a government to put in place measures that protect us, not take them away.

      The British people must now be looking at May and wondering if Corbyn could really be any worse?

      The whole damned political system in the UK is broken, yet all it would take to put it right is a listener, and a fixer. Someone who listens to the man in the street, not the misnamed ‘liberal intelligentsia’, and fixes their problems not adds to them.

      Tad

    2. acorn
      August 1, 2018

      Libby, nobody with a brain wants Brexit, it is economic suicide. It will take at least three five year parliament terms to recover from. The Westminster party voting system means the same old career MP dinosaurs, will get re-elected to increasing numbers of “safe seats”. They will have even less idea of what to do post Brexit, than they have now.

      The Brexiteer elite’s mission is for London to become the Tax dodging money laundering capital of the planet. A global hub for British overseas territories and crown dependencies, that currently operate as UK off-shore tax havens.

      If the Spiv City of London’s network, were assessed together, it would be at the top of the financial secrecy index; ahead of Switzerland, Luxembourg and Hong Kong.

    3. hans christian ivers
      August 2, 2018

      Libertarian,

      You are far too modest regarding spin you make Hammond look like a Baby in the spin game

    4. Snugglebug.
      August 2, 2018

      Libertarian. The big problems the Brexiteers have is that the BBC, Sky News and to a certain extent, ITV News are all biased towards Remainers. They seem to be quite happy to talk about all the ‘problems’ and ‘dire circumstances’ we will encounter on leaving the EU. The journalists are allowed to interview any Remoaner who can denigrate, sneer at and generally downtalk those who voted for Brexit. But the people who voted for Brexit don’t get interviewed. I refuse to watch the News broadcasts now because of their bias. I don’t understand and am frankly astounded by Mrs May ignoring 17.4 million voters. She has also humiliated Dominic Raab by giving him a job one day and taking half of it (the more important half) away the next and giving it to her sidekick Olly Robbins who isn’t even an elected MP. She should be made to go.

  41. Graham Wood
    August 1, 2018

    Apart from the supremely important issue of national sovereignty at stake in the whole Brexit process which appears to be blithely ignored or forgotten by Theresa May, her Chequers proposals can be likened more to an answer to a final ultimatum issued by a victor after war to a defeated foe desperate for salvaging something from the wreckage.

    On these Chequers terms, in effect national sovereignty would be confiscated for the foreseeable future, full economic liberty and independence not a reality and what is left would be dependent on terms dictated by the dominant power.
    The apparently benign Common Rule Book (actually the EU’s own Rule, sourced and written by their own civil service servants ) would ensure continued crippling economic weakness for the UK guaranteed, so that independent trade deals would be impossible to initiate.
    To ensure strict legal compliance (the British always obey the rules) our own “Supreme” Court would be relegated once again to having the authority of a mere County Court and no more, given that final jurisdiction would still lie with the ECJ.
    All this from a ‘victorious party’ that is itself floundering in political confusion, sharp economic decline with mass unemployment as the norm, and continuing to be directed by a drunken leader in his dotage.
    What a great prospect for the world’s 5th largest economy, its language spoken world-wide, its economy relatively healthy and growing (in spite of Brexit), a member of the UN, and with a military capability, although weaker than before due to ‘cuts’, but still respected around the world.
    Taken all round then the Chequers proposals are a pig in a poke which must be opposed and rejected outright by the 17 million voters who made their view known in the referendum. I strongly suspect that many ‘remainers’ will now join them and will tell the Not The Conservative Party where to put them.

  42. mancunius
    August 1, 2018

    It is significant that none of this nonsense is ever countered or robustly dismissed by No. 10. The Prime Minister never ever issues a reassurance that her government is ensuring and will ensure the safety of the population, or that we are in perfect shape to withstand any minor glitches that might occur over the period – or that indeed the No Deal scenario is perfectly viable, and is being comprehensively addressed by her government.
    Just vague, doollally dithering from her: she just timidly leaves her White Paper proposals – a Trojan Horse Open Invitation – permanently on the table for Brussels to edit.
    Your leader is a pathetic excuse, one to whom Mrs Thatcher would have applied the one-syllable insult: ‘Frit!’

    Dump May and Hammond. Dump them now. Dump them hard.

    1. meAgain
      August 1, 2018

      Now now mancunius..easy on there about trojan horses..Troy is not in the EU yet..also since we will leave with a no deal it hardly matters anymore about white papers

      The EU side have had enough and out we will go March 2019 to WTO rules and from there it’s anybody’s guess- after that we’ll have plenty of time then for doolally dithering

      1. mancunius
        August 2, 2018

        I’m glad that at least this time you have grasped the basic reality that we already engage in WTO trading 24/7.

        I don’t expect you have much idea where Troy actually is, but its location will one day be a part of the EU, just as soon as Erdogan retires. For you in EU-LaLaLand that will be – shall we say – something of a challenge.
        But by then the Italian banks and your euro currency will have collapsed, taking the Treaty of Lisbon with it. And we shall be prospering. Good luck !

        And give our love to GregH and cryingoutloud, and all your other bot IDs, should you spot them in the mirror.

  43. Norman
    August 1, 2018

    Thanks for this piece of plain speaking, John. The fact that all these scare tactics are happening, and the Government’s seeming reluctance to counter them, is very telling! One hopes the British people – the same ones who voted for Brexit and perhaps many more now, will recognize the nasty nature of what we are dealing with, and that it will direct the country politically (this will be the crucial thing, as we are currently in a bind). The issue is not just the EU, but the whole Liberal-Left ideology that is rapidly destroying Western civilization, especially in Europe.

    1. Anonymous
      August 1, 2018

      PvL was right to point out that Brexit voters are Climate Change skeptics.

      Both the EU and climate are used to introduce socialism, that’s why.

      1. mancunius
        August 1, 2018

        Even Ken Clarke said a few years ago that when the AGW agenda was introduced, his first reaction to what was behind it was ‘Ah! Ker-ching!’

  44. Mick
    August 1, 2018

    Agree with what your saying Mr Redwood project fear still going strong with the likes of the bbc and sky Eu loving luvvies making project fear a top priority all the time especially the smirk ridden sky team muppets,there all going to look pretty stupid in years to come when we are raking it in and the dreaded Eu is a failed state

  45. Peter
    August 1, 2018

    Parliamentary arithmetic is all that matters now.

    Are there the numbers to block May’s surrender?

    Are there the numbers to topple her?

    1. eeyore
      August 1, 2018

      1. Yes. 2. No.

    2. Butties
      August 1, 2018

      Exactly Peter, that is indeed the main issue. The fact that Mrs May can now seemingly rely on Labour for votes does not bode well for positive replies to the first question you ask. As for the second question it would seem that 48 letters to the 22Chair cannot be mustered (at least thus far).

      In summary looks like a sell out using the Chequers ploy.

  46. Bob
    August 1, 2018

    The last time that we were blockaded by a continental dictator, the British people dug for victory and our cousins across the pond supplied us with commodities needed by Atlantic convoys, they even built a fleet of new “Liberty” ships to replace the ones that had been sunk by U-boats. We prevailed then and we will prevail again provided we first deal with the enemy within.

    1. Andy
      August 1, 2018

      I guess you’d consider me a part of the ‘enemy within’. How do you intend to deal with me?

      1. gregory martin
        August 1, 2018

        “Andy
        Posted August 1, 2018 at 1:33 pm | Permalink

        I guess you’d consider me a part of the ‘enemy within’. How do you intend to deal with me?”

        If you were worthy of UK citizenship, you would address this yourself.

      2. Bob
        August 1, 2018

        @Andy
        I was referring to talking useful idiots.
        I’m afraid you don’t qualify. 😜😂

        1. hans christian ivers
          August 2, 2018

          totally unnecessary remark

          1. Andy
            August 2, 2018

            Yes – he laughs now but, with the WW2 metaphor, we all know what he meant.

          2. Bob
            August 3, 2018

            @Andy,
            Metaphor? What metaphor?
            It was very clear what I was referring to, but if you were in any doubt print a copy and show it to one of your teachers.
            Now off you go, I wouldn’t want you to be late for school.

      3. sm
        August 1, 2018

        I suppose we could just wait for you to grow up, Andy?

      4. Yvybybgh
        August 1, 2018

        In the traditional way…

      5. Edward2
        August 1, 2018

        By continually proving you are wrong.

      6. Tad Davison
        August 1, 2018

        Why should we want to deal with you Andy?

        Napoleon once said, ‘Never interrupt your enemy whilst he is making a mistake’.

        You talk so much garbage, we just let you get on with it. It strengthens our case.

      7. Sir Joe Soap
        August 1, 2018

        As we would any comedian. Laugh but not take anything you say too seriously.

      8. libertarian
        August 1, 2018

        Andy

        As you told us you are leaving to live full time in France. We have clubbed together to buy you a leaving pressie. We’ve bought you a copy of Business for Dummies.

        1. hans christian ivers
          August 2, 2018

          totally unnecessary remark and you should know better

      9. Anonymous
        August 1, 2018

        You surely didn’t expect to make friends saying some of the things you have, Andy ?

        A quote from a comment above

        “Whatever happens no one can ever claim that the UK membership of the EU has universal approval or support. They cannot even claim as they have in the past that people are just not interested in the EU.”

        Disapproval of the EU is now mainstream. It is not just mainstream here but in the wider EU too.

        The federalist’s response is to ignore it or worse.

        You cannot go about calling us names, telling us we’re too old and accusing us of crime (racism) in order to nullify our vote and then expect things to turn out well.

        We tried to do things through the ballot box.

        Now you won’t allow it.

        1. Rien Huizer
          August 2, 2018

          An interesting series of comments. Safety in numbers. Poor Andy. Maybe the only exit-sceptic on this forum who is British and will have to live with the results..

      10. mancunius
        August 1, 2018

        Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?

  47. Dr GP
    August 1, 2018

    Try something in return.

    Tell the EU, no recourse to public funds for EU nationals in the UK.

    1. No welfare
    2. No tax credits.
    3. No Housing benefit
    4. No income support
    5. They will be charged for the NHS insurance in full
    ….

    1. Nicholas Murphy
      August 1, 2018

      Perhaps there should be a separate NI scheme for EU (and other) nationals working here. They could pay NI at the standard rates – so that they are not cheaoer than the British – while having no Welfare rights other than NHS access. When they go home, they could claim a rebate of a proportion of their contributions.

    2. Denis Cooper
      August 1, 2018

      With few exceptions EU nationals in the UK are innocent bystanders, and we should not follow Theresa May’s vile idea of using them as bargaining chips.

    3. Andy
      August 1, 2018

      No doubt the EU would say the same about Brits over there.

      The difference is that most EU citizens here are of working age, contribute to the system and don’t require much healthcare.

      Most UK citizens there are retired, contribute little and have complex health needs. Many of these old folk will be forced back to the UK – further clogging us the NHS.

      Great idea.

      1. Edward2
        August 1, 2018

        Wrong again
        Of those UK citizens living abroad most are self supporting from savings, private pensions and state pension income.
        Many have health insurance.
        Those who do not and use health services outside the UK get the UK to reimburse the health services of the country they live in.
        So not a burden at all.
        And many EU countries like the spending power of retirees in their countries.

      2. NickC
        August 1, 2018

        Andy, Brits health care in the EU is paid for by the NHS.

        1. Rien Huizer
          August 2, 2018

          Unless the “deal” covers it, that would disappear.

          1. Bob
            August 2, 2018

            @Rien Huizer

            Are you suggesting that the NHS would no longer pay for medical costs of UK citizens living in the EU or EU citizens living in the UK?

            “In 2016/17 the UK received just ÂŁ66m from charges imposed on the other member states for treatment of their nationals in the UK, whilst they charged us ÂŁ630 m for the treatment UK citizens received. It is difficult to believe it should be that one sided. It is true a considerable number of UK citizens live in Spain, which charges us ÂŁ200m for the health treatment they supply, but we also act as host to many people from the continent who also need to visit surgeries or receive treatment. The UK only received ÂŁ5m from France for the whole year, compared to the ÂŁ154 m they charged us.”
            John Redwood’s Diary 4th April.

      3. Anonymous
        August 1, 2018

        Yes.

        The EU was a crap idea, wasn’t it Andy.

      4. Sir Joe Soap
        August 1, 2018

        So your system wouldn’t take into account past contributions? What’s 70 year old Andy going to say when he’s turned away from an NHS hospital because he’s too old to qualify in Andy World? 😀

      5. Denis Cooper
        August 1, 2018

        Only about 20% are retirees, a point Sky was happy to make earlier today.

      6. fedupsoutherner
        August 1, 2018

        Oh dear Andy. You don’t realise that some of those pensioners you talk about actually still work when they go to live in Europe. Even if they don’t they have had to either pay for all their rent or buy their own property. They also have to pay for all their own bills and don’t get benefits like immigrants do in the UK. They have to pay for health care after two years if they are under retirement age. The first two years is free and is taken from the contributions they have paid in the UK. There are no translators provided in the hospitals. You either speak the language or provide your own. Please stop going on about things you obviously know nothing about.

      7. mancunius
        August 1, 2018

        “most EU citizens here are of working age, contribute to the system” [Nope – some do, but most are low-paid, and take considerable benefits, tax credits etc out of the system. ]
        “and don’t require much healthcare” [Not true: they and the dependents they bring in do require and demand healthcare, which they claim immediately on arrival, and for which they do not pay as net contributors. e.g. Childbirth – one of the most expensive and frequently used NHS services.]
        “Most UK citizens there are retired” [A frequently parroted myth – and the literal opposite of the truth. Recent ONS stats show that two-thirds of the 784,900 British citizens recorded as long-term residents in the EU, excluding the UK and Ireland, are of working age, between 15 and 64 – and yes, that includes all UK residents living in Spain]
        “contribute little” [they contribute taxes and healthcare charges, and the 33% of UK citizens in other EU countries that are retired import foreign income, private pension assets and property assets into their countries of residence – if the British leave Spain, it will collapse completely]
        “and have complex health needs” [Not based on any stats. Complete nonsense, and you know it].

        1. mancunius
          August 1, 2018

          ‘foreign sterling income’

      8. graham1946
        August 1, 2018

        Fact Free Andy says:

        ‘Most UK citizens are retired etc.’

        Fact: One in six people in the UK are over 65, not ‘most’ according to the last census and most pay income tax as well as VAT and all the other taxes. The only thing they don’t pay is NIC.

        You really do prove how stupid and bigoted you are every post. A simple Google would give you the information before you make an idiot of yourself.

    4. Snugglebug.
      August 2, 2018

      That should stop a few people who come over specifically to leech on the NHS.

  48. Dr GP
    August 1, 2018

    Then there is the wrong notion that EU citizens living in the UK and UK citizens living in the EU would be at risk of removal. The UK has made clear it is not going to ask people legally settled here under EU rules to leave
    ========

    No, we don’t expect you to tell people they can’t stay.

    We expect you to implement the EU rule “NO RECOURSE TO PUBLIC FUNDS” in full.

    You are selling ÂŁ54,000 of other people’s money each year for ÂŁ13.11 a week.

    That’s a min wage earner, wife and two kids at school.

    People should get the right of consent. That means brexiteers like myself say no, and we get to keep our money.

    People like yourself, who form your post think we should pay, have the right of consent to say yes. The money comes out of your pockets.

    So John, do you believe in informed explicit consent, which means the right to say no?

  49. Dr GP
    August 1, 2018

    The UK has made clear it is not going to ask people legally settled here under EU rules to leave
    ==============

    But EU rules end when we leave.

    1. Anonymous
      August 1, 2018

      Answer.

      We simply don’t have the resources to kick people out even if that’s what we wanted. (Which we don’t)

    2. mancunius
      August 1, 2018

      Hear hear – exactly!

    3. Andy
      August 1, 2018

      And here we have it. Brexit is about a dislike of foreigners – particularly among older and less educated people.

      Here’s a prediction. 15-20 years from now there will be scandal about how the Tories dealt with EU citizens post Brexit. Windrush 2.

      Some people call them the nasty party. That is because they are a nasty party.

      1. Roy Grainger
        August 1, 2018

        Leave won Brexit because of Labour voters in the North voting against party advice. We don’t even need a Bristol Council study to prove that – so you’d be better directing your insults at Corbyn and co.

      2. Edward2
        August 1, 2018

        False predictions Andy.
        No government nor opposition party has said they want to remove anyone living and working here.
        More project fear fake claims from you.

      3. NickC
        August 1, 2018

        Andy, And here we have it. Remain is about a dislike of native Brits and a hatred of UK independence – particularly among gullible younger people with a lower IQ (and let’s face it, younger people nowadays do have a lower IQ).

        1. hans christian ivers
          August 2, 2018

          NickC,

          Let us look at the statistics for that , please?

          1. NickC
            August 2, 2018

            Hans, Again, you should not be so lazy as to demand others do your research for you. It was a Norwegian study of 730,000 standardised IQ tests which showed that those born in 1991 have a lower IQ by about 7 points compared to previous generations.

      4. Anonymous
        August 1, 2018

        Mini Me Mandelson.

        Keep it up, Andy. Closet recruiter for Leave.

      5. Sir Joe Soap
        August 1, 2018

        Nasty is discriminating in favour of EU citizens andagainst citizens of the non-EU world. I’m not certain how you can defend that blatant discrimination.

      6. fedupsoutherner
        August 1, 2018

        Andy. As usual absolute tosh from you. Leave your stupid comments for the school boy comic you obviously contribute to.

      7. M. Davis
        August 1, 2018

        You sound like a typical Socialist, full of cliches and bullshit and, I imagine, you are probably a lot less educated than you would like to appear to be.

  50. Chris
    August 1, 2018

    Mr Redwood, the majority of the scare mongering is coming from a well coordinated campaign from our own government and Remain advocates, (civil servants included, I fear).

  51. Dennis Zoff
    August 1, 2018

    Thank you John for the clarity; not for those here on your blog (tacit – not taken in by such Remainer absurdity) but for the wider audience that does not have the opportunity to hear your objective voice negating such hilarious MSM tomfoolery and childishly inane Remainer monkey tricks!

    Recently, a German colleague, who does read the UK press, was rather amused by all this ridiculous scaremongering and asked: “do the UK public actually believe such mass media dross?” I countered “no more than Germans believing that 1.4 Million refugees are doctors, engineers, scientists, chemists, etc”

    Fanatical and increasingly desperate Remainers using their media outlets to distribute ludicrous buffoonery is one thing, but believing it is quite another…..as usual the Remainers are further losing the plot and any remaining minuscule of credibility is further lost with their obvious delusive nonsense!

  52. Bob
    August 1, 2018

    The BBC are usually very concerned about outside interference in domestic affairs, but not so much when it’s the EU interfering.https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6910348/mep-second-referendum/

    1. graham1946
      August 1, 2018

      The BBC are currently getting in a lather over the Zimbabwe elections. They think it might have been ‘unbalanced’ Oh the irony of it.

      Anyway, apparently it is reported that one area voted 35,000 votes when there are only 28000 residents. Sounds like the EU was over-seeing it.

  53. Andy
    August 1, 2018

    Still – on the plus side – at least Brexit will not lead to civil unrest.

    Oh, except now a study by Bristol Council now says it might.

    I am really killing myself laughing at you all.

    I can imagine how humiliated you must all be!

    1. Glenn Vaughan
      August 1, 2018

      “I am really killing myself laughing at you all.”

      Alas if only that was true!

    2. Dennis Zoff
      August 1, 2018

      Andy

      Thank you

      Your daily childishly vacuous posts give us all a really good belly laugh…now then, lunch break is over, toddle off back to your school class!

    3. Anonymous
      August 1, 2018

      We’ve watched a load of Remainers bungle a Leave mission.

      Why should WE be humiliated ?

    4. mancunius
      August 1, 2018

      A vivid imagination can be a solace, particularly for those suffering from delusions – such as yourself.

    5. Edward2
      August 1, 2018

      Oh well if Bristol Council is saying it then it must be right.
      Are they issuing all their citizens with free tin foil hats?

    6. Roy Grainger
      August 1, 2018

      Bristol Council ??? Ha ha ha ha ha. Peer reviewed study was it ?

      1. Andy
        August 1, 2018

        It would not matter if it was. You’re a Brexiteer remember. Experts don’t doubt. Vacuous claims do.

    7. DaveM
      August 1, 2018

      Another nonsensical comment brought to you by someone who was “humiliated” by being on the wrong side of a referendum result.

    8. fedupsoutherner
      August 1, 2018

      Andy. Ha,ha. It’s us reading you utter drivel that are killing ourselves laughing. I so look forward to the ridiculous postings which are getting worse by the day. Have you looked in the mirror lately and seen moron written on your forehead? Still, I do look forward to the laughter in our house when we read your tripe. It never fails to cheer me after a hard day stock piling groceries in my larder ready for when we’re all going to starve. Got to go now to wipe the tears of laughter from my eyes.

      1. hans christian ivers
        August 2, 2018

        totally unnecessary remarks

        1. mancunius
          August 3, 2018

          Have you turned into a parrot, by any chance?
          You seem unable to reply to criticism except by huffing and puffing the word ‘unnecessary’.
          Nobody is impressed: I worry that your handlers may think you’re not worth the money.

          1. hans christian ivers
            August 6, 2018

            and I am not impressed with the quality of debate in this ill informed forum

  54. Christine
    August 1, 2018

    If you have ever been to Gibraltar, you will have seen how dreadfully the Spanish border control treats people trying to enter and leave. Queues of over an hour are a regular occurrence. This mainly affects the Spanish who work in Gibraltar but the Spanish Government don’t care. Principle comes first. If the French follow their normal intransigent thinking then Dover/Calais will grind to a halt in a similar way. To counter this, our Government should be exploring alternative import/export routes now. Put pressure on the French now to show that alternative routes are available. Highlight the problems this will cause the Irish who export most of their produce to Europe via the UK. Also if truck can get into the UK but can’t get back out it will cause European producers harm. It’s not clear what the Government’s contingency plans are but promoting the shortage of sandwiches is frankly ridiculous. More needs to be done to show that damage will be felt in Europe as well as the UK if barriers are erected.

    1. Edward2
      August 3, 2018

      The port of Dover is a big port but there are about 20 major ports beside Dover.
      On the South coast Felixstowe Southampton and Harwich are all bigger than Dover as is the port of London.
      If French bureaucrats play up and delay the movement of trade then the first reaction will come from angry French business owners and union members.

  55. Original Richard
    August 1, 2018

    Today there is published an anti Brexit report from the NIESR (National Institute for Economic and Social Research), who call themselves an independent think tank.

    Their website clearly states that they receive funding from the EU and so their reports on Brexit cannot be considered to be unbiased.

    It is time that legislation should be introduced to force any publisher, particularly national broadcasters such as the BBC, to disclose the names of the funders of such “independent” research groups/thinks tanks etc. when publishing or commenting upon their “research”.

    1. Dennis Zoff
      August 1, 2018

      Original Richard

      Indeed:

      NIESR Income. Source Companies House

      2017 Income – ÂŁ2,721,084
      From European Commission Institutions: ÂŁ274,048 (circa 10%)

      2016 Income – ÂŁ3,147,085
      From European Commission Institutions: ÂŁ421,526 (circa 13%)

      I would say NIESR are highly dependent on the goodwill of Brussels, so don’t expect a balanced analysis from them!

  56. Kenneth
    August 1, 2018

    The BBC prominently features these fake news stories and rarely features sensible contributions (such as this posting).

    The government isn’t putting much effort into countering the fake news. Indeed, some ministers have actually fuelled these fantasies.

    Shame

    1. graham1946
      August 1, 2018

      On Five Live this morning (BBC radio), they had a Brexit ‘discussion’ (actually a women’s heckling society) with Lord Tebbit and two women Remainers, one from Labour, one from LibDems. Poor old Tebbit couldn’t get a word in edgeways due to the shrill gobby women interrupting all the time, as well as the women being given twice the airtime anyway promoting their weird anti Brexit opinions. BBC Balanced? What a laugh. All their presenters seem to be Remainers, but that’s not surprising, most Remainers are rich, just like Andy says he is.

  57. Denis Cooper
    August 1, 2018

    Well, here’s a surprise!

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/aug/01/theresa-may-must-push-for-even-softer-brexit-says-thinktank

    “Theresa May must push for even softer Brexit, says thinktank”

    “Prime minister urged to offer more concessions to EU to minimise economic damage”

    Any response from the government? Any questioning of why the UK economy should lose so much from leaving the EU, when even according to numbers from the EU itself, see above, membership has made such a small overall economic contribution? No, of course not, because this kind of Remoaner propaganda is music to the ears of the Prime Minister and her Remain-dominated government and civil service.

  58. Engelbrekt Idyllvice
    August 1, 2018

    Sweden’s crown jewels have been stolen. It doesn’t deserve them.

    In recent years it has methodically censored its own news. Trying to hide its internal violence, no-go areas, and absolute disintegration of its society beyond logic. It allowed it and actually promoted it.

  59. Den
    August 1, 2018

    In your heading above, the words, “Project”, “Fear” and “from”, are superfluous. The EU IS a basket case.

    I do wonder if there are any official figures providing the ROI against all of the money we have handed Brussels over the past 40+ years. Just how and where has this country benefited from its membership?

    Even our diminished but cherished rebate is controlled by Brussels and as we are a net contributor, we are actually paying the EU to buy more from them than they do from us. ÂŁ80 Billions per year more. AND it costs us around ÂŁ10 Billions net for their special cash and carry card to do so.
    In 2017 the USA exported €255.5B to the EU but imported €375.5B a trade deficit of €120B (£107B) BUT!! they did not require the cash and carry card! So why do we?

  60. Shieldsman
    August 1, 2018

    The facts about Aviation.
    As far as I can ascertain from the PM’s statements we leave the European Common Aviation Area on the on 29th March next year. The Transition Period is not yet agreed and in any case will not include staying in the ECAA.
    We cease to be an EU member. Under the terms of EU membership and the ECAA the UK granted the EU the right to negotiate Air Service Agreements on our behalf.
    Declaration by the Government of the United Kingdom in respect of its signature lodged with the depositary on 11 March 2005: “The United Kingdom, member of the European Community, declares that, in accordance with the Treaty establishing the European Community, the Community has competence with respect to certain matters governed by the Protocol. Signature of the Protocol on behalf of the Community will be decided by the
    competent Community institution in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty”.
    Leaving the EU means this is rescinded. The United Kingdom resumes full ICAO competences and ASA negotiating rights that it held prior to 2005. This is set out in Appendix 5 ICAO Template Air Services Agreement .
    The current ASA’s held within the European Community become null and void and must therefore be re-negotiated.
    Without an ASA, Airlines of the EU member States lose their right to fly into UK Airports and through its Airspace.
    IASTA dates back to 1944/45 with the preamble: The States which sign and accept this International Air Services Transit Agreement, being members of the International Civil Aviation Organization, declare as follows: Each contracting State grants to the other contracting States the following freedoms of the air in respect of scheduled international air services:
    (1) The privilege to fly across its territory without landing;(2) The privilege to land for non-traffic purposes.
    IASTA therefore can only apply to Countries with reciprocal ASA’s.

    This poses a problem for the following European Airlines – Air Europa, Air France, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa, KLM, LOT, Norwegian, SAS,
    Swiss. They need to fly through UK airspace to access the the North Atlantic
    track structure.
    Following on the reports of the Chancellor’s statement “It is theoretically conceivable in a no-deal scenario there will be no air traffic moving between the UK and EU after 29 March, 2019.” All I can say is Hammond was foolish and the Press are even bigger idiots for printing his nonsense. Saying it’s conceivable means he does not know. He would be well advised to consult with the Secretary of State for Transport before making
    such a rash statement.
    Is Hammond in his ignorance assuming that the Air Carriers of the World outside of the EU will not be overflying the ECAA and landing in the United Kingdom using their bi-lateral rights? The USA and other World Countries are certainly not going to allow the EU to deny them access to the UK’s Airports and Airspace.
    The negotiation of ICAO Air Service Agreements is quite separate from Trade negotiations (EEA, Single Market and Customs Union)not being subject to WTO rules. They may be negotiated separately long before we actually leave the EU and ECAA.

    To remain in the ECAA the EU have made it quite plain it would require accepting ‘EU acquis’ and the jurisdiction of the ECJ. The CEO of Air France has stated he wishes to see the UK remain in the ECAA and under the THUMB of Brussels in order to prevent competition, or in their words to maintain ‘a level playing field’.
    Read paragraph 31 of, B8
./2018 7.3.2018 MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION – Believes that, in light of the above principles and conditions, and in the interest of the passengers, air carriers, manufacturers and workers’ unions, connectivity has to be ensured by means of an air transport agreement and aviation safety agreement; stresses however that the degree of market access is conditional on the level of regulatory convergence and alignment with EU acquis, and on the setting up of a solid dispute settlement and arbitration mechanism; does not exclude, moreover, future cooperation with the UK to support projects of common interest in the transport sector.

    IN OTHER WORDS THE COMMISSION WANTS TO KEEP CONTROL OF THE UNITED KINGDOMS CIVIL AVIATION SECTOR.

  61. acorn
    August 1, 2018
  62. Remington Norman
    August 1, 2018

    John,

    Eminent sense, but….you’ve said this time and again. Project Fear, from wheresoever it emanates, is absurd. What now needs to happen, before more damage is done, is for you and those who share your views to get rid of the people who caused the problems, and continue to harm to our interests – Theresa May, Philip Hammond and the rest of the Remain brigade. Whether you and your colleagues have the guts remains to be seen. I, and many others, sincerely hope so.

  63. Local Lad
    August 1, 2018

    Wait a minute! I read that after Brexit we shall have no sandwiches. Now that really worries me.

    1. Andy
      August 1, 2018

      This is how Brexiteer fake news spreads. This all stems from a discussion on Newsnight where the head of the body which represents the British sandwich industry expressed concerns over the availability of some (not all) fresh ingredients in the event of a no deal Brexit. Tomatoes, lettuce and avocados are three he highlighted as there is not enough grown in the UK, there are no storage facilities at the border if there are delays to trade and the ingredients themselves have a short shelf life. A perfectly sensible concern for his industry to raise and for Brexiteers to address.

      This led to Marcus Fysh – a Tory MP who was involved in the debate – ranting about blockades. Nobody else had mentioned blockades. And that has led to you spewing fake news about sandwiches.

      1. Edward2
        August 2, 2018

        It was a headline story on the BBC and Sky news websites.
        And reported on their TV news channels.
        I also heard it on local radio.
        The strap line was, brexit could lead to a shortage of sandwiches.

        Your attempts to spin it as fake news is ridiculous

        1. Snugglebug.
          August 2, 2018

          Edwards. You are listening to two of the main ‘news’ broadcasters who are out and out Remainers. Sandwiches – the classic staple of our country, named after Lord Sandwich a long time ago – will not be hurt by Brexit. That is so ridiculous I can’t believe anyone is taking it seriously!!

          1. Edward2
            August 3, 2018

            I agree entirely SB.

      2. NickC
        August 2, 2018

        Andy, You can’t have it both ways. Either those ingredients arrive after Brexit as quickly as they do now, or they don’t. If they don’t, it is perfectly fair to describe such EU delays to trade as a blockade. Btw, the last tomatoes I bought were from Morocco, not the EU.

    2. Denis Cooper
      August 1, 2018

      The government has not denied this story, which it probably started …

  64. George
    August 1, 2018

    Some of us have been looking at this diary for a while and find that the comments not passed by the moderator to be the most interesting😂

    1. Prigger
      August 1, 2018

      I can’t see how they could be.

    2. Eh?
      August 1, 2018

      Maybe you lot don’t know what you were writing. You surely can’t have been writing for making yourselves poorer.

    3. mancunius
      August 3, 2018

      Mmmm. How likely is that statement to be true? It’s certainly logically self-negating.

  65. Dennis
    August 1, 2018

    “They seem to be trying to shock UK public opinion into buyer’s remorse on Brexit. Their efforts are silly.”

    But can you say their efforts are not working?

    1. Denis Cooper
      August 1, 2018

      Clearly they are working, finally, to a significant extent.

  66. mancunius
    August 1, 2018

    We are all noting the mounting treachery of government and the civil service. It will receive its due reward at the hands of the people, all in due time.
    Considering that the claim is made that there are ‘many remainers’, it seems strange that we only get the same tiny handful of them ‘contributing’ here, of whom four (at least) are anglophobic foreigners with an obviously mischievous agenda, with one of them posting almost daily (very inarticulately) under a constantly different ID.

    1. Johnny Englander
      August 1, 2018

      Why strange, Mancunius? Hardly any Remainers contribute here because it’s pointless – indeed, I’m rather surprised that any at all do, given that it’s obvious not one single regular contributor here will ever change his or her mind on any aspect whatsoever of the Brexit issue. Both sides’ positions are now far too entrenched for that.

      Indeed, I sometimes find myself wondering if contributions from “The Dark Side” are actively sought in the full knowledge that they will infuriate everyone else here – in exactly the same way that any newspaper editor worth his salt deliberately runs stories that he knows will raise his regular readers’ hackles. It may be bad for their blood pressure, but it sells newspapers.

      1. mancunius
        August 2, 2018

        But our kind and able host is not selling anything, or trying to attract ‘hits’.
        He evidently – quite rightly – believes in free speech.

  67. Jon Davies
    August 1, 2018

    Most of these stories are part of Project Fear. However, I am sure many of us would also like re-assurance on the capabilities of ports such as Dover handling HGV traffic from the EU and on the wider implications on applying tariffs on incoming EU goods.
    1. If we end up with moving to WTO terms without a deal, what are the practical implications for hauliers and are the Dover customs computer systems ready for this? I’m not saying delays are going to be disastrous but I do have concerns that there will be potentially unnecessary delays to trade for weeks if not months unless systems and people are ready and in place in good time.
    2. Also, as I understand it, in a little under 8 months, either retailers will need to adjust pricing of goods to allow for the cost of UK’s existing WTO tariffs or there needs to be a change to the tariff to these goods from any source (EU or worldwide). I am not sure whether this is being actively considered and if so when would businesses get clarity on what will happen?

  68. Prigger
    August 1, 2018

    Fake News on Brexit is a comforter for young and uneducated anti-democratic remainers by our Establishment. Children need to learn for themselves. It sets them back if you chastise them in that their sandcastles are built also on sand. “Oh that’s pretty!” you should say. We all enjoy prettiness. I have lots of admirers btw.

  69. Roy Grainger
    August 1, 2018

    Project Fear is somewhat undercut by the fact that May, Hammond and the other cabinet members directly or indirectly briefing the press with this nonsense have all shoved off on holiday. If it were a genuine crisis they’d have cancelled them and gone back to work to find a solution b

  70. Iain Gill
    August 1, 2018

    Our own government and political class are absurd, that’s the real problem.

    We need Pro brexit decisive leadership, and fast.

    Common sense on our side would make the rest of EU, and chattering class project fear, completely null.

  71. ChrisS
    August 1, 2018

    I see the Times today is suggestion that the EU is going to come up with a vague fudged exit agreement in order to move things along. What that really mean is a fudge for them to get their hands on our ÂŁ39bn.

    That is unacceptable because we would then lose all leverage. Payments beyond continuing net budget contributions during the transition period ( which, of course, is actually nothing of the sort ), must be tied to a trade deal acceptable to us.

    If not, we move from it being very unlikely that we will get any kind of deal worth having to being stone cold certain we won’t.

  72. Chris
    August 1, 2018

    I see that the Government Project Fear 2 is going to be abandoned due to the public backlash and ridicule. The Times article apparently quotes remarks from Senior Tories about the futility of the doommongering, and apparently the government is going to dump all its other “reports” (i.e. doomladen scenarios) on “one day in august” hopefully to minimise the reporting coverage as it has backfired so badly for them. Well, well. what fools decided on Project Fear 2? They do not deserve to be in power and should be removed from positions of influence asap.

  73. Peter Parsons
    August 1, 2018

    The opening two words of this article are “I guess”. The rest of this article should be considered in that context.

    1. mancunius
      August 2, 2018

      Why – which bit do you disagree with?

  74. meAgain
    August 1, 2018

    Yes I can see we are coming near the end of the road now- and with very little time left

    It wouldn’t be so bad if there was only a small cohort of disgruntled little englanders left to deal with but the EU has come to the conclusion that UK has too much anti EU heads in the ranks bringing with it much difficulty so out we must go..otherwise there will never be peace in the camp- and that’s what it boils down to right now..so in time we might get a Canada plus plus deal..maybe..Degaulle was right when he said Non Non!

  75. Sean O'Hare
    August 1, 2018

    “Let’s take the latest scares that we will run out of drugs and food. How could that possibly happen? Continental suppliers want to sell us their goods after March 29th 2019, as they do now”

    You completely overlook the matter of logistics. If cross channel transporters (ferries and the tunnel) grind to a halt because lorries carrying UK goods are getting seriously delayed at continental ports, due to the need for customs clearance and sanitary/phytosanitary inspection, then inbound goods will also be delayed.

    1. Denis Cooper
      August 2, 2018

      Not so.

      http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/07/31/why-does-the-treasury-only-have-extra-money-for-the-eu/#comment-951449

      “Richard North had something sensible to say about that …”

    2. mancunius
      August 2, 2018

      Why? It doesn’t follow at all. Goods have e-borders and TIR declarations.

  76. Denis Cooper
    August 1, 2018

    https://news.sky.com/story/councils-preparing-for-social-unrest-amid-brexit-uncertainty-11455918

    “Councils preparing for social unrest amid Brexit uncertainty”

    And the government does nothing but stoke the growing fears.

  77. DUNCAN
    August 1, 2018

    Project Fear is indeed a most pernicious construct. In fact it’s emblematic of the contemporary nature of Western society and the politics than now dominates our every waking hour. Authoritarian, highly manipulative propaganda designed to deceive, incite fear and massage the public’s emotions, perceptions and to an extent their physiological responses

    These liberal left, pro-EU idiots who concoct this trash must think the silent majority’s just come over on the proverbial banana boat

    My own parents voted Leave. Decent, hard working, law-abiding, moral people. In 2015, when the BBC was pumping its pro-EU tosh they simply looked at each other and roared with glee.

    The desperation of the BBC and associated client state lackeys (Labour, Tory, Academia, Legal establishment, CBI etal) is an embarrassment to behold. Drifted into Marxist diatribe there for a moment but I believe it’s apt

    can someone please tell the pro-EU clan that we won’t be bullied. We want our country back from the anti-democratic demagogues in Berlin and Brussels. No amount of emotive haranguing and threats will change desire for independence and sovereignty

    Fingers crossed May gets lost in Italy. I hope she stays there.

  78. J Trice
    August 1, 2018

    For 2017-18 England is in surplus.

    1-August-2018
    Country and regional public sector finances 2016-17

    Deficit
    ÂŁ8.7bn = England
    ÂŁ9.3bn = N Ireland
    ÂŁ13.2bn = Wales
    ÂŁ14.3bn = Scotland

    https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/countryandregionalpublicsectorfinances2016to2017

  79. The Big Ear
    August 1, 2018

    Four factions of the Labour Party are against free speech for one another. There may be more against free speech but are afraid to say so.

  80. Captain Peacock
    August 1, 2018

    Who is pushing this fear none other than your own Dear Leader.

  81. Chris
    August 1, 2018

    More Project Fear from the May team (from Spectator, Evening Blend newsletter):
    “Jeremy Hunt spent the day trying to convince his Austrian counterpart of the merits of Theresa May’s widely panned Chequers blueprint. Seemingly aware of its limited appeal, the newly installed Foreign Secretary resorted to warning of the other option – a no-deal Brexit – rather than singing its merits. Of the government’s doomsday no-deal planning, which involves stockpiling food, he insisted: ‘This is not project fear, this is project reality.’

    I am just wondering how much more convincing that the Tory Brexiter MPs need. They are not very convincing. Words but no action.

  82. Steve
    August 1, 2018

    What this project fear brigade (remoaners) don’t understand is the consequences of them successfully scuppering BREXIT / selling us out.

    They don’t seem to realise they could find themselves running for their lives.

    My advice to them would be to honour the will of the British electorate, and recognise the potential for things to get pretty nasty if they don’t.

    I see ‘security risk’ May is getting shacked up with Macron at his place. What new capitulations is the traitor contemplating behind our backs I wonder ?

    The woman is the source of the problem, a total disgrace, and should be replaced right away with someone prepared stand up for this country.

    However I do find it absolutely astonishing that the conservatives are fully aware the British people want May out, or else !

    They are fully aware that failure to remove her will result in the death of the party, yet they do nothing.

    One way to shut project fear up; defenestrate it’s matriarch.

  83. Original Richard
    August 1, 2018

    Project fear is all the remainers have left as an argument to not leave the ever expanding, increasingly ferderalist, anti-democratic EU that wants to totally control our money, laws, borders and assets, including our fishing grounds and our military.

    No matter how much the EU can attempt to damage the UK when it has left the EU it is nothing in comparison to the damage it can do to the UK if the UK is in the EU and subject to all its laws, rules, directives and regulations.

  84. Simon Coleman
    August 1, 2018

    As usual, you completely ignore the people who do know about customs, air traffic agreements etc. There’s not a shred of evidence that the people in charge of such operations are working for Project Fear. Do you have any evidence? You have some nerve to keep talking about Project Fear when you were a paid-up member of Project Lies, which graduated to Project Fraud, as we’re now discovering.

    And as for the predicted recession post-referendum, it didn’t happen because people took no immediate notice of the result with regard to their finances. They just carried on spending. But there is evidence that the spike in inflation has caused some damage to the economy – e.g. rocketing personal debt.

    1. Edward2
      August 1, 2018

      So when the predicted post referendum recession never happened you blame pesky citizens for keeping on spending.
      Hilarious.
      I’m still worried about a shortage of sandwiches post Brexit.
      Are you?

      1. mancunius
        August 2, 2018

        Exactly – and the UK economy is suffering so much that my UK small caps and mid caps have been putting on 15% annually compounded since 2009.
        And continue to do so.
        And euro stocks have been slipping back over the year.

  85. Yorkie
    August 1, 2018

    It was Yorkshire Day on 1st August. I’ve just found out at three minutes past 12 midnight on the 2nd.
    Most people in Yorkshire doubtlessly didn’t know about it. If you told most of us “Hey its Yorkshire Day!!!” we would probably reply “Why?”

    It’s one of those terms like “Northern Power Houses” that is being thrust upon us…for reasons only those who wish to get elected to a new Thingamabob with committees and free lunches at tax-payers expense and then go on BBC Question Time as speaking for The Thingamabob of Yorkshire.

    We are British.

    If policitians wish to carve out a new gravy trough then they can go invade somewhere, “to restore democracy”but not us! On yer bikes!!

    1. mancunius
      August 2, 2018

      But surely, for any proud Yorshireman, every day is Yorkshire Day?!

      We would expect no less. 🙂

      1. Yorkie
        August 3, 2018

        🙂 We may lightheartedly speak about being God’s Own County or that in the Wars of the Roses, it was easy to beat Lancashire. But our attitude if we have one, is we are the backbone of the UK.
        No, in truth, we only think of our County when playing cricket and noting with compassion that Yorkshire cheese is far better than Lancashire’s.

  86. Lindsay McDougall
    August 2, 2018

    Project Fear Mark 2 will be driven from No. 10 Downing Street, with active support from at least 50% of the House of Commons.

    The danger is, that at the end of her round robin talks with EU-27 Member States, and after further intransigence from M Barnier, Mrs May will capitulate totally and apply to join the EEA (worse than being in the EU). This House of Commons might support her.

    You need to mount a full scale rebellion, with the following components:
    (1) Draw up a Brexiteers’ manifesto, one which Conservative Eurosceptics, the DUP, Kate Hoey and her merry band, and UKIP can all sign up to;
    (2) Vote down aspects of the Chequers White Paper and legislation based on it;
    (3) Boot Mrs May out of office.

  87. Snugglebug.
    August 2, 2018

    On one of the ‘Leave’ sites there are certain persons who believe that we will have trucks stocked with supplies of food and medicine on Kent roads. Project Fear is like a worm; people ignore them at first, thinking they will go away, and then realise that they are faced with a snake. Project Fear needs to be put down, killed off, and all those in the EU that are sending out sly messages of the EU being hard on the UK need to be put out of office. How can you stop a plane in mid-air? How can you stop a ship with supplies from another country coming into port when it’s halfway in? I do wish these people would be more sensible and try at least to understand that what brexit wants is a viable way of living and trading without Big Brother breathing down our necks and squashing our independence.

  88. Katy Hibbert
    August 2, 2018

    Project Fear is ridiculous, as is Project Smear, the Cambridge Analytica/Carole Codswallop business. But Remainers simply can’t get over the temerity of the Great Unwashed in defeating them. How are they going to manage without their cheap Polish cleaner, or their second holiday home in Tuscany? Don’t those Brexiteers have any compassion?

  89. adam
    August 3, 2018

    i do a lot of crime research. i have found recently i cant access American newspapers anymore and apparently its down to some nonsense about data protection.

    Its reminiscent of China just to shut off all access

    id like to be able to read the ny daily news online again please

    pretty please

    if it is not too much trouble

  90. Simon Coleman
    August 5, 2018

    You should ask the Windrush people and others caught up in the hostile environment policy about the trustworthiness of the UK government on settlement issues. If it was trying to, and in some cases did, deport its own citizens, then why wouldn’t EU nationals be worried?

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