My speech during the debate on the Agriculture Bill, 10 October 2018

John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): There has been a big decline in our self-sufficiency as food producers during the 46 years in which we have been in the common agricultural policy. As a result, we are now net importers from the continent of Europe, to the tune of £20 billion a year—a very large part of our balance of payments deficit—of food, including processed food, that we could rear or grow for ourselves, or process for ourselves if we wished. I hope that, as the Secretary of State works away at the Bill during its passage through the House, he will take on board what is being said by all of us who are urging him to make good production—high-quality food production, and local food production—a central part of his mission and what he is trying to achieve in conjunction with our agricultural businesses and our farmers, because much more can be achieved.

One of my colleagues has already pointed out that we could have new procurement rules that would allow us competitive procurement that also takes into account food miles. A really good green policy is to get the food miles down. We do not need ships and trucks carrying around bulky and quite heavy items of not huge value, when we could be growing them for ourselves and the farmer could be making a profit because transport costs would be lower, so can we please do that?

Will the Secretary of State understand that perhaps the most important thing farmers need to know, from 30 March next year if we leave without an agreement or from 2020 if we leave with an agreement, is what our schedule of tariffs will look like, because Brexit is not a great threat or problem; it is a massive opportunity? Here is an industry that has been wrecked and damaged and pillaged for 46 years, almost as badly as the fishing industry in some cases, which was probably the worst hit, and we have the opportunity to take it back in hand and encourage those who work on our behalf in the industry and to bring a bit of sunshine to the operation to show that there is a huge market opportunity out there.

The great joy is that this Bill rightly takes powers so that the Secretary of State and the Government can do what they need to do with the WTO, which will be running our trade framework whatever we do by way of agreement or no agreement. The WTO also has a pretty important role in this today, but of course we cannot influence it directly because the EU handles the account, and very badly it does so from the UK point of view.

If we look at our tariff schedule, we see at the moment that we have eye-wateringly high tariffs on temperate foods that we can grow or produce for ourselves from outside the EU, but zero tariffs on temperate products we could rear or grow for ourselves from inside the EU, and that competitive onslaught from some of the intense, and often subsidised and highly capitalised, farming on the continent has done enormous damage to our market share and undermined the businesses of many of our farmers over the 46 years we have been in the EU.

The Government should set out urgently for consultation what our tariff schedule will look like if we are leaving on 30 March 2019, because I assume the tariffs will be above zero for the EU as they have got to be the same as for the rest of the world, but I assume that we would want lower overall tariffs than the EU imposes on the rest of the world, and I assume that we would want to flex the tariffs down more on the things we cannot grow and rear for ourselves and would also want to make sure there is protection in there, in the spirit of our current regime, which is heavily protected against non-EU products.

I am not sure what the right balance is; that is something I am sure my right hon. Friend and the International Trade Secretary have either worked out or will work out quite soon, but the sooner we consult on it, the more hope we will give the farming industry. It must feel part of this process, because these will be its tariffs and they offer us this great opportunity to get access to some cheaper food where we are not competing and have uniform protection at a sensible level for both the EU and the non-EU, because it is the EU that is causing the main threat.

May I remind my right hon. Friend that he is our English Agriculture Minister and we want him to speak for England? Who in this Government does speak for England? I come into the Chamber and hear debates about the Scottish problem and the Irish border, but we must not forget England, our home base for most of us on this side of the House. England expects; England wants better; England wants to be able to compete; England wants a policy designed to promote English farms. I find that a really good English farm, with really good farming, looks beautiful and deals with the environment as well as food production.

122 Comments

  1. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
    October 12, 2018

    It is a bit easy to blame the EU for anything and everything.
    How come that little Netherlands in those 46 years grew to be the world’s number two in agricultural exports? We had to suffer the same Common Agricultural Policy, which, it is claimed, was just there to help French farmers.

    1. Dave Andrews
      October 12, 2018

      Have your young people been forced out of your pretty villages by those with money buying up the cottages for second homes and holiday lets?

      1. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
        October 12, 2018

        @Dave Andrews: There is a severe housing shortage in and around Amsterdam (to some degree in other cities) as houses and apartments are being bought by “investors” and companies (for the influx of workforce). The so-called starters on the housing market hardly get a chance. The problem you mention will probably exist here as well, but maybe to a lesser degree?

        1. Hope
          October 12, 2018

          JR, you forget Cameron stood on the steps of No.10 on TV and said only the Conservative party would deliver EVEL. He did no such thing. He made a small fudge so he could claim to have done something. EVEL was not delivered as he stated, no English parliament unlike the other smaller U.K. nations. Why? More lies from a Tory PM?

      2. Lifelogic.
        October 12, 2018

        Who is selling the houses and profiting by selling to these people? Mainly the locals who owned them! Who benefits from all the jobs they create in property maintenance, gardening, build work, shops, restaurants, all the council tax they pay but use few local services …..

        What about all the young from villages coming to London and pushing up prices there?

    2. Lifelogic.
      October 12, 2018

      It is a bit easy to blame the EU for anything and everything. Indeed and the EU certainly does all they can to make it easy.

      1. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
        October 12, 2018

        @Lifelogic: The EU doesn’t own any tabloids. If somebody call them “dirty rats” or describes us as a USSR-style prison, there may be a reaction, but in most cases there is no defense that reaches the public. Who bothers to read the 800 debunked EU-myths, invented and published in the UK by your poison-press?

        1. Lifelogic
          October 12, 2018

          What do you mean the EU has the BBC propaganda unit with such drivel every single day! The Brussels Broadcasting Corporation.

          They are also dedicated to left wing, big government, magic money tree economics, political correctness, anti-male sexism and endless totally unscientific climate alarmism, “renewable” and general green crap propaganda.

          1. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
            October 12, 2018

            @Lifelogic: In my perception they always show both sides of an argument and they are respected all over the world. As for the tabloids, I’m not so sure.

        2. L Jones
          October 12, 2018

          Perhaps, Peter, you might start a trend, then, by debunking one ”EU myth” a day – just so that we can all be informed, as you think we should be. Because we never hear a good solid argument as to why our country should remain shackled to the EU, why it is good that we should pour money into it, why we should be pleased to be part of its protectionism, imperialism, expansionism, corruption, etc.
          And, believe it or not, many of us believe that all these negatives are NOT ”myths”.

          1. Lifelogic
            October 12, 2018

            Indeed and despite all the BBC/EU/civil service propaganda the people are not fooled.

          2. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
            October 12, 2018

            @L Jones: I don’t think you should remain shackled to us, or we shackled to you, so don’t expect such arguments from me at this stage.
            After all (see the American tradingeconomics site) your UK GDP y-o-y growth is now 1.2% and the Netherlands’ y-o-y GDP grows 2.5 x as fast (be it still only a modest 3.1%, I’m still envious of Ireland’s growth 🙂 ).
            If you google for “EU myth debunked” you can find them.

        3. Chris
          October 12, 2018

          The EU gives the BBC millions each year in funding. It is apparent that the BBC is in hock to the EU simply by the tone of its broadcasts and its open bias against Brexiters, and really anyone who does not espouse the left “liberal” (intolerant is a better word) agenda.

        4. NickC
          October 12, 2018

          PvL, No defence? So when VÄ›ra Jourová, the unelected EU official in charge of Justice, indicates that the EU has plans to regulate the press and media you think that’s acceptable? Just because your rotten ideology can’t stand criticism? You’re on the slippery slope but being so smug you won’t notice ’til it’s too late. Thank God we are leaving (well as long as He removes Mrs May from office, that is).

          1. hans christian ivers
            October 13, 2018

            NickC
            There is no so-called EU ideology, this is your own invention

          2. NickC
            October 13, 2018

            Hans, The EU is an ideology.

    3. Peter Wood
      October 12, 2018

      Interesting; is there a cost of production difference of a Kilo of spuds between Dutch and UK? Subsidy, seasonality, land use limitation? Perhaps there is an expert here to advise.

      Thank goodness for the DUP; the Tory MP’s seems to consist of only hand-wringers and cowering spineless quislings.

      1. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
        October 12, 2018

        @Peter Wood: I’m by far no expert, but I do know that the export growth of “seed potatoes” is very steep, so there is the influence of technology/innovation.
        (Similarly there is a development from flowers to seed-breeding.)
        Then there is a lot of ICT and robotica in greenhousing, but I suppose in Britain as well.

        1. Caterpillar
          October 12, 2018

          The hg/ha in the UK is a bit higher than Netherlands, though that doesn’t tell us about other costs e.g. transport costs of the seed potatoes grown in Scotland?

      2. Lifelogic.
        October 12, 2018

        Well there are about 80 on the sensible, real Conservative wing with principals that want a real Brexit, lower taxes and smaller government. But it is not very many alas the leader and chancellor seem to be well to the left of Ed Milliband and inept with it. Very few problems that T May cannot make worse as someone put it yesterday.

      3. Rien Huizer
        October 13, 2018

        @ Peter Wood:

        You mention a few possible explanations: Subsidy: no, would be the same for UK farmers ; EU! Seasonality: same climate: Land use limitations: planning in The Netherlands is pervasive so the only difference in land use limitations would be related to crop rotation and effects of poor land use on neighbouring fields. You forgot to mention two possible explanations: technology and surrounding systems (seeds, planting potatoes, distribution, cooperative finance). Nothing UK farmers could not copy if they wanted to and replicated by Dutch farmers (or farm communities) from Canada to New Zealand. You could have a similar story about fishing, dairy production and intensive animal husbandry. Technology and organization,. plus a cooperative spirit. Requires well educated farmers who own their land. The Kolchoz and the traditional Gentlema’s estate suffered from the same problem: incentives.

        1. NickC
          October 13, 2018

          Rien, When you give the fishing grounds back that you stole from us, then we can plan for better fishing than the criminal EU discard system that we’ve had to suffer under your CFP.

          As for CAP – well, you won’t have us subsidising you much longer (God willing) so it will be up to you whether or not you listen to the 115 organizations which have called on the EU to carry out a “CAP Fitness Check”. Despite receiving 40% of the EU budget each year, the EU farming sector is in constant crisis. But you haven’t noticed of course.

    4. a-tracy
      October 12, 2018

      John said “competitive onslaught from some of the intense, and often subsidised and highly capitalised, farming on the continent has done enormous damage to our market share and undermined the businesses of many of our farmers over the 46 years we have been in the EU” perhaps the “little Netherlands” are who John alludes to.
      I re-read the article above and nowhere did I read “French farmers” as you accuse – a strawman argument.

      1. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
        October 12, 2018

        @a-tracy: You’re right, no countries were mentioned, although it is pretty common knowledge that the French, not the Dutch, have always been the staunch defenders of the CAP through the decades.
        (lack of) Competitiveness is not an EU problem, but a national one. Had the UK chosen to give more priority to its farming and its competitiveness, things surely would have been different by now. Not the EU to blame.

        1. a-tracy
          October 12, 2018

          I agree with you PVL there is something really troubling about the way our UK governments and Devolved governments have not been as successful as the Dutch to get the UK the best deals. Our governments over time have blamed quotas, price restraints, costs of importing grain e.g.

          The European Union has been criticised for botched agricultural subsidies on a number of occasions. Most famously a guaranteed price for milk in the 1980’s leading to butter mountains and an oversupply of milk.

          I checked on google for the French thing and found this ‘French farmers burned tyres, hay and manure as they blocked the highway in protest against European Union food import laws and poor deals with distributors Farmers complained they pay too many charges which makes their pork more expensive than other big European Union producers, like Germany and Spain.’

          PVL do we in the UK have EU farming quotas or not? Are we encouraged to buy foods from certain EU markets such as Cheddar from Ireland or is this just the UK supermarkets choosing to do this? At least after Brexit we can hold just our national executive to account and not allow the buck to be passed and nothing to change.

          My father lost his career in a Dairy when cheap imports saturated our UK markets with inferior plastic bottled milk being heavily supplied at very low cost from the continent in Supermarkets. He found another job quickly in a car parts manufacturer that went to Poland who got all sorts of EU grants at the time but that’s another issue. I read the EU paid UK farmers not to compete is this another lie?

          1. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
            October 12, 2018

            @a-tracy: I expect there are still some farming quota, although many have dissapeared. But there are also manure-quota (problem for e.g. Dutch pig-farming) and import quota (Ukrainian poultry flooding the EU market).

            There is no EU policy to buy certain products from somewhere. In the Netherlands I buy products from where I want (cars from Japan, cheeses from everywhere, whisky from Scotland and whiskey from Ireland). The Scots could teach us a thing or two about succesful marketing!

    5. NickC
      October 12, 2018

      PvL, Don’t worry about the over-expansion of Dutch farming, I will help by not buying Dutch. There, that should make it more even. You see, it isn’t a wise move to sneer at and belittle your customers as you and the EU do. What? – you thought you could do and say anything and we’d just roll over? Think again.

      1. L Jones
        October 12, 2018

        ”Rolling over” is something that we don’t do.
        Though we could name a couple of countries that HAVE proved in the past that they think it’s the best way to deal with threats.

    6. ian wragg
      October 12, 2018

      The Netherlands didn’t suffer the same reduction in quotas as we did. Dairy farms only allowed to produce 70% of our annual consumption, similar with beef cattle.
      The CFP where our allocation was so small fishermen couldn’t service the payments on their boats and sold them to Spain and Dutch who had much bigger quotas even though it was UK waters.
      The EU has been a disaster for Britain in many areas and looking at the tossers in Parliament it looks set to continue.

      1. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
        October 12, 2018

        @ian wragg: Adapting to changing circumstances would have been possible though.
        When I noticed some years ago that there were any more sheep and fewer cows in the Dutch countryside and asked about it, it apparently had to do with EU policies. It also gave rise to a Dutch variety in goat cheeses, different from the French ones. Nothing wrong with going with the tide.

        1. Kenneth
          October 12, 2018

          Peter, unaccountable suits behind closed doors do not make a “tide” and I think it is sad that you and your countrymen and women had no meaningful way of opposing it.

          All I can suggest is that you consider campaigning for a referendum on the Netherlands leaving the eu. In that endeavour you may indeed encounter a tide of support.

        2. NickC
          October 12, 2018

          PvL, I notice you failed to address Ian Wragg’s point that “The Netherlands didn’t suffer the same reduction in quotas as we did.” And why should we “adapt” to idiotic edicts from eurocrats anyway?

    7. Kenneth
      October 12, 2018

      The Dutch have had great success with agriculture.

      Apart from the usual flair for business (so many great Dutch companies), they have used Wageningen UR to harvest funds from many eu research projects and used it as a Trojan horse for de facto state subsidy to the agriculture sector through many collaborations with growers.

      We have never been good at “working the system”…another good reason to get out of the eu.

    8. The PrangWizard
      October 12, 2018

      Although I am keen to get out the EU completely, I agree with PVL. There is something rotten at the heart of our government and administration which has for decades contributed to the UK’s decline.

      From what I can glean and observe the Dutch people and government do not live in the fantasy world that many of our people and government do. It is crazy to imagine that we can put ‘pretty pretty’ policies and attitudes ahead of making and growing things for ourselves. The rest of the world does not exist so we can buy things from it that we are too lazy or arrogant to make or grow for ourselves.

      1. Steve
        October 12, 2018

        Prang Wizard

        “There is something rotten at the heart of our government and administration which has for decades contributed to the UK’s decline.”

        Infiltration by marxists, leftist, socialists, and those who covertly work for other countries that have an interest in our country being kept piss weak.

      2. NickC
        October 12, 2018

        The Prangwizard, It is true that our establishment suffers the delusion of our having “soft power”, and also that we will be admired for our virtue signalling. The fact is other countries are a lot more nationalistic than we are (well, than the English establishment is) and we stupidly imagine that other countries will copy us if we persist. The reality is different: we just get taken advantage of; and the negotiations with the EU are an exact illustration of that. It is a disease at the top in the UK.

    9. Shorthandist
      October 13, 2018

      “It is a bit easy to blame the EU for anything and everything.”
      It is not easy! It takes a typing pool the size of Wembley Stadium and a whole Brazillian rainforest worth of typing paper.
      On a five year contract.

    10. Stred
      October 13, 2018

      They were even growing cannabis in thr prostitute’s shop window when I went to Amsterdam. That would have cut the skunk miles.

    11. David Price
      October 13, 2018

      Clearly you are proud of you agricultural exports. I’ve just watched a Die Welt documentary on youtube – “The deceptive promise of free trade” which might lessen the pride a bit.

      EU overproduction is wiping out village agriculture in Cameroon – Dutch onions are a third the price of domestic produce and an EU “free trade agreement prevents Cameroon putting in place tariffs to protect their farmers.

      A third the price compared to domestic prices in a poor country! – how is that not dumping. The EU doesn’t only overproduce and dump onions, but also chickens, milk and pork.

  2. oldtimer
    October 12, 2018

    These are excellent ideas. The question in my mind is whether anything like this is at all possible as Mrs May reportedly continues to salami slice opposition to her Chequer’s proposals. She, it is said, plans to keep the UK inside the customs union with the EU if she can get away with it. She appears to be obdurately opposed to any Canada style deal. So far as respecting the result of the Referendum is concerned it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that she is unfit for its purpose. Furthermore, if MPs are foolish enough to support her intent, they will render themselves unfit for purpose too.

    1. Lifelogic.
      October 12, 2018

      Indeed she is totally unfit to be PM. Wrong on almost every single issue and not just Brexit and a Conservative bone in her body. She is a diet coke version of Corbyn on many issues. A tax borrow and waste, ever bigger government, dishonest, PC interventionist of the worse sort.

      Brexit means sweet F.A. May. Preparing the way for Corbyn and a trip to Venezuela.

      1. Hoof Hearted
        October 13, 2018

        Mrs May like most of her colleagues in the HoC have no experience whatsoever of Industry, Business or Commerce. We have a surfeit of second rate lawyers and professional politicians. Until this changes we are accelerating on a downward spiral into mediocrity. Welcome to Venezuela.

    2. Hope
      October 12, 2018

      JR, wake up and smell the coffee. Your party is finished. There is no trust in May or Hammond to deliver on anything they say.

      The facts, not lies and spin, are clear and plain. Highest taxation, structural deficit not balanced three years after it was promised and May, to deflect her betrayal of the nation, announces unfunded public sector spending, to which Hammond is trying to find ways of taxing us further to achieve!

      May’s vassal state plan lets the EU make all the rules on agriculture products, non regression clause on environment, employment and energy! Do you think the EU will allow the vassal state U.K. to be more competitive or work it into all our businesses further to the advantage of the EU27- as reported Merkel thinks the U.K. Should suffer a little bit!

      I am not sure what all you Tory MPs are waiting for. May showed her vassal state plan to Merkel before her cabinet and parliament! What does this tell you about her? The twelve EU extremists in your party will bring it down. It appears the highly educated Clarke does not understand the difference between, nationalist, patriot, traitor and extremist. Also 17.4 million people voted to the leave the EU, hardly all hard right wing, some were Labour strong holds! Sensational false language from a QC. As he missed the beginning of the debate he should not have been allowed to speak.

      1. Lifelogic
        October 12, 2018

        Highly educated? Clark read law (Caius) and got a second. He initially held Labour sympathies (still does!), his grandfather having been (left wing ed), but while at Cambridge he joined the Conservative Party. Better parties perhaps?

        Or he preferred a Tory constituency perhaps as they are usually rather nicer (rather like May I suppose). Two pro EU lefties. But is law really much of an education? All lawyers seem to say is that is a tricky problem and how long is a piece of string, Then three judges come to three different conclusions on the same issue!

        1. Lifelogic
          October 12, 2018

          They are also very good at telling you have a very strong, sound in law, case with a 90% chance of winning, but strangly, by the time it come to court (after you have paid them a fortune) it is then more like 50/50 they suggest. Had they said this initially they would not have had the huge fees of course.

          Also amazingly good at turning an amicable divorce into a vicious battle and the complete opposite.

      2. Rien Huizer
        October 13, 2018

        @ Hope

        Ultimately, the UK has a choice between part of the EU or its periphery, or part of the US equivalent (NAFTA of a standard USFTA with lopsided distibution of benefits. Someday the UK will learn to accept its status. Recommend reading something about US-UK relations in WWII. British denial was key topic in communications between US officials and it is unlikely that that has changed. Apart from France, all European countries understand that they must cooperate. And in France that is ritual, not belief. The UK seems to lack the belief that the days of free agency are long gone but pays ritualistic tribute to cooperation.

        Reply The UK can be an independent country trading with the rest of the world under WTO rules.

    3. NickC
      October 12, 2018

      Lifelogic, Theresa May is supremely obdurate. Therefore the only way of avoiding Chequers, or worse, is to remove Mrs May. Of course her removal will be difficult, perhaps impossible, but unless the attempt is made we are certainly looking at serfdom to the EU and constitutional turmoil – including the break up of the UK – over the next quarter century.

      1. Lifelogic
        October 12, 2018

        Indeed with May Brexit is clearly sweet F.A.

    1. Denis Cooper
      October 12, 2018

      Thanks.

      I offer in exchange an article in CityAM talking up the CP-TPP:

      http://www.cityam.com/265469/going-pacific-cp-tpp-perfect-trade-partnership-post-brexit

      “Going Pacific: The CP-TPP is the perfect trade partnership for post-Brexit Britain”

      Which states:

      “Of course, were the UK to remain in the EU’s customs union or bound to its regulations, CP-TPP access would not be an option at all.”

      an important point here being that it would not be necessary to remain in the EU customs union – which would be difficult, if not impossible, to wangle from a legal point of view – to remain bound to its regulations, when it could be “a” rather than “the” customs union, as Labour likes to formulate it.

  3. Duncan
    October 12, 2018

    I admire your tenacity but you’re whistling in the wind. May couldn’t care less what you think John. You’re little more than a minor irritation in her grand plan to circumvent the EU-Ref. result and impose upon us all her liberal left vision of hell and in the process destroy our personal freedoms, independence and sovereignty

    Moral Labour and Tory voters made a big mistake by voting for your two parties. You are not what you seem.

    1. NickC
      October 12, 2018

      Duncan said: “You are not what you seem.” That is dark. But without any further information I fear you are correct.

  4. Nig l
    October 12, 2018

    And how did the Minister respond?

  5. Shire Tory Voter
    October 12, 2018

    So now, haing pulled the Uk out of the EU, you try to sow the seeds of discord to get England out of the UK. Really nasty petty nationalism

    1. sm
      October 12, 2018

      Presumably you feel, STV, that the desire for Scottish Independence, Irish unification and Welsh self-government is also ‘nasty, petty nationalism’?

    2. NickC
      October 12, 2018

      Shire Tory Voter, The UK has not pulled out of the EU, or haven’t you noticed? The problem with not supporting (actually, sneering at) your own nation is not that you get no nationalism, it is that you get someone else’s nationalism. Are you quite happy being a really nasty petty EU nationalist?

    3. mancunius
      October 12, 2018

      Where was any of that in the speech? You seem to have difficulties in reading through the ad hominem red mist clouding your lenses.

      In which ‘shire’, pray, do ‘Tories’ have contempt for the English?
      Lanarkshire, perhaps?

    4. Anonymous
      October 12, 2018

      Sown already. The West Lothian question.

  6. Alan Jutson
    October 12, 2018

    Well no one can say you are not trying John, problem is you are talking to rather too many deaf ears and closed minds in Parliament.

    Would seem me that the vast majority of Mp’s do not have any vision of our future, and do not want to even think of our future, other than with their beloved EU, they can then just drift along with an easy life as before, and not be accountable themselves for anything.

    Shocking really when the Nation as a whole wants to move forward and join the real and larger World, with all of the opportunities which that holds.

  7. Mark B
    October 12, 2018

    Nice speech. Shame it will only fall on deaf ears.

  8. Lifelogic.
    October 12, 2018

    I see that judges are to get large pay rise. Will this include the judges who (in the two lower courts) who came to the totally absurd judgement on the gay marriage cake? Can we not employ judges who can think rationally?

    It is hard to see how small companies can possibly be expected to know the law when Judges endlessly come up with such different, conflicting and often totally idiotic opinions. They change the laws endlessly by stretching or even ignoring them. Similarly on the bonkers rulings in relation to the gig economy and self employment and the absurd stretching “human rights”.

    Just why are we still sending people into space when unmanned space craft and robotic systems make far, far more sense (at least the astronauts managed to survived this time). Lord Martin Rees was right on radio 4, the case for manned space exploration is now harder to justify. Just another waste of tax payers money in general – for daft vanity and government propaganda reasons.

    1. Lifelogic.
      October 12, 2018

      It seem the large increase is “justified” by changes to pensions taxation (pension pot muggings by Hammond). But judges (and MPs) have some of the very best pensions going. The increases will be paid for by higher taxes on people with generally far smaller pensions which have mugged by Hammond. Where is the justice in that.

      The UK has one lawyer for every 400 people not as bad as the USA but nearly. We should be aiming to more like Japan about 1 for every 10,000. The country would be far more productive and competitive that way. Simplify taxes, laws and more to easy hire and fire, far fewer court levels limit damages and legal cost recovery. Kill much of the largely parasitic industry and let them get other more productive jobs?

    2. Peter
      October 12, 2018

      Establishment parasites. So the huge pay rise will get nodded through, even if they have to get some ridiculous “independent” body to recommend it.

      The legal profession are now “taking in washing” by adjudicating on libel/slander case cases that occur in the rest of the world. Nothing to do with English Law. Still, it’s a nice little earner.

  9. fedupsoutherner
    October 12, 2018

    Great speech John filled with common sense and things that will turn this country around again. If only our PM felt the same and our useless agricultural minister. I feel your remark will be ignored as usual and the gang will carry on ignoring common sense and keep us tied to the EU. How depressing is that? Meanwhile they are handing power back to Labour. OMG. It will be the ruination of the country. And, yes, it’s about time someone mentioned England!!

    1. NickC
      October 12, 2018

      Fedupsoutherner, Indeed, the establishment gang will go on ignoring common sense and keep us tied to the EU. Yet with all their wealth, power, and stranglehold over the media (the BBC), they still cannot tell us what the EU does for us that we cannot do for ourselves; nor can they tell us why it is impossible for the UK to be as independent and successful as New Zealand or Japan.

  10. Stred
    October 12, 2018

    It would be sensible for the government to offer zero % tariffs on food, cars and just about everything and also on non-tarriff barriers from 1.4.19. This would make it unnecessary to stop goods at borders and simplify prepayment and paperwork. This could be conditional on the EU matching tariffs etc. They would then have to decide quickly whether they wanted to wreck Irish agriculture and harm German. Dutch, Belgian and Danish producers or not.

    We have to ask why May is refusing to do this and instead makes speeches warning about huge rises in food costs, when we would be able to buy cheaper food and wine from outside the EU. The answer is that the plotters want the worst outcome so that, when they pretend to be forced to offer their ‘people’s vote’, the mistake of ever thing they could leave would become most evident. The plot is so obvious.

    1. Stred
      October 12, 2018

      thinking – not thing. Another smart correction.

    2. Anonymous
      October 12, 2018

      We have to be prepared for the innitial hit on JIT deliveries – the creation of a lorry park in Kent.

      Food will not be cheaper for a long while.

      1. stred
        October 12, 2018

        The lorry park would have to be at Calais and Dunkerque. Plenty of room in the disused camps where we paid for the walls.

      2. hefner
        October 12, 2018

        Getting better by the day, 10 miles of emergency lorry parking being planned on the M20, 13.5 miles on the M26. But as Grayling said, not likely to be ever used: what a relief.

      3. Denis Cooper
        October 12, 2018

        Why should it become necessary to stack INCOMING trucks?

        The ones which are waved through now can still be waved through after we have left. Unless of course we think the EU is going to start sending across rubbish, goods which would be illegal in the EU under EU law. Do we think that the EU intends to do that? Has anybody asked them whether they still intend to uphold their EU laws after we have left?

        In any case, I read here:

        https://brexitcentral.com/debunking-myths-trade-friction/

        that we only inspect 1.3% of the containers imported from WTO countries, that is containers coming from outside of the EU, so why on earth should we start to inspect large numbers of containers from the EU?

        If we had a decent truthful government, instead of a pack of eurofederalist liars and cheats, then they would have explained all this to the public rather than deliberately propagating anti-Brexit falsehoods.

        It is now many months since I first pointed out that the Department for Exiting the EU had nothing like a rapid rebuttal unit and rarely made any effort to contradict the constant flood of anti-Brexit propaganda, and when it did respond the response was invariably feeble.

        This is a vile hypocritical government which does not believe in its officially stated policy, will do nothing to defend that policy from attack, and will add to those propaganda attacks in an effort to undermine its own policy.

        1. Anonymous
          October 12, 2018

          We have two ‘enemies’ (for want of a softer word.)

          Our government

          Their government

          It must be demonstrated that we made a bad decision. Forget practicalities – they will be averted.

        2. Stred
          October 12, 2018

          The lorries go back empty .Who is kidding who?

  11. Bob
    October 12, 2018

    “She, it is said, plans to keep the UK inside the customs union with the EU if she can get away with it.”

    Yes, but only as temporary measure and on the proviso that Brussels will release us from it’s jurisdiction sometime in the future, when the time is right. Even Ken Clarke is happy with that,

    1. ian wragg
      October 12, 2018

      Income tax was temporary beginning in the Napoleonic wars. 210 years ago!!!!!!!!!!
      May is quite happy to destroy the Tory Party at the altar of the EU. No matter what damage she inflicts on the country, “le projet” must not be impeded.

      We have a bunch of charlatans in Westminster.

    2. Beecee
      October 12, 2018

      Because the time will never be right unless the EU implodes!

      And Ken Clarke knows this.

    3. NickC
      October 12, 2018

      Bob, If none of the dreadful Remain warnings will apply to the UK when we leave in the future, why will they happen if we leave now? And if you trust Theresa May after she has fiddled to keep us in now, what guarantee can you offer that she or someone like her won’t pull the same trick in this mythical future? The advantages of leaving the EU are so great that we need to leave as soon as possible.

    4. Chris S
      October 13, 2018

      “Sometime in the future” will be never.

      Surely you know by now that Brussels and Berlin only take powers they never relinquish them.

      Remember the long-ignored principle of “Subsidiarity” ?

  12. Adam
    October 12, 2018

    Farming can contribute more to the quality of our country & its environment than choking it with dense concrete blocks full of more & more people.

  13. Duncan
    October 12, 2018

    It seems we’ll have to rely on the DUP to bring down this grotesque PM then.

    She cannot be allowed to betray the peoples will.

    The UK is OUR country. It belongs to the people of the United Kingdom. It is not the property of this government and it is not the property of the EU

    1. Chris
      October 12, 2018

      It was reported in the press that she is going to offer the DUP very significant funding for NI in order to get their agreement. If true, pure bribery, and there should be uproar about it.

      1. Chris
        October 12, 2018

        Link for my comment above:
        https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1030358/Brexit-news-Theresa-May-DUP-EU-northern-ireland-backstop
        Brexit BRIBERY: Theresa May to hand tens of MILLIONS to ensure DUP backing on EU exit plan

        “THERESA MAY is set to pay the DUP tens of millions of pounds more in order to ensure she obtains their backing on her Brexit plan, as the Northern Irish allies have threatened to revolt if the EU’s backstop is accepted and Northern Ireland is treated differently from the rest of the UK…..”

    2. Oggy
      October 12, 2018

      Oliver Cromwell ’20 April 1653, London,

      Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance.

  14. agricola
    October 12, 2018

    Remember that if we continue to operate free trade with the EU, the big buyers will always buy where they can get the best deal. Their margins come way before the customer and the nation. We will still find ourselves using surplus milk production from low cost states before home produced milk is bought. In a WTO situation there is a better chance of being able to offer protection to home producers. Question is how much protectionism turns us into the mind set of a mini EU. Sugar could be considerably cheaper were it sourced from cane rather than beet. Cane is tariff blocked by the EU to protect it’s beet growers. As cane comes from largely developing countries it fits with my mantra of trade being better than aid.

    More important at present is to find out and expose exactly what May is planning with her so called backstop and then to kill it dead. Any suggestion of half in and half out of the EU is totally unacceptable, but that is I suspect what she is planning with her largely supine cabinet.

  15. JoolsB
    October 12, 2018

    “May I remind my right hon. Friend that he is our English Agriculture Minister and we want him to speak for England? Who in this Government does speak for England?”

    Good luck with that one John, you’re flogging a dead horse there. NO-ONE speaks for England despite more and more UK Government business being English only. It is the English who predominately voted Brexit and yet May has had numerous talks with the First Ministers of Scotland, Wales and of course the DUP to appease their demands but there is no First Minister or representative to push what England wants which is why we won’t get Brexit.

    We hear most of the powers coming back from the EU will be directly repatriated back to the devolved parliaments but as usual, the UK Government will continue to control those powers over England. How can a UK Government that purports to speak for the whole UK’s interests also stand up for English interests? It can’t which is why England’s interests always come a very poor last and why England now needs it’s own First Minister and Parliament too.

    Lastly John, if you care so much about fairness for England, you could start by demanding those departments which are English only are labelled so. It is a deliberate ploy of UK Governments to deliberately conflate the UK with England in their ignorant belief that we all think their punitive and often discriminatory measures apply to the whole UK which of course they don’t – just England.

    1. Pelaw
      October 12, 2018

      Whiny victim culture. It is English votes that have taken the UK out of the EU and yet you want to wallow in how badly treated you are. Toddlers have more sense of maturity and responsibility than you Brexiters who dont seem able to come to grips with the fact that you have won and so whatever is going wrong with Brexit is YOUR fault. Grow up and Own it

      1. JoolsB
        October 12, 2018

        WON? English votes haven’t taken the UK out of the EU because traitor May is determined that won’t happen. It’s you remainers who lost the vote but have won anyway.

      2. NickC
        October 12, 2018

        Pelaw, Instead of whining, read the executive summary of the Chequers plan. In it you will find that Theresa May intends that the UK should withdraw from the EU’s multilateral treaties only to sign up to new bi-lateral treaties and existing agreements to almost the same effect. If we are still controlled, even partly, by the EU then we obviously haven’t left. That is Remain. You own it.

  16. WeToldYou_No_EU
    October 12, 2018

    After 2 years of so-called ‘negotiation’ our Great PM has come away with what?

    Answer —> Complete humiliation!

    Showing all the abilities of a Tortoise trying to cross a 3 Lane Motorway…Theresa May has failed miserably to uphold the democratic will of the people.

    She has blatantly denied Democracy.

    Chequers + Staying in the CU is the real “Crashing Out the EU” the Remoaners talk about.

    If May’s plan involves this (under a sneaky disguise):-

    Obedience to the EU Courts
    No ability to sign our own trade deals
    Unlimited freedom of movement
    Even higher payments to the EU than now
    No say in EU policy

    Then Mrs May can put her deal where the Sun don’t shine.

    We will be far better off with a Clean Brexit on WTO terms.

    Unless the Tories ‘grow a pair’…boot May into touch immediately…and go for a Canada +++ deal…it’s game over for the Country…democracy… and especially for the Tory Party.

  17. fedupsoutherner
    October 12, 2018

    A friend of mine voted remain and now sits there and tells me that he won the vote. How humiliating is that? It has almost put me off wanting to see him anymore because I am so angry. f May keeps us in the EU then I am not voting Tory again.

  18. Duncan
    October 12, 2018

    A very interesting idea as arose. That the DUP put forward a candidate in every single seat at the next GE. If people won’t vote for UKIP then should be given the choice of voting for a proper Tory party rather than the faux Tory party we now have

    I don’t believe the DUP would capitulate to every single whining, screaming minority activist group who play the victim card in the same way May does for absolute political advantage

    In the north of England, I believe if this happened millions would transfer from Marxist Labour to the conservative DUP

    1. Man of Kent
      October 12, 2018

      Great idea !
      How do you see it happening ?
      A stream of Ulster prods applying to be candidates here?
      Or UKIP and us ‘right wing nationalists ‘ applying to be honorary Orangemen ?

    2. Bob
      October 12, 2018

      @Duncan
      Why do you think people won’t vote ukip, do you think it’s because they support free speech regardless of who it offends?

    3. John
      October 12, 2018

      There is a potential new party waiting in the wings with funding. I may certainly not vote Tory again if this fudge goes through.

      1. NickC
        October 12, 2018

        John, What is it waiting for?

  19. Edwardm
    October 12, 2018

    Good you are positively speaking up for farming, and that out of the EU, tariffs can be more sensibly applied or withdrawn. We could also apply a better means of farming support, such as we had before 1973. Just wish some other MPs could be more positive – its not difficult.

    O/T Mrs May has worked hard to prove she is unfit to represent our country, she shouldn’t even be in the HoC (and to be fair, Corbyn is far worse). It’s down to MPs and Maidenhead CA as to the future direction of the Conservative Party – currently it looks bleak to me.

  20. Fedupsoutherner
    October 12, 2018

    Agree Jools. Everywhere I go in Scotland I see the saltire. Its on loads of products in supermarkets. Funny, but I don’t remember seeing an English flag that often. Products here are clearly labelled Scottish with the flag too. England is downtrodden and its as if its a sin to mention you are English.

    1. hefner
      October 12, 2018

      The really funny bit is that a lot of products in Lidl and Aldi (dairy, vegetables, fruits, …) have the Union Jack …

      1. fedupsoutherner
        October 12, 2018

        Hefner

        The union Jack is not the English flag. That is what we are going on about. We have the UK national anthem. Everyone else has their own anthem. We need to see our English flag more often and the Union Jack is for the whole United Kingdom. Don’t you get it?

  21. NickC
    October 12, 2018

    JR, Good speech. Of course the benefits of leaving the stale corrupt clutches of the EU oligarchy apply to the whole of the UK, not just England. Since England is the most densely populated country in Europe, the farming and fishing industries that will be revived when we leave will benefit mainly Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

  22. David Hinder
    October 12, 2018

    Whilst I agree that generally it is greener to grow our own food rather than import, I remember a report a few years ago which pointed out that this is not always the case. The example given was that of tomatoes. Whilst Spanish tomatoes have to be transported to the UK, the Spanish climate means that growers there do not need the massive energy input which British growers require, thus making it greener for us to import tomatoes from Spain than to grow them ourselves.

    However, with climate change…!

  23. stred
    October 12, 2018

    An explanation of why we will be unlikely to be able to buy fish caught by British fishermen if May and Gove get their way is given today in The Conservative Woman. Your party really does have a death wish.

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-death-sentence-for-our-fishing-fleet/

  24. Denis Cooper
    October 12, 2018

    Off topic, the OBR has produced a 103 page discussion paper entitled:

    https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/BrexitDiscussionWebVersion.pdf

    “Brexit and the OBR’s forecasts”

    Which states at the bottom of page 4:

    “As shown in Chart 1.1, four quarter GDP growth in the UK slowed in the period after
    the EU referendum, the UK moved from being close to the top of the G7 GDP growth range in early 2016 to close to the bottom in 2018.”

    And then helpfully goes straight on to give that Chart 1.1 at the top of the next page, with GDP growth very obviously having slowed even more during the five quarters BEFORE the referendum than during the period AFTER the referendum.

    Yet the authors at the “independent” OBR still think that it is worth citing a number of specious studies designed to demonstrate that we have already suffered economic loss as a result of the referendum vote, although of course not the immediate and deep recession that George Osborne’s Treasury forecast if we so much as dared to vote to leave …

    Personally I don’t think we should give the EU the whip hand by trying to negotiate a free trade deal before we leave, we should just say that we only want to sort out the legal and practical details of continuing trade on the default WTO terms.

    But clearly that is not how Theresa May sees it; in fact it has now become pretty obvious to me that the British people are faced with the combination of Michel Barnier, Olly Robbins and Theresa May all working together in the interests of the EU.

    1. Denis Cooper
      October 12, 2018

      Here on the Sky News website:

      https://news.sky.com/story/downing-street-pm-wont-agree-brexit-deal-that-traps-uk-in-customs-union-11524206

      “Downing Street: PM won’t agree Brexit deal that ‘traps’ UK in customs union”

      I read:

      “Brexiteers fear that if Britain signs up to any sort of “temporary” arrangement, Brussels will try to drag it out.”

      but that is only half the story as it could equally be treacherous UK politicians – like the liar Theresa May herself, or her successor from any of the main parties.

      If we fail to achieve a clean break now it will be easier for the eurofederalist scum floating at the top of our political system to take us back in.

  25. stred
    October 12, 2018

    Off subject. After being reminded to get a flu jab on commercial radio endless times, my wife came back from and flight with a virus and I called my GP. They only do flu jabs at a clinic on Saturdays and the earliest is nearly a month away. The chemists don’t have flu jabs, only yellow fever and hepatitis. How do they manage to pay for a commercial advertising campaign and then have insufficient facilities to actually do what they are advertising?

    1. The PrangWizard
      October 12, 2018

      Walked past a chemists this morning offering ‘walk in’ flu jabs. No appointment necessary.

    2. Chris
      October 12, 2018

      To complicate matters there are apparently two sorts of flu jab: one for over 65s and a different one for those younger. Our surgery has run out even though we are priority, and no more till beginning of November. At our local pharmacy, we had the last two. Next batch due early November. Useless government planning.

  26. BenM
    October 12, 2018

    I don’t think anyone is listening to you about tariffs John..they are all in the tunnel of love..and there’s no point either in blaming the EU for all of our woes..we sat up there for forty years or more at the top table with them making the decisions..so let’s put the mirror up so that we can have a good look at ourselves first before mouthing off. Also am afraid that the England you speak of is of English Nationalism which in the end will destroy the very thing you’re trying to protect..the UK.. In Ireland they know all about nationalism..in the end it counted for very little..ourselves alone.. or Sinn Fein..gave them hardship, poverty and emigration on a huge scale..so can detect a lot of bitterness here but but..be careful..try to think of the bigger picture

    1. Anonymous
      October 12, 2018

      Then rather recently our PM started getting a prodding and went to the EU to ask “May we have some concessions ? We’re having this referendum, you see. Our people are restless about certain issues.”

      Similar restlessness exists across the EU.

      “Non. Nein.”

      “OK. I’m sure everything will turn out alright anyway.”

      Is there any chance at all of the EU top table seeing that they need to change course a bit ?

      It is meant to be a democracy, after all.

    2. hefner
      October 12, 2018

      You are asking a lot, aren’t you.

  27. a-tracy
    October 12, 2018

    Mrs May can’t have a cabinet meeting and just exclude Ministers who disagree!

    Resignations are pointless you are going to have to bring this sorry mess to an end and all resign. You will have to bring back Conservative MEPs and bring into the fold experienced European MEPs who are going to be out of work soon and get them to stand against Ministers not complying with the manifesto promise to open up World markets, and stop the EU having control over our fishing, farming and quotas, our benefits payments and free treatments.

  28. Butties
    October 12, 2018

    Disappointed (but not surprised) my post to Old Timer did not get part your ‘scrutiny wall’.
    https://brexitcentral.com/tories-press-epic-betrayal-british-public-expect-epic-punishment/
    Bye then.

  29. Duncan
    October 12, 2018

    If Eurosceptic Tory MPs won’t bring down the grotesque May then we shall have to hope the real Conservative Party that is the DUP do the job for all decent, moral UK citizens

  30. ian
    October 12, 2018

    The Elite are looking for more QE along with lower interest rates or the selling will continue on the stock markets, central banks money has died along with higher interest rates so it has become too expensive for them to buy up the world so they will continue to take profits until governments and central banks start printing again and lower interest rates around the world so they can own more of world with your money, of crouse they can start to buy the markets again at any time and rally into the new year and leave this as warning to gov and central banks to start talking their language in the new year when they can turn down market again and keep it going to the printing presses start up, it a nice way to run a world just for few people, globalist politicians are the problem and keep giving them what they want until they own the world or until the printing presses do not work any more which would mean people haven’t got jobs and no buying power and the elite assets are worthless, as forecast OBR and all the rest, you can forget them, you could say it form of blackmail, when top jobs start to go like lawayer, account, financial workers and boardroom jobs, then there will be a call for change, most like to think they have some skin in the game until they hit a brick wall.

  31. Chris
    October 12, 2018

    There are talks to extend the transition now, according to D Tel. However, what really is the most brazen example of May’s disgraceful behaviour is the release of the 29 “Brexit bombs” (D Express description) which will happen with a no deal. How Tory MPs stand for this, I do not know. I have got to the point where I hope the Tory Party is destroyed, and something honourable rises from the ashes. They do not seem willing to acknowledge the depth and extent of the treachery of Theresa May and her team, but the responsibility for it also lies with all tory MPs, as they refuse to challenge her and instead publicly support her. Disgraceful.

  32. Chris
    October 12, 2018

    A timely reminder for Theresa May and her fellow Remainers: (from comment section of D Telegraph letters today):
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2018/10/11/lettersa-single-walloon-could-sink-british-trade-mrs-mays-brexit/

    Comment by Shelley Serisier 12 Oct 2018 12:51PM
    “Perhaps Mrs May should re-examine the brief she was charged with which according to her predecessor goes like this…
    David CAMERON, Prime Minister 2015
    “And ultimately it will be the judgment of the British people in the referendum that I promised and that I will deliver. You will have to judge what is best for you and your family, for your children and grandchildren, for our country, for our future. It will be your decision whether to remain in the EU on the basis of the reforms we secure, or whether we leave. Your decision. Nobody else’s. Not politicians’. Not Parliament’s. Not lobby groups’. Not mine. Just you.

    You, the British people, will decide. At that moment, you will hold this country’s destiny in your hands. This is a huge decision for our country, perhaps the biggest we will make in our lifetimes. And it will be the final decision.

    So to those who suggest that a decision in the referendum to leave… …would merely produce another stronger renegotiation and then a second referendum in which Britain would stay… …I say think again. The renegotiation is happening right now. And the referendum that follows will be a once in a generation choice. An in or out referendum. When the British people speak, their voice will be respected – not ignored. If we vote to leave, then we will leave. There will not be another renegotiation and another referendum.”

  33. Andrew S
    October 12, 2018

    The ‘direction of travel’ regarding May’s negotiation is “to extinction…at every coming election”. Tory MPs need to decide whether to bin her now or go down with the sinking ship. Leave voters will take you down be sure of it. For many, that will end your careers as MPs and even those with big majorities may as well get used to opposition benches for ten years at least.

  34. Steve
    October 12, 2018

    Very well written item, JR.

    While I agree whole heartedly, please be careful with references to anything English. It’s considered a dirty word nowadays, and if the common man uses it he is branded a racist.

    Even the George Cross has been banned in some places.

  35. Lindsay McDougall
    October 13, 2018

    John Redwood gives a tremendous plug to English agricultural produce but his advocacy is based on quality. The poor and the lower middle classes want value for money produce and that means importing from the cheapest safe sources of supply. I would expect the USA and New Zealand to gain market share in the UK at the expense of European Member States.

    People on the Government side will sooner or later produce a list of foodstuffs that we would expect to import.

  36. Little Englander
    October 13, 2018

    JoolsB: agreed but lets get this Brexit resolved first and once done leave everything to settle down for a couple of years and then HAMMER away hard and aggressively for an English Parliament. I no more want the Scots, Welsh and ‘a politically dysfunctional/divided province’ to have the ability to influence what’s best for England than I do the EU who dictate our present and future. As for a United Kingdom – we aren’t and haven’t been for years but the majority know this deep down but refuse to admit it to themselves. An English Parliament is for another time and it will come one day.

  37. Little Englander
    October 13, 2018

    We are not a United Kingdom but we are Great Britain

  38. Ron Olden
    October 13, 2018

    This speech by John Redwood could just as well have been made by someone in support of the Corn Laws or by some Old Labour dinosaur pre 1985.

    I could keep chickens in my flat or a pig on the balcony, but I don’t, because I have more commercially valuable use for my time and capital, and I don’t want to live with livestock.

    Even if I had a garden, others in the USA, Australia, New Zealand etc, can do it cheaper and better.

    We could also mine coal or grow bananas in greenhouses, if we wanted to, but it would be much dearer than importing it all from countries that can do it cheaper.

    If foreigners want to subsidise their exports to us, all the better. When we do just that, we call it Overseas Aid and people moan about it.

    But when mugs send us subsidised stuff, we complain they’re ripping us off.

    Our Land, Labour, and Capital should go where it makes the most money, so enabling us to buy more of the things we want than if we produced them ourselves, or work less for the same standard of living.

    It’s called ‘Trade’.

    Inventing artificial notional costs for ‘food miles’ to justify a tariff is exactly the same as imposing a ‘Green’ Tax. I don’t want to pay. The food should come from where it’s best and cheapest, taking into account costs of transport.

    I’m not prepared to pay extra for lamb produced on some God forsaken semi arctic rocky crag in Tim Farron’s constituency, when I can get it cheaper from New Zealand.

    If consumers want to pay more for food which has been produced in England, that’s up to them. When we leave the EU the food can be labelled with its’ country of origin.

    And by far the best way to assist the Food Processing industry, is for it to be allowed to get its’ inputs from wherever it’s cheapest.

    The best tariff rate is 0%. Tariffs are only of (dubious) economic benefit as a means of blackmailing others to abolish theirs.

    Incidentally, there’s no such thing as an ‘English’ farming industry. There is however a UK one Lamb produced in Wales is better than lamb produced in most of England, and most of the farms near the border straddle it. Northern Ireland produces some lovely food at good prices, and so does Scotland

    What’s John Redwood suggesting now? Tariffs against Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland because they’re a long way away from Wokingham?

    In fact parts of them are closer to Wokingham than some parts of England are.

    Reply What a silly rant. We currently have managed trade with high tariffs against non EU food. I am proposing a better system with low average tariffs. I am not asking anyone to keep their own pig. I am making proposals to assist in creating a better, more profitable and more efficient agriculture here in the UK now we can make our own rules and decide our own tariffs.

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