One of the big wins from Brexit should be a new farming policy. The Common Agricultural Policy has not been kind to UK farmers. Market share in temperate food products has shrunk badly during our time in the EU, whilst cheaper products from non EU sources have been kept out by tariffs. We have developed a huge balance of trade deficit with the EU in food.
The government always responds positively when I raise the issue of how we can follow a farming policy from the 1Janaury that gives more help to UK producers, and encourages more domestic production. The government has promised to maintain current overall subsidy levels this Parliament once we are out of the EU, but to gradually redirect them. Large scale profitable farmers will enjoy less subsidy for producing food. More subsidy will go for environmental goods including the promotion of more natural landscapes.
The government will take advantage of our new freedoms to raise animal welfare standards. It is currently consulting on banning the export of live animals, and banning the transport of live animals through the UK by overseas interests. That is welcome.
I would like to see more definition of the schemes available from 1 January to offer support to farmers keen to expand their food production. Market gardeners wishing to whittle away the huge deficit on vegetables, temperate fruits and salad items need loan and grant schemes to put in the extra covered areas to boost output. As stated before, the fishing industry needs loan and grant schemes to increase our fleet capacity to land our fish. Dairy and meat producers also may need help with mechanising and improving output.
Our competitors use these methods to gain market share. The government has promised us more of a response, so bring it on.
December 5, 2020
What our farmers need is tariff free and barrier free access to our biggest market, the EU. Let’s hope Boris does a comprehensive trade deal soon
December 5, 2020
He will cave in I suspect but it will be a huge error almost (or even as bad) as his/Carrieās appalling green crap agenda. We shall see very soon indeed what his deal is any arbitration by the ECJ, restrictions on the UKās rights to competes or loss of fishing waters are unacceptable. Not a price remotely worth paying.
December 5, 2020
I fully agree, we will soon see. If he makes any promise to the EU which does not include the proviso that our Parliament can change it at will, then please note Mr J Redwood that no Conservative MP should waste their time standing for election next time
December 6, 2020
+1
December 5, 2020
Our farmers can sell pretty much all of their produce in the home market. They don’t ‘need’ access to the EU markets.
December 5, 2020
Indeed they could with some adjustments and restructuring they could. Companies adjust to changing demands all the time they have to to survive.
December 5, 2020
I agree Sea_Warrior but the last thing the farmers need though is the subsidised produce from the eu flooding into Britain. Lets give them our backing as less road miles and straight from the farm is also great for emissions cutting
December 6, 2020
They can’t. They mostly produce lamb, and the British eat very little lamb, preferring beef and chicken.
December 5, 2020
We are not allowed to supply even the U.K. market, without a ādealā we will gain massive market share in our own market.
NO DEAL NOW!
December 5, 2020
+1. Agree, but he would have walked by now if serious.
December 5, 2020
+1
December 5, 2020
Boris is to talk to Ursula Von der Leyen today. We know how he is with women so let’s hope there is someone there to keep his mind on the matter of not selling out. I am not optimistic, now that Cummings has gone.
December 5, 2020
Whats was the point of having a negotiation team if Boris is going to make the decisions himself on the last day
December 5, 2020
Because Boris is a softer touch than Lord Frost?
December 5, 2020
Why? We import a lot of food that can be grown here. All our farmers need to do is grow it and stop transporting food to other countries.
December 5, 2020
JR,
First you need to get someone to give Johnson a backbone for his call to the EU today.
ALL your phrases are couched in might be terms, so you are not confident.
Johnson was going to walk “do or die” last October 2019, then walk away in June, July and a Definite walk away on 15/10/2020, then November because legislation could be enacted in time and now we are in December when parliament goes on December holiday in about a Week! Will the IMB be resubmitted to the traitorous HoL on Monday as the EU forbid the U.K. to do so?
The EU knows Johnson caves in, his record for NOT walking away shows that. More significantly his signing of the WA and NIP in January was an abject failure by him when he had an 80 seat majority, he lied to the nation to deflect blame. He has no backbone and he lies to deflect blame. Should we expect the same by Monday?
December 5, 2020
If you voted Tory last December, you voted for the NIP. It is the ovenready deal, didnt you realise?
December 5, 2020
Notice of Intended Prosecution??
December 6, 2020
Len,
I did not vote Fake Tory party. Why write such rubbish.
Cameron did nothing in office or change any Blaire policies. In fact he employed the former Labour ministers who wrote them.
May was a traitor to her party, voters and nation and Johnson has done nothing so far other than make catastrophic decisions. After a month: WA and NIP, Haewei, HS2 and March budget! I feel totally vindicated. There inso difference between the LibLabcon. I have been saying this for ages. I am a conservative.
December 5, 2020
Garland with the Euro kept artificially low British agricultural products are too expensive in Europe.
December 6, 2020
+1 the whole market is rigged against us.
December 5, 2020
Bizarrely, many farmers do not seem to realise that silly actions, such as voting Leave, can have very serious consequences for them.
They apparently trust that no Tory government would let them suffer.
It’s a long road, that never turns.
December 5, 2020
Saving Ā£13 billion allows the UK to help farmers.
As the government has already said.
December 6, 2020
The government is not going to help farmers. It will pay them to cover their land with trees, ensuring that the land becomes unusable for any purpose other than forestry.
December 6, 2020
There have been announcements from thos government that say they will help the farmers.
Forests whilst nice will not feed our population.
December 5, 2020
Farming in Britain and worldwide has benefitted in recent years by a modest rise in a plant food gas in the atmosphere. Greenhouse measurements quantify a boost of around 14%, although varying greatly between crops. This has to be most welcome when we are adding 6 million more humans to the earth every month.
It is thus most unwelcome news to farming that the government, and inexplicably the NFU, are trying to curtail output of this harmless (within at least ten times present levels) and beneficial gas. It’s called carbon dioxide.
December 5, 2020
It is wrong to suppose that the NFU (National Farmers Union) is positioned to represent ‘grass roots’ farmers. While some are members, many ‘members’ are from other food interests, including supermarkets and processing interests. The NFU do not publish details of their membership, even to those who pay a subscription. This may explain why there appears to be a dichotomy between policies and farmers interests. It is equivalent to the CBI in not representing the interests of British industry, in the wide sense.
December 5, 2020
I very much hope the ban on transportation of livestock is implemented as soon as possible, and that the allocation of subsidies based simply on the amount of land owned is brought to a close as soon as possible.
December 5, 2020
Dear SM–Agree totally on subsidies to large landowners–It is, as in my last house, bad enough to be be surrounded by 30,000 acres without the owner getting subsidies so that he can pay a land agent to do all the farming for him.
December 5, 2020
Me too.
December 5, 2020
SM I second that. Totally abhorrent practise.
December 5, 2020
+1
December 5, 2020
Good morning.
I bet none of these measures, especially the banning of live animal transport, come to nothing. I say this because the language our kind host is using is not definite and the government, after 4 years of prevaricating over BREXIT, has done little or nothing. Compare this to legislation and actions brought in over a relatively harmless virus and you will see what I mean.
December 5, 2020
Good morning
You wouldn’t be so brutal as to say, but others might wonder whether our kind host is indulging in wishful thinking…
December 5, 2020
āwishful thinkingā: what about āperforming artsā to the benefit of his captive audience?
December 5, 2020
We are hardly captive.
December 5, 2020
Mark,
Johnson signing the WA and NIP in January with a 80 seat majority with All those half wit Fake Tory MPs voting for it showed the EU all they had to know about U.K. Politicos capitulation. Rees-Mogg, Johnson, JR and others all highlighting this period we are in would be vassalage and yet they all voted for it!
All Johnson’s MPs allowed him to lie to the nation after signing the WA and NIP! He sold out the DUP and all the Fake Tory MPs knew it. As the y say never trust a Tory MP they always put party before nation.
What would you think if you were on the EU side?
December 5, 2020
Hope – Obviously JR agrees with that, as no comment from him.
December 5, 2020
You refuse to accept that the clause asserting U.K. sovereignty and the commitment to negotiate a FTA were worth it.
December 5, 2020
They don’t look like they were worth it. The one thing that will be ‘worth it’ is for genuine Brexit MPs to resign from the Tory party as and when the deal is formalised. Voting against, assuming Labour votes with the government, will be meaningless unless it is accompanied by, or followed up with, this step. The moment of truth is drawing near…
December 5, 2020
Yes it is. And Iām thinking that we can smell our no deal Brexit. This is because the real Tories did NOT resign but sat there throwing grit on the slide.
If I am right, and Boris delivers because of the relentless pressure from real Tory MPs who have access and can present evidence and who can threaten the loss of their vote, letās hope we can give them all a standing ovation! JR has been a tower of strength, calmly and relentlessly arguing our case. He takes so much cheek I personally donāt know how he stands it. But the first rule of winning is ādonāt give upā!
December 6, 2020
The moment of truth is near.
December 6, 2020
Will you apologise if we get our true Brexit. Achieved by the most wonderful, faithful MPs in a minority and on all sides of the House i.e putting country before party, before their own careers, before all else?
I want to see dozens of apologies early tomorrow morning.
December 6, 2020
Lynn
You said as much last time we had a deadline. Remind me, what happened ?
December 5, 2020
Carrie might have something to say about this so I’m actually a bit more optimistic.
December 5, 2020
We aren’t out yet and it looks very much like Brussels will keep prevaricating till the last minute in the hope of extending the transition period.
We really have had enough of this nonsense so walk away and give some clarity.
December 5, 2020
Yes the tone of todayās article is that of a āwish listā.
There seems to be a reluctance to walk away and go to a WTO arrangement. The justifications for not walking away are wearing thin. The idea that there is āblameā attached to walking is laughable, but it betrays the governmentās mindset that WTO is a failure. The EU will be aware of this.
My hunch is it will be BRINO or a last minute extension of talks(deadlines have been breached so many times already). I hope I am wrong.
December 5, 2020
Dear Ian–Unfortunately a short and amortising transition period may be the least bad option re some of the disagreements. Macron would have to stop talking baloney on fishing of course.
December 5, 2020
The negotiators have had since June 2016 to sort this out. So no more prevarication at massive cost in terms of uncertainty and payments to the EU with no representation of late. Just how much more of this nonsense do we have to put up with?
We voted OUT not for a deal – remember.
There was a two year window to leave. We are now two and a half years beyond that.
Talk of compromise ā no compromise whatsoever thank you. Any compromise will be to the benefit of the EU. What compromise on the way in?
December 5, 2020
Takes two to tango. Boris is prevaricating away himself, presumably in order to bounce something through Parliament at the 11th hour. Either repeal of the law banning more extension (my bet) or a terrible ‘deal’. Keir Starmer has already said Labour will vote for ANY deal.
December 5, 2020
Ian, but why wouldn’t they after the dire performance of the Fake Tory party? Even former Tory ministers of Thatxhers era would not commit to voting for Johnson!
May should have put an end to voting for their party but gullible idiots on this site and nationwide voted for them!
December 5, 2020
Like Portillo to Johnson’s face.
December 5, 2020
Hope – So who exactly should the “gullible idiots on this site and nationwide” have voted for?
If you have a viable alternative then offer it but until then why do you try everything to undermine those who achieve some of it in spite of the tactics of you and your fellow travellers?
December 5, 2020
+1
December 5, 2020
One potentially viable alternative, Nigel Farage, backed down, but let’s remember the context; dozens of Tory MPs putting party before country, backing a lying Remainer to deliver Brexit rather than backing a genuine Brexiter to fight for it. After that, there was no one worth voting for. Massive abstention would have achieved more than what was achieved, tye nature of which will become apparent soon enough to even the betrayal-deniers.
December 6, 2020
The majority of Mayās Remain party would not allow a Brexiteer into the shortlist, remember the context.
We all had to vote for Boris because anything else was taking the cyanid capsule.
Farage conceded Brexit on Referendum night, he needed his job as he keeps telling us, he wanted Brexit after he retired!
Abstaining would be death, they voted the correct and brave way, as you will see shortly when you face a mountain of humble pie.
December 5, 2020
form Common Agriculteral Policy to UK Agriculteral Policy – a logical post Brexit development. Success with it!
December 5, 2020
Thank you. Yes we are confident of recovering our much higher animal welfare standards and unleashing our farmers to provide for our own massive market as well as export to the world.
December 5, 2020
@Lynn Atkinson: believing in one’s country’s strength is a good thing.
December 5, 2020
It is a good thing. People make countries and we all need to makes countries we are proud of. Of course our Ag. Policy will be exclusively to benefit our farmers rather than the reverse which they have been existing under for too long.
December 5, 2020
At least we in the UK will actually have a say in that Policy, we never did in the eurocracy.
December 5, 2020
RM -who’s ‘we’? – a few oddities in the HoC who make a lot of stupid policies all the time. What ‘say’ can anyone else have?
December 5, 2020
Thank you for the good wishes. The UK CAP canāt be any worse than the discredited EU CAP , and will of course be tailor made for the UK and not France to which most other Eu countries find themselves subservient to.
December 5, 2020
Is HS2, broadband, nuclear power, CO2, railways, electric cars etc. policies tailor made for the UK? How will we get tailor made policies in the UK? Do we have the skill for it? Perhaps at least a few but…..
December 5, 2020
It should be, or will it be ‘Tory Cuts’. With the pandemic to pay for it could be the excuse they are looking for. I expect they will do subsidies for a year or two and then phase it out, to be added to our food bills.
December 5, 2020
The CAP is a system devised to subsidise French farmers. If the Dutch with your vast industrialised food production want to pay taxes to allow French farmers to take it easy, fair play to you.
December 5, 2020
@Mike Wilson: The Netherlands as the world’s second or third largest exporter in the agri sector can’t have suffered that much from the CAP. The CAP may also help Polish and other farmers. The gradual reform of the CAP during the last decade may have gone unnoticed in UK media. Of course most Dutch would like it to be smaller in favour of other sectors, but even in the Netherlands there are different opinions, one of them a powerful and well organised farmers lobby.
December 5, 2020
it certainly has gone unnoticed by the UK farming community…..wonder why?
December 6, 2020
Flowers. Hardly agriculture frankly.
December 6, 2020
The level of ignorance is striking:
UKās agriculture contribution to GVA is 0.6% (Ā£9.9bn).
In 2017, the Netherlands were the second exporter of agricultural products in the world behind the USA ($111bn including $10bn flowers, $7.4bn vegetables). WEF figures (so unacceptable by the deluded (hi Lynn, FredH) on this blog).
December 6, 2020
So if 10 billion was flowers and 7.4 billion was veg….what made up the total to 111 billion?
December 8, 2020
@hefner
According to a CBS article, 25% of their exports are in fact re-exports. The good old Rotterdam scam again.
source: “Agricultural exports hit record level”, 17/01/2020
Correcting data aside, NL has mechanised factory farming to great heights however;
– they have put village farmers in Africa out of business in local markets
– adopting similar levels of mechanisation should also work for us.
They export 10b euro of food to the UK, excluding re-exports that suggests 8b euro’s worth which should encourage local UK investment.
Also we can adjust tariffs to suit our, rather than EU’s, interests such as with rice, tea, coffee, meat, wine etc
December 6, 2020
There seems to be a lot our farmers could learn from the Netherlands Peter and Japan with mechanisation, perhaps without the handouts we are told large landowners get for doing nothing with the land perhaps they will have to become better investors and creators.
December 5, 2020
Well let’s hope our welfare standards are better than the EU’s. Animals kept in terrible conditions and wild birds slaughtered in the most shocking ways for no good reason. Dont get me started on the production of Foi Gras or Frogs legs. It’s a disgrace.
December 5, 2020
JR
Fully agree with all you say. I’m glad a ban on live animal exports is being considered, and I hope the RoI will not be allowed to transport such to mainland Europe via the UK.
December 5, 2020
here here!, I second those sentiments.
I even believe we should tax RoI lorries as they pass through Britain to the eu, they greatly contribute to the wear and tear on our roads
December 5, 2020
Yes. Like a lot of people I canāt wait. Boris must not crumble.
December 5, 2020
He surely will do.
December 6, 2020
Would have loved to follow you āover the topā. Really inspiring.
December 5, 2020
Fine but where is all the money going to come from. The Government seem to want to waste Ā£ billions on expensive energy and green crap, turn farmers into landscape curators paid for by other tax payers and waste billions on absurd nonsense like HS2.
The government can only subsidise X industry by over taxing other industries and people (plus you waste much in government administration costs, misdirection, corruption and waste). You invariable do far, far more economic damage by this taxation than any benefits arising from the subsidies. You also get huge misdirection of capital and push the overtaxed overseas.
It seems from reports that Boris is about to cave in this weekend to the EU – exactly as I predicted.
December 5, 2020
Boris will be gone in January. All the green crap will be kicked into the long grass while they battle with the little problem of avoiding millions of people being made bankrupt.
December 5, 2020
Unlikely and to be replaced by whom. Hopefully the green crap will just be words rather than hugely damaging and idiotic actions but it does not seem so.
December 5, 2020
Well he didn’t he prefer being “dead in a ditch” as a better alternative to capitulation?
Simply not to be trusted.
December 5, 2020
Good Morning,
PLEASE DON’T let Bunter Boris anywhere near completing negotiations on our behalf. We know he doesn’t do details, he doesn’t speak clearly enough, he doesn’t like to spend time working out issues. Bluster and bombast is not what’s needed.
December 5, 2020
I agree. His personal involvement doesn’t fill me with confidence. He would perform better as PM if he had the self-awareness to recognise what he is bad at. His leading on the announcement of increased Defence spending was another example of his getting it wrong. The Defence Secretary would have done a better job of it, from inside the Commons.
December 5, 2020
Too late. Blowers will be speaking to Von Der Leyen today. I wonder what the chances are of Blowers personally intervening, but then failing to do a deal?
I read that a senior member of the ERG said, “I think it’s more likely than not that we will have a deal by Monday. I’m cautiously optimistic about it, subject to the detail – the devil is in the detail. ” Care to comment Sir John? (I presume the source isn’t your good self…)
December 5, 2020
Well heās āpersonally intervenedā and described the obstacles. Massive. They will go through ten motions tomorrow so they can say they have done everything on Monday and Tuesday and get the legislation through the Commons.
You guys never take into account positioning yourself so that the House has to agree and approve the legislation.
December 5, 2020
I don’t catch your drift…
December 5, 2020
Obviously the ānegotiationsā have been a waste of time for months if not years. But to legislate in the U.K. you have to get a majority in the HOC. Therefore you have to thwart any objection the opposition to your plan will raise – like āyou did not negotiate long and hard enoughā.
So sometimes you have to do unnecessary things so that you can prove e.g. that you negotiated until the last second, and every MP knows it, and they canāt send you back to negotiate more. Then you stand a chance of getting your Bill through the House.
December 6, 2020
Hang on, are you suggesting that Blowers himself is angling for a ‘No Deal’? I’m trying to make sense of what you are saying, and this is the closest I can get – even though Blowers working towards a ‘No Deal’ is an absurd suggestion. In the end, Blowers is going to get what he wants. Either his deal (Labour won’t oppose it), or a ‘No Deal’. If you think that’s a ‘No Deal’, then I think that shows great imagination.
December 6, 2020
Simeon Boris is a Remainer. He wants to remain really. But he became PM because he promised to deliver Brexit. He was forced into his WA because of the rabble HOC. So he has been negotiating for a Deal, but now is forced to acknowledge, like all other Remainers, Blair, Cameron, May etc etc that the EU treats The British like sh1t because they are British. So he is FORCED into no deal. We will get No Deal. As I write the Cabinet has approved that. Frost is winding up the ātalksā. Tomorrow the IM Bill is presented which entrenches no deal or rather WTO. The next day, Tuesday, The Finance Bill – entrenches WTO.
Itās over! A Remainer has been forced to accept āno dealā. A famous victory after a 60 year long terrible āwar of witsā.
And Farage, as you can see, bereft of Brexit the words of which we taught him, is lost. He proposes opposing cycle lanes. Thatās his level.
December 6, 2020
Lynn – – -Didn’t Dave and then Theresa promise to deliver Brexit?
The Party has form- -did you not notice?
December 5, 2020
Don’t worry. He won’t be alone in the room. He will have a couple of wise men with him.
Mme Ursula von der Leyen will look good, but she will be relaying the sentiments of M. Macron and Frau Merkel. Poor M. Barnier will be there too no doubt.
Expect nothing.
December 5, 2020
Ref your last para, the current state of negotiations clearly describes the lie that the EU is our negotiating partner. Right now it is Mr. Macron, and, no doubt, it will soon be the real boss, Empress Merkel, who will decide.
Put a gag on BB and sit him in the corner where he can’t do any harm.
December 5, 2020
No doubt it will be a “… substantial DEAL.”
December 5, 2020
If you really care about encouraging ‘more domestic production’ then your party is going to have to stop destroying the countryside and stop turning farm-land into tarmac-land. The latest developments in Kent to have attracted my attention appear to be homing in on, of all places, the East Malling agricultural research station! Often, the Johnson government seems to be pursuing incompatible objectives.
December 5, 2020
Just choose the more terrible option and that is likely the truth.
āBuild Back Betterā
āCanny Concrete Carpetingā
āAbolish All Agricultureā
āFinally Finish Farmingā
Thatās what they want!
December 6, 2020
āTheyā will get what we want. We have got our country back! Give credit for Godās sake. Or are you too mean spirited and hate to lose you main whinge?
December 5, 2020
“the promotion of more natural landscapes.”
The first artificial impediment to natural landscapes that leaps to my mind would be windfarms.
December 5, 2020
Novel
150% correct
December 5, 2020
Indeed and only there due to tax payer subsidies, a rigged energy market and a rigged planning system. You cannot build a cottage or two there Mr Farmer but fifteen or so 80 metre tall, bat, insect and bird killing giant wind turbines are just fine.
December 5, 2020
Yes Mr Farmer I realise that wind farms need lots of fossil fuels to construct, maintain & connect to the grid and to back up when the wind is too slight or too strong. Also they they save trivial amounts of CO2 and often none at all. Also that CO2 is not a significant problem anyway. But they are very visible religious and political symbols just like churches that is why the socialist loons want them.
December 5, 2020
Good point LL.
December 5, 2020
+ 1
December 5, 2020
The real problem is that much ag. land is owned by ānon-farmersā as tax breaks. Itās now too expensive for farmers to get a return per acre. So the tax-break townie farm owning guys like wind-farms for their income and from London, they canāt see them!
Iām worried about business rates being demanded from landlords on empty properties. Landlords have been rentless all year thanks to Govt legislation setting aside their lease contracts. Pension funds are going to be devastated – what do you think the business rates of Debenhams on Oxford Street are?
December 6, 2020
Abolish inheritance tax and then people would not have the fiscal incentive to buy farm land for tax reasons. 40% IHT over just Ā£325k is an appallingly damaging and hugely high tax. It damages the economy and reduces the tax base massively.
Nor would they have such an incentive to leave the UK and to invest and work elsewhere.
December 6, 2020
+1
December 6, 2020
Exactly !!
December 5, 2020
Not in the eyes of eco warriors.
For them…the first impediment is FARMING.
I very much doubt if the far away powers want us to farm.
Their dream is to have most food factory produced..artificial meat which is already a ( disgusting) thing. Tried it. Yuk.
1% will have their meat and eat it though!
December 5, 2020
Not much of the English landscape is remotely natural anyway. It has been drained, grazed, deforested, flooded with dams, quarried, fenced, ploughed, farmed and controlled by mankind for very many centuries.
December 5, 2020
And then completely trashed with turbines.
December 5, 2020
The first impediment that leaps to my mind is houses.
December 5, 2020
And millions of houses for millions of “Migrants”.
December 5, 2020
+1. too many, too quickly
December 5, 2020
“Nothing for you here. This is a local country, for local people”
December 5, 2020
Wherever they move the price of houses drops satisfactorily. Ā£50k for a between the wars semi in Manchester now.
December 5, 2020
I think that this translates as “you the unwashed won’t be able to afford much from the European Union, but that won’t bother us, the rich, with our fine burgundies and foie gras, and that will do wonders for our balance of payments”.
John also claims that the CAP has not been “kind” to UK farmers, but then celebrates their likely having to compete against cheap imports from the entire globe.
I can’t see how this lot is supposed to hang together with any sense.
December 5, 2020
I’m off to try and find evidence of a UK pineapple farm.
December 5, 2020
Martin your thoughts do not hang together. They exude envy. We will be importing mangoes and helping developing counties, not potatoes, except of course Jersey Royals.
December 5, 2020
Wines from the EU will no doubt still be sold in petrol cans for 50p a litre because the EU insisting on maintaining prices for less and less demand will demand that āexcessā production of fine burgundy is poured down the drains.
So everything will remain very cheap, Martin, and getting cheaper, and VAT free to as we will have duty free restored.
All good news.
Letās see the back of Barnier today!
December 5, 2020
Childish nonsense as usual.
December 5, 2020
It’s Brexit in a nutshell. The rest of the world is going to open its doors to our exports with no restrictions at all, while we can choose to keep out imports as suits us. Fantasy of course, but it will all get very real in four weeks time, once people discover what Brexit REALLY involves
December 5, 2020
Nonsense Limburg.
The UK is offering free trade arrangements for nations who want that or WTO schedules if they don’t.
Like the rest of the world outside the EU does.
December 5, 2020
I can think of only one small country that trades on purely WTO schedules with the rest of the world.
The US, for instance, trades with the EU with over a hundred sector specific agreements; similar to Switzerland nearer home.
WTO rules are merely a bottom level backstop that states the maximum tariff a WTO member can apply to any other member; they are rapidly becoming irrelevant in modern world trade, thanks to Trump.
I sense on this site, with multiple comments from leave voters; that they are getting to squeaky-bum time; starting to realise the consequences of the major mistake they made in the referendum.
December 5, 2020
If the two sides like extra elements of agreements and better trading arrangements well that is fine by me acorn.
Are you going to battle against such agreements ?
December 5, 2020
Another Continental. Are you aware that the huge majority of countries that trade with the EU do so on WTO terms? Have you noticed that the EU set tariffs to support their national production? Do you understand that 34% of world trade is between the English speaking nations?
You are little Europeans. Shame.
December 5, 2020
We unwashed can recall the impact on the price of food after joining the Eu. Milk, meat and Butter mountains created to reduce supplies to the shops and increase prices so that French farmers can sell to us and live the life they desire. We unwashed recall how the Eu then sold off these mountains on the cheap to the likes of Russia. We unwashed have enough wisdom to work out that our own farmers, large and small, will benefit from the increased opportunity to do business on equal terms with the world instead of in the expensive straight jacket of the eurocracy. I am sure that the cost of transporting your cheap imports of food stuffs from abroad is not cheap and that our own farmers can compete on both quality and price.
December 5, 2020
Are you suggesting trade barriers against food imports from everywhere? Good idea! What about non food items? Again, great idea. All globalisation has achieved is the impoverishment of much of the working class who now work in low paid, insecure, pensionless jobs in service industries. Why anyone thinks a Single Market is a good idea, baffles me.
December 5, 2020
Anti-globalisation man uses Chinese made computer, powered by French generated energy, to post a comment on a American owned website, while drinking his Kenyan coffee, with sugar from the Caribbean.
Ironic.
Globalisation is very far from perfect. But we tried the alternative – isolationism – twice in the last century. The first time it led to the First World War. The second led to the Second World War. Both of which put your plenty grievances in perspective.
December 5, 2020
Whilst wearing a mask and unable to go down to his local because it has gone bust – and his Mum has been killed (by lockdown) … his life and freedoms curtailed beyond recognition.
Trillions in debt and mass unemployment and deskilling.
Turned out really well, didn’t it.
December 5, 2020
PS, Don’t kid yourself that we’re not headed to WW3 now.
December 5, 2020
Annoying isnāt it as we invented the computer, are denied the right to generate our own cheap energy, invented the WWW on which this site sits, took and planted coffee in Kenya and very many cane fields across the world.
So without the British, none of this would be happening.
December 5, 2020
MiC
“John also claims that the CAP has not been ākindā to UK farmers, but then celebrates their likely having to compete against cheap imports from the entire globe.”
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You miss the point entirely. The EU – effectively led by French farmers – has been dictating our domestic farming and environmental policy for decades.
It’s about taking back control and the opportunities it will create.
December 5, 2020
steve
Taking back control? To what?
Grubbing out miles of hedgerows? Stubble burning? Destroying set aside which the EU introduced to stop the damage done by intensive farming to fragile eco systems?
Living in East Anglia I remember what farmers did before EU membership insisted on higher standards.
December 5, 2020
Certainly weren’t building housing estates and fields of solar panels.
December 5, 2020
We were draining our flood plains and conserving our fish.
December 5, 2020
I am all for looking after the planet, but you cannot feed people with wild flowers, set aside, and huge protected areas for goodness sake.
The more land we use up for protection, wildlife, houses, retail parks and infrastructure, the less there is for food production.
Thus more food will need to be be imported, more food miles travelled, all at greater financial cost and pollution.
Surely Farms should produce good quality food of whatever type.
December 5, 2020
āSet asideā was an EU dictat.
December 6, 2020
Lynn
Then let us hope the Government do not continue with it.
December 6, 2020
They will not. We hope the smaller fields and hedgerows will be re-established. Small farmers producing quality food and drink and making a profit from same! Our natural landscape is not the same as the ārewildingā of Britain promised by the EU. We have farmed and gardened and cared for this soil from which we sprang and to which we will return, for thousands of years. We will soon be able to stop attacking it by law, and care for it as before! hip .. hip .. š
December 5, 2020
āthe government has promisedā
Well…thatās the end of that then!
December 5, 2020
A truly natural landscape is not compatible with efficient food production. The first step in the agrarian era was changing the natural landscape. It is a question of balance. Out there , away from Westminster are millions of insects and birds who all contribute to the production of food either through pollination or as food for each other. Well kept hedges and sensible margins provide shelter and food for them and shelter for food crops.
Where you are quite right is in the speed of change. decide what you are trying to achieve and discuss it with the farming community. If we slowly become more reliant on cane sugar for instance after we can buy it free of EU tariffs we can use the beet fields for other crops. We have already seen what inept government emotive dabbling has done to the car industry, learn the lesson.
The fishing industry needs more than boats and shore facilities. We need a national training scheme in everything maritime with lots of land and sea based apprenticeships. Do not forget it will need naval protection until some in the EU learn that they have to play by our rules.
December 5, 2020
Canāt disagree with what you suggest.
However, you say, āenvironmental goods including the promotion of more natural landscapes.ā
What does that even mean? Apart from the towns… everywhere we travel around the country looks pretty natural to me!
In the London suburb where I live, there are several parks all with mown areas and overgrown areas… (natural?)
What does the government want the land to be – as in Tudor times when there was 3million people in England? If so, a good start would be to halt mass illegal immigration.
December 5, 2020
3 million people – mmm – if only. Denmark’s 4 million seem to be doing all right, Iceland’s 320,000 also seem to be doing all right as well as Scandinavia with less than 10 million each. Oh I forgot Liechtenstein, Belgium etc., how many there?
Why does the UK need 65 million + with its attendant problems?
December 5, 2020
So the current EU subsidies, net of our contributions, are said to go unconditionally to land owners. My experience of looking at a for sale holding is at variance with much observance required.
So what, I ask, is the difference to that proposed apart from cutting the cost of the EU out of the process?
December 5, 2020
This will all depend on the size of the fudge being discussed.
I fear the Brexit we get will be a pale shadow of what we should have got.
December 5, 2020
I believe that Boris remain unaware of the cost of his ālost yearā. Were he to have a quantified number (include the destruction of capital and therefore pensions etc. )that he wrought, he would see that there is no possibility of our being able to afford any deal with the EU.
Can you get that number to him JR. Today please? Letās put the EU to bed for Christmas.
If that is achieved I will eat my gruel with joy.
December 5, 2020
I thought the gov plan is to cut meat production in half by 2030 and windmills, solar farms and plants trees with rest going to housing for overseas people. I think you’re on the wrong page the spider has it all work out along with killing off consumerism.
December 5, 2020
“France derails Brexit talks,” is the Times’ main headline. It says the suspension of trade negotiations last night came after the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, “ambushed” Britain at the insistence of French President Emmanuel Macron.
The European Union is said to want access to the UK’s fishing waters for up to ten years after the end of the transition period, according to the Daily Telegraph. It says a senior government source described the EU’s demands as “ridiculous” and “frankly laughable”. The paper reports Boris Johnson could now make a “personal plea” to Mr Macron this weekend to break the deadlock.
The latest development is neatly characterised by the Daily Mail’s main headline as “Le bust-up”. According to the paper, a close ally of Mr Macron said he would veto any trade deal that went against French interests.
December 5, 2020
Farming and cheap tampons. Gosh. This Brexit thing is great.
Good luck keeping farmers in business. You are going to need it.
December 5, 2020
your preoccupation with tampons is becoming disturbing.
December 5, 2020
I think slightly less expensive tampons are great.
I am just bemused that it is the only benefit of Brexit 70-year-old men can come up with.
I am sure your granddaughters would be delighted – had you not stolen their futures.
December 5, 2020
Lol
December 5, 2020
Farming survived for centuries before the EU was born.
If anything CAP has caused them more harm than good.
December 5, 2020
Hippocrates: āLet food be thy medicine and medicine be thy foodā.
Preferably organically farmed local food.
Sadly weāve built houses on our farms in Wokingham. All that top grade soil, our life support system, gone to waste.
Short-sighted.
December 5, 2020
Enigma – doesn’t JR live there? I suppose he was overruled and cries a lot before falling asleep.
December 5, 2020
JR is the original āJoe Coolā, unflappable. You would be impressed if you met him. Everyone else is.
December 5, 2020
Going use hundreds of billions in MMT money for it along with climate change but can’t spare 5 billion a year for social care.
December 5, 2020
The risk is that with the policy in the hands of Government, we end up breathing wonderful clean air but die of starvation.
December 5, 2020
Apparently Ministers spend their time ROLEPLAYING.
So they āmodelā a virus, lay waste the entire country and then roleplay a āsecond winter waveā! What??
Iād say I was shocked but do any of us have a āshock buttonā anymore?
ā Letās pretend that youāre the virus and Iām the nurse and you have to try to kill me and I get this big needle and…..ā
December 5, 2020
“The government has promised us more of a response, so bring it on.” – it has had four years to plan for this so delays, excuses, inchoate notions ought not to feature.
December 5, 2020
So the big win is that we get to throw more of our money at farmers . What does losing look like John?
December 5, 2020
In your limited context losing would be throwing money at French, Dutch, Irish and German farmers.
December 5, 2020
We will give farmers Ā£1 for every Ā£ if we want to, not launder it through the EU washing machine and get back 40p.
December 5, 2020
The CAP.
December 5, 2020
As I understand it, inside the EEA, we are not allowed to trade with West Africa. Once out, then Africa is open to us. This means Ghanayan cocoa and coffee, Sierra Leone diamonds? Nigerian oil and palm oil? And a lot of food too.
When the British Empire flourished, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Nigeria were prosperous places trading with Britain. We made sure of that. Today not so much. This is another benefit.
December 5, 2020
Mike
I have made this argument here repeatedly. BREXIT is not just a benefit to the UK but, to many parts of the world.
December 5, 2020
Have you not heard of the EU Ghana Economic Partnership Agreement?
Are you not aware that farmers in Ghana are currently being threatened with massive hikes in tariffs unless the Ghana government bows to a “take or leave it” demand from the UK government? (The situation is being in the press today.)
Liz Truss is refusing to roll over the current trade arrangements unless the Ghana government gives in to the UK’s demands. Not exactly an attitude which is to the benefit of Ghanaian farmers, I would say.
December 6, 2020
The Ghana EU agreement has nothing to do with us.
December 5, 2020
Perhaps the decline of British farming and membership of the EU are just coincidental. How about British farming declining because the next generation have been forced out of the countryside, because they can’t compete with wealthy people buying up cottages for second homes and holiday lets?
December 5, 2020
No – its the milk (and quotas) , lamb and beef prices relentlessly being driven down by supermarkets making farming a hobby not a business.
December 5, 2020
And farmland is too expensive (because of tax advantages) so hard to wrest a return per acre.
December 5, 2020
Agreed, Lynn. The price of farmland is a central problem to the success of our post-Brexit farm policy (Ā£10k per acre in the UK; only Ā£1k per acre in Europe). We need many more small farms, run by owners not tenants, and a move towards working with natural processes and away from large-scale industrial farming. Such small owner-occupied farms and small holdings are supportive of the wider rural community, greatly increasing on- and off-farm employment, variety of produce, better nutrition of product (and thus health in the general population), better animal welfare, and increased long-term yields.
Tax policy that encourages large farms, ownership by the few, ownership by investors rather than practical farmers, and inflates the price of land far beyond the means of most young farmers (a barrier to entry) will continue to ruin our home industry.
December 5, 2020
Exactly. We need the polar opposite.
December 5, 2020
You are arguing for a French model.
This only works with huge subsidies.
If you want a Uversin of EU CAP system then fine.
But if you want affordable food this system won’t deliver it.
Large farms do have economies of scale.
December 5, 2020
Edward2 we are not speaking for 10 acre farms! We are speaking of 400 to 500 acre farms or hill farms of 1,000 acres.
December 5, 2020
The government always responds positively?! Youāve had four and a half years to put whatās needed into action. Loans for new fields of poly tunnels etc. should have been in place three years ago. We should have been producing far more of our own temperate food already. Seriously, you are talking about what to do after January 1st!!! What was the last 4 1/2 years for? What was the transition period for? HOPELESS.
If you were running a business facing a major change to how you do business, and you waited until after the major change to act, you would be sacked. But we canāt sack you lot because the other managers are even worse.
December 5, 2020
Mike
They did not do or plan anything because all along they wanted things to stay just the same. ie To be ruled from Brussels.
December 5, 2020
Mike Wilson – excellent points – what the hell happened or rather didn’t happen?
December 5, 2020
They didn’t think it would actually happen, nor did they want it, that’s why no planning has been done.
December 5, 2020
How will production be encouraged and increased if subsidies are given to maintaining and enlarging natural landscapes? I dare say that will include more trees on good land. How does that make sense?
December 5, 2020
So the government’s plan for ‘agriculture’ is: ‘Large scale profitable farmers will enjoy less subsidy for producing food. More subsidy will go for environmental goods including the promotion of more natural landscapes.’
So we’ll all go out and enjoy the fresh air in the countryside where they won’t be growing crops or raising animals for food any more? You have previously deplored how this country can now only produce 50-60% of its own food, Sir John. Quite right, but this government is going to make that worse. Your ‘market gardeners’ aren’t going to make up the deficit, especially if it’s more tempting to sell their land for property development, as promoted by your Housing Minister Robert Jenrick.
December 5, 2020
CAP was a French protection racket for inefficient farming and was supposed to be reformed to level up UK farming but never was. Another of the many promises they never honoured themselves!
The EU play the game like this if it were football :-
EU set the rules and have an EU Referee.
They move the goalposts on wheels.
VAR is decided by ECJ.
No objections are tolerated.
Injury time is indefinite until the team they want to win capitulates.
December 5, 2020
Until the team they don’t want to win capitulates!
December 5, 2020
And EU play 95% of games at Home never away!
December 5, 2020
ukretired123
Wiki
“Extensive tracts of fertile land, the application of modern technology, and EU subsidies have combined to make France the leading agricultural producer and exporter in Europe representing 20% of the EU’s agricultural production and the world’s third biggest exporter of agricultural products.”
Inefficient indeed. What do YOU call a success?
December 5, 2020
The Common Agricultural Policy was designed to benefit France.
It is the biggest single budget in the EU at ā¬60 billion.
Guess who gets the biggest amount of money?
Blair gave away part of our valuable opt out with the promise of radical overhaul of the system.
It never happened.
CAP costs UK households an extra Ā£20 a week in artificially increased food prices.
December 5, 2020
Never rely on Wiki Meg.
December 5, 2020
So why do they now need protection AND subsidies?
December 5, 2020
I would be interested to know how the government define “More subsidy will go for environmental goods including the promotion of more natural landscapes.”?
My main concern this what is its definition of this statement will be? And I really hope it is not wind turbines and permanent grass (PG01), as neither obviously do not provide food.
December 5, 2020
J Bush And I really hope it is not wind turbines and permanent grass (PG01), as neither obviously do not provide food.
Not food but a nice little earner for the farmer to sit back and do nothing. Why farm when you can earn a pretty penny doing nothing and in many cases devaluing the property around you and making your neighbours life a misery. I have first hand experience of this with friends and collegues.
December 5, 2020
With the banning of live animal transport across the UK land bridge, Brexit pigs will fly (geddit).
For an Agriculture policy it seem to have little to do with farming for food. In fact, it appears to run down domestic food farming and importing everything from thousands of miles away, Singapore style! But, we will end up with large green deserts full of butterflies, wasps, and nature walks for the unemployed.
The new direct ferry route from Dunkirk to Rosslare should reduce congestion in Kent and the Welsh Ferry Ports with no UK customs requirements. If it gets some of those very large catamaran RoRo boats that can do forty knots, there will be no need for a UK land bridge.
December 5, 2020
Thank God, our roads will be spared.
December 5, 2020
I am all for giving money to farmers to pay them for producing more food but the new agricultural regime seems far more directed at making them ‘stewards of the countryside’.
If the government really meant to improve things as a result of Brexit it would bring back Owen Paterson and let him do what is necessary. Mr Eustice has clearly gone native to the Green blob.
December 5, 2020
Probably better economy to pay the farmers to keep the countryside looking pretty for the tourist industry, than get them to grow food that can be imported really cheap.
December 5, 2020
Pay for lots of small Capability Lancelot Brown types, eh?
December 5, 2020
Will there be some action taken against pollution from farms, and if so, when ?
December 5, 2020
Its irrelevant what the UK farming policy if its subject to EU level playing field controls and any dispute governed by the ECJ
December 5, 2020
Relax.
December 5, 2020
If we are to ban live animal exports, we need more abattoirs and processing plants. They need to be able to cut meat to the specs of the receiving country.
We could easily have mobile abattoirs too. Then the animals travel even less far.
December 5, 2020
No, we need to stop eating animals. It is barbaric and our descendants will regard us as savages. Mobile abattoirs? You mean mobile killing machines.
December 5, 2020
We are carnivores.
December 5, 2020
70% of people from India are wholly vegetarian. Homo sapiens’ appendix is supposed to go back to a time when we lived mostly on foliage and grasses. Most of humankind are omnivores. A vegetarian diet today is so varied that we don’t need meat to thrive.
Quite frankly the idea of eating the flesh,ribs, kidneys, liver etc of another mammal is abhorrent to me.
December 6, 2020
Out stomach is designed perfectly to digest animal foods and they provide the bulk of vitamins and minerals in the diet. Animal foods are largely building/feeding foods. Plant foods are good for cleansing and detoxifying but they do not feed the body to any serious degree. Eating both works in harmony to keep us healthy.
December 6, 2020
āThe biggest myth, of course, is that India is a largely vegetarian country. But that’s not the case at all. Past “non-serious” estimates have suggested that more than a third of Indians ate vegetarian food. If you go by three large-scale government surveys, 23%-37% of Indians are estimated to be vegetarian.3 Apr 2018ā BBC
You keep repeating this margaret where is your source?
December 6, 2020
Nutrient Dense
The millions of Indian people who are wholly vegetarians do manage very well. Apart from that they don’t seem to have such problems with obesity as we do. Americans who eat more animal flesh than most suffer the worst obesity problems.
And the vegetarian cuisine of India is one of the world’s most imaginative and sustaining.
December 6, 2020
Americans eat more than most of everything! Their diet is based on processed junk food high in carbohydrates and unhealthy vegetable oils, which is why they are obese and unwell. Meat is not fattening but theirs is factory farmed which is unnatural and unhealthy.
Indians cook with ghee!
December 6, 2020
if only they would try cow – and find out what they are missing.
December 5, 2020
Or we could eat less meat. Then you wouldnāt have to kill so many animals in the first place.
December 5, 2020
Actually we need to eat a lot less cake.
Save the NHS !
I understand your sentiments about animals but a diet comprising meat and fish is very healthy, actually.
December 5, 2020
How about breeding stock? Semen export is only half the picture…
December 5, 2020
Yes, that would be ideal. But, the NIMBYs will not allow it. The greatest problem is the disconnect between urban & rural communities. Food , including meat , comes ‘from a supermarket’ .
Locallism,ie local farm to fork is required but will not happen.
Live exports are not themselves the problem, which is the handling and subsequent treatment for the receiving market. We have high standards in UK. We should only supply live animals into equivalent standards, but we don’t. We should only accept imported food products from places where our standards are met or exceeded, but we don’t. The farming industry can meet our needs but will need to be given confidence in battle with the mainly monopolistic supermarket buyers who for years have used the subsidies paid ,to force farmers to accept below cost of production prices.
December 5, 2020
Subsidising farmers is just replicating the ghastly EU protectionist scheme of systematically blocking out farmers from the rest of the world.
I’d be the happiest guy in the world with a decent slab of Argentine beef in front of me.
Let’s give the poorer nations that really need it a leg-up, as transport does not need to be an issue these days, although I dare say our incompetence will ensure that it is.
December 5, 2020
+1
December 5, 2020
What would count as a more natural landscape?
Our landscape ( or what is left of it) has been unnatural since post Mesolithic times surely?
Enclosure Acts…end of strip system….Agricultural Revolution etc have all shaped our landscape.
So I suppose they want to create virgin forest then? Complete with wolves and bears..you know…just in case anyone was doing a bit of sheep farming?
December 5, 2020
Seems so.
December 5, 2020
Whilst I agree wholeheartedly with the tenor of sJRās message, there are others with different priorities which could be a brake on progress. I highlight the drive to reach zero carbon emissions.
The National Audit Office has reported (from the DT, Emma Gatten 4 Dec 2020) āthere was an increasing recognition in Government that consumers would have to reduce their meat and dairy consumption.ā The Environmental Audit Committee has also heard āif we are going to achieve these carbon budgets, we’ve got to be significantly reducing traffic.”
The EAC chairman has expressed āThe Government must send clear signals to business and consumers how it sees the path to net-zero that we can all get behindā.
On the contrary, the Government should send instructions to the EAC not to attempt measures which could inhibit production, whether farming or generally.
December 5, 2020
The EU has been interfering with our environment with the removal of trees from high ground for grazing resulting in flooding in the lowlands. The dredging of rivers or lack of it and the mandated treatment of spoil has also had very damaging effects on farmers’ livelihoods as well as putting hundreds of houses under water at times.
There needs to be a complete end to the interference in our landscapes by civil servants who know nothing about land management; civil servants should be fully focused on ensuring that our landscapes are not destroyed by housing for millions of unassimilable aliens who have their own countries and do not belong here.
December 5, 2020
+1000 ! Spot on.
December 5, 2020
forthurst
So tell us how countries like Holland manage to avoid so-called EU interference to keep their country safe from flooding?
December 6, 2020
There has been flooding in Europe.
forthurst is absolutely right.
December 5, 2020
Off topic but so I,portent. Iām thinking about the post-Boris era. I would like to have enshrined in law that nobody who has been a drug taker is allowed to stand for Parliament. There must be medical test to test for cocaine use etc.
We can afford any more PMs who undeniably good brains are not functioning at capacity while in office.
December 5, 2020
Odd post, Lynn.
Personally. I would bring in psychological tests to weed out sociopaths, narcissist and psychopaths. These do far more damage.
December 5, 2020
No more PPE or Arts grads more like !
December 5, 2020
And anyone who purports to be in one party but actually has allegiance to another ā like 90% of the Tory party
December 6, 2020
Certainly many have allegiance to idiotic socialist policies and many more to the EU than the UK.
December 5, 2020
A good start would be to remove the incentives to grow low grade energy crops. When analysed properly they are not “green”, but they take up acreage that could be deployed for food. They produce expensive energy, which can be obtained more cheaply in other ways.
December 5, 2020
Indeed and they often use a lot of fossil fuels to plant, fertilise, harvest and transport. Burning wood imported from the US at Drax is totally moronic.
December 5, 2020
I saw a video clip of your recent intervention asking a govt minister to confirm that the objective is to see more food produced in the UK. The response was unedifying, saying that she “hoped” that it would be so.
She’s a government minister, we don’t want to hear what she hopes, we want to hear that she/they are going to make it happen.
December 5, 2020
The reason why she ‘hopes’, is because she is not incharge, the EU is, and will be after 1st January 2021. All she can do, is ask nicely and wait patiently for an answer.
December 5, 2020
Farmers and Parliament are in charge. We canāt force people to farm.
December 5, 2020
I posted a comment at 8.28 this morning…itās still in moderation. Can I presume you didnāt like what I said?
I donāt think it was offensive or off topic….
December 5, 2020
The EU complains about the possibility of the UK supporting (subsidising) its industries.
Consider this list of subsidies within the EU.
– Continental railways are heavily subsidised.
– The CAP doles out subsidies to farmers.
– The French Government bails out its car industry (Peugot, Renault, Citroen) whenever it feels like it.
– When Airbus starts to make losses (and it will) the French and German Governments – each of which holds 20% of Airbus shares – will demand EU subsidies.
We should tell M Barnier to form a well known proverb from the words pot, kettle and black. The European Commission is not only a bully but a stinking hypocrite.
December 5, 2020
Don’t know what you’re complaining about- we have already left and don’t have to do a deal with them or anyone else so no point in going on- instead let’s see what Liz Truss has up her sleeve if anything- but you know we can always just go it alone’ if we want and what do we need deals for? We voted to be alone- we want to be alone- it’s not that complicated- just stop the whinge
December 5, 2020
We voted to be Sovereign. Thatās not isolation. Most world trade is between the English speaking world.
December 6, 2020
LM on EU subsidies – unfortunately Boris doesn’t seem to know that. Why shouldn’t we know if that has been said? Will it be known form the papers in 30 years time? Why not now?
December 5, 2020
Lindsay
“We should tell M Barnier to form a well known proverb from the words pot, kettle and black.”
=========
Or in his native tongue so he understands – ‘Slingez Le Hook’
December 5, 2020
I can see it all now- the lorry parks full and the Calais customs working 9 to 5, five days a week-
Lord Lawson packing his bags at his home in France ’cause he can only stay there three months in the year
British fishing boats landing fish that is too much for home consumption that has to be pulped and put to animal feed and spread on the land
Farmers struggling to get machinery to do the work that foreigners used to do- fruit and veg rotting in the fields
Hoteliers wondering where have all the foreign’s gone
best to blame it all on the damn Covid
and schools for foreign students closing down
December 6, 2020
not all bad then!
December 5, 2020
Here’s the thing- Uk is hung up on the importance of sovereignty above all else and the EU should take this onboard. However the EU is made up of 27 countries all with their own notions of national inÄependence and importance and yet they have pooled their resources, and played down sovereignty, in order to enhance their economic well being. We have 27 Vs 1- so it’s up to Boris does he want to be sensible and agree to deal or will he take the road that the UK public voted for Brexit and nothing else- and so not his problem- am sure that whatevet happens there will be a place for him in the Lords- he will have given the people what they voted for
December 6, 2020
Deal?
What deal?
December 6, 2020
Harkin: “Hereās the thing- Uk is hung up on the importance of sovereignty above all else and the EU should take this onboard. ”
The EU is irrelevant.
We’ve just cut out the middleman. The UN Agenda 21 is administered from the UN. Why bother with the intermediation of the EU in the direct administration of all aspects of UK life – that’s just a waste of time and resources.
December 6, 2020
Membership of the civilised world stops you from persecuting those to whom you would wish to do that.
That’s the problem for you, isn’t it?
December 6, 2020
What a ridiculous response even by your standards Martin.
How can you possibly claim APL wants to persecute anyone having just read his post?
December 6, 2020
Edward2: “How can you possibly claim APL wants to persecute anyone having just read his post?”
Edward, when a ‘Leftie’ says something like that, think; psychological projection.
December 6, 2020
Good point.
December 6, 2020
Nothing was done in the run up to Brexit
Because our establishment had no intention of coming out of the EU
And still does not have any intention of so doing !
It was ever thus
And. Atleast one person here will vote for more of the same ?
December 6, 2020
Remember Dave’s Government? No preparation in case the Ref. voted to Leave!
How shocking that a PM did not consider the electorate would choose to vote with their beliefs, their distrust in the EU, their doubts about further control measures.
From there it morphed into May’s total deceit and took us to the brink of abandoning the Electorate’s choice. All manner of officials, departments, and legal moves were made to thwart the will of the people -which is still going on 4.5 years on from the decision the people made.
Now do we really believe the regular moving of ‘ultimatum’ ‘deadline’ ‘goalposts’ ‘red-lines’ is truly in the spirit of trying to secure the best deal with the EU?
How can any honest PM, Cabinet member with conscience, negotiating team, seriously expect us to believe that all this subterfuge is justified?
LEAVE NOW or be cast into our memories as 5th column traitors to the UK.
December 6, 2020
JR: “One of the big wins from Brexit should be a new farming policy.”
How do you reconcile your advocacy of a more localized British centric farming policy with the UN proposal that essentially takes over our domestic governmental agencies to implement the UN Agenda 21?
https://www.un.org/esa/agenda21/natlinfo/countr/uk/natur.htm
Are you deceiving us or are you ignorant?
Frankly, either would be a worry. But if it’s the latter, as someone who has been paid a very respectable salary to keep an eye on government, you’ve not done a particularly good job.
December 6, 2020
Oh why will they never Leave, this deplorable government, we have to realise that this useless Parliament is doing just what there masters want, they will be dammed for ever.
Bring on Nigel Farage. Thank God the people have a champion we can rely on.
One day the people will have a total clearance of this treacherous nest, there will be a price for what they have done against the people of this Country for decades, they must be punished by law and disgraced
December 6, 2020
You donāt know Farage do you?
December 6, 2020
I don’t know Dave, Theresa, and Boris – – yet I do know I’m not missing much!
December 7, 2020
What do you know about him then ?
Is he a foreign agent ? I’m not
Is he anti monarchy ? I’m not
Enlighten us poor saps.