I was thinking it has been a poor time for leaks, when to my surprise the following intercepted memo appeared anonymously in my inbox.  It appears by keeping a low profile during turbulent Brexit times Dame Lucy has survived in the Cabinet Office.
From Head of Cabinet Office  Post Brexit renewal unit
To Professor Redmayne, Professor of European inequalities
Dear Karl
I need your advice to assist me in presenting to Ministers on how to tackle various supply chain and labour market issues which you will have seen in the media. As you will appreciate I worked very closely with the previous government to try to secure an Agreement with the EU that captured and retained all EU law and our single market obligations. This was in accordance with the then Prime Minister’s wishes to replicate many of the features of our membership to avoid changes and shocks. This work was altered by the change of Prime Minister in 2019 and by Parliament’s unwillingness to vote for the comprehensive partnership we had secured.
As the head of the new Post Brexit Renewal unit I need to give advice on how the government should behave towards the full body of EU law that is now on our Statute books, and how we should negotiate if at all on the Northern Ireland Protocol and the transition over fishing. Looking at the situation it seems to me I need to point out that the UK does now rely on imports for some of its electricity and fuel, that it needs to respect EU law under the NI Protocol and should not be dogmatic about fish given the passionate concerns the French have about this minor industry. The government needs to understand the power of the EU and the legal realities of the position they find themselves in.
It would be most helpful if as an external independent expert you could let me have background on the extent that the UK will need imported food and fuel over the next few years. A study of relative regional imbalances in EU countries and the UK would be topical given the debate here about levelling up. If it is your continued view that freedom of movement of workers and adherence to the common fishing, energy and farming policies and standards is best for the UK it would be good to have the case set out. I would expect you to have the contacts in and references from larger European companies who would take this sensible view.
There is a strand of Brexit commentary taking hold that thinks paying people at home more to take jobs that would otherwise go to continentals coming here under freedom of movement would be a good idea. They are also keen to rebuild domestic capacity in everything from food to fish and from energy to technology. Your help in explaining the difficulties and theoretical problems with this approach would also be a useful balance to the debate.
Some Ministers think there are easy Brexit wins from changing laws and cutting taxes like VAT on various products. We need to present the case against a race to the bottom and set out the  balance set by the growing body of EU law designed to protect the  single market and European values. They do not seem to understand that it makes sense to import more food, cars, energy and other items in a spirit of European solidarity, and to welcome EU workers here.
Given the prestige of your department and the important work it does I am sure we can come to some agreement on the scope and reward for this study that a Minister will approve. I will draft it around the twin themes of levelling up and post Brexit policy. I note that the Health department has recently agreed a study mainly of health inequalities when the Treasury wanted a simple attack on waste in the NHS.
Yours
Dame Lucy Dolittle
October 9, 2021
It is over 5 years since we voted to leave the EU, and 2 years since we left. And even so all youâve got is whiny victimhood and pathetic claims that the âestablishmentâ is conspiring against you. This is YOUR Brexit, grow up and take responsibility for it. YOU WON, GET OVER IT
October 9, 2021
Read again, dear, with care.
Itâs called SATIRE.
A literary means of exposing, via ridicule, vice, criminal or bad behaviour etc.in the hope of putting a stop to it!!
And âŠoh how easy it is to ridicule losers.
October 9, 2021
Satire written by Teresa May.
This encapsulates the mindset of the civil Serpents to a tee.
Well done for sharing your vision of the non tory government.
Capitulation to the French and NIP will see you lose the next election big time.
Tell Dame Lucy that.
October 9, 2021
@EH; That is the problem with Satire, not only can it be very cutting -truthful, but when carelessly written (due to having an overt agenda) can so easily become a double edged sword against the author and intended audience…
October 9, 2021
Everhopeful
Exactly. We could do with a bit more of it to help us braces ourselves against lack of real action we are experiencing.
October 9, 2021
+1
October 9, 2021
Everhopeful,
The Northern Ireland Sausage War sounds like satire too.
Anyone have any update on what is happening with the Northern Ireland Protocol ?
October 9, 2021
+many
Yes..honestly! Talk about the War of Jenkinsâ Ear.
You could not make it up. And probably would not want to!!
Last I heard aptly named Frost was supposed to be sorting it al out by threatening to invoke Article 16.
Promises, promises.
EU making life as difficult as poss.
Iâm reading âThe Shocking History of the EUâ by Zina Cohen. And my goodness it IS shocking!
October 9, 2021
Yes, the EU are presenting a new proposal that Sevcic says will including simple but radical changes. A good sign is that the people of NI will also be allowed to eat sausages for another three months as a “concession”.
But the EU are also covering themselves by insisting that this new “radical” proposal will not, not, not be a re-negotiation. So it will probably be one of their take-it or leave-it proposals, followed, of course, by the usual re-negotiation.
It’s all about self-interest. The UK is a big export market for them, so they can’t afford a trade war.
October 9, 2021
You don’t have to be here reading all this ‘whiny victimhood’ – after all Andy and Martin don’t write on all the blogs – go find another one!
October 9, 2021
+1
October 9, 2021
Come to think f it, they probably do.
October 9, 2021
@Fenella – there lays the problem, when an external power creates and overrides your domestic laws rules and regulation inside what is supposed to be your own sovereign territory. You simply haven’t left, you are still ruled by an unelected, unaccountable Trade Commission
You are only a free sovereign democracy when all laws, rules and regulations that pertain in your own territory are created, amended and dismissed by your own elected representatives. That the UK has/is not permitted to do. So despite the referendum our remain HoC has yet to assume responsibility and control
October 9, 2021
+ Exactly!
October 9, 2021
No country can exist in a world where “all laws, rules and regulations that pertain in your own territory are created, amended and dismissed by your own elected representatives” unless it withdraws completely from all multi-national entities, for example the WTO, NATO and the United Nations.
October 9, 2021
@PP – by far the largest part of the World some 7 Billion people are not controlled by a foreign power. Different versions of democracy for sure, but the laws, rules and regulations come from within.
October 9, 2021
Ridiculous analogy Peter.
The bodies you list do not have any real power to force legislation on an independent nation.
These bodies are about co operation and agreement between nations.
The EU had real power via treaties signed which then developed new laws rules directives and regulations.
October 9, 2021
I wouldn’t be too sure. We have agreed not to throw the whole mess out in one go, but as things change in the UK we’ll find case after case where EU law has to go, and it will. For one thing, Boris will just enjoy it so much, and for another it will symbolise gradual progress.
October 9, 2021
@JL – returning to full rule of law for the UK would be a start
October 9, 2021
I certainly don’t disagree with that.
October 9, 2021
However, unlike Swiftâs and Orwellâs original audiences we, here,are fully aware of JRâs meaning.
October 9, 2021
@ jerry
October 9, 2021
@EH; “we, here,are fully aware of JRâs meaning”
Perhaps, but beyond the usual and dedicated commentator love-in? Over the last few years it has been quite notable that many others obviously read this site, indeed even the MSM have picked up on some issues our host has raised here, do these people always now JRs intended meaning.
October 9, 2021
Good Morning,
Dear Dame Lucy, you seem to be stuck in a pre-Brexit time trap, which is a bit like a prison without visible walls. Do look at how the EU is struggling to be relevent. Poland has decided EU law does not have priacy over its own, Germany may do the same. Once it is generally accepted that ‘EU law’ and other rules can be ignored or overridden by national laws, then the plan for an EU superstate vanishes as certainly and the hot air rising from Berlaymont.
Stop trying to turn back the clock, embrace our freedom and spend more time on looking for ways to advance our national interests.
October 9, 2021
+1
October 9, 2021
âGas bills set to rise further under green energy surcharge planâ reported in the Telegraph today.
This surely is another sick joke – great timing. Better buy some thermals, an electric blanket and a thicker jumper for granny and grandad I suppose.
Deregulation, lower simpler taxes, reduction in the size of government and cancellation of the insane net zero agenda are all win, win policies Boris.
Net zero is politically (and environmentally) 50 times worse than the poll tax – just wait and see Boris.
October 9, 2021
This to encourage a shift to heating using electricity which, almost certainly on balance, will produce more CO2 than using the gas directly at home. Indeed much of UK electricity is generated from gas, coal and wood with over half of the energy wasted in this process. Even the wind power needs loads of fossil fuels to construct, back up and maintain.
Ministers and Carrie live in a dream world.
October 9, 2021
âDeregulation, lower simpler taxes, reduction in the size of government and cancellation of the insane net zero agenda are all win, win policies Boris.â
Totally agree LL but I think we need a Conservative Government and a Conservative PM for that, something Johnson most certainly isnât.
October 9, 2021
Johnson is a Globalist.
October 9, 2021
+1 Petr
October 9, 2021
Dear Peter
“priacy”? It may be that you put the “i” in the wrong place…
October 9, 2021
I was never a good typist… but I like the point that EU laws and edicts are akin to piracy! It was interesting to note that the first reaction to this ruling from the EU bureaucrats was to threaten Poland with their ‘toolbag’ of punishments. More like a mafiosi response methinks.
October 9, 2021
Peter Wood
All the countless number of Dame Lucy we are still paying for in all government departments, they are so entrenched that it is going to take an exceptional leader and team to remove them.
We have not had one of them for too many decades that it has become embarrassing.
October 9, 2021
Great post Peter
October 9, 2021
@P Wood +1
October 9, 2021
Off-topic: Sir John, your 3 very recent tweets about the NHS encapsulate what is wrong with its management, and those facts should be used in every discussion about its competence.
October 9, 2021
We left. You ever going to stop obsessing about the EU?
October 9, 2021
@ Len Peel – You are quite right, no doubt, to leave aside the fact that today’s diary topic is the antics of senior British civil servants and not the Evil Empire but matters are more acute than you reveal for Sir John also writes from time to time about the USA – which we left in 1783! It is almost as if he has an international perspective, an awareness of what lies beyond are shores.
October 9, 2021
Lucy in the sky with diamonds…
Get rid.
October 9, 2021
The only thing which passingly interests me here is the level of fiction.
Is the whole piece, including the letter, Sir John’s shot at whimsy, or was the message a piece sent to him by someone who thought that he might like it, and which he repeats here?
October 9, 2021
I particularly like the bit where fishing is a âminor industryâ for the French but was an acid test for the Brexitists.
It is a shame British fishers lost big out of Brexit – but it is also quite funny now watching them whine about it.
October 9, 2021
At least the French fishermen aren’t whining…
October 9, 2021
Seems fairly important for the French government andy, what with threats to blockade ports and cut off power supplies if they don’t get what they want.
October 9, 2021
Your comprehension skills on display again, I see.
October 9, 2021
Plenty of obsession over the EU amongst those who lost the vote. Take the lorry driver shortage for example, which is mainly down to drivers leaving the profession and disruption in driving tests. Yet in the media there is a strong opinion voiced in the comments that it’s all about Brexit.
Yes, many drivers returned to the EU and haven’t come back, and recovering them would be a welcome relief to the problem. However, now that we have left the EU, it’s more difficult to exploit Eastern Europeans on low wages.
Damn that Brexit!
October 9, 2021
So Tory brexit exposes other systemic problems in Tory Britain.
There would appear to be a likely solution, wouldn’t there?
October 9, 2021
When you finally take the splint off a healed leg, you get aches and pains. The solution is not to put the splint back on again.
October 9, 2021
It’s more a case of removing the Acrow props from a building which is incapable of standing without them.
You get a pile of rubble.
October 9, 2021
We are abolishing the slave trade for a second time!
October 9, 2021
@Len Peel – if we left why is it our own representatives are not permitted to run the UK on behalf rather than defer to an unelected, unaccountable Trade Commission
October 9, 2021
Much guff is posted on this blog by the fossil fuel lobby concerning alleged “subsidy” paid to the renewables industry. As usual, this is far from the truth
The fossil fuel industry benefits from subsidies of $11m every minute, according to recent analysis by the International Monetary Fund. The G20 agreed in 2009 to phase out âinefficientâ fossil fuel subsidies and in 2016, the G7 set a deadline of 2025, but little progress has been made. In July, a report showed that the G20 countries had subsidised fossil fuels by trillions of dollars since 2015, the year the Paris climate deal was reached.
The fossil fuel lobby is very good at hiding this sort of thing. In order to reduce UK customer energy bills this winter, a windfall profits tax should be imposed on the fossil fuel industry. Immediately.
October 9, 2021
I would prefer all subsidies are stopped, afterall this is taxpayers money. Then we can witness which of the energy suppliers, beit coal, gas, biofuel, wind or solar can operate without any subsidies.
Interestingly, 3 coal fired power stations had to be opened up recently, because wind failed to deliver.
October 9, 2021
@J Bush
The 3 legacy coal fired powerstations were fired up because their coal stocks had been bought and paid for months ago, the spot price for gas had quadrupled and because the French interconnector caught fire due to crap French transformers. The alleged “shortage” of wind was transitory and lasted 3 days. On the 4th day, wind was providing 45% of our electricity demand again. There was no load shedding. The government has been subsidising these coal fired stations to sit idle and generate nothing for at least 7 years.
You can relax. These coal fired power stations are scheduled for decommisioning before 2024.
October 9, 2021
@SG; Yours is the usual green-crap nonsense on stilts. Those coal fired power station were, first retained & now, fired up for one reason only, not to use up pre-existing old coal stocks, that will now likely need to be replaced, but to provide an assured supply of electricity that all those beloved windmills of yours could not.
October 9, 2021
Wind is today providing 10 % of our power. If you check gridwatch you will see for the past 3 months it ha been as low as 1.3% and very occasionally 35%.
Average for the year is 18%.
You write utter tripe
October 9, 2021
Was the 35% overnight? Very useful we could get a mobile prompt to wake us and then start our normal day – put the lights on, cook a meal, watch TV(maybe not), go for a walk, travel to work – err no!
October 9, 2021
You ignored my original point. So I raise it again
Why don’t we stop all subsidies, beit coal, gas, biofuel, wind or solar and see if they can operate without any subsidies?
And some more thrown in for good measure.
How and in what way are wind turbines ‘green’, when you take into account the manufacturing process involved, and the fact they need concrete foundations?
Also, why do they use diesel generators to start them?
October 9, 2021
Gone with the Wind (again).
Over the 6 months from 1st April to 30 September, wind power provided on average 14% of demand (source: Gridwatch).
Not good.
October 9, 2021
J Bush – of course the power stations on – we need the juice – we have to keep all the hotels full of “migrants” nice and warm don’t we. At least the govt have stopped calling them all doctors, surgeons and scientists. Still they come – more free lives for them, more money from us to the govt’s buddies who own the hotels. Wave goodbye to England – our govt has lied to us for years – and PP keeps her job for being so successful at “reducing” immigration. Thankfully i’ll be gone.
October 9, 2021
Sakara Gold, we voted for a thirty one year transition in cuts to carbon emissions by giving Boris his 80 seat majority based on his manifesto.
What we most definitely did NOT vote for was the 8 year transition being foisted upon us at speed.
“We must lead by example.”
I wish Remainers would make up their minds. Is post Brexit Britain globally influential or not ?
October 9, 2021
NLA – of course we are globally influential – the whole globe wants to come for a FREE life- – EVERYTHING paid for by us, – – so it is doing.
October 9, 2021
It’s not just about leading by example. It’s also about developing the new technologies that the laggards will end up buying from us. Look at our existing exports – a lot of them are based on advanced technologies that other countries don’t have.
Our exports are mainly advanced manufactured products, the stories about boxes of fish are just Remainer nonsense. Remainer propaganda is only partly about the EU; behind it is a strong thread of persuasion trying to get you to believe that the UK is a backward country, when it is anything but.
October 9, 2021
@SG, Of course the Green lobby, which the IMF is a part, are going to claim such things….
Personally I have no problem with subsidies for any essential service or industry who deliver their product when (and where) needed, in the case of energy that is on-demand, what ever amount, 24/7/365, nothing less will do, ever. All of the so called renewable sectors fail that test (apart from nuclear) – and likely will always fail, how ever much money is poured into the bottomless pit.
October 9, 2021
Where on earth do you get this from? It is propaganda & totally wrong. Tax just on petrol at the fuel pump is about 70% of the price, yet solar and wind are heavily subsidised and virtually no taxes on them. Furthermore The electricity market is rigged to reward these intermittent renewable supplies and force people to buy them.
October 9, 2021
Reports like this one LL, use made up statistics like adding a theoretical 20% VAT onto all fossil fuels and counting that revenue as a subsidy and then making up a cost of pollution and clean up figures for fossil fuels and calling that a subsidy.
Plus other similar things.
October 9, 2021
+1 but what report?
October 9, 2021
Nonsense SG
The fossil fuel industries pay billions in taxes to government.
Renewables industries get billions from government in subsidies.
For example Drax power stationgot ÂŁ850 million last year.
October 9, 2021
@Peter2
More rubbish. European lawmakers last week voted to prolong subsidies for fossil fuel gas until 2027. Members of the European parliamentâs industry committee also voted on Tuesday to allow the EU to continue subsidising natural gas pipelines until the end of 2027, as long as the energy is mixed with an unspecified amount of hydrogen!
The recent comprehensive IMF report found that prices were at least 50% below their true costs for 99% of coal, 52% of diesel and 47% of natural gas sales in 2020. Five countries were responsible for two-thirds of the subsidies: China, the US, Russia, India and Japan. Without action, subsidies will rise to $6.4tn in 2025.
Fortunately, the subsidy regime works in reverse here in the UK. Every two years the government invites the renewables industry to bid for additional gigawatts of renewable power At the last auction in 2019 the winning bids were ~ÂŁ40/MWh. This means that the government guarantees this minimum price for juice generated once the windfarm has been built. On Thursday, thanks to the quadrupling of the gas price, the average wholesale electricity CfD was ÂŁ148.87/MWh. The treasury trousers the difference.
Sunak could use the money to reduce the nation’s energy bills this winter.
October 9, 2021
I see from reports in todays Press that the Drax power station is the fifth highest polluting establishment in Europe.
Apparently and allegedly, it is deemed “green” with a neutral figure, because the calculations were “adjusted” (lovely accountancy word that) because it was assumed the original trees now being burnt as pellets, had already given 40 years plus of benefit to the atmosphere, thus the annual pollution figures were reduced by that amount.
I wonder how many other calculations are the work of pure fiction ?
October 9, 2021
Rubbish SG
Subsidies for renewables are huge.
Fossil fuels raise billions in tax revenues for government.
October 9, 2021
Indeed and the electricity market is rigged too. âRenewableâ electricity is intermittent and thus worth far less than on demand energy, but suppliers are in effect forced to take it and pay more much than it is worth to them. Another back door tax on electricity consumers.
October 9, 2021
SG
Please stop banging on about fossil fuel subsidies without on the same page put down how much the renewable sector gets in subsidies, constraint payment in return the majority ĂČf which goes to foreign companies.
Try presenting a balanced argument because at the moment if we had not had fossil fuels generating power the lights would have all gone out when the wind stopped blowing over the last few weeks.
October 9, 2021
Sakara Gold: What you and the IMF are calling ‘fossil fuel subsidies’ is a very murky use of language. It’s defined in the study they use as:- fuel consumption times the gap between existing and efficient prices (i.e., prices warranted by supply costs, environmental costs, and revenue considerations). In other words, the so-called ‘subsidy’ to fossil fuels is an abstract calculation depending on someone’s idea of ‘environmental costs’, however they want to work that out, and depending also on whatever they mean by ‘efficient taxes for a range of energy products’. It’s not hard money given to the fossil fuel industries without which they wouldn’t survive, as with renewables. Using the term ‘fossil fuel subsidy’ is a crude attempt by eco-lobbyists to try and deflect public attention from the eye-wateringly high levels of real subsidy to the Green lobby. I hope no-one of voting age will fall for it.
October 9, 2021
As usual, far from the truth.
October 9, 2021
SG :
Any subsidies paid in the UK for back-up fossil fuel generated power is because of the intermittency of unreliable wind and solar energy and so should be added to the costs of wind and solar energy production.
In fact, since there is as yet no commercially viable method of storing electricity and hence none exists in the UK, the total cost of transforming our power generation over to renewables and the actual running costs of the electricity thus produced are unknown
October 9, 2021
SG
Unfortunately I canât afford Tesla and the emissions on the majority of modern cars are extremely low thanks to the efforts of the engineers!
October 9, 2021
She is back! And with her quisling-like mentality still in good working order I see.
Ministers really do need to be alert and astute to out-manoeuvre the Dame (should be “Ms” now) Doolittles of the mandarin class. How fortunate we are with Boris’s picks!
October 9, 2021
Right you are, and that is why they hate Boris so much. To be so hated for your successes must be an interesting experience, but I reckon he enjoys it.
October 9, 2021
Didn’t she miss the government policy to replace European immigration with lots of cheap low quality graduates from (elsewhere Ed)Grads who can barely string a sentence together supposedly highly skilled in this new nirvana.
October 9, 2021
@Iain gill; Well unless our coffee pouring, burger flipping, degree qualified, and their social media generation customers, get off their ‘gluteus maximus’s’ someone needs to be found to do the real work that keeps you in the food, services and consumer products you have become accustomed to…
October 9, 2021
What is more Mr Gill, if companies can not bring skilled, or cheaper, labour to the UK to make their products we are in danger of having ever more notionally British companies simply off-shoring the work to those otherwise migrant workers.
October 9, 2021
If they can barely string a sentence together theyâll fit right in with the average Brexitist.
October 9, 2021
-1
October 9, 2021
Andy, give it a rest, itâs very tedious to hear you banging on about Brexit and old people!
You will he old one day âŠ
October 9, 2021
Andy, give it a rest, itâs very tedious to hear you banging on about Brexit and old people!
You will he old one day âŠ
It looks as if Iâve already said that has just flashed up?
It doesnât stop Andy!
October 9, 2021
IAIN – – they don’t need to speak English – just get here and demand hotel and benefits – then a relaxed life on our taxes – till they die, NO bills everything paid for by us.
October 9, 2021
That’s a good crack, but it doesn’t really work. The EU immigrants who have literary and numerical skills are already in the UK and they have their residence. Six million mid-range skilled people signed up, and they are not being replaced, and of course, they all seem to think Brexit is OK for them.
The people who are being replaced by British workers – not nearly fast enough – are lower-paid people who were competing on willingness to accept low wages and poor conditions, not superior skills
October 9, 2021
Funny how, having won Brexit, having gained the freedom to change, alter or even scrap failed EU derived laws and regulation far to many Brexiteers seemingly wish to cling to many of the said laws and regulations, but then they helped introduce the said laws to the EEC/EU via SEA etc. having first inflicted such nonsense on the UK’s economy!
Energy prices are still the hot topic, the plight of the domestic customer heading almost ever news cycle, now even heavy industry is weighting in, suggesting they face real problems too. Returning to the plight of the consumer, the standard govt reply, no doubt penned with the help of this otherwise unseen, unheard of, Dame Lucy, is to comment on how “Green” the current govt is, compared to the last five! Explaining how the govt is spending vast sums of taxpayers money on
greasing the palms of home insu…. sorry, helping to insulate peoples homes (which often than cause health issues in time). If the taxpayer can (in)directly subsidise home owners in the purchase of home installation products, why not the actual price of gas?Back in Nov. 1970 the new Heath govt abolished the old Prices and Incomes Board, believing competitive market forces were a better tool for keeping inflation low, by Nov. 1972 with inflation beyond acceptable limits Heath had to re-introduce such measures by way of new legislation, eventually known as the Price Commission, along with a Pay Board. That Price Commission was (again) abolished not long after the Thatcher govt took office in 1979, once again the “Market” would be expected to keep prices as low as possible via competition, that is were we are more or less today, written into both UK and EU laws. The “Market” has or is failing once again, as it always will do, we are likely heading towards another inflationary period, quite possibly so called stagflation.
October 9, 2021
The market never fails, it only ever fails to satisfy the political requirements of the political establishment.
And anyway, WE are the market. Prices are fundamental to the signalling of real events that signify changes in demand and supply. This mechanism is superior to any system set up by a political entity that seeks to achieve political ends from real world pressures
Always reject Socialism in all its variants
October 9, 2021
@DOM, “The market never fails”
Well those who make money from the “Market” economy will say that, just as the lucky few politburo members used to claim their “Command” economy (true communism) could never fail…
History doesn’t lie though, as I’ve pointed out many times, your beloved free market failed in 1929, and then started to fail again in 1971-2, not just here in the UK but worldwide, both failures lead to 10+ years of inflation or recession. Of course those countries that went the opposite way, had total command economies, also failed, leading to mass hunger etc.
Always reject Socialism in all its variants
Many capitalist have made their fortunes in true mixed economies, such as those in the construction industry who made their money building tens of thousands of ‘socialist’ council housing, homes that would otherwise never have been build because at the time there were few if any other buyers. Our ‘socialist state’, its economy, might well have funded those 1950s era nuclear power stations, or the new Motorways, but it was the private contractors and their shareholders who benefited most, not only from the plentiful supply of power created or the east of transport provided, but the profits made from such contracts – as a certain etc at the time was fully aware…
Dogma, especially political, is never the solution.
October 9, 2021
A command economy is totalitarian rather than “true communism”-for “true communism” to exist,the state must have “withered away”.Stalin pointed out the paradox with his Five Year Plans in the 1930s-the state must become stronger in order for the state to be in a position to wither away.
October 9, 2021
There is a begged question there. Comrade Stalin can talk all he likes about the state withering way, but can that actually happen? Hence the paradox.
But it isn’t really a paradox at all, because the “withering away” is just Philosophers and their words, while the growing state is actuality.
Most apparent paradoxes turn out to be nothing but empty words confronting reality, including Zeno and all the way to the so-called “twins” paradox.
October 10, 2021
@Mitchel; I understand the point you make but my use of the term âtrue communismâ was to differentiate between DOM’s often miss use of the term ‘Socialist’ to describe Communism.
October 9, 2021
@JR edit “etc”; Quite absurd! Why is it I can not mention a long dead person, not that I even named the person, just the Govt. position held, not that I even accused said person of anything, other than understanding exactly my point.
October 9, 2021
Start your own blog Jerry.
You and NLH and andy could have a blog of your own
100 posts a day
October 10, 2021
@Peter2; “100 posts a day”
Yes, indeed you have been, mostly as a result of trolling me đ
I doubt our host needs any help policing his website, our host is free to delete on sight anyone he chooses, indeed edit any comment he chooses, although it would be nice if he occasionally explained the edit…
On the other hand, if you need help understanding the meaning of the word “Debate”, consult the OED.
October 9, 2021
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10074327/Still-keen-green-bills-arrived-ANDREW-NEIL-warns-storms-come.html
Boris has only shown us a menu without the prices on it. Now the bill is arriving how was your meal ?
OMG. This is the Poll Tax x 10,000 !
October 9, 2021
N L A
Poll Tax x 10,000?
And some. The people can only take so much. Its getting close to the tipping point it really is.
October 9, 2021
Except the silent majority will express their dissatisfaction at the ballot box rather than on the streets. Many people are losing patience with this useless government.
October 9, 2021
Indeed it is. Scary times led by a complete fool. A climate change junky. Carrie on Boris. No one will vote for this looney at the next woke election.
October 9, 2021
The failure is not the market. It is government dirigisme that dictates which businesses may operate and which are to be closed or banned.
October 9, 2021
@Mark; The “Market”, judged by your own rational, must have been already failing long before the post-privatisation competitive energy market was even complete, never mind the introduction of sort of govt (green) intervention you seem to be talking about, if not what was it necessary to first create OFFER and Ofgas and then later Ofgem? If regulation of the free market is needed, by definition the free market has failed.
Anyway, even if you are correct about govt meddling there is nothing forcing these private energy companies to take the govts green shilling, drink from the govts green tankards, no one is being press ganged or compelled (apart from the innocent consumer perhaps), these commercial companies do so because they believe there is money to be made.
Who is telling the govt, BEIS, that windmills and PV arrays etc are the solution -the “Market”.
But carry on hiding under the bed if must @Mark, that is your right, but Rome still burns…
October 9, 2021
Believe it or not the UK did pick its own fruit and veg in recent memory. Vans used to go around British towns picking up British workers early in the mornings but farmers decided that they wanted their workers living on site and paying them rent.
Also children used to enjoy Saturday and Summer jobs earning their own money and learning life skills while making us grow up faster. And when I say we enjoyed it YES, we did.
This addiction to cheap labour propped up by the sloth and dependency of the UK welfare system is as insane as importing truck loads of bottled water from the Continent. It is not even as though those displaced on to welfare are healthier for it – they are the ones suffering most from obesity.
October 9, 2021
I remember those days when some young teenagers got fit on farms, learnt work discipline and had a couple of pounds in their pocketsâŠ.sadly recent government gave children ârightsâ associated with casual work introducing contracts, special insurance, extra administration, special monitoring and extra supervision â it became easier and cheaper to employ casual immigrates than our own seasonal UK students
We used to take a few work experience final year school children in our engineering department for a two-week period, until the costs become ridiculous high with almost double insurance costs and a requirement of one-to-one supervision
October 9, 2021
@NLA; Not so, at least from what I’ve been told by farmers and saw with my own eyes around here, it was UK workers who decided they no longer wanted to do such work -remember from the mid 1990s till 2007 the UK economy was booming meaning job opportunities were good never mind many more school leavers being on full time collage or Uni courses, so farmers looked to the now available Eastern European migrant, often already trained and skilled in manual farm work (such was the state of the ex Warsaw pact economies), to start with migrant workers lived in the wider community but with housing in ever short supply many farmers decided to provide their own accommodation, large farms sometimes still had Estate housing, others built new.
What came first, the chicken or egg; what came first, our addiction to cheap labour or our addiction to clean, less physically demanding work, along with cheap prices?
I also remember, not only teenagers earning money during the summer harvest, I also remember those pick-your-own farms, politicos along with their H&S mandarin’s ended such opportunity for both farmers and Jo Public.
Reply As a teenager in Kent I got summer work picking fruit
October 9, 2021
‘the now available Eastern European migrant,’
Odd that, considering the EU was supposed to be such a success. Why pass through all those EU countries preferring UK? The horrendous unemployment levels through almost all the EU might have something to do with it !
October 9, 2021
@Micky Taking; Duh?! Because the JOB ADVERTS stated the work was on UK farms, so unsurprisingly they travelled to the UK, what would you have done in their position, apply for a job on a British Farm then go looking for Farm work whilst still in Germany or France…
Also the accepted definition of an “economic migrant” is anyone changing their area of residence (be that within a country or crossing national boarders) for economic reasons, some might well be ‘chancers’ but many will be people who have either an assured job or at least an interview.
October 9, 2021
what a load of waffle.
October 10, 2021
@Micky Taking: In other words, you admit to having lost the argument…
October 9, 2021
Yes, and a Frenchman was a seedy guy on an old bike peddaling around town selling onions.
October 9, 2021
Just pay an attractive wage andy and many will take these jobs.
I presume you want better wages for the poorer people?
October 9, 2021
@Peter2; If the farmer has to pay an “attractive wage”, to get UK workers, the consumer will have to pay higher price at the checkout, simple free market forces economics, unless someone takes a loss. Of course the other possibility is for the taxpayer to fund a subsidy (in this case) to the farmer, to ensure these higher wages and or perhaps the subsidy could be paid to the retailer so to create an assured market for an otherwise uncompetitive produce, as was done during the post war period here in the UK and by the CAP within the EEC.
October 9, 2021
OK, so what about the “cheaper food” that the brexitians promised?
October 9, 2021
Make your mind up NLH
You come on here wanting higher wages for workers and now you seem against them.
Which is it?
October 9, 2021
“Nobody is stopping you from picking fruit now. Indeed, you Brexitists said you wanted these unskilled jobs.”
Whoosh! And Andy misses the point yet again. I want apple picking to be automated using British robots while I sit and write the software for said robots, which we then export to the rest of the World. And that won’t happen as long as Pierre and Franz are so willing to come and pick our apples by hand for peanuts.
October 9, 2021
@jon livesey; In other words, you want to make half the worlds population redundant, if ‘robots’ are going farming what then for not just the farm labours but those who build and maintain tractors etc. Then of course said produce will no doubt be delivered direct to the consumers home by a drone or autonomous vehicle, another 100 million out of work….
October 9, 2021
The history of mechanisation shows that isn’t true Jerry.
Humans go and find different and better and more rewarding things to do as opposed to labouring.
October 9, 2021
You are describing the past hundred and fifty years of the UK’s history. First we wove fabrics by hand, then w exported fabrics woven by machines, then we exported the machines, now we export automated machines with software. This is how you remain an advanced economy.
October 9, 2021
The technology does not exist to pick many crops – particularly soft fruits – by robot yet. I heard an intertwined interview with a robotics expert who estimated it would be at least 10-15 years before things like blackberries or raspberries could be picked by robot. And, in that time period, British blackberry and raspberry growers have already gone out of business.
Plus, of course, robots arenât great in care homes. Alexa – can you wipe grannyâs bottom.
October 9, 2021
The switch to E10 has doubtless contributed to the fuel crisis. Lower efficiency (as reported by many, including me) means more fill-ups are required to do the same mileage.
There are also rumours that this causes engines to wear out earlier.
How can this be greener ? I think it’s a tax ruse.
October 9, 2021
N L A
All of it it is just one tax ruse. They have not got a clue. They stagger from crisis to crisis with nothing but more words to try and justify their existance.
October 9, 2021
Nonsense – I’ve been using E10 for months – c/o Tesco garages. Car onboard computer is reporting almost exactly the same mpg – whether plain unleaded, half-tank mix, or full tank with E10. Another unsubstantiated scare story.
October 9, 2021
MT, are you sure the mpg reported is based on real world conditions and not something electronically calculated by the car’s computer? A friend of mine compared his actual usage of petrol with the car’s record and it came out at 2 mpg less.
October 9, 2021
What sort of crap is that? I often do a specific roundtrip, same route, very similar hours of day, road conditions, the computer recalculates consumption to fractions of a mile travelled and shows average speed of trip, mpg so far for trip…this is not Bill Gates mk1 windows joke software.
October 9, 2021
You sound the sort that would be taken in by the software scams perpetrated by German and Japanese diesel car manufacturers on consumption figures i.e. having the mickey taken out of you.
October 9, 2021
Emissions rather than consumptions
October 9, 2021
@NLA; It has always been accepted that some engines will not run well on E10, some indeed will not at all, not for very long anyway (BANG! :eek:), that’s why E5 is still available [1], usually branded as “Super Unleaded”, usually the other green nozzle at the pumps, of course it costs slightly more -basically tax, as you say.
[1] for those who truly need it, even leaded 4* can be obtained, but you do need to know from where
October 9, 2021
The problem ones are mostly the older classic cars, and a few manufacturers who didn’t make adjustments before 2010.
October 9, 2021
its still a form of social engineering, pushing the public into a direction the elites wish
October 9, 2021
@Micky Taking; Unmodified, most classic cars (as defined by VHI legislation) do not run on unleaded petrol, never mind E5 or E10. It is quite possible to modify most classic car engines to run on unleaded, or to use additives, more of a problem is Ethanol as it is corrosive to certain metals, plastics and types of rubber used in fuel systems, but again it is possible to replace the most problematic items -once they become known to be a problem of course.
October 9, 2021
At a cost.
October 10, 2021
@Peter2; Mere ownership comes with a cost, but the mods for unleaded or Ethanol are often at no more cost than the work that would have been done anyway, assuring the owner cherishes their classic car, not just uses it as a cheap, VED exempt, old banger.
October 10, 2021
I think you will find jerry, that even fewer garages will provide a supply for your ‘old banger classic’ so condemning ownership even more to polishing in the garage. Some appear to already to be switching to E10 at the expense of withdrawing E5 provision.
October 10, 2021
@Micky Taking; I think most automotive engineers, most classic car specialist, most informed classic car owners, once they have stopped laughing, stood back up, will consider you are talking out of your tailpipe. All the VHI qualifying cars I maintain (professionally or otherwise) run on E5, I have no doubt they will run on E10.
As for E5 and E10 availability, of course if a petrol station only has one unleaded petrol pump per island/site they will have to switch to supplying only E10, that doesn’t change the fact that any filling station who were selling both E5 Unleaded and E5 Super Unleaded before Sept can carry on selling E5 Super Unleaded along side E10 Unleaded.
October 9, 2021
+1
October 9, 2021
John you are surely not suggesting that we have EU supporters and spies within our Government/Parliament are you, because that would come as a huge surprise, I thought all politicians were now putting the UK first, this leaked e mail would suggest this is not actually the case.
I note that Ms Dolittle has a title, do you know how she qualified for such an honour, because this seems to back up the feeling that perhaps she is not working alone, but has a number of supporters/sponsors.
October 9, 2021
alan jutson
Putting the country first
It never happens Alan, the majority of them would not know where or how to start.
October 9, 2021
Turbo – this country is FINISHED – DELIBERATELY FINISHED – ANYONE can arrive – and get free lives – and Patel does nothing – but keeps her job. So BJ must be happy with what she achieves.
October 9, 2021
Ah yes, “the race to the bottom”, their favourite propaganda phrase, when that is what they themselves brought about.
October 9, 2021
âRace to the bottomâ is indeed a vague rather daft propaganda phrase. It seems to mean being or remaining competitive in UK and/or world markets.
This is surely better than just going out of business or just being unemployed. Of course with such a huge tax burden, a massive state sector delivering so little of value, vast and mad over regulation and the expensive intermittent energy agenda it is not easy to do so.
October 9, 2021
It must be a sign of the times, but it seems to me that you need a special symbol to display at the top of your blog when this sort of whimsy takes you. Perhaps a large, flashing “J” on its own will suffice? On second thought, it may be necessary to add the other other three letters to be on the safe side…
October 9, 2021
‘April early’ perhaps?
October 9, 2021
Proof if ever we needed it that the previous âConservativeâ (?) Government headed by Remainer May were traitors and had no intention of delivering a proper Brexit. This letter confirms it.
October 9, 2021
And who claimed that Leave voters were not gullible?
October 9, 2021
Yes NLH.
Who actually claims that?
October 9, 2021
NLH does.
October 9, 2021
True I missed that.
October 9, 2021
Not much doubt about that is there. Doubtless Theresa May will end up in the Lords like Ken Clark and other surrender act traitors.
October 9, 2021
@JoolsB +1 yes you can have a referendum, but will ignore it and fight against assuming responsibility on behalf of the people. We have to stay aligned until conditions are deemed right to subject the UK Citizen once again to accept rule by an unelected, unaccountable Trade Commission that believes it is a Quasi Government.
The HoC as a whole is fighting the people, and bringing those MP’s with the sense of duty and responsibility into disrepute
October 9, 2021
I think traitors is a bit over the top. They just wanted a very easy life, and they thought that the EU would offer them one if they signed up for Brexit but not really Brexit. They got their reward.
October 9, 2021
Is it traitorous to agree with the government while knowing it run counter to the wishes of the people
October 9, 2021
No, the Crown’s Parliament is sovereign – not the people.
It could only ever be treason to attempt to subvert Parliament, therefore.
October 9, 2021
Parliament has voted to leave the EU
October 9, 2021
Good point….but someone was allowed to challenge that vote in court
October 10, 2021
No, they were not.
October 9, 2021
“No, the Crownâs Parliament is sovereign â not the people.”
The “Crown’s Parliament”? Are you quite sure you are British? I don’t think I have ever heard that phrase before in my entire life. Maybe you meant “The Queen in Parliament”.
October 9, 2021
Thank you, Jon.
October 9, 2021
Dear Lucy.
I am afraid that there is little I can suggest that would have any chance of being properly implemented by a dysfunctional government machine. How the UK is going to transition from a low pay, low productivity, high immigration economy, into one based on high productivity, high-wage job creation and low immigration; I have absolutely no idea. I would go as far as to suggest; as they say in the Army, that this governmentâs economic vehicle is âbeyond economic repairâ. Leaving the EU was a dumb thing to do. For the UK it made living easy with immigration, particularly seasonal migration, artificially increasing UK productivity.
British capitalism has been exposed by the pandemic as one designed for asset-strippers, speculators, monopolists and tax dodgers. Likewise, I have no idea what rhetoric such as sovereignty, freedom, take back control, build back better will actually look and feel like at post Brexit street level.
You will need to keep a tight grip on the Monetary Policy Committee. Brexit and Covid will bring inflation. If households get some confidence back and start spending let it ride; even to the extent of letting the currency fall back and slow the imports and possibly generate, out of necessity, some import substitution.
Most important of all, don’t let the Treasury start reducing the so called government national debt (actually the non-government sectors savings), with spending cuts and tax hikes; for at least the next five to ten years. Fiscal austerity is not the path to those sunny uplands.
October 9, 2021
“How the UK is going to transition from a low pay, low productivity, high immigration economy, into one based on high productivity, high-wage job creation and low immigration; I have absolutely no idea.”
That is sometimes called “proof by lack of imagination”. You may not be able to understand this, but what about countries that already *have* made this transition? Don’t they exist?
Employers are lazy, and thy will not stop employing low-skilled human-power as long as it is available. Cut them off from their drug and they will just have to introduce more machinery, automation, robotics and software.
The obvious thing that a lot of people miss is that we are not short of the technologies. The UK has a third of all Europe’s high-tech start-ups. The country has plenty of production of electronics, automation,softare and on and on, and yet there are still people pushing brooms and doing stuff by hand.
We don’t have to invent automation. We just have to deploy it. And that means changing the cost/profit equation by making hand-labour less available and more expensive.
October 9, 2021
Nice sentiment from the gentleman but has Ms Lucy had a hand in the DT article today titled :
‘EU must be ready to send aid to Brexit Britain says former PM of Finland’ Unbelievable. Is there something else we should be told ?
October 9, 2021
The editor of Business New Europe has joked this week that he is thinking of adding the UK to his Emerging Market coverage!
October 9, 2021
Diane, the same paper is saying that Poland is refusing to accept primacy of EU law and the EU is threatening to withhold some funding. Perhaps we should have tried that and maybe the EU would have refused to accept our funding.
October 9, 2021
A bit like the headline “Fog in Channel. Continent cut off!”
October 10, 2021
If only…
October 9, 2021
So it’s really just decent well-intentioned Tory ministers undermined and outmanoeuvred by conspiring Europhile civil servants?
If that’s true, and the Tory ministers are too dumb to realise it, maybe it’s best that the ministers aren’t the ones actually taking the decisions.
October 9, 2021
Poland is locked in a legal battle with the European Union over the legitimacy of judicial and constitutional reforms exerted by its conservative ruling party that could trigger the possibility of Polandâs exit from the EU bloc.
Led by the populist Law and Justice Party (PiS), the Polish government has pushed widespread reforms it says are needed to fight corruption but critics say expand government powers and defy the democratic values upheld by EU law. Poland’s abortion rights were overturned with a near-ban introduced in January, despite months of violent street protests, while LGBTQ groups and the freedom of speech of everyday citizens have also come under attack.
But differences between Warsaw and Brussels deepened Wednesday taking a more hostile turn as Polandâs Constitutional Court defied a ruling by the European Union Court of Justice against Polandâs controversial judicial reforms. Polandâs Constitutional Court, the countryâs highest court, said the decision was ânot in lineâ with the constitution.
Will POLEXIT be the start of a breakup?
October 9, 2021
There is not support amongst the Polish people for leaving the European Union.
This silly posturing by the Right there will bring them down if continued. Don’t forget that the courts there have been stuffed with their own, as Trump did in the US too.
Even if they did leave or were expelled, then like Hungary, they would probably not be missed.
October 9, 2021
No support ? but several million come here to work.
October 9, 2021
Dame Lucy Dolittle is clearly someone who should be kept away from developing any post- Brexit policies. She seems like a dyed-in-the-wool rejoiner.
October 9, 2021
JR, referring back to my earlier comment today, on the previous thread:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/10/08/more-energy-please/#comment-1266496
about Theresa May making a fundamental, and unforced, error by agreeing to address the minor problem of goods trickling across the Irish land border through an ill-conceived system of import controls rather than through the more obvious option of a system of export controls, I now read in the FT:
https://www.ft.com/content/84767549-757e-4844-b4b0-3ae20f9ce385
“Food products would be labelled âUK onlyâ and not cross to Ireland”.
“They would also cover other food easily identifiable as British, such as Stilton cheese, ending the need for the complicated veterinary forms required for many products. The products would have to be labelled as UK only and not cross the border to Ireland.”
So how would it be ensured that this limited range of products would not cross the border to Ireland, and why should the same methods of export control – legal and practical – not be applied to all other goods?
Putting it another way, if it is possible to prevent a Stilton cheese rolling across the land border, without that being a “hard border”, then why should it not also be possible to stop a US-style “chlorinated chicken” pecking its way across, or indeed an over-powered vacuum cleaner hoovering its way across?
Essentially the EU is proposing that for a very limited range of goods there should be export controls – presumably operated well away from the border, and possibly as a UK-EU collaborative effort – rather than import controls operated at Belfast and Larne and the other points of entry into Northern Ireland; and my recommendation would be to accept this offer from the EU, provided it is extended to all goods.
reply I and my friends have proposed mutual enforcement so Uk authorities police GB/Ni as we see fit and guarantee no onward moves to Eu of non compliant goods. All this can work with existing tec -electronic manifests etc
October 9, 2021
Reply – Reply
Such an obvious common-sense solution, which many of us have mentioned on here time and time again, why is the Government so slow in implementing it.
Do they think it’s too simple to be true ?
If the EU objects, just ignore them and do it, we are supposed to be able to make our own rules for the UK in the UK. That was the whole point of Brexit.
October 9, 2021
Reply to reply: The UK government should not wait for the EU to willingly agree to that – they rejected it out of hand in August 2019- instead it should publish drafts of the new laws necessary for our half of the scheme and see if that shames the EU into agreeing to do its half.
October 9, 2021
DC :
I think the “intercepted memo” shows that Mrs. May’s error was not “unforced”.
October 10, 2021
I’d welcome more information about that.
October 9, 2021
It’s a decent offer, but the question of jurisdiction has to be worked out. No offer of any shape from the EU is safe if they insist that the European Courts have the final say over disagreements.
October 10, 2021
Correct, it is unacceptable for any part of the UK to remain under the jurisdiction of the EU court.
One has to ask why Tory MPs voted for it.
October 10, 2021
Most of us don’t need to ask!
October 9, 2021
So. Will there be a daily BBC drumbeat of deaths of our elderly owing to fuel poverty caused by 18 months of lockdown and reckless fuel policies under the Tories ?
It seems ironic that we crippled our economy to save people from Covid but don’t care about death by hypothermia.
October 9, 2021
+1
October 9, 2021
Tory MPs can’t catch hypothermia.
October 9, 2021
I thought that, according to the Holy Global Warming faith, the Earth is on the point of vicious over-heating, so how will anyone die of hypothermia?
October 9, 2021
Nah, shouldn’t think so since BBC oiks are sufficiently overpaid to pay the new energy prices at whatever hiked level. Any increase in deaths due to hyperthermia will be randomly blamed on Brexit/covid/flu by the mendacious MSM.
October 9, 2021
I have to say on reading the memo and noting the surname of the writer, thought would check to see if a real person and the memo was not in the style of “Yes Minister.”
But as you can see from 2010 it looks like a genuine memo from the Cabinet Office https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2010/11/30/how-lucy-doolittle-replied/
It is clear that Dame Lucy is putting the blame on leaving the EU for the current difficulties .
I was shocked that the Head of the Cabinet Office Post Brexit renewal unit should write this -“UK does now rely on imports for some of its electricity and fuel, that it needs to respect EU law under the NI Protocol and should not be dogmatic about fish given the passionate concerns the French have about this minor industry. The government needs to understand the power of the EU and the legal realities of the position they find themselves in”
The position the UK finds itself in Now is due to the EU and it’s thinking exactly put by Dame Lucy.
The UK was not in this position before we joined the un”Common Market” for Britain.
I think someone with this mind set should not be Head of Cabinet Office Post Brexit renewal – what a joke and con on us all.
PS. Professor Redmayne, Professor of European inequalities is not that independent . Dame Lucy just wants a fall Guy to backup her anti-Brexit view, and take the blame, if she does not get her view supported by Government , but still keeps her job .
October 9, 2021
The price of energy is part of the GREAT RESET plan, energy companies buy their gas and electric in sometimes years ahead when price is cheap on the market and last year was one the best to buy for long time, when energy price hit the floor last summer, they are now making a killing selling that energy to you at inflated prices, the energy companies that are shutting down are not going broke, what happen to them was that they sold to many low fixed price contracts to the public last year and this year, so they sold their market contracts they bought last year to other energy companies or businesses and made a big profit and then closed down. John you will have to start a campaign in parliament to make sure these energy companies do not get away with it. Didn’t I tell you this a few weeks ago, people in this country do not want to die because of the GREAT RESET this winter, this big energy prices are lead by the big american trading houses in LONDON and know who I mean, oil going to over 100 dollar early next year.
October 9, 2021
Unfortunately Sir Johnâs âintercepted memoâ is not fiction.
We are still suffering restrictive, illogical, impractical and UK fleecing EU regulations, rules and directives as a result of the actions of Marxists and corrupted EU supporters in Parliament, the civil service, the MSM, quangos, the educational establishment and the judiciary acting as a fifth column.
October 9, 2021
I see the swiss people who voted for climate change in 2017 by referendum have change their minds in 2021 and voted against the plans put forward by their gov in another referendum, wouldn’t it be nice if you could have a referendum in the UK on climate change and make that the focus of the next election, like Brexit.
October 9, 2021
In your interview with GB news you complain about the futility and cost of shipping gas In LNG carriers from the other side of the world instead of doing for ourselves – and yet at the same time you think it ok to make trade deals with countries in Asia, Australia and the Pacific region with the same costs to shipping, transportation etc and where the downsides apply even though we have in our own backyard the biggest richest economic bloc on the planet – the EU- only twenty miles away
October 9, 2021
That makes no sense. The markets on the other side of our planet will buy our exports willingly, while the EU sells far more to us than they buy, hence our trade deficit with the EU and our trade surplus with the rest of the World.
You can have a FTA with anyone you like, but you will end up actually trading with those who will buy your goods. You cannot impose exports on anyone, even if they are just on the other side of the Channel.
October 9, 2021
Dame Lucy continues on her remorseless way and seems in good spirits. I would not be surprised if she has better connections with our rulers than do members of the cabinet. But what I want to know is has she had the jab(s) and, if so, with what, the saline or the potions?
Build back better!
October 9, 2021
After all these years she lets us know her Sur name. So who is she now talking to.?
October 9, 2021
Here’s a good one. Ireland has finally signed up for the OECD plan for a minimum 15% corporate tax rate, ending its famously low 12.5%.
Except, except, they are making an exception for smaller domestically owned companies. The foreign-owned multinationals will pay the new higher rate but smaller Irish-owned companies won’t. They will continue to pay 12.5%.
It’s a good thing there is no cherry-picking, isn’t it?
October 10, 2021
And they didn’t even take back control like we did – how did they do it?
October 9, 2021
Clever games with numbers. According to the BBC the Vice Chancellor of the University of East Anglia says the number of EU students this year has halved and non-EU students show a “rise”..
It sounds a bit alarming until you look at the actual numbers. The number of EU students at UEA dropped from 449 in 2020 to 226 this year, but the number of non-EU students rose from 1,194 to 1,494..
So EU students dropped by 223 while not-EU students rose by 300, which more than made up for it. The “halving” was of a smaller number while the “rise” was in a much larger number.
It’s all in how carefully you choose your words, and academics are very good at that.
And of course the EU students were paying UK domestic fees, while most non-EU students will pay significantly higher fees.
October 9, 2021
I think it is too early to say how the situation in Poland is going to play out, but the reaction in Brussels to the Polish Supreme Court ruling is interesting. VdL was quoted as saying âThe EU is a community of values and laws. This is what binds our Union together and makes it strong,â
The key here is the “values” bit, because that was at the root of the dispute to begin with. The Poles – and the Hungarians – were told this year that various domestic court rulings were unacceptable, not because they conflicted with any written EU law, but because they conflicted with unwritten “values”.
This is very fundamental stuff, because if EU member states can be told they are in violation of a “value” which is not specified in some law or Treaty, then the EU Commission is free to write laws retrospectively, and that is a very bad practice that shows up in the history of many countries. It isn’t just bad to write laws retrospectively, but it’s also bad because it creates a precedent for the future.
This issue is going to come to a head sooner or later – is the EU bound by its own laws or can the Commission make them up as it goes along? – and it might as well be Poland and Hungary that cause the crisis.
October 10, 2021
The values are defined in treaties.
October 11, 2021
Hungary has deeply immersed itself in the Sino-Russian Eurasia project-and is already reaping the benefits.Poland has boxed itself into a corner with it’s deep historic antipathy to Russia and it’s more recently adopoted unfriendly stance towards China(to please Mr Trump).
October 9, 2021
10 pm BBC news tonight.
Calls for financial assistance for medium and small size business’s.
No.. Push has to go to shove if the PM cannot or will not change, then get him out and his cabinet. CHANGE THE POLICY IT IS UNSUSTAINABLE AS IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE. This country has got to be put first at all times. No more talking we have heard more than enough.
October 10, 2021
Dame Lucy : âThey do not seem to understand that it makes sense to import more food, cars, energy and other items in a spirit of European solidarity, and to welcome EU workers here.â
Karl : âQuite. They also do not seem to understand that the more electricity, food and manufactured goods we import the smaller becomes our carbon footprint and the closer we get to achieving net zero by 2050.
In addition importing workers at the low skills end keeps wages low and at the high skilled end removes the need and hence costs to train our own people. And our GDP grows!
So continuous and high levels of imports of both goods and people is all win, win and any ideas that we should become self-sufficient should be immediately quashed.â
October 10, 2021
Cameron was right all along – we can rely on China to enable us to meet all our international targets.