This article is reproduced from Conservative Home where it appeared yesterday:
The Government is strongly in favour of the Union of the UK. So is the Official Opposition. Scotland held a referendum and voted to stay in the Union. At the time all parties agreed it would be a vote for a generation, though the SNP now wobble over the desirability and timing of a much earlier re-run of the vote they lost. The rest of the Union has not campaigned for a vote about their membership. So why is there such nervousness about the subject?
The biggest threat today to the Union comes from the EU. There is a strand of EU thinking that has surfaced in press briefings and the odd comment that says there must be a price to Brexit for the UK, and that price should be the detachment of Northern Ireland from the UK.
The official public line is the EU needs to insist on special governance arrangements in Northern Ireland to avoid goods coming across the border into the Republic from the UK that might not be compliant with EU rules and customs.
To make this difficult the EU chooses to interpret the peace Agreement governing the two communities of Northern Ireland as meaning there should be no border controls, though throughout the UKās time in the EU there were VAT, Excise and currency controls governing trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic. These were largely handled through electronic means, and away from the physical border.
The UK has offered several ways in which it can make sure non compliant goods do not wander from NI to the Republic without imposing new border posts. Mutual enforcement of the rules would do it, with the UK authorities ensuring there is no passage of non compliant goods.
Electronic manifests for each consignment, to be inspected before arrival by EU officials, would do it. Trusted trader schemes where most firms were trusted to enforce the EU rules and avoid non compliant deliveries would do it. There has always been smuggling across the NI/Republic border, and there has been a long history of co-operation by the authorities on both sides to avoid it becoming excessive and to punish those who still try it. That will continue after the new arrangements.
The fact that the EU has rejected all these sensible proposals implies it does not want to solve the narrow issue of trade. It may be that the immediate objective is to divert large amounts of trade from GB/NI into Republic to NI trade. That is what is happening.
Faced with the EU blockage of simple GB/NI movement of goods in the way we used to enjoy, consumers in NI are being forced to buy from the EU via the Republic instead to get their deliveries on time. The EU is assisting a large diversion of GB/NI trade. This is expressly against the Protocol which rules out such a diversion in Article 16. The UK for that reason alone can legally change things unilaterally to stop this happening.
It may be that it is part of a wider EU plan to ensure more common governance of Northern Ireland with the Republic under EU control. The wish is to impose every regulation and directive on NI that the EU regards as important to its single market.
The remit of the single market is now very large, encompassing everything from environment policy to labour policy, from transport policy to energy policy, alongside the more normal definition concentrating on product standards and trade terms. The EU wishes NI to accept large amounts of EU law with no voice and vote in its making and no right to repeal or amend.
The NI Protocol rightly expresses strong support for the peace process, which is based on the mutual consent of both parties. The EU claims to champion this, yet fails to grasp the fundamental problem with its approach.
Its demand that it can legislate for NI and control many things in NI in the name of preserving the integrity of its single market does not have the consent of the Unionist population. Indeed the EU has united Unionists against its Protocol because they see the EU seeking to split NI off from UK law and NI consumers from GB suppliers, going well beyond its legitimate needs to police its trade.
The Protocol stresses at the beginning āthe importance of maintaining the integral place of Northern Ireland in the UKās internal marketā. The EU is doing the opposite. It says āThis Protocol respects the essential state functions and territorial integration of the UKā. It does not feel like that to many in NI.
When the UK challenges the EU over its wish to govern Northern Ireland in a different way to the rest of the UK, the EU asks why the UK keeps on going on about sovereignty. If it wishes to show sympathy for Northern Ireland and wish to understand the nature of the problem it needs to grasp that sovereignty as at the heart of the issues long dividing the two communities. The EUās view of it does not work for the Unionists.
The UK government needs to see off this needless threat to the Union by insisting on UK control of GB/NI trade as is required under the Protocol. People in NI have to be free to have easy access to products available elsewhere in the UK within our internal market.
The EU should take up one of the many generous schemes the UK has put forward to ensure full co-operation to avoid non compliant products passing on from NI to the Republic. Lord Frost needs to move swiftly now, as much damage is being done to the view of the EU amongst the Unionists and much trade is being diverted against the wishes of the public and against the words of the protocol.
Meanwhile in Scotland the SNP say they want an early referendum, but not one yet. Doubtless they are watching opinion polls which still do not show a clear window for majority support to reverse the last referendum result. Many Scottish voters want to get on with their lives without further uncertainty over this issue, and many want to see the SNP make devolution work to deliver a better outcome.
The UK government should not fall for the Gordon Brown line again that a bit more devolution will solve this problem. Brownās passion for devolution gave the SNP a bigger platform and gave them the opportunity of a referendum on the Union.
Devolution did not end the matter as Brown promised. UK Ministers who are keen to buttress the Union need to show by their deeds and words why the Union is good for all its parts, and need to govern wisely so people join in with their support.
Suggesting more powers for just one part of the UK in response to the campaigns of those who wish to split the UK is a bad idea. Voters wanting Scottish independence will not be won over. They will see it as a weakness by the Union government, and propose a further push to secure full independence.
If it is right for the Scottish Parliament to have more powers, what is the stopping point in powers before you reach independence? How would you draw a stable and defensible line? The way to defend the Union is to stand up for it, and to show how the Union powers are benefitting all its parts.
October 19, 2021
I agree fully. The idiotic Blair devolution arrangements will almost inevitably lead to more and more pressure for breaking the union as they are constantly either bought off using English taxpayersā money or they get independence. So they win as they see it either way. Almost everything Blair (and Brown and Cameron) did was a disaster his wars, his EU agenda, his green lunacy, his ever larger state, his energy agendaā¦
If you keep letting them have referendums sooner or later they will get a majority. If you do not other serious problems will arise.
October 19, 2021
An excellent letter in the Telegraph today:- āAt each election, my first port of call in party manifestos is energy policy. That is more important than anything else. If there is no energy, there is great risk to health, defence, education and supply chains. A political party in power when the lights go out will be destroyed at the following election.ā
Boris/Carrie/Sunak/Kwatang need to grow up and get real very quickly indeed. The government keep referring to ālow carbon heat pumpsā. They can only be low carbon if we have have lots of low carbon electricity to power them and low carbon energy to manufacture, fit & maintain them (plus the new radiators and the heat sources needed) – we do not have this so get fracking. The heat pump agenda is insane other than perhaps for a few new build house.
October 19, 2021
Whatās this got to do with the topic and the same obsessive tosh as umpteen times before. Youāve lost the argument both nationally and internationally.
A stuck record. Change the needle.
October 20, 2021
@ Nig 1 You can change the needle but the physics, economics and engineering realities will remain. Politically insane too.
October 21, 2021
Funny comment, LL. The laws of physics are certainly rather well established, at least for what concern day-to-day human life, but only a rather retrograde person could argue that economics is immutable or that no progress is possible in engineering.
From your daily comments you appear stuck in your university years, unable to judge anyone without referring to what degree they might have got, 20, 30 or 40 years ago. Have you not made any progress since your multiple degrees? That might explain your āblockageā.
Youāre extremely funny to read day after day.
October 19, 2021
So the lights go out, who will people vote for? Not Labour or LibDem whose policies on energy are just as daft as the Tories. The Greens? What a joke. Some say the Reform (Richard Tice) Party. Well they might be in with a shout, if they manage to get to the next election without falling apart through internal arguing.
October 19, 2021
The heat pumps are massive at the moment, new build homes are often tiny! Or are you suggesting a major heat pump for the whole estate! Bit risky.
October 19, 2021
Try getting one in a first floor apartment
October 20, 2021
I agree glen, especially if the heat pump wasnāt put in place during the groundworkās of the building. I wonder though if this is such a good idea why an Island like Jersey or Guernsey doesnāt become self-reliant on heating from heat pumps, could a heat pump be put near an estate with 100 houses and the current gas radiator supply be fed from the new heat pump source? I donāt understand enough about it but I would think to trial it on a small island might be better than just hoping this could work for 70 million people.
October 20, 2021
District heat pump? There is such a system for 85 apartments in Gateshead. It was set up in 2011, when the apartments had been built. Another one for 11 houses built in 2010 in Fressingfield retrofitted by the Flagship Group in 2016. And other similar heat pump-based water and heating systems in Wandsworth (the Riverside Quarter), in Brooke Street Derbyshire, since the mid 2010s.
And farther afield, developments in Bergheim (Germany), Helsinki (Finland), Duindorp (NL) and obviously Reykjavik (Iceland).
October 19, 2021
Ban anonymous social media accounts under āDavidās Lawā, murdered MPās friend says Mark Francois MP.
The usually sound chap has clearly gone made there are all sort of valid and important reasons for people to be anonymous. Conflict with their jobs, other positions they hold, civil legal claim threats, their familiesā views and their jobs or positions, threats from criminals and endless other reasons. To do this would be a massive attack on free speech and on often vital whistle blowers too.
Think it through properly Mark. I do not think that David Amess would even have support this foolish agenda. It seems unlikely that death like this have anything at all to do with being anonymous. The arrested man did not even try to escape or hide his name after all it seems.
October 20, 2021
LL,
Johnson called people who did not vaccinate, nuts. He repeated it twice. At the UN he made similar derogatory remarks. That is hate speech/crime is it not? Certainly coercion. From a man who failed to comply with his own rules he set everyone else on many occasions!! As did his ministers and senior advisor.
October 19, 2021
Renewables cannot provide a reliable and affordable supply of electricity until the storage problem has been solved and implemented.
The even greater issue is the insanity of electrifying everything which will require impossible amounts of money, labour and valuable Earthās mineral resources to upgrade the electrical distribution network in every road in the country whilst replacing the whole UK vehicle fleet and millions of home boilers.
October 19, 2021
These fools are in LaLa land. Then the BBC have the deluded Miliband (PPE yet again) to say does not go remotely far enough! The plan will not work even in CO2 terms, just export and kill jobs and destroy the economy. PLUS CO2 is not even a serious problem and international agreement a pipe dream.
Nutters in charge of this agenda is however very serious indeed.
October 19, 2021
LL, +1. !!!!
October 19, 2021
Calm down dear. My generation is fixing your mess.
October 19, 2021
Oh, good grief! We’re definitely doomed then, if shallow, self-serving, ignorant and arrogant people are in charge. Those who really think they know it all. Saints preserve us.
October 20, 2021
Who would want fly on an aircraft designed by school drop out Greta types?
October 19, 2021
The storage problem can only be solved at vast expense and with much energy lost/wasted in the process. Such are the laws of physics and the engineering economics.
October 19, 2021
Read it in MoneyWeek – 8 October 2021 From editor-in chief…
“That means the $16trn of green investments planned globally will mean concurrently soaring demand for oil.
Want clean energy? You need dirty energy ”
Good clean dirty thinking i would say.
October 19, 2021
Iāve just listened to Boris climate speech this morning with an emphasis on āgreen is goodā and free market capitalism….. but he didnāt mention that his plans involve the Marxist ideas of ābanningā alternatives and rising taxation to massive levels
October 19, 2021
@glen cullen; Cut the “Marxists” claptrap, Thatcher was not against banning freedoms herself either, for example compulsory wearing of seat belts, proper leaded petrol, banned schools informing children about homosexuality (some who, no doubt grew up to be Gay, regardless of Sec 28 and needed such information), banned the freedom for people to join a trade union for those employed at GCHQ, just to mention the more obvious examples of ‘Thatcher era Marxism’!
I see Boris reckons that his Net Zero plan will create 440,000 ‘green’ (haha) jobs, but how many will be Net new jobs, not just a gross figure of already employed people who to switch from one sector to another. how many truly news jobs Mr Johnson, put a figure on that please…
October 19, 2021
I’m vastly amused by the fact that these ”greenies” don’t seem to know about the need for CO2 to ”green” things. (I thought I’d put it simply in case Andy’s reading it.)
October 19, 2021
Glen C, +1, good, concise and accurate comment. I’m so very glad that I didn’t cast my vote for the blustering vapid celebrity.
October 20, 2021
+1 it will not work in engineering or economic terms – politically it is the poll tax and ERM disaster on steroids.
October 19, 2021
@Lifelogic +1 the inference is the ‘heat pump’ is the holy grail in all situations – it is not. A heat pump works especially the ground source version ‘if’ the home is built to virtual ‘passive house’ standards. As a retro-fit proposition in all situations its a bit of a ‘dead duck’, in most situations all radiators need changing a revised or additional method of water heating setup is required it is a massive costly list, were the heat pump bi is just a bit part player.
LL as you say we also need a massive extra supply of cheaper electricity – that on the week the Government is supposed to be announcing the Chinese and French Governments are to be further subsidised by the UK taxpayer at Sizewell. I could stomach the notion if the taxpayer money remained in the UK and reinforced our resilience safety and security by building up the UK and repaying the taxpayer. The UK taxpayer advancing the 2 nations that do us the least amount of favours sits very uneasily with most.
October 19, 2021
Nota# & LL :
Anyone wishing to learn about heat pumps should search for “This is Why Heat Pumps May NOT Be The Future” on YouTube.
Made by someone who fits them.
October 19, 2021
No point in stating the obvious- brexit is a disaster and causing problems on many fronts.
It should have all been thought through prior to the vote- we have enough think tanks in the country for goodness sakes- what were they all doing?
October 19, 2021
They were campaigning on behalf of Brexit.
October 19, 2021
Jack I suggest you look closer at what is happening in Brussels. The EU is increasingly becoming.ing an irrelevance internationally and is struggling on all fronts.
We’ve had a lucky escape.
October 20, 2021
Not so lucky…we are in permanent darkness, we were shot in both legs, still have a heavy load strapped to our back, the dogs are still following us, and our side continuously shouts out where we are headed.
Call that lucky?
October 20, 2021
Ian Wragg
Can we have some background and facts and not just statements
October 19, 2021
Well, blame Vote Leave. Remain came up with a concrete plan, Cameronās renegotiation. You might not have liked it, but you knew what it was. Vote Leave refused to provide a manifesto, but instead just called Remainās claims About what would happen if we left Project Fear – itās all come true by the way. You NEVER knew what VoteLeave was offering, they just told us the German carmakers and French cheesemakers couldnāt live without us. Fantasy land. Andwe are living with the consequences of Vote Leaveās irresponsibility, and we will be for a generation
October 19, 2021
@Jacob; Come off it, the problem is not Boris following a Trump like energy policy, if only he would, but trying to appease those like yourself and Andy, trying to keep up with the EU’s own daft Net Zero agenda.
Oh I take your point, yes Brexit has been a disaster, at times it’s just as if we never left!
October 19, 2021
”Brexit is a disaster”. Please describe the alternative. I’m sure there are many of us here who would genuinely like to know how you’d view our position if we hadn’t shaken off the shackles.
October 19, 2021
Yesterday on local news the BBC were freely advertising Fischerheat pumps in a piece on net zero.
No mention of the fact that Yesterday over 50% of power was from fossil fuels.
No mention of the fact we don’t have enough power for present use let alone to power all these EVs and noisy, inefficient heat pumps.
Carries answer is to import more power from the EU who are a hostile power.
There’s no joined up thinking from the government todY.
October 20, 2021
Ian Wragg
SO Denmark , Sweden, Holland and Finland are enemy powers?
Have you lost your sense?
October 19, 2021
I notice the Government is only going to experiment with a few households, almost as if they know it is ineffectual to have heat pumps and don’t want to make too big a mistake.
October 19, 2021
Agree ā and maybe every MP, Peers and Senior Civil Servant should have the ICE vehicle ban imposed upon them at from the date of cop26 to prove and test the green revolution before the public ban in 8 years
October 19, 2021
G C, +1, excellent suggestion. They’ll be eager to set us an example of responsible citizenship and investing selflessly in a ‘sustainable’ future, but I won’t be holding my breath in anticipation.
How much did Ed Milliband have to spend for his own system . . . .?
October 19, 2021
Heat pumps are perfectly effective if they are installed properly. A heat pump isnāt new technology. It is basically like a fridge in reverse.
October 19, 2021
Where will you put it in terrace houses with either no gardens or very small gardens?
October 19, 2021
Good grief.
October 19, 2021
Every view we have is pointless. ‘Boris’ is insane, he shouts a lot, he will impose his insanity on us; he is creating chaos in government, and no Tory MPs or members have the courage to do anything for us by risking their own positions.
October 19, 2021
Boris isnāt just insane heās dangerous to the nation and the people
October 19, 2021
A Southern Ocean of Wind and a few other things, but not insane. You’ve got the Tory parliamentary party right.
October 19, 2021
@LL; A political party in power when the lights go out will be destroyed at the following election.
Indeed, the author along with millions must be wondering why the Conservative party has forgotten that lesson, or perhaps they have not, after all who else is there realistically to vote for.
There is no need, nor point, to “get Fracking”, any such oil or gas provided by Fracking will likely be nothing more than a top-up to our total needs. The real answer surely is to ‘get coal mining’ again, the UK having gone past (known) peak oil and gas reserves and is thus now overly reliant on either middle eastern or Russian energy resources which pose perhaps more risks than having to deal with the NUM again.
October 19, 2021
@LL; I share your dislike of Heat Pumps, whilst they do work (both ground and air types), they are hellishly expensive, complex, and given that the technoligy is not actually new, being an adaptation of the more common air conditioning system, I doubt quantity of sales will bring unit costs down. It is reported the govt plan to offer a Ā£5k subsidy, that is not enough, sure it is something like 50% saving for a large house but that is only on the unit cost, not the installation, which could its self be Ā£5k for larger installs. By comparison Ā£5k is more than enough to have a new gas boiler bought and installed…
I foresee, come 2035 on, many more botched gas boiler repairs, of course not by the trade, but by the home owner or their mate, oh but “Gas Safe” some shout, but once a building explodes due to a gas leak, or deaths occur due to carbon monoxide poisoning, it is far to late!
As I was about to post this a BEIS Minister has called Net Zero a “race” with other nations, not at all Greg, its actually a very idiotic example of sheeple running off towards the cliff edge like lemmings.
October 20, 2021
+1
October 19, 2021
The whole climate scam is insane.
October 19, 2021
DavidJ, True!
October 19, 2021
Heat pumps require Scandinavian levels of home insulation. Better to spend money on thermal efficiency than the expense of fitting headline-grabbing technology which will leave many households rather chilly in the winter. The UK has many houses of 100 years old or more which leak heat alarmingly. Sometimes they are even subject to Listed status, which might make the adaptation to energy “efficiency” without contravening the criteria a bit tricky. I feel the government is promoting policies simply to look good in the media and not worry about the long term reality. A reality which will be seriously uncomfortable for many of us.
October 19, 2021
David L
It’s not space heating that’s the problem in highly energy efficient houses it is the water loading where they really struggle.
October 19, 2021
The incompetence of this Government that has been in office for 11.5 years, knows no bounds. Boris the clown’s zero carbon targets are impossible as the manufacture of pumps wind turbines etc will continue in China/India or Vietnam who will use their coal powered power stations to produce the electricity to manufacture them before transporting them half way round the world in dirty ships. Then we have the gas levy coming in next year to deliberately increase those costs to the consumers to “wean us” off of our gas boilers for a 10K heat exchanger. That’ll go down well with the voters who are now realising that the green deal is putting 25% on their already high electricity bills. Then they’re taking our ICE cars off of us for battery cars which are priced off the market to many voters. There is insufficient infrastructure to support the grids needs or charging infrastructure and the Government have allowed our generating capacity to reduce so that we need 10% of our needs from a blackmailing France. This is all to virtue signal how good our mainstream politicos are whilst exporting our manufacturing and carbon footprint.
CO2 is an essential element that feeds all of our plants. Without it there would be no plants and therefore no animals. In Earths history there have been many times when the temperatures have risen and fallen regardless of the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere many times in the opposite direction. Climate change is a RELIGION, not science based, funded by Governments to people who will say what they want for money, not science. Madness.
October 19, 2021
+1
October 19, 2021
+ 1
October 19, 2021
Climate change isnāt even an extreme religion itās a crazy cult
October 19, 2021
BBC Radio 2 Victoria Derbyshire .. an ‘expert’ was allowed to say unchallenged “We can all change our homes to heat pumps, after all, people think nothing of spending fifty thousand pounds on a kitchen.”
What planet do these people live on ?
October 19, 2021
They’re experts working at a university or the BBC on Ā£100k
October 20, 2021
probably the Government.
October 19, 2021
Let’s be coarse, let’s be frank, let’s be honest. The UK as a sovereign nation is dead. Blair’s revolution to expose us all to an agenda of devolution, diversity and politicisation has ripped the heart out of our civil space and the soul out of the UK. The Tory party leadership’s response to Blair’s destructive, Caesar decree politics has been one of passive agreement seemingly playing both sides of the same game for political comfort
There’s no going back. The SNP will force independence and Scotland will become a sovereign nation in its own right and do so with EU support. The odious SNP will then Socialise the country and bankrupt it both fiscally and morally.
Northern Ireland was defenestrated by May and Johnson to secure an EU deal. I believe NI will become part of Ireland, in time.
British political leaders post-Thatcher up to and including this current incumbent have acted not to defend UK’s interests but to undermine them.
Even today, we see tragic events weaponised and politicised to justify further destruction of personal freedoms. No respect for nation, freedom and person. The British political and establishment class bar a handful of decent human beings have become brutal political animals with no moral dimension.
There are now no longer any sacred cows. I find that deeply concerning
October 19, 2021
Well said
Who could disagree with that?
We all know how badly the EU can behave…. and like all bullies they will continue to harm us while we allow them to — NOW is the time to punch the EU-bully back in the face, and tell them exactly how things will be from now on.
We can always stop importing their cars if we really need to punish them.
October 19, 2021
We don’t need to ‘stop importing cars’ is happening due to customer choice of source, and the doubt over which motive power unit is the wisest investment.
October 19, 2021
Keeping your old vehicle as long as possible is surely the wisest course. Saves CO2 too if that bothers you – it shouldnāt though.
October 20, 2021
Quite agree. We have a non-EU car, 11.5 years old, runs perfectly on E10, almost zero faults all that time, in fantastic condition – one lady owner (ha ha). Provides approx 400 mile range inside a 3 minute visit to any fuel forecourt in Europe. What’s not to like?
October 19, 2021
BH
Excellent point
We need to fight back and stop absorbing the punches with no resistance, it simply emboldens them!
But that requires resolve from our useless government and theyāre so used to taking orders from the EU!
October 19, 2021
Weāll never have a stable union of the UK while weāre still in the treaties and level playing field & NIP of the European Unionā¦.this half in half out isnāt working
October 19, 2021
+1
October 19, 2021
@Bryan Harris; “Who could disagree with that?”
Everyone on, or who understood, the Remain side of the argument perhaps!
There are two possibilities here, one the EU is doing exactly what our hosts suggests, perhaps even egged on by Irish republicans, although I’m not so sure, whilst not as bad as NI the ROI has had their own post Brexit, not pandemic, supply side issues too. Or senior Brexiteers understood all too well the Brexit (now NIP) risks to the Union but believe the advantage of being able to retain the anti EU sentiment longer is worth the risk.
With regards the EU and how they see the Irish border (it has nothing directly to do with the GFA), the EU have never had problem with soft tax and trade borders, but that needs NI (or the UK) to be at the minimum in the EFTA, such borders exist both within the EU27, and non EU “Europe” -Norway, Switzerland, Monaco, Andorra; but the EU has always required a hard border beyond. Why did no one on the Leave side see this coming, or as I suggest above, perhaps they did.
October 19, 2021
That would hurt us more than it would hurt them. Genuinely Brexit is enough of a mess already without you clowns now making it worse.
October 19, 2021
Clowns can be funny whereas idiots are unbearable. Look in the nearest mirror!
October 20, 2021
Glenn
totally unnecessary
October 19, 2021
Genuinely, Brexit is not the problem – You left leaning clowns blame every last ill on that, for no good reason.
If we’d played to the EU rules we’d have made them suffer, as they have not played fair at all.
Not importing so many BMW’s would certainly help with regards Co2
October 19, 2021
Bryan Harris
YOur proposals will not work according to WTO rules, so try again
October 19, 2021
There’s nothing in WTO rules to stop us importing certain items – The EU have done that frequently with beef and so on
October 19, 2021
Bill often makes things up Bryan.
He is an EU superfan.
October 20, 2021
Bryan
read the rules properly and we can have another talk
October 20, 2021
Peter 2
At least I think to the facts
October 20, 2021
The UK beef ban was for a WTO-accepted reason, that is, a known, proven, material health risk.
Hating a country, or association of them, is not a valid reason on the other hand.
October 19, 2021
Lone football fan throwing sticky alcopops all over angry rugby league squad at closing time “absolutely brilliant idea”, says Bryan.
October 19, 2021
Your inane humour got lost somewhere
October 19, 2021
NLH
youāve successfully lowered the tone of a civilised debate, wouldnāt you be happier on Facebook?
But you probably are!
October 19, 2021
Spot on!
October 19, 2021
Punch them indeed. We can all help by boycotting their products.
October 21, 2021
Who are “we”?
A dozen or so fixated commenters on Sir John’s site?
October 19, 2021
Bryan, I think excluding EU boats from UK fishing grounds would have greater impact. We all know how militant the French fishermen are.
October 19, 2021
The EU has tried to totally exclude NI from the UK internal market. What other reason could it have for banning UK approved goods from NI? Scrap the protocol in it’s entirety. The EU will always use it as weapon against the UK, and the rhetoric from Macron and his sidekick is getting beyond belief. Unless the EU reel in Macron, then it is clear that a bitter trade war is inevitable. If so, then the first action must be to ban all EU fishing boats from UK waters, French boats being first on the list.
October 19, 2021
@Shirley M; No, the EU has done nothing of the sort, it has been the UK govt who did that, we could have left on WTO rules, we could have joined EFTA/EEA, either would have removed any need for the NIP.
There is no need for any Trade War and as for your crass comment about France, I suggest you ask the residents of the CI what they think, after all if the Entente Cordiale starts to collapse it will likely be the CI who first feel the chill as their electricity link with France fails.
October 20, 2021
It’s only the government of Jersey – apparently they’re even worse than the DUP and the Tories here – which is the problem, and even their own fishers are appalled by them, some acting in solidarity with their French colleagues.
Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark have no such problems.
October 19, 2021
Shirley M
Nobody is interested in a trade war and Macron does not run the EU, and we will be paying a much higher price than teh EU. ANd by the way the NI negotiations are still going on
October 19, 2021
The point is that the EU has defaulted on the terms of the Protocol, Bill. Negotiations have been going on for long enough without effect. It is time to invoke Article 16. If that does not work then the UK must cancel the protocol.
October 20, 2021
John Hatfiled
Be patient
October 19, 2021
+1
October 19, 2021
The biggest threat to the union of Scotland and England is the fact that the Scottish people are utterly sick of being subject to English Tory rule, which dragged them out of the European Union.
Trade is booming in NI on the other hand, precisely because they are still in the SM and CU, but the Tories want to scupper that for them too.
Out of over five thousand NI businesses consulted, not a SINGLE ONE raised the jurisdiction of the ECJ as any kind of problem.
They generally conclude that it is simply fanatical brexit puritanism by the Tories, simply to satisfy the lunatic fringe amongst their voters.
October 19, 2021
It wasn’t a ‘fringe’ – it turned out to be a mainstream opinion. And I know many more who wanted to vote Leave but were fearful of it.
October 20, 2021
So mainstream, that not a single one of five thousand businesses shared it, in fact.
Right…
October 19, 2021
You make no mention of the ECJ role, which so exercises many in Northern Ireland, so presumably you do not object to its retention within āthe many generous schemes put forward by the UKā. Also you do not address the SNP view that as a majority in Scotland voted in the EU Referendum to remain in the EU, the circumstances have now changed fundamentally such that a further referendum on Scottish independence is warranted.
Reply I oppose the powers of the ECJ as the EU is one of the parties. A majority of Scots do not want another referendum.
October 19, 2021
If you are the euromaniac Polly Toynbee then you think:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/18/tories-sacrificing-northern-ireland-brexit-purity-boris-johnson
“The Tories are sacrificing Northern Irish businesses on the altar of Brexit purity”
“Single-market status has been a boon to firms”
“Northern Irish businesses have good reason to be alarmed, as the protocol gives many of them an extraordinary opportunity: staying in the single market from which the rest of the UK is excluded.”
Which is a view shared by Michael Gove and Brandon Lewis:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/10/18/time-for-a-better-national-debate/#comment-1268961
and no doubt many other Tory MPs, and quite possibly including Boris Johnson if he has any view at all.
October 19, 2021
More Scots voted for Brexit than voted for the SNP. And the majority of Unionists in N Ireland also voted for Brexit.
October 19, 2021
You’ll find a lot of those NI Unionists have already bought their retirement homes in coastal communities in the north of England –
October 19, 2021
Figures collated by Mr McGuinness in a paper recently published by Dundalk Institute of Technology, sought to compare 1921 election results with 2019 local election returns on a county by county basis (data which first appeared on the Slugger O’Toole site), show that four counties – Derry, Armagh, Tyrone and Fermanagh – are now nationalist dominated based on electoral returns. Antrim and Down, both east of the Bann, continue to be dominated by unionism, although pro-union voters make up less than 50 percent in both. (HT: The Irish News)
According to these figures that means that unionism does not hold a 50+1 majority in any of the six northern counties. Also, the margin against a united Ireland has dropped to 7%. 49% against; 42% for.
May I suggest that the repeal of the Barnet formula that takes from the English, to fund the devolved provinces, particularly Northern Ireland; would have a very sobering affect on Unionist thinking. The sooner this fake union called the UK is broken up the better. An independent Scotland inside EFTA/EEA with its own currency; a united Ireland inside the EU and using the Euro.
This, leaving Brexitania (England and Wales) to become the new Hong Kong / Singapore / Taiwan of North-West Europe. The money laundering, tax dodging capital of the planet. Sadly, this is never going to happen while you muppets keep voting for Thatcherite dinosaurs that passed their sell-by dates two decades past. š
October 21, 2021
There could be a new union, between an independent Scotland and Ireland. That would keep most unionists – almost all of Scottish heritage – very happy indeed.
Wales would probably fancy that too…
October 19, 2021
JR,
We were told ECJ would not apply under the mantra of taking back control of borders, law and money. None of which is true! Remember the do or die, or die in a ditch and all the other bravado by Johnson who consistently caved in. How about the tell them to go whistle for the money then he gave them over Ā£11 billion last year even though we left! Perhaps his approach to the boat people, send them straight back. Twice the number this year and no one deported let alone sent straight back. Far from it, escorted, helped and encouraged by providing four star hotels! Widdecombe is right about this point and her view it encourages them to disappear! Detention centres are required as a minimum to process, vet and stop rioting while being processed.
October 19, 2021
As always the EU doesn’t respect individual nationhood, sovereignty or democracy even, it is about control by the unelected unaccountable. They defend the trading block with a holier-than-thou stance on so-called standards, that in reality are just barriers to trade instead of tariffs. It about them exploiting situations to keep the world out of their domain.
October 19, 2021
The UK is arguably the most centralised association of nations in the developed world, with Tory England having a stranglehold on the other nations.
You really don’t get irony, do you?
October 19, 2021
Ā£540 million of tax payers money to be pissed down the drain giving people Ā£5k each to fit heat pumps (which will cost more like Ā£30k all in) and then cost more to run and maintain (as electricity is much more expensive than gas) plus they do not works as well as gas or oil and will not last that long either. Plus they use problematic refrigerant gasses that can need topping up and develop leaks. Plus we have no low carbon electricity to drive them.
Great plan Carrie/Boris/Sunak/Kwatang/Gummer can you consult a decent, āimpartialā and competent engineer please? History, Classics, Theatre Studies and PPE is not really up to it? The Oxford Poly lass Anne-Marie Trevelyan is daft as a brush too. Not sure what she studied but if it was a science she clearly did not understand it.
October 19, 2021
Tax people Ā£10k, waste half in collection and admin. then give the same tax payers Ā£5k back providing they spend Ā£30k on an inferior, more expensive to run and maintain heating system that does not even actually save significant or often any CO2. Great idea Boris/Sunak/Carrie. Even more moronic than Sunakās eat out to help out restaurant lunacy.
Rather similar to what the EU used to do to the UK.
October 19, 2021
LL – and all the repairs and making good that has to be done to a hacked-about house afterwards. Madness.
The Tories are making us all tangibly poorer and this is starting to show – E10 has effectively increased my commuting bills by 10% it seems.
October 19, 2021
…and some scientific papers are calculating that it takes a gallon of petrol to create a gallon of E10
October 20, 2021
GC, do not be shy, can you please quote your sources: which scientific papers?
October 20, 2021
https://ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/files/ethanolnetenergy.pdf
How Much Energy Does It Take to Make a Gallon of Ethanol?
October 21, 2021
@glen cullen; Give us strength! Who needs enemies when those who oppose the ‘green blob’ have friends like you.
For pithy sake, check your sources, that document is not a scientific paper, it is an opinion piece penned by the “Institute for Local Self-Reliance”, a US based pressure group, nor (unless buried within the text) the authors have not disclosed their personal scientific qualifications either. What is more, even if the paper was more than just opinion, the paper you cite is 26 years old, being an update to a paper originally first published in 1992…
October 19, 2021
@Nota#; Indeed, it is hard written into the Treaty of Rome, so why does it seemingly come as a surprise to so many?!
October 19, 2021
The standards are literally there to remove barriers to trade. That is literally what they are for. If your standards for making cheese are the same as all the other member states you can sell to all of those states without any problems. Genuinely, how can you people still not understand this stuff?
October 19, 2021
Yet the biggest importers into Europe are China,South Korea and America and they don’t pay membership fees nor agree to meet all laws the EU create.
October 19, 2021
Nota,
In the case of Poland and Hungary the EU seems to ahve respected the sovereignty issue for far too long
October 19, 2021
On the contrary: the EU turned a blind eye when the German Constitutional Court ruled the ECJ was inferior; now that the Polish Court has done the same, ruling that the EU does not take precedence in constitutional matters in Poland, though it does in others, the EU is flexing its tyrannical muscles, threatening all manner of nasty things to Poland. All Poland wants is to be treated as an equal with the Western European states.
October 20, 2021
Rose
the German consitutional court raised the issue about the ECB not the ECJ.
There is no problem about teh indpendence of the German judicial system but a big problem in Poland, so this has nothing to do with east and west , so please use the right facts when you write
thank you
October 19, 2021
Serious question: what do you think Brussels should be doing about both countries? Both Poland and Hungary, for differing historical and geographical reasons, were always going to be troublesome partners in a tightly-knit pan-European alliance.
October 19, 2021
The EU should be expelling them.
October 20, 2021
Yes, it was only Thatcher’s Tories who did most of the pushing for them to be admitted, knowing that it would cause headaches for the whole project, and for just that reason, I’d say.
October 20, 2021
agreed.
October 19, 2021
bill – The Guardian reports today – “Mateusz Morawiecki says European courtās ācreeping revolutionā undermines Polish sovereignty”
October 20, 2021
yes and what he is against that judges can make judgements without being accountable and this is the problam is has nothing to do with sovereignty this is Brexit fake news
October 21, 2021
Brexit? what on earth is it to do with Brexit? Did he say the words quoted in the Guardian or not?
October 19, 2021
What are you proposing Bill, anschluss?
October 20, 2021
John Hatfield
This is a historical distortion and just mentioning it in Europe today you should be ashamed using it
October 19, 2021
+1
October 20, 2021
David J
SHAME
October 19, 2021
Good morning.
The UK Government has given three of the four nations in our Union a separate Assembly / Parliament. To what purpose may I ask ? They do not want to be part of this Union and neither can they control their spending, relying on the English taxpayer to foot the bill for their largess. Largess, that I may add, is not afforded to the English and neither the right to an independent voice. One could, from an English perspective, come to the natural conclusion that independence for the Three would be beneficial for England and the English.
I look on in amazement and disbelief on the endless fuss that is given to a minority of the UK, whilst the majority, to which many MP’s owe their living, are simply ignored.
To Scotland, Wales and Ulster, and to paraphrase the words of Oliver Cromwell – For what good you have done, please just bugger off !!
October 19, 2021
+ 100000 Weāll said Mark. Give us English a vote and the Scots would be gone tomorrow. Sick to the back teeth of politicians of all colours, especially this Tory Government there by the grace of England, constantly pandering to the devolved nations with English taxpayersā money whilst continuing to ignore England and the fact we English are treated like fourth class citizens thanks to them.
October 19, 2021
I simply do not understand why we are still messing about with this nonsense, as it is as clear as night and day that the EU is on a deliberate path to try and strangle Northern Ireland away from the UK using trade as the weapon of choice.
We have left the EU, so make our own Rules for the whole of the UK, and let the EU do what they like with the Republic of Ireland with regards to border protection of trade.
We have had 40 odd years of history in knowing how the EU works and interprets rules and regulation for its own benefit, what on earth was in Boris’s mind when he signed up to this farcical agreement.
It is not working and in its present form, and dare I say it, it will never work properly by just tinkering with it around the edges, as its too far reaching, far too complicated, far too time consuming.
Just scrap it for goodness sake.
October 19, 2021
It is becoming a war or attrition this independence thing with Scotland.
How much is it all costing the UK taxpayer? Every time the Scottish devolved leadership kicks of they get more money from Westminster.
Can the taxpayer really afford them being part of the union? More importantly do they really want them? The present leadership of the devolved parliament show no appreciation to the support they receive.
Stop playing soft ball. Give them what they want with everything thar goes with it. Hard border, Nuclear boats come back home all our armed forces bases closed. No more military contracts, subsidies for wind turbines and constraint payments in ottther words the whole shooting match of all the hidden extras they receive without even thing about them.
Give the vote to the rest of the UK they would get it tomorrow.
October 19, 2021
+10
October 19, 2021
You remind us of the baleful legacy of Gordon Brownās period in power. Brown is currently being bigged up by the BBC in a documentary about the Blair brown years. Itās full of Labour people (no Conservatives at all have been interviewed yet!) talking about how āformidableā brown was.
Well letās list some of the other formidable things he did besides massively boosting Scottish separatism and grievance politics: the sale of the gold at about 1/7 of the current price and 1/8 of the peak, expressly against the advice of anyone and everyone who had any understanding of capital markets; the removal of oversight of the banking sector from the BoE and the subsequent raising of leverage in the U.K. banking sector from 20x to 50x; the off balance sheet borrowing, giving the U.K. a budget deficit of 5% of GDP at the peak of the boom; the subsequent bust following the leveraged boom; the massive increase in the burden and complexity of tax; the ill conceived bank bailout; and of course the Iraq war and the signing of 3 federalising EU treaties.
Brown was a disaster. Itās important his many errors are properly recorded and understood.
October 19, 2021
You have left out his muddling up of taxation and welfare, a colossal mistake we are still suffering from and which has played a large part in driving down wages and conditions.
October 20, 2021
The Tories have been in power for eleven years.
Parliament is supreme, and they have an indefeasible majority of eighty.
If they are opposed to those changes then why do they not reverse them?
October 19, 2021
Article 13 of the NI protocol expressly anticipates a renegotiation of the protocol and its replacement. So good for the govt and Lord frost for seeking a renegotiation in accordance with this article.
Article 16 allows either side to suspend the protocol if either trade is diverted or there is societal disruption. The EU itself has shown us already that article 16 is there to be used (although when they invoked it for the attempted vaccine blockade the criteria in the protocol had not been met).
The EU signed the protocol with articles 13 and 16. The U.K. is therefore acting in full compliance with the protocol and it is quite clear that the criteria for suspension under article 16 have been met if no renegotiation under article 13 is possible.
October 19, 2021
On NI, if only the approach had been and was now “our border, their problem”.
As for Scotland, yes “UK Ministers who are keen to buttress the Union need to show by their deeds and words why the Union is good for all its parts” – for explanation is well-overdue as to what we get that is worth having for our Ā£15 billion a year subsidy.
October 19, 2021
Exactly – especially when that subsidy provides so many goodies denied to us English.
October 19, 2021
I couldnāt care less about it.
October 19, 2021
Well what a surprise. You have heard it first on the BBC Breakfast programme with a interview with a consumer who changed over to a heat pump in his property and he has not saved anything on his running costs but he is proud to be doing his bit for saving the planet.
It cost Ā£11k with some financial loan.
Well come on let’s all go for it, it will cost you a mint and save no money on running costs. Some deal this is..Not.
October 19, 2021
Well that 11k has gone in someone else’s pocket and has probably already contributed to at least one holiday flight abroad.
October 19, 2021
Your Gov. like those that preceded it may well be in favour of “the Union” Out here in the forgotten land known as England, there is rather less enthusiasm for it.
For almost a quarter of a century England has been ignored, sidelined and forced to pay for the largesse of the other three countries in this lop-sided ‘Union’
When will MP’s in the House of Commons speak of England? When will our elected representatives actually represent England? When will the English democratic deficit be addressed? When will we get National Devolution?
You should support Scottish independence, for that is the most likely route to English recognition.
October 19, 2021
Well said Old Albion. U.K. MPs squatting in English seats will never stand up for England, theyāve made that glaringly obvious over the last couple of decades preferring to say nothing when Englandās young alone were saddled with Ā£9,000 tuition fees or the fact only our sick pay for their prescriptions and hospital parking including NHS staff. Or Goveās despicable recent repeal of EVEL without a whimper of protest from any of them except our kind host. They make me sick. Iām beginning to think the best outcome at the next election would be a Labour minority Government with the SNP helping them govern England. The English might finally wake up to what this anti-English fake Tory Government have allowed to happen and finally say enough is enough. It wonāt be the Scots who put an end to this so called union, they know what side their bread is buttered on. It will be the long suffering ignored English. Bring it on.
October 19, 2021
You were told that Brexit risked Northern Ireland peace and the Union – , you did it anyway .Now you want to blame everyone else. You signed the protocol told everyone it was a work of genius and trampled all opposition with the slogan” Get Brexit Done “. It was a dogs breakfast and not done. The EUās offer to remove 80% of customs and health on animal / plant products while the UK is still obsessing about the European court of justice and inventing magic borders that both exist and do not exist.
The strain of thinking you have invented must be audible only to bats . People on the other hand can hear the EU gearing for a trade war they will win easily.
Watching this ridiculous display quite cheers me up. Arsenal may be having another indifferent season but at least thy don`t field anyone who turns up in a clown suit, runs the wrong way, actively tries to score own goals and pretends someone else did it. Mediocre would be a vast improvement for the Brexit bunglers.
October 19, 2021
“Magic borders that exist and don’t exist”
Well that sounds very much like EU membership to me.
October 19, 2021
The SNP are not interested in independence, just separation from the English, as shown by the fact that they want to remain in the undemocratic EU.
They were in favour of the EU as the EU itself wanted to split the UK up into regions, of which Scotland would be one. They thought that the EU would continue to provide them with UK taxpayer funds just as the UK does now.
The SNP very carefully say that it is āthe people who live in Scotlandā who should have another independence vote and never āthe Scottish peopleā. This is because they do not want to allow Scottish ex-pats living elsewhere in the UK a vote and at the same time wish to allow the vote to be given to anyone resident in Scotland, whether temporary or permanent, and whatever their nationality.
It may be tempting for many in the UK to see Scotland separate away from the UK if only for financial reasons. But having seen recently how the SNP government/the civil service/the judiciary works in Scotland I’m afraid that Scotland would turn into a failed state and it is better for the UK to keep paying the Barnett formula than to have such a country on our northern border.
October 19, 2021
The state of the Union is simplistically speaking in disarray.
Growing numbers see the future of the Union breaking up.
October 19, 2021
I actually agree with the EU philosophy on federalisationā¦youāre either fully in or fully out
October 20, 2021
The UK is NOT a federation, it is an annexation.
If it were though, then these problems would not have arisen.
And the UK would still be in the European Union, because all proper federations require unanimity among the nations for constitutional changes.
October 20, 2021
You’ve made my point
October 19, 2021
Robert Burns from āSuch aParcel of Rogues in a Nation.ā
āO would, or I had seen the day
That Treason thus could sell us,
My auld grey head had lien in clay,
Wi’ Bruce and loyal Wallace!
But pith and power, till my last hour,
I’ll mak this declaration;
We’re bought and sold for English gold-
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!ā
Whose gold is it now then?
October 19, 2021
We donāt have much gold left as (boom and bust) Scot Gordon Brown gave it all away at the bottom of the market.
October 21, 2021
The Tories sold power generation and the rest of the infrastructure at the bottom of the market, LL – maybe even lower?
October 19, 2021
Off Topic
Jus taken a oil delivery for our property and speaking with the driver about the future industry he has told me that the lost 6 customers to heat pumps but after a year 3 have reverted back to oil condensing boilers because the heat pumps could not meet the demand of the hot water load. It was cheaper to go back to oil rather than completely reconfigure the domestic hot water system. It was the same in Scotland unless installed at the new build stage its not what Mrs Johnson and her husband are devoted to.
October 19, 2021
Well, here is my solution to the problem of the Irish land border, basically the same solution as I proposed here and elsewhere nearly four years ago, a matter of days after the EU and the Irish government announced that they intended to make it an insuperable problem:
“The UK already has a system of export controls for sensitive goods such as arms. In February the EU introduced export controls for Covid vaccines, famously including the carriage of vaccines from south to north across the Irish land border. The EU thinks that it could have a problem with goods crossing from north to south not meeting EU requirements – although so far it has published no evidence that this would be a significant problem – but the UK could generously, and moreover unilaterally, solve the EU’s problem for it by the introduction of export licences for actors in the north who intend to take goods across the border.
By the simple legal and administrative step of issuing export licences on the clearly stated condition that the goods to be exported to the Republic must comply with all EU requirements the UK would not only obviate any need for EU checks on goods entering Northern Ireland, both from Great Britain and from foreign sources, but also remove any need for the UK to enforce EU Single Market rules on all businesses in the province, and in turn that would neutralise the EU’s excuse for the EU court to assume extra-territorial jurisdiction to ensure that EU Single Market rules were still being observed in this part of the sovereign UK.
The system for export licences should be simple and flexible and licences should be obtainable over the internet and without any fee. A farmer could have a permanent licence to take goods across the border from one part of his farm to another, a regular cross-border trader could have a long term licence, a haulage company might have a single use licence to take a particular consignment to the south. There could be de minimis exemptions for foodstuffs and other goods intended for personal or family consumption and small gifts. None of this is beyond the wit of man to devise and refine once the principle has been established.”
October 19, 2021
November 26 2017:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2017/11/26/the-irish-border-with-northern-ireland/#comment-903216
“On the TV this morning it was stated that the UK government is ādesperateā to move on to trade talks, but this would be vetoed by the Irish government unless the UK government committed to keeping the UK in both the Single Market and the Customs Union.”
December 7 2017:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2017/12/06/comments-to-this-site/#comment-905832
“My possible solution was for the UK government to give an undertaking to the EU that it did not intend to allow its territory to become a source of unsuitable goods placed upon the EU Single Market, and so it would introduce a system to licence UK exporters to the EU which would force them to meet EU requirements or suffer penalties under UK law, with the possibility of EU officials being invited to assist in investigations.
After all the present general freedom to export from the UK to the EU without any border checks is based upon the EUās trust in the UK governmentās good intentions but backed up by UK legal sanctions for infringements of EU law, a system which works OK but with the undesirable consequence that every business in the UK has been made subject to the EU requirements even though only a small minority ever exports to the EU.”
October 19, 2021
And here is a shortened version published in the Belfast News Letter today:
https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/opinion/letters/solving-protocol-headaches-is-hardly-beyond-the-wit-of-man-3424671
October 20, 2021
Yes, Dennis, everyone should have a hobby of some kind.
October 20, 2021
The EU says no, Denis. Itās been saying no for 5 years. You need to move on.
October 21, 2021
Of course they do, but we have never needed their agreement to introduce export licences.
October 19, 2021
Draw the saga of the NI Protocol to its inevitable end with the the activation of Article 16. This nonsense has dragged on for far too long, administer the final injection. Perpetuating the NIP will lead to an eventual breakup of the UK. It will serve to encourage the SNP If you can, please explain the timidity on our part.
October 19, 2021
Sir John,
You are correct that there always has been a border between the Republic and N.I. for excise duty, VAT and currency and that both countries co-operated to prevent smuggling.
And that the EU is expanding the definition of the SM to include such items as environment, transport, energy and labour in order to control and govern N.I., which is quite ridiculous when it is borne in mind that the EU does not even fix an EU wide minimum wage.
So the Government should inform the EU that we will ship all UK goods to N.I. as before and will be treating the smuggling of non EU compliant goods into the Republic in the same serious manner we previously treated contraband goods.
Perhaps we could have all (such) goods clearly labelled āNot for sale in the EUā?
October 19, 2021
The longer we dither between various ultimatums and or threats the more we are playing into the EU’s hands.
Dump the NIP and “do it to them” and give the EU something to think about.
October 19, 2021
Indeed, we are once again victims of ‘Boris’, talking big and then doing nothing. He got Lord Frost to make a speech requiring EU to make big concessions over NI ‘or else’. They failed to do enough but the ‘or else’ has disappeared. Bigmouth gutless ‘Boris’ will give up and betray us again.
October 19, 2021
So, when is HMG to action Article 16? This week?
October 19, 2021
I am concerned at the disappearance of Martin from Cardiff. Can anyone throw any light on the matter? I would have thought if the internet has been down all over Cardiff for some days it would have been mentioned in national media? Perhaps the answer is simple, he is visiting China or maybe the forced isolation is a problem when the device to connect is broken with no possibility of repair? How could we identify him with a search? Wandering the streets or wandering the ether?
October 19, 2021
Well I sincerely hope he’s OK. He offers cogent argument (unlike another I can think of.)
October 20, 2021
He’s in Nottingham
October 19, 2021
This will cheer you up; from EU latest accounts:-
These obligations relate to past commitments made when the UK was a Member State of the EU and during the transition period until 31 December 2020, and will expire as soon as they have been paid or if the obligation does not materialise. Payments will be made in line with the procedure set out in Article 148 WA. EUR billion Article 140 Article 142 Other 31.12.2020
Due from the UK ā¬49.6 billion
Due to the UK ā¬2.1 billion
Net receivable from the UK ā¬47.5 billion (Ā£40.25 billion)
Estimated to be paid by the UK after 2021 ā¬40.6 billion
Estimated to be paid by the UK in 2021 ā¬6.8 billion
October 19, 2021
If we’re still paying a fee we haven’t left
October 19, 2021
acorn if we’d already agreed to that level of commitments just imagine how much more would be accrued if we’d stayed in!! This was one of the reasons for leaving the extortionate bills that were coming our way and if we did well as a country we couldn’t share it out within the UK it was sucked out like a vampire with taxes on prostitution (which we don’t tax) and drugs (which we don’t tax) so the rest of us not only pay for the UK problems, bad debts and issues, we paid in amongst to the top 5 into the EU.
Just what were these extremely high payments for?
October 19, 2021
Just what were these extremely high payments for?
One could ask the same about our taxes?
October 19, 2021
Strange no comment on this acorn. I suppose that means everyone knows all about that and agrees with it, yes? Particularly JR.
October 19, 2021
Acorn
Thank Mrs May for that, another politician who thought they were good at negotiations, but was actually clueless, Guarantee she does not even barter when purchasing her shopping, but just swipes a card no matter what the cost.
October 19, 2021
Why wouldnāt the smaller regions want what Southern Ireland get away with?
October 19, 2021
One other ‘Union’ thingy that needs looking at is control of movement across our borders. It seems strange that Holyrood, Stormont and Cardiff can impose separate controls, and information requirements, on those coming into the UK.
October 19, 2021
Here’s my state of the union summary.
The economy is in tatters due to utterly pointless lockdowns and other restrictions. Our freedoms are destroyed. The covid agenda is replaced with the green agenda, both designed to turn Britain into a slave state where the elites fly in and out in private jets whilst the rest of us are only allowed to walk to work and back. Taxation is the highest in living memory. Asset prices are soaring. Shortage are deliberately created by the corporate media and government policies. The political class lets in illegal immigrants by the thousand then tries to shift the blame for the ensueing violence onto us having anonymous Twitter accounts- obviously to justify restricting more freedoms. Look forward to more divide and rule tactics. Corruption and incompetence is everywhere and so obvious only the sheeple cannot see it.
I have never seen a worse outlook and I advise anyone that is able to leave this country to do so post haste.
October 19, 2021
Good summary, Alex. I am unfortunately not at an age where I can take your advice. But then again, I don’t see many countries that are run better. Sweden certainly, as regards Covid, but learning the language would be too much of a challenge. English-speaking countries? Australia, New Zealand, Canada? I just shudder at the thought. The US? With Biden/Harris in charge? No, maybe Communist China! At least it has a future, and a people-first energy policy, unlike Johnson’s authoritarian Britain.
October 19, 2021
I believe that N Ireland will tie up with S Ireland in due course.When the next Scottish referendum takes place we all have a vote.The result will be Scotland will be free to join the EU.
England And Wales then can concentrate on looking after ourselves.
October 19, 2021
The NI protocol needs to be sorted Now!
NI companies are diverting to Irish suppliers and may not go back. We need to stop this and then it is essential we give NI suppliers tax incentives to switch back to UK suppliers.
It is critical to protect the Union.
We also need to get a Scottish vote ASAP, but we need to include all Scots throughout the union, and make it a supermajority vote. They lost one already so this must be much stronger to guarantee thtas Scots want to leave so the winning vote must be over 67%.
But the vote must come with terms that this is the final ever vote. We must then go back to a act of union that is eternal.
The Snp have brainwashed Scots into Hating their Countrymen with no pushback. It is a total disgrace! The govt needs to be strong and take back powers and fix the situation. Scots must see the Union benefits.
I would cancel Barnett and replace it with a direct payment to Scots over 18 so they see the benefits. Polls show a huge proportion of Scots have been brainwashed into believing it is a fake conspiracy! This would also give the Snp less money to brainwash and buy votes.
This must be fixed now. The Union is critical to the country and its citizens.
October 19, 2021
The Common Market may have been a trading bloc, but the EU certainly is not.
It is a device by which politicians who are useless at their jobs can nevertheless continue to suck on the public teat.
The UK should not pander to the EU. The French excuse for fishing in UK waters is sneered at by the EU when the UK wishes to trade with NI. It is not possible to argue with the EU, so why bother? Let them enforce their wishes on NI if they feel they must. That will be a declaration of war, which solves the problem of letting the French fishing in our waters…
October 19, 2021
As an English voter I couldn’t care less if Scotland leaves the UK – that would be the best outcome for England. As things stand SNP Westminster MPs voting on whether to extend COVID laws applying only to England, likewise on education matters, is a bizarre form of non-democracy. With them gone “rebel” Conservative MPs would have far more leverage. Same with Northern Ireland, I couldn’t care less if they left though personally a united Ireland seems sensible.
October 19, 2021
+1
October 19, 2021
The biggest threat to the current UK is not the EU but the current government and its approach to Brexit.
It is this government that signed up to the NI Protocol and it is this government that participated in full in the Committee that decided all the details of how the NI Protocol would be implemented, a Committee jointly chaired by one Michael Gove.
It’s been fairly apparent from what has come out in recent weeks that Boris Johnson and the unelected David Frost knew what they had agreed to, the plan being simply to subsequently ignore things they willingly signed up to previously, while blaming the EU for everything as a cover for their choice to treat Northern Ireland differently.
I have been saying to people for quite some time that I fully expect the long term consequence of Brexit to be a United Kingdom reduced to 2 parts (England and Wales) from 4 as, within a generation, I fully expect to see both an Irish border poll which votes for restoration of the pre-1921 Ireland and a Scottish independence referendum which votes to leave the UK (in the campaign for the last one the Scots had Westminster politicians tell them that their best hope of remaining in the EU was to vote No to independence and look how that has turned out for them).
When either or both of those come to pass, history will lay the responsibility squarely at the feet of the Conservative and Unionist party (which will have then failed to live up to any of the words in its name), Boris Johnson and his NI Protocol, and the ERG (whose votes in Parliament led to the current situation by voting down alternative arrangements) and other Brexit campaigners.
October 19, 2021
You haven’t mentioned Wales. We have a third problem there, where “Welsh Labour” pretends to be unionist in common with its sister parties but its leader is not and is working ceaselessly to break up the Union by stealth. This keeps the PC vote down, but doesn’t deal with the problem.
October 19, 2021
āāMany wind turbines, for which the 20-year subsidy under the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) is due to expire, will soon be decommissioned. Continued operation is no longer economically viable. By the end of 2020, the decommissioning of 429 plants in Brandenburg has been notified, the Ministry of the Environment in Potsdam announcedāā source – https://thegermanyeye.com/
If you didnāt already know, be aware that Boris green revolution requires 100% subsidy forever
October 19, 2021
@Glen Cullen
Absolute crap, as usual with the boring bullshit that you post
UK offshore windfarms have been built without subsidy for at least 7 years – and produce the cheapest form of electricity available to us, by far.
If anybody in in any doubt about the ability of the fossil fuel industry lobby to penetrate government and influence the decision making process, look at their current proposal to get UK taxpayers to subsidise the latest “CO2 carbon capture” scam. Which will cost us at least 5billion pounds and push the price of fossil fuel generated electricity up by FIVE times and which has not even been shown to work.
October 19, 2021
Is this the new kinder more decent debate that Parliament was recently talking about Sakara?
I presume you didn’t get the memo.
October 19, 2021
Sakira G. You are clearly being fed appalling propaganda – too much BBC perhaps. Plus the energy market is rigged to force the companies to buy renewables/unreliables.
October 19, 2021
”subsidy awarded by the UK Government to successive offshore wind farms as they have been built, and the fact that these subsidy rates are index linked and designed to persist for 15 or 20 years per site.”
We subsidies all wind farms – https://www.ref.org.uk/ref-blog/370-offshore-wind-subsidies-per-mwh-generated-continue-to-rise
Please supply link to your evidence that we don’t and haven’t provided subsidy for 7 years
October 19, 2021
SK
are you in competition with NLH for offensive comments?
October 20, 2021
It is a scam.
Trusting the private sector not to let the captured CO2 “accidentally” escape parallels expecting Southern Water not to discharge raw sewage, or a cowboy builder not to fly-tip, I think.
October 19, 2021
All the proposals you suggest have been rejected by the EU, as is its sovereign right. All the proposals the EU suggests (like conforming to SPS rules) have been rejected by the UK, as is its sovereign right. So what we are left with is what was agreed – the oven ready deal which places a border between GB and Northern Ireland, which the British people voted for at the General Election of Dec 2019 and which Parliament approved in Jan 2020. It’s time the UK implemented that agreement. Or are you so contemptuous of what both the British people and the British Parliament voted for that you want to renege on our solemn and legally binding promises?
October 19, 2021
Well JR, are you?
October 19, 2021
Twist it how you like, the British people did not vote for the Northern Ireland Protocol nor the EU’s manipulation of it.
October 19, 2021
They certainly did! The Protocol was the centrepiece of the oven ready deal, the only thing that distinguished Johnsonās deal from Mayās. Johnson let down NorthernnIreland – as did the voters of England
October 20, 2021
John Hatfield
A majority put the members in Parliment who voted for it so there is no difference live with it
October 19, 2021
This is the same America that in a couple of weeks will lecture us and the world to go carbon zero at cop26
āā(CNN) -In a blow to the climate movement, US power companies are ramping up their coal consumption due to surging natural gas prices. US coal-fired generation is expected to surge by 22% in 2021, the US Energy Information Administration said Monday. That would mark the first annual increase in coal-fired electric power generation since 2014, the EIA saidāā
October 19, 2021
Sir JR,
Thank you for a very comprehensive cover of teh EU/NI Protocol.
However, I think it has much less to do with sovereignty and much more to do with the practical processes of keeping the trade going.
As the negotiations have intensified and seem to be conducted in a good atmosphere (according to Frost and Economist)) this emotional banging about the Eu seem pre-mature and unnecessary and not helpful to the current process, whether it comes from the EU, the UK government or you personally.
October 19, 2021
are you trying to silence Sir John Redwood bill? Why would he trouble you so?
October 20, 2021
I am asking for diversification
October 21, 2021
We get that diversification because this is a blog where John puts through diversified comments. You type in your opinion, John put it through. He is free to discuss each day whatever he wants to.
October 19, 2021
The Union has been put in jeopardy by Blair’s insane devolution. I doubt any of the devolved countries could survive without the contributions by the English taxpayer. This was the United Kingdom and that partial breakup was surely an Act of Treason by any reasonable measure. GB needs to be reunited.
October 19, 2021
Northern Ireland (Ā£10.3 billion) is subsidised less than Yorkshire (Ā£12.2 billion).
Scotland (Ā£16.1 billion) and Wales (Ā£14.4 billion) are subsidised less than the North West of England (Ā£22.7 billion) or the West Midlands (Ā£17.3 billion).
Much of England couldn’t survive without the contributions of taxpayers from elsewhere. Of the 9 English regions, only 3 are net contributors. The other 6 receive more than they put in.
October 19, 2021
Peter, why are you only quoting gross rather than per person? A quick look at the ons reveals.
Wales population 3,170,000
Scotland pop 5,466,000
N Ireland pop 1,896,000
Current and capital spending per person, by Country and region of the UK. Source [HM Treasury, Country and regional analysis 2020 18/11/2020]
Ā£ per person, 2019-20
Current. Capital.
Ā£11082/Ā£ 905 N Ireland
Ā£10156/Ā£ 1408 Scotland
Ā£9896/Ā£1033 Wales
Ā£8872/Ā£ 988 England
England Regional Breakdown
Ā£9350/Ā£1485 London
Ā£9447/Ā£ 838 N East
Ā£9212/Ā£ 993 N West
Ā£8642/Ā£ 928 W Midlands
Ā£8610/Ā£ 791 Yorkshire&Humber
Ā£8443/Ā£ 749 S West
Ā£8210/Ā£ 669 E Midlands
Ā£7883/Ā£1036 S East
Ā£8034/Ā£ 957 East
October 19, 2021
I’m not quoting gross, I’m quoting the net deficit per region (total tax income minus spending).
If you want to look at figures per person, then, for example, both the North West of England (Ā£3,086) and the North East of England (Ā£4,121) receive a higher subsidy per person than Scotland (Ā£2,948) does.
Northern Ireland, at Ā£5,430 per person receives the highest level of taxpayer subsidy. Wales, at Ā£4,556 has the second highest.
October 20, 2021
Peter, thank you for that but don’t a lot of factories and shops all over those regions remit from their headquarters in London and don’t divide up their income over all the regions they draw the money in from? Not all sales are generated in the City the registered offices are in.
October 20, 2021
You are correct, and that is why the ONS methodology uses information such as the locations of those branches and employees’ addresses to allocate tax income such as Corporation Tax to the regions on a proportional basis.
It isn’t the case that “Company X has a registered address in central London, so all corporate tax revenue is allocated to London”.
The ONS publish a document called “Country and regional public sector finances: methodology guide” which goes through how they calculate all this.
October 21, 2021
Thanks, Peter. I’ll look into it more this weekend. Statistics fascinate me.
So you believe the ONS take all the corporation tax registered in London and redistribute by carefully looking at each company and their employee location (how do they check their subbies/contractors if they use that business model?) and divide the income and profits up around the regions. Then you believe they do the same with that companies PAYE and NI taxes and VAT remittances?
What if 50% of the turnover and profits aren’t related to that company’s employees and their home locations?
London based Employers with 50% of the workforce living in the regions outside of London I wonder does their remittances get split via employee location. I just don’t believe this is that accurate but thanks for guiding me in the direction to check.
October 19, 2021
So there is a bonanza of Ā£26.4 billion per annum awaiting us then!
October 19, 2021
You aren’t giving the population figures of NI, Scotland, and Wales: 1 and 1/2 million, 5 million, and 3 million. The population of England and its cities is so huge we don’t even know what it is.
October 20, 2021
Rose
Of course we know what it is
October 19, 2021
šš»100%
October 19, 2021
Spot on!
October 19, 2021
So the Plague Act is being renewed today?
Not much publicity.
Ready for Johnson to deny Christmas?
@Scrooge.
October 19, 2021
I must have missed the explanation in the past but what stops EU non compliant goods which are made in NI from going over the border without a physical border? NI doesn’t make any?
October 19, 2021
It makes me laugh when Russia is accused of interfering with internal politics of another country. Isn’t that what the EU is trying to do? Butt out. Biden too. As for Scotland. Can we have the vote? That would sort it out double quick. If they want to stay, fine, but don’t expect any more handouts from the English especially when we are paying for prescriptions, higher taxes and higher NI. They get enough now. We always get the short straw. Stop pandering to them and make them face reality.
October 21, 2021
The European Union didn’t interfere quite to the extent that the UK did all the way from Tunisia right across to Iraq and to Afghanistan, causing a refugee crisis for Europe, did it?
October 19, 2021
The dogs in the street know that the EU are using NI as a means of keeping their claws attached to the UK. They are just being difficult and disruptive. The Remainer establishment actively connived, perhaps even conspired, with this foreign power to damage the UK’s interests during the years following the referendum. This required the agreement as signed to be a political document that allowed the UK to get 95% free. The time is right to get the remaining 5%. Frost is the man to do it, I think. Just scrap the protocol and be done.
October 19, 2021
Iām becoming increasingly concerned about MiC, unless heās moved to Nottinghamshire?
Iām sure that others share my concern
October 19, 2021
Don’t worry Lester. I’ve long suspected that people who contribute to this website change their identities frequently.
October 19, 2021
Yes I have a concern awaiting moderation.
October 19, 2021
Possibly Brussels has to make savings.
October 19, 2021
Lester. I said just this last night.
October 19, 2021
Art 16 today, the EU will continue to be a bully and behave unlawfully. Letās just cut ourselves adrift from them.
October 19, 2021
Agreed, the eu are untrustworthy, one should not trade with them
October 19, 2021
Helen Smith- we are cut adrift.. if fact don’t think we have a friend in the world at this time
October 20, 2021
Is that Andy sobbing I can hear?
October 21, 2021
Yes, Hazlet, the Tories are behaving to a large part of the world pretty much as those embarrassing chanting football hooligans did towards the European Union not long after the Leave result.
You can’t have too many friends, but you can have one too many enemies.
October 21, 2021
NLH – which Tories are behaving to a large part of the world as those embarrassing chanting football hooligans? I want to be clear who you are calling out. Can you give us the names of the Tories and what behaviour? Or do you mean every Conservative MP and every Conservative voter?
Who are the UK’s foreign enemies in your opinion right now?
October 19, 2021
The real Question is the Government doesn’t understand how to run No10 let alone a United Kingdom.
A lot of what Government try’s to do and orchestrate centrally can be achieved more efficiently, more effectively at the local level. They all to often want it to be displayed that they have their hands on the levers of every minute detail – when it is a bogus dream. That is just the same nonsense the Scottish Parliament plays to. South Ayrshire, Angus and so on can handle there local administration infinitely better than the dictates form Edinburgh and certainly better than the Metro Luvies in London.
That also follows for the regions and counties of England. Never forget in population and industrial size most parts of England are bigger than the combined areas of Scotland. Internal responses for the UK will all be achieved more effectively at a local level. The UK Government should be about the bigger picture the external presentation.
It also follows how flawed the ‘Barnet Formula’ is, if it was distributed at a local level to all local administrations of the UK that have the daily task you might even achieve a semblance of the ‘leveling up’ asperation.
October 19, 2021
“The EU wishes NI to accept large amounts of EU law with no voice and vote in its making and no right to repeal or amend.”
The EU Commission at last appraisal was still a Trade Commission. An unelected, unaccountable commission that even has it own political Court – more like a modern day version of the ‘Spanish Inquisition’. What other trading block in the World permits that sort of control. Democracy’s as flawed as a lot are, still presents the safest route forward for the World. The basic part of a Democracy is it ‘they the people’ make their laws, regulations and rules, and it is the people that get to amend and repeal them. Famously the ‘Boston Tea Party’ was a revolt by the people due to the denial of representation. We are supposed to learn from history – not repeat it.
October 19, 2021
Will we ever hear what Johnson and Gates discussed yesterday? We are supposed to be a democracy.
October 19, 2021
One vote every five year for the least bad of two Socialist, tax to death greencrap parties. Not really democracy is it?
October 19, 2021
+1000
October 19, 2021
Todays MsM announcements said to come from Government
“The UK has already made progress in cutting emissions compared to the levels released in 1990. In 2019, the country released 40% less than in 1990.” but the imported goods that had to replace locally produced goods released more than double the savings in other territories.
Minister are to take “Ā£620m” from taxpayers that cant afford new cars and hand it over to those that can.
It goes on and on, the Government will hand out more taxpayer money to produce even more emissions outside of UK territory. More industry will be encouraged to leave and produce elsewhere so as to reduce UK Territorial Green House gases that already only account for 1% of the Worlds emissions.
Or a lesson of how to grab a headline while using taxpayers funds to increase World Green House Gases – the complete opposite of the ‘virtue signal’ being made. More foreign electric cars, more taxpayer funds for foreign energy suppliers, more foreign manufactured ‘windmills’, heat pumps and solar from the Worlds most polluting countries. The Government is intent on doubling the pollution the UK creates for the World while exporting jobs.
October 19, 2021
Indeed – total insanity.
October 19, 2021
Bring on the Reform Party
October 19, 2021
Tories old strapline āābuild back betterāā
Tories new strapline āāgreen is good, green is right, green worksāā
Surely this alone is enough for the 1922 committee to step in
October 19, 2021
Except green is politically the poll tax or the ERM on steroids.
October 19, 2021
Exactly Bob.. we can see it already where trade between NI and ROI has increased by 40 – 50 per cent both ways mainly to avoid the stupid paperwork maze that has decended on us all.. all c/o the brexit debacle
October 19, 2021
The biggest threat is Westminster MPs
October 19, 2021
Just sharing,
“The latest report from the Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI) reveals that buildersā merchantsā August value sales were 23.0% higher year-on-year, with Timber & Joinery products once again topping the list of best performing categories (+51.5%).”
This is still up on August 2019 (pre pandemic)
October 21, 2021
That’s the value of sales.
What about quantities? Are these things simply much pricier now?
October 21, 2021
“Builders Merchant sales nationally are adjusted for both price inflation and trading days. BMF and Phocas (a BMF Service Member) have teamed up to introduce a brand-new look BMF Sales Indicators, bringing with it greater analytics and functionality.”
October 21, 2021
Was that yes or no, Tracy?
October 21, 2021
Theyāve claimed in the report notes as I copied āit is adjusted for price inflationā, youāll have to go and stalk them if you want to know more because itās a members only site.
October 19, 2021
O/t does anyone know what the people at BA are going to be saying instead of āGood morning ladies and gentlemen ā. Presumably something along the lines of āgood morning homo sapiensā.
October 19, 2021
“Everyone” ?
What is astonishing is that 1 hour of my six monthly briefing is taken up with Political Correction rather than the technical updates I really need. We are set questions loaded with trip-wire jargon that are so impossible to answer correctly and you are not allowed to move on to the next topic until you have passed them.
October 20, 2021
Change job?
October 19, 2021
There will be disappointment, even incredulity, if it is other than “hiya peeps”.
October 19, 2021
Our government are allowing this to be approached from the wrong direction. If the eu want to police their market they should do so from their side of the border in the Republic. Its not a British problem, they need put back in their own place. Britain can monitor goods from the EU electronically if we need so.
These people are becoming enemies, we must selfishly protect our state from them , if they keep on the route they are taking
October 19, 2021
The EU stood a better chance of detaching NI when we were solidly in the EU, because then reunification could happen and both NI and the rest of the UK would have still been part of the same overall political entity. In fact, had they wanted to, the EU could have tried to argue that a reunified Ireland could happen and not *really* be separate from the “sovereign” UK at all, a kind of super CTA. They could even have claimed that superior EU wisdom had solved a problem that had eluded everyone else.
But now, if the EU push for a unified Ireland,it will be pretty starkly clear to the unionist community in NI that reunification means a clear separation from the UK, with no possibility of the UK stepping in to help the unionist community if some kind of cultural cleansing is part of unification. It will also be pretty clear that the EU’s main weapon in pushing for unification would be a kind of economic blockade, no matter how politely and patronizingly applied.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that the EU won’t try, just that I think they are doomed to fail and could cause everyone a lot of trouble in the process. It also doesn’t mean that the voters of NI couldn’t vote for unification – it’s entirely their choice. But what does it make of their past hundred years of history if they now vote for a double separation from the UK, one separation by leaving the UK and a second separation by joining a foreign and now hostile EU that the UK gradually has less and less to do with?
October 19, 2021
Fantastic !
October 19, 2021
Did I see a spoof video or was that seriously the voting in Parliament on extending the Corona Virus Act for another 6 months?
They were shouting and laughing as if it were all a joke! ( ??)
I certainly could not hear that the āayesā had it.