France is behaving foolishly. The Agreement has been honoured by the U.K. offering licences to French fishing vessels that fished in U.K. waters when we were in the EU.
France wants licences for vessels that did not have legal licences before. If they were fishing in our waters they were doing so illegally. The French arrest of one of our trawlers was unreasonable as it has a licence to fish in French waters. Apparently it was missing from a list giving the French an opportunity to be awkward, despite being told our vessel was legal.
Meanwhile the U.K. needs to bring to a head the way the unreasonable conduct of the  EU towards Northern Ireland is diverting trade from GB to the EU against the clear statement of the Protocol.
I did not support the final Agreement because I thought there would be trouble over the interim fishing agreement and  the Protocol. Both were said to be temporary. We need to bring forward terminating them both and implement a proper Brexit on these vexatious issues. We are quite entitled to given the illegal actions of France and the EU and the terms of those Agreements.
October 31, 2021
We must find a way to protect Jersey from the outrageous threats once again from the French. Surely to God it must send a signal to Boris that we need our own energy supplies and as the business minister suggested, not all renewables which would be too unreliable. The French have always been ungrateful and unfriendly. Time to stand firm, look after our interests first for a change and tell both the French and the EU of our intentions. If we don’t stand up now we will have repeats of this unrest for years to come.
October 31, 2021
Have you enquired as to why Alderney, Guernsey, and Sark – with similar fishing – are not having these problems?
And why some Jersey fishers are joining action in solidarity with their French peers, and in protest at their government’s position?
Have you researched who and what the “government” of Jersey is?
I think that you should.
October 31, 2021
Are these the jersey fishers who are french born and supported. Of course they are, the french look after their own and all we are doing is the same.
November 1, 2021
No, Robert, the ones whose accounts I have read have English names.
The point is, that whatever other claims may be made, the Jersey fishers – never mind the deliberately blown-up recent dispute – cannot any longer land their catches in France, so they have simply lost their hitherto main market.
They blame brexit, not the French, crucially.
October 31, 2021
Jersey is a British Crown Dependency and is defended and internationally represented by the UK. Good enough for me.
October 31, 2021
The media news reading at the moment, including GB News, is disgracefully pro Macron in this clear cut matter. They all, for example, tell us the British boat (for once their separatist tendencies are reined in and the don’t say “Scottish”) has no licence, when they have been told over and over again that it does. And they continue to refer to the French warmongering as a “spat” or a “dispute” and imply it is just six of one and half a dozen of the other, as they used to with the IRA.
Sir John is right: the re-annexation of our waters must be resisted now, as must the attempted annexation of Northern Ireland. The longer this is postponed, the harder it will be.
October 31, 2021
rose – do you still listen/watch the “news”, that is why the UK is in a coma.
‘NEWS” is not just what happens, it is what a very small group of people want YOU to KNOW.
October 31, 2021
I didn’t think that for one moment it would not be, FUS.
October 31, 2021
You ask questions, and then assume the answers.
Perhaps that indicates that your questions weren’t real? And perhaps that calls into question your presumption of what your interlocutor knows or doesn’t know?
October 31, 2021
Why don’t you tell us?
Another opportunity to boast of your research.
October 31, 2021
F U S
Very well said and so true
October 31, 2021
âTime to be firmâ?
There is no sign whatsoever of any firmness on the part of the British government.
Lord Frost is used as a means to address the discontent of the British public but Boris and co always fail to back him up.
This nonsense has been going on forever.
October 31, 2021
Johnson is just buying time.
He is not interested in Brexit. He dismisses critical issues as âturbulenceâ.
Meanwhile, he concentrates on matters that will gain him favour with the globalist Davos crowd – like climate change and the âbuild back betterâ malarkey.
October 31, 2021
Johnson still calls them our ‘partners and oldest friends’. If he studied European history and forgot his bellicose Latin nonsense he would realise they are actually among our oldest enemies. Macron sees himself as Napoleon. If he studied history he would see how that turned out.
October 31, 2021
I think he is well aware, and uses a light touch sarcasm.
October 31, 2021
Graham 1946
Look at history the past 75 years and re-write your contribution.
October 31, 2021
A good book to read this week is Dr Patrick Moore’s “Fake Invisible Catastrophes and Threats of Doom: You Will Perish in Flames.”
As President Trump points out on the back cover, Dr Moore is a co-founder of Greenpeace.
Unfortunately A….n have the monopoly of it but it comes the next day.
October 31, 2021
Wholeheartedly agree with that recommendation. It’s a very interesting book, well written by someone who actually knows of what he speaks. He was interviewed on a Yootoob channel ”Triggernometry” recently if you’ve no time for reading.
October 31, 2021
I haven’t read the book, but thoroughly enjoyed this long interview with Patrick Moore in which he talks about climate change, and the politics of the environmental movement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5K5i5Wv7jQ
November 1, 2021
Peter
You have got that about right.
The news channels are all about about Glasgow and saving the world. If anyone think that the fear tactics over Brexit were OTT . Then have a rethink about this wall to wall coverage.. My mates mother in law says it is scaring the hell out of some of her friends. But that is what it is meant to do
We are all doomed, doomed. Listening to the BBC radio today was unbelievable.
How the hell are they going to find the money and the resources? You cannot make it up. But they have haven’t they?
October 31, 2021
The news reports today reveal just how pathetic, weak and treacherous our government is: “Brexit minister Lord Frost has revealed the UK is âactively consideringâ triggering a legal battle with France amid an escalating dispute over post-Brexit fishing rights.” A legal battle? FFS – how long will that take to resolve? And who will adjudicate? We need UNILATERAL ACTION – that’s what strong, sovereign countries do. They take ACTION. Not talk, not whine, not plead for help from foreign adjudicators – they take strong, forceful, aggressive action to sort the problem out themselves and on their terms. Unfortunately Boris is a pathetic man of straw who is happy to betray Britain and the British people rather than say ‘boo’ to the EU goosesteppers.
October 31, 2021
It’s what Iceland did.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod_Wars
I once worked with a Royal Navy gunnery officer who had been involved in that.
October 31, 2021
What’s the problem with unlicensed French boats fishing in UK waters/? They can do it anyway, who’s to know and who will see and stop them? The Border Force or whoever are too busy picking up boat people.
October 31, 2021
PETER- – Time to be firmâ? – — – – the ONLY things our??? govt is firm on is –
lying to us
throwing ÂŁbillions to other countries
importing ENDLESS fake foreigners with their families to follow
and the continuing destruction of this country and nation.
while using OUR taxes to destroys us.
October 31, 2021
Time to top up the disel tanks again and check that the island generators are still working.
October 31, 2021
The governors of Jersey seem to be a particularly reactionary and unenlightened bunch, who make the DUP seem almost normal.
Other Channel Islanders are luckier with theirs, and have no problems as a reult.
October 31, 2021
Boris is part of the Globalist UK Establishment and will do as he is told. Where is he at this present time, the G20, his Globalist NWO mates. Do you really think your government cares about you as an individual.??
October 31, 2021
+1
October 31, 2021
It all smacks of silly posturing âThe U.K. must be punished!â For goodness sake!
Not sure ( re international stuff)….but shouldnât a government with a stonking majority be a lot less WEAK?
Leads me to suspect a plot to get the U.K. to just give up and rejoin EU.
October 31, 2021
There is no such plot. The EU has zero interest in the re-admission of the UK. Out means out. All that is happening is that the UK has tried to throw its weight around but is finding the EU is a lot more powerful than it is. Take on France, you take on the other 26 as well. The UK is all on its own now. You voted for it
October 31, 2021
Oh whoops!
So Iâm just guessing that you voted to remain?
October 31, 2021
Everhopeful,
Just a rubbish football managerâs opinion. Ignore.
October 31, 2021
+1
Very wise advice!
October 31, 2021
By that you mean you guess he is in absolutely no way to blame for your miserable Brexit mess.
I guess you are to blame.
October 31, 2021
Funny that: it seems to be France all on her own in the EU over this warmongering – except that little Southern Ireland is backing her.
October 31, 2021
Well I don’know Cornelis-gert jan as far as I know is owned by by McDuff Shellfish which in turn is owned by some Canadian pension fund that really does not need our support.. and then as an aside little southern ireland is doing ok as an independent state within the EU, I know because I live here, and it really doesn’t need your rejoinder.. so eire abu.. alba abu!
October 31, 2021
all that Corporation Tax fiddled.
Enjoy.
October 31, 2021
Gary, what you suggest is plainly not true. The Commission and the other member states are not exactly rushing to support Macron. They know that the bulk of the fishermen refused a licence have never been near British waters, or if they have, they were fishing illegally. They are mostly just chancers thinking they can get a licence just by asking. We already know that France has been forced to withdraw 17 of the most obvious fraudulent applications.
Macron has backed himself into a corner by supporting the chancers so vigorously. It looks like it will end up before the arbitration tribunal written into the agreement. What can Macron do when it sides with Jersey and London? I can’t wait to see his humiliation.
October 31, 2021
Perhaps France needs the others, not a good track record defending when attacked.
October 31, 2021
Take on Ireland and the same is true for that matter, rather to the shock of some, Gary.
October 31, 2021
That certainly seems to be the aim. Johnson was never a committed Brexiteer – it just suited his purpose at the time. He has no guiding principles, hence the sellout of fish and N.I. As Groucho Marx said ‘if you don’t like my principles, I have others’.
October 31, 2021
+1
Exactly!
October 31, 2021
Indeed.
October 31, 2021
What would you have done up against the Benn-Burt Surrender Act and the subversive judiciary? Kept the whole country in the EU?
The Fishing Waters and N Ireland were left behind temporarily until a proper majority could be got. Then, do you remember what happened next?
October 31, 2021
You are forgetting that Boris won the election with a stonking majority BEFORE the treaty was signed and came into force. He could therefore have re-written those elements that were a betrayal of Britain and the British people – but he chose not to. Because he didn’t care. Because he is NOT a patriot. And that’s why he is going to ignore Sir John and the other Brexiteers now (as he always does) and do NOTHING to resolve the NI and fishing problems. He simply doesn’t care. We have a coward and a traitor for prime minister.
October 31, 2021
+ 1 Exactly
October 31, 2021
In reality Corbyn handed over a majority so big it created problems for those of us who would have preferred a different result, or a very small majority such that MPs like our host would HAVE to be listened to.
October 31, 2021
EVERH – – UK be punished? – – our??? govt isalready doing it. Making US pay for a DELIBERATINGL NON-STOPPED flood of dinghy people being put in hotels – – thankfully – – I AM TERMINAL – – I MEAN IT. SO I AM LUCKY.
October 31, 2021
Good morning.
Sir John. Is it not time that the UK Government introduced favourable taxation for certain companies that, currently, enjoy favourable corporation tax rates in certain EU Countries ? I mention this as, according to the Chancellor, the UK is to offer favourable tax rates to commercial shipping that flies the Red Ensign and locates their offices here in the UK. Whilst it will not resolve the items you mention above, particularly the issue of fishing, it will perhaps focus minds across the Irish Sea as they see large foreign companies relocate to the UK. It is a question of leverage. I’d doubt the EU would help the RoI in this, or Luxembourg, as they are very keen to get tax harmonisation across the EU.
As to the French, I am given to understand that they are heavily reliant og UK and other nations heavy lift and helicopter capability in Mali and other African States where they are involved in counter insurgency. Again, leverage !
The French, as can be seen throughout their history when dealing with former colonies, have always sought to maintain some level of control over them, either through having one of their people in power or, French State owned companies controlling their natural resources. Sounds familiar ? đ
October 31, 2021
To why in moderation this time ? It is not as long as others and, given some have albeit shorter posts, they make up for it by posting multiple times which you allow.
If it was about, Mali then what is the problem as the UK Government is quite open about its activities.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-troops-seize-daesh-arms-cache-in-mali-peacekeeping-operation
If it was about anything else, then why the provocative title ?
October 31, 2021
Perhaps Sir John had just popped out to the shops, or found something more pressing he had to do than moderate these comments. I’m sure he regrets keeping any of us waiting, but we must be quite low down on his list of priorities, galling though that may be!
October 31, 2021
LJones,
Agreed. The poor man has to read all this stuff.
And it was not even 9am before the moderation complaint was posted.
October 31, 2021
X-Tory,
Johnson also chose to rush a Brexit agreement through parliament without time for MPs to fully read it or ask questions.
As far as he was concerned that was Brexit out of the way. He never had any intention of doing anything that might upset those globalists who could be useful to him after politics.
His key issue at the moment is whether to try for another term and stay in power for as long as Blair, or to cut and run and concentrate on amassing wealth post politics.
October 31, 2021
Well yes 19% going down to the Irish level of 15% in 2% steps seems about right. So Sunak the low tax Chancellor does the opposite. Even Labour doesn’t lie about its intentions in this area. Why do the Conservatives?
October 31, 2021
France is a hostile state, even the Foreign Office ought to see that.
October 31, 2021
Formula57, I agree that France is a hostile state, so why do the public flock to holiday there?
I went once and returning to the ferry I was delayed by a hostile cop trying to find something wrong with my rig so he could demand money- he failed but it cost me tho change the ferry booking!
Never went back, the country was crap and the British Isles has the edge every time when it comes to outdoors exercise.
October 31, 2021
I can’t stand the attitude of most of the French especially the Parisians. I haven’t had a holiday there since my early 20’s. There are far nicer places to visit with friendly people. I also won’t buy anything French in the supermarkets.
October 31, 2021
You’re confusing the French people with the French state. They are not the same.
October 31, 2021
FORM 57 – – France hostile ??? –
our leaders are hostile to US.
October 31, 2021
I agree, the French State is our traditional enemy, if we have such a thing. But it’s not very nice to the French, either.
Having gone out as a Francophile and lived & worked there for 6 years, then come back to the UK (somewhat less rosy-eyed about France), I found many French citizens themselves fear or dislike the bureaucratic machine that is the French State. They shake their heads and shrug Gallic shoulders at the mention of “l’administration”. Petty officials often make life a misery if a citizen offends them or their chums, and seem to revel in using their powers. It’s generally pointless trying to resist. This behaviour happens all the way up the chain, so it’s not surprising that Macron is acting as he does.
October 31, 2021
Having destroyed us thus far why is there now prevarication about hydrogen?
Shades of âThe Little Match Girlâ.
Thinking of which âŠwhat on earth would the Victorians have made of their descendants? Cheap heat and light and power for the taking and we just decide to leave it buried in the ground.
And go cold.
COP indeed.
October 31, 2021
đđ» Well said Sir !
October 31, 2021
Thanks!đž
October 31, 2021
Perhaps the CCC have finally learned that you can’t make hydrogen at 100% efficiency as their sixth carbon budget claimed.
October 31, 2021
+1
October 31, 2021
The EU is becoming more and more scared of the UK being a success. Nothing is more important to their dictatorship than to show all the nations of the EU how bad it is to leave the EU. It has always been about punishment from the day we left.
Well if you need more evidence it was a great thing to get out then look at the way Poland is being dictated to. Do as we say or we will destroy your economy. They did it to Greece and Italy.
We should have brought termination forward much earlier than now.
October 31, 2021
Youâre not being punished. You are being treated as a State which does not enjoy the rights and solidarity which come with EU menbership. Itâs what you voted for, even if only now (too late) you understand what you voted for
October 31, 2021
Poland, Hungary, Greece, and Italy …and quite a few others are not enjoying the rights and solidarity which come with EU membership. It is better to be rule-breakers France and Germany to be sure of that.
October 31, 2021
There is an actual quote from the French minister saying that we are to be punished.
Look it up Len.
October 31, 2021
You look it up. He said no such thing. His comnents were (deliberately?) mistranslated by theBritish press
October 31, 2021
Oh right.
Is that what the Guardian told you
Hilarious
October 31, 2021
Including the Guardian, that well known inveterate opponent of the EU.
October 31, 2021
Len – Peter2 is right.
First point : the French minister responsible is a ‘she’, not a ‘he’. Her name is Annick Girardin.
Second point: she tweeted ‘Le @gouvernementFR adoptera les mesures de rĂ©torsion nĂ©cessaires’. As you may well know, that means ‘The French government will adopt the necessary retaliatory measures’.
IMO there isn’t much of a semantic distinction between punishing someone for something, and retaliating against them for something. So I don’t think the British press have seriously misrepresented the facts. (And I don’t say that very often!)
October 31, 2021
Thank you Richard for your support.
Much appreciated.
I knew I was right !
October 31, 2021
Nonsense. Don’t give me that “I told you so, you voted for it rubbish”. I am elated that we are out and I would vote out again. My point was that the EU as stated by the French minister that the UK must be punished. We must be seen not to work as other countries will be see that exit is right for them so as to be free of the unelected polit bureau.
October 31, 2021
Do you mean Francois Hollande five years ago:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/oct/07/uk-must-pay-price-for-brexit-says-francois-hollande
or Jean Castex this past week:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/oct/30/brexit-fishing-row-uk-and-france-hold-last-ditch-talks-to-avert-chaos-at-ports
Or maybe somebody else in between?
October 31, 2021
BW
THe most powerful part of teh EU is the Council which are all elected.
And for your information no other country who are currnet members will make the same mistake of leaving.
October 31, 2021
Rubbish
They only meet a few times a year and their ability to make law is very small.
Real power is with the Commission.
Surely as an EU fan you realise this bill?
November 1, 2021
Well said, Bill.
The European Council of the twenty-seven leaders is self-evidently at the top as to general direction, although it could not overrule the parliament on specifics.
One minute the europhobes say that Merkel is running the European Union, the next that it’s somehow the Commission.
They’re both wrong.
November 1, 2021
I’ve always said the Commission runs the EU.
October 31, 2021
Agree 100%. Unfortunately, you are a lone voice as Boris is an appeaser. Your colleagues cannot be relied upon to defend the UK, either, other than the odd one or two. It’s too much effort to defend the UK and they prefer the EU anyway as it takes away part of their workload (but not their pay). Boris will allow ‘our friend and ally’ Macron to walk all over us, for both the fishing licences and the NIP saga. This will lead to more ridiculous demands from both France and the EU until we are back under some sort of EU rule. I wish I had more faith in Boris, but I don’t. It is impossible to negotiate or operate diplomacy with a bullying self entitled idiot.
I hope I am wrong, and will be highly delighted if I am wrong.
October 31, 2021
Shirley M
Apppeaser is not quite what I and a lot of people call Boris!!!
October 31, 2021
turboterrier, +1, SM is too kind
October 31, 2021
+1.
October 31, 2021
@Shirley M.
These people from the usual private (so called public) schools are taught entitlement, and they all think they are born ro rule. I think that this is the reason we’ve had so many moronic leaders – Blair, Cameron, Johnson.
October 31, 2021
Oh!
Has anyone worked out the carbon footprint of COP 26?
Fleets of private jets and vegetable oil-run generators for eliteâs EVs ( not enough power points). Huge ship on the Clyde keeping its diesel engines running for staff accommodation.
And NO jab requirements, no jab passportsâŠnow why on earth would that be?
500 years to degrade the billions of plastic containing masks churned out by China.
Ah wellâŠno one ever said it was easy being green. Especially difficult for hypocrites!
October 31, 2021
Exactly. No point in a war on CO2 at all unless:- 1. CO2 concentrations are causing an imminent climate catastrophe 2. The methods proposed to reduce CO2 wind, EVs, heat pumps make a significant reduction 3. All the world will join in this war on carbon dioxide 3. The vast cost of this war on CO2 is less than any net benefit the war will produce 4. The CO2 produced by mankind is hugely damaging and not a net benefit (in greening the planet, increasing crop yields). 5. The are no better, simpler and cheaper methods to cool the earth were this needed. 6. The vast cost of net zero cannot be spent elsewhere doing for more good.
All 6 are wrong. Should anyone be able to show that all six points however? But all six are wrong not just one all six.
October 31, 2021
+1
Absolutely.
And look what they are doing to us with all their nonsense.
They used to flay animals to death, believing that it made the meat tender. This lot obviously donât even believe their hype.
Never mind creative chaos âŠmore like chaos for chaos sake.
Or chaos for cash maybe?
October 31, 2021
“The science is settled”, “97% of scientists say…”, “you are a climate denier” etc.
As Einstein said to the 100 authors against Einstein, “if I were wrong, one would be enough.”
It is the totalitarianism of the CO2 cult which discredits it the most. Proper science doesn’t crush alternative arguments. Religion and politics do that, and this week feels like both.
October 31, 2021
+1
October 31, 2021
rose,
+1, neat and eloquent comment with accurate precision in the accusation.
November 1, 2021
rose: Interesting comment: do you know that in the last ten years there has been an eclosion of open source scientific journals (often online) in which all types of science are now published, in particular âalternative argumentsâ in the atmospheric sciences.
Please look for your favourite scientist, mainstream or not, on e.g. academia.edu. You might need to register. Once done you will realise that the opening screen has 5 out of 8 recent papers from the ânotâ mainstream by respectively Underwood, Ciccone, Olila, Harde and Rancourt.
So I guess your âproper science doesnât crush alternative argumentsâ is a bit out of touch.
Have a good read.
November 1, 2021
Yet you tell us the science is settled when it comes to warming hef
How does that work?
November 2, 2021
P2, Can you point out when I said that the science is settled. Thanks in advance.
I am almost 100% sure that I have commented on analyses of meteorological data, meaning past observations, which actually show a warming since the beginning of the satellite era in the 1970s, whether it comes from time series of satellite measurements by NASA, NOAA, JMA or ESA.
Do not put in my comments things you have imagined in your head.
November 2, 2021
P2, and when I have talked about models, it was to point out that some comments by contributors on this blog were simply wrong, saying for example that clouds or aerosols or surface processes (at the land or ocean interface with the atmosphere) were not included in the models used for weather forecasts or climate simulations.
Or the usual boeotian comment about atmospheric gases from people not knowing that their radiative effects more than their concentrations are really what matters.
October 31, 2021
Indeed LL. The “climate emergency” is all about imposing control and, lest we forget UN policy, reducing our population.
October 31, 2021
LL, and DavidJ, +1,
control is all, there’s a smokescreen being deployed. I’m not at all convinced by the suggestion that population control is an objective but there is sufficient evidence of collusion in secretive, horrific, and utterly deluded theories being progressed. The ludicrous are no longer scorned, the daftest beliefs are not scoffed at, indoctrination is widespread, from the infant upwards, and gullibility is fostered.
The very worst excesses of political derangement had small and stealthy beginnings, with most of the activists having no real idea of where their illiberal actions might lead.
I can think of no regime, however wicked or heartless, that failed through an inability to recruit its mailed fist persuaders.
Furthermore, the BBC can not be changed ( That last sentence stands alone, and I’m not implying a connection with that last paragraph, but, nonetheless, “They know not what they are doing”)
October 31, 2021
We all know some are more equal than others.
October 31, 2021
+1
Yes..we, the seething masses, reduced to the status of domestic animals, will all be SO equal in our imposed abject poverty and enslavement. And DEPENDENCE!
The powers that should-not-be have worked/are working very hard to reduce us all to toxic equality.
October 31, 2021
This country is fast approaching a Social Credit System. People are brainwashed by big media who control just about all the news and information we get to hear. These people at COP26 aren’t interested in saving the planet, they just want more for themselves and less for the masses. I look on in disbelief as people repeat the climate change mantra and accept that they will be priced off the road, lose their foreign holidays, live in cold houses and be told what to eat and all the while, these so called elites, swan around the world in luxury. We are told we voted for this green nonsense but as it was in the manifestoes of all the main parties what choice did we actually have? Another great speech given by Neil Oliver on GBnews. Wake up people before it’s too late, let’s see more critical thinking and less belief in what government’s and the media tell us. We did it for Brexit, now do it for future elections.
October 31, 2021
+1
Oh well said!
I think I saw his latest vid this morning. He is very good!
Based on personal experience I often wonder whether the eco warrior, virtue signallers who still love and use their industrial and techno treats and petrol motors, think none of this will affect THEM?
They believe they are just in it for the left wing politics âŠNOT for the New Stone Age?
October 31, 2021
Lembit Opik is good to.
October 31, 2021
rose, agreed, and I was pleasantly surprised by the open minded Lembit Opik who seems to be so devoid of ‘baggage’ as he explains his current views. Have we all become so used to politicians’ inability to recast their views as time and events remould the facts.
Neil Oliver is exceptional in his analyses and in his lucid exposition and Lembit Opik has much more to offer than i had previously given him credit for. And it’s all down to GB News giving an opportunity for good debate to expose the viewpoints to examination and I must highlight my appreciation for Nigel Farage as a top presenter.
His performance in GB News and in the Munck Debate show why he has been so influential, to the chagrin of his detractors.
Sir John came over very well with his recent discussion with Nigel.
Take note, Sir John, you were very impressive with Nigel, and The House is no longer your audience. We are.
October 31, 2021
Excuse my odd typo, and I would add for emphasis, what most readers of the Diary already know, that our excellent host is addictive because of his unsurpassed qualities, recognised for more than three decades. Our bafflement and impatience is not with the quality of thought (quite brilliant) but with the seeming excess of patience with so many of his colleagues and their insouciance in the face of grotesque leadership directions from Johnson.
October 31, 2021
The level of hypocrisy we get from the Global Elite is sickening. It’s worse than I remember in my lifetime (early ’60s).
Neil Oliver is a wonderful addition to the national conversation. I hope he stands for election to Westminster (not the Noddy Parliament in Holyrood). We desperately need people like him in Parliament to actually represent US, not the Establishment.
October 31, 2021
Donna, +1, I am altogether with you in your appreciation of Neil Oliver but I would hate to see him as a Party politician.
My heart did sink when I saw Michael Gove declare his intention to stand for election. Maybe I’m incapable of making an educated judgement but I feel that he has stepped off the top step of the ladder of influence and respect and plunged to the bottom. He is distrusted, he appears to revel in machiavellian intrigue and has lost the trust and respect of those who believed in him and is easily ridiculed by those who never did understand him.
Neil Oliver invites us to listen and learn and to think for ourselves.
October 31, 2021
Christine – – ONE TRILLION UPTICKS.
October 31, 2021
”Future elections”? Now, THERE’s optimism!
October 31, 2021
Itâs do as they say not as they do.
October 31, 2021
The French attitude to Brexit is as clear as could be. No doubt others in the Commission share it. The early end of the interim agreement and Protocol appears justified. There had better be contingency plans in place to deal with the fall out. One should include alternative, if longer, routes to the continent which avoid French ports of entry. Another should be the elimination of dependence on the French interconnector.
October 31, 2021
Clearly you are sure, as I am, that ‘Boris’ will cave in to the French and betray us again.
He’ll fail the UK on Northern Ireland too.
October 31, 2021
+1. Sadly.
October 31, 2021
The Prangwizard
+1 odds on it happening.
October 31, 2021
I second that thought Turbo. It would be nice to be proved wrong though.
October 31, 2021
Tragic but correct.
October 31, 2021
+ 10000000 sadly true Prangwizard.
November 2, 2021
You guys should start using scientific notations, not +1 but +10^0, not +100 but + 10^2, not + 10000000 but + 10^7. You would be saving âenergyâ.
Why not try even + 10^� When one gets ridiculous, why stop half-way?
October 31, 2021
If your government caves in on either matter it will be the end.
The population are thoroughly fed up with the climate circus and capitulation to Macron or Brussels will have far reaching consequences.
October 31, 2021
Ian Wragg
+1
October 31, 2021
The way this Socialist Government are behaving on everything, letâs hope itâs the end anyway. Trouble is where do we Conservative voters go? Reform Party?
October 31, 2021
Anywhere but the LibLabCON. Even withdrawing your vote is an option. When they see that they no longer can rely on people slavishly voting for them, then and only then will they begin to listen.
October 31, 2021
So in which court are you going to pursue your – frankly hilarious given your party’s previous statements – claim that France’s and the European Union’s actions are “illegal” then, Sir John?
Were they only illegal in a “limited and defined way”, perhaps?
It seems that you perhaps rely upon your thralls’ unconsciously assumed axiom that agreements bind – to the letter – foreigners, but do not protect them, and vice-versa for the English Tories.
Without that assumption on the part of your readers I think that your piece would generally be received as comical, Sir John.
Reply No need to go to court. We must use our independence.
October 31, 2021
I’m not sure that the international community would see it that way, Sir John.
October 31, 2021
I am sure the international community is watching this and concluding that the french are not a good partner to have in any agreement …. trade or otherwise.
October 31, 2021
NLH. I wouldn’t be so sure about that.
October 31, 2021
Well said Sir John, We must fight back as diplomacy has now failed
October 31, 2021
Diplomacy?
Do you not remember what Johnson – as Foreign Secretary no less – called the French?
Oh, my poor, aching sides…
October 31, 2021
aching sides, call your Doctor or visit A&E.
October 31, 2021
“No need to go to court. We must use our independence.” What exactly does that mean? How are you defining the word independence?
October 31, 2021
Remainers never did understand what independence means.
October 31, 2021
So you don’t know either.
October 31, 2021
The French think and believe we are weak. If they thought we were strong willed and were intent on protecting ourselves they would not begin their aggressive and threatening actions.
October 31, 2021
It is clear that the actions the French are threatening from Tuesday are illegal, under the agreement.
It has the option of recourse to an independent arbitration panel written into it but it is the EU as a whole rather than France that Britain will have to take action against.
Given that the Commission and other member states clearly don’t support the French position over fishing licences, they are likely to put pressure on Macron to back down before Tuesday. He won’t of course, because of the forthcoming Presidential election. If we do have to go to arbitration over the matter, it will be interesting to see if the Commission puts up any kind of defence, when they know that the French position is indefensible and almost all of the refused licence applications were almost certainly fraudulent.
When the panel decide in favour of the UK, Macron will then try to avoid humilliation by blaming the commission. French voters will see straight through that !
October 31, 2021
“… other member states clearly donât support the French position over fishing licences”, who told you that! Twenty five members of the EU don’t give a toss about fishing, it is just France and Belgium.
Boris is the one who has backed down before Tuesday, not Macron. You are spouting some brave words from an island that imports 40% of it food; 50% of its Natural Gas and 12% of its electric from the near continent that you have been daily throwing bricks at for the last three years.
Frankly, if I were the EU, I would say enough is enough; **** it, and dump the Withdrawal Agreement Treaty in the UN Security Council bin. You will be surprised how little criticism the EU would get from its trading partners in the rest of the world; particularly from an Irish Catholic President of the USA.
November 1, 2021
Belgium ?
lol
Bring it on.
October 31, 2021
If the last 24 months is anything to go by, fat chance.
Too much âloup qui pleurâ
October 31, 2021
Try again with your online translator, but thanks for the laugh.
October 31, 2021
Nlh. Rather full of yourself this morning aren’t you? Fancy moving back to Cardiff or better still France?
October 31, 2021
FUS
Yes, heâs back with a vengeance, spoiling an otherwise civilised debate by name calling
October 31, 2021
What “name”?
October 31, 2021
No problem. You make me laugh every time you post.
October 31, 2021
NLH
Do I need to explain everything to you?
October 31, 2021
Some think, P2? Isnât it obvious that the French presidential election campaign has already been running for a couple of months? You should brush up your French and follow it, you might learn things.
October 31, 2021
I’m surprised you think the election is over heffy
Check your diary.
Plenty of time to impress yet.
Learning indeed.
October 31, 2021
Youâre an ass (as in Will Sâs Dogberry) who read too quickly: Did you notice the word âcampaignâ?
November 1, 2021
What a ridiculous comment from you heffy
I realise his campaign has been running for a few weeks.
He is getting more desperate as the election day looms closer.
It is obvious Macron is playing to the gallery in France to increase his popularity prior to the election.
October 31, 2021
May I respectfully submit that Aesopâs âboy who cried wolfâ had nothing to do with âun lobo llorandoâ âun loup qui pleureâ âein weinender Wolfâ or a wolf with tears in its eyes but more about a shepherd âshouting âWolfââ to attract the attention of other shepherds.
Anyway right now, with the rather grotesque Lord Frost, itâs not the part of âa shepherd crying wolfâ but more that of âthe damsel in distressâ that the UK is rehearsing/playing.
Or as Private Eye had it on 01/10: âBrexit not the fault of Brexitâ
October 31, 2021
Despite all your prose hef, do you think the French President is being friendly and reasonable?
Or as some think he is just running an election campaign and playing to his domestic gallery.
October 31, 2021
+1
October 31, 2021
If the position on UK & French fishing vessels is so clear cut why is the BBC allowed to air Macron’s claims that the UK is in breach of the Treaty? The impression from watching BBC news is that it is the UK is in the wrong.
October 31, 2021
According to the BBC’s home page, the reader “must see” the Sunday Telegraph and the Sunday Express.
October 31, 2021
What ! no Grauniad?
October 31, 2021
PeterB
What do you expect it is the BBC and that is what they do.
October 31, 2021
Yes Turbo, the bbc are traitorous lefties
October 31, 2021
It is.
October 31, 2021
Andy, please explain in detail why you believe that London and Jersey are in the wrong ?
If it were, the Commission would have taken us to arbitration by now and they haven’t.
The French have already been forced to withdraw 17 fraudulent licence applications and almost certainly the rest of the outstanding cases are in the same category. Do you see any other member states rushing to Macron’s defence ? NO.
October 31, 2021
Quelle suprise! The BBC hates the Tories, so why not lie to the British? It’s in their DNA.
October 31, 2021
The BBC has been doing that to us for as long as I can remember – taking the part of the IRA, taking the part of the Argentines, taking the part of the EU…who will it be next I wonder? China probably. They never say anything bad about China’s pollution, always tip toeing around the whole question and finding really nice things to say about China’s intentions for the next century, or for the Third World. But when it comes to our kinsmen in Australia, the BBC throws the book at them.
October 31, 2021
Please define “Our Waters”, if you mean our 12 nmi territorial waters then say so, if you mean our claimed EEZ say so, much of our EEZ can also now be claimed by EU27 countries, any disputes about EEZs need to go to the UNCLOS, not the EU as part of the WA.
October 31, 2021
Just stand back a little from this, Jerry.
Sir John’s brexit has wrecked much of the UK’s fishing industry and devastated the livelihoods of those whom it once sustained.
This trumped-up nonsense is just to divert from that immutable fact, and to misrepresent the French, rather than brexit, as their bane, and for the Tories to posture as if defending those trusty folk from them.
It’s jingoistic tripe.
October 31, 2021
Just joining tge EU wrecked the livelihoods of our fishermen. God, you’re another one who’s blind when it comes to the EU and the harm it’s done us. Please go to your beloved France.
October 31, 2021
+1
October 31, 2021
@FUS; Back in 1973 many trawler owners and much our fishing industry was already on the rocks (sorry…), much damage had been done by the two Cod Wars with Iceland, more damage was done by the third, then there was the over fishing, often by UK boats (the industry didn’t know any better), the CFP opened up other fishing grounds to the UK, UKIPers keep quite about that part of the deal…
The Conservative parry should never have picked up and run off with the UKIP lies regarding fishing, simplistic ‘answers’ for an industry in long decline, the Conservative party will regret the day, it might even cost them a generation or two of support. There were many logical reasons for Brexit, fishing was not one.
October 31, 2021
I understand that it was Ted Heath who wrecked our fishing industry by subjecting it to the Common Fisheries Policy as part of our joining the Common Market.
Brexit should be an opportunity for it to flourish again – should be!
October 31, 2021
It has already ruined it by removing most of the fishers’ market. They exported most of their catches to the European Union.
The English don’t eat much fish and seafood.
October 31, 2021
Have you seen what we flush out into the sea? However the French love it.
November 1, 2021
Sounds like European citizens are going to he made poorer in terms of their choice of seafood.
Sad.
October 31, 2021
Moreover, Heath was ambushed at the last minute by the others and kept his capitulation a secret from the Cabinet, Parliament, and public. Probably the Queen too for all we know.
October 31, 2021
@rose; Care to offer a citation for that, sounds interesting…given how open Heath was very open about the many other accepts of the UK’s future membership of the EEC [1], such as eventual monetary union, Brussels becoming more importasnt5 that Westminster etc…
[1] when interviewed by BBC Panorama, broadcast 24 Jan 1972, following the signing of the Accession Treaty in Brussels on 22 January 1972.
October 31, 2021
Read all about it in John Ashworth’s book. (He only covers the deception of Parliament, not the Cabinet.)
http://www.campaignforanindependentbritain.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Fisheries-booklet-FULL.pdf
October 31, 2021
@rose; So basically no, you can’t cite a reference, just a partisan campaigning document, apparently…
If they is a citation to an independent or reliable source [1] that confirms what you suggest within that campaign document why not cite it, and no I am not going to spend my time wading through 36 odd pages to find a reference you should be able to cite yourself, assuming there is one at all!
[1] a media interview, released govt papers, Heath’s own archived official papers, etc.
October 31, 2021
To Nottingham Lan Himself
Bonjour. Perhaps your name should have been spelt Calais or Brest . Lad Himself.
Perhaps you are very young because you don’t seem to take into account that Great Yarmouth, for just one example, had hundreds, yes hundreds, of fishing boats prior to joining the EU. All gone because of French and EU greed and helped by Ted Heath. I don’t remember the French fishermen saying that the disappearance of the English fleet was unfair or going on strike to protect our English fishermen.
October 31, 2021
The dispute is over licenses.
Inside our territorial waters.
So the 12 mile limit.
Hope this helps you.
October 31, 2021
It mostly isnât.
It is mostly to do with Jerseyâs territorial waters. Which are not ours.
And a bit is to do with a British vessel alleged to have been fishing illegally in French waters without a license.
October 31, 2021
alleged or trumped up?
October 31, 2021
Wrong as usual young Andy.
October 31, 2021
BW
THe most powerful part of teh EU is the Council which are all elected.
And for your information no other country who are currnet members will make the same mistake of leaving.
October 31, 2021
The dispute is fabricated, just for the Tories to be plastered all over the media as being aggressively anti-French.
I doubt that it will help them in the long run though.
October 31, 2021
Fabricated?
What the recent blockade of Jersey harbours and the illegal confiscation of an innocent trawler.
October 31, 2021
Innocent? Had they forgotten their licence at home? Do you not take your passport and driving licence with you when you go abroad?
And as far as I know, it is not clear that the Jersey fishermen are so happy with the fuss that No.10 is making right now. Isnât Jersey a self-governing Crown dependency? Are the authorities there obliged to follow the (diktats, oops) policy dictated by England?
October 31, 2021
They had “lost” the record of their license.
We now know the side you are on heffy
October 31, 2021
Ah, the beauty of the deep thinking P2, only able to put people into âLittle Boxesâ (Malvina Reynolds). That must be so satisfying.
And you say you NOW know the side I am on: you are not a quick one, are you?
November 1, 2021
Instead of your usual personal comments, if you have proof the trawler being held by the French is illegal then let us have it heffy.
November 1, 2021
P2, do you have the proof that the trawler had a licence and therefore was in its legal right to be there. I guess the captain must be one of your friends for you to be so sure of what the actual facts are.
November 1, 2021
What a cop out heffy
You come on here and state the trawler was illegally fishing in French waters.
Challenged to prove it you come on and say ..no you prove me wrong.
Hilarious.
October 31, 2021
Is that the Guardian line?
October 31, 2021
@rose; No, but your line is that of the Daily Espresso! đ
October 31, 2021
@Peter2; Why would a UK trawler need a licence if they believed they were within UK waters, either the 12 nmi territorial limit, our EEZ, or out in international waters?…
October 31, 2021
I was writing about the French boats wanting to fish in our coastal waters.
Which is the cause of this current dispute.
Surely you know this Jerry.
Or are you just deliberately being obtuse?
October 31, 2021
@Peter2; So basically you were not replying to @Nottingham Lad Himself…
October 31, 2021
No I was replying you Jerry.
You seem a bit confused on this issue.
October 31, 2021
@Peter2; So not only were you not replying to the point raised by NLH, which was in reply to my comment, your replies to me are without context, the definition of a troll, simply wishing to start a disruptive argument!
Whatever…
October 31, 2021
Ah the troll comment again.
The last refuge of someone who posts aggressively 25 times a day with endless pedantic contrary posts to others.
Pot kettle?
October 31, 2021
@Peter2; “The last refuge of someone who posts aggressively 25 times a day with endless pedantic contrary posts to others.”
Pot kettle indeed, Peter2, claim down, scroll back up (to were I politely asked our host to be more specific), and re read this part of the thread, then apologise, no one else has had trouble understanding what my point was, only you.
November 1, 2021
You are still waffling pedantically Jerry.
The dispute is about licenses.
The French want more boats given licenses to fish in our coastal waters.
PS
You say calm down after yet again calling me a troll for merely posting a different view to you.
November 3, 2021
@Peter2; Do stop trolling, trying to put the cart before the horse will not change any facts. If it is not about fishing areas, be they territorial or EEZ, are you seriously suggesting trawler owners need a licence (not vessel registration) to fish mid Atlantic, 1000 nmi south of Iceland, 1000 nmi west of France!
PS, when the cap fits…
October 31, 2021
It should be seen for what it is, Macron stirring the widespread French envy of England, yes England.
Being beaten, or rescued regularly, is all very humilating so any chance to appear to have the upper hand is seized. Storm in a teacup. Now what was that Conference going to be about?
October 31, 2021
Yes. And one could be right if there was an election in France đ
October 31, 2021
The Northern Ireland and fishing agreements were always going to be a failure from the day they were proposed, because they were not sensible.
Thus I agree JR, Terminate them and make our own arrangements in due course, after making sure we have alternatives, which by the way should have always been planned, even if not already in place, given the lessons of the past.
October 31, 2021
Alan Jutson
Agreed. The second word is off.
Enough is enough.
October 31, 2021
+1
October 31, 2021
The Withdrawal Agreement and Northern Ireland Protocols are legally binding international treaties. You do not âterminateâ them without breaking international law. If you want to renegotiate certain aspects of what you agreed, go back to the EU and ask nicely. The EU currently says no.
October 31, 2021
And that flat, unreasonable, refusal to even consider any renegotiation of what is clearly a bad agreement could go a very long way to justify unilateral abrogation by the UK in the eyes of the wider world, if we had a diplomatic service which wanted to press our case and a Foreign Secretary who knew how to do that. It would not be the first legally binding international treaty to have been unilaterally terminated, and that would only require the UK government to send a letter saying that the UK no longer consents to be bound by it.
October 31, 2021
The agreement is less than two years old. It only came into full effect 10 months ago.
You signed us up to an embarrassingly bad deal. All of the Brexitists voted for it.
Give it a rest. Your non-stop whinging will not change it.
October 31, 2021
Not true. The EU is happy to renegotiate – on condition that there must be no hard border between NI and Ireland. The UK has failed to come up with any plan that ensures that – except the current one, which is the Protocol which the UK Parliament and its voters agreed to, and puts a border between NI and GB. You don’t like it? Tough, you should have thought about that before you voted for Brexit. The good people of NI thought about it, which is why they voted heavily against Brexit
Reply What a lie. We have one up with plans including mutual enforcement which HMG has tabled with the EU
October 31, 2021
So your âplanâ is that the EU should trust the UK. The same UK that refuses to abide by the terms of the deAl it agreed to lessthan 2 years ago. You Brexiters have made very sure the UK will be trusted nowhere
October 31, 2021
The wider world obviously does not include the geriatric Biden who would support Ireland and the EU against the UK every time.
To Andy : Both agreements include provisions to bring them either to an end or a pause. In the case of the Protocol, Article 16 which VDL invoked and had to withdraw. In the case of the agreement on fishing, it has binding independent arbitration written into it.
There is no doubt that the conditions for going for Article 16 have been met and if Macron carries out his threat, the EU as a whole will be in breach of the fishing agreement so we go to arbitration.
Invoking either is not illegal under International law as they are written into it !
October 31, 2021
Once an agreement is signed, whether it be an employment contract, mortgage deed, contract for sale, treaty, or anything else, it becomes binding and enforceable.
There is literally no requirement for one party to consent to renegotiate simply because the other has second thoughts.
In fact they would rightly be a laughing stock if they asked for that, just as the UK is on the world stage right now.
October 31, 2021
Oh Martin, never heard of? – ‘An automatic right to a 14-day cancellation period for a consumer contract formed off-premises or at a distance. When you sell goods, services or digital content then your client or customer has the automatic right to cancel the order within the cancellation period of 14 days.’
November 1, 2021
Wrong. Normally signature of a treaty only signifies the intention to become bound by its terms. It only becomes binding on ratification, the expression of consent to be bound by it.
November 1, 2021
Thanks for the roaring laugh-out-loud moment, Micky.
I didn’t spot anything like that as a codicil on the WA or NIP.
November 1, 2021
Thank you Dennis, if that is what the agreement expressly requires, then yes.
However, upon ratification, then exactly the same position arises as I described.
Some contracts do occasionally expressly include a right to renegotiate periodically, e.g. tenancies as to rent and other matters, but unless you can show otherwise, the WA and NIP did not include such terms.
November 1, 2021
Martin you wrote ‘Once an agreement is signed, whether it be an employment contract, mortgage deed, contract for sale, treaty, or anything else, it becomes binding and enforceable.’
Not so……read what you have written.
October 31, 2021
I think you meant to write ‘non!’ ?
October 31, 2021
‘The EU says no’. Unreasonable. That’s why a get-out was put in. The EU never act honorably and still think they rule us. Time for Boris to grow a pair and get the Brexit we voted for, not the hokey cokey we have now. If in my life something is wrong I change it, what do you do?
October 31, 2021
Interpretation of those treaties is the problem young Andy.
And you know it.
The EU have said they are out to punish us.
Is that something you think is part of an international treaty?
October 31, 2021
Peter 2
this is a French minister not the EU, but you don’t seem to stick to facts.
October 31, 2021
Pedantic nonsense bill.
Have any EU top officials come out and publicly criticised that comment?
Looking forward to your reply.
November 1, 2021
Bill, I think that all that matters here to Peter is that they are both foreign, therefore identical.
November 1, 2021
Your pathetic and weak slur is wrong NHL
A letter was sent from France asking for the UK to be punished for leaving the EU
You seem to welcome that position.
Tell us if you agree.
November 3, 2021
Not true, the French PM Jean Castex reiterated what various people within the EU have been saying since July 2016, namely that UK cannot expect to be better served in its transactions with the EU being outside of it than it was when inside.
The French text is âIl est indispensable de montrer clairement aux opinions publiques europĂ©ennes que le respect de lâengagement souscrit nâest pas nĂ©gociable et quâil y a davantage de dommages a quitter lâUnion EuropĂ©enne quâa y demeurerâ.
Reports by the tabloids about âasking for the UK to be punished for leaving the EUâ are simply fabricated.
But P2, you seem so sure, if you have another version of Castexâs letter to UvdL in French showing that France was asking for the UK to be punished, Iâll read it with attention.
October 31, 2021
Just considering the UK’s international reputation the most important alternative to put in place beforehand would have been an alternative system to protect the EU single market from unacceptable goods crossing the land border into the Irish Republic. But whether there is still time to do that after wasted months and years is doubtful, so we may have to accept that the world will see us as a selfish irresponsible neighbour who does not care what rubbish may find its way across the border. This situation has been almost four years in the making, starting with Theresa May deciding that it would be clever to use the largely invented problem of the Irish land border as a pretext to satisfy the demands of the CBI and other business lobby groups.
October 31, 2021
True !
October 31, 2021
It is about time your fellow MPs and in particular those ministers that speak to the media understand that we have gone past that stage of saying
”I say old chap, that’s not cricket”
and we fired up our dormant power stations, invoked Article 16, and told the world and Macron what was written in the agreement in simple language and how we are and will continue to interpret it.
The carbon from the power stations will be a fraction of that created by the 25,000 delegates winging it to Glasgow this coming week. Also, how about those 85 4 X 4s being flown over from the US just to take one very tired old man around two cities!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
October 31, 2021
85 – 4 x 4’s. That’s the ‘humble’ Biden. He out does Trump in self aggrandisement big time. America must be very proud of him.
October 31, 2021
Biden is not going to ‘do’ green.
October 31, 2021
+10
October 31, 2021
G B
Indeed, 85 No 4×4’s being flown thousands of miles, to travel just a few miles on city roads, and then Politician’s wonder why we treat their ideas, statements, and policies with absolute contempt.
Do we really need 25,000 people to attend a conference to just make and agree a pledge, just think of the carbon footprint for all of these people.
October 31, 2021
We have been remarkably patient with the French, from De Gaulle onwards, tolerating their revolutionary tendencies far to generously with the dismissal that ” Its the French again”. Now is the time to make them aware of the consequences. The blocking of Brie and Renault from our market would do much for Macron’s election chances. There are numerous ways to Europe that do not involve subjecting ourselves or our exports to the French. As to fish and shellfish, sell it to the Spanish, Dutch, Belgians and Germans or more profitably the Japanese. The answer to electricity is self sufficiency. A Rolls Royce modular unit on Alderney would solve the Channel Islands power problems. We also need a December Budget before the negativity of the last one takes hold.
October 31, 2021
+1
November 3, 2021
Ever heard of “the Single Market”, Agricola?
October 31, 2021
This silliness has a whiff of political concoction. I treat all contemporary political events with suspicion and ask myself ‘Who benefits from this’?
The British State and the British political and bureaucratic class has become a vested interest in its own right. I work forward on that assumption.
October 31, 2021
+1 @Dom
Yes, I often wonder if this is just theatre – bouts of angry displays coordinated for our viewing pleasure, to otherwise distract us from something more serious looming or happening behind our backs.
October 31, 2021
The French say that the full compliment of agreed licences have not been issued . I am unable to say who is lying here but Sir John`s mention of the UK`s ridiculous stance on the magic N Ireland Border is anything to go by the Brexit State are moving the goal posts again.
According to polling published by Statista in October 2021. 49 percent of us was wrong to leave the EU, compared with 38 percent who support Brexit. John Curtice commented that there was no sign of any reconciliation between the bitterly opposed sides of the country with remainers increasingly questioning the whole system of governance . It is a sobering though that in an escalating conflict created by Brexit Johnson cannot count on widespread support
October 31, 2021
Why are we still paying huge sums of money to the EU? The French are part of the EU but the EU stand back and let them go against any agreement we may have if it doesnât suit them.Cut off the cash.
October 31, 2021
That is not what is happening, Enrico.
October 31, 2021
The trouble is that Boris has neither the courage nor the patriotism to be “firm”. If he had, he would have been firm at the time of the negotiations. Why, for instance, did he agree that EU fishermen should be allowed to catch so much more fish from Britsh waters than British fishermen are allowed to catch in EU waters?? It’s idiotic to say that this was to allow the previous pattern of fishing to continue, as the whole point of Brexit was to CHANGE the previous arrangements!! Was Boris too stupid to understand this? Or just too cowardly to implement the change?
Demanding equality of fishing catches would have been so clearly fair and reasonable that it would have been an easy case to make, but Boris the traitor failed then and he is failing now. Why is he bleating so pathetically about France’s actions instead of DOING something? He could simply revoke ALL French licences as a penalty for their actions. And then send in the navy to arrest French fishing vessels. But he is too cowardly and pathetic and useless to do this. What an appalling leader we are lumbered with. And what is the ERG doing? Nothing, it seems from press reports.
And then we have Northern Ireland. This problems have been allowed to continue and worsen for months, with the increasingly ludicrous Lord Frost admitting that the conditions for triggering Article 16 have been met (which is obvious, as even the EU do not deny that the pattern of trade has been affected, contrary to the agreement itself) but NOT actually DOING so!!! Just stop your bleating and your empty threats and TRIGGER the damn clause! The UK claims that it is trying to be reasonable and resolve the problems through negotiations, thereby revealing that they are too stupid to understand that the only language the EU understands is FORCE and AGGRESSION. Reasonableness is seen as the WEAKNESS which it is. And that, at heart, is the problem the UK faces: it has a weak, cowardly, stupid leader with no patriotism, no resolve, no backbone and no sense of national pride. So what are you going to do about it?
October 31, 2021
It should only take days to draft new UK laws designed to provide an alternative mechanism to protect the EU Single Market, namely export controls rather than import controls, and publish them for pre-legislative scrutiny. That is if the government really wanted to do that, rather than just pretending to be ready to do it as they said in the Command Paper in July, paragraphs 43 and 62:
âWe also stand ready to bring in new legislation to deter anyone in Northern Ireland looking to export to Ireland goods which do not meet EU standards or to evade these enforcement processes.â
âOnce again we are also ready to put in place legislation to provide for penalties for UK traders seeking to place non-compliant goods on the EU market.â
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/10/01/bottlenecks-and-opportunities/#comment-1264289
âItâs October, another month has gone by … ”
And tomorrow it will be yet another month that has gone by.
I’m rapidly coming to believe that Boris Johnson and Lord Frost have no real intention to do anything at all about it and that the bulk of the Tory MPs will just let them get away with it.
October 31, 2021
And in other news it is alleged that a 10 billion support programme for the NHS to use private hospitals to reduce waiting times is not being used.
As usual a mealy mouthed denial. So who is telling the truth and why isnât the Minister of State driving the NHS hard as opposed to giving in to every âneed more moneyâ whinge.
I think I know the answer but would like to be surprised!
October 31, 2021
Contracting private hospitals to relieve the NHS waiting lists would of course be the sensible thing to do – which is why it won’t be done.
I do wonder why so many people forget that the vast majority of Primary Care is contracted out to private suppliers?
November 1, 2021
Private suppliers who get NHS pensions, which is why they can retire early, leaving us in the mire.
October 31, 2021
Macron has engineered the fishing “crisis” to attract votes from those of the “Gaulist” persuasion – and to deflect attention from British leadership at the COP26 climate emergency meeting. He knows he is going to loose the forthcoming presidential election and fears the traditional prosecution for corruption that is part of losing power in France.
Following their recent humiliation over the Australian submarine contract, the world can see what the French really are – an insignificant country of bourgeois people obsessed with the “grandeur” of the ĂlysĂ©e Palace and led by a petulant political failure intent on scoring points over us.
Sacré bleu! A bas les rosbifs!
October 31, 2021
Your typos checked, Sakara:
Gaulist -> Gaullist
loose -> lose
Sacré -> Sacre
Happy to help!
October 31, 2021
aren’t all pedants?
October 31, 2021
@Bill
Many thanks.
It’s the keyboard on my laptop.
October 31, 2021
SG, your original typing was correct. In French sacré (meaning sacred or holy in English) has an acute accent on the letter e. Without the acute accent sacre in French means Coronation.
October 31, 2021
sacrebleu (in one word) does not have an accent. And this sacrebleu is the soft version of the sacredieu considered blasphemous by some.
Thatâs the equivalent of By God, by Jove, by George, by golly, âŠ
Available from any good web translation tool.
October 31, 2021
Unfortunately, Miami.Mode, you’re wrong. The old-fashioned interjection in French is spelt sacrebleu, as any French dictionary would have told you had you taken the trouble to consult one. The fact that sacrĂ© means ‘holy’ is true but irrelevant.
October 31, 2021
It’s pretty symmetrical, I think, SG.
October 31, 2021
Macron remains the strong favourite to win the election. His most likely opponent, Zemmour, is even more polarising than le Pen. Polling suggests he would win comfortably against either.
October 31, 2021
Macron is no friend to the UK — He deliberately provokes an anti-UK stance to avoid too much focus on his internal policies. He is a cowardly bully, unable to confront the dire situations he has created at home, while bullying the UK who he see as still being subservient to the EU and France.
Now is not the time for the UK to back down, despite the threats of this pathetic president. If we cannot pursue our aims and come out of this stronger, more in control of the situation and with a good conclusion, then we will be seen to be as pathetic as Macron.
October 31, 2021
‘The French arrest of one of our trawlers was unreasonable as it has a licence to fish in French waters. Apparently it was missing from a list.’
If the trawler has a licence, why did it not produce the licence? I carry a driving licence when I drive. If requested to show it, I wouldn’t say: ‘My licence is on a list’.
Nothing in this story is clear.
October 31, 2021
I totally agree with you, but I am afraid I have no confidence in HMG on this matter or any other. We are dealing with a contest between an electioneering French President and our Prime Minister who I am quite sure Mrs Thatcher would have regarded as a ‘Wet’.
October 31, 2021
I had severe disagreements with Mrs. Thatcher over several key matters of principle, but I have an inkling that we might have had very similar views of Alexander Johnson. And I don’t think that “wet” would have been the first word that she used to describe him, somehow.
October 31, 2021
‘I had severe disagreements with Mrs. Thatcher over several key matters of principle,’
Yes- I expect she told you you were talking a load of bollocks?
October 31, 2021
As COP26 kicks off, Halloween weekend wind is generating 13.5 GW or 46% of our electricity demand, under the CfD scheme this is seriously cash-positive for the Treasury. For those of the Pagan persuasion, this has to be a good omen for the future đ
So much wind electricity is being generated today that 5% is being exported through the interconnectors. What a kick in the teeth for the fossil fuel lobby and their huge subsidy regime!
October 31, 2021
It’s a windy day with below average electricity demand.
To give you context for our overall energy use in the UK in 2019 it was a total of 1652 Tw.
I like wind and solar power but it isnt going to produce the overall energy we need.
October 31, 2021
TW are units of power, not of energy.
You need to multiply it by a unit of time to get that. Which do you think should be used?
October 31, 2021
Tell me NHL
You seem very keen.
October 31, 2021
Fine today when the wind is blowing – but think again on a cold crisp winter’s day when there is no wind and we have no fossil back-up!
Meanwhile today, 46% of capacity from wind, despite your excitement, does not cut it!
October 31, 2021
This is why we have inter-connectors to share power.
It isnât always windy here so, when isnât, we can use hydro-electric from Norway.
Or solar power from Southern Europe.
Or geothermal from Iceland.
As batteries develop we also learn to store more power from days when itâs generated so we can use it on days when there are shortfalls.
We also learn to do more with less by making our homes, appliances, and vehicles more efficient.
You all see problems wheee there are none. The biggest problem is all of you. Get on board or get out of the way. You can either help fix the planet or you can stay silent. We are not interested in stuffy old farts who are stuck in the past.
October 31, 2021
Ah, the all-knowing arrogance of youth! ‘Fix the planet’, indeed.
Let’s look at the doom-mongers’ record:
Rising seas to obliterate nations by 2000
Parts of New York under water by 2010
2000: ‘Children aren’t going to know what snow is’
2007: IPCC says a warming of about 0.2 oC per decade is projected. It didn’t happen.
Al Gore 2008: ‘No North Pole ice cap by 2013’.
And so on. And so on.
October 31, 2021
ROFL
October 31, 2021
My advice is to do what I have done and buy a generator.
November 1, 2021
When do you expect your Nobel Prize for Services to Humanity?
– and what will you spend the money on, another bigger Tesla?
October 31, 2021
Sakara Gold :
Whilst it is true that wind is today providing a large percentage of electricity (40% as I write) it is not reliable and there is as yet no grid-scale backup for when the wind does not blow other than by using fossil fuels.
Furthermore we have yet to discover the full cost of becoming the âSaudi Arabia of windâ as the technology and costings to provide non-fossil fuel back do not yet exist.
October 31, 2021
Sakara. My goodness, calm down dear, you are getting too excited. When the wind dies down there will be nothing.
October 31, 2021
FUS – – – When the wind dies down there will be nothing. ???- – – yes there will – – MORE DINGHIES FROM CALAIS.
October 31, 2021
Yes I try to forget them. Nightmare stuff
October 31, 2021
CFDs generate no funds for the Treasury. The cost of CFD payments is simply added to consumer bills.
October 31, 2021
If the French carry out their threat of blockading their ports to UK trade, we should make a claim against the EU for treaty breach.
October 31, 2021
In which court would that claim be heard then, Dave?
October 31, 2021
The ECJ, parbleu.
Please stop laughing on the backbench.
October 31, 2021
It will be interesting to see. On any reading of the agreement France is clearly in breach. So if the EU supports France – and itâs claim that the U.K. must be punished for Brexit – it will demonstrate that the EU was not negotiating in good faith. In such an event both the NI protocol and the fishing agreements can be set aside.
October 31, 2021
As indeed can the unnecessary Withdrawal Agreement I believe and further absurd cash payments towards our alleged commitments. Roll on WTO which the UK and most other countries manage with quite happily.
PS this site appears to have attracted too many remainers and too many British ( if indeed they are British and not fictitious ) who don’t love their own country. Please leave so that others can make positive contributions no matter how small.
October 31, 2021
Regarding the Irish protocol, and the dubious claim that most people in Northern Ireland now support it:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/10/30/bbc-and-opposition-party-think-public-spending/#comment-1272239
I have sent the following letter to the Belfast News Letter:
“Putting aside the unreliability of the LucidTalk opinion poll, it would not be a massive surprise if many people in Northern Ireland had been misled into a favourable view of the Protocol.
After all the previous Brexit minister, Michael Gove, claimed that it offered “the best of both worlds”, and the present Secretary of State Brandon Lewis backed that fallacious analysis.
They are Tories, members of a party which for six decades held the official line that European integration gave huge economic benefits for the UK without any political price to be paid.
The 1950 Schuman Declaration made it clear that the end goal was the legal subjugation of the nation states of Europe in a pan-European federation, but the Tories kept quiet about that.
When Michel Barnier was appointed as the EU’s chief negotiator the UK government could have reminded him of his 2012 report entitled “20 years of the European single market”.
According to that study the EU single market was worth a mere 2% of GDP averaged across the member states. Moreover another study showed that the gain was only 1% for the UK.
A paltry 1% of GDP benefit to Northern Ireland from seamless trade with the EU could easily be counteracted by disruption of trade with the rest of the UK once grace periods end.
Northern Ireland has been kept under EU economic rule purely to protect the EU single market, by making sure that all goods produced in the province comply with EU requirements.
Unlike EU checks on imported goods, checks on goods exported to the Republic would catch any non-compliant goods produced internally as well as any brought in from outside.
Indeed the present system could be regarded as a form of foolish displacement activity, applying almost entirely unnecessary EU checks and controls to the wrong flow of goods.”
References:
December 8 2020: video of Michael Gove explaining that Northern Ireland would get “the best of both worlds”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jxViSQRL08
When asked why the rest of the UK could not also enjoy that benefit he brazenly waffled his way out of trouble.
January 21 2021: video of Brandon Lewis on BBC Question Time, repeating the same untruth, from 43:35 on:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000rj6c/question-time-2021-21012021
“Northern Ireland has this unique competitive advantage”, etc.
https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/symbols/europe-day_en
“… in 1950, Robert Schuman … set out his idea for a new form of political cooperation in Europe … His vision was to create a European institution that would pool and manage coal and steel production …Schuman’s proposal is considered to be the beginning of what is now the European Union.”
https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/symbols/europe-day/schuman-declaration_en
“setting up of common foundations for economic development as a first step in the federation of Europe”
“this proposal will lead to the realization of the first concrete foundation of a European federation”.
https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/c505dbb4-64f1-40a6-8062-ebdea6240bd4
Michel Barnier’s report, “20 years of the European single market”.
On page 13:
âEU27 GDP in 2008 was 2.13% or âŹ233 billion higher than it would have been if the Single Market had not been launched in 1992.â
But then in the table on the front page of this 2014 study from the Bertelsmann Foundation:
https://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/fileadmin/files/BSt/Publikationen/GrauePublikationen/Policy-Brief-Binnenmarkt-en_NW_02_2014.pdf
the gross benefit for the UK was estimated to be about half of that EU average, while Figure 3 showed the UK to be the country which had benefited least from European integration.
October 31, 2021
Yes Denis and whose fault is that? – not the fault of the EU – it is the fault of successive Uk governments and their represenratives both political and civil that wrre sent to negotiate and represent us over the decades – all sitting at the same top table in tge EU but unable to perform, unable to network with others, unable to bring influence to bear, so you see when working in the big leagues there was a lot of failure all round and then of course the farmers and industry back home took the easy route and allowed CAP and the rest of it made them all very lazy – so no point in blaming the Europeans it probably all started from home after the war when foreigners were encouraged in to build the motorways and housing in the 1950’s drive the buses etc the English being too high and mighty to get their hands dirty
November 1, 2021
Read the sentence starting:
“They are Tories, members of a party which for six decades …”
October 31, 2021
The only thing that will get Boris to see the light of day is to warm up Nigel and the Spartans.
Boris and Frost have had their opportunity to negotiate and failed: so its time for action not words.
October 31, 2021
Major frustration. The aims of reform, time, etc are weak if they canât all work together then what is the point of voting for them and so their action is pointless and this Conservative government gets away with anti-conservative actions like:
I.e. putting up National insurance on employers to 15.5% over the lel. Then add 3% nest so an 18.5% employers tax.
Suggesting prescription charges are paid by the over 60âs in England when the other devolved regions donât pay for prescriptions at all even working age people.
Putting up council taxes in England then allowing these councils to cut the services we are told they pay for.
Putting up all taxes to a 70 year high. No incentive, i.e. if we get x tax take by February 2022 we wonât put the increases in from April. Itâs all stick and no carrot and theyâre wearing Labours clothes whilst they do it. The next Labour government that gets in after Boris screws up, will just overturn everything else that has been left like Inheritance tax to capture everything the boomers achieved in the big developing free enterprise era.
Just what conservative action with a majority of 80 have they put through to benefit the British public that the socialists wouldnât have?
The English need an English party. A strong Sturgeon like demanding opportunist. People in the North think Andy Burnham is the answer they really think weâre in the Game of Thrones. Theyâre giving away everything. Sturgeonâs banging the drum for Scottish tele taxes to go direct to a Scottish only BBC today she thinks she won the Independence vote and the Tories just roll over.
October 31, 2021
Should be more like ‘Time to grow up’ – we negotiated all of these terms with eyes wide open , and if we now renege? well consider this – we are already in a deep hole, for instance JIT for imports exports has gone, goods arrive late now or ‘whenever’, it’s hardly a recipe for good commercial progress and if we are now pushed to using the container ports like felixstowe instead of the channel ports to France everything will jam up even more especially now that there is such a shortage of lorry drivers – so time to grow up and get real.
November 1, 2021
Blazes they’ve allowed all the EU drivers coming in with imports (far more than we export) to now cabotage around the UK for more than 2 trips. No one will train up Brits at great expense when they can get cheap backloads.
We weren’t short of tanker drivers long term it was a brief shortfall due to holidays and people only just coming back from furlough.
We have three new freeports coming on line in November on the East coast. If Felixstowe don’t compete they will take their business.
October 31, 2021
The French have the Worlds largest EEZ. History has shown they have systematically destroyed their own fishing zones so not unusually want more of someone else’s. Not forgetting we are not just talking of fishing in the UK EEZ, but fishing in UK territorial waters (6-12 miles).
The bit that is also out of kilter is they want rights for those that have never fished in UK waters while at the same time refusing imports of UK fish. Why should they accept UK imports into France when with blackmail they can just steal it.
In the same light the ownership of UK fishing rights by EU Boats because they bought up EU quotas previously owned by UK boats. We should no longer be part of the EU , therefore the EU doesn’t get to grant ‘quotas’ in UK waters.
All fish caught in UK waters should be landed at UK ports.
Will anything change – of course not we have a PM that doesn’t give a ‘fig’ about the UK and is playing around as an insignificant player on the World Stage pushing his evangelical religion.
October 31, 2021
@Nota# Why do the UK people have to pay with livelihoods, taxes etc just so this PM’s religion can be his calling card on the World Stage. The UK is not working at any stage in harmony with World concerns of climate change with other nations, but UK has a Government seeking to sacrifice a whole generation for the sake of a newly invented religion. As a mere 1% contributor of the climate change situation, it would be more palatable if the UK was to just keep pace with competitor nations – but the it wouldn’t be the PM’s religion it has become.
October 31, 2021
“Meat taxes will make British farmers go greener, says George Eustice “
A country were the majority live in poverty – now has to be starved! This is how the PM’s religion is panning out.
We cant have out fish, so lets get rid of meat. Lets starve vegetation of CO2, so that of the menu also. Involuntary euthanasia to reduce the population count so the World can see the PM as champion of global warming reduction – if any other nation is going to follow him, as if the people of any other nation would allow leaders with that sort of stupid religion continue. Its as if those in this Government were sat down to watch ‘Logan’s Run’, then read 1984, then set out to follow the teachings to form their new religion.
October 31, 2021
We are to be the new, Kulaks.
October 31, 2021
He seems intent on destroying the agricultural sector and rewilding it.
Not Conservative. More XR.
October 31, 2021
Vote Tory, get Tory rule.
Seems predictable enough to me.
October 31, 2021
Seemed popular to the point of an 80 seat majority and the opposition’s worst result since 1935.
November 1, 2021
P2, isnât it great to see what the PM (I guess you have chosen) is doing with his 80 seat majority? And that with a completely silent opposition. You must be pleased like the cat that got the cream, mustnât you?
November 1, 2021
Yes whilst I have some criticisms of my government it is a light year away in competence from what would have happened had Labour got into power.
October 31, 2021
This article from Friday is worth reading, especially the second part of the first sentence:
https://www.politico.eu/article/france-requests-tougher-eu-action-over-uk-fishing-row-in-private-letter/
“France has privately requested that the European Union steps up its opposition to British actions in the ongoing fishing row, telling Brussels it should demonstrate to the public that it is more damaging to leave the EU than to stay.”
October 31, 2021
If it were private then how does this American site know of it?
November 1, 2021
Don’t you know that things get leaked?
November 1, 2021
A secret? like what ever happened to our correspondent in Cardiff?
October 31, 2021
Cop26 opening speeches DOOM & GLOOM, DOOM & GLOOM and DOOM & GLOOM
October 31, 2021
And the answer to said DOOM & GLOOM is to do what they want. Which is DOOM & GLOOM. Great choice – NOT !
If things really are that bad then who is to blame ? I’d say they are.
October 31, 2021
yep – we will all die of heat exhaustion, hyperthermia, or drowning…
The lucky ones might be hit by a stray iceberg or volcano erupting.
October 31, 2021
Micky, or a falling wind turbine.
October 31, 2021
GLEN – – yes – – DOOM & GLOOM – – for us – – NOT FOR BJ AND PALS — – – absolutely NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO intention of that.
October 31, 2021
Well. If unilateralism works by example (as our PM seems to think it will) I want to see the Greenists among us starting their Extinction Rebellion from home.
Hair shirt time, Andy.
A Tesla on your drive really doesn’t convince anyone that you’re pulling your weight and suffering anything like ordinary people will be.
November 1, 2021
But Andy always walks to the station, his kids walk to school, house thermostat turned down, they wear thick woolly garments, doesn’t ever use a cooker because they are vegan so no need to heat anything.
Plant 1,000 trees as penance every time they visit his French estate.
October 31, 2021
The fact that the French PM has sent a letter to VdL asking for the EU to punish the UK for leaving is not really news as the then French President Hollande in October 2016 said about Brexit :
âThere must be a threat, there must be a risk, there must be a price, otherwise we will be in negotiations that will not end well and, inevitably, will have economic and human consequences.â
And from the last 2 millennia of history the French attitude towards us should not be a surprise.
Unfortunately because we have a fifth column in Parliament and the civil service who wish us to remain under the control of the EU and France we have taken absolutely no measures to protect ourselves against French and EU threats.
In the case of energy and fishing we should have taken steps to ensure we are self-sufficient.
So we should ensure we do not need any energy supplies from the EU and we should be implementing our own fish and shellfish processing plants.
But I canât see this happening with our current Government.
October 31, 2021
Thanks for that reminder.
October 31, 2021
There seems to be some amusement on the Continent at the expense of the British just now, but I don’t see anything resembling the comment threads like these, packed with venom and hatred by nationalists directed at the British, as they are at the French here, in the DM, Express, etc.
October 31, 2021
The amusement is at our passivity.
The venom and hatred are coming at us, not from us. Pour encourager les autres, as President Hollande and Martin Selmayr made clear, right at the beginning.
November 1, 2021
You can’t reasonably be anything other than passive, when an organisation that you have left conducts itself towards you as if you have left, and in strict accordance with a treaty that you have freely and willingly signed, as to what the relationship will be from then on, Rose.
Can you?
It is rather the fact of all the hyperventilation about exactly that, which causes the understandable mirth.
November 1, 2021
‘There seems to be some amusement on the Continent ‘ – – Evidence Martin, evidence?
October 31, 2021
ORIGINAL RICHARD- – Our current govt??? – – you mean the EU?
October 31, 2021
Maggie would have sorted the French out by now. Johnson is weak and will let the French walk all over us just as he has with the EU over NI. The thought of this buffoon in no. 10 for at least two more years is enough to make one think about emigrating.
October 31, 2021
Mrs. T remains the only PM to go to the EEC (pre-EU) and get successfully renegotiate our terms with them. The so called ‘rebate’. All the others, from Major to the current incumbent have been nothing but a poor shadow and an embarrassment.
October 31, 2021
But they got her in the end, alas.
October 31, 2021
Just before Maastricht arrived. They couldn’t risk her kicking up about that, could they?
October 31, 2021
Sir John,
Rereading Charles de Gaulle’s speeches of the 1960s when he absolutely refused to let the UK join the “six” it seems his analysis was right. In fact the Aukus deal would prove his point perfectly! Perfidious Albion.
Macron is very much in the same mold, as any democratic leader hoping for votes would be.
October 31, 2021
Peter
As someone else said, De Gaulle did not want the UK to join until the CAP was finished. He knew that the UK in the EEC would not be the EEC that would benefit France and more like EFTA which the UK set up to rival the EEC.
November 2, 2021
You must remember that the news agendas in France and in the UK are not at all symmetrical.
That is because the French people and businesses are not experiencing anything like the problems that those here are, and their politicians do not have a long list of brexit-related troubles either. They have other, far higher priorities.
This stuff comes a long way down the billings, if it gets featured at all.
October 31, 2021
What we need to do and what the cowardly CON in No.10 will do are very, very different.
For a start, we need to protect the Channel Islands from French aggression ….. whether energy-related or blockades of their ports.
And what we should also start doing is immediately returning the illegal migrants which are invading our shores from France and dumping them on the French beaches they left from.
October 31, 2021
This diary is in danger of being taken over by NLH who seems to have rather too much to say for himself
October 31, 2021
The price of free speech.
October 31, 2021
He needs his own blog.
October 31, 2021
just like before…
October 31, 2021
Yes, Cardiff must be missing him.
October 31, 2021
Yes!
Do a lot more import substitution in the Channel Islands and at home !
October 31, 2021
I think we should be considering not building an EPR at Sizewell, opting for a cheaper proven alternative. We should also consider not investing in any further interconnectors to France, as they are proving to be a strategic risk. We will of course need other dispatchable capacity.
Somebody needs to explain to Mr Kwarteng that, contrary to the assumptions of the CCC, the wind doesn’t blow almost all the time, nor is it cheap, as windfarm company accounts reveal, and nor can we economically handle surplus production in quantity – it will have to be curtailed, forcing up the cost of useful output. Wind is NOT the solution. We will need gas, and nuclear when we can get it built. We should produce as much of our own gas as we can, and encourage Norway to keep supplying us to minimise the amount of LNG we import.
October 31, 2021
Mark. Not only does the wind NOT blow 24/7, sometimes it blows……..too hard..I would be suprised if any wind farms in Wales abd the borders were operating today. There’s too much wind and the turbines would get damaged.
November 1, 2021
Cumbria this morning?
October 31, 2021
JR- Surely you know who runs the “system” in the UK, you have been an MP for 34 years. The UK government will do what the Globalist UK Establishment want. However the times they are a changing………
October 31, 2021
I’ve just sent a short letter to our local newspaper:
“According to Article 8.1 of its founding Treaty on European Union, the EU:
“shall develop a special relationship with neighbouring countries, aiming to establish an area of prosperity and good neighbourliness”.
But there have long been suspicions that EU leaders did not intend to keep to the spirit of that article in their dealings with the UK.
Suspicions fuelled by a statement from the French President Francois Hollande in October 2016, four months after the referendum:
âThere must be a threat, there must be a risk, there must be a price”
to deter any other member states from following the UK out of the EU.
Now confirmed by French Prime Minister Jean Castex writing to EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen that it is:
âindispensable to show European public opinion that ⊠it causes more damage to leave the EU than to stay inâ.
It is hard to see how either “prosperity” or “good neighbourliness” will be improved with that sort of attitude on the part of the EU.”
November 1, 2021
Was it in green ink by any chance, Dennis?
October 31, 2021
Sir JR,
The French conduct and threats have been and are unresonable ans should cease.
Using words like unresonable conduct and illegal, is once again the emotional words that you commonly use in describing the EU.
We in the UK through Lord Frost have used words and threats, which should have been avoided. Proposing to walk away from a deal which is still being negotiated and is based on our own ideas as we left the EU, without a real plan on how to go forward, just shows we have an immature and not particularly well qualified government. Walking away from the intial deal as proposed will just make us even less credible internationally.
October 31, 2021
Translates to…lets all be friends.
I reckon I can go with that bill.
Can you ask them to give our trawler back?
October 31, 2021
There is alot of rhetoric about this, what is missing from EITHER side are the real FACTS, like the process/procedures used to assess and determine the outcome of the licences in question. The inputs/outputs should be deterministic for licences and not open to interpretation, such that anyone can work out the result…. then neither party would have a gripe/complaint against the other, never mind the petulant Monsieur M. Where is the use of the cooling off period and arbitration panel promised in the TCA?
Why is the EU not holding firm on such rule of law matters? Utter shambles from start to finish.
On a separate and imho far MORE important matter I read in Bloomberg tonight this, which is I feel as equally as strategic as getting the UK vaccines sorted early on, which is GREEN HYDROGEN. A HEARTY CONGRATULATIONS to JCB and Fortescue for the below, now lets see this Government provide the framework and legislative support for green hydrogen to be the fuel for high intensity energy users and maybe lots more! AUKUS and our Aussie trade deal is working well methinks!
———————————–
Australiaâs Fortescue Future Industries will become the biggest supplier of green hydrogen to the U.K. after signing a deal with construction equipment company JC Bamford Excavators Ltd. and distributor Ryze Hydrogen.
The deal, signed on the eve of the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland, unites two of the industrial worldâs highest-profile billionaires, JCB founder and chairman Anthony Bamford and Australiaâs Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. founder Andrew Forrest. Jo Bamford, Anthonyâs son, is chairman of Ryze.
————————————–
October 31, 2021
History teaches us that unfair treaties or agreements between nations do not last.
In the case of fishing the EUâs CFP was so outrageously unfair to the UK that in the 4 years prior to the referendum the EU caught 760K tons/year in UK waters whilst the UK caught just 90K tons/year in EU waters.
And this is one of the many such unfair asymmetric conditions of UK membership and one of the reasons the UK wanted to leave the EU.
The fact that the French are threatening to cut off electricity supplies to Jersey and the UK, cause havoc with goods crossing the Channel and stop UK fishing boats landing their cargos (destined for French processing plants!) for a few disputed fishing licences just shows how greedy and unfriendly are the French.
The NIP is also grossly unfair to the people of N.I. caused as a result of the UKâs fifth column acting against the best interests of the UK together with the EUâs greed and wish to punish the UK and consequently it too will not last.
If our Government is unwilling to put in measures to prevent such EU threats having any force in the future then Iâm certain the electorate will be looking for a government that will.
November 1, 2021
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld ….
The eu is probing for weakness in post-Brexit England here, & it appears to be finding it.
November 1, 2021
I see the “judge” in the Paterson case read sociology at North London and women’s studies at Loughborough. Just what are needed to train the mind for meting out justice.
November 1, 2021
Thank you, Sir John. You are the only Conservative I know who openly calls for ditching the Withdrawal Agreement. Not forgetting that the financial settlement in the WA was verbally said at the time by the EU to be the key to a financial services equivalence deal, which they promised would be agreed by June 2020. Guess what? We’re still paying the money, and there has been no financial services deal…. Would the French carry on paying if this was done to them?
November 2, 2021
John can call for all manner of unworkable and impractical things to keep the lunatic fringe of the Right voting Tory, rather than for some even more fruitcake bunch led by the likes of Farage.
He knows that he will be excused on that basis, and with a majority of eighty the Government will do as it likes anyway.
It was different when there was a hung Parliament, I seem to recall.
November 2, 2021
I wonder does the UK Government realise that while it is being reasonable and patient time is very much not on its side. Businesses have to carry on in the circumstances in which they operate. They haven’t the resources or time to play politics so they will shift trade north south away from east-west if that suits commercial reality. It will soon be more disruptive for politicians to switch trade back to E-W than to leave it N-S, ie UK will lose Northern Ireland to the EU and Irish nationalists. As things are, the EU need do nothing but wait. Its victory is assured in due course.
November 3, 2021
Today 3/11 we get the facts in a ministerial reply in the DT “Britain has granted 96 per cent of fishing licences requested by French boats this year, according to official UK data that contradicts Paris’s claims about outstanding permits.
The UK government figures released on Wednesday serve as a direct riposte to France alleging that it is missing âalmost 50 per centâ of the licences to which its fishermen have a right under the UKâs future relationship pact with the EU.”
So Mr Macrony time you apologised to Perfidious Albion and got back in your box…. take your tablets -dispensed from Granny and realised you’re not going get re-elected now, having made yourself look a complete prat. I have a french neighbour and she says most of France wants you gone, my michievious idea to arrest you in Glasgow (do I need a reason) and drop you into St Helena to chill for several years, like one of your predecessors…. you know the one.
November 7, 2021
I agree. We need to ditch these terrible agreements now that the remoaner Parliament is out of the way.
Taking it steadily while warning the world so that we are seen to be the sensible people is a good approach by Frost. ALso, removing the role of the ECJ is possibly a clever objective – the EU are almost certain not to give up on that, so it makes it likely that we will be able to trigger A16 and at worst ditch the protocol in 2024 (if the NIA is actually sitting then!).