Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP (Wokingham) (Con): I welcome the emphasis on personal journeys and improvement of free enterprise. Freeports can make a great contribution to that, so will the Government bring forward a freeport for Northern Ireland to show that it is properly part of the United Kingdom and, with it, to see off the EU threat to our Union?
Michael Gove (Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Minister for Intergovernmental Relations): My right hon. Friend makes an important point. The Government are committed to ensuring that we have two additional freeports in Scotland, at least one in Wales and one in Northern Ireland, and announcements on those should be forthcoming shortly.
February 3, 2022
Good grief, an answer at last from a Minister to a question.
Let us hope we do not have to wait too long for the details.
February 3, 2022
In the US they call them”fly over” country (meaning all the states between the costal states).
The solution in the US is the same as the solution in the UK – STOP OUTSOURCING jobs and STOP MASS IMMIGRATION of unnecessary labour – both to increase the profits of large corporates looking for cheap labour resulting in suppressing British wages and increasing taxes.
This corporatist policy was never put to the population except in the Brexit referendum when it was rejected. The lesson from Canada is that the people will eventually “revolt”.
February 3, 2022
Good morning – again.
And what of England ?
I see today that the DUP have forced the issue regarding the NIP and trade between NI and the rest of the UK. I believe that they have done so after taking legal advice. It seems that the ball is now in the UK Government’s court. It either has to defend it or, back the EU. If the former, then Johnson will not be getting his mythical trade deal with the EU, a carrot they have been dangling in from of this half witted mule much to their merriment. If the latter, then he really is toast !
Reply England’s 8 freeport already announced.
February 3, 2022
I’ve just seen Boris Johnson on Sky News saying this:
https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/technology/1908751-uk-pm-johnson-need-to-ditch-crazy-checks-on-gb-ni-trade
“What we’ve got to do is get to a sensible solution that recognises that it’s crazy to have checks on goods that are basically circulating within the single market of the United Kingdom”
If he really believes that then the answer is obvious: only check goods that are leaving the single market of the United Kingdom, and in particular if they are heading for the EU’s Single Market. In other words, stop the EU mandated checks and controls on goods being imported into Northern Ireland, and also stop the EU mandated checks and controls on producers within Northern Ireland:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/02/02/an-electric-revolution-needs-electricity/#comment-1296911
and replace them with export checks and controls – in particular, just checks and controls on the trickle of goods heading out of Northern Ireland across the land border into the Irish Republic.
Which is more or less what I said in this letter published in the Irish Times on September 21 2018:
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/brexit-time-to-mind-our-own-business-1.3636142
“Brexit – time to mind our own business?”
“I was amused to read about “perfidious Albion” (Opinion & Analysis, September 20th), when we have the Irish Government scheming to keep a part of the United Kingdom under EU economic control, ostensibly to act as a kind of buffer zone to protect the Irish market and the wider EU Single Market from unwanted goods such as US-style “chlorinated chicken”.
Perhaps you will permit me, an ordinary British citizen, to bluntly tell your readers what my persistently pro-EU and mealy-mouthed government is still reluctant to say: that once the United Kingdom has left the EU it will be none of the EU’s business what goods are permitted in Northern Ireland, or any other part of the United Kingdom and its internal market.
The legitimate interests of the EU and its Irish satrapy do not extend beyond the nature of the goods circulating in its own EU Single Market, and it is gross impudence on the part of the EU to presume that it should be able to continue to control goods permitted in the United Kingdom once we have freed ourselves from the EU, any more than the EU can expect to control goods permitted in the United States or other “third countries”.”
February 3, 2022
Connected to the above:
https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2022/02/03/news/hauliers-representative-urges-clarity-over-port-checks-2579092/
“Mr Leheny said around 85% of movements do not require any checks, 12% need just paperwork checked and 3% require a physical inspection.
He said moving checks to the Irish border would be a “massive problem” with 12,000 goods vehicles crossing the border every day.”
Well, to start with it’s not clear from that whether the 12,000 are just those moving from north to south or in both directions, but to take the worst case suppose that it is the just the flow into the Irish Republic which needs to be kept free from goods which do not meet EU requirements.
As he says that 85% do not need any checks that cuts the number which need some kind of checks to 1800, and if it was made possible for paperwork to be checked electronically or remotely that could further cut the number, possibly cutting it down towards the 3% or 360 which need physical checks.
Those checks need not be done at the border itself – the Republic intends to check shipments of solid fuel at sites spread across local council areas, it does not intend to intercept them at the border:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/11/18/the-right-kind-of-greenery-my-article-from-conservative-home/#comment-1277070
and it would not seem to be an impossible task to check 360 trucks a day at a number of sites set well back from the border, as was proposed by Boris Johnson until he was shouted down by Irish politicians:
https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/0930/1079268-reaction-non-paper/
“Politicians have condemned the UK “non-paper” which has proposed the creation of a string of customs posts along both sides of the Irish border as part of its effort to replace the backstop.”
February 4, 2022
12000 goods vehicles per day going from Northern Ireland into Southern Ireland? Who said there were this many? I wonder how many goods vehicles go from the UK per day into Northern Ireland 500 – 1000?
February 5, 2022
Thanks for that sensible comment, it makes a nice change from some of the responses.
I too thought that it seemed a lot but noted that he referred to “goods vehicles” which could come in a variety of sizes.
I tracked back to this June 2018 report from the pro-EU group “UK in a Changing Europe”, with the same Seamus Leheny of UK Logistics as the author:
https://ukandeu.ac.uk/making-northern-ireland-a-bridge-between-the-uk-and-the-eu/
“Making Northern Ireland a bridge between the UK and the EU”
He wrote:
“Commercial goods vehicle traffic across the Irish border was estimated at 4,677,772 vehicle movements for the year 2016, according to analysis of TII data by Irish Revenue & Customs This works out at a staggering 12,788 commercial vehicle movements daily across the border.”
He then calculated, along the same lines as I did:
“Even if customs checks were to be imposed on cross border traffic at the minimum 1% level, then, we would see around 128 physical inspections of goods vehicles daily. The impact of such checks would be additional costs for transport operators, delays and missed schedules.”
128 physical inspections a day distributed across a number of sites some way back from a 300 mile long land border does not seem too much of a practical problem, but then there is the political problem of the absurd ‘firm position’ of the Irish government:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/01/22/the-battles-over-gas/#comment-1294274
“any checks or controls anywhere on the island would constitute a hard border”.
Anyway I looked further and found the 2017 report from the Irish Revenue:
https://www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/documents/research/ireland-uk-tax-and-customs-links.pdf
“Ireland and the UK –Tax and Customs Links”
and on page 7 it states:
“For the twelve national roads crossing the border, in 2016 there are over 14 million
vehicles entering Ireland from NI: 1 million crossings by HGVs or 2,700 on average per
day; 1.3 million by LGVs or 3,600 per day; and 12 million by cars or 32,900 per day.”
while on the next page Table 3 adds up all the commercial vehicle crossings in both directions in 2016 and the total comes to the 4,677,772 that Leheny quotes.
I think it is worth mentioning here that these detailed statistics on vehicles crossing the Irish land border in both directions were collected and published without any great problem, and certainly without provoking any renewal of terrorist activity or disruption to the peace process, before November 24 2017 when the Republic’s Europe Minister Helen McEntee came out with her famous prohibition:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/01/28/smoothing-trade/#comment-1295575
“We have been very very clear from day one, there cannot be a physical border and that means ruling out cameras, that means ruling out technology, that means ruling out anything that would imply a border on the island of Ireland, it is not an option for us”.
As for the other question you ask, I have found this:
https://www.thenational.scot/news/18991044.brexit-significant-problems-gb-exports-northern-ireland/
“”SIGNIFICANT problems” are unfolding on the Irish Sea trade border over exports from the rest of the UK as firms struggle to meet new rules, MPs have been told.
As many as 1000 vehicles cross over each day during January.”
February 3, 2022
Denis, you really are very confused. There are no EU mandated checks and controls on goods being imported into Northern Ireland. Moreover there are no EU mandated checks and controls on producers within Northern Ireland. All the checks on goods and producers in Northern Ireland are the result of the agreement between the EU and the UK that this is exactly what will happen after Brexit. It’s all there in the Withdrawal Agreement, otherwise known as the oven ready deal. You should read it, my friend! So now that the United Kingdom has left the EU it is the EU’s business what goods are permitted in Northern Ireland – but only because the UK, through Mr Johnson and Mr Frost, freely agreed to that, and had it approved by the voters at the 2019 General Election
February 3, 2022
If ever there was a pedantic response then yours Gary is it.
There are checks on goods entering NI from Britain.
February 4, 2022
Yes of course there are Peter. And there are such checks because you Brexiters agreed to accept them in order to get Brexit done, and Boris was voted into power promising the oven ready deal whih had checks on goods going from Britain to NI as its centrepiece. All I ask is that you Brexiters face up to what you have done – a very very bad Brexit which harms the UK – instead of trying to blame the EU or Remoaners
February 4, 2022
You said there weren’t checks now when challenged you say of course there are checks.
The only requirement for checks is on those goods travelling into the Republic of Ireland.
The pedantic way the EU have interpreted the deal on NI is the problem.
EG
Why are supermarkets vehicles travelling to their own stores stopped and inspected when it is obvious they are not going to the south.
PS
Have you any examples of breaches of the single market by non compliant goods being smuggled into the south across the border?
February 4, 2022
The UK agreeing to EU mandated checks does not stop them being EU mandated checks.
There are other checks which are not EU mandated, which is why Edwin Poots said in his statement:
https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2022/02/02/news/edwin-poots-orders-end-of-irish-sea-border-checks-at-midnight-2578072/
“I have now issued a formal instruction to my permanent secretary to halt all checks that were not in place on December 31 2020 from midnight tonight.”
February 4, 2022
And as you will have seen Mr Poots has today been found to have broken the law. There have to be checks. And to Peter2, who sadly hasn’t read the Protocol, no the only requirement for checks is NOT on those goods travelling into the Republic of Ireland. The Protocol makes clear that all goods going from GB to NI have to be checked, wherever they are headed for. This is because NI applies EU law not Uk law. Don’t like it? Well, it’s what the oven ready deal says, so if you don’t like it, take it up with the Conservative Party, which won an election by promising to sacrifice NI in this way
February 4, 2022
Sadly Gary I have read the protocol.
It talks about risk
What risk is there when a supermarket lorry is delivering goods to a subsidiary in NI from its HQ in England??
February 5, 2022
Gary, that awaits a full hearing on March 7.
https://www.politico.eu/article/belfast-court-blocks-dup-bid-to-stop-brexit-checks-at-northern-irish-ports/
You might at least try to stick to the truth.
February 3, 2022
Perhaps this is a “death-bed” conversion back to what Johnson originally said-papers could be torn up, no checks. The interregnum period has been filled with rubbish in so many damaging ways. Perhaps this pressure needs to continue for a couple more months yet, a letter a day keeps the socialist away.
February 3, 2022
I think voters have got tired of this “just talk and promises” Government.
February 3, 2022
Indeed a very foolish Government. Over £1.25 million a day to house illegal immigrants. No action or deportations, why not? All talk from Priti Useless and watering down her previous rhetoric to allow them jobs etc instead of removal.
Only providing 80% of our electricity needs = blackmail from the French and no national security in the near future because of their climate change religion. Banning our boilers and ice cars.
Taxes at there highest since the second world war and rising fast.
Inflation up to 7% and rising at the fastest rate in 30 years.
Northern Ireland protocol still not sorted and fishing being used as blackmail in our electricity supply. Madness.
A Tory vote is for what exactly?
February 3, 2022
Not just blackmail from the French but surly recalcitrance from “Border Force” and attempts to sack the HS from within the HO.
February 3, 2022
Perhaps Johnson’s starting to realise. Or perhaps not.
February 3, 2022
Agreed, more should be done to cement the bond between Northern Ireland and all in the mainland.
By the way, my compliments to Edwin Poots for his correct move to shun EU bullying.
February 3, 2022
+1
February 4, 2022
cement is incredibly expensive to make in raw materials and energy required to be successful- just like the bond with N.Ireland.
February 3, 2022
Well said Sir John.
Why are you not in the cabinet
February 3, 2022
Only yes-men are invited to the cabinet. Sir John has intelligence, logic, and the ability to think for himself and therefore does not tick the right boxes!
February 3, 2022
Shame then that govt. always sees fit to stifle businesses with (still?) EU red tape.
No doubt they look upon any new enterprise as a potential Mitch cow to be milked to death.
Shame also about the missing £££££££££s from the plague fest!
February 3, 2022
Freeports are as far as we need to go. The real key to Levelling Up is getting manufacturing and service industries to set up in Freeports. Then follow up with housing and infrastructure to support industry and the people in it.
Do not do it the other way round or you might end up with a Spanish airport I once visited ,in the middle of nowhere with no airlines. It was a lovely airport but only useful if others were forced to close in an emergency.
February 3, 2022
Good morning.
You have a bit more than 2 years to earn the electorate’s extension of your party’s place in government. Bunter’s promises are worthless; you need tangible action that improves our lives before 2024. That means reducing taxes and removing impediments to free enterprise.
I will not remember Bunter’s promises, I will know if I, and the Country, is better off.
February 3, 2022
SOCIALISM. FACT
Give private people their money back by cutting taxes rather than keeping such funding under the control of the Tory-Labour authoritarian State
Betrayed, hung out to dry and Labour and their unions are delirious
Clueless and utterly without principle
Thatcher’s looking down and weeping
February 3, 2022
Indeed, now the money roundabout to give people money back on their council tax bills and power bills. Gordon “Rishi” Brown all over again. Confuse and complicate.
February 3, 2022
With all thats going on in the backroom they have got to do something and quick. Push has gone to shove and words are no longer good enough.
The public are demanding action, action, and more action. There are no hiding places anymore. Ministers will and must be held responsible and accountable.
P
February 3, 2022
When the bills start arriving people will get angry with the ecoloons in Government who are directly responsible for their energy/tax policies and green subsidies that don’t work when the wind doesn’t blow or the Sun doesn’t shine. Too many PPE’s and History scholars in Westminster. A lot of villages are missing their idiots.
February 3, 2022
+1
February 3, 2022
All that’s going on in the background?
The Tory press don’t cover it, but there were 534 covid-related deaths yesterday.
That’s getting on for 200,000 a year at that rate.
Over this is not.
February 3, 2022
With or from?
Any without pre existing conditions?
Age groups?
Do we know?
Context, over 500,000 people die each year
So close to 1500 a day.
February 3, 2022
Oh dear Sir John, have you just stolen his thunder ( a slight tremor in the force)?
February 3, 2022
What use are freeports going to be, for improving matters for those desperately trying to export to the European Union?
There are typically seven hour waits for lorry drivers on the A20 now, and sheaves of paperwork to be completed.
Sir John laments our trade deficit. However, it is only going to get worse, as the victims of his brexit one by one give up the uneven struggle against the problems which he and his like-minded have created.
February 3, 2022
Things Brexitists have money for:
– Half a billion to buy a failed satellite company
– Thirty seven billion for failed Tory test and trace
– Tens of billions for Covid contracts for mates
Things Brexitists do not have money for:
– £20 a week for the poorest families
– Proper help with rising Brexit energy prices.
February 3, 2022
Andy,
The current Government may have been elected with an 80 seat majority “to get Brexit done”.
But it’s not in control, if it ever was, as evidenced by the Net Zero lunacy, massive legal and illegal immigration and bowing to the EU over N.I and fishing.
We’re still being ruled by pro-EU Marxists in Parliament, the civil service, and the quangos with PPE, classics and history grads supplied by the intolerant educational establishment who are now totally under the influence of the 250,000 Chinese “students” in our universities.
February 3, 2022
Vague answer. Confirms ‘commitment’ but no further information.
Easy to delay indefinitely or abandon.
Reply Because the Sec of State for Northern Ireland has not gone on with it.
February 3, 2022
@ Reply – a case now for “Let’s go Brandon!” if ever there was one perhaps?
February 3, 2022
Given that the policy of freeports had been announced in the manifesto, the only new policy in the ‘levelling up’ proposals which is any good is the three new ‘Innovation Accelerators’. Given that one of these will be in the Glasgow region this was the perfect opportunity for Gove to unveil the levelling up policy there. Doing so would have helped promote this, and the rest of the UK government’s investment, in Scotland, thus helping to demonstrate the benefit of the union. Why was this chance wasted? Is Gove too monumentally stupid to grasp these opportunities to promote both the party and the union in Scotland or does he just not care?
February 3, 2022
X- Tory
Promote/ does not care?
Either, or, take your pick you get the same result. Three fifths of naff all.
All talk again. Life is never about opportunities taken, always about opportunities lost or passed by.
February 3, 2022
The levelling up proposals are a complete damp squib. Other than the Innovation Accelerators (why only three???) there was nothing new or of any real value. Talk about ‘labouring to bring forth a mouse’! If the government is really that devoid of ideas, ambition and resolve then it really does not deserve to be re-elected.
February 3, 2022
I’m still wait for the ‘Big Society’ programme to begin
February 4, 2022
After the parties held in Downing St. perhaps it should be renamed ‘High Society’ like the movie.
February 4, 2022
+1
February 3, 2022
OT
Hinkley Point C project bosses have just got the green light to start bulk mechanical, electrical and heating (MEH), ventilation and air conditioning component installation work at the nuclear power station site.
The forthcoming fit-out on the nuclear island of Unit 1 is described as a “mammoth undertaking”. It will require a workforce of up to 4,000 at peak times, including welders, pipe fitters and electricians working as an alliance.
This phase of work in Somerset will take place over three years with NNB Genco, the subsidiary created by EDF Energy, teaming up with four suppliers – Balfour Beatty Bailey, Doosan, Cavendish and Altrad.
Following an in-depth assessment by The Office for Nuclear Regulation of the MEH proposals, the regulator has finally approved the start of this next phase of the project. It was initially hoped to get sign-off for bulk MEH works last October, unfortunately this was delayed by the Chinese plague virus.
The MEH programme involves electrical and mechanical installations encompassing around 4,000 rooms. Works will involve 380km of pipework, 20,000 valves, with thousands of welds and associated radiography and 9000 km of cabling.
Construction at Hinkley Point C began in October 2016, bringing the project just past the five-year mark with projections made last year by EDF that the site should start generating power in mid-2026. Current estimates are that the project is running to schedule.
February 3, 2022
I don’t think people living in A to D bands household should be force to take a loan from their council over five years and then be chare extra on the loan to pay it off, who would want that, daylight robbers.
February 3, 2022
The cost of electricity has just gone up by the cost of a family holiday. All those voters are going to be stuck at home all summer wondering who stole their life from them.
February 3, 2022
Of course we didn’t need Free ports before but we know all that . Tell you what , wreck the economy make us poor cut us off from our neighbours and render us an international joke ..I am past caring . Keep that absurd children’s entertainer as leader . Suits you
Just give me Eddie Jones’ head on a stick .He has picked a centre on the wing ( again) ignored Europe’s most exciting player completely ( Radwan of course) .We are only spared a Farrel style bore-a-thon because of injuries. he blithers on about the aerial ball but picks Manu Tuilagi who cant catch a cold and plays in 10 second bursts per season.
Breathe…….
February 3, 2022
Yes you definitely need to breathe NM
February 3, 2022
An interesting choice of picture to illustrate this article:
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-confirms-brexit-checks-continue-northern-ireland/
with the Irish police operating a mobile checkpoint to stop traffic on its way into Northern Ireland, caption:
“Checks in Northern Ireland continue despite minister Edwin Poots’ order to halt them”
However, leaving that aside:
“Brussels stressed the protocol is the “one and only solution” the EU and the U.K. have found to protect the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement, which ended decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.”
is only true because both Theresa May and Boris Johnson let the Irish government veto any alternative.
February 3, 2022
I had been under the impression we had a Miliband in No 11. It now feels as if Gordon Brown is back.
February 3, 2022
Excellent
February 3, 2022
O T (maybe)
Is there no end to the humiliation and embarrassment inflicted on us by this government.
It appears in the DE on line that the Queens flight will be re-equiped with two French passenger type aircraft.
So much for English products and English jobs. Sucking up to Macron is not going to increase support for the perceived idiots we have running this country and the RAF for allowing it.
If tax payers money has to be used to buy HM the Queen a new aircraft I for one will not bitch for my taxes to buy a home produced product. FFS think about what signals it sends out landing all over the world. We cannot build a suitable aircraft for our queen? Disgusting.
This is a bigger reason to totally remove the PM and all his cabinet and hanger ons than partygate and all the other crap being thrown at him. Blatant ignorance and incompetence by all concerned especially after all the waste of money being exposed day after day.
February 3, 2022
France – which is in the EU – has capped its energy price rises to 5%. France also owns its own energy providers.
Meanwhile, here, the Tory Brexit pensioners sold off your energy companies to foreigners. Your prices are going up by 54%.
Someone is creaming off the profits from your misery and they are enjoying their life at their holiday villa. Probably sipping a pina colada by their pool. You’re freezing in your cold home. So much Tory Brexit pensioner winning.
February 3, 2022
France has a huge nuclear provision of electricity.
One reason they are cheaper.
You dont like nuclear do you young Andy?
February 4, 2022
wait until the costs of deinstallation come home to roost !
February 3, 2022
** UPDATE **
Some 37,000 asylum seekers and Afghan refugees are living in UK hotels at a cost of £4.7m per day, revised Home Office figures show. A Home Office official said yesterday the total hotel bill was £1.2m a day but the department has since clarified the actual overall daily cost is £4.7m.
It it understood the £1.2m is to accommodate Afghan refugees and another £3.5m a day is spent on asylum seekers.
A spokesman said the use of hotels was unacceptable and a short-term solution.
He insisted the Home Office was “working hard” to find suitable accommodation for asylum seekers and Afghan refugees, and urged councils to do all they could to help find permanent homes.
February 3, 2022
I thought it was Labour that found the magic money tree…I was wrong, it’s the Tories (HS2, Immigrants in Hotels, Renewables, Net Zero, Levelling-Up etc)
February 4, 2022
Carrie persuaded Johnson that it was alive and well and would outlast them all…
February 3, 2022
The NI one was probably made up on the hoof and will be forgotten later.
February 3, 2022
Why can’t we have a new “levelling up” deal for the people of the North (and anywhere else in the UK) by allowing them to vote on whether or not to allow fracking to take place in their community and if they agree they should all benefit from a percentage of the profits and anyone affected by the fracking is fully compensated?
February 3, 2022
”Home Secretary Priti Patel has been forced to admit that spending has totalled £4.7million every day on housing asylum seekers in hotels.
The Home Office has issued a correction to the figure given by Tricia Hayes to the Home Affairs Committee.
The senior civil servant told MPs that the Home Office were spending £1.2 million a day on housing asylum seekers.
Later, however, the Government admitted that this number related only to Afghan refugees and accommodating asylum seekers from other countries actually costs an additional £3.5 million a day.”
THATS £4.7 MILLION EVERY DAY
February 3, 2022
Michael Gove’s performances at the Dispatch Box are a joy to watch.
February 3, 2022
He sounds as if he wants to break up the Union and destabilise Brexit.
February 3, 2022
No 10 – walkout begins.
Four senior aides to Boris Johnson have resigned from Downing Street within hours of each other amid growing pressure on the prime minister.
Director of communications Jack Doyle confirmed his exit shortly after the departure of policy head Munira Mirza.
They were followed by the chief of staff Dan Rosenfield and senior civil servant Martin Reynolds.
The top aides’ resignations come as Mr Johnson faces increasing questions over his leadership from within his party. Mr Doyle told staff that “recent weeks have taken a terrible toll on my family life”, but that he had always intended to leave after two years. However, Ms Mirza left over the PM’s false claim that Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile when he was director of public prosecutions.
February 3, 2022
Starmer did fail to prosecute, and other cases too. It was not a false claim. Why are the MSM and opposition both within and without the Conservative Party so intent on reminding us about this? The PM only said it quietly and quickly, not very audibly. And what a litany of poison had just issued from the mouth of the the Leader of the Opposition, completely unchecked as usual by the Speaker.
February 4, 2022
As for Munira Mirza’s weirdly virtue signalling pretext, this, from the DM gives a possible clue:
“Munira Mirza was one of the last remaining ‘true believers’, having been by his side since London mayor days. But the 44-year-old also has intriguingly close personal links to Rishi Sunak, including through her Tory aide husband Dougie Smith. And the political journalist who broke news of her resignation, James Forsyth, had Mr Sunak as best man at his wedding. Forsyth and his wife, former No10 spokeswoman Allegra Stratton, are also godparents to the Sunaks’ children. The manoeuvring and intricate connections have sparked”
February 4, 2022
and there you have it….the chums networking laid bare.
February 7, 2022
Indeed, rose, it shows a true conspiracy …
February 3, 2022
The Government has gone “full on” socialist.
Should really change their name.
February 3, 2022
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/02/boriss-betrayal-revolutionary-brexit-mandate-now-almost-total/
not criticising anybody here, apparently Lord Frost recently name-dropped some of Alistair Heath’s articles
February 5, 2022
Some people know already what levelling up seems to mean and the result for many is that there are communities up & down the country which are fighting campaigns against unacceptable, invasive, badly thought out mass building projects and inappropriate redevelopment proposals in their areas. I don’t care if some wish to shout nimby but people are increasingly upset & angry to what is happening. Perhaps the government can level up the crime statistics too as according to current reports on the latest by ONS there is also spin on those, nothing new it seems, goes back before this administration but can we be just given accurate figures. How about those daily Channel migrant statistics too. Migration Watch’s Petition (Number 607119) to parliament now up and running asking for daily reports to continue, as they should. Stop treating the public like fools.