As we now have a new Minister charged with the task of securing some of the many wins the UK can enjoy from its freedoms out of the EU I will be writing a few pieces setting out some of those opportunities again to assist the government’s task.
Today I wish to look at a few of theĀ particular laws and ECJ decisions of the EEC/EU which were opposed by the UK at the time and were damaging to UK interests.
There was the Factortame case, the first one where an Act of Parliament was struck down by the ECJ. The ECJ prevailed and prevented the UK’s Merchant Shipping Act from boosting the UK fleet. We should reinstate measures to expand our merchant marine and fishing fleets as other independent countries do.
There was the EU legislation toĀ damage the competitive position of the UK auction houses and to impose the droit de suite payments, helping US rivals. This could be amended.
There was the EU railway legislation requiring the separation of track and trains, which needs changing to allow a reconfigured railway with single accountability for track and train where appropriate.
As we were leaving the EU imposed a Ports Directive which the UK government and the industry disagreed with. It should be repealed.
The current ” transition” for our fishery still leaves too much of the catch for EU boats at the expense of our own industry. EU policy led to a big loss of UK based fishing activity, and a move of the UK from being a net exporter to being aĀ net importer of fish.
There was the set of decisions of the ECJ that reduced the UK tax take from Corporation tax, as with the case that decided continental losses could be offset against UK profits which the Treasury had contested. The Treasury should review the cases and legislate where it wishes to impose the original intention.
February 18, 2022
The Factortame case, droit de suite and Corporation Tax. They talk of little else in Sunderland. Thanks for confirming Brexit was all about making life easier for the rich. What a con
Reply Factortame is about rebuilding a U.K. shipping and fishing industry with more jobs. The Corporation tax issues are about taxing companies more. There’s plenty more wins to come in forthcoming posts. Why are you so negative and so worried?
February 18, 2022
Reply to reply
We are worried and negative because we are disappointed and more.
Look at the crazy things this govt is doing/has done.
Look at what happened in Southend.
And soon we will not dare to share our views with you/or you will have to only accept pro govt viewsā¦.if you can muster any.
Online Harms.
February 18, 2022
+1 All this appeasement and following of EU rules gives the Rejoiners hope, and that hope will result in them NEVER accepting Brexit. This government is ignoring the majority, and playing into the hands of the noisy minorities which will please very few, and annoy millions!
February 18, 2022
Shirley M
Very well said
February 18, 2022
Shirley what makes you think you are in the majority ? The only time being out of the EU was more popular was in 2016 when we were being fed lies about the likelihood of millions of Turks invading, and that we would stay in the single market even if we left.
As all polls show since, most now realise we were wrong to leave.
If you want to trade, you have to align, it’s as simple as that.
February 18, 2022
I ignore polls, but I respect votes, and every countrywide vote has been in support of Brexit, or Brexit supporting parties.
February 18, 2022
āā If you want to trade, you have to alignāā
But thatās one-way, the EU never appease us
I understand that theyāre even telling us to ātagā in ears our cows in NI
Trade is one thing, political alignment is another
February 18, 2022
Yet the biggest traders with the EU are not members of the EU Richard.
All traders make products that meet the requirements of the market they are selling into, that is obvious.
February 18, 2022
trade or held over a barrel?
February 18, 2022
The last poll that counted was the last general election.
A resounding Get Brexit Done.
Whether it has been done is another matter.
February 18, 2022
RichardM :
Nonsense.
We had 2 GEs won by a party that supported Brexit and the proportional European Parliament elections in 2019 was won by the Brexit Party who won more seats than the next two parties combined.
February 18, 2022
“If you want to trade you have to align, it’s as simple as that.”
What utter rubbish.
Can you really be unaware that there is trade between the EU members and other countries around the world which are not in regulatory alignment with the EU?
Have a look at this:
https://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/
“The EU is firmly committed to the promotion of open and fair trade with all its trading partners.
The EU has specific trade policies in place for all its partners and abides by the global rules on international trade set out by the World Trade Organisation.”
Which WTO rules do not insist on regulatory alignment between trading partners.
And you have the cheek to complain about people “being fed lies”.
February 18, 2022
Richard M. Maybe not Turks but just the rest of the world and mainly men who are not familiar with our culture regarding women. It may not bother you being male but I know plenty of women who are not overjoyed.
February 19, 2022
‘…we were being fed lies about the likelihood of millions of Turks invading,…’
More misinformation
No, no one said that, only that they were entitled to come which was true.
February 18, 2022
Precisely and that Sir JR is why we are worried. You set out all the benefits, the reasons for me wanting to leave and have done regularly but what you have also done regularly is highlight non or evasive answers from Ministers and almost total inaction apart from puff pieces in the press spinning what HMG is looking at.
What progress has been made on the list of regulatory wins that IDS led on?
I have no doubt Jeramy Hunts group, other Remain MPs plus the Civil Service, especially Treasury and the Foreign Office are being negative/obstructive to keep us as aligned as possible to facilitate our re entry.
If thatās not true itās about time to show us evidence instead of thoughtful āopportunityā pieces.
February 18, 2022
+1
February 18, 2022
There’s been a bit of spat over Keir Starmer’s remarks on Radio Newcastle:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/02/16/__trashed/#comment-1300112
The SNP say he betrayed Scotland, and the unelected-legislator-for-life Lord Adonis had a fit:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1566372/lord-adonis-andrew-adonis-twitter-brexit-news-eu-latest
“Labourās Lord Adonis tweeted: āThere is a strong case for ultimately rejoining the EU – step by step, after first rejoining the customs union and single market
āThe case is simple and compelling – namely, the entire prosperity & trade of the country.ā”
Just the same old lie that our prosperity is crucially dependent on EU membership, in fact “the entire” prosperity, 100%, when even the EU only claims a few percent, and that’s the average across the EU not for a low beneficiary like the UK, and it is a gross figure before taking into the account the high costs involved with EU membership when it could become a negative figure:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/02/13/getting-rid-of-the-budget-deficit/#comment-1299433
February 18, 2022
You never accepted membership of the EU and its predecessors – despite a referendum and nine subsequent general elections all returning large majorities in favour. That is a large majority of both votes and MPs.
Meanwhile there has never been a majority vote in favour of any type of Brexit at a general election. No wonder your Brexitist minority is frit.
February 18, 2022
When has a general election ever been a sound indicator of a binary issue in politics? Especially when both major parties choose to ignore the issue and march on regardless.
February 18, 2022
Andy
Since 2016 every major vote has been for Brexit. Re-join parties have all crashed and burned.
February 18, 2022
The referendum you refer to was to remain in the EEC after we had been fooled about the extent of the benefits of EEC membership. No mention was made by Harold Wilson of the political ambitions of the EEC.
“This pamphlet is being sent by the Government to every household in Britain. We hope that it will help you to decide how to cast your vote in the coming Referendum on the European Community (Common Market).
Please read it. Please discuss it with your family and your friends.
We have tried here to answer some of the important questions you may be asking, with natural anxiety, about the historic choice that now faces all of us.
We explain why the Government, after long, hard negotiations, are recommending to the British people that we should remain a member of the European Community.
We do not pretend, and never have pretended, that we got everything we wanted in these negotiations. But we did get big and significant improvements on the previous terms.
We confidently believe that these better terms can give Britain a New Deal in Europe. A Deal that will help us, help the Commonwealth, and help our partners in Europe.
That is why we are asking you to vote in favour of remaining in the Community.
I ask you again to read and discuss this pamphlet.
Above all, I ask you to use your vote.
For it is your vote that will now decide. The Government will accept your verdict.
[Signed:]
Harold Wilson
February 19, 2022
Indeed Shirley. Any regulation or law which has its rules based on those of the EU, or demanded by them, needs to be repealed and, only if necessary, replaced with our own.
February 19, 2022
We voted to leave the EU six long years ago, Johnson has not made any progress to be an independent nation, to take control of our money laws and borders or take any advantage of leaving. I remember him and Rees-Mogg calling it vassalage! That is exactly where we are. No guts, direction, strategy, vision or clue. Get the useless Johnson out.
This govt cannot even sort out the BBC, there is no hope of leaving the EU!
February 18, 2022
+1 Eh. I am sure Sir J gets frustrated with many of us, but what, when bloggers are whittled down to Andy & Co.?
February 18, 2022
Agree
February 18, 2022
So out of the thousands of laws and rules which appear to suit twenty-seven other countries, Sir John manages to find four – of which most people have never heard – which he thinks could beneficially be repealed.
I assume, I think reasonably, that he would start with what he believes the most egregious affronts to UK sovereignty from our erstwhile membership were, and this is what he produces.
Well, at last we have some specifics at least.
Any good news for those farmers, having to destroy and to bury perfectly good pigs by the thousands?
Reply Your silly criticisms are pathetic. Why do you bother to daily belittle yourself like this, deliberately twisting or ignoring what I say?
February 18, 2022
I agree with your comments regarding pig slaughter. Why just pigs, and not cattle or sheep? Maybe because many UK slaughterhouses are being converted to religious slaughter?
February 18, 2022
The UK should never have opted out of the European Union’s ban on such slaughter methods, no.
February 18, 2022
‘thousands of laws and rules which appear to suit twenty-seven other countries’
Martin – how do you know? I via family, friends, old work colleagues etc frequently hear remarks like ‘we wish we could do a Brexit, but are completely chained up to the Commission’
Hotel California rules.
February 18, 2022
The people with whom you hang about probably would say that, yes.
February 18, 2022
Tsk – my best spelling and grammar too.
There’s no pleasing some people.
February 18, 2022
Whereabouts in Sunderland do you live Ken?
February 19, 2022
Good grief – JR lets the cat out of the bag that none of his suggestions have been implemented yet after so many years!! What a useless set of civil service – oh yes they want to keep the UK in the EU.
There is a re run of Yes, Prme Mnister on TV – nothing has changed in govt. since then and it seems up to date.
February 18, 2022
Good morning.
The EU Referendum was over five years ago, what and we officially left the EU in 2019, so what has taken this government so long ? And please, don’t use the Covid excuse, the government continued to make laws during that time.
February 18, 2022
No transitions are easy and I expected there to be teething troubles.
However, I think the reason for little to no movement comes back to too many within the system trying to put a spanner in the works because leaving never suited them.
I think many are probably all at sea because of the loss of the EU comfort blanket excuse for inertia.
My former MP who now looks like a beacon of honesty by comparison, was quite clear about many of his and local businesses plans to be ready from day one, being thwarted at every turn.
February 18, 2022
With an 80 seat majority this government is quick enough to bring forward and rush through legislation supporting their green revolutionā¦..and have the brakes on for any legislation to support brexit ideals
February 19, 2022
+1
February 18, 2022
There is only ONE person “within the system” who is putting “a spanner in the works” and preventing the UK from making changes to take advantage of Brexit. And that person is BORIS. Boris Johnson is a coward and a traitor and is not willing to do anything that will upset the EU. In this he is undoubtedly supported by others such as Sunak, but at the end of the day Boris is PM and he can force things through or block them. And he is choosing to block them.
February 18, 2022
+1
February 18, 2022
X Tory. I agree.
It is Overwhelmingly Obvious, the reason Boris got his landslide election victory was that the electorate was pig sick of waiting for Brexit.
Yet since taking office he has repeatedly backed away from getting the so called ‘Hard Brexit’ and after getting ‘a kind of brexit’ he has done nothing to take advantage of it.
Covid was made an excuse for enacting draconian measures that damaged us even more than E.U. legislation.
But apart from that, ALL his energies have been spent on promoting ANT CLIMATE CHANGE policies.
That may well have been in the manifesto but it was definitely NOT what we voted for.
In my opinion he has consistently worked AGAINST the interests of this country and that does indeed make him a traitor.
February 18, 2022
He had a nasty shock last November when the EU threatened to take away his precious trade deal.
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2021/11/18/article-16-will-eu-end-brexit-trade-deal-if-uk-ditches-northern-ireland-protocol
“Article 16: Will EU end Brexit trade deal if UK ditches Northern Ireland Protocol?”
Well, that’s understandable, given that he conjured up the image of a “fantastic” “Canada style” free trade deal as his alternative to Theresa May’s “Chequers” plan to help displace her:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/01/08/a-test-for-the-foreign-secretary/#comment-1290010
And so there would have been a massive loss of face if he hadn’t got it, and so for him it was worth selling out Northern Ireland to get it, and he wouldn’t want to lose it even though he must know that it has very little economic value for the UK.
February 19, 2022
Agreed wholeheartedly X-Tory.
February 18, 2022
It’s because the PM isn’t brave. We must hope that JRM, and others, will now stiffen Johnson’s spine. The government has the time and majority to get stuff done.
February 18, 2022
He ‘braves out’ shocking information about his lifestyle, chums, financial affairs, Cabinet decisions etc.
February 18, 2022
He does appear to be two-faced with regard to the UK people and the EU
February 18, 2022
The appointment of JRM is meaningless and will achieve NOTHING. Lord Frost couldn’t persuade Boris to stop the NI checks and revise the Protocol, senior Tory statesmen like our own Sir John, or IDS, are completely ignored, and backbenchers like the ERG are totally supine – so why do you think Boris will now make the changes that we want? He won’t.
February 18, 2022
You can’t stiffen jelly.
February 18, 2022
Because there’s no actual willingness in government to reverse any of the damaging EU legislation. Just the same as there’s no wish to stop the channel invasion.
We need someone like Lord Frost in charge Boris can’t do anything but Carrie Antoinettes bidding.
February 18, 2022
Ian Wragg,
Willingness and strength of purpose to fix things is completely absent from this government.
February 18, 2022
+1 I W. and let them (us) eat cake.
February 19, 2022
+1
February 18, 2022
A lot of ‘remainer’ lawyers and MPs who are ex-lawyers dragging their feet and putting spurious arguments in order to delay changes to past EU legislation.
February 18, 2022
Parliament is supreme.
The Tories have a majority of 80.
No one else can be blamed for any changes to the law which have not happened.
February 18, 2022
Agree
Our remainer parliament is supreme
Our remainer Government does have an 80-seat majority
The majority of MPs are remainers
The majority of Civil Servants are remainers
The majority of ājoe-publicā are leavers
February 18, 2022
The majority of the public – fifty million plus – did not vote Leave.
And of those who did, there’s no researched consensus as to what they expected or wanted.
Many may have believed e.g. Hannan, who said that “no one” was thinking of leaving the Single Market, for instance.
Sorry, Glen, grow up and face simple facts.
February 19, 2022
+millions – Also, our Supreme Court judges are mostly remainers and like our ex-speaker they will not hesitate to throw an additional spanner in the works to try and prevent/undo/reverse Brexit.
February 19, 2022
GC, the majority of ājoe-publicā, as they are, voted for the HoC as it is now, with the present distribution of MPs. āJoe-publicā had read the promises of the various candidates before going to vote. āJoe-publicā knew that if elected the Conservative Party would have Mr Johnson as PM. And Mr Johnson is not a newbie in UK politics.
The government as it is now has been chosen by the PM head of the dominant party with a big majority, following the vote of ājoe-publicā.
If you are unhappy with what is happening now, the first one to blame is very likely to be yourself, as one of ājoe-publicā.
February 18, 2022
UK Supreme Court. ?
February 18, 2022
Parliament trumps all courts.
February 18, 2022
Hmm….
So how did that Court overrule a decision to prorogue Parliament
February 19, 2022
That was not Parliament’s decision.
It was the Executive’s.
February 19, 2022
Who are part of Parliament.
February 19, 2022
So are the SNP or the DUP or Plaid Cymru or Labour or the LDs.
Do you understand this majority business at all?
February 19, 2022
Yes
But the executive can make legitimate decisions too.
They were being thwarted by a partisan speaker.
In any event the election result with a huge 80 seat majority showed you all to be on the wrong side of the debate yet again.
February 19, 2022
The losing side – for now – is not necessarily the wrong side at all.
February 19, 2022
Keep voting see how you get on.
February 18, 2022
This weekend I will be writing yet another letter to our local newspaper, on this occasion to mark the fourth anniversary of this letter that they published on February 27th 2018:
https://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/news/letters-to-the-editor/128146/easy-solution-to-eu-border-conundrum.html
“Easy solution to EU border conundrum”
That and a succession of similar letters to the newspaper were copied to Theresa May, my MP and then Prime Minister, and duly printed in the one and acknowledged by the other, but she preferred to use the largely fabricated problem of the Irish land border as a pretext to try to give the CBI and other business lobby groups what they wanted.
That suited her, and it suited the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar as well, and the word “collude” made a quiet appearance in some later letters both in the local paper and in two Irish newspapers …
As for her successor, the Great Charlatan, it may be recalled that he had his own private meeting with Leo Varadkar, in October 2019, at Thornton Manor, and afterwards it seemed the problem of Northern Ireland had been solved through Boris’s brilliant negotiating skills.
I have no idea how this is going to end, but a return to communal violence now seems a real possibility, and is made more likely by headlines like this on the Bloomberg website:
“Brexit Supercharges the Political Push Toward a United Ireland”
And all this is for the sake of retaining maybe 2% of GDP at most (Theresa May) or perhaps only 1% of GDP at most (Boris Johnson), the latter being equivalent to the natural growth of the UK economy over about five average months, rather than being prepared to accept the temporary loss of that small mess of pottage as a trivial price to pay to recover our national democratic birthright.
February 18, 2022
The headline “EU must drop pretence that protocol is protecting peace” is getting around this morning, but then who cares? Certainly not our present so-called “Conservative and Unionist” Prime Minister, effectively propelled into Downing Street by his “Brexit means Brexit In Name Only” -that is, if there is any Brexit at all – so-called “Conservative and Unionist” predecessor. He cares more about projecting his inflated image on the world stage as a great defender of Ukraine than about the integrity of his own country, and he cares far more about his precious “Canada style” trade deal with the EU than peace in Northern Ireland.
February 18, 2022
Meanwhile, Sinn Fein calls in the Germans to help their cause:
https://www.sinnfein.ie/contents/63098
“Sinn FĆ©in MLA Declan Kearney has welcomed a significant statement from German politicians in the Federal Parliament stressing the ācentral importanceā of the Good Friday Agreement and Irish Protocol, following a briefing to the Bundestag’s European Affairs Committee.”
it is obvious from that statement that these German politicians, like some US politicians, do not understand that the first of the fundamental principles underpinning the Good Friday Agreement is supposed to be “parity of esteem of both communities”, and that principle is clearly not observed when anybody – Sinn Fein or any other political party, or journalists, or the EU, or the Irish government, or most shamefully of all the UK government and Parliament- gleefully tell unionists that this is the protocol, signed and ratified, and if they don’t like it then tough, because it’s not going to be changed, they just have to suck it up.
You can accord “central importance” to the protocol or to the agreement, but not to both simultaneously because they are incompatible; Boris Johnson has chosen to give priority to the protocol that secured his feeble trade agreement and allowed him to pollute our television screens with his lies:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/12/11/advisers-advise-ministers-decide/#comment-1283033
“Well, last Christmas Eve Boris Johnson went on TV and told us that his āCanada styleā trade deal with the EU was worth Ā£660 billion, which would work out as about 30% of our GDP. Clearly we could not easily afford to lose such a āfantasticā trade deal, but then of course luckily it is only another of his fantasies.
The EU estimates that the trade deal is worth forty times less than that, 0.75% of GDP … “
February 18, 2022
Denis, I am impressed that you are angry that unionists are told that this is the protocol, signed and ratified, and if they donāt like it then tough, because itās not going to be changed, they just have to suck it up. Presumably you are on record for being angry that the large majority of voters in Northern Ireland were told in 2016 that this is Brexit, signed and ratified, and if they donāt like it then tough, because itās not going to be changed, they just have to suck it up. The Protocol only exists because of Brexit, which NI did not vote for
February 18, 2022
You mean the large majority of voters in Northern Ireland who either voted to leave the EU or did not bother to express a view.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36615507
It was in any case a reserved matter to be settled on a UK-wide basis.
February 19, 2022
Well, there was a bit larger majority in Britain as a whole who *either* voted Remain or who did not vote at all by that measure, wasn’t there, Denis?
You don’t seem to like it when it’s pointed out – on that basis – that there is absolutely no democratic mandate for the North Korea-type brexit demanded by the extremist fringe amongst the Leave vote though, do you?
February 20, 2022
What “North Korea-type brexit”? Are you mad? If you care to recall, the EU insisted that its “four freedoms” were inseparable. And as I wrote before the referendum:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2016/02/28/economic-uncertainty-and-the-eu/#comment-803636
“Personally I would prefer to have somewhat less than completely free trade with the other EU countries and not have completely free movement of all their citizens into my country. This supposedly indissoluble link between trade and immigration is as far as I know unique to the EEC/EC/EU, dating back to the 1957 Treaty of Rome which was designed for political as well as economic purposes, setting up the EEC as another step towards a sovereign federal United States of Europe.”
You don’t have to be North Korea to decide that you are going to control the movement of the citizens of other countries into your country, you just have to be a normal country outside this abnormal project to create a European federation.
February 18, 2022
What, after so much time, you have not figured it out. Ā£660 bn would be 30% of the GDP linked to trade with the EU under the new agreement. The EU estimates refer to the amount added to the UK GDP by the trade deal, 0.75%. So the old terms of exchange (if the UK had stayed in the EU) would have provided about Ā£655 bn and the new one Ā£660 bn. This 0.75% is Ā£5 bn.
You were comparing apples and oranges.
February 18, 2022
Not me, Boris Johnson. Try reading the earlier post.
February 18, 2022
Indeed plus all the endless regulatory damage on top. But so little is being done to correct this now we have left. I see that āUK voters did not understand what they were voting for when they backed Brexit in 2016, the European Parliament has saidā well I did and we have not got it fully as yet – will we ever under Boris/Carrie and these fake Tories?
February 18, 2022
+1
So did I.
One of the few fishmongers around here was most pessimistic about Brexit. He said things would not be betterā¦in fact they would probably be worse.
Overall he wasnāt wrong was he?
And now I see that online fish outlets are selling Ecuadorian White Shrimp!
February 19, 2022
Probably because many of our own seafood fishers have gone bust, owing to the loss of their erstwhile main market through brexit.
February 18, 2022
The ‘didn’t know what they were voting for’ line is now so ‘yesterday’ but is still dragged up endlessly especially by the certain types of a certain age group who think they are so much more informed.
These delusional fools also do a very spiteful and hateful line in blaming and wishing for the early demise of their elders and certainly betters.
February 18, 2022
It was pointed out to Theresa May that in a previous role the EU’s chief negotiator had himself valued the EU Single Market at a mere 2% of GDP, averaged across the member states. That might have led her to question why the UK Treasury kept coming up with massively higher valuations.
I submitted the following comment on December 15 2017; unfortunately it was not published then:
“Iām reading an early Christmas present, āThe Economics of Brexitā:
http://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783319582825
and its critical analysis of the Treasury Report produced before the referendum runs to nearly nine pages, over which it highlights more than twenty significant inadequacies which make the report entirely unreliable ā as we are increasingly seeing.
Yet this is the Report that George Osborne loudly endorsed and used to tell us that we must be “economically illiterateā to support withdrawal from the EU.
One reference given in the book is to a study published in June:
https://www.cbr.cam.ac.uk/fileadmin/user_upload/centre-for-business-research/downloads/working-papers/wp490.pdf
which concluded:
āā¦ the average impact of EU membership applies less to the UK than to the other EU member states. The further implication is that these official predictions of the impact of Brexit are overly pessimistic.ā
Consistently with that, as mentioned before a German study showed that the benefit of the EU Single market to the UK was only half of the EU average, about 1% of GDP rather than the 2% of GDP estimated by the EU Commission for the EU as a whole.
There really is no justification for Theresa May to be ādesperateā to get a special trade deal with the EU, as journalists love to say; sure, it would be a bit better to have one, but on the other hand it could be a lot quicker and much simpler to not have any trade deal beyond the existing WTO deal, and sorting it out sooner and so removing the uncertainty sooner could compensate for the slight inferiority of WTO terms.”
February 18, 2022
Except – you didnāt actually know what you were voting for.
February 18, 2022
everything was / is wonderful in the 27 – – yet you stayed here.
forgive me being a trifle rude but you made a right balls of your lifestyle staying here, didn’t you!
February 18, 2022
You mean, vote Leave, get Brino?
Or vote Common Market, get European Superstate.
Or vote Tory triple lock pension and no tax increase, and get both.
February 18, 2022
What future vision of the EU did all you remain voters have ?
February 18, 2022
That which was stated in crystal clear terms in the pamphlet, sent to every single electoral address in the UK in 1975 for that year’s referendum – what else?
February 18, 2022
So why are you trying to claim you never realised we would leave the single market or customs union NHL
February 19, 2022
P2, the 1975 referendum, which NLH refers to, did not say āwe would leave the single market and customs unionā. The 2016 Leave campaign said it.
February 19, 2022
Not quite, Hefner.
The 2016 Remain campaign – for what it was worth – in the form of Cameron said – as a warning – that Leave, without more, would mean leaving those institutions.
Leave on the other hand, i.e. Hannan, said that “no one” was thinking of doing that.
February 19, 2022
I realise that hef.
I was stating what NHL often says about the 2016 referendum.
Did the 1975 leaflet mention anything about an EEC morphing into a quasi superstate with 28 nations a flag an anthem ambassadors Presidents and a currency?
February 18, 2022
I’ve asked you umpteen times which EU parties your MEPs stood for and what their manifestos were.
February 19, 2022
No P2, you are right, the 1975 referendum prospectus did not say such things, but anybody following European affairs would have known the 1957 Treaty of Rome was not only about economic cooperation but also had āan ever closer unionā between its members as one of its objectives.
Both Churchillās 1946 vision of a āUnited States of Europeā and Jean Monnetās 1950s supranational idea were there at the start of the 1955 Messina discussions that produced the Treaty of Rome.
So you might not have done your homework properly in 1975, or more probably you did not start being into these things before Cameron announced its intention to provide a referendum in 2015.
I find absolutely āhilariousā the number of Leave voters who nowadays tell me they have always been pro-European, a la EEC but not a la EU, specially when I have known them for 40-50 years not caring at all about Europe apart for their vacations on the Costas (even pre-1973 when Franco was still in power) or in Greece (pre-1974 under the Colonels).
So, allow me to take all you say with āsome spoonfuls of saltā, as I cannot prevent myself seeing you as one of these above people.
February 19, 2022
First to NHL
I’ve told you before that Hannon spoke about access to the SM yet you still misrepresent what he said.
Second to hef
You really think “ever closer union” would be interpreted in 1975 by even keen politically interested voters to mean what we have today?
You can refuse to accept that I voted yes in the 1975 referendum because I eally don’t care what you think.
Remember in 1975 you lefties were in the main opposed to the Common Market, the bosses club some of you called it.
February 18, 2022
BBC/Met Office etc. all obsessed with the predicted storm today and yesterday. Loads of reports from Cornwall and Devon where there seems so far to be little more than a slight breeze with reporters trying to big it up. Perhaps trying to make up for the incompetence of the denial of the hurricane in 1987. Even ordering people to stay at home and not to travel unless essential.
The North Sea storm & floods of 1953 killed over 2,500 we shall see how bad this one really is in a couple of hours.
February 18, 2022
One of the reasons why the Met Office – in common with many forecasters around the world – give such warnings is so we can avoid such catastrophic death tolls as the one we had in 1953.
If nobody dies as a result of Storm Eunice it doesnāt mean the Met Office has failed. It means it has succeeded. Sadly I suspect there will be some deaths – though hopefully not many. Forewarned in forearmed.
I have already had a neighbourās tree blow down into my garden – narrowly missing one of our outbuildings.
February 18, 2022
My BBQ blew over.
I’m shocked truly I am.
February 19, 2022
Just wait until storm EU – Nice hits.
February 19, 2022
You told us they were our friends NHL
Suddenly you say they want to damage us.
Wow.
February 18, 2022
The usual rather incompetent (and ridiculous) comment: In 1953, there were no such detailed forecasts no so easy communication with people likely to be under the track of the storm.
It would really be something if 2,500 were to be killed this time.
Despite your āscientificā veneer you are rather poor at logics.
February 18, 2022
Very odd post hef
Met Office goes full on hysteria.
Yet most people think its winter.
February 19, 2022
So where exactly would hundreds have died yesterday without the BBC/Met offices totally and over the top, alarmist warnings?
February 19, 2022
People outside near the Needles on the IoW? Or on the South West Coast walking path? Or under the O2 arena falling roof?
February 19, 2022
The wind speed reading of 122 mph is an aberration
Perched 80 metres up on a cliff on the edge of an island in an area known for high wind speeds.
Ask anyone who sails around there.
February 19, 2022
I agree P2.
This did seem like an extreme outlier of a reading.
The warnings were nonetheless justified, and were vindicated by the actual weather.
The winds were probably typically 15 knots less than worst expectations however.
February 19, 2022
Ah, P2, 122 mph an aberration, never heard of gustiness, I see. Most damages are done not by steady wind but gusts, a well known fact, but not by you it seems.
February 19, 2022
It got the Met Office the headline they were after.
I’ve sailed round there for decades and the winds and waves at the Needles can be far greater than just a few hundred yards away.
February 18, 2022
Public sector were quick to shut their doors. Any excuse will do. I got an email that West Sussex’ libraries were closing today due to the weather warning. For goodness’ sake! With what we have to pay for these so called services, too. “Stay safe”…there’s a special place in Hell reserved for whoever thought that slogan up.
February 18, 2022
I don’t think that the decider handing out places in hell – if there is one – will be you, somehow.
February 18, 2022
Lifelogic : āPerhaps trying to make up for the incompetence of the denial of the hurricane in 1987ā
No, itās all part of the Marxist fifth columnās gaslighting us into believing we have a climate crisis and we must unilaterally destroy our economy by spending vast amounts of money attempting decarbonisation without the necessary technology, despite our carbon emissions amounting to just 1% of the global total.
February 18, 2022
Calm down, that is not what the eminent in the field are saying at all.
Climate change expert Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, says we should not rush to make any link with climate change.
He said: āThere is currently no evidence for any trend in the frequency and intensity of windstorms affecting the UK.
Deep breaths, deep breaths, now.
February 18, 2022
Please forward your post to the BBC and Sky NHL
February 18, 2022
NLH :
Thanks for the information but extreme weather events are linked to climate change by the civil service, the Government, the educational estblishment and most of the MSM.
A BBC headline from their website dated 31/10/2021 :
“Climate change: Extreme weather events are ‘the new norm'”
February 19, 2022
Increased precipitation, and the associated flooding do show a marked increasing trend in the UK on the other hand.
February 19, 2022
Building on flood plains and a refusal to maintain rivers is a major cause.
February 19, 2022
martin . .. . increase flooding is a result of manmade structures to direct ever more water into narrower channels, while building on floodplains. Thought you would know that, but oh well.
February 19, 2022
What, Peter, building on flood plains causes more rain actually to fall from the sky?
Do you ever read anything properly?
February 19, 2022
Don’t be silly NHL
Where is your increased rainfall figures from?
The floods have other causes as I and many experts have said
February 18, 2022
LL
They will say and do anything to draw our attention away from the utter mess of their handling of the SCAMdemic. It’s called burying bad news. ie Massive fuel and Council Tax hikes etc.
February 18, 2022
Frazer Nelson today today:- āBoris is about to make Nick Clegg one of the most powerful men in Britain.
The Governmentās Online Safety Bill gives Big Tech too much power to censor opinions it does not like.ā
How appallingly depressing this is. Who on earth would want to give any to such a deluded, green crap pushing, EU/ERM/EURO pushing, anti EU referendum, anti-democrat, remoaner, LibDim & Social Anthropology Grad. any real power.
Wiki says Clegg has a Dutch mother and is multilingual – speaking English, French, Dutch, German, and Spanish. Doubtless talking the same deluded drivel in all of them. Still we have to be grateful to the Libdims as without them pushing for PR in the EU elections then Farage/UKIP would almost never have come been able to come first in these election and to force the pro EU dope/thin gruel Cameron into the EU referendum. Similarly to Major for his ERM fiasco.
February 18, 2022
Who are this “we” who should expand our merchant and shipping fleets?
This is the private sector.
If the operators see potential in expansion then they will do this. If unnecessary laws were standing in the way then they would lobby against them. I have heard of no such pressure or campaign.
However, I have heard of many fishers going bust because of the loss of easy access to their hitherto markets on the Continent, and of logistics companies – of which shipping is a part – struggling against the mountain of brexit red tape in shipping to the European Union.
Remove whatever laws you like. The force majeure brexit facts and geography will more likely cause continued decline rather than expansion.
February 18, 2022
We need to stop adopting EU rules now that we are supposedly out of it!
The latest traffic laws definitely come from Holland. I read about, and was horrified by their priority rules years ago.
I imagine that it wonāt take long for us to adopt similarly awful rules of trespass, just to dispossess us that little bit more!
And what was the point of leaving if we immediately destroy our country at the behest ofā¦.who? What? Still the EU? WEF?
February 18, 2022
Indeed. And bikes, fuelled as they are by human food, do not actually even save any significant CO2 when you do the numbers – unless the cyclist off just cold porridge or similar. Far more efficient to put 3 or more in a car and no need for hot showers on arrival.
February 18, 2022
+1
February 19, 2022
Che zuppa de sciocchezze (what a soup of nonsense).
February 18, 2022
Property law and criminal law – like by far and away most – were never within the remit of the European Union as far as the UK was concerned as a member.
February 18, 2022
Oh OK then.
I object to the other 52,741 laws.
February 19, 2022
European Union law for members in the UK’s position while it belonged does not include family and divorce, nor Town and Country Planning. Nor does it cover crime and sentencing. Heath, education and professional standards are outside its remit, as are land, property and inheritance, along with most tax bar VAT. Defence and security are not covered, and nor are electoral matters nor media regulation. Driving and parking rules and penalties appear to be for us too, along with employment and trade union matters, except for health and safety. Public administration and infrastructure are generally sovereign too. Notably, there is no European Union law on immigration from outside countries. It seems to be getting rather hard to find. Surely the Leave campaigns would not mislead anyone though?
Reply How little you understand nor will admit about the massive tentacles of EU law. All these areas have EU entanglements. Just take tax, todays topic. They rewrote our corporation tax provisions, imposed customs duties and environmental levies,shaped and controlled our sales tax,put on a carbon tax and trading scheme, told us how much total tax to raise to comply with their budget rules etc
February 19, 2022
As I said “most tax”.
Your additional examples do not change that.
February 19, 2022
reply to reply …Martin keeps quoting all the laws to live by under EU dictatorship, but seems to get upset when we say we don’t like them !
February 19, 2022
Just list the ones that you claim to be messing up your life so badly eh?
I doubt that you can find a single one.
No, the cause of your woes I would expect to be mainly self-made.
February 18, 2022
Correct – It doesn’t feel any different (I’m not sure we’ve left)
February 18, 2022
+1
No different at all
And I suppose that our postal service was wrecked so we could āharmoniseāš¤® with the EU?
And what about Johnsonās promise to go back to lbs and ounces?
And when is the Coronavirus Act going to be repealed?
Sometime? Never?
February 18, 2022
Wait until Euro 7 emission rules comes in, the towns and cities with their own different and complicated clear air/emission Zones will make a fortune. !
February 18, 2022
+1
Oh dear.
That sounds like fun!
February 18, 2022
Why are governments inventing things just to piss off its people
February 18, 2022
Maybe en route to what is happening in Canada right now?
Governments purposely hack off their people to get a reaction. Then having got ANY sort of reaction ( peaceful even) the govt. uses it as an excuse to impose tyranny.
I always wondered why Tiananmen Square went the terrible way it did.
Now I understand!
And donāt they all admire China!
February 18, 2022
This is tinkering at the edges and without substance.
All Tory MPs have become what their enemy wants them to be. They are nothing more than that.
Reply There’s plenty more to come
February 18, 2022
Many of these posts are tinkering at the edges. Radical change is needed, not nudging.
NHS. Pack up and start again.
HS2. Stop tearing up the countryside. Now.
Housebuilding. Why do we need more?
Immigration. Are we not an island?
Our host rightly flags up the following, but again nothing happens.
EU. Why should we follow their ways any more than Australia’s or USA? That we need an Australian to explain to Patel what needs doing shows cloth ears.
Tax. Why are we increasing taxes into a recession? Why can’t we compete with Ireland on 15% Corporation Tax? Offsetting continental losses or not is small beer in comparison.
Covid. Why have we struggled to get honest data?
February 18, 2022
Oh I fully agree…well said Sir Joe Soap
February 18, 2022
Me too glen cullen, fully agree with Sir Joe Soap.
February 18, 2022
Oh, isn’t there just, Sir John?
February 18, 2022
How depressing, please can we get Boris/Carrie/Sunak to drop their two insane flagship policies expensive unreliable energy/net zero and the idiotic socialist big government levelling up agenda.
We have about 100+ year of natural gas under our feet so get fracking & practical fusion will arrive in about 25-50 years to take over and certainly before 100 years. Stop pissing money down the drain on net zero, energy market rigging, subsidies for EVs, wind farms, the war on tree food and all the rest.
February 18, 2022
then why have we been waiting so long and not seeing any meaningful change, in fact things getting worse.
February 18, 2022
Is exaggeration a Brexit win. In West Dorset at the moment we have a stiff breeze. Whereās the storm?
February 18, 2022
+1
Eeeeeeeeeek.
Here!!!
Did the ruinous govt whip it up?
February 18, 2022
well in Wokingham I have a ‘new’ fence panel pulled out, a small tree down, neighbour had a 10′ high climbing frame topple over and got through privet hedge now mostly in my garden. Hardly any rain but a bit windy…
February 18, 2022
It was just a rouse to close schools so teachers could have another holiday
February 18, 2022
The wind is getting up.
Just wondering if glenās prediction of yesterday will come true.
Imagine riding a U.K. magic carpet powered by windmillsā¦Boris triumphant, sitting cross-legged at the helm.
Flying over France, Germany and beyond to confound the wicked EU.
Like the best Victorian nursery tale or ancient Punch cartoon!
February 18, 2022
I fear we wont make take-off speed as most of the wind-turbines have either stopped spinning as the wind is to strong or the propellers have broken off due to poor maintenance and build quality (wind turbines components sourced in china)
February 18, 2022
Oh darn it!!
Whatever happened to āMade in Britainā?
I heard that a windmill has actually collapsed!
What a shame!
February 18, 2022
bet it wasn’t made here?
February 18, 2022
+1
Nope!
Parts imported and stuck together on site I expect.
Possibly with flour and water paste?
February 18, 2022
Looking at the DT comments on the Russia Ukraine crisis. There are a couple of computerised troll bots pushing the wests position.
Jim Bob -āPutin is a dictator. He must resign.ā or some variation generated by a computer.
CS Advisor – āHe will wreck Ukrainian and leave it in piecesā – comments are longer but are also just as declaratively generated.
Neither troll bot responds to other comments. The other comments are humorous and sarcastic about the west and itās propaganda.
When the vast majority of support for the West appears to come from a couple of computerised troll bots then you know the whole situation is a fiction to distract from Boris, Clinton and Bidenās woes.
February 18, 2022
There is nothing like a Ukrainian (not quite dead) cat to throw on the table as a distraction from other concerns such as party gate.
February 18, 2022
+1
February 18, 2022
Javelin, you say ‘…..then you know the whole situation is a fiction to distract from Boris, Clinton and Bidenās woes’. Not sure that that is quite the case but yesterday, in cycling to town for shopping, I met by chance my MP out on a walk. We exchanged greetings (I’ve known him for years) and I said ‘interesting and possibly dangerous times we are living in’. His response was ‘no we are not’.
I asked him why he thought that and he said ‘it’s the mass media stirring things up’. I still can’t work out whether or not that he is alone in his thinking, or why that should be their mindset. Beats me…….
February 18, 2022
77th Brigade in action!
Plus the former head of MI6 said,in an interview with the Atlantic Council(itself a rapid propaganda organ) a few days ago,that all this invasion”intel” fed to the media is propaganda.
Why is every MSM outlet in the west printing this tripe without question?
Sheer desperation-the end is nigh for western elites-they are going to be defunded by the emergence of the new China-Russia-led world order.It’s not those who print the money but those who control the resources who now matter.
February 18, 2022
77th Brigade – thats 3 people and 1 desk
February 18, 2022
yeah – soften the West up with a nasty virus, turn up the heat on wayward minorities, then start invading neighbours.
February 19, 2022
Is it a nasty virus or is it “a little flu”?
Come on?
February 19, 2022
well you above all have gone on and on about the killer virus, praising China the creator for locking downs hundreds of millions, and now Ardern seems to have lost the battle with the ‘cold’ as you now claim.
February 19, 2022
NZ has triumphed.
They kept deaths to a tiny number until vaccines arrived, unlike this country and Trump’s US.
February 18, 2022
Sir J, there are other EU rules which could also be dropped/adopted. In particular linked to financial services where the UK has a leading offer and where changes could release billions of pounds. As one example, swift changes to the Solvency II regime would be a good start, yet the Civil Service represented by the Prudential Regulation Authority resist.
February 18, 2022
These all seem to be suggestions of how we can proceed but we are at the mercy of those who never wished to be unshackled in the first place so it seems.
I look forward to the immigration suggestions you have because it’s crystal clear that the Conservative leadership have just exchanged one freedom of movement for another.
The magic points system seems to have opened up our borders even wider, unless of course Migration Watch are making false claims, but our eyes do not deceive even if other’s mouths do.
Then we have the illegals.
None of this can be blamed on EU if it ever truly could be in the first place.
February 18, 2022
+1 Michelle – I will never understand why this government spends more money on illegals, and gives them greater benefits, than the legal citizens of this country. I am sure no other country does this. It shouts out the obvious, ie. this government is actually encouraging illegal immigration, and this is confirmed by the complete absence of deportations, even of terrorists and violent criminals.
February 18, 2022
The reason is simple and I’m amazed you still haven’t understood it. WE ARE GOVERNED BY COWARDS AND TRAITORS.
Got it now?
February 18, 2022
The latest proposal / plan / thoughts, from a well known Think Tank is now talking of 48 hr deportation possibilities and possible despatch to yet another three territories, Alderney, Cyprus military base areas and Ascension Island cited. Alderney wishing that info would not be bandied about before being consulted, understandably. No matter what is done, the current conditions, migrant benefits & pussyfooting this government continues to insist on, only allows the criminals to thrive & to h… with the rest. I despair at the priorities of this government.
February 18, 2022
+1… last sentence.
Now we know the truth with our 80 seat ‘Tory’ majority.
I would have voted Remain had I known this at the time. Brexit is a disaster.
February 19, 2022
Your epistemology was not the best, no.
February 18, 2022
Why has so little been done to redress the situation? Why are we allowing the EUās disrespect in NI?
February 18, 2022
Very thin gruel compared with the sunlit uplands promised.
Suspect a proper fact check would debunk much.
Any MPs words still supporting the degenerate charlatan currently at No 10 cannot be taken at face value.
Lots of nonsense written about deregulation on here too. There needs to be regulatory stability and in most cases alignment with EU as all sensible trade experts recognise, to begin to make up for the damage of brexit.
Reply Plenty more to come
February 18, 2022
Occasionally, “in the chilly hours and minutes of uncertainty”, I wonder whether I made a mistake by voting to leave the EU. However I didn’t vote that way in the expectation of significant identifiable economic benefits – the reality is that so far EU membership has never had more than a marginal economic impact on the UK – but to try to restore and improve our national democracy, and by God everything that has happened about the referendum – before and since – has confirmed the desperate need for that.
February 18, 2022
+1
February 18, 2022
‘in the chilly hours and minutes of uncertaintyā’
You should credit the words to Donovan – ‘Catch the wind’ (released 1965).
February 18, 2022
Indeed, but the version by Judith Durham is much better …
February 19, 2022
but then Donovan was a bit whiny…
February 18, 2022
What and when? Youāve had years to work out what regulations you want to lose.
February 18, 2022
If your criticism is of the present government and the Tories generally, I agree wholeheartedly. But not so of JR personally, who has tenaciously pressed for action. Yet this advice that there is “plenty more to come” does not fill me with confidence. Assertions or promises like this are a poor alternative for what should already have been done, as expected by the voters two years ago – precious little has been achieved.
February 18, 2022
“Reply Plenty more to come”
Sir John, you keep saying this, but as a great man once said: “We don’t believe you”. There is plenty more that COULD come, that’s for sure, and you often set out some of this “more”. But you (and I) wishing it won’t make it happen whilst you (but *not* I) continue to support a PM who is BLOCKING all the changes that you and I both want.
Today you Tweeted: “We need to promote more domestic energy and more electricity capacity. We need to attract and retain more steel, aluminium and glass making, microprocessor fabrication
and home grown food.”. There is not one word, one syllable or one letter that I disagree with there, but the prime minister and the government you support are doing NONE of this. Indeed, they are doing the very OPPOSITE!
Until you and your likeminded backbenchers bite the bullet and give Boris a hard ultimatum – make ALL these changes within the next 7 days or we send in our letters of no confidence – then NOTHING is going to happen. Face it, that’s the reality.
February 18, 2022
Many useful improvements could be brought about by statutory instruments but I see no indication of Mr Rees Mogg taking that bull by the horns. More platitudes to come from him no doubt.
February 18, 2022
Rees Mogg is in loyal Conservative mode.
He has stood in front of a microphone and sung the praises of Boris Johnson. He recently said Johnsonās leadership has been ābrilliantā and āhe got all the big decisions rightā.
So if he is prepared to say that I would not expect great things from him or have any hope of him turning things around.
February 18, 2022
I wonder if he confessed his sins on sunday?
February 18, 2022
I thought the demise of UK fishing was due to UK fishermen selling their fishing rights rather than fish.
And where are we to get the workers to kickstart a renewed fishing fleet? Can you see snowflake generation doing it, whilst demanding flexible hours and WFH? Plus having to face peril on the sea.
Oh yes, immigration.
February 19, 2022
More to the point, to whom would they sell their catches?
Previously, fresh seafood – with a VERY short shelf life but at premium prices was taken eagerly by the near Continent.
Brexit delays have destroyed that market.
February 19, 2022
typo – you meant EU delays, didn’t you !
February 19, 2022
No, the UK is treated exactly as any other non-member country.
You’d have even more trouble getting the stuff into Aus or the US if they were next door.
February 19, 2022
I’m laughing, but not deranged like others on here.
February 19, 2022
You know the EUnare not treating us like other non members NHL
February 18, 2022
All this is urgent, and action could have been taken to correct these injustices but nothing has been done because ‘Boris’ in particular does not want anything to be done because it requires courage which he hasn’t got. He would rather have his picture in the paper giving the impression he is action man. He is in fact weak and just a poseur and ‘gobber’.
JR-M will get nothing done, just as Frost got nothing done and Liz Truss has got nothing done.
‘Boris’ is dangerous to the UK as we have seen in connection with Northern Ireland but England is on his list for destruction too.
February 18, 2022
VAT ?
February 18, 2022
For our VAT policy please read EU VAT Directive 2006/112/EU….and will not change while the TCA & NIP are in force
February 18, 2022
Thank you Sir John. Six of your paragraphs clearly illustrate how the EU systematically tried to destroy our country because they knew that one day we would wakeup and leave.
Their worst fear has happened so it is no surprise that they are being utterly difficult. Our problem is that we have a PM who has to be liked, so I hope he is strong enough to let J R-M take the flack and get Brexit implemented.
February 18, 2022
What seems to happen is that despite genuine efforts to try and promote and increase the speed of departure from the EU we are being plagued with those happenstance, coincidence moments that have yet to reach the action stage. We seem to be being held back at every twist and turn of progress by a well marshaled, orchestrated, dedicated fifth column within parliament and the civil service especially. Until this is properly addressed and resolved it will be a case of a very slow, long winding road to meet our ultimate destination.
Cometh the hour cometh the man. That time has arrived we cannot carry on as we are. Boris could do it maybe but only with the right team around him, drop all his Net Zero and grandiose projects, totally focus on the job he said he would do. He cannot be all things to all people. It’s his line in the sand moment.
February 18, 2022
Excellent contribution to the debate. WHY were these not handled immediately we left?
I’m sure there were plenty more occasions where EU law and ECJ damaged British interests, not just recently but over many years – We really should identify them all.
I have a link to the database of EU regulations still in effect in the UK, but wading through them to identify the worst, for the UK, is very trying, with so much vagueness and wordiness.
It really is time we removed the EU totally from our lives!
February 19, 2022
Bryan
You don’t live in the real world
February 19, 2022
Bryan, If you are so worried by European Union regulations for the time being, then why not just ignore them eh? Take the family swimming on beaches where there are no blue flags. Buy your medicines from the Third WorId on the internet. Drink from taps labelled Not Drinking Water. Sign away your right to refuse excessive overtime for your strutting boss. When you buy a Cornish Pasty, pretend that it was made in Corby or in Corbridge. There will be no stopping you crafty dodgers now, will there?
February 18, 2022
Why have these Brexit win measures not been taken before? Government too busy partying through Covid?
February 18, 2022
For those who have not read or watched it I recommend the recent Romanes lecture by Kate Bingham. She was put in charge of getting vaccines quickly to counter the Corona virus. This was only achieved at speed by bypassing the NHS bureaucracy and other constraints. She offers trenchant criticisms of the way the civil service operates, including its recruitment mix and promotional incentives. This government will not make progress unless it can dilute the bureaucratic treacle that frustrates changes to the established order. It is evident that this government has been too preoccupied with eco zealotry and not on the fundamental issue which got it elected in the first place. That needs to change with a PM who grasps this imperative and not the pursuit of a personal agenda.
February 18, 2022
The Business and Energy ministry could stop following the EU carbon trading scheme which has quadrupled the cost of carbon credits. Instead, it has doubled them in 12 months, refused to change and thinks it is a brilliant way to decarbonise. Now we are about to pay for it on top of the increase in gas price and the last coal power station will close. Politicians and civil servants obviously wish for Brino and the Carrie On set is in charge.
February 18, 2022
The question I would ask is why has it taken so long to deal with all these areas designed by the EU to disadvantage the UK. Is it that our establishment/civil service have been reluctant to act, a successful UK being anathema to their script.
February 18, 2022
Does anyone have any confidence that this government will achieve anything of benefit to the people of the UK? They seem determined to impoverish most of us and take away our liberty and freedom with alacrity. They are untrustworthy and the worst government in my lifetime, as is the House of Commons.
February 18, 2022
I understand the major players in a number of markets are now campaigning AGAINST repealing laws that they originally were dead set against.
Although repeal would save them money, it would involve more change to internal systems and processes etc but critically, they see themselves as having absorbed those costs whereas new entratnts to the market would avoiud them altogether, being free to set up streamlined processes without needing to address any of these issues.
Sadly, modern government listens far too much to such vested interests and ends up preserving the status quo (in terms of favouring and thereby preserving the current players).
Government needs to recognise that its function is to define the business environment, not to do what’s best for the current shower. Innovation drives future prosperity and innovation means change.
The party donorship model works against good government. Also, it’s been sad to see how many of the “questions” in the oC are driven by personal interest – people who are in receipt of payment from companies for questionable “services”.
February 18, 2022
examples please.
February 18, 2022
The majority that voted for Brexit will need to see the red meat of withdrawal from the EU well before the next election. Promises at the next election of rescinding various EU laws which could have been dealt with years ago will be seen as the usual political jam tomorrow and push voters towards Nigel. Dont your fellow MPs realise this?
February 18, 2022
Time and excuses are running out for Boris and Carrie who cannot take us forward as too few in the executive have your powers of observation and proven skills to organise and deliver what we voted for 6 years ago.
The lack of STEM at the top executive highlighted by the CV19 pandemic is the key Achilles heel that still needs urgently addressing.
Without STEM we have no backbone framework to guarantee moving forward only going round in ever decreasing circles as many here have noted.
February 18, 2022
The EU is a system dreamed up by useless politicians to hang on to the coattails of German industry.
As such, it has no relevance to the UK. Many politicians wanted to remain members of the club because it absolved them of responsibility but left them free to enjoy all the perks of being an MP.
We need a patriotic leader of the Conservative party. I cannot see any other party contemplating patriotism which appears to have become a dirty word in Westminster. Johnson is too weak willed and, like all Old Etonians, wants an easy life.
Why not raise taxes, who cares? Not MPs living mostly off untaxed “expenses” and “fact finding missions”.
There are many, many flaws in our society, but no will to fix them. HELP!!
February 18, 2022
JRM has almost been given his dream job ( only PM or Chancellor would be better ). Let’s hope he acts swifty and decisively to recommend a whole series of changes to benefit our country.
There is nothing that can be done to legally stop him but his first and biggest battle will be with the Civil Service whose overwhelmingly Remainer members will attempt to keep us in line with the EU on every issue. He will have to be ruthless in putting down this 21st century militant tendency and I suspect there will be plenty of blood spilt in the process. Bring it on !
February 19, 2022
I think that JRM – like so many – prefers impressive titles to actual jobs.
February 18, 2022
John these and many other Brexit opportunities must be put into place urgently. Whilst doubting the possibility of us re joining the EU the chances of an anti Brexit coalition government in two years time resisting positive changes is credible. The lack of urgency as illustrated by the outstanding issues with NI, fisheries and our participation in the ECHR (which complicates our ability to co control our borders) is worrying.
February 18, 2022
Thank you Sir John for reminding us of the damage done to this country by the EU. Many others I’m sure, do remember but I had forgotten these cases.
Why have these harmful laws not been reversed? I see no excuse. Our government has instead chosen to inflict enormous harm on this country instead, with lockdown and all the associated damage. Let’s not forget the draconian legislation they found time to pass, more attune to a police state than a libertarian democracy.
February 18, 2022
Sir John,
Looking back there seems to have been a pattern of behaviour by the EEC, EU and ECJ, quite often at the UK’s expense. What was originally promoted as a “common market” in which we would all benefit is now just ancient history.
February 18, 2022
Whatās the point in scrapping a few EU laws when this Government is introducing a multitude of new net-zero and tax-increasing laws to take more money off hard-working British people?
Just wait until the cost of the new clean air zones, green energy subsidies, National Insurance increases hit. People will be outraged. If they donāt get your money when you are alive they will take it once you are dead with thousands more people being caught up in the Inheritance Tax allowance freezes. None of the main political parties care about the middle classes, they just see us as a cash cow to be exploited.
February 18, 2022
Is our government for the benefit of its people or the EU….its getting hard to tell the difference
February 18, 2022
All very good suggestions. I donāt know why we have not banned the very large trawlers for environmental reasons.
But what about the most important issue, controlling our borders?
Why has this not been tackled despite the Brexit vote, the Conservative Party manifesto, an 80 seat majority at the last GE and numerous polling results?
The Government even invites illegals – mainly young men of fighting age with no ID- into the country with RNLI/Border Force/RN safe pick up in the Channel, 4 star hotel accommodation, Ā£40/week pocket money, freedom to roam our streets as they wish and never ever any chance of being returned to their home countries.
Why did the Government employ a head of Border Force who said āBorders are a painā?
Who is running the country, the Marxist, pro-EU, pro-immigration arts educated civil service or our elected representatives in Parliament?
It doesnāt seem to matter who you vote for the policies are still those of the civil service.
February 18, 2022
You can only send these “illegals” (as you wrongly call them) to countries willing to accept them. None are. In the EU, rules meant we could send them to other EU countries, who had to take them. Not any more. Not now we are not in the EU. We’re on our own. Still, you voted for it. So much winning!
February 18, 2022
If you examine the data you will find the EU “rules” meant nothing of the kind and were utterly worthless. The number of returns from the UK to the EU under the Dublin regulation was at least an order of magnitude less than the number of UK requests to return them.
February 18, 2022
Italy and France return illegal immigrants to their last āsafeā haven i.e Greece
So why canāt weā¦.Under the UN definition theyāve stopped being ārefugeesā when they reach the first safe haven
February 19, 2022
Have a think, Glen. Maybe Italy and France are part of some club that allows this, and we are not.
(You people make me laugh when you say you know what you voted for)
February 19, 2022
a) They often won’t say where they entered Europe.
b) The UK can no longer bring a case under any European Union inter-member agreement such as Dublin.
c) There is no UN rule that says what you claim for asylum seekers.
February 18, 2022
Original Richard.
A lot of truth in what you say. The Civil Servants are indeed running the country. Presumably this is because the ELECTED Heads of Departments, are too cowardly, or lazy, to control the civil servants.
You are also right about the shameful failure to defend our borders.
No wonder we find no difference between life now and life when we were in the E.U.
February 18, 2022
I believed that the Boris āgreen revolutionā was his own ideaā¦it wasnāt its the law of the land and a EU directive from 2018 (after the referendum but before the deal)
It covers heat-pumps, wind-turbines, transport, energy production, inter-connectivity, bio-mass, etc etc
āDirective (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of
11 December 2018 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sourcesā
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudr/2018/2001
February 18, 2022
Really glen cullen? Well in that case, that E.U. Directive must be repealed.
And perhaps it should be made VERY CLEAR to BORIS that it had been repealed so he didn’t have a leg left to stand on.
February 18, 2022
More importantly why did this government accept and adopt directives and EU laws after the 2016 referendumā¦.against the wishes of the people
February 18, 2022
Iād like to see all trade with the EU cease. I can live without German and French cars, Bosch, Neff, Zanussi etc. appliances and tasteless Dutch tomatoes. It would do our balance of payments a lot of good too.
February 18, 2022
Ever heard of Adam Smith, Mike?
February 18, 2022
which band did he play with?
February 19, 2022
Isnāt it obvious ā¦they played for the āSmithsā in the 80s
February 19, 2022
none of them had surname Smith…..just saying.
February 19, 2022
or even Adam and the Ants?
February 18, 2022
Just sold my troublesome German car and replaced it with a non-eu model. EU food and drink is off the table as far as possible. Same goes for Chinese goods which is not at all easy.
February 18, 2022
Just enjoying a glass of a fine Bordeaux.
Sackcloth and ashes for you then, eh?
February 19, 2022
does the local pub landlord keep a supply – just for you?
Or, do you lower the tone and drink beer with the riff raff?
February 18, 2022
Keep up the great work Sir J, looking forward to seeing your full list! Mifid II in there?
And smaller Government too promised, please can this include local government, who in effect now mainly issue work orders to subcontractors and perform contract management.. make the council tax collection centralised and reduce those departments.
Reply I do not comment on financial services
February 18, 2022
My goodness. So many impatient user of your blog.Rome was not built in a day.We weāre in the E U for 40 Years.During that time our loads and masters learnt how to work with Brussels. They now have to implement the freedoms we voted for.
How long will this take?
We used up the first 5 years. So fingers crossed we can get further to the promised land in 10 years? 15 years?
February 18, 2022
+1
Hopefully you are right.
I just expected it all to end on the day we voted āLeaveā.
Not realistic at all.
I also expected people to honour the vote!
February 18, 2022
So did 17.4 million people
February 18, 2022
We are up against formidable opposition who don’t do ‘honour’.
February 18, 2022
Brexit wonāt last that long.
February 18, 2022
nor will your hysterical laughter.
February 19, 2022
Unnecessary response
February 18, 2022
The new Brexit Secretary and indeed the Foreign Secretary should be tallying the number of aliens in our country by country of Origin, and we should have carbon offsets per capita.
We might find we can āaffordā to frack, maintain the internal combustion engine and much else.
February 18, 2022
Light relief.
Cartoon doing the rounds on FB,
Two old ladies standing adjacent to an old traditional washing line full of clothes.
One says to another ” do you realise I am utilising modern technology here”
“How come was the reply”?
I’am using wind and solar power.
February 18, 2022
+1
Actually I imagine there is a lot of truth in that.
We will be returning to coppers, dollies, mangles and lines.
Ash and urine, flints and sparks etc.
Assuming they allow us fire?
Deindustrialise.
February 18, 2022
The simple fact is we still have a mainly remainer Parliament and civil service, who simply cannot get their heads around the fact that we can now make our own policy decisions.
They have been sucking at the EU rules and regulations for so long, they have forgotten how to plan and manage our own affairs.
February 18, 2022
Seems so and nearly all believers in net zero, climate alarmism, excessive employment and health and safety laws, an ever large state and ever larger taxes to fund all this.
February 18, 2022
We should focus on those industries which are still in British hands. Forty years of
EU membership and the depredations of Wall Street and third rate accountants and their conglomerates
has reduced us to serfdom as most of British industry is now in foreign hands.
Firstly stop the rot which means blocking all takeovers unless they are internal and there are exceptional reasons for them to proceed. Companies prosper when they are autonomous not when they are part of a group unless considerable synergies exist. We should also consider restricting the voting rights of foreign entities so that they cannot damage our companies with their global warming scam.
We still have our natural advantages including our seaboard which saw us become the greatest maritime nation at one time. JR is right to advocate laws to promote a renaissance. There may need to be a break up of companies which have become overlarge and inefficient in this sector. The Dept of Defence civil servants likes a one stop shop irrespective of the cost to the taxpayer; they may need to be removed.
We should not be claiming that we are now a service based economy when this has happened by default unless we believe the incompetence and stupidity of government with its Net Zero wrecking agenda and kowtowing to foreigners (except Putin, of course) is immutable. ‘Levelling up’ can only happen if all areas of the country have equal opportunities for productive growth. Let farmers farm, fishermen fish; release the
forces that gave us the first industrial revolution by removing all blocking laws.
February 18, 2022
There needs to be a new policy for the tertiary sector. Bliar’s reforms have created an overlarge
sector in which most of the science and technology courses are dominated by foreigners and
many courses created to enable those of a non-academic disposition to waste time and money which could be better spent on vocational training. Prioritise our people; our universities were created to educate us. Let foreigners create their own institutions of learning. Education like healthcare should not run for profit but to enable the country to thrive.
February 18, 2022
We shouldn’t need a new minister of Brexit opportunities, the government should have know what the opportunities were before we left.
The plan should have been made and all that was needed was to execute them.
February 18, 2022
Indeed Cameron should have prepared for both referendum outcomes, but in an act of gross (surely almost or even actual criminal negligence) he Osborn and the civil service totally failed to do so. Then Cameron just abandoned the bridge of the ship like a pathetic spoiled child.
February 18, 2022
and his constituency.
February 18, 2022
I see the MP for Dover is claiming all the extra bureaucrats that have had to be hired to deal with all the new red tape this government has created is a “Brexit win”.
February 18, 2022
Sir JR
You are right we now have the opportunity to use some of the advantages Brexit has given us.
The challenge is this requires detailed knowledge and skills to work with details to identify the advantages. Jacob unfortunately does not have those capabilities so he is the wrong man for the job. So, much for Brexit.
February 18, 2022
How do you know he isn’t the right person for the job.?
Please give us your facts and evidence.
You do have some presumably Billy?
February 19, 2022
How do you know he is the right person for the job.
Please give us your facts and evidence.
You do have some presumably, P2?
February 19, 2022
I didn’t claim he was heffy.
Are getting me confused with your pal Billy?
February 19, 2022
Peter 2
Wake up look at his past experience, not relevant for details and his exceeding generalist approach to the Parliament job. This requires deep scrutiny and legislative knowledge of which he has hardly any
February 19, 2022
I am awake Billy.
You criticise posters for not giving facts but fail as usual to provide any yourself.
February 19, 2022
Peter 2
I gave a clear answer but given your answer I will have to treat with less intellectual respect in the future
February 19, 2022
Your post was just some vague claims about someone you dislike.
Maybe you are irritated at his appointment because you know he will do a great job
February 18, 2022
Yes, the MP for Dover ā¦ # sigh #
February 18, 2022
Making A Virtue Out Of Necessity, it’s called, like most Tory claims.
February 18, 2022
Off topic, here we go again, more exaggeration about the economic benefit of a special trade deal.
https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-passes-first-milestone-to-join-pacific-trade-bloc/
“UK passes first step to join Pacific trade bloc”
“The trade department claims accession to CPTPP is worth some Ā£8.4 trillion to U.K. wealth.”
OK, in 2019 UK GDP was Ā£2,255,283 million = Ā£2,255 billion = Ā£2.26 trillion:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/281744/gdp-of-the-united-kingdom/
so this trade deal would be worth 3.7 times as much as our national output in that year, a “fantastic” deal.
Maybe we should look and see what the trade department actually says:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/trade-secretary-secures-major-trade-bloc-milestone-ahead-of-asia-visit
“Trade Secretary secures major trade bloc milestone ahead of Asia visit”
“The UK reaches a major milestone to join Ā£8.4 trillion CPTPP free trade area”
“… the UK has moved into the second āmarket accessā phase of negotiations with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a free trade area worth Ā£8.4 trillion in GDP.”
“… market access negotiations will now begin in which the UK will agree new trading relationships with CPTPP countries, which could lead to 99.9% of UK exports to CPTPP being eligible for tariff-free trade.”
“CPTPP membership is expected to support levelling up by benefitting every nation and region of the UK, with the greatest relative gains predicted to be in the West Midlands, Scotland and Northern Ireland. There is expected to be a Ā£53 million boost to the Gross Value Added of Wales, Ā£45 million for Northern Ireland and Ā£163 million for Scotland following UK accession to CPTPP.”
A Ā£53 million boost for Wales would be an increase of about 0.07%, for Northern Ireland Ā£45 million would be about 0.09%, and for Scotland Ā£163 million would be about 0.1%:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1003902/uk-gdp-by-country-2018/
I’m not quite sure what these small numbers for the “relative gains” actually mean, but if the number for England was similar at 0.1% then the increase in GDP for England would be about Ā£1.9 billion and for the UK as a whole it would be about Ā£2 billion, so in that case the President of the CBI Lord Karan Bilimoria could be misleading us when he introduces a number fifty times higher – “this deal could unlock opportunities with countries contributing more than Ā£100 billion to our economy.”
Perhaps an MP should put down a question, asking directly about the official numerical estimates for the overall economic benefits to the UK of a) the trade deal with the EU, and b) this Pacific trade deal.
February 19, 2022
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1568545/Boris-Johnson-Brexit-Britain-trade-deal-Anne-Marie-Trevelyan-Trans-Pacific-Partnership
“Officials are optimistic that membership can be agreed by the end of the year in a deal that is expected to add an estimated Ā£1.8billion a year to GDP.”
0.1%.
February 18, 2022
Thank you for a good laugh today Mr Redwood. Youāre clearly all getting a bit desperate.
The elephant in the room – which you all now know but are desperately hoping is not there – is that there are no Brexit wins.
But thanks for the laugh.
February 18, 2022
Agree ā while weāre tied to the EU via the treaties TCA & NIP, there will never be any brexit wins….and we all need to be honest about it
February 18, 2022
Not being in the EU is the best outcome.
February 19, 2022
Having read this blog for more than six years now, it is clear that the majority of the contributors here are really enjoying this ābest outcomeā every day that they live.
February 19, 2022
Well then don’t come on here and read all the posts and get yourself all worked up and grumpy hef.
PS
I had few objections to the idea of the Common Market but hated how it developed into the EU.
I am thrilled the UK has left.
February 19, 2022
Peter 2
Can we have some proof instead loose none founded arguments. This does not serve you well
February 19, 2022
It’s my opinion Billy.
Sorry if it annoys you.
As I have said before, unlike you I very much dislike the EU and its march towards a superstate.
I want to live in an independent nation state where I get a direct vote for a government.
February 19, 2022
Peter 2
You did not answer my question
February 19, 2022
If I gave you proof you would refuse to accept it.
So what is the point.
You love the EU
I don’t
February 19, 2022
Peter 2
Your arguments are weak and uninformed.
Jacob has a classic degree and has worked in general asset management with no legal background whatsoever, and his job in Parliament has been of a very general character and you still argue your uninformed views with no real argument and substantiation
February 20, 2022
You are entitled to your opinion Billy.
I think he will prove to be a very good choice for this role.
You seem strangely and unduly worried he has been appointed.
February 18, 2022
Sir John,
Would the repealed laws be applicable in NI? For example would the EU allow Northern Ireland to reduce VAT on insulation materials – as this could surely lead to massive smuggling across the non-border.
Is this possibility a reason for the government’s reticence in repealing these laws because of the NIP which I know you personally did not vote for?
Reply I am told not by HMG but it’s another reason to try it and see. If The EU tried to stop us cutting taxes in NI that would strengthen the case for U.K. legislation to fix it
February 18, 2022
āNorthern Ireland is subject to the same European Union (EU) VAT rules on goods as EU Member Statesāā¦.the water needs to be tested if the EU or the UK sets the VAT rate in NI
February 18, 2022
Under article 8 VAT, NI has to comply with the EU directive relating to single market conditions ie maintain the VAT minimum values (current compliance), non-compliance will go before the UK-EU joint committee with adjudication to European Court of Justice
ā181.Jim Harra (First Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive of HM Revenue and Customs) confirmed to the Treasury Committee that under these new arrangements āNorthern Ireland would stay aligned with the EUās VAT rulesā in relation to goods
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5801/ldselect/ldeucom/66/6611.htm
February 19, 2022
Sir J R
Does not have authority to do this nor would they
February 20, 2022
What does this post mean bill?
February 18, 2022
As a newly independent country we should be making very strong representations to ten governments of two of our Dominions, Australia and Canada, where the police forces are “They are putting their helmets on. They are getting ready for something.”
Quebec provincial police equipped with full riot gear put on gas masks as they move to disperse a unarmed peaceful Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa. The martial law enforcement have brought in LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device) equipment and have positioned snipers above the crowd. (H/T Marie Oakes)
In Gods name, have you seen the film? This is barbaric!
February 19, 2022
Australia and Canada ātwo of our Dominionsā? Canada and Australia having become Dominions in the 1926 Imperial Conference, this status was confirmed by the 1931 Statute of Westminster. Unfortunately for the British Empire nostalgists, according to legislation.gov.uk āStatute of Westminster 1931ā āthere are currently no known outstanding effects for the S of W 1931ā.
In fact, the Canadian Constitution Act 1982 with its Part I āCanadian Charter of Rights and Freedomsā, Part II āRights of the Aboriginal Peoples of Canadaā, Part III āEqualization and Regional Disparitiesā, Part IV āConstitutional Conferenceā, Part V āProcedure for Amending Constitution of Canadaā, Part VI āAmendment to the Constitution Act, 1867ā, and Part VII āGeneralā fully replaces any of remnants of the S of W, wrt to Canada.
The Australia Act 1986 does the same thing for Australia: it āeliminates the remaining possibilities for the UK to legislate with effects in Australia, or for an appeal from any Australian court to a British courtā. It defines Australia as āa sovereign, independent and federal nationā.
As a subject of āa newly independent countryā, are you willing to make āvery strong representationsā to the Russian government to ask it to let Ukraine be?
February 19, 2022
As far as I know, no officer has knelt on a protester’s neck until he died, Lynn.
February 19, 2022
Are you going for record number of post NHL?
Must be 50 today.
Hilarious.
February 19, 2022
Peter 2
At least they’re better informed than yours
February 20, 2022
Thanks Billy another super post from you.
You are trying to surpass others on here as the resident pro EU troll