The case for free trade

Most of us believe in free trade in our own lives. We rely on the free internal market of the Uk to supply most of our wants. I rely on the farmers to grow my  food, on the millers, bakers and retailers to supply my bread and on the energy companies to heat my house and fuel my car. Each of us trains, specialises and takes a job in a relatively narrow field knowing we can rely on our fellow citizens to supply our other wants.

We do this because it is impossible for us to command all the skills and resources it needs to live to the level of sophistication we enjoy by working together. I do not need to plant my garden with potatoes, learn to sew clothes and try to get up to speed on how to make electronic devices when there are so  many people and businesses that can do these things better, faster and cheaper.

The same theory should apply at the international level. Russia should have cheaper oil and gas because it has so much more of it than us. Ukraine should have cheaper wheat as it specialises in growing grains on its fertile plains. Unfortunately war can stop all that potential trade. Taiwan does have better microprocessors, but when the world is short of them we are not going to get all we need by hoping for more imports.

National resilience is about having the capacity to do the things that matter for yourself. In the world wars the UK had to dig for victory, putting more acres under the plough to  grow more food as our imports were being attacked at sea. Today if we want successful industries we could do with more of our own microprocessors and more affordable gas to fuel our factories as foreign supplies are damaged.

There is little point in spending lots of money on defence equipment if in a war you were unable to scale up the production and draw mainly on your own resources to equip and supply your forces. That is why I have stressed that a plan for national resilience is an important part of any National Security Council work on defending ourselves.

158 Comments

  1. Peter Wood
    March 12, 2022

    Good Morning,

    I am forced to repeat my phrase; ‘People trade, politicians frustrate trade’.

    We have a bigger problem, the UN is again proving itself a waste of space. It can do nothing to persuade Putin to back-off and worse, it doesn’t even appear to be able to arrange some form of ‘international protection’ for Ukraine’s nuclear facilities. This isue should be front and center of the World’s peace keeping bodies, IAEA etc to find a way to toake those world threatening nuclear facilities out of the equation. Putin, when he becomes desperate, will use them.

    1. Lifelogic
      March 12, 2022

      Indeed the government have killed most free trade in health care & education (hard to compete with free), much of housing with subsidised housing for some but not other, in employment with the minimum wage and with daft restrictive employment laws, in transport with subsidies for public transport and vast taxes on cars and trucks… Sunak

      1. Hope
        March 12, 2022

        JR’s party has pursued a policy of money printing while keeping interest rates extraordinary low for 12 years! With inflation at about 7-9% depending which rate is used and interest rates at 0.5% it is difficult to understand where trade will come from, the fear must be recession- while we can expect Johnson to lie about the causes and blame anything and everything other than on Tory policy of failure for twelve long years. Free money is over- although Johnson loves free money! We must now suffer the incompetence of handling the economy by JR’s party.

        Many on this site recommended his govt. fix the roof early especially as the Tories had the political pain of being labelled with the faux austerity when it was hardly any such thing.

        JR’s party has a record to demonstrate it is against business, manufacturing and hence trade. Tangentially look at the Tory party historic record for taxation, debt, deficit, public spending, lowest disposal income since 1950’s! Look what Trump did in his term and compare to what JR’s party did while being in office three times the length of Trump. We need a Pro business pro trade Trump not a bunch of left wing virtue signallers who run out of other peoples money and vividly cannot run a whelk stall! Or as Nadine Dorries once said posh boys who do not know the price of milk!

      2. Iain Gill
        March 12, 2022

        yes indeed

        same way as they manipulate employment by making it cheaper to hire foreigners than locals, its just social engineering

    2. Nottingham Lad Himself
      March 12, 2022

      The police force and law fail to prevent all crime.

      That is not a reason to scrap them, however.

      1. Lifelogic
        March 12, 2022

        A statement of the bleeding obvious! Abolish no huge reform and proper direction yes.

        All crime! I doubt if the current police & justice system prevent or deter more than about 5% of UK crime, so inefficient, woke and appallingly misdirected are they in general. A victim of crime letter and a crime number is about all you can expect most of the time.

        Yet the dire failed Met. Police Chief Cressida Dick gets a reported pay off of £500k for “resigning” and an indexed pension of £160k for life. Just the pension is the cost of ~ five junior doctors and requires about 15 average workers PAYE taxes every year just to fund her pension alone for the next ~ 30 years. This is multiplied very many times all over the state sector. One lot of people blatantly parasitising off the backs of the others. Often delivering almost nothing of value to the public at all. Many doing net harm like all the net zero loons and spewers of damaging red tape.

        1. Fedupsoutherner
          March 12, 2022

          L/L. You’re not wrong in what you say. In fact I’d go further saying I’m fed up with the big unions getting big pay rises for their workers while ordinary folk have to pay for the big rises in costs when they don’t get big rises in pay. I cannot believe what my neighbour tells me he can earn as a guard on a train. It’s obcsene.

          1. Lifelogic
            March 12, 2022

            Indeed some train/tube drivers earn three times that of a Junior Doctor and to not have student debts of perhaps ÂŁ100K plus ÂŁ6K PA interest to repay either. Nor 5-6 years loss of earnings.

          2. Iain Gill
            March 12, 2022

            Lifelogic,

            Yea but the train drivers had Bob Crow negotiating on their side, instead of the woke clowns negotiating for the doctors…

        2. Donna
          March 12, 2022

          I expect she’ll be in the Lords before long. Because the Establishment rewards failure.

          1. Lifelogic
            March 13, 2022

            Indeed they do.

    3. No Longer Anonymous
      March 12, 2022

      It’s far worse than that. NATO caused this crisis.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        March 12, 2022

        I think that in the pie chart of blame Putin would be the biggest slice by far.

        If not for NATO then maybe Poland, Hungary etc. would still be under the Soviet heel on the other hand, but we’ll never be sure.

        1. No Longer Anonymous
          March 12, 2022

          Nato should not have gone anywhere near Russia having decided to have made it an enemy since the fall of the Berlin wall.

          1. No Longer Anonymous
            March 12, 2022

            Indeed – why did Nato even exist after the fall of the Warsaw Pact which it was meant to have ‘defended’ against ?

            Nato’s very existence after that was provocative… let alone its approach to Russian borders in the guise of the EU.

    4. Peter
      March 12, 2022

      ‘The same theory should apply at the international level.‘

      Key words here are ‘theory’ and ‘should’. It is all very well for Adam Smith to describe the manufacture of pins, but the real world is often not like this.

      People and countries will try to shape trade to give themselves an advantage. Hence the economists’ stock phrase ‘ceteris paribus’ for when life does not mirror theory.

      1. Lifelogic
        March 12, 2022

        Where life or experiment does not mirror theory then the theory is wrong (or at least incomplete). Witness climate alarmism, the pushing of renewables, increasing taxes in the hope of raising more taxes to waste


        The division of labour is surely damn obvious to anyone even remotely sensible. Easy to be become faster and more proficient at one or two tasks rather than hundreds of them. Send good hunters out to hunt, good cooks to cooks it, good butchers to butcher it, good farmers to farm


        Surely a statement of the obvious and he was hardly the first to say it.

        1. Peter
          March 12, 2022

          Lifelogic,

          A simplistic response. You may like to believe in Free Trade but the real world with barriers to entry (obvious ones and hidden ones) will be your undoing.

          If most are not playing by the rules then you lose.

    5. oldwulf
      March 12, 2022

      @Peter Wood

      ” ….politicians frustrate trade”

      Politicians interfere.
      That is their sole purpose.
      Sadly, they have difficulty differentiating between good interference and bad interference.

    6. X-Tory
      March 12, 2022

      It’s rather unfair to criticise the UN for being exactly what it is supposed to be: a discussion forum. It is not a global military force, it is not a world government – it is merely a venue where nations can meet in a neutral location and try to resolve their differences through reasoned debate. The tragedy is that Ukraine have foolishly pinned their hopes on two organisations – NATO and the EU – which are not as keen on Ukraine as Ukraine is on them. Yes, both organisations have said Ukraine can join … but not yet. Not by a long chalk. Ukraine, on the other hand, was hoping for immediate membership, and sadly this gave Putin a paper-thin excuse for his attack.

      Now Ukraine are learning the hard way that they need to view NATO and the EU with a much more sceptical and jaundiced eye. The UK, on the other hand, has been their best friend, even though they have never been particularly favourable towards us. You would think Ukraine would by now have finally realised that we are the country they should align with, but still today they tried to get France and Germany to help them in discussions with Putin. That obviously got them nowhere! When will Ukraine learn that the only country worth talking to is Britain?

      1. Philip P.
        March 12, 2022

        Perhaps they do that because France and Germany were the guarantor nations of the Minsk accords, X-Tory. Also, their politicians have not indulged in insulting braggadocio of the kind that Johnson has done towards Russia. This man completely rules Britain out as a negotiating partner on the world stage in anything worthwhile whatsoever.

      2. No Longer Anonymous
        March 12, 2022

        Indeed. What is Ukraine’s end game ? To win the war and join an EU which will tell it that men are women and you dare say otherwise you get cancelled ?

        An EU that will be broken by the blow-back of sanctions against Russia and too poor to rebuild her cities, let alone inject a load of EU taxpayer’s cash into her roads and swimming pools and because of Green stupidity is too poor to even keep their own EU citizens warm, let alone rebuild Ukraine ?

        A Ukraine that has been so obliterated in a proxy war by a West too scared to confront China but wanting to signal to China to keep out of Taiwan ? Has anyone told the Ukrainians that they are being used by the West in this way ?

  2. SM
    March 12, 2022

    Sir John – off topic: something is a little awry with the Comments procedure in your Diary. Each time I make a comment, it vanishes from my screen (as opposed to appearing with ‘awaiting moderation’ sign), and sends me back to the beginning of the comments section. It is also not accepting the ‘save your details for next time’, so I’m having to log in anew each time.

    Thank you.

    1. Michael J Wilson
      March 12, 2022

      Try a different browser. I use Firefox on an iPhone and Edge on a PC. I usually have no problems. Occasionally I see ‘your comment is awaiting moderation’ – when it is not my comment.

      It’s a shame there is no upvote/downvote facility as you get on many forums.

      And the search facility is useless.

      And, on a phone, you can’t see who is replying to whom.

      There is much better off the shelf forum software than is used here.

      1. formula57
        March 12, 2022

        @ Michael J Wilson “It’s a shame there is no upvote/downvote facility as you get on many forums. “ – although its absence spares us (to a limited extent, I accept) from posturing fools rattling on like the empty vessels they are as they seek up-votes.

        1. glen cullen
          March 12, 2022

          +1

      2. No Longer Anonymous
        March 12, 2022

        I have that phone problem too.

      3. Lifelogic
        March 12, 2022

        Better just to search the site with a google search restricted to the site. This works well.

      4. Fedupsoutherner
        March 12, 2022

        Michael. It is much easier to see who is being replied to if people put the name at the beginning of their reply.

  3. Mark B
    March 12, 2022

    Good morning.

    Most of us believe in free trade in our own lives.

    But not in water. I cannot choose who my water suppliers is and, thanks to Tory / Labour policies, I have even less choice who supplies my gas and electricity. In fact, thanks to Tory / Labour / Green policies I soon will not have even a choice between gas and electricity and who supplies the latter. You will be creating a monopoly for which we will all pay – literally !

    In the world wars the UK had to dig . . .

    And the government took the oppotunity to steal small farms from their owners, which were never given back after the war had ended. Which reminds me. Under the other government plan where Ukraninas who DO NOT have family here can come and stay, where are they going to live ? Are you going to turf out little old ladies from their homes to give to them ?

    There is little point in spending lots of money on defence . . .

    If you want peace, prepare for war.

    The wake up call was when the Suez Canal got blocked. Obviously people were not listening when that happened.

    1. Lifelogic
      March 12, 2022

      Indeed the government is, as usual, the main problem.

      Jeremy Hunt calls for massive boost in defence spending (in 2019). Well perhaps, but it might be good if defence expenditure were efficient & well directed for a change. One thing for sure you need cheap, reliable on demand energy and a decent economy to defend the country efficiently.

      This from J Hunt who was in charge of the appallingly run NHS and the Pandemic Planning for nearly 5 years but did nothing to change the appalling “free” at the point of use state monopoly healthcare system that kills nearly all real competition. Yet another incompetent and deluded PPE graduate who thinks ever larger government and taxes are the answer.

      Jeremy Hunt in 2019: Effects of climate change are fuelling conflict, UK to drive forward the global response.

      No mate the religious net zero lunacy and energy policies governments are pushing (to combat the non existent climate emergency) has very much helped cause this war! Wrong again Hunt as usual.

    2. alan jutson
      March 12, 2022

      Mark, you may agree to choose who is your so called provider and who you pay, but your electricity, gas, and water all come from exactly the same wholesale source, no matter who you pay, which when you think of it, is a bit of a competition farce really.

      1. Mark B
        March 12, 2022

        Cheers, Alan. Didn’t know that !

  4. oldtimer
    March 12, 2022

    It comes down to how much risk you are ready to accept. Energy, food and defence security are the top three risks government must provide for. It is failing badly on all three, in particular on energy and food because it is pursuing the phoney net zero objective. It is phoney because the case on which it rests – man made global warming – is phoney. The UK has the ability to achieve a substantial degree of energy independence. The failure of successive governments to achieve it is a national betrayal. The UK also possesses substantial phosphate deposits, also left in the ground for because government prevents its extraction.

    1. Lifelogic
      March 12, 2022

      +1 and food production in the UK need cheap, reliable on demand energy not May/Boris/Sunak/Carrie/Kwasi/Hand’s insane net zero lunacy. Can you please put a numerate Energy Engineer or physicist in charge please.

      1. Atlas
        March 12, 2022

        +1
        I think Government thinking is going to have to do an about turn on ‘globalisation’ to account for strategic security needs.

    2. Shirley M
      March 12, 2022

      +1 CO2 is NOT the problem. Human overpopulation is the problem, but that’s a hot potato, like the creeping Islamic takeover and control of UK food production, so it will be ignored.

      1. Andy
        March 12, 2022

        The biggest causes of population growth are significantly lower infant mortality – fewer children die – and increased longevity. People live longer.

        Many contributors to this blog are firmly in the second category but I’m guessing when you rage all about population growth it is other people you are raging about and not yourselves. You want fewer other people.

        1. Cheshire Girl
          March 12, 2022

          Andy:
          How nice that you managed to get your usual ‘dig’ in the second paragraph.

          My view is that the biggest cause of population growth in the World is the lack, or use, of effective birth control. In this modern age, there is the opportunity to plan ones family. No one ‘has’ to get pregnant. I believe this is widely available, even in the Third World.

          There are instances of this, even here in the UK. One hears of people, often in desperate situations already, saying, ‘I fell pregnant’. They don’t seem to realise that one has to ‘do’ something to get into that situation. Certain in the UK, contraception is cheap, even free.
          I realise that this view is not acceptable to hold, in many circles, which is why it is very rarely said.

          1. Fedupsoutherner
            March 12, 2022

            Quite right Cheshire Girl. The ones that annoy me are those single mums who think it’s their right to have numerous children and expect others to pay for them. I personally know a woman who has 2 children in care but has had another baby recently. No man in sight and she doesn’t work.

        2. BOF
          March 12, 2022

          Quite right Andy, it’s the ‘others’ that is the problem!

      2. Dave Andrews
        March 12, 2022

        Overpopulation is the consequence of the subjugation of women, denying them education, freedom to choose their career and the right to choose a partner or whether they want one or not, and whether they want children at all.
        Then there’s the underpopulation problem in many advanced countries, where the tax burden and cost of living is so great that women feel they can’t afford to take time out from work to have a family.

        1. BOF
          March 12, 2022

          +1. D A.

      3. Mark B
        March 12, 2022

        And the most growth is from poor countries.

  5. […] Read more about The case for free trade […]

  6. Nig l
    March 12, 2022

    Maybe you could tell us why if fracking is back on the agenda and Karteng said in Parliament bit necessarily doesn’t make any sense to concrete over the wells, why he has not put the order to fill them in, on hold.

    Cuadrilla. Is getting increasingly frustrated by lack of government action.

    We know why that is. They spin desperately to get us off their backs with zero intention of taking any action and have zero political courage a bit like their leader especially on this topic with his wife whispering in his earl

    1. Ian Wragg
      March 12, 2022

      Carrie hasn’t approved stopping the concreting over of the weeks.
      She and the eco loons are beside themselves watching the population forced off the road and freezing at home.
      That’s what the great reset is all about in practice.
      If the government really believed in free trade, they would scrap the NIP.
      Just talk.

    2. Sea_Warrior
      March 12, 2022

      I am now hoping that Cuadrilla will now have the moral courage to refuse to do as ordered by an unelected, irresponsible regulator. The performance by Kwarteng and Johnson in this matter has been execrable.

    3. alan jutson
      March 12, 2022

      Nig L

      The Government will probably change it’s mind once the concrete has set !

  7. turboterrier
    March 12, 2022

    One of the perceived problems is that we along with other countries do not have a large manual skill base sector.
    Traditional trades essential to everyday life have been dumbed down with modular training, multi choice questions, lack of real 4-5 year apprenticeships and the mind set from the educational decision makers on what and where the country’s youth are eventually going to end up.
    Schools from very early age should be with the power of play scenario be teaching children the common sense skills they and the country will need in later life. But they can’t because the teachers and educational experts do not have them or even a basic understanding of them in the first place.

    1. Shirley M
      March 12, 2022

      Why did we need to train young people in manual skills? We didn’t, thanks to free movement. It was cheaper to import ready skilled people for low wages. Now that free movement has ended (supposedly) we do need to train young people, and industry has forgotten how, and it resents the cost and the need for planning ahead. They had it good for so long, at the expense of generations of UK youngsters and the country as a whole.

      Employers greed for cheap ready made labour annoyed me. I remember one lady complaining to me that she couldn’t find staff since free movement ended. When I asked about pay and conditions, she wanted a qualified person to take a management job (and also do the dirty work) for minimum pay. To me, minimum pay should be limited to jobs where no qualifications, and no experience, is required.

      1. Everhopeful
        March 12, 2022

        +many
        Also very annoying
the concept of the “noble worker” as opposed to the “lazy Brit”.
        Wasn’t it the case that the money earned in £££s translated into wealth back home?

        And what happened to accommodation provided by the employer and various perks in kind?
        Now the taxpayer makes up the difference since so many “employed” can claim benefits.

      2. No Longer Anonymous
        March 12, 2022

        Minimum wage became maximum wage, in effect.

        Turboterrier is correct. Coffee shop servers were classed as ‘apprentices’ in the Tory deceit to voters that they were creating traditional apprenticeships with years of training and exams and lifetime skills that could support a family.

        1. Fedupsoutherner
          March 12, 2022

          NLA and Alan Jutson. Both correct and I agree with Turbo.

      3. Dave Andrews
        March 12, 2022

        You’re a mug if you train anyone. All that happens is that other employers who can’t or don’t bother to train poach your staff, using the benefit of not investing in staff training.

      4. alan jutson
        March 12, 2022

        Shirley
        Going back a few decades schools taught pupils the various basic skills and knowledge to earn a living, and survive in the world, as well as academic study.
        Afraid the academic side took over completely eventually, especially when Blair had the dream of wanting most pupils to go to a University, this led to the biggest change and failure of our education system, the theorists and academics were put in charge and thought they were “above” the more practical and manually/technically minded skilled workers, so the polytechnics were scrapped or turned into low grade Universities.

        1. Shirley M
          March 12, 2022

          Agreed Alan. That is another ‘change’ that annoys me no end. Having persuaded more young people to attend university they realised there were insufficient jobs for these graduates, so instead of reducing the graduates to the number needed and training them in other skills, they changed the job descriptions and demanded that many public service jobs now had to be filled by graduates, eg. nurses, police, etc. As these were now graduate jobs they demanded higher pay, extra perks, quicker promotion, etc. to reflect their newly gained ‘skills’. All of these increase the cost to the taxpayers who pay the wages, pensions, etc. Still, no doubt it made Blair very happy!

    2. SM
      March 12, 2022

      TT – I very clearly remember (when working for the Personnel Director of a major UK technical company in the late 1960’s) that the Unions were actively seeking to close the customary apprenticeship schemes, as they felt that apprentices were being used as cheap labour. They did not acknowledge how much it cost the companies for experienced workers to reduce their own production in order have the time to teach the youngsters.

      1. Shirley M
        March 12, 2022

        Having been in business and employed apprentices, I agree that few people realise the cost to the employer. Not only do you pay for the college course and exams, and pay the apprentice for the time they attend college, but you have an unproductive worker with very limited skills for quite a while, and have to pay an experienced worker to train and supervise the apprentice, making the experienced worker less productive. It may work better in large companies, but in small companies such as mine it was a very expensive affair.

    3. alan jutson
      March 12, 2022

      Turboterrier

      Very true, I am astonished at how many parents now do not have a clue on the practical elements of doing anything, even the most simple of maintenance tasks of running a home/car, even reading a map or a timetable of some sort.
      What hope for their children !

    4. MFD
      March 12, 2022

      Yes Turbo, Kitchens and workshops were taken out of schools leaving children and young adults who cannot cook properly or use a screw driver.
      These skills are basic for a good life- disgusting!

  8. turboterrier
    March 12, 2022

    Everything starts from a solid foundation family , education and work. Too much of the building of such foundations has been delegated to other people and our core family, knowledge foundations are weakened as a result.
    Children play shops in school. They learn about money and financial transactions. Next step still in the play mode is where does the products get there, how and where they are manufactured? Fertile ground to teach Just in Time, Right First Time, Team working and problem solving, cost of non conformance etc etc. By the time the leave school they will have life skills and an active mindset. They will have skills that employers spend thousands on trying to train and ingrain into their organisations or business’s. Each child should leave school with a little portfolio built up across their educational life that will enable them to have a positive CV even it it lacks academic achievements. Above all they will have a flexible, adaptable mindset geared to continual improvement.

    1. alan jutson
      March 12, 2022

      +1

    2. Fedupsoutherner
      March 12, 2022

      Turbo:
      The best example of poor foundations , is the standard of our politicians at least 500 odd in the present parliament. None of them have come from a base of real life skills and experience and are totally under qualified for the positions they hold.

    3. Fedupsoutherner
      March 12, 2022

      Oh so right Turbo. Parents fail in many ways too now. They don’t expect their children to do anything for themselves now. I know of many who have never had a part time job while at college or uni. It was the norm at one time and as children we all had duties at home too. Just look at the state of some teenagers bedrooms and it tells you all you need to know.

  9. Nig l
    March 12, 2022

    And in other news, on Thursday on question time, we saw the one eyed rubbish spouted by EU political royalty on their leadership over Ukraine, thank you Germany for 8000 helmets and some out of date munitions, no doubt causing Andy to wet his pants.

    He and the rest of the ‘lost touch with reality angry mob’ angry because people are laughing at them, should read Camilla Tominey in the DT this morning lacerating the self interested actions and posturing of the EU.

    What a puffed up fool Macron now looks.

    1. Sea_Warrior
      March 12, 2022

      Macron is not my favourite politician – by virtue of his hatred for a post-Brexit UK – but looking at those with their fingers on the biggest nuclear arsenals, he looks the sanest.

    2. Richard M
      March 12, 2022

      Nig1 the article is a peurile attempt to try to equate brexit with standing up to Putin. Utter delusion.
      Putin bought brexit. Brexiters just won’t admit it.

      1. Sea_Warrior
        March 12, 2022

        He didn’t buy me.

      2. Denis Cooper
        March 12, 2022

        “Putin bought brexit”

        So how much did he pay to whom and when, and how did that give him brexit?

        It’s interesting how there is so much concern about pro-Russian “disinformation” that unusual and illiberal measures must be taken to suppress it, but pro-EU rubbish like this is allowed to circulate freely.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          March 12, 2022

          I answered your question but Sir John did not appear to like that.

          1. Denis Cooper
            March 12, 2022

            I doubt that you answered the question.

      3. Shirley M
        March 12, 2022

        So sad …. will the losers ever admit that Brexit won on merit? They keep coming up with more and more bizarre excuses why remain lost!

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          March 12, 2022

          OK, where are these “merits”, then?

          1. Shirley M
            March 12, 2022

            You can only see them if you want to see them, but you deliberately look the other way!

          2. Peter2
            March 12, 2022

            You haven’t read the post by Shirley properly NHL
            In too much of rush to get your 30 posts a day target.

          3. Nottingham Lad Himself
            March 12, 2022

            Tell me which way to look then, Shirley?

    3. Andy
      March 12, 2022

      I tend not to read newspapers written for an audience or ranting elderly lunatics.

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        March 12, 2022

        Oh. You don’t have to find out that Zelensky rates our efforts highly as do the fighters – it was on the BBC the night before last. Brexit Britain has been among the best supporters.

      2. Peter2
        March 12, 2022

        Instead andy you read a newspaper for ranting young woke lefties.
        PS
        It is not acceptable nor PC to use derisory slang terms about mental illness.

    4. No Longer Anonymous
      March 12, 2022

      If Andy doesn’t appreciate Brexit Britain’s efforts President Zelensky certainly does, as do the fighters using our anti tank weapons “The BEST !” one resistance fighter exclaimed in BBC TV.

      Not that I agree with protracting this war by supplying such ordinance.

      1. Denis Cooper
        March 12, 2022

        Well, there’s an interesting point … the strongly unionist newspaper, the Belfast News Letter, is proud that the anti-tank weapons that Boris Johnson very publicly supplied to the Ukrainian army in preparation for Putin’s invasion are actually made in Belfast:

        https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/over-3500-built-in-belfast-nlaw-anti-tank-bazookas-sent-to-ukraine-3604232

        “Over 3,500 ‘built in Belfast’ NLAW anti-tank bazookas sent to Ukraine”

        And of course we know that Boris Johnson is also strongly unionist, because he says so; and therefore I was wondering, JR, whether you could point out to him these weapons which are enhancing his international reputation as a war leader are being produced in the Northern Ireland condominium under EU rules because he thought that a paltry 0.75% of GDP was a decent price for selling out that part of the UK, leaving not just the Thales weapons facility but every production facility and business and shop and indeed every individual abandoned under swathes of EU Single Market laws, and please could he perhaps see his way to rewarding the province by restoring it to its full position in that UK internal market that you mention.

        After all, he could still be a good neighbour and help protect the EU Single Market if he pushed through a new UK law which just demanded that all the goods crossing the land border into the Irish Republic must conform to EU requirements, in line with proposals in paragraphs 43 and 62 of the Command Paper:

        https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/01/28/smoothing-trade/#comment-1295666

        It is not necessary to apply EU law to all the goods within the province to protect the EU Single Market.

        1. Denis Cooper
          March 12, 2022

          Correction, I should have written:

          “… enhancing his international reputation as a proxy war leader … “

          1. No Longer Anonymous
            March 12, 2022

            Thanks, Dr Denis.

    5. hefner
      March 12, 2022

      22/02/2022 (abcnews.go.com) Germany to send 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger surface to air missiles.
      26/02/2022 (foreignpolicy.com) Germany to arm Ukraine in major policy reversal.

      And on 12/03/2022 we get here the oh so well informed ones talking about helmets. They have their heads so up their bums they are not even able to follow the news.

      1. dixie
        March 12, 2022

        Germany actually sends soviet-era missiles declared obsolete in 2014 of which around 700 don’t actually work.
        It would be wise to check the helmets actually work, eg don’t dissolve in the rain or collapse if there is a loud noise.

        1. hefner
          March 12, 2022

          How do you know that? What is your reference?
          The FGM-148 Javelin missiles are US-made (taskandpurpose, 07/03/2022).

          1. dixie
            March 12, 2022

            The ex East German Strella missiles.

          2. hefner
            March 12, 2022

            dixie, so if from East Germany therefore likely Soviet-style missiles, does it not make them easier to use by Ukrainians. No need for intensive training? No need for western advisors?

          3. dixie
            March 13, 2022

            The first point is not that it was ex-DDR stock but that junk was being offered. They hadn’t managed the inventory in any way, clearly were not aware of it’s state but went ahead and offered it in ignorance.
            So much for your vaunted EU scrabbling to make a political win amidst their political muddle.
            The second point is that clearly you are not as informed as you think, so where is your head?

        2. hefner
          March 13, 2022

          And is your interesting point about helmets dissolving in the rain or collapsing with a loud noise obviously the remark of a specialist on these questions? 😉

          1. dixie
            March 13, 2022

            merely matching your level of disdain.

          2. hefner
            March 13, 2022

            The very first comment on 11/03 was somebody commenting that Germany was only to send 5,000 helmets, an info correct on 29/02.
            My comment was to point out that by 12/03 that had changed, that the info was old, that more was being sent and that the original contributor had not followed the news.
            Your comment about helmets might have been to put me down (fair enough) but was also quoting helmets, the topic of the original post.

            The funny bit is that the original comment about helmets has now disappeared from the blog. Interesting way to moderate this blog.

  10. Sea_Warrior
    March 12, 2022

    I wonder how the NSC has been working over the past few weeks.

  11. Donna
    March 12, 2022

    For decades, and certainly since we were taken into the EEC and then EU, the Establishment’s objective was to destroy national resilience in favour of a European Communitarian project.

    When a majority of the British people voted against remaining in that project, the Establishment refused to implement that democratic decision ….. until they were forced. Even now, with a form of Brexit delivered, it appears that many in the Civil Service (and elsewhere) are “reluctant” to implement policies which will increase our national resilience and the Government has been, and is, actively pursuing policies which will reduce it still further: the most obvious are the Net Zero lunacy/refusal to use our our own energy resources and reducing food production/re-wilding of farmland.

    Meantime, they continue to increase the population at the alarming and unsustainable rate of roughly a million people every three years, via both legal and illegal means (expecting British taxpayers to meekly accept it and also pay for it) further weakening our national resilience.

    It does rather make you wonder :

    (a) if we have a National Security Council, what on earth have they been doing for the past few decades and

    (b) since they have so comprehensively failed to deliver any National Security/Resilience for the past few decades, whether they are the right people to deliver it now

    The first step towards delivering National Security/Resilience is to stop undermining it. So perhaps Sir John could tell us why the Government won’t do it?

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      March 12, 2022

      The nub of our problems. Thanks for pointing it out.

    2. Shirley M
      March 12, 2022

      Excellent summary Donna.

    3. BOF
      March 12, 2022

      +1 Donna.
      Perhaps the Government won’t tell Sir John!

    4. Andy
      March 12, 2022

      A majority of the British people didn’t vote for Brexit. 17.4m out of 68m isn’t a majority. Facts actually matter.

      Reply Fewer people voted to stay in the EU which matters.

      1. dixie
        March 12, 2022

        A majority of the British people didn’t vote for remain in 1975 – 17.4m out of 56.2m isn’t a majority. Facts actually matter.

      2. Dave Andrews
        March 12, 2022

        Yes, so many people thought so little of the EU, they didn’t consider it worth voting for.
        So much for our decades of membership.

        1. Andy
          March 12, 2022

          That’s because you were fed 40 years of lies about the EU by the Tory press and you were dim enough to believe it. I have never doubted that a significant number of people in this country are dim.

      3. No Longer Anonymous
        March 12, 2022

        Reply to reply

        The VAST majority didn’t vote to stay in the EU, in fact.

      4. Mick Wilson
        March 12, 2022

        You failed to make the case for remaining. Because
 there wasn’t one!

      5. Nottingham Lad Himself
        March 12, 2022

        As far as the brexitists go, 51 million people do not matter at all, about anything, it appears then.

        1. Peter2
          March 12, 2022

          You don’t understand or accept how voting majorities work NHL

          1. Nottingham Lad Himself
            March 14, 2022

            You don’t understand how representative democracies work, Peter.

            Parliament represents all of the people, not just a minority of them, and especially not the fixated, teeth-grinding, lunatic fringe of that minority.

      6. ukretired123
        March 12, 2022

        @Andy maths is not your strength not is logic. What your emotions and perceptions reveal is the unintuitive knowledge of undergraduate level Political Science basics based on my own experience. You don’t have to keep banging on. Take Einstein’s advice on repeating a failing action instead.

  12. Everhopeful
    March 12, 2022

    The “impossible” ability to see to our every need has, over the centuries, been purposely taken away from us by monarchs and their governments.
    Was it just so they could do this to us?
    Oh, but never mind
this govt. is making sure there is a bogeyman for the sheep to blame.
    Keep clapping.

    1. Mark B
      March 12, 2022

      +1

  13. Michael J Wilson
    March 12, 2022

    The trouble with ‘free’ trade is it creates a race to the bottom. You all know this. But you are hooked on cheap consumer tat so you choose to either ignore, or bleat about, the consequences. Free trade, to a country such as ours, means cheap imports. Cheap imports mean:

    No energy security
    No food security
    No job security
    A service economy with low paid jobs

    Make your minds up. You can’t have free trade and energy security and cheap food and well paid and secure jobs.

    Let’s face it, it’s difficult to buy a manufactured product that hasn’t got Made in China on it. Free trade. Great eh?

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      March 12, 2022

      +1

    2. Peter2
      March 12, 2022

      Free trade and capitalism has created the greatest uplift in standards of living in the last 100 years in human history.
      And greatly improved life expectancy.
      Your post is nonsense MJW.

  14. formula57
    March 12, 2022

    So we are going to need a replacement National Security Council too then before we get what is appropriate and needed?

    1. Donna
      March 12, 2022

      Correct.

      But unfortunately the FPTP electoral system effectively prevents us from clearing the failures out of the House of Commons and the House of “Lords” is untouchable …… as is the Civil Service and Quangocracy.

      The best thing people can do is to take steps to improve their own personal resilience …. which is what I’ve been actively doing for the past 2 years.

      1. Mark
        March 12, 2022

        It’s not the FPTP system that is the problem. It’s the tight control over who gets to be a PPC with selection dominated by very narrow cliques in the major parties, and over which parties are allowed a prominent media profile, particularly during election campaigns.

  15. javelin
    March 12, 2022

    Can I introduce the concept of “calibration” to show that free trade should not be used in isolation to determine policy.

    There are several “right wing”, “natural” or “free” processes. One of them is trade, which can be broadened to include the free markets where price is settled by demand and supply.

    There are also other “natural” process such as democracy, evolution, science, justice, the way the brain calibrates itself and central to this is consciousness. All these processes have one thing in common which is small adjustments. These can be price, votes, DNA, hypotheses, laws, synapses.

    What is important is not to isolate one process at the expense of others. For example focusing on free trade when it damages jobs and national security has an effect on our basic needs of food, safety and comfort. This kind of bad free trade then leads to a recalibration of votes and laws.

    Interestingly consciousness central to this because it allows us to calibrate these processes.

    I would say there are anti-natural processes as well such as obsfucation, propaganda, lies, bureaucracy that stop the free calibration of processes.

    1. javelin
      March 12, 2022

      The internet has created a mechanism to allow the free flow of information and is therefore inherently enabling of right-wing natural processes of calibration (the markets, politics, laws, ethics etc). The rise of anti-calibration such as misinformation reporting, cancel culture, propaganda, obsfucation, spin are effectively the embodiment of left-wing anti-natural processes on the internet.

      Politics has effectively become internet censorship.

    2. No Longer Anonymous
      March 12, 2022

      Free Trade tends to be immediate without thought for the future.

      Immediacy.

      I would add to your idea the concept of credit. It makes consumption immediate and leans towards an overly optimistic view of the future. It becomes an addictive dopamine hit, it takes the brakes off immediate levels of consumption, it makes minds used to a higher standard of living than is truly feasible, it becomes a form of money printing outside of central banks and creates more debt than the money that has ever existed or ever will exist. The housing market is used to justify this debt – the whole UK stock valued by multiplying the sale prices of a few over the whole, yet foreclosure on that debt would result in emergency sales of those stocks and a crash in equity… therefore the debt can never truly be paid.

      This is the fix the UK is in.

    3. hefner
      March 12, 2022

      javelin, interesting perspective: are you so sure the internet only produces a free flow of information, but no misinformation nor disinformation? And are these so obviously right-wing natural vs left-wing anti-natural?
      Victoria L. .Rubin has been addressing this type of questions since 2018.
      doi.org/10.1108/JD-12-2018-0209.

  16. Sea_Warrior
    March 12, 2022

    I see that China, emboldened by Russia, is now threatening ‘dire consequences’ for any country opposing an attack on Taiwan. It’s time for the Free World to leave the WTO, en masse.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      March 12, 2022

      And both China and Russia were emboldened by our Covid panic.

      I told you all many times that this would happen.

    2. hefner
      March 12, 2022

      And what do you expect from leaving the WTO?

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        March 12, 2022

        “Sovereignty”?

    3. R.Grange
      March 12, 2022

      You don’t say where you saw that, SW. In December US secretary Blinken threatened China with ‘terrible consequences’ if it tried to invade Taiwan. He hoped Chinese leaders would think very carefully about “not precipitating a crisis” across the Taiwan Strait.
      The USA has of course ‘thought very carefully’ about not precipitating a crisis in Ukraine!

  17. agricola
    March 12, 2022

    The NI Protocol is a classic example of a protectionist bloc, the EU, interfering in a sovereign countries internal trade on the premis that they are safeguarding themselves against illegal trade. Using the GFA as a need for the NIP is sureal, such that it is likely to regenerate the Troubles rather than prevent them. The monetary significance of UK/EU trade by this route is very little, but the political significance is just the opposite.

    That we need to be, as far as possible, independent in food production and industrial critical components of which chips and fuel are no brainers.

  18. Barbara
    March 12, 2022

    This shows the self-defeating nature of the sanctions on Russia. All those semiconductor chips that go into everything require a special neon gas – 80% of which comes from a single factory in Odessa.

    1. Mitchel
      March 12, 2022

      There is another factory in Mariupol too.I understand both have now ceased production.
      Russia also accounts for 80% of the world market for sapphire substrates-thin plates made of artificial stone which are used in opto-and microelectronics to build up layers of various materials such as silicon.They are used in every processor in the world,AMD and Intel no exception.It also accounts for almost 100% of the world’s supply of some rare earths used in special chip etching.

      The counter sanctions package that Russia is working on will be “painfully asymmetrical”according to a source close to the Kremlin.

    2. Fedupsoutherner
      March 12, 2022

      Barbara. Sanctions are better than world war 3.

  19. Bob Dixon
    March 12, 2022

    Forty years of hugging The EU have been disasterias for the U.K. Our governments and civil service have no clue as to what is needed.
    We are now out and can start drawing up plans for the next few years. Let’s hope those in control can make the right decisions.

  20. a-tracy
    March 12, 2022

    I was always taught it would be best if the UK imported and exported a similar amount then we wouldn’t have to invest so much in foreign currencies. What is the alternative view that allowed such a large trade deficit getting our citizens in so much debt to buy all the produce bought in from abroad and not supporting their wages and own productivity endeavours. The big subs to the EU stop next year after five years of no savings (most of the payments were front loaded), they’ll want to fine and tax us and find a way of tying us back in to keep it going and the LibDems are playing along. They’ve already found a Chinese import tax to fine us with.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/51110096

    There will also be money paid back to the UK from things like its money in the European Investment Bank (just over ÂŁ3bn) and the European Central Bank (about ÂŁ50m). Does that shareholding offset any of the pension obligation to the EU institution.

    The UK had an overall trade deficit of -ÂŁ49 billion with the EU in 2020. A surplus of ÂŁ39 billion on trade in services was outweighed by a deficit of -ÂŁ86 billion on trade in goods.3 Dec 2021
    Statistics on UK-EU trade – House of Commons Libraryhttps://commonslibrary.parliament.uk â€ș cbp-7851

    The UK imported around ÂŁ60 billion more goods and services from the rest of the EU than it exported there in the 12 months to September 2016. FullFact.

  21. Original Richard
    March 12, 2022

    Just as there are obvious limits to the free trade of goods to provide “national resilience” so there is an obvious limit to the free trade of people.

    We should not be importing large numbers of people from all over the world either to keep wages low or to remove the need for investment in people training and new equipment.

    It is bad for UK in itself and simply immoral to be stealing people from other countries who need these people themselves.

    Furthermore it means that our schools, hospitals, housing and infrastructure is always in crisis and with never a let up in the numbers we cannot plan ahead and catch up.

    It will also lead to disharmony and an ungovernable country if we build up large ghettos each with their own ideas of laws, customs, practices and loyalties.

  22. glen cullen
    March 12, 2022

    Free trade is about reducing the restrictions imposed by governments in the form of duty, import tax, levies and subsidies to allow competition to flourish by providing products and services via consumer demand
..could those same principles be used on ‘net-zero’ ie let the consumer decide if they wish to buy it or not

    1. Mick Wilson
      March 12, 2022

      Free trade is about reducing the restrictions imposed by governments in the form of duty, import tax, levies and subsidies to allow 


      Free trade is about greater profits for multinationals, loss of jobs in developed economies, movement of capital, exploitation of people in less developed economies and a whole load of other negative stuff.

      1. glen cullen
        March 13, 2022

        But government intervention in the form of taxes just makes goods & services more expensive and as a result reduces growth & prosperity. And the exploitation of people is down to the laws and implementation of those laws in a particular country and not due to trade

  23. The Prangwizard
    March 12, 2022

    The EU is projecting its power into the sovereignty of the UK via Northern Ireland, at the minimum just interfering with trade. Most of us know it is worse than that.

    Russia is attempting to take over the Ukraine with force but Russia and the EU have same intentions over neighbouring countries.

    Dangerously Boris is going along with the EU and surrendering the UK.

    Traitorous behaviour.

    1. glen cullen
      March 12, 2022

      +1

    2. anon
      March 13, 2022

      Russia has talked and talked it seems to have lost patience with the EU before taking these actions , even if you disagree with them. Anybody else hear a bell ringing.

  24. X-Tory
    March 12, 2022

    Everything you say about resilience is true Sir John, but this is only part of the picture. When you manufacture in the UK the country not only has the security of supply but it also has the jobs. Jobs in manufacturing, jobs in research and development, jobs in the supply chain, and the jobs of all those in the vicinity who provide services to the workers, from hairdressers to restaurants, from garages to clothes shops. Not only that, but the government earns tax revenue from the companies and the workers, and the VAT and other duties (excise, fuel, etc) on their spending. The government gets an additional benefit from not having to pay benefits to these workers. Companies with a secure home market can then use this as a launchpad for exports, earning extra income for the Treasury, which is then able to provide better services to everyone. All these benefits derive from the government buying British. So why in the name of God would they betray the British people and give contracts to foreign companies? The only answer is that they are either traitors or morons. Or, probably, both.

    1. Shirley M
      March 12, 2022

      +100 X-Tory – Even worse, they allow foreign governments (not just foreign owners) to have control of our essential services and utilities.

  25. Fedupsoutherner
    March 12, 2022

    Hurray and get the flags out. ReesMogg backs fracking for energy security. Let’s hope Boris has recovered just an ounce of common sense.

    1. glen cullen
      March 12, 2022

      Will he have to resign his government post for not towing the government line

  26. Alice
    March 12, 2022

    So what changed ?

    As the ”Guardian” tells us in 2014…

    ”It’s not Russia that’s pushed Ukraine to the brink of war”. By Seumas Milne

    ”The attempt to lever Kiev into the western camp by ousting an elected leader made conflict certain. It could be a threat to us all”.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/30/russia-ukraine-war-kiev-conflict

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      March 12, 2022

      Except there have been two elections since then and Zelensky got 73% of the vote.

      1. glen cullen
        March 12, 2022

        +1

      2. No Longer Anonymous
        March 12, 2022

        NLH.

        On a fraction of the population because of the *popular* revolution and the ensuing civil war which rendered a significant part of the population unable to vote. (What kind of popular revolution results in an 8 year civil war ?)

        The deposed President had been voted in by an internationally observed election btw.

        The revolutionaries were rewarded with tea and buns by UN and EU officials including our very own Baroness Ashton (EU High Representative at the time.)

        Joe Biden was involved too and his son (look him up) installed in a top 50k a month industrial job in all the chaos.

        No care was given to how the Russians may have viewed this in a geo-political fault line that even Henry Kissinger warned us to keep away from.

        I’m no fan of Putin but what is the EU offering Ukraine after this war ? A rebuild ? What ? After being financially wrecked by sanctions blow-back, greenism and a new arms race ?

        Brexit at one end of the EU map and a war torn country at the other end. I’d look to the middle for the problem if I were you, NLH.

  27. claxby pluckacre
    March 12, 2022

    Maybe if we stopped building houses no one needs or can afford,we can use the land to grow food on…

    1. Mick Wilson
      March 12, 2022

      Maybe if we stopped building houses no one needs

      Where on earth (well, in this country) do you think the 300,000 extra people, that the Tory government allows to come here each year, are supposed to live! Come on, get a grip. The Tory government knows you’ll still vote for them even if they build houses on every blade of grass – as has happened in Mr. Redwood’s constituency.

    2. glen cullen
      March 12, 2022

      Maybe we could pay farmers to grow carrots rather than re-wilding or mowing the lawn

  28. DOM
    March 12, 2022

    The only ‘free’ the British political class understands is the free lunch bribe they use as a weapon to keep the sheep voting for the morally bankrupt political status quo. All other freedoms have been rescinded.

    The British people have sold their soul to the Socialist parasite for a free-lunch and now find themselves mortally dependent

    No wonder the Tory party hated Thatcher

    Shameful

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      March 12, 2022

      In 2014 the Ukrainian President was deposed in a coup because he was a Eurosceptic, like Thatcher.

      No other reason.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        March 14, 2022

        He was deposed in a popular revolution partly because he reversed his declared position on the European Union, and pro-EU presidents have now been democratically elected twice since.

        Thatcher’s position was not comparable at all.

  29. rose
    March 12, 2022

    I do hope you have taken in every word spoken by Lord Agnew to the Select Committee on Combating Fraud, on March 9th. I have never heard such a damningly frank account by a Minister of what goes on in a Government Department, let alone one as important as this. He says the average age in the Treasury is 29 and there is 25% turnover.

    1. a-tracy
      March 13, 2022

      Rose, oh my the average age of the treasury is 29, where are the wise and experienced heads that may have been through other crisis’. Youth is fantastic for energy, for coming up with new ideas and technologies, however, I find many in this generation too cautious and totally risk averse, too scared to change course, but when the plates stop spinning sometimes you need the people around that know how to get them spinning again without crashing to the floor.
      Sunak is a let down, he needs to get his civil servants in order, the tail currently wags the dog. He needs to bring in people like John to help steer us out of the choppy waters and actually listen to them for a change.

  30. mancunius
    March 13, 2022

    Sir John, you should be urging the government to begin by enabling free trade between all regions of the United Kingdom. At present free trade with Northern Ireland is so stymied by the idiotic NI Protocol that, instead of invoking Article 16 and halting the whole farrago, the Foreign Secretary is planning to give hand out – to an EU-controlled NI – tax concessions paid for by other British taxpayers. This is monstrous, lunatic nonsense. It would be far preferable to pull down the NIP and if necessary revoke the WTA as well. The Treaty was exacted under duress and under the false pretences of goodwill in its by the EU. It is no more and no less than a humiliating exactment of reparations. Away with it.

    Reply Try reading past blogs. I am urging action on HMG re NI

  31. mancunius
    March 13, 2022

    Typos: 1) the Foreign Secretary is planning to give hand out – to an
    2) false pretences of cooperative goodwill in its operation by the EU.

  32. John McDonald
    March 13, 2022

    We do not spend much money on defence for ourselves. We export it so we can start wars or keep them going in other countries.
    I fully support a very strong UK military defence ( much stronger than it is now) but we should not use it to wage war on other countries. If the UN wants us to stop a civil war in a policeman role OK.
    NATO and UK have attacked countries that were no treat to the UK. But Politicians thought they were.
    You can’t build more houses and have farmland left to grow food. Sorry but more flats have to be built not Houses.
    But we are loosing the over population battle mainly to war in other countries.
    You have to ask why do people come to the UK which is overcrowded ? Why not stay in France and not cross the channel in a small rubber boat. Does everyone in the world have a family member here. I am sure a lot do. The politicians tell us it is a rich country. Maybe on paper but not in practice.
    Good job summer is on the way or we may not have enough energy to support the growing population.
    Perhaps I should say can afford the energy to support the population.

  33. Pauline Baxter
    March 14, 2022

    As usual Sir John, most of what you say is true.
    My first reaction was – so why the hell can’t you tell your Party leader and his team to run the country sensibly.
    But when you started talking about DEFENCE I thought, well hang on, presumably he is talking about Ukraine.
    Now how is Ukraine, anything to do with, DEFENDING THE UK?
    Do you really believe that Putin is going to storm his way across the whole of Europe and start blitzing cities and factories here, like Hitler did?
    I’m sure YOU don’t.
    On the other hand we know that Boris Johnson hero worships Winston Churchill.
    I suspect Biden would like to emulate Kennedy facing off Khrushchev over Cuba.
    We also know or at least suspect that the USA Military has a far greater say in Presidential policy than UK’s military has in ours.
    Quite frankly I fail to see any good reason for the U.K. to be involved, in, what Russia does to Ukraine.
    If it is being in NATO that is the driving force, well perhaps NATO has gone beyond it’s original purpose.
    Surely OUR defence forces should be capable of defending OUR borders and OUR interests.
    Defence means defending. Not aggression.
    We ARE being invaded across the Channel but not by Russians.
    We DO need to produce our own food and energy as far as possible so the whole carbon neutral policy is ridiculous.
    And we do need free trade worldwide to export what we are good at and import what we cannot as yet, produce ourselves.

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