There are three main problems with excessive international regulation. The first is it can curb competition and innovation which would otherwise improve service and performance. The second is countries like the U.K. take compliance seriously only to see many other countries gain exemptions Ā or simply ignore the rules to gain competitive advantage.The third is democratic governments charged with the domestic task of lawmaking find an increasing number of areas where they cannot change, improve or repeal as they and the publics they serve wish owing to international agreements.
Some have written in here to condemn new global rules on pandemics from the World Health Organisation. There is no agreed new Treaty nor even a text of new Treaty for negotiation so that is no immediate threat. Many countries will doubtless be reluctant to surrender powers to lockdown or not lockdown to supranational unelected officials. There needs to be plenty of world debates about what if any strengthening of global rules might be helpful and acceptable to enough signatories.
I read that some in U.K. government think the U.K. should adopt forthcoming EU regulations on speed limiters in cars. I can see no good reason to do this given the technical problems with variable speed limits, difficulties in tracker devices knowing exactly which road a vehicle is on at complex junctions, and with temporary speed limits. Ministers must tell the civil service we have no wish to adopt new EU rules in most cases. New rules should only be formed when the U.K. public and Ministers think there is a problem which regulation could help solve.
April 17, 2022
ādemocratic governments charged with the domestic task of lawmaking find an increasing number of areas where they cannot change, improve or repeal as they and the publics they serve wish owing to international agreements.ā
This does not seem to bother Viktor Orban in his dealings with the EU and others. He has laid out how he wishes Hungary to be run and that is the final word.
This despite financial force being applied to bring him into line. Other Visegrad nations are encouraged by Mr. Orbanās stance.
So international agreements are sometimes only a hindrance if you allow them to be.
Often international agreements are a marvellous excuse for doing nothing. Illegal migration is a current example.
April 17, 2022
Spot on analysis. International agreements are an excuse and an attempt by British political leaders of all persuasions to distant themselves from blame and accountability. That level of evil and cynicism is utterly destructive and an erosion into nothing our democratic norms
April 17, 2022
If ‘leaders’ ape EU policies and legislation because they do not wish to be either accountable or responsible for the impact of these decisions, they should turn to direct democracy and let the people decide.
April 17, 2022
+1
April 17, 2022
Trump made his own decisions for the benefit of his country, so did Mrs T!! How about Cameron? How about May? Both put the EU first despite mandate not to! Johnson got a mandate from public to get Brexit done and he sold out N.Ireland, fishing grounds and borders then lied to the public as to what actually happened. Who was it who said tell them to go whistle, for any of our taxes. Who said boat people will be sent straight back? Who said no border down Iris Sea, no checks, leave as one nation?
I do not recall one civil servant saying it.
Why did Cummings resign? Why did Frost resign? Why did Lord Agnew resign? Why did another Lord resign last week who was responsible for criminal justice?
Why are Tory MPs condoning Johnsonās law breaking and lies? Not civil servants.
April 17, 2022
Orban has flagrantly breached his country’s treaty obligations to the European Union regarding the rule of law, electoral process, and free media.
It’s a pity that there is no clear means of expulsion.
April 17, 2022
Love your sense of forgiveness and acceptance of others differing requirements and opinions on this Easter Sunday NHL
April 17, 2022
Let him see how much sovereignty his chum Putin allows him compared to the European Union eh?
Lukashenko’s Belarus and he are looking like a bit of a walk over – literally – aren’t they ?
April 17, 2022
Yes let’s eh?
Well dodged.
April 17, 2022
Treaty obligations which should not have been undertaken in the first place and presumably not by Orban.
Orban, unlike our prime minister and his cabinet, has cojones.
April 17, 2022
Is the EU never wrong, NLH ?
April 17, 2022
Ever heard of Breach Of Contract?
‘Cos that’s all that a treaty is.
April 17, 2022
Wrong
A treaty isn’t a contract as you think.
April 17, 2022
and does the Treaty have legal jurisdiction written in?
April 17, 2022
Peter
+1 Very good post
April 17, 2022
Good morning.
Harmonisation and Globalisation do seem to go rather hand-in-hand. This natural desire to standardise things is in the DNA. The desire of the WHO to effectively take control of how a country deals with pandemics does not come as a surprise to me, although our kind hosts reasons for objecting do. For he and many other MPās, including his party leader, were only too happy āto be led by the scienceā which we all know was a derogation of responsibility and effectively handing the UK population to unelected bureaucrats āfollowing the very same WHO dictates.
As for the EU and its plans to track and monitor, one has to ask, āWho in Europe both wanted and voted for this ?ā We here can refuse to have such a device installed as we are, supposedly, no longer part of the EU. This could of course mean UK cars being banned from EU roads but, since so few UK cars go there I see no reason to foister such technology just so a few can have an easier life. It seems to me that there is a real desire to follow the EU in lock-step for that inevitable day when they can push for us to rejoin. So to me it would be a real victory if this proposal can be stopped dead in its tracks. A real Agincourt Salute to the EU ! Of course like much else, this government and PM will slavishly follow EU dictates.
Get BREXIT done indeed.
Reply I voted against various lockdown measures and pointed out there was no one agreed science to follow!
April 17, 2022
Trouble is, Bunter doesn’t do science, maths, common sense or even complete what he’s started. Brexit is Not done but he can’t be bothered to think about it any more because it’s hard work and no publicity benefit.
He’s a liability to your party and more so to the Nation.
April 17, 2022
Peter Wood
Correct in every respect
April 17, 2022
How about EU environment level playing field? Does this apply? When dependent on French energy can UK say no?
April 17, 2022
So, how is Secretary Shapps getting on with changing international law for Seafarers? Normally, you would expect this site to blame the EU. Unfortunately, EU Employment Law says nothing about the pay of Seafarers. Alas Shapps is trying to get EU states, France, Denmark, Netherlands, Ireland and Germany; to agree a minimum wage for Ferries operating direct to the UK. The UK did not include Seafarers in its minimum wage legislation; now you know why.
BTW. Why did the UK not take up the offer from France, to set up UK Immigration services at French migrant camps? The Le Touquet Treaty has put UK Passport Control in Calais and at Gare du Nord / Eurostar and vice versa at St Pancras and Dover.
April 17, 2022
It’s all gone a bit quiet as of writing, Acorn.
April 17, 2022
You talk of a common agreement between different but interested nations acorn.
The EU in that process is unnecessary.
April 17, 2022
And then inevitably you have to give us yet another of your 50 a day habit NHL
April 18, 2022
Perhaps you should educate yourself on the background to this story. “Irish Ferries has been operating between Dover and Calais since June 2021. A transport union raised concerns over a low-cost labour model used by Irish Ferries last year, the BBC has learnt.
The RMT union wrote to the government saying it “appears either unable or unwilling to act” on Irish Ferries’ low-cost labour model. It’s the same model P&O Ferries is now introducing after the sacking of 800 staff.
P&O Ferries replaced staff with agency workers paid less than the UK minimum wage. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told BBC News that he would be introducing new legislation next week that would mean P&O Ferries and Irish Ferries “will have to change their operating model.
April 18, 2022
How can the UK government apply and enforce minimum wage legislation on ships travelling the seas with crews from all over the world and with ships registered in other countries.
Change the legislation…Best of luck.
April 17, 2022
Conspiracy-theorist me would put money on:
(1) The WHO seeking to expand its powers.
(2) The government meekly going along with whatever the WHO wants.
(3) The Chinese maintaining or tightening its control over the WHO.
The WEF at Davos is next month. I’ll be watching closely.
April 17, 2022
Seems rather likely. Too much regulation or all types is everywhere and most of it is totally misguided.
Sir John Armitt suggests a ban on the sale of new gas boilers āWhy would you move to a heat pump at somewhere between Ā£5-15,000 as long as you can buy or exchange for a new gas boiler for Ā£1,500,ā. A decent sized house (retrofit) would actually cost more than Ā£50,000 to fit with a decent ground source heat pump system.
Why indeed they cost more to buy, more to install, more to run, are less convenient, depreciate more, need larger radiator, are often noisy, often need the garden digging up and use electricity which is far more expensive than gas. Plus we have plenty of gas under out feet and no spare low carbon electricity to drive them with anyway. Almost as insane as the hydrogen lunacy being pushed. Armitt should know better – is he rather past it perhaps?
April 17, 2022
Civil engineering Portsmouth Tech. and Chair of the National Infrastructure Commission & beholden to government and surely not āindependentā – this perhaps explains these idiotic market rigging suggestions!
April 17, 2022
Rees-Mogg just now on radio 4 says how much he respects Archbishop Welby and Lord Hennesey.
Jacob rather goes down rather in my estimation these two are and have been consistently wrong headed on almost everything.
Then we learn that the top official at the Home Office told Priti Patel that “evidence of a deterrent effect is highly uncertain” and there is “insufficient certainty” over value for money.
How on earth can anyone think that the proposed Rwanda policy (assuming the lefty judges and lawyers do not kill it) will not hugely deter people (thus saving a fortune) and encourage would be immigrants to stay in France or return home. Surely only someone totally out of touch with reality could think this? Is this (not in the real world) civil servant really suitable to be Patel’s Undersecretary of State?
April 17, 2022
The deterrent effect would be maximised by having more of the dinghyists flown straight back to their countries of origin.
April 17, 2022
Probably more chance of success if the Navy were to take them and then load them into the RIBs they used to cross the Channel to get ashore. A sense of poetic justice too
April 17, 2022
Since many migrants destroy their papers before crossing the Channel, how would their country of origin be confirmed?
And even if their nationality is confirmed, without their papers they could be turned away from their homeland.
And since they are fleeing their homelands because of insurgencies, wars, extreme governmental corruption and exceptional poverty, what’s to stop them fleeing once again?
April 17, 2022
No Rwanda is a better deterrent, as most would prefer France to Rwanda and anyway French cooperation is not forthcoming under the dire Macron.
April 17, 2022
In the real world, it will most likely simply result in a change of business model for the trafficking gangs, just as they shifted from lorries to small boats when using lorries became too difficult.
Their free market entrepeneurship will find a way, and not the one Priti Patel thinks.
April 18, 2022
Nothing to do with free markets Peter.
Just dreadful criminality and exploitation
April 17, 2022
Now we see that the NHS is giving speeches at the WEF events. This organisation seems to have it’s tentacles everywhere and nothing good will come of it for ordinary people.
April 17, 2022
God help us all especially if they listen.
April 17, 2022
Extraordinary, Christine. When I read your comment I exclaimed āWT*ā about the WEF.
April 17, 2022
One can only hope the NHS’s subject is ‘How We Keep On Messing It All Up’.
April 17, 2022
The NHS is totally unfair competition for other providers so where is the competition authority?
April 17, 2022
Govt officially offering farmers lump sums to retire!
Offering it right now despite all these food worries.
April 17, 2022
That the government can’t even get countryside policy right is a seering indictment.
April 17, 2022
+1
April 17, 2022
It is what is called Pork Barrel Politics, I’d say.
April 17, 2022
+1
Well yes..in the derogatory sense.
Are there any votes in it though?
Pigs wonāt be happy.
April 17, 2022
Everhopeful
It is going to have to be a big wedge of money as too many are making a very good living out of subsidies and incentives for renewable energy, planting trees, building houses and greening up. They that way leave something tangible in the way of small areas of land and property t leave their kids.
April 17, 2022
+1
Yes.
Good point!
April 17, 2022
Everhopeful. Apparently banks are buying up land in Wales to plant trees so big companies can off set their carbon footprints. I hope they taste nice.
April 17, 2022
+1
Agreed.
Iāve read that somewhere.
Claiming they are doing it for ācarbon captureā.
Utter scam.
April 17, 2022
Agreed. Please could you ask questions about this, Sir John?
What would be the drivers behind government incentivising farmers to part with land rather than put it to productive use? It is concerning. We know Mr Gates is buying up large swathes of US farmland.
April 17, 2022
Control the food supply and you control the people. Get ready for rationing where your social credit points will be exchanged for a few vegetables. Of course meat will be reserved for the VIPs. All for our own good.
April 17, 2022
+1
Agree 100%
Spot on.
And āgovernmentsā are facilitating all this.
Utter shame on them.
April 17, 2022
‘Control the food supply and you control the people.’
Control too tightly and you’ll have a violent revolt.
April 17, 2022
SP
+1
They want the land. It is an asset in the financial sense.
The given reasons are probably lies just to get their mitts on it.
It is just a land grab.
In the US they are buying up land to grow certain crops to make fake meat from.
April 17, 2022
It doesnāt really feel ( to me) as if we are a sovereign country any more.
And leaders seem so desperate to āstrut the world stageā.
They donāt care about us any more.
Glad the Pandemic Treaty isnāt signed and sealed but they always seem to cave in and do as ordered in the end.
Arenāt we spending Ā£Ā£Ā£5 million a day because of some Refugee Pact?
April 17, 2022
The BMJ is very much in favour of a Pandemic Treaty.
āWe must seize the opportunity to get global preparedness and response in order. A new global agreement on pandemic preparedness and response can protect current and future generations from a global crisis of this kind occurring again. We cannot wait for the next crisis before we actā
And all these International regs are just horrific notions and conspiracy theoriesā¦..
Until they become reality!
April 17, 2022
Everhopeful. I cant see the Rwanda scheme getting off the ground. The do gooders are already plotting to over throw it.
April 17, 2022
+1
The govt has neither the spine nor the appetite for it.
Has not one MP had a good think about the ramifications of what is happening?
Just a little reflection on a very recent event??
April 17, 2022
Happy Easter, Sir John,
and Happy Easter to all who comment on here.
Mary M.
April 17, 2022
Happy Easter to everyone trying to make the world a better place too.
April 17, 2022
Thank you Mary and the same to you.
April 17, 2022
Thank you Mary. And to you.
April 17, 2022
And to you.
April 17, 2022
Mary M,
Happy Easter.
Latin Mass at Brompton Oratory today, as there is every Sunday. Full congregation. Good choir.
April 17, 2022
Any society or group that wishes to impose new rules and regulations needs a method of imparting them, then imposing them and finally methods of punishing those who will not or cannot obey. In the past, this would have been done by royal decree or the firm hand of national religions, then by military dictatorships with the aid of C20th broadcasting means.
Now, technology can eliminate any privacy, even when the primary intention is security of the individual, and can enable an infinitely greater surveillance and control of the ‘man in the street’. Of course, it will all be configured and imposed in ways that are advertised as being totally for our benefit – but to me, it is largely to gratify the needs of those who are only psychologically satisfied by the sense of more and more power, a possibly greater incentive than personal riches.
April 17, 2022
Speed limiters. Another control measure from Brussels which no doubt Whitehall will be determined to follow.
Is there no aspect of life they won’t interfere with.
The Germans won’t be happy.
April 17, 2022
The actual proposals are for a device which alerts drivers when they exceed a speed limit but does not affect the performance of the vehicle.
And you can turn off the alert if you don’t want it.
And they are still just proposals.
Panic if you like.
April 17, 2022
There are devices already – -speed limit signs, lamp-post spacing …
April 17, 2022
No one is in a panic NHL
Just a valuable heads up from Ian
It shows up yet another anti freedom move by the United States of Europe.
April 17, 2022
Ian. Some Scottish MP’s are asking fir meat to be taken off the menu in hospitals. That will please the farmers…not.
April 17, 2022
Ban people being allowed to ask for things immediately!!!
April 17, 2022
MPs NLH. By which mandate ?
April 17, 2022
Both my sons have had various flash Audis and BMWs whose top speed is limited to 155 mph. So, speed limiters are already with us.
April 17, 2022
No-one to my knowledge, SJR, has written in to this site condemning new global rules on pandemics, because they have not yet been adopted. But several people here, including myself, are very concerned that they will be adopted, for the reason you give: we in this country are rather keen to comply with international regulations. As I expect you know, the treaty negotiations currently taking place have a time schedule which sees adoption of the treaty as occurring in two years’ time. They are being conducted by a panel of the World Heath Assembly, the ‘decision-making body’ of WHO. Britain is not represented on this panel. A draft text is expected for 1 August 2022, a little over 3 months away.
Anyone thinking that that Johnson’s government might be lukewarm towards a pandemic treaty might want to consider this statement of Britain’s ‘Ambassador’ to the WHO, Simon Manley: ‘COVID-19 has demonstrated… that we must go further and faster in strengthening global preparedness for health emergencies. Indeed, to prevent the next pandemic the UK believes that we need a paradigm shift, with a strengthened WHO; new, legally-binding obligations for member states with the means to ensure compliance.’ He said that last May. So your government took an early position in favour of the basic premise of the proposed treaty:- this country is ready to give up powers to a supranational organisation. That is contrary to the view you express in your post today, which I support.
In my opinion, a pandemic treaty forcing on us public heath measures of the kinds we saw in this country and elsewhere over the last two years would be another nail in the coffin of parliamentary democracy. The legislature’s power of scrutiny and control over specific public health measures and their duration would be lost. This threat to national sovereignty must be stopped in its tracks before our regulatory compliance fetish makes it too late.
April 17, 2022
Thank you Richard II excellent comment
April 17, 2022
I second all that, RICHARD II. I have always cringed when politicians like May freely sign up to give away British Freedom to world communism.
April 17, 2022
Oh yes..and I third it.
I have only seen queries.
And there are medical related bodies in the U.K. which very much support a Pandemic Treaty!
Already the groundwork in being undertaken.
April 17, 2022
Well said. This parliament is sleepwalking into signing away our sovereignty yet again. Most MP’s are just too stupid and lazy to understand what is happening. Many would rather concentrate on Woke issues that 99.9% of the country have no interest in. These multinational organisations have lost their original purpose and just become expensive talking shops for the select few who all demonstrate the same group think. Anyone with an alternative view is condemned, ridiculed and can even lose their jobs. We saw this with the pandemic and climate change. Social media will quickly ban you if you argue against the approved line. Top scientists who have an alternative argument are silenced yet we see so called celebrities, with no scientific knowledge given centre stage.
April 17, 2022
Richard 11. It’s getting out of hand. So much legislation creeping in.
April 17, 2022
I refrain from commenting on this site because the past two years have left me boiling with rage and weighed down with intense anxiety syndrome. What has been described above by Richard is spot on, and if we slide by way of apathy towards such a set-up then we will say goodbye to all control over our own bodies and health. Medical treatment will end up being compulsory, whether you want it or not, and whether it’s safe or not….amongst other things. Yes, this government and any government based on Labour, Tory or LibDem would merrily sign us all away to global control, “for the greater good” and the sad thing is that many of the spineless public would be all in favour of it; being, as they are, quite ignorant of the true nature of what’s proposed. One world government….that “conspiracy theory” that everyone has laughed about for years…is actually breathing down our necks, if not already here in some form.
April 17, 2022
So true Chris and listening to the news and reading John Redwood every day can be depressing. My friends say since they stopped they feel better as there’s not much we can do about anything and the politicians know it.
April 17, 2022
No point in voting as policies are very similar.
April 17, 2022
I think you meant ‘no point in voting as policies will not be carried out?’
April 17, 2022
+1
April 17, 2022
Fascinating and terrifying comment Richard II. Thank you for those details. And thanks to SJR for pushing back against the moves to give away our sovereignty. We need a lot more people to wake up and resist – difficult when the MSM and main internet sources of information are hostile to the old fashioned ideal of self-interested nations with liberal democracies and freedom of speech.
April 18, 2022
Thanks for that, BeebTax, but I’m not sure it’s as difficult as you say to get past the legacy media’s hostility to the idea of a well-informed public. There is a lot of information that does find its way on to the internet. Governments rely on the MSM to distract the public from discovering it, but if we don’t waste our time with the BBC etc. we can use that time instead to find out a lot of things for ourselves that are ‘hidden in plain sight’. We are certainly in a much better position in that respect than a generation or two ago, before the internet. Unfortunately, that is why the government is so desperate for online censorship. If the bill passes, I can only hope the courts will display the same uncooperative attitude there, as they have with the government’s measures to curb unlawful migration.
April 17, 2022
Surely the Civil Service cannot decide we must adopt new EU rules, laws or directives.
April 17, 2022
ah …but MPs usually do what they are told, – by the Civil Service, who are told by the EU.
April 17, 2022
Mike
The CS adivse, and Ministers decide.
April 17, 2022
But Mark, our host, who has been at the highest levels of government and by his comment, suggests the opposite is true.
April 17, 2022
I fear the comedy Yes Minister is nearer to the truth than we’d all like
April 17, 2022
No, it can’t.
This is yet more infantile “now look what you made me do” from an inept government.
April 17, 2022
Couldn’t agree more – too much trying to micro-manage us. Adam Smith reckoned that reducing regulation to an essential minimum was the sure way to prosperity. As for speed-limiters – arggh!!!
April 17, 2022
This government, and previous governments promote self-harm, both of it’s own party, and the country as a whole.
Other countries do not comply with damaging laws, be they EU laws, international laws or even their own laws. They change them, or ignore them. The UK crosses the t’s and dots the i’s and bends over backwards with it’s self harm so that the UK looks ‘honourable’ on the world stage and suffers the maximum damage while others ignore them altogether. I see little, or no international condemnation of those countries that bend the international rules, or even ignore the rules altogether.
Those who put their country first have a massive advantage over those who ‘play by the book’.
April 17, 2022
Well said Shirley. Too right!
April 17, 2022
Very true. I remember coming across umpteen bits of E U Environmental legislation (directives) when I was a campaigner that were gold-plated by our Civil Service, while the French and others watered them down in favour of their business and communities. The French, with whom I had some contact, were astonished we would implement the directives in a manner so harmful to our interests.
April 17, 2022
Sir John’s post reads like a Counsel Of Despair to me.
The more that the nations of the world can agree e.g. on product safety, and on minimising environmental impacts of them and of their production, the more easily can Adam Smith’s vision be realised.
He picks one specific example – which has not yet been fully assessed and will likely be rejected for self-evident reasons anyway – which is not at all typical of the great majority of good sense internationally agreed standards.
April 17, 2022
Countries vary so much, it is impossible to create a single law that is fair for all.
Look at immigration, for example. You will never see the citizens of the world queuing up to get into poor countries. The majority head for the west, particularly the UK, where they get all the benefits without having paid a single penny.
I always look at a country the way I would look at my company. I started my company from scratch, I financed it at great risk to myself (and my supportive husband). I worked 18 hours a day, 6 days a week, to get the business established. I planned, I worked hard and I eventually profited. I would be very VERY careful before I gave company shares to anyone. As my company belonged to me and my husband, so does a country belong to its people and would be passed to the newer generations. Why should the assets of the country be shared with people who have never contributed to the country, and possibly never will? Citizenship should not be handed out like confetti, not if the country is to be fair to all.
April 17, 2022
NLH – who is this ānations of the worldā who elects them, what % of a say do they have? Is their say based on population numbers, size of your Country, gdp, does the UK get the same say one person vote as Ireland, or Malta? England should have 7 or 8 votes to 1 of Ireland. Who are the super beings who will make the decisions for us all. How do we remove them? How do we change them?
Do you not see any dangers of large powers in the hands of a few people?
April 17, 2022
+1 a-tracy.
April 17, 2022
He wants a world government.
Elected by no one.
People like him forcing us to do what they want.
What a horrible future.
April 18, 2022
In conclusion Martin is the only one with the credentials to decide – – ‘nations of the World?’ doh.
April 17, 2022
I disagree. There is a vast difference between legally mandated standards and ones that evolve through competition and negotiation. The legally mandated route results in intense lobbying by market incumbents with financial muscle designed to exclude the competition. That has been the repeated history of EU regulation, as Sir James Dyson can explain.
April 18, 2022
NLH the more the nations of the world can agree, there are plenty of examples on the internet of protective practices around the world and in your beloved EU, did you read about the Dyson case of anti-competitive EU practices he had to fight in the High Court. It went on for over three years sufficient time for German manufacturers to copy his ideas and replicate them into their own versions of stick vacuums.
April 17, 2022
Oh!
HAPPY EASTER to JR and everyone!
š£š„
April 17, 2022
You too.
April 17, 2022
Thanks! š
April 17, 2022
Regarding the WHO Pandemic Treaty, I suspect the correct statement is that there is no agreed Treaty or even text of a new Treaty for negotiation THAT WE ARE AWARE OF. I doubt very much that there isn’t a text restricted to the very wealthy and powerful advocates of “Global Health Security” and out of the sight of anyone who isn’t in their circle and doesn’t already support it.
The Globalists see it as another opportunity to transfer power from democratic (and non-democratic) national Governments and into the hands of Globalist Elite Technocrats.
As for the speed limiting devices – this is another example of EU over-regulation which the British Civil Service so adores. It’s a device to track the movement of every driver, using the justification of safety and saving lives; it will be another link in the chain to create Pay Per Mile and also to restrict use of cars by setting maximum mileage. As usual, it’s about CONTROL, but that’s what all our Governments seem to be obsessed with: controlling and micro-managing our lives.
April 17, 2022
Yes, parliaments – whether national or of the European Union – *could* pass all manner of oppressive law, and such headlines were the stock-in-trade of the anti-European UK press.
However, as in the case of the US’s attempt to destroy our sovereignty with TTIP, when put to the vote such proposals are either rejected or subjected to such amendments as to cause the proponents to abandon their aims.
April 17, 2022
+1
April 17, 2022
+1
And all of which no one voted for.
April 17, 2022
Donna, +1, as usual, another perceptive and clear comment
April 17, 2022
Indeed but take limiters. Zero push back from HMG, a symptom of overall paralysis or the usual EU compliant blob accepting everything they are told?
I can see the control freaks loving it. Spinning that it enhances safety but knowing that it is but a short step to knowing where we are all the time and in 20 years say, making us submit for approval longer journeys to be agreed or not based on our personal green footprint. We will be allowed a bank of miles and thatās it.
I see Boris is going to apologise saying he thought he was in the right. Rubbish. Didnāt think. All beneath him and desperate Tories are spinning it wasnāt exactly a karaoke party so OK. So if the rest of the country had done what he did, rather than in and around our family, agonise consistently about what we could and couldnāt do, that would have been ok. Utter bollocks. Tory MPs know that but are too weak to push back.
And in other news, despite the not fit for purpose Home Office denying any blame in the recent airport scandal, I see they are easing security checks to shorten the time they take, something else denied by the H.O.
If easier checks do not compromise security, why did they not exist in the first place?
April 17, 2022
I’ve previously written to airport security about the danger of having so many people crammed together before being security checked. It fell on deaf ears and I just received a reply telling me it was essential security was carried out. They completely missed the point and thought I was complaining about the time it took. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.
April 17, 2022
Whats the punishment Nig1?
Like speeding points as one football political pundit relates it to, a totting up loses your driving licence, does a totting up of parties mean a ban from Downing Street cake, food and drink meetings for a year? Make them drink water lol.
These Downing Street workers need minders to stop them misbehaving and feeling too powerful snogging in their offices, daring to bring in cake, perusing porn on their computers all things Iāve read theyāve been accused of in the past.
April 17, 2022
We should consider ourselves extremely fortunate that we are governed by such well meaning and compassionate people who have our best interests at heart. Such an interventionist political culture driven by all main British political parties is a healthy development from the moral world in which uneducated and foolish populations are simply too infantile to freely organise their own affairs
1997 and 2008 will in retrospect prove to be two moments in human history in which western populations voluntarily gave up their freedoms to a sinister force purporting to act in our best interests
April 17, 2022
+many
So agree Dom!
Their care and love makes me feel soooo safe and happy!
Communism imposed by stealth, soft words and confusion.
āSoftly, softly catchee monkeyā! (attributed to Baden-Powell)
April 17, 2022
It is only voluntary if you act with fully informed consent. We were hoodwinked, otherwise.
I fear Johnson is about to out-shine Heath on that score.
April 17, 2022
I should think that many in Russia would be deeply envious of your complete freedom to make these criticisms of what you imagine UK governments to be.
You couldn’t care less about them though, could you?
April 17, 2022
How long before it is deemed an online harm?
April 17, 2022
Not that long if you will keep voting for such types, I don’t suppose, no.
April 17, 2022
It’s quite obvious what sort of trajectory this nation is on.
April 17, 2022
I am pleased you are making these arguments.
But you are far too blasĆ© about the WTO treaty. Boris co-authored an article with other EU leaders in the Telegraph promoting it! Look it up: āNo government can address the threat of pandemics alone ā we must come togetherā. This was very vague. UK Conservatives can lead the debate on the detail of what is acceptable. We should not rely on the US to stop unwanted overreach.
The car industry tells the government they want the speed limiter regulations. They want to be able to sell the same models in both the EU and UK markets. Keeping existing EU regulations is the policy of the UK government! This is wrong. Having them creates barriers to entry into the car market. There is no reason why we cannot allow cars with speed limiters and other EU regulations. But this must be optional.
You need to create UK standards which are less proscriptive, but still address safety. This will encourage innovative start-ups. It would also allow cost effective imports from our other trading partners. This would benefit hard pressed consumers. UK based car makers could still produce a single products for both UK and EU markets. But they could also create new products for the UK and our other trading partners.
April 17, 2022
Do we get the German speed limits in the UK?
Our car has a devise that tells you the speed of the road it is always wrong, if the car automatically adjusted itself weād be doing 40 in a 70 mph causing an obstruction, 30mph in a 50 mph area.
I donāt really understand why speedometers in the Uk go up to 120/130 or 155 mph in German cars. It would be better to have engines that work better in the lower speeds that we more frequently drive in and if motorways were actually smart youād be allowed to do 85mph on empty motorways.
April 17, 2022
You must have a poor version of a speed limit device a-tracy, as I had a Mazda loan car and was astounded at how accurate it was i.e. changing within a few yards of a speed limit sign. In fact it even changed the limit to a dual carriageway limit where the single carriageway road had a temporary central reservation about 300 yards long as a refuge for traffic turning right. Not sure about the legality of that final point although it is shown as a dual carriageway on Google maps.
April 17, 2022
Im trialling a tesla model 3
April 17, 2022
Perhaps some sort mix-up between mph and kph.
April 18, 2022
No, the road is a 70mph road and after a roundabout and through a set of speed cameras the car notification of mph drops from 70 to 40, if the car had an automatic limiter based we would be in a pickle and cause an obstruction. Other roads nearby that are 60 mph are similarly confused. Road speeds are getting silly now, there is a motorway connection road, no pedestrians, houses or anything on it and it is 60 instead of 70 just plain bonkers and obviously a speeding fine raiser. Smart motorways that arenāt smart making people drive bunched up at 50 mph in two lanes when theyāre four lane motorways and could easily accommodate 70 mph. They do this even in the evening when roads are virtually empty.
To be honest I like the car, it doesnāt have a luxury feel and feels a bit plastic/cheap inside, it doesnāt give anything like the miles per full charge that it claims, as another battery car a colleague is trialling doesnāt. It is not a car I would trust to go on a long journey to Glasgow or London Iād be too worried about recharging it and the time it takes to recharge, as family donāt have recharging points, my brother had to go 20 miles out of his way round trip just to recharge his electric car.
April 18, 2022
seems like you make a case for not having an EV !
April 17, 2022
+1
April 17, 2022
Mary M
Thank you and the same to you and yours.
April 17, 2022
If Boris has already involved himself in writing a paper on any subject then as sure as hell you can guarantee that he is committed to introducing it.
He on a daily basis becomes a bigger liability to the country.
April 17, 2022
Most “features” in cars these days are software driven and can be enabled or disabled very simply. So the argument about manufacturers needing a ‘standard’ European build is a large red-herring. My new (petrol) car has a ‘given’ horsepower but the model above has a higher one – all simply a different mapping of the engine control unit (ECU) but with a significant price difference between the two models.
April 17, 2022
Maybe showing that still using every day my 2002 car in Britain does not make me aware of what new carsā technology can do ā¦
I rented a car in France the other day, one brand new with less than 500 km on it, and realised it had a new feature (at least one I had never noticed before): based on the carās internal GPS connection it could in real time always show where I was (pretty standard feature now, not surprising) but also the maximum speed available anywhere on the road. I was amazed to realise that when entering a village the 80 km/h max. speed of the āopen roadā before (it was in a hilly area where 70 or 80 km/h is prevalent) was immediately switched (within a few (centi)metres of the village entrance sign) to either 50, 40, 30 or 20 km/h depending on the village (and I guess the straightness and narrowness of its streets). And the info was flashing on the dashboard all the time I was over the limit.
I know, I know: I am not a petrol-head and am quite behind all things car-related, and a lot of people might have already experienced such things before in their more recent or more expensive cars. But this was a small Japanese car made in France.
I guess the car did not have a speed limiter or at least it was not activated (yet).
April 18, 2022
I too have an old car – 18 years in my case. I have a cheap satnav (about Ā£60) and that advises me of speed limits and continually ‘gongs’ me if I am over the limit. It has capability for the whole of western Europe, and is several years old, so this technology is not that new. What is new is the proposal to limit the speed of the car, not just be advisory. Lorries in the UK are limited to 56 mph, but not at the lower limits.
April 17, 2022
100%
April 17, 2022
Bill Gates has a new book out āHow to Prevent the Next Pandemicā. Tedros Ghebreyesus is promoting it. Who funds WHO?
April 17, 2022
Yes, let’s ban people from trying to stop pandemics.
April 18, 2022
No, let’s ban people from trying to stop the freedom to live a normal life. As has been done in Bosnia-Herzogovina, where it’s now illegal to require a vaccine passport to be shown on entry to any business premise. Who’d have thought it – Sarajevo leads the world!
April 18, 2022
So how do you propose to enable the people of Ukraine to “lead normal lives”, then?
April 17, 2022
Some in govt think we should adopt the EU regulations.
That’s a statement of the b…..obvious. All part of the plan to bring this country low, ready for re-entry to the EU. They never wanted it, don’t accept democracy and are full of their own advantages. Govt. now has to work for a living instead of swanning around and they don’t like it.
April 17, 2022
I think the debate is around what the word excessive means, as certainly there should be some basic international laws on how Countries should behave with each other.
Surly it is then up to each Country to have its own internal laws, for its own population, to suit the circumstances, climate, topography, development and demands of its citizens.
The problem always seems to occur when leaders of Countries grandstand on the so called World stage, all trying to outbid each other with what they consider to be in the best interests of everyone, without any sort of consultation with their own population.
Why is it every time our leaders go to visit another Country, attend a World/European summit, it costs the taxpayer money, every time another Country leader comes to visit us, it costs the taxpayer money.
I do not make the rules of how to live or spend money for my next door neighbour, and he does not make rules for me, we live our own lives in our own way, with a simple agreement that should either of us plan to do something which may affect the other, (house extension, planting/cutting down trees, etc) we talk about it in advance.
Whilst we all keep an eye out for each others properties, good strong borders and fences make for good neighbours, and If visiting each other, then we obey the rules of the hosts house, it is as simple as that.
April 17, 2022
+10
April 17, 2022
AJ, +1, Good comments and resolving such questions of co-operative ventures to the personal and understandable level, such as neighbourliness or, say, in a school classroom or simply along oneās street.
In such familiar settings we more readily see the shortcomings of shared bank accounts, all must own the same car, the superficiality of āfrom each according to their ability, to each according to their needsā, etc. etc.
Young people at school or university do seem to find that reflection on the chosen paths of their more persuasive colleagues doesnāt always accord with what they themselves would choose, and there are the arduous and diligent, reliable and selfless as as the selfish and lazy, bullying and unprincipled amongst their small group.
April 17, 2022
I look forward to your comments about how, if we really want to, we get out of our alleged international law responsibilities re the Rwandan scheme.
April 17, 2022
The Rwandan scheme will be quietly dropped just like the turning back the boats was last year. This Government have no intention of controlling immigration. They just spin these headlines to deflect us away from partygate and increase their popularity ready for the local elections.
April 17, 2022
+1 Agreed Christine. They may get half a dozen sent to Rwanda to make it look as through they are seriously trying, and then the excuses will start. They could easily have stopped this illegal entry, if they were serious. They are not serious about cutting immigration, and have no excuse when given an 80 seat majority!
Name another country that puts gatecrashers into 4* hotels at the taxpayers expense, plus other perks and benefits!
April 17, 2022
Agree – under this government not one person will be returned to France, no boat will be towed back to France and most certainly not a single person will ever be transported to Rwanda
April 17, 2022
I see George Eustace has been panicked into taking action on food security despite you highlighting it for years.
On the basis that a reduction in CO2 (like energy, exporting it abroad) was a key driver, how magically can he perform a 180 degree?
April 17, 2022
Panicked into action …… or has he just realised that there are many largely rural councils up for election in two weeks’ time?
The plans to cover productive farmland with solar panels and wind turbines and re-wild many more have gone down like a bucket of cold sick in the Conservative Party’s core voting areas.
April 17, 2022
I’m much more concerned about how we build a defence system to protect us from hypersonic missiles and nuclear warheads – from countries such as Russia, China, Korea, Iran, Terrorists and other rogue or semi-rogue countries / groups of people. It’s not immediate defence but gives us more power / leverage in the world in general. Costly and challenging but it would help stimulate the economy, in the medium to long-term, if done in the right way.
And also to wean ourselves of hydrocarbons so that we’re not so reliant on rogue leaders with power of hydrocarbons. How can they distort prices and use hydrocarbons to finance their regimes and in an aggressive way towards other countries. Again, another costly and challenging task but it would help stimulate the economy, in the medium to long-term, if done in the right way.
And both measures also about protecting our SOVEREIGNTY. Otherwise our sovereignty is something paper thin that can be tossed around in the various threatening and dangerous winds blowing all around us (the EU is like a zephyr in comparison).
Lastly, if we can develop plane-like things on the beach under the Wright brothers to go to sending men to the moon 50 years later or whatever (and 50 years ago!), and produce great scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton of Cambridge University, then surely we can build an adequate defence system and not have to depend on hydrocarbons nearly so much?
April 17, 2022
Also, we need more of a CAN-DO spirit instead of just being passive about these things.
April 17, 2022
I think that you will find it generally stoney ground on that point here , Ed.
April 17, 2022
Johnson’s ‘can-do ‘ always becomes like polishing a turd.
April 17, 2022
Kitty Hawk was 1903, Apollo 11 was 1968. Dr Cornelis Lely devised his scheme for the Zuider Zee back in the 19th century, and work to turn sea into land began after WW I. A century ago there was a far better approach to dealing with rising sea levels.
April 17, 2022
Correction Apollo 11 was 1969.
April 17, 2022
‘A century ago there was a far better approach to dealing with rising sea levels’
Stopped to chat with an ordinary-house builder in London and told me the Victorians were such great builders / engineers in the city that they built basements in certain parts (parts with lots of underground rivers / streams in London) that never leaked. But that modern builders simply cannot compete. They’re simple not able to build leak-proof basements and / or have to use tiresome pumps to constantly pump out water.
April 17, 2022
— Too right!
Too many international organisations are well on their way to becoming the tail that wags the dog – Who can deny that processes, procedures and authority are pretty well in place for the replacement of democracy by international organisation under the umbrella of the UN?
HMG signs treaties as a matter of course – because other countries sign and to show what lemmings they are, without due consideration for the powers they give away, and without our permission.
Nobody should be ignoring the path the WHO has started on towards becoming the global medical authority, with the power to instruct national governments. Meaning once this treaty is signed we lose most of our democratic rights. MPs should be aware of this and ready to make sure no more such treaties are signed quietly, behind closed doors, and without permission.
Accepting the WHO as the pandemic authority will have many repercussions, and it will be even worse than signing away our rights to the EU — Let’s not exchange one form of tyranny for another, for there is nobody to curtail what the WHO will be able to do once they have THAT treaty.
April 17, 2022
BH, +1, Powerful and prescient
April 17, 2022
+1000000
Bryan.
Absolutely!!
100%
April 17, 2022
Bryan Harris
Very well put. I could not agree more.
April 17, 2022
Also, government is right to protect our borders. Charity begins at home. And then we can offer more charity abroad. In that order (nor can we force the tax-payer to be charitable either. Religious leaders / people in the arts / media etc have to do their bit why they think individuals should be offering their charity to others around the world). The government’s job is first to protect the interests of people in this country (and, yes, help foreigners in immediate crisis, involving immediate danger for example, for sure – and also to invest abroad when it comes to geo-politics but geo-politics is ultimately about looking after the interests of people back home).
April 17, 2022
Doesn’t it usually start with a vague signing up to a general idea, that morphs into an intent ( sold to us as something that is years, if not decades away) that ends up with us shackled to a ruinous policy like on Global Warming ?
You do wonder what makes our political class so eager to sign away their powers and our sovereignty , we saw it with the EEC/EU, where they preferred to be told what to do by a bureaucracy than actually govern our country, and they fought us too and nail to remain these subordinate creatures . Yet even when they could see our EU subordination was not going down well with the public there they are there signing us up to even more obligations.
Why ? I can only presume it is because we are blessed with a political class who are still ashamed of us , like in the 1960/70’s where their only ambition was to ‘manage our decline’, thus our entanglement with the EU, or now thoroughly ashamed of our history , culture and country. So we have a political class who have no ambition for our country , and is stuff full of careerists who have nothing better to do with their PPI degrees. So ‘armed’ without any ambition or values , actually making a decision their career will stand or fall on is a frightening concept, much better to out source the decision making to some international body who they can blame if anything goes wrong.
April 17, 2022
JR: ” There is no agreed new Treaty nor even a text of new Treaty for negotiation so that is no immediate threat.”
Complacency such as this is how we end up losing our liberty and freedom and lives are blighted.
April 17, 2022
So if nothing is planned yet, Sir John, do you know why the government is spending Ā£18 m. of our money on a vaccine passport scheme?
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/054df563-77af-437e-8bec-5169997f5b5a?origin=SearchResults&p=1
April 17, 2022
Surprised they want speed limiters, they collect Ā£600,000 a day in speeding fines donāt they ? How are they aiming to replace that lost revenue ?
April 17, 2022
The UK signs up to these agreements amid great fanfare and then, as you write Sir John, adheres to the letter of those regulations while becoming ever more uncompetitive and expensive to live in.
China is not adhering to any refugee pacts, nor climate (weather pacts), nor is India. Germany decided that Gas is a green fuel because it suited them.
I wanted the UK out of the EU for this reason, the premise is a fine one all using the same rules, but the disparate cultures in the world mean that rules mean different things to different peoples.
If we are to sign up tot he se rules we must be permitted to impose tariffs on those who interpret them differently to how we do.
April 17, 2022
The most uniform desire of all international bodies is control. I don’t want everyone to know what car I’m driving, at what speed and where. And what is the benefit for me? None that I can see. But if I try to find out where a VIP lives, where they eat or where they socialise, I meet a wall of silence and their security teams!
None of these organisations looked very good during the Chinese biological attack, with the WHO positively obstructing enquiries. The EU cheerfully wanted to throw this country to the wolves by stealing our vaccines.
It’s bad enough coping with our own politicians. I don’t want anyone else interfering with my life.
April 18, 2022
The devices that you imply – not those actually proposed – would violate your Human Right to privacy.
So if you don’t want them, then fight to keep the Human Rights Act.
April 17, 2022
International regulation is devised by the communist captured UN to weaken and control the West and weāre already signed up to two of the most destructive.
Firstly, Mrs. May signed the UK up to the UN’s Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and REGULAR Migration (CGM) without ANY Parliamentary vote let alone a referendum. This is designed to bring into the enlightened West large numbers of people with cultures that do not believe in democracy, equality or tolerance.
Note that nether Russia nor China never take in any refugees.
Secondly weāre signed up to the CAGW scam designed to destroy the Westās economies by attempting to implement technically impossible non-fossil fuel energy production and introducing sub-optimal heat pumps and evs. Even nuclear power is disallowed.
This is despite the fact that although CO2 levels are rising, global temperatures have only risen by a negligible amount and in fact increased CO2 levels are greening the planet and thus increasing food production.
Note that neither Russia nor China are signed up to the CAGW scam and continue to emit the largest quantities of CO2.
April 17, 2022
You write Sir John there is no text for a pandemic treaty suggesting consquently there is no need to be concerned and action to oppose the idea is not required.
In the next paragraph and from what I’ve learned it seems likely that the car speed limit is likely to adopted without debate and promoted by pro-EU departments. Who in government is speaking against it.
Unless there are strong oppositions to matters immediately these proposals will go ahead. To hell with the people the admin and government think.
April 17, 2022
100% agree – what of democracy !
April 17, 2022
Lastly, Israel is developing high tech laser defence. Surely we can do the same here? But on a much bigger scale to deter everthing. Turning UK into a fortress and self sufficient in fuel. We need to become a leader in High Tech / Digital including defence.
April 17, 2022
Our 2019 general election was dressed up and believed by the people and recorded by the media to be about the single issue of Brexitā¦.two and a half years later our government is pursuing the mandate of the UN IPCC policy of net-zero. A policy which bans the ice car in 2030, its speed in 2025 and gas heated domestic boilers 2030, and subsidises renewable with a focus on EV cars and ground pump heaters ā Thereās no democracy here just dictatorship dressed up as international treaty
April 18, 2022
and these values and policies for us, the offending 1% , are totally ignored by the 90%+ China, Russia, Germany, India….
April 17, 2022
Sir John,
Your first paragraph perfectly describes our experience of decades in the EEC/EU. It is much better to be an outside observer than an unwilling participant in such an organisation, especially during a time of turmoil.
April 18, 2022
Unwilling? The UK voted 68:32 to be in the EC.
Ask “outside observers” such as Ukraine and Moldova what they think, eh?
Reply They voted to stay in something misdescribed on the ballot paper as the “common market” which was the EEC on the way to ever closer Union as stated in the founding Treaty of Rome. I voted to leave as I did not like being lied to about the institution .
April 18, 2022
Sir John, but the pamphlet sent to every single electoral address spelt out very clearly the aims of the EC.
I read it, and the European Union that we have today in its nature is exactly as I expected after reading it.
The ballot paper stated “European Community” with “Common Market” in brackets afterwards.
Reply The campaign stressed common market and denied any loss of sovereignty.
April 19, 2022
Yes, some politicians speaking did emphasise the Common Market, but the written information was quite clear on all aspects.
Heath did not say that no sovereignty would be lost. He said that *essential* sovereignty would be retained, which is quite another matter.
He turned out to be correct. Such sovereignty as was pooled on limited, uncontroversial matters was not required to be solely in the hands of the individual nations for the normal happy life of those countries.
The people were not told lies, but it matters not now.
April 17, 2022
Speed limiters are difficult to argue against. Alas they won’t prevent tailgaiting, texting or taking cannabis whilst driving. All of these things seem to be on the increase.
There are places where 30mph in a 30 zone is highly dangerous such as a street with cars parked down both sides like mine. I expect most car vs pedestrian accidents occur well within speed limits judging by how many cats I’ve had to scrape up.
For all that I think drivers in the UK do remarkably well and accidents are, thankfully, a rare thing to see. I feel far safer here than the vast majority of other countries I’ve visited, including EU members.
April 17, 2022
Speed limiters is social engineering….next it will be barcodes and hardhats
April 17, 2022
Thank the Lord for Conservative Back Benchers, SAGE says lock us down and Labour, the Welsh and seaweed cry more, the English will pay.
The Chinese seek world domination and we are helping them every step of the Gold Plated way.
Our leaders want to impoverish us to ban CO2, Putin says have a Nuke or two and demolishes our emission savings for the next century in a couple of weeks.
Kwangos breed like rabbits – after paying my taxes I don’t need roof insulation, I only heat two rooms; next Winter it will be only for an hour, on Sundays, if the water tank’s frozen over.
Speed limited cars – by then I’ll be reduced to a bicycle, that should keep me warm.
April 17, 2022
Sir John, you say: “democratic governments charged with the domestic task of lawmaking find an increasing number of areas where they cannot change, improve or repeal as they and the publics they serve wish owing to international agreements.” But this is only true if national governments are as weak, stupid, cowardly and traitorous as ours and believe that international agreements are permanently binding. THEY ARE NOT. As I have explained many times, an agreement is only valid for as long as you agree to it. As soon as you decide that it no longer suits you, then you DISagree to it and revoke it, in whole or in part.
The reason I and so many others are furious at this government is because they do not understand that – despite the clear demand at the time of Brexit to ‘take back control’ – Boris the Traitor and his Conservative collaborators are allowing FOREIGN government to continue to control Britain. The fact that this is now being done through ‘international agreements’ rather than directly through Brussels regulations is immaterial. We want to be INDEPENDENT and SOVEREIGN.
April 17, 2022
Sir John, I would like to wish you a very happy Easter.
My own Easter has been immeasurably brightened by the news in the Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/04/16/robot-fruit-pickers-could-deployed-stop-britons-going-hungry/) that the war in Ukraine has led to Useless Eustice finally understanding that maybe, just maybe, food security might be worth considering – although he still witters on, like the imbecile that he is, about the need for a “resilient global supply chain”. But despite his continuing brainless subservience to this internationalist dogma, he is now indicating that he will support developments that will boost domestic production, such as robotics and vertical farming.
I have been banging on about robotics and vertical farming, both in your columns and elsewhere, for years, so to finally see the government open their eyes to this is very gratifying. At this time of year, in particular, the expression about the joy that a sinner that repents provides comes to mind! But vertical farming, which could revolutionise our production, is held back by two main problems: the cost of electricity and the initial investment cost. The government needs to tackle both of these (there are many ways this could be done) so as to boost this solution to our food imports. Agri-tech in general also needs a big investment drive by the government, who need to treat this as a matter of national urgency.
April 17, 2022
There is, however, one massive problem: YOUR GOVERNMENT IS COMPLETELY INSANE. Let me explain. In 2019 the government invested Ā£6.4 million in the University of Lincoln centre of excellence in agri-robotics research (see here: https://www.agriland.co.uk/farming-news/6-4-million-awarded-to-set-up-uks-first-global-centre-of-excellence-in-agri-robotics/). This investment came just after an earlier Ā£6.6 million government investment to establish a Centre for Doctoral Training for agri-food robotics. So far, so very good. But who is benefiting from this Ā£13 million of British money? A NORWEGIAN company called Saga Robotics, who openly admit that āAlmost all our research is taking place at the University of Lincolnā (See here: https://www.hortidaily.com/article/9413393/fruit-picking-robot-developer-uses-lincolnshire-as-r-d-base/).
So British funding, and British science is making FOREIGN companies successful. What benefit does Britain get out of this? None at all! Are your government deliberately trying to be traitors, or are they just mentally retarded? Will you ask questions to the government about this?
April 17, 2022
A certain personās Easter Speech.
How dare he?
April 17, 2022
Do you mean the unelected members of the Lords whom revise and shape our laws
April 17, 2022
John what you talk about is shite and has no meaning considering the problems we face in the world today. For a start we have no merchant ships anymore and neither does Australia so what about these new trade deals we were promised please explain how this can happen? how this can this new trade happen? .. especially now that we can see the whole of the passenger fleet P&O tied up and the roadways clogged.. taking back control? Yes! .. well I don’t see it and now we have the spectre of exporting our old problems to Rawanda and then little Pritti strutting her stuff on the world stage – shame shame ‘ the Archbishop is quite right – the government is a disgrace and led by a bunch of boot boys – led by the chief architect Boris himself chief BS..er of the party you are a part of
April 17, 2022
I wonder if now would be a good time for an inquisitive MP to ask Javid if the good progress in onshoring PPE manufacture is being maintained.
April 17, 2022
I would contend that speed limiters are highly dangerous. The ability to accelerate out of trouble is every bit as important as the ability to brake. It will lead to nose to tail convoys of same speed vehicles, precipitating in a dance of potential death and injury.
If you want further examples, consider the insanity of the NIP, and even worse the inability of our so called government to show the guts to get rid of it.
While I credit Boris with his handling of the pandemic and his support of the Ukraine, I do not give credit for his economic response post pandemic. To this I would add the lack of plans for agricultural self sufficiency, the lack of de-redtaping of industry, the lack of control of immigrant lawyers, the abandoned fishing industry, the smack on the wrist attitude to extinction rebellion; all of which will enjoy a wakeup call at the local elections in May.
Finally he needs a UK human rights bill to replace the ECHR and UNHCR laws that our lawyers feed on.
April 18, 2022
You’ve swallowed the bait, the hook, the like and the sinker.
Look at what is actually proposed for consideration – and even that may be rejected.
April 17, 2022
Happy Easter to you and your family Sir John.
I find it interesting that so much is done for our good, our protection, our safety. Often for us to do, for the safety and protection of others.
We had mask wearing. But there is not a single credible study from anywhere that shows them having any effect at all.
We were told that vaccines against Covid would protect us all. The record shows they have failed and they do not stop people catching the virus or passing it on. We were told to have boosters, but they made no difference.
We were told we must lock down the country to contain the virus. A costly and hugely damaging mistake that did not contain the virus.
We were told that test and trace was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Ā£37 billion? later, another failure.
Now the WHO seeks the power to impose all those failed strategies on us, backed by the law. If our government goes along with this insanity then we are truly finished as a country.
As for speed limiters in our cars (in the name of safety no doubt). I think that would be the end of safe overtaking, in the name of tracking our every move. In other words more state control.
April 17, 2022
20 May 2020.
Boris Johnson has claimed the UK will have a āworld-beating” system to test, track and trace for coronavirus up and running by 1 June. Speaking at Prime Ministerās Questions he said he has “growing confidenceā the Government will be able to deliver it by the end of the month when schools are expected to start re-opening classrooms. They plan to be able to trace the contacts of up to 10,000 new cases a day, having already recruited 24,000 trackers.
April 17, 2022
I like the way the French are tackling this WHO challenge to their public health sovereignty. They are creating the World Health Academy, based in Lyon, and investing ā¬120m in it. Like that, they will have a decisive say in what will count as ‘the science’ informing whatever measures the WHO tries to implement under this treaty, if it happens.
No chance of the British government taking a proactive step like this, of course, which would give us a lever so as to maintain our national interest. No, we’ll just do what we’re told!
April 17, 2022
Cough how conceited is that! A French Health Academy calling itself the World, the World according to France lol.
April 17, 2022
In the NHS we use the updated word of concordance rather than compliance as it suggests a bilateral agreement rather than bending to others instructions .Perhaps this perspective can be more widely used in international politics and agreements.
April 18, 2022
Very good point, Margaret.
April 18, 2022
another cover up- – – concordance is agreement, compliance is ‘forced’ agreement.
If that makes you jokers feel any better, why not?
April 17, 2022
“This is the end times ”
Russell Brand – youtube today
Don’t worry its not
“SCARY”
I don’t know his affiliations
but I find him interesting for the moment.
April 17, 2022
This eastertime we mark one hundred and six years since the Irish rebellion TG
James Co Clare
April 18, 2022
And because it saved you from Tory brexit, it was worth it for that alone James!
April 17, 2022
We elect a Parliament every 5 years or so to make our laws and policies during the term of the Patliament.
However, this does not give them the right to give away our sovereignty through the signing International Treaties.
No International Treaty should be signed without a referendum.
April 18, 2022
The views of the public count for nothing in such constitution as the UK has.
Parliament alone is sovereign.
If you don’t like that, then either work for a different constitution, or keep quiet.
April 17, 2022
off topic . .from BBC news website.
A huge queue of trucks has formed on the Poland-Belarus border as Russian and Belarussian drivers try to leave the EU following a sanctions deadline. In the run-up to the Saturday deadline, the line extended to 80km (60 miles), with some stuck for up to 33 hours. The EU has banned lorries from Russia and Belarus – except those carrying medicine, mail or petroleum products – from entering or staying in the bloc. The move is part of sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Drone footage filed by Reuters news agency showed long queues remaining as the midnight deadline neared.
“There are still many kilometres to drive… so it’s unrealistic,” it quoted a Belarusian driver on his chances of crossing the border in time.
April 17, 2022
My car has automatic cruise control with speed limit recognition. I consider it positively dangerous and donāt use it.
When I tried it out driving round the M25 I reached an overhead gantry just as a 40 speed limit sign flashed on. The car braked very hard from 70 so that I was effectively brake checking the following HGV. I had to accelerate away to avoid being hit. These systems brake much more suddenly than human drivers would do in the same situation. If everything on the road was computer driven by the same rules that could be OK but mixing these systems with human drivers is a positive hazard.
Also the vehicle systems appear to pick up on the red circles around speed limit signs, but the end of speed limit signs donāt have those red circles and arenāt reliably read. My car thought that the temporary limit still applied all the way around the top of the M25 to past Watford.
Then there is a spot on the M4 between the M25 and Slough in the 50 limit for the āsmartā motorway works where the car for some reason thinks the limit is 30 and again breaks suddenly, this time for no reason.
April 17, 2022
April 18, 2022
There is too much regulation. Fixed it for you.
The state should stick to defence, policing real crime and justice.