The paradox of the EU and the UK official establishment

There are many Opposition MPs and senior government officials who are keen that the UK should stay wedded to EU laws and rules. They take the EU’s side in any dispute even when the EU is being outrageous as with GB/NI trade. They seem to want to keep us in line with perhaps the thought in mind that one day if there is a more pro EU government they can then negotiate some sort of enhanced co-operation Treaty that falls short of full membership but gives them whatever it is they like about the EU.

The paradox lies in the fact that the EU has made some sensible policy changes since we left, but they do not seem so keen to follow those. The EU has suspended the Maastricht debt and deficit criteria and is allowing more state borrowing. The UK Treasury has developed a UK version of the old rules, so wedded are they to them. The EU has made gas a green transition fuel, recognising the reality that gas will remain crucial to heating our homes and fuelling our factories this decade. The UK has stuck with the old EU definitions. Various EU countries have cut fuel duty by double the amount we have cut it in the UK but the pro EU people are not rushing to do it here. It seems they only like the EU when it restricts us,taxes us and makes life difficult.

I trust the government now presses on with sorting out the Northern Ireland protocol. The Unionist MPs have made clear they cannot go into the Assembly, the crucial part of the Good Friday Agreement, all the time NI is cut off from free trade with the rest of the UK by unwarranted EU interventions. There is good legal ground for us to resolve  this by taking control of our own internal trade in Northern Ireland which should be nothing to do with the EU, as long as we help enforce no movement of illegal goods into the Republic. My preferred way of doing it is via Clause  38 of the Withdrawal Agreement Act, but Article 16 of the Protocol itself also allows us to do this.

153 Comments

  1. Mark B
    June 10, 2022

    Good morning.

    . . . as long as we help enforce no movement of illegal goods into the Republic.

    And what about illegal goods flowing from NI into the UK Single Market ? If we have higher food and other safety standards than the EU, then should we be not concerned, as we did during the donkey meat scandal, that our laws and standards are under threat.

    Our government should be demanding reciprocation in this respect. And by doing so, we would be seen as an equal to the EU as other nations outside it are and not subordinate as we seem to remain.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46951855

    The Irish authorities found in early 2013 that horsemeat had been used in frozen burgers labelled as “pure beef”.

    1. Everhopeful
      June 10, 2022

      +1
      Allegedly there is a plan afoot to tear up the NIP. ( A bill?).
      To the point where the Irish PM is warning of a” historic low point” and saying that this overriding of the Brexit deal would benefit no one.
      But then 
we’ve heard a lot of potential good news
signifying nowt!

    2. James Freeman
      June 10, 2022

      Our own supermarkets are capable of upholding food standards. Getting the government to do it via EU legislation has proved an abject failure. The commercial imperative and avoiding getting sued is a more effective way of achieving this.

    3. a-tracy
      June 10, 2022

      Four days ago France put 18 people on trial (including two vets) over alleged involvement in the supply of horsemeat UNFIT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION across Europe! I wonder if any of these firms or people sent meat to the UK or to make ready meals out of in the UK. They transported animals to Belgium they were given fake identification and tracking documents before being sent back to France. And they are supposed to be worried about the small amount of movement from the UK to Northern Ireland! We should be asking more about where this unfit meat went and making sure it didn’t come into our food chain.

      One of the vets defence lawyers blamed confusing, incredibly complex EU rules!

  2. Mark B
    June 10, 2022

    Sorry off topic

    glen cullen

    In response to you post on Rwanda yesterday I provided an incorrect section. Apologies. It is the same link but is Section 16.1 which reads :

    16.1 The Participants will make arrangements for the United Kingdom to resettle a portion of Rwanda’s most vulnerable refugees in the United Kingdom, recognising both Participants’ commitment towards providing better international protection for refugees.

    I hope that that clears that up.

  3. Javelin
    June 10, 2022

    For those of you not paying attention Russia is now waging all out economic war on the UK/EU. The UK is scrambling to hand out licences for fracking, drilling, hijacking the Norwegian oil pipelines, accelerating Rolls Royce mini nuclear rollout.

    Lack of grain and fertiliser is being used to weaponise millions of Africans as NGOs have said millions will face starvation. Chad has already declared a food emergency.

    Ex military chiefs are saying we don’t have enough soldiers to fight a war. Conscription plans are being drawn up BUT the 3x general who lives down my road said conscription will not work because we can’t ask any white boys to fight when the recently arrived immigrant men will refuse to fight.

    The woke UK/EU is about to fall off a woke cliff.

    1. Everhopeful
      June 10, 2022

      +1
      Well, well.
      Funny how anyone could have warned them of this 
what? 30 yrs ago?
      Get rid of the armed forces and dilute your nation and there is no defence.
      So provocative behaviour is not a good idea.
      Fairly obvious?

    2. Fedupsoutherner
      June 10, 2022

      Javelin. What an interesting but frightening post. It’s just one bloody big mess but the government have been warned for long enough about the energy problem. How long before life as we know it comes grinding to a halt? Good luck with conscription.

    3. Philip P.
      June 10, 2022

      Sorry? The West has been trying for months to crash the Russian economy with sanctions, as stated quite openly by Biden and other leaders, and you’re saying, Javelin, that it’s Russia that’s waging economic war on us??? You mention fertiliser. You need to take a closer look at the facts. Fertiliser exports from Russia and Belarus have been impeded by EU sanctions, starting from before the war, meaning that Poland, Lithuania and other countries place restrictions on them crossing their territory. Exports through the Black Sea via Odessa would be possible, only if Ukraine agreed to de-mine the approaches, and remove ships they sank to block the harbour. Recently Turkey and Russia have tried to get that arranged but Ukraine refuses to agree.
      Of course Russia bears a share of the responsibility, but it’s not all black and white in this conflict.

    4. Shirley M
      June 10, 2022

      I agree with your general, javelin. The country has been so weakened by the woke, and immigration, to the extent that very few would defend our country and the patriots would be sacrificed leaving the ‘anywhere’s’ and ‘don’t cares’ to survive and be the majority. Maybe conscription (for both sexes) is a good idea to sort out the people who just want the comforts of living in the UK and none of the responsibility. The immigrants who refuse get deported. On the other hand … do we really want to battle train the young men who entered our country illegally? I say not! They have proven they will bend the rules for their personal benefit and associate with and pay criminals to get them here. Why do we entice them here with the red carpet treatment and promises of everything for free? They are the worst sort of immigrant being lawless and disrespectful from the start.

    5. Dave Andrews
      June 10, 2022

      Would they fight to preserve London from a foreign invasion, or is that to be welcomed in the spirit of diversity?

      1. Everhopeful
        June 10, 2022

        +1
        Um
they didn’t and it has been.

        1. Everhopeful
          June 10, 2022

          With regard to fertiliser.
          People should be encouraged to grow comfrey.
          Makes excellent fertiliser. Very easy to grow in quantity. Then just steep in water.
          Also 
is anyone making bio ethanol? Cheap and easy ( I believe).

          1. Everhopeful
            June 10, 2022

            And why doesn’t the govt nationalise CF Industries?

    6. turboterrier
      June 10, 2022

      Javelin
      The bigger problem highlighted in your post could be the real solution:-
      In light of the growing instability across the world is for the Government to pass emergency laws to conscript all the dingy invaders under 40 into our armed forces who have arrived her since 1st January 2022 where they will be trained, housed and fed and in the event of hostilities sent to the front line. If there are no hostilities they will be employed in doing all jobs across the country that nobody has the time or resources to do.
      If any one member abscond from the team the whole platoon will be automatically sent to the nearest airport.. Bit Dirty Dozenish but it focuses minds. Recall all suitable officers and senior NCOs to manage the training programme, using existing unused facilities.
      That will also impact on those trying to get here I would think.

    7. Mitchel
      June 10, 2022

      The ever more ridiculous Ursula von der Lugen,announcing the latest package of sanctions against Russia a couple of weeks ago,excitedly told the stenographers at her press conference that she was going to destroy the Russian economy.She should have heeded the words of Stalin when her Nazi forebears invaded the Soviet Union:

      “They want a war of extermination?We will give them a war of extermination.”

    8. Mitchel
      June 10, 2022

      There was an on-the-money article in Asia Times a few weeks ago by Brandon J Weichert:”Russia Becomes an Asian Nation.”25/4/2022.

      “For those western elites under the false assumption that there is an end in sight to the current standoff with Russia,be prepared to be proved wrong.

      What’s needed therefore is a recognition that there is no going back to the way things were between the west and Russia before 2022.Moscow has reached the point of no return.So,too,has the western alliance.

      For all the great hope that there was in 2017/18 of flipping Russia to use against China,those brief days of hope are over.Washington’s leaders,Democrat and Republican alike,must accept the new,painful reality of a Eurasia that houses an increasingly aligned Russian and Chinese anti-American axis of autocrats.

      Strategies must be developed accordingly-and those strategies must recognize that real and severe limitations will be placed upon American power projection into Eurasia henceforth.

      As the great Russian poet,Aleksandr Blok,once mused in “Are we Scythians?”-

      “Oh Yes-we are Scythians!Yes-we are Asiatics,
      With slanting,rapacious eyes…Like obedient slaves,
      We held up a shield between two enemy races-
      The Mongols and Europe!

      Rejoicing,grieving and drenched in blood,
      Russia is a sphinx that gazes at you with hatred and love,
      We can recall the streets of Paris
      And shady Venice,The aroma of lemon groves
      And the hazy monuments of Cologne
      ….But now through the woods and thickets
      We’ll stand aside
      Before the comeliness of Europe-
      And turn on you with out Asiatic faces.””

      I first came across that thrilling poem(of which the above is an extract) about 20 years ago;it has stayed with me ever since.It was written in January 1918-in the immediate aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution.

      The Chinese Ambassador to Moscow,Zhang Hanhui,said this week:

      “We must put an end once and for all to the hegemony of the United States and it’s eternal desire to interfere in the affairs of sovereign states.”

      Oh-and India is sending a Minister level delegation to the forthcoming St Petersburg International Economic Forum.How’s the isolation working?

      Silvio Berlusconi made a pertinent intervention last week:

      “The west’s response was unanimous but what do we mean by the west?US,Europe and some countries in the Pacific.From other countries of the world?Almost nothing.

      What the Ukraine crisis has shown us is an alarming sign.Russia is isolated from the west,but the west is isolated from the rest of the world.”

      1. Mitchel
        June 10, 2022

        CORRECTION.Final line of the poem should read “turn on you with OUR Asiatic faces.”

    9. X-Tory
      June 10, 2022

      Unfortunately, Javelin, the government is NOT “accelerating Rolls Royce mini nuclear rollout” – I wish they were! These could be ready years earlier if only the government approved them now. Right now. As for farming, one of our only two fertiliser plants (and food-grade CO2 producers) has now closed permanently due to the insanely high cost of energy due directly to the government’s cretinous green taxes. We have insufficient energy, and insufficient food. Both caused directly by Boris Johnson’s government. Yes, our own government is waging war against us and trying (successfully!) to destroy the UK.

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        June 10, 2022

        X TORY. We are walking into hell but the general public are unaware of this.

        1. Bill B.
          June 11, 2022

          Correct, FS. That’s because the media is doing its job.

      2. Donna
        June 10, 2022

        And according to Nigel, the reason petrol and diesel are continuing to increase in price almost on a daily basis is because the green zealots in the Establishment have run down our oil refining capability and outsourced it to Russia ….. so we could claim to have reduced CO2 and get closer to Net Zero.

        These people really are a sandwich, pork pie and chicken drumstick short of a picnic.

    10. forthurst
      June 10, 2022

      Surely this is retaliation for the economic warfare first waged by the ‘West’ against Russia.
      The whole Ukraine debacle was initiated by the US State Dept which cannot stop interfering in other people’s countries. It’s about time we formulated out own foreign policy to promote our own vital interests and no-one else’s.

      The USA has been using Ukraine as a vehicle for ‘weakening’ Russia. The victims have been all Ukrainians.

      We do not need to a ‘Rules based System’ enforced by a world hegemon especially when it’s as corrupt as the USA.

      1. hat man
        June 10, 2022

        +1

    11. Ed M
      June 10, 2022

      I’ve been banging on about conscription on this site for ages.

      Conscription isn’t just about technical, military training, it’s also about developing a young man into the mindset of a warrior. Not just a warrior to defend his country. But also the warrior spirit that extends to the man defending himself in life general. Providing for himself. Taking responsibility for himself. And defending his wife and kids.

      Conscription also develops a sense of patriotism, too.

      There is nothing revolutionary in this concept. The vast majority of men from cavemen to conscription 50 years ago have been exposed to some form of warrior training. For objective reasons of defending one’s community. But also as a rite of passage to develop from a boy into a man.

  4. DOM
    June 10, 2022

    May I humbly suggest that our kind host directs his gaze in the direction of his own party who on the issue of the EU and indeed on others as well as betrayed and deceived its way through politics since it deposed Thatcher?

    Name one issue that the Tory party hasn’t given way on? They’re more captured than any other party I know and that makes them a threat to liberty, nationhood and freedom as we know it. This party now exists in the way Labour does, to promote its own interests and they’ll appease anyone to achieve it

    1. Jim Whitehead
      June 10, 2022

      DOM, +1, I do try to be wholly rational but there is an underlying visceral desire to see the demise and extinction of the treacherous Conservative Party as the primary objective when casting my vote. The utterly contemptible Labour and Liberal parties aren’t worth anyone’s vote but bring them on. They can be dismissed, recognised and despised in their turn.

  5. Ian Wragg
    June 10, 2022

    Nothing will be done about the NIP because too many remainer tories will vote against change. This will be the Treasonous May scenario once again.

    1. X-Tory
      June 10, 2022

      Boris should SCRAP the Protocol entirely, and he could achieve this. You talk of Remainer traitors in the ranks of his own MPs, but these can easily be overcome. How? Let me explain: Boris should appeal directly to Conservative Party members, who are overwhelmingly in favour of a proper Brexit (that’s why they voted for him rather than Hunt in the first place!).

      Boris should make it clear that as a Unionist party (the clue’s in the name!) the Conservatives cannot allow the UK to be torn in two and part of our country to be ruled by a foreign power. He should explain that while he was forced to sign the Protocol to achieve Brexit – due to the ‘Traitor’s Parliament’ and the Benn ‘Surrender Act’ (these are the very terms he should use) – it was now time for Britain to regain its sovereignty and freedom. He should also remind everyone that the 2019 manifesto said that the Conservatives would keep the whole of the UK “out of the single market, out of any form of customs union, and end the role of the European Court of Justice.” He should conclude by saying that any MP who voted against the scrapping of the Protocol would lose the whip and be kicked out of the party *permanently*. This would quell any rebellion to just a handful of kamikazes. As for opposition in the Lords, I have previously explained that Boris should just appoint 50 or even 100 new Conservative peers, selected from the ranks of Constituency Party Chairmen (and ex-Chairmen) who are known to support Brexit, leaving the ECHR and deporting all illegal migrants. Job done.

      Of course we know that Boris is too weak, too cowardly, too treacherous and too stupid to do this. So instead of regaining the initiative, doing something popular with his supporters, and re-uniting the country, he will do NOTHING. As usual. The man is beyond salvation. I cannot and will not vote Conservative ever again as long as he remains in charge. I don’t vote for traitors.

  6. Peter
    June 10, 2022

    ‘I trust the government now presses on with sorting out the Northern Ireland protocol. ’

    My trust has long gone. Boris Johnson will be trying to shore up his position with gimmicks like home ownership on benefits. However, to date, he has avoided Brexit issues for fear of upsetting his future benefactors .

    1. MPC
      June 10, 2022

      Even Johnson’s housing gimmick won’t work. Mr Redwood tried it when he was a minister – sale of housing association homes to association tenants. The House of Lords rightly stopped it in view of the associations’ charitable status. Hopefully the Lords will stop it again this time.

      1. a-tracy
        June 10, 2022

        MPC if it was in the governments next manifesto as a pledge could the Lords stop it if the government got a majority?

  7. margaret brandreth-jones
    June 10, 2022

    It seems that the City of London has a tight hold on keeping things the way that they want.

    1. Everhopeful
      June 10, 2022

      +1
      Oh. That’s interesting.
      I thought that the City wanted ( and fought/fights for ) Brexit because the EU wanted/wants to snaffle a lot of its business and ( I suppose) basically take it over as per and of course tax it.
      International equities came into it 
and tax avoidance.
      Maybe what we are seeing since Brexit is a covert civil war?

  8. Nigl
    June 10, 2022

    Everywhere I look, your Ministers are weak/powerless to do what is necessary with the blob seemingly untouchable.

    We read about active rebellion against your migration policy and your Schools Bill 2022 turning back the pages on Gove’s reforms with no pushback from the people allegedly in charge.

    Like the rubbish spouted on tax and housing yesterday by Boris, utterly pathetic.

    1. Sharon
      June 10, 2022

      Nigl
      I have just finished reading the education article and how education is being pulled back to central control- by the Blob!

      Something seriously needs to be done, and soon! The Blob are continuing to do so much harm to this country.

  9. Bloke
    June 10, 2022

    Senior govt officials seem to be the tail controlling the dog of any Chancellor in the Treasury. A Chancellor cannot lead if the rabble who are supposed to follow HIM are pulling harder in the opposite direction.

    Where EU laws are sensible and match standards that we in the UK have decided are better for us, we and they need not differ. The choice starts with us, and what WE want, not others seeking to oppose our interests.

    The PM has a substantive majority to enforce what is right, but he wanders into the wrong like a stray. Barbara Woodhouse would have done better than he.

    1. rose
      June 10, 2022

      “The PM has a substantive majority to enforce what is right…”

      That majority is a disorderly rabble, as has just been demonstrated, and contains many outright saboteurs, as we saw when the IMB was attacked. Patrick Cormack in the Lords and Simon Hoare in the Commons are all too typical of that sort of dishonest moral superiority which aids the EU in its mission to destroy our economy and our Union. They may or may not have read the relevant documents themselves, but they are certainly relying on the rest of us not having read them.

  10. Bloke
    June 10, 2022

    The EU and the UK Treasury need bleaching with Parazone to clean up the Paradox they cause.

  11. bill brown
    June 10, 2022

    Sir JR,

    Your proposed cut on fuel taxes makes a lot of sense as it has been done throughout the EU.
    On the Protocl whehter it is alcuse 38 or 16 we are better off continuing the negotiations on NI and not breaking a traty this early on.

    1. Denis Cooper
      June 10, 2022

      So how much longer do you recommend that we should continue with the negotiations, negotiations which the EU insists are strictly limited to the detailed implementation of the protocol and cannot possibly lead to any change in the text, not so much as a comma?

      http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/05/25/32823/#comment-1320618

      Another eighteen months? Eighteen years?

    2. Mickey Taking
      June 10, 2022

      I think your keyboard has the same mind of its own, like mine. But do read what it produces and correct !

      1. Bill brown
        June 10, 2022

        Mickey

        You are right sorry

        1. Denis Cooper
          June 11, 2022

          Just in case you still doubt this, from Roberta Metsola, president of the EU parliament:

          https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2022/06/10/confrontation-between-eu-and-uk-looking-more-and-more-likely/

          “Renegotiating the protocol on Northern Ireland is not an option.”

    3. rose
      June 10, 2022

      Read the NIP and you will see there is legal provision in there to alter it if it is causing harm, which everyone agrees it is. There is also legal provision to leave it, and the WA. Using language like breaking the treaty or tearing up the treaty or breaking international law is EU propaganda reminiscent of those weasel words “hard Brexit” and “cliff edge”, words designed to deceive and to alarm.

    4. Peter2
      June 10, 2022

      The EU has said publicly, several times over the last two years, that it refuses to negotiate any points of their interpretation the Northern Ireland Protocol, so that seems to make “continuing negotiations” as you desire a futile exercise bill.

      1. Bill brown
        June 10, 2022

        Peter 2.
        You have no idea

        1. Peter2
          June 11, 2022

          Explain then bill.
          Looking forward to a longer comment from you with your views properly presented.

    5. a-tracy
      June 10, 2022

      Treaties are slightly modified all the time Bill, e.g. the treaty of Nice in 2007. The French parliament Friday approved the European Union’s new reform treaty, turning the page on the crisis sparked in 2005 when rebellious French voters shot down the EU’s ill-fated constitution.

      Is that what the Brits need to do get as rebellious as France? “treaties have been repeatedly amended by other treaties over the 65 years since they were first signed”. As John has repeatedly told you it was signed with two opportunity within in to slightly modify it to ensure the integrity of the United Kingdom single market. If you were British I really can’t understand why you wouldn’t see the importance of this. With strongly worded laws to stop the transfer of the goods moved into N Ireland from the UK with prison sentences, fines and confiscation if someone did it.

      1. Peter2
        June 10, 2022

        bill speaks for the EU
        He wants the UK to be compliant.

        1. a-tracy
          June 10, 2022

          Peter2 there is nothing the EU liked better than to fine the UK for something or another, from prostitution to drug taxes and imports from China, so if there is one nation people can trust it is the UK because we are always expected to pay up, it would suit the EU quite nicely for some crooks in N Ireland to transfer goods into the EU then they can sue the asses off them so I really don’t understand this at all, its not as though this tiny part of the UK is going to export billions without checks at all is it!

        2. Bill brown
          June 10, 2022

          Peter 2

          You make concussions on no basis or proof sad

          1. Peter2
            June 11, 2022

            Give us a long post showing us what your opinions are then bill.

  12. PeteB
    June 10, 2022

    “Many opposition MPs and senior officials are keen to keep the UK wedded to the EU”

    Sir J, rather disingenuous to not mention the many Conservatives MPs who are also EU zealots. These are as much the problem as the others, especially the ones who are operating as ministers.

  13. Sea_Warrior
    June 10, 2022

    Many of your parliamentary colleagues are wedded to the idea of the EU – and are therefore in need of de-selection at the next general election.

  14. Nigl
    June 10, 2022

    And we read that a cabinet meeting on the NI protocol divided on Brexit lines with Johnson allegedly saying we don’t have to sovereign purists. Yes we bloody well can and should.

    So more sloping shoulders and Gove doing the same pro EU work that he did for Theresa May.

    People fighting for Brexit are accused of leadership feather fluttering. Once again when you lose the argument attack the intentions of the person.

    Get above the parapet Sir John with Bernard Jenkin. IDS asap.

  15. Denis Cooper
    June 10, 2022

    Did I mention the laughable claim from John Bruton, one time Irish Prime Minister and also EU ambassador to the US, that the proposed new UK laws “would destroy the Single Market”?

    I read it here:

    https://www.rte.ie/news/brexit/2022/0609/1303745-ni-protocol/

    “… said the UK would destroy the single market with its deeply destructive proposals.”

    and found that so incredible that I checked further and listened to his nonsense here:

    https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/morning-ireland/programmes/2022/0609/1303755-morning-ireland-thursday-9-june-2022/

    From 1:14:00 in.

    Apparently what the UK government is contemplating would be on a par with Russia breaking a treaty and invading Ukraine, and there is a risk that food from Great Britain would introduce pathogens into Northern Ireland which could then enter the rest of the EU Single Market leading to a major food scandal.

    Leaving aside the fact that so far we are still operating to EU standards and leaving aside the fact that so far these things are not being checked at all there is the other fact that even when applied the physical checks do not extend to sending samples of every sandwich and sausage off to a laboratory for testing before it is unleashed on the EU market, or alternatively consumed by the truck driver.

    I come back to Article 7 of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement:

    https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/03/13/goldilocks-policy/#comment-1215662

    “For twenty eight years from January 1 1993 the EU was content to treat goods coming from the UK as being sufficiently low-risk that they did not merit intensive controls or routine inspections as they crossed the frontier; that was still the case on December 31, and the risk level did not suddenly change overnight.

    What we have been seeing with the EU since then has been “arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination” and “disguised restriction on international trade” in contravention of the WTO rules.”

  16. Roy Grainger
    June 10, 2022

    I imagine the reason we haven’t followed recent sensible EU rule changes is that the relevant officials and politicians simply don’t know about them now they are not being faxed over for implementation. It is a curious feature of Remainers in particular that in practice they have no interest or knowledge at all of anything that is happening in Europe. They are the new Little Englanders. Unfortunately the media are even worse, the BBC will fill the news with events from USA but nothing at all from Germany or Italy – it is a pity because (for example) Labour politicians never get asked what precisely they don’t like about the German or Dutch health services which perform better than the NHS, instead we get the ritual condemnation of the USA system as if somehow that is the only alternative system on offer.

  17. Donna
    June 10, 2022

    We elected Johnson to deliver Brexit. He delivered BRINO+ and then morphed into a socialist green nutter.
    He’s done nothing to advance our independence and to reap benefits from regaining the ability to govern our own country.

    Being told that many MPs and Senior Government Officials are determined to keep us closely aligned to the EU with a view to shackling us again sometime in the future isn’t acceptable. With an 80 seat majority Johnson could force through change if he was minded to. He isn’t: he’s more interested in placating the green lobby; squandering ÂŁbillions on idiotic projects like HS2 and playing at being Churchill.

    He never had the belief, drive or intention of delivering a real Brexit and the reform he promised. As far as I’m concerned, he committed electoral fraud in 2019.

  18. Narrow Shoulders
    June 10, 2022

    The biggest issue with our membership of the EU, and the reason I voted UKIP since the late 90s was our slavish adherence to EU diktats even (especially) when they disadvantaged us. Other EU members disregarded the rules that they did not like while embracing those that benefited them.

    Our government and civil service seemed incapable of this type of deceit, preferring to be the hall monitors and interpret the most draconian ways to implement each imposition, no matter the damage done.

    Nowhere was that more apparent than in the treatment of benefits awarding and access to taxpayer funded services to the recently arrived, who could have been excluded but weren’t. Net zero, fish quotas and the other examples you cite above are further proof.

    Remove VAT on gas and electricity bills and halve it on petrol, include Northern Ireland to show the chains can be broken.

  19. Richard1
    June 10, 2022

    There are many policies which would make sense outside the EU. Freeports, free trade, a reformed and competitive tax system, abolishing the utopian scheme to build high speed rails to nowhere in particular. Enable shale gas fracking, or at least tests to see whether It’s worthwhile. Cut the wasteful obsession with windpower which will never deliver ‘net zero’. Enable development of genetically modified crops so we get cheaper and better food and solve hunger worldwide. Get rid of some of the worst of the financial and data regulation.

    You get the picture. But Boris Johnson’s Govt isn’t doing any of it. In fact it’s doing the opposite. Dirigiste social democracy on steroids.

    Given this is the case perhaps these U.K. official establishment figures are correct – we would be better off perhaps in EEA/EFTA if not even rejoining. After all, as you point out, if we had been we probably would also have adopted the sensible post-16 EU policies!

    I suspect this is what might happen anyway once Boris Johnson has taken us to a John Major style defeat.

    Wake up Conservative MPs.

  20. James Freeman
    June 10, 2022

    One of the reasons I am in favour of Brexit is the EU countries are better off without us.

    Had we been in, our leaders would have pushed in the background for these bad policies. But if anyone complained, they would have blamed the decision on the EU! Now we know where we stand and can start to argue against them. So we can end up being better off as well.

    1. miami.mode
      June 10, 2022

      JF, obviously they miss our financial contributions but it didn’t take a lot of common sense for them to realise that we were never really committed to the EU as we didn’t join the euro, refused Schengen, refused to use the e-road designations that are common in Europe, and retained imperial weights and measures especially in horse racing complete with their furlongs and yards. Probably many other things as well such as splitting us into regions.

      However as the article suggests there is still a huge amount of pressure from those with influence to rejoin in some way. Even the Guardian obliquely accepts that many MPs feel this way by stating “Some of the 148 MPs who voted to oust the prime minister on Monday said they would try to stymie his government’s legislative agenda……they plan to start with a showdown over a bill to override sections of the Northern Ireland protocol, to be published within days”.

  21. Denis Cooper
    June 10, 2022

    I have a letter in the Belfast News Letter today:

    https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/opinion/letters/law-to-overhaul-northern-ireland-protocol-has-better-chance-of-passing-if-it-protects-eu-single-market-3726628

    “Law to overhaul Northern Ireland Protocol has better chance of passing if it protects EU single market”

    “It could possibly be good news that the government has postponed publication of legislation to change the Northern Ireland Protocol (yesterday), if the delay means that it will now include the new UK laws to protect the EU single market that were proposed in the Command Paper issued on July 21 2021.

    As urged in a letter published here just a week later (‘Bring in penalties to deter exports from Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland which evade EU standards,’ July 28 2021, see link below), asking ‘why not just go ahead and do that?’ and then use that law ‘to underpin a system of export licences to regulate the carriage of goods out of Northern Ireland into the Irish Republic’.

    By now, over ten months later, it could have been amply demonstrated that this rational and correctly focussed alternative to the irrational and obnoxious arrangements laid down in the protocol was both workable and effective in protecting the EU single market from unacceptable goods entering that trickle crossing the land border, equivalent to 0.02% of the EU’s GDP, and did not trigger the feared renewal of republican terrorism.

    With such helpful provisions included the bill should stand a much better chance of getting through both the Commons and the Lords, as it would be hard for EU sympathisers to object to a Bill designed to supplement the protocol and reinforce the protection afforded to the EU single market.”

    Yes, I know, why should we do anything to help these people who are trying to do us down? I have said as much myself back in what seems to be a previous age, but then as now I wanted a solution:

    http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/02/10/does-the-euro-area-still-need-or-want-stable-national-governments/#comment-918308

    “The solution is actually simple, namely that the UK Parliament should pass a new law to guarantee to the Irish government and the EU that goods exported across the border from Northern Ireland after we have left the EU will be no less compliant with relevant EU laws than the goods crossing the border while we are still in the EU; and that certainly does not necessitate that every person and business in Northern Ireland, let alone in the UK, must remain subject to every EU law in perpetuity.”

    1. Len Peel
      June 10, 2022

      The Protocol is the law. You won Denis, get over it and implement the Protocol

      1. Peter2
        June 10, 2022

        Not correct Len
        As much as you desperately want it to be.
        It is a huge complex and dense document.
        And the real argument is about the interpretation of words.
        Surely you know this?

  22. Geoffrey Berg
    June 10, 2022

    The Opposition and others who support the E.U. say we should try to negotiate with the E.U. to overcome these difficulties but surely that is just a stupid way of getting practically nowhere in solving the Protocol problems. We have already been negotiating for years without solving the problem. As is the E.U. way if we tried further negotiations we would be negotiating for ever more without solving the problems and our trade with Northern Ireland would be restricted for ever more.

  23. hefner
    June 10, 2022

    Not directly related to today’s topic, but close enough: The Economist, 09/09/2022
    ‘Britain’s real problem: It’s not just Boris Johnson. Economic decline has become a British chronic disease’
    ‘Stagnation nation: Britain’s productivity problem is long-standing and getting worse’

    1. hefner
      June 10, 2022

      Sorry, 09/06/2022

    2. Peter2
      June 10, 2022

      How are they defining “economic decline”?
      Since 1900 our economic output has risen from approx ÂŁ200billion to over ÂŁ1.6 trillion.
      GDP per head has also risen considerably over the decades.
      Are they just looking at the last few remarkable Covid years?

      1. hefner
        June 10, 2022

        You might try to read the articles, they seem to be ‘open read’, at least the first one should be as it is a ‘leader’.
        The analysis takes account of evolution since WWII, but concentrates on 1997-2020, and compares G7 countries.
        Without wanting to sound nasty, to go back as you do to 1900 is a bit far-fetched, given there has been the decolonisation period, Bretton Woods in 1944, the end of it in 1970, and the ÂŁ moving from US$5 in 1900 to about $1.25 nowadays. And as you surely know, inflation has also played a role during all those years and ÂŁ100 in 1900 would be ÂŁ13,096.46 (purchasing power parity) in June 2020, which puts your figures into a different light (see in2013dollars.com) as ÂŁ200 bn x 130.96 = ÂŁ26.192 tn. So where are the missing ÂŁ24.6 tn?

        1. Peter2
          June 10, 2022

          They concentrate on a particular year group to get the conclusion they seek.
          Which you jump on with glee heffy.

          The longer the timescale the less the “noise”
          You can mention various events since 1900 but the general trend is as I stated.
          The standards of living trend is upwards.

          1. hefner
            June 11, 2022

            You really can’t understand, can you. GDP per head PPP obviously increased between 1990 and 2020. The point is that it increased more in most other countries than in the UK. Which as stated in the article means a relative decline for the UK. 
 Sigh 


          2. Peter2
            June 11, 2022

            But does that prove the words chronic economic decline that you claimed.
            I showed that over a longer period we see a steady improvement in UK gdp and gdp per head.
            PS
            Your original post never mentioned the word “relative”

          3. hefner
            June 11, 2022

            ‘British chronic disease’ was in the author’s original subtitle, not my invention.

            ‘relative’ comes because this second paper presents a number of comparisons with the USA or Germany or other countries of the G7 with sentences such as:
            – Britain is more 
 than France and more 
 than Germany
            – Compared to Germany and America, Britain 

            – Britain’s 
 is around 32%, well below the OECD average of 42%.
            – Britain’s system came only second to Latvia among 18 countries surveyed.
            – Compared with Germany, it is harder (in Britain) to 

            – gaps 
 between Britain and France 
 and between Britain and Germany 


            I hope these examples directly taken from ‘Stagnation nation’ will convince you I was entitled to use the word ‘relative’.
            If not, go and learn English, you appear to fall short of an average A level student. A bit of coaching might do you good and might even improve the level of your comments on this blog.

          4. Peter2
            June 11, 2022

            You subsequently introduced the words “relative decline” which wasn’t in your original post.
            That is a very different argument to the one you presented in your original post.

            What you are coming to realise is that the standard of living of UK people has risen greatly over decades.
            As my figures show.

            You are trying to prove that whilst this improvement in GDP per person is happening other nations are at certain times during this decades long timescale doing a bit better than us.

            PS
            Sad you resort to your typical angry personal comments at the end.
            Where is your decent debate ethic?

        2. Bill brown
          June 10, 2022

          Hefner

          You are wasting your time having an informed and data centred conversation with Peter 2, he doesn’t get it

          1. Peter2
            June 11, 2022

            Hilariously you never post with any contrary arguments bill.
            Prove me wrong .
            I have given facts and figures that support my view in my post.
            Where are yours?

      2. Bill brown
        June 10, 2022

        Peter 2

        You make concussions on no basis or proof sad

        1. Peter2
          June 11, 2022

          I think you mean conclusions bill
          And you are posting in the wrong place yet again.

          1. Bill brown
            June 11, 2022

            Peter 2

            Hefner has very well explained the relative decline in Britain’s economic performance both in terms of ppp and standard of living compared to other nations. This is as he explains very much related to productivity. And your explanation about dates picked is irrelevant in this case, so please read the Economist article as suggested

          2. Peter2
            June 11, 2022

            Heffy subsequently introduced the term relative decline which was not in his original post.
            A different argument.
            Our GDP per person long term continues to increase.
            But if you cherry pick a few recent years then you and he are just taking statistics to use as propaganda.

          3. Bill brown
            June 12, 2022

            Peter 2

            The dates were not cherry picked and it’s not propaganda. Our national relative decline is really sad

          4. hefner
            June 12, 2022

            The amusing counter-argument that I had ‘introduced the term ‘relative decline’ which was not in my original post’, is it not something that can be done within a ‘decent debate’?

            To (try to) end that ‘decent debate’, the reference to the Economist articles I had originally posted was to introduce the fact there are alternative viewpoints on the present economic situation of the UK. It is rather depressing to realise that some people here cannot even accept the possibility of such an alternative analysis.

          5. Peter2
            June 12, 2022

            Why do you find it amusing heffy?

            You first quoted economic decline
            Then you added relative economic decline.
            Sure you understand the difference in those words?

            I’m happy to listen to alternative opinions but not when there are obvious inaccuracies which in previous encounters you and Bill have been so keen to point out.

          6. Peter2
            June 12, 2022

            Oh and billy, the word relative is crucial.

          7. hefner
            June 12, 2022

            It is ‘relative’ because the situation in Britain is compared to that in other G7 countries.
            It is ‘amusing’ because only a Homer Simpson could contrive to make such a fuss about ‘relative’.

          8. Peter2
            June 13, 2022

            You miss the point heffy.
            You have now added the word relative which was not in your original post.
            You originally spoke about economic decline.
            You never mentioned G7 at all nor anything to do with G7 versus the UK
            When challenged about your claim of chronic economic decline and shown that this was incorrect, you responded by changing the argument to one of relative economic decline.
            Now with barefaced cheek you say this change is unimportant.
            And sadly resort to personal derogatory comment again.

          9. hefner
            June 14, 2022

            It is clear from P2’s posts that he did not read the Economist articles, otherwise he would have seen that most of the comparisons discussed in those are of the UK vs the rest of the G7.

          10. Peter2
            June 14, 2022

            Yet that isn’t what you said in your original post heffy.
            You never said the word “relative”

    3. Lifelogic
      June 10, 2022

      Indeed and the reasons for the “productivity problem” are very simple taxes are far too high, far to much regulation, restrictive planning, restrictive employments laws, far to many people doing essentially parasitic and pointless jobs (in the state sector and in compliance), for too many soft loans for worthless or almost worthless degrees, absurdly over complex taxation, the CO2/renewables religion giving us very expensive and intermittent energy… In short far too much parasitic government!

    4. a-tracy
      June 10, 2022

      hefner, there are several big organisations in the UK that can’t measure productivity at all and one of them is the NHS, there is no billing for actual services, the EU isn’t recharged for the EHIC card even though the EU countries recharge the UK, Spain at quite a profit. How on earth can you measure one of the largest organisations in the UK if no value is put to the work completed.

      It would be interesting to see the DVLA, clients are charged for their services I wonder how much profit it made and what each employee’s productivity is. Same for the Passport Office? I wish one of our newspapers would investigate and do fair comparisons of productivity, how it is measured exactly and perhaps tell SME’s what is considered good productivity and how to measure it as a benchmark.

      1. hefner
        June 10, 2022

        I am not sure it is a real argument as organisations as the World Bank (documents1.worldbank.org ‘Public sector productivity: Why is it important and how can we measure it’, 2021) and the UK Government (ons.gov.uk, ‘Sources and methods for public service productivity estimates’, 11/05/2022) have produced documents defining how reasonable estimates can be produced. Which in that case allows comparisons between countries to be carried out.

        I am afraid you are just following a particular school of thought (*) when saying that productivity in the NHS cannot be measured. It certainly can be estimated.
        (* NHS should be privatised to allow productivity to be properly measured: I am sure some here are fierce defenders of such an idea).

        1. a-tracy
          June 11, 2022

          Hefner, I think the NHS should be measured properly and much more administratively cohesive, fees attached to procedures, visits, scans etc. Recharges to people’s travel insurance from the RoW, recharges to the EHIC.

          The whole thing run more efficiently like we are regularly told Germany or France do. Spain don’t treat Brits without charges going to either travel insurance, back to the NHS even for ex-pats that spend all their pension income in Spain instead of at home and I have a colleague whose daughters treatment he had to pay privately for as she’d stupidly not bothered to get either Insurance or an EHIC card, yet does the NHS even bill Spain £1 for their nationals treatments? We are taken for mugs in the UK world heath service and they want more and more and more and we’re given less and less each year.
          Guesstimates from these statisticians are often miles out the ONS is sometimes quite embarrassingly off the true mark.

          1. hefner
            June 12, 2022

            If the ONS only produces ‘guesstimates’ ‘sometimes quite embarrassingly off the true mark’, which alternative statistics would you recommend in general, and in particular for assessing how bad/good the NHS is?

          2. Peter2
            June 13, 2022

            Your words presumably applies to all statistical predictions hef.

            Or are there some you regard as tremendously accurate?

          3. a-tracy
            June 13, 2022

            hefner, I don’t think there are any because it is not run like a business with an itemised service, no rebillings to clients that don’t contribute from out of the UK, they can’t possibly be compared to efficient charging system such as those in Spain by Statista or any of the statistical companies. Do any of those creating statistics for the NHS claim they are working on facts I don’t believe they can! They can not be measured because they just take in money with no audit and the government just keeps bailing out their overspends with taxpayers’ money periodically!

          4. hefner
            June 13, 2022

            This and previous governments aim at introducing ‘measures’ within the NHS to deliver ‘efficiencies’ of a few percent per year hoping them to translate into percents of real term cost reduction.

            Present NHS productivity estimates are based on ratios of outputs/inputs.
            Inputs are a mix of apples and oranges like inventories of everyday consumables, high value medical devices, clinical supplies and services, general supplies, services, stationary, IT, 
, pay of doctors, nursing and care staff, healthcare scientists, estate management and support staff, 

            Outputs are (negative) clinical negligence costs, (positive) purchase of healthcare from non-NHS 
 plus the Adjusted Treatment Index based on the volume of treatments in categories (A, B, C, D depending on the type of treatment/operation). This ATI is assumed to represent the overall positive outcome of all treatments in the NHS.

            My original comment to a-tracy was to point out that there already was a method to estimate what benefits come out from the NHS given the inputs (the budget that the State gives it). My second was trying to get some more information on how a better system could be done (I was wondering whether what was behind a-tracy’s comment was a system where everything is being invoiced to the patient, any tablet, bandage or 10 minutes of doctor’s time, as I had seen it done when I was living in the USA).

            I certainly made the mistake of calling that ‘alternative statistics’, I should have called that an alternative approach to assess the NHS.
            Thanks P2 for pointing out this lapse in my comment. I know I can rely on you to keep me on the straight and narrow.

          5. Peter2
            June 14, 2022

            You and billy have often spoke to me about the importance of accuracy heffy.
            So thanks for that

            Like the difference between deline and relative decline
            .

          6. hefner
            June 14, 2022

            Anyway, accuracy is not a problem for you P2, your trolling is essentially information-free.

          7. Peter2
            June 15, 2022

            When you post inaccurately talking about chronic UK economic decline when the article was talking about recent relative economic decline then refuse to acknowledge the difference I will call you out heffy.

  24. BW
    June 10, 2022

    Parliament is becoming more irrelevant to the public as this fiasco continues. It is now the laughing stock of the world. Perhaps we should vote for the Whitehall mandarins who seem to have so much power over our politicians. Perhaps we should vote for our Chief Constables instead of an all powerful Commissioner with political bias. Perhaps we should vote for our judges who also seem out of touch. Voting for a politician is becoming a farce and a waste of time.

    1. Bill B.
      June 10, 2022

      Some good ideas there.

  25. Nigl
    June 10, 2022

    And in other news, and bear in mind the spin coming out of the Government about concentrating efforts on reducing the cost of living, trade bodies were asked a year ago for suggestions on tariff cuts that could reduce prices.

    To date they have heard nothing. The DTI responds that they are looking at the large numbers suggested.

    So no time scales, no urgency? Another winning civil service performance?

    Don’t you think they could have prioritised some ‘low hanging fruit’ and come up with something before now.

    What are the Ministers doing about it?

  26. Denis Cooper
    June 10, 2022

    Here is an interesting article questioning the economic benefits of devolution:

    https://www.newsletter.co.uk/business/esmond-birnie-theres-no-evidence-that-having-stormont-creates-an-economic-dividend-for-northern-ireland-3726630

    “Esmond Birnie: There’s no evidence that having Stormont creates an economic dividend for Northern Ireland”

    I’m sceptical about any economic analysis that disregards the major and lingering effects of the pandemic, and I think really any conclusions drawn from data running beyond 2019 have to be treated with caution.

    However I do note this part, almost an aside to the article:

    “For what it is worth, the ONS data shows that in the First Quarter 2022 (ie January-March) the NI economy grew by 0.4% or half the UK average of 0.8%.

    In the past some of this ONS ‘nowcasting’ type data has been used to support the claim “The NI economy is out-growing the rest of the average and this is because of the impact of the Protocol”.

    Now that the ONS data is showing a much slower growth rate in NI will we hear the reverse argument?”

    I would just add that 0.8% is about the one-off benefit to the UK economy from Boris Johnson’s “fantastic” “super Canada style free trade deal” according to the EU Commission, they say 0.75%, and near the bottom of the range of my September 2018 extrapolation of the actual Canada free trade deal with the EU:

    http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/09/07/where-is-the-uks-tariff-schedule-for-march-30-2019/#comment-959636

    “Just to firm this up a little, I find that Canada exports about 3% of its GDP to the EU, while the UK exports about 12% of its GDP to the EU; therefore on a simple pro rata basis if CETA boosts Canada’s exports to the EU by the equivalent of 0.18% to 0.36 % of its GDP, as the EU Commission projects, then for the UK the same kind of special trade deal with the EU might be worth 0.7% to 1.4% of UK GDP.”

  27. The Prangwizard
    June 10, 2022

    In your use of the word ‘trust’ Sir John, do you literally trust your leaders, is it belief or just hope? It isn’t very clear.

    You may no longer be particularly interested, as it is likely the UK’s sovereignty will remain betrayed, and you don’t want to be troubled by what you may think is a lost cause. Party and leader loyalty is more important than everything.

    1. Norman
      June 10, 2022

      I am sure Sir John is aware of the odds. However, of one thing I’m sure: he is not is a quitter, and is sorely needed. Thankyou for your perseverance Sir John.

  28. hefner
    June 10, 2022

    A brief remainder of recent news: ÂŁ4 bn worth of sub-standard PPE supplies to be burnt (Daily Mail, 10/06/2022), ÂŁ4.9 bn of fraudulently claimed Covid bounced-back loans written off (Guardian, 22/01/2022), ÂŁ11 bn wasted on unnecessary interest payments on QE reserves (FT, 09/06/2022).
    If this is Tory fiscal prudence, what would be fiscal incontinence?

    1. R.Grange
      June 10, 2022

      Fiscal incontinence is what we have with the Tories now, Hefner. Even the oaf Johnson and the rest of his circus performers wouldn’t claim to be fiscally prudent.

      Bring back ‘spreadsheet Phil’ (and I never thought I’d say that!).

  29. John Miller
    June 10, 2022

    There is no part of British life that is not Socialist and EU enthralled.
    I find the EU a laughable organisation, that, like the Global Warming Scam, has captured the brains of politicians and The Blob.
    Need Russian gas to keep the lights on? No problem. Fund Putin and produce a piece of paper that says “This gas is Green”! Two birds killed with one stone! As Mark B says above, bits of paper are paramount in the EU.
    “What sort of meat is that?” “Don’t look at the meat! Look at this piece of paper. It says it’s beef, so it must be!” “Looks like horsemeat to me…” “Racist! Denier! Scum!”
    Boris (or should I say Mrs Prime Minister Nut-Nut) is a champagne socialist who finds failed socialist policies irresistible. Michael Gove produces eminently sensible plans for education, but The Blob says “NO!” and they disappear. Epidemiologists agree that masks don’t protect against viruses, so ministers say “You don’t need to wear them in hospitals”, but The Blob says “NO!” and the NHS decides they will remain.
    I rashly thought that Johnson and an 80 seat majority would change all this. But Johnson is a weak Poshboy, used to having lots of fun all the time. Why bother doing any work? Party! Have fun!
    I would prepare for a Labour government in a few years time, Sir John…

  30. Lester_Cynic
    June 10, 2022

    Off topic?

    An interesting video from Russell Brand on YouTube

    “THIS is what the queen doesn’t want you to know”

    He has 5.6 million subscribers and he hits the proverbial nail smack on the head

    Well worth a watch!

  31. Original Richard
    June 10, 2022

    Correlation is not causation.

    The communist fifth column in our Parliament, civil service, educational establishment and institutions only wish to align us with bad EU policies when they will cause us damage.

    We have the pursuit of the pointless and unnecessary Net Zero, a policy with no mandate to destroy the economy and make us poorer with intermittent and expensive energy and the rationing of food and travel.

    We have the refusal to curb our massive levels of both legal and illegal immigration despite a clear mandate to do so and an 80 seat majority in the HoC enabling the change of laws necessary to prevent legal challenges.

    The fact that these legal challenges are brought by organisations funded by the taxpayer via the Cabinet Office and the Home Office shows our country is under attack and democracy is crumbling.

  32. Christine
    June 10, 2022

    Blindly following the EU will cause us terrible problems in the future. Our second only fertiliser factory is closing due to high energy costs. The government needs to take over this factory to provide food security. It was quick enough to bail out the banks but food is far more important.

  33. Jason
    June 10, 2022

    There are a lot more people in NI than DUP who say the protocol row is OTT and that any problems can be sorted if there is a will. If on the other hand the DUP want’s to continue to play silly games with the tories/ ERG then they are all on a hiding to nothing – and remember the NI demographics trend keeps marching.

  34. Atlas
    June 10, 2022

    I, for one, have just completed the ‘Imperial Unit Consultation’ being in favour of the wider use of Imperial Units. As part of leaving the EU’s thrall we know that ‘Every little helps’.

  35. Mark Thomas
    June 10, 2022

    Sir John,
    Any deviation from the old rules is viewed as revisionism. That is how wedded these people are to the EU as they see it. This is their religion, and they won’t be satisfied until we are fully back in the suffocating embrace of their beloved Soviet…I mean European Union.

  36. X-Tory
    June 10, 2022

    You say: “I trust the government now presses on with sorting out the Northern Ireland protocol.” Therein lies your problem: you trust the government, and specifically Boris Johnson. This trust is very foolish, and you have no justification for it. Reports have made it clear that Boris opposed proposals to weaken the Portocol from the two cabinet ministers with direct responsibility for this issue – Truss (foreign secretary) and Brandon Lewis (NI secretary), as well as his deputy Raab and also Braverman (attorney general) – to water down any changes to the Protocol, in order to appease the EU.

    BORIS IS A GUTLESS TRAITOR. He specifically said that he was not a “sovereignty purist”, thus making it clear that he wanted to give away British sovereignty in order to make the EU happy. Would the US President surrender US sovereignty to please a foreign power? Of course not. And that’s why I keep insisting that Boris is, in the literal sense of the word, a traitor. It is obviously true. But still the ERG refuse to act. Useless.

  37. paul
    June 10, 2022

    Maybe that’s because most of the EU rules were made up in the UK and written in the UK for the EU and they are now dumping some rules while the UK carry on making more new rules for the UK.

  38. KB
    June 10, 2022

    What worries me is this:
    The Withdrawal Agreement Act is internal to the UK. What the rest of the world is looking at is the Withdrawal Agreement itself, which is an international treaty.
    Using the UK Withdrawal Agreement Act to break some part of the international treaty is not cricket is it. It does not justify it in the eyes of the world.
    Why on Earth are we not developing the electronic Smart Border that was planned originally?

  39. a-tracy
    June 10, 2022

    Our own government and civil servants wish to punish the people for the 2016 decision.
    Yet I thought Sunak was a leaver? Boris is supposed to be a leaver.

    Do MPs get all their travel covered by the taxpayer, this would explain why fuel price escalation isn’t so important to them. Also living in London gives an unfair advantage on public transport so distorts the need to reduce fuel duties.

  40. glen cullen
    June 10, 2022

    Today my petrol is ÂŁ1.87 ….all thanks to the policy of net-zero and its effects of confidence in the oil & gas sector….the whole government should consider resigning

    1. Clough
      June 10, 2022

      Not ‘all thanks to net zero’, Glen.
      The average supermarket price of unleaded was 143p in late January, according to the AA.
      ‘Oil prices jumped on Monday as Western allies imposed more sanctions on Russia’ Reuters, 28th February.
      In late March the figure was 158p, in late May 169p. Now it’s about 180p.
      The increase between January and now wasn’t so much to do with net zero, I’d say.
      How high will the price of petrol have to go before these insane self-defeating sanctions are called off?

      1. glen cullen
        June 10, 2022

        But petrol pump prices have been rising since 26th May 2020 (ÂŁ1.06p), when Boris announce his green revolution and the governments policy of net-zero – https://www.racfoundation.org/data/uk-pump-prices-over-time

        1. Clough
          June 11, 2022

          That’s right, Glen: not all due to sanctions, not all due to net-zero. Sounds like we agree.

          Of course you cherry-picked a very low price in Spring 2020 determined by the then world-wide slump in demand caused by lockdowns, but let that go.

          1. glen cullen
            June 11, 2022

            I cherry picked the date when Boris started the big push to net-zero along side cop26

      2. Mark B
        June 11, 2022

        This has little to do with Russia. The oil price has been rising since early 2020 well before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. What has exasperated the situation is the the running down of our capacity to refine our own fuel oils and the debasement of our currency due to QE. Also, consumer demand has increased as people start to drive again.

        1. glen cullen
          June 11, 2022

          Correct

    2. hefner
      June 11, 2022

      gc, So nothing linked to the restart of the economy after Covid and increased demand, nothing linked to OPEC having not increased its production, nothing linked to gas and petrol being paid in dollars when the pound has lost two per cent against it these last two months, nothing linked to what has been happening in Ukraine since 24/02?
      Isn’t it wonderful to be able to explain everything with a nice ‘green bogey man’?

      The 106 p you quote for 26/05/2020 was at the end of the first lockdown, the first re-opening of schools happened on 01/06, non-essential shops were allowed to re-open on 15/06/2020, the PM announces the ‘end of the hibernation’ on 23/06/2020.

      And BTW, the PM did not announce his ‘green revolution’ before mid-November 2020.

  41. Everhopeful
    June 10, 2022

    Off topic but on the topic of total c*ck ups so maybe not

    Yesterday husband came back from Suffolk on C2C train and Greater Anglian with “ticket” on some stupid smart card.
    Wonderful glitchy system said ticket was invalid. Husband challenged twice
most inconvenient and highly stressful.
    Today, right now, son is stuck on hot C2C train “for a long time” according to the driver because someone has thrown themselves on the line. No emergency response system in place apparently?
    What a lovely country this has been turned into.

    1. glen cullen
      June 10, 2022

      Boris seems happy with it !

  42. Denis Cooper
    June 10, 2022

    I understand that Liz Truss will be presenting a Bill to the Commons on Monday afternoon and I hope that it will include at least outline provisions for a sensible system of export licenses for actors who intend to take substantial quantities of goods from Northern Ireland across the land border into the Irish Republic and so the EU Single Market. The term “substantial” being the other side of the coin to “de minimis”, to be defined by the minister after consultation – just consultation – with interested parties including the Irish and EU authorities. So that the purpose of the licensing system is not to make life difficult for people who do some personal shopping in the north and then take their purchases across the border, and nor is the purpose to raise revenue – there should be no fee – but to make those who intend to take across significant quantities register their intention, which may involve multiple trips over an indefinite future period, and commit to ensuring that all the goods they may take across at any time will be legally acceptable on the other side, and also so they can be kept constantly informed of relevant developments in EU law, and they can also seek advice when necessary through a website and a helpline. There is no need for this to become a drama, it is in no way comparable to the Russian invasion of Ukraine whatever some Irish and EU politicians may pretend.

    1. Sea_Warrior
      June 10, 2022

      Liz Truss has too much on her plate.

    2. hefner
      June 12, 2022

      DC, do you have some references of Irish/EU politicians comparing the NI/RoI trade with the Russian invasion of Ukraine?

  43. Freeborn John
    June 10, 2022

    The reality is that the EU is less likely to negotiate if it thinks Boris might be replaced. They will also have noted Tobias Elwood and Times journalists calling for the U.K. to rejoin the single market which is what Brussels wants. Keir Starmer last week suggested Labour would want to “renegotiate” by which he likely means single market membership. Yesterday Starmer met the Irish government in Dublin and is now saying Labour will oppose U.K. legislation to overrule the NIP . Tobias Elwood and many of those who voted against Boris Johnston in the confidence vote are now likely to form a new Gaukeward squad which will work with Labour and Dublin to prevent meaningful change to the NIP while tensions in Belfast increase. We are likely to see a repeat of 2019 Parliament over the next 12 months.

    It remains to be seen if Boris will surrender immediately on the NIP or use to withdraw the Whip from the new Gaukeward squad. His only route to survival is the latter.

  44. Stred
    June 10, 2022

    Stanley Johnson recently said he had changed his mind and Boris was right to support Brexit. It allows globalist Green ecoloons to adopt even dafter policies.

  45. alan jutson
    June 10, 2022

    With the huge number of EU supporters in all main Party’s and in the Civil Service, is it any wonder that we are still tied to the EU in so many areas.
    They gold plated original EU laws and regulations whilst we were members, which put us at a disadvantage compared to those who chose to ignore the then rules, now they want to frustrate anything which will promote the Uk’s well being in all matters now we have so called left, just look at the immigration farce for a start.
    Time to simply make redundant (on the very basic of terms) those who do not put the UK interests first, given it seems impossible to sack them for incompetence or deliberate obstruction.

    1. hefner
      June 12, 2022

      After the infamous Moscow trials of 1936-39 to purge the Trotskyists and the Right Opposition, do we have to contemplate the London trials to purge all these EU-supporting MPs and CSs?
      Could it be history repeating itself, first as a tragedy, second as a farce?

      1. Peter2
        June 14, 2022

        Your most ridiculous ever post heffy Comparing communist trials which led to innocent people being sent to cruel cold prisons, many who did not survive with a few MPs who failed to be reelected.
        Beyond hilarious lefty nonsense.

    2. hefner
      June 15, 2022

      What is being hilarious is that obviously you have not read properly what I wrote: ‘purge all these EU-supporting MPs and CSs’, that’s to happen in the near future if what is requiert by aj is effected, it was not about ‘a few MPs who failed to be reelected’.

      But I know that you are with my (and some others’) comments like a green fly on a heap of manure. Do you ever stop and think how ridiculously stupid you generally look when time after time you miss the point because of basic English mistakes.
      You really have a problem of comprehension with common English.

      1. Peter2
        June 15, 2022

        You ridiculously compared two situations
        Truly evil Soviet show trials which led many thousands to their deaths with the annoyance of one poster who would like pro EU MPs to be made redundant.
        Your words and Alan’s are just above.
        Your post was a classic of lefty hyperbole.
        And a typical attempt to shut down debate.
        PS
        Every time your comments are exposed you resort to personal abusive comments.
        It demeans you and your claimed academic skills.

        1. hefner
          June 16, 2022

          Wait a minute, P2: when did I claim ‘academic skills’? Is it because some long months ago I referred to a book about rhetoric, or subsequently showed how often you use burden of proof, cherry-picking, straw man and red herring in your ‘reparties’ to various contributors?
          Are you not the one now going into ‘hyperbole’?
          It is very sad that your world view seems to be limited to ‘marxist’, ‘lefty’, ‘socialo-communist’ vs the rest of humankind 


  46. John Hatfield
    June 10, 2022

    I think it is Oliver Cromwell time. Bring in the New Modern Army to sort out the mess this so-called government has got us into.

    1. hefner
      June 12, 2022

      Oh yes, just what we need, a putsch.

  47. Fedupsoutherner
    June 10, 2022

    The more I read your diaries John, the more I realise just how useless your government is. I will be voting Reform if possible or else not voting at all. Still it’s a great way to feel depressed everyday.

    1. ukretired123
      June 10, 2022

      “Much ado about nothing” seems to be the default position of the government whereas “Much ado about everything” is the daily reality for everyone else.
      WFH is attractive especially in the summer, airports in chaos and RMT strikes, inflation etc what’s not to like??

  48. Jack
    June 10, 2022

    “all the time NI is cut off from free trade with the rest of the UK by unwanted EU interventions” you say – but not true. Our government freely negotiated with the EU and parliament voted to pass these WA’S and NIP’s also TCA. We are up to our armpits in this mess.

    1. mancunius
      June 11, 2022

      The NI Protocol does not contain the obligations imposed by the EU – the restrictions on trade are only for goods intended for the Republic. With the aid of such naive sycophants such as Mr Gove, the EU maliciously chose to abuse the Treaty to ‘presume’ against all reason that all goods for NI are headed for the Republic and must be checked en route to NI, in order to impose unbidden massive amounts of regulatory paperwork that has stopped UK mainland firms from dealing with NI at all.
      This was the EU’s intention – to divert UK-NI trade in order to force NI to buy from the EU, and subvert its political balance. Not because the EU wants NI, but just to harm the UK. That the deliberate diversion of trade in which Irish Republicans so rejoice is a breach of the Treaty has not filtered through their brains.

      Underestimating the amount of sheer xenophobic malice harboured in Brussels was certainly a strategic mistake by the government. It will be corrected, despite the political and financial interests of the Lords in rejoining the EU.

  49. Will in Hampshire
    June 10, 2022

    Interesting to observe that Michael Heseltine – remember him? – has decided that it’s now safe to leave cover and has contributed an article in The Guardian today saying that the tide has turned among the media generally against Brexit.

    If I was a Leaver I would be striving from sunrise to sunset every day to actually deliver the benefits that were foreseen from leaving the European Union, because I am increasingly getting the sense that the unsure middle ground in the electorate is running out of patience on Leaving. Somehow Leavers need to get themselves organized to actually deliver benefits in meaningful quantities for the whole electorate, or this argument is going to turn out to be one that in the end they collectively lose.

    1. glen cullen
      June 10, 2022

      It doesn’t help that we have people like Jacob Rees-Mogg MP the Minister of State for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency
.he appears to have changed his views somewhat

      1. hefner
        June 12, 2022

        Maybe JR-M realised that reintroducing imperial units for trade would not be such an Opportunity nor a proof of Government Efficiency as it would likely add more cost to trade and industry to have to maintain both metric and imperial weights and prices side by side?

        1. Peter2
          June 13, 2022

          It is just a simple expression and an example of freedom heffy.
          Instead of being told to enforce a particular regulation by some outside supranational body we can decide what we want to do.

          We might favour imperial measurements.
          Or we might favour metric measurements.
          But whatever we decide, it will be for us as an independent nation to decide.
          For ourselves.

  50. mancunius
    June 11, 2022

    “There are many Opposition MPs and senior government officials who are keen that the UK should stay wedded to EU laws and rules” – yet even more worrying is that there are many *Tory Government* MPs who do as much as possible to torpedo any attempt at sovereign UK independence, whether in NI, fishing, food security, trade policy or alignment with EU trade and fiscal protectionism .
    In December 2019 I noted with suspicion that for each determined remainer who was dropped by Boris shortly before the general election, there was another remainer who was unaccountably allowed to resume his or her safe seat: these people have one-track pro-EU minds, and whether openly or covertly (usually both) are constantly trying to re-join the EU we voted clearly to leave entirely, six years ago.
    I could easily provide a list of these MPs – but I’m sure most seasoned contributors to this comments page scarcely need one.

  51. a-tracy
    June 13, 2022

    The Northern Ireland protocol only affects England, Scotland and Wales selling goods to Northern Ireland, none of these goods must be sold into the EU so what are they exactly?

    The BBC have said milk and eggs but I can’t see this as N.Ireland has plenty of farms and produces its own milk and eggs so how much business are we talking about. Did we slap reciprocal matching regulations on the same EU goods coming into the UK, if not why not? Why not just put them in right now? Southern Ireland export a lot of cheese and milk products into the UK so does France just cut this off until they sort this out amicably. Why are all the boots on their feet?
    At the moment, wagons arriving in the Republic of Ireland have to carry 700 pages of documentation,” he told the BBC. “It takes about eight hours to prepare the documentation. Some of the descriptors, particularly of animal products, have to be in Latin.”

    So make all the same products coming from the EU into the UK carry exactly the same documents give them a taste of their own medicine and give our stopped exporters a benefit until it is sorted out. Why are we always on the back foot over the simplest matters, surely America can see why unfair trade documents are insane?

    One other solution is for the government to produce all the documents required for FREE then step up exporting into the whole of the EU not just Northern Ireland, what stops this government doing that? Give the public a full list of products that are affected and let us choose to support our own manufacturers of those products over EU supplies.

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