22 Conservative MPs including myself voted against the Statutory Instrument on the so called Stormont brake. Some said it was also a vote against the principle of the Agreement with the EU though that did not appear in the motion. It is reported that another 48 Conservative MPs abstained. The Statutory Instrument carried with a massive majority with all the Opposition parties other than the DUP voting for the government proposal.
The government only allowed 90 minutes to debate this wide ranging Agreement and constitutional change. Several MPs were unable to make speeches at all, several were limited to just 3 minutes and I only got a few seconds at the end. The Commons proceeded to an early adjournment at around 4.15 in the afternoon, showing that we could easily have had a four hour debate on this to accommodate more views and give the government more time to answer some of the many questions the SI raises.
The Labour spokesman wrongly accused me of supporting the Protocol in the past, unaware that on 30 December 2020 I spoke against the Protocol and fishing parts of the final EU/UK Agreement and refused to vote for it. I have been a long standing critic of the Protocol from inception.
There was no need to rush the Stormont brake part of the Agreement through Parliament. The brake can only be invoked following a request by 30 members of the Assembly in session. As there is no Stormont Assembly because the Unionists cannot accept this Agreement there can be no use of this brake. It is also difficult to see when it would be used were there in due course to be an Assembly in session, as the criteria are difficult for the UK government to trigger the process and for it to succeed without EU challenge.
All those interested in why I and others voted No yesterday should look at the legal advice I posted yesterday which was drawn up for the ERG.
March 23, 2023
I have noted that 48 abstained making 70 MPs not supporting Sunak or 1/5th .20% of the Tory group
March 23, 2023
It is amazing how easily Sunak got away with it.
The media were onside. It was not even the main headline. The Boris Johnson partygate story was a useful distraction.
March 23, 2023
Indeed it is profoundly depressing how parliament once again is conspiring against the people. On any real Brexit, on open door immigration, on net zero and the expensive unreliable energy lunacy, on ULEZ and road blocking, on levels of taxation, or all the woke lunacy on this Windsor disaster⊠but most voters simply have no where to go. Consocialists or the even worse old socialists. With just Reform talking sense but with FPTP voting they cannot gain any power.
Allister Heath today is rather more optimistic than I am.
âThe Brexit revolt against the Remain establishment has only just begun
Yesterdayâs failed rebellion wonât reverse the Tory partyâs inevitable shift towards anti-elite politicsâ
March 23, 2023
Well they might shift in this âanti-eliteâ direction while in opposition but when would they next gain power (2029, 2034, 2039?) all rather too late for many. Plus once in power they never do what they promise anyway. Read the last few manifestos what did they actually deliver.
Cameron, May, Boris and now Sunak have wasted golden opportunities and destroyed the party for the foreseeable – just as Major did when he buried the party for 3+ terms. The people wanted and still want a real & clean Brexit, cheap reliable on demand energy, smaller more efficient government, far low taxes, far less red tape, points based high quality immigration only and public services that actually work and zero woke lunacy – the ConSocialist Tories have delivered almost the complete opposite.
March 23, 2023
He got away with it because they hid it behind the show trial and gave it no time. The Usurper refused to appear before the European Scrutiny Committee which I think may be unprecedented. They left very little time after publishing these turgid EU texts for public discussion. This should not have been rushed. It was far too important. But by rushing it, and by dressing it up as a nonsensical SI which the Oppostion had vowed to support without doing due diligence, they knew they could say to the most loyal subjects in the Kingdom: “We don’t care what you say. You don’t count. We are not even going to pretend to take you with us. We are doing it anyway.”
March 23, 2023
He is an immensely skilled politician. Because he is not Boris people tend to dismiss him. That is not a clever thing to do. Like a cat, he sits still and looks hard. Then he suddenly pounces, usually catching his prey. Quiet people survive: noisy ones get put in front of Harriet Harman.
March 23, 2023
He’s not skilled. He’s a remain puppet, as he was at the Treasury, put in for a purpose which he is fulfilling. “My Dear Rishi!” Ugh.
March 23, 2023
Deciding to withhold releasing his personal tax information until the distractions of the Protocol vote and Johnson’s testimony reveals signs of intent.
March 23, 2023
Peter
I agree! Everyone is still talking B Johnson- whilst important it does definitely distract from the NI framework.
The legal analyses and the Windsor framework wording do not match the statement R Sunak told Parliament⊠why is he not being taken to task for misleading parliament?
March 23, 2023
The Narcissist’s Prayer
by Dayna Craig
That didn’t happen.
And if it did, it wasn’t that bad.
And if it was, that’s not a big deal.
And if it is, that’s not my fault.
And if it was, I didn’t mean it.
And if I did, you deserved it.
March 23, 2023
Now we know precisely who supports Brussels in Parliament.
I hope the tories are wiped out ar next year’s election, it’s the only way we can eventually get a sensible government after a period of Starmer.
We have two traitors at No.10 and 11.
March 23, 2023
Only 22 patriotic and unionist Conservative MPs. Pathetic, isn’t it? It proves that the patriotic right-wing of the party is too small to have ANY influence over policy and is therefore completely INSIGNIFICANT. This leads to two conclusions.
The first is that we, the public, can now clearly see that voting Conservative is a complete waste of time. It is the ultimate ‘wasted vote’. The Tory party will NEVER represent us, safeguard our national sovereignty or deliver ANY of the things that we want. So we have to vote for another party, and the only one that presents itself is Reform UK.
And the second coclusion is that the 22 patriots on the Conservative backbenches are politically homeless. They are DESPISED by Sunak who holds them in contempt and treats them like hostages. They must, for their own self-respect, now escape and set themselves free. Imagine for a moment what the effect would be were they to all defect to Reform UK. The publicity and the shock-effect would deliver just the boost that Reform needs to catapult it up the public’s consciousness. Most people are not political animals and are only dimly aware of the party. But the more publicity it gets the more popular it is, as its message does reflect the public’s wishes. By switching their allegiance to Reform these 22 Tory MPs could genuinely reshape the political landscape and Britain’s future.
Will the 22 Tories form a new ’22 committee’ and save the country? I am not optimistic as I fear they lack the imagination to see the prize within their grasp. But we shall see.
March 23, 2023
The reports that Brexit is now completed would seem to be wide of the mark.
Unsettling to see the opposition as usual put party before country for the nth time.
It reinforces to many that the present state this country finds itself in is a damming reflection on the quality of our politicians.
March 23, 2023
++100
Apparently ( if I read it correctly) the EU has now confected a law which threatens the U.K. with a trade war should it not stick to the Brexit Deal ( does that mean yesterdayâs?).
And MEP was reported as saying that he hopes the mechanism will not ever be necessary!
Did those MPs really understand what they were voting for?
March 23, 2023
@turboterrier +1 a rotten corrupt shower were the very reason they exist as MPâs is put on the back burner for the sake of ego.
March 23, 2023
Funny how you consider what is âpartyâ vs âcountryâ. In the vote yesterday I consider the 29 who voted against to be just flotsam, putting neither the country nor even their party as the most important. Just ideologues stuck in the past hanging on the findings of a âStar chamberâ just to keep faith in ⊠what exactly? Does âsovereigntyâ decrease inflation, does it bring you food at reasonable prices, a better salary/pension, a better education for your children or grandchildren, a better educated workforce? a better health system?
As Reagan would have said: Are you better off than you were 13 years ago? And the added question: do you think that another Conservative Government led by luminaries like Duncan-Smith, Bone, Cash, Chope, Redwood, Francois, or Johnson (bis), Truss (bis), Patel (bis), Rees-Mogg (bis) ⊠would now make you better off?
March 23, 2023
Indeed the legacies are not fit for purpose and haven’t been for a long time. It’s a realisation for many that the Politicos and the their useless Civil Serpents are batting for the other side. UKIP, Brexit and now Reform voters have known this for some time. Enough. The Snake, Hunt, The Consocialists and the rest of his unelected followers must go. English people deserve better.
I watched the disingenuous Heaton Harris being interviewed by the European Scrutiny Panel. His body language and disingenuous answers said everything. He should hang his head in shame. His wet behind the ears Civil Serpents were all bullshit, spin and no brains. Not a strategic patriotic thought between them. Time for an election, time for real change, time for Reform. A truly patriotic voice for England.
March 23, 2023
As with a number of recent rushed votes made in the commons over the last few years this is yet another one that will come back to haunt them.
Act in haste and repent in leisure.
When will they ever learn?
There are around 12% in the cold hard light of day who are worthy of the position they hold.
March 23, 2023
I have always been brought up to look at a person’s schooling and education. Starting with our host on this blog, and working down from there to the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary, Sir Keir Starmer, even Mrs Ed Balls, they all pass the education test. So dismissing them all as not “worthy of the position they hold” is not helpful. Ireland, since Cromwell and well beyond that in the past, Ireland has always been a problem to London. It will not be solved easily.
March 23, 2023
Anselm,
âIreland, since Cromwell and well beyond that in the past, Ireland has always been a problem to London.â
I am not sure if you are trying to be funny, or you just donât think before you start writing.
If it is not a parody of a London-centric viewpoint, then you might stop to consider that problem has been entirely self-inflicted.
March 23, 2023
Anselm
I did not say all of them. But the vast majority might be well educated but very short if any on comon sense, and the ability to think both laterally and outside the box and relate to what the people actually voted them in for. Too wrapped up in their own little bubbles with their own agenda’s.
March 23, 2023
Yes Turbo, I think most of us are weary – weary of battering our heads against a wall of vested interests. We have learned that a lot of those we vote for forget their commitments as soon as they get their trotters in the trough.
I am weary of the continuous contempt and distain with which the so called â ruling classesâ disregard our feelings.
March 23, 2023
All the opposition parties other than DUP voting with the government proposal.
I’d say the only real opposition there being DUP as all else in the room are just different parts of the same blob, who have at every opportunity sought to keep the door ajar for EU Commissars to have us dance to their tune.
22 Conservatives voted against, I’ll rule out the abstainers as those without conviction who just want to see how the wind blows.
So 22 resignations from the party then over what surely must now have violated every principle they have?
March 23, 2023
What principle in particular do you think they violated in rejecting the handover the governance of the U.K. to an unelected, unsackable foreign dictatorship?
March 23, 2023
Difficult to see how this Parliament represents the People.
March 23, 2023
@Michelle my understanding is the DUP was against this fudge as it means the people of NI (all 2 million)will now have Laws Rules and Regulations imposed on them by foreign unelected unaccountable bureaucrats. With the complicity of what we call a Government the EU bureaucrats get to dictate how the UK is run.
March 23, 2023
If all those 22 MPs crossed the floor and joined the Reform Party; theyâd be the 4th largest party in parliament, and with the support of the DUP and Independents they’d be the 3rd largest âŠ.now thatâs something the people could vote for
March 23, 2023
They have no principles. Hasn’t the last 9 years taught us how dishonest, corrupt and self interested our politicos are? Our host and a few others are the exception. From announcement of the referendum, through til now the Worstminster bubblers are out to deny democracy. Ben Act anyone?
March 23, 2023
Heed the gypsy’s warning. Never take anything for granted.
Even in the EU they are experiencing the difficulties of making major decisions without full proper investigation and debate.
Six countries are now pushing back against the all electric drive to ban the ICE.
It seems to be a disease that inflicts governments in general.
Note to leaders: Learn to stop peeing before flies are open.
March 23, 2023
When we did Brexit with Mr Johnson, it was like being in a railway station. The two tracks diverged. One went one way, the other the other. Gradually, we are beginning to make sense of a very good separation. It is not a sudden break. (They never ever happen in history really: it is, eventually, always more of the same.) I think Ireland is going rather well. But there is much more divergence to be done.
March 23, 2023
100%
Best news!
March 23, 2023
Group think lunacy among politicians with zero technical or scientific understanding & usually driven by people on the make, by pure corruption and/or vested interests. Often employing politicians as so called âconsultantsâ we see the same with the open door to migrants, HS2, net zero, the economic âwarâ with the dire EUâŠ
March 23, 2023
Even Germany is pushing back against the ICE ban, and theyâre the mainstay of the EU
March 23, 2023
I have no doubt that in the not too distant future the Euro will become the de factor currency of Northern Ireland. Other EU laws will also be applied in a stealth like manner.
We are now GB. UK died on the 22 March 2023.
March 23, 2023
+1 DOM.
March 23, 2023
Seems so and perhaps an end to any democratic GB with it in as much as we had much democracy. I have complete contempt for Sunak, Starmer and all who voted for his dire indefensible Windsor noose.
March 23, 2023
We now need to ask why we’re financing NI. We just can’t be doing this where we have no control. Put a stop to it pending a border poll with an all in all out of the UK questions. All in =ditch the protocol and keep our support all out =become an EU sponsored protectorate. Time for them to stand up and be counted. Literally.
March 23, 2023
Iâm afraid itâs not such a good outlook. The EU extends its hold on the whole country. We are being dragged back to total subservience.
March 23, 2023
Dom
Agree, I think this has now gone so far down the United Ireland under EU Control accepted route, that it will not be reversed.
The POLITICIANS had a choice, fight for Northern Ireland, or allow it to be taken away, the Politicians chose to give it away, but still fund it with GB taxpayers money, that these days is what they call a compromise !!!!!!!
March 23, 2023
++1
March 23, 2023
@DOM +1 Democracy died for the whole of the UK
March 23, 2023
Correct – Our government needs to be honest about the Union
March 23, 2023
You and the other 21 Conservative MPs made a principled stand, in the face of huge opposition.
48 Tories abstained. On an issue as important as this! That just doesn’t cut the mustard. No point in being an MP if you’re not going to take a stance on a constitutional issue.
March 23, 2023
Wanderer
+ many. Got it in a nut shell.
March 23, 2023
That’s correct. Where were you in the war daddy? Oh, I hid in the garden shed.
March 23, 2023
@Wanderer +1
They should all ‘walk’ we dont need people like this taking our shilling if they cant support the very thing that got them there.
March 23, 2023
Many of them are quitting as MPs in 2024, so they don’t care, no blowback on them. The papers say they are standing down because they fear party election wipeout under Rishi. It’s no wonder polls look bad when they’ve already given up (I understand retirements and don’t include them because hopefully, they may help their successor to get established if they care for their area).
I also understand MPs wanting a ‘normal life’ political life is a cesspit. I haven’t seen anyone threatened with being ousted from their job for eating and drinking in the workplace during the lockdown. Even though plenty of people did, including health care professionals in the most intensive settings getting pizzas, other meals, cakes and drinks delivered nearly every week and dancing together at work. I have consistently said I find this whole matter nonsense. Boris didn’t run the office; the photos seem to show distances were kept to, and he didn’t call the people together. They will have all been covid tested from the start; that’s how they discovered which ones of them were infected when the rest of us couldn’t. Eating together at work is what most workers did when they HAD to work through instead of huddling up safely at home. I still believe someone/group inside Downing St. set him up. That Allegra video is a case in point.
If he loses his Tory MP ship, could he get elected with another political party?
March 23, 2023
I agree. To abstain on such a crucial issue is outrageous.
Those conservatives who actually voted for this bill either
didn’t study the implications or are still determined to defy
the wishes of the majority of us who voted for the whole of
the UK to leave the EU.
March 23, 2023
I asked my MP Theresa May to vote against it but she replied saying that she supported it. As she bears part of the responsibility for creating this mess I was not particularly surprised. I circulated an email as follows:
“So now we are stuck with EU compliance checks being applied to the wrong flow of goods, the flow of imports into Northern Ireland from Great Britain, a flow of goods in which the EU has no legitimate interest, rather than to the correct flow of goods, the flow of exports from Northern Ireland across the land border into the Irish Republic, a small flow or trickle in which the EU does have a legitimate interest.
And we have got into this fix through Theresa May thinking that it would be clever to use the largely fabricated problem of the Irish land border as a pretext to keep the whole of the UK under the economic thumb of the EU, followed by the Great Charlatan Boris Johnson caring far more about his pathetic little “Canada style” free trade deal than about Northern Ireland and the unity of the United Kingdom.
Still, as my last word, I repeat that there is nothing in the protocol to prevent the UK establishing a system of UK export controls for goods which are to be taken across the open land border into the Irish Republic and so the EU Single Market, initially alongside the ill-conceived EU import controls, and that would only need secondary legislation to expand the remit of the existing Export Control Joint Unit.”
March 23, 2023
@Denis Cooper +1
She with the ‘Blob’ killed the point of Parliment.
March 23, 2023
Ah! Denis give it a rest there is nobody from outside NI waiting to go in there and take it over.
The framework is here now with the protocol so we should give it a chance – see how it works.
In the end it won’t be the people from outside NI who decide its future but the people inside.
NI is now in the unique position of having a foot in both camps as Sunak said – nobody else nowhere else has this advantage –
The only people still unhappy are the DUP and reason being I suspect for not going back into stormont is because they will have to play second fiddle to Sinn Fein.
Then from what I read this vote in the HoC yesterday has crushed them ‘ the Unionists – it never dawned on them that parliament would ever vote so overwhelmingly against their perceived interests. I could feel for them in a way- only thing is I know them too well.
March 23, 2023
You telling anyone to “give it a rest” is most likely to have the opposite effect.
March 23, 2023
22 plus the excellent Andrew Bridgen and the 48 abstentions Sunak’s Windsor Framework is truly appalling & likely to mean the end of any real and meaningful Brexit. I assume that is Sunak’s and Starmer’s intention? So at best 70 sensible Tories and most of them support net zero so even they are not very sensible.
I do not have much concern about Boris and his birthday cake problems but he did surely mislead the committee yesterday by saying of the lockdowns “whatever people say of them now they were essential for public health”. Does Boris really still believe this total drivel?
The lockdowns, like the vaccines, did very substantial net harm to health, education, mental health and to the economy. This is surely very clear indeed. In as much as the lockdowns delayed a few infection they also delayed natural vaccinations for people. The vast majority of whom were never at serious risk from Covid anyway (thus doing more health damage than any good plus the vast economic, education, mental health and other harms). Still he talks of “safe and effective” vaccines despite. This despite the clear evidence of as many as 1/800 suffering serious injuries per jab.
Sunak also misled the House in reply to a question by Sir Jeremy Wright he talks about:- “the fantastic roll out of the Covid Vaccines across the UK” and that vaccine damages are “extremely rare”.
Hardly Sunak at circa 1/800 seriously injured per Covid jab.
In my view it was criminal negligence (and it certainly was to give coerce them into young health people who never even needed any protection from Covid). At 1/800 the net harm down done is vast. 85 million/800 is over 106,000 people with serious damage. See also the huge fall in fertility and we do not even know of the long term effects.
Are Boris and Sunak still deluded on these issues or was this misinformation this deliberate and/or reckless?
Sunak’s claim for the Windsor Framework and the Emergency Brake are also surely dishonest or he is really that deluded?
March 23, 2023
1/800 injured? On 09/03/2023 it was reported that 151 million Covid vaccines had been injected.
So 188,750 seriously damaged?
Could you please tell us what type of damage: was that vomiting, head aches, painful joints, allergic reaction for a few days or anything requiring a visit to the hospital, myocarditis (heart inflammation) disappearing after 2-3 weeks of medication? Was it even more serious, in which case, what was it?
Huge fall in fertility? What rate? 0.01%, 0.1%, 1%, 10%. How do you measure that? Number of still- born births? Number of pregnancies that had to be terminated because of obvious problems with the foetus?
Or are you just repeating what you have read on some ridiculously militant anti-vaccine website?
Tell us the source(s) of your information so that anybody here can check. Thanks a lot in advance.
March 23, 2023
@hef
151cmillion divided by 3 for the number of people so 60,000 people affected, not such a stretch unless you are being contrarian
March 24, 2023
151 m doses of vaccine injected in the UK over Decâ20-Febâ23, so potentially 151 m side effects.
Please explain why you introduce a divide by 3. Thanks in advance.
You say 60,000 people affected. 60,000 / 151,000,000 . To me that looks like 0.03% side effects.
Taking Ashley 1/800 would give 188,750 ie 0.12% people affected by side effects.
So the claim of a substantial impact of the Covid vaccines on health is rather curious as it is similar to the rate of side effects with other vaccines given to children in their first few years.
March 28, 2023
Divide by three because we were coerced to have three doses hef
March 23, 2023
Any claim such as âAll rules and guidelines were followed at all timesâ is beyond anyoneâs ability to know to make. Even two persons shaking hands would render it invalid. Every personâs activity in every second would need to be checked to substantiate it.
There is much carelessness and dishonesty.
March 23, 2023
+10
March 23, 2023
@Ashley +1
One lie breeds another and so on. However you can only obscure the truth for so long.
In the meantime the UK is trashed, it’s economy just as with it democracy is in tatters. There is not even a Conservative Party any more the Socialist ‘Blob’ thinks they are winning.
March 23, 2023
Very good comment.
March 23, 2023
The Truth be told “Sunak’s oversold Windsor accord MISLEADS PARLIAMENT.”
March 23, 2023
Good Morning, Sir John,
I would appreciate your explanation one day of why an MP would have abstained yesterday in a vote that was clearly to do with the future sovereignty of the UK. Was there a positive tactic in abstention, or was it fence-sitting, or hedging of bets, or was the MP just being lily-livered? My request is sincere.
Thank you.
Mary M.
March 23, 2023
They must have come to some accommodation with the whips after implying they were going to vote against.
March 23, 2023
@Mary M. +1 – like a good chunk they just want your shilling and not to ‘serve’, not to ensure our constitution is not trashed. Its hard to believe that those that want their constituents to adore them also want unelected, unaccountable foreign bureaucrats to tell them what they can and cant do.
March 23, 2023
In the City it’s called, “Hedging”.
March 23, 2023
The Establishment’s Westminster Uni-Party did what it was required to do: united so that there was no genuine opposition to a “deal” which has betrayed Northern Ireland and will ensure that the rUK is permanently aligned to the EU ….. as a precursor to becoming an Associate Member when a two-tier organisation is eventually created.
So we now have:
1. A Labour Party which isn’t in the slightest bit interested in the labouring (ie working) class
2. A Liberal Democratic Party which is neither liberal nor democratic
3. A Conservative and Unionist Party which isn’t conservative and has effectively parcelled Northern Ireland up and handed it over to the EU.
I wonder how long it will be before the SNP is demanding the same “deal” for Scotland?
Perhaps that was the Establishment’s plan.
March 23, 2023
Keir Starmer committed Labour to vote in favour of the Protocol before the debate, and even before many of its details were known. He favours the EU above the UK, demonstrating that by continually attempting to reverse the result of the Referendum.
March 23, 2023
Don’t ignore the fact that the SNP is in disarray. Collapsed support, financial irregularities, the top 2 positions recently resigned and given ‘married’ a problem of possible collusion on issues. The SNP have governed in Scotland for years and every area has been a disaster.
March 23, 2023
So if the ‘brake’ is unlikely to be used, and it’s ‘difficult to see why it would be used’, why make an issue of it? Perhaps it’s just as well another four hours of Parliament’s time wasn’t wasted on the matter. As inflation rises to 10.4% (official figure) perhaps there are more impactful problems for our rulers to address.
March 23, 2023
Is handing over territory to a foreign power without a shot being fired not “impactful”? Is willingly submitting the remaining territory to regulation and litigation by that foreign power not “impactful”?
March 23, 2023
Yes, those things are very serious and significant. But the vote was specifically on the ‘brake’, I gather.
March 23, 2023
Yes, it was a nonsensical SI on the Brake, but it was given out that the vote would be taken as an indicative vote on the whole Windsor Framework.
March 23, 2023
According to Chris Heaton-Harris it is a “powerful democratic mechanism”.
https://hansard.parliament.uk//commons/2023-03-22/debates/14CB1A3B-945B-4021-A84D-68279F18F5E0/StormontBrake#contribution-54A2C1FB-68CE-4C90-82EF-8A00A3DF8D6D
But according to the ERG it is “practically useless”, which is more credible.
March 23, 2023
We all know it’s useless gesture politics (A lot like net stupid) by useless Government. Like Cameron’s emergency immigration brake! Whenever the legacies agree on anything you know its against the wishes of the people e.g. EU membership, mass immigration, net stupid, high taxes and welfare, foreign aid, HS2, illegal immigration and migration pacts, building on the greenbelt, sex education for infant children, Equality Legislation, non Equal rights to minority and special interest groups. Woke/Pc selections in all our public services/quangos/civil serpents (Just see the ones, Like Robbins, posing next to our Politicos who couldn’t knock the skin off of a rice pudding let alone negotiate with the EU crooks).
March 23, 2023
Biggest disappointment for me were those that abstained ed and Steve Barker who is a turn coat. Look after number one seems to come to mind. As a nation we are going downhill fast.
March 23, 2023
Baker wobbled on MV3. The one I’m disappointed with is Mr Heaton Harris.
March 23, 2023
I’m disappointed with them both, but it sums up the self centred political class for what they are! Give me a Ministerial car or trainset and I’m yours. They have principles, but they can vary by the day to meet their needs/toys. Disgusting people, beyond redemption. Baker had the audacity to call Boris a “Poundshop” Farage. Baker couldn’t cast a shadow on Sir Nigel. He didn’t give his principle’s up for a coupler of piece’s of silver. We need Reform.
March 23, 2023
But Baker did resign from being Mrs May’s second of four Brexit Ministers, because, he said, his department was a Potemkin department. Hard to believe now, I know.
March 23, 2023
F U S
Farage got it right last night ” what impact having a ministerial car has on one’s principles and beliefs”
March 23, 2023
As Farage says, it is amazing what a ministerial car will do. Enjoy it while you can Mr. Baker, you won’t get the chance again after the next election for a very long time.
March 23, 2023
You and the other nay-sayers will go down in history as being on the right side. I’m afraid the Remainers won this round but it’s not over yet and the battle to become a self-governing democracy continues.
March 23, 2023
Well said, David.
That is how History works. Slowly, surely, opposites taken into consideration and learned from. Listening to the opposition as carefully as you do to your own side because they are they future – in parts anyway. History moves slowly. It never – never – has a sudden political revolution. The French Revolution ended in Napoleon. The Russian revolution ended in Stalin. The American Revolution ended in an elected 18th century British government.
Expecting sudden change in the insoluble problem of Ireland is dangerous therefore. Sudden changes usually end in a more extreme situation than the previous discarded one.
March 23, 2023
Yet more evidence of the rottenness of this dreadful House of Commons. As usual, the majority performed their role as mere lobby fodder. Last week the chamber was virtually empty to listen to Andrew Bridgen speak in an adjournment debate about the efficacy of the mRNA Covid vaccines – clearly having no comcern for any harm to their constituents. These words of Oliver Cromwell seem just as relevant today “You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately … In the name of God, go!”
March 23, 2023
+1
Trouble is I rather think that we WILL get Cromwell next.
No mince pies!
March 23, 2023
+1
March 23, 2023
Those words have applied to each Parliament for decades now. Yet we still fall for their manifesto promises. Not in 2024 for this household though.
March 23, 2023
Indeed Andrew Mitchell was shuffling everyone out before Andrew Bridgen began to speak. Nothing but wilful blindness fooling themselves that they can claim no knowledge by not turning up for the speech. They will all be found wanting and the rest. JR was probably washing his hair again. None of the cowards are worthy of my vote!
zorro
March 23, 2023
@Zorro; “Nothing but wilful blindness fooling themselves”
Talk about pots trying to call the kettle filthy! Tell me, just what relevant qualifications does Mr Bridgen have to comment authoritatively on viruses & vaccines, other than graduating with a degree in biological sciences some 40(?) years ago, given his business interests appear to be connected to salad processing, not virology, vaccines or even just general healthcare.
One other questions, does Mr Bridgen repeat his assertions way from parliamentary privilege, if not why not.
March 24, 2023
Oh jerry, listen to what he says instead of engaging in ad hominem attacks. Did you listen to the speech?
HE WAS QUOTING FROM THE GOVERNMENTâS OWN FIGURES ABOUT RELATIVE RISK OF THE VACCINE PROGRAMME WHICH SHOW IT IS ABSOLUTE MADNESS. 1 IN 800 CHANCE OF A SERIOUS ADVERSE REACTION TO THE VACCINEâŠ. HOW MANY DOSES NEED TO BE ADMINISTERED TO PREVENT ANY HOSPITALISATION OR A SERIOUS ONE? LISTEN AND TELL MEâŠâŠ
Zorro
March 26, 2023
@Zorro; “instead of engaging in ad hominem attacks.”
Oh the irony, is that not exactly what Mr Bridgen does, along with those who repeat his assertions on social media without a second thought, simply because an MP (using privilege) tells you want you want to hear. I have never been unfair to Mr Bridgen, for one I doubt our host would allow me, I have merely asked equally pertinent questions given the similarities of some of the health issues being attributed to the mRNA vaccine damage and separately post-COVID-19 syndrome (Long-Covid) by different interest groups.
But back to statistics, tell me, what are the chances of catching CV19, what are the chances of dying or suffering serious heath issues from the CV19 virus, more or less than 1/800. care to cite those Govt stats, and I mean cite, a URL will do.
March 26, 2023
A bit less than flu jerry, and you havenât listened to the speech or you wouldnât be asking me that questionâŠ.. Listen again and see how many hospital admissions would be saved to the number of vaccinations given. What is the comparable risk of a serious reaction to the vaccine compared to the number of vaccinations needed to save one hospitalisation from COVID?
I had two Astra Zeneca injections against my better judgement but hey hoâŠ. Forewarned is forearmed now.
Zorro
March 27, 2023
@Zorror; “you havenât listened to the speech or you wouldnât be asking me that question”
I asked you to cite the evidence, not repeat possible hearsay…
How about you go read Hansard and digest all the relevant speeches made by Mr Bridgen in Westminster on this matter and perhaps others, then reflect (on perhaps accentuated soundbites). I have never dismissed the issue, but nor have I closed my mind to rational argument or per-judged it, as you (and others) appear to have done, judging from your recent discord with @hefner below – yet you accuse others of ignoring the evidence!
As I said, there appears no actual evidence, other than circumstantial or hearsay, that those who have suffered cardiovascular issues such as inflammation of the heart arteries have not done so from a CV19 infection, or indeed some other non mRNA infection/side-effect, and as @hefner points out elsewhere, such side effects are usually easily treatable. Axes are been ground, often with ‘privilege’, the question is why.
March 24, 2023
They are on YOUTUBE and his website.
Zorro
March 23, 2023
@Brian Tomkinson; The numbers attending any adjournment debate are almost always very low, even more so on Fridays when many MPs are back in their constituencies, holding surgeries or constancy meetings.
“clearly having no comcern for any harm to their constituents”
That comment cuts both ways, as does the quote from Oliver Cromwell…!
March 23, 2023
…… when many MPs are back in their constituencies, holding surgeries or constancy meetings……or if your names Hancock et al, going into the jungle or going to the races on the tax payers dime. What is the point of the cannon fodder on the back benches other than to go through the lobbies holding their noses and .. wallets?
March 23, 2023
@Timaction; Indeed, but Mr Hancock wasn’t the first Conservative MP to go “into the jungle” was he, there was another who lead the way in 2012, she also lost the whip (for about a year), it did her parliamentary career no harm it seems as Johnson gave her a series of ministerial appointment culminating in a cabinet ranking job.
Back bench MPs are cannon fodder you suggest, better that than turkeys! The PM wanted this SI to be passed, he wants the Windsor Agreement passed, and it will be however much you, me, or our host protests. For one Labour &and the LDs will support it, but should the PMs own troops rebel and Labour sniffs an opportunity the PM would have had to make it a vote of confidence – troops back on parade, as turkeys don’t vote for Christmas, job done…
March 23, 2023
When Sir Christopher Chope took up the case long before Bridgen, the Chamber was completely empty apart from the Speaker and himself.
March 24, 2023
Could it be because in Septemberâ21 Sir Christopher had as many relevant facts on which to report as Andrew Bridgen had in Decemberâ22 or Marchâ23?
March 24, 2023
Have you listened to the speech or read more recent scientific studies? More and more relevant evidence is coming to light about the vaccines. Have you noticed that they are only being encouraged for over 75s now? Why if they are âsafeâ and âeffectiveâ?
Zorro
March 25, 2023
I have, and am still not convinced that a 0.12% (12 out of 10,000 vaccinations) with side effects of vomiting, headaches, dizziness, stiffness in the arm, ⊠for a week or so, or even myocarditis diagnosed after an ECG usually treated with a medication treatment over 2-3 weeks is really the biblical flood that (some) people consider it to be.
I had been sicker after a yellow fever vaccine injection some 20 years ago than after my two AZ and subsequent two Pfizer (original and Omicron) boosters that Iâve got since Janâ21.
24/03/2023 nature.com âPredicting vaccine effectiveness against severe Covid-19 over time and against variants: a meta-analysisâ
23/03/2023 medicalxpress.com âStudy: Covid-19 mNRA booster vaccinations increased and sustained antibody responsesâ.
Have you got something more recent?
March 25, 2023
I see that Dr John Campbell has a new youtube âshowâ on 25/03/2023 about a TGA report (Therapeutic Goods Administration from Australia).
On tga.gov.au there is a report dated 23/03/2023 âCovid-19 vaccine safety reportâ, which can be read by anybody interested enough.
What is wonderful is that on 25 March 2023 Campbell does his whole presentation based on bits of sentences he has extracted from a report published in Janâ21 when obviously there were only results of tests done on monkeys and of tests of phases 1, 2 and 3 on up to a few thousands of (volunteer) people. Campbell spends his time on the monkey report and does not talk about the other tests.
Why in March 2023 does he not use the long series of data now available after more than two years of vaccinations? Is it because it would reduce to zero his argument about the uncertainties that existed when the vaccinations started in Decâ20?
March 26, 2023
Safe and effective hefner?? Well avoided, take a blow mate!
I have listened to John Campbell (amongst many others) over three years and has seen his frustration develop when truth has slapped him in the face.
You are being completely disingenuous in your reporting of this stated podcast.
Do you know how many humans the boosters were tested on before approval? Squeak squeak! And we all know how transparent Pfizer were going to be on transparently showing the data from their trialsâŠ.. Iâll tell you in 75 years!
Zorro
March 23, 2023
If the Scots-origin Northern Irelanders want to be British, that’s fine. Let them come and live in Britain – just about everybody else in the world can, apparently.
March 23, 2023
+many
My thoughts exactly.
Thatâs the last thing theyâd do though!
March 23, 2023
And would you move the large Irish populations in Lonodon, Glasgow, and Liverpool back to Southern Ireland?
March 23, 2023
I wouldn’t move anybody, Rose. No need – people get through our borders all the time, pretty much as they want if they can tell the right story..
March 23, 2023
Wrong way around. The Scots are originally from Ireland.
Why should those in the 6 counties be driven from their land any more than the Russians or Serbs in ancient Kosovo be driven from theirs.
Why not tell the imperialists aka the EU to take a hike?
March 23, 2023
I Bill have already done that! As someone who worked through the years of Republican terrorism, in situations that the MOD saw fit to arm us with personal protection for working in border areas for the good of our soldiers, I no longer had confidence in the Ulster government and my safety. Also I certainly did not want my children educated in a school system where a well known terrorist was made the Minister for Education!
I took advantage of the government job advertising and secured a good job in Devon, happy days now! But that does not stop me supporting my fellow Ulster men.
March 23, 2023
Whatever the HoC votes for overwhelmingly is always wrong.
The Climate Change Act, Net Zero, The Corona Virus Act and now yesterday’s betrayal of the UK.
How do we rid ourselves of this mediocre majority of law makers? I now have family members who say if they were starting over, they would leave for another country.
March 23, 2023
Maybe its because the government and the loyal opposition are as one âŠwe donât have a functioning House of Commons
March 23, 2023
Is this very different from the 1998 Good Friday Agreement process?
At that time the DUP remained against the GFA, and only after a lost referendum gradually came round and helped form the devolved government.
Now, most people and businesses in N.I. support the Windsor Framework.
I think that most MPs were aware of this when they voted yesterday.
Who knows the DUP may be able to get a few more EU concessions over time.
March 23, 2023
One similarity with the Belfast Agreement is that those who read it didn’t vote for it.
March 23, 2023
Concessions. How about you stick your nose elsewhere Van Leeuwen. We don’t want you or your EUSSR. When will you accept that and move on? Our voting rights are changing to our purchasing practices and your EU is causing more and more companies supplying goods to this Country hardship. There are consequences to behaviours Mr Van EU and your businesses will pay that price for your hostilities. That’s real politics in action. How’s that unemployment rate doing, riots in France, Farmers in Holland unhappy with your net zero war on nitrogen, who’d have thunk it? I would keep an eye on some of your banks as well if I were you, an investor (unlikely) or a depositor. You have enough to worry about over there, forget our politics.
March 23, 2023
Sir JR,
The Windsor deal is the best we can get after Johnson messed up the first NI Protocal so voting against a majority of that size made absolutely no sense
March 23, 2023
During Hunt’s budget speech – which I listened to in its entirety on BBC R4 – I noticed that he never mentioned the word “manufacturing” once, neither did he mention the word “export”
Following Brexit, trade with our hitherto largest export market has been decimated, with many previously successful SME’s folding. Voting against the NI Protocol yesterday – or even worse, sitting on the fence and abstaining – has done nothing to help those British firms to regain their markets. Especially the City. Your arguments and those of the ERG amount to sophistry.
March 23, 2023
The Office for National Statistics says trade with the EU in 2022 versus 2021 actually increased.
ÂŁ2.1 billion up or a 6.7% increase.
Not sure how you got “decimated” SG
March 25, 2023
And related, say, to pre-Covid, 2019? ons.gov.uk âUK trade, January 2023, 10 March 2023â.
Figure 1 has the exports and imports with the EU and non-EU, month by month from Janâ20 to Janâ23.
My non-specialist eye sees just a small increase happening in terms of exports, +ÂŁ0.5 to +ÂŁ1 bn between Janâ20 and Janâ23, but +ÂŁ5.5 bn in imports from both EU and non-EU. Is that good or bad?
There were obviously changes in the way statistics are compiled during that period
March 23, 2023
‘The government only allowed 90 minutes …’ What an absolute disgrace! But good on you, for voting in a principled way.
March 23, 2023
Yes, SW, but four days debate, never mind four hours, wouldn’t have changed anything. 22 MPs understood the bill and voted against it. 48 didn’t understand it and abstained. The rest just followed orders as usual.
March 23, 2023
hear hear
March 23, 2023
Agreed ‘ since DUP has no intention of going back into stormont then no need for the brake
With no assembly there will have to be direct rule – but direct rule will really mean joint rule – UK and EU
So you see the slippery slope that the DUP is setting us on
March 23, 2023
An interesting little article which has just appeared:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64970176
“What does Wales export globally – and who is buying?”
Well, if we believe Hilary Benn and others nobody in the EU will be buying anything from Wales, now that Wales no longer has access to the EU Single Market. Unlike Northern Ireland, which still had “dual access” to both the UK and the EU markets.
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/07/22/my-contribution-in-the-northern-ireland-protocol-committee-day-2-debate/#comment-1330678
âNorthern Ireland is in a unique and favourable position compared with my constituents, precisely because it has access to both the market of the United Kingdom and the market of the European Unionâ
That isn’t quite the picture which emerges for Wales:
“Currently our top export destinations are the USA and the Republic of Ireland, selling goods worth ÂŁ3.4bn and ÂŁ3bn for each country in 2022.
Germany is our third biggest export partner, with ÂŁ2.4bn in sales for 2022.
The EU remains the largest export market for Wales, accounting for ÂŁ20.7bn in sales for the last two years, with the remaining parts of continental Europe outside the EU and the rest of the globe making up ÂŁ15bn.”
March 23, 2023
Rishi Sunak is visiting Wales today, so he could ask them how they are managing to do this when Northern Ireland is now the only part of the UK which has access to the EU Single Market. To be fair, he does sometimes say that they have “privileged” access, but not always. I have a Freedom of Information Request in asking how much extra that “privileged” access is worth in terms of GDP, but no answer so far.
March 23, 2023
Missed for moderation.
March 23, 2023
Well Brexit is done for and there is no shortage of people willing to crown Charles.
There’s trouble ahead.
March 23, 2023
What is it about NI that makes the remainers want to make them the whipping boy for the UK’s vote to leave the EU?
Diabolical it seems that the same people who want to welcome 10s of 1000s of illegal immigrants into the country, wish at the same time to eject the entirety of NI from the UK. Why must they of all the citizens of the UK be stripped of their citizen’s rights?
March 23, 2023
Dear Sir John, I support the position taken by you and your colleagues yesterday. Having read the legal advice itâs clear Northern Ireland and to some extent the UK generally will continue to be subject to pernicious EU rules. This is completely unacceptable and furthermore this arrangement has signally failed to restore power sharing.
March 23, 2023
First I would thank you for your vote against a motion that this Sunak government could only push through with Labour, Lib/Dem, and SNP support. This in itself tells you all you need to know about the Sunak government. A government that usurped power by rigging the ballot with the simple slight of denying the Conservative members a vote.
As has been explained in forensic detail by KC minds, the brake is a long grass instrumement of no practical use. NI remains subject to existing EU law and any future EU law they care to apply. The so called Green Lane is anything but, and can be closed at any time the EU feels is necessary. Effectively NI is a vassal state of the EU and no longer a member of the United Kingdom. Sunak has permitted this penalising wedge to be inserted in the UK and should be damned forever for doing so.
Whatever theatre is allowed in the Commons over all the other clauses in this sellout WF it does not make it any less than traiterous. Historically the perpetrators would have been hung drawn and quartered for treason.
For sure it is the end of the conservative party. I would suggest that the sixty eight or so who could not stomach voting for this act should revue their position and like Anne Widdicombe move to the only party that has the United Kingdom as it’s prime concern.
March 23, 2023
Good morning Sir John
I thank you, you did everything possible to bring the UK back to being a democracy, everything to remind people that because of the intransigence of this remain Parliament we may never have what some call Brexit. Maybe that is the goal along from this very un-Conservative Government.
To me it was never about a lame anti democratic âProtocolâ it was the imposition that foreign unelected unaccountable bureaucrats can have dictatorial powers over those that wish self determination and democracy.
March 23, 2023
On a day when the House of Commons and an ex-PM was exposed to scorn. Whatever next?
March 23, 2023
Oh there’s lots more to come
March 23, 2023
Off topic
Viewed for a short time some of the questioning of Boris yesterday, not a huge Boris fan, but this appears to be just a witch hunt to find him guilty, given the style and wording of the questions, and the non acceptance by the Committee of much of the Susan Gray report findings which involved detailed interviews.
You get the feeling that the only way for Downing street to have worked at all (and not efficiently) would have been to let them all work from Home !
March 23, 2023
I was struck by the stark reality of the committee we had only heard about when Owen Paterson was subjected to similar injustice: the committee was investigator, prosecutor, judge, and jury. There was no defence. The committee were able to doctor the accused’s material but he was not allowed to doctor theirs. They witheld evidence that was in his favour. They decided who could be named and who not. When the accused tried to answer he was rudely told his answers were too long or repeated themselves, when they were the minimum needed to explain the situation. The committee appeared not to listen to these answers because they browbeat him again and again on the same petty points. Sir Bernard Jenkin made the biggest fool of himself, and why wasn’t he in the Chamber, standing up for Brexit and the Union? Only Alberto Costa behaved professionally – until the bizarre question about the Kangaroo Court came up.
As for the three people who should have recused themselves and didn’t, they brought the whole institution of Parliament into disrepute. Instead of recusing themselves, they moved the goalposts.
If it had not been so unjust, so serious, so sinister, one might have been watching a scene from Lewis Caroll or Monty Python.
March 23, 2023
The decent Tory MPs (and there are not that many of you left) were outflanked by the establishment/WEF crowd over Johnson then Truss, then dithered when people were saying “Get rid of him, before they trash Brexit”.
Too late now. You’ll have to work out how you reverse this – which will take time. And getting elected. And getting a right-winger into power…
And I don’t see that happening. Most small-c conservatives have had enough of voting for a party that has been infiltrated to the point where it is, quite literally, worse than useless – worse because it prevents us having a party to vote for that genuinely shares our values rather than paying lip service to them, then doing something else. Truss was your last hope.
I’ll be voting for Farage’s party at subsequent elections.
March 23, 2023
[…] The Protocol Vote â John Redwood […]
March 23, 2023
That’s it, then. This Government emulates the Biden Administration. They Bulldoze their way through their legislation, refusing to allow detailed questioning so that they will always get their way.
Now we definitely know this Government (and Parliament) is not one to be proud of but this time we did not get the chance to vote for it. We are helpless and mere election fodder, for we have been refused any say in the matter which concerns the future independence of the UK and its citizens.
Democracy is dead and BRINO is now the firm status of our National Referendum result. So I feel sick and very angry at this, especially when from a so-called Conservative government. The UK has been robbed of our true destiny.
March 23, 2023
Itâs beyond sad, indeed monstrous that so many of our parliamentary representatives failed to stand up for our sovereignty yesterday
March 23, 2023
OFF TOPIC.
Since Sir John reports his income as required, perhaps he can offer suggestions as to how Mr Sunak manages to earn ÂŁ4.7m over 3 years but only pay something over ÂŁ1m in tax?
I think almost everybody in the UK pays a higher percentage of tax on income than Mr Sunak managed?
March 23, 2023
It is explained in various newspapers this morning. If one has most of their income from dividends, here the highest rate was 38.1% whereas on other streams of income the highest rate would have been 45%.
So Mr Sunak appears to have paid 22% tax on his total income whereas most of people, not dividend-rich would have paid more.
March 23, 2023
The fatal flaw in that argument being that 38% and 45%, however apportioned, do not end up as being 22%.
March 24, 2023
One can subscribe to ÂŁ200k of VCTs every year with 30% of the value tax-deductible, or if going for SEISs 50% deductible. Higher tax payer rate for CGT is 20% for gains other than properties.
March 23, 2023
I am afraid it’s all p155ing in the wind now Sir J, the remainiacs/technocrats/WEF/EU are back in control…
March 23, 2023
So it turns out, rather earlier than expected, that Sunak is not the straight kind of guy he was previously trying to tell us he was. He is just as slippery as the worst of them. He told us when he got back from getting his orders from the EU (so called negotiations) that the agreement would not be re-negotiated and cut the time for debate and made his boot lickers vote for this defective legislation which we will regret long after he has gone to America. As for the abstainers, that is either pure cowardice or they couldn’t understand it and could not be bothered to study it. I will certainly abstain from voting Tory at the next GE first time for donkeys years and unless a Reform candidate is put up in my area I will spoil my paper with ‘none of the above’.
March 23, 2023
Sunak knew that the support of Labour would win the vote for him ; I am amazed and surprised that a man of his intelligence and leadership role of the United Kingdom would want to encourage this Protocol deal ; I believe he simply has been pushed to have a closer relationship with the EU . Behind the scene there is a US President who wants the Republic of Ireland to take overall control of the island and to minimise the role of the UK in world affairs . I fully stand behind those who voted against the Protocol yesterday ; the United Kingdom exists and must operate as such without outside interference .
March 23, 2023
I had to check ⊠population of Northern Ireland 1,903,175 according to the 2021 census, which makes 2.9% of the UK population. At the 05/05/2022 NI Assembly elections, the DUP got 21.3% of the vote.
We have repeatedly been told on this blog of the SNP tail wagging the Labour dog. The population of Scotland is 5,479,000 ie 8.3% of the UK population. The SNP at the last election got 47.7% of the vote.
Why donât we have the usual contributors telling us of the DUP corgi-like tail wagging the CUP dog?
March 23, 2023
You don’t seem to have understood the issue at all. The Protocol has TWO, separate, problems. The first is the political/democratic one, which affects Northern Ireland most, making them subservient slaves to a foreign power. But the second problem is an economic/trade one, which affects GB MOST OF ALL. The Protocol, and the appalling Windsor green-lane-that-is-really-red harms GB companies selling to Northern Ireland, and thus affects jobs here in GB.
The Protocol and the Windsor sell-out are of supreme NATIONAL importance and are not just a Northern Ireland sideshow. Do you finally understand?
March 25, 2023
How is the Green Lane affecting the trade between GB and NI, the only impact I see is for business trading with both NI and RoI potentially having two sets of regulations to account for.
Otherwise tell me in details how a GB business sending stuff to NI (or the other way around) is affected. Go ahead, amplify the voice of patriots, but no more generalities, but facts, please.
March 23, 2023
The DUP are only one of four Unionist parties in the Assembly and there are independent unionists as well. They are all opposed to EU rule and being separated from the Mainland. Together they make up the majority in the Asembly, SF only being the bigest single party. We were told the whole aim of the Sunak Swindle was to get the Assembly back up and running, but apparently not. It must have been to suck up to Biden and the EU.
Why do people like you persist in this lie that only the DUP want to be British subjects?
March 24, 2023
The SF MPs do not attend Westminster. Apart from the DUP MPs who voted against, all those from the other parties (1 Alliance, 2 SDLP) did not vote against the Stormont Break on 22/03/2023.
And you are confused, I never said that only the DUP want to be British subjects. I just pointed out that in proportion of their number of MPs, the DUP is even more of a tail wagging the CUP dog than the SNP ever was a tail wagging the Labour dog.
March 23, 2023
A pyrrhic victory for Sunak because the EUâs agenda is to give N.I to the republic and humiliate the UK.
The so called Windsor agreement will not work and the Protestant vote in N.I will not agree to go quietly.
March 23, 2023
@Elli Ron maybe they should unilaterally declare their independence
March 23, 2023
This is but one more example of why the Tories are now seen as treacherous.
They do not allow proper debate, and they just push through very important legislation at great speed.
I thank our host for his attempts at doing what an MP should be doing. To the rest of the Tory majority that have no conscience and who indeed showed that they were only interested in surrendering UK rights to anyone that asked for them, I disown them.
The majority in Parliament are a disgrace and why I keep on saying that Parliament is no longer fit for purpose. MPs no longer represent voters.
March 23, 2023
@Bryan Harris – but it is the majority of the House of Commons that refused, with just a small handful of Tories and the DUP objecting to rule by unelected unaccountable bureaucrats in a foreign land.
The MPâs we have been landed with, donât believe they should be responsible for how the UK is Governed
March 23, 2023
The quisling-like antics of this government are a disgrace of course. So will be those of the next government.
Can we now swiftly obtain the benefits of the implied expectations in the Windsor Framework and see Northern Ireland exit the U.K.? Why wait any longer, particularly as retaining it costs billions a year?
March 23, 2023
The EU and Southern Ireland have arranged the annexation in such a way that GB will go on paying. Otherwise the South would not have accepted the North.
Just imagine if the Usurper had not become the Usurper: we might have had a Free Port in Belfast and corporation tax of 12%.
March 23, 2023
90 minutes?
Just highlights for me how desperate and out of touch with reality our PM is..
What is it that politicians cannot hold up their hands and say I am wrong and a change of tack is needed?
Is it fear of losing face with the EU or is it just sheer bloody arrogance? Why do they allow these people to become leader?
March 23, 2023
The two other occasions on which important legislation was rammed through, were the Surrender Act and the Coronavirus legislation.
March 23, 2023
Sadly we now know for certain that the PM is dishonest, as the WF is a complete sell-out to the EU.
But how can 525 MPs vote against their own country? Then they wonder why people hold them in contempt. Did they not read the agreement & realise what it means for N.I. & the UK?
I also agree with the earlier comment that abstaining on such a crucial vote is cowardice. Thank you, Sir John & your 21 colleagues, plus Andrew Brigden, who voted against it.
March 23, 2023
The Prime Minister probably committed to President Biden to get it done, warts and all.
March 23, 2023
Biden said, the other day after a question, that he would visit Ireland soon.
Bringing a flag with ‘Real IRA’ emblazoned on it?
March 23, 2023
“As there is no Stormont Assembly because the Unionists cannot accept this Agreement there can be no use of this brake.”
As bad as the Windsor Agreement is, that is not a deficiency of the Stormont brake, it’s a deficiency of the original Good Friday Agreement that allows the current fit of pique from the DUP since the last Stormont election results.
March 23, 2023
It is a “blob” and Remainer move to gradually reverse us back into the EU. I cannot understand why Conservative MPs dont accept the will of the British People. It is difficult to understand why Rishi Sunak , a clever man, thinks it is the answer, particularly with no get out clause in the Agreement. The end of British Democracy?
March 23, 2023
“gradually”? I can’t believe how rapidly it is all being reversed.
March 23, 2023
Very interesting how this is reported in the Telegraph, the big beasts have sustained a ‘blow to the influence of the ERG, which perhaps is no longer the united voice corralling dozens of brexiteers on the backbenches’!
“The result, then, is a win for Mr Sunak. Brexit will get done, after all. But the seeds of discontent over the deal and the influence of the European Union over Northern Ireland have been sown, and some of the big beasts on the Tory Right are ready to exploit it.” Telegraph.
So you have no influence but will exploit having no influence.
March 23, 2023
@a-tracy ‘Brexit will get done’ sorry to say this, but that is in your dreams all that has happened is the EU is back in charge of the UK with the acquiescence of Parliament. The HoC is frightened of democracy and doing what we pay them for.
March 23, 2023
Ian, those were the words of the telegraph writer not mine. Brexit has not been done.
People donât like us using the word traitors but May, Robbins, Benn, Sunak, and many of the other 650 elected members of the HoC do our Country down to its knees to the benefit of themselves. Charging European trips for all and sundry would have been a large perk many enjoyed.
People I know wanted our jobs back, we didnât want any more Blair meddling and agreeing to make us a services only Country. We were sick of being taxed for taxes on prostitution and drugs and any other fees and fines like those they applied to illegal Chinese imports, that were billed to UK tax payers not the rogues who did this. And our government- all of them – shrug and say – look over there, nothing we can do about it. Not our fault. Well we are now saying it is your fault you can do something about it and are choosing not to. So get your fingers out and finally do what you are paid to do on our behalf. The UK publics behalf.
March 23, 2023
Well, read one after the other Allister Heath and Camilla Tominey and see whether there is a clear âTelegraphâ line.
Also have a look at âWhich PM taxed you the most?â However it does not include the Council tax.
March 23, 2023
Someone bought me a subscription to the Telegraph I donât know why they bothered, Iâm bored reading their articles. To be honest I prefer the Guardian, at least I know where their bias lies.
I.e. its ok for nurses and hospital workers, to eat together, celebrate birthdays together, arrange tik tok dances together on the wards whilst people were dying in the height of the crisis to KEEP UP MORALE, yes the very same paper was saying all this, yet other workers keeping up morale they need stringing up.
March 23, 2023
Sir John,
Over the period of three hours yesterday, it became obvious that Boris Johnson was already deemed guilty by the biased words of the chairman Harman! The commons again preempts the result and the guilty just as they did with the war in Ukraine.
Most of the covid rules were stupid, dreams of advisors with no medical qualifications.
I am sure no one in Great Britain was able to survive without breaking the suggestions a few times.
March 23, 2023
perhaps you are the only person who appears to think ‘Boris is innocent’.
March 23, 2023
Already the 52 pages published the day before by Mr Johnson were making clear that he might not get scot-free from his interview by the committee. And you might want to single out H.Harman but three of the four CUP members (Sir Bernard Jenkin, Sir Charles Walker and Mr Alberto Costa) were not particularly tender with Mr Johnson.
March 23, 2023
Jenkin and Walker have made clear in public many times that they are Boris-deranged. Alberto Costa is a lawyer and understands fair process. He didn’t go round saying disobliging things about Boris, but on the other hand he is a serious remainer. He berated Bryant twice in the House about the unfairness of the process on the committee, and in particular over Owen Paterson. Bryant just smirked it off.
March 23, 2023
Hefner and Sir Bernard Jenkin, Sir Charles Walker and Mr Alberto Costa should be able to be challenged by the membership who voted for Boris, all the electors of Boris as leader of the party on a massive margin, on what they were trying to achieve. Boris alone didnât order in food, decide to wish him a happy birthday. All those people standing too close together when there is an office manager, someone in charge of H&S why is it only Boris under the cosh. It was safe enough for nurses to eat pizza and cakes with each other every week, I regularly saw instagram pictures of the deliveries they were getting. It was understood to keep up morale of people that were having to work together whilst others were home safe were taking bigger risks with their lives every day at the start if you believe the news that was pumped out. Being regularly tested they must have thought they had some early warning system or something to get that close. Perhaps you should go back and look at some of the news reports from March and April 2020.
March 24, 2023
Mr Johnson was appearing in front of the Commons Privileges Committee not for having been in meetings/parties but to ascertain whether he had been more than economic with the truth in different PMQs or other Covid-related HoC chamber meetings.
In these conditions, I really donât see why the Conservative membership should be involved. It looks to me as essentially an internal business for the HoC.
March 23, 2023
Unfortunately, this government under Rishi Sunak is, as I believed when he was elected, will take us back into the EU. He thinks he has done a great deal, I am with you in your comments.
March 23, 2023
That was why we underwent two coups d’etat in rapid succession. As if we were EU ridden Italy.
March 23, 2023
Once again the Bank of England waits for the horse to bolt then punishes the taxpayer â how long can this go on!
March 23, 2023
Sir John, you and your colleagues were absolutely right to vote ‘no’.
This entire treaty is a massive Trojan horse.
March 23, 2023
It is hard to see how the GFA can survive now that Sunak has failed to negotiate satisfactory changes.
Does the EU expect the DUP to just roll over and go back to Stormont ? Another catastrophic assumption by both Sunak and Brussels.
Sooner or later both will have to resume talks and this time Brussels will have to make some real concessions, otherwise there will be trouble on the island of Ireland.
Time is on the side of the DUP, as long as they retain support amongst the Protestant community.
March 23, 2023
I think they intend to ram legislation through Parliament which will alter the Belfast Agreement so the Unionists become superfluous. This SI was a test run.
March 23, 2023
Why just what can the DUP do after being nobbled by the UK? There are plenty of people on here who think they are in a minority. You donât see them lining the street like the French co-ordinated protests. Theyâve divided and conquered them and theyâre laughing with this stitch up. You can read the crowing on here from the usual EU lovies.
March 23, 2023
What a bunch of traitors we have making up the vast majority of the Tory MPs. Many of these are so weak and incapable they should never have been nominated in the first place and voted for. How can anyone support this party which has abandoned its old principles and is willing to give us up to a foreign power wishing to dominate us.
There is no doubt with this news and other reports the UK first as a unit is being destroyed deliberately, and its cultural institutions failing to be defended and promoted. Foreign cultures get priority at our expense.
Secondly as an economy it is being hollowed out because the MPs don’t understand or care how it should work. They, in particular the leader, wish we must abandon making all things which might smell greasy. After all he thinks we can get everything from overseas not having any connection with our history.
Thirdly the major nation England has almost no defenders or promoters and those who try are threatened. Scotland and Wales are to be given all the advantages, England is to be sacrificed and divided. We know Northern Ireland has been happily abandoned.
March 23, 2023
I can only be amused by those already seeing NI being taken over by the RoI or the UK going back into the EU. Do you ever check other non-UK streams of information? Right now there would be very little incentive for the RoI to take NI under its wing. The economic situation would be far worse than when West Germany decided to take the former East Germany into a unified Germany.
As for the UK going back into any new constitutional arrangement with the EU, it would need the agreement of all the present 27 EU countries. How long do you think it would take for the 27 heads of state, the EU Commission and the EU Parliament to agree on such a thing as a ârapprochementâ with the UK? 3 years, 5, 10, 15, 20 years? And as important, who in the UK would (dare) take such a decision? And following what procedure? Another referendum, a decision of HoC/HoL, a Government decision?
Despite the pretense of some tabloids/newspapers it is very unlikely that anything like the NI/RoI or the UK/EU love affair would produce any tangible result before long.
March 23, 2023
It won’t be formal in either case, just de facto. As I said earlier, the annexation of NI has been arranged in such a way that GB will continue to pay. There is no other way the South would have gone along with it.
March 24, 2023
Blah, blah, blah. No argument, no proof, just the usual subjective sentimental bleating: Surrender Act, Usurper, âhas been arrangedâ and similar nonsense.
March 23, 2023
The UK wonât be going back into the EU, it is going to be conjoined, weakened and surrendered by a bunch of betrayers. We see them more clearly now.
March 24, 2023
âit is going to be conjoined, weakened and surrendered by a bunch of betrayersâ: as you âsee them more clearly nowâ, who/what are these people, think tanks, parties or whatever organisations that are going to do that and how?
Anyway, what about Global Britain? Have you already forgotten about it? Donât you feel it would be better to concentrate on the present and future benefits of being out of the EU instead of trying to find excuses for the present state of the country in some EU conspiracy theory?
March 23, 2023
70 MPs (including DUP and abstainera) are a sizeable amount of MPs who have refused to give the Stormont Brake and Windsor Framework approval. They are a marker of what happened in Parliament on 22 March 2023 and shows who could not bear to give their support to an agreement giving away U.K. sovereignty. Due to DUP and ERG and their legal audits, the general public are alert now that this rushed Framework is a con. Caroline Bell at Briefings for Britain website with her articles made it very clear that it was a legal and undemocratic sting. We are all indebted to Martin Howe KC and Barnabas Reynolds for their assessment on the Framework.
The optics for this Framework have not been good – EU version versus U.K. version, use of âWindsorâ in the title, use of Royal Prerogative, the difficulty of getting straight answers from the government, lack of proper Parliamentary process and debate of the whole agreement, the rush to get it signed off with EU negotiator on Friday, shows the lengths Sunak has been prepared to go to to get it passed. The use of voices of Davis and Baker in sycophantic support also riles me, and the debate set on same afternoon as Borisâs grilling, so the media were focused elsewhere is poor too. All these shenanigans merely alert the voting public who will remain suspicious of Sunak and his motives.
Nevertheless I greatly appreciate the amount of work under pressure of time to get the DUP and ERGâs legal audits written and published for the public to see. Thank you.
March 24, 2023
The other big event on Wednesday was the Privileges Committee special Inquisition for Boris Johnson. Their ‘logic’ could certainly match that of The Inquisition. Let’s consider some major challenges from one Conservative M.P. on that Committee. Inter alia he complained:
1) ‘Boris Johnson was culpable in not asking for the opinion of the Cabinet Secretary and senior civil servants.’ I say whatever they may say now there was no need to verbally interrogate them as their actions (or inactions) made it obvious they thought those events/parties were legal, otherwise they would surely have stopped the civil servants they managed from attending those events.
2) ‘The Guidance does not say you can have a thankyou party.’ I say Guidance wouldn’t go into such minutiae as saying whether you can or cannot have a leaving event – otherwise it would be too lengthy for people to read.
3) ‘Boris Johnson did not take legal advice.’ I say unlike the M.P., Boris Johnson had to run a country in crisis at risk of financial and health breakdowns, imperilling many lives – so people’s lives needed to be his priority and rightly he had no time to investigate or engage lawyers over verbal quibbles in Parliament.
4) ‘Boris Johnson did not ensure social distancing was kept which was necessary.’ I say my brother worked in a food factory during lockdown and if social distancing had been strictly adhered to at work there would have been precious little food to eat in the country. Social distancing was not an overriding rule at work.
In general Boris Johnson took the same line that I have done on this site that the lockdown rules ought to be interpreted broadly enough to enable essential workers to work effectively which included normal workplace events that were important for maintaining workplace morale. I submit that view is correct.
March 24, 2023
3) Boris’s Principal Private Secretary, Martin Reynolds, a civil servant, was a lawyer, as he pointed out to the deaf committee, and he asked him.
March 24, 2023
[…] The Protocol Vote â John Redwood […]
March 25, 2023
There wasn’t a protocol vote on 30th December….