Voters are suspicious of international agreements

There is growing suspicion of government by international treaties. Democratic countries find increasing restrictions on what their elected representatives can do as they tie themselves in a colonial type relationship to global and regional quangos. The ultimate most powerful one is the EU

Prime Ministers and Presidents  are expected to devote considerable precious time and energy to travelling around the world to talk to each other at conferences. This is increasingly bizarre, full of hypocrisy as most of them tell the rest of us to give up jet travel to save the planet. These  all too regular events come with a price, normally requiring the leaders to pledge more public spending to some global cause. They also can result in signing up to expensive and freedom sapping future commitments, as with the net zero plans at successive COPs.

These conferences also have an opportunity cost. Leaders strutting at conferences cannot at the same time pursue domestic aims and solve home problems. Money and above all precious Leader time and energy is diverted. Leaders are also more exposed to the press and international pressure groups which can result in illjudged or unwanted commitments. These gatherings are thought to promote more trade friendship and understanding but can instead create or worsen disagreements through presence which might otherwise lie dormant.

The recent wish to host President Biden in Northern Ireland was a good example of  a badly judged visit which highlighted the differences. It had come with the high price of the Windsor Agreement.

216 Comments

  1. Mark B
    April 17, 2023

    Good morning.

    Agreements and treaties are OK so long as the contracting parties can withdraw with little or no sanction. They are important means by which countries can conduct themselves, unify standards, share resources and keep the smooth running of markets. So long as they are equal and do not seek to impose a lopsided arrangement and / or allow other contracting parties to dictate matters beyond the wishes of the people of a country, there is really not much of a problem.

    The modern agreements, especially surrounding the EU, are nothing of the sort. Those that seek to be elected and form a government are persuaded, usually by the Civil Service, to agree and effectively surrender democratic control to another foreign and unelected body. This can be, but not limited to, the ECHR, the UN etc. These bodies and the signed agreements are given power over us through our own legal system. They then can alter any domestic law that may be considered under their purview much like the EU did. This overrides the democratic control of the people. How many times did Ministers wring their hands saying there is nothing they could do because the EU was the superior authority ? Truth is, both the CS, other bodies and the politicians liked it that way as all got what they wanted without the people being able to effectively change anything.

    Today we are seeing the same old thing. We elect a political party to do one thing, only for it to do completely the opposite. The EU Referendum was a UK referendum which was binding on all parts of the UK equally. The arguments the EU applied for N.I. to remain close to the EU can also be labeled against the RoI to be made being aligned close to the UK. In an equal agreement a suitable compromise would be reached. However, because part of the UK still effectively Remains in the EU, the Referendum of 2016 has not been fulfilled and, I argue that any agreements and / or treaties that are signed do not carry the consent of the people. Whilst any agreement and / or treaty cannot be said to be unlawful, it is contrary to the express will of the people of the UK.

    Her late Majesty was right – “Why can’t we just walk away ?” And, in truth, since the other party was not acting in good faith (ie they deliberately set out to separate us from N.I.) we would have been in our rights to do so.

    1. Anselm
      April 17, 2023

      The EU has rules too. One of them is the EEA with free movement of people, goods and money within its borders. If one of those barriers is removed in Northern Ireland, then stuff will pass across the open border back and forth and the EU seal will be broken. They have a cast iron case.
      So do we.
      The Windsor Agreement was an attempt to make an impossible situation work slightly better.

      1. Denis Cooper
        April 17, 2023

        It is perfectly reasonable for them to be concerned about what goods may cross the open land border into their own territory, but they have no case at all for requiring EU law to apply to all the goods produced in Northern Ireland and to all the goods brought into the province, as the UK government and Parliament have foolishly agreed. I left a comment here:

        http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2023/04/16/the-government-and-the-union-of-the-uk/#comment-1383238

        as yet unpublished, which starts:

        “Like the rest of the UK Northern ireland is not part of the EU, so in simplest terms 0% of EU law should apply.”

        but goes on to explain that UK law should require goods made in the UK to always meet the legal requirements of their destination market; so that would be UK law for the UK market, EU law for the EU market, Australian law for the Australian market, and so on for all 200 odd countries around the world which we may supply.

        1. Steve
          April 17, 2023

          We had the best negotiators from DD to Frost acting for us and what was agreed by government was ratified in parliament so what’s the point in agonising further about all of this. Presumably we’ll get a chance again to rectify any real problems and in time maybe even make a new agreement to supercede it. The glass is half full – give it a chance

          1. Denis Cooper
            April 18, 2023

            “Presumably we’ll get a chance again to rectify any real problems”

            Why should you presume that?

        2. Bernie
          April 17, 2023

          Ah Brexit! it bent everything out of shape especially for NI. However the agreements we have now are probably the best that can be managed at this time.

        3. Peter Gardner
          April 18, 2023

          Not necessary. WTO MFN status reules require that already.

      2. Alan Foggon
        April 17, 2023

        Exactly right, Anselm. Sadly Brexiters do not understand the real world. They think every complicated question has a simple answer. “Leave”, as if we don’t need to cooperate with our nearest neighbours. That is why our country is in the mess it is in. Same with the boats -“just send them back!” – where to, no one will take them

        1. MFD
          April 17, 2023

          Sadly Alan that cooperation is one way! Always! Our politicians need to put Britain FIRST just like our neighbours do!
          As for the so called” boats” if a few got stuck between countries then it would all stop. Dont let them land , use our marines to push them to the middle same as France does! When some perish that will deter!

          1. glen cullen
            April 17, 2023

            +1 all the way

          2. Peter Gardner
            April 18, 2023

            In fact, the UNCLOS permits a state to act beyond its territorial waters, in what is defined as the Contiguous Zone, to prevent a crime or infringement of its territorial integrity, so the UK can legally do what you suggest. It won’t because it lacks the political will. France does because it has the will to do so.

        2. Mike Cross
          April 17, 2023

          “Sadly Brexiteers do not understand the real world”. Sweeping, biased and untrue.

        3. Denis Cooper
          April 17, 2023

          Exactly wrong, Alan Foggon, as far as concerns the obvious solution of applying export controls to the goods being despatched across the open land border into the Irish Republic in order to protect the EU Single Market, for the implementation of which I produced a multipoint outline scheme last August.

        4. John O'Leary
          April 17, 2023

          Am I right in thinking that, now we are no longer members, that the EU will not trust the word of UK suppliers,even with a government stamp of approval, that a specific product batched for the EU market meets EU requirements? Do they demand that all batches of that product meet the same set of requirements regardless of their intended destination? Have there been many situations where the standards required by a non-EU country conflict with those of the EU, thus preventing the company from supplying that country?

          1. Denis Cooper
            April 18, 2023

            There is no such “government stamp of approval” at the moment, which is why the July 2021 Command Paper envisaged passing new UK laws for that purpose:

            http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2023/04/13/what-the-pm-and-president-should-have-said-in-ulster/#comment-1382752

            Once UK export controls had been put in place we would find out how effective they were.

            Under the Windsor Framework all goods produced in Northern Ireland must still conform to EU requirements, even if they are going to be sold in Northern Ireland or the rest of the UK. and that is one of the objections which is keeping the DUP out of Stormont.

            You cannot expect that all countries will have identical standards for all goods.

            To repeat a paragraph of this comment, unfortunately still awaiting moderation:

            http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2023/04/16/the-government-and-the-union-of-the-uk/#comment-1383238

            “There are about 200 different countries in the world, so there is a lot of scope for regulatory divergence between different export markets; we would not agree, for example, that because some UK companies export to Australia and have to conform to Australian regulations all other UK companies should have to do the same.”

      3. Bloke
        April 17, 2023

        Blockage in the imagination creates impossibility until the solution frees it.
        If everyone was born with unopened eyelids, seeing only darkness, the notion of moving images seems impossible. However, lift the lid and those stuck by the EU may then see what they are missing.

      4. Chris S
        April 17, 2023

        As has been expressed countless times, the attitude adopted by Brussels over NI cross-border trade has no relation to reality.
        As long ago as 2016-17, the UK and Irish customs authority held discussions and came to the simple conclusion that cross-border trade would be perfectly manageable. After all, VAT, tax rates, fuel duty, and much more, were always different on each side of the border. The UK proposed electronic solutions, but the whole idea was rejected out of hand.

        This was entirely political, and designed with the sole objective of making Brexit as difficult for the UK as possible. And so it has proved.

      5. agricola
        April 17, 2023

        The barrier of a border has never existed apart from during the troubles between NI and ROI and for that matter the UK. Both the UK and ROI have laws for dealing with illegal traffiking , VAT scams and law enforcement bodies to deal with them. That crime can be committed is not prevented by government agreements good or bad. The answer is getting caught, and the penalties imposed. The EUs intent is to penalise the UK for leaving the EU. Remember NI is part of the UK. The EUs second intent is to precipitate a United Ireland under EU control. No problem if that is what a majority in NI want by democratic vote.

        1. Berkshire Alan
          April 17, 2023

          +1

      6. IanT
        April 17, 2023

        If the pressure to sign the Windsor Agreement was simply to get that 15 minute coffee break with Joe Biden, then we really are in big trouble. Mr Sunak sitting there with POJ (poor old Joe) staring rather mindlessly into the middle distance. It didn’t look like there was much warmth at the table and there probably wasn’t. When are we going to learn?

      7. Peter
        April 17, 2023

        Nation states and independence are under attack. Most Western politicians are either useless or biddable.

        Viktor Orban is one of the few old school leaders who look after their country.

      8. Peter Gardner
        April 18, 2023

        Technocratic perfectionism, not commonsense, not reasonable, not realistic, not practical. Not to mention its weaponsation in order to take NI out of the UK by trade diversion and to bully the UK and its negotiation in bad faith. On UK’s side it was arguably not negotiated in accordance with the UK’s constitutional arrangements and is therefore null and void under the terms of the Vienna Convention..

    2. Ashley
      April 17, 2023

      Indeed agreement which tie countries in subvert democracy. Then against MPs and governments that almost never do what they promised to do also does this. The Windor Agreement is a disaster as is this WHO agreement and all the net zero lunacy yet so few vote of stand up against them.

      Sunak on about better maths. Well he certainly could have done with some better maths as Chancellor. An understanding of how money printing, lockdowns and vast government waste causes very high inflation for example.

      Neil Parish on Dolan last night still thinks “what worked was the Vaccine Roll out” so not much understanding of maths and stats. here. It is very clear they did net harm and mathematically we never justified even for older people let alone the young. Just look at the stats. they are clear cut & not too challenging. Despite the governments attempts to hide this.

    3. matthu
      April 17, 2023

      “Agreements and treaties are OK so long as the contracting parties can withdraw with little or no sanction.”
      The EU recognised this and came up with the idea of national powers of veto.
      Powers of veto which were later, quietly and surreptitiously, surrendered.

      1. glen cullen
        April 17, 2023

        Agree – quietly, behind closed doors our democracy has been reduced by government international treaty

        1. John Hatfield
          April 17, 2023

          That sums up our entry into the Common Market aka the EU, with various prime ministers, stating with Heath, possibly illegally, sneaking off in the night to make further committments to the EU.

          1. John Hatfield
            April 17, 2023

            starting with Heath

          2. glen cullen
            April 17, 2023

            So the Tories messed up our joining the EEC/EU and they messed up our leaving

  2. turboterrier
    April 17, 2023

    Is it any wonder we are suspicious when unless they are deaf and blind they appear totally insensitive to the mood and fears of the voters when they go on these jollies and agree to set up treaties and agreement that to the voters in the street they are neither use or ornament in addressing their concerns.
    The amount of CO2 created by the whole circus in light of what they are forcing upon us begs belief.
    The classic example is how this country still let’s the EU be perceived to walking all over our government. Who suffers? It sure as hell ain’t the people who will ensure the taxpayers will be picking up
    the tab one way and another.
    With all that is going on not one of our past leaders has got on his soap box and declared war on so much waste in government and civil and public services.

  3. Nan T
    April 17, 2023

    Not just EU and COP but WEF and WHO. Our government needs to wake up that to the fact that the electorate are watching very carefully and waiting for the opportunity at the next general election, to rid ourselves of these traitorous politicians.

    1. Ian wragg
      April 17, 2023

      Politicians just love strutting around the world stage demonstrating their power by signing up to international agreements.
      The fact these are generally detrimental to the taxpayer doesn’t bother them.
      It’s the sheer hypocrisy of those people like the treasury lord who foisted a retirement age of 67 on us when he retires at 55 on an enormous final salary pension
      Taxing us into oblivion seems to be the order of the day whilst enjoying massive perks taxpayer funded.

      1. Ashley
        April 17, 2023

        Indeed though it is not so much a retirement age as when you get your state pension age.

        Some areas of the UK only have a life expectancy of below 68 for men so nearly half get no pension at all for their lifetime of NI payments. This is no longer going up either due to Covid, the net harm vaccines and the dire state of the NHS is it now going down.

      2. majorfrustration
        April 17, 2023

        Agree – it looks good. However they appear incapable of dealing with the problems at home.

        1. glen cullen
          April 17, 2023

          ‘Problems at Home’ I hear you say; like our adult maths problem which Sunak is going to fight night and day to rectify, as his first priority, using every facet of government

          1. glen cullen
            April 17, 2023

            talk about ‘smoke n’ mirrors’

      3. Ian wragg
        April 17, 2023

        I see we the Saudi Arabia of wind are today producing 1.74gw from the useless windmills.
        Luckily we are Importing shed loads from Europe which has a surplus at the moment.
        Germany last week shutdown its last nuclear power station so that surplus is decreasing
        Co.eth the winter we’ll be in a right mess and still you have no idea what to do about it except dou le down on useless windmills.

      4. a-tracy
        April 17, 2023

        Which treasury lord was it, though? It seems to be several. There was guidance from the European Commission and white papers “The country-specific recommendations on pensions adopted in July 2011 focus strongly on the need to keep older workers longer on the labour..The employment rate of the 55-64 age group increased in the EU-27 from 37.7% in 2001 to 46.3% in 2010.

        See, https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/publications/womens-state-pension-age-our-findings-department-work-and-pensions-communication/background-relating-changes-state-pension-age-women

        I’ve put the full link so you know what you are clicking through to. Key points:

        “1940 women’s was dropped to 60.

        1991 Government announced intention to equalise State Pension, there were lots of other equality decisions following discussions at the EU and a direction of travel, women paying more for car insurance even though our claims were lower etc. Only 4000 British people responded to the consultation because they are never well-publicised, do you ever hear about consultations on these serious matters by our state broadcaster? If you do please give me the links.

        Under the Pensions Act 2007, the State Pension age for men and women was to increase to: 66 between 2024 and 2026, 67 by 2036, and 68 by 2046.

        The Pensions Act 2011 sped up the timetable for raising men and women’s State Pension age. Under the 2011 Act, the increase in women’s State Pension age was accelerated so that it reached 65 by November 2018, instead of April 2020…..and on

        “For some women, the combined effect of the 1995 Act and 2011 Act meant an increase in State Pension age of up to six years”.

        Women born in the 1960s, the majority of us working from the age of 16, and being one of the first generations to work full time in order to buy a home as men’s working hours were starting to be cut.

    2. Lifelogic
      April 17, 2023

      Indeed it seems to me that the public have almost the completely opposite agenda to most international bodies and most international agreements. We want a democracy where MPs are in a position to do what voters actually want. They want cheap reliable energy, low taxes, far less red tape, stable currencies, far less government, decent roads that are not blocked or pot holed, public services that actually work, police that tackle and deter real crimes (just occasionally would be nice), freedom and real choices not rigged markets in healthcare, education, housing, transport, energy…

      More direct democracy would be nice governments usually do the complete reverse of what they promised in manifestos before the elections.

      The Windor agreement and the Carbon agreements are appalling and totally misguided as is this dire WHA one.

      Sunak on about better maths again I agree but his as a dire Chancellor was appalling. Start perhaps with his ministers & MPs. Most Tory MPs still think government and international organisations got the Vaccines right . So clearly they and their experts are not too hot at the maths & stats or have just has not bothered to look. The Covid vaccine programme has done far more harm than good just look at the stats and the current excess deaths, the evidence is surely overwhelming.

      Neil Parish (on Mark Dolan) even champions the dire Windsor Framework.

      1. Ashley
        April 17, 2023

        Making kids who do not want to do maths and are prob. no good at it do maths to 18 is a very silly policy Sunak. I assume Sunak did maths A level though perhaps not Further Maths or Physics or he might have realised that Net Zero is bonkers and that printing and wasting money caused very high inflation and debased the currency. Teaching them how to be roofers, joiners, bricklayers, electricians would make far more sense and they might learn a bit of maths on the job. How many tiles, cables or bricks do I need for this job?

        What a choice Labour of Consocialists. A junior health minister on Talk Radio just now:- Everyone agrees the NHS does a wonderful job – sure mate have to talked to any of them? Just how deluded can one be – excess deaths currently running at 206 every day mate in the UK.

        Then Thangham Debonaire MP (who dropped out of Oxford Maths so I assume has at least a decent A level in it) comes on to say Labour’s abolition of the Dom Tax will pay to make the NHS just wonderful! Any sensible person who understands a little bit of maths and human nature should know this policy will raise no net tax. This as rich and hard working people will leave the country, invest elsewhere, just never come at all or rearrange their investments to avoid the UK.

        What a dire choice of fools we have to suffer from!

    3. Anselm
      April 17, 2023

      And who do you propose to vote for?

      1. Nan T
        April 17, 2023

        Reform UK – they are the only ones with true conservative values and they listen.

        1. a-tracy
          April 17, 2023

          they’re not standing in my area!

        2. glen cullen
          April 17, 2023

          Gets my support and vote

      2. Ashley
        April 17, 2023

        Well we have no choice in most areas you just have Labour or Tories who have any real chance of winning. Both are appalling, climate alarmist, big state socialists. In Wales Plaid & Scotland SNP both are even worse.

        1. R.Grange
          April 17, 2023

          Anselm, you will find Reform are putting up candidates in all or most seats. So you will have a choice. Then the question is, can you help to influence any other people to make the same choice?

          1. hefner
            April 17, 2023

            Absolutely not true: there are no Reform candidates in Aldermaston, Basildon, Bradfield, Bucklebury, Burghfield & Mortimer, Chieveley & Cold Ash, Dowlands, Hungerford & Kintbury, Lambourn, Newbury Central, Newbury Clay Hill, Pangbourne, Ridgway, Thatcham Central, Thatcham Colthrop & Crookham, Thatcham North East, Thatcham West, Theale, Tilehurst & Purley, Tilehurst Birch Copse, Tilehurst & South Holybrook, which means that Reform is absent of 21 out of 23 West Berkshire local areas.

      3. Bloke
        April 17, 2023

        Try Reform.

        1. a-tracy
          April 17, 2023

          We don’t have Reform standing.

          I think it is very sad that proposed Ward Councillors unless they are Labour or Lib Dem feel unable to publish their home addresses on the statement of the persons nominated for election. They should be able to put their e-mail address which doesn’t identify where they actually live. I was told one of the conservative candidates doesn’t live in our Council area yet the form said all three do, but it is a big area and who wants local representatives who don’t live in your ward?

          This is far more a choice than what the Parties believe in nationally, they can only affect local matters.

          1. JoolsB
            April 17, 2023

            They’re standing 600 candidates at the next GE. That’s the one that counts. Many Tory councils do a good job, just a pity about the parliamentary party. They are the ones who deserved to be punished.

          2. Hat man
            April 18, 2023

            At the general election Reform want to target all or most seats. They can’t do much at local level when local authorities are so restricted by what Westminster wants, and would get no media coverage. If they threaten the Tories at national level, as UKIP did, they could get similar media attention.

      4. agricola
        April 17, 2023

        Anselm.
        Reform UK.

        1. Ian wragg
          April 17, 2023

          They have my vote. I just hope Farage gets back in the saddle.

      5. JoolsB
        April 17, 2023

        Reform. The real Conservative Party.

        1. glen cullen
          April 17, 2023

          CORRECT

      6. Timaction
        April 17, 2023

        Reform is the only choice. We have seen the actions and policies of the Tory’s. No more chances after 13 years of lies.

        1. Gabe
          April 17, 2023

          Yes, but if Reform get a single MP they will be doing very well given FPTP system and all the “always have always will vote” Tory, Labour and Libdim voters. The chance of them changing anything much is zero. Depressing but surely true – they will just help Labour in the main.

      7. Fedupsouthener
        April 17, 2023

        Ansell. I’m voting Reform. Their policies are very conservative and sensible.

    4. glen cullen
      April 17, 2023

      Our politicians have gone one way while the voting public have gone another way ….the difference is that our politicians don’t care in the views of the public any longer

  4. Nottingham Lad Himself
    April 17, 2023

    The headline should be preceded by the word “some”.

    They’d be the same voters who were terrified of a little ring of yellow stars on car number plates, and who believed that being asked to wear a little bit of cloth on their faces for ten minutes while they were in a shop was the end of the world.

    1. Lifelogic
      April 17, 2023

      Some children were forced to wear this unpleasant little bit of cloth all day at school and for no benefit what so ever and causing considerable harm and distress to them. They knew all the time that they did not work and could even make things worse!

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        April 17, 2023

        But you’d want them to be compelled to play violent, competitive sport such as rugby?

        How does that work then?

    2. Narrow Shoulders
      April 17, 2023

      Most!

      Certainly in the two examples you have given.

      In the case of the masks, it has since been proved that the sceptics were correct.

    3. matthu
      April 17, 2023

      Being asked? You mean mandated, surely.

      1. glen cullen
        April 17, 2023

        A bit like the green revolution ….no carrot but plenty of stick …for your own good

    4. MFD
      April 17, 2023

      When you cannot think of anything sensible to say NLH why don’t you pass on! It saves sounding such a fool!

    5. agricola
      April 17, 2023

      Nlh
      Welcome to la la land.

    6. IanT
      April 17, 2023

      Not terrifed of “a little ring of yellow stars on car number plates” NLH but certainly extremely wary of the politics behind them. Symbols have power.

    7. Lynn Atkinson
      April 17, 2023

      Such a little thing! So why don’t we get just 1 of the EU slave-states to have the union flag on their car numberplate – I suggest The Republic of Ireland. It would save so much bother and it’s such a little thing – you have said so.

      1. hefner
        April 18, 2023

        What a laugh you are Lynn. Most French cars have the European stars on their registration plates. Do you ever crawl out of your cave?

  5. Peter van LEEUWEN
    April 17, 2023

    Statistics over here show a different reality:
    Since 1973, annual, wide ranging surveys have been held across the EU, with mostly standard questions. They are the Eurobarometer surveys, available online.

    Voters in the EU have never been more supportive than now !

    The EU27 couldn’t function without the 27 government leaders and ministers having rather frequent meetings to set out policies and negotiate compromises.

    1. Nigl
      April 17, 2023

      Is it broken down country by country?

      1. Peter van LEEUWEN
        April 17, 2023

        Yes. Just have look yourself

    2. Richard1
      April 17, 2023

      I was interested to see that the Dutch govt in defending its decision to close down swathes of the agriculture sector by mandatory expropriation, justifies its decision to opponents by pointing to EU rules. Saying in other words, ‘we have no choice, those are the rules imposed by the EU’. You may agree or disagree with the policy but surely this illustrates Sir John’s point exactly – countries which sign up to these supra-governmental political structures give up their ability to operate as representative democracies?

      1. glen cullen
        April 17, 2023

        A bit like our policy of net-zero, the UN told us we had too

        1. Richard1
          April 17, 2023

          No that was voluntarily adopted by Mrs May – no vote in Parliament even I believe.

          1. glen cullen
            April 17, 2023

            Isn’t that the same thing

      2. Peter van LEEUWEN
        April 17, 2023

        @Richard1:
        “Rules” that we always help make in the first place! By coincidence, in this case even overseen by the former Dutch foreign minister, Frans Timmermans, now responsible for the European Green Deal.

        It seems to me that interdependence and “pooling sovereignty” are taboo terms in current post brexit Britain.
        However, as the the “cost of living crisis” in the poorest regions in Europe (i.e. in the north of England) shows us:
        “You can’t eat sovereignty.”
        Richard1, just google the previous sentence for a British-American economist’s take on this. Obviously you don’t have to agree with it all, but it’s still interesting to take note of these views.

        1. Richard1
          April 17, 2023

          you refer to the leftist economist Mr Blanchflower, who has proved more than usually wrong amongst his profession. Like the leftwing media here he making the most out of a recent IMF forecast saying the UK will be the worst performing G7 economy. Leaving aside that 90% of IMF forecasts on the UK since the Brexit vote have been wrong, underestimating performance, as Sir John has pointed out the reality is the UK was the best performing economy in 2022 and indeed has outperformed a number of EU economies (inc Germany) since 2016. (Did Mr B mention this? I doubt it!)

          Sovereignty is indeed pooled in a political union. The authority of a supra-national body is accepted. Accordingly laws and policies can be imposed without democratic scrutiny or control.

          1. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
            April 18, 2023

            @Richard1: there is plenty of scrutiny and democratic control. Sorry to notice that you might be one of the many Englishmen who haven’t studied or understood the policy and decision mechanisms in the EU27. E.g. the whole buildup of the European Green Deal was scrutinized both in our national parliament and in the European Parliament

          2. Peter van LEEUWEN
            April 18, 2023

            P.S. even today(18-4-2023) there was a vote in the European Parliament to make CO2 emissions more expensive.

      3. Peter Gardner
        April 18, 2023

        Not in all cases, Richard1. One of the attractions of the CPTPP is that unlike the EU it gives no power to any foreign body to regulate inside another. It is based on WTO rules and extends them on the same principles of national sovereignty and lowering barriers to trade by mutual agreement. It is one the EU should emulat but won’t because its purpose is to increase its power over the nation state, fundamentally and totally different.

    3. Nigl
      April 17, 2023

      Pork barrel politics? travelling across Europe it is impossible to avoid EU propaganda on infrastructure, redevelopment, refurbishing etc spending.

      I would support anything that is consistently giving me hand outs.

    4. Peter van LEEUWEN
      April 17, 2023

      P.S. Interesting statistic: Europeans tend to trust the EU more than their national governments

      1. IanT
        April 17, 2023

        Not the Italians I speak to Peter – maybe folk are a little more trusting in the part of Europe where you live?

        1. Peter van LEEUWEN
          April 17, 2023

          @IanT: Italy not very far from the mean results, when asked about their perception of the EU.
          Total positive ( 45%); neutral (36%); total negative (16%) don’t know (1%)

          1. IanT
            April 17, 2023

            Italy is two countries Peter, North & South. Go down South and ask them what they think.

            The Euro has been a twin edged sword for them. Initially the Italians welcomed it after the weakness of the Lire but many now see it as a trap (from which they cannot escape). It was no accident that Meloni was elected.

      2. a-tracy
        April 17, 2023

        Interesting, don’t fight the hand that feeds you, how many of those voters take money out of the EU instead of paying more of their money in?

        1. Peter van LEEUWEN
          April 17, 2023

          Calculated per capita, the Dutch usually give the highest net contribution to the EU.
          But people have been made aware of the huge single market benefits for us, so on balance we get more out of our membership than we put in.

          1. a-tracy
            April 17, 2023

            Ah I thought you were talking about EU surveys across all members not just the Dutch and their self-interest.

      3. agricola
        April 17, 2023

        Not according to the eurolean surveys you lord.

      4. Lynn Atkinson
        April 17, 2023

        They see their national governments are bought and paid for – does not mean they ‘trust’ the EU. Ask the French, the Dutch if they ‘trust the EU’ đŸ€Ł or better still ask a disinterested party to ask the question!
        Ursula is not leaving the Commission because she is ‘trusted’!

        1. Peter van LEEUWEN
          April 17, 2023

          2020 – 2023 is very different from 2005.
          You live on memories from a distant past.

      5. Peter Gardner
        April 18, 2023

        Have you any idea how damning your observation is, Peter van LEEUWEN? Mind you, it is the continent whose political philosophies led to bloody revolutions and to two world wars in the one century and one of them still prevails in China and North Korea. And that is why the EU was founded (as the coal and steel thingy) as an attempt to prevent European ideas on government ever leading to that result again. External supra-national government is not (quite) as bad as self-government in Europe – we hope and, apparently, Europeans believe. They have a point. The majority of people believing they cannot be trusted to govern themselves in a civilised fashion is a terrible way to live.

        1. Peter Gardner
          April 18, 2023

          PS, Wasn’t it Verhofstadt himself who stated in the EU Parliament that without the EU we, ie Europeans, would be at war with each other? I can’t help liking him for his Aston Martins, vineyards and eccentricities – almost British. Quite a character. And it is, let’s face it, the main claim made for the EU – it keeps the peace, not in the world but among its members. Nothing like a common enemy to unite a people.

    5. Sir Joe Soap
      April 17, 2023

      27 government leaders deciding what is or isn’t good for the people of Northern Ireland using England’s purse strings, it seems. Oh, and 27 government leaders doing less on average to keep their Eastern neighbours at bay than the distant UK.
      I’m not sure such a situation will hold for long.

      1. Peter van LEEUWEN
        April 17, 2023

        @Sir Joe Soap:
        “Eastern neigbours” – you mean Russia? Belarus? Ukraine? (they are not part of the EU27)

        1. Peter van LEEUWEN
          April 17, 2023

          PS @Sir Joe Soap:
          Apart from housing 4866k Ukrainian refugees (24x more than the UK) the EU spends massive amounts to support the Ukrainian economy and work towards rebuilding that country. The EU27 discovered a bit late that it had neglected its defense capabilities and material, which can only be addressed over time.

          1. Lynn Atkinson
            April 17, 2023

            Why? As you say, Ukraine is not part of the EU? Not part of NATO.

          2. Wanderer
            April 17, 2023

            Peter…EU aid for the war against Russia…What a waste of the taxes I’ve paid there!

            Anyone see Seymour Hersch’s piece about the Ukrainian politicians selling diesel at inflated prices to their own armed forces, in order to skim US aid for military fuel supplies. Buying diesel at a standard price and re-selling it at $400 per gallon.US intelligence believe they’ve creamed off $400m in the last year.

            How much European aid has gone to these crooks? Unlikely we’ll know, as they don’t even Audit the EU’S own Accounts.

          3. forthurst
            April 17, 2023

            Perhaps you should have kept your noses out Ukrainian affairs in the first place?

          4. Hat man
            April 17, 2023

            Peter, are you trying to pretend that the EU isn’t helping to supply Ukraine with lethal weapons? In fact EU member states are being encouraged ‘to offer up their spare stockpiles of ammunition to Kyiv, of which up to 90% of the cost could be reimbursed by Brussels’. (Guardian, 7th March). This is the EU’s cynical sleight-of-hand trick allowing it to wage war by proxy on Russia. . We’ll see if that works out any better than the the EU’s sanctions war.
            The same report also says: ‘France, Germany and Italy, the home of Europe’s biggest arms manufacturers, are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries, to the detriment of the UK’. Our arms manufacturers won’t get a share of the goodies: Brussels looks after its own.

    6. John McDonald
      April 17, 2023

      I am sure Nederland could function independently of the EU if it wanted to.
      The UK did joined the common market but European politicians wanted a European super state with Political control over individual countries (hence Brexit). We are now at war with Russia. This is now clouding the issue of true support for the EU by its citizens. If the EU (NATO) had not expanded to Russia’s doorstep and made an effort to incorporate Russia into Europe and perhaps the EU following the fall of the Soviet Union we may not be facing WWIII now. One of the selling points for the EU was to stop more wars in Europe – it has failed

      1. Philip P.
        April 17, 2023

        I’m not sure Brussels wanted to incorporate Russia into the EU, but it certainly wanted to absorb Ukraine. Pre-2014 Maidan putsch, Ukraine was offered an association with Brussels, which however was linked to cancelling Ukraine’s favourable trading arrangements with the Russian Federation. The EU encouraged Ukraine to apply for an IMF loan to offset the negative repercussions of losing those arrangements. The austerity conditions to be imposed by the IMF were so harsh, however, that the Ukrainian parliament refused to approve the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. The rest is history, and as you say, John, it has led us to the brink of catastrophe, now that our leaders prefer war to losing face thanks to their failed policies.

      2. Peter van LEEUWEN
        April 17, 2023

        @John McDonald: Peace among its members, of course the EU could never stop wars beyond the EU. Imagne that the UK e.g. would start another Falkland war. The EU couldn’t possibly intervene.

        1. John McDonald
          April 18, 2023

          Peter you have touched upon some technical justifications for non-involvement but all countries and individuals should seek to avoid wars and not fan the flames of on going wars for political motives and at the expense of their own citizens.
          If the the Falkland Islanders wanted to become part of Argentina and voted to do so the war would not have been justified. The Ukraine is in the EU in all but name. The EU should try to seek peace with Russia. The EU triggered this conflict. It ignores the wishes of the ethnic Russian Ukrainians. With Grandchildren in Nord Holland and England I am not happy with the UK and Dutch governments not looking for at least a ceasefire to stop the death and destruction and sleep walking into WWIII

          1. Peter van LEEUWEN
            April 18, 2023

            @John McDonald:
            Was what happened on 24-2-2022 so different from the start war by Germany on 2-9-1939.
            We didn’t try a ceasefire then.
            I really doubt that peace is possible with the current regime in Russia.
            Your grandchildren, on the fourth of May (Dutch “dodenherdenking”) may find some comfort in the thought that we are now best friends with a different regime in Germany, we couldn’t imagine that in 1940.

    7. agricola
      April 17, 2023

      PvL,
      You must hope that not too many people read these opinion surveys. In 2020/21 they discovered the following.
      1. The respondents thought that integration undermines National Sovereignty.
      2. The EU is elitist, lacks legitimacy and transparency.
      3. Too bureaucratic and wasteful.
      4. The EU encourages high levels of immigration.
      5. The EU acts in the interests of big business.

      If you believe that is supportive you must have been talking to members of fhe SNP. In fact the responses mirror the very reasons the UK voted democratically to leave in 2016 and they emphasise the reasons we have had so much trouble with the EU since.

      1. Peter van LEEUWEN
        April 18, 2023

        @agricola:
        If your list is correct, the EU27 have their work cut out. That would also be the function of wide ranging surveys.
        There will be half solutions and fudge and weak compromises, always made late or too late. Comparisons have been drawn with the Hapsburg reign in Europe. That one, in spite of all these failings, lasted 600 years.

    8. Ian wragg
      April 17, 2023

      You obviously haven’t been to Paris lately or seen your own farmers throwing cow excrement at the Hague, or the Spanish and Italians demonstrating
      Wake up Peter, get out of Brussels and have a nosey.

      1. Peter van LEEUWEN
        April 17, 2023

        Wide awake. people demonstrate against their national governments.

    9. graham1946
      April 17, 2023

      It’s no wonder voters in the EU are more supportive than ever, when you consider that 19 of them are bust and on life support of handouts from the few who are effective and solvent. Even I, a lifetime Euro Sceptic, might vote for the EU were they supporting the UK with vast sums of money instead of taking it out of the UK workers pockets to prop up the rest.

      1. Lynn Atkinson
        April 17, 2023

        The EU supports no country within ‘vast amounts of money’ – it bankrupts them and the bails their own banks out by paying the debts of the bankrupted countries, even Germany is now bankrupted. Where does ‘the EU’ get the money? That is what China is asking – what country stands behind the Euro?
        There is going to be an almighty crash and Germany will have brought EUROPE to its knees yet again. This time the Anglo-Saxon world is not standing by to help Germany to its feet.

      2. Peter van LEEUWEN
        April 17, 2023

        @graham1946: Out is out. The UK doesn’t belong in an EU27 which has moved on.

    10. Mark
      April 17, 2023

      BBB has now become by a considerable margin the best polling party in the Netherlands according to peil.nl which regularly conducts large polls. Other Eurosceptic parties together are polling the highest proportion of Eurosceptic vote for a considerable time. Love for the EU is more muted than you suppose.

      1. Peter van LEEUWEN
        April 18, 2023

        The spectacular rise of the BBB is really interesting to watch. Imagine a one seat party in your H.o.C. which, at subsequent local elections becomes the largest party in all regions! A good thing for our democracy! They are now forming coalitions in all our provinces. Very unlike the PVV (Wilders) or Forum voor Democracy, with whom no other parties want to cooperate in all but one of the provinces. BBB got a chunk of the protest vote, but is very down to earth, practical and not necessarily anti Europe. They disagree with the way the Dutch government interpretes EU frameworks into national policies. I may disagree with some BBB policies, but democracy has to have its way.

    11. Mark B
      April 17, 2023

      Voters in the EU have never been more supportive than now !

      Unless you happen to be a farmer in the Netherlands.

      1. Peter van LEEUWEN
        April 18, 2023

        @Mark B:
        True, in that the farming organisations have been the most europhile in our country (single market benefits).
        But previous governments have shied away from a very unsustainable path of far too intensive farming with mega stables, basically transforming huge quantities of imported (nitrogen rich) fodder into meat and realising a stamp-size country becoming the world’s 2nd largest agri-exporter!
        Scary governments can ultimately lead to disaster. The Netherlands now faces a painful, emotional, transformation of its agriculture sector. The BBB will play its role in all this, they also support nature, they also want houses and roads to be built.

        1. Peter van LEEUWEN
          April 18, 2023

          Scary – I mean Scared

  6. Wanderer
    April 17, 2023

    We voters are right to be concerned about our leaders strutting about at international summits of unelected power-grasping globalist bodies.

    There they give away our money and our sovereignty in virtue-signalling gestures because they are captivated by being “on the world stage” with the global elite and the rich personal pickings to be found there. They forget that they were given their position of power to do good for our country. Instead they turn their backs on us at the first opportunity.

    Look at Starmer’s comments on how he felt about Westminster (i.e. the UK). Goodness only knows what he thinks about the voters in his constituency! Same goes for very many parliamentarians and particularly those that climb the greasy pole.

    Any ordinary person who thinks critically can see this is a bad trend for 99% of the population. No to binding treaties. No to giving away our cash to international bodies. No to politicians who crave being part of a global elite. No to the stinking corruption and concentration of power that is destroying all we hold decent.

    1. Lifelogic
      April 17, 2023

      +1

    2. MFD
      April 17, 2023

      Well said Wanderer, my sentiments precisely!

    3. Timaction
      April 17, 2023

      Plus 1. Absolutely nailed it. Time for a clear out.

    4. Fedupsouthener
      April 17, 2023

      +100

  7. DOM
    April 17, 2023

    The injection of Covid into the environment has served the Globalist class extremely well both financially and politically. We are now poorer and less free.

    Covid is not a virus but a political of war to justify the creation of a public health culture designed to impose control and demand compliance.

    The new public health warning message to all smartphones is so sinister demanding a reply or else your phone is neutered. SINISTER AND NASTY

    All of this fascist creep will at some point elicit a civilian response when people finally wake up and realise how they’ve been deceived by reprobates and criminals that now infect our governing class

    1. Donna
      April 17, 2023

      Just go into Settings and disable the Urgent Alerts.

      1. glen cullen
        April 17, 2023

        The governments response would be to fine people who disabled the alert settings …its 1984/2023

        1. Lynn Atkinson
          April 17, 2023

          Switch off your phone on 23rd.

          1. glen cullen
            April 17, 2023

            or stop the government controlling our lives

      2. formula57
        April 17, 2023

        @ Donna – I had not realized that was possible!Thank you.

      3. Mark
        April 17, 2023

        I wonder how many accidents it will cause.

    2. Cuibono
      April 17, 2023

      +many
      And if I understand correctly all this stuff about leaving the ECHR is totally meaningless.
      We CAN’T because of a clause in the Brexit Deal signed by Boris and Frost (possibly without reading it) which says we can not change any domestic law.
      Ergo (apparently) we are stuck with unlimited boats and the ECHR.
      As someone mentioned
the Queen would have ignored it all.
      How about tearing up the whole lot of agreements.
      What could the EU do? Declare war on us?
      I know we scarcely have an army but we might be able to cobble something together?

    3. MFD
      April 17, 2023

      Just switch it off Dom. You have that facility in the settings of your phone!
      Have a look on youtube to find out how.

  8. turboterrier
    April 17, 2023

    If they stopped going to all these conferences and summits with a destructive Black Dog Syndrome.
    ( someone suggest a black dog , we get a blacker one) It’s all about ego and one-upmanship and very little else.
    The money wasted could have been better used paying off the WASPI woman. It would have a good chance on being spent in this country. If you must waste money, be seen to be doing good with it that is generally accepted as a unfair decision badly handled by government. There are I am sure many areas where the money wasted on such events could be put to a better use..

    w

    1. glen cullen
      April 17, 2023

      It’s the same in the civil service and local government, would you rather do your job or attend a network meeting fully expensed 
that’s why nothing gets done

  9. Anselm
    April 17, 2023

    The founding Fathers of USA produced a Republic with, in effect, an elected monarch. The President is the executive. His power is controlled. Putin and XI not so much. When such men visit countries, they can take decisions and be subjected to pressure groups.
    In our country, this is exactly what the monarch is for. He visits places, smiles, presents our country in a good light, has a nice dinner with candles and then flies off without any political involvement at all. But lots of useful information.
    Meanwhile his ministers busy themselves with government…

    OK this is changing and we are thoughtlessly adopting the Rishi Sunak worship club when we really ought to cut the size of the Cabinet and use it as a hub of government, containing different views and very percipient people instead of a reward centre for our supporters.

    Labour is even farther down the presidential road.

    1. Lynn Atkinson
      April 17, 2023

      Why would they not? The founding fathers were British and had grown up in a Republic with a hereditary Monarch. It’s worked so long as the Monarch understood he was first amount equals. He cannot announce the Global Reset, net zero or anything else.

  10. Javelin
    April 17, 2023

    Chat GPT says

    There are a few reasons why voters may be suspicious of international agreements:

    1. Loss of sovereignty: Some voters may feel that by entering into international agreements, their country is giving up some of its sovereignty and decision-making power to an international body. This can be seen as a threat to national identity and autonomy.

    2. Economic concerns: Some voters may view international agreements as a threat to their country’s economy, particularly if the agreement involves trade or labor provisions that could lead to job losses or wage stagnation.

    3. Lack of transparency: Many international agreements are negotiated behind closed doors, which can lead to a lack of transparency and accountability. This can leave voters feeling that their interests are not being represented.

    4. Cultural differences: Some voters may feel that international agreements are an attempt to impose foreign cultural values on their country. This can be particularly true for agreements that involve issues such as human rights or environmental protection.

    5. Political mistrust: In some cases, voters may be distrustful of their own government’s motives for entering into international agreements. This can be due to a history of broken promises or perceived corruption.

    Overall, the reasons for suspicion of international agreements can vary widely and depend on factors such as cultural, economic, and political contexts.

    1. Lifelogic
      April 17, 2023

      Pretty good summary.

      Also what suits (and is good for) one country is very different from what suits another with very different economies, climates, cultures, histories, wealth…

    2. Ian B
      April 17, 2023

      @Javelin – World Government by a Dictator, is more effective and efficient than Democracy.

      Having trawled to internet for answerers, removed the comments of the right and free thinking you arrive at the group think of the Guardian speaking Left. History tells us The Guardian campaigned to ‘stop the ending’ of Slavery as Slavery back then as it is now has the indoctrination of the Left in everyone’s lives at its core.

      But it makes you smile

    3. hefner
      April 17, 2023

      And what would ChatGPT have told you with ‘Why should voters not be suspicious of international organisations?’

      ‘It is important to note that international organizations, such as the United Nations, World Health Organization, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund, play an important role in promoting peace, security, and economic development across the world. These organizations bring together countries and leaders from different regions to address global challenges and find solutions to issues such as poverty, disease, and climate change. They provide a platform for countries to collaborate and work together towards common goals, and their actions are guided by international laws, norms, and standards’.

      Are you trying to provide the perfect illustration of what technology can do in the hands of hare-brained people?
      Are you one who prefers Fact4EU.org to FactCheck.org?
      ‘One man’s meat is another man’s poison’ and all that sort of things.

      1. Richard II
        April 17, 2023

        Sorry, Hefner, I don’t need my facts checked for me by the University of Pennsylvania, whose Annenberg Public Policy Center fund so-called ‘Factcheck’.

      2. a-tracy
        April 17, 2023

        The biggest dangers of ChatGPT are data theft, phishing emails, and malware.

        Dangers of ChatGPT 14 Mar 2023 — they can get things wrong and ‘hallucinate’ incorrect facts; they can be biased, are often gullible” national cyber security centre.

        But as long as it is telling you what you want to hear!

        1. hefner
          April 17, 2023

          It will tell you a different answer depending on how the question is asked. This is a computer program not a super form of intelligence (see ‘neural networks’). It can only answer based on the (admittedly huge) database of information available to the computer, possibly linking unrelated bits of information (which is where potential advances in knowledge might come).
          People not already blurry-eyed by ‘Artificial Intelligence’ call that simply Machine Learning.

      3. Original Richard
        April 17, 2023

        hefner : “These organizations bring together countries and leaders from different regions to address global challenges and find solutions to issues such as poverty, disease, and climate change.”

        Dream on and BTW, the climate has been changing ever since the earth’s creation and large variations in temperature and CO2 measured for at least the last 500m years since the start of the Cambrian explosion. There is no anthropogenic explanation for the most recent ice age, nor for the warming which caused its ending just 11,000 years ago. Nor for the several times the planet has been warmer than today since this most recent ice age. There may be some warming from anthropogenic emissions of CO2 since the Industrial Revolution but the work of Happer and Wijngaarden has shown this to be negligible because of IR saturation. Published in 2019 the IPCC have not refuted their findings but have simply ignored it.

        The UN’s economy destroying edict “Net Zero by 2040” only applies to the western advanced economies as “climate action” is only number 13 on the UN’s list of “Sustainable Development Goals” for the rest of the world.

        A very good example of why these organisations cannot be trusted.

        1. hefner
          April 18, 2023

          The IPCC has ignored it because the original H&W paper makes a pre-graduate student error of doing static calculations, not even mid-1960s one dimensional radiative-convective type computations.
          And if this paper were so marvelous why have the authors not provided plots of the differences between the simulations and observations, something that any tutor would ask from their students?
          But I know I’m p****ng in a violin and expect you to play Wolfgang’s Sonata No.10.

      4. Mark
        April 17, 2023

        Answered like a Misss World contestant. What is the UN doing for peace in the Ukraine and the South China Sea? Why does it refuse to consider mitigation as the optimal climate policy? Why is it trying to achieve “degrowth” in the West? Why did WHO fail so miserably during the pandemic? The institution has been captured and like its predecessor is no longer fit for purpose.

    4. glen cullen
      April 17, 2023

      Spot on Javelin

  11. BOF
    April 17, 2023

    I think it is now beyond suspicion and our politicians deliberately use these international treaties to their own ends and to over ride the needs and wishes of their own electorate. An extension, if you like, of the years in the EU when new law was waved through Parliament without debate.

    Now we have NZ causing immense harm, ongoing. The UN Migration Compact signed by Mrs May without consultation with UK electorate. The WHO pandemic treaty is looming, to over ride UK sovereignty giving an unelected Marxist control over UK policy.

    Time suspicion was replaced by anger.

  12. Sakara Gold
    April 17, 2023

    Voters in the UK are far more suspicious of MPs who supported the fossil fuel cartel during the winter. The opinion polls have repeatedly shown that the vast majority of voters support the transition to clean energy – including net zero – and the imposition of windfall profit taxes on the fossil fuel industry

    MP’s who ignore their constituent’s views on important issues such as climate change will lose their seats at the next election; Labour’s Green Deal proposals have struck a chord with people who have seen through the fossil fuel lobby’s lies and bullshit.

    1. Lynn Atkinson
      April 17, 2023

      And has you energy bill hit £30,000 a year yet? Tell me if your are still ‘supportive’ when it does.

    2. Mark
      April 17, 2023

      I think that climate has dropped down voter concerns very sharply, while the cost of living, driven by shockingly bad energy policy, has assumed top spot, even above excessive immigration. Voters are not embracing 15 minute cities and ULEZ with unalloyed joy, whatever Khan claims.

    3. Mike Cross
      April 17, 2023

      Sakara Gold: in no way would I and many others, support the political parties on “net zero” which is a dangerous pack of lies. I’m afraid the chord resonates only with fully paid-up greenies. The rest of us do not resonate, but want to see an end to all the green madness.

    4. R.Grange
      April 17, 2023

      No Sakara, the real story is ‘Desire for net zero referendum growing among public, poll finds’. Yougov found 44% in favour, 27% opposed last November, and the numbers favouring a referendum had grown since the year before. They will grow again this year, as the agenda behind heat pumps, 15-minute cities, ULEZ, etc. gets recognized.

      The people must have their say, as with Brexit, if this country is to remain a democracy. Project Fear failed then, and let’s hope it will fail again, when both sides of the argument can be heard. (Though not on the BBC, as we know, which ‘took a strategic decision’ to allow only one side of the climate change argument to be heard.)

    5. Original Richard
      April 17, 2023

      Sakara Gold : “The opinion polls have repeatedly shown that the vast majority of voters support the transition to clean energy – including net zero – and the imposition of windfall profit taxes on the fossil fuel industry.”

      Only because they have been brainwashed by the BBC with false information.

      As I write, the 27 GW of installed wind power is generating just 3.85 GW or 11.7% of the 32.8 GW of demand. Solar is zero. Earlier today the wind could only provide 0.6 GW of power which was 2.6% of the 23 GW demand. Solar was again zero.

      If the voters knew that they were heading for expensive, intermittent power the opinion polls would look entirely different. Perhaps the voters should read the NAO report dated 01/03/2023 “Decarbonising The Power Sector” where they wrote that DESNZ have no plan in place to achieve it by 2035.

  13. Bloke
    April 17, 2023

    Some uniformity does enable mutual gain but DIFFERENCE is the ESSENCE of EXISTENCE.
    Mixing ourselves up in an awkward menu of other lands’ preferences risks Kippers on Custard being the only flavour allowed.
    Uuugghh. Nasty!

  14. John McDonald
    April 17, 2023

    This Globalisation is driven by the so called Western Democracies which are not actually taking any notice of their citizens (voters). More to the point they are making their citizens poorer. This is the rules based system which the likes of China, Russia, and most of South America and elsewhere are not too keen on so they must be attacked in various ways not always by actual war to bring them to this way of thinking and agreement to it.
    It is really the government of the vast majority by the very few. In practical terms and effect, how is this different to the Governments of China and Russia. Is the average Russian or Chinese citizen getting poorer ?
    Whilst the Western leaders have been promoting how wonderfull they are running a free-speech, democratic capitalist system. They have allowed China to invest in and control resources around the world and the only counter to this now is sanctions and threat of war. Failed to bring Russia back into Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union and pushed it towards the East.

  15. Nigl
    April 17, 2023

    I have never heard it discussed at garden fence level. What is discussed is that your politicians have proved to be pretty poor and we might as well give the other side a go on the basis that we get Labour, even Corbynite policy now and they couldn’t be any worse.

    You have, and continue to let the Red Wall down and the regular Tory voter.

    An allegation of bullying because a Minister phoned someone working from home sums up your total failure to get to grips with the Civil Service, another manifesto promise broken resulting in waste = higher taxes and poor service and proves you are weak and succumbed to the Blob.

  16. Cuibono
    April 17, 2023

    In all probability we have been sold.
    And I doubt if 100 years of tax money could buy our freedom!

    1. glen cullen
      April 17, 2023

      Agree

    2. Lynn Atkinson
      April 17, 2023

      Money never buys freedom. Blood buys freedom.

  17. Donna
    April 17, 2023

    These International Agreements are done for one reason and one reason only. As Jean-Claude Juncker, former EU President phrased it:

    “We know what we must do. But we don’t know how to get re-elected after we’ve done it.”

    They are a means by which national Governments and their Bureaucracies get international policies advanced which they have no mandate for and which they know they would not get a mandate for, if the people could vote against them.

    The WHO’s proposed Treaty is how the Government will absolve itself of any responsibility for managing the next Plandemic (scheduled for 2024 according to Gates) and how Global Health Surveillance will be imposed on us.

    The “new deal” with the EU (we haven’t had Brexit) means that the Net Zero lunacy can’t be opposed in the UK. We are committed to abide by the EU’s Net Zero policy and the EU is above democratic control …. as is the UK since we are still signed up to it.

    1. Timaction
      April 17, 2023

      …………..they have no mandate for and which they know they would not get a mandate for, if the people could vote against them…………….Net Zero, Climate Change b/s, ban our cars, ban fracking to increase our energy bills, refuse UK power generation and windfall tax our energy companies to ensure no production, export our industry as a direct consequence of net zero, print money and create inflation, HS2, (an EU mandated project), ECHR, mass legal and illegal immigration, free NHS services to anyone who chips up. Any wonder why we have an 7 million backlog, answers on a post card. Wokism and all our failing public services as a consequence, led by ………..woksters. Minority priorioties against the English. Highest taxation ever for the 46% for what? ………………………..Exactly.

  18. Sir Joe Soap
    April 17, 2023

    We’re just suspicious of politicians in general.
    Quite how the smart motorway saga was suggested, then implemented and big money spent to endanger the population, then reversed, is symptomatic of a failing system. Nobody stood up and called the emperor naked, until finally it must have become so obvious to Sunak that the whole scheme was idiotic that reversal was the only option.
    We could add the Covid stupidity, the EU T. May cave-in stupidity, the net zero get-rid-of-cars by 2030 stupidity, the inability to stop simple dinghies stupidity, the failing NHS.
    They’re not necessarily international agreements, they can be just UK things for which it is so obvious as to what needs doing to anyone with a little nous and experience of life.

  19. Berkshire Alan
    April 17, 2023

    Every time our Prime Ministers have gone abroad it has cost us money, every time a Foreign leader comes here it costs us money, been going on for decades, no matter which Party is in power, and I have been saying exactly that for decades.
    Leaders like to pose, they like to look and feel as though they can constantly make a difference, but it is always at the taxpayers expense, and the cost of such meetings are massive with all of the security and travel arrangements for hundreds of staff adding to the bill.
    Of course leaders have and should meet up occasionally, but why do so many people have to be involved, why can they not simple chat amongst themselves, or do none of them actually know their subject and brief ?

  20. Denis Cooper
    April 17, 2023

    Many years ago Lord Stoddart pointed that ministers go off and spend months negotiating a treaty in secret and when it is finally presented to Parliament technically it is impossible to change as much as a comma of the text without reopening the negotiations and getting new agreement from all the parties. There may be fudges in terms of non-binding declarations, and possibly new protocols, but the main text remains as signed by ministers. That is then dumped on Parliament with minimal time for scrutiny of the details on a “take it or leave it” basis. Thus is our national democracy, and that of the other parties, vitiated, at the behest of the current executive. I’ve watched this happening for a quarter of a century now, both inside and outside the EU, and if anything it has got worse.

  21. Cuibono
    April 17, 2023

    Covid came from China.
    China owns WHO.
    WHO prescribed response to covid.
    UK obeyed ( and BELIEVED!!!!)
and saw pots of gold!
    Our economy is now wrecked.
    How fortuitous for some!
    And now
goodness me
they are handing us over lock, stock and barrel!

    1. glen cullen
      April 17, 2023

      Almost every third world country is indebted to china 
that’s a lot of supportive votes at the UN, UN-WEF, UN-WHO, UN-IMF

      1. Cuibono
        April 17, 2023

        +many
        Yes. I believe they have a strategy.
        Boots on ground as “peacekeepers”.
        Handily near resource-rich areas.
        Make huge loans for infrastructure.
        And the trap snaps shut!

        Just reminded me
our dear govt. has sold an area near the Tower of London
without asking us as per
But when I watched that undercover vid 
the desperation for money
it all becomes clear.
        Find some statesmen pdq!

    2. Lynn Atkinson
      April 17, 2023

      Unfortunately the bio-lab in China was owned by the USA. USA owns big Pharma, the more they ‘medicate’ us the sicker we become, in fact the western people are the sickest in the world. Why is that do you think?

  22. Iain Hunter
    April 17, 2023

    How about making a start with the ‘climate crisis’? Those of us who have done our own research know that human-induced climate change has been a politically motivated Great Lie from the very start. It is what underpins everything being done to us and the play book is UN Agenda 21/2030. How do you fancy not flying on holiday, not eating red meat, not eating cheese and not being permitted a private motor vehicle from 2030? No? I thought not.

    Net Zero and the Climate Change Act (2008) must go. So must our support for the UN Charter on Migration which Theresa May agreed to sign in December 2018.

    1. MFD
      April 17, 2023

      Well said Iain ! Now an other subject. Our prime minister is saying we need to be taught how to count. Is this a case of kettle / black. He seems to believe if we have 20 billion he can spend 40 billion and still have 80 billion left!

  23. agricola
    April 17, 2023

    International Agreements have many different purposes good and bad. In the case of those with the EU they are likely to be protectionist or conditional upon the other party doing something to the advantage of the EU in a different area.
    NI for instance, to retain a wedge of control within the UK, and at the behest of the Irish Republic, to further the aim of a united Ireland. If Westminster do not like it, why are they failing to kick the NIP and the WF into the long grass.
    The EU use their trade agreement with the UK, not to maintain smooth trade, but to run riot in our fishing grounds and to ship their immigrant problem to the UK. Never a cautionary word from Brussels to the French, because it does not suit their penal attitude towards the UK. It is quite blatant, it probably suits the blob, and the UK government jump up and down because it looks good electorally, but effectively do nothing. The answer is not complex. Block the ECHR and its rules that cause us problems. Stop feeding our own lefty lawyers with legal aid. Rejoin the WTO and break the trade hold the EU thinks it has over us. Just as with cancelling IC Engines in 2030, Mercedes and others would soon make their opinion known in Berlin and Brussels. Any trade agreement with Biden, beset with strings, is best avoided
    The good International Treaties are the ones we join in with other nations, voluntarily for mutual self interest. The Five Eyes intelligence agreement, NATO of course, and the recent one with Australia involving submarines. Trade agreements that exchange goods, duty free, and minus any political considerations or obligations. The recent Pacific one for instance. My advice is, be very careful who you sup with and be certain it is string free.

  24. Jeffrey Palin
    April 17, 2023

    Couldn’t be more right. Elitist leaders telling everyone to get the bus while they ignore their own advise and travel by car or plane for non essential reasons.
    If anything came out of party gate it is exactly that. Elitist’s believing they are doing nothing wrong in getting together for non essential reasons while everyone else is under lock down by pain of law.

  25. Ian B
    April 17, 2023

    ‘growing suspicion of government by international treaties’ These treaties in the main undermine the whole point of a Democracy, maybe thats the point!

    So-called international bodies are created for at times well meaning reasons. Then those that get the job at the helm set out to move on from the original intention, start building ‘empires’, primarily to protect their own ego’s and self interest. Then in the next breath they see themselves as World Government. But they don’t get elected, they don’t get held to account – its just the self gratification of a few individuals.

    Where Independent Sovereign Democracies fail is that there Governments basically say ‘we are not capable’, we need to be told what to do by some ‘higher power’. The Electorate those that gave us this privileged and pay our wages are of no concern, they are just our fodder, the plebs, that will do as they are told.

    Follow the sequence through if the unelected, unaccountable are the law givers the masters of our destiny, then we don’t need MP’s, elections or a UK Government. So what’s it all about then?

  26. MFD
    April 17, 2023

    On an other subject Sir John.
    Please point out to you Leader, we do NOT need more maths we have smart phones!
    We underlings need a job to live,
    not more schooling, we learn on the job!

    1. IanT
      April 17, 2023

      I studied to a good level of math many (many) years ago and never used most of it practice. Later in life, I did have to learn basic accounting of course but that only requires quite simple mathmatics. It’s much more about what those columns of numbers actually mean.
      My most useful skill these days is an ability to do simple plumbing jobs and I now wish that (like Winston Churchill) I had learned to lay bricks….and maybe a bit of plastering, although I don’t think Winston did that…

    2. a-tracy
      April 17, 2023

      If Rishi is genuine, he needs to pay Maths teachers more and get quality people (probably female because hours and holidays are more important to women than men who have to prioritise money certainly at key stages of their life where raising children drops on them); my son went past his male Maths teacher and taught himself Maths Mechanics at A Level. He was fortunate that two of his superb Maths teachers were female and could enhance his knowledge considerably; sadly, one is near retirement age.

  27. Ian B
    April 17, 2023

    The UK Parliament, its MP’s, its Government as just as much the enemy of the UK people as any of these so-called self perpetuating international bodies. They have created entities within the UK, the BoE, the NHS, the OBR, ONS, Quango’s united and so on. The UK Government grabs money(taxes) from our pockets to give to theses outfits in what seems to be along the lines of jobs-for-boys who cant get a real job, but lets keep them onside anyway. Then the UK Government refuses to manage, expect output, results and value for money. You would think in the real world you couldn’t make it up.

    The UK Parliament needs to start getting to grips with the very purpose of its existence, recognise and who pays the wages – or become totally irrelevant.

  28. halfway
    April 17, 2023

    Government by international treaties? well what of it? we made hundreds of international treaties when we had the empire so we should know all about it.

  29. Sharon
    April 17, 2023

    “Prime Ministers and Presidents are expected to devote considerable precious time and energy to travelling around the world to talk to each other at conferences. This is increasingly bizarre


 These all too regular events come with a price, normally requiring the leaders to pledge more public spending to some global cause. They also can result in signing up to expensive and freedom sapping future commitments, as with the net zero plans at successive COPs.”

    This is why people don’t trust international treaties! “Expensive and freedom sapping commitments“ in particular! When these PMs and Presidents return home, surprise, surprise these freedom sapping commitments are not greeted with any enthusiasm from their respective electorates!!

    Global leadership will never work! The people don’t want it (why else did we vote to leave the EU and become sovereign?) The sooner the leaders wake up to this, the better!

  30. Iain Moore
    April 17, 2023

    Too right people that should feel hacked off when Government’s sign away our sovereignty without so much as a bye your leave to the electorate , who then invariably say sorry we are powerless to do anything for we signed those powers away to the EU. Sorry we can’t do anything about migrants pouring into our country because we signed up to the 1951 Convention and gave the ECHR power over our courts. Sorry you are just going to have to lump it being cold and unable to travel for we signed up to Net Zero. What mandate did Thresa May have to sign us up to the Migration Compact?

    It is said no government can bind the hands of its successors, but with international agreements they do. While national policy can be amended and changed to fit with our needs that can’t be said of these agreements, they become fixed points, they distort Government policy, and what might have been thought of 70 years ago as something good with the 51 Convention is now a lode stone around our necks.

    The only way I can see to limit the damage our virtue signalling political classes are doing to our country is make them hold a referendum on any give away of our sovereignty . They are after all limiting our vote, then at least the public should be consulted before the government is allowed to do it. Perhaps also have all treaties put before Parliament in a vote at the beginning of a new government, then the new government would have to own them, rather than them trying to dissociate themselves from the treaties while going along with them.

    1. R.Grange
      April 18, 2023

      May’s government first rejected the Migration Compact (GCM) in 2017, then flip-flopped and accepted it the following year. She explained that ‘A clear distinction between regular and irregular migrants would be applied in the UK reading of the GCM’. Well, we’ve seen what happened to her clear distinction! Regular migrants aren’t housed in 4-star hotels, irregular ones are. Both categories are effectively allowed to stay.

  31. Ian B
    April 17, 2023

    In a nutshell, just by the very idea of accepting these jumped up bodies, be it the WHO, the WTO, the EU Commission, the OECD, the ECHR and many more. Our Parliament our MP’s and at the top our Government is saying to the people that voted them in – we are incapable of creating Laws, Rules and Regulations. We are incapable of amending and repealing Laws, Rules and Regulations to suit toda and evolving situation. We are incapable of democratically creating real Government for the UK where we act in unison with our neighbours and friends around the World, unless in the first instance we hand over control of the Country to the unelected and unaccountable ego maniacs elsewhere.

    Sir John, its not about suspicion, its about building a strong Democracy. We are all in the first instance accountable to the ‘man in the mirror’, after that in a Democracy responsibility is shared, through the ballot box – its the price of our freedom. For those in Parliament even to be talking about these alternatives they need to ask why they are in Parliament.

  32. formula57
    April 17, 2023

    Indeed, and will we ever learn what unpleasant, unnecessary and harmful commitments Alan Duncan was signing us up to with our European enemies during the quisling-like May premiership?

  33. a-tracy
    April 17, 2023

    UK – EU exports as a % of our total exports have been dropping since 1999! These meetings didn’t make a positive difference to our trade. It has consistently been going down not just after Brexit and during covid.

  34. glen cullen
    April 17, 2023

    Apart from the Foreign Secretary I don’t see why any other cabinet minister, MP or member of All Party Groups should ever need to leave our country, as a function of parliament business 
their focus should be towards the UK and only the UK

    1. formula57
      April 17, 2023

      @ glen cullen – although “what do they know of England who only England know?”, as R. Kipling would put it.

      1. glen cullen
        April 17, 2023

        Wise Words

  35. Bryan Harris
    April 17, 2023

    Voters are suspicious of international agreements.</blockquote

    That is very much an understatement….

    Voters are sick to death of our parliament giving away power and authority, as well as vast amounts of cash, to international quangos.
    Parliament can no longer be trusted to put the UK first in any negotiations, especially with treaties – they sign our rights away without a hint of concern.

    STOP IT FGS!

  36. a-tracy
    April 17, 2023

    An interesting tweet from Robert Kimbell in reply to Labour’s Chris Bryant’s tweet saying, “Tory economics don’t work; our GDP rose just 6% between 2008 and 2022”. He replied, “For 12 of those years, the UK was stuck in the EU customs Union and so-called Single Market (2008-2019 and for two (2020-2021) the UK was hammered by lockdowns during the global pandemic”.

    I would add that our parliamentarians were encouraged to support for much longer than necessary by SAGE and other experts and foreign pressure to lockdown from Macron etc. E.g. He closed off France from the UK for months for two Christmas/New Year periods. The Unions didn’t want to re-open when Boris did, and Starmer’s Labour party supported them as did Sturgeon’s SNP.

    1. Denis Cooper
      April 17, 2023

      I don’t know where Chris Bryant got his 6%, as it should be 16% according to this ONS chart:

      https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp/timeseries/abmi/pn2

      ÂŁ1,918 billion in 2008 up to ÂŁ2,229 billion in 2022, = 16.2% increase, 1.1% a year compound.

      Going back to 1948 it has averaged 2.3% a year compound, but his period includes the financial crisis and the pandemic; adjusting for those major setbacks it could have been only a little lower than that average.

      The Tory government can’t be blamed for a financial crisis that occurred under Labour, when the government had to borrow a quarter of all the money that it was spending, eg see my comment here in March 2010:

      http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2010/03/06/borrowing-can-make-us-all-poorer/

      “Over the past year virtually all of the money borrowed by the government has effectively been borrowed from the Bank of England, not from commercial banks and other private investors … The Labour government has used that money to help pay its bills, supplementing every three pounds of revenue with a pound of borrowed money, and so it has cleverly managed to put off the inevitable spending cuts until after the election.”

      Nor can they be blamed for the pandemic.

  37. Ian B
    April 17, 2023

    You have to laugh at the mentality of those we elections – from the Dailey Telegraph today remarking on the PM’s speech

    ‘Prime Minister will argue that numeracy is ‘every bit as essential as reading’ and should be prized’
    ‘The Prime Minister argues that the number one priority is bringing down inflation, saying cutting taxes now would cause prices to soar.’

    A lot of arguments from the PM, but he doesn’t yet again understand the thrust of what he is saying – High Taxation, puts prices up to cover the extra outgoing to the taxman, therefore Low Taxation reduces costs, so reduces prices. So high taxation is by its very nature inflationary – not as he says the reverse.

    Following the PM’s thread you would have to say that if he keeps raising the tax rates inflation will come down, Those workers needing to bridge the gap of extra tax out and extra expenditure will no longer need wage increases because of inflation, because as the PM says as thing cost more, inflation disapears

    No wonder he refuses to manage and balance the books

  38. glen cullen
    April 17, 2023

    The voters democracy and freedom is hit by international treaty with imposed environmental and co2 targets and our own Local Transport Act 2008 which allowed regional/city mayors and local authorities to implement and charge against –
    LTN = Low Traffic Area
    CAZ = Clean Air Zone
    ULEZ = Ultra Low Emissions Zone
    CCZ = Congestion Charge Zone
    Our government could repeal the law tomorrow 
they choice not too

  39. Keith Collyer
    April 17, 2023

    “There is growing suspicion of government by international treaties. Democratic countries find increasing restrictions on what their elected representatives can do as they tie themselves in a colonial type relationship to global and regional quangos.”
    All true
    “The ultimate most powerful one is the EU”
    Total lie. The EU is more democratic than the Westminster Parliament because a party (or bloc) cannot win control with a minority of the vote. And until the traitorous act of persuading a minority of the British public to vote in favour of the ability of a small number of people to dodge taxes on overseas earnings, the UK had a veto.

  40. graham1946
    April 17, 2023

    A very good summary Sir John. In my simplistic way and of course cognisant of the need to be short here, have said before that our PM’s should be prevented from going to these jollies, as it always, always results in multi billion pound costs to us who provide the readies for your government to waste and to prance about with others of the same ilk making themselves feel important.

  41. Bert Young
    April 17, 2023

    Maintaining a place in the affairs of the world comes at a price but it should not be at the expense of the things at one’s doorstep . The Government must always create an order plan with immediate and longer term issues in mind ; it’s the same in running a business . Shareholders and voters are the ultimate decision and , when necessary the leadership has to be forced to change its approach or be kicked out .

  42. BOF
    April 17, 2023

    Whoops! My comment still in moderation. I wonder which line I have crossed this time?

  43. Lynn Atkinson
    April 17, 2023

    Sir John is exactly right. Indeed Norman Tebbit, who was an international pilot came to realise that he was spending so much time abroad in the company of international pilots from across the globe that they were forming an interest group, and that he was therefore losing his position of ‘belonging’ to his own nations interest group. He is a rational, analytical and brave man. Most ‘world leaders’ in the same position willingly join the ‘world leaders’ group and abandon their countries on whose shoulders they stand.
    The can’t even see that if they lose their ‘job’, as Boris did, membership of the World Leaders Group becomes defunct and you revert to being the subject of the World Leaders Group.
    The decisions made by the ‘world Leaders Group, for instance to go to war against Russia by proxy have dire consequences for the people you no longer care about.
    I wish I could post a picture of this bill but here is the beef: April 2023 Bill to small town non-VAT rated Hairdresser, electric charges ex VAT 1427.47 + VAT @ 20% ÂŁ285.49
    Please don’t say they should register for VAT – they would then have to surrender 20% of their turnover to HMRC and they can’t put their prices up by 20% – or they would do so.
    Please Sir John, could you point this disaster out to the Treasury? You must have constituents in the same position.

  44. Lynn Atkinson
    April 17, 2023

    I have just received another classic example of our ‘world leaders in action’ and how the really deal with ‘international agreements’ and ‘treaties’.
    ‘South African President is asking for money to recall Rome Statute in his parliament that Putin could visit the country for BRICS summit. Just openly trading the subject. Even SA delegation was sent to Moscow to Bargain the price:))) Insane!’
    So if it’s in their own interest (the ANC are undoubtedly going to pocket the cash – else how would it be accounted for officially?) the Agreements and Treaties can be altered, but if they don’t care to defend us from their disastrous agreements or policies, these Agreements and Treaties are declared to be sacrosanct.

  45. RichardP
    April 17, 2023

    It seems to me that many of those who aspire to government relish the status but are not so keen on taking responsibility. International treaties remove the need to make difficult decisions and enable them to claim they are just following orders.

    1. Mark B
      April 17, 2023

      Well said.

  46. Norman
    April 17, 2023

    UK COLUMN NEWS features a whole tranche of evidence of this incredible phenomenon, this very day!

  47. glen cullen
    April 17, 2023

    Home Office – 16th April 2023
    Illegal Immigrants – 37
    Boats – 1
    We can’t do anything due to international treaty

  48. forthurst
    April 17, 2023

    The problem with international treaties is they are invariably authored by those with an axe to grind.
    e.g. Peter Sutherland and the ‘Compact on Migration’ signed by the Tory party:

    “Europe faces an immigration predicament. Mainstream politicians, held hostage by xenophobic parties, adopt anti-immigrant rhetoric to win over fearful publics, while the foreign-born are increasingly marginalized in schools, cities, and at the workplace. Yet, despite high unemployment across much of the continent, too many employers lack the workers they need. Engineers, doctors, and nurses are in short supply; so, too, are farmhands and health aides. And Europe can never have enough entrepreneurs, whose ideas drive economies and create jobs.”
    Obviously, Peter Sutherland’s fears were unfounded as the UK is experiencing the highest legal and illegal immigration in its history.
    The good thing about international treaties is that they can be ignored by governments when they fall foul of their mandates from the people. Unfortunately, the Tory party is not concerned about the interests of the English people. They are far more concerned with earning brownie points from English-haters.

    1. Peter Gardner
      April 18, 2023

      Whether international teaties can be ignored depends onm their content and, among other things, on the country. If they have effect in the countries of the signatories, in some cases (Netherlands?) they are automatically part of domestic law but that isn’t the case in the UK where an Act of Parliament is required for the treaty to take effect in the UK, eg the WA with the EU. Apart from that treaties between countries are ultimately regulated by international law, which is essentially case law and encapsulated in the Vienna Convention on the Law on Treaties (1969).
      Not all treaties have enforcement mechanisms, for example the Antarctic Treaty (1959) by which all parties suspended all territorial claims indefinitely. It has stood the test of time and proved remarkably successful.
      Some have mechanisms for withdrawal, eg, the Treaty on the European Union. But even if they don’t parties may withdraw, suspend or repudiate treaties under the terms of the Vienna Convention, which are quite restrictive. the Coonvention also lays down coinditions for the validity of the treaty, eg, it must have been entered into in accordance with the constitutional arrangements of each party, otherwise it is null and void. And in good faith – sometimes lacking but hard to prove!
      The problem with the ECHR is that being a party to it is implicitly required by other agreements the UK has made, notably on Northern Ireland. The wording of these is that the UK must comply with it. Arguably it could comply by enacting appropriate domestic legislation without actually being a signature. But that would open the way for endless disputes.

      1. Peter Gardner
        April 18, 2023

        PS. On of the attractive features of the CPTPP is that unlike the EU Treaties, the WA/NIP and the Sunak Framework it does not give any power to any foreign party or body to impose regulations in the UK.

  49. glen cullen
    April 17, 2023

    The current Presidency of the Security Council of the United Nation by international treaty is the Russia 
.that’s all you need to know about international treaties

  50. Pauline Baxter
    April 17, 2023

    The E.U. might be the most powerful regional quango, (which we are still in).
    But the most powerful GLOBAL quango which we are in, is the UNITED NATIONS.
    It may well have originally been set up with good intentions Sir John but now, along with the W.H.O. and the W.E.F. it seeks to impose World Wide Dictatorship.

  51. Keith Jones
    April 17, 2023

    Our leaders need to be seen to be welcomed, liked and delivering, it’s good for the polls. However as with all clubs there is a subscription and since our leaders have no money they choose to use the currency of sovereignty and hard earned taxes to gain favour being absolutely aware of the short term kudos and the complete lack of accountability in the long term.
    There should be no need for trade agreements just price competitive products for export. The UK has no trade agreement with the US but it is the UK’s second largest export market. To gain a trading agreement with the US would mean the UK having to give the US even more than it deserves. How much is a Boeing F35B, it started off as a “flying bedstead”. The UK did pay off the “Marshall Plan”, did others? Special relationship?

  52. agricola
    April 17, 2023

    SJR, freedom of speech is under attack, worldwide. From the regimes of Iran,China and North Korea to the internet giants such as Facebook, Apple, and Google. It is not new, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Franco, Putin et al of that ilk all liked to control expressed opinion with degrees of punishment for those they do not like. They even cancelled an ex president of the USA.
    I have an idea. Talented people in the UK invented computers and the world wide web. If we can do that we can create our own exchange of ideas site that believes in free speech within the law. Looking at those who already do it, it can be exceedingly profitable. The mission statement of such a new company and the quality of those allowed on its board would have to be carefully thought through. Bit like thinking out the Constitution of the USA minus the guns. I think it appropriate that we the so called creator of modern democracy had a hand in its continuity. We cannot afford to leave it to others with their own agenda.

  53. Mike Wilson
    April 17, 2023

    Voters are suspicious of international agreements

    I love headlines like that. Opinion stated as fact. You and some people on here might be suspicious of international agreements. I’d hazard a guess that most people are not.

    Voters are suspicious of your government.

  54. Derek
    April 17, 2023

    I believe International Agreements are only as good as those who sign them. Right now I worry as to the consequences for British citizens and our offspring, as our lives are to be dominated by those who may refuse to ‘lose face’, regardless of the mess they may make and the subsequent damage done to King and country.
    Loss of face is worse than death to an Oriental and that ancient philosophy appears to have been adopted by most all of our modern politicos. Surely, it is time for those serial deniers to act as adults and admit their mistakes? Speak the truth and the truth shall set you free and gain enormous respect from us plebs in the process!

  55. Derek
    April 17, 2023

    I believe International Agreements are only as good as those who sign them. Right now I worry for the consequences to British citizens and our offspring as our lives are to be dominated by those who may refuse to ‘lose face’, regardless of the mess they may make and the potential damage done to King and country.
    ‘Loss of face’ is worse than death to an Oriental and their ancient philosophy appears to have been adopted by all of our own modern politicos. Surely it is time for those to act as adults and admit their mistakes? Speak the truth and the truth shall set you free and gain enormous respect from us plebs!

  56. Peter Gardner
    April 17, 2023

    Sir John, are you suggesting the appeasement of the EU by the Sunak Framework was the result of Sunak’s desire to host Biden in Northern Ireland? If so, one might say Sunak got his just deserts: a mere pit stop in what looked like a motorway cafe and a cup of coffee, and then being told by Biden in front of the DĂĄil Éireann, to buck up.
    It was a total humiliation.

  57. Peter Gardner
    April 17, 2023

    The attraction of Brirish political elites to each other to consider jointly the government of their countries started with the EU. It was found to be much more comfortable and personally rewarding than dealing with the petty concerns of constituents. In the absence of the EU it is natural for such people to seek similar company in other fora. It is a continuation of the declinism that took Britain into the EU and the elites losiing sight of their national voters: they look to their overseas colleagues instead.

  58. Atlas
    April 18, 2023

    Voters are suspicious with good reason in many cases.

Comments are closed.