In 1973 when the UK joined the European Economic Community it had to impose tariffs on Commonwealth countries, put in VAT and confine its free trade ambitions to the European continent. There was a sense of betrayal in New Zealand and Australia where they saw Europe replace themselves in crucial export areas like food. The UK was brusque and unhelpful to those countries that had done most to stand by Britain, especially during the long and brutal second world war when the UK was fighting against Germany and Italy, two founders of the EEC.
Winston Churchill put out many ideas about the future and about how the world might develop. He did envisage a European Union, though any careful reading of the relevant speeches makes clear that was for the continental countries and did not include the UK herself. His work has been much traduced since by those who claim he was an early pioneer of the EU. To reinforce the point Churchill wrote a long four volume history of the “English speaking peoples”, not of the Europeans. That concluded that he thought there would be a union of the english speaking peoples and it would begin as a defence alliance. All his life he had closest affinity with the English speaking world, from his family and strong political links with the USA through his early adult life in South Africa to his passions for Empire and then for Commonwealth.
Today this takes shape. The UK is a member of the five country 5 Eyes alliance for sharing deepest intelligence with the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand that goes beyond what NATO members share. There is the 3 country Pacific AUKUS defence alliance with the USA and Australia. The USA and UK have been the leaders of NATO, given the French on off involvement and wish to create a separate EU defence arrangement. The TPP with a services chapter missing from many EU trade deals is more suited to the UK needs and may attract the  USA as a member to join the UK, New Zealand and Australia.
I do not myself favour unions of states and do not expect an eventual union of the UK with either the English speaking world or Europe. You do not need to be governed by trade partners to trade with them. Most jobs and income in the UK will continue to depend on home UK trade.
August 1, 2023
Try this. Go to Sydney, or to Ottawa or to Washington, and ask someone what they think of the Anglosphere. 99% will have no clue what you are on about, and will look at you as if you are stark staring mad. 1% will know what you are on about, laugh and tell you scornfully to stop living in the past.
August 1, 2023
+1. Just how friendly is the US, the only Anglo country that really matters?
Why do we increasingly pay for US natural gas that we could produce ourselves, waste money on weapons for US-inspired wars (since WW2) and pay full whack for pharmaceuticals (some of which are pretty much forced on unwilling recipients, 1 in 35 of whom then get heart damage as a result)? Who wanted us to stay in the EU and then cut ourselves off from Northern Ireland?
Lots more examples exist as to why Kissenger joked how much more dangerous the US was as a friend, than as an enemy.
August 1, 2023
@Lemming, @Wanderer are you guys for real?
Watching a recent discussion on TV over the weekend that involved a US Citizen, a Canadian and an Australian, the US guy was confused bemused by the discussion, which was then explained by the Canadian â âit was a Commonwealth thingâ
Your illustrations would be know different to asking what does a Lancastrian think of a Scottish Highlander â answer they donât. Why would they?
Take a trip to Runnymede, the birthplace that something the UK Parliament has disowned and guess which nation sees it as a contribution to how we should live. It maybe history but it shapes a future for freedom and democracy
August 1, 2023
Showing zero understanding of geopolitics.
The AUKUS alliance was due to increasing Chinese belligerence in the SE Asia theatre. Australia certainly does matter – and if you think Canada and NZ are unimportant then you don’t understand much at all.
Allies and trading partners need to be reliable. The EU countries are not – the Germans have been freeloading on NATO without spending the minimum 2% for many years, while undermining our industrial base via EU regulation.
August 1, 2023
I’m getting the sense you are possibly one of those who have sipped deep from the well of anti-English/Anglosphere.
You claim to know that 99% of any given population wouldn’t know what was meant by the Anglosphere, well if 99% of the population are just ignorant is that anything worth advertising!!
Perhaps when the world and his Uncle is looking for hand outs or a place of safety to embed themselves within the Anglosphere we should laugh and tell them to stop living in the past, as we are through, done for.
August 1, 2023
Not at all Michelle, I am neither anti-English nor anti-Anglosphere. I just want you to realise that almost no one in the US, Canada or Australia has heard of this “Anglosphere”, and policymakers in those countries have no interest whatsover in a grouping based on what language people happen to speak (except only in the very specific area of intelligence sharing which, for obvious reasons, is kept very quiet). Geography matters, for trade and for influence. The US has a global outlook, Canada a North American one, Australia an Asian-Pacific one, and sensible European countries co-operate with others in Europe. As I suspect more and more of you are noticing, the Brexiters “Global Britian” slogan was a fraud
August 1, 2023
Voters wanted rid of European political union, but are happy to have social, domestic, pleasure and trade with Europe âŠI donât recall the Global Britain slogan
August 2, 2023
commons library.parliament.uk, 06/01/2021, ÂŽGlobal Britainâ
Used by Theresa May, Dominic Raab (among others)
gov.uk, 13/06/2018, âGlobal Britain: delivering on our international ambitionsâ.
Although âGlobal Britainâ is never mouthed as such, the speech by the Foreign Secretary to the Lord Mayorâs Banquet on 13/05/2019 is quite clear. (J.Hunt)
23/09/2019 âGlobal Britain is leading the world as a force for goodâ, gov.uk (D.Raab)
16/03/2021 ÂŽGlobal Britain in a competitive age: The Integrated Review is security, defence, development and foreign policyâ, gov.uk
And thatâs just some from official websites. I will spare you the MSM.
August 1, 2023
John, just how much are we paying annually into EU coffers now we have left.
I see the ECJ fines us many billions annually on some pretext or other.
August 1, 2023
You are right, I don’t think any of our friends and family in Canada or Australia would know what the “Anglosphere” is but they certainly do have a very strong sense of Family.
This is reinforced these days by technology such as WhatsApp. My wife knows on a daily (hourly?) basis what is going on in Toronto I can assure you, although her Vancouver updates are probably only weekly! đ
August 1, 2023
You’ve made that up. You’ve never been to any of those places and asked that question. I’ve worked and lived in USA, Australia, Canada and New Zealand (and in the EU incidentally) and had conversations with many people who live there. Your comment applies to some extent to the USA but absolutely not to the former Commonwealth countries who still look to UK as a partner to an extent that would surprise you.
August 1, 2023
Interesting.
âThe shadows of the Empire: the Anglosphere in British politicsâ, M.Kenny & N.Pearce, 2018, Polity Press provides a balanced view on the potential of the Anglosphere for Brexit Britain.
âThe Anglosphere challenge: Why the English-speaking nations will lead the way in the 21st centuryâ, J.C.Bennett, 2007, Rowman & Littlefield (paperback ed.) for those who like heavily US-influenced one-sided arguments.
August 1, 2023
Asia Pacific is the new reality for Australia and New Zealand. South Africa and Rhodesia will be more concerned with the African continent these days. Canada is more interested in its large neighbour to the South.
Cecil Rhodes was far more focussed on the Anglosphere than Churchill, as can be seen from his writings and legacy. Unfortunately you are not supposed to share those views nowadays and his statues get targeted for removal.
In the end every nation state should look after itself.
âWe have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to followâ Lord Palmerston.
These days we are unable to send out a gunboat but we have plenty of admirals available.
August 1, 2023
đđ€Ł all my life my family and friends have saved and made the trip halfway around the world to come home to the centre of our world, to wonder that the jewel-box of the world. Everything that is treasured in the Dominions is âimportedâ aka âfrom Britainâ. And you think they donât know what the English-speaking world is?
Have you ever left these shores đ you sound like one of those people who never leave the couch and get all your opinions and âfactsâ from the TV.
August 1, 2023
Good morning.
These to me are just baby steps to full independence.
When it comes to matters like VAT I still unsure whether or not we are still making payments to the EU. With the government receiving more money now that we are supposedly out of the EU and not paying them VAT, can it not reduce and / or remove certain VAT impositions ? eg Hot food, energy and environmental products ?
We are well overdue some major changes to the way we do things here.
August 1, 2023
As of June 2023, the UK has paid the EU ÂŁ20.5 billion, leaving ÂŁ10.4 billion left to pay before 2065. The total settlement is a net âŹ35.3 billion based on âŹ1.13 to the ÂŁ. The UK no longer has to comply with the EUâs minimum VAT rate.
Goods moved between the EU and UK are now counted as imports and exports subject to import VAT. Existing rules for goods imports from non-EU countries, now apply to goods imported from EU countries. As amateur wine importers from EU countries have found out to their cost.
August 1, 2023
Mark,
Might be worth adding, that whilst in the EU 80% of import customs duty was paid to the EU (not sure if the VAT on that was also lost?).
Now we should be able to do something constructive with that extra money.
But probably not with this Government or the next one đ
August 1, 2023
My understanding Mark is that the UK no longer has to pay ROW vat into the EU from 31 December 2020. We should be told how much that saving is.
Just the fine on the bit the EU decided we had not declared properly because of fraudulent importers [2011-2017] from China alone was ÂŁ2.3bn to the EU (surely there was evidence supplied to recharge this fine?) Mar 2023 + 4/5th of the commission’s legal costs! Our treasury needs to answer how much of this they have recovered from the list of importers identified by the European High Court (or was it another guestimate like the fine for taxes on prostitution and drug use)! The EU court ‘found that more than half of all textiles and footwear imported into the UK from China were below âthe lowest acceptable pricesâ.’ Were the perpetrators arrested or just allowed to liquidate their fraudulent companies?
This came about ‘after a 2005 decision championed by the then EU trade commissioner, Peter Mandelson, to abolish quotas on textiles and clothing from all World Trade Organization countries, including China. In subsequent years, EU fraud officials became concerned that shell companies were using fake invoices that undervalued Chinese-made clothes and shoes. In 2014, the EUâs anti-fraud office launched Operation Snake to check import declarations, which included a method to calculate undervalued goods.”
August 1, 2023
The trashing of the Commonwealth countries was the main reason I have always been against the EU involvement as it panned out. Coming from a family who did service in the 1st and 2nd World Wars this was the most important issue and I was horrified how the Commonwealth was treated. No one remembers this do they? I also worked at NATO Headquarters when France had one of the hissy fits we are used to and they threw NATO out of Paris and it had to find a home in Brussels so any connection France has with NATO I am suspicious of as they want to take control of everything. We must enhance our role in NATO with the USA as leaders which will not go down well with them. I am very suspicious of this EU army idea as I see it as a French way to dilute NATO to their advantage.
August 1, 2023
I do wish the Dominions were commented on separately from âcommonwealthâ countries.
August 2, 2023
As far as I can see, only Canada, Australia and New Zealand could still be âdominionsâ by default, as they have not specifically rejected the term. That might still lift the spirits of some old-timers.
However the Australia Act that came to effect on 3 March 1986 withdraws any possible âingĂ©renceâ of the UK in Australian affairs.
Canadaâs Constitution Act 1982 does not refer to Dominion status, a status Canada had lost/refused by not entering the war against Germany on the same day as the UK in 1939.
The New Zealand Parliament Act of 25 November 1947 reiterates NZâs position as a full external autonomous entity in the Commonwealth but again without any mention of dominion status.
Anyway, whether these countries are dominions or not does not appear to have had a lot of influence on the quality of the trade deals they recently signed with the UK.
August 1, 2023
Difference is the essence of existence. Europe was a far more interesting and pleasant place before the EU started forcing member countries into one lump of rigid sameness. The UK is better with friendly people who speak our language. The European continent makes good neighbours if they behave sensibly without trying to interfere in our affairs.
August 1, 2023
It seems many Europeans are waking up to what the project is really all about, not least the Eastern Europeans who likely had no intention of swapping Soviet dictates from a central body for a similar structure from Brussels.
August 1, 2023
Michelle – Really! then why are up to a dozen other countries including Turkey lined up waiting a chance to join – let’s name some of them Moldova Albania Montnegro Serbia North Macedinia and now Ukraine – poor countries all mostly from the balance but when they meet the EU rules for democratic governance I have no doubt their economies will be pumped up so that they are ready and fit for EU consumer goods – it’s about the market ‘ buying and selling. Of course none of this will bother us any more we’ll be still floating about bemoaning that the unfriendly foreigners are not speaking English.
August 1, 2023
How small minded. When Chancellor Kohl came to the U.K. for meeting and sat with that great EUropean, with Edward Heath they could not communicate, neither spoke the others language. Rodney Atkinson had a loud hailer and spoke to Kohl in very fluent German (he lectured at Mainz University and his colleagues thought he was German so fluent is he).
Mind you if you want a good opinion of the EU itâs best that nobody knows what anybody else is saying.
BTW at the recent Military EU meeting, they all spoke English.
August 2, 2023
Graham
The big pull to join is to get almost immediate money/investment from the so called richer Countries.
It is only after some years they realise that the cost of such is a lack of democracy. The kicking back on some policies recently by Poland and Hungary are perhaps examples.
August 1, 2023
@Bloke The EU doesn’t recognise statehood or difference. It a self created soverign power that there can be no democratic challenge too.
August 1, 2023
Yes, it’s shocking how everywhere you go in the EU everything is exactly the same. You always get the same food with absolutely no differences. Everyone is forced to speak the same language. No regional differences are allowed at all.
Except that’s just a fantasy in your Brexit-addled “mind”. No wonder you don’t even know your own name – or are too ashamed to admit it.
August 1, 2023
+++
Agree 100%
âLump of rigid samenessâ.
Exactly so.
And all to stop future European wars!
That worked well didnât it?
1914 recreated in Ukraine.
August 1, 2023
@Bloke, so many people confuse the Peoples of the Europe, with the unelected, unaccountable Bureaucrats laying down their laws rules and regulations. The EU has a âBlobâ problem as well but they have never been permitted to live with out it.
August 1, 2023
Indeed I agree fully.
Two good pieces in the Telegraph today. “Michael Gove’s hypocritical war on second homes will backfire”. Isabel Oakeshott.
Gove is surely a socialist, climate alarmist, VAT on school fees, scientifically and economically ignorant dope who would be more at home in Starmer’s party.
Also “Starmer is about to be humiliated by the global retreat from net zero” Sherelle Jacobs
Though of course the Tory party, Sunak, May, Gove, the BBC, Channel 4 and the civil service are all fully behind the insane net zero lunacy. Sunak’s carbon capture agenda is of course bonkers (PPE yet again) – just wasting vast amounts energy and vast sums of money capturing beneficial plant, tree, and crop food and pumping it underground for no good reason.
On Channel 4 last night the very foolish Krishnan Guru-Murthy was saying extracting oil and gas locally would not help energy prices due to “international pricing”. Just how foolish can someone be? Look at energy prices in the USA often 1/3 of the UKs. Plus we have transport costs and the jobs and tax would be here and it helps the balance of trade and it saves CO2 is that bothers you. Perhaps would should forgive this dope as he too read PPE Oxon too and is doubtless infected with Channel 4 “group think” lunacy.
August 1, 2023
KGM might have been accurate in his judgement. In the USA fossil fuel is extracted and americans buy it at cost plus profit. When we in the UK extract it, it seems to travel via the Treasury, the World Marketplace and the Treasury a second time to heap duty and VAT on it to arrive at the door of the UK consumer as some of the most expensive fossil fuel in the World. On the face of it our business plan is incompetent, corrupt, and of no benefit to the end user.
August 1, 2023
Correct
August 1, 2023
The press suggest that Gove will soon be literally given a hospital pass and be consigned to Health. There was a time when he would have been the ideal person to try to reform it but now he is more likely to be aligned with the leftist crowd who thing the only problem with the NHS is under-funding.
August 1, 2023
@LL
NetZero was just supposed to be a âvirtue signalâ we are all in it together socialist hype-olagy. This Conservative Government had a different view, lets punish the people, lets cripple the UK economyâŠ
Everyone that signed up to NZ bar the Conservative Government either had no intention of following through, or wouldnât dare damage their âhome Countryâ. As not one single person involved had a plan other than to ban things, then without first seeking viable alternatives.
August 1, 2023
Just nodded through into law by nearly all MP, not even any real costing or understanding how to get there, and no benefit for the ÂŁTrillions wasted.
August 1, 2023
Is the Rt Hon Graham Stuart Minister of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, actually a sleeper for the green party
August 1, 2023
As at 9pm we are importing via interconnector 21.4% of our energy, thatâs a national disgrace
August 1, 2023
So our defence pacts flourish as do our trade deals and all this, to use a BBC term, “despite Brexit”.
Who would have thought not sharing the yoke of an anti-democratic supranational institution with two former Axis powers and others would be so grande!
August 1, 2023
Do they? We canât even stop boats coming across the Channel. People deliberately leaving a safe country to invade ours.
August 1, 2023
All countries within the Commonwealth share much in terms of law and language with no political compulsion whatsoever. The FCO and UK government could promote more effectively the idea of a Commonwealth Free Trade Area. It would be very good for the less wealthy members, trade being better than aid. It could also act as a buffer to Chinese efforts to buy the World for its own political and financial ends. For the larger members it already is, but the others don’t get much beyond bus stops on royal tours, enjoyed though these are.
August 1, 2023
Charles Moore today:-
âAnyone who thinks the issue of inheritance tax (IHT) does not matter because such a small proportion of people pay it does not understand how human aspiration works. People aspire to do well for their families. They hope to encounter more ladders than snakes in the game of life. It is upsetting if their death becomes a snake for their heirs.â
âWhy not, then, simply revert to Mr Osborneâs promise of 16 years ago, indexed? That would put the IHT threshold at ÂŁ1,775,200 today, compared with its current punitively low entry point of ÂŁ325,000. How about implementing this in the next Budget?â
But Osborne, Hammond, Sunak amd Hunt have all ratted on this promise who would trust them this time. The promise did however put the foolish Brown off his early election plans – so powerful was it.
August 1, 2023
What about the union of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland? Thatâs a union of states imposed by force on the natives of Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
Reply No force.Scotland recently voted to stay in. The part of Ireland that disagreed left the UK. Wales doesnât seek a referendum on independence.
August 1, 2023
I suggest if they feel that they would prefer separation, we agree and start removing all financial support, restore services and jobs back to the centre, relocate ship building/services, remove military bases and protection. Civil Service presence should return to England….Perhaps offer contracts for items that hitherto were awarded in those countries to new propositions.
August 1, 2023
@ Mike Wilson – or could it be a union of force imposed upon the natives of England?
August 2, 2023
Clearly, historically speaking, the English fought with and subjugated the Scots, Welsh and Irish. Now, given that those countries are now a drain on the public purse, yes, one could argue the unions are forced on the English. It always bugs me that the Scots are allowed to have a view on the Union but we are not allowed a day.
August 1, 2023
The Government is changing the Alcohol Taxes “because it can, now we’re out of the EU.”
Why isn’t it scrapping, or at the very least reforming, VAT? Oh – it can’t, because we’re not really out of the EU are we.
I would not wish to see a formal union of the English-speaking world. A language may unite us but witnessing the behaviour of Biden and Trudeau, and the governments they lead over the last few years doesn’t inspire me to want to join a Union they were a part of. Mind you, one brags of his Irish ancestors and the other clearly has French ones – so that probably explains their behaviour.
August 1, 2023
I canât believe what Iâve just seen â
The BBC interviewing the PM, and heâs jubilant about his new tax hike on alcohol, and he suggest that heâs free to do it due to the freedoms of brexit !âŠheâs jubilant about rising taxes âŠthatâs not conservatism
August 1, 2023
Since his premiership, Sunak has only achieved two things, (1) the Windsor accord and (2) the rise in taxation
August 1, 2023
possibly three? More alienation of the people to Government than ever before?
August 2, 2023
Four, ever more government waste.
August 1, 2023
None of our true friends, even of very many years, make any rules for our house.
We enjoy each others company, we visit each other, go out together, even sometimes as a large group, we go on holiday with some, we certainly all trust each other, but we all of us always sensibly keep track of our own finances.
True friendship is not a means to an end, with the aim of getting something else in return.
August 1, 2023
@Berkshire Alan none of your friends ask for your wallet and tell you what bits in it you can have. Now I have said that I forgot this Conservative Government in that equation – but they just seek to throw it away
August 1, 2023
Ian
Indeed you do not have to pay to get true friendship, you accept others as they are, and they likewise you.
You lead your life they do their’s ,sometimes there is a mutual shared interest, but you do not have to pay or bribe them to get them involved.
Governments do not have real friends.
August 1, 2023
Australia, New Zealand, Canada and large part of USA came into being, through the English/British. I know this will have some clutch their pearls to their chests in horror and others be thrown into a fit of rage, but I care not. It made more sense to continue the strong ties, ties that bind, with such places but others thought they knew better. It was a bitter pill not just for those nations but for their wider family here.
Europe is our near neighbour and its people are our cousins, who will hopefully also throw off the shackles of Brussels.
I am pro-Europe but anti-EU, although for some reason idiotic people assume being anti-EU means you are anti-European people!!! We could work together for mutual benefit without being drawn into a dictatorial one size fits all scheme. Given China’s sweeping up the globe I’d say it is essential we work together.
I seem to be noting many comments on line (and in person from people visiting here) that many from places such as Canada/USA etc who wish to return to the ancestral lands are finding it very difficult. What an asset they would be, and how easy for them to fit in. What pride they would take in retaining what is left of our heritage and culture and perhaps help revive it. So if we must have high levels of immigration, let’s start by letting our own come home.
Thank you for the information on Churchill’s meaning of a European Union. It is being told very differently in many places as is the story of ECHR
August 1, 2023
As a long term Brexiteer, I always have deep sceptical thoughts about the EU and the long-held ambition in Brussels to create a superstate to rival the US. The Brussels fanatics have always had this as their prime objective, despite almost no support for the idea among the member states and their voters. I always thought and hoped that NATO would prove far more important for our collective defence.
But, the Ukraine war is likely to change things. For the future of Europe, including the UK, Ukraine simply has to win. But whoever wins the US election, Presidential support for Ukraine is likely to weaken, and Europe will have to take up the slack.
It is essential that this is done through NATO, because otherwise US support for wider European defence will fade away. Europe will collectively have to do a lot more, even taking the lead. We cannot have an internecine tussle over the extent of the role to be played by Brussels. Biden is being very shortsighted and foolish in supporting VdL to head up NATO, rather than our own defence secretary.
August 1, 2023
When the chips are down, you cannot rely on others to put themselves in harms way to protect us. That might have worked once but not so much in these “enlightened” days where it’s ‘every man for themselves’.
The best defence strategy is to make sure we can look after ourselves. We are not a world power and haven’t been for many decades. The way our armed forces have been run down is however a complete disgrace. Our Political Leaders seem to think they still have influence but that is complete fantasy. Frankly, I don’t care about world stages. Let’s just worry about our own backyard, because the French can’t even police the Channel, let alone anything else if we ever needed them to do so. Self Reliance in Food, Energy And Defence. Simples Mr Sunak!
August 1, 2023
We could put together armed forces capable of defending these islands on the budget we have ( if it were properly spent and accounted for ). However, we cannot exist in isolation. WW2 taught us that the convoys from the US literally kept us afloat and without them, we would have been starved into submission.
Now, the chances of the USA springing to our aid with an atlantic convoy system are zilch. Biden would see us staving as a fair return for the Irish potato famine !
We need Europe to be free to help supply our needs and provide a buffer zone. it’s therefore in our clear interest to help defend Northern Europe, especially Poland and the other former Soviet Bloc nations. Is there anyone who believes Putin would stop at Ukraine if he won that war ? We therefore cannot just retrench to Fortress UK.
If only we still had BAOR we could all sleep safer in our beds. The fact that BAOR has not been replaced by a well equipped and trained Bundeswehr is down to Merkel. I am now certain that all along she was no more than a Soviet and then Russian stooge.
Poland is growing its armed forces because its leaders see the threat from Russian in the same way as we do.
But they can’t do it on their own. With others, we need to help them, but our politicians have allowed us to become seriously ill-equipped to do so
August 1, 2023
I have no problem with our membership of NATO but if we can’t field enough force to defend ourselves on home ground then we are not going to be much help in defending the rest of Europe.
I served in BAOR and we had three armoured divisions in Germany to defend the northern plains. I think there were about 70,000 troops stationed there at that time. I’m not sure we could muster that number from the whole Britsh Army these days, let alone find the infantry, tanks, artillery, air cover and everything else required to fight a modern ground war. From what I understand, we wouldn’t even have the ammunition to last much more than a week in full combat. The politcians and civil servants who have allowed this slow decay to occur should be deeply ashamed of themselves.
Ukraine has shown that the threat never really went away.
August 1, 2023
PS It is very hard not to suspect that Mrs Merkle was not all she seemed to be. She certainly didn’t do Germany (or Europe) any favours in retrospect.
August 1, 2023
@Chris S sort of agree. The alternative to VdL as we percieved has shown after many years they were aginst the UK having any sort of armed force that could contribute to NATO. Infact they encourage the relegation of the UK service to a little home defence operation that couln’t fill Wembly Stadium, no ability to mount campaigns. Should anyone with that mind set be a leader in NATO – thats like saying the NATO armies should practice with broom sticks…
August 1, 2023
Ukraine has lost – long since. In any normal war running out of money and munitions bring an end. But the collective west are determined to fight to the last Ukrainian. We are nearly there, Ukraine admitted to 310,000 KIA –
August 1, 2023
@ Chris S “For the future of Europe, including the UK, Ukraine simply has to win” – no it does not. For the U.K.’s better future we simply have to stop pulling others’ chestnuts out of the fire.
August 1, 2023
Sir John
As always a lot there today and a lot of common sense and logic
âYou do not need to be governed by trade partners to trade with themâ
To expand on the above, something that some in our society have difficulty getting their heads around. In a democracy it is the people through their elected representatives that all laws, regulation and rules are made/created amended or repealed. That is entirely different from unelected unaccountable bureaucrats that perceive themselves untouchable and sovereign defining how you live.
In perspective if the people donât have a natural way to approve, change or remove how others define their personal lives, that is simply a dictatorship not a democracy and any such directives are invalid.
Democracy is hard to attain even harder to keep, not perfect â but infinity preferable to all the alternatives
August 1, 2023
@Ian B
We are let down by MPâs, HoC, Parliament, Government and those self important numpties in the HoL. They should all be defending it so as to reinforce Democracy. Democracy challenges those we elect, so it appears they try to tear it down instead of fighting for it.
August 1, 2023
Agree â I donât see any champion for democracy in parliament
August 1, 2023
Indeed. Remind me what Sunout has done to Northern Ireland with the Windsor knot.
August 1, 2023
I remember during the Falklands War it was our commonwealth friends who assisted us whilst France continued to sell Exocet guided missiles to Argentina. Mainland Europe is no friend to the UK and we should aim to be an independent country. Unfortunately, many English-speaking countries, including our own, have been taken over by WEF infiltrators who are trying to destroy Western culture and economies.
August 1, 2023
South Africa refused to allow us to use Simonstown – the naval port we built!
August 1, 2023
Sir John
You could also suggest successive UK Governments have gone out of their way to kick in the teeth those that the UK mutually gets on with and those that make no more demands than just being good company. It would appear that every action Government and Parliament have enacted against our natural companions, is based on individual personal esteem and ego wanting that personal recognition of greatness. You could say it was personal âWOKEnessâ and self entitlement of the day/moment in time.
August 1, 2023
Sir John
The mutual cooperation’s you mention with the what is termed the âAnglosphereâ, are just that âmutualâ – no one party is conferring demands on the other. That is why it works, works well and achieves more than what is seen as an alternative.
August 1, 2023
Somewhat off topic, Rishi Sunak might have mixed feelings about this letter in the Belfast News Letter today:
https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/opinion/letters/letter-if-we-continue-talking-down-the-potential-opportunities-presented-by-the-windsor-framework-we-will-make-a-bad-situation-worse-4238751
“The report states that âthe government and the EU must redouble their efforts to educate businesses and stakeholders in Great Britain and in the EU about the unique benefits of Northern Irelandâs dual market accessâ.
These âunique benefitsâ must now be defined in detail and sold to the international markets so that businesses can have certainty and are given a clear roadmap for growth.”
When I submitted an FOI request in March the government said it had no information on what the economic benefits might be; as I have asked before, in 2022 businesses in Great Britain sold goods worth over ÂŁ166 billion to the EU; so how did they manage to do do that, when supposedly it is only businesses in Northern Ireland that have access to the EU single market?
August 1, 2023
Sir John
On area where I diverge from you train of thought is on so-called âfree tradeâ
We donât have a free trade agreement with the US yet we do as a Country extremely well in trade with them as they do with us.
Most free trade is really about acceptance of the standard from one domain to another unless it is of course the EU.
Our neighbours the EU take the meaning of âfree tradeâ to another level of unelected control of the inner workings of those they trade with. Unless of course it is China. The contradiction within the EU(other than they are run by unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats), is saying âfreeâ while they go about weaponise standards to create trade barriers to the World.
Standards are the one area of World Trade that there should be a meeting of the minds. ISO is said to be the World body. Even then there should be the mutual reciprocal acceptance of each other standards in almost all situations.
August 1, 2023
Sir John you have a habit of conflating the past with the present. Fifty and sixty years ago we had a string of ships, hundreds of them in fact, all manned by Britisn seafarers running on a conveyor belt system out from Liverpool, London, Glasgow and all other places in UK out to Australia and NZ. it was a trade, a great way of life that some of us who in were lucky enough to experience will never forget – they were the glory days but the last days of empire. Today however because of geographical distances and climate change concerns etc sorry to say it would no longer be possible to return to that type of trade where we would be directly or indirectly responsible for pumping out all of that black toxic smoke into the atmosphere and so as a result countries, all countries, are trading now more with their neighbours on a regional basis – the future will be anything to cut down on the awful emissions.
August 1, 2023
Nice high level imagination.
I have an idea, force every Tory MP to house illegal immigrants in spare rooms in their homes and in rooms of any other properties they own which are not used full time. After all some have recently been placed in some luxury accommodations now denied to us but paid for by us.
Then they can see where the Anglo-sphere is destined here, particularly England, which Sir John gave up on a couple of years ago.
I look forward to Sir John’s ‘reply’.
August 2, 2023
I would widen the suggested policy – to include every MP and every member of the House of Frauds. All their second homes should be given over to house the criminal migrants they have refused to stop from entering our country, or deport.
August 1, 2023
Yes, John, Germany and Italy were our enemies in WW2 and founders of the EEC. Strange how you didn’t mention the other four founder members: Belgium, France, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.
How you can interpret Churchill writing a history of the English-speaking peoples as being against the EEC is a feat of twisted logic that could only come from a Brexiter. It makes as much sense as saying that someone standing for election in Wokingham wants that constituency to be independent from the rest of the UK.
You also failed to mention the secret courts provision of the TPP which allows companies to sue governments for implementing laws.
August 1, 2023
So you have not read the Churchill books – do, you will not make such silly comment thereafter.
August 1, 2023
Also off topic, it really annoys me that politicians who may or may not support Brexit have got us into the position where a self-evidently sensible decision can be misrepresented as another “Brexit climbdown”:
https://www.politico.eu/article/united-kingdom-european-union-safety-mark-climbdown-ce-ukca-rishi-sunak-kevin-hollinrake-william-bain/
“UK will keep EUâs safety mark in Brexit climbdown”
“firms will now be free to use either the UKCA or the CE mark when selling goods in the U.K”
Of course, if the CE mark has been good enough for decades there is no hurry to expunge it.
We also need to think about regulatory standards and marks for our other foreign markets.
August 1, 2023
Sir John
A lot of this is as you have pointed out previously. The EU evolved out of Napoleonic principles of Law in that everything is illegal unless the authorities deem it legal. In the Anglosphere however everything is legal unless your democratically elected representatives deems it not to be. Subtle, but massive difference in how People are treated.
Or another way of looking at, one section is saying you are guilty unless you can prove your innocence the other is stating the opposite you are innocent unless it can be proved you are not.
We have had 40 years of the Napoleonic oppression, that has given power to the unelected unaccountable bureaucrats and systems that circumnavigate democracy. It is also why the Country is at war with the âBlobâ and why they(the âBlobâ) deem it their duty to interfere and disrupt, because the Country is trying to move away from the control by the unelected unaccountable self appointed numpties, that they so aspire to emulate, to wanting to be a democracy. They(the âBlobâ) are deep seated remain.
The flaw in the system is the majority our MPâs, Parliament, refuse to recognise their duty to serve and defend real democracy â not the version dictated to them by bureaucrats. The HoC is majority âremainâ as this is the lazy option and negates the need for them to serve their Constituents – those that voted for them and pay their wages. It has become for the majority a âfree loadingâ job.
August 1, 2023
‘I do not myself favour unions of states’. Apart from the union of the United Kingdom, I assume.
I’ve floated my uninformed idea several times that Northern Ireland was effectively ceded by the Good Friday agreement given: a referendum must be held if it’s judged reunification could win, the net increase in Catholic immigration, and its traditionally higher birthrate mean the vote is tending to reunification over time.âThat’s unless Irish Catholic ex-pats don’t want to be part of Ireland.
Some Scots hanker for independence. Blair’s devolution ignored England with Scottish MPs voting on English matters.âThere are calls for a re-instatement of Wessex as a governing region as counties are too small but England too big with local concerns ignored.
All of this would still need Churchill’s ‘defence alliance’ of the English speakers.âBut we seem to be entwining the UK with the EU’s defence plans.
August 1, 2023
I suspect it was the USA’s actions over Suez in 1956 that gave impetus to the the moves to join the Treaty of Rome grouping.
August 1, 2023
I agree that joining the EU did enormous damage to our relationship with Commonwealth countries and our economy and aligning us with any EU mandate was a mistake . When we went to war with Germany Commonwealth countries signed up with us and fought the aggressor – this bond showed the physical , economic and moral strength that existed between us ; the monetary cost and lives lost was enormous . The EU should not forget that if the UK and the USA had not made the combined effort to free Europe it would have meant a devastation to the world . Now we do have a re-building job on our hands and we must not allow any pressure from the EU mechanism to get in the way .
August 1, 2023
As a 78 year old, I hope I live long enough to see the benefits of leaving the EU. I voted for Brexit and have absolutely no regrets whatsoever about doing so! I would have preferred a cleaner break rather than the NI fudge that has hampered the process of leaving. But for me and many others, the most important thing was to get out of an institution run by an unelected elite. There I’ve dared to say I still believe in Brexit!
August 1, 2023
Agree – I’m just waiting for a government that will implement brexit and the result of the referendum
August 1, 2023
GC – Wait until Donald J Trump is “officially” in the White House. Panic everywhere. Nothing can stop what is coming NOTHING.
August 1, 2023
We live in interesting times
August 2, 2023
Agree.
August 1, 2023
As do many others Pat.
I’ve always thought that it would be very hard to break the EU ‘habit’ after 40 odd years of their influence. Of course, we are still in the early days of ‘Post-EU’ Britain but many who have known nothing else will slowly be replaced by others who have never lived under EU regulation (as us oldies can still recall). The more the EU makes it difficult for us (and I’m sure they are trying to do so) the more people will resent their attitude.
For example, why do we really have a problem with ‘Boat’ people? Ultimately, it’s because the EU cannot control it’s external borders, either on entry or exit. So they have large numbers of undocumented people moving across Europe but cannot bring themselves to accept a British Passport as sufficient evidence of good character. I think this tells you all you need to know about the vast bureaucratic nonsense that is the EU.
Give it time and hopefully others will come to see this too.
August 1, 2023
@Pat – the majority only ever voted to leave. The option was leave or stay no middle ground, What we now call the âBlobâ has aided a remain Parliament by running interference on anything that would return democracy to this Country. The so-called failures of Brexit are not, they are those of the remain camp still fighting a subversive rear guard action.
August 1, 2023
Spot on
August 1, 2023
Brexit should have given exactly what we voted for. Freedom! Freedom to make our own laws and run our global trades as we wish, not being ordered what to do by the faceless Brussels cabal. The EU main players, Germany and France, have thrived under the protectionist policies laid down by Brussels but it is now clear those policies and not helping the European citizens themselves.
Similarly, our Nation had prospered because we controlled our own policies to benefit Britain and us Brits. Regretfully, after being conned into voting for a “Common Market” which was, as we found out later, to prepare the way for a Federal States of Europe, our policies were declared obsolete and we had to kow tow to the Brussels protectionism losing our own manufacturing industries and agriculture in the process.
Now that we are almost free again, we must take up where we had to leave off fifty years ago and rebuild the trust and trade we had with the Rest of the World including the Commonwealth. Our future IS with the RoTW.
August 1, 2023
@Derek +1
August 1, 2023
“You do not need to be governed by trade partners to trade with them”
Exactly that. And you shouldn’t have to pay people to trade with them either – especially when not everyone in the club pays a “contribution”, in fact some take out others’ subscriptions. Effectively we were paying for other countries’ development, whether we liked it or not.
Globalists may have thought that was a good idea, based on their twisted, guilt-based notions of what is ethical but if they’re doing it with my taxes I want a say in it.
The TPP, AUKUS and 5 Eyes are reliable as allies and trading partners, without trying to govern us, grab our money and fish, or to undermine our industrial base with their legislation that benefits them over us. These are the places the UK should be.
August 1, 2023
XY
The US followed by China are the biggest trading partners of the EU, even without âfree tradeâ agreements. The EU doesnât and cant dictate to those Countries how they live their lives in their own domain. They would tell them were to go
The EU dictates to the UK because the UK Parliament and Conservative Government aided by the âBlobâ prefers it that way. Do you have to ask why?
The EU sells the UK 90 billion more than the UK sells them, yet with the rest of the World the UK sells more than it buys. Strange not one of those trading partners gets to tell our Government what to do in its own backyard.
August 1, 2023
Anglosphere was akin with invention, democracy, growth, tradition, sovereignty, and patriotism and innovative
Net-Zero, Mass immigration & Wokeness is the reverse âŠtheyâre anti-anglosphere philosophies and so is this government
This government’s loyalty is still with the EU and UN and not its own citizens
August 1, 2023
ââExodus from Canary Wharf leaves it at its emptiest for 18 years
Business district is scrambling to reinvent itself amid the rise in vacanciesââ Telegraph
This under a conservative government, maybe due to high taxes, ULEZ, rents, regulation and costs of net-zero
August 1, 2023
More likely ‘working from home’ caused it, office space is not required it’s happening everywhere, and people are stuck with commercial office space they can’t let.
August 1, 2023
NATO is changing. The appointment if Von Der Leyen is significant. Biden is not the first US president to want a unified politico-military structure in Europe. The EU has long tried to mould the European side of NATO to its own purposes making it de facto an EU enterprise. It is a logical progression of ever closer union that the EU should formally represent all member states in the EU. Von Der Leyen and others have already started to move the EU towards QMV in defence, security and international relations.
It is quite conceivable that NATO will become a US-EU organisation in the near future, with a few hangers on like the UK.
August 1, 2023
Sir JR
Interesting perspective about the English speaking part of the world including NZ, Australia, US and Canada and the UK.
Anyour comments about participation in the TPP, trading with that part of the world has been possible also as part of the EU, which is shown in the growth of Germany, Holland and the Scandinavian counties in that part of the world in the past 20 years, without being members of any trading organisation.
Trade is usually done mostly with countries in the part of the world you are geographically situated. EU, Mexico US and Canada, Japan and China, China and Asean and so on.
So talking about a new significant venture of the UK through the TPP, is probably more an illusion than reality.
August 2, 2023
Trade is easiest with people who share a similar culture. As an Englishman, one of the most difficult things I did was to buy a car from a Scot, not because there was anything wrong with him, but because I had difficulty relating to that specific gentleman. Hence, for the English, trade with culturally English people has an basic advantage from the start.
August 1, 2023
The British were whinging long before1973 it was one time called the English Sickness a time of work to rule and industrial strikes- it was in the 50’s and 60’s and was well known by people throughout the world also in earlier times in 19th century Australia the Brits were known as the ‘whinging poms’. Following 1973 some others had something else to complain about in the form of the EU – nothing was ever good enough for them then together with deluded types and a rag press it was built it up in their vacant minds to such a crescendo that in 2016 the brexit bubble burst and now guess what? it seems like the same are still not happy and now crying after the Empire – but the empire has long gone – just as we read in today’ piece and with the various comments. Now what to do?
August 1, 2023
Oh look, it’s our old friend the UK-hating multi-ID whinger, still trying to work out why he is so easily recognizable.
August 1, 2023
Sadly the âempireâ is not gone. It hangs onto the U.K. like a drowning man. Itâs called the Commonwealth and we should ask it for our independence!
August 1, 2023
Another day and another step to the left
August 1, 2023
“You do not need to be governed by trade partners to trade with them.” Exactly. As the excellent Alexander Downer pointed out while Westminster politicians were going through every possibly contortion of the truth to try to sign the UK up to the EU Customs Union, ‘Australia has a close trade partnership with New Zealand, but would never enter into a Customs Union with new Zealand’.
August 1, 2023
Its so obvious , a long winded discussion doesn’t need to take place. Business doesn’t need geopolitics, it goes for the best deal.
August 1, 2023
The commerce ministry announced Monday that starting 1st August 2023 China would restrict exports of gallium and germanium â two metals used in semiconductor manufacturing âŠ.what next, batteries, steel, EVs
August 1, 2023
Professor Jim Saker, President of the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI), has suggested that the rise of electric vehicles from China could lead to âmajor security issuesâ.
He warned that some electric cars built in China could be controlled remotely, stressing that they could âparalyseâ the country. Professor Saker, who is also Director of the Centre for Automotive Management at Loughborough University, said: âThe car manufacturer may be in Shanghai and could stop 100,000 to 300,000 cars across Europe thus paralysing a country,â he told the Telegraph.
Tests are in place which would allow regulators to sample vehicles to see if they contain spyware or other issues which could affect the car.
China might be able to command cars to stop at busy road junctions, or near strategic buildings, potentially paralyzing the area.
August 1, 2023
O/T but rather interesting: FT, 30/07/2023 âWill there be enough cables for the clean energy transition?â.
August 2, 2023
The Anglosphere is our natural habitat, fortified by a single language we all understand and similar traditions and background.
If we are to be in any bloc it should be an Anglosphere one which is not only English speaking like us but more innovative, more freemarket and less bureaucratic than the continental European part of the developed world. Though we are not perfect (and getting less perfect along with most of the modern world) our ways, dynamism and principles are generally better than those in the non-Anglosphere world.
If countries are going to perforce amalgamate (which advanced, massively destructive weaponry may render necessary) our sensible place is not in a European bloc but in an Anglosphere bloc.