Many of us who v0ted for Brexit stressed that we wished to be friends with the continent, to trade with our neighbours using most favoured nation terms under the WTO, and to do many things with them by mutual agreement in sport, culture, defence, foreign affairs and the rest . What we voted to end was EU control over us, EU law making, a relationship driven by immutable Treaties and by a foreign court.
None of us doubt that our past has been very interwoven with our European neighbours, and none of us doubt our future will also contain many European engagements and links. What does annoy many Brexiteers is a false economic and historical narrative from Remain politicians that our links with Europe have always been positive and EU style laws and controls are essential for our peace, prosperity and freedom. Any normal reading of history will show how one sided that view is. Today the EU seeks to resolve tensions by legal argument, but not so long ago Europe fought over these matters.
The latest trade figures show that contrary to Remain forecasts our trade in goods and services combined has risen with the EU since we left. It has risen more with non EU, as it was doing in our later years as EU members. Non EU now accounts for 58% of our trade, though both EU and non EU are welcome.
The UK has a global destiny and has had a global role for several  centuries. That came to me from my reading of much European and world history. That also taught me that too many times  our intense involvement with the continental European countries  forced us into wars that were often as damaging to them as well as to us. We got involved in the struggles for domination by the great continental powers, and were often helping smaller countries to resist them. I am going to write some pieces to explore more of this theme over the weeks ahead. Today let us start by remembering that the UK often suffered pre 1945 from invasion, from raids and occupations by European powers, from annexation of our lands and from systems of slavery and feudal exploitation that came from the continent.
The Roman invasion led to seizure of lands and wealth, to a slave based society with inferior jobs and opportunities for most of the British who were unable or unwilling to join the Roman governing elite. The Viking raiders plundered, burned, and assaulted in their many raids and wars. The Norman French comprehensively chronicled their robbery of the lands and wealth of the kingdom for their own settlers, and placed a feudal yoke upon many British inhabitants of these islands. The Spanish attempted conquest in 1588, the French tried under Napoleon and the Germans under Hitler amongst the more serious attempts at violent overthrow of our governments. Had any of those succeeded we would have lost our freedoms and right to self government.
The UK’s involvement in European wars has been too frequent and damaging, leading to too much loss of life and diversion of effort from more productive peace time uses. Today it is welcome that the EU seeks to resolve the tensions between EU states by legal and political process. There are also dangers from the rise of European nationalism that the EU itself will get into disputes with its neighbours. Currently the war in Ukraine reminds us how damaging European wars can be.
The UK should be careful not to seek to express strong views about how the continent is governed, and should be reluctant to be drawn into continental conflicts and arguments. The UK cannot and should not seek to impose a view about all the border disputes, religious struggles, policy rows and neighbourly disagreements that still beset the many nations that have land borders with each other on a continent packed with many states. They need to resolve those themselves through peaceful means .
The Germans who have a big influence on EU policy direction used to argue with me to relent my opposition to the UK joining the Euro. They used to think the clincher argument was that the UK would have no influence  over it if we were not in it. They refused to grasp I had no  more wish for a say in the future of the Euro than in the yen or the rupee. The UK should take a global view based on a good mixture of our national interest and the best way forward for freedom, democracy and free enterprise worldwide.
December 28, 2023
Good morning.
I too do not care what the EU does. We however do have influence over them via the myriad of international bodies like the WTO that we can now sit on in our own right.
The future for the UK lays East of Suez.
December 28, 2023
Indeed, let Europe do what it will and get Parliament to help the UK become a free market, capitalist democracy (remember those?).
Incidentally, who is sorting out the repatriations to Anglo Saxons after the slavery and plundering of the Romans, Vikings and Normans? The Mongul, Ottoman and Qing dynasties probably need to cough up to somebody too.
December 28, 2023
If the Mongols had not destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate and put it’s capital,Baghdad, to the sword in 1258,Islam would be an even more formidable force than it is currently.The Qing tended to be inward looking and Xenophobic but you have a good case with the Ottomans!
December 28, 2023
â Today let us start by remembering that the UK often suffered pre 1945 from invasion, from raids and occupations by European powers, from annexation of our lands and from systems of slavery and feudal exploitation that came from the continent.â
On the other hand, we have the East India Company which for 150 years was transferring funds to the subcontinent in return for their goods – a big balance of trade deficit. Then, when opportunities arose, they took control of the various fiefdoms establishing a massive army and evicting the French as well as various native rulers in places like Delhi. The first globalist trading success maybe. Dalrymple is very good in cataloguing all this.
There was also Cecil Rhodes who was a plain-speaking patriot (or the devil incarnate according to Mark Twain) Rhodes thought much of the world consisted of rubbish countries and would be better under British control. This seemed to work quite well for a while – until the âwinds of changeâ.
December 28, 2023
Cameron is back to lead EU policy to make sure it is Brexit in name only. He announced in Lords UK under EU law from its courts! UK fined from EU court for red diesel punishing all UK to make the fine persuasive! An EU court imposing EU law across our country JR after we voted leave. Please explain. Once more you are an extreme fringe view in your left wing pro EU party. 4,000 EU laws still in force your party refusing to scrap EU laws as it promised to be elected.
Snakeâs EU Windsor sell out graphically demonstrates the treacherous direction of your party. DUP remain firm despite treacherous Heaton-Harris coercing, bullying, threatening and now bribing them to accept EU vassal state status and border down Irish Sea! Your govt cut the pay of DUP MPs! What are you doing JR to reverse this and deliver Brexit?
Yesterday you forgot to explain what benefit to society there is to jailing people who do not pay BBC tax? Years of promises no reform to pay a BBC tax who consistently fail to act in accord with its charter or reason for existence!
We see and suffer this with crime and disorder- May,, Cameron and Osborne destroying policing and allowing mass drug abuse across the country fueling other crime because rich posh people not seeing the destruction of society through their selfish purchase of recreation drugs- they can afford rehab and do not see the consequences of raging crime from drug gangs. We read how posh Tory MPs used drugs at different point of their lives so see no need to enforce drug laws just water down usage as criminals are victims to nonsense.
Mass immigration changes did not last two weeks!
December 28, 2023
The EU is a failing entity but we continue to hang on to its coat tails.
The blob will never forgive the electorate for wanting to leave and will move heaven and earth to keep us in lockstep.
The stables really do need a good clean.
December 28, 2023
Does “East of Suez” want the UK in their future?
Dean Acheson’s observation from the immediate postwar period that “Great Britain has lost an empire but not yet found a role” remains as pertinent as ever;only now time is running out and resources are dwindling as the western dominated world visibly unwinds and new trade and financial architecture from which we are largely excluded is put in place.
As for “the UK has a global destiny”,Persia had a global destiny,China had a global destiny,Rome had a global destiny,Napoleon had a global destiny,Hitler had a global destiny.I smell Anglo-centric desperation.
December 28, 2023
If we have things to offer, then yes !
We did not lose our Empire. The Americans forced us to give it up. Those loans were not free, unlike those made to the rest of Europe, including Germany. They came with strings attached.
Our role in the world is the same as every other country, and is based on trade and UK Contract Law.
December 29, 2023
Correct but the British Establishment will not accept that diminished political and financial role-it would be largely redundant.
December 29, 2023
Could we have not helped the French and not sold out to America, done a deal with the Germans and kept the Empire? It is quite interesting that after the French surrendered they ended up an equal without any war debts to America.
December 29, 2023
‘The future for the UK lays East of Suez’
– The future of the UK lays on the type of high quality tech brands we export abroad! (With Cambridge as the centre of UK’s Silicon Valley).
December 29, 2023
The problem with Cambridge is that posh, rich children havenât the drive and needs of poor, clever kids, we should take more care of who we give scholarships to and we must identify the top 5% in State schools who donât get the extra tuition and are naturally gifted. We used to do this through grammar schools, yes there were pushy children of people like teachers and doctors who bought in the tutors to pass the 11+ and paid for an advantage but that is a minor problem compared to leaving those children behind now, without the connections and superior teaching they need.
December 30, 2023
Agree completely.
But my point here is that tech entrepreneurs like to be closely connected to people in the world of science and tech (Cambridge University) and in the same geographical area (like Silicon Valley).
Which is why Cambridge would make a great UK Silicon Valley. But it is even’t about Cambridge Silicon Valley but exploring more how the UK can become even stronger as a high-tech nation (just as politicians have always tried to help their business people with trade agreements with other countries etc).
December 30, 2023
Our Country treats successful entrepreneurs dreadfully. The attack by a Mirror journalist on James Dyson which led people to claim all sorts about him and his company i.e. moving to Singapore after Brexit when he set up operations in Singapore many years before Brexit. He lives in the UK, he pays taxes in the UK, he funds university placements through his company and creates jobs, big spending on research and development including in Farming. The latest downtalk on Tim Martin of Wetherspoons it makes me despair. Soon entrepreneurialism, exploration, trade and development will be a dirty word amongst the youth that you are hoping will lead the way in science and tech unless they do it through government socialist style picking the right pony to back of who you know in the world of politics to get you the right contracts.
Who will take risks when its better to be in a group with short hours, long holidays and a guaranteed pension.
December 28, 2023
The EU is imposing it’s view on world politics by the censoring of Internet media, with huge fines for non compliance. Anyone who disagrees with the EU will be unable to express their opinion. The admittedly more attractive president than the drunken comedian Junker has ordered 5x too many jabs from her friend at Pfizer than anyone will accept and they are censoring disagreement from countries not willing to pay for it. They say nothing to say about the ruin of the European economies by the Ukrainian war or the reasons for the cause. They continue to wipe out fishing grounds in the Mediterranean and now UK waters. They continue to subvert the UK through their accomplices in the UK civil service. We must hope to find friends in the surviving countries.
December 28, 2023
Indeed, online censorship and the vast government etc. lies & propaganda is appalling. The Vigilent Fox on twitter lists loads of sensible comments on the Vaccines and Covid by Doctors and sensible scientists who were then banned the ones left on then have to self censor too. Now thankfully mainly back on Twitter at least. Doing this has distorted the debate hugely and killed many people with overuse of net harm Covid vaccines and net harm lockdowns.
Much talk of reducing IHT from 40% to 20% in the budget. It is a pathetic gesture even if Hunt abolished it in full in March. As 1. you have ratted on Osborneâs promise of 15 years back for ÂŁ1m thresholds and many other tax promises and so tax to death Conservatives can never be trusted again, and 2. whatever you do it will be reversed by Labour a couple of months later.
So at least abolish it in full.
When it is spent Gov. will get 20% plus anyway in VAT, stamp duty, CT, economic growth anyway.
December 28, 2023
Good points, many of which could well be applied to the USA too.
I don’t want a government that wants to strut on the world stage, that is interfering, beligerent, feels entitled, that wastes my country’s resources and people in the process and also antagonises foreigners. I’d like one that focuses on home issues and cultivating good trading relationships with the rest of the world (but leaves their politics to them, as they should do to us).
December 28, 2023
Wanderer:
Well said !
December 28, 2023
Isolationism worked well for the USA. The Monroe doctrine gave an excuse to interfere in countries close by.
The role of world policeman is an expensive one and usually leads to military and financial overstretch, as outlined by Paul Kennedy in âThe Rise and Fall of the Great Powersâ.
December 28, 2023
You speak for millions!
December 28, 2023
If you want a good laugh-best I’ve had for years-take a look at RT’s 2 minute christmas video clip-they do one every year and they are usually crackers,both tongue-in-cheek clever and very funny.This year they have surpassed themselves with,looking forward to the US elections,”Project Grandpa on a leash” featuring a deepfake Joe Biden being re-programmed with “good old Soviet technology”to sing (and dance) in Russian.
We interfered
We interfere
We will keep interfering
It’s on Youtube(I watched it half a dozen times yesterday and three this morning;it still splits my sides!)
December 28, 2023
You do know President Putin is 71 ? Hardly a spring chicken.
December 28, 2023
My understanding of our past involvements in continental power politics and wars from the 17th century onwards is that Britain wanted to stop a single European country from becoming too powerful, whether it be Louis XIV’s France or Hitler’s Germany. Now the EU is on the way to being an all-powerful monolithic state such that those rulers could only have dreamed of. Our foreign policy interests would seem to lie in preventing that from happening, and especially from preventing the EU from creating its own military forces. If Brussels perceives US/NATO to have failed in Ukraine, as it failed in Afghanistan, that could happen in the not too distant future. Then what do we do?
December 28, 2023
The EU was basically Germany after re-unification was allowed. It was the major economic engine of the EU, and depended on cheap energy from Russia. That was finished by the US inspired Ukraine war, and was probably one objective of the US in doing so, the other being to weaken and break up Russia. The first objective has been achieved, Germany/EU now being dependent on expensive US energy, the second objective has backfired disastrously, Russia being stronger and allied to China.
The EU is little more than a US vassal state which will be dependent on the USA for weaponry and energy. It poses no threat to the UK.
Meanwhile the UK is hobbling itself with expensive energy and destroying manufacturing instead of taking advantage of EU weaknesses because our leaders have bought into the green nonsense.
Starmer seems to be waking up on immigration and may do so on energy; it is probably the UK’s best hope…unfortunately. The present Conservative government and party are entirely at sea on all major issues.
December 28, 2023
The EU has its own problems with more members rebelling against diktats which donât appeal to their nations.
December 28, 2023
Yes, your first few sentences are my understanding too. Clearly the EU politburo wants to replace the individual European nation-state members of NATO. Germany, now by far the biggest net donor to EU funds, is the lead in EU activities and has effective control. Anyone see a problem?
We are inextricably linked with Europe; we need to strengthen our own democracy first (politicians and parties that DO what they promise the electorate) and encourage stronger democratic structures in Europe, to minimise the risk of repeating errors made in the past. I fear that the EU structure is anti-democratic, and therefore a retrograde step.
December 28, 2023
The EU is collapsing like just like the other 3 âthousand year Reichsâ. It will leave the same pile of rubble that will take generations to remove and rebuild.
At all costs, forevermore, the U.K. must remain interested, different and aloof from the Continent.
December 28, 2023
Historically,hat relied on finding patsies like the Habsburgs (to fight the French).Now,pretty much everyone knows about Anglo-American proxy war strategies to preserve monopoly capital.
December 28, 2023
Mr Trump seems likely to be elected again as President a year from now. His public statements suggest that he is unconvinced about the merit of supporting Ukraine’s defence. So, even if the Europeans don’t lose faith in the USA and NATO as you suggest, the USA may effectively withdraw its resources anyway.
December 28, 2023
Ensure EU has zero assistance from UK in both military personnel and weaponry. We should also try hard not to state or take steps to position ourselves towards the EU, one way or another. Let them determine their position regarding the rest of the World. Until EU presents any sort of threat towards us, we can afford to detach completely.
December 28, 2023
Hear hear. 3 dimensional arguments seem so lacking in politics. I will read your historical pieces with interest.
December 28, 2023
Concur – I enjoyed reading SirJ diary today
December 28, 2023
Indeed so – finding out what happened in the past (and not trying to rewrite it) is probably the best argument for the continued study of the Classics in order to avoid ideas that don’t work in practice. For example, Plato’s Republic, as conceived of/interpreted by, the founders of the EU.
December 28, 2023
Didnât work for Johnson.
December 28, 2023
Now the UK is once again being invaded, this time with assistance from within. This invasion will change our culture, our religion and the law forever.
December 28, 2023
We’ve lost that war, their army wasn’t bigger or stronger …its just that we didn’t have any generals with the courage to engage in battle
December 29, 2023
The army seems to be mostly generals, no boots on the ground.
December 28, 2023
Why should we want to be more powerful in the world,we cannot manage our own population and problems at present.As long as we continue to build on good relations between trading, that should be enough.Business concerns will not look at EU structures but rather look at their own interests.
December 28, 2023
Agreed. But the UK should also be wary of restrictions that advocates of world government seek to impose.
December 28, 2023
Thanks to 14 years of endless Conservative cuts to our defence capabilities, the next attempt to invade and conquer these islands may well succeed. Only this week Grant Schrapps, the SoS Defence, scrapped 30 RAF Typhoons – which will be broken up for spares.
December 28, 2023
SG
RAF Typhoons are no defence against the mass immigration, legal and illegal currently being forced on us against the wishes of a large majority of British people.
December 28, 2023
the UK border force is also NO defence against mass immigration
December 28, 2023
+1
December 28, 2023
The invasion is going on already, and no one is doing anything about it, as that violates inclusion and diversity.
December 28, 2023
The EU most certainly does not try to resolve tensions by legal and political process. It does so by bullying and internal sanctions against any country which does not comply with its diktat.
December 28, 2023
Not to mention âcease not freezeâ ie theft!
December 28, 2023
The great epiphany for all is that British people do no wish to impose their system, their laws and their rule on other nations. Neither do we want to have the burden of the Commonwealth around our necks. Indeed I donât believe we ever did, but having invented the modern world we sought to ensure weak nations were strengthened so they could survive in it, this cost us much treasure and blood, and it explains why the Empire was constructed with independence for all as the goal.
All we British want is to live under our perception of justice and law with our own people in our own land.
But have we a land? Is our own land our own? That is still the post-Brexit question.
December 28, 2023
@Lynn Anderson
Your whole post made me laugh. But this:
really had me.
December 28, 2023
That heritage is being deliberately eroded into nothingness by an ideology so poisonous to be almost invisible to the vast majority. They wonder at the changes but not sure why they are happening.
Western governments and their facilitators are now utterly captured
I genuinely won’t mourn my own passing. I for one am sick to the back-teeth of woke realignment and this Tory party sneekily endorses it bar a few hardy souls and even they are limited by woke parameters.
Even GB News is now nobbled by OFCOM
December 28, 2023
I had to laugh when i read a Daily Express story that the ‘scheming EU’ was ‘leaving Britain out’ of a plan to connect Europe with a high speed rail network that would reduce the need for air travel. Our contribution would have been to insist the lines were overengineered and then demand that they be scrapped as ‘nobody needs to get anywhere quickly’.
December 28, 2023
Yes we should be non-interventionist ref the EU or other foreign entities up to the point where their decisions or lack of them affect us. The argument then arises as to the point at which that occurs. Take the fairly straightforward issue of small boats, where a lack of French intervention (within French borders) prejudices our own interests, hence we need to take action. There’s no question of us being able to sit back and say *that’s an EU matter, it doesn’t affect us* because it surely does. So, does Euro interest rate policy affect us? EU wage levels when we have 3m EU citizens earning here or optionally there?
We probably should be more meddling and interventionist in all these matters because others sure as eggs are in ours!
December 28, 2023
Totally agree.
Your reference to the Roman Empire is interesting. As it is akin to the ambitions of today’s New World Order disciples! Often wonder who their Caesar will be?
December 28, 2023
Charles! Thatâs why he will wave or wear anyoneâs flag!
December 28, 2023
As Nigel Farage put it, “French food, German cars, Italian wine – what’s not to like? We love Europe? As for the EU…”
December 28, 2023
I love everything about europe accept their laws …they can keep them
December 28, 2023
He can’t be right about everything..
December 28, 2023
As I put it âBritish food (more Michelin stars than France), British cars (the best ever bar none!) British wine (we even invented champagne). Whatâs not to love?
December 28, 2023
Sir John
âWhat we voted to end was EU control over us, EU law making, a relationship driven by immutable Treaties and by a foreign court.â
Yes, in the EU as with all EU Citizens the electorate is disenfranchised and Governed by the unelected unaccountable, something Democracies abhor.
To that end we empowered and pay our Legislators (our MPs), to ensure the UK was a Sovereign Democracy â they have refused!
Our Legislators, our MPs, our government have all refuse the only job they have. They have refused to serve the people that they promised to serve. Instead, they reinforce the notion that their only masters are the ones no one votes for, are the ones that see the UK as a Competitor that must be held down. The UK electorate has still been disenfranchised
December 28, 2023
To many remainers confuse and choose to conflict Peoples mutually getting on with one and other and the unelected unaccountable EU Commission that get to rule and dictate. They also choose to misrepresent and confuse English/Common Law with the Napoleonic diktats as Law. In English Law it is the legislators that remove rights when appropriate, the legislators also get to amend and repeal those as required. In Napoleonic Law all rights are removed, before anyone knows what they mean and only given back as a reward.
December 28, 2023
Countriesâ citizens have loyalties like a family, protecting their own interests and being kind to their friends, and in turn good neighbours. Families tend not to care what other neighbours do unless they intrude without welcome or cause harm. In response, families can have marked effect on how nuisance neighbours behave without having to marry into theirs.
December 28, 2023
The UK has not just been too involved with Europe — we have been involved in the politics of the oil-rich Middle East to our great detriment. Now, when we find we can obtain our own oil and gas from our own resources, we seem unable to break the habit.
An energy-independent UK could pick and choose its areas of engagement. Why are we not doing so?
JF
December 28, 2023
You make one or two key points within the history lesson.
The EU would seek by legal and political means to resolve tensions between states. Very good, but the only tensions I see are between states, the citizens of same, and the EU itself. The EU is the problem because, all too frequently, it fails to take the people with it. It does not believe in democracy.
You say we should not get involved in border disputes within the EU. Agreed Catalonia for example, but on EU borders as in Ukraine and the Baltic states the ultimate threat is to ourselves so involvement is inevitable and should be early, sharp, and decisive. Learn from Hitlers modus operandi.
Your first paragraph is agreable wishful thinking. To enter exit negotiation expecting the EU to be other than spiteful was amateur in the extreme. They saw our exit as a threat from many potential leavers so decided to make it as difficult as possible, pour discourage les autres.
We should have exited on WTO rules, collecting the inbalance of duty on the way. We should have insisted that any irish border be their decision. We should have been absolute on fishing borders, admitting EU boats at our discretion and dictating fishing methods. All of which I recall as your thinking and that of Nigel Farage.
I love Europe but despise the EU. The faults in our exit were largely down to putting it in the hands of the incompetent who did not wish to leave anyway. A dreadful chapter in our history.
December 28, 2023
But who put our exit in the hands of incompetents, knowing the outcome in advance?
A sort of white flag not clear to all.
December 29, 2023
I’ve always found Boris an amusing chap but have also been somewhat doubtful about his real commitment to anything (but his own self interests). None the less, I do wonder how he would have fared if Mr Gove had not knifed him when Cameron disgracefully walked away from his job. We would have not have suffered Mrs May and perhaps our exit from the EU would have been better negotiated than it was…but I do agree with you that they were never going to make it easy or pleasant to do so. Given that realisation, we should have focused on our own needs and not worried too much about upsetting folk who didn’t hide their willingness to hobble our future…
However, time will tell who will flourish and hopefully already is. France is slipping behind us and Germany isn’t looking quite so confident either these days. It would be nice if the BBC and our “elites” recognised these facts too and didn’t continually talk the UK down. A bit of national pride from our national broadcaster wouldn’t be so bad would it?
December 28, 2023
âclincher argument was that the UK would have no influenceâ. Why would a Democratic free sovereign Democracy nation even be bothered with influence or power over others?
Part of being a Democracy is the respecting of alternative views. Socialism and dictatorships are the only doctrines that feel the need, to impose a view and not accept there is a alternative view. As we see in our daily life in this Socialist Dictatorship of a Country of our freedoms of speech and expression now have personally interpreted laws by imposed by our dictators. Our elected representatives, our MPs, our Legislators do not defend or protect basic freedoms they appear to be whipped up by heard instincts and the desire to protect themselves.
December 28, 2023
Britainâs consistent aim since Tudor times has been to prevent any one country in Europe from becoming dominant so, as you point out, often ending up supporting the weaker European countries against the strongest. Our support of Ukraine is consistent with this policy.
People in Britain were generally in favour of the Common Market but began to become hostile to it when it morphed into the EU; in favour of a free trade association but hostile to political integration and dominance over our own Parliament and long established laws.
December 28, 2023
Another excellent article and I look forward to the ones planned for the future. Forgive me if I now go off topic.
Front page of the Daily Mail today says Hunt to cut Inheritance tax. There, in a nutshell, is exactly what is wrong with this government. Don’t talk about it, just do it in the March budget, if it has not been watered down by then!
If Hunt/Sunak had any bottle they would lift the IHT allowance to ÂŁ1 million per person, so ÂŁ2 million for a married couple, which would take most ordinary people out of IHT completely. Then leave it at 10% on anything over that, so there is no incentive for wealthy people to seek elaborate ways of avoiding it. Another example of all talk and no action is that Immigrants were going to have to earn ÂŁ39k plus, as announced, but it then turns out it is only ÂŁ29k plus, another classic bit of spin. which damages the government credibility. Also how thick are Hunt/Sunak that they don’t restore VAT free shopping for tourists? Another classic own goal!
December 28, 2023
It will be interesting to see how Starmer deals with the EU when he is PM, he has said he wants closer links and the EU will be his main foreign policy area but I wonder if he’ll really want to be seen on friendly terms with the slew of nationalist and right-wing governments that will be elected in Europe over the next few years. Labour’s support for the EU has only ever been about the EU imposing policies on the UK that Labour agree with but haven’t been in a position to pass via Parliament.
December 28, 2023
âToday it is welcome that the EU seeks to resolve the tensions between EU states by legal and political process.â The problem there is that it is a political process without democratic oversite â the EU Parliament can debate, but it is not permitted to create, amend or repeal the Laws Rule and Regulations handed to them by the unelected unaccountable Bureaucrats.
But, as you say Sir John, we in the UK have no right to interfere and we shouldnât, that is the way they want to do things.
The objections that come from the Democrats of the UK is that is not how things should happen here â democratic accountability is paramount. It is the same objection the UKâs electorate has of those the voted and empowered â they are refusing their job.
December 28, 2023
A co-ordinated Europe is a practical impossibility – there are too many language and ethnic divides for this ever to happen . Time and history has shown that whenever one nation has attempted to impose itself on the rest of Europe it has resulted in disaster . Substituting this approach with any other so called democratic form – such as the EU , will end the same way . A single European currency or language – or no matter what , will all end the same way . Behind every style and attempt there are personalities and dominance will always emerge .
December 28, 2023
Bert
I agree, I do not think the EU as it moves forward with ever more expansion and control has a long future, certainly Germany can no longer afford the cost, and I doubt that the French people will support more spending on others who are looking to join simply for handouts.
Whilst we cannot isolate ourselves from the World or World events, I do believe we have to be rather more careful at getting dragged in with other Countries problems in the future.
December 28, 2023
Sir John, a bit tongue-in-cheek, as you point out the Romans, the Normans and so on all stole from and enslaved the people of these Islands. How many of these hereditary Norman Lords are still flush from their ill-gotten gains and still get to dictate? You missed the African Pirates that raided our shores to gather slaves.
When does the UK Citizen get their millions due as reparations for slavery?
December 28, 2023
They used to say you could count a fair few Norman surnames in the Oxford- Cambridge boat race. An indication of preserved hereditary power & wealth.
December 28, 2023
Actually,many of the Barbary pirates/privateers were north European in origin,British or Dutch in particular,with adopted Islamic names.A fact I gleaned from Adrian Tinniswood’s rather good “Pirates of Barbary:Corairs,Conquests and Captivity in the 17th Century Mediterranean”.It was ultimately the nascent US navy that did most to put an end to their activities.
December 28, 2023
Sir John
You could reason that most of these conflicts arise from the failures in not defending the right of democratic process. For the most part democracies are only drawn into conflict as part of fending off dictatorships trying to assert their will.
In a small way the conflicts even within the UK stem from a Central Government assuming the position of Dictator, as opposed to being the servant of its electorate. The power of the Country should be at the lowest level not at the highest level, the distortion of serving happens in the first instance by those at the top protecting themselves personally. To this end they spend more time refusing to defending all principles of democracy than they do serving it.
Look at Scotland, Wales or even the much bigger (population wise) London they have all mirrored this Conservative Government â they are dictatorships that donât serve their electorates but their own personal self-gratification.
December 28, 2023
It is becoming increasingly clear the EU and UK has allowed themselves to get involved in yet another US proxy war. And it looks likely this proxy war is heading, like others, for failure. Successive US administrations, since the collapse of the USSR, have used NATO as a weapon to annoy and threaten Russia without significant risk to America, but with considerable economic and military risk to Europe. Biden refused to negotiate with Putin, Biden scuppered the March 2022 ceasefire negotiations in Ankara and through the war in Ukraine Europeâs economy has been damaged especially Germanyâs. Before the war Biden spoke about âbringing an end to the NordStream2 pipelineâ and circumstantial evidence points towards America as the likely perpetrator? The Ukraine war was surely avoidable as it was all about Ukraine joining NATO. Why has EU and UK leadership been so passive on this issue, why are we so cowed by Americans?
December 28, 2023
David P Goldman,editor of Asia Times,writing for the Claremont Institute on Americanmind.org on 19 December:
“Attempting to move NATOs boundaries to the Russian-Ukrainian border may have been the stupidest act in the sorry drama of American foreign policy and President Biden’s declaration of March 26 2022 that Putin cannot be allowed to remain in power may be the emptiest boast ever by an American Leader.
America’s strategic position is about to suffer a blow on par with,and perhaps more devastating than,the 1975 collapse of Vietnam.
The atmosphere in Washington resembles Vienna in the Spring of 1914 as depicted by Robert Musil in The Man Without Qualities (1930):the reader,but none of the protagonists,knows that their world of illusions is about to come to a horrible end.”
I read the first volume of Musil’s magnum opus around 25 years ago;Goldman is so right!
December 29, 2023
The USA, the UK and Russia officially welcomed the Budapest memorandum of 1993 and stated that they would â respect âUkraineâs borders in return for Ukraine giving up its nuclear weapons. Admittedly respect does not amount to a guarantee and so it has proved. But the Ukraine issue is primarily a European issue and the USA is only getting involved because the EU proved to disorganised and hesitant to counter the Russian invasion. Russian control of Ukraine would threaten many other European countries but particularly the Baltic states and Poland. Donât blame the USA; this is our problem and they are helping us.
December 28, 2023
“The latest trade figures show that contrary to Remain forecasts our trade in goods and services combined has risen with the EU since we left.”
Yet the piece provides no numbers. What are they? More importantly, what are they when adjusted for inflation?
If I were an exporter, I could say “my exports have increased from ÂŁ3,000 to ÂŁ3,150”. Sounds positive, right?
Well, what if, at the same time, the unit price of my export increased from ÂŁ300 to ÂŁ350 due to inflation, that means I’ve gone from selling 10 exports to 9. Still positive? Not so much.
The devil, as always, is in the detail, and when any politician doesn’t give you all the detail, you should always ask yourself why.
December 29, 2023
I do hope that John puts his figures together for you Peter. There was an article in The Times that said UK GDP growth is forecast by CEBR to outgrow both the French and German economies in the Long Term, wonât that be fantastic. With the UK economy 20% bigger than France and catching up with Germany. Reonshoring of manufacturing, spreading that work around the UK.
The ONS and Eurostat data showed our economy was back above pre-pandemic levels – not so in Germany, the Eurozone in recession. The UK must focus on growth.
December 28, 2023
Well, of course, we are all mongrels. Part angle, Saxon, Roman, Celt, French and a whole load more. But it seems the only vaguely sane way to run things is country by country. That said, if the EU is a factor in the lack of a war (like WW1 and 2) since 1945, I am all for that.
That said, I donât want to be ruled by a country – or supra government – called the EU.
And that said, our countryâs government wants us to bathe in sewage (in the sea) and the EU says ânoâ to that nastiness.
Difficult to know whatâs best.
I am reading an interesting book called The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson. It strikes me that for a country to be stable and prosperous the size of the state must be limited to a fixed percentage of GDP, the amount a government can borrow must be limited and the amount of money created (by the government and the banking system) must be limited.
As an aside. Governments issue bonds which are bought with money held by investors. Who created the money that investors give to the government?
December 28, 2023
Speak for yourself. My people have been in these islands for 10,000 years. They walked here with the Chillingham herd before the channel flooded. They stood on the beach waiting from William to land. I was born in Zululand and have not one African gene.
I spoke to my 99 year old aunt, who went to South Africa when she was 6. She is getting a bit confused and asked me where I lived. When I said âEnglandâ she said âOh ⊠sheâs gone home.â
Nations are families. We are all related.
December 28, 2023
Even if that were true (Iâm not suggesting it isnât), youâre saying in 200 generations not one of them bred with someone from elsewhere? Few people can trace their family tree beyond half a dozen generations and even those of a lineage that can go back 500 years have no way of knowing whether any extra marital activity took place.
December 28, 2023
PS Nial Fergusson is a historian, not an economist. Iâm not convinced he understands money.
December 28, 2023
Indeed. The book is described as a âfinancial history of the worldâ. As for understanding money – does any economist? If they do, they keep quiet about it as we (all over the world) lurch from boom to bust and crisis to crisis.
December 28, 2023
Sir Johnâs fifth paragraph is a âdelightâ. Who were the âBritishâ at the time of the Roman, Angle, Saxon, Norman, ⊠invasions.
Does he consider the Celtic Britons the âtrueâ Brits? In which case they were pushed west by the Anglo-Saxons after 440 and were mainly found in Wales, Cornwall or Brittany.
Does he consider the Anglo-Saxons recently arrived from Scandinavia and coastal Denmark and Germany the âtrueâ Brits (the Venerable Bedeâs âHistoria ecclesiastica gentis Anglorumâ)?
It is as ridiculous as the French calling ânos ancĂȘtres, les Gauloisâ.
Will his next âmasterpieceâ be something like Asterix and Obelix but for Britain. I am looking forward to it.
December 28, 2023
An excellent history lesson containing ‘loadsa’ knowledge. And we all know that knowledge gives power – so essential when shooting down the arguments of those die-hard remainers who, for unknown reasons, still reside here. Why do they waste their breath attempting to defy democracy, and if it’s so bad, why have they not relocated ‘over there’?
December 28, 2023
Agree with this piece wholeheartedly.
I have been reminding people I know who are remainers that we have been at war with these countries for decades and that the warfare simply changed to be lawfare instead.
The problem is that they keep using their own politically-biasedcourt to leech more money out of us.
The wars are not over. There is very little genuine consensus in the EU, everything is a battle of different economies with different needs and interests. Many of its members are there for the handouts available to some via their strange concept of what a club is – whereby only some members pay a hefty membership fee and some other members take it out.
Or they want the security, such as it is – even if that is only the security of not being at war with the other members (their security from the likes of russia is largely dependent on non-EU countries such as the USA and Britain, which is why they keep trying to draw us into a European Army, led by the EU instead of the UK, which would be more sensible since the UK would be its strongest member).
All in all, the EU is not some cohesive force for good, it is a disjointed, inefficient and self-serving entity that was devised for politicians with politicians’ careers in mind, but also serves to provide Eu countries with a collective fig leaf to hide behind when Big Bad Vlad comes a-calling.
They need to start fulfilling their NATO commitments properly – and make up for the years the underpaid by overpaying now so that they can catch up militarily to where they should be.
December 28, 2023
I prefer to call it different — Yes we were always involved with our near neighbours, but we did not spring from Europe.
Over hundreds of years you saw innovation in the UK or Europe adopted by the rest – That’s how it should be. Forward moving countries always seek better solutions, unfortunately the EU has spoiled all of that in its desire to control everything and destroy innovation.
December 28, 2023
“The UK … should be reluctant to be drawn into continental conflicts and arguments” – that should be a cornerstone of our foreign policy, although “reluctant” should presume non-participation.
The U.K. should make clear it will not be pulling others’ chestnuts out of the fire once again, particularly for the ill-prepared (Germany, unless Defence Minister Pistorius has his way) , beligerent (Poland’s Tusk amongst them) and myopic (most of the E.U.).
Let us aso be mindful that in the contemporary world, war aims can be achieved in news ways, unreliant upon navies, armies and airforces. We should avoid the putative traditional mstake of generals in preparing only to fight in ways that would have won the last war.
December 28, 2023
Here is a very reason why:
Another Ukrainian participant in the Istanbul talks, the former deputy foreign minister of Ukraine, Alexander Chalyy, has admitted publicly that the country was close to peace with Russia at that time, but “for some reasons” the settlement was postponed (because of British interference i.e Boris Johnson)
David Arahamiya earlier said the conflict could have ended as early as spring 2022, but Johnson suggested “just fightingâ.
December 28, 2023
”The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), which distributes aid, sent India ÂŁ33.4 million in aid cash in 2022/23. But the FCDO’s annual report, published this week, reveals that the total is set to rise to ÂŁ57 million in 2024/25”
Stop all aid to India
December 28, 2023
France does not qualify for a seat at the UN as it does not qualify as an independent country as defined by the UN.
December 29, 2023
the security council isn’t about counties its about independant nuclear weapons (and who had them at the start of the UN)
December 29, 2023
Are you sure?
The official start of the UN was on 24/10/1945, with the idea of the UN debated since at least 1942. At that time, only the USA had nuclear weapons, even if other countries had been working on/thinking about them.
The USSR had their first test in August 1949 in Kazakhstan.
The UK tested its first nuclear weapon in October 1952 tested in Australia.
France was the fourth country to test a nuclear weapon in 1960 in the Algerian Sahara.
China tested its first nuclear weapon in 1964.
The first session of the Security Council was held on ⊠17 January 1946.
December 29, 2023
A great description looking outwards to the world, but what about looking inwards? We are in danger of being overwhelmed by the most devastating invasion we have ever experienced in our long histories (English, Scottish and Welsh). The UK is a federal government which has been captured by entities far more dangerous to us than the EU. So has much of the rest of the former free world. Your worldview is correct but twenty years behind John. Inside the UK we are already losers to a devastating invasion, which eclipses and denies many of the points you try to make or the threats we were once facing.
December 31, 2023
Just one query n this piece. What would have happened to us as a nation if we had been bound to Europe in 1914 and 1939? I think we would have had trouble in taking up arms against our European ‘allies’ and just been subsumed by them. We want our own destiny and ability to make our own laws (not the Napolean idea) based on our historical background. Members of my family fought for our right to be our own boss in both wars, some of them died and probably were not too sure of what they were fighting for, especially the 1st World War, but my Mother and Father definitely knew what they were fighting for in the 2nd World War and I have been brought up on their views of history and what they wanted for their country. It was certainly not joining up at the hip with Europe which has become the EU. Trade with them as we are doing but nothing else.