The EU in 2020 made a momentous decision. With the UK no longer having voice or vote to oppose, they decided to go ahead with large borrowing programmes at EU level. Germany was reluctant to see the EU become a transfer and collective borrowing union but was persuaded to let it pass.
Prior to 2020 the EU had borrowed just 30 bn in its own name. Now it has borrowed 400 bn. It plans to borrow the best part of 1 trillion Euros this decade, with 806 bn ear marked for the NextGenerationEU fund and other money for SURE, the unemployment fund. Whilst some of the NextGen money is loans where the ultimate borrowing countries are meant to repay, the overall borrowing is on the EU account. The EU is evolving into a transfer union with a single larger budget.
Had the UK stayed in the EU the totals borrowed may have been larger.We represent 15% of total EU plus UK Gdp. Member states are liable for their Gdp proportion of the total. In practice though markets will hold all EU states jointly and severally liable for EU debt and the EU could demand higher proportions in a future decision for any member state.
So the UK would have added at least 120 bn euros to our state debt burden by accepting 15 % of this new debt. That is more than £4000 for every UK family of extra debt we have avoided by leaving the EU.
The EU has also upped the amount member states have to pay into the annual budget of the EU by 0.6% of GDP. That would have been another £14 bn a year of contribution by taxpayers before any rebate.
January 29, 2024
“That would have been another £14 bn a year of contribution by taxpayers before any rebate.”
Yes and had the UK voted to stay its opposition to the removal of the rebate – which is granted only by a unanimous vote in the European (more correctly EU) Council would probably have ceased at the end of the 2019-24 five year plan or by 2027 when rebates to other EU states are planned to end. Neither would it be reinstated were the UK to rejoin.
January 29, 2024
We are still paying EU for leaving!!
Then we have Sunak’s economic stupidity, again, giving £2.4 billion each year to EU Horizon project to promote EUs interests and the EU might award some of our money back! Spend the money here.
Sunak pays EU to check goods from one part of our country to another. Anyone check illegals from RoI to GB?
Then Sunak gives away our fishing for…nothing.
Sunak gives France £500 million to collect illegal boat people from France. He provides 4 star hotels for these EU illegal criminals, gives them jobs to undercut British workers, allows them home for Christmas and never deports them! Another £8 million a day!
January 29, 2024
Does the EU Horizon Project help anyone in Pembroke
January 29, 2024
How about HS2 costs an EU infrastructure project!
January 29, 2024
Maybe we won’t share the EU borrowing but the French government are blackmailing you for money to build Sizewell C
Hinkley delayed fot another 6 years and costing almost £50 billion and you’re letting the same cowboys , the French government build Sizewell C.
Begone sir .
January 30, 2024
But Sizewell C is a good way to transfer £££ from normal people to the boards of huge power companies. We seem to have gone from a mixed economy to a corporate state within 60 years. The mainstream wing of both main parties (possibly 90% of the opposition, i.e. the next ‘government’ will be even worse) now represents CEOs and the managerial (and to some extent clerical) classes. What about ordinary people, SMEs, self-employed professionals, other micro-businesses, etc? They feel powerless and disillusioned.
January 29, 2024
Meanwhile, Portillo has been on GB news saying that the Tories will be out of power for at least 10 years, with or without Sunak going into an election.
It may be that the Tory party is completely wiped out, though it’s difficulty to predict exactly what will
happen.
The upside of wipeout would be that there is one less party – besides Labour and Lib Dem for careerist chancers to get established. Labour infighting would begin soon after election too.
January 29, 2024
Good morning.
It is not the EU debt we are, mercifully, not liable for, but that which we are.
How can the UK, in or out of the EU, be said to be liable for any debt when we put more in than we took ?
And as for debt, whilst this is indeed some crumb of comfort that we will not be ‘directly’ liable or paying more in, we will have to suffer the losses incurred in other ways – ie the loss of our fishing waters and independence in energy. I believe we pay the most per Mwh and who is to say that this will not rise as State owned companies like EDF look to raise more funds to help cover government debt.
I am tired of subsidising others, both here and abroad.
January 29, 2024
…and of course England subsidises the othe home nations, without any great thanks.
January 29, 2024
Mark,
We are paying their debt with our yearly contributions for leaving! What do we get for the estimated £40 billion? Will we be provided with an accurate figure?
January 29, 2024
Indeed it is the subsidising and thus augmentation of essentially parasitical people in the state sector or thise on benefits (who should not be) or migrants in hotels (and some working too on of all their living costs).
So prison officers to train contractors in forcing asylum seekers onto planes to be paid £36,000 it seems. So rather more than many junior doctors (with £100K of student debt and £7K of interest PA on this so do not have enough to live on in many areas).
Sunak still idiotically pushing his smoking ban by date of birth and Labour still pretending that VAT of private school fees will action raise tax income when it will cost far more than it raises. We are governed by broken compass morons now and later in the year when Starmer gets in. Replacing Sunak will do little to rescue the Conservatives, but it cannot make things any worse can it?
January 29, 2024
Meanwhile 80% of reported shoplifting is not attended by police and doubtless hardly any shops bother to report most of it anyway as rather pointless given the police lack of any worthwhile police response. So you probably have about a 1 in 5,000 chance of being prosecuted so almost zero deterrent.
Very low sentences even if you are found guilty.
January 29, 2024
In the polices defence 80% of shoplifters aren’t UK citizens …so why bother
January 29, 2024
“I am tired of subsidizing others….”.You’ll love this then:
“Ukrainian investigators raid offices of several Defence Ministry officials in connection with embezzlement of roughly $40m in funds allocated for buying artillery shells.Suspects include current former Defence Ministry officials.”Meduza,29/1/24
I suspect it will not take them long to get through Camerons new £2.5 bn!
January 29, 2024
A lot of transfers to the Cayman Islands.
January 29, 2024
I saw today that 20% of all taxes spent on the NHS, just under 20% on welfare and just under 20% on Government debt interest. Outrageous. After 14 years this Tory Government has proven to be fiscally incompetent. Just go so we can reform the NHS and welfare to bring down Government spending to reduce debt and interest payments. Highest taxes ever, for what? Low wage Immigrant payments at £250k over their lifetime. We’re led by fools. We need Reform.
January 29, 2024
Of course this situation will be reversed when Starmer as PM working with Tory Remainer scum take the UK back into the EU in defiance of democracy
January 29, 2024
Agree DOM
God help us if Starmer and his crew ever come to power this or any other year, Armageddon springs to mind
January 29, 2024
It feels like they’re already in power
January 29, 2024
DOM,
Yes they are sufficiently arogant to try it.
January 29, 2024
Oh no! You must be wrong!
On Saturday I had a Labour doorstepper telling me that Labour will not reverse anything. We’ve left so that’s how they’ll leave it! 🦄
This person came from a London borough where the council meetings begin with prayer…not Christian you understand…but everyone submits to them ….
January 29, 2024
* prayers
January 29, 2024
They can’t take the UK back into the EU. Maastricht rules require debt to GDP ratio no more than 60%, and there is no prospect for the UK achieving that.
January 29, 2024
and the Euro?
January 29, 2024
+1 seems so.
January 29, 2024
Correct – We’re not in the EU so why is there any debate about being part of their collective borrowing
January 29, 2024
GC- yes that is what they want us to believe but are we truly OUT of the EU. There are many clandestine UK departments within government that will do all in their power to prevent a TOTAL withdrawall. Start with the left wing globalasit Civil service.
January 29, 2024
Avoiding being sucked into the EU’s economic machinations was a good reason to leave.
But haven’t we now got ourselves enmeshed militarily? You know, with the outfit that was created specifically to keep Europe safe from any more wars!
Surely troop mobility/transportation WAS the reason for HS2?
January 29, 2024
Everhopeful,
What a fanciful idea, only our excess of generals could afford to retreat by HS2 from London. Our squadies would as usual walk.
January 30, 2024
PESCO?
Military Mobility?
January 29, 2024
One reads some odd things on the internet. That is one of the oddest. What do you think the thinking was? We go to war, conscript lads in Birmingham and get them to London 15 minutes quicker? What about their kit? The guns, rocket launchers, tanks (we haven’t got) etc. Aren’t our 3 working tanks in Bovington, Dorset already?
Or maybe you are thinking about sending troops up from Aldershot to Scotland to put down an Independence Rebellion. Getting the leg of the journey from London to Birmingham 15 minutes quicker could be crucial. But, doesn’t the army have its own transport? Maybe they could hire coaches, if needed.
January 30, 2024
You sound like that MP who flatly denied plans for an EU army.
January 29, 2024
Did nobody notice Putin’s ambitions, rather like the odd moustached one who wreaked horror across Europe once before? No more wars?
January 29, 2024
Putin’s ambitions lie East and South,not in the decaying west.That is plain to see if you do your own research-all the supply chain infrastructure they are building is geared towards Asia,Iran,the Gulf and Africa where Russia has plenty of friends and allies.
I saw some stooge on the TV yesterday-Tim Collins I think it was-saying that after Ukraine,the UK would be next.What utter delusional rubbish.The UK (or rather it’s ruling globalist elite)is indeed the biggest loser from the new world order that China and Russia are ushering in but neither are remotely interested in invading the UK.
January 29, 2024
Is there any room for debate?
Several other opinions are available!
January 29, 2024
Why does my comment need moderating?
Surely free speech is an essential part of living in a democracy?
January 29, 2024
I think that Putin was about 5 years old at the time.
Not likely to have noticeable ambitions!
January 29, 2024
Moustachioed?
You mean the Kaiser?
January 29, 2024
oh come on – you can’t really miss the connection!
January 30, 2024
No…but HE had a toothbrush moustache ( Germans have a worse/revolting name for them).
One really only refers to the wearers of long, curly or ornate moustaches
as moustachioed ( or as you put it…moustached).
January 29, 2024
So says the media but I think you will fins some of us think differently. Quite frankly I have been pretty disgusted with our behaviour over the last 20 odd years
January 29, 2024
You have to ask why are we taking in fighting age men who are running away from wars in their own countries, leaving their women and elderly behind then our politicians are saying conscription will have to return to bolster our armed forces to be sent as cannon fodder to these very same countries. An excellent monologue by Neil Oliver the other day. I doubt the Woke will be rushing to defend anything. Maybe David Cameron can sacrifice his children first to set an example. I’m disgusted with this government.
Reply The politicians are certainly not pro conscription.
January 29, 2024
Reply
‘The politicians are certainly not pro conscription’ neither are the military, that lone voice from a army general was pointing out that we currently DONT have enough soldiers to repel Putins army ….the government leaking about conscription is a smoke screen, the real story was about the current orbat ie numbers in our army
January 29, 2024
Surely the EU borrowing in 2020 was to finance their anti-Covid measures, just like QE in this country. Like our government, the EU became massively indebted to a level never known before, and gave the same explanation – saving the population from a ‘killer virus’. The benefit of leaving the EU was more in that we were free to make our own decisions about vaccine mandates and other measures, which we did in January 2022, months before e.g. Germany.
January 29, 2024
Yes, this is, sadly, another piece saying ‘we’re not as bad as the other guys, so vote for us’. The reality for UK plc, is we are STILL borrowing money to cover budget deficits, despite highest taxes……, our borrowing costs are going up and it looks like the cost of defending our nation is about to go up in multiples. So, What’s the plan you delinquent PCP?
January 29, 2024
To finance their anti-covid measures of absurd net harm lockdowns and coercing net harm vaccines even into young people and those who had had Covid already & who never needed them (even had they been safe and effective). Both did huge net harm alas.
Sunak going on about vapes today distraction politics I assume. He says “the long term impacts are not fully clear” well perhaps, but the long term health impacts of the new tech Covid vaccines look rather appalling many 1000s of times the size of the problem from Vapes. How are JCVI funded and who selects their “experts”?
Allison Pearson was right 2 years back.
Chris Whitty will overrule the JCVI and kids 12-15 will start being vaccinated on Monday. Unethical, immoral, risky. – hugely risky and clearly no net benefit as they were never at any real risk
January 29, 2024
We made a mess of covid without the EU
January 30, 2024
Actually being in the EU didn’t make much difference. Sweden is in the EU but was able to follow very sensible minimum restrictions, and came out better than the rest economically. It suffered the least impact on GDP and now has a debt-to-GDP ration only around 36%, barely more than a third of ours. The key difference was that Sweden had a health policy independent of political interference. It had about the same number of ‘Covid deaths’ per 1m of population as France and Spain (Worldometer), which had very severe mandates and restrictions. Lockdown-free Sweden is the proof that the lockdowns had little impact on people’s resistance to a virus, but a very damaging impact on their livelihoods.
January 29, 2024
Completely wrong. If we were still a member, we could have used our veto. Now it will happen, and we will be affected by it since the EU is next door and our biggest export market, but we will have no say
January 29, 2024
This is a bit of pre election moral boosting. It is like saying vote conservative because labour is worse, which no doubt it is. I for one voted Brexit because I wanted a return of our sovereignty. The conservative government since 2019 has made an exceedingly poor job of returning our sovereignty, witness Northern Ireland, left wounded, despite it’s cries for help, in no mans land. A result of a government that does not really believe in Brexit.
The fact that we do not have a further £120Bn.,to add to the £2.64 trillion of UK debt we already owe is hardly an election winning bullet point. Perhaps you would care to tell us, not what we have avoided owing per family, but what that £2.64 trillion amounts to per family. It looks like a car flogging advert, never mention the price, only the supposed saving. Advertising is full of such savings, they fool nobody.
I very much doubt you believe it yourself.
January 30, 2024
No. Northern Ireland is not wounded as a result of a government that does not really believe in Brexit, Northern Ireland is wounded because of Brexit. Millions of us, including the large majority in Northern Ireland itself, voted Remain in 2016 precisely because Leave could never tell us how we could leave the EU without putting a border between Britain and Nothern Ireland. And that is exactly what has happened. Brexit means red tape, Brexit means restrictions, Brexit means borders
Reply More of us voted Leave because there is an easy way of not having a border there. Don’t impose one!
January 30, 2024
If the UK does not enforce a border with Ireland, then it cannot enforce its border ANYWHERE – it would have to leave Dover, Harwich etc wide open. This follows from the non-discrimination rule under WTO law . You have said you favour Brexit on WTO terms – turns out (as so often with Brexiters) you never knew what that even meant
Reply What nonsense. WTO countries have borders
January 30, 2024
Yes, WTO countries have borders. But they must apply them on a non-discriminatory basis. Really, you don’t understand this at all, it’s amazing to see!
January 29, 2024
What has always bugged me is the lack of transparency regarding our relationship with the EU.
When we were a member – how much did we pay in? How much did we get back?
Now, how much do we pay the EU each year?
When will we stop paying?
January 29, 2024
We don’t need crippling levels of foreign debt … we can get all that at home.
However, when Remainiacs ask for one single Brexit benefit the easy answer is that we don’t have to pay our annual membership fee which would be what ? A net £20bn contribution ? Or more ?
January 29, 2024
Personally I am glad we left the EU making our own decisions. Some people not all who would have us back in the EU appear to have vested interest . I would like us to use the Freedom in area’s like VAT
January 29, 2024
Gilt issuance by the Treasury/BoE in the UK has reached levels not seen since WW2. The national debt is now ~£2.75 TRILLION, which represents close to 100% of GDP. Government borrowed £119 billion in the financial year to December 2023, £11 billion more than in the same period of the previous year. (source; https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn02812/) Most of the £119bn was spent paying interest on the national debt.
The BoE has to keep interest rates at 5.25%, as our lenders want high interest to compensate them for the risks associated with lending to a country which routinely imports more than it exports and which has a government that routinely spends more than it gets in tax. Unfortunately, the economy is based on cheap money and many SME’s are now struggling with unsustainable debt levels; there will be many company bankruptcies in 2024
Clutching at straws, the right-wing press is demanding tax cuts for the rich as an electoral giveaway before the next election. Clearly, there is no fiscal room for any tax cuts. The country is bankrupt and one more financial crisis will result in a visit from the IMF, forced spending cuts and millions more unemployed
January 29, 2024
Against the wishes of the entire establishment we voted leave. The establishment spent the next few years undermining and negating that vote making the advantages of leaving as tiny as humanly possible. At the same time they imported millions of illegals, wrecked our economy with the covid scam, destroyed millions of people’s health with fake jabs and are currently turning us back to the stone age with their ludicrous climate scam.
Aren’t we lucky.
January 29, 2024
The Establishment thinks prosperity and pride are too good for the hoi polloi.
So they still work against the public opinion.
January 29, 2024
Trading economics dot com:
Euro area debt to gdp 2020: 97.2% 2023: 90.1%?
United Kingdom debt to gdp 2020: 96.5% 2023: 97.5%?
Rating agencies give higher credit rating to the Euro area than to the UK (AAA vs AA)
Evolving into a transfer union is not a bad thing for the EU.
January 30, 2024
@ Peter+van+LEEUWEN – agreed, a very good thing for the EU to become a transfer union: we have had one within the U.K. for centuries. It might though be very much less of a good thing for some member states, particularly the perpetual payers in such a system.
January 30, 2024
@formula57:
The Netherlands has always been a net contributor to the EU budget.
Visualcapitalist dot com shows the top net EU contributors per capita (2018 figures):
Netherlands €284
Denmark €254
Germany €208
Sweden €196
Austria €174
UK €147
I don’t mind that in this way we have assisted in the growth of poorer EU countries, because it has grown our Single Market which is to our benefit.
January 29, 2024
Germany, France, Italy and Holland run a trade surplus with the EU the other members receive subsidies. It is worth their while being part of the club and being jointly liable for debt.
The UK lost out on trade and paid more in that it received. It was uniquely placed to benefit from leaving.
January 29, 2024
Narrow Shoulders
I fundamentally disagree and there is another ten countries with a trade surplus in the EU, we would have been better off staying in the EU
January 30, 2024
We had been in the EU for 40 years and not run a trade surplus, the deficit was getting worse. Our contributions were increasing (apparently our black market economy meant we had to pay even more) and with expansion our influence was decreasing.
You disagree fundamentally because you believe in the concept. We continue to trade with the EU and if we had negotiated better, Northern Ireland would not be the issue it has become.
Time to get behind our current status.
January 30, 2024
Who are the other ten trade surplus EU Countries Bill in addition to the ones NS listed?
January 30, 2024
A tracy
See input from Peter van Leuwen
January 29, 2024
The UK parallels the EU with the same non democratically chosen woke policies. For that reason the debt in the EU and UK will run parallel to each other.
January 29, 2024
I search in vain for this to be trumpeted by your government. I guess still Remain at heart and told not to by the EU captured FO.
January 29, 2024
Just pleased we are out of the EU for this very reason, German citizens will eventually get fed up with subsidising most of the other Countries for no real benefit themselves.
Shame we have still not yet left properly, and grasped the opportunities that real self Governance would provide, but perhaps we do not yet have sufficient politicians who are capable of carrying forward that vision., as most still seem to want to look backwards for closer ties.
January 29, 2024
‘no real benefit’? Isn’t running the show enough?
January 29, 2024
Nevertheless is it the case that the debt we ARE responsible for….or rather successive govts are….remembering that we have only just paid off a Napoleonic war debt…have landed us in our present mess.
Our govt is so feeble that it does exactly as bidden by various institutions because we are financially indebted to them?
And what money borrowed in the last 40 years or so has actually improved anything?
January 29, 2024
I would be interested to know what sums we continue to pay the EU and why and for how long and whether these amounts are masked in any way with say spurious titles set to mislead, My trust in the EU and Westminster is very limited.
January 29, 2024
A fact and figures day
Population EU 448 million, UK 67 million therefore approx. 15% of the size
Year 2022-23 the Conservative Government borrowed £130.1bn for us to pay back, and the UK Debt as of Oct 2023, was £2,636.9 billion
At the start of this Conservative Governments reign, in 2013 the London Stock Exchange (LSE) had 2,448 firms with a combined value of £4.3trillion.
At the end of 2023 there were 1,836 firms quoted on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) with a combined value of £3.5trillion. So the it lost close on an actual £1 trillion of vale – that’s not even accounting for inflation etc. The Conservative Governments export of UK Industry and Jobs?
Over the same period 2013-23 – the Conservative Governments tax take went from £492.8 Billion to £788.6 Billion
How will things be when we actually really leave the EU and stop being the colony which we are, this Conservative Government not wishing to manage has kept as tight as possible to taking its orders from the EU Commission, no doubt Labour will do the same. Our Parliament keeps fighting the people.
January 29, 2024
Sir John
For sure the EU Trade Commission wants to turn its self into a fully recognized un elected un accountable full-blown EU Country and Government.
You then have to ask why does the Conservative Government and the HoC generally want to be part of this un-democratic process by keeping us tied to it. Or is it that parliament wants to ensure it can resume its lazy life of being a subordinate local council without responsibilities when it opts back in with the manipulative subterfuge and deceit we now see.
January 29, 2024
Freedom in being out of the EU is refreshing, or should be. Paying into a club whose ‘services’ deliver mainly restrictions and penalties is a membership fee for idiots. Now we are paying that fee to UK government idiots who waste much of our value, even though the EU doesn’t contribute as much to that.
January 29, 2024
The original terms for countries participating in the Euro were that it would never become a transfer union; no country would become liable for the debts of other participating countries.
Apart from anything else, it’s proof that you can never trust anything that comes from the EU. Before morphing it into a transfer union, they should have given participating countries a way out of the trap …. but of course that would not have suited the Globalists’ purposes.
I’m sure our Treacherous Establishment will find a way of making us contribute to the EU’s Treaty-Breaking Debt. As they have everything else.
January 29, 2024
Over 1000 criminal migrants have crossed the channel so far this year, for a life of “free everything” and sponging off British taxpayers.
So it’s good to know that Rishi is focusing on the important things and is going to ban single-use vapes. Apparently it’s his “legacy issue.”
I suspect his real legacy will be the obliteration of the Not-a-Conservative-Party.
January 29, 2024
“EU borrowings are a new burden the UK will not share”
Good we have far too many burdens already. The Sunak Government, Starmer to come with huge majority, highest taxes for 70+ years & still rising, borrowing still rising, the net harm vaccine damage, inflation going up again, pointless net zero lunacy & rip off energy cost, steel industry closing down, vast overregulation of almost everything, the NHS waiting list and delays still rising, vast sums wasted on HS2, pointless degrees for £50K of expensive debt, hotel costs for illegal migrants, rising crime, children stabbings…
January 29, 2024
Yes, good news, but of course the main reason for leaving the EU was to enable the electorate of the UK to remove and elect those who make our laws, taxes and policies, a freedom not available to EU citizens and one which looks like it will be used very shortly.
In addition, the more independent European entities there are the greater the chance that the current CAGW delusion and the economy destroying Net Zero “solution” will be abandoned by one of these entities coming to their senses. Professors Happer & Wijngaarden have shown that doubling atmospheric CO2 produces a negligible increase in GHG effect because of IR saturation. See the CO2 Coalition website for details.
January 29, 2024
Indeed, and can we now please have an NHS-type clap of appreciation for the German taxpayers?
With the exception for now of the Marshall Plan, never before in human history has so much been given for so little.
January 29, 2024
Was for Brexit, still am. Always Con voter , without much thought.
Read and thought widely since Brexit.
Current read Grisham-Street Lawyer.
As a Pleb I see Uk is apeing US of 25 years ago. ( for the poor)
There’s bad on both sides.
We need the good bits from BOTH sides.
It’s not the Muslims/Jews/ Illuminati/Cons/Lab
What’s lacking is human compassion and love.
January 29, 2024
So ,we’ve missed something but there is a knock-on effect in the world markets ; our struggles still continue .
January 29, 2024
Dear Mr Redwood ,
Thank you so much for this information, I just wish you would also relay this information in the M.S.M. such as the Telegraph. Sun, Mail, G.B. News etc every one has a right to know what rejoining the E.U. would cost especially, as most of the M.S.M. never portray Brexit in a good light in order to make the case for us to rejoin, which would be an obvious disaster, along with Net Zero.
January 29, 2024
This is the classic story of socialism writ large in the EU construct. It works fine until it has run out of other peoples money.
The EU is working full time to prove that political truth.
January 29, 2024
I’m sure the die-hard leavers will ignore the facts or tells us these are all lies. ‘There’s none so blind as those who will not see’. And that includes the occupants of Downing Street.
The PM, with a disapproval rating lower than that of communist Corbyn, clearly is a severe burden on the Party. An early exit would at least give the Conservatives a better chance, providing they replaced him with a “proper” conservative. True Blue wins elections.
January 30, 2024
It’s too late for an ‘early’ exit. That which is wrong should be stopped at source. Receiving fewer votes than a so-called lettuce was an adequate signal. However, immediate removal now may not be too late. As soon as a proper leader is in place and voters see movement in the direction they support, support follows.
January 29, 2024
Ever increasing EU burdens are now too much for French & German farmers.
The (farmers union )protest movement would continue everywhere in France “with the very concrete objective of having emergency measures announced” especially surrounding food prices and reciprocity of rules, focusing on three main themes: the alleged denigration of the farming profession, pay, and red tape. The union says the growing number of environmental regulations farmers have to comply with are contributing to the crisis facing the profession.
A German farmer protesting in Hamburg today tells German radio that the farmers are demanding a clear change in the country’s agricultural policies. Hannah Timmermann says “the excessive bureaucracy should be reduced,” adding that the subsidy for agricultural diesel has to be maintained as farmers still needed it. She also criticises planned set-asides (i.e. taking land out of productive use). And while many of the banners on the tractors blocking roads in Hamburg today are calling on the so-called Ampel government (the “traffic-light” coalition) to change its policies, Timmermann adds that the farmers want to clearly distance themselves from any political groups and especially from any extremist movements.
She says that their protest is centred on the farming policy.
January 29, 2024
We are well out of the EU, even though it’s a half-hearted Leave. And that’s the problem – this government (principally Theresa May and Ollie Robbins) gave away our advantages (at best) on the usual English assumption that if we moved first the EU would follow. It didn’t. The EU took us to the cleaners.
January 29, 2024
No – Westminster and the CS have taken us to the cleaners.
January 29, 2024
Forget the EU and lets look at the UK
‘Interest payments on government’s past borrowing are a relatively big cost for government. In 2022/23, government’s net debt interest spending was £112 billion, which is equivalent to 4.4% of GDP or 9.7% of government spending’
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn06167/
January 29, 2024
Sir John
The majority of the money was for new investments in infrastructure in the EU including green energy.
Energy and infrastructure that we don’t have enough of ourselves
January 29, 2024
20.18 hrs
Having such tardy moderation destroys the debate that is one of the enlightening aspects of this diary. Give it some thought.
January 30, 2024
Good point, Sir John. And I hope that a Conservative MP will go on GBN to make sure that point gets through to the British electorate.
February 2, 2024
Are these people mad or just a screw missing in their heads? The sound of this amount makes me feel sick never mind thinking of how it is to be repaid. We must safeguard ourselves against these stupid people at all costs. Debt is to be treated like a terminal illness. Get rid of it before it gets rid of you. Have these countries any idea of what they are taking on board? After years under communism, it sounds like they are signing up to it again. I would cut off all communication with the EU and if they want to trade with us it would be on our terms. Get rid like a bad family member who will never change. We don’t need them in our lives.