The Opposition parties in Parliament would still like to surrender more powers of self government to the EU. Meanwhile there are three issues currently before Ministers which pose the same question, should we govern ourselves? Labour and Lib Dem MPs take no interest, or would like to see us give more power away in each case. I was able to highlight the view that the UK should be self governing on two of these issues on Tuesday when colleagues secured Urgent Questions to remind Ministers to avoid any ceding of power.
The first is the World Health Organisation draft Treaty. Ministers assured us they will not sacrifice our sovereignty, our power to respond to a health crisis and to run our own NHS. I urged them to publish the amendments they are seeking, because they rightly said the current Treaty takes power away from member states.
The second is the continuing influence of the courts over the government’s wish to control UK borders. I and others pressed the government to put through urgent clarifying legislation given the decision of the Northern Ireland Court.
The third is Gibraltar. I have put to the Foreign and Defence Secretaries the need not to cede any power over the Gibraltar border or the RAF and naval bases. These sovereign bases are an important part of Gibraltar and of NATO defences. Foreign and Defence policy are not devolved to the Gibraltar government. I think it would be a good idea for Gibraltar to be represented by an MP in the UK Parliament to confirm the democratic structure.
May 16, 2024
Good morning.
I remember a well known Tory MP and former PM saying much the same thing when the issue of joining the ‘Common Market’ (EEC) was raised. They know that, once power is ceded, it can be next to impossible to regain. That is why the EU does not want us to leave its orbit plus, all the money they can extort.
Our foes know we have a weak government and opposition. They lack the moral fibre and backbone once needed to fend off such advances to our nations interests. When ones own political class recoil at the sight of our nations flags (England and the Union) you know you are in trouble.
May 16, 2024
@Mark B +1 – “Our foes know we have a weak government and opposition” exactly. Now we have them in our institutions, trying to rule without consent or over-sight.
May 16, 2024
We, the voting population, appear to have lost interest in who rules our Country. Take a look at TCW today; we could hardly be bothered to vote in the recent locals. Perhaps we do need a real existential threat to get us back into ‘national preservation’ mindset. If not, then do we deserve to continue? Political Darwinism.
May 16, 2024
NATO is itself a massive ceding of power to others and anyway will collapse when Ukraine is forced to acknowledge defeat by the Russian Federation very soon. Look at Stoltenberg – is he fit to have Britains future in his hands?
At that point Gibraltar becomes even more important to the Defence of Britain. I agree it should have an MO in Westminster.
Also required is our own plentiful and cheap power to kickstart our own manufacturing infrastructure. We urgently need to drop taxes on business dramatically, especially to avoid strangling startups because that is where the new innovation on drone technology and other CHEAP AND EFFECTIVE defence equipment will be developed. You will see the F16âs shot out of the sky soon – the Challenger only challenges itâs maintenance crews. They need to be like FI engineers itâs so temperamental and far too big and heavy, not to mention expensive.
Russia has boosted its military spending to over 8% of GDP. Translate what quantities that produces in Russia. She is demonstrating to the decadent, globalist, suicidal west that we are beaten militarily and economically (and morally).
We donât need âmore spendingâ – the perennial socialist mantra – we need the current Barnes Wallace, in numbers! Release British ingenuity, innovation, stop throttling the spirit of Britain!
May 16, 2024
Before it became the ubiquitous buzzword it now is ,President Putin,back in September 2017 stated that “the nation that leads in AI will be the ruler of the world.”Since then,we have seen Russia pull out of the stultifying international higher education Bologna system,launch advanced engineering schools in 30 of its universities(adding to an already impressive maths and science base),open its first private STEM university last September and announce another 14 new STEM universities for the regions.
btw the New Defence Minister,Belousov,graduated in economic cybernetics(cybernetics was the late Soviet forerunner to the worldwideweb that never came to fruition),and already has experience in military AI and hypersonic programmes.Also a cybernetics graduate is the Head of Integration for the Eurasian Union,Sergei Glazyev(a serious intellectual heavyweight with 40 books and hundreds of academic papers to his name) who is working on the de-dollarized payment mechanisms for BRICS and a new BRICS trade currency.Expect to hear more about this later this year.
I read a very interesting academic paper at the weekend:”Cybernetics and the Russian Intellectual Tradition”by Tatyana A Medveda,June 2017.(it’s Googleable if anyone is interested).It features a quote from Archimandrite Saint Illarion Troitsky(1886-1929):”The Orthodox ideal is not Progress but Transfiguration”.Very appropriate and very Russian!
May 16, 2024
We need to put aside all this mindless navel gazing. We canât afford anything but the absolute best from all British people, and we have no capacity to carry the sick lame and lazy of the world.
Itâs strain every sinus time. Else the baton passes forever and the Fall of Britain is complete.
May 16, 2024
Russia and China are now preparing to beat the west in their âSanctions Warâ. The USA will implode as Detroit did. An everyday tale of riches to rags.
Yet Sunak and Obama canât see that they are sanctioning themselves out of the world economy.
May 17, 2024
French economist Jacques Sapir:
Andrei Belousov has just been appointed Minister of Defense. It’s an important appointment both because of the man and because of what it means politically. #Thread on this subject.
I’ve known Andrei Belousov since the early 1990s. At the time, he was a brilliant research director at the Institute for Economic Forecasting and took part in the first Franco-Russian seminar sessions held in Moscow.
To call him a “liberal” is misleading. He was “liberal” in the sense that he had noted the bankruptcy of Soviet central planning and was in favor of privatization, but so were all of us at the FR seminar!
In 1995-1996, he was shocked and scandalized by the situation in Russia and the collusion with the oligarchs, and he was one of those who spoke to me about the need for a “healthy forces” reaction if the country was to be saved.
He was held in high esteem by the two successive directors of the IPE, and in particular by Victor Ivanter, who was the real director of the Institute from 1996 until his death in 2019, and who maintained that he was the only one to understand the concept of GDP.
He went on to set up the ROSSTAT reform and, in this capacity, I had further opportunities to meet him when I took part in the INSEE -ROSSTAT assistance program. He quickly earned the respect of our INSEE colleagues.
He joined the presidential administration at the end of 2000 when Putin was elected, and quickly became one of his advisors on the economy and innovation, putting all his skills (Economics and Math) to work in his new role.
It was at this time that I wrote 2 reports for the presidential administration (2002 and 2007), which were subsequently published in “Problemy Prognozirovanija”, the IPE-ASR journal.
He understood (and understands) perfectly that Russia’s survival depended on its economy AND its ability to develop an innovation regime that involved an entire ecosystem as well as a financing system.
He played an important role in drafting the legislation and regulations that enabled the development of techno-parks in conjunction with major universities such as Novosibirsk (the Franco-Russian seminar relocated one of its sessions there in 2015).
He joined the government as Minister of Economic Development (maintaining links with IPE-ASR). Even then, he was convinced that investment and the construction of large, innovative groups were the key to Russia’s success.
Considering him as a planner only makes sense if we understand planning as the process implemented in France in the early 1960s or in Japan from 1957 to 1971. The aim is to guide the activities of public and private groups.
For too long, it was blocked by the Ministry of the Economy and Finance and the Central Bank. It was not until the COVID crisis (2020) that he was able to emancipate himself and begin implementing his ideas.
It was at this point that Belousov, who had also become Deputy Prime Minister, seems to have taken a turn for the better. In 2022 and 2023, he accompanied and coordinated the strong growth in investment by private companies and the resulting growth in the economy.
His appointment to the Ministry of Defense is of considerable importance. It marks the transformation of this ministry into a production, design, research and innovation agency for the armed forces.
The impact on military-industrial companies will be considerable. They will see their activities streamlined, and above all they will have to be attentive to the link between the short term and the long term through innovation processes.
This also means that a number of companies from techno-parks and start-ups will be integrated into this process to drive innovation. It is likely that Russia will set up an equivalent of DARPA to ensure civil/military contact.
The purely “military” functions of the Ministry could be placed under the authority of an enlarged General Staff, including those responsible for economic affairs, transport, intelligence, etc., on the model of the STAVKA of the Second World War.
This new STAVKA would then logically be attached to the Presidential Administration. We’ll have to keep an eye on the news of this possible reorganization over the coming months.
Andrei Belousov is convinced that the development of military production MUST NOT be at the expense of civilian production. It’s safe to assume that he will maintain the 40/60 ratio for military/civilian production.
However, his appointment indicates that the Russian government is looking far beyond the current hostilities, and expects a period of 10 to 20 years of “cold” confrontation with NATO countries.
He knows that in this logic, Russia’s ability to resist, or even win, depends not only on military production alone, but also on the vitality of its economy and the innovation processes developing within it.
May 16, 2024
2.7 million migrants in just two years and still no significant growth let along in growth per cap. a large decline in living standards. All we get from Sunak is a promise to stop the boats and he is not even trying to deliver on this. He is clearly going to sign this dire WHO treaty. Someone who brings back Lord Cameron of Greensill Libya as foreign secretary is clearly a wrongâun. Sunak needs to go.
Putin and Xi are being handed a terrifying victory
Americaâs blundering president has emboldened the axis of evil in its quest to destroy the free world
ALLISTER HEATH today.
May 16, 2024
Wrong. The âfree worldâ destroyed itself. Russia is now free having beaten Communism.
May 16, 2024
Russia has defeated an attempt to impose a system of monopoly capital on the world.That is most certainly not communism,but it shares certain attributes.
May 16, 2024
I wonder if Allister has considered the possibility of an imported, ready-made and very capable raggle-taggle army? ( visions of the Crusades)
Luxury hotels= barracks?
I meanâŠit would be a delusional notion but considering the EU and our dear govtâŠ.who knows?
May 16, 2024
The Crusader states in the Levant were destroyed by an army of former slave soldiers from the north Caucasus(the Mamluks) who had revolted against their masters(the descendants of Saladin) and who then ruled the middle east for c250 years.
May 16, 2024
+++
I thought there was something of the sort!
May 16, 2024
Labour will argue that because those 2.7m aren’t allowed to work to create the growth, an amnesty will be given to all of them and homes found for them, just look around the estates, most of the social housing is being given to foreigners, nurses, care workers were need, if they gave free homes to white women they’d take care worker and lower grade under grade 5 nursing jobs, they can’t take care worker jobs and pay private rents, the only way immigrants can is because we given them the cheaper housing.
May 16, 2024
All excellent points, but all will most probably be ignored by âunequivocally wrong headedâ Sunak & Cast Iron, thin gruel, Lord Cameron of Greensill.
May 16, 2024
Good idea having MP for Gibraltar matters. No further discussions should take place on anything to do with handing powers to the EU. We had a vote which said we wanted OUT of the EU. Please do what the majority vote asked for and let us be self-governing. No more talk please, action needed urgently.
May 16, 2024
More government weakness in evidence.
May 16, 2024
No ceding of power to the WHO. By all means cooperate with them to promote best practice in terms of World health. Their ambivalence as to the real causes of the Covid outbreak rules them out of any treaty or directing power.
Disband the Supreme Court who seem intent on complying more with international direction than with Parliament. The other legal profession sin is mission creep through decisions of precedence which Parliament should stop. As with the Civil Service they should be put firmly back in their box. The CS with a contract of employment subject to the Official Secrets Act. Both Lawyers and CS are servants of the people and Parliament, not an alterrnative source of governance.
The sovereignty of Gibraltar and for that matter the Falkland Islands should not be up for discusion with anyone, whatever the mandarins of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and our retread Foreign Secretary may think. The power of both places are their populations, both of whom should have representation in our Parliament’s House of Commons.
These and many other problems are residual to our leaving the EU, who are no longer the source of power over us, merely an alma mata. We now stand alone in the real world, free to make our own decisions, within the constraits of our treaty obligations. We have been there before, learn to be there again, within the constraints of the World as it is today.
Within the UK, devolution, both local and national are a divisive way to weaken power, cause division, and should cease. Power should exist within the people via referendums on major topics, such as Nett Zero, and elections where power is loaned for a limited time to Members of Parliament.
May 16, 2024
Agreed.
May 16, 2024
Agricola
Agreed, indeed was in Gibraltar only a couple of days ago on our return leg from an Adriatic/Mediterranean cruise.
Diesel at ÂŁ1.06 per litre, significantly lower than in UK or the EU, as are many other product prices.
Most important that the UK retains Gibraltar for simple security reasons, as few are aware that Spain also runs a small and secure regional/outpost called Ceuta on the Moroccan side of the straits, which has the same designated separation benefits, as Gibraltar has from its neighbour.
Visited Ceuta a few years back, nice historic city which now also has a large immigration problem from those trying to escape Northern Africa.
If Spain were to get control of Gibraltar, then they would completely control the entrance to the Mediterranean, as they would control land on both sides of the Straits at its narrowest point.
The Spanish are regular offenders in trying to frustrate business and visitors to Gibraltar with deliberate naval incursions, and regular delays at border crossing points for people and goods etc etc.
Only this weekend Spain were policing the designated shipping separation channels on our passage through the Straits with three navy warships, which included above all things a small aircraft carrier.
May 16, 2024
Sadly many of our MP’s still think that the EU is our friend, (Never has been) they simply only ever wanted us for our money, fish, access to our market place for their goods and services, and our armed forces, now not really fit for purpose to defend the UK, let alone anyone else.
Sad fact is many MP’s would jump at the chance to rejoin the EU, no matter what the terms .
Patriotism unfortunately is a forgotten word in our Parliament .
May 16, 2024
Should we govern ourselves?
Should this question even be asked, is my answer to that.
May 16, 2024
After one of our rainiest starts to the year yet, we read
“Smart water meters must be made compulsory across all households to protect the UK against climate change” the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) has warned.
They want to be able to switch your water off at the mains?
Or more likely slow it to a trickle so your toilet takes 30 minutes to fill up.
May 16, 2024
+++
Exactly!
May 16, 2024
Michelle, British people seem to be not voting in good numbers, so minority groups will take over our legislature in short order, then they will be governing the UK.
May 16, 2024
Do Brexit voters realise that voting Labour will take the UK back into the EU? I suspect most are the clueless, naive automatons who voted for Johnson in 2020 and will vote for Corbyn’s second in command in November. You couldn’t invent this farce if you tried
Starmer is a fake and an existential threat. A real leader shouldn’t have any problem destroying his credibility and character in ten minutes max. From his time at the CPS right through to his support of Corbyn.
May 16, 2024
I disagree Dom I think the intention is an outer circle paying in to the EU, tied up with all their rules and regs with no representation, the Brino option.
May 16, 2024
Yes. Basically, the Associate Member status which Lord Dave of Greenshill Lobbying proposed to Merkel.
May 16, 2024
It is said that it wonât be like 1997 when the âNew Labour New Dangerâ posters did not work and according to Kinnock the country is not âin loveâ with Labour yet.
NF says that the turnout will be abysmal so maybe that is the greatest enemy.
Point out the horrors of a Labour govt. and URGE ppl to get out and vote ( and not split the vote)
If it is too late to get rid of incumbent who just wonât it seems even tryâŠwhy not get some sort of anti Labour spokesman?
Whisper it and prepare for the delugeâŠ.Boris? (We need a devious demagogue)
May 16, 2024
One of the things the French did right in relation to their overseas territories was to give them MPs in the French parliament. We should do the same for Gibraltar as you suggest.
May 16, 2024
Yes they have an MP representing London in their Parliament.
May 16, 2024
The Opposition is supposed to challenge the government to make better laws in the interests of the UK. It appears that the Opposition here wants to act in the interests of other countries to oppose what is right and natural in protecting and supporting our own citizens. Raising risks can be helpful to keep us on our toes, yet some of them may feel that âOppositionâ means a duty to behave like an enemy and raise the risk to achieve surrender.
May 16, 2024
Cameron’s Remainer views on the EU are well known – after all, miffed, he resigned and left Parliament after the referendum. At all costs, he should be prevented from selling Gibraltar to the Spanish in return for some tawdry EU “deal” – which would be a betrayal of people who wish, like those in the Falklands, to remain British
Electing a Gibraltar MP to Westminster is an excellent idea.
May 16, 2024
There is a fundamental democratic problem with international treaties especially as they aren’t usually time limited. Laws that this Parliament or government makes can be changed or repealed by a future democratically elected Parliament. No Parliament can commit its successors. Furthermore some treaties are controlled by unelected international Judges and some treaties (such as the European Convention of Human Rights) claim to be ‘living entities’ that have changed very significantly from what was signed up for by a long previous Parliament. So international treaties by their very nature are inherently anti-democratic.
One solution is to do what Putin does and Donald Trump is threatening over NATO mutual help which is just not keep to them if their country does not like them at the time. However this country’s politicians and civil servants in general and most Conservative politicians in particular dislike that approach. So the only sensible democratic answer is not to sign up to international treaties, especially those that might significantly affect our internal policies.
May 16, 2024
Good idea for an MP for Gibraltar same would be good for the Falklands. But think should be viewed as devolved Governments for non-military matters. On the subject, I think in principle devolved Governments for the countries of the UK are fine to reflect national pride and responsibility (and with an overall UK government for International affairs – replacing the House of Lords ) But we get back to what has happened recently in regard to the same rights for all British Citizens. How much variation should there allowed to be in each country. I guess this is the downside of devolution not to mention cost of additional government layer.
May 16, 2024
We can’t KEEP our right to self government, when the Establishment has REFUSED to do it following the largest democratic vote the country has ever held. Before we can KEEP it, we have to recover it.
We now know that the Westminster Uni-Party will never do it; they have and will defy the people in order to pursue the Agenda of the Globalists.
Sunak is now being blocked from delivering the Rwanda policy by his own Windsor Betrayal. You could be forgiven for thinking that this was deliberate since he was warned that this would happen (by Martin Howe QC amongst others) …. but it allows him to blame “lefty lawyers” for the refusal to deport criminal economic migrants who have no right to be in our country.
May 16, 2024
Is the UK a Sovereign Democracy? Do we need to vote for MP’s that refuse their jobs as the UK’s Legislators?
Is it right that any one that is not held to account, able to dictate their personal view and laws on a so-called free democratic nation?
If MP’s cant accept the job that we empower and pay them for they should resign with immediate effect.
May 16, 2024
Ceding power, its understandable really when both Tory and Labour lack the essential skills to govern allied to which the voters have given up on both parties.
May 16, 2024
Then they need to stand down.
May 16, 2024
The willingness of the labour party to give our powers away should act as a warning, because they will surely slot us back into the EU once in number 10, by the back door if necessary.
The desire to allocate powers to quangos, like re-joining the Eu, demonstrates that the labour party have no faith in their own abilities to make really big decisions – oh yes, they are are quite happy to occupy the seat of power in the UK, limited as it would be, but they would leave hard questions to be sorted out by some ‘superior body’.
We’ve had many years of past incompetence from labour, and even though the Tories have been wilfully oppressive, you have to wonder how anybody could vote labour. It must take some form of inverted thinking.
Many small countries do alright for themselves as free nations, but I’ve come to believe that there is a warped star trek mentality that sits in the minds of socialists. “Everything is the same, and there should be no differences. We are all one.” This leads them on to one world governments.
Let’s face it, we feel we can not trust our own governments, so why would we give away all of our powers to supranational quangos that have only their interests in mind.
May 16, 2024
There should be legislation to the effect that no government in the UK can cede ANY power over us to another country or organisation [e.g. the EU, or other] without a nationwide referendum to approve it. Not only that the result should be at least 65% for, in order to be valid.
Had we had such before we might never have got into such a mess with the EU we did, and still are!
May 16, 2024
Our Constitution does that, but they have just legislated illegally.
May 16, 2024
Sunak’s role as Prime Minister is a tremendous mistake . Farage has gone public on what he thinks about the present leadership and it sums up the present mayhem . Our place and respect in world affairs has disappeared and the prospect of a Labour Government will only make things worse . There are only a few months left before an election and a major shake up has to occur . A dominant personality whose feet are on the ground is a necessity and one does not exist in the Conservative front ranks . ” No Confidence ” must act without any further delay .
May 16, 2024
Have just heard Sir Keir Starmer setting out his missionary position, so if he becomes PM it’s obvious what he has in store for us.
May 16, 2024
âThe Opposition parties in Parliament would still like to surrender more powers of self government to the EUâ.
So do a majority of Conservative MPs made worse because these MPs have been parachuted into the safest Tory seats meaning that there will be no opposition to Labourâs plans for surrendering our sovereignty to the EU and anywhere else feasible in the next Parliament. Expect Gibraltar and The Falklands to be given away.
May 16, 2024
Replace these candidates with ones you want! Tell the Tory machine to take a leap.
May 16, 2024
@Original Richard – you see the hand of CCHQ and Rishi all over the selection process for candidates. Loyalty to Me & Party before service to constituency and Country
How can some one even pretend to represent a constituency let along a constituent if they weren’t selected by constituent to stand in an election in the first place. That single act is an abuse of democracy, leading to the abuses we see our democracy face daily.
May 16, 2024
OFT â but the root of the situation
@Conservative Home
Micheal Ashcroft who is usually on the money, outlines his findings
https://conservativehome.com/2024/05/16/lord-ashcroft-my-survey-only-9-per-cent-of-2019-conservatives-are-satisfied-with-the-current-government/
18% said the Country would improve under the Conservatives
29% said it wont make any difference
37% said things would be better under Labour
16% donât know
On the question of who would do a better job running the British economy,
Starmer/Reeves âextended their lead over Sunak /Hunt to 15%
âWe asked 2019 Conservative voters which parties they were seriously considering at the next general election. Fewer than half (49 per cent) named the Conservative Partyâ – that is just the view of Conservative Voters!
With the state of labour, how did anyone even those living in a bubble think Sunak/Hunt could become winners, let alone Conservative winners?
May 16, 2024
Sir John
âMinisters assured us they will not sacrifice our sovereigntyâ. Ask yourself why are the even talking to unelected, unaccountable self-appointed Bureaucrats about ceding power to them? If it wasnât on their mind.
We need the whole of the Magna Carta returned in full along with common law. Instead, our Democratic Parliament has reinforced the opposites and sort to distance itself from those they are elected to serve, preference is always with the unelected unaccountable when it comes to dictating a way of life.