8 years on from the Brexit vote let us celebrate the great Brexit wins.
By far and away the most important is we are now free to make our own decisions through elections and Parliament. The fact that so far governments have made little use of this cannot take away from the great liberation that comes from knowing we can now if we wish.
It is a great win that the EU is busily borrowing an extra Euro 800 billion and none of that now will add to our debt pile. Our share would have proved very costly.
It is a great win that thousands of new laws, regulations and decisions have been made since we left and none of those apply to us. The EU for example will not be able to receive the latest Apple technology on Apple devices  owing to their regulations.
It is a great win that the UK has now become the world’s second largest exporter of services, and services are the biggest part of our trade. The new and rolled over trade Agreements we are signing have chapters allowing greater freedom of trade in services which the EU used to ignore in its trade agreements for us.
It is a win that VAT has been taken off green products and off female hygiene products. We had to impose it on them under EU law.
We no longer have to have open borders with the continent. The government failure to control legal migration in recent years was an unwise UK choice, which is now being corrected with tighter restrictions on the issue of visas. We can now set a fairer policy that has the same conditions for people from the rest of the world and from the EU.
After a too generous deal on exit the UK is now saving its large annual contributions to the EU budget. As the EU budget continues to climb so our savings mount. The NHS is getting far more than an extra £350 m a week as set out on the side of the campaign bus.
We have removed tariffs from 20% of our imported product lines completely on top of the 27% that were EU tariff free, making things cheaper for customers.
We have joined the large and fast growing Trans Pacific Partnership which the EU has not joined.
We are planning new laws to improve animal welfare and limit the transport of live animals which we could not do in the EU
We have increased our fish quotas for our domestic  industry and need to restore more at the end of the transition period.
We have introduced more Freeports with more relaxations of trade rules than the EU would allow, with a more generous package to promote their growth.
June 23, 2024
Thin gruel as Mogg might put it – but better than nothing. Alas all doubtless to be slowly reversed by Starmer and Reeves with a very large majority thank to the appalling failures of 14 years of the Net Zero pushing Con-Socialists – failing to almost everything they promised.
Rachel Reeves has promised that she would âclose the gender pay gap once and for allâ if she becomes Britainâs first female Chancellor. She clearly is not too bright or lying (PPE yet again) though she did do a Further Maths A level (daughter of two teachers it seems and told the family voted for Kinnock’s Party aged 8 and has not questioned this since it seems).
A bit of manspaining dear:- The so called gender pay gap is caused by men and women choosing rather different types of jobs, different hours, different commuting patterns, different degrees, different levels of part time work (often to fit in with children and work life balance as is sensible)… You can thus only close the “alleged gender pay gap” by heavy discrimination against men. Teachers are very heavily women circa 75% but builder, engineers, actuaries, pilots, bin men, physicist, computer programmers more like 75-99% men. Men far more likely to commute longer distances too. Men and women choose what sacrifices they wish to make for higher pay and make different choices on average.
Women without children already earn more. Even within professions like Medicine, Law, Accounting the genders choose, on average, rather different specialities as is well documented.
Surely someone with a further maths A level & who could play decent women’s chess at 14 can grasp this logic? Perhaps not?
June 23, 2024
Is Reeves perhaps going to insist that cabin crew are paid the same as pilots or that female footballers should get the same as male ones regardless of demand from fans to watch it? Where would the money come from if not TV rights and ticket sales? Is she going to force more women to study Physics, Engineering, Computer Studies and more men to study languages, art and drama? More women to commute longer distances for higher pay or to do refuse collection at 4.00 AM or work on oil rigs? Perhaps she can elaborate a little on her plans “to eliminate the gender pay gap”. Certainly will not do much for the economy or justice if she is serious.
Lots more examples like the RAF where applicants seeking to join RAF were described as ‘useless white male pilots’ in bid to hit ‘impossible’ diversity targets – will doubtless follow. With even more legal disputes like the ones that has bankrupted Birmingham City Council.
June 23, 2024
Why do we still apply tarriffs to a range of goods we don’t produce eg coffee, oranges etc
Why don’t we remove VAT on energy, maybe because we need approval from Brussels because it wouldn’t apply to NI
Why are goods from the mainland being subject to extract checks and paperwork entering NI.
We haven’t really left as Farage pointed out during his interview
We still have thousands of EU laws on our books which are detrimental to us
No sir the governments and CS hearts were never in it and Starmergeddon will try and rejoin although I think that may be more difficult than he thinks
June 23, 2024
@Ian wragg, If VAT was slashed it would mean Income Tax or another direct tax would have to rise so off-setting the lost revenue, the exact opposite to what the first Thatcher did in June 1979!
Not sure energy taxes are covered by the Windsor Framework, whilst there might be grid level inter-connects between NI and ROI is there (much) cross boarder Billing at the end user level?
Keir Starmer has stated that the UK will not rejoin the EU, but of course that doesn’t stop us quietly joining either the EEA or EFTA…
The reason why nothing much has changed since the Brexit referendum, why so much EU law was copied over as REUL upon actual Brexit, is because it was never about the imposition of EU law [1], or our trade balance with the RotW, it was a Right-wing upon Right-wing inter-factional power struggle – that has now come to a head during the current general election.
[1] much of it freely agreed to by the UK govt at the European Council level, or opt-outs agreed
June 23, 2024
If VAT was cut and tax income reduced (debatable since people might spend more), then there is always the option of cutting Government spending and that is what should happen. But I realise that is anathema to Labour/lefties.
June 23, 2024
@Donna; Public spending cuts appears to have become an anathema to the majority of voters, other than a small percentage fundamental Thatcherites (if they actually are…), according to the the most recent op-poll trackers. Reform are on just c. 17%, and even when both Reform and Conservatives -whilst making a lot of assumptions- are lump together it is only 37%. By comparison, combine the votes for the “lefties” parties (Lab, LD, SNP, PC, Green) their combined figure is 62% in favor of not cutting public spending.
Best make yourself a strong mug of coffee Donna, then inhale deeply, I fear the night of July 4-5th will be long and difficult, and some though 1997 was a living nightmare…
June 23, 2024
VAT is presently around 15% of the total UK tax take (about ÂŁ170bn annually). Whatever percentage you want to be removed would have to be compensated from other tax sources. VAT is the âeasyâ tax as it applies to âeverything and everybodyâ. Move the tax from VAT to any other sources, be it income tax, CGT, corporation tax, etc and youâll hear those affected immediately howling at the moon.
It is not as easy as you think to remove tax.
June 23, 2024
@Ian Wraggg – it would appear that due to Sunak’s deal with the EU over Northern Ireland VAT for the whole of the UK has to be in lock step with the EU
June 23, 2024
@Ian B; It either does it it does not, nothing apparent about it! Would you have a sensible citation for the claim, in other words a UK or EU official document, not a party political soundbite?
June 23, 2024
Another day, another Lifelogic blog essay headed John Redwood’s Diary.
I thought this was going to stop.
But to go O/T if I may and talk about Brexit (!), the âŹ800bn that the EU is borrowing for its Nextgeneration project will partly go to fund R&D in areas where Britain is strong, especially biosciences. Had we remained in the EU, we could surely have benefited from a considerable share of the funding. As it is, that money will go to finance a competitor to us. While I agree that Brexit has given us opportunities, I’m not sure they’ve been as beneficial to us as those we may have lost. If we’re doing better out of the EU, why has UK GDP per head declined in the last couple of years? Already in 2022 our GDP per head was behind every northern European EU country (Worldometer). Perhaps because this government allowed in a couple of million migrants? So much for no longer having ‘open borders with the EU’ thanks to Brexit.
June 23, 2024
âwhy has UK GDP per head declined in the last couple of years?â
Surely this is obvious? Mass low skilled immigration levels diluting GDP per head and undercutting wages, highest taxes for 70+ years, high energy prices, the net zero insanity, bloated and vastly wasteful government, net harm lockdowns, net harm vaccines, HS2, loans for duff degrees, low investment levels due to low confidence, duff government & with even worse to come from Labour.
June 23, 2024
Vast over regulation & lack of much competitive bank lending with high interest rates and margins.
June 23, 2024
@LL; But the UK has had mass low skilled immigration for decades, since the 1950s in fact, so no immigration is not the ‘obvious’ answer, its the spoon feed simplistic answer for those to lazy to think for themselves!
June 23, 2024
@ Jerry in the last three year net immigration been at least three times higher than all the recent earlier years.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/283287/net-migration-figures-of-the-united-kingdom-y-on-y/
June 23, 2024
Jerry
The recent reduction in gdp per head has coincided with the recent record levels of immigration.
In the fifties snd sixties it was about ten times lower than recent years.
ps
LL never said “no immigration ” you made that bit up.
June 23, 2024
@MiB; That is purely circumstantial, and a useful scapegoat; there are many other reasons GDP might fall, Brexit for example, even the weather!
Yes the level of immigration was ten times lower back in the 1950s and ’60s, but our economy was also much smaller then, although it and GDP grew rapidly there-after.
The fact that you choose to ignore context once again proves you to be the person being ‘Contrary’, picking an argument due to obviously missing punctuation, the word “no” was in reply to his answer, not to any figure for migrants.
June 23, 2024
@LL; The price of Smoked Haddock has also increased over the same period. More alcohol was consumed in the home. More people worked from home. The number of self-employed fell (according to HMRC figures). All could be the cause of our falling GDP, and with the exception of Smoked Haddock, all are far more likely the cause than inward immigration.
June 23, 2024
Good scramble there Jerry in the face of undeniable facts.
You should argue for a living.
June 24, 2024
@MiB; “You should argue for a living.”
What, like you do? Duh! đ
June 24, 2024
@jerry
Productivity in the labour force has dropped because of declining educational standards ever since GCSEs were introduced.
June 24, 2024
@Mark; Had you said ‘GDP has fallen since the UK abandoned lower skilled employment’ I might agree. The designer coffee and fast food burger industry might add a bit to our GDP but hardly makes up for employment lost to off-shoring.
You do not need GCSE, GSE, O-levels or higher exam certificates to work on production lines, just on-the-job training. Heck even many trade-skills do not actually need formal school qualifications, many otherwise unqualified people used to go on to gain level three and four City & Guilds type certification in years past. Many NVQ and Btec style qualifications today do not actually need the exam passes they ask for, they are simply a filtering method for often over subscribed courses.
June 24, 2024
I just point out the weaknesses in your contrary arguments Jerry.
Whatever, as you often say.
June 23, 2024
It stopped for SOME!
The woefully deleted who scarcely dare venture a post any more!!đȘ
Iâm blessed if I have the foggiest as to what can and canât be mentioned.
June 23, 2024
Everhopeful,
Like poor Margaret who rarely posts, but found her few posts were often deleted.
She has probably given up now.
June 23, 2024
Peter
Yes.
Just like that!đȘ
June 23, 2024
GDP per head has been declining since 2007.
If you fail to grow the economy, or manage to produce only anaemic 0.5- 1% pa growth, whilst at the same time importing 7+million people (most of them low-skill, low-wage and welfare-dependent) of course GDP per head declines.
We are being made poorer by mass, unskilled immigration.
June 23, 2024
@Donna; Nonsense, we are being made poor by cr*p political polices, and those polcies have only got worse since 2016.
By comparison, waves of 1950s and 1960s mass non skilled immigration allowed the UK economy to expand, and similarly in the early 1990s the UK benefited from lower skilled eastern European labour; the Polish plumber, the Romanian agriculture worker etc. Such was the post Maastricht boom New Labour took over in 1997 it empowered the Blair govt until the international subprime banking crisis of 2007-on.
Stop looking for scapegoats. đĄ
June 23, 2024
Jerry
You are looking at times when immigration was in the tens of thousands per year now it is hundreds of thousands per year.
Over one million recently.
A city the size of Southampton needs to be built every single year.
And how does this fit with the legal ambition for Net Zero?
June 23, 2024
@Sam; You, like others, are failing to take into consideration the UK economy was very much smaller back in the 1950s and 1960s, and with much less pre-existing housing stock, certainly in the 1950s.
2024-on we do not need to build “cities the size of Southampton every single year” due to inward migration [1], for one thing, and sorry to be blunt, the baby boomer generation, never mind their the parents, are getting to an age when increasing numbers will be dying off.
But even if we do build more New Towns, so what, nothing we have not done before, the only people worried are the NIMBY and the ‘investor’ who see falling property values. What new housing is needed will mostly be moderate developments (relative to the existing level of local housing, industry and services) in or close to existing cities, towns, villages, often brown & grey field sites, or subprime farm or meadow land.
[1] whilst there is a need for more housing, it that is nothing to do with current migration levels, predating the issue by a decade more, we simply have not built enough housing over the la\st 45+ years
Reply We need to build 2 Southamptonâs every year to deal with recent levels of migration. Our failure to do so has created a housing shortage.
June 24, 2024
@JR reply; No we do not, as I said most new housing will be additional developments to existing urban sprawl, some not even increasing the conurbations foot-print at all; but ever if we did build actual new towns, so what, we built New Towns in the 1950s to the 1970s, in fact both Milton Keynes and Telford were still being built into the 1980s.
Most people waiting to get onto the property ladder are British, not immigrants and certainly not illegal immigrants, stop blaming others for 45 years of Tory planning failures, including Right to Buy and the rise of the property investor. A secure tenancy, as council housing used to be, is as much a “Home of ones own” as any (leasehold) purchase, just not an investment.
Reply If you want us to carry on giving visas to 700,000 extra people a year you do need to say how we will immediately go to building 2-3 Southamptons a year and who will pay for all the schools, hospitals and social housing that needs.
June 24, 2024
@JR reply; We do not need to build any new towns the size of Southampton, if we need to conserve land how about building upwards like Singapore does, and no I do not mean post-war system build. Who will pay, perhaps if we had some sensible economic polices…
Reply One way or another you need to build new cities. 700,000 extra people need shops, schools, sewers, power stations etc
June 24, 2024
Quiet day Jerry?
June 23, 2024
Well, indeed. GDP per head is always going to go down if you bring 6 million people into the country over 14 years.
And comparing us, a small country with 80 million people with Scandinavian countries with 5 million people, is surely difficult.
June 23, 2024
@MW; In many economies GDP goes up when a _larger_ workforce becomes available, one of the reason why the undocumented and “Dreamers” were tolerated in the USA until Trump; note I said _tolerated_, not that they were popular, yes there were and are many problems, most to do with USA society and commerce, such as housing and health care that leads to additional crime.
June 23, 2024
Any ‘subsidies’ we ever got from the EU we paid for twice over. We never got out anything like we paid in – we even had a 90 billion a year deficit in trade – and the EU made us say they had paid for the things subsidised.
In other words a very expensive way of saving money. The fact that the Tories decided to shaft the farmers, despite their usual cardboard promises and decided to spend money on virtue signaling and wasting money on a tragically reformed NHS etc. was their choice. We could have put more into R&D if we wanted but they busted the economy to the tune of over a trillion pounds which will take a life time to pay off (we’ve only just paid off debts from ww2.)
June 23, 2024
750000 net immigrants perhaps.
That requires a lot of GDP to be generated in order to maintain the average.
June 23, 2024
âAs of November 2023, only 35 percent of grants and 15 percent of loans had been disbursed â thatâs under 25 percent of the planned investment package. Worse still, the recovery fund has spawned a whole new level of bureaucratic Brussels oversight, replete with scorecards, milestones and interactive maps. Yet, beneath the razzle-dazzle, serious economists acknowledge that its management falls short against performance-based funding standards.
Meanwhile, the recovery fund has also attracted warranted criticisms regarding the type of projects submitted by some member countries. And it isnât an equal Pan-European effort either â Italy, Spain and Greece account for nearly 70 percent of existing grant disbursements.â Source Politco.eu – interesting article.
June 23, 2024
Rachel Reeves backed Ed Miliband (PPE yet again) for the Labour leadership in 2010. Not a good sign, I assume she has fallen for all his and Labourâs Climate Change lunacy, a net zero grid by 2030 (sure) and his evil Ed Stone lunacy. So she has not much grasp of economics or the physics/engineering realities. Net zero at any speed at all is economic and environmental lunacy & vandalism.
June 23, 2024
The fund is to help achieve net zero aims.
âIn mid-2020, with the world in the grips of COVID-19, the EU took a bold step to help member states rebound after the pandemic. As part of a comprehensive package of âŹ2,018 billion, EU leaders established âŹ1,211 billion for the long-term budget (2021-2027), known as the Multiannual Financial Framework, and âŹ806.9 billion for a temporary recovery effort known as NGEU3.â
https://www2.deloitte.com/xe/en/insights/economy/next-generation-eu-fund.html
June 23, 2024
Lifelogic:
Rachelâs bad policies + âbrillianceâ in maths = Worse results.
June 23, 2024
Not sure she )or Sunak) has any particular brilliance in Maths they both read PPE Oxon. If Sunak could understand basic statistics he would surely not have wrongly claimed the vaccines were âunequivocally safeâ. Unless he was just blatantly lying.
But Reeves did at least sit Further maths A level – not sure what grade she got. Only just over 1% of women take Further maths at A level – and circa 4% of boys.
June 23, 2024
Perhaps you would explain how Further Maths ‘A’ makes a better Minister(etc) than one with other ‘A’ subjects?
June 23, 2024
Well it perhaps helps you work out how putting VAT on private school fees or abolishing Non Dom status will raise no net money and do more harm than good. Also that net zero is Luancy and that EV cars do not even save any net CO2. Also help people understand grid stability issue when you use renewables, why public transport is often so inefficient in reality other than at peak times sometimes. Why Sunakâs QE and BoE insanity caused his 12% inflation, how the Laffer Curve works for many taxes, the first past the post distorts voting so much but will now hit the Conservative so hard, why the best way to store electricity is as coal, gas or oil and not in batteries, why giving risky ineffective Covid vaccines to people who never even needed than was a predictable disaster, why the EURO and ERM were disasters too, why the attacks on landlords will hit tenants as much as landlords âŠ
Just for a start – but it applies to almost everything.
June 23, 2024
LL …well I took Maths Pure ‘O’ at 15, Applied and Additional when just 16 – interesting as it was, I fail to see how ability there helps with your examples.
Raising VAT on school fees raises more tax, unless you prove correct that fewer students will enrol in Private schools. An assumption that has merit but not learnt from Maths ability – primary school kids might get that if explained that parents might no longer afford the fees.
If your examples cannot be grasped without getting an ‘A’ level in Further Maths, our education system must be close to the worst in the world!
June 23, 2024
@ Lifelogic ” Men and women choose what sacrifices they wish to make for higher pay and make different choices on average” – they did but does not modern thinking demand that choosers need not live with the consequences of their choices? It is just a natural extension of a world where personal responsibility is not required since everything is someone else’s fault.
June 23, 2024
Indeed equality of outcome regardless of merit is a truly evil agenda.
June 23, 2024
Indeed. Many of us have been victims of this disgraceful discrimination.
June 23, 2024
Men ask for higher pay more than women do, they refuse to do a bit extra without pay, some women (not all) are their own worse enemies). It is hard for a woman to be as bolshy especially if she has male bosses. I donât know how Reeves is going to solve that. If she started by putting more men into trainee nursing positions and insisted 50% of the training places went to men it would be interesting to see the result on pay and specialities/overtime and time off.
She could change the maternity pay so that women could go back 2 days per week after six months should they choose and keep the statutory maternity allowance for another six months for career women who want to do that of course it wouldnât be compulsory. Men should be allowed to divert some of their pay tax free to their partnerâs pension whilst they are on maternity leave after six weeks on much reduced pay.
June 23, 2024
LL
The logic of reality?
Labour aren’t very good at that! They are best at whinging about inequality whilst pursuing the opposite outcome!
June 23, 2024
Exactly rather like the fake Tories and dopes like Cameron & Theresa May.
June 23, 2024
Lifelogic, on a variation of a Labour Party theme, has decided to rub posters noses in monotony.
June 23, 2024
Thin gruel indeed but that is our governments fault
No one else highlighting any benefits at all
Result most people do not have a clue about any positives
June 23, 2024
Daniel Hannan is surely wrong in todayâs Telegraph.
Voters have realised the game is rigged. So they are going to tip the board over. Many of the pieces will be lost forever. Play will continue for a while without them, but eventually a fix will need to be made.
June 23, 2024
Perhaps what is needed is to introduce a system of fines, aimed at women who fail to realise their potential, show reluctance to put themselves forward for advancement, neglect to start businesses according to their ability or languish in jobs below their capability.
They are really letting the side down.
June 23, 2024
Indeed or fail to take Refuse Collection, Oil Rig or block-work building jobs. Or to commute in and out of the city taking three hours a day. The kids can surely feed themselves and walk to and from school.
June 23, 2024
Kier Starmer âthe UK needs three things growth, growth, growth”.
Correct but everything Sir Kier is proposing:- Net Zero, more employment laws, bigger government, higher taxes, ever more red tape, ever more woke lunacy, the deluded green revolution, the non dom, landlord and private school attacks, the open door low skilled immigration, not reforming the NNS⊠are all hugely anti-growth – other than perhaps for Lawyers and other Gov. parasites.
June 23, 2024
Good morning.
I would dispute a lot of those so called wins. For example. We cannot be more competitive than the EU. We have lost N. Ireland. We cannot control our environmental policies. And as for animal rights, we could always make regulations / laws much stricter and, often did make them so. ie Gold Plated them.
I will let others pick this apart as my post will take too long.
Will you be focusing on the lost opportunities ?
Reply wecare more competitive than the EU in important areas. E.g. We ecport more services than any country apart from the US.
June 23, 2024
Reply to reply.
While we become less and less self sufficient in food, energy and pretty well all manufactured goods. Thanks, LibLabConGreen.
June 23, 2024
Yes British Manufacturing really dipped from the 1970s onwards whilst in the EU.
June 23, 2024
reply to reply…and how are we now better placed to export other than services? And how do the sales ÂŁbn year by year show that?
June 23, 2024
Seeing all that is freer and better after leaving the EU, one wonders why idiotic politicians were so anti-British to stick our nation into such mess by accepting EU treaties in the first place. âConservativeâ John Major was one of the worst offenders with Maastricht, and remains worthless.
June 23, 2024
What is freer and better? I havenât noticed anything.
June 23, 2024
With Turing 40,000 places have been created for students to study all around the world on reciprocal agreements, including the States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The old system we took in 300,000 students and only sent out 30,000 students. I understand Turing will also swap training places with the EU 1 in 1 out.
We are not paying big fines on imports some companies apparently havenât been declaring properly.
We are not paying big fees on prostitution and drugs every year, the UK didnât tax this so those that didnât use these paid the bills.
The money is going into the NHS and it still isnât enough, we would have these big bills now on top of the NHS extra payments and be in a worse pickle than we already are.
June 23, 2024
The Turing scheme has merit but itâs not a âbenefit of Brexitâš. The elements of the Turing scheme that are positive could have been pursued by the UK as an EU member. In fact, it would make much more sense to fund an international student mobility programme on top of continuing UK membership in Erasmus+, rather than as a substitute to this programme. These are âlow cost, high rewardsâ schemes that bring big benefits to education and culture for relatively low amounts of money in public spending terms. In addition, the UK has also lost out on the large increases in money available in the 2021-2027 EU budget.
Reply Rather the U.K. has avoided the large and rising contributions to the EU budget and avoided a share of the huge debts the EU are running up now we have left
June 24, 2024
Gongoozier.
12 Mar 2021 â “The programme, backed by ÂŁ110 million, replaces the Erasmus+ scheme in the UK and will fund 35,000 global exchanges from September 2021.”
It is a bigger program. We couldn’t afford to do it whilst in the EU as we were funding 300,000 EU students in Erasmus with British tuition fee loans or free Scottish higher education plus UK loans for maintenance, which we no longer have to do. It has opened up global opportunity to study and work. “ÂŁ110m of funding will be available to support projects and activities during the 2021/2022 academic year. This is enough to fund similar levels of student exchanges under the former Erasmus+ scheme.”
https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-students-lose-participation-in-eu-erasmus-university-exchange-scheme/
Boris “âThe issue really was that the U.K. is a massive net contributor to the continentâs higher-education economy because over the last decades we had so many EU nationals, which has been a wonderful thing, but our arrangements mean the U.K. exchequer more or less loses out on the deal,â Johnson said. âErasmus was also extremely expensive.â
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/turing-scheme-to-open-up-global-study-and-work-opportunities
One student in for one student out is a much more equitable and affordable program.
https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/why_the_turing_scheme_will_be_even_better_than_erasmus
“This slimmed down, targeted approach will provide much needed savings for the taxpayer. In combination with other specialist areas, exiting Erasmus will save the UK money while not losing any core services. Only 6.6% of undergraduate students in the UK study, work, or volunteer abroad during their degree. The Turing scheme will hopefully remedy this situation and reduce taxpayersâ burden at the same time. ”
I expect Starmer to sign back up to Erasmus and the full cost of Erasmus in funding EU students in Scotland plus providing all loans quite quickly after they take over, he and Reeves and said expect big things in the first 100 days.
June 23, 2024
@Bloke; Indeed, and let’s not forget Mrs Thatcher, who campaign to keep us in, supported Heath taking us in, and then realigned the entire UK economy to keep us in, when Labour wanted us out during the 1980s.
Wilson would never have taken the UK in on the terms Heath agreed, Callaghan would never have sent Baron Cockfield off to Brussels with his Gladstone bag full of ideas either.
Yet somehow Margret Thatcher has become the standard bearer of Brexit for many Brexiteers!
I take it your reference to being “freer and better after leaving the EU” was sarcasm?…
reply Because Margaret in office came see the dangers of European Union and wanted out of the federalising New Treaties
June 23, 2024
@JR reply; Mrs Thatcher was not so much anti the EU as anti the Delors Commission and how it endangered her own political road map here in the UK, such as Dalors telling the TUC that the EC would protect their rights at the European level if the UK govt will not at the domestic level for example, culminating in her Bruges Speech about not rolling back the State at home only for it to be reimposed at the European level.
Would she have been so critical of the Ecu/Euro had the EU Central Bank been in London, the currency pegged to the GBP; given her later concern about German reunification, was the real problem fear at the strength of the German economy?
June 24, 2024
The Sterling Area was much diminished long before we joined the EEC. I am sure that Thatcher would have been aware of the monetary history of the 20th century for both Sterling and the Reichsmark/DM, French franc, etc., and of the 1971 Smithsonian Agreement that abandoned fixed exchange rates and the 1944 Bretton Woods system alongside ending the dollar link to gold. She experienced the Sterling all time low of $1.03 in March 1985 (I saw the prints on Reuters FXFX in real time), and understood that a strong exchange rate requires a strong economy, which post miners’ strike she set about creating.
June 24, 2024
@Mark; Thanks for the laugh, not; a very ‘Canary Wharf’ view of the UK economy in the 1980s. You saw the Reuters FXFX in real time, many others saw their UB40s in real time, others saw their payslips (before the NMW) after working 40 hours for ÂŁ40…
June 23, 2024
An irony of Brexit is that it would never have happened had the pro-Europeans in the Conservative Party not booted out Thatcher. Had she survived she would surely have vetoed the Maastricht treaty and the EU as is would never have come into being. Some others may have gone ahead and eg formed the euro, but the UK would have been outside and a member of the EEA.
(In a further irony, those Brexiteers who put Truss in have brought about a hugely pro remain/rejoin Labour govt which will surely unwind much of Brexit, possibly even reverse it in time. And certainly not allow it to develop further in any way).
June 23, 2024
@Richard1; Interesting thoughts.
You assume Thatcher would have won the 1992 general election, but the issues of the Poll Tax was a far greater election liability even if she had done the eventual U-turn. Yes the Maastricht Treaty might have been stalled but not killed it off, so would Thatcher have tried to pull the UK out of the EEC/EU, I doubt it myself, by late 1990 our economy needed it more than they needed us! Sometime between Nov. 1990 and June ’92 Neil Kinnock would likely have become Prime Minister, even with his election campaign gaffs, the Maastricht Treaty would have then been signed, probably without any opt-outs…
Reply Margaret Thatcher would have won in 1992 and would have opposed Maastricht.
June 24, 2024
@JR reply; Well of course you’ll say that, but the op-polls suggested otherwise, Thacher was removed because she had become an election liability, primarily due to the Poll Tax, I do not recall there being anti Maastricht riots… The replacement for the Poll Tax, the Local Government Finance Act 1992, being rushed through parliament before the 1992 election.
Your one constant is your loyalty Sir John but sometimes it catches up, such as your support for the Poll Tax, or is the following Downing Street minute, of a backbench meeting, incorrect (via the Thatcher Foundation)?
870706 Ramsay cnv POLL TAX BB CEE THCR 5-1-4-136 f28.
Reply I urged them not to do the Community Charge . When I became an MP I put it out to consultation with my constituents as I remained worried about it. I had the task in government of replacing it with the Council tax.
June 23, 2024
reply âBecause Margaret in office came see the dangers of European Union and wanted out of the federalising New Treaties.â
Correct, Sir John. The explanation for the Labour/Conservative Right switch of positions on the EU can be explained by the fact that when we joined the EEC it was considered to be of economic benefit to the UK but by the time we left the EU was no longer considered to be economically beneficial but simply ideological.
June 23, 2024
Good Morning,
Thank you Sir J for reminding us. You have set out a precis, why not write a more, full essay and publish it? I am sure Starmer and Reeves have ideas to reverse these hard won gains, so please get them out in the wild for discussion. Send a signed one to Farage, so he can bring it up in the House!
June 23, 2024
Our savings or gains from not being forced to pay EU contributions are not building in an account to spend. We have cut off the waste from what we earn each year.
Any organisation demanding money with menaces pays the price of losing its leading customers.
June 23, 2024
There should be a campaign to extol the virtues of Brexit with the aim of reassuring a wobbly population and to explain to E.U. governments and populations with a view to reducing hostility why we left.
June 23, 2024
100% Agree. Labour won’t do that, Tories won’t do that, LibDem- – NO, Green—No, so the ONLY party that might do it, and probably will, is Reform. What more do we need to know.
June 23, 2024
You describe a world that might have been but for the perfideousness of members of the parliament , lords and commons, we entrusted Brexit to. The civil service, judiciary, and other blob members are complicit too. Your party are about to pay the price, and ultimately the population under a new regime of open EU remainers.
NI, a disaster with implications of Irish unity and UK breakup.
Paragraph 2. Only the rise to government of Reform will bring this about.
Don’t regail us with the joy of what we have missed, we remain hamstrung with residual EU law that in its latest act the Supreme Court and JSO are all too happy to burdon us with.
As for borders and their control, you must be joking. The good weather we are enjoying will only accelerate the invasion. Vested interests control the legal invasion, not parliament even if it wanted to. The only credible policy is leaving the ECHR and tightening the issue of visas with credible financial earnings targets. The UK is a dependency culture already. Why add to it except in genuine asylum need.
In conclusion, nothing of which you highlight as achievement, even inflation at two percent, is going to benefit the population. It will not be allowed to. As we experienced with the illegal undemocratic coupe against the Liz Truss government, the blob would not countenance it. It is not such a flight of fancy to suggest that the election was called early to avoid the embarassment of reducing mortgage rates, implementing Rwanda, and reducing taxation. Freeing the population from the yoke of government is not on the agenda. Abject failure is the only legacy of you consocialist government.
Reply It is not my government. I have been urging many changes of policy and am no longer an MP
June 23, 2024
Reply to reply.
I am well aware you did not own government, but being in the same party deems that you were associated with it. Collective responsibility, while not being able to influence it greatly. Not your fault, they were not Conservatives. I put it down to your misplaced sense of loyalty. As with a failed mariage or business you have to sense when to say enough is enough.
Reply I am not a Conservative candidate or office holder!
June 23, 2024
But you were and considered influential but ignored as a proper Conservative to offer cover for the true One Nation Tory Party. Now they will rightly pay the price.
June 23, 2024
But SJR you are a Conservative, a real one, and can be more effective out than in at this stage in the life of the consocialist party, as it awaits the killer blow on the 4th July.
June 24, 2024
reply to reply …a tad late to protest ‘not me guv!’
June 24, 2024
Sir John,
You are an MP for your constituency till a new one has been elected
Reply No I am not. There are no MPs currently since the dissolution of Parliament . There are Ministers who are not allowed to do anything or say anything new as Ministers. They remain in office in case an emergency requires Ministerial decision.
June 23, 2024
I would recommend you check out âGully Foyleâ on X. He has compiled and published over 50 significant Brexit wins, all with source material to back up.
June 25, 2024
I can publish 50 we have missed because we left
June 23, 2024
I agree that the most important win is the ability to make our own decisions through elections and Parliament. But that depends on having Governments which are prepared to keep their “promises” and to do as the voters instruct and we didn’t have one of those.
That freedom was achieved in the teeth of opposition from the same Parliament (both Houses) and which has since, in effect, refused to govern the country in OUR interests.
And that is why the Not-a-Conservative-Party will be obliterated in two weeks’ time. They didn’t fail to deliver the Brexit we voted for, they refused. And then they refused to repeal EU legislation/regulations and to take any real advantage from the limited freedom they negotiated, whilst continuing to flood the country with cheap, low-skilled immigrants.
23 June 2016 COULD have been the start of a real Thatcher-style Renaissance in the UK. By voting for independence, the people demonstrated a confidence in the country and, ironically in the political class, that the UK could restore its manufacturing base; improve conditions in the left-behind regions and towns and regain some national pride.
None of that happened. The political class betrayed them. They have kept us shackled to the EU and we know that Labour will, to all intents and purposes, take us back in.
So now we are going to take the first step on replacing the treacherous political class who betrayed us.
June 23, 2024
Donna,
Excellent summary.
85 seat majority, with leant votes, to deliver Brexit. Tory party would rather loose the election than deliver Brexit. Both refuse to diverge from EU and are acting in lockstep as much as possible. Sunakâs betrayal of his EU sell Windsor agreement was designed to do exactly that. He refuses to scrap EU law and still implements EU equality law into domestic legislation!
Reform is the only party offering a proper Brexit. I will vote with my feet.
June 23, 2024
â Reform is the only party offering a proper Brexit. I will vote with my feet.â
I always use the little pencils left in the booths.
June 23, 2024
I always take my own pen. You can’t trust a pencil anyone can rub out your cross.
June 23, 2024
Had to read it twice! đ
June 23, 2024
Peter,
Very good.
June 23, 2024
No Reform candidate in West Dorset!
June 23, 2024
Brexit allows us to have an Australian style points-based immigration system.
June 23, 2024
Although in Australia the system is heavily criticized for producing very sub-optimal outcomes such that some have called for its replacement.
June 23, 2024
I think you will find that it is not the system that is criticised but the way the Albanese government is using it. It is always in the power of a government to use the controls it has or not or in a way it so chooses. Albanese’s government is too lax. The system provides for tighter control without any further legislation or rule changes, should the government choose to exercise it. Australia has controls that don’t even exist in the UK, such as caps, the levy on a visa that is paid into the Skilling Australians Fund, the requirement for immigrants to demonstrate that they will not be a burden on the state.
June 23, 2024
it does but UK does not have an Australian style system. The key features of the Australian system such as caps on total numbers and on certain skills categories, incentivising training of Australians and disincentivising importing immigrants, requiring immigrants to show they will not be a burden on the state are entirely missing from the UK system.
June 23, 2024
Good one.
June 23, 2024
All positives there Sir John.
What are your thoughts on the ongoing authority of the ECJ in our legal framework and on particular the European Arrest Warrant that still applies to EU members and still applies to the UK?
Why have we not repealed or cancelled those impositions.
The ECHR though not an EU body per se, it is advanced by the EU as mandatory all members must sign up to it. We are not members and do not need to be instructed by its increasingly bizarre rulings, vis Swiss Grannies and their Climate Change rights.
Reply I helped put forward a major repeal bill of Eu kass which passed the Commonsbut was then withdrawn by Badenoch, and backed a different answer to the Windsor framework.
June 23, 2024
Compliance with the ECHR is required by the WA and NIP. In theory UK could withdraw from the ECHR but still comply for the purposes of those agreements. But in practice it would create enormous difficulties. I am not entirely convinced that the ECHR is the real obstacle to stopping the boats. Look up ECHR Article 5. It is perfectly clear that unlawful entry is verboten. So is assisting it. There is also UNCLOS which gives the UK the legal authority to enforce its laws and ECHR ARt 5 beyond its territorial limit in The Channel and act to prevent a breach. The UK has made no attempt to use these powers.
June 23, 2024
Please can you show a glossary of acronyms?
June 23, 2024
đ my thoughts too.
June 23, 2024
Peter,
My thoughts re the ECHR are not focused on the ‘boat migrants’. That is a phenomena we could resolve peacefully and completely any day of the week the government decided to act.
My thoughts are the ECHR is a judicial anachronism that impacts us but has no validity or relevance. Other than being an unelected body wanting to interfere in our national affairs, what function does it serve?
We should cancel our membership/support of it and return to belief in our own ability to enact laws and policies that are rational and fair to all.
We gave the world common law, all who adopted that principle praise its simple and effective values. We are more than capable of conducting our own legal systems, we do not need or seek supranational guidance on that.
June 23, 2024
Although true that “the EU is busily borrowing an extra Euro 800 billion and none of that now will add to our debt pile” that may leave some Remoaners distraught. Could not the Chancellor replicate for EU debt the scheme whereby those taxpayers (Charlotte Church) who considered tax took too little of their income were able to make voluntary contributions to HMRC?
June 23, 2024
The message inferred is that should Starmer become the UK’s next PM he will take the UK back into the EU. That’s not an opinion, that’s a fact. Why John can’t state this is beyond me but finding a straight talking politician or indeed an ex-politician in today’s lame, neutered landscape is almost impossible.
I note the enemies of liberty have attacked in a coordinated fashion Mr Farage. The issue on which he comments are simply irrelevant, having the right to express his views on any issue is sacrosanct. The filthy triumvirate of Sunak, Starmer and Postman Pat Davey can go kiss our collective arse
Without free speech and the divine right to offend WE ARE NOTHING but property of the State
June 23, 2024
The Establishment blob who are criticising Farage obviously didn’t see his speech to the EU Parliament in 2014, warning what the consequences of their policies in Ukraine would be. It’s available on YouTube.
They also don’t seem to understand the hypocrisy of criticising Putin for invading Ukraine (after being provoked) whilst failing to criticise Blair (and in fact lauding him) for invading Iraq, completely unprovoked …. or, come to that, Cameron for “interfering” in Libya, which has led directly to the criminal migrant invasion across the channel.
They think the population has the memory of a goldfish. They’re wrong.
June 23, 2024
But the opposition Party leaders deliberately lie aided by their msm lazy, no research puppets.
June 23, 2024
Sir John doesn’t state it as fact because it is not a fact. Facts are things that exist now or in the past.
June 23, 2024
Peter
I have no idea what that means and I suspect neither do you.
Off out with the dogs. They have bowels to empty
June 23, 2024
Excellent.
June 23, 2024
Good to see someone cataloguing Brexit gains. But let’s not forget that Remainers place no value on sovereignty and many don’t place value on the nation state, which is the foundation of democracy. For them the EU provided a means of bypassing democracy via supra-national institutions that gain from the suppression of the nation state and democracy in order to impose policies they could not have by winning democratic debate in this country. For those people UK’s leaving the EU will always be an unforgiveable sin. They will continue to undermine or block Brexit gains at every opportunity. It is from this camp that support for a Muslim Party of Britain arises, support for Hamas, support for Islamist sectarianism, support for transgender ideology, hate for British history and British values and, last but by no means least, anti-semitism.
We are nowhere near winning this war. It is only just warming up.
June 23, 2024
PS. I meant to mention Briefings for Britain which does an excellent job but has a very small readership. But half the Tory Party would align against its editorial line and commentary.
Reply I have now seen the Global Britain list of 50 wins which includes most of my list. Itâs a good document. I will not reinvent it as they have done it.
June 23, 2024
Their “Very Small Readership” just increased by one! Thank you Peter đ
June 23, 2024
” It is a win that VAT has been taken off green products and off female hygiene products. We had to impose it on them under EU law”
What a pity you didn’t remove VAT from already ludicrously expensive energy. And reduce the overall VAT percentage. VAT is an EU invention, your government made NO attempt to end it.
” We no longer have to have open borders with the continent”
Are you sure about that? Thousands are finding our sea border very much open every year.
June 23, 2024
We also never experienced the litany of economic risks which Remainers propagated which included Brexit causing a UK recession, the UK would lose its existing and prospective inward investment to Europe (and swathes of its financial services sector to New York / Paris / Frankfurt), existing investors would reallocate their investments internationally, imported inflation would increase substantially, unemployment would rise substantially and the UK would be in permanent decline. I remember Channel 4 news reporting much of this on 24th June 2016 (ie the day after the EU referendum). Their report even contained a backdrop of thunder claps and streak lightning with each new disastrous claim. The real disaster of course was their economic prophecies as not only did the UK avoid all of them we sustained our competitiveness too. This is despite 3 years stalled corporate investment due to the uncertainty caused by Remainers trying to subvert the referendum outcome (as they didn’t like the result) as well as the pandemic of course too. Brexit has been good for the UK economy’s flexibility and opportunities and we need to maximise it.
June 23, 2024
I’m glad we withdrew but overall it has been a disappointment. Not enough has been done to free us properly, and freedoms have not been promoted.
One easily visible benefit could have been the creation of a Sovereign fund where the same amount we would have paid the EU could have been placed. We may have been close to ÂŁ1bn by now. It would be seen and could have been a great confidence booster – visible funds for future national interest capital projects.
On the contrary no-one believes the benefits from where it is said to have gone.
Generally the gains we have acquired from Brexit are relatively minor and not difficult to erode to get us back under EU control, with tbe fake benefit claims.
June 23, 2024
All very worthwhile, but we could have done so much more with a real conservative government.
EU nations would not still be plundering our fish stocks.
We would not still have so many EU regulations in effect.
The UK would have left the ECHR and defunded many corrupt international quango.
The UK would have responded to the EU’s juvenile actions against the UK, and we certainly would not have conspired with the French to collect boat people from across the Channel.
Yes, we are very happy to be out of the EU, but there is so much more that could be done.
June 23, 2024
“By far and away the most important is we are now free to make our own decisions through elections and Parliament. ” – But, this Conservative Government and Parliament refuse that right. So we are back at square one being told by the unelected unaccountable how the UK should be run and what internal laws it should have.
The premise of having our own Legislator has gone AWOL
4,000 EU Laws accepted without even looking at them, the new laws for new cars allowing external control of speed etc has just been introduced because, the EU says so. VAT has to stay high because the EU says so.
Not seeing any wins there
June 23, 2024
Sir John
I know I am alone on this but ‘Freeports’ are for all intense of purpose taxpayer funded State Subsidies on exports. The local community that they call home has their local industry paying more for those in a Freeport to get a free pass without contributing to the infrastructure that allows them to exist. Many Countries in the World have started to recognise this form of taxpayer subsidy on exports and have now included a higher import duty for goods from those sources.
If we didn’t have high punitive taxes on industry and commerce and the were all treated as equals, the price/cost of the production would be a lot less anyway.
We just need a thriving economy, its as simple as that. The hunting around to tax and tax more is extracting the life blood from the economy. Having everyone in the Country paying more so as to give ‘Freeports’ a free pass on paying for the education, health, transport, power etc that they get to enjoy for free is another way of strangling the economy.
To much tinkering is adding to all our bills
June 23, 2024
Brexit could have been so much more. If only your party had got behind it to make it a success rather than spending the last 8 years fighting to reverse the democratic decision of the British people.
The Conservatives were given the opportunity to improve our country and they blew it big style. Move over and let Reform take charge.
June 23, 2024
All very well, but why was JR-M’s plan to remove over 4,000 superfluous laws abandoned when he was removed from office ?
Knowing that no party in recent times has been re-elected after so long in office, it was essential that Brexit was firmly established before the current term in government ended.
The Remainers in the Civil Service and One-Nation Remainer MPs have connived together to limit the extent of Brexit and we will be lucky after five years ( at least) of Starmer, whether there will be anything of value left of Brexit at all.
To say I am disgusted is a gross understatement.
June 23, 2024
We must never go back !. The EU continues to be a defunct organisation and we did well to get out . Paving our own way since has not been an easy matter but it is important that we re-align ourselves to the rest of the world the way it suits us . Starmer can not be trusted .
June 23, 2024
There is no question that we are 1,000% better off than before we plebs imposed Brexit on the political class.
We are free to make, and correct, our own mistakes. That is freedom.
Unfortunately we bought Brexit expensively, we had to vote for it 5 times, you can see that Farage is riding high because he uses the Brexit lines that Johnson used to become leader of the Party and win an election. We are about to vote for Brexit AGAIN – firing a shot across the Starmer bow.
So it feel as if we have paid for the best Champers, and been presented with an open bottle of Spanish bubbles.
We canât help feeling disappointed, because we had anticipated the champers.
June 23, 2024
How are we going to vote for Brexit again? Do you mean vote for reform?
By ignoring the Lib Demâs they are sneaking into Tory territory in the South unremarked upon that their intend is to rejoin/align give away freedoms. Other than that I donât know a single thing they are proposing different to Labour.
June 23, 2024
Yes. Reform is surging primarily because it is urging the full Brexit reward. Given more time they might have picked up a lit of Labour votes. Of course they have a big downside, if Redwood & Co (the real conservatives) had devised their constitution and manifesto, they might have won.
Farage followed Trump to point out the disaster of war with Russia. Today the US taxpayer paid to kill 4 people, w children, on a beach in Sevastopol. Thank God it was not Storm Shadows but ATACMS. Controlled and directed by US personal.
Russia have said they will retaliate.
Did you know that France and Germany have passed the legislation to Conscript and that the EU is going to issue âwar bondsâ?
June 24, 2024
Fake news:
France has not reintroduced conscription (see Jean-Dominique Marchet, military journalist in a Europe 1 debate on 24/02/2024).
Nor has Germany (dw.com 11/05/2024 âAs Germany mulls military service return, what about Europe?â)
There is a big difference between politicians wondering how to increase the number of active professional military personnel and conscription.
As for the EU war bonds, see ft.com âWhy EU leaders reached a stalemate on joint defence bondsâ, 22/03/2024.
How comes that Sir John lets this type of pro-Putin comments appear on his site every other day or more exactly if he is so keen on free speech that he prevents reactions to these rather misleading comments to appear?
June 24, 2024
Lynn,
No, I didn’t know about conscription in France and Germany but I’m not surprised as Rishi is quick to do their bidding in the UK, From matching EU level Corporation Tax and dividend tax rates, we’re the 3rd highest top personal dividend tax rates now.
“French President Emmanuel Macron implemented the Service national universel (SNU), the General National Service, which will be optional for all male and female citizens aged 15 to 17 starting in 2021. This voluntary service lasts for a month and can be performed in both civil and military facilities.”
“Germany presents new military service model to start … Euractiv
https://www.euractiv.com âș defence-and-security âș news
12 Jun 2024 â After months of anticipation, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius unveiled a new military service model for Germany on Wednesday (12 June),”
Selective Military Service focused on volunteers. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germany-proposes-new-voluntary-military-service-boost-defence-2024-06-12/
June 23, 2024
I, and I am sure we, are fully aware that you are no longer in Parliament , it is a long time since you were in office, and can no longer knock on ministers doors.
Can I suggest that an hours programme on GBNews would give you far more influence and political following than ever your presence in Parliament allowed, and you could use it minus the sea anchor of being a minority member of a party in or out of power. Consider the influence Nigel, and Jacob had until this election got in the way
Separately, today we had a major power outage at Manchester Airport. Question, why do they not have standby diesel generators to kick in as and when their attachment to the grid fails. Going on from that , how many of our major airports are in the same position. On GBNews you could be asking the questions, getting independantly investigated answers, and not having to endure the meaningless responses, crafted by the CS, that emerged in the HoC. Most importantly you would be holding the feet of those responsible to the fire. The Vulcan Vacancy to follow Sir Robin Day awaits.
Reply I would be happy to do that. So far they have just offered a weekly article which I write for them
June 23, 2024
It would be interesting to see John being given a media platform to formulate and express his philosophy assuming he would be prepared following his retirement from formal political life to take risks and say what needs to be said rather being cowed by the official Socialist narrative and their bile and policy to criminalise opposition.
June 23, 2024
Reply to reply.
The weekly article is the tyre lever. I have never answered a job advert in my life. I decided what I wanted to do and sold myself, it seemed to work. You have a lot to offer GBNews. Not least you can put the political gloss on any economic story. You could reveal all behind the business plan that has us paying three times as much for our energy as they do in the USA, as an opener. A story of that magnitude would resonate with the people. Bit like David Frost lifting the lid on Nixon. Add to it how badly managed , from a benefit to the people of the UK it has been, in comparison with that of Norway.
Just tell them what you want to do, and I offer you my best wishes for success.7
June 23, 2024
Unfortunately we did not leave the EU early enough to prevent PM Cameron making a speech in July 2013 in Kazakhstan in which he said the EU should extend its membership deeper into the former Soviet Union, calling for the EU borders to run from the Atlantic to the Urals, followed by the EUâs intervention in Ukrainian politics the following year.
As a result we now have the Russia/Ukraine war and a very unstable Europe. Was this foreseen and deliberate?
June 23, 2024
If Boris had been retained the Animal Reform Bill would now be law. Sunak cancelled it and put members bills in the place which have now fallen as not got through in time. I could not believe that I would see animal reform from Tories and was delighted but I have been let down, as have the animals. Shame on Sunak and the Tories. I cannot see any mention in manifestos about animal reform only the Heritage Party which is good but no chance of them gaining any seats and Reform which wants to support rural sports. Shame on all politicians and people who could have made a difference.
June 23, 2024
Sunak killed the animal reform bill I assume because he wanted to stay aligned with the EU – and maybe it couldnât have been applied in Northern Ireland anyway. Starmer will do the same. It was a manifesto pledge I think ? One of many binned by Sunak in favour of his pet projects on smoking and A Levels which werenât in the manifesto.
June 23, 2024
By not applying the same restrictions to EU exporters that you allowed in the trade agreement with EU imports you gave the EU a big competitive advantage for over five years, and by allowing this and people like JRM wanting it to continue, even though they wonât budge on their restrictive trade you have annoyed and aggravated lots of small businesses that could have grown Iâve been reading in the Guardian (although there are also some winners out of it by increasing their UK internal trade and trade to other nations). The EU had no need to negotiate any further because their exporters had the upper hand. Your old government should have been ready John. Iâd love to know what Farage and crew are going to do about that.
June 24, 2024
“We can now set a fairer policy that has the same conditions for people from the rest of the world and from the EU.”
Why would we want to offer the same terms for people who were brought up in close European countries (to which it is cheap and simple to return at any appropriate moment) and for people who have travelled a lot further and who will therefore have invested a lot more, with the consequence that that it is more expensive to return? I don’t believe that it is possible to class these two groups as equivalent in any kind of business case analysis.