Concentrate on the US which is growing, not the EU which is stalled

For two years there has been no growth in Germany. Once the big motor of  the EU economy ,Germany drifts in and out of recession. Its once great petrochemical, steel and engineering industries are hit by dear energy and plenty of regulation. Its car industry is being coshed by ill judged net zero policies.

The EU has designed an economic policy around rushed moves to net zero that seem designed to undermine the German economy. It is a bizarre act of self harm as German money is crucial to pay EU bills. There  is no growth to be had out of tweaking the EU/UK  trade deal.  Whyb does our Prime Minister think we need to copy and submit  to the EU policy? Why so many meetings with Chancellor Scholz who is about to be flung out of office for economic incompetence if the polls are right?

The UK needs to reinforce its huge success in exporting services, which sell better in English speaking common law systems. It needs to adopt and learn more from US digital dominance. It needs to get back to energy self sufficiency instead of depending on dearer, unreliable imports that produce more world CO 2.

 

123 Comments

  1. Mark B
    February 3, 2025

    Good morning.

    The problem is the way in which we are governed. Or to be more precise, the ‘System’ by which we are governed.

    The ‘System’ is one of ‘Managed Democracy’. We are, if allowed, to cast a vote. We are led to believe that this vote actually means something and that by such means we can consider ourselves a democracy. This is an illusion at best and a lie at worst. I do not need to elaborate or give examples, they are all self-evident.

    There is only one true form of democracy, and that is ‘Direct Democracy.’ A system by which the people do not just cast a vote at the behest of those in charge, but are able to raise at any time in the election cycle issues and referendums to decide on what is or is not to be done. It is not perfect but, such a system does indeed bring power to the people and puts those in power in their proper place as public servants.

    I our kind host asks why the PM is pursuing closer ties with the EU ? The answer is simple. Because the Civil Service, which is the true power in this country, wish it. Yes there are other actors, but these actors do not have the means to remove a PM or political party.

    Reply
    1. Ian wragg
      February 3, 2025

      This whole Net zero scam puzzles me. Any sane person can see it’s a road to ruin. All these governments pursuing it must realise that at some point the peasants are going to revolt and the perpetrators will be sought out.
      There will be no hiding place for the scammers and all their assets should be confiscated.
      We now have another commie in play, the attorney General who appears to be the sole arbiter of government policy. Never voted for and a HR chum of the PM.
      Trump is a much needed breath of fresh air.

      Reply
      1. Lifelogic
        February 3, 2025

        +1

        Reply
      2. Ed M
        February 3, 2025

        ‘Trump is a much needed breath of fresh air’ – how can you say something like that and let him off his daft Trade War?

        Reply
        1. Donna
          February 3, 2025

          Because it’s not a daft trade war; he is “encouraging” a change in behaviour from certain countries and the EU.

          Reply
          1. hefner
            February 4, 2025

            It is a daft trade war initiated by a clown who can only rely on tariffs because he is absolutely ignorant of economics and other ways to change economic behaviour. This guy cannot see that tariffs are a two-edged sword likely to hurt the US public as much as the economy of other countries.

            The ‘liberal’ order has been towards ‘free markets’ starting with the end of WWII. Most economists including von Mises, Hayek, Friedman, A.Schwartz, D.McCloskey, 
 were for a decrease of tariffs and free trade.

            How comes that Brexiteers who were all for ‘free trade’ are now Trump-followers? Is it because they always have been ignorant and flutter like windsocks in the wind? Just asking.

            Reply What nonsense. The so called”liberal order” of the EU is a customs union that restricts trades with tariffs and regulations and is planning a bumper tariff called the carbon border mechanism.

          2. hefner
            February 4, 2025

            Your ‘reply’ is nonsense. My point was about the change of mind of people who had for years said they were for free trade and are now ready to embrace Trump’s tariffs. Are you one of them Sir John?

        2. Lynn Atkinson
          February 4, 2025

          Why don’t you think the EU Customs Union is a ‘daft trade war’. It imposes tariffs on the rest of the world!
          Trump is proposing ‘levelling the playing field’. He is responding rationally to irrational circumstances.

          Reply
          1. Ed M
            February 4, 2025

            ‘Trump is proposing ‘levelling the playing field’. He is responding rationally to irrational circumstances’ – You mean he’s making the same moronic arguments as the EU! Acting irrationally to irrational circumstances. Stop putting the guy on a pedestal. Think critically / objectively.

    2. Peter
      February 3, 2025

      ‘Why does our Prime Minister think we need to copy and submit to the EU policy?‘

      Because the EU is more globalist and left wing than the current American government. Starmer hopes to find support for his policies there – even if there is a price to pay (or US tariffs to deal with)

      Reply
    3. Wanderer
      February 3, 2025

      Sadly true Mark B. The ousting of Truss (herself unelected by the electorate, of course) was an eye-opener.

      I’ve always admired the Swiss system. It must have it’s faults, but the Swiss have done very well for themselves under it.

      Reply
    4. Pominoz
      February 3, 2025

      Mark B,
      The Swiss, to a degree, have the answer, but the EU is irrelevant. The US, with the right person demonstrating true leadership (not everything will be perfect), lights the path forward. All the UK now needs is a leader of stature with the increasingly widespread support to see him (not him/her/they/them) elected who is prepared to follow that path. I think many of us know who that man is.

      Reply
    5. Lynn Atkinson
      February 3, 2025

      The ‘system’ of casting a vote has worked in the USA!
      It’s your responsibility to ensure that you SELECT candidates for whom you want to vote.

      Reply
      1. Lynn Atkinson
        February 3, 2025

        ps regarding Direct Democracy, I propose you ask Andrew Bridgeon about the power of those who count the votes.

        Reply
      2. Lifelogic
        February 3, 2025

        Well with first past the post you might have 10 plus candidate but only one, two or three at nest have any real chance of winning so no point in voting for them. The chance of one of those getting elected and doing as they promised is virtually nil. They will, once elected do as they are told by party and also civil servants.

        Reply
        1. Lynn Atkinson
          February 3, 2025

          With PR those at the top of the list can’t be deposed – and they form the Government, so the government can’t be influenced by the electorate. Baerbok says ‘she is shocked that some politicians put getting elected above supporting Ukraine’ and ‘I don’t care what German voters say- I’m here for the people of Ukraine’.
          Why bother voting at all?

          Reply
    6. Ian B
      February 3, 2025

      @Mark B – just as with the EU Parliament its members can debate, can vote, but if anything criticises goes against the real law makers the unelected unaccountable bureaucrats, it is ignored, swept away as an irrelevance.
      That is the Socialist WEF Doctrine that Starmer says he admires as Parliament is a drag on his determination to rule by political dogma and ideology. Good management, the people and the country have no place in the UK

      Reply
    7. agricola
      February 3, 2025

      Absolutely correct Mark B. The EU, which Starmer is currently wooing, is a much diluted, verging on none existent Managed Democracy. The EU’s civil service is overt and prime. Our CS is the covert puppeteer, which is why I advocate a contract of employment subject to the Official Secrets Act, with ministerial hire and fire powers.

      Reply
      1. hefner
        February 4, 2025

        51,000 ‘Eurocrats’ (EU civil servants) at the end of 2023 with: the European Parliament (6,739), European Commission (24,428), Council of the EU (3,072), Court of Justice of the EU (1,998), Other EU-related (15,000).
        (eca.europa.eu ‘EU Civil Service’ EN 2024)

        To put in perspective 542,840 UK Civil servants as of 31/03/2024 (gov.uk, 20/08/2024 ‘Statistical bulletin – Civil Service statistics 2024’)

        Reply
    8. Lifelogic
      February 3, 2025

      +1

      Reply
  2. agricola
    February 3, 2025

    You keep saying it, we on balance generally agree with you, but this government are not minded to listen. They seem locked in an idealogical time warp, driven by the perceived virtue of their thinking, which is as far from practicality and logic as you can get.

    The only way out is for a much oppressd electorate to consign them to political oblivion in 4 years time, or for their total detachment to lead them to a financial generated implosion anytime earlier. Constantly banging on at this bunch of luddites in charge is akin to herding cats.

    Reply
    1. Lifelogic
      February 3, 2025

      Two Tier Kier is 180 degrees out on every single issue. Sunak was too but Kier is on speed! We are suffering Kier thanks to the dire fiasco of serial lies and failures even to try to deliver from Cameron, May, Boris and Suank.

      Reply
  3. Lifelogic
    February 3, 2025

    Government under Blair and Brown and the 14 years of Con-Socialist was all about generating largely unproductive and anti-productive jobs for lawyer, tax planners, HR experts, courts, landlord licence fee collectors, OTT health and safely people, compliance people, providers of hotels for migrants, rip off unreliable energy market rigging, net zero rigging, EV vehicles and heat pump market rigging, school market rigging, healthcare market rigging, employment market rigging, EDI and woke lunacy rigging
 why woulld anyone be surprised by the lack of growth per cap for many years.? Under Miliband, Lammy, Cooper Balls and two tier Kier it is getting even worse.

    Three nurses arrive from Nigeria at Healthrow with permission to work for the NHS but 18 dependents come with them. They may well be excellent nurses but what is the true cost of these 21 people with just three of them working? This after housing, schools, benefits
? They also undercut nurse wages in the UK, push up tax rates for others, increase demand for roads, police, schools, social services, medical care
 they also deprive Nigeria of people they have expensively trained.

    Reply
    1. Old Albion
      February 3, 2025

      How fortunate it is that there is no one unwell in Nigeria ………

      Reply
      1. Lifelogic
        February 3, 2025

        Well fortunately they took far fewer Covid Vaccines & so came out rather better from Covid it seems.

        Reply
      2. anon
        February 4, 2025

        What happens if they prove not to be excellent?

        Reply
    2. Michelle
      February 3, 2025

      Well said on all counts. Had successive governments done something about the lack of student provision for our own wishing to study medicine we wouldn’t need to be bringing in so many from elsewhere, but that would defeat the object of their exercise, which is to encourage millions to come. As with ‘stop the boats’ and now ‘smash the gangs’ it’s all just theatre with high earners doing nothing remotely like stopping boats or smashing gangs.
      As for the example of the 3 nurses turning up with family, well they know full well they will be staying so bring in the family now rather than later.
      Instead of sensible rolling work visas as other nations have, we just allow everyone to stay.

      Reply
  4. Peter Gardner
    February 3, 2025

    Germany’s great hope was a victory for Zelensky which would have given the EU/Germany control of Ukraine’s vast reserves of critical minerals of which lithium and rare earths alone are valued at up to US$13 trillion, amomg the largest in the world. That is why it reversed its policy of not supplying arms to Ukraine just 3 days after Russia’s invasion. In return for German arms, Zelensky signed away the future sovereignty of Ukraine, for which Ukrainians believe they are fighting and dying, to the EU. Planning for this Green reconstruction started as early as October 2022 and continue as published on EU websites. It was to be a bonanza for EU industry, mainly German, funded by international aid.
    Since then however, other sources of rare earths are being developed in other countries such as Australia, Germany was only prepared to pay so much for expansion of the EU and must be nearing its limit.
    The war in Ukraine also provided cover for Germany to expand its own armed forces, and Scholz has several times announced his intention to make them the most powerful in Europe and to lead European Defence. Its defence budget has been greatly expanded, doubling from 2022 to 2030, when it will be very much larger than the UK’s.
    Germany is also leading moves to substitute QMV for unanimity in EU decisions on defence, security and foreign affairs.
    The EU empire may be declining but it will still be Germany’s more than ever. Third time lucky.

    Reply
    1. Wanderer
      February 3, 2025

      +1 PG. The more would-be “actors” on the world stage, the messier things become.

      Germany may still get QMV, as Trump’s deal purportedly gets Europe to pay Blackrock and others for Ukranian reconstruction. The pressure on Europe will be enormous as the solidarity funds flow east rather than south – so QMV will keep the poorer nations in check.

      The UK (“stand by Ukraine for 100yrs”) will throw more of its citizens’ money away, helping Germany and the Commission in the process. Oh for a government that looks after its people’s interests!

      Reply
    2. hefner
      February 3, 2025

      Ukraine does not appear in the list of the 10 countries with the largest reserves or production of rare earth metals. Is your whole comment what I think it is?
      statista.com 13/01/2025 ‘Where are the World’s rare earth metals?’

      Reply
      1. Mitchel
        February 3, 2025

        I believe that angle to be exaggerated too.Ukraine does have lots of resources;leaving aside agrifoods(the largest sector) they tend to be things like coal,iron ore,titanium,lithium.The main interest in Ukraine is,however, as a battering ram against Russia.

        Georgia’s PM Kobakhidze said last week that “Ukraine was sacrificed for global,repulsive and immoral interests”.He recalled that in 2022″Georgia was required to open a second front.Three years ago they came to us with exactly these texts,like ‘Ukraine is winning’ and ‘we can’t miss the chance’.That’s what they told us behind closed doors when they called us to a second front.We had a reserved position and today as experience shows,our approach was absolutely correct and justified.

        That’s why you have had a concerted effort to regime change Georgia-and now in Slovakia also(the assasination attempt on Fico having failed)-and why the Romanian presidential elections were cancelled-the anti-NATO candidate,Calin Georgescu,was way out in front.

        Reply
    3. Lynn Atkinson
      February 3, 2025

      The Ukraine was was intended to deliver the resources of a defeated Russia. Ukraine itself is a mere mean to that great end, the biggest and commodity richest country on earth was to be divided into 12 regions and controlled by the EU. They people ‘were to be reeducated’ so they fully appreciated the greatness of the Stepan Bandeira movement, Ukraine has an annual public holiday to laud him. Look him up – he fought valiantly with the man the whole Canadian Parliament, including the WEF’s Trudeau and Ukraine’s ‘Freeland’, gave a standing ovation to for ‘fighting Russia (and Canada) in WWII’.
      Canada now has 50% tariffs to pay to the biggest trading partner.
      Do you think the ‘standing Ovation’ was a cause?
      Or is Canada playing the role of France to Britain, funnelling in undesirable illegal immigrants and much more – drugs etc.?
      Either way it seems Putin and Trump are in lockstep to ‘de-nazify’. Hurrah!

      Reply
    4. Ian B
      February 3, 2025

      @Peter Gardner – but why did Germany and the EU approve of the Russian invasion of the Crimea which kicked this whole debacle off? Effectively they sanctioned Russia to take what it wants

      Reply
      1. Mitchel
        February 3, 2025

        What ‘kicked this whole debacle off’ were the plans by the US/NATO to develop the naval bases at Sebastopol and along the coast to the west of Crimea following the maidan coup.The first missile volley of the war three years ago destroyed the facility that the UK was building at Ochakov.

        Reply
        1. Lynn Atkinson
          February 4, 2025

          +1 and the demented actor cut off the water to 1 million people in Crimea. That’s a war crime.

          Reply
    5. Mitchel
      February 3, 2025

      ForeignPolicy.com,24/1/25:”Don’t talk about the war.”

      “The German political establishment has no idea what war looks like-and doesn’t want to know”

      Reply
      1. Lynn Atkinson
        February 4, 2025

        They want revenge – they want a victory parade in Kursk!
        They will NEVER have it!
        Scholz was taken to a hospital in Ukraine. He was visibly shocked. He should have been taken to the front line.

        Reply
  5. Lifelogic
    February 3, 2025

    Good to see the Mail on Sunday talking up the case of the very clearly unsafe conviction of Lucy Letby. Who do they think killed the more than 1/3 who dies while she was not working? We have a hugely expensive and very slow legal system yet still they send the wrong people to jail for life and even refuse them the right to appeal.

    I assume given our dire legal system she will rot for very many more years before justice is finally done, the Birmingham 6 served 16 years before release. She will doubtless be expected to pay for her “lodgings” when finally let out. What did tax payers have to pay to rather poor lawyers for her poor defence? The dire Wes Streeting thinks we should not point out how obviously unsafe her conviction is so as not to upset the “victims”. Why would they be upset by an unsafe conviction being corrected?

    Reply
    1. Denis Cooper
      February 3, 2025

      I have not given this much attention but my wife read out an article in The Times.

      https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/lucy-letby-evidence-conviction-0mqwglpbq

      “My research was misused to convict Lucy Letby — so I did my own inquiry”

      “Dr Shoo Lee, a neonatalist whose 30-year-old paper was pivotal in the nurse’s trial, and an expert panel have re-examined the case and reached ‘explosive’ conclusions”

      He was busy with the harvest on his farm in Alberta when her lawyers emailed him.

      It does make me think again about the death penalty.

      Reply
      1. Ed M
        February 3, 2025

        Death Penalty is barbaric / medieval (plus you can send an innocent person to their grave – that’s far worse than the socialists stealing your money – you’re stealing someone’s life).
        (But lock them up for life and throw away the key if you want).
        Although one medieval torture I’d consider bringing back is the stocks and throwing rotten fruit and veg. In particular for politicians. Tony Blair is the first politician I’d want to throw a tomato at.

        Reply
        1. Lynn Atkinson
          February 3, 2025

          Tell Iran.

          Reply
    2. graham1946
      February 3, 2025

      Wes Streeting in opposition had some good ideas. In office he is a great disappointment. I presume Starmer won’t let him do anything radical and as politicians like the ministerial limo, salaries etc. (for instance Baker), he will not resign but will just ‘chair warm’ until the next election. The NHS will never improve under this lot or indeed any of them. We need a clear-out of amateur politicians who have never had a proper job or ever run anything bigger than a fund raising raffle.

      Reply
    3. Ed M
      February 3, 2025

      ‘Good to see the Mail on Sunday talking up the case’ – why?

      ‘of the very clearly unsafe conviction of Lucy Letby’ – in what was it it ‘very clearly unsafe’?

      ‘We have a hugely expensive and very slow legal system yet still they send the wrong people to jail for life and even refuse them the right to appeal’ – but what’s your specific argument against the protection?

      ‘obviously unsafe her conviction is’ – how is it obviously unsafe?

      Reply
      1. Ed M
        February 3, 2025

        ‘but what’s your specific argument against the protection?’ – against the prosecution I meant.
        We must be careful not to undermine our judicial system. If you’re going to challenge it, fine, but then please do so with specific arguments and with care (and in the spirit of a benign justice system!).
        (Otherwise you just come across as a kind of anarchist – attacking and undermining everything in this GREAT country of ours).

        Reply
      2. Wanderer
        February 3, 2025

        Ed M. It’s worth looking at the points made by David Davis and others (e.g. The Conservative Woman website). I think you’ll find there is a strong case to suggest a miscarriage of justice.

        Reply
        1. Ed M
          February 3, 2025

          Why waste my time going to another website about what David Davis thinks over our British Judiciary?

          Reply
      3. Roy Grainger
        February 3, 2025

        The Letby conspiracy theorists follow Remainer best practice – they think the jury were too thick to understand the evidence presented to them over several months and didn’t know what they were voting for when finding her guilty, whereas they with their superior intelligence don’t even need to have heard all that evidence to know she was innocent.

        Reply
        1. Ed M
          February 3, 2025

          To me it looks like David Davis is trying to find some cause to resurrect his political leadership for the Tories. If so, shows what poor judgement he has. Way too much ambition without the talent / ability to match.

          Reply
  6. Lifelogic
    February 3, 2025

    Follow the US and “not the EU (and UK) which is stalled” you say – well not so much “stalled” as our idiotic politicians have jammed on the brakes on and put sand in the gear box and sugar in the petrol with Net Zero, OTT red tape, over taxation, renewables and a state sector of circa double the size it should be. And this on top of the insanity of long Covid Lockdowns and the net harm, ineffective and dangerous, Covid “vaccines” – coerced even into people with no need of them.

    Reply
  7. Linda Brown
    February 3, 2025

    The country should also concentrate on local councils and improve the quality of elected councillors. Birmingham, for example, was run by the Quaker Cadbury family in the mid-20thC and it was run very well as it had business people keeping it in check. Now you have all and sundry on the council (like in the main government of the land) and it is bankrupt but can still give councillors large increases in allowances whilst fleecing the tax payers with double the rate of council tax. Look local first.

    Reply
    1. Lifelogic
      February 3, 2025

      Well one of the main reasons Birmingham are bust is the absurd “equality” laws where duff DEI courts decide that certain (usually female dominated jobs) are of equal value say refuse collection. These things should clearly be decided by market forces not some woke, diversity pushing, ignorant judge who has probably never done any of these jobs.

      Needless to say the Tories did nothing sig. to get rid of the Equality Act 2010
      Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) Statutory Code of Practice on equal pay as they should have done. Labour and making it even worse. It usually ends up as blatant, anti-male discrimination.

      Reply
    2. Lynn Atkinson
      February 3, 2025

      Unfortunately Birmingham’s councillors are local. So are London’s. British people have lost their first and second cities to foreign princes.

      Reply
    3. Ian B
      February 3, 2025

      @Linda Brown – all politicos follow the lead of their masters running the central command and control. If its good for our rulers to dictate its good for their servants to emulate them. It shines the light on the root to promotion

      Reply
    4. Wanderer
      February 3, 2025

      @Linda Brown. You also have entrenched Council officers…similar to the CS. Weak councillors, unfamiliar with local government, are putty in their hands.

      Reply
  8. Paul Freedman
    February 3, 2025

    Just on the EU regulation aspect, I thought it was interesting what President Trump said about this at the Davos summit in January 2025. He concurred the EU is over-regulated.
    He was answering a question from Steve Schwarzman of the Blackstone Group when he mentioned years ago he wanted to make a substantial investment in Ireland. Ireland was able to agree the proposal in a week but Trump was informed there will be a delay with the EU as it has layers of regulation which need satisfying (which of course is incumbent on Ireland).
    So Trump put the investment proposal to the EU and it was estimated it could 4 to 5 years to satisfy the EU’s regulatory requirements. Trump was astonished it would take that long to approve and he reluctantly had to cancel his investment in Ireland and invest elsewhere. Such are the costs of being over-regulated. The Q&A with Trump is available to watch on YouTube.

    Reply
  9. Old Albion
    February 3, 2025

    Surely the answer to the ‘stalled’ economy of the EU is end the ‘Net Zero’ nonsense. (as should the UK) Unfortunately too many people in high places have swallowed all the “Co2 is going to kill us” propaganda and are unable to see and think for themselves.

    Reply
  10. Roy Grainger
    February 3, 2025

    The majority of Labour MPs have always loved the EU because it was a way of permanently imposing socialist policies on the UK by bypassing Parliament and making them impossible to remove. Why the majority of Conservative MPs have always loved the EU is a mystery.

    Reply
  11. oldwulf
    February 3, 2025

    The Labour Government is clearly not interested in the success of our economy.

    Net Zero seems to be no more than a diversion.

    Starmer has a different agenda.

    Reply
  12. J+M
    February 3, 2025

    The problem we face is that for those who still grieve the result of the 2016 referendum it is an article of faith that we are worse off as a result and that it has been a disaster. No amount of data convinces them otherwise. Starmer is one of those. He is incapable of moving on. He is not a democrat but a totalitarian socialist who thinks he knows best, if he knows what he thinks, that is, which the book being serialised in the Sunday Times suggests he might not.

    Reply
  13. Michelle
    February 3, 2025

    One of the differences between the US under its new President and Britain and the EU under the same old guard as before, is that the former loves his nation and people and is not ashamed of that. He’s not on some trip to be Mother to all (Mutti Merkel) in the world.
    Unfortunately it seems those running the EU and Britain, whether in or out of the EU, have a bad taste in their mouth regarding their own.
    Destruction for the sake of an ideology that says we as a people are the demons of the world and we must pay.
    Didn’t Boris Johnson waffle on about Britain’s Industrial Revolution being to blame for climate change? If it wasn’t him, well it’s the sort of clap trap he’d come out with and a lot of the reasoning of many at the wheel here and in the EU, as to why we must rush to net zero/DEI and mass immigration, regardless of the damage it’s doing.
    They seem hell bent on destruction rather than stability, and that’s right across the board not just economically.

    Reply
  14. David Andrews
    February 3, 2025

    I agree with your analysis and conclusions. It should be clear even to this incompetent Labour government that the the post WW2 US dominated “rules based order” is over. Trump is having none of it as his succession of Executive Orders since coming into office demonstrate, not least his tariff measures. The UK has to navigate this new world with extreme care. The global free trade mantra that has guided UK thinking and policy is out of touch with the multi-polar world that the Trump administration now accepts, including trade relations. Policies, like Net Zero, that fundamentally undermine UK competitiveness are politically and economically stupid. Hitching the UK to a declining EU economy is even more stupid.

    Reply
  15. Donna
    February 3, 2025

    Two-Tier’s going to the EU (again) because those who control him have told him that the UK must snuggle up to the EU. It’s not really about trade because the EU economy is clearly circling the plughole, whilst the US economy is improving and will soon be going gang-busters.
    So those controlling Two-Tier are concerned about security. The Ukraine war will soon be brought to an (unsuccessful) end, with Putin still in place; the EU is becoming increasingly unstable with so-called populist parties on the up and gaining power; the French and German economies are flat-lining or in recession; NATO members will be required to increase their contributions and President Trump is about to impose punishment tariffs on their “closed shop.” And, less important but significant, the Norwegian Government has just collapsed because one of the senior members refused to cooperate with the EU’s demand that Norwegian energy be directed to EU member nations – preferring instead to look out for the interests of their own country/people.
    I therefore conclude that Two-Tier’s controllers are nervous about the EU and/or the Euro collapsing and causing continental chaos and believe our closer involvement will prevent it.
    Our membership of the EEC/EU has never been about trade. It’s always been about security. We have to hope that Two-Tier’s controllers will not snuggle up so closely that they make a trade deal with the USA impossible. But if they do, the next Government, hopefully Reform, will just have to scrap it.

    Reply
  16. Richard1
    February 3, 2025

    Sorry to point it out, but the pivot to the EU and surreptitious stalling and reversal of Brexit became inevitable once the decision was taken to select Liz truss as leader of the Conservative Party with the electoral catastrophe which followed. She took us from -5% to -30% in the polls, from which position there could be no recovery. She had the right ideas but was woefully inadequate and unequal to the job of being pm. After the failures and shenanigans of Johnson it was essential to choose a competent leader. Some of us pointed this out at the time.

    Reply
    1. Lynn Atkinson
      February 4, 2025

      +1

      Reply
  17. Roy Grainger
    February 3, 2025

    Enjoyed you appearance on Talk Radio today. It seems that hardly anyone is aware of the massive costs of the BoE selling bonds at a loss which neither the EU or USA central banks do. I think only Reform has said this should be stopped. I wonder why Reeves hasn’t taken advantage of this cost-cutting measure ? She could simply cite the EU policy as justification. Why isn’t she ? Captured by the Treasury Blob I suppose.

    Reply
  18. Rod Evans
    February 3, 2025

    It is beyond the wildest imaginings of incompetence to set out policies that demand a nation does not use its own resources. That is precisely what the Net Zero fixation advanced by Ed Miliband and before him Theresa May and Boris Johnson have mandated. They have put into law importation of energy as government policy, rather than extracting our own resources?
    As Kinnock in his prime once said. Madness, absolute madness!

    Reply
  19. Bloke
    February 3, 2025

    Self-harm is dangerous for anyone, especially a basket case like the EU.
    Computer says No, don’t do it but try these instead:
    ‱ Exercise to distract from negativity
    ‱ Cooking or Baking
    ‱ Being Creative (New laws & regulations?)
    ‱ Calling a Friend (Keir Starmer?)
    ‱ Listening to Music (Ode to Joy?)
    ‱ Reading a Book (Just say No!)
    ‱ Watching a Movie (Brexit was a good move)
    ‱ Hanging Out With a Pet

    Reply
  20. Rodney Needs
    February 3, 2025

    Gets my vote I am really distraught that the soft drink industry has used common sense and followed the EU rules over the fix bottle cap according to Ed Davy on Sunday morning. I think I will need treatment for stress.

    Reply
    1. Wanderer
      February 3, 2025

      The bottles are a nightmare. They don’t close properly and the top’s in the way when you want a swig.
      Plastic waste surveys of beaches suggest this measure will have a neglible effect on pollution. It’s just virtue signalling.

      Reply
      1. Ian B
        February 3, 2025

        @Wanderer – studies have shown 85% of ocean micro-plasics are as a result of tyre wear from auto use. EVs being twice as heavy as ICe versions obviously produce twice as much

        Reply
  21. glen cullen
    February 3, 2025

    SirJ, you’re spot-on today

    Reply
  22. Keith from Leeds
    February 3, 2025

    There is a saying, You are pissing into the wind! Sorry to be a bit crude, but that sums up our Labour government.
    If they want growth, reduce corporation tax to 15%, up the tax-free allowance to ÂŁ20k, cut government spending and reduce the Civil Service by at least half.
    Drop Net Zero, stop building windmills and solar farms, and give Rolls Royce the go-ahead for SNRs. Cheap and reliable energy is the key to a thriving modern economy.
    If Starmer and Reeves want to know what is blocking growth, they should look in a mirror!

    Reply
    1. Ian B
      February 3, 2025

      @Keith from Leeds – to obvious and logical, but it neglects personal political ideology and works with and for the people and the country. So what’s the point of it?

      Reply
  23. Bryan Harris
    February 3, 2025

    Why does our Prime Minister think we need to copy and submit to the EU policy?

    We have to recognize that not only are labour policies fully aligned with netzero but they fit perfectly with those of the EU who are following the same destructive goals.

    The ‘WHY’ question we should be asking is: ‘WHY would our leaders deliberately set our industries and commerce on a path to destruction, for a myth’?

    We all know what should be done to create wealth, our leaders too, but they have all been so indoctrinated in ideology, even though they quote the science they don’t understand they dare not question it, but the soundbites provided for them make them sound so statesman like – Ha!

    With a little sense now sweeping America we can only hope that some of it rubs off on the UK.

    Reply
  24. Denis Cooper
    February 3, 2025

    The Maidenhead Advertiser has not published the last letter that I sent in but instead there is one from a local Tory referring to the report from Mario Draghi and pointing out that:

    “In 2008 the Eurozone and the US had comparable GDPs of $14,2 trillion and $14.8 trillion, in today’s prices, in 2023 the Eurozone had risen to $15 trillion, and the US to $26.9 trillion”.

    On a crude calculation that corresponds to the US outperforming the Eurozone by 3.7% a year compound over 15 years, the same ballpark as the 2.9% a year I worked out recently:

    http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2025/02/01/being-single-market-minister-persuaded-me-we-had-to-leave-the-eu/#comment-1496697

    How can anyone think it makes economic sense to emulate the EU?

    Reply
    1. Ian B
      February 3, 2025

      @Denis Cooper – then factor in population sizes, the EU and the UK are failing big time

      Reply
  25. Ed M
    February 3, 2025

    Trump’s Trade War is one of the dumbest things I’ve seen a President do in US history.
    He clearly lacks a fundamental understanding of how the economy / market forces / capitalism works.

    Reply
    1. Bloke
      February 3, 2025

      Ed M:
      Trump intends US citizens buying home-built cars instead of those from the EU, and much else.
      What is the fundamental understanding you claim he lacks?

      Reply
      1. Ed M
        February 4, 2025

        Because consumers prefer European cars in some cases over American. Like some British consumers prefer German cars over French. You’re demonstrating a clear lack of understanding of market capitalism in the context of consumerism. (Whilst other countries will impose tariffs on you in return and other issues that affect your economy by imposing tariffs on others).

        Reply
    2. Lynn Atkinson
      February 3, 2025

      So we all understand why Trump is President and not you.

      Reply
    3. Ian B
      February 3, 2025

      @Ed M – if the EU has barriers to trade coming in from the US, then if the EU has tarrifs on the imports from the USA that are 400% greater than the USA charges exports from the EU. There is an imbalance. The EU has weaponised trade with the World while hiding behind projectionist barriers

      Reply
  26. Ed M
    February 3, 2025

    Also, all this talk about EU versus USA is a bit of a waste of time (we’re out of the EU – let’s just get on with it now!). Let’s focus on business not politics.
    We should be focusing on creating high quality High Tech brands (both hardware and software and British-brand cars and related tech) and exporting around the world to the USA, Austria, China, Vietnam, the Democratic Republic of Congo .. and so on. Where trade agreements etc and distance don’t mean anything, or much, because people just want to buy our high quality British brands!

    Reply
    1. Bloke
      February 3, 2025

      Perhaps US citizens will buy more British cars if importing EU cars becomes too expensive.

      Reply
      1. Ed M
        February 4, 2025

        There’s no such thing as ‘British’ cars. We just make them for other countries. Shame.

        Reply
    2. Lynn Atkinson
      February 4, 2025

      You need a thong called ‘capital’ to create anything including a business. The Government does not recognize ‘capital’ and taxes all ‘money’. Therefore those British people with ideas and enterprise will flock to Trump’s USA – again! After all we gave the USA the computer industry in the first place, our brightest will have to go where the money is as they always have done, which is why the best have been dragged from the Regions to London to date , Kahn has put a stop to that.

      Reply
      1. hefner
        February 4, 2025

        You’re too late by at least thirty years. Our brightest have already been scooped by the USA even before entering graduate studies.

        Thirty years ago ‘Oxford and Cambridge hosted annual ‘milk rounds’ for the largest UK employers to present their company and discreetly interview final-year students. In recent years this talent search process in the UK has been taken over by US companies, who adopt a more ruthless approach to finding the best students. They catch high-flyers early on, find the eager ones and select through internships as extended interviews’. ‘Spring Week is a short internship in the Easter holidays that often leads to a summer internship and then a highly(*) paid job’.
        * relative to what a UK company would give.
        https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4560486 (2017 How to land Spring Week offers)
        ‘Over half of ‘the US companies’s ‘graduate vacancies are filled by those who have done an internship’. ‘European companies have tried to copy this approach, but they lag behind.’
        ‘Oxford and its 44 colleges have endowment funds of $7bn, whereas Harvard alone has $53bn’.

        ‘Vassal State: How America runs Britain’, A.Handon, 2024 includes many more examples of how the USA is milking the UK cow.
        And that’s why Musk wants the continuation of the H-1B visa program.

        Reply
  27. Original Richard
    February 3, 2025

    “It needs to get back to energy self sufficiency instead of depending on dearer, unreliable imports that produce more world CO 2.”

    Put more simply, cancel Net Zero.

    Reply
  28. Lynn Atkinson
    February 3, 2025

    The EU also took a dislike to the way Cyprus earned its living. So it crashed the Cyprus economy and imposed a ‘bail-in’, which I believe was an emergency power but has now become a default power.
    I wonder how the Germans will react when their private bank accounts are raided for funds to prop up the EU?
    If the British Government give access to British Banks under their ‘closer friendship’ with the EU treaty, you can expect to see a flight of money – unless a precautionary exchange rate law is quietly passed.
    These are the things to look out for.
    I see Trudeau has retaliated with 25% import taxes on US goods so Trump has seen him and doubled the bet to 50%. Canada is a dead duck. Imagine Britain in the same situation. Do you think Rachel from Accounts can trump Trump? How much of your life saving do you want to put on the spinning wheel?

    Reply
    1. hefner
      February 3, 2025

      50% tariffs on US imports from Canada? What are your references?

      Reply
      1. Lynn Atkinson
        February 3, 2025

        President Trump.

        Reply
        1. Lynn Atkinson
          February 3, 2025

          Of course Canada has no refineries. So the pain will be very real and fast.

          Reply
        2. hefner
          February 4, 2025

          Oh, I see. Can you quote on which day and at what time exactly he said this 50% as he appears to change his time every so often.

          Reply
  29. Ian B
    February 3, 2025

    Sir John
    The whole World is a more civilized place to be associated with rather than the protectionist(for their own core) EU.
    The UK being an open place always gets ‘screwed’ by the EU with a heavily biased arrangement that disregards everyone but the inner core.
    I am hoping the USA goes ‘Large’ and seeks reciprocal arrangements with the EU/ and its puppet the UK – there has to be a wake up call to the Worlds Socialists

    Reply
  30. Denis Cooper
    February 3, 2025

    It’s nearly eight years since the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement came into force and it would help the 94.5% of the world’s population who live outside of the EU, including us of course, if it started to fulfill its obligations under that treaty. Yet I have never heard any UK politician taking them to task over this.

    https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tradfa_e/tradfa_e.htm

    “ARTICLE 7: RELEASE AND CLEARANCE OF GOODS”
    “4 Risk Management
    4.1 Each Member shall, to the extent possible, adopt or maintain a risk management system for
    customs control.
    4.2 Each Member shall design and apply risk management in a manner as to avoid arbitrary or
    unjustifiable discrimination, or a disguised restriction on international trade.
    4.3 Each Member shall concentrate customs control and, to the extent possible other relevant
    border controls, on high-risk consignments and expedite the release of low-risk consignments. A
    Member also may select, on a random basis, consignments for such controls as part of its risk
    management.
    4.4 Each Member shall base risk management on an assessment of risk through appropriate
    selectivity criteria. Such selectivity criteria may include, inter alia, the Harmonized System code,
    nature and description of the goods, country of origin, country from which the goods were
    shipped, value of the goods, compliance record of traders, and type of means of transport.”

    Reply
  31. forthurst
    February 3, 2025

    Germany is recession because the warmongering US decided to destroy their source of cheap gas and banned them from buying cheap oil. The US is not a ally of any European country; it follows its own exclusive interests at all times unless they clash with those of Israel.

    Reply
    1. Lynn Atkinson
      February 3, 2025

      I think you need to distinguish between the USA under real capitalists – Trump and the Biden Administration in particular.

      Reply
    2. Mitchel
      February 3, 2025

      Enoch Powell said it:the USA is the enemy,not Russia.

      20 years ago the great American economic historian,Dr Michael Hudson,predicted that once a powerful alternative grouping was established(then the Shanghai Co-operation Organization-SCO-before BRICS was institutionalised)in the early 2000s,the USA would be forced to squeeze its vassals to maintain power.

      Hudson was interviewed by BraveNewEurope.com on 21/7/24:”All of our wealth has been coming from you”bringing his thoughts up to date-it’s well worth catching.

      Reply
      1. Lynn Atkinson
        February 3, 2025

        Powell was concerned by the USA aligning with China.
        He would be concerned (as I am) about Russia aligning with China.
        You have to have the context.

        Reply
        1. hefner
          February 4, 2025

          When I need ‘context’, I think I take ABL, anything but Lynn.

          Reply
        2. Mitchel
          February 4, 2025

          He was more concerned about the damage the US had caused to ‘British interests’ particularly in the Middle east-based on his own experiences of working with the Americans in the latter stages of WWII.,

          Reply
  32. Stephen S
    February 3, 2025

    Whatever is really on Mr Starmer’s agenda (I think we can guess as it will likely be the civil service’s continuing agenda of ever closer ties with the EU) the optics of this meeting, now, when Trump is busy making good on his promises to rectify trade imbalances through tariffs, are terrible for the UK. I’m afraid we have a government with absolutely no feel for politics or international matters and whose default setting will be to roll over so we look nice in the right places (as viewed through the Labour lens). I fear we are heading for trouble and attempting to attach our lifelines to an already sinking supertanker.

    Reply
  33. Bill Brown
    February 3, 2025

    John,

    Interesting perspective and as a general rule of thumb also correct it is better to sell into a growing economy,
    But there are lots of economies in Europe growing, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Denmark, Poland and many in eastern Europe.
    The new tariffs in the US will not help and the Germans and the EU are know aware they have gone too far with the green agenda, so they will be cutting back on those restrictions as well.
    Building market share in a country is always easier if it is geographically closer, this si why there is so much trade between Canada, Mexico and the US and Germany and France.
    So your recommendations are only partially correct?

    Reply
  34. Ukret123
    February 3, 2025

    Starmer’s CV reads like a book begging the question “Is there no end to this chap’s talents?” Well talented though he is on ” Rules and Regs” he has zero Street-cred and is incapable of “joined up thinking” as are all his fellow travellers in government. Zero awareness and abhorrence of anything business. Profits have to be zero or taxed out as being a Red Flag.
    They think that their election success can be seen as the socialist revival in Europe just like they naively assumed sending support to Kamala Harris would be.
    The EU is a economic political disaster zone but Starmer sees it as a brilliant heaven and haven for socialist advancement, not the Trump vision, just like London’s Khan.

    Reply
  35. Derek
    February 3, 2025

    If Mr Trump actually implements his higher tariffs, the Germans, would have to accept more losses to their car industries and that would affect the whole of the EU. Given the USA has a trade deficit of around $165B with the EU, I’d say they have more to lose than the Americans in this matter. Who can blame the businessman for trying to level the playing field?
    Concerning our country, the Americans run a small trade balance with us therefore we are in a better position to negotiate even better terms. But…..
    Sadly, our Prime Minister is neither a businessman nor a politician. He’s just a lawyer who gravitates to the closest legal framework that he can join.
    He’ll not realise the great potential for us to deal with the USA on our own terms. And I thought it was just those monkeys who were deaf, dumb and blind!
    Improving our Nation requires acumen, Innovation and GROWTH so he is out of it but fits in with those monkeys, very well.
    There is something wrong with an electoral system that allows talentless people to run our country. As has been the case for decades. Time for change?

    Reply
    1. Ian B
      February 3, 2025

      @Derek – It is time to listen to what Trump is actually saying. Canada & Mexico aside as that dispute is to do with them being enhanced corridors for criminal entry into the USA. Similar to the UK being bombarded with criminals from France.
      The US problem with China is that China subsidises everything it exports while protecting their home markets from competition – they are disrupters to reciprocal trade.

      Like wise with the EU, they have protected their home markets against ‘all comers’ high tariffs, bizarre standards etc – they are not interested in reciprocal trade. Trumps main ‘beef’ is that EU imports into the US have up until now just been liable to a 2.5% duty, yet for the US to export to the EU on top of everything else they have to pay 10% in duty – that’s a 400% uplift imposed by the EU.

      While it is reasonable and common-sense to protect your home grown industries and commerce from predator entities – its another thing when like the EU to ring fence their market then use this protection and add in subsidies (just as with China) to enhance its export position. That is weaponising trade. That is not mutual reciprocal trade.

      As you say our so-called PM is neither a businessman (he cant manage himself let alone a country, he needs sponsors to clothe himself) or a politician ( he is against democracy and doesn’t accept the premise that the Law is blind so imposes personal two tier laws), he is just an ideological (person ed) that has found himself on the podium

      Reply
    2. Lynn Atkinson
      February 3, 2025

      The thing wrong with the electoral system is that we gave up the Selection of our prospective candidates and accepted a list produced by the party machines.
      We need to revert to what served us so well.

      Reply
  36. Qubus Merrie
    February 3, 2025

    There is one thing for certain: If Starmer negotiates some sort of youth-Exchange agreement with the EU, there will be a hell of a lot more Europeans coming to the UK than British young people going to Europe. I estimate it will be in the ratio 10:1.

    Reply
  37. Lynn Atkinson
    February 3, 2025

    Imagine David Frost as leader of Reform. He would get a landslide to rival Trump’s.
    No government capable of delivering Reform’s avowed politics can be formed under Farage because everybody of ability is elbowed out for fear of showing Nigel up.
    You see I believe that Ben Habib would have been able to take on the establishment in any Ministry he was given. We need quite a few of similar calibre, because it is a long hard fight.
    I fear that Britain, with both main parties in melt-down have nothing substantial to fall back on.

    Reply
  38. Graham
    February 3, 2025

    We will see how much further the US is growing with the stock market tumbling and Canada Mexico China standing firm also the same can be said for EU – we could be heading into a old fashioned depression if we are not careful. Glad to see the Europeans with Britain are going to beef up their defences – they can see the US is not the same reliable partner anymore. Yesterday American forces went off solo and bombed a rural village in Somalia a sovereign country without any warning killing many poor desert peoples as I say not very reliable as a partner – strange times we live in now

    Reply
    1. Ed M
      February 4, 2025

      The Americans will screw the Brits over like so many of them screw each other over including their spouses .. To think Trump would be loyal to us is quaint.

      Reply
  39. Original Richard
    February 3, 2025

    “It [the UK] needs to get back to energy self sufficiency instead of depending on dearer, unreliable imports that produce more world CO 2.”

    PM Johnson published his 368 page “Net Zero Strategy – Build Back Greener” in October 2021 in which he wrote on P19 that we will have electricity available “at the flick of a switch from abundant, cheap British renewables
.”

    As electricity prices continue to rise and we have warnings of grid failure NESO (National Energy System Operator) write in their “Clean Power 2030” report:

    “Consumer engagement is a vital part of efficient and low-cost use of clean power and, in the first instance, regular demand side flexibility responsive to TOUTs would typically be used to reduce peak demand.”

    The plan is for expensive, chaotically intermittent electricity (don’t be fooled, renewables are more expensive than gas) where instead of supply matching demand, demand is made to match supply through rising prices to curb use and finally through rolling blackouts.

    Reply
    1. Ian B
      February 3, 2025

      @Original Richard – +1 – yes Johnson good at math thought that 4 times the price of our competitors created by levies, taxes and other silly convoluted mechanisms, meant abundant and cheap. He was also the brains behind the thinking that importing from the world’s greatest polluters by the most polluting methods would reduce the ‘World’s Greenhouse’ gases.
      Not that those that have followed him, those that were all empowered to stop the destruction could be bothered

      Reply
  40. Original Richard
    February 3, 2025

    “The EU has designed an economic policy around rushed moves to net zero that seem designed to undermine the German economy.”

    It is perfectly understandable that Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens would also support Net Zero as a policy “designed to undermine” the UK economy. For these parties it is a perfectly rational policy and hence for the rush to “clean power by 2030”.

    But that this policy should also be adopted and even ramped up the Conservative Party would seem incomprehensible. A combination of infiltration and it succumbing to the BBC’s incessant propaganda that proves that telling a big enough lie often enough will ensure people eventually believe it.

    Reply
  41. Original Richard
    February 3, 2025

    It [the UK] needs to get back to energy self sufficiency instead of depending on dearer, unreliable imports that produce more world CO 2.”

    We’re told by the climate alarmists that increasing anthropogenic CO2 will make weather extreme and unreliable. So which low CO2 emitting energy source do you think this death cult recommend? No, not affordable, reliable nuclear but expensive, chaotically intermittent weather dependent renewables!

    Reply
  42. Ian B
    February 3, 2025

    It would appear the Mexican Government actually heard what Trump was saying and have moved to stop the criminal activity across the border. Canada haven’t listened or heard was being said and want a trade war instead – nieve.
    The EU thinks the impending equalisation and need for respectful reprocity in trade means a trade war and want to punish the USA – how? The EU blocks open trade and already has higher import duties on US goods than the trade going the other way into the US – it is the EU that declared war. With the USA seeking a defensive position.

    Reply
    1. Ed M
      February 4, 2025

      You sound like a Marxist desperately trying to defend Trump at all costs. Why? It’s like you’re putting him on a pedestal.
      Defend him when he gets things right. And the opposite when wrong.

      Reply
  43. Ukret123
    February 3, 2025

    “Musk signs up university-aged team to dismantle foreign aid”.
    “Angela Rayner signs off on council tax rises of up to 10pc” .
    DT news this evening. USA cut costs and debt while we do opposite increase costs and debt.

    Reply
    1. Lynn Atkinson
      February 3, 2025

      Taking Foreign Aid under the wing of the US Government also precludes the interested billionaires from funding colour revolutions run by NGOs. Soros stymied!
      What this administration has done in a fortnight is truly magnificent. They has it all worked out. They knew exactly what was to be done.
      Trump has triumphed in Mexico and Panama. Canada under the fools will not get the picture until they are knocked out. The EU is run be equally foolish people.
      Pray for Britain – Trump is trying to help us.

      Reply
      1. hefner
        February 4, 2025

        What a thing to see ardent nationalists ready to see their country dissolve itself under a foreign Lord Protector. In other circumstances they might be called traitors.

        Reply
    2. Ian B
      February 3, 2025

      @Ukret123. +1
      Welcome to he’ll and those with a personal agenda

      Reply
  44. Lynn Atkinson
    February 3, 2025

    Zelensky has announced that USD 100 billion has disappeared and they can’t account for it. Imagine how many weapons have gone awol too
.

    Reply
  45. Mitchel
    February 4, 2025

    And where will those weapons turn up?

    Reply
  46. MBJ
    February 5, 2025

    Different between endogenous and exogenous I.e.

    Reply

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