Freedom of movement
How many people under 30 will come? Is there any limit?
Where will they all find homes? What increases will there be in public service provision for them?
How will the government make sure they return home at the end of their permitted stay?
What if they become unemployed? Will the UK state assist them? Will they be sent home if they commit a crime?
Erasmus and Turing
How much would rejoining Erasmus cost per year? How much of the money and uni places goes to EU students coming to UK?
Will Turing be scrapped to pay for Erasmus? Will that mean no more help for UK students to go to good US or Commonwealth unis?
Fish
Why does the government give any fish away?
Shouldn’t the UK with rich fishing waters run its own marine and fish conservation policy, cancelling big quotas to EU boats and banning their environment damaging supertrawlers?
Why not help rebuild a bigger UK fleet, encouraging onshore food processing.
Food rules
The UK and other advanced countries we trade with has high safety and quality standards for food. The Uk has been lifting standards of animal welfare since Brexit. Why make us follow EU standards which might impede innovation and better trade with non EU countries?
The EU sells us more than 3 times as much food and drink as we sell them. Extra sales of meat and dairy to the EU would be small, and might be more than offset by bigger imports from the EU
The UK voted to be an independent country.EU dictating laws to us takes away our independence.
UK contributing to EU defence
Isnt this best done through NATO which has command structures and procedures to construct coalitions of the willing and capable?
Surely UK companies that are part of multinational consortia as with the Typhoon programme are free to bid to see to EU governments when they buy weapons?
Why wouldn’t the EU buy from the UK if we have the best product at the best price. It would self harm not to.
Energy and carbon taxes
How much extra will we have to pay in emissions and carbon costs on our energy?
Why out a big extra carbon border tax on to make consumers poorer and companies less competitive?
Why make us more rely on importing energy with more sub sea pipes and wires? Why not go for greater energy security?
Economic impact
How much do the total give aways cost UK taxpayers? How much will this boost imports?
How can this silly surrender boost UK growth given the costs and risks involved?
May 19, 2025
Good morning.
The Remainers have won. They have won because they are the ones in power. If we want true BREXIT we have to have a party committed to it FULL implementation. None of the legacy parties will do this.
We have just four years to save the country.
May 19, 2025
Meanwhile, in the real world, Brexit happened 5 years ago, on terms negotiated by Boris Johnson (Brexiter) and David Frost (Brexiter) and approved by every single Tory MP in Parliament in January 2020. You won, get over it
Reply I did not vote for the final deal and criticised the NI and fish settlements.
May 19, 2025
You did, John, but you were in a very small minority in a party that offered much and delivered little on Brexit. You paved the way for Starmer after the party defenestrated Boris.
May 19, 2025
The UK may have left the EU, but the government is still paying obeisance to it.
That’s what you get when you vote to leave but then vote for a government that wanted to stay in and still wants to be in. Total muddle, but the electorate are the ones who need to answer for it.
Perhaps in 4 years time the electorate might at last vote for a party that stands up for the UK, not foreign powers and interests. Whether they will deliver anything of value or just end up fighting likes cats in a sack is another question.
May 19, 2025
Are ordinary voters to blame for not understanding that the EU is above all a political project and our membership was never of more than marginal economic significance, when almost all of our leaders were insisting that it was vital for our prosperity? And are still peddling that myth even now.
May 19, 2025
No, they haven’t won yet although they ARE winning.
It’s the last battle which is the most important.
May 19, 2025
We will be fighting in two fronts at the same time. Difficult.
May 19, 2025
John Two tier free gear no idea doesn’t give a option about the points you make. He wants us under the jack boot of Brussels and no price is too high.
Only Reform is committed ti unwinding this and other nonesense so yes we have 4 years to save our country.
This bunch of shysters must be defeated
May 19, 2025
Hear, Hear. Lots of good questions – just one answer – they don’t know and don’t care, they just want to be under EU control for dogmatic reasons. They will pay when the election does finally come. They think we are stupid and have short memories, They are about to find out we don’t. How can they do all this just a couple of weeks after a drubbing and have agreed to 12 years on the fishing, not even the 4 years they were asked for.
May 19, 2025
It might not take 4 years to oust Labour.
If an equivalent of the Profumo scandal emerged in which a senior minister was culpable, that government might wither away in months, opening the way for something far better.
May 19, 2025
All parties loyal to democracy should walk out of the House of Commons today, and refuse to attend until the uk/eu reset is reversed or the new deal is approved by the people
May 19, 2025
@gen cullen; “All parties loyal to democracy should walk out of the House of Commons today”
Yeah, you’d love that, the only Party left in the HoC would be Reform…
Starmer has a democratic mandate.
“or the new deal is approved by the people”
Was Johnson’s WA approved by the people, or is that another example of one rule for Brexiteers and another for everyone else?
May 19, 2025
He has NO MANDATE to conclude any agreement with the EU.
May 19, 2025
Starmer’s 2024 manifesto read: “There will be no return to the single market, the customs union, or freedom of movement.” (Labour list)
Now he wants to allow people aged up to 30 or 35 to get a visa to live and work in the UK for up to 24 months.
But East European plumbers, farm workers, construction workers etc. coming here before, under EU freedom of movement, were typically in that age range.
So he’s effectively reinstating EU freedom of movement, contrary to his manifesto claim.
May 19, 2025
@LA; Yours is nonsense on mile high stilts.
Stop and think what you are implying, go find a clue for pity sake, if Starmer has no mandate then neither did Cameron, May nor Johnson either, that means not only the 2016 referendum, the Article 50 Letter to the EU but also actual Brexit must be Null and Void. Duh!…
May 19, 2025
@Philip P.; You clearly do not understand what “Freedom of Movement” actually means, as applied by the EU, and by the UK before Brexit.
May 20, 2025
“nonsense on mile high on stilts” and “for pity’s sake”…
Is this your idea of sophisticated debate that you often talk about Jerry
May 20, 2025
@Sam; No it is not, apologies for lowering myself to your standard of debate! I also note you could not find a retort to the detail of my comment to Lynn, only its style. Whatever.
May 20, 2025
“My standard of debate”
I have never used those silly phrases of yours.
You even used “Duh!…. as your final insult in that post.
Very poor.
May 20, 2025
@Sam; Good grief! I said “your STANDARD of debate”, not your words…
May 20, 2025
Oh how clever and yet pedantic all at same time Jerry
Well done.
May 19, 2025
Walk out, you won’t be missed
May 19, 2025
@Boke; The only way the current Labour govt to be ousted early is for Labour MPs to act like Turkeys voting for Christmas, You cite the Profumo scandal yet that only saw a change in Party leader and thus PM, even then not directly linked to said scandal, Macmillan was ill, just not as ill as he believed; be careful what you wish for, oust Starmer, do we really want even more of a ‘millstone’ or ‘balls-up’ around out collective necks as our PM! 😮
Even if the Markets were to crash, 2007/08 style, that would only give the current Govt. more reason to double down until July 2029, more so if polling suggested Labour had no way back.
May 20, 2025
You clearly do not understand what the word ‘effectively’ means.
May 20, 2025
@Philip P.; Whilst you, for all practical purposes, misunderstand the reality of the situation. Reform and the Conservatives can be “effectively” all they like, Starmer is sitting in No.10 until he or his Party chose otherwise, as is a Labour Cabinet.
May 19, 2025
What do you mean by “full” implementation? Brexit was fully implemented five years ago, when we left the EU. Do you mean you want it to be implemented in a fantasy world where only British interests count?
May 19, 2025
FF,
Brexit was never fully implemented, as you well know.
Forget the “Fish’ and replace with ‘Middle’ and your view of the referendum result be clearly revealed.
May 20, 2025
@Pominoz; As are many Brexiteers views revealed, sorry, Brexit was fully implemented, we have left the EU, just not how you and others (myself included) wished.
May 19, 2025
@Fishfinger; “Brexit was fully implemented five years ago, when we left the EU.”
Tell that to NI…
May 19, 2025
Indeed but the people to blame are:- “to the tens of thousands” and “abandon ship after negligent zero preparation for a Brexit Vote Outcome” and climate alarmist PPE graduate dope Cameron, The appalling Brexit mean sweet F/A Theresa May, Boris, Sunak, Handcock who got everything wrong on Covid & tripled the public debt by wasting billions on net harm vaccines and net harm lockdowns and finally tax to death Hunt and Sunak with their appalling Windsor Accord. Serial Manifesto fraud against the voters, say one thing do the complete reverse from 14 years of the Tories!
Has Sunak prepared his apology to the House for his absurd claim that the Covid Vaccines are un-equivocally safe. Neither safe not effective is what the abundant statistics say. Perhaps he could explain why he absurdly went to the country 6 months early to give Starmer is vast majority on just 20% of the electorate too!
May 19, 2025
Fastest drop in UK’s heart health for over 50 years since 2020 says the British Heart Foundation yet no mention of the Covid Vaccines that I can see in the reports.
Cardio Vascular deaths in working age adults up 18%. Heart atrial fibrillation up to 1.62 million from 1.45 million. I personally know of four people with this condition – all of which started very shortly after an MRNA vaccines. So are these mainly people who were vaccinated or not can we have the figures and onset dates as I am sure the medical profession need to know? But why does the BHF not even mention the vaccines as a possible (indeed highly likely) cause? How is the NHS and ONS getting on with vaccinated or not and which ones statistics on this. I am sure they are eager to get the the truth. They are in the US it seems. so it will all come out!
May 19, 2025
LL : “Perhaps he [Sunak] could explain why he absurdly went to the country 6 months early to give Starmer is vast majority on just 20% of the electorate too!”
PM Sunak went to the country 6 months early because he thought that the Rwanda plan might just work and he wanted an incoming Labour administration to arrive in time to cancel it.
May 19, 2025
Four years to save the country – how do you suggest we do this, given Starmer Majority given to him by the 14 years of Tory Betrayals? Labour has four years left and has already suspended some local elections in a blatant act of political Gerrymandering what next votes for children & non nationals, boundary changes… ?
May 19, 2025
@LL; “a blatant act of political Gerrymandering”
Yes, the need to show Photo ID was just that, together with giving expats (often living in the EU, duh!…) the right to vote in UK elections again.
If elections had been held in the areas you point to, areas that will (likely) see extensive county wide reorganization my this time next year, you would now or later be complaining about how Labour wastes money on pointless elections.
May 19, 2025
Here we go again. Centrica, owner of British Gas, is blatantly demanding a £100m subsidy from the government or it plans to close the UK’s largest gas storage facility Rough, in the N Sea.
Centrica CEO Chris O’Shea warned last week that unless the government capitulated to this outrageous blackmail demand, he would shut the facility. Rough, which represents half of UK’s natural gas storage capacity, would be decommissioned unless the government agreed to underwrite a £2bn overhaul with the subsidy.
To increase pressure on the government Centrica has already stopped filling the facility, located off the Yorkshire coast. Once again, the fossil fuel industry is threatening us with that old chestnut “blackouts”
Mr O’Shea has repeatedly threatened to close Rough in the past. Methinks he has cried wolf once too often. etc ed
May 19, 2025
Why does a subsidy for gas storage bother you, bearing in mind that gas is a reliable source of energy, but the enormous and on-going subsidies for the occasionally fairly useful windmills and solar panels don’t?
Reliable gas is required to provide the essential back-up the occasionally fairly useful windmills and solar panels need.
May 19, 2025
Perhaps the reason he is so bothered is that Centrica make vast profits and the renewables crowd can only do so by subsidy and never will make money if subsidies and rip off strike prices are not maintained.
May 19, 2025
Yes SG. It’s very interesting the situation with gas. The government has done its best to make CCGT plants uneconomical with the net stupid and they wonder why companies want paying to play ball
Another interesting thing is the subsea pipeline carrying gas to the UK
I think it’s owned by Harbour Energy and they are talking of closing it because of the tax regime and ongoing maintenance costs.
Swivel eyed Ed may get his decarbonisation quicker than he thought but the peasants may be chasing him with pitchforks.
May 19, 2025
SG
Did you listen to the interview with Laura K on Sunday Morning ?
Interesting Questions and answers for and from the CEO.
Rough is 40 years old and needs an upgrade to continue to work efficiently and safely, that upgrade could also have the ability to also store Hydrogen if done correctly, if not upgraded they are worried about ongoing safety, so to be prudent better to eventually close it, rather than risk keeping it open beyond its safe life.
Who should pay, I guess it depends upon the terms like everything else commercial, cost – benefit. ?
May 19, 2025
We have not got any hydrogen to store really. Making hydrogen from wind energy and then storing it is very energy inefficient indeed and it is far harder to store efficiently and safely too. Makes little or no sense outside a tiny few specialist areas. You might as well just burn methane that we have in abundance – but refuse to extract.
May 19, 2025
Electricity is worth about four times more than gas why on earth take wind or solar electricity and convert it to far less valuable H2 gas (that is far harder to store than Methane that we have in abundance too). If you then convert back to electricity you might struggle to get as much as 1/5 of the electricity back again. Plus this would not be low carbon electricity after you allow for construction, maint, the conversion and back again, the 80% wasted energy. It is engineering and economic lunacy.
May 19, 2025
Well perhaps they have seen just how moronic & appalling at negotiation Starmer and Miliband are so sees it as an easy win. It is Chris O’Shea’s job is to make money for shareholders. The government and regulators job is to get a fair deal for bill payers and tax payers. So O’Shea is doing his job unlike the government!
May 19, 2025
It’s nothing compared to the billions in subsidies given to renewable industries SG
May 19, 2025
We have storage capacity many times greater than Rough. The issue is not storage it is about access.
If Milibrain cancelled the instructions to leave gas and oil in the ground the available fields that would bring into constant available use would make Rough all but incidental.
The security of gas supply is not a function of Rough storage, it is a function of government policy and instruction.
If we are to be a serious economy with world standing and influence we have to have energy independence and energy availability. The least cost option to achieve that would be to repeal the Climate Change Act and fire Ed Miliband.
May 19, 2025
SG:
The OBR forecasts that the various green subsidies and levies will cost £17.1 billion this year, rising to £19.8 billion in 2029/30. A new report by the Renewable Energy Foundation claims that green energy subsidies are now costing the public £25.8 billion a year.
The NESO Clean Power 2030 requires 35 GW of unabated gas electricity generation to be available (plus BTW 24 GW of interconnector and DSR (Demand Side Response)) to prevent blackouts.
In view of this I think that £100m is chicken feed and money well spent.
But then I’m not trying to sabotage the country’s energy supplies and economy.
May 19, 2025
The word for word detail of any change to, the to date established relationship, between the UK and EU should be put before Parliament. It would not change anything that this minority electorally supported government could do, but it would expose them for what they are, paving the way for a Reform landslide and the reversal of the genetic treachory of the left. This GT of the left I define as most of those in Parliament, Labour, Lib Dems, Greens, and 2/3rds of the Tories. All aided and abetted by the Civil Service and those who can make money out of it. North Islington will be ground zero in the coming great reset.
May 19, 2025
Agreed. +1
May 19, 2025
Put before the people not Parliament – they are giving away democratic control that is not their to give away.
Starmer is determined to defraud what he thinks of as far right populists – “Populists” being Latin rather than the Greek for Democracy!
May 19, 2025
Agree ….put it to the people
May 19, 2025
Glen, they will never put it to the people, it may perhaps go before Parliament, but the lemmings will probably vote for it under threat no matter what, so we end up with the same poor result.
We have another 4 years of this nonsense, goodness knows what state our Country will be in then, probably past any recovery !
May 19, 2025
@Agricola. I hope your more optimistic prediction is realised. But I worry that the British public might support EU membership/continuation of kow-towing. Does anyone know what the current polling shows? Even if currently anti, 4 years is a long time for the electorate to be bamboozled by the MSM and blob
May 19, 2025
I am sure that our Macron sized PM will rush to answer your questions SJR, following his humiliation beside the large Albanian PM when told that they were only taking Italian illegals.
May 19, 2025
It’s probably disastrous, but the defence arrangements are particularly worrying. In the coverage on this issue in TCW it appears that the EU Commission might be empowered to send UK forces to whatever conflict (“protection of democracy/European values”) it wished to engage in.
The EU is always trying to expand its influence beyond its borders (eg. Ukraine, Syria, UK), and consolidate its power within its borders (Romania, Hungary, Slovakia). We should not have our foreign policy and armed forces directed by the power-mad technocrats in the EU Commission.
May 19, 2025
SJR presents a well-reasoned case for the way we should be conducting our affairs.
It demonstrates the difference between people who want what delivers the best outcome for the UK’s interests, and the present shabby Labour government that cares little about sovereignty, independence and freedom, and wants to tie us into misguided EU strictures.
The EU is full of nonsense. We are better out of it.
May 19, 2025
The pro-EU Establishment wants the UK to become an Associate Member of the EU, along with existing members and new members which are outside the Eurozone and are not able/willing to join, (ie Turkey, Ukraine and the remaining EFTA nations). In due course, it would possibly include some of the north African nations bordering the Med.
That’s why Johnson’s “deal” was so weak; then Sunak weakened it still further with the Windsor Treachery and then refused to take advantage of the limited freedoms we had. Technically the Not-a-Conservative-Party delivered Brexit, but they refused to deliver “LEAVE.” We have been set up for Associate Membership and Two-Tier’s “reset” is a move towards it.
The EU is not about trade and Two-Tier’s betrayal has nothing to do with trade. The EU is not about trade. It is a globalist political project.
The Not-a-Conservative-Party prepared for the other branch of the Uni-Party move us back towards Associate Membership when it was kicked out of Office and that’s what Two-Tier is doing.
We have to hope that (a) Reform gets elected and (b) Farage scraps the plan; stands up to the EU the way he always has, and we finally LEAVE.
May 19, 2025
All good points Donna and we certainly intend to give Farage the chance to stand up to the EU and once again come 2029 give the fateful line in his maiden speech as PM. As he stands on the step of 10 Downing St. and speaks of leaving the EU in its entirety, he will say “well they are not laughing now are they?”
May 19, 2025
Donna
10 upticks!
May 19, 2025
What’s wrong with EFTA? Nigel Farage and Daniel Hannan have, in the past, argued that EFTA membership would be a good option.
Reply WTO terms are fine. We do not need to join another international body.
May 19, 2025
JR is correct, and consequently the limitations of Farage and Hannon are exposed.
May 19, 2025
All good questions that deserve an answer. But why should we believe a word that comes from Starmer’s mouth, based on his track record?
May 19, 2025
Well he is a KC – i.e. a professional liar. Lawyers will tell any lie their client wants them to in order to get the result they want.
May 19, 2025
Agreeing to youth mobility and food standards is de facto going back in to the EU. The Windsor Framework was already associate membership.
Check the small print for a single currency requirement.
May 19, 2025
Who the hell does labour think they represent, this once Great country as gone down the pan for the last 50years with the help of Tory’s/labour/lib-dems and yes our selves for not scrutinising the people we the public put into office, we’ll we now have a choice in Reform and as a 70+ year old I think I’ve more savvy then most of the
muppets we now have in parliament and will fight tooth and nail to get my country back and not given away to some foreign entity .🇬🇧🏴
May 19, 2025
Questions do not seem to have much effect on Starmer. He can say one thing and do the opposite. If people do not believe him he does not seem bothered.
PM questions never seem to tackle any difficult subjects now.
Starmer will carry on regardless. Even attempting to burn his house down will not knock him off course.
May 19, 2025
To judge the extent to which EU law may be reimposed on Great Britain we can look to Northern Ireland, where the EU controls 300 areas of law without the population having any say. Not 300 laws, 300 areas of law. That is what the EU claims is necessary to make sure that no unsuitable goods are carried across the open land border into the Irish Republic, part of the EU’s Single Market, and logically that is also what they will demand before they will agree to remove their largely unnecessary obstacles to our goods crossing to the continent. And EU laws would not apply just to production of goods for export to the EU, about 6% of GDP in 2024, but to all production. Before we feel victimised by this, remember that it is how the protectionist EU treats over 94% of the world population.
May 19, 2025
Denis, those of us who voted Remain did so because we knew that a country of 60 million would be in a weak position negotiating with a bloc of 400 million, and that we would for economic reasons need to follow EU rules. So it was better to Remain in the EU and have a voice in making those rules than to Leave and be a rule-taker. All this was made clear in the referendum and is now proved in practice. Did you fail to appreciate the way the world works?
May 19, 2025
Your theory that bigger is stronger and better isn’t born out by the high standard of living of many small independent nations Scallion.
May 20, 2025
I mean, like Luxembourg (2nd in GDP per capita PPP, in the EU) or Liechtenstein (2nd ex-aequo in EEA)?
May 20, 2025
Are those your best examples world wide you can come up with hefner?
Showing your pro EU bias there for all to see.
May 20, 2025
Or Singapore – independent; or the USA outstripping the EU by a military mile?
May 19, 2025
I’m impressed that you know what was in the minds of all those who voted to stay in the EU, but in that case you were all wrong. As you could have discovered if you had only looked at Michel Barnier’s report on the economic value of the EU Single Market. As the EU’s chief negotiator he was a gift to Theresa May but being on his side at least as much as she was on ours she chose not to point out what a low value he had put on it. As for this deal, the government claims it will add £9 billion to GDP, which may seems a lot until you divide it by ££2,851 billion.
May 19, 2025
We have a voice if we stayed in the EU?? You’re having a laugh. We had no voice, always lost and punished by their courts. It’s like saying we have a democracy that voted to leave but Two Tier, free gear Starmer decided with just a few of his close Cabinet fools to do this alignment with no mandate WHATSOEVER and against the 17.5 million who voted to leave all of the EU and its rules. The rest of Parliament are just foolish nodding dogs. Therefore he should call an immediate election to see if he has the support for his old and new policies. He certainly has zero mandate for anything going forward and may just have been the catalyst and justification for civil disobedience in all its forms.
May 19, 2025
+1
May 19, 2025
How strong is a bloc of 400 million negotiating with 20 billion? Ie the rest of the world?
May 19, 2025
The total population of planet Earth in May 2025 is estimated at 8.250 bn. So an overestimation of 2.4, but you’re improving, last time you were a factor 10 and a year off. Good effort 👍 Soon you might be able to write something without exaggeration.
May 20, 2025
Soon you might be able to take a point Hefner.
If big is best then we need to side with BRICS against the shrinking failure of a Globalist EU/AU experiment
May 19, 2025
Denis as far as I know NI is part if the EU for Goods so no surprise that there are lots of rules anyway after todays reset agreement the field is narrowing again so that we won’t hardly know the difference between GB and NI anymore and anyway we’ll still have our blue passports to prove we have taken back control
May 19, 2025
Yes, we will be reunited in vassalage, which is what Theresa May wanted so she should be happy.
May 19, 2025
Only one question for starmer. ‘why did you sell-out yet again’
May 19, 2025
Starmer’s answer – It’s all the fault of the last government’. Same answer to any question posed.
May 19, 2025
“Because that was always my plan and this is just the first (small) step back. There will be others that (hopefully) will be less noticeable…”
As usual OA – Don’t listen to what they say, just watch what they do.
May 19, 2025
Starmer has principles………………its just a bunch of very flexible ones that change daily.
May 19, 2025
‘Questions MPs and media should ask?’ You must be joking. Since when do the media ask proper questions? They never question the official narrative, be it Covid, Ukraine, net zero or whatever.
When do we get MPs asking necessary questions? Answer: when the party whips have told members to leave the chamber.
May 19, 2025
It’s slightly odder than that though, there are some things that happen that none of the media show the slightest interest in investigation or reporting on. There was one last week for example.
May 19, 2025
Which was? Do tell us.
May 19, 2025
Starmer should be publicly stripped of his knighthood as he does not fight for out country or our people, is not worthy of any “Honour” but is the complete opposite. Traitor and treacherous behind the scenes akin to a foreign agent showing no emit nor empathy.
Capitulation to foreign power EU. No one voted for a reset nor dynamic realignment with a dysfunctional, corrupt unelected EU. Sheer madness and totally wasteful scoundrels on a mega gravy train.
May 19, 2025
What will Government do to bolster and get better performance and education for the young they are employed and paid to serve?
What will Government do to do to bolster exchanges on an equal and reciprocal basis with the whole World community? Or is it just giveaways to the EU?
The UK maintains good fisheries husbandry of its fish, why does it even consider giving (that is giving) that resource to a foreign entity that has devastated its own resources? We are not just talking deemed fishing zones based on proximity we are talking about within territorial UK offshore grounds that we have been forced to sacrifice while also blocking our own industry. The EU wants to take the UK fish resource while blocking the UK from selling to the EU.
UK food standards were higher than those of the EU and the UK had reduced on joining the EU. The UK also had to ditch all its traditional trading partners for food and accept the EU’s output. The EU doesn’t want UK food it wants to dump their food on the UK it is a one-way street. There doesn’t appear to be anything on the table other than UK producers being crippled and forced to buy from the EU while excluding the World.
May 19, 2025
No emotion Starmer desperate for anything but deserves nothing, least of all because he can’t pay for his own clothes and spectacles.
May 19, 2025
Now 17 days to Thursday June 5, the 50th anniversary of the 1975 referendum, when we told a pack of lies.
May 19, 2025
“when we were told a pack of lies”
May 19, 2025
You were told the truth too. You chose to believe the lies. 😭
May 19, 2025
Reading this- it looks like you have some objection to young people,
then it looks like you have an objection to education for young people – all of this
before going on to fish – as if fish had a ‘made in UK’ stamped on them.
You object to European Defence even though we can clearly see that NATO is not enough for our needs Etc etc – sad to read really – well here’s one who’s looking forward to seeing his grand children enjoying our holiday home in France with ease of travel and without having to worry about residence permits etc – probably enjoying fish food caught in waters from the North Sea or wherever.
May 19, 2025
“How can this silly surrender boost UK growth given the costs and risks involved?”
Everyone knows it can’t it is about a remain 2TK still fighting old battles, as suggested in the media he worked and advised the EU to fight against Brexit. So it is personal self-esteem and ego and has nothing to do with supporting the UK and its people.
May 19, 2025
Shouldn’t Parliament and its MP’s wise up an get over themselves they have the privilege of being empowered and paid by the people of this nation to be its only legitimate legislators. They were not voted to be a local or regional council taking orders from others they were elected to represent all equally all their electorate and help create a framework for us all to prosper.
Parliament subjugating itself to be an order taker from the unaccountable elsewhere whom have their own agendas and tribes to placate is not democracy, not government and not doing ones duty to those that empowered them.
The only block to this being a great and prosperous nation is our MP’s that are free-loading to feed their own personal very personal egos.
May 19, 2025
The question they our MPs need to ask themselves is why are people turning to Reform, is it their policies? I world suggest it is because they are ‘not them’ no one cares about Reforms policies. People want shot of the traitors refusing tier job and duty free-loading and pursuing personal agendas. The Country needs to get rid of all those that run ‘project fear’ and work for masters elsewhere.
It called clearing the swamp. Although 2TK has an answer of course to avoid this as demonstrated daily ignore the electorate and cancel elections
May 19, 2025
As usual the EU first arrange a summit to announce a deal and then use that hard deadline to screw concessions out of the other party in the very last hours before it arrives – they do it repeatedly so why weren’t UK negotiators prepared to walk away rather than throw in 12 years of fish at the last minute simply to announce something today rather than next week ?
Their starting position is always: EU demands are preconditions (fish), mutually beneficial measures are UK demands (airport e-gates), UK demands are impossible (mutual recognition of standards).
Last time I went through a German airport I noticed that Japanese passport holders could use the e-gates but I couldn’t. It’s clear the EU just withheld this access (which increases efficiency at their own airports) purely as a negotiating ploy and it has paid off handsomely.
May 19, 2025
The EU plays hardball.
Our pathetic / treacherous negotiators and PMs (take your pick) go already prepared to capitulate.
May 19, 2025
Or as Lord Frost said tonight, “They are on the same side of the table to come to this agreement”.
May 19, 2025
If the media and parliament were truly free to ask such questions then they wouldn’t be so polite. In any case they should be asking questions with a lot more bite in them.
We used to rely on MSM to extract the details of what HMG was proposing, but that avenue is closed to us and there are no investigative reporters willing to get cancelled for telling us what is actually going on.
Labour MPs are not going to openly revolt against the EU – they like all the pomp and ‘bigness’ associated with this fairy tale. They prefer to give their leader a free hand because he has the guiding hand of globalists to reset our world. I doubt many fully understand the implications of this.
It is clear Starmer has no conscience, no love of the UK, so expect only the worst possible decisions from him.
May 19, 2025
An excellent list of questions. Thank you John. I am sure the media and MPs do reference this site and I hope they use this list which has been articulated so well for them
May 19, 2025
We now know that Starmer has sold out to Macron with a TWELVE year deal on fishing.
Previous talk was for four or five years but even five years would have taken us past the next election.
I await the announcement from Nigel Farage and Badenoch saying that they refuse to be bound by Starmer’s surrender to Macron.
Is he so determined to screw up successive British governments that he has agreed to this ?
Has he got anything remotely worthwhile in return? I doubt it.
This looks like Chagos ll.
May 19, 2025
He’s put in a surrender clause to punish us with trade sanctions if we renege on the fishing deal post next election. A woman sits in a prison cell for years for a nasty tweet, whilst two tier, free gear Starmer, the Traitor, does this without any sanction. New retrospective Traitor laws are needed to stop this action by Politicians.
May 19, 2025
This conversation wouldn’t be happening if Parliament, Government and MPs did what was asked of them? If they were confident in their abilities and duties.
The doors were left open, the laws and rules retained so someone like 2TK could just walk the UK away into oblivion without discussion
May 19, 2025
TPA are keeping the scandal with quangos alive:
While overall numbers dropped from 561 to 304, the number of staff working at these bodies actually increased by 63.6 per cent.
We will never see the end of these expensive unaccountable expensive bodies while we have socialist governments that care more about hype, ideology and theatre than running our country efficiently.
May 19, 2025
I see Gary Lineker is setting himself up to become a Labour Party stooge in the House of Lords, they other stain on democracy
May 19, 2025
He will represent the present House roof Lords accurately.
May 19, 2025
Live from the media
Sir Keir Starmer has given European fishermen access to British waters for 12 years to land his Brexit “reset” deal.
British and European negotiators have reached a “fish for food” deal granting EU fishermen fishing rights until 2038 in return for a veterinary agreement to boost trade.
In return – Britain has agreed to align with EU plant and animal health laws and be subject to European Court of Justice decisions over them.
The UK must mirror any changes to those rules, with no say in their drafting, and accept the European Court of Justice’s jurisdiction over them.
The overall deal was signed off by the ambassadors of the bloc’s 27 member states in Brussels before a UK-EU summit in London later today.
Thank you to May, Johnson, Sunak and even those left calling themselves Tories in Parliament to day can you see what you did, what you conspired to do, well you have achieved it. It could be said that 2TK has been more honest than the last Conservative Government
May 19, 2025
and especially Starmer are totally unfit to make any decisions for us – they all need to be tried for treason!
May 19, 2025
Defence: You ask, “Why wouldn’t the EU buy from the UK if we have the best product at the best price. It would self harm not to.” The answer is that EU countries, particularly France, are very keen to maintain their own defence manufacturing capability. They will buy from their own producers even if the product is inferior.
May 19, 2025
The EU has stifled our selling to them of foods and fruit, eg apples, cherries, plums, etc. They flood us with their cheeses and take few of ours. We are overloaded with their vegetables when we could quite easily grow our own if given the incentives. As to the fishing quotas, I do not know why this was not stopped when we voted out. They have no rights to our waters and should be banned. They are ruining our marine life as well as taking large quantities of fish with their big trawlers. To give them another 12 years of use is disgusting (if this is true). We should have come out with a NO DEAL and got on with it. We had French students over years ago and they were very rude about us so I do not want to see anymore of them given free will to stay here. Let’s concentrate on the Commonwealth which was ditched when Heath took us into the so called Common Market which turned into the thing we have now.
May 19, 2025
Sir Keir Starmer claims his Brexit reset deal will be “good for our borders”.
But it won’t even let him send back Channel migrants to France, which is the one thing the public would expect from a Prime Minister cosplaying at being tough on immigration to counter the rise of Reform UK.
Sir Keir Starmer said it was time to “move on from the stale old political fights” of the past on Brexit as he faced down critics of his EU “reset”.
Lord Frost, a Tory former Brexit minister who negotiated the previous fishing arrangements, said: “Giving away control of our own fishing grounds in this way is a shocking abandonment of British fishermen by Sellout Starmer.
“It’s been one concession after another. When the dust settles we will find there is very little for Britain in this deal and a lot that takes us back towards EU control.” – But he doesn’t suggest he and the Conservatives opened the door to this
May 19, 2025
Similar example questions the media, and MPs, should ask, and most likely will…
Youth mobility: What number of British Youths will likely live in the EU27, were will they live, will they be expected to pay taxes in their ‘adopted’ country, what if they then become unemployed or require medical assistance.
Fish: What is the British fishing industry worth to our GDP, how much more (or less) important is it than say Steel, Services, or heavy engendering? It has been suggested the UK fishing industry adds a mere 0.04% to our GDP, is that figure correct, if so are we not flogging an already dead horse. Are not fishing ports, such as Grimsby, the new Liverpool, or ‘Docklands’ of the 1980s.
Food Rules: How many people in the USA are dying due to eating beef laced with -err- bovine hormones. How many are dying because they ingest trace amounts of Chlorine whilst eating chicken, yet somehow no one in the UK dies due to ingesting far higher levels of Chlorine from tap-water or whilst swimming in a public swimming pool.
Defense; Why is it unwise to plan and make provision for a time should NATO loose the contributions and facilities of a current non European member. Will money spent in the EU defense theater, on hardware and facilities, independently of NATO, still be available to the NATO.
May 19, 2025
Defence – the EU’s new ‘Safe’ defence fund, giving British firms like BAE Systems access to EU weapons procurement.
But the UK will also contribute to the fund, which means there’s a risk that we may pay more into the fund than we get back.
The safe fund is a loan scheme the UK Taxpayer will pay into but will only get to supply if accepted on a case by case basis. The same as it would have been any way but the UK Taxpayer wouldn’t be the funder
May 19, 2025
Starmer says we “voted for change”, not this change, we Voted for BREXIT. He is a traitor to democracy and to the British People.
May 19, 2025
Agreed. But it’s not just him; the Quislings permeate the Establishment.
It’s why we need to give a Reform Government a massive mandate at the next election.
May 19, 2025
And cry into our buckets afterwards when nothing changes.
May 19, 2025
You got Brexit, more than 5 years ago. Starmer has a very large majority granted to him by the voters at last year’s election, and he is now carrying out his manifesto promise to reset relations with the EU. That’s democracy, so stop complaining
May 19, 2025
Here’s an interesting little article that has just popped up:
https://europe-data.com/2025/05/19/uk-the-leading-eu-export-destination-for-agricultural-products/
“UK the leading EU export destination for agricultural products”
“The United Kingdom is the largest export market for agricultural products from the European Union, accounting for close to a quarter (23%) of exports, new data from Eurostat has found.
This equates to €54 billion in agricultural exports last year, according to the data.”
While our sales of agricultural products to the EU make up a mere 8.5% of their imports, €17 billion.
And yet I see in the Yorkshire Post:
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/opinion/columnists/im-asking-the-government-to-rethink-its-position-and-strike-a-deal-with-the-eu-to-help-our-farmers-david-skaith-5125574
“I’m asking the Government to rethink its position and strike a deal with the EU to help our farmers”
Actually meaning, help those farmers who would like to sell produce to the EU rather than to consumers in the UK, which would substitute for some of those €54 billion of imports which we have to pay for in some way, and without expecting the UK government to supplicate on their behalf rather than act as the EU’s best customer.
May 19, 2025
This UK/EU reset deal wasn’t in their manifesto, prove me wrong and give me the line and page number ….and not, ‘we’re seeking closer relationship’
May 19, 2025
GC, go to Labour.org.uk , then ‘Labour’s Manifesto’, then go to the chapter ‘Britain reconnected’. From there go to ‘Rebuilding relationships’.
Second paragraph ‘With Labour, Britain will stay outside of the EU. But to seize the opportunities ahead, we must make Brexit work (*). We will reset the relationship and seek to deepen ties with our European friends, neighbours and allies. That does not mean reopening the divisions of the past (**). There will be no return to the single market, the customs union, or the freedom of movement.
Instead Labour will work to improve the UK’s trade and investment relationship with the EU, by tearing down unnecessary barriers to trade. We will seek to negotiate a veterinary agreement to prevent unnecessary border checks and help tackle the cost of food; will help our touring artists; and secure a mutual recognition agreement for professional qualifications to help open up markets for UK service exporters.
Labour will seek an ambitious new UK-EU security pack to strengthen co-operation on the threats we face. We will rebuild relationships with key European allies, including France and Germany, through increases defence and security co-operation. We will seek new bilateral agreements and closer working with Joint Expeditionary Force partners. This will strengthen NATO and keep Britain safe’.
I will be nice and not comment more about GC. Did I get a sweet or a piece of cake for finding that piece of evidence in under 30 seconds …
May 20, 2025
Second paragraph – 4th line down
‘ There will be no return to … freedom of movement.’
Comprehension not your strong point.
PS took me 1.3 seconds to find the fact to show your wrongly drawn conclusion.
Have an aspirin – you might feel better.
May 19, 2025
Page 117 – “we must make Brexit work. We will reset the relationship and seek to deepen ties with our European friends, neighbours and allies”. Page 118 – “Labour will work to improve the UK’s trade and investment relationship with the EU, by tearing down unnecessary barriers to trade. We will seek to negotiate a veterinary agreement to prevent unnecessary border checks and help tackle the cost of food”.
No need to thank me
May 19, 2025
The UK Government/Parliament/MP’s sell-out of the UK in full, it is wrong to call it a 2TK sell out, May, Johnson and Sunak set out the platform for the sell-out without involving democracy, will of the people etc.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/19/starmers-brexit-reset-deal-read-the-full-text/
May 19, 2025
Absolutely right, the media should be asking these questions. But they have been asleep since COVID, when they never challenged the Government’s narrative, and they still don’t!
Starmer shows his true colours in dealing with the EU, he is weak, wishy washy and cannot say No. He will not defend UK interests like fish, but just give away every advantage we have!
Off topic – It is pathetic that the Government keeps letting criminals out early from prison, because of so-called overcrowding and running out of places. If they can’t even come up with a couple of temporary prisons to house lower-risk prisoners, what is the point of them? A fish rots from the head down; this government rots in every position. Have we ever had a worse group of Ministers, or a weaker PM?
May 19, 2025
European 18-30 year olds should only be allowed in to the country if they have been EU citizens for at least ten years allied to which they should provide their own health insurance for the entire time of their stay. Finger prints and DNA should be taken and any overstay will attract a fine to be paid by their sponsoring country.
May 19, 2025
The only thing from europe is war and pestilence
May 19, 2025
+1 every single time! When will we ever learn?
May 19, 2025
I have never understood why successive governments, Labour and Conservative, have seemingly put the EU ahead of our true allies like Australia, New Zealand, and the USA when it comes to our trading partners.
Europe has badly damaged our economy over the past century, and we have, aided by our friends from the rest of the world, fought wars in Europe, caused by Europeans to liberate them.
We have never been repaid for the huge costs to our country in liberating the whole of Europe from aggressors, and now they treat us with contempt for not siding with them again, by withdrawing from their political cabal based in Brussels, where they rule like dictators, being unelected and unaccountable to the people.
Well, that was the idea back in 2016 when we voted to leave the EU. However, since then, true democracy has been denied to us, as Brexit has never been fully enacted due to the “Remain” bias across Parliament and the Civil Service.
Even worse, what gains were made have now been dismantled by this wretched Labour government that is now run by lawyers and judges rather than competent elected Ministers of State. What more can they do to wreck OUR country?
May 19, 2025
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/19/deal-with-eu-will-make-food-cheaper-and-add-9bn-to-uk-economy-says-no-10
“Deal with EU will make food cheaper and add £9bn to UK economy, says No 10”
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn02783/
“In cash terms, GDP was £2,851 billion in 2024.”
9 divided by 2851 = 0.3%.
Once again we are sold out for a pathetically small mess of pottage.
Reply By 2040! Why take this nonsense seriously?
May 19, 2025
Unfortunately many people have little idea of the numbers and will take it seriously.
May 19, 2025
And even that is a lie!
May 19, 2025
I mentioned previously about the Attenborough film “Ocean” which demonstrated the utter destruction wrought by bottom trawling. And now we will get more of it as currently it is subsidised by the EU. (Although they plan to try to implement a ban by 2030, allegedly). It’s beyond crazy. Where there are subsidies there is always corruption to be found. Sorry if I have already mentioned this, but a scientist I met recently has been carrying out energy audits on solar panels in the UK. Taking into account the mining of raw materials, the production of components, the assembly, transport and installation, followed by removal at end of useful life and recycling, the average panels are net users of energy rather than a source. Could proponents of renewables please be honest and always include the word “intermittent” in any description or reference to wind and solar devices?
May 19, 2025
Mr Gold – have your read this post?
At least solar panels can be recycled. Windmill blades can’t be recycled and are buried!
May 20, 2025
nationalgrid.com 28/04/2023 ‘Can wind turbine blades be recycled?’. Answer is yes, but right now it is not profitable.
May 20, 2025
So they can’t
Thanks for that hefner
May 20, 2025
So they can’t be! The real world is based on financial viability.
Poor Hefner. You should go to a less challenging blog. Try David Lammy.
May 21, 2025
The interesting bit of this story is that, as usual in the UK with people as enlightened as you both are, nothing will be done about recycling the blades as the recycling market is starting to be taken by other countries. But if that pleases people as business-aware as Lynn and Sam, who am I to criticise.
Because, admit it, you don’t care a bit about the topic, you just want to shut me up. Unfortunately I won’t.
May 21, 2025
Then start a business that recycles these blades hefner, if you believe a profit can be made.
What an opportunity for someone as motivated and clever as you seem to be.
May 21, 2025
There are already a few start-up companies, unfortunately not in the UK: Enel/Re-Wind (Italy), Veolia NA (USA), Makeen (Denmark). But thanks for the advice.
May 19, 2025
On the Today show today (at about 8:15am) the Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynold stated that “agricultural exports are down by a fifth”.
According to the source below, this is not correct. Since 2016, agricultural exports from the UK have increased by up to 7% in real terms. Volumes have reduced, by the exporets by value have increased.
Source: source https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/agriculture-in-the-united-kingdom-2023/chapter-13-overseas-trade
Jonathan Reynold also said that the food company Richmond could not export their sausages. This is only true for the eu and not for the rest of the world. Why did we not responded to this blockade by banning sausages from all eu countries? I remember this was a joke in the tv show “Yes Minister” many years ago. It is still a joke!
In the same interview,) the BBC stated that UK fisherman want to have an “annual row” (i.e. argument) about fish quotas. No, BBC, they want to have access to fish in UK waters and are happy to negotiate access to those waters on an annual basis. It’s absurd for the BBC to treat our fishing industry with such disrespect and to treat a reasonable expectation in such negative terms.
May 19, 2025
Thinking about Starmer’s claim: “Some routine checks on animal and plant products will be removed completely, allowing goods to flow freely again … Ultimately this could lower food prices and increase choice on supermarket shelves – meaning more money in people’s pockets.” I think he must mean food prices and choice in the EU, not in the UK, and the people with more money in their pockets would be in the EU, not the UK.
The EU are not changing any of their product standards, so if we can now safely remove some of our checks on imports from the EU why were we doing them anyway? I can see that for their part the EU are forcing us to change our standards, for better or for worse, so that they are now willing to forego some of the checks they have been imposing. and that will be some help to UK businesses who wish to sell things to the EU:
https://retailtimes.co.uk/uk-eu-reset-will-help-clear-bottleneck-at-border-say-small-firms/
“Responding to the UK and EU’s summit conclusions, Tina McKenzie, Policy Chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, said:
“This agreement marks genuine progress by untangling the rules for small exporters of plant and animal products. If British goods can reach European markets with fewer setbacks, that marks real progress.
“For too long, small businesses have shouldered the burden of unpredictable custom rules and red tape that sap confidence and ambition.”
But as primary effects making it easier to ship foodstuffs out of the country is more likely to reduce availability and choice and push up prices in our supermarkets than have the beneficial effects that are being claimed.
There may be second order effects which benefit us rather than them, but they will be less significant.
May 19, 2025
Screw the UK fishing industry ….I can now get through a EU e-barrier 5 minutes quicker
May 19, 2025
Anyone who goes to the EU deserves having their finger prints taken at the ‘super quick border’.
May 20, 2025
Not even that as often the non EU barriers are quicker anyway. My wife and children have Italian Passports as well as British and so can take the EU channel – but I often beat them through anyway.
May 20, 2025
Not necessarily Glen. At least one of those who should be obeyed has already said they may not go ahead with it. Yes let’s look after & visit the EU & bolster their tourism. This unprincipled, contemptible lot don’t seem to give a x&xx about bolstering our own with its unacceptable cuts to funding. Thanks Daily T this am, front page prompted a return of my breakfast.
May 19, 2025
Well the details are begining to emerge.
We were due under the existing fisheries agreement to take back full control of our territorial waters in 2026. It will not now happen for a further 12 years. It will supposedly be less onerous to sell shellfish and farmed salmon to the UK. A UK government, accepting the democratic decision of the UK electorate in 2016, which Starmer never has, would have done all in its power to support the search for new markets for the shellfish product. It has not.
In exchange the EU will remove the trade rule impositions and personal travel restrictions that were only put in place as a punishment for having the temerity to leave the EU in 2016. The lifting of trade rules are hailed by the supermarkets, because it enhances their bottom line. The shopper will have to sing for significant price reductions. The holidaying public have already found alternative, less onerous, destinations.
Be absolutely clear, what Starmer is doing is traiterous, and done for entirely political reasons. Who in their right mind would tie themselves to an economically failing enterprise that will increasingly hamper our desire to be a free frading sovereign country. What will the USA under Trump have to say on the matter. Starmer has put his politics way in front of national interest, for which I condemn him and his ragbag government. Be absolutely sure, this is only the begining.
May 19, 2025
For first UK read EU.
May 19, 2025
I fundamentally disagree and Starmer knows we need growth
May 19, 2025
Should we not be congratulating the treacherous political class and its Establishment confederates on reversing Brexit within a decade of the vote?
Let us not overlook much of this was possible only because of Boris’s weak deal (acknowledging he was dealt a bad hand by the quisling negotiators who went before him) and because of the failure of his government and those since to implement Brexit with anything like sufficient vigour.
May 19, 2025
Give it up. Forget it. They are going to do whatever they like. Accept it. Ignore it. No point fretting about something you can’t change.
Where is Farage? On holiday? Why isn’t he saying unequivocally that he will repeal any deal.
May 19, 2025
It hasn’t yet been reported how much we have to pay the EU to accept 12 more years of our fishing rights.
May 19, 2025
Things are already unravelling. Putting the EU and the ECJ in charge of UK food will amount to higher costs
From the MsM
“Fruit and vegetables imported from outside the European Union are set to become more expensive under Sir Keir Starmer’s “reset” deal.” 2TK has agreed that the EU will be the arbiter of who and how the UK trades inside its own borders and with the World…
Nigel Jenney, the chief executive of the Fresh Produce Consortium, said: “Whilst we have resolved the EU border position, we have moved the problem and the cost to non-EU goods. What we have saved on one hand we have lost on the other. – The problem has moved as the EU not the UK Government is in charge of who we buy food from
May 19, 2025
Saw that ignoramus Boris today still spouting off about how were sold out as if he ever really cared – and the hair all chewed up worse than ever
May 19, 2025
The worst ever PM. The difference between his opportunity and his actions will never be equalled. He was a disaster from start to finish, a typical fraud, pretending to be a Brexiteer when he is a lifelong globalist.
May 20, 2025
Indeed he is getting everything wrong on the EU, on the net zero, on the size of government, on immigration levels, on anti-growth, on vast over taxation, on deterring the rich and hard working… higher tax rates will give lower tax take Ms Reeves and now (clearly just pretending) to be Enoch Starmer!
May 20, 2025
And of course the cherry on the top of the Johnson Premiership ‘the pandemic😱’ panic panic panic.
May 19, 2025
Sir John,
\You keep questioning the details that are not already known and you are not trying to explain, why Brexit has not been successful.
We need to see and know the details and for the moment in the world as we experience is today, we need to work closer with out friends and as we know from the opinion examinations 60 pt believe Brexit has been a failure.
We need a reset and now .
May 19, 2025
This is a part of the main horror, the replacement of the British and the other peoples of Europe. Also, as part of this, there is/are now data to show that births by the vaccinated are one third lower than the births of the unvaccinated and have been for about three years.
May 20, 2025
Sir John asks, why wouldn’t the EU buy from the UK if we have the best product at the best price. It would self harm not to.
Several reasons the EU would not:
a) The EU has a buy EU first policy to protect its own industry (remember it is above all else a protectionist organisation and the destination of ever closer union is a Federal State of Europe) and defence is often considered, not only by the EU, a justifiable exception to the need for international competition.
b) Operational requirements differ between countries. It is unlikely that a UK product designed for UK’s requirements will meet those of the EU, particularly if it is a major development project. Collaborative development always results in compromise so usually no partner gets the best capability for its needs. It is done because the alternative would be ruinously expensive or no capability at all. The EU compromises for the sake of keeping the development and manufacturing in the EU, not only for economic reasons but also for security of the supply chain. Co-operating with UK on major projects would necessitate further compromises and complexity.
c) The UK and the EU may not be on the same side in an armed conflict even if neither is a combatant. One side might cut off the supply chain (The EU has already cut UK out of its satellite navigation and other projects) or supply the enemy of a partner that is a combatant (during the Falklands Conflict, the French continued to supply Exocet and technical assistance to Argentina and the US was very hesitant about supporting UK with Sidewinder missiles and satellite intelligence, although it did eventually). Political blocking of the supply chain could affect the ability of either to support one side of a conflict even if neither UK nor the EU is itself a combatant.
May 20, 2025
Sir John asks, on fish
a) Why does the government give any fish away?
b) Shouldn’t the UK with rich fishing waters run its own marine and fish conservation policy, cancelling big quotas to EU boats and banning their environment damaging supertrawlers?
The answer to a) is obviously because Starmer’s Gang are rabid Remainers and, like Edward Heath, would ‘swallow the lot’. However there is a thin justification in the post Heath UNCLOS (art 62.2) which states inrespect of the EEZ:
‘Where the coastal State [ie., UK] does not have the capacity to harvest the entire allowable catch, it shall, through agreements or other arrangements and pursuant to the terms, conditions, laws and regulations referred to in paragraph 4, give other States access to the surplus of the allowable catch …. … ….’
Nevertheless, by Article 61, UK has sovereign responsibility fo rthe sustaiunability ansd every other aspect of the marine resources in its EEZ. Therefore UK can be taken to court through UNCLOS if it allows the EU to desecrate the marine environment or overfish.
“1.The coastal State shall determine the allowable catch of the living resources in its exclusive economic zone.
“2.The coastal State, taking into account the best scientific evidence available to it, shall ensure through proper conservation and management measures that the maintenance of the living resources in the exclusive economic zone is not endangered by over-exploitation. ”
Other parts of UNCLOS provide for settlement of disputes and action against states that fail to meet the requirements of the UNCLOS, which, arguably the EU fails to do in the Mediterranean and would almost certainly fail to do in UK’s EEZ. It is up to UK to make the case because unequivocally it has sovereign responsibility for its EEZ, no ifs, no buts.
May 20, 2025
PS, this also means that if UK allows the EU to overfish or wreck the marine environment it is as responsble for breaching UNCLOS as the EU.
May 20, 2025
+1
May 21, 2025
Couldnt the eu countries fishing in our waters now have set up a UK operation and exported their catches, just as British small businesses were expected to do when trade restrictions were put on and accepted the the UK. Ie on reselling goods imported from the RoW and resold into the EU without many changes. Have UK companies now got the right to export resales into the EU without blocks?