Under our complex constitution recorded in Acts of Parliament, conventions and Parliamentary rules a government with a majority can do as it wishes with laws, taxes and government decisions subject to public opinion and Parliamentary debates and votes. It cannot give our sovereignty away without a referendum vote or a clear mandate from a general election win where the surrender of power was a well highlighted issue.
This government is not offering a referendum on its so called EU re set yet it proposes to surrender major powers. In the election Labour promised to respect Brexit, keep us out of the single market and customs union, and seek minor improvements for food exporters and travelling musicians.
Instead it proposes to surrender our fish for 12 more years, pay large sums to the EU and sign up to dynamic alignment of our laws which is similar to going back into the single market. Meanwhile there is no guarantee that we will be able to export more food, there is no reward for giving away so much fish, no benefit for sending them so much cash and no easing of restrictions on musicians.
Dynamic alignment of laws will damage investment in the food industry, in digital and in healthcare in particular where we are beginning to get advantages from avoiding their worst over the top rules. Joining their dear carbon tax scheme and locking further into their energy market will drive energy prices higher and speed de industrialisation.
This disastrous re set will damage growth and jobs, make the government even less popular, and is against our constitutional practice. The idea that the EU would seek to impose a big penalty on the next government tearing up any such Agreement should warn any decent government off signing it. It means the EU thinks the terms they are getting are so good they would deserve compensation for ending them. This government seems to see it as a necessary poison pill to try to lock us into a bad deal. I assume the next government will want to end this likely rotten deal as soon as they win the election to take office.
January 13, 2026
Indeed looks like anti-British anti-democratic teachery to me – dynamic alignment with a Farage clause to lock the country in (should a sensible government be elected who wished to leave.
£9 trillion for May and Milibands net zero lunacy in a new report this equally damaging too – £300K per home. This is about right in my view. 30 million homes needing heat pumps, huge electrical grid expansion, extra insulation, vast expansion of wind power, carbon capture and solar, EVs (which to save any CO2 would have to be only charged on low carbon electricity as would the heatpumps) the vast export of whole industries, the vast damage to our ability to compete, to defend ourselves, for defence and to the economy.
Plus in the main it will just export the UK CO2 not really reduce it and CO2 and bit warmer for the UK are a net good anyway. Total insanity from May (and nearly all her tory MPs) and Miliband.
So what are the benefits of this vast “investment”? None what so ever it is all hugely negative. How did we end up being rules these Net Zero religious nutters (or are they deliberate treacherous vandals)?
January 13, 2026
Labour does not understand economic growth. They are too ideologically shackled to deliver it.
Today we grow at a paltry 1.3%. This is less than half our long-term average of about 3%. It is unrecognisable from the Thatcher highs of 5.5% and the Major highs of 4.9% Economic growth has downtrended since 2000. That downtrend has not been linear but the trend has been downwards.
To rectify this we need to address what has gone wrong since 2000. A full analysis will highlight various specific factors but there will be two main ones: the downtrend in labour productivity from 2000 and a continuously high overall tax burden. The former has been caused by excess legal migration diluting our output and the latter has been caused by fiscal irresponsibility.
Labour say its due to a lack of government spending and Brexit. Neither of these criteria are true and it suits their ideology to say so.
They scratch around on the world stage for deals and closer EU alignment as if the world might solve our economic malaise. The world will act in their interests and where there is any mutual benefit that will be a drop in the bucket compared with the shortfall in our GDP.
If Labour want our GDP growth rates restored they will need to cap legal migration at its long-term average of net 50k per year and reduce the overall tax burden to Major’s lows of 27% (the latter will take many years).
They will do neither so they will not deliver meaningful economic growth this year nor any year.
January 13, 2026
Good morning.
But we did give away our sovereignty. Back in 1972 the UK, without a referendum, joined what was called, The Common Market. In fact, the PM at the time, Edward Heath, later stated that, even if there was a referendum on join and the the UK voted to stay out, he would still have signed us up.
What I cannot understand is, what is the advantage of being a member of the EU ? Unless you are a terribly poor country or need a closed market to sell your goods there is nothing for you.
January 13, 2026
You rightly say:- “This disastrous re set will damage growth and jobs, make the government (even) less popular, and is against our constitutional practice. The idea that the EU would seek to impose a big penalty on the next government tearing up any such Agreement should warn any decent government off signing it. It means the EU thinks the terms they are getting are so good they would deserve compensation for ending them. This government seems to see it as a necessary poison pill to try to lock us into a bad deal. I assume the next government will want to end this likely rotten deal as soon as they win the election to take office.”
It will as you say damage growth and jobs, make government even more hated but it will also kill our ability to defend the nation and at a cost of circa £300K per home and will no positives whatsoever. It is all entirely negative the vast cost and the outcomes! Another negative investment like the net harm Covid “vaccines” and Boris & Sunak’s idiotic paid for Covid Lockdowns that cost circa have a trillion. Net zero is more like £9 trillion.
January 13, 2026
Labour used to be all about the politics of envy however, now it is all about the politics of vindictiveness.
British politics has become poisoned by tribalism. In the past, one side won and one side lost. The losers accepted it but worked harder to win again next time. Today, the losers engage in dirty tricks to scupper the winner or who they think will win next time. The left are nasty and filled with hate,but the worst thing is that, like a cancer, they are in so many of the institutions needed for the smooth and effective running of our country. That is what the next government will really struggle to over come, especially if it’s a right leaning government. The MSM, the civil service, the unions etc will go into overdrive to block and hinder the incoming government.
January 13, 2026
Nadhim Zahawi will surely damage Reform more than it helps this given his appalling history as the net harm Covid “Vaccine” pusher Tzar (the largest scandal of the past few years which will all be fully exposed very soon indeed), his HMRC tax issues and his support and even Chairman of the Con socialists and for net zero. An MPs for the whole of the 14 years of the disastrous con-socialism. He may have changed his views and become a useful, bright chap but his past does will not help Reform’s image one bit!
He should come out and say he was conned over the Covid vaccine safety and efficiency and demand release of the health and death stats. broken down by vaccine status. With his Chem Eng. degree he can I assume understand some stats.
January 13, 2026
Why are we still discussing Brexit? If Johnson, Govey and his Lordship had managed to get a half-decent leaving deal out of M Barnier six years ago none of this would be necessary!
Another day, another Tory Chairperson and ex-Chancellor jumps ship and kowtows to the dreadful Nigel Farage. This one had to resign over irregularities in his tax affairs. Looking at their past posts on Twitter (now X) they do not get on.
Expect Zahawi to be offered an unwinnable seat at the next election. If he lasts that long
January 13, 2026
Thank goodness you are in the Lords and can do something about it. Will your “introduction” date to the Chamber (February) reduce your effectiveness?
January 13, 2026
Sadly John, the public have now lost all faith in Politicians, of many colours, simply because they lie so often.
For decades we have seen our leaders prancing around the World, handing out £ Billions to almost anyone for any reason, as if it was Christmas day every day.
I see our Council are now complaining that Wokingham is the worst Government funded Local Authority in the Country, something the local LibDems always complained about, but they now find out it has got even worse not better, even with a LibDem MP representing us, thus proving that Government just do as they like no matter the arguments.
The LibDem Council are no better with its endless public surveys, the results of which are then completely ignored.
No wonder people are willing to give Reform a go !
Reply The Lib Dems waste our money and spend on things we do not want. They spent less than half the money sent them for potholes on road mending.
January 13, 2026
Reply-Reply
Agreed, but some voters never learn !
January 13, 2026
I have watched this government (and our civil services) approach to negotiating with the EU in wonderment. Negotiating is a series of compromises where all parties give ground on the other parties’ important points until a consensus is reached where all parties feel they have achieved a return worth agreeing on.
During this government’s negotiating I have never heard of one red line of requirement in order for them to give ground on an EU red line. All I hear is how this government wants more access to the EU various schemes.
This government is negotiating to rejoin the EU not to improve access by giving a little and getting a lot.
Germany, France and Spain now have terrible economies. We are in a position of strength but as ever our civil service don’t know (or don’t want) to capitalise.
January 13, 2026
The EU membership obsession has already destroyed one governing party and it will now do destroy this one.
January 13, 2026
You say there’s no advantage for giving away our fish but it’s because we have been blackmailed so we can continue using the interconnectors for electricity
France threatened to switch the Channel Islands off if we restricted their boats and the same will happen to us.
Another win for Milibrain and his net zero madness.
January 13, 2026
Our constitution is for decent, honest brokers in parliament and government….which seems to have been the case, until now! Now, we have utterly dishonest, and dishonourable people using the constitution, twisting and misinterpreting what they can or cannot to do to serve their own agenda!!
I said during our departure from the EU, that the law was being used to break the law.
I may be completely wrong, but as a lay person, this is how it all seems to me! An abuse!
January 13, 2026
Ditto the ruinously expensive (rising to almost £1bn a year) Erasmus scheme which disproportionately benefits a higher number of EU students rather than UK students and is worse than the cheaper more targeted Turing scheme. I assume Starmer will sign up to multi-year membership with penalty clauses for early termination.
January 13, 2026
Perhaps Farage could run on a promise of exiting the deal and not paying the fine? Or promise a referendum on that course of action?
January 13, 2026
We are witnessing a scorched earth policy adopted by Labour as soon as it gained political authority to act.
The Labour Party and socialists in general know they will be thrown out at the next election. They are determined to ensure their poison policies last for as long as they can by institutionalising them.
This kind of political activity would risk prison sentences or worse in less civilised countries.
January 13, 2026
Since 2016, very few in the HOC had any interest in restoring our sovereignty so we are where we are, thanks to perfidious politicians. I await the coming of Reform, the only solution available short of revolution.
January 13, 2026
“Decent government”
We have a long history of Indecent Governments when it comes to the EEC/EU. Two-Tier is just the latest Indecent Prime Minister who is over-riding the wishes of the British people when it comes to the EEC/EU.
If the mandate to LEAVE and Take Back Control had been properly implemented Two-Tier would not be in a position to carry out his proposed betrayal and the EU would not be able to effectively make “demands with menaces.”
Since no Government can bind a successor one, Farage has clearly stated that a Reform Government will not be bound by Two-Tier’s “deal” or the EU’s demand for reparations if he wishes to change it. So if you want LEAVE and Take Back Control to be properly implemented there’s an obvious solution.
The EU seems determined to make us an enemy. They never learn, do they.
January 13, 2026
Yet more evidence of the malign incompetence of Starmer and this Labour government. Add the delayed local government elections, the destruction of businesses and even whole industries under the burden of ill-conceived taxes and regulations, the rise in youth unemployment and watch how the UK is being turned into a banana Republic, but without the benefit of the bananas.
January 13, 2026
The problem is;
a) They don’t ultimately care what “Brexiteers” want – we are (must be) all xenophobic racists
b) Any means justifies their ends, most especially in the march towards International Solidarity
c) They will cling to power for as long as possible and will make as many irreversible changes as they can before being eventually forced from office.
Blair fundamentally changed the inner workings of government and Cameron didn”t have the wit or courage to undo it. Starmer and his motely crew are continuing this work. Even assuming these things can be undone, this country has already been fundamentally changed and it will never completely change back.