The Remain politicians always claimed leaving the EU would damage our trade in goods with the EU. I and others pointed out that as our trade was so heavily skewed to imports and as we are both members of WTO trade would not suffer.
Remain insisted on locking us into a so called Free Trade Agreement, but still moaned that trade would be down as it would not match membership. This seemed bizarre.
So what has happened?
Since the vote in 2016, and since final exit Ā early in 2020, our trade has increased with the EU. There is nothing on the chart to show a Brexit hit.
Exports were Ā£37 bn in Q 3 2016 at the time of the vote. They were Ā£38.8bn in Q1 2020 as we left. They have now risen by a fifth to Ā£46.2 bn.
Imports were already at a high Ā£60.8bn in Q3 2016.They were at Ā£59.3 bn in Q1 2020 but soared to Ā£77.8 bn in Q 3 2023. This is a rise of 30%.
The bad news is we are still running a big trade deficit in goods with them as we did all the time we were in the EU. It shows the need Ā for better policies to promote home grown food and fish, more domestic energy Ā and more UK manufactures.
To leavers it was not about trade. It was about making our own decisions and spending our own money. The biggest wins so far are saving our large financial contributions, not having to agree to help repay Euro 800 bn of new EU borrowing, and avoiding another 7000 laws.
February 26, 2024
Excellent all the way through.
February 26, 2024
We have been Importing between 20 and 25% of our electricity this past week. This is a scandalous situation which your government won’t rectify.
Increasing windmills to 50gw still won’t work when there is no wind.
February 26, 2024
It’s madness …. but what we’ve come to expect from the Blue-Green Socialists.
February 26, 2024
We should be striving for self sufficiency in energy and food
What percentage of petrol and diesel are imported?
February 26, 2024
Why are we still applying tariffs and quotas on non EU goods which we don’t produce, eg coffee, oranges etc.
February 26, 2024
JR, this should not even be a topic for discussion if your party enacted Brexit, instead Sunak is aligning and acting in lock step to EU.Why? Why will your party not leave the EU but are still fighting against leaving? What have you all done about Sunak enacting EU equality law into domestic legislation? Why no demand to scrap 4,000 EU laws, why no demand to stop ECJ applying to UK? Why has your party allowed Sunak to annex N.Ireland and make it a vassal state? Why have you allowed a border down the Irish Sea? Why have your party allowed Sunak to sign up to EU Horizon to give away Ā£2.4 billion each year? Why has your party allowed an increase in energy inter independent to EU when it recently threatened to cut off channel island? The list is endless, we voted to leave EU in its entirety. So why is Sunak still in place when he said he would implement 2019 manifesto ie leave EU? Cabinet full of remainers to silence opposition in Govt.
February 26, 2024
Good morning.
Correct ! But try telling that to the Remainers who think it is all about trade and not a United States of Europe.
I have not changed my position that the UK has not fully left the EU. We have signed up to all manner of things that give the EU the whip hand. ie They can fine us for breaking agreements but we cannot do the same to them. Until we have true paraty and a government that can make independent decisions in its own interests we will never be truly sovereign.
The fight goes on !!!
February 26, 2024
We have not fully left at all and Sunakās Windsor Accord is appalling. Starmer will take us back in in all but name. JR points out the increase in trade since we left? Is this in real terms or influenced by Sunakās QE and economic mismanagement that debased the Ā£ so much and gave us very high inflation?
So why on earth has Sunak and the chief whip kicked Lee Anderson out? These fools also kicked out Andrew Bridgen just for telling the truth.
February 26, 2024
Full letter is on X posted by NZ and the MRNA. Yet still Sunak assures āsafe and effectiveā is he lying or daft and mistaken. Most people and age groups never even needed and protection from Covid. Many had already had it or were young and never at real risk.
February 26, 2024
I would not have said Kahn was “controlled by” just “very heavily influenced by” but then he did not say fully controlled by did he.
What is the definition of “Islamophobia” is it irrational fear or just fear? Very silly BBC type of interview on radio 4 just now of Mark Harper.
February 26, 2024
LL: Agree. There is a perception and if our politicians cared to look, a widely held one, that there is a significant level of influence which requires acknowledgement, needs to be questioned and more importantly acted upon by those who represent us and who are in the position to act. Carpet sweeping does not wash. We are told “words matter” But it seems only when said by some and not others as we are seeing week in and week out in this country.
February 26, 2024
Sadiq Khan responds to Lee Anderson’s comments, saying they ‘pour fuel on the fire of anti-Muslim hatred’ That should calm things down wonderfully Kahn!
A bit of a jump from saying “controlled by” to “they pour fuel on the fire of anti-Muslim hatred” he said nothing remotely related to hatred. He should just have said “Kahn (and indeed Labour) are heavily influenced by…” which is clearly true.
The highly selective policing that Khan presides over and does nothing to correct (antisemitism & blocking bridges too is just fine it seems) is surely rather more likely to pour fuel on the fire.
February 26, 2024
I’m very sure that Mr Khan knows the difference between Islamist and Islamic – but I’m also pretty certain that he also knows many (non Muslim) people will not. In fact he’s very good at conflating these issues to his own advantage.
February 26, 2024
How on earth can we possibly be expected to manage without burdening ourselves with another 7,000 laws
February 26, 2024
+many
This will not be achieved with Tories or Labour they are the Uni Larty and are acting in unison to act I. Lock step and align through stealth so UK never leaves EU. That is clear from JRs party actions to date after voting leave 8 years ago! The traitors who lead against the public mandate not got rid of from the party but made ministers or are in the EU one nation grouping.
February 26, 2024
The fight can only be won by reform and trading with the EU under WTO terms
February 26, 2024
@Mark B +1, try telling that to remainer Rishi, this Conservative Government and the bulk of the HoC
February 26, 2024
MB,
Agreed. Sunak quietly pushes through all sorts of measures that prevent us āmaking our own decisionsā.
Nothing happens, or will happen, to deter invaders.
Net zero continues and The Mayor of London continues with all sorts of daft ideas, including renaming Tube lines at great expense while defunding the Metropolitan police.
February 26, 2024
This is why Remainers hate facts. The facts never support their āargumentsā. Actually they hate āargumentsā too, which is why they hate democracy.
Democracy is one long never ending round of argument and vote – not for the Sovereigns who vote only in elections, but for their Representatives in Parliament.
Democracy is hard work. We see JR practise it every day on his blog – Iām afraid the British Parliament and too many subservient assemblies are no longer swayed by argument. They donāt have the wherewithall. So itās a horse-trading exercise now which is why they no longer reflect the public mood, aspirations or values.
The EU is more honest – it does not even pretend to be democratic. It also hates competitive trade – capitalism.
The āvaluesā of the EU remain those of old – to crush āthe English system – democracy and capitalismā.
February 26, 2024
Indeed they just work mainly on emotion, they confuse a love of Europe which I like very much like too with a love for the dire EU that has damaged Europe so much. Rather similar with confusing looking after the environment is confused with the absurd Net Zero war on CO2 plant and tree food.
February 26, 2024
I agree, Lynn. I don’t think some people realise the thin line John has to walk each day to standards that others like Bryant today don’t have to abide by.
February 26, 2024
You make no mention of our trade with non EU countries. Has this increased since leaving? What has been the impact of any new free trade agreements?
Reply Yes it has
February 26, 2024
French cheese seems to be more available.
Morbier even!
But having said that, what happened to our re-emerging cheese industry?
Regulated away no doubt.
February 26, 2024
Despite falling volume sales, rising prices have propelled rapid value growth in the UK cheese market. This growth is forecast to continue, and Mintel forecasts that value sales will reach Ā£4.5 billion (ā¬5.2bn) by 2028. UK cheese consumption remains high, with around nine in ten people eating or using it regularly.5 Jan 2024 Dairy Industries Intl. We need to support British cheese makers.
https://www.statista.com/outlook/cmo/food/dairy-products-eggs/cheese/united-kingdom#revenue
February 26, 2024
+++
Good.
I love the idea of fully restoring all the English varieties known pre c1850.
There has been some movement towards this but I would like to see it at local level.
Unfortunately our cheese industry was decimated by a cattle disease in the early 1800s ( sounds familiar?) and of course from then on all the āonlyā cheese was continental, the myth being that we could not make cheese! (Now we apparently canāt make anything!)
Personally I think cheddar takes a bit of beating!
February 26, 2024
Chris: website facts4eu.org has an informative article today re our exports to Australia now we have our trade agreement with them and are outside the EU. All very encouraging and pleasing as far as I’m concerned.
February 26, 2024
People we now run an electrical lighting shop, which is very successful. All the goods they sell are imported from Italy!!! Surely there must be a British lighting business who could successfully compete. Does anyone look into this oddity; does anyone analyse imports, which mostly come from the richest countries in the EU. It seems strange.
February 26, 2024
Plenty of famous and high quality British lighting manufacturers. I would find them and source from them.
February 26, 2024
I have boycotted all eu goods since 2016 , I have no need of the eu now, I do not Holiday in Eu countries and still have pleasure of turning an article over , seeing an eu label and putting it back on the shelf.
At the start it was difficult sometimes but now I am familiar so its almost automatic.
Dump them , they are a corrupt shower of trash!
February 26, 2024
@Tony+Hart – This Conservative Government has forced the closure of UK manufacture, so as to offshore UK emissions. They don’t have the brain capacity to absorb the notion that emission on this planet are still emissions where ever they emanate from.
February 26, 2024
T+H
Afraid this is what happens when a Country’s manufacturing base collapses, and those thousands of productive people, now work in coffee, or charity shops.
How many people do you know who work in a manufacturing product based factory ?
February 26, 2024
BA,
You make good points.
When I moved to Berkshire in 1968, I noticed that Western Road, which was the main drag through the Western Industrial Estate, had many major companies each of which produced a product. Fifty years later, it seems that no products are made there and the big, multi million pounds companies, such as Racal, Ferranti, Wayne Tank and Pump, Sperry and others, have now gone.
February 26, 2024
and not far away were ICL forming, Honeywell growing, MacFisheries HO, Clark’s glass from London (James Clark & Eaton). C.F.Taylor in Molly Millar’s Wokingham.
February 26, 2024
I’ve just been reading a biography of an engineer who worked in Brighton railway works in the 1930’s. The attitudes and job satisfaction expressed therein contrast so much with what is heard from today’s equivalents. The pay and conditions as well as the absence of any Health & Safety provisions made for a career unthinkable now, but as an example of overcoming adversity and team working it was illuminating.
February 26, 2024
Itās not strange. Any manufacturing business here has to cope with very high – energy costs, rent, business rates and employees who need high wages to pay their high taxes, mortgages/rent, high cost of food etc. Everything in this country is high cost. We canāt compete. I am surprised our currency is not worthless. What is it based on?
February 26, 2024
Thank you for pointing this out with unarguable data. It puts us in a position to remove all the legacy impediments, negotiated by succesive UK governments, that would lead to an even smoother trade path.
NI border issues for starters. Trade by that route to the EU is insignificant and is not a factor. EU ambitions, egged on by irish nationalists are, so remove the EU umbelical of regulation that consignes NI to a state of limbo within the UK.
These figures give the UK leverage in ongoing discussions on anything arising, future fishing rights and method regulation for instance.
The most important steps we need to take to expand home industry are twofold. Sort out the business plan giving us the most expensive energy in the World. In parallel we need a bonfire of tax regulation. I suggest 19000 pages of the current 20000 that stifles people, enterprise and success throughout the UK. However you are too late, so step aside who can, ref the Reform Contract.
February 26, 2024
Well said Agricola šš
February 26, 2024
Look at how much better UK could be if all UK nations left the EU and there were no EU laws, regs and rules hindering our nation!
Sunak has taxed, enacted law, signed agreements, ensured UK fishing cannot be taken back, energy inter dependence to prevent leaving EU, given away N.Ireland as a vassal state all to act in lock step to EU. Sunak refuses to leave or give our country the benefits of leaving the EU. He stated he will not be more competitive than the EU!
Still want a a foreign court to dictate UK law and policy through ECJ and ECHR.
February 29, 2024
Sounds a bit ‘ Imagine ‘
February 26, 2024
I have an idea. John should rise in the Commons and say this :
‘This House should be made aware that if Labour enter in government they fully intend to reapply for membership of the EU. The public can take this assertion as fact’
Please do this rather than articles such as this that achieve the square root of nowt.
It is time for some Tories rather than the party leaders to decide where they stand on certain issues. People like Hague, Sunak, Brady, Cameron and Soames have become a barrier to the conversation we need to have about vital issues that it seems they would rather we didn’t have.
I watched Portillo on GB News on Sunday. He referred to Anderson’s comments as ‘unhelpful’. That’s political code for ‘sweep it under the carpet’. You cannot sweep vital issues under the proverbial for at some point public anger becomes visceral. We have to have a discussion without criminalisation which I believe is the political class’s authoritarian reflex action to crush debate on politically sensitive and inconvenient issues. Yes, well they aren’t inconvenient to the wider public
Reply. If I said that Labour would deny it. The threat is they will sign us up to more EU control without formally rejoining or having a referendum to try to reverse the public decision to leave
February 26, 2024
Reply to reply
Well, just like Sunak then! Eg, Windsor Accord.Sir J, please understand, this is the problem DOM has highlighted, we see no ‘clear Blue Water’ between Tories and Labour. Time’s up for this PCP.
February 26, 2024
Could it unbelievably be that tories and labour are terrified of the name calling?
One name used by tories against labour caused no end of trouble for a pigeon-hating labour bloke. I liked him ( except for the downer on pigeon) and was sad that he had been used so badly.
Now the diametrically opposite insult is being employed re Mr Anderson.
It explains various sensitivities around the subject.
And Cameron decreed an end to āPunch and Judyā politics. Ha!
A political system that has created a teeny tiny stifling Overton window.
Their lips are effectively sealed.
February 26, 2024
In order to join the EU, the UK would need to reduce its National Debt to 60% of GDP, in order to satisfy the Maastricht Treaty. There is absolutely no prospect of the UK doing that, so we will never rejoin. The EU would have to scrap the Maastricht Treaty, or at least amend it. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that requires national referenda. What political incentive does the EU have to change its rules to accommodate the UK?
February 26, 2024
But the demand on joining in Division 2 would not include reduce its National Debt to 60% of GDP.
Membership fees would be increased of course.
February 26, 2024
+++
Your paragraph on the Lee Anderson issue is spot on.
February 26, 2024
Anderson has been sacrificed in order to save Khan’s well deserved blushes and to appease people who will never in a million years vote Tory.
Yet another nail in the coffin.
February 26, 2024
They will not formally reapply. it will just be a slow alignment joining again in all but name. But they the economy is so dire will they be able to pay the vast membership fee. But then Sunak is doing that anyway.
Sunak in BBC interview this AM āWhat Lee Anderson said was wrongā next obvious question āwhat was wrong exactlyā but not with BBC interviewers. They should also have asked about why he assures us the vaccines are safe when all the statistics say he is completely wrong. Despite the best efforts of the ONS to hide the numbers.
February 26, 2024
Reply to reply:
No more than your party JR! Wake up where have you been? Parliament has gone EU rogue, again!
Reform is the only answer to remove the Uni Party.
Sunak has enacted ECJ rulings in EU law to domestic legislation. What did all the Tory party MPs doā¦ā¦nothing. Therefore they allowed more EU when the public voted leave and you were all elected on a public mandate to leave the EU. Your party refuses to act.
February 26, 2024
H,
‘Reform is the only answer to remove the Uni Party.’
Reform can be effective in removing the Tory party, maybe even finishing them off. However, they will not gain seats. Labour and Lib Dems will fill the gaps.
David Gauke still pushes the idea of what you call a ‘uniparty’ with Lib Dems as a substitute for Conservatives. The traditional Conservatives are being discounted as aging ‘hard right’ types who will eventually die out.
When Labour are in power and faction fighting begins it will be interesting. I suspect the ballot box will give way to violence to enable change.
February 26, 2024
Switzerland turned down EU membership but signed up for over a hundred bilateral agreements that made it a 95% member of the EU. That’s the way the UK will rejoin regardless of which party is in the HoC.
February 26, 2024
Perhaps we should apply to join BRICS.
Ok,we might be told to stand at the ‘back of the line’ behind Angola and Uganda.
But you’ve got to start somewhere!
February 26, 2024
I agree acorn and that is what John could accuse Starmer of planning to do.
February 26, 2024
I suspect you’re probably in that.
Cheers for the blog, Appreciated
February 26, 2024
‘correct’
February 26, 2024
The public decision to leave was based on lies we were led astray – lied to by our betters
February 26, 2024
Indeed āThe threat is they will sign us up to more EU control without formally rejoining or having a referendumā this is very close to what Suankās Tories are doing with the Windsor Accord, the net zero insanity and in many other areas.
February 26, 2024
Sir John,
It is great news that trade has increased with the EU. I have also noticed that the sky hasn’t fallen in too,dispite what the remainders told us
I think your final two paragraphs are the important ones. We do need to make more of our own stuff. With conflict on the horizon, we need to grow more of our own food and make more of our own goods, including steel.
We need to be completely independent in terms of energy and generate much more of it.
If a would be aggressor wanted to cause harm to our nation, they would just have to destroy our off shore wind power or blow up the interconnects under the sea.
February 26, 2024
Oh they donāt need to do that. The only ones who want to do us harm need only to refuse to deliver power via the channel connectors.
Remember that no nuclear country defending itās own territory has ever lost! We are secure so long as we donāt threaten another nuclear countryās own territory, which would attract retaliatory measures. Well – we are secure from external threat. Even the politicians and the Speaker is terrified of Islam – else they would not have āpersonal securityā. Itās a real terror so not āIslamophobiaā which is an imagined threat. Of course Britain suffers from Russophobia because the Deep and Shallow State wishes to āscare the pants off usā – again!
February 26, 2024
Oh! Well said Cliff, I back that statement fully.
We must get RID of any connection with those foreign politicians – we have nothing in common with them.
February 26, 2024
While the powers that be are busy keeping our minds on an ‘outside aggressor’ I worry more about the aggressors within, and yes I include Parliament and the establishment politicians in that.
At the moment it seems it is they that are doing and have been doing the most damage here, and for a very long time.
Destruction of everything from industry, finance, education, culture, history, social cohesion.
It feels at times as if a Parliament of occupation has already arrived, and we haven’t fired a single shot in defence of the realm. All done by stealth.
February 26, 2024
Brings to mind Edgar Allan Poe’s mesmerizing,fatalistic poem “A dream within a dream”:
(verse two)
“I stand amid the roar of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of golden sand-
How few!yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep-while I weep!
O God!can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God!can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
February 26, 2024
replace ‘Grains of golden sand-‘ with ‘MPs with perfect honesty’
– works much better.
February 26, 2024
@Cliff..Wokingham. +1 In the name of NetZero this Conservative Government does not believe in the UK making stuff it is better to offshore it and re-import creating greater World emissions. The brain power of a blade of grass.
There are another 189 Countries in the World(some 95% of the Worlds population) all producing emissions, all looking after their own prosperity and growth and none of them have this Conservative Governments Laws that stop, block the them creating wealth and surviving.
February 26, 2024
…and there are even some countries not in the UN
February 26, 2024
They don’t need to blow up the interconnectors. Remember France threatened to cut off power to the Channel Islands if the Not-a-Conservative-Party didn’t hand over our fishing grounds to France.
February 26, 2024
I think that the warning from the continent most ignored during the referendum debates was that brexit necessarily would cause “non tariff barriers”, making trade more complicated. Small businesses have been more affected than large companies.
February 26, 2024
Reason being, the EU is a protectionist mafioso construct.
People trade, politicians frustrate trade.
February 26, 2024
‘continent’ ? Is that different to your beloved term EU? You use the term brexit when I thought you tried ridicule endlessly to say others were obsessed!
February 26, 2024
Small businesses donāt trade with the EU. They are too busy paying 20% VAT on their energy bills.
There is no loss of trade. Suck it up Peter.
And we are not going to be in the calamity that threatens the EU and the Euro – look at the faces of your swagger-less politicians. They have lost all their swagger. Even Stoltenberg claiming that āNATO would beat Russiaā,(in desperation because Ukraine with all its NATO āmercenariesā – is suffering a rout.
The liars are being exposed for what they are, straw man and women.
February 26, 2024
+++
Agreed.
So many small shops obliterated and (handily for some) we are now herded into the folds of big supermarkets.
And apparently the noticeable lack of choice/lines is down to a deliberate manufacturing decision.
No doubt a bit of āplanet savingā aka keeping down costs but NOT retail prices?
How lovely it is to be the customer and now always in the wrong. Not.
āYou have reached your limit for this productā
ā Oh sorry! I thought you wanted to sell stuffā
Utter bl**dy cheek.
February 26, 2024
Non tariff barriers have always been there. Many years ago I had dealings with a Dutch company who said it was next to impossible to penetrate the German market because of such barriers even in the EU.
February 26, 2024
Hope back over your own barriers and be off with you!
We do not need anything to do with you.
February 26, 2024
That is possibly true and you do hear anecdotal evidence to that effect. But how do you explain these numbers – it looks like Brexit has had little or no effect on U.K. trade even with the EU? Non-EU U.K. trade has boomed. Definitely not what was predicted.
February 26, 2024
The numbers are made up, Richard. Factor in inflation and the huge increase in gas exports from the UK to the EU as a result of the EU stopping reliance on Russia, and it is clear that Brexit has had a very damaging effect on UK exports
February 26, 2024
Remain said these teade figures would go down by large amounts post Brexit Lemming.
They said unemployment would rise.
They said a big recession would happen
They said house prices would crash.
All your Project Fear predictions failed to come true.
February 26, 2024
No need for any barriers, negotiate as individual countries or a a common trading block. No need for EU supra national body full of little dictators.
February 26, 2024
PVL
True Peter ,so why did the EU want tariffs, and not a simple WTO agreement, given both sides were members.
February 26, 2024
Peter+van+LEEUWEN – the EU as a trade protection racket is the ones causing the barriers. The EU regularly trades with China(a higher volume than the UK), and to some extent Russia as well as the rest of the World with less barriers and agreement than they impose on the UK. All because the UK refused the rule from unelected unaccountable bureaucrats, no one can stop them they are beyond democratic control, they have decided to punish just in case their other domains get a similar idea.
February 26, 2024
If that is the price of freedom, so be it. We don’t want another tier of unelected Government by useless bureaucrats out to drive their own agenda, mass immigration, net stupid, protectionism, regulation and control etc.
February 26, 2024
What barriers have the EU put up to affect small businesses Peter?
John, why hasn’t your government put an Amazon type operation to help small businesses sell more without barriers if PVL is correct?
February 26, 2024
We have been importing energy from the EU recently as two of EDF’s UK AGR nuclear power stations have been taken offline, as statutory safety inspections revealed faulty steam valves which need replacement.
The retrospective Electricity Generator Levy, imposed on wind farm and solar park operators following inexorable lobbying by the fossil fuel cartel, has increased their costs substantially and made it cheaper to import EU electricity through the interconnectors.
The heavily subsidised oil cartel companies Shell, Equinor, ExxonMobil and BP ā some of the UKās biggest suppliers of gas ā made Ā£65bn in net profits in 2023. More than Ā£1bn a week. Meanwhile, their relentless anti-renewables, anti-EV, anti-net zero propaganda in the right-wing press continues.
If we are to achieve the benefits of our renewables investment, harvesting our abundant supplies of free wind and solar energy, Hunt needs to scrap the odious EGL in the forthcoming Spring budget.
February 26, 2024
Good morning SG. You forgot to add that the wind was not blowing either.
February 26, 2024
You didn’t mention that during Covid all the oil companies made large losses SG. Shell lost $22B in 2020 for instance – so there can certainly be ups and downs…
However, as usual you miss the main point that these are multi-national companies competing with other energy companies in a global marketplace. We (and everyone else around the world) are going to need ‘fossil’ fuels for a very long time and it makes absolutely no sense to hobble our energy companies with “windfall” and other taxes that their international competitors do not have to suffer. It costs money to invest in new technology and if you want our energy companies to keep up, then please don’t nail their feet to the ground.
February 26, 2024
Once weāve harvested them, how do we store them?
February 26, 2024
and how will we recycle the massive arms, and the enormous mountain of concrete sunk in the ground?
February 26, 2024
SG. Please Google Tucker Carlson’s interview with Dr Willie Soon. Then take a look at his website……. ceres-science.com
Plenty on there to show the ridiculous net stupid and how it is a religion. Independent scientists with proper data, papers NOT models. It should be a must read for our, mostly, ignorant Uni Party members. CO2 is the “gas of life”, not a pollutant. All plant life dies without it below 0.018% of the atmosphere.
February 27, 2024
Sakara is the only one to make sense on here usually. The others write of me me me.
The growing lack of action generally and the self important bluffers cause a thick fog where indecision takes.precedence.No amount of degrees can kick start the slow witted into action.They simply rely on an outdated academic structure to carry their nonsense forward.
February 26, 2024
And at the time I truly believed that it was all about a democratic vote.
I didnāt DREAM that Leave could win and then the decision virtually ignored/sidelined.
I stayed up all night and it was so wonderfulā¦.
The utter spite and appalling behaviour that followed was beyond terrible.
February 26, 2024
And still isā¦and it has got worse.
February 26, 2024
You’re not the only one ….and these tories still don’t think they’ve done anything wrong
February 26, 2024
+++
February 26, 2024
Remoaners will be crying in there cornflakes , off subject I hope Lee Anderson doesnāt apologise because heās nothing to apologise for, heās just saying what most people donāt have the balls to
February 26, 2024
Honesty and opinions once respected and fought for, are now castigated and threatened with all levels of abuse and violence. We reap what we sowed….
February 26, 2024
We knew the Remainers were talking bovine excrement with their threats and scaremongering. They could never give a single positive reason why we should stay trapped in the EU.
It would be interesting to know how much of the increase of Ā£17 billion in imports from the EU in Q3 of 2023 was importing extremely expensive electricity, because the lunatics in the British Establishment don’t (want to) understand that solar panels AT BEST only provide electricity for 50% of a 24-hr cycle and the windmills provide intermittent energy and when we really need it …. when it’s freezing cold with no wind …. they’re useless.
Oh and they blew up our coal-fired power stations, thereby destroying our energy independence and therefore energy security.
February 26, 2024
It is like banning cars and then later realising half the population can’t cycle.
February 27, 2024
…and the other half don’t wont to
February 26, 2024
Off topic:
“Lambeth council has doubled the number of fines issued to motorists, amounting to Ā£50 million, following the introduction of seven controversial low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs). Lambeth council handed out a record 392,341 penalty charge notices (PCNs) to drivers and motorcyclists who entered roads closed to motor traffic since the Government roll-out of LTNs in 2020.”
That would be Grant Schapps, Minister for Transport in 2020, who used the scamdemic to introduce LTNs and gave Councils the green light to milk drivers for every penny they can. He also gave Khan the green light to extend ULEZ to the North and South Circulars.
So in Lambeth alone, Ā£50 million has been picked from motorists’ pockets. That’s Ā£50 million which hasn’t been spent in the real economy. No wonder we’re in recession.
February 27, 2024
Donna
Exactly, and that money will be wasted on multi coloured pedestrian crossings and the like, which will produce absolutely nothing except more expense on re-painting.
The joke is they call it an investment in the future !
February 26, 2024
Voted for Brexit take take back control do not regret it.
February 26, 2024
Oh my…still ranting about EU and Brexit..we left couple of years ago.
I find it it strange that you still so strongly talk about leavers and remainers.
In these rather critical times wouldn’t it be more constructive to emphazise that we are all bretons?.
Brexit has happened. Get over it.
Reply We are not Bretons!
February 26, 2024
oh Billy, what a silly Billy. Can you use a search engine – ever heard of Google?
try Breton and be amazed.
February 26, 2024
So long as we produce what the world wants to obtain, the world will buy it. We also buy what we prefer. What the EU does is a matter for them. We are increasingly freer to choose without their obstructive ways, heavy bills and other rubbish to hamper us.
February 26, 2024
XLINKS, the Octopus Energy backed company that is developing a vast renewables project in Morocco, is preparing to commission the worldās biggest cable-laying ship.
The 700ft vessel will lay four parallel cables linking solar and wind farms spread across the desert in Morocco with a substation in Alverdiscott, a tiny village near the coast of north Devon.
Once completed, the scheme is expected to deliver about 3.6GW of electricity to the UKās national grid ā equating to about 8pc of total power demand – at a fraction of the cost of the new Hinkley Point C nuclear power station being built by EDF
XLINKS sister company XLCC, a high voltage direct current cable (HVDC) manufacturing company, has been awarded a Ā£9 million grant by Scottish Enterprise to continue the development of their Ā£1.4 billion Hunterston cable manufacturing facility. The grant follows planning approval of the proposed site from North Ayrshire Council in May 2023. When fully operational, the site will employ up to 900 highly-skilled permanent workers
XLCC is building the UKās first HVDC factory in Hunterston, which will transform the job market for the local community and bring in wider investment opportunities, as the area becomes a key hub for the countryās net zero transformation
February 26, 2024
What is the power source? Solar? So, no delivery of power for 12 hours out of every 24. What cost will the electricity be? Whatās the power loss in cables a thousand miles long?
Producing renewable energy is easy. Storing it is the issue. Whatās your solution?
3.6GW is, you say, 8% of our demand. But electricity only provides 20% of our power. When we make this wonderful transition to using electricity to heat our homes and fuel our cars, 3.6GW will be barely 2% of our needs.
How do we store renewable energy?
February 27, 2024
@MIKE WILSON
The XLINKS project will produce 3.5GW of solar and wind electricity 20 hours a day and this will be sufficiently reliable to constitute baseline power.
The British made quadruplicate transmission cables will be effectively zero loss high voltage direct current (HVDC) and the company estimates that at 2021 prices will be prifitable at a CFD agreement of Ā£48/MWh.
Total costs are estimated at Ā£14bn and the government has designated the project as of “national importance” and is considering a direct investment in it.
Once we have say, 5 million EVs connected to the grid, charging up overnight on cheap N Sea windfarm juice, we will have an excellent energy storage system
February 27, 2024
SG.
Good news if it is not subsidised by taxpayers, but remember a cable that long may need expensive maintenance and it is insulated with product made from some fossil minerals/fuels, just like most electrical systems, so do not close down all of the oil wells yet !
February 26, 2024
“To leavers it was not about trade. It was about making our own decisions and spending our own money.” So very true and it is were Parliament has let us down.
The only downside is this Conservative Government in step with the bulk of Parliament are still refusing to manage and take charge. They give the appearance that they prefer unelected unaccountable bureaucrats dictating to them, telling them what we can and are allowed to do. The refusal of the HoC to become the thing they were empowered and paid to do, become the UKs legislators, is the reason the whole country is being held back while the rest of the ‘free’ democratic world powers ahead.
Being singly part of a WTO agreement was going to be the only thing that had meaning.
February 26, 2024
Why has Rishi refused to remove EU Laws, why has Rishi been accused of squandering Brexit freedoms after quietly introducing sweeping EU equality rules into British law. The new regulations, driven through Parliament without fanfare, āgold-plateā judgments by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and create a ācarte blancheā for companies to be sued for āunlimited damagesā – in a Foreign Court, is that because UK Courts are not up to scratch?, That is a Sunak version of Brexit freedoms ever deeper rule by the EU and overseen by the unqualified foreign Court the ECJ.
This Government is saying UK MP’s do not have the ability to legislate and we have to get back under the yoke of the EU – like we ever left
February 26, 2024
Look like inflation and extra costs to me.
February 26, 2024
O/T – I do trust that you will be in Parliament tonight to try and ensure these insane proposals for affordability checks by bookmakers are ruled out. Or we should have affordability checks for Gucci stuff, expensive restaurants ………. I only want to enjoy my hobby not have the Government interfere and make bookies aware of my savings, income and other personal details.
February 26, 2024
Not posted by me.
I only ever wager a few pounds on The Oaks and Derby up on Epsom Downs. As there is no entrance fee to The Hill, I look on that as entertainment spending.
February 26, 2024
O/T – sorry it is in Westminster Hall tonight, prior to Parliamentary vote.
February 26, 2024
The BREXIT arguments roll on and on.
It seems remainers have little faith in the truth – they would instead try to deceive everyone with unsupportable information, as they have always done.
As for the imbalance in EU trade I’ve always been in favour putting import duty on luxury items that we don’t really need… but yes, it is time we grew or manufactured our own anyway.
February 26, 2024
even better to produce our staple items, let alone luxury.
February 26, 2024
I was wholly unsurprised by your words following “So what has happened?”, recalling as I did that you told us back in 2016 that Brexit would not be so very significant economically.
We continue to underperform compared to the U.S.A. though, as you have also said.
February 26, 2024
Hi sir John
The trouble is in this country we don’t support our own businesses we buy French and German cars it’s said we don’t make cars in this country but we do I have a lovely car made in Sunderland.
Help should be given to build our own products again such as washing machines fridges and so on BUY BRITISH
February 26, 2024
All given up years ago, with fish, fruit, many vegetables, coal, steel, white goods….
February 26, 2024
No co-liability for the Euro 800 bn of new EU borrowing?
True. Likewise the EU is not responsible in any way for the Ā£313 billion Of extra UK covid borrowing.
February 26, 2024
Did the individual countries in the EU also borrow independently and in addition to the Euro 800bn or not?
February 27, 2024
“The highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of the second quarter of 2023 were recorded in Greece (166.5%), Italy (142.4%), France (111.9%), Spain (111.2%), Portugal (110.1%) and Belgium (106.0%)” Europa EU so they seem to have borrowed individually ++plus++ the Euro 800bn.
“UK general government gross debt was Ā£2,636.9 billion at the end of Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2023, equivalent to 101.2% of gross domestic product (GDP). UK general government deficit (or net borrowing) was Ā£63.5 billion in Quarter 2 2023, equivalent to 9.5% of GDP.27” Oct 2023 ONS
This was interesting from positive money “If the government decided that it wanted to pay off Ā£30bn of national debt every single year, then it would need to raise another extra Ā£30bn in taxes: equivalent to doubling council tax. Even at this level it would take 30 years to pay down the national debt, assuming tax revenue is unaffected by these changes.”
How much would the EU membership be now in 2024, [Germany was 33bn Euros France 26bn]
February 26, 2024
Bringing in policies to promote home grown food, fishing and manufacturing etc will not change things one iota because we have a younger generation now that is averse to manual labour and for policies like yours to succeed we need the east european migrants but we and the tabloids have chased them all away
February 28, 2024
But we’re bringing in millions of young, fit men who are so desperate to be safe they will be willing and ready to work in manual jobs.
February 26, 2024
There are still some “ties” with the EU and that is understandable ; our geographic proximity with Europe cannot be changed but that is where it should end . We create our own laws and outside influences should be minimal . One thing I would do to cease some of the rumblings is to get rid of the regional governments in Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland – national unity must be supreme .
February 26, 2024
We in Northern Ireland woud back that suggestion Bert!
February 26, 2024
There are still some “ties” with the EU and that is understandable ; our geographic proximity with Europe cannot be changed . We create our own laws and outside influences should be minimal . One thing I would do to cease some of the rumblings is to get rid of the regional governments in Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland – national unity must be supreme .
February 26, 2024
When the Tory warmonger Boris Johnson got Brexit done, he gave our fishing grounds to the EU as recompense for leaving their racket as though we owed them anything for having been ripped off by them since 1973.
We have the most productive fishing grounds in the North Atlantic in our Exclusive Economic Zone yet most of our fish is stolen by the EU so our supply is imported from Norway whose own supply is supplemented by Russian fish caught in the Bering Sea and sometimes filched from our waters around the Shetlands, yet the very name of that country, Russia, causes the Tories paroxysms of uncontrollable anger as they are far more concerned with what is going on in Ukraine than in this country which is being flooded with unassimilable aliens from the wars that they spend our money on including that in Ukraine. But even more than saving South Eastern Ukraine from the clutches of Russia whose people have always lived there, they want to save the planet by destroying our manufacturing industry because as Arts graduates they can be led to believe any unscientific nonsense including that they can effect the Earth’s climate by forcing us to use ‘free wind’ and ‘free sunlight’ to power our economy instead of hydrocarbons and coal of which we have an abundance.
Kick start the economy by building trawlers as they are easier and cheaper to build and far more use than aircraft carriers without planes and escort vessels, and start effecting our balance of trade by catching our fish in our waters.
February 27, 2024
Russia has just revoked a Khrushchev era agreement that permitted British trawlers to fish in the Russian section of the Barents sea(I think you may mean Barents rather than Bering which is at the other end of Russia,next to Alaska) although I don’t think there has been much activity in recent times.The Russo-Norwegian body that controls fishing activity in the Barents Sea has also significantly cut cod quotas for three years in a row.I believe China is now the biggest customer for both the Russians and Norwegians in this sector.
February 26, 2024
We left to ensure we took back the control of our own affairs. It’s called “Independence”.
Since 2016, I have constantly asked on these blogs and in newspapers,
“Why would the remainers wish to be ruled by an unelected and unaccountable cabal of foreigners based in Brussels rather than be Governed by our own elected British citizens based in OUR Parliament in London, who we can hire and fire after each term of office”? I have never received a response.
I conclude they believe it makes no sense to remain in the EU, but rather than lose face, they say nothing. Furthermore, I also believe the EEC, now the EU, was created by France and Germany for the benefit of France and Germany and anyone wishing to join had to accept the rules, regulations and laws were focussed on of those two countries to ensure they would always have the most to gain from any transaction. It’s called “Protectionism” and caused severe damage to our manufacturing, agriculture and fishing industries.
I know we’re not there yet, but maybe this year, we’ll be totally clear of the still existing EU Laws on our statute book, at last! Maybe, if a new Minister takes charge of the diehard Europhile civil servants continually dragging their feet, deliberately frustrating our progress, as they have been doing since 2016.
February 26, 2024
It is good to know that trade with the EU and the rest of the world has increased since Brexit. I agree we should make more and grow more here in the UK. I would say the increase in our exports has happened in spite go the Government, not because of it.
But I believe we are facing a far greater crisis than our relationship with the EU. The Net Zero nonsense has infected our Government and the devolved Governments so they are making bad decisions constantly. Just look at the utter stupidity in Wales when they want Farmers to take 20% of their land out of use. !0% for growing trees, which you can’t eat and 10% for re-wilding, which you also can’t eat. Sir John, I think you have to convince the PM to set up a team to investigate whether Global Warming/ Climate Change and CO2 are a problem or not. There are now plenty of books that show it is nonsense. I recommend “UnSettled” by Barack Obama’s former scientific adviser. It seems that those in Government have accepted the GW/CC/CO2 arguments on blind faith. But when decisions and laws impact the prosperity and lives of the people, those decisions must be based on reality and proper analysis. Sir John, this is the most important battle of your career and your greatest service to your country!
February 26, 2024
āI and others pointed out that as our trade was so heavily skewed to imports and as we are both members of WTO trade would not suffer.ā
Correct.
There was never a fair playing field anyway. We always suffered from surreptitious non-tariff barriers and back-handed non-compliant state support wheezes such as writing market reports paid for by their governments.
This is why we had a Ā£100bn/YEAR trade deficit which could never be tackled whilst we were members of the EU.
February 26, 2024
Midlands and northern England to get ‘reallocated’ HS2 funds, after the next election, and local councils can spend it on any transport related infrastruction ….so long as its cycle-lanes
February 27, 2024
Glen
OH so true, I can just see it now, miles and miles of very expensive empty tarmac, meanwhile the potholes in our roads will get larger.
February 27, 2024
So Labour get to say we spent x more on transport than the Tories, crazy.
It’s similar to Khan when he claims he built more homes than Boris; homes take years to plan and authorise; how many of those homes were planned and ordered before that he now takes credit for?
February 26, 2024
Sir John
Your views on the EU, are aligned with what a good chunk of those of us in the UK think. How can you be a democracy if it is an unelected unaccountable bureaucratic that dictates your laws rules and regulations.
This is before we get to the Napoleonic reasoning, that all rights are removed at birth only to be awarded like a medal later on by these same self-opinionated bureaucrats. Something our Parliament as our legislators has forgotten, in English/Common law so-called rights are only removed if the Countries democratically elected representatives deem is necessary, even then everything can be changed and reversed. Sunak, this conservative Party has issued EU equality rules into British law, why? Who took these rules away in the first place, it wasnāt any one with legislative legitimacy. Another virtue signal from a bankrupt Conservative Government.
Given the way this country is now run by the Conservatives, I guess my opinion and those similar to mine are deemed as āracistā!
February 26, 2024
How come those that take to petty name calling have yet to define another ‘race’ other than the ‘human race’ we belong to?
Why doesn’t the Rishi Sunak Government just cancel all opinions, all criticisms, as that is certainly how this dictators committee seems to be wanting
February 26, 2024
yaleclimateconnections.org 25/05/2021 āA critical review of Steven Kooninās āUnsettledāā.
How can Koonin and you say that climate scientists have decided that the climate change question has been settled when every monthly issue of various scientific journals dealing with atmospheric and oceanic physics and dynamics are still reporting new methods and new results of both theoretical explanations and ever better observations, making connections between the state of vegetation, sea-ice, surface moisture and albedo, greenhouse gases concentrations, three-dimensional distributions of temperature, humidity, winds, cloudiness etc.
If some people have settled views it looks to me this is a characteristic of the āclimate change skeptics communityā because they seem to be unable to follow/keep up with the science that is being published on the question, month after month, year after year, and prefer repeating as a mantra a strawman, and prostrating themselves before the providers of āhalf-baked contra āscienceāā most of them related one way or another to the fossil fuel industry (S.Koonin was for a while BP chief scientist).
February 26, 2024
You are right hefner the climate lobby do not have a settled view.
They get more extreme and hysterical in their views by the month.
We now have claims of global boiling and catastrophe and armageddon.
February 27, 2024
Can you provide some references, please?
February 27, 2024
Do you not have a TV or radio or read newspapers hefner?
Just Stop Oil use these claims constantly.
The Global Boiling claim came from the UN.
More importantly do you accept these claims as correct?
February 27, 2024
As Sam seems not to have understood I was simply pointing out that Steven Koonin might not have a position on climate completely free from the various positions he had occupied at different stages of his life.
And why āmore importantlyā? Could he explain why what I think (or not) is more important than what Antonio Guterres or/and JSO say/claim? Very strange.
February 28, 2024
Strange you find my comments strange hefner.
You started by saying those who don’t accept the standard views on the climate are set in their ways.
I said that I agreed in that the climate enthusiasts are not set in their ways with their hyperbole.
I asked if you agreed with these rather extreme views of the climate fanatics.
Simply out of curiosity.
ps
I try not to denigrate experts just on their motivations and CV because many on the pro climate change side have just as many motivations.
February 26, 2024
Why do not mention and quantify export numbers Sir John?
February 26, 2024
SIr John,
As usual there is politics involved in your figures when you talk about the EU and trade, Brexit,the fact is that our trade deficit with the EU fell significantly from 2022 to 2023 from Pounds 92.000 million to Pounds 74.000 million so trade with the Eu is actually getting better in our favour.
In the case of laws and sovereignty and more laws on Brexit I think the opinion polls IPSOS speak for themselves 57 % believe that Brexit is negative and 13% believe that Brexit is positive.
I think the populaiton has spoken.
Reply The public speaks in elections and referenda. In 2016, 2017 and 2019 they voted for Brexit. This year Lib dems are in single figures and they are the main party wanting back in.
February 26, 2024
To reply . They voted to stop immigration .Full stop.Making out own laws was the way ahead.
February 27, 2024
You are right hefner the climate lobby do not have a settled view.
They get more extreme and hysterical in their views by the month.
We now have claims of global boiling and catastrophe and armageddon.