Author: johnredwood

His supporters are delighted illegal migrants are down 95% across the Mexican border in March compared to last year thanks to his tough actions on entry and returns. They like his ditching net zero policies and going for more cheaper energy. They like the attack on DEI and the decision that the Federal government thinks there are two genders, male and female. They like the attack on wasteful spending and excessive bureaucracy by DOGE.

His critics dislike all of the above. They think the US should be kinder to migrants, and argue they are needed to take lower paid jobs. They believe in the need to get CO 2 down and think the US should do more not less. They are scandalised by the attack on DEI and bureaucracy and are seeking help from the courts.

The President promised peace but so far this has eluded him in Gaza and Ukraine. He seems to have moved on from Gaza in frustration with the failure to release the hostages by Hamas. He tilted to Putin to get him into peace talks but is now cross about lack of progress and is criticising Putin. People are divided over whether he can achieve a peace in either place, with plenty of criticisms from both sides as he seeks to find common ground.

The tariffs policy has alarmed markets. They worry  that high tariffs will in the shorter term raise US inflation, only to slow growth thereafter and leave people worse off. Some think it could come right by the President doing a series of trade deals with major trade partners to get barriers down. Others think the President wants higher tariffs to boost US investment in capacity and to bring in government revenue.

What do you think?

 

 

I see no evidence that the EU wants to offer anything by way of a reset. They see the UK asking for one as another opportunity to make the deal worse. Nor do I see the Uk asking for much that would be worth having.

The EU wants to impose more of their laws on us, take more of our money, take more of our fish and send us more migrants.

The UK seems to have asked for easements on rules for EU import of some foods and easier access for our musicians.

The UK should be finding a way to end the sea border in the Irish Sea, and to end putting Northern Ireland under EU laws. There is an easy technical  answer to the EU’s alleged problem. The UK would promise to enforce EU laws on any exports from UK/NI to Ireland but would not need to have any additional checks on trade between GB  and NI than there is betweenLondon and Birmingham,

The UK should be proposing the same kind of relaxations for services trade with the EU as we now enjoy through trade treaties with other parts of the world.

The UK should end our links with the EU carbon trading system and remove the threat of the carbon border tax.The UK should end the rights of supertrawlers to hoover up too much fish from our waters and put in a policy to rebuild thee UK fishing industry.Much of what we need to do can be done by ourselves making our own decisions as a sovereign country.

The last government allowed drift in the arguments about nationalisation. They decided a fully nationalised railway might be less bad than a largely nationalised one. They failed to explain that Labour had nationalised the main assets of our railway , all the track, signals and stations. They failed to point out the so called private sector train companies had to accept timetables, fares and capital expenditure plans  laid down by government officials. They failed to remind people that in the early years of a largely privatised railway before the government took over Railtrack and made most of the decisions about trains  passenger numbers surged and services improved. There had been decades of losses, passenger  decline and poor punctuality at British Rail.

They failed to mention the fact that the   biggest disaster, a new railway from London to the  north,   so delayed and over budget it would never reach the north , was fully nationalised throughout.

As they failed to get the establishment to right the wrongs and pay the compensation promptly to the Post Office staff sent to prison they never mentioned this business had always been nationalised. It had hit a new low in the way a nationalised industry harms employees and mugs  taxpayers.

As Ministers rightly condemned the water industry for sewage dumping in rivers they did not point out that the industry had regional monopolies with a Regulator so keen to keep the bills down they did not  allow much investment in new reservoirs, treatment works and more pipe capacity the businesses needed. They declined  to introduce competition to make  the companies perform better though we have  competition in gas with a single pipe to each house.

The new government is  worse. It seems to want nationalisation.It cannot possibly afford to buy most of the assets it might like to own, and simply taking them would end  most inward investment into the UK if property rights are torn up. Its steel adventure will probably end with the unwelcome closure of two old blast furnaces they will not renovate or replace, a huge bill for taxpayers and lawsuits with the Chinese owners.

I backed a previous Labour government in keeping us out of the Viet Nam war.I could not see how that could have  a happy ending.

I failed to persuade the Conservative opposition to oppose UK involvement in the Iraq war. That too did not end well.

I have supported the last four Prime Ministers in their view that we should not go to war with Russia. This has meant not allowing any UK military personnel to help Ukraine in their country.

The UK did lose lives and commit plenty of money and equipment to the fight in Afghanistan, only to see the US pull  out without even consulting us. Defeat followed quickly, meaning all our sacrifices had been wasted.

Today the PM tells the world Ukraine must fight on to show Putin the use of force is not rewarded. How does that help when in more than 3 years of war Ukraine has not been able to evict Russian forces and he is not suggesting how this can change. Indeed, the UK cannot afford to offer more military  hardware and money and the US wants out from being the major donor.

 

I am pleased to read that the PM  now sees the UK and France cannot muster a sufficient force to guarantee any ceasefire or peace in Ukraine without US help. The UK is not currently equipped to fight and win a war with Russia without NATO and US leadership. The UK is not on a war footing and would need to turn massively to arms production and military recruitment to be so to assist Ukraine. If Europe cannot keep the US onside to help supply and support Ukraine it needs to avoid making promises it cannot keep, leaving Ukraine with insufficient support.

In the run up to the elections I am not posting messages that tell people to vote for any particular party, nor over the top and inaccurate attacks on parties.

The site encourages sensible discussion of government policy and options for the future to help inform the general public debate.

Various briefings hint at a big sell out to the EU in the forthcoming reset.

There is suggestion we will surrender most of our fish for  years ahead for no good reason.

There is a wish to bind us into more rules and regulations. This is said to be necessary to help trade in items like food. We already import far too much from the EU and all the time we were in the EU we faced a large trade deficit with the EU forcing out our farmers. Bad idea to volunteer for more of that. We lost a lot if market share with beef bans, too small a milk quota and grabts to grub up our orchards.

There is the idea of bringing back freedom of movement for younger people, calling it a Youth Mobility scheme. That would mean more large taxpayer bills to help these young people meet high housing and living costs.

We must try to stop this.

So much for smashing the gangs. New records are being achieved this year for illegals coming across the Channel. The government that promised to close the migrant hotels is paying top prices to secure more of them. Meanwhile  they are trying to speed up giving many if the illegals the right to stay, acting as a further lure to many more to come.

We seem to get very little for all the money given to France to police this. Why don’t they puncture the boats before they can leave when they see the shire preparations to sail.? Why do they give  them free passage to mid point in the Channel, helping them we are told  with life belts and accompanying them  with a back up vessel? It would  be cheaper and safer to turn them back in the shallows by the shore.

When Border Force or a Lifeboat picks them up in mid Channel  to give them free and safer passage  to the UK who do they not arrange to arrest and question the boat organiser/ captain on arrival in England? Why are they not interrogated  to find out the rest of  the gang organising this dangerous business?

Why cant the UK authorities pose as mystery shoppers seeking seats on a small boat from France to help locate and arrest the organisers? We should expect more vigour and imagination in rounding up these boat exploiters. Catching them would be a good deterrent.

April 23 is an important date in any  Englishman’s diary. It marks both the birthday and the  date of death of our greatest dramatist and poet, William Shakespeare. It is the day we commemorate our country through our patron Saint, St George.

 

Shakespeare is one of those great achievers that made our history and contribution to mankind special. From Ebenezer’s Garden cities to Brunel in engineering, from Josiah Wedgwood’s  pioneering factory and ceramics  to Whittle and the jet, from Wren in architecture to Turner in painting England has offered much to the world.

Shakespeare’s genius was in capturing timeless human characteristics and emotions. Jealousy in Othello, violent ambition in Macbeth, the  inability to see and understand  in Lear’s  old age, the difficulty to avenge a crime in Hamlet ,the folly and fun of young love in Midsummer Night’s Dream are all spell binding accounts of modern feelings and events springing from their roots in Elizabethan and Jacobean England.

Shakespeare turned the Globe stage into many exotic scenes, from Venice to Denmark, from  a French to an English battlefield, from court to country, from palace to a hovel. Most of the transitions were conjured in audience imagination by the power of words. Bon mots, jests, epigrams, perfect soundbites poured from his quill and enrich our modern language.

What fools these mortals be said Puck. To be or not to be agonised Hamlet. The Fool said to Lear  you should not have been old til though hadst been wise. John of Gaunt spoke for England ,  in words we should all remember. Our land is indeed a sceptred isle, a blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this england.

 

Any new oil and gas investment is banned. The aim is to close down our industry quickly.

Any factory making petrol and diesel cars needs to be closed by 2030.

No new coal mines allowed. Industry largely dead.

Virgin steel manufacture. Only 2 blast furnaces left. How long will the government pay to keep those going. Industry undermined by high energy prices  and taxes.

Aluminium  All but one  smelter closed by high energy costs

Coal fired power stations. All closed, many blown up to prevent future use

Oil refining being wound down. Grangemouth now shut.

Petro chemicals and chemicals being wound down

Most ceramics production sent abroad

Self employment reduced by hostile tax regime

Fishing industry decimated by Common Fishing Policy and so called Transition

Dairy  farming was limited  by EU shortage of milk quotas for UK

UK orchards were grubbed up with EU grants

Current farming policy gives grants to stop food growing

 

 

 

 

 

UK foreign policy is based on two false assumptions. We can have best friend relationships with the EU , China and the US at the same time. Giving in to the demands of foreign governments buys us friends. These policies instead  makes us weak , subject to more  unacceptable demands.

Recognising public anger  about this the government doubles up on this stupidity  whilst  changing the words to say this is representing the national interest.

How is it in the national interest to give the Chagos  away along with billions? Whose support and favour will that buy?

How is it good to give in to the EU over  fish, free movement of young people and accepting their laws? They  will just ask for more.What do we get back?

How is it sensible to import  more and more energy and food from the EU when we could produce our own?

How is it wise to depend on China for steel, for solar panels, for wind turbines and electric cars?

Why do we say we need to do more damage to our industry to pursue net zero to lead the world when the world does not follow?