The Remain MPs and commentators are brilliant at pushing out an endless set of recycled Project Fear stories, each one more lurid than the last. They want to pose Brexit as a disease to be treated or a “cataclysm” to be managed. They seem to have demanded or influenced a lot of government Ministers and departments to ignore the potential and suppress the good news of what we can do and achieve with a clean WTO Brexit on 29 March.
The Treasury refuses to discuss how we could spend the Ā£12bn a year net saving if we leave without signing the Withdrawal Agreement with its promise to pay for nothing for years to come. The Treasury refuses to spell out what an April budget would look Ā like when we could spend the Brexit bonus on a mixture of public service improvements, investments and tax cuts. This would Ā provide a welcome boost to an economy slowed deliberately by a strong fiscal and monetary squeeze over the last year.
The Business department claims to be worried about the car industry after a WTO Brexit, yet fails to take any action to reverse the obvious damage being done to our car makers whilst we are still in the EU by the squeeze on car loans, the big hike in VED and the attack on diesels. Why wont they announce no tariffs on imported components from any part of the world when we trade under our own tariff schedule after March 29? Why do they not cut the VED, and lift the more extreme threats to diesels?
The Environment department fails to set out what a UK fishing policy will look like once weĀ have Ā taken back control of our fishing grounds, and fails to make fewer food miles and more self sufficiency in food one of its priorities in the legislation for our future.
March 8, 2019
Good morning.
http://daystobrexit.co.uk/
Three weeks and counting. At this point in time I would have thought things would have been all settled, but curiously, they are not. Everything, as the EU likes to do, is being left to the last minute. How many here in their private lives or business conduct themselves in this way ? I mean, who just turns up at an airport and then decides where they will fly to ? Who suddenly in business makes a serious financial decision on a whim ? Not many I am sure. But it seems our government is determine to do just that. It is determined to Leave everything until the last minute. This after nearly 3 years since we had the referendum. Staggering isn’t it ? But no ! This is deliberate. The government does not what to reveal this because it would mean admitting that they NEVER intended to Leave the EU in the first place.
There is no answer to that which our kind host asks. Why ? Because we are not Leaving.
March 8, 2019
I do not mind you holding me up in moderation, but sometimes you really do let the cat out the bag. It is clear you do not want others to read this. Too close to the TRUTH !!! So you will wait until people have moved on before releasing it. Shame.
March 8, 2019
The fishing grounds one is interesting. I haven’t seen or heard an instruction from our government that in the event there is no agreement, EU fishing boats need to be out of our territorial waters by 11.01pm GMT on the 29th of March.
March 8, 2019
Agreed. That would have Brussels giving way on the backstop double-quick. But our lemon of a PM knows nothing of negotiation strategy.
March 8, 2019
JR, what a daft blog when it is clear to you and th Ernest of the country your govt has never wanted to leave so why would promote advantages! May slammed anyone for promoting the govt policy tomleave the EU, anyone making remain comments against govt plan,icy allowed and encouraged to do so. Like Dennis, I think a lot were encourage and promoted by Govt. the same as the recent shinangans about resignations. Let them go, it is not a,case that the are indispensable. Quote the opposite, Rudd, Clarke and Gauke mitigated disasters in their own right. Rudd appalling record as HS now on fron pages every day, Clarke would not say what the Tarim schedule was live on BBC radio two days ago and offering secret million pound bribes to foreign companies we discover, Gauke was going to let out the most serious rapists in history and it took left wing Khan to stop him! He wants to stop short prison sentences and give them mobile phones! All should have been sacked and not allowed to resign! How about Hammond’s record? Appalling. Responsble for failing to clear themdeficit three time pledge as central,economicmplank! Badly effected car manufacturing and credit squeeze, yesterday dismissed knife crime as another issue among many for funds! Tha went down well. Then he calls 17.4 million extremists for voting to leave but publicly stated he wanted Allen back who stated she wanted to destroy the Tory party!
Leave on 29/03/2019 on WTO terms or election. That should Be the two choices.
March 8, 2019
Mark Francois MP on TV claims he was bullied by a Cox aid for asking a difficult question to Cox!
Cox the one who gave adivice th backstop would endure forever, tried to stop the advice being known, failed to give the FULL legal, advice as request by parliament and still has not done so, and part of the govt held in contempt and still wanted all MP to vote for her thoroughly bad servitude plan!
Cox now determined Tommy Robinson face contempt charges again! You could not make it up. I loathe Robinson’s views but we should have free speech.
March 8, 2019
I have listened to various Tommy Robinson interviews (three I think) with James Delingpole (on Breitbart and Delingpod). I do not know what he was did or was like when he was younger, but he does not say anything remotely offensive or unreasonable in these interviews. He seems balanced, bright, perfectly reasonable and yet clearly persecuted by the state sector who are clearly trying to set him up as a fall guy (to show how PC and inclusive they are).
Free speech is clearly almost dead in the UK already.
March 8, 2019
Rudd hoist by her own petard.
Jenni Murray
Martina Navratilova too.
Can’t put a foot right in this loopy PC world. Of which the Met Police is more obsessed with a non-existent white backlash than knife crime.
March 9, 2019
Indeed poor Rudd. You can, it seems, say black or āpeople of colourā but not ācolouredā. But what will the rules be next year? Perhaps we need a list of illegal words published by the government and updates weekly so we can all keep up.
Even the sound Rees-Mogg was saying people who critisise religions should not be in the Conservative Party. What on earth is wrong with critising irrational, often dangerous and usually daft belief systems? I see that you can now lose your job at some North West Ex Poly just for being an sensible atheist and making the odd sensible and true statements. As James Damore discovered at Google saying obviously true but non PC things can easily get you fired with little redress.
March 9, 2019
Soon people will be fired just for pointing out that climate alarmism is, to say the least, somewhat exaggerated.
March 8, 2019
What we HAVE heard from the EU is if Mayās WA passes then negotiations on the trade deal have to be sequenced so fishing access rights are agreed first before any agreement on anything else. No doubt May has readily agreed to this.
March 8, 2019
According to her we will ‘get our fair share’
š
March 8, 2019
But one cannot trust a word she utters. Indeed it is best to assume she is lying given her past performance.
March 8, 2019
We’ll have to wait for the Spanish built Royal Navy war ships to enforce it.
March 8, 2019
@ English Rebel
The territorial waters of EU members are an exlusion zone. Boats registered in other EU countries cannot fish there without a license.
March 9, 2019
Not just territorial waters, a coastal state’s control extends over the EEZ.
March 8, 2019
George Eustice’s article contains many interesting points; and would also be a good reading for soft Brexit/soft Remain MPs with genuine ‘no deal’ worries:
“No Deal is a bit of a misnomer anyway. It doesnāt mean No Deal for evermore. What it really means is No Deal yet. In effect, it would morph into an informal nine month transition period, during which talks could continue and we could conclude a [Trade] deal. … The civil service has done a sterling job preparing for no deal. We are in the process of laying hundreds of Statutory Instruments to make retained EU law operable. There are a few that have been de-prioritised … Within Whitehall, fears that the EU would behave recklessly and irresponsibly in a No Deal scenario have receded in recent weeks. The body language from the EU has been very much signalling a willingness to have an informal understanding over a nine month transition period. For instance, they have already asked us whether we might dynamically align our regulations on food for a period of nine months … the ability of British haulage companies to operate in the EU affecting logistics, but the latest indication is that there is likely to be flexibility with little change to current arrangements for a period of nine months…” https://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2019/03/george-eustice-we-have-bungled-this-negotiation-the-best-means-of-putting-matters-right-is-to-embrace-no-deal-if-we-have-to.html
March 8, 2019
JR’s ‘fishing ground’ claims are a red herring.
March 8, 2019
At least you didn’t mention kippers.
March 8, 2019
“red herring”
Keep politics out of it!
March 8, 2019
And no mention at all about ditching the metric system..surely we first of all should reclaim the Imperial system for weights and measures etc
March 9, 2019
Choice is a wonderful thing. It is informed by your own circumstance.
March 10, 2019
Harvey
“surely we first of all should reclaim the Imperial system for weights and measures etc”
You mean that system that our forefathers brought with them from Germany?
March 8, 2019
Will the government set out all the good news of what we can do once we have left the EU?
No they will not because May, Hammond and most of the Cabinet see it as a damage limitation exercise and do not believe in it. Nor have they bothered to properly prepare for a real Brexit in 21 days – in an appalling act of gross negligence by this government.
There are massive advantages in just leaving – lower shop prices, more freedom, real democracy, more nimble government, the ability to deregulate, to go for cheap on demand energy, simpler employment laws, a bonfire of red tape, have competitive and simpler tax rules, get farming away from the CAP lunacy, abolish VAT, have sensible UK controlled fishing ….. Above all we can then negotiate from a position of stength rather than from within May’s appalling W/A straight jacket.
There are also massive dangers in remaining locked into the anti-democratic disaster that is the EU given its direction of travel also.
March 8, 2019
We read yesterday May going to introduce restrictions on sale of junk food, with no definition of what that is, with price controls, tax and advertisement restrictions! This on top of her sugar tax. Also wants to ban free speech through charade virtual signalling hate crime and ban people she does not like from the internet! She wants to know what you write and look at on your computer under her snooper charter, May has allowed you to be whisked off to back water Eastern European countries without legal address here and wants to place our country and its inhabitants under servitude forever by treaty to the EU!
You are paying the highest tax in fifty years while she lies to say she is a low,tax conservative and gives away billions in overseas aid (Ā£20 billion including EU overseas aid), wants to give control of our security,defence and intelligence to the EU for nothing in return and while it forces themUK out of it Galileo project where one of our companies was instrumental in its technology!
Most would think she needs locking up or investigating for treason. Then she claims her servitude plan is good, falsely claiming it as ‘the deal’ when in fact she has not obtained a trade deal after three years and is still prepared to pay about Ā£100 billion to talk about a trade deal with the EU! She has falsely labelled her servitude plan as the Deal to deceive peopletomgivemaway Ā£39 billion plus a host of add ons forever. This is what she was claiming as nothing agreed until everything agreeed. She knew it was not a trade deal and was lying to convince us otherwise.
May is a control freak with a totally wrong compass. You cannot beleive anything she says, she clearly lies because no one could break their word that amount of times
March 8, 2019
Lifelogic,
it would be wonderful if you ever accepted there might be some disadvantages to Brexit, as well as advantages.
I find these arguments very one-sided. As a remainer, I am willing to accept there are drawbacks to the E.U and that this is a complex argument. It’s pretty obvious there are disadvantages to Brexit too. You do yourself no credit by ignoring them.
March 8, 2019
Well the advantage of a real Brexit is that we restore UK democracy – for all its many faults. If we do not like the government we can remove it. In the EU we can do no such thing, our MPs are just pathetic puppets pretending to be in control. The real control being by EU bureaucrats (with little knowledge or interest in the UK) and who cannot even be removed and are not elected.
In the long run that is surely likely to be rather better for the UK if we have some real democracy.
March 9, 2019
Repeat after me:
THE EU IS NOT A GOVERNMENT BUT A TRADING BLOC.
And we can’t control or remove our own bureaucrats/civil servants who run the show at Westminster. Our own ‘democracy’ is a joke with a 2 party state, an unelected house of lords, head of state, judiciary etc
March 10, 2019
Oh that the EU were just a Common Market.
Flag, Anthem, Parliament, Ambassadors, Presidents, Embassies, Courts, Law making powers over non trade areas?
You are in denial Margaret.
March 9, 2019
Some short term disruption perhaps. The EU could be probably will be difficult. But they can be far more difficult if we are in the club and under their courts – so why on earth stay in an anti-democratic club that behaves like this.
March 8, 2019
The key point about Mrs May’s threat of a possible Extension is, as Christopher Howarth (lawyer & HoC researcher) pointed out in his excellent article: https://brexitcentral.com/deal-no-deal-heres-brexit-cannot-stopped/
“the cause of Remain requires the Prime Minister to actively promote it or at least acquiesce in the face of Remain MPs and Ministers. If the Prime Minister wants to leave, we leave. There is no need for her to champion Remain, accept motions or give parliamentary time to Remainers ā that is a political choice. Itās a choice that will have dramatic political consequences for the Conservative Party if the UK is still in the EU (or has BRINO) after 29th March.”
i.e. one person, Mrs May has the power to nullify the votes of 17.4 million. But Mrs May only has this power while she is P.M.
And to quote Estonian MEP Igor GrƤzin: “The only characters in this tale who seem to know about negotiation are the DUP. Their basic negotiation approach has been that if Mrs May gives them what they want, theyāll let her survive ā a crude but effective tactic.”
In most negotiations: “you are always more powerful than you think you are”.
March 8, 2019
The Treasury’s forecasts have made very clear that Brexit will severely damage our export trade by cutting our guaranteed freed trade with the EU27 and throwing away the trade deals we previously enjoyed with the rest of the world thanks to EU membership. So of course the Treasury has said nothing about spending Ā£12bn a year. That number is another of your fairy stories. The Treasury’s concern is to manage the massive losses caused to our country by Brexit
Reply I have set out my economic forecasts for the next two years if we leave without signing away the money. These show we will be a bit better off as a result, allowing for complex trade and import substitution effects.
March 8, 2019
You don’t have to look too hard to see this is a remainder – got to squeeze in an insult if at all possible. Why can’t any one of them present an argument without a sneer?
And, by the way, why don’t they ever tell us about the great future towards which their EU is heading without us?
March 8, 2019
In the event of a clean Brexit, the total cost of all the tariffs we would face from the EU is Ā£5 billion. We currently pay Ā£10 billion or more into the EU coffers ā so weāre paying Ā£10 billion to save Ā£5 billion.
March 8, 2019
Henry Carter, shortly before the referendum the Treasury said that merely voting to leave the EU would immediately tip us into a deep recession. You may have noticed that nothing like that happened, on the contrary the economy has continued to grow. Yet you are willing to unquestioningly accept, and repeat as certain truth, whatever doom and gloom forecasts that committed europhile Philip Hammond may get his civil servants to produce and then leak to the media, with at least tacit permission from the equally committed europhile Theresa May.
March 8, 2019
The Treasury forecasts – like those made during the referendum – have been reverse engineered to achieve the result they want to show – that brexit is bad news, and if we really can’t remain in the EU let’s have Brino. Patrick Minford has set out clearly why the Treasury’s assumptions are so silly and therefore these forecasts are meaningless.
March 8, 2019
A “bit better off” indeed. Also far better off if we get sensible people into Nos 10 and 11. Then move to a sensible level of taxation, go for simple sensible taxation, have a bonfire of red tape, go for cheap on demand energy, easy hire and fire and cut out the endless waste that is everywhere in government. All this while avoiding both the destruction of the Conservative Party and a Communist Corbyn Government gaining power – a win, win, win. Alas we have May, Hammond, Letwin, Rudd, Grieve …. who are in the way of this.
March 8, 2019
Will Theresa May point out irony that on International Women’s Day large number of female MPs are willing to tell the millions of women who voted Leave:
“Your vote is not important to us – you’re too thick to understand the wonders of the ‘male pale and stale’ EU commission”.
March 8, 2019
Good one, Stephen. I’ve often wondered why no-one points out the lack of so-called ”diversity” among the high profile EUers.
March 8, 2019
I rather doubt it. Ms T May (who enforced gender pay gap reporting) still thinks (contrary to all the very clear evidence) that the gender pay gap is due to “discrimination”. If fact it is due to different work life balance choices people make, the rather different degrees they take, hours they choose to work and the jobs they tend to do. When they are self employed they earn less too. Whose fault is that?
But May obviously thinks there are votes in continuing this lie and grievance. How many millions are wasted now on gender pay gap reporting and related issues thanks to May. Then the government complain about low productivity!
March 8, 2019
Great post!
March 8, 2019
IWD again ?
Like R4 Woman’s Hour it always seems to be on.
March 8, 2019
Woman’s hours is hugely amusing. But they do seem to think they are actually serious! Daft “BBC think” art graduates with a chip on their shoulders talking complete and utter drivel.
Still it is always very (unintentionally) amusing.
March 8, 2019
You spoilt my joke.
March 8, 2019
Because they are determined to keep us shackled to the rotting corpse of the EU.
March 8, 2019
Perhaps.
I think it’s more likely that everybody (including MPs) is doing and saying what they think is best for this country and best represents the referendum result.
I think this story about popular unrest and disobeying the will of the people is a canard. The British people care about unity and getting along with each other and will continue their everyday lives whatever happens in this Brexit madness. Unity trumps Brexit.
March 9, 2019
Merlin
“The British people care about unity and getting along with each other and will continue their everyday lives whatever happens in this Brexit madness. Unity trumps Brexit.”
Merlin, but you fail to realise what exactly British unity is, just like the 650 or so MP’s.
I can tell you; watch what happens at the next general election if they deliver anything other than no deal exit, and you will not see any of the quislings brave enough to face the public.
March 8, 2019
Dr Redwood, you can be quite sure that in the series of Brexit votes coming up Mrs May will be very circumspect about UK’s preparations for an exit on WTO terms, even in the debate on taking No Deal off the table. The reason has been clear for months. Mrs May is intent upon UK remaining in the EU either by Plan A or Plan B. Plan A is her Withdrawal (Vassalage – Accession) Agreement and Plan B is remaining a member, the route to which is via the two votes she intends to follow rejection of her Plan A. While both Plan A and Plan B keep UK in the EU, she could claim to have taken UK out of the EU under plan A, however disingenuously and thereby to have delivered Brexit. But Plan B still enables her to blame others – the useful idiots campaigning and voting for No Deal to be kept off the table – for her perfidy.
March 8, 2019
If there is a ‘free vote’ on the No Deal, then the government will not need to speak or whip. It is after all a matter of conscience as to whether MPs can ignore the wishes of 17.4 million of their countrymen or not.
March 9, 2019
The Remainers are in a huge majority in Parliament. Mrs May knows they will vote for Remain without her needing to whip. She is on their side. The result she wants is not Government policy. It is Remain.
March 8, 2019
The Remain MPs and commentators are brilliant at pushing out an endless set of recycled Project Fear stories, each one more lurid than the last. They want to pose Brexit as a disease to be treated or a ācataclysmā to be managed.
You would have thought that the doom mongers would have learned there lesson with all the negativity that the remoaners were putting out after the 2016 referendum, interest rates to go through the roof, millions unemployed, and a total crash of our economy, the remoaners are going to look idiots after we leave hopefully on March 29th 2019, but you can bet your bottom dollar that after we leave the dreaded Eu any bad news or events will be blamed on Brexit with the help of the mainstream media but I wonāt care because hopefully we will be a independent Great Nation once again
March 8, 2019
Please remember who is in Government. The Tory Party. A left of centre, politically correct, socialist organisation that favours high taxes, foreign aid (Ā£15 billion) over the security of its citizens via the police (Ā£8 billions). All minority issues over an English Parliament and believes strongly in a federalist Europe, the creation of its army and dragging our citizens off to third world EU Countries without scrutiny under May’s European arrest warrant!
These are facts but not often discussed as it wishes to hide its true current values.
March 8, 2019
If Teresa May fails the majority vote of this Country, the Tory Party will be toast, gone for decades and good riddance. The current lot, as a majority, are not fit to call themselves Tories. They disgust me, not a backbone between them. Socialism? That is exactly what we have now, regardless of which Party is in Government. If we don’t get satisfaction, never again will I vote for them.
Sir John Redwood is one of the few decent ones!
March 8, 2019
Indeed that is the situation.
March 8, 2019
You ask difficult questions. Careful you donāt get berated by some wet behind the ears junior adviser looking to lapdog his way up the ladder.
In the case of Michael Gove he has taken the ā30 pieces of silverā to sell out the electorate as a thank you for being brought back into the Cabinet having been a naughty boy.
Overall it would mean they admitting that the position they hold is bollocks as evidenced by the almost tidal wave of good news that continues to come our way.
Grey, visionless, risk averse, reactive not pro active with the lead coming from the Prime Minister. Donkeys leading lions yet again. We deserve so much better.
March 8, 2019
All the signs are that MPs are about to breach the contract reached between parliament and people on Brexit. The legislation in place to leave on 29 March honours that contract. May’s WA and PD dishonours it. Delay or reversal would dishonour it.
If MPs do not support and implement the legislation in place, they must expect a backlash. My own response will be to support the Brexit party. If the current political parties represented by MPs think that would be the end of the matter they should think again. It would mark the start of a long campaign to require parliament to respect the referendum result.
March 8, 2019
āBanks must come clean over funding gender gapā says the Telegraph today.
Women on average study different A level and degree subjects, have different careers, different interests, start different types of businesses ……. why on earth does the Telegraph imagine their businesses should have the same funding levels? They are probably not even asking for it.
More to the point why are banks paying 0.4% on deposits and charging 78% on overdrafts even to sound borrowers as one very large bank is doing. Margins and fees are a total outrage. Where is the competition authority and some real competition in banking. The daft bank regulations on property lending are hugely damaging the economy. As is Hammondās idiotic tax system.
March 8, 2019
You want controls on the banks. Is that because it affects you personally? You always advocate the so called ‘free market’. What’s wrong with it in this instance? We know the ‘free market’ does not actually exist where big firms are concerned, they all go in for ‘price matching’ or similar which means that prices inexorably rise. The only free market is among small firms, such as builders or plumbers giving a price for a job in real competition.
March 8, 2019
Give us a break. We have been told umpteen times about your personal issues with the Banks. I have never yet met a potential borrower who didnāt tell me that this one couldnāt fail.
However more importantly the womenās thing is a massive piece of virtue signalling by the government and more useless monitoring and threats of adverse publicity for the Banks.
It is a big issue, but it is not a supply side problem. I have worked in Finance including capital raising and the unpalatable fact for the politically correct is that the number of women entrepreneurs is small and requests for support even less, indeed I cannot recall one presentation to the Business Angels network I worked with.
Finance providers, obviously in line with their risk appetite, want to to deals because that is how they make money. Gender does not enter the equation. As far as one of the suggestions is concerned payment holiday for child care. So does the business just go into hibernation, run itself etc..
The problem is historic and a social one which Women in Business and other umpteen networking and support groups seek to alleviate. Blaming the Banks again might make people feel good but at best it will only make a difference at the margin.
March 8, 2019
You never compose an article directly attacking Theresa May who is the architect of what we are now seeing. Her plan is the subtle dismantling of popular democracy and the dilution of national sovereignty sacrificed on the altar of European Union expansionism
You attack Remain MPs. Why? They’re mere lackeys doing the bidding of our Remain PM. You’re aiming your gun in the wrong direction
I believe the only real solution to this whole impasse is for the moral voter to stop voting faux Tory and Marxist Labour. We are in desperate need of a party that stands for values that the other two simply no longer do not.
Every main party in the Commons has now heartily embraced liberal left authoritarianism. Imposition, a hatred for freedom of expression, the politicisation of all human issues, identity politics and cultural and social Marxism are now the new politics and we will pay a heavy, heavy price for the rise of this form of state intolerance.
The rejection of the EU ref. result is but a symptom of this hatred that the political class now holds for ‘doing the right and correct thing’.
You can behave like this simply because there’s no one to stop you doing so. The values that once held sway are no longer in force. There’s no shame any more in being seen not to do the right thing
So May will destroy Brexit because she can and therefore she will. The electorate has no say in the matter. We are mere cannon fodder, an inconvenience.
I only hope that come the next GE that the British people crush every single MP up for re-election that stood up against implementing the EU referendum result or else this country will be heading in the wrong direction
March 8, 2019
Is it no wonder that the Govt doesn’t want a sovereign brexi t when it is unable to set out what it would do?
March 8, 2019
After the mess of the last 3 years, it would be best if the government did nothing.
March 8, 2019
Government does not want Leave, so by saying nothing about it they hope it will go away, like a bad smell. Then again, what they are seen to have done might be considered inadaquate. It is particularly important for agriculture to be given direction as it is always a lkng term process.
March 8, 2019
@ agricola,
You tempt me to say :no sane government would want to Leave” but I am sure you believe there are UK politcians to be found who would like to do this pretending they are a responsible government.
March 8, 2019
Will someone please rid us of the economic illiterate, tax to death, remainer and grim reaper Philip Hammond. He is huge liability to the economy, Brexit and the Tory Party.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/03/07/philip-hammonds-plan-thwart-true-brexit-reach-fruition/
March 8, 2019
Very true but he is the de facto Prime Minister.
March 8, 2019
The government consists of some of the most egregious of the remain MPs, so no, no good news will be forthcoming from them, they are a disgrace to the nation.
March 8, 2019
The answer to all these questions is the complete absence of strong, inspired leadership. Mrs May is utterly inadequate and is focused entirely on begging the EU to offer some form of words under which MPs might reluctantly vote through her Dreadful agreement. As predicted by numerous people ever since the referendum, begging is no way to negotiate.
If her deal fails and we end up back to square one in an extension, as we must now Expect, I suggest a new attempt to get rid of Mrs May, on the grounds of the failure of her main (& only?) policy, notwithstanding the Conservative Party rules.
March 8, 2019
Agreed there are a lot doom mongers, who give the impression they would be frightened of their own shadows, or maybe it is the fear of losing the EU and other foreign ‘bribes’?
But their numbers dwarf when compared to those who voted to leave and those who have been disgusted and appalled by the fiasco that has been played out in the public arena for the last 3 years.
And they call the electorate stupid!
March 8, 2019
Michael Gove cannot make that statement because he knows by signing the Withdrawal Agreement which he wants to do, control of our fishing grounds is lost.
The Attorney General can vote for the Withdrawal Agreement, but he is not going to perjure himself. His opinion to the PM is in writing and he cannot change it, no warm words will reopen the WA. Any new opinion will be challenged in law.
“Therefore, despite statements in theĀ Protocol that it is not intended to be permanent, and the clear intention of the parties that itĀ should be replaced byĀ alternative,Ā permanent arrangements, inĀ international law theĀ ProtocolĀ would endure indefinitely until a superseding agreement took its place, in whole or in part, asĀ set out therein.”Ā
March 8, 2019
But the WA is not subject to international law, it is an association agreement with the EU overseen by the ECJ. There is no exit clause and it ties us to permanent colonial status.
There is no excuse for such a one sided document in the 21st century and any MP voting for it should be prosecuted immediately for treason.
March 9, 2019
Ian Wragg
“….any MP voting for it should be prosecuted immediately for treason.”
Unfortunately Blair repealed the treason laws. But then those who advocate capitulation would overnight become targets of serious public anger, and probably, eventually, have to get out of the country.
We might not get our sovereignty back this time around, but it will happen, and a serious reckoning is on the way to ensure it does.
Parliament, local government and the rest of the establishment needs a thorough deep clean to totally rout leftism and political correctness.
March 8, 2019
The Irish government would seek to exercise its power of veto over new EU treaties to make sure that any such superseding agreement would have the same legal effect of keeping the UK under the economic thumb of the EU. I don’t know how many times I will have to keep repeating this obvious point before it begins to sink in.
March 9, 2019
The obvious point is that thee Republic of Ireland still covets our territory in the north. The European Commission wants a hard border at all of its land frontiers and sees backing the Republic’s claim as the easiest way to achieve this.
I favour no hard border because there are practical reasons for wanting the border economy to work well. However, one thing that we should take no notice of is the Good Friday Agreement. It never did have any advantage for Unionists, being something that the Nationalists were rewarded with for bombing their way to the conference table. It’s half dead anyway because Sinn Fein have boycotted Stormont for nigh on two years. Just kill it.
March 9, 2019
Shieldman
“…….by signing the Withdrawal Agreement which he wants to do, control of our fishing grounds is lost.”
The acid test for many, and the end game for the conservatives. Not just for a decade or so, but terminal – kaput – dead as a dodo. They will no longer exist.
March 8, 2019
The approaches adopted by the Treasury and the Business Department would be explicable if they were led by quislings.
The Environment Department doubtless has the Political Declaration in mind that surrenders our fishing industry so there will be no resumption of control.
This is not a Government backing Britain or the British people (hence no extra funding to combat knife crime, but plenty for bribing Labour M.P.s to vote for BRINO and to extricate Mr. Grayling). We should not assume it will do all the good things post-Brexit that will be open to it to perform.
March 8, 2019
The government is still controlled by the Remain rebels, aided and abetted by the civil service with a propaganda machine that is the BBC
This regime has all the tools to suppress good news stories about a clean Brexit and to promote wild scare stories.
March 8, 2019
Interesting article by Fraser Nelson in today’s DT detailing Hammond’s malignant role in de-railing Brexit and helping to destroy our nation’s democracy
You must take great pride in belonging to the same party as people like this John?
May and Hammond…………………………. An even bigger threat that Corbyn and the two Macs.
It is very simple. By not bringing this government down you are facilitating the circumvention of Brexit and aiding and abetting the Remain plan of keeping us in the EU
Brexit Tory MPs are equally as culpable
March 8, 2019
Dominic, let’s pray they all get their comeuppance at the next election. I know I’m not voting for Conservatives again having been a Conservative voter all my life. I would never vote Labour or Libdim so that leaves only one alternative. Please Farage, be there when we need you. I just can’t see an alternative.
March 8, 2019
If Brino becomes reality I hope the genuine Leave Conservative MPs force a General Election and stand as independents or for Brexit Party. Without being melodramatic this issue is as significant as it gets in our parliamentary history.
Heath lost an election on “who runs the country”, we will soon know if it is vested interests and its associates who are in charge.
March 8, 2019
They tried that Dominic but were out-voted. I think.
March 8, 2019
Agreed. They must be removed whatever it takes. It is Parliament v people (17.4 million of us).
March 9, 2019
Timeaction
Actually more than 17.4 million………..65 % of the country on constitutional terms.
March 8, 2019
Will the government set out all the good news of what we can do once we have left the EU?
The question is why have they not been doing this from the start?
The answer is obvious they do not value our votes or care what we think.
March 8, 2019
Or – there is no good news.
March 8, 2019
Oh. I think it’s good news that it’s finally been proven that there is no point in voting.
March 8, 2019
Yawn!
March 8, 2019
No point in voting or thinking any differently to Andy !
March 8, 2019
The answer to your question is “No” because the government doesn’t want nor intend us to leave the EU in the way you and I would like.
Hammond gave the game away this week when, during an interview, he talked of the Brexit wing of the party as though that wasn’t government policy – which I suppose is actually the case.
The strength of outrage and betrayal amongst people I know who normally take less interest in political issues than I do is very strong and increasing. Trust in politicians is at an all time low and our democracy is seriously threatened by those meant to uphold and defend it. Parliament is treating the people with absolute contempt.
March 8, 2019
They donāt do this because it blows the Remainer argument out of the water. This is a Remainer Government and that has to change. No āchurchā is so broad that it can include heretics.
March 8, 2019
“No āchurchā is so broad that it can include heretics.”
This should be true, I wish it were.
March 8, 2019
I’m not sure that it’s the Remain who are brilliant. Perhaps more likely the inherent liberal bias of the luvvie “our culture grows on trees, notihng to do with the capitalist paradise created by aspirational types who don’t feel a sense of entitlement or obsess hourly about identity politics” Media types (Marr’s interviews with Dyson and Wolfson were particularly funny in exposing his complete ignorance about anything to do with economics and business), coupled with inherent confirmation bias. They also repeatedly characterise anyone who simply wants self-government as being “Far Right” – which should be actionable (in a world where people with nothing better to do endelssly take offence on behalf of others, to whom it’s all just water off a duck’s back) as a hate crime!
March 8, 2019
All these questions have the same answer – Theresa May.
She is in charge, she could have told the Chancellor to stop producing and publishing, or leaking, unsubstantiated economic scare stories, she could have told all ministers that they must set up rapid rebuttal units to instantly counter the stream of nonsense fed to the media by other sources, she could have insisted that the British people deserved to be given an honest account of the pros and cons and told what the government was planning to do to mitigate the cons, she could have protested against the irrationality of the EU laws which were impeding sensible negotiations and preventing a smooth and safe exit from the EU; and yet she has done nothing along any of those lines, in fact from the very start she has done the exact opposite in all respects under the false guise of not wanting to give a running commentary which could assist the other side in the negotiations … and it is the fact that the Tory party could produce nobody better than this liar, cheat, hypocrite and traitor to succeed the equally vile David Cameron after he broke his promise and ran off which suggests to me that the core of our future problems with or without the rubbish withdrawal agreement that she has negotiated will be political rather than legal.
March 8, 2019
having struggled for a week to get an appointment for a 4 year old to see a doc, finally been given a slot with a nurse, really my contempt for the crap that is the NHS knows no bounds
please dont throw more money at this crock of do do, and a supposed Brexit benefit
please sort out patient empowerment, hand us real buying power
March 8, 2019
Cox says āthe permanent backstop breaches the Human Rights of the people of Ulster because they could not choose their politicians because they would have yo follow E.U. Rulesā.
So the whole WA breaches the human Rights of the British people for the same reason!
March 8, 2019
Three weeks before being being able to see a doctor is not uncommon nowadays. Like the Post Office, the Courts and other so-called government services they just get manifestly worse, and the taxpayers continue to get a very raw deal. This is not to blame the people operating the system, who by and large do their best. The fault lies rather more with the system they are trying to operate which is insufficiently responsive to consumers. Some radical changes need to be made to empower the consumer. In the case of the NHS a start could be made immediately by the government legislating for a free market in healthcare (āA free market will exist in healthcare servicesā) and making available to taxpayers via vouchers the amount currently being spent for them to spend individually on healthcare services.
March 8, 2019
I have private healthcare. You can get it too if you like.
March 8, 2019
Doubtless using NHS doctors.
Trust Me. I’m A Junior Doctor.
An excellent book which outlines how your private consultant might be an NHS employee using NHS staff to do admin and run-around work for them.
No wonder you’re a Remainer.
March 8, 2019
In most of the country there are no private GP’s.
Most medical insurance demands a GP (NHS) to say you need to see a consultant before they will allow consultant appointment.
More importantly we are being taxed way more than enough to fund decent health care, but the state fails to deliver.
March 8, 2019
Rang for annual blood test today and was given the first available…..4th April!!ffs. How’s that mass migration helping the world health service!!
March 8, 2019
No the government will not set out any good news about Brexit. Most MPs and ministers are
extremely pro EU and are prepared to dump any electoral promise and believe any lie that furthers the Brussels cause. The civil service is more pro Brussels than Brussels and their bias is so pronounced they would sooner harm the UK’s interests than accept the situation. We face a fifth column of anti British backstabbers that simply will not even attempt to make the best of Brexit.
March 8, 2019
Did you know that “BRINO BS” is an anagram of “ROBBINS”?
March 8, 2019
š Countdown is always on the lookout for new contestants.
March 8, 2019
We have a misguided Government. They cannot do as you suggest because the draft WA will only deliver BRINO.
As long as EWA is unaltered all will be well.
March 8, 2019
Yes, disappointing to hear quite so much Luddite commentary from MPs. Unfortunately the reason they mistakenly think Brexit is a calamity appears to be due to a fundamental ignorance of basic economic principles. They seem to believe that there is just a fixed amount of work to be done in the world, and when itās finished there wonāt be any left, so we had better āprotectā it and make it last. The electorate will redress the situation at the next election.
March 8, 2019
Mrs May will apparently today tell the EU it has a choice. It doesnāt.
The Brexit choice is, and always has been, entirely with the Conservative party and their DUP dinsoaur chums.
How much poorer (and not just economically) are you prepared to make your constituents? That is all you have to answer.
We know there is no Brexit scenario which make your constituents richer and improves their lives. So what price is your Brexit worth?
When we know this we can start working out how many of todayās Tory MPs ultimately end up in prison.
March 8, 2019
“We know there is no Brexit scenario which make your constituents richer and improves their lives. So what price is your Brexit worth?”
Richer and improves their lives
As Woking is concreted over. Whilst in the EU.
March 8, 2019
Yes because clearly it is a Brussels conspiracy to concrete Woking over – and it is precisely nothing at all to do with Woking Borough Council which makes the actual planning decisions for Woking.
Those nice elderly people with blue rosettes who knock on your door once every four years are not to blame for the decisions they make which affects the town they represent but Jean-Claude Juncker – who has probably never even heard of Woking – is. Who knew?
Reply Woking is a successful Surrey town. It is not my constituency in case that is why you chose it!
March 8, 2019
Reply to reply:
No. It was ‘Anonymous’ before who accused the EU of concreting over Wokingham. Another misguided Brexiteer.
March 8, 2019
So who are your MEPs , what EU party are they in, who is their president and what is their manifesto ?
The question is rhetorical. I already know that you don’t know the answer.
And it doesn’t matter anyway. It’s the EU Commission that has all the power.
March 9, 2019
There are 10 MEPs for the South-East of England including 3 UKIPs (N.Farage, D.James, R.Finch), 3 Conservative (D.Hannan, N.Deva, R. Ashworth), one Labour (J.Howarth), two LibDems (C.Bearder, J.Atkinson), one Green (K.Taylor).
I knew about Farage, James, Hannan and Taylor, I confess without shame I had to look for the others.
March 8, 2019
Weād all be richer if we banned General Elections to stop Labour ever forming a government. Letās do that too eh Andy ?
March 8, 2019
I donāt know why we still have general elections. I liked the result of the one in 1997. We should have stopped after that – because the people spoke.
I quite liked what the people said in 2010 too. But the verdict of the people was not respected and we were made to vote again. What part of democracy did they not understand?
Oh, no, wait. General elections are the type of democracy where we get to change our minds. I was confusing it with referenda where apparently your opinion is set in stone forever. Silly me.
March 8, 2019
Referenda are about single issues.
We waited 40 years for the 2016 one.
You can wait 40 years for the next one.
March 8, 2019
Andy, with a general election we get the PM the majority voted for and we get them for 5 years. We haven’t even got Brexit yet and that is what the people voted for. Give it a chance – you might be pleasantly surprised and if you’re not then you can move to one of your favourite EU countries with our blessings.
March 9, 2019
The ‘PM the majority voted for’?
“The Prime Minister directs both the executive and the legislature, and together with their Cabinet (consisting of all the most senior ministers, most of whom are government department heads) are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Monarch, to Parliament, to their political party and ultimately to the electorate”
You notice that we, the electorate, come last.
March 8, 2019
The 1975 referendum suited you in its permanence.
Funny that.
March 8, 2019
You seem obsessed with the EU. I’m surprised you haven’t moved to an EU 27 country.
March 8, 2019
How about prison for you and some of the propagators of continuity remain lies if it all works out fine?
March 8, 2019
Try reading the new report from The Centre for Policy Studies which provides a 12 point plan for a ‘no deal’ exit.
But then with your tunnel vision you most certainly would not understand it!
March 8, 2019
The reason why the UK voted to leave the EU was because a majority wanted to retain some influence on their laws and taxes through the ballot box by keeping the ability to be able to elect and remove those who make these decisions.
This was their decision despite being told they would become poorer by the PM, the Chancellor, the Governor of the BoE, the CBI, the BBC, the IMF, the OECD, the POTUS, the banks, the corporates, the wealthy elites, the hedge fund managers and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The electorate were told in no uncertain terms that they would be poorer if they voted to leave.
We are now being told that planes will not fly, that there will be a shortage of food and medicines etc. .
Which sounds more like a situation where economic blockade and trade sanctions will be applied than simply a worse economic outcome from a potential loss of GDP.
March 8, 2019
The government has got to decide how big a budget deficit it wants to run. Cutting taxes and increasing Treasury spending means bigger annual deficits for years. Conservative ideologues want balanced budgets, if not a surplus.
Have a look at this png photo: https://www.ons.gov.uk/chartimage?uri=/economy/nationalaccounts/uksectoraccounts/bulletins/quarterlysectoraccounts/julytoseptember2018/7893bcca
The light blue bits are households running income deficits, for the last nine quarters; to replace the shrinking government deficit the red bits. There is little credit being issued, the orange bits, from the financial sector.
Every sector in running deficits to pay for the imports; the rest of the world’s surplus, the yellow bits. That is we are exporting loads of Pounds Sterling to foreigners, who have to find something to do with it, like buying another block of London flats.
March 8, 2019
Is there any reason why you arenāt propagating your views on Brexit more widely to the general public? I donāt know how many people are aware of your ‘diary’. Perhaps BBC’s Question Time would be a good forum.
Reply Happy to do that but they have not invited me. I did Talk Radio this morning again
March 8, 2019
The BBC, when they had a monopoly, kept Churchill off the airwaves for 28 consecutive months before WW2. He had to broadcast from a boat in the Channel! Leopards donāt change their spots.
March 8, 2019
The same BBC that told the Argies that the Paras were advancing on Goose Green and that they needed to ……… I am disappointed that this government hasn’t sorted out both the BBC and Channel 4.
March 8, 2019
I mentioned The Conservative Woman publication online, in answer to Anne, it also has a section of articles under the title ‘BBC Watch’ which I enjoy reading.
March 8, 2019
We need a Government that will! Scrap the license fee … and a lot more too, regaining sovereign power is only useful if it is deployed in the interests of the Sovereigns (ie the electorate of the U.K.)
March 8, 2019
Let’s face it. They hate anyone being interviewed that might send a positive message out to the public. They are only interested in the doom and gloom scenario. People like you John, are a nuisance.
March 8, 2019
The BBC go to some lengths to avoid giving a platform to the most articulate advocates of clean brexit, they find them very difficult to deal with.
March 8, 2019
Richard
Maybe that’s because they don’t exist.
March 8, 2019
Margaret so you’re conversing with someone who doesn’t exist? I would call that slightly mad.
March 8, 2019
Yet they’ll put up all sorts of loons of low quality for Remain.
March 8, 2019
I agree far more need to read Sir John’s diary, however The Conservative Woman does reprint some of his articles from here. If you haven’t read TCW before, it is excellent and sends around 6 articles daily to subscribers inboxes around about 8 a.m., which have very interesting comments too or you can get them earlier by logging in. The owners point out that the title refers to the philosophies not the party and the comments show it is read by both sexes. The cover for Brexit has been more informative than any msm and their cover of May can sometimes be brutal, they certainly have access to some very unflattering photos! If you go on there, there is a section just for Brexit articles called Brexit Watch.
March 8, 2019
Steady on there John, we have not left yet. Government will have to take it one step at a time and am sure that in another couple of weeks all will be revealed. Also since 29th will fall on a Friday, it’ll probably be Monday 1st April when business resumes before the full story will start to emerge, after that we’ll have plenty of time to reflect- so not too long to go!
March 8, 2019
The Remain MPs and commentators are brilliant at pushing out an endless set of recycled Project Fear stories… It is called Propaganda. Something that socialists excel at.
They have a very good reason for ignoring the benefits of a clean Brexit, as they are doing all they can to ensure that we stay trapped inside the EU cattle-pen. That the government is working against our best interests is totally clear.
I asked my MP to spell out the specific details that ‘business’ is telling him will make for a disaster with a WTO exit – The remain side are high on headlines, but lack any concept or understanding of what they mean…and indeed, not knowing the detail have no mitigation.
March 8, 2019
What is the case for staying in the EU? Would a remainer please tell me?
March 8, 2019
The status quo.
(???)
March 8, 2019
Participation in the most developed free trading area the world has ever seen, plus access to trade deals with 3rd countries brokered by the massively powerful EU. And special opt outs on migration, eurozone etc
March 8, 2019
Sir John, the reason is obvious as Andy and his cohort keep telling us, we are not leaving. If you examine the tinfoil hat conspiracy of Mrs Merkel issuing the deal to Mrs May a few days before Chequers and being given a document wholly favouring the EU and then consider her subsequent behaviour you can only come to the conclusion that the plan is to stay in. One question must be āHow did our sieve like government keep the planning under wraps for 18 months behind the back of DDā?
If I were part of the ERG or close to JRM I would want every member and every Leave MP to fight in the media. I donāt mean mention your grandfather either. I would ask that every 4 against 1 āvictimā on BBC political features (especially the live ones) to make a statement along the lines of āIt appears to be government and BBC/SKY policy that any good news relating to Brexit is suppressedā. If this was said on every episode of QT/Politics Live eventually even the āboredā UK public may ask about it.
I would also like to ask if it is OK for Remain MPs to wander around Europe discussing Brexit with other countries, why donāt Leave MPs do the same? Personally I would already have visited Budapest (a city I love) many times to have a chat with their government on a future relationship and how we would be extremely happy if our future close friends were to veto any situation detrimental to our cause.
March 8, 2019
The Remain ministers and leading civil servants will not do any of these things because, from the time of their defeat at the referendum, they have been planning to keep us in the EU by a capitulation agreement or, if this can be made bad enough, by a rigged second referendum. This is how the Commission and its servants in the UK operate. This is also why, despite Leave and UKIP stating that we will guarantee that people from the EU who work here already can stay and that vital workers in research, industry and agriculture will also be welcomed, May started to use them as ‘bargaining chips’ and government refuses to tell research labs, industry and farmers what exactly they will have to do in order to continue employing them. It’s why the necessary equipment for customs was delayed and why Project Fear continues in ever more ridiculous pitch.
Now we learn that it was settled behind the scenes between the vicar’s daughters and that the money will be paid over anyway. Meanwhile, we see an MP, with the Legion d’ Honeur medal, meeting with French ministers to discuss our fate.
March 8, 2019
More good news!
SPAIN is in line to win a Ā£1billion contract to build three new Royal Navy ships despite rising tensions over Gibraltar.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1097007/spain-british-warships-contract-plymouth-portsmouth-gibraltar
March 8, 2019
And May’s capitulation over 5 Eyes.
Brexit certainly did not mean military surrender.
March 8, 2019
They wonāt be RN ships, they will be RFA. It would still be better to have them built in the UK but I suspect that this is an attempt to undermine Spanish resolve.
March 8, 2019
Weāre not going to leave at this rate. The EU will go for no deal above the sorts of changes to the withdrawal agreement weād like. But the Commons wonāt allow it. The government has shown it is prepared to acquiesce in this.
How can backbench brexiteers get us to know deal in the face of those obstacles? Zeal wonāt cut it. What actually is the plan?
March 8, 2019
They have no plan. The ERG should be holding this government to ransom by threatening to bring it down but they’re spineless and so it appears it’s absolutely acceptable for May and her lackeys to dilute democracy and weaken our nation but John and his ERG colleagues appear to think it’s wrong down a government intent on destroying the very thing many of them have worked so hard to achieve. Go figure that one out because I can’t
In the final analysis the ERG will always support their Remain government over the interests of the UK and its independence. They are in effect colluding by their inaction
John and his ERG faction should have the courage to stand up and say ‘we have lost the battle and we handover the keys to our nation to Angela Merkel and the EU interest’
I am tired of John’s and his colleagues verbosity. May can see it’s all hot air. No wonder she looks perky as she knows the ERG have zero intention of bringing down her grubby coalition
ERG MPs argue they were elected as Tory MPs on a Tory manifesto. Yes, well so were May and Hammond and they’ve not qualms about betraying the contents of that manifesto and its promise to deliver Brexit
Hammond and May ARE NOT TORY MPS. They are EU insiders.
It is time for the ERG to stand up, stop talking crap and take proper action
March 8, 2019
Yesterday I came across the articles by the Bruges group.
These articles were only up for a few hours, luckily someone had the foresight to screen shot before removal.
*
These articles stated how-when-where our PM colluded with the EU to have the softest Brexit possible, and and how the inner circle is planning our return to the fold at the earliest opportunity.
*
Democracy has died.
Tooley Stu.
Reply If true – we await re publication with evidence
March 8, 2019
Sir JR,
Thanks for the quick reply.
This info is a bombshell, and if can be substantiated would form a major body blow for those that are intent on forcing their will against the result of 2016.
I wish you well with your investigations.
Tooley Stu.
March 8, 2019
John, you are not seriously saying that May, Hammond Robbins etc have been negotiating for Britain.
There is not one line in the WA or PD which favours Britain.
March 8, 2019
This James Delingpole article about this is interesting and has several links, it seems some say the WA reads as if translated from German:
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/03/06/claim-mays-secret-brexit-betrayal-pact-with-merkel/
March 8, 2019
NO – Project Fear says NO
March 8, 2019
Misguided Remainers act like the Wizard of Oz, weakened by revelation of truth.
Attempted scare claims echo their worthless cry of:
“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”
The curtain fell when the UK voted Leave!
March 8, 2019
Sir JR,
Maybe it is because they do not share your positive view of a WTO solution only for the UK as most business groups do not either.
When it comes to the potential savings of not paying part of the Ā£ 39 billion, they probably look more seriously at our international obligations and responsibilities with regard to the Eu long term budget that runs for 7 years at the time than you do?
March 8, 2019
When you say āmost business groupsā do you mean large quoted businesses who constantly lobby the EU to make rules which favour them or do you mean the 90% 0f businesses which do not trade withe EU?
March 8, 2019
A Remain-dominant House of Lords committee concluded there was no legal obligation to pay the Ā£39 billion- still I expect you know best.
March 8, 2019
If you know of legal obligations to carry on paying for items in a future long term budget after we leave, having given over 2 years notice, then let us know hans.
Otherwise once we leave, our obligations to carry on funding the EU cease.
Even the House of Lords report said there was no legal obligation and they are a bunch of remainers.
If we follow your logic then the UK is owed huge repayments for our share of assets bought by the UKs payments over the last 40 years.
March 8, 2019
The international obligations consequent on leaving are disputed. The proper place to test them is in the courts. Iād prefer the English courts because the ECJ is politically tainted, but in any case it is quite improper simply to assume they exist.
If the EU wants the money, let it prove its entitlement. If HMG doesnāt want to pay, let it prove it doesnāt have to.
March 8, 2019
The Commission decides what is spent, where, and how much, not the Council. The Commission is not allowed to spend money it hasn’t got, so it won’t be out of pocket when we leave as we gave notice we would.
March 8, 2019
The House of Lords, not exactly a hotbed of Brexiteers, obtained high-level legal advice on Brexit and that advice was very clear :
After we leave on 29th March we will owe the EU precisely NOTHING !
The Treaties do not require us to pay anything whatsoever.
March 8, 2019
It started off with “Brexit means Brexit”, now it’s threats that she will arrange for Wrexit – Brexit stopped altogether – unless MPs agree to the rubbish ‘deal’ that she negotiated once she had decided to use the largely fabricated problem of the Irish land border as a pretext for giving the CBI what they want for the convenience of about 6% of UK businesses exporting about 12% of GDP to the EU. Whether or not MPs give in to her threats she has shown us what she and her party are really like.
March 8, 2019
“The Business department claims to be worried about the car industry after a WTO Brexit.”
Umm, the car industry is worried about the car industry after a WTO Brexit. But hey, why let reality get in the way of third rate Brexiter propaganda.
I’m sure that the citizens of Britain will throng the streets on 30 March cheering for the oligarchs’ revolution. They would be cheering the oligarchs themselves, but most of those live abroad.
March 8, 2019
Probably not John as they know we are not leaving in the true sense of the word.
March 8, 2019
Hehe! Trouble is it wonāt be Good News Day for Remain MPs.
Theyāll all collapse like puppets with the strings cut!
The teat of Brussels ripped from their mouths.
But we will be free!! And they will just have to learn to govern or stand aside for those who can.
March 8, 2019
What does ā awaiting moderationā meanā? ( forever)
Comment rejected?
March 8, 2019
Dear Mr. Redwood,
I think you already know the answers to your own questions.
The government will not set out all the good news of what we can do once we have left the EU because it does not want to leave the EU. It is paralysed and does not know what to do. There is no leadership.
“This is a once in a generation decision and we will implement what you decide.” Is this Conservative Government about to break its pact with the people?
I say to voters ‘return to your constituencies and prepare to vote for someone else!’
March 8, 2019
Mr Redwood,
It remains to be seen what a zero tariff on car parts would do. I doubt anything short of remainin in te single market etc will save the almost completely foreign-owned UK car industry. The carmaker sell to little of their output in the UK to be viable behind Uk toll barriers (finished product). Trade agreements with eg the US, Canada and Japan will tale away the EU tariffs that protected this industry so far.
Boosting car sales in the UK will benefit dealers and foreign car makers more than UK manufacturing. So I think your citicism of Treasury policy wrt to cars is unjustified. Iagree with your opposition to diesel bans, but only for new, clean diesels. The problem with diesles is twofold: (1) particle emissions of older cars without soot filters and proper NOx treatment and (2) dealing with the effects of car makers cheating about NOx emissions combined with fuel economy. The latter is a matter of either/or: an efficient diesel requires expensive NOx treatment to be compliant with US and EU air pollution rules (rules the UK would surely maintain after Liberation.
Then there is a novelty in your writing about the consequences of No-deal (or leaving without signing a WA and adhering to its terms): you not mention an annual net saving of 12 bn. But that would be a windfall, lasting only a few more years and a very small amount compared to the 700 bn (appr, depending on definition) got expenditure. Plus you have no idea (because no one can know) of what such a hostile departure would do to UK gvt finances. You do not believe that the EU will devote any resources to further negotiations (air, nuclear, FTA, etc) with such an unreliable partner. If this would happen the EU would be blamed in the Uk no doubt but that does not do any harm. Burning your bridges with the EU would be pretty reckless, imo. It is a technocratic institution, very rules-bound. But it does have an institutional memory and the undiplomatic noises coming out of the UK’s top diplomat will not inspire anyone in Brussels or the EU capitals to break those rules and be kind to poor old Britain.
March 9, 2019
This long post can be shortened to:- Dare to leave the EU and we will do our very best to make life very difficult for you..
Well two can play at that game.
March 8, 2019
I conclude that the government wants a poor outcome (but not complete failure). Also there are reports that contracts for RN ships may go abroad possibly to Spain.
Politics is upside down in our country, most of the political class and the establishment are not on our side. I hate to disagree with JRM but a purge is just what is needed.
March 8, 2019
Defra should be trumpeting that we will at last be able to outlaw the live export of animals. Surely this is something on which the whole country can agree, even La Lucas.
March 8, 2019
I was reminded of this while listening to the BBC Today’s spoof on US farming this morning.
Nobody’s perfect. Perhaps our friends at the American Embassy might like to hear a balancing spoof on the shortcomings of EU fishing and farming, even if they don’t want to come back on the programme.
Besides the cruel live export of animals, there is the EU licenced electro blasting into barrenness of the North Sea, and the throwing back of dead fish into the sea generally. There have been the infected pork and contaminated eggs; the chlorinated salad leaves and fruit and veg; the olive oil grown on toxic waste dumps and corruptly signed off as organic; and the horses and donkeys passed off as beef.
On all these things, particularly on animal welfare, we can do better.
March 8, 2019
rose
“On all these things, particularly on animal welfare, we can do better.”
Of course we can. Didn’t we do well during the Mad Cow disease crisis which saw our beef condemned across the globe?
And the ‘salmonella in eggs’ scandal which cost Edwina Currie her job for exposing it? Is that how we reward people for being honest?
March 8, 2019
Whilst abiding by EU regulations and directives on animal treatment and food safety.
March 8, 2019
I didn’t mention the undisclosed Foot and Mouth, and in its day, BSE, on the Continent.
March 8, 2019
Yes, Margaret. Sacrificially so ! As always.
March 9, 2019
The sacrifice of Edwina Curry was made at the insistence of Ken Clark. I didn’t agree with it and wrote to my MP to protest.
March 8, 2019
Slightly off topic, but not far. Apropos the car makers, I see in my paper today a picture of a French motorway with miles of trucks backed up due to a Customs Officers Strike or whatever excuse it is this month.
Until the last week we have been told that even a few minutes delay in ‘Just In Time’ movements would be a disaster and result in factory lay offs etc. Has anyone seen any complaints from the manufacturers, and where is the news of shut downs?
Naturally, my paper having recently been converted from Brexit supporting to EU supporting, says this is a warning of what will happen if we get Brexit. Oh the irony!.
March 8, 2019
Off topic
A program tonight “Can we defend ourselves”. Given that
1) – dinghies turn up undetected after crossing what is described as one of the most dangerous shipping channels in the world
2) – People can jump out of lorries onto motorways
3) – the country lets back in over 350 terror supporters/fighters before making a fuss about the Celebrity one
4) – all these people in 1, 2 and 3 committing criminal acts are “punished” by being given free lives on the UK taxpayer’s work. . .
I’d say the answer to the program’s title is a resounding No – as it seems that not only does our govt have absolutely NO intention of defending us, it seems they actively support the EU in wanting us destroyed as a nation.
March 8, 2019
They also don’t want to deal with knife crime.
It is not allowed to be discussed fully.
So it can’t be dealt with. It will just grow and grow as a problem.
March 8, 2019
The government wants to shatter our nation state with mass immigration, as a person posted in the Telegraph this morning in some stunning comments about the country’s (and Europe’s) true situation. See Chopper’s Brexit Forecast: Jacob Rees-Mogg etc.
March 8, 2019
Dear Mr. Redwood,
In my post yesterday which you have not yet moderated I offered the following:
One does not need the predictive powers of Nostradamus to foresee that (a) The PMās deal will be rejected, (b) No-Deal will be rejected and, (c) MPās will demand an extension to Article 50.
Though I do not claim any special powers of prediction, I would like to provide a further glimpse into the future!
Negotiations are at an end. MP’s will now complete the humiliation of our country and beg the EU for an extension. The EU will only offer a lengthy extension so that we remain in for a number of years in the hope that the referendum result can be buried. What other conditions they attach is far from clear but the temptations for them will be immense and I doubt they will be able to resist.
The UK will have to take part in the EU elections and although the EU has said it does not relish the prospect of several Nigel Farage doppelgangers being returned, I would think that the chance to humiliate the real one in front of the European Parliament is an attractive one for Mr. Verhofstadt.
It seems our MP’s really are going to heap more helpings of shame, indignity and embarrassment on our Nation.
March 8, 2019
I think you put it all very well.
March 8, 2019
The few remaining Leave papers exhort that May is supported.
I humbly predict that her deal (with a few tweaks) will be accepted… and a second referendum in the offing.
March 8, 2019
Dear Sir John Redwood,
Theresa May’s Conservative government could, in theory, do a lot of good once we have properly left the European Union. But there are two major issues:
1) The government is riven with incompetence- Chris Grayling at transport being a prime example: There was the NHS crisis last winter, the rail fiasco last summer and now rising knife crime with the seeming inability of the Government to deal with it.
2) Thanks to the efforts of Remainers- who dominate both the House of Lords and the House of Commons- Theresa May has already been pushed into allowing Yvette Cooper’s plan for Parliament to vote to remove the option of “No Deal” and to extend the Article 50 deadline. Meanwhile the House of Lords has inflicted a defeat on the government- to ensure Britain remains in a Customs Union after we officially leave the EU; unless a majority of MPs vote this down (unlikely) this is set to become law- a Brexit In Name Only worse than even Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement!
There really is only one way that Conservative MPs like your good self can rescue this situation. That is to ensure that Theresa May is toppled, Parliament is Prorogued (ending the shenanigans of the Remainers) and a General Election called. A proper Brexit supporter needs to lead the Conservatives into that election on a strongly pro- growth, law- and- order and WTO “No Deal” Brexit platform- with popular policies like the following:
1) Income tax cuts
2) Doubling police budgets and building more prisons.
3) More doctors and nurses in the NHS.
4) Building millions more houses for first- time buyers and investment in infrastructure
5) A big increase in the minimum wage (and big cuts to business rates and corporation tax to help companies pay for it)
6)All this should be paid for by ending EU contributions, slashing Foreign Aid, cutting Quango sizes by half (the TPA recently estimated Ā£90 billion per annum is spent on Quangoes!) and- as we can do this borrowing a bit more from the domestic market.
A Referendum on Capital Punishment for murder, terrorism and violent paedophilia would help the Conservatives eviscerate the Left and would repair the Conservatives’ reputation as The Party of Law and Order (it’s taken a serious battering recently).
This is the route to get back a Brexit supporting majority Conservative Government (with Conservative policies); that has a chance of standing toe- to -toe with the EU so that Britain is free to trade across the World, cutting tariffs and taxes to promote growth in this country. However, you and your Conservative colleagues do not have much time to engineer this outcome.
Ian Pennell
March 9, 2019
You have accidentally put your finger on the problem with our Brexiteers in parliament. Their hearts are in the right place and they are lucid and rational. What is missing is the Will to Power, the determination to prevail and recover full sovereignty for the UK, no matter how long it takes.
March 8, 2019
Sir John,
The only thing that can benefit the UK now is to get rid of May, Hammond and the restof the Cabinet – yuo and your ERG colleagues can split the Party in the Commons, support No Cionfidence from Labour – if May hangs on after that then you have to Vote No Confidence a second time, the subsequent GE will then be fought by an ERG which will take all the Local Associations minus their dreadful unrepresentative MPs who cling on to May like dear life.
Any other policy and you will find that as the public wake up to May sabotaging even No Deal after 11pm on the 29th UKIP will replace the lot of you.
Any excuse will do now to rid us of this disgraceful administration which to all intents and purposes is part of the Brussels Frankenstein Monster and will not accept the reality of LeavEU or the democratic wish of the nation..
March 8, 2019
Very well said. It is time to face reality and bring the battle to this government of traitors.
March 8, 2019
There is this petition “The Prime Minister should advise Her Majesty the Queen to prorogue Parliament” and while it will not alter things in it’s own right or is very likely May would want to do it, but who knows what night persuade her, millions signing it will at least show the feelings of the British people to Parliament and the MPs. It has jumped from only 5,000 odd to over 40,000 in the last few days:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/237487
March 8, 2019
How about starting your own Project Fear? Every MP who votes in any way to stop or delay Brexit will be publicly named and shaned and every means used to assist them off their MP gravy-train.
March 8, 2019
Great to hear you on TalkRadio this morning.
On the EU you have been consistent and confident in an era of excessive self criticism.
You have taken many knocks, but you have been an inspiration to many of all political shades. The UK has a very bright future outside the EU.
No-Deal is THE way. Carpe diem
March 8, 2019
… and Remainers refuse to accept the increasing costs, regulations, directives and bureaucracy for EU members and its captives.
If Parliament does not uphold the Referendum result in full without fudge and on time with no delay the UK’s integrity, especially the City, as the most trustworthy, democratic and legally reliable place to do business and trust your money will be tarnished.
March 8, 2019
Correct, there is NEVER any coverage given to Brexit upsides on the TV. But the funny thing is, the #1 priority of the EU from the beginning has been to prevent any advantage due to Brexit. The WA succeeds in doing this, whilst hiding behind the cloak of the Backstop. The BBC and C4 certainly do not report from this viewpoint; there must be considerable upsides to Brexit for the EU to be so worried about them !
March 8, 2019
I look forward to your plans being taken up by the treasury one day with other like-minded MPs in the commons and new ones that might be elected.
The problem seems to be that most MPs and lords in parliament already think the UK is in a United States of Europe and that the EU is their government to which they want to send more tax to. It the same with big businesses who will be getting tax cut soon, but they seem to want to have it reversed so they can pay more tax under EU tax laws that are coming in.
It all seems very bizarre, it as if they have brainwashed in some way, never heard of people and companies fighting and insisting on paying more tax, even journalists are in on the act and want to pay more tax.
Maybe there should be an investigation into why this is so.
I am still looking for Mrs T May to do the right thing in the next three weeks and give the people and the kids on the streets something to believe in and to look forward to instead of the same old same old UNITED STATES of EUROPE and more taxes laws from them.
March 8, 2019
Hearing this morning on radio four, that no less a person than Jacob Ress Mog, is now
saying that Tory Remainers should Not Be Deselected , he sayās because The Tory Party is
A Broad Church ?!
From this man, one of the lights at the end of this tunnel.
Could it be that he now thinks Democricy is really not that important any more.?
All we ask from our MPs is that they carry out our majority vote to Leave the EU ?
I am truly gutted that such a person should have said that is quite beyond my comprehension.
Listening to Boris this morning while reading The Daily Express, after I had heard what JRM had said, I was lifted, my God I wish so wish he could have been the PM.
Well if we are given another Election by the Establishment, we will be very very lucky.
But do you know what, it probably will not happen untill the Deep State are so satisfied that they and they alone are sure that there P M will win.
Keep dreaming everyone
March 8, 2019
.
March 8, 2019
A “bit better off” indeed. Also far better off if we get sensible people into Nos 10 and 11. Then move to a sensible level of taxation, go for simple sensible taxation, have a bonfire of red tape, go for cheap on demand energy, easy hire and fire and cut out the endless waste that is everywhere in government. All this while avoiding both the destruction of the Conservative Party and a Communist Corbyn Government gaining power – a win, win, win. Alas we have May, Hammond, Letwin, Rudd, Grieve …. who are in the way of this.
March 8, 2019
There are clauses in the Withdrawal Agreement and Political Statement that make immune from prosecution all members of the EU for crime and corruption. This only makes me think with so many British MP’s and Civil Servants betraying the UK and working in the EU interests only that some sort of bonus will be paid out should they succeed. It is simply unbelievable how many MP’s want UK to be a vassal state. The only thing that makes it believable is large sums of money being promised.
March 8, 2019
It not looking good for Mrs T May WA at the moment, she needs to travels Brussels on Sunday to sign it off, but if the EU does not cave-in on the backstop she will have no WA to put before the Commons to vote on. It starting to look like the vote on WA might not go ahead as planned next week.
March 9, 2019
It will.
It’s a ninth hour ruse. To distract us.
March 8, 2019
A very apt quote from Melania Trump today:
.@FLOTUS: “Courage is what divides those who only talk about change from those who actually act to change…Courage takes sacrifice, bravery and humility. It is the ability to put others first.”
March 9, 2019
+ 1
I am not that (wo)man.
March 8, 2019
John
The strategy of remainers in the government and civil service has been to:
a) not publish their policy response to a WTO Brexit, so that they can continue to portray this option in a bad light (project fear mark 2)
b) create a deal that treats us like an accession state
c) use the threat of a WTO Brexit to force MPs to accept the deal
d) as the deal is worse than staying, after a few years look to re-join
You need to flush out the WTO Brexit plans and the economic analysis behind them. The delay in publishing them is damaging business. How can MPs vote on a WTO Brexit if they donāt know the plan?
March 8, 2019
Mrs. May is not “setting out all the good news of what we can do once we have left the EU” because her plan is not to leave.
It is her intention to offer us in a second referendum the choice of either remaining or “leaving” via her WA where we will be giving up our ability to ever leave the EU.
As we currently have the legal ability to leave the EU via Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty Mrs. May’s WA is designed to bounce us out of the frying pan and into the fire.
On the other hand, if we vote remain we will find that the next EU treaty will have no Article 50.
If our current Parliament undemocratically reverses the referendum result and submits us to permanent EU directives, rules, laws, taxes and policies with no representation or veto or the ability to influence these decisions through the ballot box we can expect social and political instability as already witnessed in France with the Gilet Jaunes.
March 8, 2019
Judging by the miniscule size of ‘Cox’s Codpiece’ the ERG and others are quite in the right to face down the May/Hammond BRINO deal.
March 8, 2019
Mr Redwood. I would like to see a few Brexiters go to Brussels to see Barnier and tell him it’s pointless agreeing a customs union and/or single market deal because at some point real Tories will get elected and pull us straight out.
March 8, 2019
I don’t see it..i don’t see sense in all of this good news being talked about..if we had a sizable merchant navy with trade surplus already in the pipeline like we had in the 1960’s then i’d feel a lot better. Thing is a lot of promises have been made and the situation is being talked up and up, even still today it’s being talked up..but I don’t see it..heard Tim Martin Weatherspoons on tv this morning he’s another one who sees the benefits of going straight to WTO rules and that would be ok if we had new deals lined up..but we don’t..could be business in Weatherspoons will be on the up and up if a lot more people are free to visit the pub during daytime? and that could be, but I don’t see the leaders of the other hospitality sectors in the same frame of mind..and that also has me a little worried. When we leave 30th March somebody is going to have to take charge of the government in this country and that dubious prospect has me very worried as well..so that’s why i still don’t see it.
March 8, 2019
Dear Mr. Redwood,
In her Grimsby speech just this morning the Prime Minister said that Brexit does not belong to MP’s in Parliament, it belongs to the people who voted for it and to all people who have a share in the prosperity of the country. Fine words but then she goes on to threaten to allow MP’s to water down or even cancel Brexit as a punishment to Brexiters if they vote against her deal. How dare she?
The Prime Minister threatens not just her own MP’s but the millions of us who voted to leave.
And how dare some MP’s seek to overturn or frustrate the referendum result with their oh-so-clever parliamentary wheezes? Do they not understand the implications for our constitution and democracy? No doubt they would say they do so obviously they do not care.
On Question Time last night, Dominic Raab warned of a day of reckoning with the voters.
That day cannot come too soon. Bring it on I say. I have had a bellyful of this Prime Minister, her shabby government and all those MP’s who think they know best.
March 8, 2019
then she goes on to threaten to allow MPās to water down or even cancel Brexit as a punishment to Brexiters if they vote against her deal. How dare she?
Not so much how dare she but how can she be stupid enough to see the illogical nature of this statement?
March 8, 2019
Sir John,
I would have expected someone of your intellect to have avoided the lazy and vacuous “Project Fear” stereotype in your commentary. Perhaps you could acknowledge that those of us running small manufacturing businesses with significant EU trade are terrified of your WTO exit scenario. To dismiss this as project fear is insulting. I would also ask you to kindly add some clarity in your general Brexit commentary. Opinions vary but facts are facts and you are in a position of some responsibility. You know that not paying Ā£39 billion for example would be challenged in the ICJ and would do huge damage to our international reputation. The HoL report you often cite even admits there are “different interpretations” And perhaps you could educate your public by confirming that the EU is not “undemocratic”. Laws are made by an elected legislature. They are executed but not made by a Commission which, like our Civil Service, is unelected. The ECJ arbitrates but does not “pass down” laws as some say, and by its very nature a single market of 28 countries has to have a supranational judiciary. In addition, you could add that the ECJ also only judges European law not our domestic law.
Reply What are you afraid of? As someone who has exported a lot in past business jobs and has run Just in time supply chains I don’t see the problem.
There is no legal liability in the Treaty. Much of the alleged Ā£39bn would be payments for staying in the EU for another 21 months which we wont do if we just leave.
The European Parliament responds to drafts and proposals drawn up by the Commission who are an executive government, and have direct powers in areas like competition and the environment
The ECJ adjudicates over all EU laws which are very wide ranging and override UK laws.
March 8, 2019
Whilst too detailed for a forum such as this, our main concern are to do with the fact that we are in a regulated industry and so would, in a no deal scenario, be unable to export to our EU distributors. If you would like to refer me to an expert who can offer specific remedies, please do so. I am concerned too about congestion at ports etc. (we already have a great deal of cash tied up stockpiling key raw materials that come from the EU) but I know you will dismiss government studies on this matter as “project fear”.
March 9, 2019
Do you export to countries outside the EU?
If so how do you get your products certified in those non EU countries?
March 9, 2019
Many accept EU certification
March 9, 2019
A puzzling reply because UK test houses work to internationally recognised standards.
And most export markets have different requirements.
Most exporters self certificate.
March 8, 2019
I am looking past the W.A. vote which should not get through Parliament to the no No Deal vote. What can the ERG, DUP et al do to stop this vote trapping us in permanently? This is the delectable vote that the EU are waiting for and the probable reason they will not budge one iota on the W.A. Where has the, ‘No deal is better than a bad deal’ gone to? The population will know that Brexit is being steered off to a very fine definition of it – Noexit!
March 8, 2019
These are motions and not binding. They canāt āvote for no dealā because they have no locus. Only a fool would make such a fool of Parliament displaying its powerlessness like that. No deal will happen IF they vote out the WA which is by far the most important thing to do! (Because without a plan to remain the E.U. will not allow an extension of Article 50) – donāt tall MPs that until they have refused to swallow the WA sword!
March 9, 2019
Lynn Atkinson
My guess is they’ll reject May’s surrender document, but when faced with a choice between ‘no deal’ and extension they will go for the latter, because they don’t have the guts.
They will also go for extension in the vain hope a few sneaky tricks here and there will make it a permanent extension.
The trouble for them is; we will not be having it.
March 8, 2019
It is a disgraceful and sinister state of affairs that none of the Government departments are willing to explain their work to a standing MP.
JR was elected by his constituents to serve them, as is the norm in a democracy. Britain has become a country with its leadership lacking in democratic moral fibre and as such, is now being seen across the Globe, as a joke. The Mother of all Parliaments is reduced to a subservient role.
Mrs May and her Remainer-filled Cabinet will go down in history as the British Government who failed its people. And for that, the Conservative Party will take another beating to match that of 1992 for exactly the same reasons. The leader was a Europhile who wished to surrender this Nation to an unelected and unaccountable cabal of foreigners based in a foreign country. The batch of PMs since Mrs T have all been willing for us Brits to be ruled by an incompetent bunch of micro-Politicians from the Continent rather than by OUR OWN Parliament.
But nobody asked, “why”?
March 9, 2019
There is no point in rejecting Mrs May only to get Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party (or anyone else’s Labour Party). The next election must be fought on the basis of Brexiteers vs the rest, in order to tap into the 52% who voted Leave. I could make common cause with Nigel Dodds and the DUP, Kate Hoey and co, Nigel Farage and even the more respectable bits of UKIP. I can no longer make common cause with the likes of Kenneth Clarke, Dominic Grieve, Amber Rudd and David Gauke, not to mention Anna Soubry, Heidi Allen and Sarah Wollaston. What on earth will Mrs May write on European policy in the next Conservative manifesto?
Jacob Rees-Mogg is entirely wrong in wishing to retain the pro-EU rebels in the Conservative Party. There is no point in holding these vipers to our bosoms.
March 8, 2019
Sir John, you ask, “Will the government set out all the good news of what we can do once we have left the EU?”
Well, given Mrs May’s duplicity, and that an inner circle of her advisers and various Cabinet ministers and MP’s have been working throughout to nullify and eventually reverse Brexit, then, to answer your question, in a word:
NO.
By the way, I heard you on the radio this morning, being interviewed by Julia H-B, and I thought you were spot on, as usual. Thank you for continuing to fight for us and to put across the case for the independence of the UK.
March 8, 2019
What is this new prosperous deal with the EU that the PM is talking about..where did this come from? we voted to leave that’s all..
March 8, 2019
All I can surmise is that if the government delivers anything other than no deal, the lot of them will be out on their backsides at next general election, and I dare say most of the shysters terrified to ever go out in public.
They must have their heads in cuckoo land in they think anyone will vote for them after this farce, LAB, LIB, & CON alike.
Please, no one suggest Farage as an alternative, where is he ? why isn’t he taking on the traitors in the establishment ? why isn’t he fighting for Britain ?…..I can tell you; he’s nowhere to be seen because he’s the type who lights the touch paper and runs, a political arsonist no less.
March 8, 2019
A bit off topic and late but I’ve just read the article on Brexit Central web site about an imaginary conversation between a fictional conservative MP and his Constituency Officers.
I wonder if it has actually happened anywhere?
I hope it has!
March 8, 2019
Today, former president of Greenpeace, Patrick Moore, says that climate change is a complete Hoax and a Scam.
It’s taking over science with superstition and kind of toxic combination of religion and political ideology, it is the biggest threat that has happened to enlightenment that has occurred since Galileo. nothing else comes close to it. This is as bad a thing that has happened to science in the history of science.
It is the biggest lie since people thought that Earth was the centre of the universe and Galileo was sentenced to death by the Catholic Church.
March 8, 2019
So remain it is then. She’s won at the cost of showing the electorate they don’t matter and Mrs May prefers dictatorship.
Best defenestrate her because if she remains in power even for 24 hours, your party will die. Who on earth would vote for a party that says “the only reason we want you to vote for us is to enable us to do what we want. Your vote has no other purpose.
March 8, 2019
Listening to mrs May making her speech in Grimsby this morning – she thinks that talks have come ‘down to the wire’, the famous Wire according to DD IDS and others, thats when the EU will crack according to Farage and the ERG..always at the last moment..and because she says the wire time is now so the EU should make an offer and break the impasse. Of course i do not think Barnier is listening because you see he doesn’t care too much about the ‘wire’ – he looks at things differently- he has his rules book- he is a civil servant
March 9, 2019
I think the simple answer to your question is no, they won’t set out the benefits.
I would very much like to know your opinion of the follow up question of why don’t they want to do this. I would have thought the government encouraging more discussion around the benefits would strengthen the government’s hand in negotiations with the EU and aid them in getting a better deal.
Is it they worry this will disenchant remain supporting MPs? What is the politics of this?
March 9, 2019
The most surprising aspect of this is Mr Gove’s silence. There is a lot he could say about the future of our agriculture and fisheries and he should have issued a couple of Green Papers already.
March 10, 2019
Not the same fishing industry which under no deal Brexit will lose access to market for its products (prawns, squid etc) that British consumers do not like?
Mr Gove should have been telling the British consumer to start eating these, probably with British leeks (plants not cabinet) that at least one supermarket chain alleges it has a good supply of!
March 10, 2019
06/03/2019 Michael Gove is made fun of in some quarters as he has launched 76 consultations. Isnāt that enough? Do you really want more?