Over the next few days I will publish pieces setting out how we can use our new found freedoms and spend our own money after 31 October when we are scheduled to leave the EU.
One of the important wins will be to resume our full voting membership of the World Trade Organisation. Once out we will decide our own tariffs for imports into the UK. We can exercise this freedom to take all tariffs off products we do not make or grow for ourselves, providing cheaper food and clothes for UK consumers.
The EU imposes average tariffs of 5%, with an average 11.8% tariff on food. Dairy products are charged at a high 38.1%, fruit and vegetables at 11.5% and sugar and confectionery at 23%. Why shouldn’t we enjoy cheaper oranges and lemons from countries like South Africa, and cheaper wines from Australia and New Zealand?
The UK government has already set out a provisional tariff schedule, and has decided to abolish all tariffs on imported components, providing a welcome boost to UK manufacturing.
The EU will decide whether the UK must pay the external tariffs it charges the USA, China and others on their exports to the EU, or whether to negotiate a free trade agreement to avoid tariffs both ways.
Either way there are plenty of UK trade opportunities. EU tariffs in certain areas are too high. They are an unwelcome tax on the consumer, designed to protect continental farmers and producers at the expense of growers and makers elsewhere in the world. We should bring those down as we leave.
July 26, 2019
Sir John,
Life outside the EU does, indeed, look attractive. It is vital that Boris gets us there so, with your leave, I provide words of encouragement to him:
Boris, be brave.
Block betrayal by base, backstabbing beings. Boost Britainās bonhomie by bringing back bona-fide Brexit belief. Beat Brusselsā bragging, bullying, Berlin-besotted, backward-looking, bureaucrats by brilliant bargaining, bringing back British business benefits by bucket-loads. Bodybag backstop banality. Bin bloody-minded border blusters because boundary bother becomes beatable by brainy boffins before breakfast.
Bright Borisās brave brinkmanship beats Bloc bonds burden – Britainās Brexit battle becomes believable, bearing beautiful bounty beggaring belief.
Bravo, Bojo!
July 26, 2019
I think Boris should change Tory selection and deselection rules ASAP and cull the thirty traitors like Letwin, Grieve, Gauke, etc who fail to enact the will of the people party and govt. There also has to be a change of rules if an MP changes party, a by election needs to take place and there should be a proper right to recall. MP standards are far too low and threshold for investigations far too low as well. They no longer represent those who voted for them. Either way he has to get rid of these people for your party to survive.
July 26, 2019
Johnson falsely claimed the Tory party are the democratic party!
Gay marriage without manifesto or Queens speech, LGBT to children of tender years without asking, then his calamity policy of zero carbon emission by 2050!
When did he, or Mayhab, ask us whether we were willing to pay trillions in tax for his strap line lunacy? Why should we kowtow to vocal minority groups?
Just because the fake Tory party leaps left every time the left wing militia shouts it does not mean the rest of us agree. The public has been crying out for central right conservatism which left the Tory party decades ago under Major!
Adult social care was promised to be addressed under Cameron, Mayhab and now Johnson. Why does he think after four broken promises and Mayhab wanting to strip the elderly of their assets to pay for their care we should believe him any more than the previous two shysters? As Mayhab said:Nothing has changed!
I am afraid Johnson, once more, is telling us what we want rather than listening and asking us. Democratic Tory party my arse!
July 26, 2019
Hope
“I am afraid Johnson, once more, is telling us what we want rather than listening and asking us. Democratic Tory party my arse!”
Give him a chance, he surely deserves that at least. Besides, the Conservative party will have to deliver, since Nigel Farage is just waiting for the opportunity.
I think Boris will get us out on 31st Oct, providing we don’t allow the left wing media to pull him down.
As for the gay and LGBT stuff, I entirely agree. I also think it’s disgusting that they’re insisting on a right to brainwash children.
July 27, 2019
“I am afraid Johnson, once more, is telling us what we want rather than listening and asking us. Democratic Tory party my arse!”
And what about Swinson, who has told us that even if another referendum was held and we voted to leave … again, she would fight the result .. liberally democratically of course …
And labour under Corbyn, with McDonnel telling us that he would drag 10 millioin homes unto inheritance tax despite their owners having worked all their lives paid their taxes and earned their assets . Listening ? Asking ? no he is socialist .. he just demands our money.
July 26, 2019
The refusal of most party defecting MPs to face a by-election is a disgraceful anomaly, but when there is an electoral commission, in which many have little faith how can we expect any independent pressure for correction. There are a host of election winning policies that are ignored for the usual mantras. That in essence is why the Brexit result has created such upheaval and breaking of party loyalties. Serious change is an anathema in Westminster. Another classic is boundary re-drawing and reduction of MPs to 600.
July 27, 2019
āThere also has to be a change of rules if an MP changes party, a by election needs to take place and there should be a proper right to recall.ā I agree but who in the House would give the people the power over themselves?
John would you vote for or against this?
July 26, 2019
Well we shall see. Will the many ‘Conservative’ traitors to the UK in the commons – Hammond, Hunt, Gauke, Grieve, Clarke X 2, Bercow and all the rest all continue to undermine these negotiations by clearly batting for the EU team?
July 26, 2019
Lifelogic
Likely they’ll still try to scupper brexit.
The two I’d most like to see shamed, exposed, and thrown out are Clarke and Bercow.
July 26, 2019
Love your post Pom, well done.
July 26, 2019
Not sure `bravo is required. Johnson has just announced unlimited immigration- confirming Tories have lied for nine years to get votes (per Osborne admission) whilst reaching historic record high numbers and Johnson in addition wants to give an amnesty for those illegally here, which also reached record highs under Mayhab! Zero carbon emissions by 2050 costing us over a trillion plus, despite Drax scam on burning wood and subsidies for the same.
Johnson cannot discuss the servitude before 31/10/2019 because that was part of the extension agreement by Mayhab! He does not have the numbers to pass anything through parliament. At the moment a lot of air and confirmation of Tory broken promises and lies, all in an upbeat way of course.
July 26, 2019
+1
July 26, 2019
Hope, Spot on. The majority of the people voted for Brexit to regain sovereignty and control of our borders and immigration. The UK is overloaded and services are stretched to the limit and beyond. Then we had the false flag fear campaign regarding trade etc. Trade deals were always available. (Japanese cars are better than German, Chilean/Argentine wines are better than French /Spanish. So who cares.) Yes it maybe a bit bumpy but where is the resolve? The NI issue was a further manufactured false flag.
Boris used to be a “remainer” then flipped and he has always wanted to be PM, now he is there. Will he deliver Brexit??? He has got so many Tory backstabbers in the commons who will do everything within their power to stop it. I hope he meets with The Donald very quickly before he gets way laid by our own Deep State. Establishment. The organised demonstrations have already started “a la Trump”.
July 27, 2019
āJohnson wants to give amnesty to illegal immigrantsā. I really wonder how this would be achieved, lawyers are earning a fortune off this trade, when people are caught what currently happens to them, if theyāre working in the black economy are the employers pursued?
If this is about removing a distraction and finding out where everyone is, give them three months to declare themselves and obtain legal status otherwise they will be removed without legal redress and funding for their cases as they have then chosen to become legal. From the day Johnson became Prime Minister.
July 26, 2019
Brilliant!
July 26, 2019
Perfectly posited, Pominoz!
Pitiful posturing – persistently peddling pessimism. Perhaps promises of prosperity potentially persuade people?
July 26, 2019
Brilliant … but beware: Bollocky Brexity bulls**t before breakfast being brutally brain-baneful!
July 26, 2019
Pominoz, brilliant!!
July 26, 2019
Blimey Pominoz – brilliantly bracing.
August 4, 2019
Reading Mr Redwood’s latest observations reminds me how much he and others like him want to impose their own Public School view of life on everybody else. “Reclaim our seas” – does he also want the Empire back? Perhaps he’ll pitch for the job of Viceroy of India?
As for all the nonsense about leaving the EU not harming the economy because the UK will secure other Trade Deals, he is just confirming his origins. People in business have been trying for three years to explain – “Trade Deal” does not equal “Order Book”. Getting business in countries with whom we have such a deal will take time. SMEs and other businesses will go bankrupt in this time.
We should all remember that Mr Johnson’s famous “**** business” comment translated as “**** jobs”.
Reply I went to a state primary and won a free place at a direct grant school. My parents did not have enough money to send me to public school.My world view is based on observation, discussion and reading over many years with a wide range of influences
July 26, 2019
How much does the EU charge on lamb ?
July 26, 2019
Why do you choose to ask about lamb?
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2019/07/26/a-more-prosperous-uk-outside-the-eu/#comment-1040067
One good point is that in or out of the EU the UK government charges nothing on UK lamb, we can buy it tariff-free and eat it instead of eating Irish beef, and another good point is that once out of the EU we can choose how to support our farmers.
July 26, 2019
Thank you, Sir John.
On lamb, this is likely to be increasingly used by remainers. The upcoming Brecon by-election for instance, where sheep farming is one of the main areas of activity.
Unless the pro-Brexit candidates address this, what was a pro-leave constituency will be claimed as remainer. This will only fuel the remainer clamour for revoke etc. The smaller the swing, the better. A repeat leave vote would be best!
Most sheep farmers have a very tough time, particularly hill farmers, and I believe must receive transitional support, to enable them to diversify much more. They’ve been imprisoned for decades in the CAP. Many I know are imaginative, entrepreneurial.
It would also help return swathes of Scotland’s landscape to its true nature.
July 26, 2019
My bigger fear is that Boris is going to prorogue parliament, causing riots on London (70% Remain) streets, and derail the whole thing as this will be labelled the people erupting – just like the Poll tax.
July 26, 2019
Apologies. I don’t mean prorogue, I mean ignore. I’m no fan of Parliament, but I remain wary of bypassing it.
General election might work, but could be chancy with four parties in it.
July 27, 2019
Rioting because they want the UK handed over to a foreign power? The rest of the country would be unimpressed.
July 27, 2019
Parliament spoke with its most powerful voice when it passed the Act to empower the Prime Minister to serve the Article 50 notice in what should have been full awareness that this step could lead to the UK leaving the EU without any withdrawal agreement under the terms of that treaty article.
As I pointed out here on Monday:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2019/07/22/chiming-our-independence/#comment-1039139
and the new Leader of the House explained here:
http://bit.ly/30ZFq6U
and here:
http://bit.ly/30ZJtQI
and here:
http://bit.ly/2yewU7B
“I am sorry to repeat the answer, but I will have to carry on doing so. Parliament voted for the article 50 Act and the withdrawal Act. That set by law the timetable for leaving.”
He should not be sorry for repeating it, he and every patriot should take every opportunity to repeat it again and again and ask again and again what on earth people like Philip Hammond thought they were doing when they voted for those Bills without insisting on any provisions to safeguard against the potential “no deal” exit which they pretend would be so catastrophic.
July 27, 2019
The rest of the country may not be impressed, but it doesn’t change the fact that the Houses of Parliament are sat in the middle of Remainer central.
There are many examples in Roman history when the will of the people got stuffed by riots on the streets of Rome. Just pointing it out.
July 26, 2019
Can sheep eat wind farms?
July 27, 2019
Only very angry ones.
July 28, 2019
No. Blight on landscape and bad for birds too (wind farms). Sheep are a lot harder work looking after than people realize. There was a time when the EU farming subsidy for sheep was calculated per head, so quite a lot of farmers took the money and didn’t look after the sheep, leaving the poor animals for example in full summer with thick woollen coats, often part hanging off them, left with foot rot etc etc.
July 26, 2019
JR, why does the UK govt travel and jump when EU wants to discuss? Time for parity as equals, make them come here. This in itself demonstrates who is in charge and calls the shots.
I am not sure of all the chit chat, Mayhab agreed not to discuss her servitude plan until after 31/10/2019 to get her extension.
Jumped up Irish bloke stating UK can revoke article 50 or extend. Time for someone with balls to put him and his tiny economy back in his box.
July 26, 2019
The UK government will do as Trump wishes.
July 26, 2019
Trump is draining the swamp which is not just Washington DC.
but the UK and further afield. The Swamp is widespread and deep. Do your own research and do not really on the MSM. Ask yourself who owns and controls the MSM and central banks etc.
July 26, 2019
Tabulazero
If it comes to a choice of doing what the EU wishes or what the USA wishes I would go with the USA every time, they are the future the EU is the past.
However because we’ve had to do what the EU says for the last 40 years once we are free i dont see us going down that route again .
I guess you are also predicting a Trump victory next year too?
July 26, 2019
And just listen to his deputy in the video here today:
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/johnson-risks-no-deal-by-being-very-unhelpful-on-brexit-coveney-1.3968334
“TĆ”naiste Simon Coveney has said new British prime minister Boris Johnsonās approach to Brexit was āvery unhelpfulā and would block an agreement, after Mr Johnson rejected a key Irish demand his predecessor had agreed to.”
This is a man who has repeatedly tried to give the false impression that at present there is no border at all on the island of Ireland, for example here on December 1st 2017:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-ireland-coveney/ireland-says-wants-agreed-wording-on-brexit-border-before-december-14-summit-idUKKBN1DV44Z
“He said Ireland wanted to achieve before a Dec. 14 EU summit āan agreed wording whereby we can agree the parameters within which we can find a solution that prevents the re-emergence of a border on the island of Irelandā.”
In terms of unhelpfulness I wonder how that silly attitude compares with Boris Johnson’s insistence that no part of the UK is going to be left under the thumb of the EU after the UK has left the EU.
July 26, 2019
Care to put your last assertion to the test by letting the people of Northern Ireland decide which side of the EU border they would like to live ?
I do not think so.
July 26, 2019
They can move home now.
July 27, 2019
Tabulazero
As the CTA was put into force in 1923 the people of NI have been free to choose which side of the border they live on for far longer than the existence of the EUEmpire
Youre welcome
July 26, 2019
A surfeit of food. They told us we’d starve if we left the EU.
July 26, 2019
JR, off topic. Conservative Woman: The victimisation of five year olds to be compliant with LGBT lessons and marches is a total disgrace. Your govt needs to stop this at once. Controversial subjects like these need to be Put it to a referendum to gauge public opinion. Cultural Marxism under Mayhab needs to stop. Stop pandering to vocal minority groups and act on the wishes of the majority. This is a good reason by itself not to vote for your party.
It is emotional abuse at this tender age. Sex lessons and relationships of this kind has no place for children ofbsuchntender years. Teachers cannot be trusted, let alone educated, to teach a English and a Maths. They certainly cannot be trusted to teach/promote on this subject.
July 26, 2019
Agreed, I see it as a parental responsibility/preference especially at primary school age.
July 26, 2019
The result being 5 out of 20 of my niece’s 14-year-old class have declared themselves LGBT.
Now. Either estimates of LGBT were way too low or these lessons (and the BBC focus on homosexuality in drama) are making it fashionable to be so.
July 26, 2019
It’s probably still around the usual 1% level. However, by making such a declaration, they invariably get enhanced grades. Therefore, as all intelligent individuals tend to do, they are playing the system.
July 26, 2019
Indeed you could not have said it better: off-topic. What the compulsory health education in primary school will include from 2020: how to
– look after their own mental well-being,
– recognize when their classmates might be struggling,
– some simple self-care, getting enough sleep, spending time outdoors and with friends,
– warning about excessive use of electronic devices and limiting time spent on-line
– risks of talking to (unknown) people on the internet.
Only in secondary schools are addressed anxiety, depression, alcohol, drugs, relationships, sex education (including again and more explicitly safety on-line).
I know that as a grandfather of a primary school granddaughter and secondary school grandson, reading documents sent by schools to families, not from the Daily Express or other similar gutter press.
You’re welcome.
July 26, 2019
hefner
Great , but actually nothing about getting a job, starting a business or building a career . Nothing about advanced technology or how to get a mortgage
By the way I wonder what the role of parents is supposed to be?
We seem to have achieved role reversal in education
July 27, 2019
Libertarian,
Do you really think that ‘getting a job, starting a business or building a career’ is among the immediate preoccupations of a 11 or even a 14-year old? I would think it would not, not before them entering AS- and A-level years. Are you so old(-minded) you have forgotten what it was like to be a young adolescent?
July 27, 2019
If you tell kids at a young age that the doubts they feel are anxiety and poor mental health they will add that to things they are anxious about.
If you tell them that everyone has doubts and fears and you should steer your own course through it you will teach resilience.
I work with a number of recent school leavers and the things they worry about are many and insignificant. I worry about how they would cope with children of their own.
July 28, 2019
Hefner
Oh dear
As of last week the 1012th young school student went through my free schools career/business programme . I have 3 more schools booked after the summer holidays
Youngsters are fascinated by the world of business. The YE Fiver & Tenner Challenges ( which I also help run in my region ) are aimed at primary school children aged 5 to 11 and they absolutely love it and fully engage
https://www.fiverchallenge.org.uk
You haven’t got a clue
Always happy to educate you on the real world
August 1, 2019
Libby,
Thanks for educating me on ‘your real world’. Is it that children of private schools at Ā£35k/year are from Y5 being brainwashed on the ‘beauties of business’, the joy of trading, … Have a good day, Signor Pareto.
July 26, 2019
Hope, absolutely totally agree! The Politicians kow-towing to the minorities disgust me and especially when it affects children of such tender years. This amounts to child abuse, in my opinion.
July 26, 2019
Tab, I don’t know as I’ve never seen it in the shops but I know NZ lamb is cheap and so I buy that. I would rather buy from NZ than from France anyway and not just lamb.
July 26, 2019
I think you know its UK lamb exports to the EU that Tabulazero was highlighting, not what you eat.
July 26, 2019
Most people commenting here have not noticed this.
Since they voted to Leave that should not come as a surprise.
July 26, 2019
Almostdead, That’s not what Tabulazero said though.
July 27, 2019
I didnāt realise how much food is on tour until recently 80% of our Cheddar we import from Southern Ireland, one farm exports 1/3 of his Cheese to Canada, what % of Welsh lamb goes to the RUK and what % to the EU do you know?
We should have a tv cooking program pitting our best tv chefs against one another to devise cost effective family feasts on things we will overproduce for export, specifically for the home market which weāve been told will be empty shelves from EU imported foods and change buying habits of the average cook. Using staple, in season produce, Iām not sure Nigella would be able to as every program shows things in the her cupboards that weād all have to specially purchase. Not a program for the middle classes, one for the majority working classes on a budget.
I heard a woman on the radio this week saying healthy food cost more than junk and I thought how ridiculous is that! An apple (35.2p each) doesnāt cost more than a bag of crisps (75p). A peach (4 for 45p) doesnāt cost more than a chocolate bar (55p). A bag of carrots (65p per kilo) doesnāt cost more than a tin of beans (50-70p).
July 26, 2019
Tabulazero
I take it you mean EU lamb import tariffs . Probably not as much as we pay in to them to protect French farmers and their produce
We can manage our own lamb farmers thanks
Meanwhile
Germany nears recession:
-industry has biggest slump since financial crisis
-business morale tanks
-not just cars, 80% factories in contraction
-manufacturing across Eurozone drops to levels of 2012 debt crisis
We are getting out just in time
July 26, 2019
Tabulazero, Some NZ lamb comes in tariff free due to a negotiated TRQ of up to 285,260 tonnes. Last year NZ did not utilise all its quota so all NZ lamb was tariff free.
July 26, 2019
No worries happy to eat lamb in place of Irish beef. Starting this weekend.
July 26, 2019
@ Sir Joe Soap
“No worries happy to eat lamb in place of Irish beef. Starting this weekend.”
We have been doing this for some time and after listening to Leo Varadkar it could well become permanent.
July 26, 2019
SJR
Keep up the good work.
Your steadfastness and the determination of fellow pro-UK politicians like Farage to see this nation take back its democracy, constitution and legislative supremacy will pay rewards
You may not know this but there are millions of faceless Brits outside the grubby world of politics who look to moral politicians like yourself to fight against those who should know better regarding the EU. May being the living embodiment of such arrogance
Thanks
July 26, 2019
Dom never a truer word spoken.
July 26, 2019
Amongst the words spoken by Boris immediately prior to entering Downing Street were :-
āIf thereās one thing politicians need to remember itās that you the public are our bossesā.
A pity that so many politicians forget it. Those who forgot it are known to enough of the electorate who will not forgive them, and will dispatch them at the next election.
July 26, 2019
JR, you would do well to write a special piece just about the potential oversupply of lamb if we leave with the EU without a deal. This was raised in the Commons yesterday:
http://bit.ly/30W3ffO
It is a special case insofar as we do actually run a surplus in our trade in sheepmeat with the rest of the EU, unlike other meats and indeed almost all other food and drink, plus of course there is the aspect of an adverse impact on our good friends in New Zealand, and I have no doubt that we will be hearing a lot about it in the coming weeks as the forces of reaction try to make their case for revocation of Article 50.
July 26, 2019
The problem with UK Sheep is they don’t have six legs. The UK exports carcasses whereas New Zealand exports cuts of Sheepmeat that have higher value and more easily marketed country by country. http://beefandlamb.ahdb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/UK-sheep-meat-trade-balance-table.png
July 26, 2019
Whether with four legs or six per animal I’m pretty sure we could eat as much as our sheep farmers could produce, especially if there was a concerted effort to promote homegrown meat instead of meat imported from countries which are displaying outright hostility towards us – starting with Ireland.
July 26, 2019
Best of luck with that theory Denis. If the UK consumer can’t get enough Lamb Leg joints for Sunday lunch; and/or, the price is too high; that is not exactly going to be a vote winner at the next GE.
You continually fail to appreciate that your playground level hostility to the EU, will reflect negatively on 46 million UK consumer/voters at Brexit time. They will come looking for the likes of you.
July 26, 2019
There is a surplus of lamb on world markets.
It is one of the cheaper cuts of meat.
There will not be any UK shortages.
July 27, 2019
The UK consumer has gone through far worse than not being able to get a lamb joint for Sunday lunch – you take me back to my childhood, before the Common Market, acorn – but in any case as Edward2 has pointed out the potential problem for UK sheep farmers is one of oversupply not shortage. So part of my answer to that would be to transfer the problem to Irish beef farmers, and I would urge our host to take a lead in actively promoting that solution to a problem largely caused by the politicians that the Irish people elected.
July 26, 2019
“Over the next few days I will publish pieces setting out how we can use our new found freedoms and spend our own money after 31 October when we are scheduled to leave the EU.”
That will be interesting JR! What I and other EU remainers who actually understand how the economy works want to know is; what level of austeritised neoliberal budget deficit you are going to run? Or; what and where you are going to cut spending to maintain the current 1.7% of GDP budget deficit.
The net Ā£138 million a week (not Ā£350 million) the UK is currently contributing to the EU, is 0.85% of current UK total managed expenditure (TME) of Ā£16,100 million per week. I/We EU number crunchers, don’t see that being a UK, post Brexit game changer. Perhaps you could explain?
July 27, 2019
Acorn, According to the HoC Library, the estimated contribution by the UK for 2018 is as follows:
Gross bill: Ā£17.4bn (Ā£335m a week)
Post rebate: Ā£13.2bn
EU spending here: Ā£4.3bn
Net contribution: Ā£8.9bn (Ā£171m a week).
Importantly we do not control what the EU chooses to spend here. Even the Thatcher rebate is under EU control. After Brexit we may choose to spend some of our money where the EU does (eg farm subsidies), or we may not.
So all the Ā£17.4bn will be ours to spend (or save) unfettered by EU diktat. It therefore makes sense to talk about the gross amount of Ā£17.4bn. Bear in mind that the gross bill varies, but has tended to rise over the years.
July 27, 2019
Let me spell it out for you NickC.
The 350 million on the big red bus came from adding the UK 3.3 billion EURO currency VAT contribution, to the 15.3 billion EURO currency GNI contribution; rounded to 350 for media impact. The EU accounts are in Euro. If the Pound is strong, it gets converted into more Euros in the EU accounts; as it did particularly in 2015.
The exchange rate for EU fiscal 2016 was 1.22 ā¬ per Ā£. Hence, VAT+GNI = Ā£15.2 billion. The rebate (which never crosses the channel) is Ā£4.84 billion leaving Ā£10.36 billion. Adding customs duties of Ā£2.62 billion gives Ā£12.98 billion.
The EU spent Ā£5.82 billion in the UK, INCLUDING direct to private sector grants which the HoC (public sector accounts) do not include.
That leaves Ā£7.16 billion net UK contribution to the EU equalling Ā£137.7 million per week. The return to the UK economy for that net annual investment in the EU machine is positive. Alas, I will leave it to the post Brexit ONS UK economic accounts, to demonstrate how positive EU membership has actually been.
July 26, 2019
However we do have the greatest tasting salt marsh lamb in the UK . Romney Marsh lamb is brilliant . Why sell it to Europeans when we can keep more of it here
July 26, 2019
Denis – factual post by moderator (with sources) not accepted which seems unnecessary censorship. This was the jist of it:
We need to end subsidies to sheep farmers on the British Uplands and rewild these lands.
Too, we should end the live export of animals for slaughter.
(about 387,000 Sheep annually)
We should end the non-stun methods of slaughter (for Halal/Kosher meat):
(about 3 million sheep and goats annually – much of which is exported)
We need to support High Animal Welfare standard British sheep farmers and buy local products (not imports of lower welfare standards and high āfood milesā).
All these issues need to be accounted for in the āpotential oversupply of lambā.’
Reply Your previous post was both long and contained links I did not have time to check
July 27, 2019
James, We absolutely do not want to “re-wild” parts of the country. Far from it, we need to expand the productive farmland to ensure a greater proportion of our food is grown here. That will tend to improve animal welfare because we have higher standards than the EU.
July 27, 2019
Nick, it is a complicated subject.
Hill farming in Wales on average has a subsidy of Ā£53,000 but a net income of Ā£33,000; a net contribution to the economy of minus Ā£20,000 (‘Feral’ – George Monbiot 2012)
Yes, we need to use our most productive farmland, and to use it better – but marginal lands need to be rewilded.
It would help considerably if people ate less meat. For example: Nearly 60% of the world’s agricultural land is used for beef production, yet beef accounts for less than 2% of the calories that are consumed throughout the world.
Too, a massive amount of food is just wasted in the UK. Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year ā approximately 1.3 billion tonnes ā gets lost or wasted. Food losses and waste amounts to roughly US$ 680 billion in industrialized countries and US$ 310 billion in developing countries.
We also need to look closely at ‘Food miles’. We should not produce a surplus to export; we should produce only what is sufficient to consume here in the UK. Instead of producing surplus, we should diversify into areas where we currently import product.
We will improve animal welfare only by taking a different attitude – putting ‘Kindness’ and ‘Compassion’ at the centre of our Animal Welfare policies, and not ‘Profit’.
Tried to keep this succinct, but not easy, as there is much to be changed in UK food policy.
July 27, 2019
Thank you for the explanation, Sir John.
It is always frustrating, having taken care to post accurate factual information with sources so as to support an opinion, then to find it rejected.
I am glad it was rejected because of the workload involved rather than because of the argument put forward.
I will try and make my posts more succinct another time.
Frankly I’m amazed that you find time to read all these posts, let alone write the articles. Your efforts in this are much appreciated.
July 26, 2019
Good morning.
It is a pity therefore that we do not hear such things both in the media and from our kind hosts friends and colleagues in parliament and the government. We also don’t hear that the monies that we give to the EU via our VAT receipts and tariffs, not to mention all the fines and contributions we must pay. I think when one adds all these figures up we will see that they EU receives, on top of all the tariff free trade, a very tidy sum.
July 26, 2019
Having control of our tariffs can bring two benefits:
We can reduce tariffs which will benefit consumers, or we can retain tariffs which will go into UK coffers instead of EU coffers.
Currently, if we zero’d all tariffs (which is unlikely) our country would lose not one penny, as the tariffs collected by the UK got to the EU (less admin costs).
It’s a win-win for the UK.
July 26, 2019
The issue for me has always been that no matter what the level of trade with the EU, our membership fees continue to increase inexorably because they’re based on our overall income, including our ever-increasing worldwide trade. It’s akin to paying income tax based on your neighbour’s greater earnings!
At least with tariffs we would only pay on actual trade, which in the case of the EU would be comparatively little as the Rotterdam Effect dramatically distorts the figures. Indeed, I believe we will be horrifed at the low level of trade we truly do with the EU in return for our billions.
July 26, 2019
Itās a pity some of your colleagues in the Tory ranks donāt have the same view about WTO, why or why do these quislings want to stay in the dreaded Eu it can only be financially nothing more nothing less, as for the debates by Mr Mogg and Mr Johnson, Mr Mogg distroyed all comers and very forcefully made the point that Parliament had made it law we leave with no deal on October 31st and that standing orders cannot overrule law and then there was the first class performance by Mr Johnson , no wonder the rest of the opposition parties were scared of Boris getting the top job, so be afraid be very afraid
July 26, 2019
Exactly.
Yet the remainers go on about higher food prices and food shortages after we leave with no deal, what project fear pushing dopes or worse they are.
July 26, 2019
@lifelogic
If you see the report at order-order.com about the BBC parroting fake news from the Guardian about the Electoral Commission case you can see how badly served we are by our fourth estate.
UKIP would abolish the BBC Licence.
July 26, 2019
I certainly agree with abolition of the licence fee, it is clearly just unfair competition and the organisation is clearly a blatant propaganda outfit. They are on full drive again today on their climate alarmism agenda. All just because it is was a nice sunny July day yesterday.
July 26, 2019
@ Lifelogic
“I certainly agree with abolition of the licence fee, it is clearly just unfair competition and the organisation is clearly a blatant propaganda outfit.”
+1
July 26, 2019
Bob
“UKIP would abolish the BBC Licence.”
I bet they would like to abolish the BBC given half a chance.
July 26, 2019
Margaret howard
No need, if they had to earn their own money the BBC would abolish itself with its dire output
July 26, 2019
It is not necessary to abolish the BBC it is simply necessary to require the BBC to act as a public service broadcaster and allow different viewpoints to be heard through the commissioning of different editors and presenters, as takes place with at least one radio station.
July 26, 2019
You’ve not heard of exchange rate movements then? It’s not just tariffs that affect the cost of imported goods.
July 26, 2019
Lifelogic, I suspect that Remains get some of their fake information from the likes of the British Retail Consortium (BRC). This is what BRC claim (“A fair Brexit for Consumers”, Autumn 2017):
Beverages, fruit, vegetables, meat and fish are the UKās biggest imports from the EU and without continuation of tariff-free trade, tariffs could be as high as 46 per cent for cheese or 21 per cent for tomatoes.
The weighted average tariff, if the UK were to default to WTO tariffs on UK food imports from the EU, would be 22 per cent. Such a scenario would put upward pressure on consumer food prices.
They seem to think that the WTO is like the EU and imposes tariff levels. However, it is difficult to work out exactly what they do mean because their information is incoherent, and lacks sources. It is obviously heavily Remain project fear influenced.
July 26, 2019
Remainers and the MSM are infuenced by the CBI, an organisation that does not publish a list of members or from where it receives its funding, although we do know it does receive some money from the EU.
So we have no idea at all just who the CBI represents.
July 26, 2019
Boris said yesterday: “And we will be now accelerating the talks on those free trade deals.” At last!
A lot of spadework has been done that now needs converting into interim FTAs. http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/11/07/the-big-issue-is-the-withdrawal-agreement-not-the-irish-backstop/#comment-971725
July 26, 2019
My initial thoughts on low tariffs was that it was a very good idea. However, having heard that Canada’s reason for refusing an FTA is, it is not worth the work if we unilaterally remove our tariffs.
So I think we need to make a more considered approach and model the likely outcomes.
/ikh
July 26, 2019
Before the March leave date when UK released its tariff schedule it was clear that these were temporary/transitional.
July 26, 2019
A FTA with the EU and with ourselves setting our own external tariffs for agricultural produce which are also produced in the EU are incompatible; take sugar for which the French are the world’s largest producers of sugar beet: the world price for cane sugar is substantially below the cost of French beet sugar so we would cease to import it and then when we tried to sell them British produce containing sugar they would cry foul.
The French have totally distorted agriculture and the associated external tariffs to favour their farmers so if we want cheaper food, we will need to avoid a FTA on agricultural produce which would require us to agree external tariffs similar to those of the Customs Union.
July 26, 2019
The EU tariff on Australian wine is about 7 pence a bottle. The UK government’s own tax is over 2 quid a bottle. And the EU tariff on Chilean and South African wine is zero. As ever, your sums don’t add up. as ever, Brexit is exposed as untruths and false promises.
July 26, 2019
Indeed.
Let’s give up the whole idea and relegate ourselves to being run by a Germanic cartel running our trade and regulatory policy. Harmonised taxes? Why not? If we adopted the Euro, even better. Immigration? Fill us up.
Should we keep a UK and devolved Parliaments for the time being, just for show?
July 26, 2019
Why not, Sir Joe? TinC might be thrilled at the idea of reconstructing a larger version of the Zollverein so that things can be normalised, German fashion. Or is this already being done?
(But since wine is such an important issue with him/her, why doesn’t he/she make his/her own? Look! No tarriffs!)
July 26, 2019
Tory in Cumbria
Hmm so what you are saying is that independent countries shouldnt set their own taxation levels…. Interesting concept…. When you say you’re a Tory have you ever thought about what Conservatism is?
If you respond with 1950’s One Nation patronising drivel then you lose
July 27, 2019
Well is should be for small government, low taxes, freedom of choice, law and order, stong defence, sensible economics, a real UK based democracy, an energy policy based on science rather than the green loon alarmist religion…..
July 26, 2019
Why would you want to pay the 7p to the bloated EU, rather than to our own government (or make Aussie wine 7p cheaper)?
Perhaps, TiC, 7p is nothing to you?
July 26, 2019
Tory in Cumbria, Duty applies to all alcohol in the UK, imported or home produced, so is not relevant to Brexit.
According to Wine Australia the tariff is 13-15 Euro cents a litre so the tariff is c9.4p per 750mL bottle not your 7p. Does your mistake by itself expose Remain as “untruths and false promises”?
You may want to give away your nation’s independence for 9.4p a bottle cheaper wine, but I do not. Grow up, man!
July 26, 2019
It’s worth taking a look at the Irish Times today.
There’s this article:
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/johnson-s-backstop-abolition-demand-simplifies-varadkar-s-task-1.3967679
“Johnsonās backstop abolition demand simplifies Varadkarās task”
“Taoiseachās only job now in EU-UK discussions is to defend Border backstop”
“Johnsonās demand that the abolition of the backstop, the insurance policy to avoid a hard border, is a prerequisite for a Brexit deal is an impossible one, and the new British prime minister knows this.”
I would point out here that this description “insurance policy to avoid a hard border”, which was approved by Theresa May, is nowhere near the truth.
As the UK has already put it into law that there will be no new checks or infrastructure on our side of the border, without the agreement of the Irish government, in reality the only purpose of the backstop can be to bribe the EU and the Irish government to refrain from erecting a hard border on their side. It is a kind of Irish version of Danegeld.
It really is time to get stuck into the Irish government over this, Theresa May chose to collude with Leo Varadkar but Boris Johnson is right to confront him.
Then there are the readers’ letters, the best being:
“Sir, ā Despite the best efforts of RTĆ News and The Irish Times, Boris Johnson is now prime minister of Great Britain. You are gutted, itās being said. ā Yours, etc,”
July 26, 2019
Clearly one of the reason we get the demand for the ‘BackStop’ from the EU, is that the EU does not trust the citizens of the EU State of ROI. to be honest and have integrity in their endeavors.
Governments that fear their own people?
July 26, 2019
Seems to me Denis that Boris is set to confront everyone- but it doesn’t mean he’s going to succeed. Am sure the Brussels side have their own Dominic Cummings mapping things out- they will be able to meet chaos when it comes- and no need to be too concerned about Varadkar either he is holding his own.
July 26, 2019
He should confront our enemies, starting with those in Dublin.
July 26, 2019
The good thing with Dominic Cummings as the PMās special adviser is that he hates both Farage and the ERG. What a guy. And with JR-M in the Government i.e. made practically ineffective, the ERG is now led by the towering intellects of people like Steve Baker and Mark Francois. Well done PM. Way to go.
July 27, 2019
Hefner, What, as compared to the “towering intellects” of Heseltine, Hammond, Corbyn, Soubry, Grieve, Thornberry, Swinson, and co?
July 26, 2019
The Irish and the EU say there is no alternative to the backstop in order to avoid a āhard borderā.
But we already have a āhard borderā for currency, VAT, excise duty, corporate and personal taxation so why does the addition of import duty suddenly turn the border into a āhard borderā?
Furthermore, since the EU and the Irish say there is no technical solution it means that if our Parliament is stupid enough to sign the EUās āWithdrawal Treatyā we will never be allowed to leave the EU, having swapped the Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty for a permanent treaty where we become a colony of the EU accepting EU laws, budgets, taxes, fines and policies (trade, energy, environment, foreign, immigration etc) but without representation or veto.
July 26, 2019
There is an argument that as the Republic joined the EEC at the same time as the UK for purely economic reasons, they should follow the UK out for that same reason. Maybe holding a purely indicative, non-binding referendum would be in order at this juncture? If their citizens are happy to continue to be treated as dispensable by the EU hierarchy, that’s democracy. I am sure that the UK will always be there to lend support. Talking of lending, we can talk about their ā¬4 billion debt to us at a later date.
July 26, 2019
“The UK government has already set out a provisional tariff schedule, and has decided to abolish all tariffs on imported components, providing a welcome boost to UK manufacturing.”
There needs to be extreme caution with the above (ex TM knee jerk) policy, it might just become the final nail in the coffin of UK component manufacturing!
July 26, 2019
No, we just move up the value chain.
July 26, 2019
@SJS; But what then happens if the component supply stops, or the buy-in price of these components increases to the point of becoming uneconomic and thus unsustainable [1], or perhaps because those we now buy such components from believe they can provide a cheaper finished product – especially to our export customers – and thus supply their own needs first?
Yours are the policies of short termism without a view to the day after tomorrow, never mind 12 month or 12 years…
[1] the latter is already happening with off-shoring in some sectors, factories suddenly closing or wage inflation etc.
July 26, 2019
Indeed it is, and many those wise folk who offshored to China in 2000-2005 are now bringing business back to the UK and paying the higher prices here because UK suppliers effectively ADD VALUE by being quick and flexible if not the cheapest. But for those parts where there is a running supply at 10% of the UK cost we also become competitive by buying there without tariffs and selling finished product. Yes, it’s a balance but tariffs make little difference in this balance.
July 26, 2019
Absolutely yes, always go for high technology and high value. Competition in component supply is a good thing wherever it comes from. It is played out on an equal QS9000 playing field and forces our manufacturers to inovate and invest. Government needs to be hot on the protection of patents and intellectual property. As an important major importer we are well placed to effect the protection of our interests.
If and when we crack the nut of Fusion Energy it must not by default of government, espionage, or the generosity of it’s creators, become the property of other than the UK. The history of what we have given away in the past should be evidence enough of the dangers of politicians and espionage.
July 26, 2019
@agricola; “Absolutely yes, always go for high technology and high value.”
But you need a secure component supply chain to go high tech, even more so if you are designing cutting edge technology, because those who make components can also go high tech too -either because they are (necessarily) given access to the relevant R&D, or if they are so minded, they just reverse engineer!
“Government needs to be hot on the protection of patents and intellectual property.”
Such IP claims/protections are only ever going to be as good as the legal system(s) a UK lawyer needs to convince…
July 26, 2019
As far as I know the current ITER, subsequent DEMO and future PROTO projects are, at the moment, all done/discussed within an international collaboration (EU, China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and (Trump-willing?) USA).
July 26, 2019
Everybody wants to move up the value chain!
July 26, 2019
Who is “we”?
As someone who has worked in technology R&D and product development my whole career I always wonder about the actual experience and involvement of people who say “we just move up the value chain”. I class that alongside the “we must increase innovation 10% pa”, “we must innovate faster” claptrap from sales and execs who don’t do the grunt work.
There is no “just” without a lot of effort, creativity and a smattering of luck
We need to do broad R&D with manufacturing at all levels, to ensure a critical mass of commercial activity to ensure security of supply to strategic industries and workforce education and experience.
BTW, our government does not protect intellectual property.
July 26, 2019
Very true.
Raw materials just ‘may-be’ acceptable, but permitting others just to profit from the UK without contributing to it just aids decline.
July 26, 2019
” but permitting others just to profit from the UK without contributing to it just aids decline. ” – – true – -also seen by mass immigration of virtually unemployable Third Worlders wanting, and getting, a house, benefits, Free schooling for their kids, and free NHS – all paid for by us.
July 26, 2019
bigneil
“and getting, a house, benefits, Free schooling for their kids, and free NHS ā all paid for by us”
Can you give us a few examples? I’m sure a few back copies of the Daily Mail will come in useful.
July 26, 2019
You could always do your own research which you and Andy never seem to do. You have never knowingly provided a fact for any of your rants, but you are good at insults which shows a paucity in your arguments.
July 27, 2019
@graham1946; “You could always do your own research”
Lets get this correct, what you are proposing is this, that John McDonnell (for example) should be allowed to proclaim what ever he likes as a ‘economic fact’, without any supporting evidence what so ever [1], and unless his opponents do their own research and respond those ‘McDonnell facts’ stand as gospel without question?! Of course not, and you would quit correctly tell Mr McDonnell to either back-up his facts or shut-up…
Academic Peer review tests the arguments put forward.
[1] beyond salacious newsprint headlines designed to sell copy
July 27, 2019
Margaret, actually I think the following tv programs are more responsible for bigneilās view than any paper newspaper (a dying news medium);
Benefits Britain
Canāt Pay Weāll Take it Away
BBC doc about Universal Credits, Benefit Caps etc.
Eg May Single parents and their children have lost challenges against the government’s controversial benefits cap at the UK’s highest court. They said it was discriminatory to cap state benefits at Ā£20,000 a year, or Ā£23,000 for those in London.
Working full time on the national living wage would give you a Gross not net, a gross pay of Ā£16,009, two adults working full time are living on a similar net income.
We canāt all afford to live in London working full time, people do horrendous commutes away from their families. But get pregnant, once in the uk and lose your job and claim, weāre told they can take their landlord to the cleaners for 6 months, stop paying and weāre told they are getting rehoused and given more net income than working people.
July 27, 2019
@a-tracy; Could you inform us how in-work benefits are dealt with when it comes to the benefits cap, after all UC (and the relevant prior benefits) is just as much about those in work on low waged as those without wage/income.
July 29, 2019
jerry, I don’t know how ‘in-work benefits are dealt with when it comes to the benefits cap’ I’ve never claimed in work or out of work benefits. Do you know? I’m intrigued now.
I know that you can work the benefits system to obtain the maximum reward for the minimum working effort. An example of this is that if you are contracted to work 16 hours per week (2 eight hour days), you can get maximum top up benefits but you mustn’t go below 16 hours. There is a work around where if you request all 13 weeks school holidays off work whether paid or unpaid you can still max out on the benefits.
July 26, 2019
Every single study proves that immigrants pay more in tax than they take out in benefits. Away with your lazy ignorant bigotry
July 26, 2019
Interesting.
Considering the majority of new arrivals, like the majority of the indigenous population earn below higher rate income tax levels.
Therefore they can apply for a range of benefits like child benefit, housing benefit , tax credits, free school meals and obviously they get free health care for themselves and their family and free schooling for their children.
I would be very interested to see links to your claim of “every single study” Karlo
July 26, 2019
Is that true for all immigrants or just working ones? Are these Marxist academic studies, by any chance?
July 26, 2019
Not what Robert Rowthorne found at Civitas.
In this even-handed study, the distinguished economist Robert Rowthorn reviews the evidence about the costs and benefits of recent large-scale immigration into the UK. Contrary to the headlines generated by previous studies, he demonstrates that the fiscal impact is slight while the long-term demographic impact is great; and that while some may gain from large influxes of people from overseas, others-usually those with least say in the matter-stand to lose out
July 27, 2019
Edward2, Jagman84: Could you please reassure me and tell me that you know all this from a thorough study of the annually published (Marxist?) HMRC document “UK Income Tax Liabilities Statistics” available from assets.publishing.service.gov.uk?
Or is it as so often just the fruit of your rambling imaginations?
July 27, 2019
Karol please provide links to the studies you are quoting from, do they include top up tax credits, housing benefit, etc.?
July 27, 2019
If you think Karlo’s original ridiculous claim is correct them give us the benefit of your self proclaimed mighty intellect hefner and tell us why.
July 27, 2019
Edward2: As said above by graham1946 “you could always do your own research” “you have never knowingly provided a fact for any of your rants”. What about getting out of this blog for a few hours and actually spending time reading books on various topics of your choice?
July 27, 2019
Never a remainer post without a personal insult.
Use your self proclaimed superior intellect and answer my question.
July 26, 2019
Jerry, You are right, we need to have low tariffs judiciously applied to nudge component manufacture back to the UK.
July 26, 2019
No we need zero tariffs across the board, set corporate tax to zero, loosen employment rights, cut govt services by half
July 27, 2019
Almostdead, No I don’t think we should have zero tariffs and zero corporation tax. I suspect most people in the country don’t either. So it won’t happen.
July 27, 2019
Why? Tariffs create distortions in trade. Even John wants us to be a beacon of free trade. If this is the goal, drop the pretence. A zero corporate tax rate would boost foreign investment and force smaller government….a win-win.
July 26, 2019
A lesson from the past. When Spain switched from the Peseta to the Euro, a cup of coffee went from 100 pesetas to 1.0 euro. An increase of well over 100%.
There has been much remainer and big business talk about how leave will increase the price of food. We are in much need of a mechanism to ensure that this does not happen in the case of all imported food. It is a subject that I hope our free press really concentrates on and pillories retailers for taking advantage of the consumer. In fact retail prices should be carefully watched from now as I would not dismiss retailers from increasing prices in anticipation.
July 26, 2019
Didn’t the same happen with UK decimilisation – we were assured that prices wouldn’t be affected but in fact they doubled pretty much overnight?
July 26, 2019
You wonāt believe the press anyway – unless they repeat the rantings of a
Brexit Party stooge.
How are you enjoying your right to free movement? Spain kicked you out yet – or are you the right kind of immigrant?
July 26, 2019
Andy, It is quite sensible not to believe Remain dribbles in the media. I stopped even listening to the BBC, it’s so Remain biased.
Either we have a right to control our immigration (and other nations do too), or we can have free movement and the EAW. Neither you nor I can have it both ways. I want to control immigration and get shot of the EAW – that means no free movement. And I’m in the majority.
July 26, 2019
Helping keep their economy afloat dear boy. They seem happy enough.
July 26, 2019
Trust me you have not doing anything of the sort
July 26, 2019
The same thing happened in Greece where I lived. I remember a Bus fare went from 250 Drz to 1 Euro (conversion was 340). A lot of everyday things went up almost overnight by 25%+, and yet curiously this rampant inflation never showed in the statistics. Odd that. But the inflation was to be expected. As a friend remarked, who had sat on the Court of the Bank of England, ‘we saw it with decimalisation, so could have told them that’. Indeed.
July 26, 2019
Andy, I remember a Giles cartoon of a cafe where the price of a cuppa was 9p, the old price of 9d having been crossed out. We knew it was happening.
July 26, 2019
The opening salvos between Johnson and Barnier suggest that a default no deal is more likely than not. In parliament J R-M, now Leader of the House, pointed out several times in answers to questions that a no deal exit is the default position in law. After being rejected three times the WA is dead. Nor will the EU get any UK cash unless and until the HoC approves it – and that will require a new agreement acceptable to the government before it gets to the HoC and it too approves it.
A recent article on ConservativeHome examined possible outcomes/alternatives open to those opposed to no deal. A VONC was the strongest card, qualified by the fact that the government controls the actual date of a GE and that it was possible for it to defer that date into November, after the UK has left. No doubt J R-Ms strong grasp of parliamentary procedure and the order of business, courtesy of his new and powerful role as Leader of the House, will be critical to getting the UK’s exit over the line. In his first outing yesterday, he gave an assured performance, even got SNP MPs to laugh, and his put down of Mr Brake will surely cause others to pause before making silly preliminary comments before putting a question to him.
July 26, 2019
As you say, the first serious conversation between Barnier and Boris points to an immovable object (Barnier) meeting an irresistable force (Boris). Barnier is trying to make it seem that we are the immovable object by saying he could insert some weasel words into the dead duck of the WTA.
This apparent impasse can be overcome by a WTO deal. At a stroke, Barnier and the EU27 will be confronted by the folly of their own intransigence. I suggest they have a lot more to lose that we do. Exports to them are much lower than imports; and anyway, leaving the EU wasn’t about trade it was about sovereignty. And businesses on both sides are flexible enough to find ways round any restrictions.
After the American War of independence during and after which we blockaded the US, business between us was higher within three years of the end than it had been before when the US was British colony.
July 26, 2019
Mockbeggar
“when the US was British colony.”
The US was never a British colony. The group of thirteen American colonies on the Atlantic coast were British colonies who after independence formed the United States of America. The rest of America was then still mostly in French (Louisiana etc) or Spanish hands (Florida, Texas etc).
July 26, 2019
Margaret Howard, Not entirely true. After 1763 British rule extended west to the Mississippi, and from the Great Lakes in the north (now Canada), to Baton Rouge on the south coast, including Florida. See the Treaty of Paris, 1763, where France lost all its land east of the Mississippi whilst giving Louisiana to Spain.
July 26, 2019
Well, gaining their independence and not being ruled from over the sea did not do them much harm did it? We will be better when we gain our independence and rule from the UK.
July 26, 2019
I do not know the WTO regulations for tariffs.
I do know they have to be fair so that every country enjoys the same tariffs.
If we reduce those tariffs as you say, will that accord with the WTO?
July 26, 2019
Following the downturn in German car manufacturing, we could protect our own factories by putting 25% tariff on cars. The EU could only apply the lower tariff that it applies to the rest of the world. We could make Ford, Citroen and German models under licence as well as the Japanese models already made here, using engines made here. Factories are more flexible today and robots can be reprogrammed to weld different body parts, which would be free of tariffs.
July 26, 2019
The UK can’t put a 25% tariff on cars. The maximum allowed under WTO is 10%.
July 26, 2019
The WTO sets no maximum tariff on cars or on anything else. In fact the WTO sets no tariffs at all on anything, maximum or minimum or anything in between. As far as the highest tariffs on cars are concerned they may be those applied in South America:
https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/mercosur-high-auto-tariffs-are-all-part-game
“But the appeal of a large market is just part of the reason for the factories’ location. The other is Mercosur’s high tariffs on vehicle imports. Brazil, for instance, charges a 35 percent fee, while Argentina keeps its automotive tariffs around 30 percent.”
There’s a map of the world there with colour shading to show the various levels of tariffs applied, and India is notably higher:
http://www.siamindia.com/economic-afairs.aspx?mpgid=16&pgid1=18&pgidtrail=20
July 26, 2019
Mike,
The WTO sets a maximum tariff on each type of good. Countries then lodge their MFN schedules with the WTO in which they can specify a tariff of anything between zero and the WTO maximum. That schedule then applies to all countries not otherwise covered by a Free Trade Agreement.
July 26, 2019
The EU tariffs also work in our favour. Almost all shellfish we produce goes to the EU, we don’t eat much here (frankly as far as I’m concerned you can leave the mussels in the sea). Perhaps that is one industry that will have to take a hit.
I think however we should not have arrangements that allow foreign vessels to fish in our waters and then land their catch in the EU with no tariffs, whilst the fish from the same waters fished by our boats should be hit with tariffs. Let the foreign boats pay us the tariff.
July 26, 2019
Don’t be so pessemistic about shellfish. The Dutch, Belgians, French, Spanish, Portugese et al eat them in profusion. You only have to witness supermarket fish counters in Spain to understand this. Mariscos are the turkeys of Spain at Christmas time. Profusion, variety and acceptable prices are the norm. I pay ā¬8toā¬10 a kilo for 4 to 5 inch prawns (Langustinos) not inclusive of head length. In Tesco’s they price miniscule prawns at Ā£22.00 /kilo, every little helps the bottom line of course.
The Europeans are wedded to shellfish like our capital is to wacky baccy. They will want to buy it from us direct, whatever the expense diners of the EU have to say on the subject.
Generally EU fishing boats do not fish for shellfish around the UK. It is too close inshore. Your hated mussels are mostly farmed as are oysters. Clams are dug out of tidal sand. You are absolutely correct about fishing. The downside of EU fish counters is the size of the fish they consider harvestable. Cod little bigger than Mackeral and unbelievably small Turbot. We need a very strong regime of sustainability in our waters for a number of years. I would advocate line catching Cod, so that the small ones can be returned to grow. Any foreign boats we licence must be policed to ensure no rule breaking. No more nets for catching fish and another set for the inspectors. We will need a fleet of fishery patrol vessels, good for RN command training.
I feel positive for the future of our fishing industry. It could become a bigger exporter than it is at present. Should the British change their eating habits it could also counter the plague of obesity we are witness to every day.
July 26, 2019
Dave, we should not have arrangements that allow foreign vessels to fish in our waters – full stop.
All foreign fishing in our waters must stop.
Too, we need to restore our fishing grounds by having a 30% ‘No-take’ area + a further 10% buffer zone with some protection (Note: the recent ‘special protection’ for 30% of our waters is a start to fulfil the 2004 Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution report – but the protection offered is often just a paper tiger. Strict ‘No-take’ is what is needed.).
We also need to ban fishing methods that damage the sea-bed – scallop-dredging being one of these, and again, where most of the product goes to the EU.
(recommended read: Feral by George Monbiot. Chapter 13 -Rewilding the Sea. He notes Sarah Lester 2009 ‘ Biological effects within no-take marine reserves: a global synthesis’: On average, in 124 marine reserves studied around the world, some of which have only been in existence for only a few years, the total weight of animals and plants has quadrupled since they were established. The size of the animals inhabiting them has also increased, and so has their diversity. In most cases the shift is visible within two to five years.’ He also notes that UK fish stocks have reduced dramatically over the centuries, and that just from 1889-2010 our fish stocks have reduced by 94% – Ruth Thomas ‘The effects of 118 years of industrial fishing on UK bottom trawl fisheries).
July 26, 2019
I would prefer no EU boats in UK Waters. I would like the seas to recover from the chronic over fishing that has occurred. Then lets have small fishery which would maintain and enhance fish stocks and rebuild coastal communities.
July 26, 2019
Andy, it would be really helpful if you could amend your identification so that we can tell the difference between you and your depressing namesake.
July 26, 2019
Agreed, sm. This Andy invariably writes sense, so he is distinguishable from The Other. But a clearer identification would prevent hackles automatically rising when we see the name ”Andy”!
(Well said about the fishing though.)
July 26, 2019
LJ,
I have suggested a ‘handle’ change for this Andy many times. There is a good chance many of his sensible postings are simply bypassed.
Oddly, I was thinking he could call himself ‘Andy!’ but your exclamation mark is after your quote marks. Alternatively, could he insert some sort of image in the box to the left of his name on the posting? I am not sure how this is done, but some people seem to have managed it.
Come on Andy, please do us all a favour. You are worth reading!
July 26, 2019
You mean you can’t tell ???
July 26, 2019
Andy
” I would like the seas to recover from the chronic over fishing that has occurred.”
Well you will be pleased the with the following then:
May 2003
EU tightens cod fishing rules
The European Commission has announced a recovery plan to save cod from extinction in the North Sea and other fishing grounds around Britain.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3004525.stm
It worked and cod is now regarded as sustainable once again.
Unfortunately I’m afraid that after Brexit our governments may well allow our fishermen slip back into old habits again!
July 27, 2019
MH, you are writing from a position of zero knowledge. Use your eyes in the EU and you will see baby cod, dover sole and many other species openly for sale. Their fishermen make no attempt whatsoever to follow EU rules. We’re the only nation that does. The sooner we get their boats out of our fishing grounds, the sooner our stocks will start to recover. Please, MH, do some research before spouting nonsense on this site!
July 27, 2019
Margaret,
after Brexit our governments may well allow our fishermen slip back into old habits again!
This time the waters will be OURS!
July 27, 2019
Fred H
“This time the waters will be OURS!”
But with the cod know the difference?
July 27, 2019
No we will use the relevant Ministry here in the UK to devise good conservation policies after discussions with the industry.
That is what used to happen quite successfully before the EU took over our role.
July 27, 2019
Margaret Howard, But the “old habits” were EU habits – both over-fishing and throwing dead edible fish back into the sea.
July 27, 2019
MH – Owen Paterson today: āThe Common Fisheries Policy has been a biological, environmental, economic and social catastrophe which has ruined coastal communities and brought devastation to our marine environment…”
July 30, 2019
Margaret: “after Brexit our governments may well allow our fishermen slip back into old habits again!”
What chutzpah.
You’d have thought that British fishermen didn’t know how to husband their resources over the thousand years they’ve been fishing the waters around the United Kingdom. Suddenly forty three years ago, they went ‘apeshit’ and started ravaging their ancestral fishing grounds.
When what really happened is that forty three years ago, fishing grounds that had traditionally been exploited by the British, were suddenly available to Luxembourg – no coast, no fishing industry, Spain, no tradition of fishing in Northern waters, Greece – ditto, etc.
Suddenly, from nowhere, the whole of British fishing grounds were thrown over to exploitation by anyone anywhere in the EU. The ‘tragedy of the commons’ writ large.
It’s not as if the European Union fishing fleet are a pestilence only in European Union waters, they’ve been ravaging African coastal waters too, contributing in no small part to the massive migration out of Africa into Europe by displacing the traditional indigenous fishing industry there too.
July 31, 2019
margaret howard: “EU tightens cod fishing rules. The European Commission has announced a recovery plan to save cod from extinction in the North Sea and other fishing grounds around Britain.”
While it’s may be true the ‘EU tightens cod fishing rules’, it’s only come about that the EU has seen fit to do this because, and you only have to read a few words further … because under the CFP – common fisheries policy, in only 43 years, Cod is in danger of extinction with in what were formerly exclusively British fishing waters.
I don’t really hold any ill will toward ‘margaret howard’ but when somebody persistently presents such untruths and deceit and lies as fact, even the most even tempered individual should say ‘enough is enough’.
July 26, 2019
We certainly need to move to the details very rapidly. The new optimism is great but will carry us for a few days. Over the summer the Boris govt needs to paint a vivid picture of post brexit Britain and how its going to get us there.
One thing to avoid is the perception of a sterling crisis. Nothing will undermine confidence in Brexit more than a currency collapse. We need strong supply side measures, and we do not need emergency isn’t-brexit-awful interest rate cuts from the BoE.
July 26, 2019
When does Carney’s contract expire?
July 26, 2019
Richard1
I wonder why the Ā£ hasn’t moved since the Boris ‘election’ (by 2% of the population)? With the elation expressed by Brexiteers on these pages one would have thought sterling had jumped back into action instead of remaining flat as a pancake.
Does the business world know something they don’t?
July 26, 2019
That’s so funny Margaret.
When the pound falls you say “it has dropped like a stone” and often you say it is due to Brexit.
So now after Boris has become PM and the Pound hasn’t moved much either way you say it should have gone up.
July 26, 2019
The main risk by far to the UK economy is a quasi-marxist govt. There will be no recovery in sterling – or in business investment – until that threat is lifted.
July 26, 2019
MH,
The Ā£ rose against the Au$ on Boris’s election and has certainly not fallen against others.. By your thinking, surely it should have plummeted significantly on the increased prospect of a (very sensible) WTO Brexit.
A year down the road, Sterling will be booming – unlike the Euro which will be facing Armageddon.
July 27, 2019
Pominoz
The following entry says it all:
“The Australian dollar is the legal tender of Australia, and the currency of three independent Pacific Island states, specifically Kiribati, Nauru, and Tuvalu. It was introduced on 14 February 1966 when the pre-decimal Australian pound, with subunits of shillings and pence, was replaced by the new decimal currency, the Australian dollar.”
Meanwhile the euro has replaced the Ā£ as the largest world currency after the American $ used by a population of 342 m against the Australian $ used by 24m people and of no importance to the rest of the world.
Dream on.
July 29, 2019
mh,
And your point is?
July 27, 2019
MH
Well apart from the fact that the pound rose against both the US dollar and the Euro… Great post
July 26, 2019
What will the government do to mitigate inflation on and after the 31st Oct? Will we be ready to have alternative sources of produce from other countries , I think not and the consumer will take a hit until we do, which may be many months of even years.
July 26, 2019
It’s a shame that this administration has to start 10 metres behind the starting line in a 100mtr race, because of the stupidity of TM administration. It’s going to take a few weeks for the EU to get it into their heads that we’re now deadly serious, which we never were before.
Cummings is an important factor in driving this. If he can get and keep the remainder of the team into a narrow laser-beam focus on precisely what we need, we’re there.
Spend a bit of time, say 5%, on changing and throwing their WA back at them with multiple changes and a teacher’s 3/10, (500 pages is no more than the average teacher’s weekly marking schedule, I’m sure) and they either agree it or we walk away, where 94 of the next 98 days should be spent in preparing.
July 26, 2019
There’s only ever been one thing within our power to control, and that’s working towards a WTO Brexit. Everything else has been dependent on how willing the EU were to adapt and break free of the very effective shackles they’ve created through their treaties. Sadly, May lacked the ability to present a dynamic vision of an alternative future for the EU, so in effect, she colluded with them to keep the status quo, much to the satisfaction of Brussels.
Before we set out on our journey into the future, we must have a fundamental understanding of where we want to go and our chosen route to get there, aka your “narrow laser-beamed focus”! Alongside this, we should take care not to imply through our tariff regime that we wouldn’t consider re-skilling programmes or reintroducing manufacturing lost through EU membership. It will be a massive task to establish which areas we want to support to ensure our long-term prosperity, but it’s vital to get it right. This will require Parliament as a whole to act with maturity, put political posturing aside and exercise uncustomary flair and imagination. I’m suddenly very concerned!
July 26, 2019
Surely less concerned now than 6 months ago with hopeless May and her gloom and doom. Things like business rates need completely revisiting. It stops people taking the risk of renting or building large scale premises and encourages them to use their skills in a back room alone.
The BES scheme was great for saving tax by investing in business – the EIS and VCT schemes are far more limited in scope.
Why not let students off their loan repayments if they pay the same amount through Corporation tax having set up a business and give them a loan break while they do?
So many ideas now that May and the gloomsters have (we hope) crawled away.
July 26, 2019
In their slavish EU madness successive govts have purposely destroyed local production of just about every food. Except for cheese maybe but that was down to a similar scam in the 1800s
How strange that all these carbon-fearing, green warrior politicians have dismantled the very system that would never have caused any environmental problems. Well not really strange at all cos it was only ever about making dosh for the corporatocracy ( obscene amounts) by cutting out the smaller producers in the UK. ( war was always very good ruse for doing that …as with egglers put out of business in the last war. And Churchillās mass slaughter of cattle).
Scams..scams…scams and more scams.
Handing our food production over to the EU…just like our manufacturing.
What was/is our destiny? The land of many housing estates??
July 26, 2019
I do hope that you won’t get agreement on the backstop by agreeing to staying in the Customs Union.
This would be a sellout of biblical proportions and would turbo boost the Brexit Party.
July 26, 2019
Why? You and 99% of Brexiteers – including most Tory MPs – had not heard of the customs union in June 2016.
You did not vote to leave something you did not know existed.
July 26, 2019
This sort of argument can be applied to Remainers too.
July 26, 2019
Oh yes we did Andy.
There was loads spoken about it during the referendum campaign.
Presumably all you clever young remain fans were already experts on the Customs Union
Lol
July 26, 2019
Stupid comment. The protective customs union, favouring German manufacture and French agriculture, was a major factor in the decision to Leave. The main reason was the continued erosion of national sovereignty and self-determination, all part of the Project from it’s earliest days.
āEuropeās nations should be guided towards the superstate without their people understanding what is happening. This can be accomplished by successive steps, each disguised as having an economic purpose, but which will eventually and irreversibly lead to federation.ā
ā Jean Monnet.
Your personal Utopia is a lie, built on lies from its inception. We’re off, if you don’t like it, relocate.
July 26, 2019
We are off. And weāll also be back.
All we have to do to undo Brexit is wait.
Demographics will do the rest.
Brexit is largely a xenophobic project of angry elderly white men.
It is, by definition, a time limited project.
July 26, 2019
When people see the falling standards of living in the EU after we leave, they won’t be so keen to join.
July 26, 2019
Just hate to offer as usual, I see!
Sadly (for you), there will be ample supply of ageing converts to the cause of maintaining an independent UK. This rising ‘angry pensioner’ demo-graph will be more than enough to negate the nefarious deeds of the Marxist teaching profession. Indeed, Marxism is the real time-limited project.
Still laughing at you ‘Andy’.
July 26, 2019
Great post!
July 26, 2019
You couldn’t begin to know what I know. The EU is a Customs Union first and last and was always thus.
July 26, 2019
The EU is in fact a common regulatory union. The “regulatory union” means that its members adopt common rules, common administrative, surveillance and enforcement systems, and common dispute resolution. They must also accept the jurisdiction of a governing body which has to power to monitor and enforce compliance with the rules and systems which bind its members.
July 27, 2019
Andy, I have noticed another defining characteristic of Remains. You suddenly discover something – the customs union in this case – then assume that because you’ve only just discovered it, that no one else knows.
I have a copy of the Lisbon treaty (from 2008) where the customs union is plainly defined. However what you miss is that VoteLeave featured heavily taking back control of our trade policy – that covers the CCP, CU, and even the SM. Just because it’s new to you, doesn’t mean it’s new to others.
July 26, 2019
Juncker: āThe only possible deal is the one rejected by your parliament three times.ā
Boris: āFair enough matey, give me a call if you change your mind. Ta-ta.ā
July 26, 2019
Junker: don’t think so Boris I will be away on Summer break August September, gotta catch up on some leave before I retire end of october. After 1st November mrs von der leyon will be at the office, am sure she’ll give you a call to exchange pleasantries
Boris: but..but..what about tick tick?
Junker: sorry Boris can’t hear you, there’s too much bloody noise at end of term bash
July 26, 2019
It is a pity the Leave side feel the need to continue with this nonsense “Oh great we have lost our customers we`ll save on paper clips !”.
There is a great question for the country as we tip into No Deal” What do we become now ” and it has to be treated more seriously than this. For what its with this is my view
1 Up Front preparation – Any company that has failed to prepare by now does not deserve to live or has no future whatever it does.- I do not see days one to 100 , as the problem many do.
2 The structural problem is indeed serious
The UK does not only export and import from Europe but its is a vital component of our economy We are now the worst country in Europe in which to locate….
Any financial service requiring capital on shore
Any academic research based product development
Various kinds of media company
Motor obviously
Pharmaceutical start ups
and more
All of these problems are far worse when it comes to start ups new factories or new initiatives
So much is going to go into long term decline, it may be worse than the treasury think as well as better
The question where do we find comparative advantage with markets and suppliers to replace this leeching or growth
Who will find the new models
I think there will be answers although I cannot see them now .They will come form the young the educated and seed business of today.They will come from Remain. This government owes the remain strivers , the young the ambitious the innovative a great debt and it will not be paid buy continuing to spout nonsense
When do we start to talk about reality and when do we start to think ?
July 26, 2019
It will come from both. And this is to discount everything that Leave voters do – like build buildings, keep cars on the road by fixing them and the national grid going.
July 26, 2019
You make a statement “we are now the worst country in Europe in which to locate”
And then give a long list of sectors you claim are affected.
All of this is complete and utter nonsense.
You are just making random stuff up Newmania.
July 27, 2019
Edward2
“And then give a long list of sectors you claim are affected.
All of this is complete and utter nonsense”
No doubt you will grace these pages soon with your point by point repudiation of these claims.
July 27, 2019
No
Because the orginal statement upon which the list is based is completely wrong.
July 27, 2019
Just as soon as you grace these pages, MH, with your point by point reasons why the EU is such a fantastic organisation; as you’ve been challenged to do many times before.
No………..thought not
July 27, 2019
Edward 2
the utter nonsense about EU living standards, when the UK leaves seems to very similar to other rather airy predictions you have made in the past.
Difficult to take seriously
July 27, 2019
What are you ranting on about bill?
I am entitled to look at the mounting problems of debts and the falling share of world trade and low growth and high unemployment in the EU and conclude their future looks less likely to be good for standards of living than here in the UK after we become free.
But you are a big fan of the EU.
So I realise you will not agree.
July 27, 2019
Newmania
It would help if you actually checked because you are just plain wrong but then facts are never your strong point are they
Get back to me if you want the real answer to how things are performing in the real world
July 26, 2019
Thank goodness you have not been invited into the Cabinet . I rely on you to keep me upto speed on what happens next.
July 26, 2019
On the box last night they said that tariffs will put up the price of a family car by 10%. Is this true? What about cars made here? Or in Korea or Japan?
It must have been the BBC – Newsnight, I think- because they had to mention the price increase of a FAMILY car. A simple ‘car price increaseā clearly wouldnāt do.
Reply No tariffs on UK made cars and non EU already incur a 10% tariff. We have a choice whether to continue with a 10% tariff or to cut it to make foreign cars cheaper
July 26, 2019
There are plenty of good second hand cars to be had and modern cars last much longer than the old ones and are consequently greener too. Why spend loads of money, which is shed like rainwater as soon as you leave the showroom just to show off to the neighbours? 95 percent of the time cars are standing deteriorating outside losing money, not being used. New cars are probably the worst way to spend and lose money other than caravans or fast women and slow horses.
July 26, 2019
And when all the demand switches to these ???
(Fast women are good value btw.)
July 26, 2019
If only UK car manufacturers made second hand cars and not new ones.
July 26, 2019
If only new cars weren’t such a poor ‘investment’.
There will always be people wanting new and most sales these days on on hire contracts, so there will always be second hand cars about and with even lower resale values. The boom of a couple of years ago will result in a huge stock to clear when the contracts come to an end. The astute will pick up bargains.
July 26, 2019
Retro-engineered EV classic vehicles are now available, albeit at a premium price! A Rolls-Royce Corniche from ā¬250k. No discounts for angry pensioners, sadly… sigh!
July 26, 2019
Reply to reply – it’s not going to happen. The car market is flat in its back. Manufacturers will absorb the duty if any and UK makers won’t pay anyway. Infact with cheap non EU components will be even cheaper.
July 26, 2019
As of yesterday we are clearly into a new age of “Can Do” politics and talking up our Country rather than the unrelenting negativity that we’ve seen in the last four years from the Remainer establishment. It’s a complete contrast and a true breath of fresh air.
It’s now OK to feel good about our Country, again. Whoever would have thought that Boris could achieve so much for just one session at the dispatch box ? The Conservative Party have undoubtedly chosen the right man. Yesterday’s performance was something totally beyond the ability of Jeremy Hunt.
From now the Labour front bench and the other doubters and Remainers on all sides of the House will be seen for what they really are, invariably downbeat and determined to drag the Country down. I can’t wait to hear Soubry try asking Boris a question.
July 26, 2019
Wait and see.
July 26, 2019
Meanwhile we have the beginnings of a stand off. Boris says āNoā . Then Barnier replies āNonā.
How does this play out? Does the UK trot off to Brussels for more meetings which achieve nothing or do we just intensify āNo Dealā preparations and bide our time?
July 26, 2019
I think the answer is clear, and let us hope Boris has made that decision too. If the EU refuse to negotiate a new deal there is only one way forward. Personally I would like to see the new Cabinet make that decision and get on with mitigating problems that a No Deal will incur. No time should be lost because the EU will not budge. Everyone knows that.
July 26, 2019
We leave on 31st October, as is the law of the land.
The Government controls the legislative agenda.
The only way the Remaniacs in Parliament can introduce new legislation is by changing the Government.
There are 25 sitting days of Parliament until 31st October.
Boris needs to string out ‘negotiations’ until it is too late for a Vote of No Confidence to dissolve Parliament in time.
July 26, 2019
You are forgetting the other options.
Revolution and civil war.
The mobility scooter brigade probably wonāt win.
July 27, 2019
Andy, Most Remain voters simply didn’t want to rock the boat, and so many said we should stay in and “reform” the EU. Because even Remain voters recognised that the EU is sub-optimal. But the last 3 years has shown that the EU is as intransigent and hostile as Leaves said. You’ve lost, Andy – you just don’t know it yet.
July 27, 2019
NickC
More Brexiter nonsense
July 26, 2019
Don’t go to Brussels except to talk to the Belgian PM. Go to Berlin, Paris, Rome, Madrid, The Hague, Dublin etc. and talk to their premiers. Let them talk to Brussels.
It’s their countries’ industries that will suffer without free trade arrangements in place, as well as ours. The Commission care not a jot for the people of Europe, just their power and precious project.
July 26, 2019
Dave Andrews- thing is its likely the very opposite will happen. There’s atually no point in Boris going to Berlin or France etc because all have already closed ranks and are gone on hols until mid September. They for their part are prepared to take the hit..but what about the british public? will they feel the same when the channel ports are seized up? I doubt it? it will be just more excuse for English whinge……
July 27, 2019
Kees, Why will the channel ports seize up if there is no trade?
July 26, 2019
Correct. Already both Varadkar and Merkel have recognised they need to talk. A German spokesman called for the sides to be fair to each other – a novel concept so far as Barnier is concerned.
July 27, 2019
I was amused by the outgoing Juncker offering Boris his mobile number. Boris should have responded ‘no thanks, you are yesterday’s EU man. We won’t be calling any of you, but should you come to your senses follow the official channels to approach us. Bye!’
July 26, 2019
I wouldn’t even think about it until they indicate they are willing to talk and even then I’d invite them to London. Demanding that our PM should travel to Brussels at 4.30 in the morning to be insulted is demeaning and no way to go on, unless you are a weak willed Remainer. (Come to think of it that is May). We are their customer, whoever heard of a large supplier demanding that the customer grovel to be sold their stuff? Let them make the move, we can manage perfectly well without their ‘deals’ if they insist.
July 26, 2019
And they can manage perfectly well without you if you insist.
July 27, 2019
Almostdead: “And they can manage perfectly well without you if you insist“. That is a truly silly statement. In extremis, such as war, both the the rEU and the UK could manage without the other. I assume you aren’t saying this is actually war? The reality is that trade will continue under WTO rules – probably not as much as before on both sides, and probably decreasing.
July 27, 2019
Haven’t you heard of the Brexit Cold War?
July 26, 2019
We should table a tariff-free trade deal as our host suggested three years ago, intensify āNo Dealā preparations and bide our time.
We aren’t going to get anywhere with Barnier and Co yet because they still don’t believe we will really leave on October 31st.
With all due respect to the deservedly-promoted Andrea Leadsom, Brussels doesn’t appreciate that with Constitutional expert, JRM now in charge of Commons business, the chances of the Remainers thwarting Brexit are greatly diminished.
JRM knows all the tricks and is perfectly capable of outwitting the likes of Grieve and Bercow.
Come 30th October, the phone will start to ring.
July 26, 2019
I’m afraid it won’t
July 27, 2019
Almostdead, Good, because that means WTO trading, which is as close to the EU that I, and many others, want to get.
July 26, 2019
We all hope for the latter. And how good it was to see Corbyn and McDonnell looking miserable yesterday. I’m trying not to hope for too much from BoJo, but he’s made a good start.
July 26, 2019
We should just advise the eurocracy what are our proposals for trade after leaving … a FTA. And let them come back to say yes or no, and if it’s no then its WTO. seems simple to me.
July 26, 2019
It will be WTO, we won’t get a FTA with the EU for a decade.
July 27, 2019
Almostdead, Excellent. By which time we won’t need it anyway.
July 26, 2019
We should just say very publicly and loudly so all the world can hear:
“OK, if you are going be that stupid then we won’t waste our time trying to negotiate any new special and deep future treaty with you, but maybe you’ll still have enough common sense to settle some lower-level practical and technical arrangements to keep trade and other important everyday interactions going?
Or does your stupidity and arrogance extend to turning your backs on us even at the most basic level, despite what it says in your own EU treaties?”
In fact we should have said that in the autumn of 2017:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2019/07/23/today-the-conservative-party-elects-a-new-leader/#comment-1039381
āSo we should now say that rather than kowtow to the stupid destructive intransigence of the EU we will fall back on WTO trade rules and only seek agreements on the practical or technical aspects of continuing trade.”
July 26, 2019
Thanks for all the replies. I agree with all of them, though I would not bother sending the top team to the European capitals either. You could send a functionary to sound them out, but not the Prime Minister or a senior figure from the Cabinet. If they wish to come to London fine – so long as they bring something to discuss.
Meanwhile ramp up āNo Dealā preparations and prepare to do battle with Extreme Remain within the Conservative Party and elsewhere in Parliament. Maintain communications with the Brexit Party and have a strategy in case a General Election is actually triggered before we leave.
July 27, 2019
The EU doesn’t need to do anything regarding “the practical or technical aspects of continuing trade”. It will get everything it needs as we lower tariffs on most things to zero. Sure the friction will be greater, but business in the EU will adapt.
July 27, 2019
As we are frequently told it is not all about tariffs.
July 27, 2019
But as you have said before trade facilitation deals are mostly useless. They have little impact on the bottom line, so why should the EU make lower-level practical and technical arrangements with the UK. I though no deal was just fine?
July 27, 2019
Almostdead, You will have to define what you mean by a “deal”. What I mean is a trade deal, and I normally stipulate “trade” deal to make it clear. So “No deal” means no comprehensive RTA.
It does not mean that we will not make minor agreements – as we do already with other nations – to cover such things as driving licences, double taxation, and landing rights. The EU may refuse to reciprocate, and we will have to live with that. But so will the EU.
July 27, 2019
Nope, I have never said that trade facilitation deals are useless. I have said that in general the overall economic gain from a free trade deal will be low, and much lower than people are led to believe, compared to trading on basic WTO terms without any special or preferential trade deal. That is not the same as saying there will be no point in removing unnecessary impediments to the free flow of trade, whatever the treaty basis for that trade may be, and whether or not there are tariffs to be applied, and in fact the EU collectively and each of its member states individually have signed up to the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement:
https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tradfa_e/tradfa_e.htm
“Bureaucratic delays and āred tapeā pose a burden for moving goods across borders for traders. Trade facilitation – the simplification, modernization and harmonization of export and import processes – has therefore emerged as an important issue for the world trading system.
WTO members concluded negotiations at the 2013 Bali Ministerial Conference on the landmark Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), which entered into force on 22 February 2017 following its ratification by two-thirds of the WTO membership. The TFA contains provisions for expediting the movement, release and clearance of goods, including goods in transit. It also sets out measures for effective cooperation between customs and other appropriate authorities on trade facilitation and customs compliance issues. It further contains provisions for technical assistance and capacity building in this area.”
Therefore it is not unreasonable to expect the EU and its continuing member states to meet their treaty obligation by using their best endeavours to facilitate continuing trade with the UK, whether or not that trade is to be tariff-free.
July 27, 2019
“That is not the same as saying there will be no point in removing unnecessary impediments to the free flow of trade” Who decides that the “impediments” to trade between the EU and UK are unnecessary? The EU can meet its Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) obligations without making additional technical arrangements with UK. The UK would be treated like any other WTO country without enhanced trade facilitation agreements, which I thought was the goal.
July 28, 2019
If you bothered to read the WTO agreement you would find that the EU is under a solemn treaty obligation to base its procedures on an objective risk assessment, which should take into account a wide range of factors.
I have repeatedly referred to Article 7.4 in posts on this blog; for example, sixteen months ago, before “AlmostDead” put in any appearance, here:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/03/20/uk-energy/#comment-925993
In that post the question was whether we would be in breach of any WTO rules if we just carried on waving stuff from the EU through at the ports as we do now, and the answer was the opposite, that we would be in breach of Article 7.4 if we were to suddenly impose unnecessary checks:
“4.4 Each Member shall base risk management on an assessment of risk through appropriate selectivity criteria. Such selectivity criteria may include, inter alia, the Harmonized System code, nature and description of the goods, country of origin, country from which the goods were shipped, value of the goods, compliance record of traders, and type of means of transport.”
I even extracted a response from Liam Fox’s department confirming that UK customs would not be unnecessarily holding up goods from the EU just because we had left the EU, and this was with or without a deal:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/08/22/why-is-the-today-programme-losing-its-listeners/#comment-956227
Note this in the response:
“The key criteria are country of origin, country from where the goods are shipped and compliance of traders. Even under a no deal scenario, these imports would constitute low risk because of the certainty of the trading partners and country of origin. High risk would be goods originating from third countries where any number of the selectivity criteria are uncertain. This is not the case in terms of imports from the EU, and a no deal scenario does not change that.”
And similar considerations should lead the EU to a similar view with respect to our exported goods; there would be no objective justification for them to start treating imports from the UK in the same way as imports from a poorly regulated and perhaps even virtually lawless country.
Of course if you prefer you can take the EU’s side against your own country; and you would not be alone in that, just part of a very small minority of disloyal citizens.
July 28, 2019
My point is that the EU will apply its existing 3rd country procedures which meet the legal requirements of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). I never said that the EU would start blocking UK imports for no reason which is why I said that trade facilitation deals are not needed while we shift trade away from the EU. However, I do believe that the risk score applied by the EU to UK goods will be different after a no deal as we won’t be adopting common rules, common administrative, surveillance and enforcement systems. Never mind the removal of a governing body which has the to power to monitor and enforce compliance with the rules and systems.
July 26, 2019
Yes, tell the Brussels cartel that we are happy to enter into a free trade deal if they want one. We should not be doing any trotting off to Brussels/Strasbourg. Instead, the government should put preparations for a WTO outcome on an accelerated āAction this Dayā footing.
July 26, 2019
While the aim is to cause no undue problems of flow, the one of encouraging, as that is what will happen Nations that in effect weaponise trade is a poor decision.
An illustration, although it would not be a direct comparison. POTUS was upset when Ford moved Car manufacturing out of the US into Mexico. The point was – that was not car production for the Mexican market, but car production to be sold in the US. In other words, Ford wanted to profit from the endeavors of the US citizens, by selling them cars, while at the same time not contributing to the society that created the wealth to afford them.
A societies wealth is created by its people, they cause through their taxes and endeavors, the infrastructure of a nation, its education, its health service and so on.
That wonderful organization the CBI, the one that the greater majority of UK industry will not have any involvement in, bangs on about āfree-tradeā. Meaning that as its main members are not in fact British but Foreign Multinationals and they want to move things around as much as possible to avoid any direct contribution of the host country. They are looking for a free ride on the back of those that make it possible.
The reality is it is not āfree-tradeā that serves us well but āfriction-free-tradeā. The EU is a prime example in order to limit they amount of trade coming in from out side the block, rather than just tariffs, they construct standards and criteria that are spurious at best but in turn act as a block to trade.
There are World recognized International Standards already agreed for most products and services, but the EU and others add to these to impede trade while seemingly conforming to WTO.
July 27, 2019
Absolutely!
July 26, 2019
Who elects the unelected bureaucrats in the WTO – and how do we remove them?
No, I know you donāt know.
July 26, 2019
They don’t deign to elect your President.
July 26, 2019
And they don’t make laws, nor demand we pay them 15 billion a year nor have open borders with all the WTO nations.
July 26, 2019
The WTO isn’t a govt
July 26, 2019
The news that Steve Baker has turned down the job that he has been
offered by Mr. Johnson fills me with some confidence – that Mr. Baker will
maintain his clear-eyed commitment to the People’s Vote. Matters are
more complicated for Thursday’s Brecon and Radnorshire by-election. I have
yet to see the Brexit Party’s publicity, but the Lib Dems appear to have a pact.
July 26, 2019
Off subject, seeing how Barnier and his friends in the EU have said in response to the PMās request for further talks, that the Withdrawal Treaty cannot be re-negotiated as their opening gambit for talks. They are saying – do as we say, take our laws we are your Rulers. In other words, there are no talks to be had.
Logic is to say thank you, we accept you position and note the EU does not want to trade or cooperate with the UK. Then we can just get on with re-building this fine and restoring proper democracy
July 27, 2019
Ian!
Fully agree.
My response to the ungrateful EU would have been something like –
‘Ok fine, ____ OFF ! and next time you need our help you can whistle’.
Just think; no more German & French cars, no more EU laws telling us what we’re not allowed to do, no more crappy products in the DIY stores, and so on.
There’s also the added delight of kicking the French out of our territorial waters, and of the Irish PM having only this to say: ‘oh bollocks we’re done for “
July 26, 2019
At the Despatch Box Boris turned his mojo full on against Labour yesterday with a 7 minute demolition of Corbyn but the Bbc only showed the very start and end sentences in 7 seconds as it demonstrated the ultimate arguments against why they hate Britain.
He said I just can’t see what this country would be like under Corbyn’s plans etc .
He noted the NHS funding relies totally upon the billions generated by the Private Sector and would not exist without it!
Brilliant speech, perhaps it could be posted here Sir John?
Later on BBC news Corbyn was addressing a supposed mass rally but not many turned up and had more in common with attending a funeral by comparison with Boris attending a party in full swing! Corbyn and McDonald are not happy.
July 26, 2019
Sir John gives us good advice regarding tariffs . The Gov should also communicate advice regarding tariffs and the benefits and problems of leaving and how they will mitigate the problems. The general public will have a better understanding if regular information is given,maybe Gove can do this on a weekly 30 minute tv slot.
July 26, 2019
Two days of Climate Change and it’s fizzled out just like a British summer.
Don’t lose heart! We will all surely die in a giant blister of ‘We told you so’ if we go to Africa on holiday for a week, by donkeys as they counter-intuitively have low carbon footprints.
July 26, 2019
Indeed, but looking at both your figures and at Briefing paper 7851, 24/07/2019 Statistics on UK-EU trade (researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk), it is clear that food is really not the reason explaining the imbalance of trade between the UK and the EU. How could it be food when the EU average tariff is 5% and everything EU food-related is (somewhat much) higher than 11.8%? Isn’t that a somewhat biased way of introducing what is a real problem, but not food-import-related?
July 26, 2019
Sir John Boris mentioned something about time to,extricate ourselves from the Customs Union .Certainly sounded like his transition idea
Did anyone else hear this ?
July 26, 2019
On the Ā£39 billion (apparently now Ā£33 billion) that the eu wants us to pay, yesterday the BBC made this political statement:
“When it comes to future talks with the EU – such as negotiating a free trade agreement – withholding the money would sour relations.”
Source:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48586677
I cannot understand the BBC’s logic. Surely, if keeping our own money sours relations, surely paying it ALSO sours relations in the other direction?
July 26, 2019
The Meteorological Office should avail itself of the proper scientific use of a thermometer.
Taking a temperature reading in for example Edinburgh one hundred years ago and taking a temperature reading in Edinburgh in 2019 is not equivalent to transplanting Edinburgh of 2019 back to 1919 and taking a temperature reading and transplanting Edinburgh of 1919 to 2019 and taking a temperature reading.
I shall not explain why. The Met Office should know why and clearly it doesn’t.
Our Universities are poor.
July 26, 2019
Indeed they just seem go round trying to find some record temperature, flood, rainfall, wind speed somewhere to puss on the BBC. For say that month, year, week, day, time of day, region or country or village. If you looks hard enough you are bound to find some record or other. Especially given the urban heat effect, air conditioning fans and rather more temperature stations. One of the last record ones was at Heathrow airport. Hardly comparable with Heathrow 100 years ago is it? Just a jet engine passing the device perhaps or heart output from the concrete or buildings!
July 26, 2019
UoaT, you must be hinting at the heat island effect, which is very real in big cities. But practically inexistent in the measurements carried out in synoptic stations, most of them in the countryside. I would guess the MetOffice is well aware of this effect, but you have to account for most of the media (in print particularly) being very keen on putting big front pages on such ‘scorching’ temperatures. No sweat really.
July 26, 2019
I like how they quote Heathrow when a Met employee stands next to a revving Trent engine waiting to take off. I logged 51 degrees in our airing cupboard. Must be climate change.
July 26, 2019
Gosh, there is so much to look forward to, and so many opportunities we can start to make the most of.
My worries remain – no pun intended – with the strength of the ‘Remain’ faction in Parliament and indeed in the Cabinet. Those in the Cabinet who voted ‘Remain’ still outnumber the ‘Leave’ voting members, something like 18 to 15 according to Guido Fawkes.
July 27, 2019
Nick O
Very true indeed. It just goes to show what is possible now the remain clap trap is silenced.
However, no need to worry about remain. It is highly likely we will leave on 31st Oct without a deal. Especially as the ungrateful EU have reiterated they will only accept May’s WA.
From that point on remain will go out with a pathetic whimper, and the more the country succeeds the more antisocial the doubters and traitors will become.
Even if they pull Boris down in the meantime, Nigel Farage is there to take the opportunity.
So it’s win – win. Do not worry about remain, like the ungrateful EU they’re going the way of dust.
July 26, 2019
Off topic.
I see that Boris is on about an amnesty for half a million ( probably double) illegals. Shows that crime really does pay, especially if you are foreign. A clearly discriminatory move, how about giving an amnesty to English born people who have committed a crime continually for many years? Wait for the massive flood of yet more of them, knowing that they can soon argue the point of why shouldn’t THEY be allowed to stay. The destruction of the UK rolls on, paid for by us from our own taxes. Glad more than 2/3 of my life has gone. The rest is going to be all downhill from here, accelerating all the way.
July 26, 2019
Bring on that snap election, Boris – with this as one of your main manifesto pledges. Exactly the opposite of what people voted for in 2016.
July 26, 2019
Yesterday I saw a tweet about a dairy in Melksham that faces disaster, “one third of its business exports cheese to Canada, the tweet claims that it is currently zero rated thanks to an EU-Canada trade deal, Canada have said no rollover trade deal and this dairy now faces a 245% tariff on cheese”. It was from a BBC report ‘What happened to post-Brexit free-trade nirvana?’
I wonder what can your government do to put this dairy owners predicament, that must be causing them sleepless nights, to bed. I also thought that I read a while back we would miss our favourite Cheddar imports from Southern Ireland as 80% of the Cheddar we eat comes from this EU region, surely we should have some joined-up thinking here and keep our road miles down by replaced lost imports with homemade Cheddar if other Countries are going to start playing this protectionism game with us. Will our department of trade be able to link up worried importers with worried exporters and build a list?
July 27, 2019
Its not protectionist. The Canadians just calculated that the published UK tariff schedule gives them 95% of what they wanted, so no need to rollover the trade deal.
July 26, 2019
So you’re confident that the overwhelmingly Remainer government is going to deliver then? I wish I shared your optimism.
July 26, 2019
I am excited by the possibilities controlling our own tarrifs affords.
Both to reduce the cost of things we do not make, it is very hard to complain about brexit when your weekly shop drops ny 10-20%.
But also the tax implications, if a BMW incurs a 10% tax then that is money the government does not have to tax elsewhere.
As someone who works in a company that produces electronic products we undoubtedly will be more successful worldwide after brexit.
The subject of trade and tariffs will determine how smoothly brexit incurs, I’m sure trade deals will eventually occur, but I’m not so sure this government will have them ready Nov 1st.
July 26, 2019
Not strictly on topic, but are we going to see a change in attitude towards our industries, particularly strategic ones.
I see there is another foreign takeover of one of our defence industries, Cobham. Is this another case which is be allowed and encouraged on the basis that everything here is for sale, under the slogan ‘open for business’, or we going to understand that prostituting ourselves for anybody with cash must to come to an end.
What does sovereignty mean if everything here is owned by foreign interests; free to either asset strip or cream of the profits and surplus cash, and all the patents, and take the lot back to their countries. And let’s not justify it by saying many invest more, who says the victim will not have being doing the same.
July 26, 2019
Researching the numbers I discover that the EU, in total (excluding UK), shares just 18.5 % of total global GDP. It is quite clear from these figures that the EU is now just a small player when set against all non-EU countries,
http://statisticstimes.com/economy/countries-by-projected-gdp.php
https://fullfact.org/europe/eu-has-shrunk-percentage-world-economy/
It would be insane for our country to again tie ourselves to the less that efficient and Protectionist EU. The World really is our Oyster, the numbers tell us so. So I wonder why so many Remainers are convinced that we shall fail by joining the much larger and much richer Rest of the World?
Such a proposition is illogical.
I note now that Boris is planning to open Free Ports around Britain like that of Singapore. And we all know what a success Singapore made of it, where their GDP per capita is twice that of the EU-shackled UK. Bring it on!
July 26, 2019
JR
Tell me John, if freeing ourselves from EU shackles will set us free to increase trade across the globe, why is it that in today’s BBC’s article on trade with Africa, for instance, by Andrew Harding : “Boris Johnson: Does Africa shrug, smile or scowl” it says and I quote:
“Meanwhile, British exports to Africa have slumped in recent years while other European countries, like Germany and Spain, have seen trade grow.”
Why? And why should it be any different now?
July 26, 2019
You missed out the bit in the BBC report where the Chairman of Invest Africa says if the UK leaves the EU “doors will open”
And he continues, ” everyone will be lining up to do deals”
July 26, 2019
Which like Spain and Germany they could have done at any time.
July 26, 2019
No
We cannot do trade deals until we leave.
Are you saying Spain exports more to Africa than the UK?
July 26, 2019
EU deals are structured to favour Germany, France, Spain, etc and to the detriment of the UK. It is even more reason to exit the evil empire ASAP.
July 27, 2019
Jagman,
What is your interpretation of an empire?
You seem to have gotten it wrong?
July 28, 2019
Oxford Dictionary – Empire:
An extensive group of states or countries ruled over by a single monarch, an oligarchy, or a sovereign state.
The EU qualifies because it is ruled by an Oligarchy.
Oxford Dictionary – Oligarchy
A small group of people having control of a country or organization.
July 28, 2019
Well said BillM.
July 26, 2019
There will be no prosperity if the PM continues with his intentions to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants and continue paying billions in foreign aid. Within 24 hours of his appointment he has disappointed his core voters. Actually disappointment is too mild a word. Disillusioned more like. Unbelievable and does not bode well for the future. Will the CP every learn?
July 26, 2019
Will the amnesty by accompanied by a clamp down on our borders and a pointed immigration system ?
No. Thought not.
Don’t Vote Conservative.
July 26, 2019
Sounds great but careful not to undercut our own UK producers.
July 26, 2019
I hear from the BBC that RT are to be fined by Ofcom for their partial coverage of the Russian poisoning reporting of their ex intelligence officer and daughter in Salisbury. This may well be justified.
However what di Ofcom propose to do about the myriad reports of incidents of biased broadcasting by the BBC. Incidents crop up in this diary almost every week. Audience manipulation of political programmes, total lack of balance of panels, biased overtalking by programme hosts, you name it the BBC practise it as their modus operandi. So where are you Ofcom, get you finger out and go for the grossest offender.
July 26, 2019
Indeed BBC blatant bias on lefty politics, climate alarmism, political correctness, anti Trump, Farrage, Boris, pro EU and their tax borrow and regulate to death big government agenda surely deserves a fine of many thousands of times this one.
July 26, 2019
Don’t worry JR you’ll be out by the 31st Oct. One thing Boris and the EU agree with- they both want the Farage group out of the EU parliament ASAP.
July 26, 2019
Agreed. All this is sensible and obvious.
If you listen to the MSM however, they try every trick in the book to rubbish GATT XXIV as a way forward. The latest is challenging Johnson on para 5(c).
In an otherwise barnstorming performance at PMQs yesterday, I was disappointed that he again had to duck a loaded question re para 5(c). He should have mugged this up by now since it simply says:
“any interim agreement referred to in subparagraphs (a) and (b) shall include a plan and schedule for the formation of such a customs union or of such a free-trade area within a reasonable length of time.”
Essentially, once you’ve agreed to enter into talks towards a trade agreement you need to also have a plan. Who wouldn’t do that if they were about to have trade talks? It doesn’t even say how detailed the plan/schedule have to be – technically a piece of paper with “Plan” written at the top is good enough – perhaps with “Get an agreement by 2030” and a few meetings arranged as a schedule.
Once you’ve done that, you can avoid Most Favoured Nation rules and do what you want with tariffs – including maintaining the status quo.
Para 5(c)is a non-obstacle, showing yet again that remoaners have nothing but dirty tricks on their side of the argument.
July 26, 2019
GATT XXIV works fine. Sign off on your debts, citizen rights and the Irish backstop [humiliating but hey this is what you voted for] and we can talk GATT XXIV. not before
July 26, 2019
You are assuming the EU will refuse to sign up to a system of trading which will benefit them Karlo.
Perhaps they will be that foolish.
We shall see very soon.
July 26, 2019
P.S. I’m slightly surprised that there was no role for JR in the Cabinet.
Pleased for Mogg though.
July 26, 2019
For the dedicated Europhiles a prosperous Great Britain outside the EU is unthinkable. It would lead other states to question their membership and then agitate to leave also.
This will put an end to the nation building project that has been the dream of European tyrants from Napoleon to Merkel.
Why do you think they insist that Mays non-negotiable surrender document is the only game in town and why they fear a WTO (no-deal) Brexit?
July 26, 2019
Daniel
“This will put an end to the nation building project that has been the dream of European tyrants from Napoleon to Merkel.”
How does that compare with the British empire? I would have thought these European nations had more in common with each other than the people of, say, India or parts of Africa had with us.
July 26, 2019
Red herring alert.
What has that got to do with comment by Daniel, margaret?
July 26, 2019
She hates the UK. Or more likely, just England. She’s possibly a current or ex-teacher. The tone of her comments would be in keeping with the profession.
July 27, 2019
Jagman
Is that the best you can do? Go to the back of the class
July 27, 2019
Margaret Howard
Oh dear, oh dear.
So, you think the British empire was bad compared to any European mini – empire.
What on earth did they teach you ?
Briefly:
Napoleonic wars – caused by the French, obviously.
Most European wars – Caused in some way or other by the French.
WWII – caused by the French at Versailles in 1918.
Civil wars and bloody mass murder in Africa – caused by the French.
Mass blood letting and slaughter in Congo – caused by Belgium.
Vietnam – caused by the French.
For starters I suggest you become acquainted with the facts as to what De Gaulle spitefully did to the former French colonies after WWII, and compare that to our restoring the independence of former British colonies.
July 27, 2019
Margaret Howard, You may not have noticed but the UK no longer has an empire. Never mind, the EU empire is your substitute.
July 27, 2019
You need get out more Margaret. The European nations have little in common as the endless European wars will attest. Before you trot out the old EU has peace to Europe nonsense, that accolade belongs to NATO.
I spent many years living in India, Kenya and other former colonies as well as European countries. I found I have as much in common with Indians and Kenyans as I do with Germans, Hungarians or anyone else from Europe especially when it came to language.
July 27, 2019
Daniel
” I found I have as much in common with Indians and Kenyans as I do with Germans, Hungarians or anyone else from Europe especially when it came to language”
Why? Did they speak German and Hungarian or French and Spanish etc instead of English?
As for wars, we have the unfortunate reputation of having been involved in more wars than any other European nation and have at one time or another invaded over 170 countries out of a world total of over 190.
Nothing much to be proud of.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9653497/British-have-invaded-nine-out-of-ten-countries-so-look-out-Luxembourg.html
July 28, 2019
MH
Oh dear
You seem to have left out the lists of countries invaded by Spain, France, Portugal and Germany
July 29, 2019
we have certainly been instrumental in tidying up the mess initaited by Spain, France, Portugal and Germany….and it ain’t over yet! Wait until the EU breaks up, we’ll be needed once again.
July 26, 2019
The European Union will not be bullied into compromising its principles, Norbert Roettgen, a German lawmaker and ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, said in a warning to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
It might make a change if they honoured their supposed principles as expressed in Article 8 and 3(5).
July 27, 2019
Mark
“The European Union will not be bullied into compromising its principles”
In other words; the European Union will not be bullied into compromising it’s principles of bullying others. (especially the one’s that liberated Europe from tyranny)
We should have nothing to do with these ungrateful hypocrites forthwith. And if we have to, it should be limited to giving them a bloody hard clout they’ll never entirely recover from. It’s the only way to deal with a bully.
July 26, 2019
Our media are sporting the suggestion that supermarkets should do more to stop obesity.
One idea is to make food less accessible. Move it to places “not necessarily out of reach of the shopper” ( as with hard-core porn ).
Why not package food in plain brown paper without brand names and ban its advertising on TV? Lock it in cupboards and the shoppers will need to request it ( tell them the price after it has been brought out and the queue of other shoppers makes the obese person embarrassed for being a total nuisance ).
Eating must stop!
July 27, 2019
Less is more. Oh,just stitch their mouths up – it would be quicker and not a burden on the rest of us. Let’s get back to the days when doctors could tell a patient they are FAT.
July 27, 2019
Less is more
Obesity and it’s related illnesses have overtaken smoking as the number one drain on the NHS.
The only way to defeat this is by culture change, just as it was with smoking.
The most effective way to achieve that is by barring self inflicted obesity from NHS treatment, banning such people from fast food outlets, and from public transport, and possibly from pubs as well. Stopping them buying chocolate would also help.
The vast majority of them won’t stop unhealthy eating because they’re asked to.
Additionally they should be prosecuted for child abuse when they feed their kids the wrong stuff and cause them to be obese too.
Sarcastically – ‘Oh no, someone’s upset me today, I’m going to lay on the settee and stuff myself with chocolate, crisps, burgers and pizza’
Comfort eating – utterly pathetic !
July 26, 2019
Farage says Boris is lining up for an election because he doesn’t have the numbers. If true what happened to the mantra we leave on 31st Oct . If another election is called he will lose it. People are so fed up with Brexit that by now they would rather remain than go through it all again. The Brexit weary general public have had enough, we must be out by the 31st Oct or its game over for Boris and we’ll end up staying in, the last 3 years will have all been all in vain.
I’m putting my money on the EU giving us another 6 months extension even if we don’t ask for it, they’ll say just incase you need it.
July 26, 2019
The numbers for what? The numbers to ram through a watered down version of May’s WA? Surely, he wouldn’t have the nerve to venture down this road again?
If Johnson attempts this he’ll split the Tory party wide open and he’ll gone down in infamy as the PM who sold this nation and its democracy down the river
As an aside. I thought his performance yesterday was a tad strained. He’s been praised for it but I believe he’s trying to lull his own side into a false sense of security by playing the Churchillian card, ramping up the patriotic tosh but with the primary aim of softening Tory MPs up for eventual betrayal
I hope I am wrong but his socially liberal tendencies suggest a politician with zero spine who doesn’t enjoy the negative aspect of standing up and confronting minority interest activist groups who are vociferous when targeting Tory dissenters on such issues. See Phil Davies as an example.
His Johnson a fake? His bluster could be seen as an act of deception but any reference to ‘numbers’ implies Commons legislation designed to circumvent Brexit
This is why Farage, other than committed Tory Brexiteers like our kind host, is the only one we can truly trust on this fundamental issue
July 27, 2019
Those were my thoughts too when I saw the ‘perfomance’. I am not as easily gulled as others may have been.
July 27, 2019
Mark B
The way I see it, Churchillian leadership is what this country needs right now.
At least Boris has the savvy to adopt what worked before, and will work again.
All we have to do is believe in ourselves our country, our values and sense of fair play for which we are equally as famous as for our reputation for coming through despite overwhelming odds.
We’re British, proud of it, and we’re what Churchill himself described as ‘the Island Race’.
There are none like us.
July 29, 2019
Why can’t you people just get over the war? We’re not in a war with the EU and we don’t need Churchillian leadership. We need honest leadership from people who are straight with the public about the consequences of Brexit. Three years after the referendum and we’re still waiting for the Brexiteers to even make a start on telling the truth.
July 29, 2019
Simon….hilarious. The consequences will only become clear AFTER we have left. We will discover how much Project Fear was right or wrong, and more importantly how well we increase trade with other than the EU. Similarly, just how will trade be done with the 27, will we give up because it becomes so difficult, and will there be labour disputes across the 27 when it is seen that the loss of exports to UK means they lose jobs and lifestyle.
July 27, 2019
Dominic
Kind of agree, however – Boris will do what he can I’m sure. But if he fails I don’t see him going down in infamy. The ones to blame will be the traitors in the HoC, Bercow, Soubry, Clark, Hesseltine et al. And anyone else who wanted to destroy this country.
Personally I think they should be careful what they wish for, the people are not going to take too kindly to that minority getting their way.
If they succeed, (highly unlikely now ) then things will turn very nasty for them.
Boris is alright……I think he should be given a chance.
July 27, 2019
Stephen Reay
“People are so fed up with Brexit that by now they would rather remain than go through it all again.”
Not at all. People are actually so enraged by May’s lies and attempts to sell us down the river, that brexit will have to happen on Oct 31st, or else !
“Iām putting my money on the EU giving us another 6 months extension”
That wouldn’t surprise me at all. But it will just confirm the ungrateful EU has been holding us over a barrel and attempting to break up the UK.
The British people will see right through that one, and it will backfire on the EU.
July 26, 2019
Personally, being more prosperous outside the EU is not a factor. I do not wish to live under the yoke of the United States of Europe.
A disturbing question for Remainers is why they think 3 million EU citizens should be encouraged to stay here after Brexit in a land where they say there will be food shortages, low medical cover, and far below the living and cultural standards of the EU.
For humanitarian reasons why are not Remainers urging them to leave, and cloud funding their departure so they can re-establish themselves in the lands of milk and honey over the Channel?
No major figure of the Remainer camp has relocated his or her loved ones. The Governor of the Bank of England has taken out British citizenship. All Mrs May has done is gone to watch cricket IN ENGLAND. She insists on continued residence in the UK making herself a burden on the food and water supply.
July 27, 2019
Logic? I can only assume your post is a joke as it is so absurd. You really must stop reading comics at bedtime.
July 26, 2019
I observe from Mr trump’s tweet that France has stuck tax on US tech giants, and he is going to retaliate against their wine industry.
How comes France is not following the EU playbook…
July 26, 2019
Mrs. May in her desire for the UK to remain permanently in the EU, whilst deluding the UK public that we exiting the EU, gave the EU such a good deal that the EU has now become the equivalent of the monkey who is unable to extract his hand from the cookie jar.
July 26, 2019
It was easy to apply for a personal loan with WESTERN LOAN FINANCE and they were quick to respond. They made the process seamless and were very helpful. I am happy I chose them. I would highly recommend.
July 27, 2019
Iain Gill
“How comes France is not following the EU playbook”
1} They never did.
2} The EU Commission is French led.
3] They always demanded to be “in the driving seat of Europe”
4} They’re resentful of countries that liberated them during WWII. It’s called ungratefulness.
5} So they do as the hell they like in the EU, and get away with it.
July 27, 2019
And let’s not forget that outside of the customs union, the Ā£8billion a year we collect at our border and hand over to Brussels we get to keep.
Even if we reduce our tariffs to prevent price rises, we have that money to use as an offset.
Incidentally, sorry to see you didn’t get the place you deserves in the new administration. I could see you fitting in well and trade or treasury. It’s their loss…
July 27, 2019
If the EU stick to their guns, refuse to have meaningful negotiations for an honourable, mutually beneficial deal, then we leave without a deal and they can whistle for the Ā£39b, but if they do see sense, my Dream Negotiating Team would be you, Jacob Rees-Mogg and (although pigs will fly before this happens) Nigel Farage, and I would like see a serious, in-depth audit of any so-called “divorce settlement”, including our share of the value of all EU-owned property and incidentals, such as the Ā£10-12.5b that Tony Blair gave away in return for radical reforms to the CAP, which never materialised. He gave away 20% of our rebate between 2007 and 2013 in return for a promise of a radical reform and reduction in cost of the CAP as part of the UKās push for a more modern EU budget. Blair stated āa modern Budget for Europe is not one that 10 years from now is still spending 40 per cent of its money on the CAPā, but 10 years later and CAP still represented more than 40%. We agreed a contract, it was not honoured, and so it must go against any sums we agree to for continuing cooperation (not for anything that we are cut out of, such as the Galileo satellite navigation system).
July 28, 2019
Perhaps you can also publish a paper explaining what happened to the great British export boom that you told us would happen from 2017. And the sharp fall in the pound you said would rectify itself…well that hasn’t happened either.
July 28, 2019
Well that’s not correct Simon.
Quick internet search…
“Last year Ā£620 billion of goods and services were exported by British companies, with UK exports at a record high”