The contrast between the way much of the conventional media reports on the European continent compared to their reports on the USA and UK has never been starker. We regularly hear every Democrat criticism of President Trump and every Lib Dem and Labour jibe about Boris Ā but never hear the Ā AFD tearing into Mrs Merkel Ā nor National Rally assailing Mr Macron.
The choice of topics is also skewed. We hear regular reports into poverty, racism and violent crime in the USA or UK but no such coverage of France or Germany. The mass protests in France for almost a year along with the deaths and woundings Ā of protesters by the security forces usually go without mention. The nasty outbreaks of violence in Germany linked in their media to minority criminal elements in the recently arrived migrant population and to groups of local people who oppose the migration policy by violence go largely unremarked.
The strange double standards applies to reporting austerity politics. Any cut in public spending in the UK within the context of an overall state budget rising in real terms is reported as unacceptable austerity. The true homes Ā of austerity economics Ā in parts of the Eurozone go little discussed, even though there we have seen cash cuts in wages, cash cuts in state pensions, large layoffs and the rest. There is a refusal to see that the Uk Treasuryās whole programme of increased taxes and limited spending rises was based on the EU requirement to see state debt as a percentage of GDP falling.
Even more curious is the differential approach to new laws. If they come from the EU they get little criticism and often little coverage.Anything proposed here or by Mr Trump is likely to get energetic and critical debate. The massive data law GDPR had a big impact Ā on business costs and priorities for many months yet it was as if it did not exist in much of the media. Imagine the rows if a UK government had proposed that.
The USA and UK have made good progress in creating jobs and cutting unemployment. The mass unemployment of much of the Eurozone and the unacceptably high youth unemployment in much of the south gets little attention. Remain inclined media ought to be as scandalised about unemployment and poverty in Greece or southern Italy as they are about lesser amounts in UK blackspots. The EU ideal should create equal concern about anywhere in the Union.
Over our many years in the EU much of the media have denied the EU has much impact on our lives. Now we are leaving that same media tell us the EU is so critical to so many aspects of our lives we cannot live without it. No wonder so many people now say back āWe donāt believe you.ā
August 6, 2019
Brexit is collapsing, every promise made by Leave has been exposed as false, the Uk is facing up to unpleasant cold reality. Do you Brexiters take any responsibility for this fiasco? Of course not. Here’s the latest attempt to shift blame – now it’s the media’s fault (as well as the EU’s, the civil servants, the judges, MPs etc)
August 6, 2019
More money for the NHS? Tick. And how nice to see the government moving head with Free Ports. And on 1st November we will have control over our fisheries again. And if the WA has fallen, as I hope it will, then we will have billions more immediately available to spend on our priorities.
August 6, 2019
Any additional money for the NHS is additional borrowing we might have risked at any time and without Brexit we would have had far more leeway.
We need Free ports only so Brexit does not destroy the fish processing industry which relies on the Free movement of EU and EEA fish stocks .
If this industry can opt our of Brexit why can`t the rest of us ?
Why do we have to pay for Brexit when they do not
August 6, 2019
That isn’t correct.
Economic growth generates extra money for governments to spend.
Did you not realise that Newmania?
August 6, 2019
Newmania, What will be unfree about the movement of fish “stocks” after we leave your EU empire? Do you suppose that EU businesses will not sell us their fish? That they will give up their livelihoods to pander to your Remain angst?
Perhaps you are right – they won’t sell because they won’t have as much fish, since they will no longer be able to steal our fish from our 200nm EEZ. Then again of the c60% of our fish stolen by the EU, we will be able to fish more, so will no longer be net fish importers. Meaning more fish processing, not less.
August 6, 2019
I was out fishing last week and the paucity of mackerel as compared to ten years ago was shocking. 3 compared to 2o as then – and not just a bad day as explained by the boat skipper.
We are like two bald men fighting over a comb.
August 6, 2019
The majority voted to leave the EU.
Many of those you refer to receive EU funding.
August 6, 2019
Thanks Comical Ali.
August 6, 2019
Len
An interesting view.
So what is remain about remain, because the EU is moving forward slowly but surely with its programme of ever closer union and control measures, as indeed outlined in the five presidents report, produced but read by few before the referendum.
Thus remain as is, is not an option at all !
Did remainers really know what they were voting for ?
August 6, 2019
Five presidents = eurozone. Irrelevant to UK. You obv didnt read it
August 6, 2019
It isn’t irrelevant to the UK becsuse if we had remained in the EU the ambitions of the EU is for Eastern expansion an armed force, all members to adopt the Euro, to agree to further QMV, agree to tax harmonisation and morph into the United States of Europe.
All those things would have affected us as the Eurozone is the power bloc of the EU
August 6, 2019
I read it and saw it for what it was. If you arenāt part of the inner club you will be squeezed until it is so painful you have to join. Just look how the EU is currently treating Switzerland for an example of how they bully smaller countries.
August 6, 2019
Err yeah, a smaller country is what we will be. Didnt you realise?
August 6, 2019
Christine
We have been at the heart of Europe for decades and it got us nowhere.
August 6, 2019
Edward2
Apart from turning us from the ‘sick man of Europe’ into the world’s 5th largest economy (now alas already reduced to 7th place)
The truth will dawn on you when we leave the world’s biggest trading bloc and have to fend for ourselves against giants like China and India.
Or become the 51st US state at the mercy of that ruthless country that will allow us no input into the running of its affairs unlike the voice we have now as an EU member.
Not forgetting forcing us to get embroiled into more of the illegal wars they choose to start. Iran next?
August 7, 2019
I was talking about influence.
Whilst we have been in In the EU over many years, EU fans like you Margaret have continually told us we need to be “at the top table” or ” at the heart of europe” in order to influence or change the EU.
But we are just one voice among 28 with 9 paying in and the rest enjoying handouts.
Yet all member nations have a vote the UK and as a result the UK has managed to alter very little.
The EU is not for changing. It has a plan and it is moving towards it.
You connect everything good that has happened to the UK to being due to the EU.
I think that correlation is a false one.
In fact my opinion is that had we never joined in the first place, we would now be far better off.
August 7, 2019
Margaret Howard, Why just repeat the same old Remain lies? These are the truths you have been given previously.
The UK was called the “sick man of Europe” in the 1970s, after we joined the EEC(EU).
The UK was the 5th biggest world economy when we joined the EU. If we are now the 7th, that has occurred whilst we were in the EU.
If we cannot be independent as you aver, at least we must choose who our masters are to be. By joining the USA rather than the EU, we would be democratic, more prosperous, better defended, and with a similar language and legal system.
August 7, 2019
NickC
“The UK was called the āsick man of Europeā in the 1970s, after we joined the EEC(EU).”
Wiki
“Throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, the United Kingdom was frequently called the “sick man of Europe”, first by foreign commentators, and later at home by critics of the third Wilson/Callaghan ministry, because of industrial strife and poor economic performance compared to other European countries.[9] This era is considered to have started with the devaluation of the pound in 1967″
August 7, 2019
The real question Margaret us whether joining the Common Market back in January 1973 improved our economy or was it other factors.
I would say we didnt improve from 1973 to 1980.
Then after 1980 gradualluy the beneficial effects of Lady Thatcher’s Conservative government policies started to turn round the country.
I don’t think our membership of the Common Market/EEC had more than a marginally beneficial effect.
I dont say that because I am someone who voted to leave because back in the 1970s I felt our membership could have been a good thing.
It is a shame how the Common Market was hijacked and turned into what is now.
August 8, 2019
Margaret Howard, “Considered” by whom? Your quote confirms that the UK was called the “sick man of Europe” after we joined the EEC (EU) doesn’t it? I lived through the era, and my recollection was the term was principally used from the three day week of 1974 to the advent of the Thatcher reforms (about 1980). All whilst we were in the EEC. And it was the Thatcher revolution, not the EEC (EC/EU) which took us off the sick bed.
August 6, 2019
Ken
Have read it, and we effectively become a second tier member, so it does effect us.
Is that what remainers voted for, to become a second rate member of the EU. ?
August 6, 2019
Alan Jutson, It is abundantly clear that Remains did not know what they were voting for.
Time and time again on here, in the media, and in Parliament, Remains appear unaware that the Remain option on the ballot paper came with a condition attached: it was Remain only under the terms negotiated by David Cameron.
I very much doubt if we revoked the TEU Art50 letter that the EU would give us the benefit of Cameron’s opt-out from “ever closer union”. And it does not seem to be what the more fanatical Remains want. But want or not, that’s what they voted for.
August 6, 2019
Len, you might be right but that still doesn’t change the fcat that the country democratically chose to Leave, the same arguments used by the likes of Campbell, Ms Cooper et al with regards the Brexit referendum could be used against the Govts they were a part of, should there have been a ‘recall’ GE when Labours manifesto promises of 1997 were shown up as lacking back in the late 1990s, what of Cleggs 2010 promises on student loans?
Good or bad, the electorate made their collective decision. Put your europhile arguments to the people at the next GE, oh hang on, you did….
August 6, 2019
We have not just discovered media bias in the Guardian, the BBC, and Channel 4 , it has been there all the time. The EU donates to the BBC so do not expect anything better from them.
Judges interperet the law that is handed to them. As most UK law comes unchallenged by our remain Parliament from the EU, judges become a tool in the process.
The EU is largely civil service run on a day to day basis. It is hardly surprising that our own civil service find an affinity with them. If they got seconded to the EU there was not just the possible K but expenses and a tax free pension as final reward. It was our civil service abetted by a duplicitous May that produced the WA. An ultimate piece of treachery.
Dare I mention the MPs who are on tax free pension kick backs from the EU. One family in Wales is laughing all the way to the bank. For Parliament to hand the leave/remain decision to the electorate and then for three years to use every ploy in the Speakers book to overturn that decision is unforegivable.
Now there is just a chance that we will get what we voted for and the likes of you will cease trying to pretend that we did not vote leave, or that we were all insane at the time.
August 6, 2019
One example of this bias is the way the media report the “backstop”. They usually don’t explain it, but when they pretend to, they call it an insurance policy to prevent customs checks on the border. It would in fact be annexation of part of our country by the EU as the price for our freedom.
August 6, 2019
Annexation of the whole of our country with no means of escape – even the Vienna Convention would not have allowed us to escape. So in short āDirect Rule from Brusselsā.
August 6, 2019
Yes, the first version was annexation of part of our country and the second, improved version was annexation of the whole. As the AfD say to Frau Merkel in the Bundestag, no nation should be required to sign up for this.
August 6, 2019
@agricola; “The EU donates to the BBC”
Not that biased europhobic half truth again, the EU did no such thing, although they did provide studio facilities at cost to the BBC, as they do other EU28 national broadcasters. I also suspect that some also get confused between the EU and the EBU…
August 6, 2019
Jerry, The EU has given the BBC Ā£4.2 million since 2015 under the Horizon 2020 research program. Horizon 2020 is politically backed by EU leaders and the EU parliament. Every Ā£1 the EU donates is Ā£1 less that the BBC has to find for itself. The EU does donate to the BBC.
August 6, 2019
@NickC; Citation please, of BBC involvement and its ‘political’ element. A Brietbart or UKIP/TBP link will do..
On the other hand you could always follow this link and gain some insight;
https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/search?query=EU+grants&submit=
But surely you are not trying to claim EU funded research into broadcast standards & new broadcast technology is ‘political’. You do also realise that the BBC has been at the forefront of broadcast industry research since before WW2, with many a non European country and many a (worldwide) commercial company benefiting.
Next you’ll be slagging off new drug research because it receives funding from the EU. Also, surely all the US govt money that went into NASA research that developed satellite technology for US geopolitical/military ends but is now (also) used in GPS and even mobile phones and TV services was ‘political’ too, but not a pip-squeak of a protest from you on that.
August 7, 2019
Jerry, As you know JR prefers not to have links. I specified the name of the EU funding vehicle, and the amount and date. Look it up yourself and don’t be lazy.
I notice you don’t deny that the BBC received the EU funding. And as I explained money given by the EU means the BBC doesn’t have to find for itself.
Yes, of course the EU is political. That is especially so for money granted to a broadcaster. Haven’t you seen the EU signs when the EU spends our money in the UK on some trumpery?
August 7, 2019
@NickC; Nice wriggle. As for looking it up myself, I did, and posted the URL, that our host kindly published, did you actually read my comment before hitting the Reply button and typing your ‘excuse’?
I also tried using your alleged key word “political” as part of a search string in Google, zero returns back, big fat nothing – so I’ll take your refusal as meaning you can not post any evidence what so ever of your assertion of political funding of the BBC by the EU, not even a partial search string to be use in Google…
If the BBC should not get funding from the EU then (as @Martin in Cardiff pointed out) why should UKIP/TBP get such funding -which is clearly intended and used for political purposes, shouldn’t they refuse to take their allocated funds and expenses from the EU, pay open market rates for office space in Brussels, pay their own travel expenses etc, thus succeed or fail totally on what ever lawfully made donations from within the UK they can raise. Stop being such the Hypocrite!
August 8, 2019
Jerry, You’re saying the EU is not a political organisation? With political aims? That uses our tax money to promote its own political power? Incredible! Absurd!
The fact is the EU funds the BBC through the Horizon program (Ā£4.2m since 2015), and you have provided no facts which dispute that. So your claim that the BBC getting EU funding is a “biased europhobic half truth” is false.
That the BBC exhibits a pro-EU bias is widely but not universally accepted (though it seems again not by yourself). When it comes to EU politics and BBC bias I don’t believe in coincidences. Obviously you do.
August 8, 2019
Still no citation from NickC to back up his assertions against the BBC…
@NickC; Had you actually bothered to read what I said you would have clearly understood that any money going to the BBC is not political, nor did I or anyone even suggest that the EU is non-political.
I even give you a link to what the BBC uses such grants for, why and by what part of the BBC.
As they say, one can lead a horse to fresh water, even if you can’t make it drink, but in the case of a stubborn mule you cant even get it to the water – so it would appear…
August 6, 2019
In 2017-18 it received a grant from the EU of ā¬1,282,331 (Ā£1,145,572).
August 6, 2019
The BBC gets about seven hundred thousand pounds a year from the EU, mainly to encourage decentralisation and job distribution. That is about one five-thousandth of its income from the licence fee. Brexit Party MEPs on the other hand, get very nearly all of their revenues, including generous expenses and allowances, from the European Union. They would cost us well over twenty million pounds for the full term. So by the what-passes-for-logic amongst some commenters here, that should mean that the Brexit Party are five thousand times more pro-European Union than the BBC.
August 6, 2019
Out of a total budget of Ā£5,144 m, i.e. 0.022%, much less than the proportion of funds to the CUP coming from ‘tax exiles’. This is just to put numbers in perspective.
August 7, 2019
@hef the low percentage of the total argument is an insidious tool of deflection which I consider to be on par with using -ist adjectives and nouns to shut down valid debate.
The fact is it is a lot of money which the BBC and other recipients would have to find elsewhere and it comes with strings.
August 6, 2019
Agricola …exactly. There is a welcome in the hillside for a certain family and also plenty of Danish bacon no doubt. Politics has been kind to some!
August 6, 2019
Any examples of these promises you state have been exposed as false ? No, as there are none. Unemployment, investment, manufacturing all improved post referendum despite all project fear warnings. And of course as we are still in the straight jacket of the eurocracy, supported by the pro eu establishment of course, and we have been unable / unwilling (thanks May and Co) to implement the necessary changes to our economic infrastructure to move forward. It will happen now.
August 6, 2019
Well that is not at all true and all the blame lies with the remainers like Hammond, May, Grieve, Clark x2, Gauke and the rest who have undermined the negotiations by not preparing properly for nearly three years for a no deal outcome (should a sensible deal not be offered). The reason no sensible deal has been offered is largely down to these traitors to democracy and to the UK interests.
August 6, 2019
Utter twaddle. Democracy get used to it.
August 6, 2019
Seems these Remainers are getting up earlier and earlier to comment on this site.
Perhaps their watches are set to Berlin time?
August 6, 2019
They think that their early comments will control the narrative. Paid trolls with no idea.
August 6, 2019
I totally accept the issues we face after leaving the EU. However the fiasco is not my fault in any way, look to the MPs, the PM, the legal advice, the BBC, the EU. Not me gov!
August 6, 2019
Only 86 days to Brexit. Perhaps someone ought to remind Mr Barnier that āthe clock is tickingā. Possibly at the same time someone ought to remind Mr Tusk āplease do not waste this timeā.
August 6, 2019
What a load of unsubstantiated tosh.
Didn’t you see the results of the Euro elections or the recent polling.
If Boris gets us out as promised and then holds an election he will slaughter the opposition.
August 6, 2019
I’m not sure it’s collapsing…
What’s actually happening is that we are going to have to leave without a deal. If you had understood the process then you;d understand that remainer MPs allied to some “hard brexit nooow” politicians have voted down the negotiated withdrawal agreement. As the default position in EU law is that we will leave without a deal if one cannot be achieved then here we are. EU law cannot be changed by our MPs, and cannot be changed by MEPs either. A position you’d like to keep this country in where laws are made that we cannot alter.
The delicious irony is that we will be leaving on this basis. You’ve essentially died by your own hand here.
August 6, 2019
Henry, What do you mean by “a deal”? The Withdrawal Agreement was not a trade deal. The EU has specifically refused to negotiate a trade deal until the UK is out.
Even if the UK Parliament had voted for May’s dWA in time for 29 March, we still wouldn’t have had a trade deal. We were always going to leave without a trade deal. Why the hand waving about “no trade deal” now when the UK Parliament has accepted it for the last 2 years?
August 6, 2019
I meant that we leave without a withdrawal agreement. Which is commonly referred to as the deal. I know, and you know, that its not the final outcome, its just a framework.
But regardless, we are leaving without it.
We were never ever going to be leaving with a trade deal knocked up in under two years.
My preference was to go into EFTA which rendered the remainer argument redundant as they have made it entirely about trade. If they had been forced to defend political union their job would have been made a lot harder of course as for forty odd years theyve made the drift into absorption by the EU about trade.
But as theres zero chance of that happening I just have to accept that we leave like this now.
August 6, 2019
Perhaps, Mr Grinds, you should read the website (noted here on the right): facts4eu.org We should all be concerned about ”lies” (though many of us are not gullible to believe them) but surely if the EU gives out the information itself, it isn’t a ”lie”, is it?
This might inform you better than MSM and social media can about ”lies” – and in the EU’s own words and figures.
If our host would allow, perhaps you’d describe the golden future we’d have if the EU ‘allowed’ us to remain, and what an admirable institution it is. You might win some hearts and minds here by being positive – better than just being negative, don’t you think?
August 6, 2019
You will be unable to cite any claim made by the Leave campaign about the negative effects of EU membership and the benefits of leaving that has proven to be untrue.
Given we now have a Brexit government that is determined to free us from EU control, your claim that “Brexit is collapsing” seems hysterical, as well as false.
August 6, 2019
You mean like those lies of a punishment budget if we voted Brexit , our economic collapse , the half million jobs which would be lost etc. Sorry I got it wrong, these are Remainer lies , we are supposed to forget about those. But yes the media have been activists rather than reporters. The BBC gives voice to every crackpot Remainer plot to stop Brexit, none are left unexplored, and if any are found to have any merit then they harangue Remainer politicians as to why they aren’t pursuing it. The other day it was why not have Sinn Fein stand down from their Parliamentary seats and temporarily elect Remainers to those constituencies, so the BBC hot footed it to some Sin Fein politicians demanding to know why they are doing it. On the flip side they are giving the EU advice as to how to unpick any British Government EU leaving strategy, you never hear them proactively exploring ways to honour the referendum vote.
So yes the media has a lot to answer for , and as they have done away with any hint of impartiality in favour of the EU , when Brexit is done there will have to be an enquiry into the lack of political diversity at the BBC, Channel 4 news and Sky.
August 6, 2019
@Iain Moore
This is long overdue. Each time Parliament holds a debate prompted by a TV Licence petition it’s stuffed with a bunch of weak knee’d no marks who waffle on about the Blue Planet and advert free programming, but fail to notice the fact that the BBC has morphed into a political organisation with subliminal messages laced into it’s entire programming schedule.
First step should be to abolish the BBC Licence.
August 6, 2019
Bob…..I got all excited when you wrote ‘ First step should be to abolish the BBC’ then I noted you added ‘Licence.’
Never mind I live in hope.
August 7, 2019
@Fred,
Do you imagine that the BBC would continue in it’s present form without the Licence Fee? I doubt the EU or UN would care to pick up the tab for their globalist propaganda. Maybe they could find a wealthy Hungarian to fund them, but for how many years could he sustain the annual Ā£4 billion cost of overpaid activists and football commentators.
August 6, 2019
Today on Sky News was a typical example of bias with a remainer from the Guardian and one of Ed Miliband’s former team given free reign to attack Boris and his intention to leave on 31st October without a deal if necessary. There was no balance in the discussion and the remainer was allowed to rant on without anyone questioning his assertions.
August 6, 2019
” every promise made by Leave has been exposed as false ” and Cameron’s ( Remain ) promise of immigration down to tens of thousands was what? – a typing error? – -and his refusal to pay the EU demand in 2014 ?? – -lasted how long? Why doesn’t Remain tell us what they’d do with unlimited, borderless migration? What would the daily EU bill go up to by staying in? On last night’s tv – UK police arresting an underage Lithuanian who had stolen a van, no license, no insurance and then crashed it into a house – in the middle of the night to then walk away – luckily just as the police turned up. Clearly the lad didn’t give a **** about what he;d done. Opening the country’s doors is great isn’t it !
August 6, 2019
Len, you’re clueless. perhaps deliberately disingenuous.
Brexit hasn’t been enacted yet – we will see how the promises turn out when it does.
All the Remain side have ever put forward are assertions. When asked to put any substance behind them, such as evidence, facts, analysis etc… they run away and hide behind more assertions about the economic disasters to come or trick questions such as “Name one thing you would change”.
So the exact opposite of your latest assertion is true – all ‘promises’ made by Remainers have been shown to be wrong, such as the immediate recession following the vote to leave.
Also, you routinely ignore the fact that most people didn’t vote on the basis of economics, but on cultural and sovereignty has been shown up many times.
So please don’t waste any more of your keyboard’s lifespan or our patience with any more of your weak assertions. There’s a good chap/chapess.
August 6, 2019
Len, until you can read and understand exactly what remaining in the EU would really mean for this country can I suggest you stay in bed a little later or take more sleeping pills? The last time I looked this country was supposed to be democratic so I fully expect to leave. OK? Oh, and while we are on the subject how many lies have been exposed by the remain camp? Too many but you lot don’t seem to want to talk about that. Stop grinding on!
August 6, 2019
You do sound angry. May I suggest you look at the facts and in auricular the cause of democracy. I realise you don’t like the result but didn’t they teach you at school to accept failure with the same calmness as success ?
August 6, 2019
Len Grinds: I eagerly anticipate your reaction to the responses you have provoked.
August 6, 2019
Let’s hope after Brexit the Remainer MPs attacks on fundamental democracy and the undermining of the British State will not retain elements of EU influenced Law and they will be brought to act in the interests of democracy if not believing personally in a free people with HM The Queen at the Head.
August 6, 2019
There may have been promises but I cannot remember a single one, and there was no promise, guarantee or pledge on the side of that bus.
I do remember some things were said that can be done, or were easy to be done etc., but no promises to do anything. Can you remind me of any? I am serious.
August 6, 2019
Great and easy deal with the EU? NZ Canada India jostling to give us an easy quick free trade deal?
August 6, 2019
Ken Smith, I said in 2013 (and repeatedly since) “if you think the EU will be fair to us you haven’t being paying attention for the last 40 years”, so no I did not think we would get a good trade deal from the EU. I was far from being a lone voice.
As for trade deals with the nations you mention and all other WTO members: since we haven’t left yet, we will have to wait and see. If Boris signs us up to anything like May’s dWA then we won’t be able to negotiate our own trade deals for years to come.
As it is I’m not convinced trade deals are worth the candle. Certainly the EU – viewed as a trade deal – isn’t.
August 6, 2019
Tell me, Len Grinds, how can the benefits of leaving the EU be delivered when we have not yet left?
Unfortunately the Referendum was not an election between the Leave political party and the Remain party. Had it been Leave would have won a landslide victory and we’d have been out 3 years ago.
Unfortunately it was a REFERENDUM where the Government was exactly the same after the vote as it was before and the fact we have not yet left is entirely due to the way Theresa May mishandled (perhaps deliberately) the so-called “negotiations”.
August 6, 2019
Grinds. What an ignorant statement to make. “Brexit is collapsing”.
Where is it collapsing? On the contrary, it is re-established and re-confirmed.
Nowhere is it collapsing because we have now got a PM who is a Leaver and not a wretched weakling remainer who prefers OUR country to be ruled by an unelected and unaccountable cabal of foreigners, all based in a foreign country who care more for their salaries, their huge expenses, and pensions than they do for the European citizens. NO pay freezes for them!
Why do you think that our vote to leave was about trade? EU trade represents just 11% of our GDP. We do more business with the rest of the World than with the EU and the differential has been increasing for decades. Even under EU protectionist rules! Just think of the expansion once we are free of their debilitating effects on OUR businesses.
We voted to leave for the single reason of taking back the control of OUR Country.
Nothing is more important than our National Independence to set our own laws, to protect our borders and our citizens and essentially to make our own Trade deals. Just like the other 160 Nations in the Rest of the BIG BIG World out there.
MEP Hannan was right, we are chained to a corpse while we remain a member of the EU. Leave means ‘to get the hell outta there’!
August 6, 2019
Len, what are you talking about? Sounds like we live in a different country.
The promises made by leave were, generally, about the opportunities of leaving, and, negatively, the huge ‘problem’ of being tied to the EU. The point being: we’ve not left yet!
There is not a thinking citizen of the UK who will like what the EU has promised to become: The United States of Europe.
Sounds very appealing (being like the US), except it will be nothing of the kind. More like the former USSR! Dissenting voices will be dealt with. All will have a job, but there will be no joy in that. The UK, once the bastion of the free world will be utterly subjected.
The amazing thing is that, nearly 50%, voted to remain. That is where facts seem to be thin on the ground.
August 11, 2019
Why woyld the Uk media report on what is happening in the EU when the UKbis leaving the EU?,The poor and deep in debt people in the UK want to know how the UK government is going to change their lives,not how people in Greece are living,or is Jphnson gping to tell them not to worry because there are poor people in the EU,rejoice.?
August 6, 2019
Good morning
It’s called lying by omission. It is a tactic often used by Auntie and adopted by the rest of the media. It seems to me that the Fourth Estate has been taken in by the Liberal Left Establishment.
The question is, what to do ? Well one could always boycott such outlets and support those more balanced.
And let us not forget that censorship is not only restricted to the MSM. š
August 6, 2019
Nearly everyone at the BBC seems to believe in evermore EU, climate alarmism, red tape, higher taxes and ever bigger (government knows best) magic money tree lunacy. I expect they move in circles that are 99% these types and do not even realise how out of touch with the truth and the population in general they are. Nearly all are rather unquestioning arts graduates which does not help.
Rod Liddle in his recent excellent amusing book:- The Great Betrayal, has it about right.
August 6, 2019
Jon Sopel emplifies the rotten unbalanced biased core at the BBC. He appears incapable of balanced journalism concerning Trump. Every question, statement or ill-informed comment designed to smear or taint the US president. Who is Sopel’s boss and why has he not been taken to account?
August 6, 2019
@Hope
Because the BBC are collectively suffering from Trump and Brexit derangement syndrome. Sopel is so “on message” that he virtually spits every time he mention the President’s name.
August 6, 2019
The LBC reporter for the US is as bad. Everything he says is dripping with anti-Trump hatred and every person he interviews is a Democrat trying to ignore the democratic process and bring Trump down.
The BBC is officially biased against anyone who questions the Climate Change agenda and the rest follow because any journalist who took a different line would not stand any chance of transferring to the BBC to be paid half a million a year for reading the news.
Try finding any media outlet for reasoned argument and you will be ignored,
as etc ed
August 6, 2019
In the UK there has never been a genuine interest in Europe / EU, and as such no understanding either. The little information on the EU i.e. on this website is part of an (anti EU) agenda, is extremely selective and unbalanced.
When looking at unemployment, donāt compare yourselves with Greece and Spain, but with the Netherlands, Germany and other nations in Northern Europe.
August 6, 2019
What a bizarre remark. The lies exposed have been from remain. The head of Eu finance has said we have lost the rebate. That means our net contribution will be over 18 billion a year from 13 billion a year. The Eu also needs to federalise to sort out the imbalances in the Euro. That turns the uk into a region ruled and taxed by Brussels and paying hugely for the dubious privilege. The Eu has damaged the med countries , the future of millions of its young people, and only made a small tranche of Germans and Dutch richer. We are getting away so the Eu can attempt to save itself. I doubt it will succeed.
August 6, 2019
@Frances Truscott
It’s Europe that needs saving, not the EU.
August 6, 2019
@Frances Truscott: AFTER Brexit you lose your rebate, obviously because you won’t be contributing either. The net contribution was never 18 billion, nor 13 bn, because some of the money (in the order of 5 bn) went to projects in the UK.
August 6, 2019
You are of course conveniently forgetting the 80 percent Customs duties and the proportion of VAT remitted from the UK to the EU. Whatever it is called it is still UK money sent to the EU and costs our citizens just as much whatever you call it
August 6, 2019
yea that is like giving some one your money, and they buy you some crap you do not want or need, and tell you to be grateful,
August 7, 2019
As will you, Germany, France, Austria, Denmark and Sweden it seems. You’ve all been quite noisy complaining about how unfair it all is that you will be losing your rebates
August 6, 2019
So the eus own figures on youth unemployment are wrong. The eus leadership have not been pushing federal plans. The Eu is not bullying the Swiss. There is no structural imbalance with the eurozone. . There have not been yellow vest demos or disagreement in the Parliament.
Remain media doesnāt report on things but the Eu has not shut down all sources of information. Reuterās still reports.
August 6, 2019
Our unemployment is lower than Germany’s.
August 6, 2019
@Sea Warrior: which is quite a good result. I haven’t checked but you youth unemployment, a very important parameter, is still high (11.5%) compared to Germany (6%)
August 6, 2019
As of May 2019, Statista defines “youth unemployment as unemployment of those younger than 25 years. In May 2019, the seasonally adjusted youth unemployment rate in Spain was at 31.7%.
It comprises the unemployment figures of a countryās labour force aged 15 to 24 years old (i.e. the earliest point at which mandatory school education ends). ”
Yet UK teens don’t finish school/college in the UK until 18 now or they have to be in work on an apprenticeship don’t they?
“All in all, the number of unemployed persons worldwide is projected to rise, this is not down to the economic crisis alone, but also the industrial automation of processes previously performed by workers, as well as rising population figures.”
March 2019 – 10.4% UK compared to May 2019 5.1% Germany.
I’m genuinely surprised the UK rate is so high, I’m wondering which regions of the UK in comparison with each other, surely unemployment in high employment areas such as London and the South East are very very low as London dominates UK job growth? Or do youngsters starting to earn affect parents Housing benefits and so they then can’t afford to work?
August 6, 2019
Peter, I think you confuse Uni percentages for unemployment and apprenticeships which are popular in Germany. But leaving that aside are you suggesting most other EU countries have better unemployment of youth that here in UK?
August 7, 2019
@Fred H: You can see for yourself at the eurostat website which has gathered the statistical data across the EU for decades, and where all countries have agreed the parameters so the comparisons are “apples with apples” as much as possible.
August 6, 2019
Sea Warrior
It is worse for the EU when it comes to unemployment. Some 2 million live and work here who might well be unemployed in the EU.
August 6, 2019
Peter – how would you define a ‘genuine interest in Europe/EU’?
Many of us have a continental European heritage (like me), many of us have often holidayed in Europe (like me), many of us deeply love European musicians and artists (like me), and many of us participated in the endless debates about the Maastricht and Lisbon Treaties (like me).
As for ‘understanding’, I’d say some knowledge of European history over several centuries helps we British to assess the EU, but also a deeper knowledge of English (sic) history would help you to understand why so many of us wish to remain independent.
August 6, 2019
@sm: these are of course my subjective experiences with British people over a long time. I can well appreciate, that English history makes a membership of the EU not a natural outcome, so soon after its glorious past.
On misinformarion – I always read that Mr. Heath deceived/misinformed the British public. The “information” about an impending Turkish EU membership and free UK access for 70 million Turks was misinformation. Even the EU rules about sending kippers by post appeared to be misinformation. There is a list of more than 600 misinformations in the British media about the EU (google for “list of lies about the eu”.
Even after you’ll soon have left the EU, it would help to address this apparent lack of reliable information.
Reply So did the EU never intend to let Turkey join the EU despite all the talks? Was Mr Cameron lying when he said the UK supported Turkish membership?
August 6, 2019
I thought Kippergate had been put to bed Peter, Mr Johnson was handed the information by a national newspaper (I wondered if that was to set him up), however, I read that Richard North of the EU Referendum blog “pinned down the actual requirement to Regulation (EC) 852/2004 on the general hygiene of food. the food was produced, packaged and dispatched from the Isle of Man, which is not within the European Union and to which EU legislation does not automatically apply.
Exploring this further reveals a fascinating, if little-known corner of the EU/EEC package, which brings the Isle of Man into the system. Basically, when the UK joined the EEC in 1972 the IoM decided that it would shadow Community law, to which effect it passed the European Communities (Isle of Man) Act 1973.”
“Manx law based on EU law, augmented by a European trade association code of practice, approved by a European Commission standing committee made up from representatives of EU Member States. “
August 6, 2019
Turkey was most definitely a candidate for joining. That was what the special Customs Union was about, and the relocation of manufacture from the UK. Britain was an enthusiastic supporter of Turkish membership, and when Mr Cameron denied all this during the referendum campaign, he greatly offended our friends and allies the Turks. After that, and considering also that we were no longer keen on membership ourselves, the proud Turks went off the idea.
This change of heart on the part of the Turks does not mean Penny Mordaunt was lying about it at the time. That was the plan and the intention then.
Wild accusations against the Leave campaign of lying only serve to emphasise that the remain side had no arguments in favour of staying.
August 7, 2019
@rose: Why were the Dutch never concerned about 70 million Turks coming over? After all the Netherlands is also part of Schengen.
Could it be that over here the media are more balanced and not so biased and misleading as media in Britain? The way things are going the UK might become another fake-news-country. I would be concerned if I were you.
August 7, 2019
Dear Peter,
I think you are conceding there was no lying over this matter of the Turkish candidature, but I am not certain!
I have been extremely concerned about fake news for many decades now. I first noticed it in the eighties. It has gathered in frequency and strength since the start of the referendum campaign. It has long been peddled by the BBC but is now as common on the commercial channels. It does not always take the form of straight lying but can often appear as deceiving by omission. It appears too in the newspapers but is not so powerful as in broadcasting. I think many people are now wise to this, but not everyone, alas.
August 6, 2019
Peter we understand the EU all too well. That is why we voted to leave. We see it as a totalitarian top down organisation where the people have very little say in it’s direction. At the top there is a drive towards a federal USEU. I will only think again when the people of each nation state are asked in a binding referendum if they wish to lose political and financial control of their country or not. And incidentally when they are not asked a second time if the EU do not like the result.
I see the so called free trade area of the EU as a protectionist racket against all those outside it. Try buying Australian, New Zealand, or US wine in Spain. It is not easy. I would guess that in France it is even harder.
In 1946 the EU was a good idea, but has ever since been abused by small minded politicians. The WA presented to the UK was even worse than the Versailles Treaty, and you in Holland should be all too aware of where that led.
I will remain an admirer of much that is European and of the Europeans, such that I live there, but being a democrat all my short life I abhor what the EU is doing to Europe. I know that no good will come of it and so are an increasing number of Europeans. I will revise my opinion when the EU discovers democracy.
August 6, 2019
@ agricola: You really appear to think that you have political and financial control of the UK. Amazing!
August 7, 2019
PvL, Lisbon Declaration 17 states that EU law has primacy over UK law. When (if!!) we leave we shall regain political control over the UK. Government spending and much private spending is influenced or controlled by politics. Our current top level of government is currently the EU. So, absolutely, out of the EU we shall regain political and financial control of the UK, previously stolen by the EU.
August 6, 2019
So you’re happy to let part of your Union reach extremely high unemployment and poverty levels in order to feed the other part? What happened to the EU being one big happy family?
August 6, 2019
@Sir Joe Soap:
Better look at the UK “being this one happy family”. š
Five (some say nine) of the poorest regions in Northern Europe are all in the UK!!!
And the UK has one government. The EU is not a superstate and has quite limited influence on employment-influencing policies in the member states.
August 6, 2019
“Five (some say nine) of the poorest regions in Northern Europe are all in the UK!!!”
…and yet people are risking their lives every day in the channel trying to get here.
August 6, 2019
@MickN, Sea Warrior, Know-Dice, graham1946:
Poorest regions in “northern Europe” (figures 2016)
– West Wales and the Valleys
– Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly
– Lincolnshire
– South Yorkshire
– Tees Valley and Durham
At number 9 we have OuterLondon – North and North East
The very richest region is Inner London – West, so also UK
With this large, unaddressed inequality, the UK must be “one happy familty indeed”! (see Sir Joe Soap above)
All this is of course to be blamed entirely on the EU. Just go ahead guys, we’re used to it. š
August 6, 2019
What about areas of Paris?
August 7, 2019
@Fred: Languedoc-Roussillon is no 8, Picardie no 10 and touches on the northern suburbs of Paris (Ile de France).
August 7, 2019
PvL, All whilst we’re in the EU and paying the EU hundreds of Ā£billions over the years.
August 6, 2019
Regarding regions, if what you say is true, as I think it is, why should the UK be expected to subsidise the EU? Hundreds of billions of pounds have been shipped over to Brussels over the course of our membership. At one point we were subsidising ROI, and lending them money, while they had a higher GDP than us. I hope we will now look to establish as many Free Ports in those ‘poorest regions’.
August 6, 2019
How is that possible Peter whilst we are in the EU and paying what Ā£19Billion gross in to the bottomless pit?
August 6, 2019
Five of the poorest regions are in the UK!!!
Yes that’s while we are in the EU!!!! Fat lot of good its done for us. The hundreds of billions wasted on supporting the EU would have made a big difference and will when we are out. Your biggest fear is that we will make a success outside and we will. Then we’ll see which is more advantageous.
As far as not understanding Europe is concerned you are right. We have been a democracy for a thousand years. Most of Europe has been under dictatorship in the last 100.
August 7, 2019
“We have been a democracy for a thousand years.”
No,we certainly haven’t!When was feudalism abolished?When was universal adult suffrage granted?
August 6, 2019
Whilst in the EU “Five (some say nine) of the poorest regions in Northern Europe are all in the UK!!!” precisely.
August 6, 2019
Joe Soap, your first sentence is spot on. P v L seems to indicate that as long as key countries are doing well, the demise (with very high youth unemployment figures and stagnation/hysteresis) of the poorer countries is acceptable.
August 6, 2019
I agree with you on one point you raise. You are correct there has never been interest in the EU. That is probably because the people were for over 40 years denied the right to be involved the decision making process of taking us further into this institution.
I also take exception to your heartless comment about Greece and Spain. Are they somehow lesser beings and less worthy of consideration?
August 6, 2019
@J Bush: Greece and Spain also had high unemployment before they joined the EU. The EU still has quite limited influence on employment-influencing policies of the member states. Different member states could move in different directions for unemploment, debt and other parameters. As a whole the ynemployment in the euro-area is gradually coming down since 2014 (12%) to currently 7.5%. Of course I would have liked a bit more solidarity with Greece and Spain, but as you can observe the balance of power in the EU is also shifting and Southern and Eastern states may well have more influence with the new parliament and European Council.
August 6, 2019
I don’t know why, but your comments invariably remind me George Orwell’s Ministry of Truth in his novel ‘1984’ and more specifically Robert Harris’s novel ‘Fatherland’. Both purported to be works of fiction. Though Robert Harris acknowledges using factual evidence from the 3rd Reich era.
August 7, 2019
PvL, You portray as essential your country (and mine) being a province of your EU empire, but try to hide the nasty bits. Those being the EU’s corruption, lack of democracy, unemployment, lust for power, artificiality, stealing fish and rights, vindictiveness, transit to statehood, etc. You don’t need to read Das Kapital to know that communist regimes are shit. We don’t need to know the minutiae of the way the EU’s committees work to know the EU is shit too.
August 6, 2019
@PvL; You do have a point, the UK’s attitude towards the EEC/EU has always been somewhat like how the attitude to our Empire was, if the natives don’t understand or don’t do as demanded, simply SHOUT louder at them rather than try and understand why they do not understand or can not do as demanded!
As for unemployment, indeed, it is also strange how successive UK govts have a habit of ‘adjusting’ our domestic figurers down but never similarly ‘adjust’ those of other nations when comparing how well the UK is doing in comparison.
August 6, 2019
@jerry:
On the issue of misinformation by the media, I was rather struck by the way in which the UK’s largest paper (the Sun) informed its readers on 4 August
“Boris Johnson will make EU chiefs bite dust by driving Brexit over the Halloween deadline”. Rather than taking pride that the Sun also promoted part of a scenario that I on this website on 25 July as a possible way for the new prime-minister (an early november general election), I felt sad that such a war-mongering attitude was taken by the Sun. Can I even blame (gullible Sun reading) British for hating the EU?
As written inside the ring of the wise man’s story: “also this will pass”.
August 6, 2019
@PvL; I think you would be better to cogitate on the latest press release from the EC regarding their refusal to reopen Brexit negotiations than comment on a UK newspaper you (obviously) have little or no understanding of. “The Sun” is the most populist, & well known in the UK for ‘taking the vino’ to sell copy, that is why it has become the most popular. If you don’t understand the reference to vino you also really do not understand the British!
[1] by the way, the largest newspapers are the FT and Telegraph… š
August 6, 2019
and least read?
August 7, 2019
@jerry: very funny indeed, but if the best sold UK newspaper is also the most populist newspaper and misinforms its readers whether or not taking the vino, to me that explains some of the anti EU (or foreigner?) hate in Britain. You cannot ignore the Sun readers, after all they are voters, and few of them will go to the trouble of reading EU press releases.
‘Taking the vino’ hasn’t made it yet to the urban dictionary, but apart rom that, I’d never claim to “understand the British”, for which, with regard to Brexit, I’m in good company of . . . most of the world. š
August 7, 2019
@PvL; You still don’t understand, the “The Sun is increasingly irrelevant, the 2017 general election proved that, Social media likely changes, challenges and forms more opinions than (any of) the printed tabloid press do now.
By the way, most of the world does understand the British, because most of the world was at one time ruled by the British or traded with us!
“Taking the vino” is the polite version…
August 7, 2019
PvL, By misinform, I assume you mean doesn’t peddle pro-EU propaganda as you do?
You make claims – for example: most of the world doesn’t understand why the British opted for Brexit – which you cannot know because there is no evidence to back such a sweeping claim. On the contrary, large numbers of now independent nations would readily understand our desire for independence.
August 6, 2019
@ jerry – in terms of how the British Empire was administered, your characterization is at material variation from the typical practice.
A comparatively early example is provided by the American colonies, where nearly all the objected to taxation that saw revenues spent elsewhere had been removed before the start of the unlawful insurrection (led, not uncoincidentally, by the largest local landowners) in 1776.
It is not only contemporary events that are misreported it seems.
August 6, 2019
@formula57; I’ve know three people who spent significant periods of their lives in India before independence and partition, if they were still alive today all three would concur with my ‘characterization’, as you put it. What happened in the early days of the American colonies was a little different as there wasn’t so much of a language barrier, most of the time, other than with the native Americans, but just look how we treated them… It took then a couple hundred years to get some of their sacred sites back, same happened in Australia.
August 6, 2019
No, the EU applies across the board. That is its purpose. It highlights Germany dominance. Every time a major issue arises Germany is asked for its view not Greece. Merkel can aplky EU policy on the hoof without asking i.e. Her mass immigration. When it went wrong demanded everyone take a share! That is the EU undemocratic monster led by Germany. Holland always kowtows to every demand. Pay up and shut up. We are leaving.
August 6, 2019
@Hope: Just leave! Your understanding of Europe is too different from mine.
August 6, 2019
@PvL You seem to have confused the EU with Europe.
Clarification:
Europe is a continent and the EU is a sub section of that continent headed by a group of failed politicians who travel between Brussels and Strasbourg once a month at huge expense to taxpayers, and in the process, the said politicians trouser large sums of cash and accumulate generous pension entitlements with tax free perks.
Hope that’s a bit clearer now.
August 6, 2019
Perhaps the problem is you really don’t understand the organisation you so slavishly defend on here.
August 6, 2019
We are trying, but EU supporters over here try to sabotage at every turn. Dominic Grieve (from his home in France, holder of Legion d’Honneur), has said he will bring down our government to stop Brexit and so do the LibDims who are neither democratic or liberal at all. Do you have any influence with them? Perhaps you could tell them we are not wanted.
August 6, 2019
@PvL; Are you talking about the land mass that is Europe, that in includes part of Russia, or the political entity that is the EU, that doesn’t (include part of Russia)?
What next Peter, accuse Trump of not running Mexico properly!…
August 6, 2019
Agreed. I found Merkel’s invitation to the 3rd World, without consulting with any of the European countries and then demanding they be distributed across these countries, the height of arrogance. The fact the EU then supported her stance and threatened to sue those who did not comply spoke volumes.
August 6, 2019
and West Germany managed to merge East Germany in, becoming an even bigger population and industrial powerhouse.
Merkel has managed to add in millions of new ‘workers’ trusting to the future to be absorbed. Plus of course under EU voting rules they get even more votes….
August 6, 2019
PvL,
Of course “unbalanced”, this blog is the other side of the story.
So, take the BBC, mainstream media etc. on one side, there clearly needs something or someone to balance against their rhetoric.
And to take your “basket” of countries in the EU zone and their unemployment rates (June 2019 – seasonally adjusted):
Country – Headline unemployment / Youth unemployment rate (2018)
Netherlands – 3.4% / 7.2%
Germany – 3.1% / 6.2%
France – 8.7% / 20.7%
Denmark – 5.0% / 9.3%
Sweden – 6.4% / 16.8%
UK – 3.7% / 11.3%
So, France and the Nordic countries are not doing that well either…
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Unemployment_statistics
August 6, 2019
@Know-Dice: That is a fair and balanced comment.
Sweden is going through a dip it appears. But the comparisons with Greece and Spain leave out their pre EU history (also very high unemployment) and aren’t good comparison material for the UK I would think.
August 6, 2019
I suspect that Sweden’s ‘dip’ is the self-inflicted wound on uncontrolled immigration.
August 6, 2019
He doesn’t quote the rates in Greece, although these are higher than officially stated – I’ve lived in Greece.
And considering the EU and its policies have destroyed a third of the Greek economy in the last 12 years, which is more than any country during teh Great Depression, one is hardly surprised there is mass unemployment and poverty. You and the EU ‘broke’ Greece, so you own it. Fix it.
August 6, 2019
Even though the Fiscal rules for Greece and others were not met, they joined, the economy collapsed due to finance available to buy their German cars, white goods etc. But then the EU bailed them out – what choice did they have. Papering over the cracks.
August 6, 2019
PvL, Your attempt to prevent us looking at unemployment figures in some states of the EU is typical of an EU apparatchik – at once self-serving and duplicitous. All EU unemployment figure count, not just the ones you select.
Moreover, you may want to live in a sub-fascist political construct run by a self-selecting mafia, but we don’t. And don’t imagine that we are taken in by your extraordinary hand waving about a “warmongering attitude” when the EU is determined to make us a “colony”. If you give it out, expect to take it back, and don’t whinge about it.
August 6, 2019
Combined EU unemployment June 2019-7.5% Youth 14.1%.
August 6, 2019
Unemployment in France 8.7% in June 2019
August 6, 2019
@Michael McGrath: True, but it came from a higher level and is also coming down (be it slowly). I wouldn’t call 8.7% mass unemployment, even though for the Netherlands such a figure would be alarmingly high.
August 7, 2019
PvL, Hand waving. Again.
August 6, 2019
Why, doesn’t Southern Europe matter. That’s the very arrogance that prompted a leave vote.
August 6, 2019
@Ian Wragg: Of course Southern Europe does matter. It has nothing to do with any arrogance. As net contributors we also support countries in the South and the East of the EU.
August 6, 2019
Exactly, I W.
August 6, 2019
“When looking at unemployment, donāt compare yourselves with Greece and Spain, but with the Netherlands, Germany and other nations in Northern Europe.”
Why not? It’s supposed to be a union isn’t it?
They told us about Netherlands, Germany and other nations in Northern Europe when it came to Free Movement, (it doesn’t happen in practice). They forgot to tell us about the plans for Eastern Europe, working on a tenth of our minimum wage.
August 6, 2019
@JimS: Apparently you haven’t understood teh free movement.
I don’t blame you. Even your political presenters at the BBC proved on air never to have heard of the posted-workers directive when this (finally!) became a news item in the UK.
In a sense you prove my point about the UK not understanding the EU due to lack of interest. So sometime I joke: why not stick to cricket, another game with complicated rules, but one which you like and therefore have studied and understood.
August 6, 2019
PvL, Apparently you understand neither the UK, nor the EU. I don’t blame you. Even your political masters in the EU proved never to have heard of the mafia or the Roman Empire when Farage or Boris explained it to you.
In a sense you prove my point about the EU not understanding the UK due to lack of interest. So sometimes I joke why not stick to being Gauleiters like Seyss-Inquart, another prodnose with a funny hat, but one which you appear to like and therefore have studied and understood.
August 6, 2019
Great Britain and Ireland obviously are not continental European countries, the inbuilt mindset, culture, history are totally different. Our similarities with “Holland” are probably the closest, seafaring, sea challenging, trading and 1688. It was a close run thing, eight votes, that saw us join the EEC, not the EU. Having grown up with relatives, neighbours and school masters who were massively affected by WW2, now most would be diagnosed with PTSD it is understandable how Heath was deluded into thinking a unified Europe was the answer to preventing another war. Without nuclear weapons you would be speaking Russian.
You are right most in England and probably Wales are not interested in Europe. 90% of businesses do not trade with the EU. Scotland and France were allies against the English for centuries and the people of Ireland suffered for being strategic in England’s global activities. The EU politburo have been very crafty/devious/divisive,dangerous in exploiting these factors.
August 6, 2019
@A.Sedgwick: I hope that you won’t blame Heath’s “delusion” about the EU on us. In the Netherlands information has IMHO always been much better and diverse. Already in the fifties there were two trial city-based referenda on a united Europe, in which a parliament and a constitution featured.
The Dutch have never vieuwed the EU as just some arrangement for trade.
August 7, 2019
PvL, You need to have a word with your friend Margaret Howard who stated here in the last couple of days that the EU was just a trading bloc.
August 6, 2019
I have lived and worked in both Germany & Italy Peter – (about seven years total).
In my last role I was part of a European Team that met regularly for both work and social events. So we often talked about these issues from a range of viewpoints. I don’t claim to be an expert on all things ‘Europe’ but I certainly do have some insights. It is all too easy for the media to conflate UK mistrust of Brussels, with a dislike of Europe (and Europeans). The two are not the same of course.
The EU was deliberately set-up to be a one-way street to a Federal Europe – and that fact was (and has always been) played down. I voted to join a Common Market but I certainly didn’t vote to be a part of a Federal Europe – and certainly not one run by a bureaucratic oligarchy in Brussels.
I don’t compare the UK to Greece or Spain (you didn’t mention Italy btw) but I certainly do look at the mess they are in and blame the EUs drive to a Federal Europe (and the Euro) that has got them there.
I deeply mistrust Brussels but please do not confuse that with a dislike of Europeans – it is possible to love Europe (in my case particularly Italy) but deeply dislike the EU .
IanT
August 6, 2019
@IanT:
There have always been federalist tendencies in the EU, but also tendencies in which the “supranational” loses out to the “intergovernmental”. Take e.g. the āEuropean Councilā, which was not even foreseen in the Treaty of Rome, but now has become by far the most powerful (incidentally democratic š ) official institution in the EU, which has made the EU a lot more intergovernmental to the regret of federalists.
Having observed the EU for decades, I can see it become more integrated out of necessity in future (the age of global players: China, India, Russia, US) but still remain the hybrid (intergovernmental/supranational) construct it has been for all this time.
The separation by the UK may be for the best, but I expect some kind of future association between EU and UK will ultimately be concluded.
August 6, 2019
PvL, It is extraordinary to contend that the European Council is democratic. You claim to know so much about the EU, and equally claim that the British don’t. But that is a mere self-serving arrogance, and has no more foundation in fact than your other opinions. In fact in the vast majority of cases the civil servants do the negotiating, arrive at the EU Commission guided outcome, and present the decisions as a done deal to the hapless Minister. About as democratic as the mafia.
August 7, 2019
@NickC: Interesting!
For you, a body of 27 democratically elected heads of democracies is not democratic, because they are assisted by civil servants, by their national representation offices and their national parliaments, to which these heads of governments are also accountable.
August 7, 2019
The Council is little more than a convivial talking shop for heads of member states who meet up three or four times a year.
The civil servants carry on their work at other times passing the Commission’s new laws dire times and regulations through to their home nations to obey.
It is the Commission and the Presidents that have the real power
August 7, 2019
PvL, Since I have my information from a civil servant who has negotiated in Brussels I think you are being disingenuous. Or are ignorant.
What do you think a Minister is going to do when his civil servants say: this is the deal, you can’t overturn it because there are 27 other states committed to it (even if that’s a lie)? Most Ministers give way.
This is the clever creeping power the EU wields. You better look out for your own country. Because, with any luck, we’re out.
August 6, 2019
We love Europe, its peoples, its history and its varied cultures. Our concern is the political construct of the EU, which I agree wasn’t understood; however, many like myself did their own research before reaching one of the most important decisions of their lives.
The EU is clearly bound by its treaties leaving little room for manoeuvre unless it chooses to do so. In tandem with this we’ve had a PM who wasn’t up to the challenge of providing an alternative vision for a 21st century EU, thereby encouraging a change of direction.
As the EU alleges that it’s the vehicle to ensure a level playing field and equal treatment for all, it’s disingenuous to then be “selective and unbalanced” when reporting on the effectiveness, or otherwise, of EU wide policies. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
August 6, 2019
An understanding of Europe is in our DNA.
We quickly realised what Napoleon was all about and put a stop to it at Trafalgar and Waterloo. We have a superb cheese called Waterloo just to remind us.
We needed little reminding of the folies of Europe when the Kaiser came along intent on and succeeding in the slaughter of so many from around the World. Then to put icing on the cake the French drove through the Treaty of Versailles. A brilliant act of ineptitude and self interest that gave succour to Adolphe Hitler and his warped solution to European unity. Having played host to the abdicated Kaiser you then enjoyed the uninvited presence of Adolphe for five years.
It was only due three years of UK resistance to Adolphe’s overtures, the British Commonwealth, and the USA that you have been allowed to have yet another attempt to solve your own problems. We the British are well equiped to decide that we do not want to belong to yet another totalitarian experiment, carried out by politicians with little concept of what democracy is. An ignorance that has bred contempt for it.
August 8, 2019
agricola
“We have a superb cheese called Waterloo just to remind us.”
Is that a German cheese? Because it is now widely known that it was Bluecher’s Prussians who won the battle after Wellington was near to surrender and Napoleon was about to declare his victory.
And if, as you claim an understanding of Europe is in our DNA why did we twice declare war on Germany in both 1914 and again 39 which ultimately cost us our empire which took generations of British people and much sweat and toil to acquire?
Or why have we now made the ultimate blunder of Brexit which has made us the laughing stock of the world and will leave us at the mercy of US exploitation?
August 6, 2019
“In the UK there has never been a genuine interest in Europe”
except in 1914-18 and again in 1939-45 when two generations of British peoples lost hundreds of thousands of their young lives liberating you.
You seek to repay that by blocking access to medicines and food if we don’t cave into your anti democratic ideals.
To paraphrase Never in the field of European history was so much sacrificed by so many to a load of ungrateful B*st*!*ds.
Veradkah (sp) has totally overplayed his hand too and is now “bricking it”
After we leave I want to see a tariff of Ā£400 on any lorry load of goods going to or from Ireland through the UK. We need to remember who our friends are and our enemies too and treat both accordingly.
August 6, 2019
You needn’t have gotten involved in the 1914 – 18 war or indeed in the WW2 but your betters thought it would be a good thing because of Empire and all of that – no referendum then. Did you know that King George, the Kaiser and the Czar were all cousins and were also related to the Hapsburgs of the Austro Hungarian dynasty – and millions and millions of young people died.
As regards Veradkar, he’s doing his best for Ireland, a country that suffered for centuries at the hands of English indifference. This time the Irish will not leave their kith and kin blocked off behind some fabricated border invisible or not, and just because of Tory/ ERG and Farage infighting and the disgraceful DUP sellout of the NI majority. Not this time
August 6, 2019
never been an interest in Europe? How about 1918 – or 1939.
We hope our example of leaving CAN be done, will be inspiration for the latest cowards to get off arses and do something about it.
August 7, 2019
1918 with France how to divide up German interests and make them pay! Should have said 1914 & 1939 attempts to rule Europe from one place. Sounds familiar.
August 6, 2019
“A media which misinforms”
Is that true, or did you hear it on the BBC?
August 6, 2019
@BfB; Or even on Brietbart…
August 6, 2019
What’s the plural of a media?
August 6, 2019
liars?
August 6, 2019
We don’t believe them, and we trust the main press as much as we trust Parliament.
There is a disturbing agenda to tie us to the EU and cause severe splits with the rest of the world, particularly the USA to try and make us reliant on the EU. The EU is behind all this, and they use our money (partly) to work against us. Every grant and every cheap loan (again partly funded by our taxpayers) comes with conditions, ie. to promote the EU. EU propaganda is everywhere, even in schools.
It is very sinister the way the EU try to use their power to silence all dissent and bad news from the EU. They control much of the news and action of the press and all organisations that benefit from ‘EU funding’.
August 6, 2019
Which is why we must get out before they have an army.
August 6, 2019
Indeed – and that is why the EU’s External Action Service should be forbidden from opening out-stations in the UK.
August 6, 2019
They have to – globalists have to use every means to hide the fact that globalism has never worked and never will. Theyāre having a massive push at this time and probably know that if globalism doesnāt take hold now (which it wonāt) itāll be another couple of hundred years before it gets another chance.
August 6, 2019
Isn’t ”globalism” just a EUphemism for ”expansionism” or even ”imperialism”? Are those words just too emotive for our friends across the Channel?
August 6, 2019
look at the climate change Brigade a millti billion Ā£ parasitic organisation.
look at the politically corrrect Brigade a millti billion Ā£ parasitic organisation.
we need to watch Yes minister (the 1st one ), and the New Statesman
August 6, 2019
Good news does not sell papers or gain viewers it would seem JR.
Far, far easier to criticise, than to explain properly.
Spending is never enough for most of them, no matter how much they always want more, but they do not like tax rises on the majority to pay for such.
Still not sure if I trust Boris fully, but at least he is a breath of fresh air, and positive when compared to many of our politicians, and certainly far, far better than the disastrous May.
I know it has only been a short time that he has been Prime Minister, but at least we now seem to have a plan on moving forward, and on so many fronts, as well as Brexi.
All of his team seem to have smiles on their faces as well, and appear to have at last, a can do attitude.
August 6, 2019
Indeed, and we have to wonder at how the previous lot were allowed to continue for so long. The country will never succeed when led by a gloom laden, dithering idiot.
August 6, 2019
@Alan Jutson; Regarding how the MSM report Govt spending, there is often bias from the right wing press, for example; Spending that hands out benefits=bad, spending that hands out tax rebates=good, and of course, the polar opposite bias from the left wing media…
Oh and why do you not “trust Boris fully”, could that be because you have read or heard bias that questions his attitudes towards Brexit or what ever, given that he has made but one speech in the HoC as PM nor had many media appearances since becoming PM, not because he doesn’t want to but because Westminster and thus much else regarding UK reporting politics are on their summer hols?
August 6, 2019
Obviously, I don’t know what Mr Jutson’s reasons are for not ”trusting Boris fully” – but surely we judge people by their past actions and words, and not just by their last utterance.
Unfortunately BJ compromised himself for voting for TM’s surrender treaty at the third go (when nothing in it had changed), and I believe that’s enough to make many of us feel we don’t fully trust him.
Speaking for myself – I’d like to trust him fully.
August 6, 2019
@L Jones; Not sure you are correct that “we judge people by their past actions and words” some might do, but it’s more likely that these past actions and words are used (as brickbats) to re-enforce what has already been decided and disliked, we see this with Corbyn, people who already detest him as Labour leader dredging up his past actions and words from all but half a centre ago, most of which are totally irrelevant with regards current British and World politics.
When there is approval, past actions and words are largely ignored, otherwise why did the grass-roots, Grammar School favouring, Tory voter back Mrs Thatcher from the mid 1970s, after all she had sanctioned many a Comprehensive conversion whilst Secretary of State for Education and Science! Same thing happened in the Labour party, Barbara Castle was the darling of the left and Trade Unions in the 1970s, even though she had swung many a Beeching axe whilst at Transport.
August 6, 2019
I have seen the steady rise of the liberal left since the fall of Thatcher. Its intent is pure bred, social engineering and the creation of a political world in which all human relationships become political relationships.
Attacks on morality, human privacy and the individual as the fundamental basis of all things is common place.
This thought and those who embrace it have managed to infect all aspects of government, the media and professional bodies. They now appear to have the capacity to create a parallel world in which inconvenient truths that tarnish their world view are simply omitted while news items that bolster their world view are reported, amplified and used as propaganda against their political enemy
The BBC is the living embodiment of this phenomena. I can name at least five issues that have been deliberately under-reported and at time omitted because it offends the sensibilities of the BBC and its editorial teams. And yet since Trump and Brexit we have had systematic propaganda bombardment against those who chose to support either.
The aim is the destruction of their political enemy by placement in positions of power. Labour’s Quango system allows this to flourish as it becomes almost impossible to prevent infection
The Tory party itself is partly responsible for this appalling state of affairs though some MPs have fought against it but failed. Instead of standing firm you have in effect contravened your own beliefs and principles
The BBC still remains. The Tories have done nothing about this infestation
Labour Quangocracy still remains. The Tories have done nothing about this infection
Labour’s criminality remains unreported because the Tories are terrified of entering into areas of debate that they fear
Even you John still drone on about more NHS funding without reference to reform.
The Tories could cripple Labour tomorrow if they chose to do so but they won’t
The real Tory party is terrified of its own shadow. The left OWN YOU and the left have imposed the parameters of debate. That is how powerful they are
August 6, 2019
Afraid I think it’s probably down the the LSE type Socialists of the 1960’s reaching positions of power and influence over the past decades.
They have been slowly but surely indoctrinating pupils and students in our schools and universities with their socialist thoughts and ideals for far too long.
Ask them for an example of where in the World their system works, and you get all sorts of excuses as to why it has not worked yet, or indeed where it has been tried and failed.
They are in effect just like Corbyn, a protesting ageing student, who has never really grown up !
August 6, 2019
Sir John,
The whole issue of misinformation and lack of information by the media is, sadly, evidence of the sinister influence of those who feel they have the right to control the minds of the masses. The more anyone knows about a particular issue, the greater the awareness of errors (deliberate or otherwise) and omissions. A knowledge of he leanings / obsessions of a particular media platform (e.g. BBC, Guardian, etc) just results in their partiality being more readily recognised. An expectation that a particular source of news / information is unrestricted and impartial (e.g. Google) can fool many into believing they are getting to a true and full picture of any given situation. In this particular case, beware.
Behind the scenes, there are dark forces at work, manipulating our lives and beliefs. I suspect that we shall never really know all, or even a fraction of those, who are actually pulling the strings. It is imperative, however, that every one of us remains aware that the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth can rarely be expected from any media platform at any time.
What a sad state of affairs – one which, at least as far as a National Broadcaster is concerned, should be addressed as a matter of urgency.
August 6, 2019
Yes, Pominoz. The BBC hierarchy cannot be unaware that most of we ‘little people’ out here can see right through their bias and machinations. If this hasn’t been addressed at such an important time for the country by those with the clout to do so, then it’s not going to be any time soon.
August 6, 2019
The selectively biased content we are fed from the media is another form of indoctrination from those wishing to suppress.
One of the benefits of social media is the people now have the ability to get the other side of the story out in the open so those with open minds can decide for themselves.
We need to stop paying to see and hear what we are being fed by the MSM.
August 6, 2019
@GaryC
I’m ahead of you on that score.
I have no BBC Licence, and the kids get all their TV content on demand using a Smart TV connected to an internet router.
We don’t watch any BBC channels, why would we?
I watched Californian Youtuber Juan Browne reporting on the Whaley Bridge situation. His standard of reporting and explanations of the issues were far better than anything I’ve heard from the MSM. I first became aware of his channel when he reported on the 737-Max problem, and his technical explanations are superb.
August 6, 2019
I studied this blog for facts and could not find any. I travel to France regularly and the protest movement has shrunk to a tiny minority of left and right extremists so no wonder it is not reported. If you have alternative facts rather than opinion then please present them here. Shooting the messenger achieves nothing
August 6, 2019
Shooting the GJs in France seems to have worked, up to a point. Skulls smashed and blindings seems to be fine when the EU loving president is giving the orders. More eco nonsense to satisfy EU/UN agendas will be on the way, resulting in wasted time and poverty.
August 6, 2019
@steadyeddie
Not surprising considering the extreme brutality metered out to them by Macron’s thugs.
August 6, 2019
Cause and result.
Look at the media outlets who receive EU funding.
Look at the sources they often use for their ‘news’.
Look at the funding or vested interest of these QUANGO’s, institutes and politicians they interview.
These media outlets should clearly state they receive EU funding.
So should all those sources they use to attack the UK and protect the EU.
All politicians who receive EU funding,……..and those with vested interests such as xxx again etc should not be allowed to vote in our Parliament on EU matters because of their Conflict of Interest.
It’s time to clear the swamp.
August 6, 2019
I fear that trust in the media is one of the casualties of Brexit. The media’s bias in favour of remain has become more extreme and more obvious since the referendum. I used, naively perhaps, in large measure to trust the BBC but that trust has been completely lost. I no longer believe very much I hear on the news and I assume that where certain reporters/commentators are concerned, the opposite of what they say is likely to be the reality.
I think this is a great loss and fear it will be many years before any trust is restored, if it ever is.
August 6, 2019
Oh dear! Not that many (of the usual commentators to this site) will notice the glaringly obvious omission(s) in Sir John’s article regarding political bias within the UK MSM…
That said…
I totally agree that most, if not all, of the UK media is biased when it comes to US politics, it is either all for Trump or all against Trump, there is no halfway house, but that merely reflects the US media and thus the news-wire source -even the BBC (home services…) now regularly use CBS content.
As for the likes of reporting on the ADF or FN here in the UK, the problem might be our laws that restrict the sort of language that can be repeated, the same problem is also faced by our host when acting as moderator -better to leave things unsaid than risk a brush with the lawyers. The media has the same issues when it comes to using video content from European sources, the public and thus Ofcom are very screamish, content regarded as acceptable for broadcast in much of Europe would incur an Ofcom censure here is not redacted.
Back in the earlier part of this decade the MSM did report on the the Euro crisis in Greece and how the eurocrats and ECB policies had made the problems much worse – although the right wing media did tend to spin the story to include why Greece should dump the Euro, rather than how the Euro could be made to work better across the EZ -who remembers the screams of anguish from them, never mind some on this site, when europhiles suggested ‘more Europe’ amongst the EZ countries as a solution, make Greece’s debt also Germany’s debts?
August 6, 2019
It’s gone beyond belief JR – the MSM has come together in the most corrupt way to deny us any real truth.
At every turn they indoctrinate – they push their socialist dogma on us while claiming that the fake news is on social media sites.
A few people are aware of all of this but most allow themselves to be taken down the lifestyle path defined by those that would rule our lives.
Anybody that gets their attention that opposes the warped view of the establishment/MSM is labelled as a neurotic hard right fanatic, and even the ‘justice system’ goes out of it’s way to suppress such people.
August 6, 2019
Well, John, you could extend this to the fact that the main national TV channels virtually never show any content made of the Mainland of Europe, but are packed with films, shows and cartoons made in the US. Some would say that as a nation we are complicit in our own domination by US cultural imperialism.
Your comparisons are stretched, I think, too. There is little coverage of state-by-state developments in the US, and that of the European Union is arguably similar. If it had federal government, then I’d expect that there would have been detailed coverage of its deliberations. Also, the Democrats are the main, official opposition in the US, whereas the AFD is a minority party.
We have McD’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, KFC, Starbucks, Frankie and Benny’s, Burger King and the rest on every major street parade and retail park across Europe, and yet the Leave campaigns claim that the European Union, and not the US, is somehow robbing countries of their national identities. I don’t see many Roman piazzas or Spanish haƧiendas springing up across our land, do you?
Reply So why no reports of Commission fed gov meetings or much coverage of the European Parliament?
August 6, 2019
It seems Russia suffers US and British “‘cultural imperialism” too. As Russians told me and I saw for myself, nearly all wildlife and nature programmes are British. I can’t mention children’s programmes for copyright reasons but Russians are well acquainted with bear-like personages with things stuck out of their heads and a babyish sun in the sky over a meadow. British cultural imperialism at its worst you would say!
Many US movies and detective programmes one of which you could file it under X.
Their vodka does not suffer western capitalist imperialism too much however, thank heavens.
August 6, 2019
But they do love, see and hear LIVE Rammstein. Sheer art when you cut through the noise. Oh and they love reading Herman Hesse’s Steppenwolf.
Of course Shakespeare. China too loves Shakespeare when they cut through the noise via translation perhaps
August 7, 2019
It’s a two way traffic though -look at the huge amount of Russian programming in classical music;the ubiquity of Chekhov in the theatre.Try getting tickets for the Bolshoi when they tour etc.
And a very successful Russian blini chain has just opened its first outlets in New York-the next big thing in fast food!
August 6, 2019
I’d say perhaps because the remit of the Lisbon Treaty is limited to non-sensational areas of law. Crime, family and divorce, property, inheritance, media regulation, electoral law and most of the rest are all excluded.
News sellers know that most people are not interested in Health and Safety details, environmental protection, product specifications, market regulation and the vast majority of what is put before the European Union’s Parliament. There was some coverage of TTIP, which the “rubber-stamping” EUP wisely threw out, however.
No one in the European Union has the sweeping executive powers that the US President has, and which the present uses for constant headline-grabbing either.
August 6, 2019
Wrong
The American President is restricted by the powers of the Senate and House of Rebublicans
August 7, 2019
Of course his powers are not unrestricted or without number.
However, there is absolutely no European Union official, with anything remotely like the remit that he enjoys, Edwards.
August 7, 2019
Oh yes there is.
There is the President of the Commission of the EU
The President (and the Commission) has huge powers and both are not even elected by any citizens.
The USA President is elected by the people and furthermore the President is further constrained by the Constitution and the Supreme Court.
August 6, 2019
In my view it is amazing that “Brexit” is still a thing.
The kind of people that have proposed it, for all manner of reasons, have been categorised by the media as all kinds of racist, lacking in intelligence and/or education., or in general one of the not so fortunates. The majority of the population support Brexit, but you would not think it by the way in which it is reported and deliberated on by our ābettersā.
Perhaps I am just a bit thick but I reckon that the vast majority of the folk in these islands, are perfectly sound individuals with all of the same characteristics, behaviours and goals that normal people possess, engage in, or aim for. Unfortunately the lefty/remainer types control the modern lexicon and the media and regularly categorise the majority of the people in this very dim light.
But let us look at the extremes, on the (so-called) right (which is really the left anyway), we have people who swan around declaring that they donāt like people of colour or beliefs that run counter to our state sponsored version. Because they regard this sector as something less (real racism) than them, they act as if there is no hurt, no put-down too low, and no turn of phrase beyond the pale. Whilst there is a fear of the unknown at work here, in general such behaviour is not something to be proud of. What is more, you may well find yourself on the extremes if you voted for Boris Johnson, or have a high regard for Nigel Farage.
Here is the other side though, the bit that never gets mentioned by the media. Those who occupy what is in their view, the higher moral ground are no less discriminating. Just as the black man or the Moslem, did not have any say in their appearance or habit, so the clever man or the (born) rich man, of whatever colour or religion, didnāt either.
However, it is apparently perfectly OK to spend 100% of the effort put into publicity in the direction of the folk that discriminate on the basis of brains or rich birth.
I am not suggesting that one is good whilst the other is bad. But I am going to suggest that these things are opinions, and we live in a democracy, where these things are supposed to be tested.
Nobody has a monopoly on them, but you wouldnāt think so outside of these minority one man blog sites, such as yours Sir John.
August 6, 2019
If your party, Sir John, wishes to be in government again, this is one of the most serious issues that you face. Our people are being bombarded with pro EU and pro liberal-lite propaganda and taxed to fund it.
August 6, 2019
You make are the right points as usual.
Interesting to see the channel hover board crossing, quite an achievement in technology terms anyway. It will be interesting to see what the EU official make of it. By my rough estimate (given the size of the pack pack tank that lasts only 10 minutes) it must be about 50-100 times less efficient per passenger mile than a Jumbo Jet. I assume therefore the alarmists will want to ban these things immediately and discourage development of them. But no it seems the French gave him about Ā£1 million to develop it.
Funny people these politician alarmists. If they really believe half of what they predict then why have they not even banned first class flights and use of private jets yet?
August 6, 2019
LL….
bit of an extreme way to get out of France and come to England……but then all welcome!
August 6, 2019
We need to simply look around us to see what is happening and make our own minds up.For instance John your blog is social media. I listen to the various comments and sometimes think codswallop, but don’t divert an argument into some petty twaddle.
Ownership and power do nasty things to people. Our state up until the mid 80′ s meant dignity , order and Britishness, then the private greedy sector started pulling everything apart to get their hands on power and money and turn order into chaos. inexperienced business men saw a way to turn around facts . steal from each other and found that bringing those better than themselves down worked and lined their pockets. Try and separate that self same generation from that in the media.
August 6, 2019
[…] article was first published in John Redwoodās Diary and we re-publish with his kind […]
August 6, 2019
It is reassuring to know that you know more about journalism than actual journalists Mr Redwood.
I thought you would be too busy knowing more about economics than economists.
And more about the car industry than people who run the car industry.
And more about medicines than people who run the pharmaceutical industry.
And more about farming than farmers.
And so on.
Perhaps you should concentrate on the politics – which, with respect, Brexiteers have proven they are actually not very good at.
Reply I seem to remember we were better at winning the vote than all the clever people on your side
August 6, 2019
The cleverness to see and say where professionals or specialists in other fields are being merely self-interested or plain wrong (as they so often are) is what makes for a really good political representative – and as John Redwood has that ability far more than others he is an exceptionally good politician.
August 6, 2019
Very true – and beautifully put.
August 6, 2019
Dear Mr. Redwood,
@Andy,
When you begin to try to insult the host of this blog; it doesn’t come across as very clever. One would have to conclude that you are, in fact, rather rattled.
Following your devastating Brexit vote loss, did you know that there are 5 stages of grief? They are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
I think you must be stuck somewhere between stage 1 and 2.
August 6, 2019
David Cameron is not on my side.
And your āsideā won because it cheated and lied.
You must be so proud.
August 7, 2019
Andy, David Cameron is on your side – he said so, and put taxpayers’ money where his mouth is.
August 6, 2019
Andy……pot, kettle, black!
If anyone clearly thinks they know better than the rest of us its YOU.
At least Sir John writes from what he observes , his experience, his preferences as to outcomes. He is also prepared to be judged on views, and I suspect is willing to consider views such as ours. He does not shout down responses and views clearly at odds with his own and popularly held ones. A fair balance and at least we see opinions bared, as opposed to many in politics who it is now clear, cannot be trusted.
August 8, 2019
Reply to reply
“Reply I seem to remember we were better at winning the vote than all the clever people on your side”
Which only means that you politicians are good at deceiving the public. Rather arrogant to suggest that you consider these ‘qualities’ as more important for the general good of your voters than hard earned knowledge by ‘clever’ people who you
seem to despise.
August 6, 2019
Sir JR,
As far as I am concerned this is just as much “fake NEws” as your criticism of the Remain fear campaign.
August 6, 2019
I quite understand why BoJo wants to spend millions of our money on advertising our Brexit position in EU newspapers. Do our EU āfriendsā know that the terms of the disgraceful WA ānegotiatedā by Mrs May leave us as a vassal state and that a very few of their senior politicians have said they could never submit their countries to such one-sided terms?
August 6, 2019
The French newspapers are totally biased and misrepresent the UK position in a sneering way.
August 6, 2019
If you educate people you must accept that they will use their learning to explore the world in their own way. Now that most of us, even old codgers like me, can navigate the internet, the BBC and other media outlets can no longer control the narrative as they once did and the discrepancies between their output and what others are saying is writ large. Did they really think that they could continue to feed us a biased view of Europe and the US when we could research for ourselves online? Take the gillets jaunes uprisings in France, for instance. The subject has been on the radar for many of us since they began last year but the omission of any meaningful reporting on it by either the BBC or our newspapers has fuelled the idea that we cannot trust the mainstream media or their journalists to tell us the unvarnished truth about what is really happening in Europe. It is the same with reports on what is happening in the US. There is thinly veiled hostility to President Trump and the talking points are taken straight from the partisan US media who, much like the Remainers here, have never accepted that Hillary lost and refuse to accept that this is a legitimately elected President standing on a popular agenda. All of this is not lost on those of us who don’t watch TV any longer and who now listen to people who have a much wider and deeper knowledge and grasp of current events than the highly paid ‘journalists’ here. I repeat my initial point. If you educate people you must expect that they will use their learning to explore the world for themselves and not swallow whole the concocted narrative that is spoonfed to us by those who think that Brexiteers are ignorant, poorly educated peasants who should know our place and do what we’re told.
August 7, 2019
Kathleen P, Well said. Though I nearly didn’t read it because it wasn’t paragraphed!
August 6, 2019
MSM conceals the truth which it knows the ordinary person would not like.
It adopts the role of ānannyā deciding, for her own authoritarian ends, what and who represents a threat and what and who does not. Demonises and lies about those who tell the truth and lionises those who support the agenda.
And ānannyā feels very smug and superior in doing the bidding of the āparentsā who pay her wages.
We have a world that has been infiltrated from top to bottom by cultural Marxism/ communism ( which had been hanging around for centuries)while the good guys were trying to be oh so bl**dy liberal. ( I do not forgive them for that).
The battle for control of the media has largely been won by the Left and they want to…need to…keep much secret regarding the horrific results of their project.
Donāt want to frighten the sheep…they might stampede.
The questions are..where is the Right? Is still there really one?
Is anyone ever going to actually DO anything?
And ( this fascinates me) WHY donāt they believe any of it will affect them and their families?
August 6, 2019
Sir John, what a superb article!
How true.
Allow me to add the utter incompetence of the new EU Foreign Minister and the awful record of the new EU President of the all important Commission as German Defence Minister.
If we were staying in the EU, I should be seriously concerned now. A Foreign Minister with a hot temper and an arrogant disregard for other people’s feelings which makes Mr Trump look like a seasoned diplomat is not a happy sign.
August 6, 2019
The more one shines a spotlight into the EU, the more one can see the similarities in behaviour, to that of a communist state. All cloak and mirrors, sweet bribes to get their own way, punishment if one fails to toe the line. Approved information only goes into the press, unpopular items not mentioned….Propaganda promoting the EU, castigating US and UK.
The Brexit Party MEPs do a weekly video, and they say that they feel that all that Brussels does is buy their loyalty. And like the Van de Luyen āvoteā all the committees are the same – you vote for only the choice of one candidate each time!
Sadly, because of the bias and indoctrination towards the EU in our education system, a lot of post graduates believe that the EU is good – but the nation state, is not good.
August 6, 2019
Yes I realised some time ago that the BBC are biased and stopped consuming any of their current affairs content. I found that nearly all other sources are also biased, including, surprisingly, Reuters.
I now follow Guido Fawkes web site for up to date news and investigative journalism and a few others such as UnHerd and Spiked for articles.
I supported the petition(s) to abolish the licence fee and to restore the over-75s licence. I was saddened to see that the ‘debate’ took place in a tiny room with about 15-20 people present, chaired by a woman who was essentially a BBC apologist. The timing was poor, being at the back end of the awful May era.
The parliament petitions web site is a waste of time. If governments can manipulate the issue by chucking it in a back room and having a ‘debate’ while clearly intending to take no action then what’s the point of it?
It seems that the left have infiltrated many aspects of society. They take the time to turn their (misguided) beliefs into action whereas the silent majority sit there in our comfortable Micawberesque belief that our wonderful democracy and values will all work out alright in the end.
August 6, 2019
The piece quite rightly lays much of the blame for ‘austerity’ at the EU’s door.
However, I see the Tories have stopped laying the blame with Labour, whose overspending, as ever, was the major cause of this. It is time to hit back:
1. It is not ‘Tory austerity’, it’s Labour austerity.
2. It’s not austerity at all when you continue to live beyond our means as a country – throughout the so-called austerity period we continued to spend more than we take in tax.
If this was belt-tightening, then since we are still adding to the public debt,m there must be worse to come.
The right must continue to make this argument. They must point out that we simply cannot afford a socialist government trashing the economy further.
August 6, 2019
Sometimes I watch the BBC when they are interviewing somebody who is in favour of either Leave or President Trump.
One thing I thoroughly object to is the BBC’s habit of asking the interviewee a question and then cutting him or her off even before they have had a chance to answer.
Shouting over someone you are interviewing is not only extremely rude but it renders the entire interview pointless.
Most civilised people stopped behaving like that when they left kindergarten.
August 6, 2019
And in documentaries, the interviewee will make some point, then the presenter will repeat it, questioningly, and the interviewee will then repeat his point. Ever noticed that? Now I’ve brought it to your attention you will see it over, and over, and over again. Gosh but it’s annoying. Horizon is one of the worst offenders.
August 6, 2019
For good interviewing technique the BBC should take lessons from RT – they are excellent.
August 6, 2019
I have written here many times that the broadcast media is in breach of their statutory duty of accuracy and impartiality on a daily basis. They are all anti-Brexit and anti- Trump. Instead of purveyors of news they have become propagandists with a clear agenda. They insist on trying to tell us what to think rather than presentinfacts in an impartial way and allowing us to form our own opinions. Their regulator Ofcom does nothing about these breaches and appears complicit.
As a consequence, I and many people I know no longer listen or watch much of their output and feel aggrieved that we are forced by law to pay for a tv licence, with criminal sanctions for not doing, to be so indoctrinated.
I wonder if you know why none of the broadcasters show reports of the gilets jaunes protests and police brutality in France but those in Hong Kong and other places are? It has been suggested that their has been what was once known as a D-Notice applied by the goveernment to prevent them. Is this correct? If so, why? If not, we must assume that this is yet another part of the broadcasters EU bias.
August 7, 2019
Why is the Sky reporter embedded with the most destructive elements of the Hong Kong “protesters”-the so-called Black Shirts?
I see the Atlantic Council,the propaganda arm of NATO that masquerades as a think tank,was kicked out of Moscow last week.
August 6, 2019
This is from today’s Investor’s Chronicle Market update –
‘A study published yesterday by the UKās Institute for Fiscal Studies spelt out clearly exactly what it takes to be in the top 10 and top 1 per cent in this country. To get into the top 10 one needs an income of just over Ā£50K; in the top 1 per cent: Ā£162K, and the tip-top 0.1 per cent Ā£650K ā before tax. The individuals are overwhelmingly male, pale, aged 45-55, and live in London or the South East. Because many have income in the shape of dividends, company profits, or interest their tax rates tend to be lower than taxes levied on salaries. The median UK taxpayer earns Ā£22K. ‘
‘male, pale, aged 45-55’…this is the type of racist, Misandry bigotry that we are now being bombarded with etc ed
So pray tell me why is this type of CASUAL RACISM tolerated????? I want to know why Mr Redwood. Why do you tolerate being slandered like this because believe me this hatred of and demonisation of white men is becoming widespread and prevalent?
It’s a liberal left hate tactic now being played against Trump and Boris Johnson and yet they themselves accept it.
Reply The quote you cite is factual, not an attack on the people concerned. I agree the same standards of courtesy and sensitivity should apply to all groups
August 6, 2019
The media is to blame now- but don’t see it here now this side of the channel. Leave John! just leave- and give us all a break
August 6, 2019
Larry Summers is the BBCās newest anti-Brexit voice. I assume they think Adonis, Grieve etc sound a little tired and the debate needs freshening up.
Anyway, Summers, who worked for Obama, was on the Today programme before 7am describing at considerable length the reasons Brexit will be a catastrophe for the UK.
Then after 7am – and presumably in the interest of balance – they had a voice disagreeing with Summers, albeit rather mildly.
August 6, 2019
Peter….you say ‘debate needs freshening up’ – – what debate? the BBC only do biased, rig audience participation, belittle opposing views, concentrate on emotive language such as ‘crash out’ and disaster.
August 6, 2019
There’s a toxic ideological take-over at work. I remember the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg’s question to the newly elected Donald Trump, tartly asking him about (amongst other things) his views on abortion, in a manner which was outrageously discourteous and arrogant, as if she spoke for all of us in the UK. Admittedly, she was probably put up to it by her editor, but what a disgraceful way for the BBC to represent the UK, as if we are all of their ‘progressive liberal’ mindset. Sadly, despite so many good traits and no doubt decent people trying to buck the trend behind the scenes from within, the BBC as a supposedly unbiased national broadcaster. is terminally sick.
August 6, 2019
The media is just a litany of negativity. Job losses are reported but job creation isnāt. The pound going down is reported, the pound going up isnāt. Companies moving abroad is reported, companies moving in isnāt. Brexit negatives reported, Brexit positives arenāt. Riots in Hong Kong reported, riots in France arenāt. Mass shootings by whites labelled as racist and right wing, terrorist attacks by non-whites labelled as mental health and poverty. Murder of African white farmers goes unreported as if itās somehow justified. If it were the other way around it would be labelled ethnic cleansing with sanctions imposed by the UN.
The media, mostly TV news has a lot to answer for. Itās been brainwashing people for years. Itās about time the media is called out for what it is ā state controlled propaganda. Iām sure many of us on here have given up watching the one sided view shown on British television.
August 6, 2019
hear hear!
August 6, 2019
Sir John,
Then I trust you will oppose the BBC ‘s right o a TV Receiver Licence Fee in future and leave it to get its own subscription service?
August 6, 2019
The internet has afforded many opportunities to disintermediate by cutting-out the middleman to thereby put providers and users in direct contact, unfiltered by third parties.
This diary represents one of the best and most effective channels of disintermediation in politics today. I salute your innovation and success and rejoice that I can find out what you have to tell us without the interference of the infotainment industry operatives who have, typically, replaced the profession of journalism.
All Government departments should provide direct public access to the information they routinely supply to brief the infotainment industry.
August 6, 2019
The Gilet Jaunes protests have gone on for nine months now, people have been assaulted by the riot squat, several have lost eyes or required amputations and hundreds required medical treatment and stitches. No mention on the BBC website since about February 2019.
The Hong Kong riots have now lasted 9 weeks. Daily or even hourly mention on BBC TV, Radio and Website, complaints about police response and multiple explanations of how the the protesters have been wronged and what they hope to achieve.
Moscow riots for one day only. Coverage in every newspaper about the government’s response and the heavy handed approach of the police.
See, the BBC is not even pretending to be fair, as our nearest neighbour’s capital city is turned into a no-go area for months on end, they keep covering up the news. The BBC does not report the ‘news’ – they only report what is ‘on message’ – this is the very definition of propaganda.
August 6, 2019
As I’ve said before ‘ the BBC try to make something happen, they don’t report what has’.
August 6, 2019
The media has every reason to face up to Trump, since he has come on stage he has set out to destroy and take apart everything that is good, everything good that has been worked at by previous administrations including treaties and harmony between nations. He has belittled and demonised the Mexican people- in fact I cannot see one positive decent thing he has done that will be remembered as endearing him to the world and to mankind, a complete waste of time and space- a truly ignorant person. Yes when all is weighed up am sure Trump and now Boris will go down in history as the true masters of chaos- puppets to the princes of darkness- Bannon, Bolton, and now Cummings
Reply One thing I like about Mr Trump is his refusal to use the massive US military force at his command to kill people in the Middle East, unlike Mr Obama and Mr Bush and Mr Clinton.
August 6, 2019
Too, the first US president to start to bring North Korea in from the cold.
August 6, 2019
It appears that those who suggest the Leave Campaigners lied to us citizens do not realise that we have not yet actually left the EU. Three and a half years after the Referendum result and we are still waiting for our independence. This extended delay is most all down to the PM that was foisted upon us. That woman, a Remainer surrounded herself with a majority of fellow Reaminers in her Cabinet to arrange our exit. LOL. She is probably to top liar in the heap. Her promises of “Brexit means Brexit”, “No deal is better than a bad deal” and the oft-repeated (108 times) “We shall leave the EU on March 29th, 2019” were all reneged and are obvious examples.
These followed the trend of scare stories from previous PM Cameron and his followers, The Treasury and the BoE which all turned out to be false, AKA “Lies”.
Now I do wonder just how many “!Don’t Knows” were frightened into voting “Remain” because of these “Untruths”.
Furthermore, I have not seen one apology from the perpetrators of these false stories to suggest they are honorable people.
Is it any wonder then, why we have been held back?
August 6, 2019
Agreed. I personally know some people who wanted to vote Leave, but were scared into voting Remain by Project Fear. They won’t be fooled again!
There will also be quite a few Remainers who value democracy above EU membership.
August 7, 2019
Thank you for your input. Hopefully, such information made public via MSM will squash the remainer demand for that phony 2nd Referendum. I won’t hope my breath as those people are so desperate.
August 6, 2019
Don’ think Ms Merkel and Macron are in the habit of giving soundbites to the Media, certainly nothing like f*ck business, letter boxes or go whistle. No I think the Uk media is reporting as it sees it. Of course from time to time some of the lower order gutter press like the Sun and Express finds time to embellish a little in order to boost sales but I think that this is mainly an English thing for English reader.
Reply I think AFD and National Rally give plenty of soundbites
August 6, 2019
OK, I am now prepared for a no deal brexit, fiscally at least. I still have not discovered if Boris is going to sign up for the CAP19 parachutes offer from the EU, for going over the cliff edge on brexit day. It could be a hard landing otherwise.
The UK has always been a square peg in a round hole when it comes to the EU. I still think brexit is a very bad thing to do; and, my stats say five out of six of those who voted for “leave”, will be the hardest hit by it. The democratic tail has certainly wagged the dog (so far). Who needs solvency when you have sovereignty. š
August 6, 2019
cliff edge is such a remainer cliche’
Try to come up with a new project fear adjective..
August 6, 2019
Ok Edward2, in your case I will substitute an adjective for a noun “loser”.
August 6, 2019
Don’t be so harsh on yourelf acorn
August 6, 2019
“Your stats”? LOL. I say they are ‘Unbelievable’, unless you prove otherwise. Or were they published by the Guardian Newspaper based on a poll run by
August 6, 2019
THE BBC
August 6, 2019
Better reporting of Europe ā¦yes please!
Meanwhile, the bodies US race hate gun crime are being cleared away with many blaming the tone of the current administration.
The US is a country where murder is five times the European rate, inequality wider and mobility worse. Blacks are five times as likely to be incarcerated as whites. Jim Crow is in living memory, reparations to slave descendants ( the touchstone democratic issue ) a real possibility .
It is the birthplace of political correctness, the epicentre of militant feminism and the highest spender of Health in the world by far, about 2/3 of which is public money . Highly protectionist highly regulated, often a State level , and while taxes are low legal transfers more than make up for it. God yes it is abysmally misrepresented .
Our media is weakened by state dominance .I see no need for the State to supply celebrity dancing competitions or provide an equal time to idiots as to experts.
Lets cut the BBC back to an ordinary public broadcasting option and let the market have sway .If you wish to hear what some ignoramus reckons about immigrants in a structured reality format , then fine . I have no wish to join you and I feel confident my tastes will be profitably catered for .
August 6, 2019
And your point is ?
August 6, 2019
Quote – 6-8-19 Westmonster: August saw European confidence levels fall to their lowest in nearly five years, according to survey data from Sentix.
As they explain: āThe Sentix economic index for Euroland drops by a whopping 7.9 points to -13.7 points. This is the lowest level since October 2014.
āThe measures announced by the central banks have not caused economic expectations to turn around. On the contrary, the current situation and expectations are literally tearing down, and the pace of deterioration is on the increase.
āIn Germany, the overall index is even falling to its lowest level since October 2009. A recession in Germany is inevitable. The other regions of the world are also struggling with large discounts.ā
The Sentix index of economic confidence says it all: the hardline stance taken by Brussels throughout the negotiation isnāt matched by economic reality. Questions will be asked as to how the EU failed to strike a sensible UK trade deal if the government stand firm and deliver No Deal.
Ahhhh – Music to my ears.
August 6, 2019
We needed to stand up to certain European personages in the 1930ās. Unfortunately it has become clear that we need to do the same with a new bunch of European personages. Rather a shame, but hopefully the lessons they learn will be salutary
August 6, 2019
Why does our media blatantly misinform? Radio Moscow English Language Section must have career opportunities for them. They will pay less tax to our Country.They would be in their Heaven. Though they would need to take a course in the English language so English speaking foreigners are able to understand them. They don’t now.
One of their invited English well-respected journalists recently pronounced ‘ploy’ Pluehoy. What kind of talk is that? It’s how a Dutch person or Romanian first year English pupil might pronounce it at a first attempt.
August 6, 2019
Sir John Redwood is an excellent listener and life-long learner and observer who has been obviously acquiring a variety of key skills over many years as I and many others have noted. He has a unique talent for laser like insights which many lack and not aware of. When he speaks it is worth listening. As both an accomplished author and guest article writer many journalists would learn from both his style and substance.
His observations on how the USA and EU are portrayed so differently is spot-on as is Boris v Theresa as was Trump v Obama.
Having lived in France for 8 years many years ago I realised how blinkered news in this country is largely due to the “BBC project” and MSM. France is a deeply divided country and arguably more nationalistic and protectionist in Agriculture and Industry than most. Yet this is glossed over by the Bbc who don’t want to upset their EU funding.
Instead of focussing on the vision and benefits of leaving – Onward and Upward – helping to mitigate against a No Deal scenario the BBC paints frightful folks fearing change instead which is so unprofessional but serves their hidden agenda project perfectly. The BBC should be run in the National Interest not favoured sections focussed on Minority interests. This also applies to Channel 4, Sky and ITV who jockey for ratings with them by copying their modus operandi.
August 6, 2019
The sad thing for me which breaks my heart (I’ve written a book ) is that even if I were the most brilliant writer the world witnessed since Shakespeare, my book cannot be understood by the powers that be. I write of Literary Agents . I have heard one or two of them on YouTube.
You see, my book must be read aloud , even the modern English bits. But they will not be able to hear it as they do not speak English. As for a variation on the theme of English in the book, they will not understand anything of worth.
I’m left with American powers that be, they probably will be able to absorb it and understand, all.
August 6, 2019
As far as I know they’ve all gone on holidays so don’t know what M Gove is talking about- negotiate with who/ whom
August 6, 2019
So what are the solutions? What is offensive is the promotion of miscegenation by the advertising industry: who are they and why are they doing it?
However, there has to more concern now for the activities of those that control social media platforms and popular search engines whose ownership can be traced back to foreign state security agencies. By the selective cancelling of accounts whose opinions are objected to by those who wish to control the public discourse and the manipulation of the results of searches in order to promote or deprecate sites according to commercial, political and scientific criteria which conform to an entirely artificial reality on the grounds that the alternatives are fake news (and anyhow, they haven’t paid), unsophisticated people are being led into false beliefs about the world we live in.
Is England disappearing, is Western civilisation disappearing down the Memory Hole because of who politicians allow to control the public discourse?
August 6, 2019
The British Ambassador to a East European country decades ago, was invited to their May Day march past. He was interviewed in English by their national broadcaster as he watched and he asked in polished almost evenly toned English: ” I see the marchers are entering from the opposite end of the street from the one last year. Is there any significance in that?”
You are British if you detect great humour in his question. The foreign English speaker interviewer did not. Our media, in general, would not appreciate where he was coming from.
August 6, 2019
an
August 6, 2019
If there is one thing the last three years have proved, it is the fact that the UK’s form of democracy, has little or no codified rules of procedure, the sort you would get in a modern democracy with a written constitution, like the US for instance.
Mostly everything in Westminster is based on conventions, not codified rules in a constitution. Conventions are not enforceable in any law court. Because they are not enforced by law courts, they are best regarded as non-legal rules. You have to ask yourself why would the HoC vote for the likes of a Fixed Term Parliaments Act; who did it suppose would profit from that?
Hence, post referendum; we discover that nobody knows exactly what the powers of a UK Prime Minister are. Does he have to stand down after a HoC vote of no confidence; or not?
Further, what powers does the HoC have to stop or change anything Downing Street does; regardless of the HoC voting one way or another?
A UK Prime Minister has far greater unfettered powers than a President of the USA who is constrained by a written down; frequently tested, constitution. In reality, the UK is more like North Korea than the USA.
August 6, 2019
Almost as many people voted for Kim Jong Un as voted for Boris Johnson.
August 6, 2019
You need to stop using the word codify and study the British Constitution
August 7, 2019
This was discussed as far back as 2012 on Dr. North’s site. The conclusion? Direct Democracy.
August 6, 2019
Absolutely, 100% correct. It was ever thus in our media. Today is a perfect example. Gun crime 1,000s of miles away is big news. The teetering Euro economy, mass youth unemployment (how much worse if so many hard working young Europeans were not here in the UK?), no-go areas in European states and the growing percentage of right wing chancers in European governments are not newsworthy. The dreadful lack of character and ability in the new EU Infamous 5 Presidents. Remember voting for them? Of that’s right. We don’t get a vote, do we?
Why no reporting? Hmmm….”No news is good news”.
August 6, 2019
Iāve come to loathe the BBC so much I donāt want to pay them a TV licence fee any more. Not that I watch any of their TV programmes anyway, but I do have a TV to watch Netflix and up until now have paid the TV licence fee to avoid any hassle from the licensing service. The criterion for being liable to the tax is that you watch live TV (or use the i-player) – so I ought not to have to pay this tax.
Enough is enough. Before my current licence expires I will remove my TV aerial so I can no longer receive live TV broadcasts, and then tell the Licensing service I no longer watch live TV.
When the next licence fee demand arrives I will claim I am not liable to pay it. I dare say I will have an unpleasant time proving this but Iāll keep a video diary of events as they unfold, to help prove my claim and to expose any shortcomings in the system. If I fail it will cost me a fine, but if I can help in the push towards making the BBC a subscription service, it will be worthwhile.
August 7, 2019
The onerous is on them to prove you are watching or recording live TV. If they cannot prove it then you are not committing a crime.
The TV Tax creates a monopoly for the BBC in terms if revenue. It denies choice and lowers standards, like much else the state offers.
August 6, 2019
The solution is simple, and has been for a long time. Sell off the BBC and scrap the TV licence. Those who want a far-left perspective on the world can pay for it with a subscription.
August 7, 2019
Well Said!
August 6, 2019
M Gove has developed belated crocodile tears syndrome it seems- he’s deeply saddened that the EU won’t talk to him. Boo Hoo. What about being confident pragmatic open minded, looking to the future? What a dunce!
August 7, 2019
shock horror!! The EU refuses to talk. BUT all those strident complaining people insisting all can be resolved if we just sit round the table. Find them on the beaches its summer for the EU, and much of the general population.
August 6, 2019
I am glad you touched on the EU Austerity Plan. Why don’t more Leave Politicians talk in depth about this ? I am sure a lot of remainians would change their mind if they realised the VAT they pay was raised to 20% because of this “plan”, and i am convinced they would be up in arms if they realised Raising Retirement Age was also part of it. Why don’t the politicians tell it like it is. There is a clause in the Maastricht Treaty (which we were denied a vote on) that states if a countries (sorry i mean states) debt reaches a certain percentage of GDP Austerity Measures have to be taken to lower the debt. That clause was triggered in 2009 towards the end of the Labour government, and the next government had to put forward a plan to the EU to cut the debt. That included the Raising of VAT, and the Raising of Retirement Age on top of the public spending cuts etc. Why don’t the politicians TELL THE PEOPLE ?
August 6, 2019
JR
Why this ‘them and us’ discussion aligning us with the US?
We are Europeans not Americans. We come from Europe and have been neighbours for thousands of years while America is a newcomer settled by people from across the globe.
Apart from that can you name a single European country that has such horrible mass murders by and of its own citizens?
Reply There have been nasty attacks in France, Germany etc
August 7, 2019
MH….I think the problem is enabled by ownership of guns, and ease of acquisition. I doubt the US necessarily has a higher proportion of mental health worries ‘ in the community’.
August 7, 2019
Reply to reply:
Can’t you do better than that?
August 7, 2019
“Apart from that can you name a single European country that has such horrible mass murders by and of its own citizens?”
Answer: YES Italy,Germany, Austria, Romania, Hungary, France, Poland, Latvia, Ukraine, Belgium, Spain, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Bosnia, Macedonia, Croatia, Greece, Serbia, Herzegovina,Montenegro, Albania, Bulgaria,Slovenia, Cyprus, they had a few mass shootings etc. . in about 1930 right up to 2001 and 2003 plus hundreds since then due to ‘domestic terrorism’ across Europe. Plus high levels of murder in Sweden, to name just one.
August 7, 2019
And Ireland. Ongoing. Ask any Irishman or woman.
August 7, 2019
I’m certain Boris, JR, and The Rt Hon Gavin Williamson CBE MP, Secretary of State for Education, have their own ideas why very well educated UK people are unable to hear, see and read comprehensively.
I have my own ideas but it does not matter. Whatever the reason for the intellectual blindness in predominantly leftie -liberals, what is the answer? What can and should be done in our education system to open eyes and minds?
August 8, 2019
Sir John,
The Conservatives are in power. Stuff the institutions with more conservatives not leftists. Legislate for balanced reporting in the media. Force the tax payer owned BBC to employ many more conservatives especially in senior management positions. A level playing field is all that is required. Itās very suspicious that there is never a changing of the guard at the BBC when it is state owned?
August 12, 2019
We can thank the numpty hammond for the collapse in the car sales due to his ludicrous increase on diesel cars .The stupidity of this was in 2018 i wanted to buy a diesel car yr 2017 until i found out the tax was five hundred pounds per yr so i bought the same,but a yr older 2016 RD tax was one hundred sixty six pounds I think most people realise that due to the insane policy of the previous government [labours vote seeking platitudes and to cosy up to green brigade]would have profound consequent on the tax intake for the government in coming yrs .I think even the dimmest of the dim [all but hammond still chasing the green vote] would need to see that all rd users would have to pay there share for the up keep of our rd and byways