We voted to make our own laws, spend our money, pursue our own trade interests, to take a global rather than a European view of the world, control our own borders, settle our own taxes and regain our own place on major international bodies. The EU and their Remain friends in the UK have set out for four and half years now to thwart these aims and to recreate legal controls and barriers over our actions. It is time to break free.
The government should explain how we will
- Take VAT off items like green products and female hygiene products. Set Corporation Tax definitions and rates to make the UK competitive globally
- Operate the points based migration system which meets the needs of the UK and controls numbers of economic migrants
- Reform our benefits system to help people here more, and reduce incentives to come here to try to settle
- As a full member of the WTO pursue more great trade deals, including one with the Trans Pacific Partnership and including services
- Controlling all our own fish and creating a much bigger fishing and fish processing industry at home
- Cutting food miles by redirecting farm subsidies to promote UK food production
- Using public procurement to help UK based production of goods and services, whilst continuing with competitive tendering
- Reducing harmful or needless regulation to make the UK more responsive and business friendly, whilst maintaining or enhancing high standards in areas like employment law and health and safety
- Raising animal welfare standards, starting by removing export of live animals or transit of live animals through the UK to other destinations.
December 6, 2020
Indeed I would add 10. Abandon the idiotic expensive & intermittent energy agenda and subsidies. Also 11. Stop pissing money down the drain on the many idiotic projects like HS2, subsidies for electric cars, Hinckley C, over the tap CV testing (the pandemic is essentially over now anyway).
Perhaps your number 8. Reducing harmful or needless regulation to make the UK more responsive and business friendly – is the biggest win, win. Especially if you fire all the people in government who produce and regulate this needless regulation. It also releases many compliance people in the private sector to get a productive job instead.
And 11. Cut and simplify taxes hugely. 20% of a large tax base is better than 100% of a tiny one.
And 12.
At least 90% of it is totally pointless and/or actively damaging and on balance is doing far more harm than good.
December 6, 2020
And 13. New policies to eliminate the huge number of essentially parasitic jobs created by idiotic laws and regulations. These are in government and in compliance in the private sector. Reward people who generate wealth not those who argue over it and largely destroy it. Or those who render the UK uncompetitive.
December 6, 2020
14. âTrade not aidâ. Reduce punitive tariffs on value-added products from developing countries. For example the 40% tariff on chocolates. Contrasted to the very low tariffs on raw cocoa beans for the fat chocolatiers of Belgium.
December 6, 2020
Eustice was talking about an extension on Marr! The date to leave was 29/03/2019!!
Fake Tory party/Govt has broke so many many promises over the last 1638 days or so it is hard to know where to begin. Three PMs and elections.
Cameron failed to prepare to leave even while saying/lying he would send the letter the next day.
May told so many lies…… how about starting with she would not hold an election?We would leave as one United Kingdom- N.Ireland still remains in the single market and customs union!!! No border down the Irish Sea! Brexit means Brexit, no deal better than a bad deal then agreed WA and NIP!
80 seat majority and despite all the warnings in the WA and NIP highlighted by the DUP and others Johnson and consigned it and party voted for it!!
JR talks about regulations, how about all the state interfering regs by his govt and party to interfere in our every day life!
Told what we can eat, say, think, protest about? Brainwashing children of tender years in totally unscientific reasoning like a man can be a woman! JR told us recently in a blog we may be given back some of our freedoms!
What has his govt or party done to roll back or change any New Labour agenda? Our public services are infested with Labour agenda and key people.
Has Fake Tory govt changed mass immigration and the legislation to suppress and conversation to change the situation like the Equality Act brought in by Harman?Nothing changed, historic record numbers of all types of immigration and illegal immigration on their watch.
Energy, minimum wage etc etc. Fake Tory party has as a matte of record furthered New Labour policies over ten years.
December 6, 2020
+1
December 6, 2020
@Lifelogic, I agree.
But only a relatively small % of what you want can be done by politics.
Politicians aren’t that powerful (although power can go to people’s heads).
If we want a root and branch reform of everything, leading to much lower taxes etc, then you have to change the CULTURAL MINDSET of people – through EDUCATION / THE MEDIA / THE ARTS. Restoring and imbuing the country with:
1) WORK ETHIC (like the great wealth-builders in business – the Quakers)
2) FAMILY (do everything to support strong families – strong families leads to well-balanced, happier, and more productive families overall).
3) PATRIOTISM (not what my country can do for me but what I can do for my country – the same sentiment of a family member for his family).
December 6, 2020
4) LEADER
At end of day, we also need a strong leader. To implement sovereignty and to provide our nation with a proper VISION for our country and to UNITE it under that vision.
Sadly, great leaders are rare – great leaders such as CYRUS THE GREAT. Who all politicians should be aiming to be like – and same for all men – for Cyrus the Great represents the great, benevolent virtues of the King that all men should have (along with Warrior, Magician and Lover – in Jungian sense of the words).
Cyrus the Great is considered a sort of saint in Judaism and I suppose in Christianity as well. But he is also regarded as a true hero by the Greeks and Romans as well (Alexander the Great was obsessed by Cyrus the Great).
Almighty God, please give us a Cyrus the Great.
December 6, 2020
Indeed start with the dire BBC that drips the nation in green crap & idiotic woke socialism every single day.
December 6, 2020
@Lifelogic,
I agree about ridding the BBC of the left-wing political bias. 100%.
But there’s a big difference between that and the BBC that produces and broadcasts stuff such as the amazing 1995 production of Pride & Production, of Dad’s Army, the Life of Birds and so on. Let’s not throw baby out with bathwater (to commercialise BBC and it wouldn’t just become like Sky or whatever – nothing special at all).
And we just have to live with the fact that creatives to a degree are always slightly left-leaning in general – that’s the nature of the creative anarchic spirit – but I agree that shouldn’t spill over into political bias on the BBC.
December 6, 2020
Cyrus the Great also reminds us that we can never take sovereignty for granted. And it isn’t an inherent right.
Cyrus the Great was an Emperor who was regarded by the Babylonians, whom he conquered, as a (benevolent) liberator from their own corrupt leaders.
Sovereignty is a virtue. But an even greater virtue is the benevolence of a country’s leaders. With benevolence of its leaders being even more important than sovereignty (key as that is).
December 6, 2020
And 14. Stop the lock down that is doing more harm than good. Sack all Sage Committee and replace with just Dr Michael Yeadon and Claire Craig who are clearly right where sage are wrong. Stop the pointless mass testing. Make absolutely sure the vaccine is safe. It is quite likely to do more harm than good as we are already at herd immunity levels in most places.
15. It is is safe and effective use it but change the vaccine priorities to save many lives by adjusting for the much higher male gender and other risks rationally with suitable age adjustments.
A good piece by Douglas Murray today (as usual) on the woke lunacy at Eton College in the Telegraph. But he thinks that the University of Southampton employing an âexpertâ on video games is an inanity of the age. Not at all Douglas (perhaps you are not a gamer and nor am I) but it is a very, very important industry, giving much pleasure to millions and developing technology and technical and other skills. Crossovers in to AI, defence, remote control weapons, IT, human interface systems, psychology, remote control surgery …… A far better area to appoint some one than about 80% of other university appointments I would say.
December 6, 2020
If it is save and effective I meant.
December 6, 2020
14. “Within a couple of short weeks the EU will need to definitively confirm the âNo Dealâ arrangements from January 1… That would immediately put it in the position it doesnât want to be â a set of piecemeal arrangements.” – Jake Pugh yesterday.
December 6, 2020
Unfortunately Johnson has already committed the country to economic suicide with his ill considered green agenda. That will destroy any benefits otherwise available from Brexit.
December 6, 2020
Indeed green lunacy. Just as appalling was Appeaser Mayâs promise to retain and build on EU âworkers rightsâ. If you are unemployed you do not get any workers rights. Boris and May seem to prefer the UK to remain uncompetitive, export jobs and have high unemployment.
December 6, 2020
Indeed.
December 6, 2020
As always I agree with you entirely. Sadly the majority of our representatives in parliament haven’t got the sense or courage to implement such logical policies.
December 6, 2020
Prof. Calum Semple member of Sage on LBC talking vaccination compulsory certificates being demanded – âpeople will have to accept the civil liberties issue, when you fly you give up your civil liberty to carry on a litre of water and people get narky about that, I do not see the issueâ.
Not quite the same is it? And you can take water on the flight just not through security. I see a very big issue indeed, especially when it is not yet clear at all that the vaccine is actually even a net benefit. And I am pro sensible net benefit vaccines.
December 6, 2020
Be careful what you wish for. It may come true…
Also note, that even Trump only renegotiated NAFTA. He did not abandon it. Even Trump saw value in having a trade deal with his close neighbours.
December 6, 2020
Ignoramus, Some people see value in having a trade deal with the EU, but 17.4 million voters saw no value in being governed by the EU. A trade deal is one thing, being ruled by a corrupt, vindictive, foreign oligarchy quite something else.
December 6, 2020
NickC – Fine words indeed
December 6, 2020
And their wish will be granted…
December 6, 2020
Lifelogic, Yes, well, you can add to JR’s wish-list, but I prefer to amend it.
1. Take VAT off completely and replace with a sales tax.
2. Operate no immigration for a decade to allow us to recover.
3. No benefits at all for immigrants for 15 years from entry.
4. Never compromise our sovereignty again. Ever.
5. Yes.
6. Yes.
7. Yes.
8. Reducing harmful or needless regulation, especially about CO2.
9. Yes.
December 6, 2020
Number 10, no more the MPs we put in Parliament saying itâs not our fault guv but the Eu we have to implement rules
December 6, 2020
Indeed – sorry mate you may have elected me but I cannot do anything for you – itâs EU regulations you see. I am powerless, just a servant of the EU. Your vote for me as MP was totally worthless – just a pointless veneer of fake democracy. Rather like the EU parliament is.
December 6, 2020
We aren’t out yet and the way Boris is behaving with endless target dates we may very well be discussing the same things in 6 months.
It’s a bit like nuclear fusion, it’s always on the horizon.
The fact that there are only 25 days to go makes me wonder what he gave away during his evening call with von lyden.
December 6, 2020
Apparently he made no concessions, Ian. We should know by tomorrow (Monday) night, unless that is just another elastic time limit.
December 6, 2020
MPs have literally been lying to you about that for 30+ years. You have not paid enough attention to notice. They are banking on you still not paying attention in future.
December 6, 2020
But they have not fooled us Andy. Thatâs why they are dancing to our tune now.
December 6, 2020
To be fair to them, it would appear to be a safe bet too.
December 6, 2020
Brexit voters instinctively knew something was awry but couldn’t put a finger on it. This is true.
The EU bore the brunt.
I blame (and always have) the British administrative, educational and political class for imposing a Leftist agenda whilst simultaneously blaming the EU for being unable to deliver conservatism (small c) no matter how much the UK public voted for it.
So here we are.
The British people aren’t stupid. That you sneeringly insist they are rather proves my point.
We felt the knife going in and being twisted.
The target for retaliation may have been the wrong one (blame those who abrogated responsibility to the EU) but boy ! It got you and Andy wasting so much time here, didn’t it.
December 6, 2020
Andy, Remains (europhiles) have literally been lying to us about the EU for 50 years. You may not have noticed, but 17.4 million of us did.
December 6, 2020
Not 30 years, Andy, much longer than that. Heath started it, took us in on a lie and repeated it all again in 1975
December 6, 2020
Good Morning,
Why does dealing with the EU have to be so theatrical? Is it, as they say, politicians are just wannabe actors without the talent, or do hey think they re justifying their existence by attracting attention to their difficulties which only they can resolve, after first creating those difficulties.
The ‘level playing field’. We are both a dangerous economic and political competitor too close to their precious single market, AND an irrelevant little island without any influence or economic muscle outside the EU club. Which is it?
I do hope BJ and friends have learned the way of the the EU in such negotiations, simply play along with the charade until the very end, then present our own FTA as a final document and say that’s it, take it or leave it.
December 6, 2020
Theyâll leave it thanks. You have far more to lose than they do.
And the theatrics are entirely for the benefit of Brexiteers.
Johnson needs to be made to look like heâs won something when he capitulates.
The EU knows this perfectly well and will play along with it.
But they are also laughing themselves silly knowing what you have thrown away for a bunch of fish.
Europe really cannot believe its luck.
December 6, 2020
You have accepted that itâs WTO Andy. You have conceded Brexit. Hurrah! I believe Boris has too.
Now you toddle off to your house in France where there is a guerrilla war – 2 beheadings in a few days – and leave us to prosper.
December 6, 2020
We will gain independence, Andy. That is worth far more than a trade deal even with a friendly competitor. But the EU wants to retain us as a treasure island colony, and that’s hardly friendly, whatever you claim. So who do I believe? – you, or Verhofstadt’s staffers?
December 6, 2020
Sir John
Following on from yesterday’s comments.
After over 4 years one would have thought most, if not all these things, would have been in place ? There is a reason they are not. The reason being, that it would be pointless to do so as we will still be under the EU yoke via an Association Agreement. Right from the beginning, even now, there is no other plan. BREXIT was killed, or to be killed, shortly after the result. Cameron would sooner resign then deliver on his promise.
As time passes and the evidence slowly mounts up, it become apparent that, the only people being fooled are the government, the establishment and loyal party members such as yourself. The deceit is on you, not us, as we have come to realise the truth.
We have been betrayed !
December 6, 2020
We have but will Boris betray us further – I suspect he will. It will be almost as big a mistake as his (or his Queen of Green partner) green crap lunacy.
December 6, 2020
There were only two choices on the ballot paper LL – Leave or Remain.
There was no third option ie ‘Deal’. aka Association Agreement.
December 6, 2020
When the WA and NIP were signed is was game over. The EU did not have to do anything as the U.K. Was trapped in a recognized legal treaty. Johnson lied May’s deal was dead, he signed it and his party voted it through. Even though they said the U.K. would leave as one nation. DUP repeatedly asked for assurances and were given them.
JR still blogs about leaving the SM and CU, how about N. Irleland! Does he think we forgot? Assured by all Fake Tory PMs No borders between England and N.Ireland!
You can Never trust the Fake Tory party. They always put party before nation.
People keep voting thinking one day they might keep their word or change!!
Why has the Fake Tory govt not changed any of New Labour legislation over ten years? Why has it allowed key Labour people to remain in charge of NHS, quangos and other public services? Remember that bonfire that was going to take place? How many times have they promise do tomcut immigration, how mnay times have they changed policy? Historic record numbers of All types of immigration. We are an island that is not paissible unless deliberate.
Economy? There was going to be a balanced defict by 2015!
Does it really take four and half years to leave the EU?
December 6, 2020
I do wish I could find some balance in the reports of what is really going on re Brexit.
I rather think that since the â least deadly pandemic in 2000 yearsâ* has seen us pauperised and laid waste at the hands of our government….then the likelihood is total betrayal.
I suppose basically …if Boris blustered that he was up for No Deal…then why is he still crawling around trying to get one?
Just more kidology.
* from âThe Great Resetâ by Klaus Schwab, founder and chairman of WEF.
December 6, 2020
@Mark B: leaving betrayal to one side, an association agreement between to equal partners is not necessarily a bad thing.
There are more EU association agreements with various nearby countries and there is one with the Mediterranean countries as a group.
December 6, 2020
PvL, If the EU wanted that it should have respected our 2016 decision for complete autonomy. When I decided the EU just could not be trusted, I was with a minority. Given the vindictive attitude of the EU over the last 5 years, only the politically naive, or fellow travellers, have any time for the EU now.
December 6, 2020
Mark B, Indeed, why is Boris still whimpering after a “deal” at this late stage? And the only answer which makes sense (I wish it didn’t!) is – we in for a betrayal again. The Boris deal will be presented as a “success” even though our sovereignty will again have been squandered for a mere trade deal.
I know my Tory MP cannot (apparently) even understand the fact that there is a principle at stake. He cannot tell the difference between compromising on trade only, and compromising our sovereignty. Truly appalling.
December 6, 2020
10. Whether there is a deal or not, Focus relentlessly through tax, expenditure and regulatory policy in making the UK the most competitive economy in Europe for investment, innovation and entrepreneurship. If the EU is demanding control even over tax policy – as tax now also seems to get raised as part of the ‘level playing field’ – this objective might be easier to achieve with WTO terms.
December 6, 2020
Translation: cut workers rights. Holiday pay, sick pay, maternity pay.
Let me guess. You are âretired.â
December 6, 2020
That is not what Richard1 said at all Andy. There you go with your Ageist hate peddling again! Markets dictate rates of pay, if you restrict the movement of people with the necessary skills for the jobs that are required then those who live here and possess those skills are in higher demand and will get higher benefits as a consequence. This will also be the same in lower skilled jobs if the free movement of Eastern European is slowed. The EU itself perpetrates the need for government intervention for employment rights and wages because it is artificially creating a market over a much wider area.
Ps Iâm not retired and my State retirement has just been put back seven years which is the bulk of most peoples pensions because we were all forced, well those on PAYE to trust the âfantasticâ National Insurance Scheme – the best thing apparently that Labour created, trust government with your cradle to grave care and where does that get you, it gets people like you wanting to steal more to give out more tax credits, child tax credits, child benefits, universal credits all these things not available to our age group when raising children so get off your high horse.
December 6, 2020
We have HIGHER standards than the EU Andy. You canât frighten us anymore because we will measure your output against reality.
December 6, 2020
workers rights. Holiday pay, sick pay, maternity pay.
Let me guess, You are ’employed’.
December 6, 2020
+1 or will be soon.
December 6, 2020
Let me guess that you’ve never owned your own business then Andy? đ
December 6, 2020
No I am not. I’m middle aged like you. Unlike you I don’t bang on about how ‘young’ I am.
It is perfectly have excellent protections for such rights without being in a political union. On most of those you cite UK standards are in any event higher than the EU’s. But we can compete against some of the EU’s nonsensical and immoral disguised protectionism.
December 6, 2020
And it’s not about how young you are but how fit you are. Which is why I keep banging on about my fitness regimen.
According to Andy my vote shouldn’t count because I’ll be dead before he is but I really doubt that.
I honestly think my generation will be the first to outlive the previous generations going by the sorry physical state so many of them are in. Awful condition. Awful.
December 6, 2020
Excellent. We can commiserate when you lose your job.
December 6, 2020
Why, have you lost yours, Andy?
December 6, 2020
Explain why he will lose his job.
December 6, 2020
Andy, I thought you told us there were no workers rights outside of the EU, anyway?
Let me guess: you spout the first EU propaganda that pops into your head without thinking?
December 7, 2020
NickC
that descirption is offensive and unnecessary
December 7, 2020
What is offensive about that?
Ridiculous
December 7, 2020
you don’t mention productive jobs with a future prospect of improved standard of living. What you are in favour of is more from employers not efficiency gains. Are you a shop steward?
December 6, 2020
Absolutely.
December 6, 2020
Good post. Keep the pressure on!
December 6, 2020
To use a phrase of one of Mr Johnsonâs predecessors, âthis is no time to go wobbly . I
believe the country expects that he will do the right thing and stand up for our sovereignty, and the country will back him. The referendum was not about âdealsâ. It was about freedom and sovereignty. Freedom is priceless.
December 6, 2020
James1, You would think so, wouldn’t you, and any reasonable person would too. But some politicians seem unable to see a principle even if it pops up and smacks them on the face. So it’s perfectly possible for Boris Johnson to think that giving away some of our sovereignty is worth it for a trade deal. And plenty of Tory MPs who will support him.
December 6, 2020
John’s opening remarks are not the case.
The electorate simply voted to leave the European Union – nothing else whatsoever – and the UK has done that.
The referendum has zero bearing on the post-exit arrangements now under discussion therefore.
You might not like some of the terms yet to be agreed, but they cannot be related in any way to your vote, the requirements of which are now fully, totally and completely discharged.
December 6, 2020
MiC
Correct !
As you confirm, Martin, we did not vote for any deal.
December 6, 2020
Not that old argument again Martin.
Did you leave the country during the referendum campaign?
Did you not hear our PM telling us what leaving meant.
Did you not get a leaflet?
December 6, 2020
Martin, The electorate voted to leave the EU. Full stop. The Referendum result therefore has full bearing on the post-exit arrangements if those arrangements entail remaining in any form of associate membership whatsoever. We are still waiting to Leave – as continued EU control over us demonstrates.
December 6, 2020
‘Operate the points based migration system which meets the needs of the UK and controls numbers of economic migrants.’ The salary requirement needs to be raised, as a matter or urgency – otherwise the EU’s unemployed will continue to flood here. This issue will need continuous monitoring by the back-benchers. Most of us here will remember the promise that we weren’t going to be flooded by east europeans – and then were.
December 6, 2020
I agree. The new immigration points system isnât a good thing. It will do to professional workers what freedom of movement did to those on lower incomes. Why would a company employ expensive British workers if it can recruit people from abroad at a fraction of the wages? The minimum annual salary criterion is set far too low and was only reduced because of the outcry from the politicians who want unlimited immigration.
December 6, 2020
Also the complete control of our Armed Forces
December 6, 2020
+ 10
December 6, 2020
Liam Fox told us it would be the “easiest in human history”. Boris Johnson told us a year ago he had an “oven ready deal”.
Where are they? Why were we lied to?
December 6, 2020
Liam Fix said that it SHOULD be the easiest because existing standards were the same, but that it would NOT be because of politics. He was absolutely right on both points.
The âoven ready dealâ referred to the Withdrawal Agreement, which was agreed (too) quickly.
There are enough examples of politicians lying without you needing to make up/mis-state stories.
December 6, 2020
+1
December 6, 2020
We were not lied to. The FTA could well have been reasonably easy but we miscalculated the bullying intransigence and ridiculous demands of the EU.
December 6, 2020
Well Said
December 6, 2020
I know, its incredible that the EU looks after its own interests instead of pandering to Brexiter fantasies. Seems the German carmakers care more aboyt the EU market of 400 million than 60 million Brits. Who knew? But hey we hold alk the cards eh John?
December 6, 2020
60 million is not insignificant moreover we had money, unlike most of the 400 million.
Now.
Whether we continue to have money is a moot point but the fact is that if we lose spending power it doesn’t magically appear elsewhere in the EU.
It is gone.
EU car makers called the UK Fantasy Island.
That loss will have more to the CCP than Brexit but that subject is taboo, like several others I could mention.
December 6, 2020
Len Peel, The harder the EU makes it to trade, the less we will buy from them. Your choice.
December 6, 2020
+1
December 6, 2020
Arthur, Less of the “we” please. I didn’t “miscalculate the bullying intransigence and ridiculous demands of the EU”. I did my best – alongside many others – to warn the government, and other Leaves, what the EU really is. We have been proved correct. Even with the behaviour of the EU over the last 5 years I still think the UK establishment does not understand the depths of evil to which the EU has sunk.
December 6, 2020
Yes.
I donât really understand why they lie to us.
They might just as well tell the truth.
What can we do about their blatant betrayals?
If we protest they just set their army and police on us and sling us into prison.
Oh sorry! Lock us in our houses with no food or healthcare.
December 6, 2020
You were lied to because they would have lost if they had told the truth.
December 6, 2020
They lost because they lied!
December 6, 2020
Remain lost because they used Project Fear.
They could have won if they had run a positive campaign.
December 6, 2020
well ‘call me Dave’ lied to us, and he still lost!
December 6, 2020
You mean in 1973 or 75 was it?
December 6, 2020
Andy, Remain lost even though they did lie to us.
December 6, 2020
Exactly as happened in 1975.
December 6, 2020
They clearly lied.
December 6, 2020
I don’t think anybody really thought the Commission EU leaders would regularly shoot themselves in the foot, allow hundreds of thousands of workers become unemployed, accept the loss of major manufacturing sales, significant damage to white goods business, witness massive loss to farming interests, tourism and finally future relations. But there you have it – total intransigence.
Spite might be a better understood word.
December 6, 2020
Our clinical trials and art/auction sectors were hit by EU rules, which do not serve us.
And Agency Worker Regulations do not suit the high level freelance Cobtractor sector which is much larger in the U.K.
December 6, 2020
Yes, yes, yes Sir John. We know what you think the government should do. You have told us many times before. But given what the government will do, we are all interested to see what you will do in response. That is what actually matters. We shan’t have to wait much longer to find out.
December 6, 2020
I am sure many on here have previously mentioned that he is in the wrong party, as you say we shall know soon.
December 6, 2020
What party do you propose JR should be in? Because that will apply to me too. I want one that has a hope of winning a seat because we need votes in Parliament. Tomorrow for instance we need the IM Bill passed. 65 million people standing in Parliament Sq canât achieve that. We need a majority in Parliament to achieve what we want.
No Brexit/UKIP individual has contributed a single vote.
December 6, 2020
A strange question for you to ask given your estimation of Sir John’s talents. Why couldn’t he have played a leading role in forming a new party, or moulding an existing party (as opposed to tinkering at the edges)? I understand that this would have been a longer term project, but if he’d began the work early, perhaps now we might be enjoying the benefits. Given what UKIP and the Brexit Party achieved, and your opinion of Nigel Farage, just imagine what a man with far greater abilities could have achieved. This is of course speculation, but we are about to find out what Sir John’s approach has actually achieved in reality.
December 6, 2020
Exactly.
December 6, 2020
No self respecting and genuine Brexit MP can stay in the CP if we do not take back our laws, money and borders without any equivocation whatsoever. This continued “only 48 hours more” is the hopelessly indecisive and unreliable Boris to a tee.
December 6, 2020
Indeed we shall see. He knows we will find out the details regardless of spin.
December 6, 2020
What would you do if you were in our host’s shoes, Simeon?
Organise a protest march/attempt an armed rebellion/tell the PM he’s a very naughty boy/walk out of the HoC in a huff?
December 6, 2020
I would have left the Tory party when it became clear that it was not a party able and willing to deliver Brexit. At the very least, this should have been last Spring when it was clear that the Parliamentary party was not interested in electing a Brexit leader. Boris Johnson was never a leaver. He elected to join the Leave campaign because he considered that his best, or at least quickest, route to power. He has never, ever demonstrated that he understands what Brexit, what true independence, is. Last spring was the perfect monent for true Brexiters to leave the Tory party and ally with the Brexit party.
December 6, 2020
Join the Reform Party?
December 6, 2020
All he can do is be a good constituent MP and pressure the government along with others. Eventually events will catch up with the Tories and the party will go the same way as the Lib Dems.
December 6, 2020
SM
I can tell you what I’d be doing :
1) leave the party and deliver an expose on government shenanigans to weaken our country.
2) go into Boris’ office and not be leaving until he understands how it works with our sovereignty.
December 6, 2020
There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.
The real choice facing Mr Johnson is whether to take the current, or stand aside to let another.
December 6, 2020
Sir JR,
So as far I can read the contribution, we have been in prison or 45 years and we are now breaking free?
Interesting persepctive, for a political argument
December 6, 2020
There is a great cartoon that demonstrates that quite clearly – The EU was never for the people, it was all about accruing power over the lives of millions …
December 6, 2020
No.
Just as we thought weâd broken free.
They locked us in our houses.
Much smaller prisons than the EU.
December 6, 2020
One thing at a time for Godâs Sake!
December 6, 2020
21 posts when you wrote your post bill and not one mentioned prison in relation to the EU.
December 6, 2020
Edward 2
“break free” used by JR, so you usually break free from a prison.
But, I understand you missed tht one.
Do not worry it is alright old chap
December 6, 2020
Ah so when someone says break free from someone or somewhere or something it only means prison.
Hilarious.
December 7, 2020
Edward 2 and NickC
Have you totally lost your sense of humour or playing with words is not part of your vocabulary?
December 7, 2020
Just pointing out your claim of what Sir John said was a misrepresentation.
“Break free” from the EU does not mean that Sir John was implying that the EU was a prison.
I know how you like accuracy bill.
December 6, 2020
Bill, In English, the term “break free” can be applied to many situations, not merely prison.
December 6, 2020
Probation for 10 years wearing a tag – subject to ECJ conditions
December 6, 2020
Bill, Where is you documentation? It is the ECA (1972) so we have been tied to the EU (EEC/EC) for 48 years and counting, not 45. Disappointing, even for you.
December 7, 2020
NIckC
No Nick I think 48 is better than 45 so thank you
December 6, 2020
The EU want a level playing field. Who will adjudicate, the ECJ. They want an agreement on fish. Who do you think the EU want to adjudicate on that. Thatâs right. The ECJ. They want to control state subsidies, and yes it will be the ECJ again. Once the ECJ has a say in anything whatsoever we will be shackled and the EU can use this to punish the UK for ever. Boris must not give in. I am just frustrated that he is still talking. He must not give in on any of the red lines. Any agreement will come at a huge price.
December 6, 2020
We must also repeal the useless WA as the EU have not acted in good faith. Followed shortly by the repeal of the Human Rights Act that has protected every enemy of GB which we can replace with a Bill of Rights linked to personal responsibilities.
Then maybe Priti can change the law so we can stop the debacle of lawyers making millions and millions keeping criminals in the UK. Think of the financial savings.
Once that is done there needs to be a cap on legal aid as it is out of control and a wonderful cash cow for unscrupulous lawyers defending hopeless cases.
All of this once we are free of the EU.
December 6, 2020
I read the Mail too – a great paper.
December 6, 2020
Really, Mike? I think the Mail is pretty poor – full of slebs and Remain propaganda.
December 6, 2020
Good points BW.
December 6, 2020
Why haven’t they stopped legal aid from these foreign criminals and illegal immigrants? As a higher rate tax paying Englishman I can’t get it. If the left wing Tory’s wanted to stop the farcical situation in the Channel and on departure flights they could. No political will.
December 6, 2020
Why do you want sixty-six million people to lose all fourteen of their rights?
I’m sure that many Tories would be delighted for you to lose your Right To Peaceful Enjoyment Of Possessions for instance, certainly.
All that is needed is to *amend* the law, to include the recent rulings of ECHR which address your concerns into statute.
For instance it is now declared by ECHR – for Russia, incidentally – that the Right To A Private And Family Life does not trump a country’s right to deport foreign criminals who otherwise would have used that as a defence.
There are more which should be included too.
December 6, 2020
Martin, By being subject to EU and its free movement controls we had already lost the right to determine who could enter this country. In the EU our country lost the right not to be ruled by “foreign princes”. We lost the right to democratically elect the top tier of our government. We lost the right to set our own taxes and tax levels. We lost the right to set our own import tariffs. We lost the right to determine our own trade policy. And so on . . . .
December 6, 2020
We had those rights in the UK way before the EU thought about them.
December 6, 2020
The ECJ is the EUâs court. It is perfectly natural that they should want their legal experts involved in dispute resolution.
Would do you want involved in dispute resolution from your side? Tampon manufacturers? Fishermen?
December 6, 2020
When was Canada in the ECJ.
December 6, 2020
Ok letâs have disputes in a British court
December 6, 2020
Why not have the High Court of Parliament adjudicate all EU affairs Andy? That is reasonable, they can have their âpeasantsâ putting their case.
See how stupid your proposals are? All I did was invert your âargumentâ.
December 6, 2020
They are perfectly entitled to use European Courts to make rulings over EU members.
But they have no jurisdiction over non EU member nations.
December 6, 2020
Surely Fisherpeople Andy?
December 6, 2020
The ECJ exists to adjudicate on matters relating to the Single Market which we are purportedly leaving.
December 6, 2020
The UK has left all the institutions and arrangements of the European Union – it did so months ago.
However, the WA enables temporary quasi-participation in some provisions.
Continuation of some, or of all of those does not amount to membership at all, and is therefore nothing to do with the referendum, but a matter for party politics and for competing manifestoes as per normal political business in the UK.
Get used to it.
December 6, 2020
Martin, We are still part of the EU single market. We still obey and pay. The EU still steals our fish. The ECJ is still the top court in the land. We still cannot implement our own trade policy. Etc. How is that different to 2016?
The answer is plain – the WA imposes the same obligations, rules, and controls as before. Leave, by definition, involves no longer being subject to EU rule. So we have not left the EU. Worse, as Verhofstadt’s staffers chortled, we have been made a colony of the EU, as was their intention all along. And you partake of the charade.
December 6, 2020
Depends if you want to be a citizen of an independent nation or not.
I do.
You don’t.
December 6, 2020
Andy said: “The ECJ is the EUâs court.” Exactly.
Therefore the ECJ cannot adjudicate between the independent UK and the EU, any more than a UK court can.
December 6, 2020
But judges from the ECJ and judges from the UK could – and should – sit together to resolve disputes.
But that crosses one of your Little Englander red lines.
December 6, 2020
And when did the EU offer to allow UK judges to decide EU law, Andy? I must have missed that one. Or does that cross one of your EU empire’s little red lines?
December 6, 2020
But they never sit together.
The ECJ is supreme over UK judges and EU member nations.
Surely you know this.
December 6, 2020
please switch to tax on bog-rolls -could we please move on? They would wipe the smile off your….face?
December 6, 2020
Spot on
December 6, 2020
BW
You are right and no deal will come as a big price as well . (according to the OBR)
December 6, 2020
Still using that pessimistic prediction of a 2% reduction in GDP bill I see.
That is an educated guess that whatever growth the UK enjoys in the next 10 years we might, repeat might, have been up to 2% even better off.
That is what you call a big price.
December 7, 2020
Edward 2
It was in the first three years not ten and 2% was minimum
December 7, 2020
Still just a pessimistic guess into the future.
Same as all those post referendum project fear predictions of recession and unemployment etc that never came true.
December 6, 2020
Big price to whom, I wonder. To the CBI and its EU cronies perhaps. Certainly not to the average voter and tax-payer.
December 6, 2020
No, Bill, it won’t. Because, whilst trade with the EU will diminish, trade with the rest of the world will increase. And the more difficult the EU makes it, the more we will buy from the rest of the world. Your choice.
December 6, 2020
I ask myself why on earth we don’t make expanded use of the WTO’s established adjudication service.
December 6, 2020
Yes to all of that which I would hope by now is in an action file on some ministers desk. Try to think in future of less government, you are there to curb the excesses of human behaviour not to dot every I and cross every T. Out in the real world there are many intelligent enterprising people who do not need a load of jobsworths impeding them. Covid19 cycle lanes are too typical. Consider, it is private enterprise that has given us a number of vaccines, but government who created the personal protective equipment crisis that private enterprise had to resolve.
One area you have not mentioned is the scope and operation of the law, and I do not just mean Priti Patel getting back control of the Home Office. I mean the way in which the law has been introduced into our thought processes so that it has become , or is becoming illegal to speak or think anything that the failed liberal elite consider politically incorrect. These revisionists may have failed in their efforts to keep us in the EU, but they have not gone away and continue to attack wherever they see an opportunity. They would strangle at birth the very notion of free speech and being British.
You also fail to include any plan for independence in the field of energy. We cannot remain tied to an EU umbilical because they see it as a lever, as with fishing, state aid and any ECJ involvement. Lets have the plan for unplugging the EU.
December 6, 2020
You obviously assuage logical thought, preferring one line comments.
December 6, 2020
Banning live export is a policy designed to improve animal welfare. Let us follow that logic.
Non-stun slaughter is inhumane and should be banned in the UK. At present, it is alleged, the majority of chicken meat sold in our supermarkets has been killed while fully conscious.
JF
December 6, 2020
+++
December 6, 2020
+++
December 6, 2020
I believe that we the UK could’ve banned the export of live animals before brexit…why didn’t we
December 6, 2020
Simple solution – just legislate to ensure that Halal meat is labelled as such, then consumers could make an informed choice.
December 6, 2020
+1
That shoppers are not allowed to make an informed choice says it all.
The Left should beware the ultra conservatism that is on its way.
December 6, 2020
Do we have an inkling yet of what the deal will include – How much freedom our government is going to allow us to take back?
Yes, we really do have to make an effort to make the best of whatever freedoms we will have once some of the dust settles, but when will that be and how much dust will remain?
Will the government also be forthright about all the side deals they have done with the EU, like us staying with the EAW, or military agreements?
December 6, 2020
Either way it will be reported as a Victory
December 6, 2020
As regards your first point, why on earth are we retaining VAT?? A bureaucrats dream – effectively only levied on the end user, but with rafts of interim needless layers. A sales tax is almost unavoidable and would give a true basis for Corporation Tax etc on internet giants like Amazon etc
December 6, 2020
Fully agree – abolish VAT with sales tax
December 6, 2020
Agreed. VAT is the fraudsters wet dream. What other tax gives you a refund before you have even paid the tax?
December 6, 2020
Stop importing potted plants with the pests and diseases they bring, e.g. ash die back, acute oak decline and leaf borer moths, which affects chestnut trees.
December 6, 2020
Good point! And rabies is a huge risk, not to mention warblefly leading to BSE.
December 6, 2020
J Mitchell
You seem to have forgotten that prior to our EU membership which introduced strict environmental standards, the Europeans accused us of killing off their forests with our lax laws. Our industry was accused of spewing out huge amounts of industrial effluent causing acid rain to cover the continent and killing millions of tree species, especially in the northern regions like Sweden.
December 6, 2020
And of course the Ruhr never emitted industrial effluent?
December 6, 2020
This of course never happened in any other industrialised European country back in 60s and 70s.
December 6, 2020
It’s like to come up again now the Germans are burning the dirtiest coal ever mined.
December 6, 2020
All well and good but Boris wants a deal so he can stand in front of No. 10 waving a piece of paper above his head. He hasn’t the courage to stand up against the Europeans and say proudly they demanded too much and we are going it alone to totally honour the referendum result.
He’s sure he can get away with it because his MPs who oppose him are no real threat. He knows, even those who seem most opposed, will put Tory survival first. They too are too weak to live independently.
December 6, 2020
He knows he can get any deal through parliament because he has the so-called opposition on his side who have said they will vote for any deal. Just like May and Major had. Currently, our politics is a sad state of affairs. We need politicians to debate not rubber stamp.
December 6, 2020
Prangwizard
“..even those who seem most opposed, will put Tory survival first”
================
And therein lies their mistake…..any betrayal and we’re having the lot of ’em out.
December 6, 2020
This is NOTHING to do with the referendum.
We have left the European Union and it is simply politics as normal.
Whatever Johnson might agree, another government, or even this one, could seek to modify or to replace it at any time.
Our friends across the channel are very agreeable and accommodating and would be only too willing to facilitate enhanced mutual benefits, I am confident.
You are going to hear far, far more about Europe from now on than you ever did during the UK’s membership.
December 6, 2020
MiC
“This is NOTHING to do with the referendum.”
=============
Absolutely correct Martin, we didn’t vote for a deal. Most consider Boris Johnson to be acting without mandate, i.e. leave meant leave, no fudging no deals, no ties to the EU.
This government shouldn’t be talking to the EU at all.
December 6, 2020
Martin, If anything we are worse off than 2016 because we have been made into the EU’s colony, as Verhofstadt’s staffers boasted on TV.
Thus we are waiting for the Referendum decision to actually leave the EU to be implemented. Remaining under EU control doesn’t count as Leave, however much you try to twist it.
What is abundantly clear from the last 5 years is that the EU is hostile and vindictive, for the obvious political reason it wants to punish any country that dares to try leaving.
December 6, 2020
Out here in the provinces (I live int he Fens) Boris is coming under fire for tiers and covid. This is a deeply Conservative area too.
However, I praise him and the Cabinet for standing firm. The EU is going on a completely different trajectory to us: it wants bigness, unity and Soviet type Commission government. We have rejected that roundly out here, but not, it seems has it yet been abandoned in London.
Boris has seen this and he is standing firm. I praise him and the government for that.
And well done, Sir John for your loyal support for us out here away from London!
December 6, 2020
There we go. In black and white.
Mr Redwood tells you all your biggest win from his 30+ year Eurosceptic project is slightly cheaper tampons.
I wonder at what point you all accept that your Brexit has abjectly failed?
December 6, 2020
Andy
“I wonder at what point you all accept that your Brexit has abjectly failed?”
============
But for you it hasn’t failed Andy…..you have access to cheaper tampons.
December 6, 2020
@Andy,
There is no reason to disrespect Sir John by referring to him as Mr Redwood.
Whatever your disagreement, please call people as they would like to be addressed especially if you’re writing things on their personal blog.
December 6, 2020
Knighthoods awarded for political reasons donât count.
December 6, 2020
@Andy,
Just please be generous-spirited and grant Sir John the respect of ‘Sir John’ especially as you’re on his personal website.
There’s a big difference between challenging people and then demeaning them by not addressing them as they and others would wish.
Thank you
December 6, 2020
You are getting more and more ridiculous as Brexit approaches
Stop being silly and childish and calm yourself young andy
December 6, 2020
My Brexit hasn’t failed Andy – although I understand your version of it was never going to fly. Never mid – just keep on Trolling (& Merry Christmas to you).
December 6, 2020
Tampons again? Oh dear.
December 6, 2020
John mentioned it first on this piece, at the top of his list, Fred.
December 6, 2020
ensuring he winds up Andy, and now you!
He is such a little devil sometimes…
December 6, 2020
So it should be top of the list.
Gender and racism are always vying for ‘top of the list’. So that’s why it was put there.
December 6, 2020
Give it a chance, Brexit hasnât happened yet. Freedom is priceless.
December 6, 2020
I used to be free to pick which of 30 countries to live in.
Now, thanks to Brexit and people like you, I canât.
Never has so much of my freedom been stolen.
December 6, 2020
You can live wherever you want
Just apply and comply with their rules.
Its easy.
My family members lived and worked outside the UK before you were born.
December 6, 2020
Andy, You were only “free” to do so because the right of those 30 countries to decide who lived amongst them was stolen by the EU.
In fact, you can still apply to live in the EU. But the EU may decide not to let you in. Certainly the UK government won’t stop you going. So what you’re really whining about is the EU, not BrExit.
December 7, 2020
and you stayed in England ?? – – funny that!
December 6, 2020
Sour grapes Remainer; enjoy them.
December 6, 2020
So please list the material benefits which *you* can expect to enjoy?
Come on?
December 6, 2020
Only after you, MiC, answer the challenge that we have routinely made to you, Andy, Margaret Howard and Bill Brown over many years, to tell us what the advantages are of remaining in the UK.
No? I thought so.
December 7, 2020
Jiminyjim
You want ans answer there are loads of advantages for both Wales and Actoland to remain in the UK.
Did you now get your answar
December 6, 2020
Why only material benefits, Martin? The prime benefit is being able to elect and remove our top tier of government again. And having our laws and courts all answerable to us instead of to an artificial political construct. However I believe that all the British Empire’s ex-colonies cannot be wrong – being independent is materially beneficial as well.
December 6, 2020
I wonder at what point you stopped pointing out the benefits of Brexit – and you started insulting people instead? Was it about the time you realised that there were no benefits but you were too gutless to admit it?
December 6, 2020
So no proper answer.
Still dodging the question.
December 6, 2020
Andy, I reckon it was probably some years after you started insulting Leave voters.
December 6, 2020
I read that our host has condemned a fishing offer that came from the EU. I would point out that it is not in the power of the EU to make offers as to what the UK does in it’s own territorial waters. Based on conservation requirements and plans for our future fishing industry it is up to us the UK to tell the EU who may, out of good neighbourliness, be allowed to fish in our waters , the methods they use to fish, the minimum size of fish to be taken, and the extent of the catches they are allowed. If they cannot accept this they must find other places to fish. Deal or no deal should hang on it. Not based on financial considerations, but on international law relating to territorial waters.
December 6, 2020
It does when we are negotiating a Association Agreement – ‘deal’.
December 6, 2020
agricola – yes that is right. I wonder if Boris has ever considered these points. It should be common knowledge to everyone including the EU.
December 6, 2020
+1
December 6, 2020
Territorial waters extends to twelve miles out from the shore only and not the same as fishing limits
It seems both sides are agreed that they don’t want the fish to die of old age so therefore the present qĂșotas as per the different countries will apply deal or no deal until such time as Britain builds its total fishing boat tonnage up sufficiently to take advantage and after that the EU countries will take a step backwards- with everything to be reviewed in ten years or so
December 6, 2020
Charl, Wrong. The independent UK, according to UNCLoS, is entitled to exploit the resources of its EEZ, including fish. Our EEZ extends out to 200 nautical miles (not just 12 miles), or to a mutually agreed closer boundary for near neighbours.
December 6, 2020
Why is nobody talking about the EU “Brexit” SECURITY TREATY which BoJo hopes to sneak through hoping nobody will notice? This keeps us in the abominable EU Arrest Warrant (and the EU criminal legal system)d) which was drafted into British statute so that a British magistrate on receipt of a EAW must extradite the accused WITHOUT PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE OF WRONGDOING? BoJo has NO INTENTION of righting this abomination. And isnt it odd that Nigel Farage, whose erstwhile party UKIP once publicised this issue considerably, hppears to have kept dead quiet about this?
December 6, 2020
And isnt it odd that Nigel Farage, whose erstwhile party UKIP once publicised this issue considerably, hppears to have kept dead quiet about this?
….
GCHQ spent a day persuading him.
December 6, 2020
RB, UKIP is still opposed to the EAW.
December 6, 2020
That is nothing to do with the EU. Itâs a separate matter. Germany exempted itself from extraditing Germans, but signed the agreement so that it can demand the extradition of whoever they like.
But one thing at a time. Brexit is a Massive WIN.
December 6, 2020
Yes, it is to do with the EU, Lynn. That’s because the EU has form in imposing its rule via “agreements” the scope of which it surreptitiously expands. That is, the EU cheats, as we all know.
December 6, 2020
So don’t you want the police forces of twenty-seven countries to be able to arrest people wanted by the UK police – who might be hiding there – on their behalf then, Margaret?
December 6, 2020
Do you want to be plucked from your bed and put on a plane and be thrown in prison to await a trial in a foreign country without any hearing in the UK?
December 6, 2020
No, not via the odious and sinister EAW, Martin.
December 6, 2020
It’s always good to have ambitions, but I say again, having committed to the insidious ECHR, I fear none of our dreams for a fully sovereign nation state can come true. It will provide the back door to continued EU control, i.e. 1. cases cannot be brought against the EU in the ECHR court, but our commitment opens the door to the EU bringing endless cases against us; 2. the ECJ has decided not to be bound by ECHR rulings, because an external body cannot be given the power to review the application of EU law, so only the UK can be judged and 3. Art 7 of the convention, “the right not to be punished for something that wasnât against the law at the time” and Art 14 “the right not to be discriminated against in respect of these rights”, can and will be invoked to override matters like existing lawful fishing, FOM, etc, rights. Some level playing field! What a coup for the EU; what naive fools we have advising our negotiators.
December 6, 2020
But don’t we have the best civil service in the world, reviewing these points and looking out for UKs best interests
December 6, 2020
Hahaha . . . .
December 6, 2020
They are not naive but complicit.
December 6, 2020
BBC correspondent on Marr remarked that the German papers aren’t reporting German car manufacturers screaming for a deal to be signed to protect their business.
Maybe the German MSM don’t want to report on what the car manufacturers think, and maybe those companies are led by Europhiles as well, wedded to that religion.
Perhaps they should ask the Irish beef farmers what they think about losing a âŹ1bn a year business, as their beef suddenly hits a 40% tariff (and the rest) on coming to the UK and becomes uncompetitive.
December 6, 2020
Dave I agree. Let’s face it Marr couldn’t say anything positive about leaving if it were stamped all over his face. It was all negative this morning as per usual but then I expect nothing different from the BBC.
December 6, 2020
Does anyone bother what the BBC says any more, apart from a few BLM thugs, woke snowflakes, and Remains?
December 6, 2020
Dave Andrews
Most likely the German MSM is as bent as ours.
As for Irish beef; as far as I’m concerned tough luck. The Irish should have thought carefully before this newspaper headline :- ‘England 0 – Ireland 1’
I hope there is no deal and Ireland suffers.
December 6, 2020
I’ve always wondered where the racehorse carcasses go – EU I suppose.
December 6, 2020
Steve, Harsh, but true. I certainly go out of my way to avoid produce from Eire now.
December 6, 2020
Happy days!
December 6, 2020
I imagine the Irish are seriously worried – having used the Border as leverage , this might not pan out quite the way they envisaged…
December 6, 2020
Dave
Agree
December 6, 2020
This morning I am holding my breath over the talks in Brussels ( I refuse to call them negotiations ), not because I am anxious that there is a deal, but because I’m hoping there isn’t.
It seems clear that the EU has already pushed our government further than is commensurate with the kind of sovereignty any other independent state would recognise.
No US President, for example, would even consider signing up to the terms Brussels is demanding. The EU knows this only too well and wouldn’t even put them on the table.
Many of us were already feeling very uncomfortable with the idea of signing up to following all future legislation implemented by the EU on a very diverse range of policies. Given the history of EU regulation, following their legislation will certainly make us less competitive in the wider world in which we increasingly need to concentrate our trade.
Hold firm, Boris, and tell Lord Frost to walk away this evening.
December 6, 2020
This fiasco or so called negotiation has now gone on for far too long.
One way or another we will soon find out if Boris is a remainer or leaver.
December 6, 2020
Alan Jutson
“One way or another we will soon find out if Boris is a remainer or leaver.”
==============
Johnson already gave the answer on Oct 16th.
December 6, 2020
Fiasco indeed – a ground hog day fiasco
4.5 years of wasted opportunity
The people voted to leave
December 6, 2020
Heâs a Remainer but he will Leave on WTO terms because there is no alternative. It a huge victory that a Remainer has had to do this. Itâs called a total win!
December 6, 2020
Lynn, It looks much more likely that there will be a deal where we give up sovereignty in return for allowing the EU free access to our single market. That is because the WA has not been abrogated despite an 80 seat majority.
December 6, 2020
Or whether he was before she inside started to tell him what to think.
December 6, 2020
Yes witness the latest Boris missive on reducing emissions by 68% based on 1990 levels before 2030.
I think I must have wandered into the twilight zone and voted in a Labour/Green coalition by mistake.
December 6, 2020
You and me both. Essentially we have Corbyn’s main policies: deluded green spaffing and MMT.
December 6, 2020
Boris has this idea, I agree sometimes it seems to work, that hold off, moving deadlines, explain the outcome will be better for delay, so that when it will likely go tits up the mugs out there won’t be quite as annoyed.
December 6, 2020
At least one tabloid to go bust as there won’t be any more material on “will we, won’t we?” to tease us with.
Major result!
December 6, 2020
Not sure about outlawing the transit of live animals through the UK. The traders would transport them all the way by sea instead, which would be worse for the animals.
December 6, 2020
But not as practical/economic to do…so far less less likely
December 6, 2020
Why would it be worse, cruises are very relaxing why won’t sheep enjoy one.
December 6, 2020
I used to know a farmer (late sadly) who would say to the animals being loaded ‘you’ll be coming back! and then whisper ‘in freezer packs’.
December 6, 2020
We can control our waters with modern technology drones etc.
The RNR personnel are very restricted in getting real sea time.
During the NI crisis RNR manned ships carried out patrols in the Irish Seaas part of the security measures. The RNR have allocated ships and rather than have them tied up against the wall they could be utilized to for a pre determined period be used to protect our fishing area. Valuable training for crews for operating in congested shipping lanes. At the same time they could serve as a deterrent to the dingy flotilla.
December 6, 2020
Andrew Marr had a long interview with Chief Executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) just now.
Alas he did not ask her why the vaccination priority order does not take account of the very large risk differences due to gender and other well know factors. The failure to do this will (assuming the vaccine is very safe and effective) clearly cost lives and cause more work for the NHS. So why?
Why (when they are clearly seriously wrong on this) should we trust the experts or government on anything else?
He also failed to ask her “are you certain that the mass roll out of this vaccine will do more good than harm?” Had he done so any honest scientist or medic would have had to answer no we are very far from sure on this at this point. We gave very limited data so far.
December 6, 2020
Dear Mr. Redwood,
Unfortunately, I think you are rather ‘jumping the gun’.
Barnier and Frost declare conditions for a deal are not met.
Johnson rings Van Der Leyen to discuss way forward.
Barnier and Frost listen in.
Johnson and Van Der Leyen instruct more negotiations (no details are given whatsoever) but without political direction and instructions, what have Barnier and Frost got to talk about? What is the point? Unless one or the other or both have been told to make further concessions.
I smell a rat or a piece of rotting fish.
December 6, 2020
they argue over topping on the pizzas in London, what will they argue over in Brussels?
December 6, 2020
Dear Mr. Redwood,
The government could always ‘build back better’ like Boris’s ‘full-fibre broadband to connect the whole country’.
Which has now been downgraded to gigabit broadband.
Which has now been reduced by a 76% cut to the rural subsidy.
Which has now been reduced to covering only 85% of the country (Daily Telegraph).
Instead we will have HS2 to connect, well, a few people.
Which will probably end up as Fairly HS2.
December 6, 2020
Both full-fibre broadband and HS2 are two subjects which should be left to private business and the market place – not government
December 6, 2020
If we’re going to have competitive corporation tax rates (lower?), do we need to introduce a dividend withholding tax?
The Chancellor will need more revenue, and presently UK investors are at a competitive disadvantage compared to overseas operating from a tax haven.
Anyone have a handle on how much would be raised if dividends abroad were taxed at 5%, the same as what UK residents pay?
December 6, 2020
Before we can take a global rather than an EU view of the world we will need to build a merchant navy again with suitable ships to carry produce to and from the four corners because without UK owned and UK flagged vessels it is all pie in the sky.
How can we be a sovereign independent country if we can only rely on foreigners to import export for us ? As I say all pie in the sky
December 6, 2020
We also need to give grants to fruit and veg farmers to buy robots to pick their produce, instead of bringing in Eastern Europeans. A British company has developed one that can even pick raspberries!
December 6, 2020
Yes, and it costs many times what a team of migrant workers do.
December 6, 2020
Better for the people and better for the farmer.
Progress.
December 6, 2020
Martin, A friend of mine applied to pick fruit in the summer but was rejected because she did not speak Romanian. There are plenty of British workers – and after covid19, many more.
December 6, 2020
Sir John, I was right with you until I read ”take VAT off green products”
We should be taxing green products more, there’s no need for incentives for green products….as politicans believe thats whats the people want – let green product prove themselves in the open market
I can’t believe you’re supporting social engineering
December 6, 2020
Well !
One deadline after another, still ‘talking’.
Johnson….for Christ’s sake man stop pissing about and just tell the EU and Macron to sling their hook.
WE DONT WANT A DEAL, WE DID’NT VOTE FOR A DEAL, NO ASPECT WHATSOEVER OF OUR SOVEREIGNTY IS NEGOTIABLE AND IS NOT TO BE SURRENDERED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE !!!
Compromise the above and we’ll be going for the throat, believe it.
December 6, 2020
You didn’t vote not to have a deal either.
The ballot paper was silent on that and on every other rant topic of yours and the other commenters here.
December 6, 2020
Total nonsense.
Did you not get a leaflet ?
Did you not hear Cameron telling us what leaving meant?
December 6, 2020
But the ballot paper was not silent on the issue of leaving, Martin. So any “deal” that does not involve ceasing to be controlled by the EU is not Leave, by definition.
December 6, 2020
+1 !!!!!!
December 6, 2020
Interesting to see coverage of the talks in the Sunday Times this morning. The paper paints a picture of the government showing commendable resolve. I hope it’s accurate.
December 6, 2020
Too many shoulds- we’ll see soon enough
December 6, 2020
No mention of how jobs would be saved.
December 6, 2020
No mention of how the referendum has been satisfied
December 6, 2020
The best decisions are the hardest to make!
Any deal with the EU will always be interpreted by the EU differently after 4 years of deliberations even about what the 2016 Referendum even meant.
Keep it simple.
Just Leave.
December 6, 2020
No such thing as an easy or difficult decision
Just a decision or indecision
And this government has been in indecision over the EU/UK deal for 4+years
December 6, 2020
Could you please name a major international body on which we didnt have a place when we were a member of the EU?
December 6, 2020
Lost your job ? Never mind , the wife got a slightly cheaper tampon..I love these patriots ; funny how their deep feeling for the country always seem to coincide with their own interests, and how little they care about their countrymen
I thought as was the point of a country – its people . Clearly not
December 6, 2020
It’s curious, how when discussing brexit they chant “it’s not about money, nor the economy”, and yet when it comes to covid 19 it’s ALL about the economy, no matter how many are killed by it.
Now, if you pull the corollary out of that, then it tells you something about fixation, doesn’t it?
It can only mean that brexit means far more to its fanatics than does saving any number of lives.
Just think about that.
December 6, 2020
You just don’t get it.
Brexit is about independence.
December 6, 2020
Quite the reverse.
We’ve taken a holistic view.
You haven’t even considered the deaths caused by lock down, have you. Because the CV19 crisis delivers the gift that keeps on giving to the Left.
And you said the non-socially distanced BLM riots were “exhilarating”
So what do you care about lives ? Really ?
December 6, 2020
Martin, Covid19 is an infectious disease like many another. It is dangerous to only a very few. We do not lock down the entire country for a bad influenza epidemic, we try to protect the vulnerable, isolate the sick, and cure them. Some die – because life is a terminal condition. Destroying millions of livelihoods, as you advocate, solves nothing. Ruining the health of millions, as you advocate, solves nothing.
December 7, 2020
Covid appears like Russian roulette for the general population only with 1250 chambers loaded with 1 bullet.
OR perhaps 250 chambers for the over 65s, and 27500 chambers for the under 60s.
December 6, 2020
Newmania, 17.4 million of us cared enough for our own country to choose independence. What do you do? – nothing but wail how desperate you are to return all of us to EU serfdom.
December 6, 2020
Do you think it would ever cross any minds in the govt. to do that?
December 6, 2020
Football analogy I described yesterday.
The EU play the game as follows:-
Unelected EU set the rules.
Appoint their own EU Referee – so 12 versus 11
Goalposts on wheels.
VAR is decided by unelected ECJ.
No objections are tolerated.
Injury time is indefinite until the team they dont want to win capitulates.
All games are at Home – never away!
It is impossible to win or draw a Win-Win.
December 6, 2020
>Operate the points based migration system which meets the needs of the UK and controls numbers of economic migrants
From what I’ve read there will be no control over numbers (so no change there). The salary threshold is so low as to be almost universally achievable, and there will be no cap on numbers.
Regarding animal welfare, could we listen to the British Veterinary Association and RSPCA and put an end to non-stun slaughter?
December 6, 2020
Interviewer (to politician): So, could you tell us what you and your party expect to do in the event of No Deal?
Politician: Well obviously we are pushing for a deal with our European friends (yuk) to the best of our abilities…
Interviewer: Look can you just answer the question, No Deal is really not such a difficult concept…
Politican: Well we do believe we’re very close to reaching a deal…..
Interviewer: Right boys, tie him up to the chair and pass me the pliers. Look I’m very sorry but if there’s any talk of an extension now, it’s a pretty safe bet that it’s going to involve your finger nails….
December 6, 2020
We need a Minister for Post-Brexit Implementation where businesses and people can submit their ideas for legislative changes. I can think of no one more suited for the job than Sir John. Iâm sure this list is just the tip of the iceberg. These ideas need to be sorted into those that give the UK the biggest gains and then scheduled for debate in the HoCâs asap. At the moment this Government is asleep with seemingly no plan as to how to take advantage of being an independent country. We need to treat this period like we did the post-war years rather than squander the great opportunity we have been given.
December 6, 2020
We need a General Election soonest post Brexit
December 7, 2020
No, we don’t. We currently have no viable party to vote for. We need four more years to build up support for a new party.
December 7, 2020
You forget – Monster Raving Loony Party
December 6, 2020
We do not need a points based immigration system as we had been populated with enough people with useful skills for about five millennia until the liblabcon started to degrade our education system. The solution to shortages of skills is in educating our people not throwing them on the scrapheap and replacing them from abroad. We are also already overfull as a result of the uncontrolled mass immigration of unassimilable aliens over many years. As we leave the Single Market there should be no further excuses especially as most of the immigration has originated from outside the EU.
Why is it that people in Singapore, for example, are better educated than us? The answer is that they adopted and adapted the English education system of selective schools and GCE O’s and A’s and improved on it whereas we deliberately degraded our system by destroying selective schools and degrading the O’s and A’s in order to remove the advantage boys had over girls in the hard sciences and the advantage bright children had over the dim so that everybody who could write their names could pass any exam at some level with the liblabcon continuously crowing about rising standards. There is only one way for this country to survive and that is for the politicians to stop lying about the education system and stop lying that we need to import more people when that was never the case before the imposition of the ‘British’ Nationality Act of 1948 by a hostile minority.
December 6, 2020
Very importantly, multinationals with “head office” in tax havens like Ireland, Lichtenstein, etc. will start to pay tax in the UK.
This will be a MASSIVE cash injection.
December 6, 2020
Why retain the term VAT, an EU tax construct, at all? Retaining the name ‘aligns’ & associates, unintentionally or not, British taxes with the EU. It will cause confusion as ‘our’ VAT will not be the same as theirs, particularly as divergence takes place. It will also be used as an excuse to keep us as closely aligned with the EU’s changes, as opposed to acting in the interests of THIS country.
Rename it Purchase Tax (as it used to be). It is then clear to everyone what it is & what it covers & that it’s completely seperate from the EU’s VAT scheme. It should be removed from utility bills, food & other basic necessities.
December 6, 2020
Yes, we could bring back cast-iron red phone boxes with bakelite handsets too.
And how about JLR relaunching the Morris Traveller?
December 6, 2020
both just excellent. I miss seeing them terribly.
December 7, 2020
the jingle of pennies in the pocket, never passing a red box as a child without trying button B for return of someone’s pennies. The romance of calling ‘the one’ with a very private conversation, unless the next user crept too close to try to listen in! The excuses made to stay on the line, frustrating the queue outside. Ah…twisting the weird cord when the going got exciting. Better than the damn little box glued to your ear amid all the noise around you.
December 6, 2020
All good.
December 6, 2020
The Morris Traveller has been replaced in our hearts by the Mini Countryman, thank you.
(H/T to Peter van Leewen for that one)
December 7, 2020
Mini Countryman
You mean the one owned by the German BMW company?
December 7, 2020
Why does that matter?
Or do you demand only UK owned companies in the UK?
December 6, 2020
Annette
âUntil 1973 the UK had a consumption tax called Purchase Tax, which was levied at different rates depending on goodsâ luxuriousness.
Purchase Tax was applied to the wholesale price, introduced during World War II, initially at a rate of 33â1â3%. This was doubled in April 1942 to 66â2â3%, and further increased in April 1943 to a rate of 100%, before reverting in April 1946 to 33â1â3% again.
Unlike VAT, Purchase Tax was applied at the point of manufacture and distribution, not at the point of sale. The rates of Purchase Tax at the start of 1973, when it gave way to VAT, were 13, 22, 36 and 55%.
When the UK joined the EU Purchase Tax was replaced by Value Added Tax on 1 April 1973. The Conservative Chancellor Lord Barber set a single VAT rate (10%) on most goods and servicesâ
===
And you want a return to that?
December 7, 2020
If you think VAT is easy to administer you obviously have never run your own business.
December 6, 2020
This transcends farce. Your government is useless at negotiating. Even forgetting the four wasted years, there was a Boris deadline of 15th October. He should have told them we either have a deal by then or negotiations are over leaving us 10 weeks to implement No Deal. As it is this farce is set to run and run. All we need is for Brian Rix to run out the door of Downing Street, drop their trousers and fall over and this Whitehall farce will be complete. Absolutely hopeless.
For heavenâs sake ring them up and them to stop this embarrassment.
December 6, 2020
Mike Wilson, Absolutely right in every respect. A dozen deadlines? And Boris Johnson has capitulated every time.
December 6, 2020
I suppose you are all aware that the govtâs apparent inconsistencies and double think are NOT indicators of their incompetence or stupidity?
It is a psychological trick to get us used to orders, with penalties for non-compliance, that just donât make sense and contradict each other.
Ultimately, the idea is that we obey blindly.
December 6, 2020
Ultimately, the idea is that we obey blindly.
…
or perhaps God is setting them up for a nasty fall.
December 6, 2020
Letâs hope He is!
December 6, 2020
Something that has dismayed me for decades is that major engineering contracts in Britain seem very often be awarded to firms based in other EU countries. (I am thinking of nuclear power, tram systems, large bridges). I admit I have not researched this at all rigorously, but if there is something in my impression, is it just that the British have become rubbish at engineering and project management? Or is it that we, or our bureaucrats and politicians gold-plate EU regulations about competition in was that the French, Italians and Spanish do not? I’m simply asking.
What worries me is that while it may be necessary for Britain to thrive (in a field such as engineering) that we unambiguously leave the EU, but I strongly doubt that merely that is sufficient. I suspect our host might agree.
December 6, 2020
… Can’t really say that I am still following all this politiking over Brexit, it’s just all getting out-of-hand. But on the TV this morning, they were banging on about the restrictions that will re-appear when we leave. Funny, I always had the impression that all the cases of rabies originated in Europe, not the UK. And whilst I’m on about it: how can exporting live animals to/from the EU be humane, only for them to be slaughtered when they arrive?
December 6, 2020
Humane doesn’t get a look in. It’s all about profit. Far cheaper for the animals to be boiled to death in summer and cold in winter than slaughter and send them in fridge vehicles.
December 6, 2020
Excellent “populist” menu from your populist faction of this government JR. Straight out of the Trump playbook. It will go down well with the “leavers”, who we know are easily conned into following false Gods and their ideologies.
Unfortunately, the UK’s two centuries out of date undemocratic system that is the Westminster Club; will never enact as intended, any of your “Blue Peter” type suggestions.
Because the nature of UK politics; adversarial; intolerant of compromise; just pushes binary party politicians into Punch and Judy type extreme positions. Positions that the voters who put them in Westminster never intended, but end up defending the indefensible in the media.
PS. Has anyone counted up the number of Brexit deadlines that weren’t deadlines. You do know there is no such animal called a deadline that is an actual deadline in politics.
December 6, 2020
populist equals popular equals democratic.
Difficult for socialists to understand.
December 7, 2020
and a big challenge for control of the people.
December 6, 2020
What the hell is wrong with *populist* ???
When did a list of what people want become the subject of the pejorative ?
Only a little movement to the *populist* would have completely averted Brexit.
December 7, 2020
So you accept that brexit is a bad thing, best averted.
December 6, 2020
Acorn, The EU is an artificial political construct with no roots, the very definition of an ideology. And though the EU cannot give anything it doesn’t first steal, Remains follow it like the pied piper, hoping for either a well paid sinecure or for the EU to give meaning to their lives.
December 7, 2020
NickC
often and ideloogy ahs roos and your comments about empire, idelology, colony and much worse. Reminds me fo the campaign where we were told that 80 million Turks woould come to our shores.
All fake news
December 7, 2020
Turkey will join the EU.
Just give a few more years.
Its all in the expansion plan
Why are you not in favour?
I recall the predictions of 15,000 Polish people coming to the UK when they Poland became members.
650,000 came.
December 6, 2020
John. May I add a few more to your list;
10. Stop virtue signalling on climate change and stop making policies that will destroy existing jobs in existing industries in favour of the ‘jam tomorrow’ approach pushed by the green blob.
11. Stop the authoritarian legislation put in place due to the pandemic and get back to being a party of personal freedoms and choice.
eerrr…..thats enough for now.
December 6, 2020
I want to second that and just add that we should abolish VAT, it’s an inefficient tax that was only brought in to match the continental tax system.
December 6, 2020
+1 !!!!!!
December 6, 2020
and please stop all the social engineering projects and just let our country develop naturally
December 6, 2020
If the ‘early wins’ were there as per JR we would have seen them long time ago. Government like Boris has no clue about where we are at or where we’re going and neither has JR and his ERG crowd. They, believing in the idea of Trumps America and Trumps four more years to save us has proved to be disastrous- it’s like 1940 all over again and this time all of our own making.
December 6, 2020
Sam, We haven’t left yet. Give it 41 years (like 1975 to 2016) after we really leave before you judge.
December 6, 2020
While the ‘Science is never settled’, there are many reports now emerging that our emissions are small in relation to the planet’s own natural releases. Cloud cover cooling the planet has not even been included in the computer models upon which Climate policies are now based.
Post BREXIT, Boris’s extreme energy costs will impoverish this country, make manufacturing so expensive and uncompetitive towards the rest of the trading world powered by Coal, & Gas. Unemployment will soar while others will be unable to afford to pay their heating bills or even run a car, far less purchase one. Our living standards will absolutely tank. Unreliable Wind Turbines industrialising our landscape will drive out our tourist industry.
All this will make no difference to the world’s climate whatsoever, as our emissions only amount to 1% of global.
Like lemmings running over a cliff-top the looming grinding poverty for us and our children then, will be for absolutely NOTHING.
Brexit apart, – we voted Conservative, – so it is a total outrage that we finish up with a ‘woke’ Virtue Signaling GREEN PM. ?Â
December 6, 2020
George Eustice thinks it ok to break international treaties to suit and have now just heard the Spanish are lining up the treaty of Utrecht article 10, 1713 to be looked at the same way.. pandoras box
December 6, 2020
Well, they have already torn up the Maastricht Treaty – you know, the bit that says about keeping debt to GDP ratio below 60%. No repercussions from the EU there.
The Treaty of Utrecht would have been toast some time ago, were it not for the Royal Navy.
December 6, 2020
Well said Dave.
December 6, 2020
Well zeroed, Keith!
December 6, 2020
Treaties have often changed over time.
They become unsuitable for one side and they break down
December 7, 2020
Yes, often resulting in war.
December 7, 2020
Is the EU going to declare war on us over the Withdrawal Agreement?
Hilarious.
December 6, 2020
You are subsidising it – it is very prevalent in school dinners, probably prisons as well. It is gradually being infiltrated into many meals without any labelling. Politicians will never tackle anything to do with religion.
December 6, 2020
This was in reply to the discussion on halal meat. It seems to have dropped down as JR was loading more replies.
December 6, 2020
Clearly, leaving the EU involves no upheaval or problems. Both sides are happy negotiating with only 3 weeks to go. Obviously both sides foresee no problems. If they did, both sides would have decided on something months ago. Unless, of course, BOTH SIDES ARE NUTS. Are we really going to have queues of lorries stretching for miles on BOTH sides of the channel?
December 6, 2020
“They have agreed to talk again on Monday evening.”
===========
Absolute farce. Oct 15th?….total bullshit, wasn’t it Johnson ?
December 7, 2020
and then the hour before the Commons meets.
Bullshit, bluster and theatrics.
December 6, 2020
Thank you for this,John.
December 14, 2020
Iâve just been reading Facts4eu.
They too seem very down, and believe we are to a expect a âbit of Brexitâ – a fudge with the WA and PD in place.
We deserve better than this!