It has been a long time since I last got my hands on a leaked letter or memo from Dame Lucy. After her long service on Brexit issues she appears to be deployed today on outstanding matters from the Withdrawal and Future Trade Agreements in the Cabinet Office. I thought I should share the letter with you.
Dear Mark (I’m not sure who this is but also clearly a senior official)
It is most important at this difficult time when Ministers are understandably preoccupied by the pandemic response that we provide the necessary continuity in other areas. We do have a duty to minimise the change that the upheaval of Brexit could create. We should be pleased that so much of the accumulated law and practice of the EU has been successfully transferred to the UK legal canons. We can be content that Northern Ireland remains partly under EU control as a reminder of the need for compromise with the EU over various matters. It of course entails regular Ministerial contact and negotiation over a range of issues through the Joint Committee. We must also ensure that Ministers are given every opportunity to adopt parallel laws and regulations to the changes going ahead in the EU, to avoid too much drift apart. We should remind Ministers of the desirability of equivalence, and the hard tests the EU is likely to apply to ensure equivalence, which will be much like identical measures. We should be keen to work with the EU on important matters like digital regulation and the green agenda. We as the custodians of continuity in government must preside over and enforce all existing rules and procedures unless and until Cabinet and empowered Ministers insist on change.
I am worried in case the divergence over vaccines leads Ministers to think divergence elsewhere is always likely to be right and better. Ministers may have had a success, but at the price of further deterioration in already difficult relations with the EU. The EU is upset about priority of deliveries to the UK, and has had various worries about the Astra vaccine in particular. We do not wish to see such disputes cross over into sensitive areas like fish, agriculture and energy. We need to remind Ministers of the complex supply chains, the inter dependence and the sensible nature of many EU rules and requirements. I think it is good news that the Treasury is continuing with the Maastricht debt and deficit criteria, and welcome that there is a further five years transition before the UK controls its own fisheries fully. I look to you to assist in portraying the realities of the new relationship to Ministers.
Yours etc
April 1, 2021
Good morning
And happy April Fools Day. This would be funny if it was not quite the truth.
April 1, 2021
It is indeed very true. The current Government is a parasitic job creation scheme, real job exporting scheme and economic destruction scheme. Particularly with the CO2 & expensive energy religion. Good to see the âno we are not racistâ report. Can we now have some sensible report which destroys the lies on the gender pay gap. Such gap as there is is almost entirely due to the work life balance choices the genders take, the jobs they choose, the university degrees they study, career gaps and similar.
This is all perfectly clear from the stats, despite what dopes like T May and H Harman and much of the court system say. In much of London Commuter belt, for example, men are rather more likely to commute into London whereas women ore often choose to work locally to fit in with family. What % of refuse collection, oil rig workers, pilots or construction workers are women. Subject like Maths, Physics, Engineering and Computer Studies are still heavily male as women on average seem to opt for social sciences, art, languages or drama or theatre studies.
No comment on Batley Grammar and the absurd suspension of the teacher for no reason then from Kier Starmer, Boris, the teaching unions then etc. What a pathetic Headmaster.
April 1, 2021
âNo comment on Batley Grammar and the absurd suspension of the teacher for no reason then from Kier Starmer, Boris, the teaching unions then etc. What a pathetic Headmaster.â
Not just the Headmaster who is pathetic LL. The teacher is in hiding for fear of his life and we hear not a peep from Johnson or this pathetic Government on the matter. Meanwhile a Headmaster has caved in at a school in Pimlico today and bowed to mob rule in their contempt for this country. His crime was wanting to teach about British Kings and Queens and fly the Union Jack. Our statues are torn down and a blind eye is turned by a craven Government.
I despair for what this country is becoming. Churchill and Thatcher must be turning in their graves.
April 1, 2021
Lifelogic, Boris is determined to make us dependent on the EU for electricity. According to the BEIS our dependency will triple in the next two decades. And that’s if their predictions of about the same amount of electricity 2020 – 2040 come true.
If we need more electricity to power all those battery cars and electrically heated homes – and we will, despite Andy’s low power toasters – then we will be largely dependent on the EU for electrical energy. Dame Lucy seems strangely silent on that opportunity for the Remain civil service!
April 1, 2021
You might for once agree with James O’Brien on your last point.
If you are to insist – as I think that we should – that facts and truth be taught, then if you want to discuss what some people call blasphemy and its effects in a secular society then you may very well have to look at examples of what is claimed to be that, and this teacher should be defended by his employers and by society as a whole for doing that, I think. His purpose was to do that, not to offend.
However, you cannot then reasonably say that the facts and the truth about the historic activities of those who built national monuments such as stately homes should all be swept under the carpet, can you?
Come on, you’ll try, won’t you?
April 1, 2021
I do not think anyone sensible is suggesting that âfacts and the truth about the historic activities of those who built national monuments and stately homes should all be swept under the carpetâ. But that does not mean tearing down statues and criminal damage, while some police look on & take the knee.
April 1, 2021
If past generations decided to venerate slavers by putting up statues of them, there is no reason why we should not take the statues down, melt them down and do something useful with the metal – like maybe make a statue of someone who works as a volunteer for the Samaritans.
April 2, 2021
No sensible person is saying that monuments should be torn down lawlessly.
The Government however are very much saying that a selective, flattering version of British history only should be taught in schools, I think.
And they are on the backs of NT about simple factual, informative notices.
Aren’t they?
April 1, 2021
+1 (after midnight and before noon on 1st April unlike Voltswagen)
April 1, 2021
Thank Goodness, it IS April Fool then.
Yes. So near the truth e.g. in the civil service (high ranking OFFICIAL), that I wondered if it were for real.
The trouble is Sir John, our present Government do not seem to be capable of ‘Getting Brexit Done’ in any real sense.
That was the only reason your party changed leader and it is the only reason the people then elected a large majority for that party. The present BRINO is not quite as bad as May’s would have been but it is far short of the Referendum vote to LEAVE.
On top of that the Conservative Party have imposed a DICTATORSHIP using Covid as an excuse. Exactly in line with almost the whole of the E.U.
What happened to CONSERVATIVE principles of upholding our ancient rights and pride in our Constitution.
April 1, 2021
Pauline,
Agreed. Boris has overstayed his usefulness. A âBrexitâ agreement has been reached but Boris thinks he no longer has to look after the interests of the U.K. vis a vis the EU.
April 1, 2021
Mark B,
Yes, and for some reason I am reminded of Dido Harding, another individual who has done fine work in both the private and public sector – a PPE graduate too, which will please Mr. Lifelogic.
April 1, 2021
It is very good to know soneone understands that our economy needs close alignment with EU rules. I am really happy to see no mention of fantasies about Global Britain. After all we trade more with Belgium than with Australia, and we always will
April 1, 2021
Oh dear. I have an investment opportunity Iâd like to tell you about.
April 1, 2021
Mark, We trade much more with ourselves – about 70% UK GDP – than with anyone else. So for all that trade EU rules are at best unnecessary, but actually often get in the way. That’s also true for our global trade (which is about 50% more than our EU trade anyway). So what is the point of EU rules – applicable to only around 10% of UK GDP – distorting nearly 90% of our GDP?
April 1, 2021
Maybe your bit of the UK economy needs close alignment with EU rules, but then even if you are telling the truth you are in a small minority of all the businesses that comprise the UK economy.
A very small minority, if sole traders are included:
https://facts4eu.org/news/2020_oct_truth_about_UK_exporters
“99.3% of all UK businesses do NOT export to the EU”
Some would be more generous to you in their estimates, but still say:
https://briefingsforbritain.co.uk/the-government-should-ignore-the-special-pleading-from-business-by-john-longworth/
“The Government should ignore the special pleading from business”
“Only 8% of UK businesses export to the EU. These exports represent just 13% of the economy. In fact, 17% of the economy is related to exports to the rest of the world and 70% is domestic.”
I expect you have got used to the idea that the whole of the UK economy should be run for the convenience of the small minority of businesses which trade with the EU, but that may no longer be the case.
April 1, 2021
I don’t have fantasies about “Global Britain” Mark – but I do like to remind people that that we are still the fifth largest economy in the world and an important market for many other countries.
If as you say, Belgium (population 11.5M) is a more important market for us than Australia (population 25.7M) then we should urgently be doing something about it. After all, we probably have a lot more in common with the Aussies than we do with the Walloons or the Flemish peoples – not least a common language – so there would seem to be excellent opportunities to rebuild the trade with the Commonwealth that was damaged by our membership of the EEC/EU.
April 1, 2021
Rubbish.
April 1, 2021
Why do you want to be subservient?
Why can’t we trade more with an English speaking population of 25 million than a non_english speaking 11 million?
April 1, 2021
Good Morning,
Sounds like you need to check on the Civil Servants status on the ‘unsubscribe’ option to EU law/propaganda. I imagine it’s at least as hard to do so as for Facebook!.
I was watching Euronews on TV earlier, there a piece on the European rental market and the voiceover made reference to the ‘EU Government’ needing to take action. There is madness across the Channel!
April 1, 2021
Yes, Peter, it has been extraordinarily difficult to get Remains (europhiles) to admit that the EU is the top tier of government. Since EU laws have primacy over the laws of every sub-state (Declaration 17) the consequence is that all sub-state law is forced to conform to EU law. And of course there is nothing to prevent the EU expanding its remit, as it did over vaccines.
April 1, 2021
It’s been April Fool’s Day every day since 1997. Since 2010 it’s been very much ‘not a joke’ but a nightmare that appears to be getting much worse
Labour despises its historical core voting base and never wastes a moment to slander them with the now almost daily use of the Stalinist denunciation tactic that is the ‘race card’ and the Conservatives despise themselves because they’re mortally ashamed for betraying their beliefs, values and our nation to protect themselves from harm from those who choose to use the same cudgel to force them to embrace progressive (authoritarianism ed)
This is no April Fool’s joke. It is happening right in front of our very faces and the fools are the British voter who at each and every GE deliver without fail two parties back to Parliament who now know they can abuse the indigenous population at every turn and still achieve political office
April 1, 2021
You have a point DOM, I too dispair of grey wet politics that keels us in the maze. I note you have stated some truth that has brought Ed out again.
April 1, 2021
Yes, Agricola, I dare say as people get more and more tired of a now clearly unnecessary lockdown, and start asking harder questions about who and what’s behind it, ed may have to get busier.
April 1, 2021
Dom, Everyone is entitled to belong to their own nation, and not have their nation controlled by a foreign empire. I very much support the UN concept of “self-determination”. So Nigeria should be run by Nigerians and not by the British, India by Indians, and . . . England by the English. Foreigners are guests in the UK and should behave commensurately.
April 1, 2021
DOM : âLabour despises its historical core voting base and never wastes a moment to slander them with the now almost daily use of the Stalinist denunciation tactic that is the ârace cardââ
The irony is that it is because the country abhors racism that makes the ârace cardâ such a powerful weapon for the left and others who wish to see the destruction of our institutions and country.
A weapon so powerful that it has everyone jumping when it is used and one where an accused has no way of disproving the allegations.
If we were racist then we wouldnât care.
April 3, 2021
“A weapon so powerful that it has everyone jumping when it is used ”
Not everyone.
April 1, 2021
I sincerely hope this is an “April Fool’s Day” joke
April 1, 2021
It is no joke Jazz, just another way of expressing reality.
April 1, 2021
I donât believe Sir J would publish such a letter without any validation â even if its a bit âyes ministerâ wrapped in April Fool
April 1, 2021
Jazz
I think Dame Lucy is Theresa May’s Nickname !
April 1, 2021
thats close to the mark
April 2, 2021
Ooooo ! Good call.
đ
April 1, 2021
Many a true word is spoken in jest.
April 1, 2021
As a timely reminder of why it is important to use our independence, today sees the UK dropping further down the Worldometers’ ‘Serious/Critical [COVID] Cases’ rankings, to 34th. Soon, we will pass tiny Austria, at 36th. Claps for those who developed and produced the Oxford vaccine.
April 1, 2021
Yes, we are still capable of great things and good works as a nation.
We just have to believe in ourselves again.
April 1, 2021
Brilliant news Sea Warrior
April 1, 2021
And is there a vaccine against the clap, Sea Warrior?
April 1, 2021
Streptomycine.
April 1, 2021
I’m a bit surprised that Dame Lucy does not give proper emphasis to the huge economic benefits of a close relationship with the EU. For example, the EU Commission has estimated that the “Canada style” free trade deal negotiated by the Prime Minister is worth 0.75% of GDP to us, and maybe twice as much to the EU as a whole and especially to our friends and partners in Ireland. It is well worth Northern Ireland becoming a kind of condominium to get that massive economic benefit for Great Britain, also speeding the province on its way to the inevitable united Ireland whatever the unionists in the north may want. And it is brilliantly clever the way that the truth has been inverted by the government’s propaganda machine, with a treaty that is above all a triumph for the Irish government successfully presented as a fantastic success for ours.
April 1, 2021
The mind boggles.
April 1, 2021
Indeed – what a fine British tradition April Fools Day is. Dame Lucy should be put in charge of an obscure QUANGO, where her obvious talents can be usefully employed. The Garbage Collection Agency perhaps?
April 1, 2021
Sounds like Sir Humphry’s little April the 1st jest, plus ca change c’est plus la meme chose again. It would be droll were it not to contain elements of truth.
Too much of what has been agreed is sceptic and will quickly become gangrenous, the NI Protocol for starters. Then there is fishing in our territorial waters. You may think that after the initial few years our control will further increase and the EU’s diminish. Pie in the sky you have the seeds of an ongoing festering wrangle.
Then there is the City, the EU vultures are out for as much as they can get. Will our government never learn.
A suggested course of action. As far as I am aware neither the european parliament nor some of the EU nation states have agreed the deal. Declare it dead due to its partisan and unworkable nature and lack of agreement. Revert to WTO rules and put an end to further discussions. You have seen the nature of this affronted EU wife over Covid, how much more do you need to know.
The EU is in its death throes. It may take ten years or longer, let it achieve its inevitable end. The process is a contageon, stay clear and look to new horizons.
April 1, 2021
âYes Ministerâ is being repeated on Tuesday evenings on BBC4. It is astonishing how relevant it still is today.
April 1, 2021
Saying the EU is ten years away from collapse at least makes a change. For nearly all of the last 30 years, Brexitists have mostly been predicting the EU will collapse in about 5 years. Youâve now been wrong for a quarter of a century.
April 1, 2021
30 years = quarter of a century? Was that on your recent maths paper? Tick any that apply?
April 1, 2021
… is as true today as it was yesterday.
April 1, 2021
I’ve been watching the rerun of some of the earlier episodes of ‘Yes Minister’ and am surprised not to have seen Dame Lucy in them. I suppose she would have been too young – still taking her Civil Service exams having gained a first at Oxford in PPE.
April 2, 2021
You can get a degree in PPE??
How come we were so desperate to get any a year ago?
April 1, 2021
The EU has always been a political project – and the Euro is deeply flawed and will fail eventually. I’ve felt for a long time that the Euro is the key problem that will be the final nail in the coffin of the EU – but time will tell. I can wait.
April 3, 2021
Ian T
More likely mass uprising across the bloc, and more likely caused by non existent vaccine management the way things are going now.
April 1, 2021
Totally agree Agricola. Bin it. We did not vote for ‘a deal’. Sir John, you and your fellow ‘Brexiteers’ did have control of the ‘Party’. Whatever has gone wrong?
April 1, 2021
agricola, “Will our government never learn?”
I don’t believe the government and certainly not the prime minister have really left the EU. Too many ‘connections’.
April 1, 2021
I always enjoy reading the comments on here. Especially today.
I’ve always found a sense of humour to be an invaluable asset in diplomacy.
And blogging…
April 1, 2021
Indeed on blogging. Sometimes saves the need to go to museums.
April 1, 2021
Do the EU see April 1st as we do? Really I am not sure.
I had a close friend who was born on this day and also my late mother was born on the 1st of April and I have been in connection with this lot all my life. No wonder reason and sensible choice is permanently on the wheel.
As we are ageing , others try to insult us with remarks such as ‘ you are old’. I say ‘insult’ as it is their intention , however , if they had an ability to actually grasp that ageing is a fact ( if you are lucky) and not a lack of understanding , a new more rational perspective may be aggregated to our overwhelming amount of knowledge. At least Lear’s fool always had an insightful message in his jibberwocky . I hope the sun shines on all over Easter.
April 1, 2021
Thank you JR!
I was thinking yesterday that no one would uphold this tradition amid all the misery!
Lovely.
I see that Starmer is getting his act together.
A vaccine pp âunbritish.
Victims of anti social behaviour to have police investigate.
Very tempting. ( probably not sincere…but we are being pushed by draconian Boris).
April 1, 2021
No misery here. Lovely weather, gardens etc looking spring bright, pub booked for next week and then on, health good, friends and family getting closer, on line shopping saves the chore of parking/carrying etc. Umpteen trips abroad booked for the second half of the year.
If your glass is half empty, or more seemingly, it is only your fault.
April 1, 2021
Seems to me that you are expressing a somewhat selfish view.
Many have suffered very badly over the past year.
But no sympathy from you!
April 1, 2021
Good to see some cracks in the united front of illiberalism. Apparently the Lib Dems are coming out against too. If the Opposition will finally oppose then maybe with some support from principled Conservative MPs it will be possible to vote the Government down on this issue. Amazing how they hope to get away with this when Russia is operating normally and vaccination there is a matter of personal choice. And Sputnik V is apparently a ‘traditional’ vaccine and therefore not as much of an experiment.
April 1, 2021
+1
April 1, 2021
@Everhopeful
Wow. The bloke is as out of touch as you. Polling suggests most people are quite happy with a vaccine certificate. It has nothing to do with being ‘British’. As far as I am concerned the main characteristics of being British are: self-effacing to the point of being embarrassed at doing anything well, dry sense of humour, extremely tolerant and, regrettably, supine before the EU. Although ‘supine before the EU’ should perhaps be known as Borisness – not Britishness.
April 1, 2021
Tsk, tsk!
Ad hominem= losing the argument.
April 1, 2021
I think you’ll find I countered your argument and, as an aside, pointed out that you were ‘out of touch’ as you clearly have not kept up with news reports.
April 2, 2021
Mike
Who’s doing the polling ? And why ?
đ
April 1, 2021
This Starmer will never walk the line between his friendly teachers who want to take down the Union flag and the blue wall which wants it held up. He’s on to a no winner. The Nandy lady also seems stuck between pretending to like being British and having to be all woke -whatever that means – for the young people.
April 1, 2021
Supine too in relation to appalling religious threats to a young teacher, who did nothing wrong at all, only to be immediately abandonned by his head teacher, his union and many other pathetic and silent jelly fish in government.
April 1, 2021
Just an observation.
He seems to have woken up to the fact that the opposition is supposed to oppose!
Might serve to curtail the worst excesses of govt.
April 3, 2021
Everhopeful
Dont be fooled, the only thing Starmer has woken up to is that you have to tell the public what they want to hear, then break oaths once elected.
They all do it. Starmer has just realised how the game is played.
April 1, 2021
Itâs no excuse. We have a Brexit supporting govt, headed by a leading Brexiteer, with Brexiteers in most of the prominent positions and a majority of 80. There is a fairly clean break deal with the EU. If by the next election the govt has failed to take advantage of Brexit by doing things which it could not have done as an EU member, and / or if the eurozone has outperformed the U.K. across a broad range of economic measures, the public will support the partial reversal of Brexit by joining the EEA. This would solve most of the current problems with Brexit (admittedly created deliberately by the EU).
Yes Covid has knocked all govts sideways, but I suggest Conservative MPs start getting very focused on what needs to be done to make the U.K. super-competitive and attractive for investment.
April 2, 2021
Nice one, Richard, you nearly had me there đ
April 1, 2021
Equivalence does seem to be April Fools every day.
Heads they win, tails we lose and enforced, nay gold plated by our servile to the EU civil service and executive.
April 1, 2021
From the literary style, I’m guessing Dame Lucy is Sir John’s evil twin.
April 1, 2021
OT; More seriously, if I may, is it not time this country lost the current trends in blame and victim culture (never mind virtue signalling)?
The govt could lead the way by scrapping performance targets for institutions that are by definition reactionary and/or evidence lead, rather than being pre-emptive in nature.
April 1, 2021
Whether Dame Lucy exists or not, and I am sure she does, in Whitehall, this is just what we already know – the upper reaches of the Civil Service do not and will not accept Brexit and regard the government as just transient and they can ensure their poison is poured into Minister’s ears until the day they can get us back in. They believe they are the government (probably true) and the voting public are just an incumbrance to their project. Nothing that has happened since the referendum assures us that the Tories will properly pursue Brexit and the fact that all the checks on exports are one way and will continue like this until at least October when Boris will find another way to hobble us, just reinforces our opinion that they are working to re-join. We need to keep reminding them who is in ultimate charge and that we will boot them out at the next GE if the present situation persists,. They assume that there is no opposition and for now they are correct, but this may not always be the case. Our MP’s need to know our votes are ours, not theirs and they cannot just assume our compliance.
April 2, 2021
Dame Lucy is just like the fictional, Sir Humphrey Appleton – representative of a ‘type’ and not necessarily a person in on themselves. Although, Alan Jutson above suggested it may be, Theresa May MP, which it conceivably could.
April 1, 2021
Perhaps Brexit was actually meant as a joke? After all it certainly is a policy for fools.
It was good to see the BBC yesterday spending some time highlighting the many British businesses facing significant challenges due to Tory pensioner Brexit. There are no sunny uplands. Just masses of pointless Tory paperwork. Delivered by people who promised less paperwork.
April 1, 2021
It is just a vindictive EU deliberately placing bureaucratic obstacles in between willing sellers and buyers.
PS
I love your talk of paperwork.
It is like you have still to discover the computer.
April 1, 2021
Did they mention the saving to the taxpayer of ÂŁ12bn pa, rising for ever? Or the fact the U.K. wonât be on the hook for part (and legally, potentially all) of the âŹ750bn eurozone-south bailout scheme? Did they celebrate the independent vaccine policy, which we certainly wouldnât have had if we had any govt other than this one? Did they point out all the trade deals which Remain said would never happen? Let me guess, those didnât get a mention.
April 1, 2021
And, AGAIN, many traditional voters in Labour heartlands voted to leave the EU. Many Tory voters, including half of those in Mr. Redwood’s constituency – by any measure a Tory heartland – voted to Remain.
An inconvenient truth that does not stop you peddling your lies.
April 1, 2021
It would be amusing if it were not so close to reality.
From where I sit it appears that there are several layers of control applied on the UK government
April 1, 2021
I did hear something funny yesterday.
A government report – commissioned by a Cabinet stuffed full of billionaires, millionaires, Old Etonians and other posh public schoolboys – said institutional racism doesnât exist. How we laughed.
Jacob Rees Mogg is in government. A man so average that he would not have moved beyond middle management had he not been born rich and had his success bought at Eton.
This is not Mr Moggâs fault. He is just the most extreme example of a disease of public school entitlement which affects our politics.
When there are six former pupils of Peckham Academy in Cabinet at the same time then we can claim institutional racism is over. Until then we need to remember that a black version of Mr Mogg – who came from an estate and grew up with a single parent – would struggle to get any job. Let alone be in Cabinet.
reply Mr Mogg made his own money by helping establish a new investment business.
April 1, 2021
I think he prefers to be called Mr Rees Mogg
April 1, 2021
Reply to reply: âhelping establishâ … how suggestive is that? From Somerset to Cayman Islands via Ireland?
April 1, 2021
I have had a Damascene conversion and seen the light.
On this day – 1st of April 2021 – I realise that I have been wrong about Brexit for all these years and beg forgiveness from Sir John and his Brexit voting readers.
April 1, 2021
I knew it was just a passing fad all confused teenagers suffer from.
April 1, 2021
But will you beg forgiveness from the majority of Leave voters that are Labour voters? Or are they the exception?
April 1, 2021
Mr.Macron has blamed the export of the Kent Variety of Covid on the UK. Fortunately tariffs are payable by the EU on this type of export so we can see a handsome sum of cash coming our way very soon.
April 1, 2021
Dame Lucy has reminded me not to vote for the Greenliblabcon in the forthcoming elections!
April 1, 2021
Leave won the referendum, as you wanted. We’ve left the EU, as you wanted. Boris’s deal means we’re not tied to the EU’s rules or the ECJ, massive hit to the economy, but as you wanted. Are you happy? Are you even satisfied? No. There’s always someone out there stopping you getting what you want – in this case someone who only exists in your own head. Your victim-complex seems to be getting worse, and I do feel sorry for you
April 1, 2021
We haven’t left as I wanted. I wanted to Leave, pay absolutely not one further penny and break off trade completely.
April 3, 2021
MW
I wanted the French kicked out of UK fishing areas, they are still there.
April 1, 2021
The paragraph where Dame Lucy says they must keep feeding the BBC/MSM with anti-Brexit stories, even if they’re false, appears to be missing?
April 1, 2021
I do not understand why so many of your readers think that this worryingly true letter has some connection with today’s date!
April 1, 2021
Just read of another 140 arriving by rubber dinghy yesterday. When are we going to be forcibly taken from our houses so these ( govt approved) invaders can get moved in and rewarded for arriving? How many more ?? ENDLESS – Should we be standing at the Dover Harbour wall clapping them in?? Emptying our pockets for them ( Sorry – govt already doing that ).
April 2, 2021
It never ceases to amaze me that they can find accomodation for people who have entered the country illegally, after passing illegally through other countries, find them accommodation, and yet do nothing for people living in doorways not far from the Palace of Westminster and Whitehall. It also amazes me that the French government do not do the same but allow them set up camps and, fund NGO’s that work to assist these migrants to move on to the UK, and yet both our government and media remain silent on all this.
April 2, 2021
Perhaps dinghy arrivals should transferre directly back to refugees camps closer to the regions they came from. We could then potentially consider taking proper asylum claims from those using wholly legitimate methods.
We have BINO. As we all know. We have need to reform our systems of control or governance. We need to move towards a proper democracy. Referenda and binding manifestos which if not implemented lead to brought forward rolling by elections and or a reduced maximum term in office before a General Election.
April 1, 2021
And I have just seen news that the CAA has joined EASA’s ramp inspection scheme. EASA will be sending inspectors to ensure that the CAA is meeting its standards. So, Sir John, your post is not the April Fools’ joke that some have mistaken it for.
April 1, 2021
I really do not see what the fuss is all about: the likely change for both pilot and aircraft licences had been announced a couple of months after the referendum. The recent ânewsâ is simply that by (re-)joining EASA it will make life easier for all concerned. âMuch ado about nothingâ as Bill S would have said.
April 1, 2021
You would think there had to be one good thing to cling onto, something real . Bad things for me personally have been the exodus of Germans French and other friends we had, the endless trouble trying navigate the loss of passporting security .The cost and trouble of insuring the Motor, should we be able to Holiday in Brittany .The there is the faint unhappiness one feels of living in a country one feels ashamed of and disenfranchised by ,as well as foreboding at what the drag on growth may mean in terms of cuts debt and inflation .
I was trying to think of anything good about it , and I am still struggling…..cheaper Tampons ?
Woo hoo
April 1, 2021
Please feel free to leave. 140 people every day arrive here who are so desperate they have crossed the English Channel in a rubber dinghy. Head down the M2 and follow the signs for the Channel Tunnel. Go and live somewhere you will be proud of.
April 1, 2021
M20, dear chap.
April 2, 2021
I havent’t seen any reporting of an exodus of French and Germans from this country, so perhaps you could quantify the problem for us and inform us of the reasons your friends gave for leaving. As for car insurance, mine was renewed in December, cheaply, and still covers me for the EU. The biggest block on your holidaying in Brittany this year will be the COVID situation there – and that will be the creation of VDL and Macron.
April 1, 2021
Sir John, You had me going when I read this, but then I remembered that itâs Maundy Thursday.
April 1, 2021
Here is an interesting article on the website of the Irish broadcaster RTE:
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2021/0401/1207386-uk-custom-controls-delay-a-reprieve-for-irish-exporters/
“UK customs controls delay a reprieve for Irish exporters”
“Irish agri-food exporters got a welcome reprieve after the UK government announced a six month delay to customs controls that were due to come into effect today.
Food producers had been expected to produce certain customs documents and certificates signed by vets to move ‘products of animal origin’ into Britain.
Those checks will now start in October. Full processes for some other imports will not come into force until January 2022.
Carol Lynch, Partner in BDO Customs and International Trade Services, said it was a welcome reprieve on both sides of the Irish Sea as Irish exporters were not ready for new UK import controls, had they been implemented from today.”
In fact she seems to think that the UK has been more sensible in its approach than the EU:
“”Imports into Ireland from the UK have seen quite a dramatic upheaval,” Ms Lynch said. “The UK is transitioning whereas in Ireland and the EU, all the controls came in overnight. January was pretty difficult and a lot of goods were held up or they just didn’t make it out of the UK. ”
Well, of course we did have that oxymoronic “status quo” or “standstill” transition period during which nothing actually transitioned, first suggested by Labour and readily accepted by Theresa May, but what we really needed was an agreed set of transitional provisions attached to the treaty to gradually ease in the new arrangements on both sides.
April 1, 2021
Two monkeys chatting:
1st: âAnd we can have upto six people without issues!â
2nd: âBut l donât even know six people without issues!â
Three cheers for Boris and Ursula!!! The first for leadership, and the second for exposing the utter vacuity of the European Project!!
April 1, 2021
On this day, April 1st I declare that I love my fellow countrymen. Especially those who like Kentucky Fried Chicken.
April 1, 2021
On this day, April 1st, I declare that I am going to open up my spare bedroom and back garden to refugees.
April 1, 2021
Bob Geldof famously beat you to it ! Never did hear if he still has his guests.
April 1, 2021
A senior EU official has threatened to block all AstraZeneca supplies from entering the UK until the company increases its deliveries to member states. Thierry Breton, the EUâs internal market commissioner, said âzeroâ AstraZeneca jabs made on the continent would be allowed to leave the European Union until the company has fulfilled its commitments.
UK must immediately impose a component export ban of vaccine products to EU.
April 2, 2021
Interesting comment, given that the new Halix plant in Leiden (the Netherlands) produces the active drug substance for the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is then put into vials in the UK (FT, 26/03/2021, âEU regulator approves contested Dutch vaccine production siteâ).
Within the UK, labs in Oxford (Oxford Biomedica, LDN: OXB) and Keele (Cobra Biologics, LDN:SCLP) produce the drug with the bottling done in Wrexham.
April 2, 2021
what bit is ‘interesting’ ?
certainly my first paragraph is ‘interesting’.
April 2, 2021
You ask for it, so here it is: your comment âUK must immediately impose a component export ban of vaccine products to EUâ is plain stupid, as the actual flow is (or should be) the other way around. If you do not know what you talk about, just shut up, you will avoid being ridiculous. There.
April 2, 2021
Why would the EU want the AZ vaccine when seemingly half their population doesn’t want to take it, thanks to the poison put down by Macron and Merkel?
April 1, 2021
Iâve just read the funniest April FoolâŠ..that this government is going to continue with the elections of Police & Crime Commissioners and Regional Mayors ?
April 1, 2021
Here is a long and detailed article by Richard North:
http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=87929
laying out how the EU is infringing both the WTO’s SPS Agreement and its treaty with the UK.
Not that some people will think badly of the EU even if it is breaking “international law”, because in their eyes that is a charge which only carries weight when levelled against the UK.
April 1, 2021
I’m afraid this article is all too true !
April 1, 2021
That’s got to be an April 1st hoax John. Written by yourself? Surely not!
April 1, 2021
So she is back! đ Alas, with a new co-conspirator and even more quisling-like than previously, apparently fearless despite her having seen that even Palmerston was ejected from the Foreign Office (under the usual smoke screen of exchange of kind letters).
We are being let down by Ministers who are failing to take initiatives in the light of the freedoms and opportunities we enjoy post liberation from the Evil Empire and who may suppose civil service advice like Dame Lucy’s to do as little as possible is appropriate. Need Mr. Cummings return to save the people’s Blue Boris?
April 2, 2021
‘Ministers failing to take initiatives’ – All part of the plan.
April 1, 2021
There must be a very careful balance with NI and not create even a slight sense of a border between the Ireland of Ireland or very sadly there are those who could use this to potentially reignite old difficulties.
Slightly off topic if Gov Ministers are going to appear on TV with a Union Flag behind them; can at least the flag be a real flag and not a cardboard cut out propped up in the back ground, better to have nothing.
I read in the news a London school has removed the Union Flag after many protests about exactly what it represents and some have burnt previous ones. The flag is very divisive and it may be a noble symbol for old people, but a large number of younger generation inc students hate it and see it as a symbol of oppression and blood.
April 1, 2021
But there has always been a border.
Different currencies, different purchase tax rates, different car taxation, different personal taxation, different property taxation and many other differences.
PS
Your comments about our national flag are ones which will greatly offend the vast majority of people.
April 1, 2021
At the last ‘New Members meeting’ it was agreed by all 27 that any country could join the EU if they could beat Germany at football. Not sure what North Macedonia will bring to the Empire?
April 1, 2021
That letter is a good chuckle, but it points out an important issue that a lot of people who think of exporting shellfish as “the economy” need to understand.
The last thing we need, the very last, is close economic alignment with the EU. In the first place, it won’t make a tenth of a percent difference to trade. The EU is currently abusing trade with its usual dirty tricks, and there is nothing we can do to prevent them, because to the EU trade is a political issue that is being used to punish the UK, not an economic issue. EU bad faith will harm the EU economy, but it will be national politicians who take the blame for slowdowns, while Brussels will just say it shows the need for “more Europe”.
But the most important issue is that the UK is increasingly a high tech, AI, design and automation economy, while the EU is still mostly oriented towards mid-tech manufacturing. If we “aligned” the UK economy with the EU we’d be going back a decade and we would lose a lot of credibility in the World outside the EU. aligning with the EU would be economic nonsense.
Fortunately it isn’t going to happen, because these decisions are made by companies, not by Government, unless, of course, we make the blunder of electing a party like Labour.
April 1, 2021
I am more determined than ever to buy nothing that originates from the EU.
April 2, 2021
We can be very sure that this kind of correspondence is exactly what is going on throughout Whitehall.
It is essential that we diverge as much as possible from the EU’s rules because that is the only way we can make our mark ( pun intended) in the wider world and be competitive.
The EU has proven beyond any reasonable doubt what those posting here knew all along : They have no intention of aiming for a cooperative and collaborating relationship with the UK, despite this being precisely what the treaties say about relationships with other countries and, in particular, with near neighbours.
We should forget about trying for Equivalence for the City of London, the compromises they will demand will hamstring our business with the rest of the world. The EU is a declining proportion of World Trade and our future success will come from the Far East and other Markets. That might involve some short term pain and allow the Europeans to crow about taking a few more low-value jobs from the City but we will have the last laugh when our business with the growing parts of the world really takes off.
April 7, 2021
It seems the remoaners never give in – fighting a 5th column rearguard action to leave the door open to rejoin.
The question is: how to stop this? If we knew the author and recipient it would help.