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My interview on GB News
September 30, 2021 50 Comments
Here is a short clip of my interview on GB News last night:
September 30, 2021 50 Comments
50 Comments
MiC September 30, 2021
Not the most challenging of interviews, perhaps.
Mike Wilson September 30, 2021
When the interviewer and interviewee largely agree, there wonât be much challenging.
Whereas, if Mr. Redwood is ever allowed on the BBC he is shouted down and never allowed to make a point. And, of course, he is rarely interviewed by the BBC. Worse than being challenged, he is censored.
Micky Taking September 30, 2021
Do reread MARTIN …..It said a short clip.
Peter2 September 30, 2021
Yes is a bit different when a journalist doesn’t keep interrupting having asked a guest to answer a question MiC
You presumably can’t remember how it used to be.
Gives us a chance to listen to their opinions.
Then the next day someone from the opposite area of the political spectrum gets to advance their views…uninterrupted.
Peter September 30, 2021
I am waiting to hear :-
âOn Question Time tonight, Conservative MP Sir John Redwood , Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage..â
It might be quite a long wait though.
Not that I have a TV licence anyway.
Iain gill September 30, 2021
Well said
Denis Cooper September 30, 2021
When I google for [starmer make brexit work rejoin eu]:
Labour’s position seems confused, but if Rachel Reeves is right that they have now abandoned free movement of persons then they have abandoned any hope of rejoining the EU or even the EEA.
Just a pity that they didn’t adopt that position immediately after the 2016 referendum.
“Labour conference: Starmer should fight election on Brexit, says Hilary Benn”
The “mess” has not been caused by Brexit but by people like him.
MiC September 30, 2021
I think, more correctly, he should say that the intention is to make Britain work, despite the many disadvantages caused by brexit, of which the impossible-to-ignore evidence is growing around us by the hour.
The Tories have an indefeasible majority of eighty.
No other party has had the slightest input whatsoever into this country’s arrangements with the European Union, nor within its own borders, therefore.
Own your disgraceful wreckage inflicted on this country.
jon livesey September 30, 2021
Exactly why should any Brexiteer “own” Labour’s policy incoherence? And why should they “own” panic buying caused by panic Press stories?
You have run out of anything to say about Brexit and now you are just reaching out to any issue at all and trying to make it a Brexit story.
There is a *European* energy crisis, and a *European* shortage of long distance drivers, and there is a local British spike of fuel demand caused by silly people – so silly that I read five times as many are putting petrol in diesel cars and vice versa .
Trying to make this a Brexit story is just willful mis-diagnosis, which never helps anything.
Mike Wilson September 30, 2021
the impossible-to-ignore evidence is growing around us by the hour.
I feel completely unaffected by Brexit. What are you experiencing that is getting worse by the hour?
Nottingham Lad Himself October 1, 2021
So you don’t drive, and don’t buy a very wide range of goods, nor have any relationship with any country on the Mainland, either personal, professional or trade.
Well, I’d withdraw from commenting on such matters then, Mike.
a-tracy September 30, 2021
Talking of British vacancies and creating local work – of the 100,000 HGV/LGV (Heavy Goods Vehicles/Large Goods Vehicles) vacancies we are told we have in the UK, do we have 100,000 Cabs sat somewhere without employed drivers?
Or is it Owner Drivers with their own cabs (self-employed contractors) the UK is short of? If so the drivers waiting for tests will they be able to afford their own cabs or do the companies the RHA are telling us are short rent them cabs?
Where are the vacancies for drivers, are they in every region equally? I think the unemployed out there thinking of new careers should be told where these jobs are and how they can train for them, are any of the companies doing any training courses? Are they upgrading their lower HGV class drivers.
How many fuel tanker drivers are needed, how many actual drivers short did it take to bring the whole network down?
Mike Wilson September 30, 2021
how many actual drivers short did it take to bring the whole network down?
Three. One had the dentist, one was at a hospital appointment and one took unpaid leave. This meant 4 petrol stations missed their delivery, the media got hold of it after people posted on social media that âthe petrol station by the station is out of fuelâ, the media reported a âSUPPLY CHAIN CRISISâ, people panicked and queued to fill up and the rest, as they say, is history.
Fedupsoutherner September 30, 2021
Mike. Pathetic isn’t it? If nobody had reported it people would have thought nothing about it.
MiC September 30, 2021
I see that the genius Raab has suggested that prisoners could drive petrol tankers and other HGVs to ease the problems. He seems to lack imagination, don’t you think, reader?
I wonder what drivers – many of whom vote Tory – will think of his views on their occupation?
Peter2 September 30, 2021
Presumably you think that Christian forgiveness and rehabilitation is a worthy and beneficial policy MiC.
Or are you a hanging and flogging proponent?
Giving people who have served a sentence but are now ready for readmission to society and are qualified to drive seems good on several grounds.
a-tracy September 30, 2021
MiC – Timpson has been telling us all recently what good employees, indeed shop managers some ex-cons turn out to be. I havenât read about Raab suggesting ex-prisoners should drive tankers but that seems rather dangerous depending on what crime they had been in prison for.
Just how many tanker driver employees are required – what number are we short, Iâd suggest it is very low, there is usually a waiting list for these vacancies. What are the facts, how many full time uk tanker drivers were EU citizens that have returned to the EU?
Mike Wilson September 30, 2021
Raab has suggested that prisoners could drive petrol tankers and other HGVs to ease the problems.
Brilliant, very imaginative idea. Presumably they will be chained to something in the cab. Stuff their luck if there is a crash and a fire.
Dave Andrews September 30, 2021
Probably enough lorries to go around, just a shortage of the drivers needed.
I suspect the majority of companies looking for drivers don’t do any training. They outsourced their drivers to contractors and have probably lost the ability to train.
The same thing has happened in the construction industry and engineering. Companies have run down the available skills, not done any training and have now lost the ability to train. Once the remaining skilled people have retired it’s game over.
Fedupsoutherner September 30, 2021
Yes Dave. It’s the older generation keeping the country going. They also have more of a work ethic in my opinion.
jon livesey September 30, 2021
“How many fuel tanker drivers are needed, how many actual drivers short did it take to bring the whole network down?”
I don’t know the answer to that – it’s really a problem in queueing theory, but you can ignore that, because it’s too technical – but I did notice that the BBC had a story in which they claimed that we were short of a hundred thousand drivers, and we have six thousand filling stations, and they didn’t even notice that there could be a little discrepancy there.
Being the BBC, they could not even tell if they were writing about specifically tanker drivers or drivers in general. That’s today’s BBC for you.
a-tracy October 1, 2021
jon, I quite like the BBC, I would be someone that carried on paying my licence, but a quick google search brings up Statista research that says: ‘The United Kingdom is home to 8,380 operational petrol stations and those under development. Numbers have fallen by over 35 percent since 2000.10 Feb 2021’
We haven’t been told precisely how many drivers were Hoyer short to cause the problem they told us all about via the media? The BBC are reporting what the RHA are telling them and the RHA also are never asked the facts – how many cabs are sat parked up (a quick check on government records would tell us) without drivers available to drive them, I think Mike has hit it on the head just a handful of drivers off unexpectedly sick stop the delivery schedule and it was blown out of all proportion – but why? Just how many of the tankers used to be driven by EU employees of those companies and when did they return to the EU.
What is too technical for me to understand jon, try me? As for queuing at least all those petrol drivers that filled up their cars to the brim used up all the old fuel by the deadline yesterday!
The Prangwizard September 30, 2021
Fully seconded. It is good to hear it being said strongly. It is a vital imperative – the country must get way from the past romancung of everything foreign. To go with that we must restrain foreign investment which helps destroy our industries.
Everhopeful September 30, 2021
JR and NF get on very well. Great interview!
It must be a wonderful change from being rudely shouted down by the disastrous BBC etc.
Lots more appearances I hope?
Matt October 4, 2021
What two largely ineffectual, zainy and self-centred individuals agreeing??
Lifelogic September 30, 2021
+1.
Allister Heath concludes his excellent Telegraph article today with:-
âWe are decarbonising on a whim, without any thought given to what might happen if there is no wind or if gas supplies are disrupted. Britain is equally unprepared to deal with post-Covid labour shortages âŠ
It is hardly a surprise, therefore, that so many Tory voters are upset. They are right that the Governmentâs incompetence is humiliating Britain. One of the many advantages of Brexit â for despite Johnsonâs errors, the case for it remains overwhelming â is the wonderful accountability it enables. The chaos can no longer be blamed on Brusselsâ policies, or European judges or anybody else. The buck stops at NoâŻ10.â
Indeed it does. Time to get real Boris drop the fake war on CO2, kill all the vast government waste and start dealing with the real issues.
Shirley M September 30, 2021
The humiliation of the UK is being compounded by allowing the EU to blame the UK for every tiny thing, and it all goes unchallenged therefore harming our reputation in the world. No doubt those governments that have had ‘dealings’ with the EU will know their operandi modus but will their citizens just naively soak up the EU propaganda as being the truth?
jon livesey September 30, 2021
Yes, but you really can’t do anything about that. It’s mostly that Remainers have discovered a new little trick, which is to plant anti-British stories in overseas papers and then wait for them to filter back to the UK as “foreign” commentary.
It’s sort-of clever, and a bit annoying, but it won’t work for very long.
Nottingham Lad Himself October 1, 2021
There are very few stories of any kind, about the UK in the European media, Jon.
The submarines featured a few times in France – but mainly about Aus and the US in that regard – and there have been the odd pictures of queues at filling stations, but that’s about it.
Denis Cooper October 1, 2021
Same old same old … Theresa May never contradicted any of the fake anti-Brexit stories, even allowing it to be believed that she would order our customs officers to hold up imports of the insulin upon which she herself is dependent, and Michael Gove let it be understood that he was going to set up a rapid rebuttal unit which never materialised, and who started off the false argument that thanks to the protocol Northern Ireland would be in a specially privileged position, able to benefit hugely from access to both the UK and EU markets?
+1.
Just one comment to add: accountability is fine except it is still a feature lacking within much of our civil/public service.
DOM September 30, 2021
Johnson must be toppled. This grotesque is a direct threat to this nation and our personal freedoms.
We need a libertarian at the helm (PM) before the left completely take control of all things including the Tory party
We yearn for freedom of expression and the anger that it has been taken away from the majority using Parliamentary legislation and political ideology (cancel culture, victim culture, offence culture, racial politics, diversity nonsense) is palpable.
The man’s an offence, get rid
jon livesey September 30, 2021
That assumes that Libertarians are pro-freedom, when in many cases they are just Fascists in disguise.
Nottingham Lad Himself October 1, 2021
I’d say that there’s a give-away, in that they seem to want their man installed by any means, and are not in the least bit bothered if that bypassed any democratic process, Jon.
rose September 30, 2021
And yet Starmer and his crew are still open borders extremists, still want us back in the SM and CU..
Denis Cooper September 30, 2021
See above!
rose October 2, 2021
They also say they have come round to our having left. Until you realize what they mean by leaving when they are in charge.
glen cullen September 30, 2021
Iâll give you this SirJ, you never duck a question and you answer all questions in full and passionately
agricola September 30, 2021
I found it a refreshing interview.you may express yourselves differently but the message is not that different. You both believe in a thriving, successful, post Brexit, UK. I would like to see an hour or more of the two of you discussing how you facilitate such an outcome. I cannot think of a better pairing to thrash out such a result.
Matthew McKenzie September 30, 2021
I find myself agreeing with Lifelogic, somewhat to my surprise. Hitherto the âwarâ on CO2 has largely been âfakeâ. The greatest challenge facing humanity requires more robust action for the sake of the planet and for our grandchildren. It is indeed time to âget realâ and deal with the âreal issuesâ.
agricola October 1, 2021
Mathew,It’s the “EconomyStupid”. It is absolutely prime irrespective of politics. The reason is that ultimately it pays for everything. Anything threatening the economy needs to be dealt with “Action Today”. Green has many virtues and pluses, but it needs to be effected practically, not I hasten to say like our current government who are the antithesis of economic good sense.
Denis Cooper September 30, 2021
Michel Barnier’s longer interview on the BBC earlier today:
Contrary to his claim the shortage of truck drivers in the UK is not down to Brexit and the end of the EU’s freedom of movement of persons for the UK, rather it is down to the UK Secretary of State for Transport failing to recognise that if we suddenly moved away from having loads of foreign truck drivers then that would probably cause problems and there would have to be a gradual transition:
There will be no renegotiation of the Irish protocol, only “operational” and “technical” solutions.
Malcolm White September 30, 2021
The frustration I believe many of us feel is that the Government despite having the tools within the withdrawal agreement and the Northern Irish protocol to unilaterally rescind both is that they continue to do nothing.
I voted for a party that said it was going to take back control, but I’ve seen very little sign of that with fishing, Northern Ireland and illegal immigration.
The EU will simply drag these issues on for years if we continue to play the nice guy. After all they’re the worst type of bureaucrats with no accountability. So now is the time to take a stand, even if it risks a potential loss of power from Europe. It may be painful for a period, but it’ll be better than the purgatory we’re in at this time. We need to move on with our lives and make Brexit work for us.
I caught your interview with Farage. Top notch. It’s a crying shame you represent a party that has completely lost its way, some would say died and metamorphosed into something extremely sinister
jon livesey September 30, 2021
It’s a funny crack, but Starmer really isn’t a convert. In fact he has no principled position at all on Brexit. He just saw opposing Brexit as a way of making life difficult for May.
And that’s Starmer’s real problem. He’s a political technician and nothing more. He will oppose a 15 Pound minimum wage, not for any societal or economic reason, but just to show he can “impose” his imprint on the party.
jon livesey September 30, 2021
Since I think this “crisis” is a seven day wonder, I have a longer-term question to ask. Given that we are so dependent on trucks, and given that we now know panic buying spikes can dislocate the whole system even when there is ample petrol in the country as a whole, and given that we cannot reasonably ask every filling station to keep weeks of petrol in reserve……..
What should the Government do in order to avoid a repeat of this week’s absurd scenes? The trucker employers had five years notice of the end of free movement, and did absolutely nothing to plan for it. So should trucker employers be required by law – in order to get a license – to maintain a pool of trained drivers? Should the Government model and publish the Nation’s transportation assets, including estimates of what effects various demand spikes can produce? Should the Government create a national reserve of part-time drivers on retainer? Is there an alternative or addition to trucking?
Previously, we were very foolishly depending on a pool of cheap labour from the EU – that has twice our unemployment level – and we have made a very good policy choice not to do that any more, so we have to replace that extremely lazy and feckless system with something better organized. This is not a “problem” with Brexit but a natural and healthy consequence, but we have to do something and in a way that does not have its own knock-on negative consequences, so what is the best policy?
Or should we just go on complaining and putting petrol into diesel cars and into little plastic bottles?
Denis Cooper October 1, 2021
“What should the Government do in order to avoid a repeat of this weekâs absurd scenes?”
First, sack the incompetent Secretary of State for Transport who is overseeing the fiasco.
Helen Smith October 5, 2021
You are one of my all time heroes Sir John and I wanted you to become party leader.
You are so right, the pandemic has shown we need to be more self sufficient, and Boris is right, we need to move to a high skill, high wage, high productivity model for our economy.
September 30, 2021
Not the most challenging of interviews, perhaps.
September 30, 2021
When the interviewer and interviewee largely agree, there wonât be much challenging.
Whereas, if Mr. Redwood is ever allowed on the BBC he is shouted down and never allowed to make a point. And, of course, he is rarely interviewed by the BBC. Worse than being challenged, he is censored.
September 30, 2021
Do reread MARTIN …..It said a short clip.
September 30, 2021
Yes is a bit different when a journalist doesn’t keep interrupting having asked a guest to answer a question MiC
You presumably can’t remember how it used to be.
Gives us a chance to listen to their opinions.
Then the next day someone from the opposite area of the political spectrum gets to advance their views…uninterrupted.
September 30, 2021
I am waiting to hear :-
âOn Question Time tonight, Conservative MP Sir John Redwood , Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage..â
It might be quite a long wait though.
Not that I have a TV licence anyway.
September 30, 2021
Well said
September 30, 2021
When I google for [starmer make brexit work rejoin eu]:
https://tinyurl.com/4wy8se2n
Labour’s position seems confused, but if Rachel Reeves is right that they have now abandoned free movement of persons then they have abandoned any hope of rejoining the EU or even the EEA.
Just a pity that they didn’t adopt that position immediately after the 2016 referendum.
But there are still those who disagree:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58698403
“Labour conference: Starmer should fight election on Brexit, says Hilary Benn”
The “mess” has not been caused by Brexit but by people like him.
September 30, 2021
I think, more correctly, he should say that the intention is to make Britain work, despite the many disadvantages caused by brexit, of which the impossible-to-ignore evidence is growing around us by the hour.
The Tories have an indefeasible majority of eighty.
No other party has had the slightest input whatsoever into this country’s arrangements with the European Union, nor within its own borders, therefore.
Own your disgraceful wreckage inflicted on this country.
September 30, 2021
Exactly why should any Brexiteer “own” Labour’s policy incoherence? And why should they “own” panic buying caused by panic Press stories?
You have run out of anything to say about Brexit and now you are just reaching out to any issue at all and trying to make it a Brexit story.
There is a *European* energy crisis, and a *European* shortage of long distance drivers, and there is a local British spike of fuel demand caused by silly people – so silly that I read five times as many are putting petrol in diesel cars and vice versa .
Trying to make this a Brexit story is just willful mis-diagnosis, which never helps anything.
September 30, 2021
I feel completely unaffected by Brexit. What are you experiencing that is getting worse by the hour?
October 1, 2021
So you don’t drive, and don’t buy a very wide range of goods, nor have any relationship with any country on the Mainland, either personal, professional or trade.
Well, I’d withdraw from commenting on such matters then, Mike.
September 30, 2021
Talking of British vacancies and creating local work – of the 100,000 HGV/LGV (Heavy Goods Vehicles/Large Goods Vehicles) vacancies we are told we have in the UK, do we have 100,000 Cabs sat somewhere without employed drivers?
Or is it Owner Drivers with their own cabs (self-employed contractors) the UK is short of? If so the drivers waiting for tests will they be able to afford their own cabs or do the companies the RHA are telling us are short rent them cabs?
Where are the vacancies for drivers, are they in every region equally? I think the unemployed out there thinking of new careers should be told where these jobs are and how they can train for them, are any of the companies doing any training courses? Are they upgrading their lower HGV class drivers.
How many fuel tanker drivers are needed, how many actual drivers short did it take to bring the whole network down?
September 30, 2021
Three. One had the dentist, one was at a hospital appointment and one took unpaid leave. This meant 4 petrol stations missed their delivery, the media got hold of it after people posted on social media that âthe petrol station by the station is out of fuelâ, the media reported a âSUPPLY CHAIN CRISISâ, people panicked and queued to fill up and the rest, as they say, is history.
September 30, 2021
Mike. Pathetic isn’t it? If nobody had reported it people would have thought nothing about it.
September 30, 2021
I see that the genius Raab has suggested that prisoners could drive petrol tankers and other HGVs to ease the problems. He seems to lack imagination, don’t you think, reader?
I wonder what drivers – many of whom vote Tory – will think of his views on their occupation?
September 30, 2021
Presumably you think that Christian forgiveness and rehabilitation is a worthy and beneficial policy MiC.
Or are you a hanging and flogging proponent?
Giving people who have served a sentence but are now ready for readmission to society and are qualified to drive seems good on several grounds.
September 30, 2021
MiC – Timpson has been telling us all recently what good employees, indeed shop managers some ex-cons turn out to be. I havenât read about Raab suggesting ex-prisoners should drive tankers but that seems rather dangerous depending on what crime they had been in prison for.
Just how many tanker driver employees are required – what number are we short, Iâd suggest it is very low, there is usually a waiting list for these vacancies. What are the facts, how many full time uk tanker drivers were EU citizens that have returned to the EU?
September 30, 2021
Brilliant, very imaginative idea. Presumably they will be chained to something in the cab. Stuff their luck if there is a crash and a fire.
September 30, 2021
Probably enough lorries to go around, just a shortage of the drivers needed.
I suspect the majority of companies looking for drivers don’t do any training. They outsourced their drivers to contractors and have probably lost the ability to train.
The same thing has happened in the construction industry and engineering. Companies have run down the available skills, not done any training and have now lost the ability to train. Once the remaining skilled people have retired it’s game over.
September 30, 2021
Yes Dave. It’s the older generation keeping the country going. They also have more of a work ethic in my opinion.
September 30, 2021
“How many fuel tanker drivers are needed, how many actual drivers short did it take to bring the whole network down?”
I don’t know the answer to that – it’s really a problem in queueing theory, but you can ignore that, because it’s too technical – but I did notice that the BBC had a story in which they claimed that we were short of a hundred thousand drivers, and we have six thousand filling stations, and they didn’t even notice that there could be a little discrepancy there.
Being the BBC, they could not even tell if they were writing about specifically tanker drivers or drivers in general. That’s today’s BBC for you.
October 1, 2021
jon, I quite like the BBC, I would be someone that carried on paying my licence, but a quick google search brings up Statista research that says: ‘The United Kingdom is home to 8,380 operational petrol stations and those under development. Numbers have fallen by over 35 percent since 2000.10 Feb 2021’
We haven’t been told precisely how many drivers were Hoyer short to cause the problem they told us all about via the media? The BBC are reporting what the RHA are telling them and the RHA also are never asked the facts – how many cabs are sat parked up (a quick check on government records would tell us) without drivers available to drive them, I think Mike has hit it on the head just a handful of drivers off unexpectedly sick stop the delivery schedule and it was blown out of all proportion – but why? Just how many of the tankers used to be driven by EU employees of those companies and when did they return to the EU.
What is too technical for me to understand jon, try me? As for queuing at least all those petrol drivers that filled up their cars to the brim used up all the old fuel by the deadline yesterday!
September 30, 2021
Fully seconded. It is good to hear it being said strongly. It is a vital imperative – the country must get way from the past romancung of everything foreign. To go with that we must restrain foreign investment which helps destroy our industries.
September 30, 2021
JR and NF get on very well. Great interview!
It must be a wonderful change from being rudely shouted down by the disastrous BBC etc.
Lots more appearances I hope?
October 4, 2021
What two largely ineffectual, zainy and self-centred individuals agreeing??
September 30, 2021
+1.
Allister Heath concludes his excellent Telegraph article today with:-
âWe are decarbonising on a whim, without any thought given to what might happen if there is no wind or if gas supplies are disrupted. Britain is equally unprepared to deal with post-Covid labour shortages âŠ
It is hardly a surprise, therefore, that so many Tory voters are upset. They are right that the Governmentâs incompetence is humiliating Britain. One of the many advantages of Brexit â for despite Johnsonâs errors, the case for it remains overwhelming â is the wonderful accountability it enables. The chaos can no longer be blamed on Brusselsâ policies, or European judges or anybody else. The buck stops at NoâŻ10.â
Indeed it does. Time to get real Boris drop the fake war on CO2, kill all the vast government waste and start dealing with the real issues.
September 30, 2021
The humiliation of the UK is being compounded by allowing the EU to blame the UK for every tiny thing, and it all goes unchallenged therefore harming our reputation in the world. No doubt those governments that have had ‘dealings’ with the EU will know their operandi modus but will their citizens just naively soak up the EU propaganda as being the truth?
September 30, 2021
Yes, but you really can’t do anything about that. It’s mostly that Remainers have discovered a new little trick, which is to plant anti-British stories in overseas papers and then wait for them to filter back to the UK as “foreign” commentary.
It’s sort-of clever, and a bit annoying, but it won’t work for very long.
October 1, 2021
There are very few stories of any kind, about the UK in the European media, Jon.
The submarines featured a few times in France – but mainly about Aus and the US in that regard – and there have been the odd pictures of queues at filling stations, but that’s about it.
October 1, 2021
Same old same old … Theresa May never contradicted any of the fake anti-Brexit stories, even allowing it to be believed that she would order our customs officers to hold up imports of the insulin upon which she herself is dependent, and Michael Gove let it be understood that he was going to set up a rapid rebuttal unit which never materialised, and who started off the false argument that thanks to the protocol Northern Ireland would be in a specially privileged position, able to benefit hugely from access to both the UK and EU markets?
September 30, 2021
+1.
Just one comment to add: accountability is fine except it is still a feature lacking within much of our civil/public service.
September 30, 2021
Johnson must be toppled. This grotesque is a direct threat to this nation and our personal freedoms.
We need a libertarian at the helm (PM) before the left completely take control of all things including the Tory party
We yearn for freedom of expression and the anger that it has been taken away from the majority using Parliamentary legislation and political ideology (cancel culture, victim culture, offence culture, racial politics, diversity nonsense) is palpable.
The man’s an offence, get rid
September 30, 2021
That assumes that Libertarians are pro-freedom, when in many cases they are just Fascists in disguise.
October 1, 2021
I’d say that there’s a give-away, in that they seem to want their man installed by any means, and are not in the least bit bothered if that bypassed any democratic process, Jon.
September 30, 2021
And yet Starmer and his crew are still open borders extremists, still want us back in the SM and CU..
September 30, 2021
See above!
October 2, 2021
They also say they have come round to our having left. Until you realize what they mean by leaving when they are in charge.
September 30, 2021
Iâll give you this SirJ, you never duck a question and you answer all questions in full and passionately
September 30, 2021
I found it a refreshing interview.you may express yourselves differently but the message is not that different. You both believe in a thriving, successful, post Brexit, UK. I would like to see an hour or more of the two of you discussing how you facilitate such an outcome. I cannot think of a better pairing to thrash out such a result.
September 30, 2021
I find myself agreeing with Lifelogic, somewhat to my surprise. Hitherto the âwarâ on CO2 has largely been âfakeâ. The greatest challenge facing humanity requires more robust action for the sake of the planet and for our grandchildren. It is indeed time to âget realâ and deal with the âreal issuesâ.
October 1, 2021
Mathew,It’s the “EconomyStupid”. It is absolutely prime irrespective of politics. The reason is that ultimately it pays for everything. Anything threatening the economy needs to be dealt with “Action Today”. Green has many virtues and pluses, but it needs to be effected practically, not I hasten to say like our current government who are the antithesis of economic good sense.
September 30, 2021
Michel Barnier’s longer interview on the BBC earlier today:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001065p/hardtalk-michel-barnier-former-eu-chief-brexit-negotiator
Contrary to his claim the shortage of truck drivers in the UK is not down to Brexit and the end of the EU’s freedom of movement of persons for the UK, rather it is down to the UK Secretary of State for Transport failing to recognise that if we suddenly moved away from having loads of foreign truck drivers then that would probably cause problems and there would have to be a gradual transition:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/09/29/labours-lost-loves/#comment-1264004
There will be no renegotiation of the Irish protocol, only “operational” and “technical” solutions.
September 30, 2021
The frustration I believe many of us feel is that the Government despite having the tools within the withdrawal agreement and the Northern Irish protocol to unilaterally rescind both is that they continue to do nothing.
I voted for a party that said it was going to take back control, but I’ve seen very little sign of that with fishing, Northern Ireland and illegal immigration.
The EU will simply drag these issues on for years if we continue to play the nice guy. After all they’re the worst type of bureaucrats with no accountability. So now is the time to take a stand, even if it risks a potential loss of power from Europe. It may be painful for a period, but it’ll be better than the purgatory we’re in at this time. We need to move on with our lives and make Brexit work for us.
September 30, 2021
Powerful but far too short
September 30, 2021
Good evening.
Well said Sir John.
September 30, 2021
I caught your interview with Farage. Top notch. It’s a crying shame you represent a party that has completely lost its way, some would say died and metamorphosed into something extremely sinister
September 30, 2021
It’s a funny crack, but Starmer really isn’t a convert. In fact he has no principled position at all on Brexit. He just saw opposing Brexit as a way of making life difficult for May.
And that’s Starmer’s real problem. He’s a political technician and nothing more. He will oppose a 15 Pound minimum wage, not for any societal or economic reason, but just to show he can “impose” his imprint on the party.
September 30, 2021
Since I think this “crisis” is a seven day wonder, I have a longer-term question to ask. Given that we are so dependent on trucks, and given that we now know panic buying spikes can dislocate the whole system even when there is ample petrol in the country as a whole, and given that we cannot reasonably ask every filling station to keep weeks of petrol in reserve……..
What should the Government do in order to avoid a repeat of this week’s absurd scenes? The trucker employers had five years notice of the end of free movement, and did absolutely nothing to plan for it. So should trucker employers be required by law – in order to get a license – to maintain a pool of trained drivers? Should the Government model and publish the Nation’s transportation assets, including estimates of what effects various demand spikes can produce? Should the Government create a national reserve of part-time drivers on retainer? Is there an alternative or addition to trucking?
Previously, we were very foolishly depending on a pool of cheap labour from the EU – that has twice our unemployment level – and we have made a very good policy choice not to do that any more, so we have to replace that extremely lazy and feckless system with something better organized. This is not a “problem” with Brexit but a natural and healthy consequence, but we have to do something and in a way that does not have its own knock-on negative consequences, so what is the best policy?
Or should we just go on complaining and putting petrol into diesel cars and into little plastic bottles?
October 1, 2021
“What should the Government do in order to avoid a repeat of this weekâs absurd scenes?”
First, sack the incompetent Secretary of State for Transport who is overseeing the fiasco.
October 5, 2021
You are one of my all time heroes Sir John and I wanted you to become party leader.
You are so right, the pandemic has shown we need to be more self sufficient, and Boris is right, we need to move to a high skill, high wage, high productivity model for our economy.