The Conservative Manifesto of 2019 promised to get Brexit done. It stated the government would ” take the whole country out of the EU as one United Kingdom”. We would leave the Customs Union, be able to pass our own laws and end the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. “There will be no political alignment with the EU” . We would take back control of our laws, our money and trade policy, and ensure we are in full control of our fishing waters.
The central offer was to “use our new post Brexit freedoms to transform the UK for the better by focusing on your priorities”.
In some blogs inĀ the days ahead I will examine how far the government has got in implementing this vision, and how we can take advantage of our new freedoms to do better. At the time of the Withdrawal Agreement I drew attention to issues over Northern Ireland trade and fishing, and was told by Ministers these would be sorted out forĀ in the final Agreement. I was not satisfied they were so I did not vote for the final Agreement.
I am pleased that the government now recognises thatĀ the trade position for Northern Ireland is entirely unsatisfactory and needs substantial change. I urge them to take action to enforce the clear statements in the Northern Ireland Protocol that both sides respect the internal market of the UK and regard Northern Ireland as part of that market and customs Union. The Protocol condemns diversion of trade, yet we are witnessing a major diversion of trade from GB to NI to EU to NI. The UK should instruct our Customs officials to allow free passage of goods from GB to NI as we do within the rest of the UK, if necessary confirming the instruction to them in UK legislation and making clear this is the UK interpretation of the NI Protocol. The UK Act should also confirm UK sovereignty over NIU/GB trade and exclude any role for the ECJ.
January 6, 2022
Good morning.
I guess it is a question of interpretation. Getting BREXIT done meant LEAVING the EU to many I am sure but, probably to others charged with doing this it meant, “Just sign anything to get this mess off my plate and get me elected.”
The government of the day has moved on. It now looks to, ‘Build Back Better, Levelling up, and Net Zero as things to concern itself with. Meanwhile, as expected, Remain forces are hard at work preparing the ground for our readmission into the ‘Stupid Club’.
January 6, 2022
Well said the Stupid Club is exactly that in a nutshell!
January 6, 2022
The UK has left.
Farage will confirm that he and the rest of his wastes-of-space got their helpful shoves between the shoulders from their sinecures at its Parliament.
No, it failed in its true purpose because it did not start a domino effect and destroy the European Union, though Farage says that he will keep trying for that.
It has achieved increased solidarity among the twenty-seven if anything, and further posturing looks ever more ridiculous.
In that sense it was not “done”, and as it stands, looks like it will never be done, and jolly good too.
January 6, 2022
That was its ‘true purpose’ only in your mind. Its actual true purpose was to get us out of the EU. Our politicians, hamstrung by Remainers who would not (and will not) accept the result of the referendum, failed to get us out. We are still half in.
That said, the break up of the EU is as inevitable as the break up of the USSR. The latest row is over the allocation of pandemic spending. Membership of the Euro has done nothing for the PIGS and, sooner or later, a political party will get elected in one of those countries with a mandate to leave.
The Common Market was a great idea. Unfortunately, people who wanted to govern the whole continent hijacked the EU and are leading it inexorably to its destruction.
January 6, 2022
What I analyse the actual motives of some of the key Leave proponents to be indeed departs from those of most of the seventeen million who voted Leave, of whom a large proportion were decent reasonable people who – I claim mistakenly – thought that they were doing the best for the country.
That is exactly my point.
They were misled by those who sought to use them for quite another purpose, in the service of particular interests in another country.
January 7, 2022
Soon to be a bankrupt stupid club.
January 7, 2022
“The euro will be dead and buried by Christmas 2012” – Nigel Farage on the radio.
January 6, 2022
āI am pleased that the government now recognises that the trade position for Northern Ireland is entirely unsatisfactory and needs substantial change.ā
I am not convinced the government will change anything. I still wonder why Lord Frost dramatically left office.
Boris Johnson wishes the Northern Ireland Protocol issue would simply go away, but does not really want to get involved. I suspect there will be more kicking the can down the road. Maybe this will be followed by another fudge if and when necessary. The wording would be vague and open to all sorts of interpretation.
January 6, 2022
Indeed Mark.
January 6, 2022
“Brexit” was not on the ballot paper. The majority of the UK electorate voted “Leave”.
“Brexit” was a political construct which was designed to obfuscate.
Sir…. so when you say “Getting Brexit done”, I assume you mean “Leave” the EU.
January 6, 2022
There’s too many pro EU amongst the civil Serpents and Quangos trying to stop a clean Brexit.
Until we have a leader with some sense nothing will be done.
January 6, 2022
Always, always, Brexiters blame someone else for the complete fiasco that gets worse every day. Never, never, will one of you stand up and accept responsibility. You won, now get on with it, it’s all yours
January 6, 2022
Johnson included, it would seem.
January 6, 2022
+1
January 6, 2022
Just a point – Leave won the referendum, with about 37% of the electorate’s vote, being 52% of those who voted.
There was no definition of what Leave would mean on any ballot paper, nor on any manifesto.
And Parliament is supreme.
January 6, 2022
For all you know NHL those who didn’t bother to go out and vote might have all been Leave supporters.
January 6, 2022
Peter – but leave supporters did go back out again, in long term red wall seats and elected Boris on his manifesto promises to them. He gave them the impression he was on their side of this referendum decision.
The other parties offering to stay and cancel the WA and to revote didn’t get elected when May got elected and Boris got elected, they could have changed their mind twice in four years. To take their decision and twist and turn on it is going to have repercussions.
January 6, 2022
You are correct Tracy
It is something the rejoiners now wish to airbrush from history.
January 6, 2022
Technically possible, but that still doesn’t address what “Leave” would mean regarding the future arrangements with the European Union.
The North Korea option, promoted by lunatics, is a bit of a non-starter, really, isn’t it?
January 6, 2022
Your dodgy electoral statistics are a ridiculous attempt to try to revise history.
In the biggest ever vote in our history over a million more people voted to leave the EU.
Your last sentence is so nonsensical it needs no response as it just makes you seem an extemist rejoinder.
January 6, 2022
Hi NLH
You may recall that, prior to the 2016 referendum, the Cameron Government sent everyone a publicly funded leaflet. It is still available online. A Google search of “Why the Government believes that voting to remain in the European Union is the best decision for the UK” … should find it.
January 6, 2022
NHL .
No, Parliament acts as if it’s supreme. It is meant to be a representative assembly.
January 6, 2022
Where does it say that in any constitution?
January 6, 2022
Well, it would have been nice to know what āLeaveā meant – in detail. But, heh-heh, the EU WOULD NOT DISCUSS IT UNTIL AFTER THE LEAVING AGREEMENT WAS REACHED.
So, that rather shoots your position down in flames. In the absence of an agreement BEFORE WE left, it left people to work it out for themselves. Leave a job. Leave a relationship. Leave a country. Leave an undemocratic autocracy.
Even without knowing what it meant, 17.4 million still voted leave. Of course it would never enter your infallible head to think about why they voted to Leave without being able to know what the full consequences would be. No, that would be a step too far for you – to consider that anyone with an opposing view from yours might have legitimate reasons for their views. No, you will always resort to caricatures and name calling.
I voted to Leave because the EU is an autocracy.
Have you listened to what Barnier says now that he is out of the EUās pay and running for French President? Donāt tell me, heās an idiot too! And to think, you used to worship the ground he walked on.
January 6, 2022
Barnier lost his bid to become the Les Republicains candidate on 4 December 2021. A bit out of date arenāt you?
January 7, 2022
Whether he lost his bid is immaterial – the fact is that Barnier radically changed position.
January 6, 2022
“Leave the European Union” on the ballot paper. What could be clearer?
January 6, 2022
Well, er, “Do nice things” would be, probably.
January 6, 2022
The government leaflet sent to every household made it very clear what leave meant. Stop trying to rewrite history and learn to respect democracy. What proportion of voting population voted for your hero Blair?
January 7, 2022
That was a warning, not an undertaking.
January 6, 2022
A majority of the UK electorate voted Leave.
A subtle difference but very important. It was only a tiny majority.
January 6, 2022
A majority of those who voted, voted Leave. Again, a subtle, but important difference.
January 6, 2022
One million more votes isn’t a tiny majority Mike.
January 6, 2022
Indeed, a million majority in June 2016 and then a 80-MP majority in December 2019, and then ā¦ what?
January 6, 2022
Well it means we eventually left the EU and the Conservatives have a majority large enough to sustain their government until the next election.
I’m surprised you required my explanation heffy.
January 7, 2022
P2, āto sustain the government until the next electionā Whoah, brilliant response.
Silly me who was expecting a nice list of successes recently achieved by the present Government you are so proud of.
January 7, 2022
Thanks hef.
It’s not often I get a compliment from the grumpy troll on here.
January 6, 2022
Yes it is a tiny majority when 40 million people can vote
January 7, 2022
Nonsense bill
A majority of a million votes is a huge gap not a tiny one.
January 6, 2022
After Cameron’s concentrated remain campaign that tiny majority was a big surprise which Remainers still resent.
January 6, 2022
@Oldwulf +1 and people are still frightened of being responsible for their own actions – they don’t want representation they prefer Dictator Control
January 6, 2022
The UK has left the EU, so stop beefing. If you donāt like the terms, take it up with the people who negotiated them – D Frost, B Johnson – and the people who voted through Parliament – J Redwood and 300+ other Conservative MPs. This is a Conservative Brexit. No one elseās. You know who to blame
January 6, 2022
You’re a flogging a dead horse John. This PM is determined to make life easier for himself, his future career and his party by appeasing the British bureaucratic establishment and EU on all fronts. Sacrificing NI to the EU is a calculated political act. It is also another nail in the coffin of the UK. The line of least resistance in all areas of public policy including the slow but sure destruction of the UK is the hallmark of the Tory party since 2010.
The British monarch gifted the OOTG to an ex-PM who put into motion (devolution, implemented and designed to weaken the UK and make it malleable for the EU to bully into submission) events that will lead directly the disintegration of the Monarch’s kingdom. How preposterous is that. It defies belief that such a POLITICAL award was made but it is evidence that all areas of the British State is now contemptuous of our country and its people
We did our job by voting to leave the EU. Pro-EU forces within the UK are doing theirs and doing it with great success. Seeing Blair knighted is the evidence I need to confirm my suspicions that the people are up against a class who no longer care about how they are viewed. Protecting those juicy privileges is now the defining instinct of their character
As an aside. The Colston verdict in Bristol is nothing less than a green light for woke fascists to destroy all that they purport (they’re not offended of course but feign offence as an act of politics) to find offensive.
It is all falling part and your party with a huge majority are simply unprepared to act against those who seek to damage us all
January 6, 2022
Dom:
I agree. The Colston verdict was nothing short of an outrage. It should be overturned.
The final straw for me, was the delight of the Media, giving the subject lots of airtime on the News. Allowing the perpetrators to gloat, and say, that for many years, the people of Bristol have wanted that statue removed. I donāt believe it!
I think this Country is lost. Everything seems to be viewed through the prism of BLM now.
January 6, 2022
+1
I too am very worried by the Colston statue verdict.
It seems we have shifted to some sort of Left Wing morality legal system.
They apparently proved that the statue itself was a āhate crimeā and thus could be wrecked with impunity.
Does that now apply across the board? Two tier legal system?
How on earth did they find 12 good men and true to FREELY agree with that?
January 6, 2022
It is the job of the prosecution to prove its case and it didnāt.
The jurors were there and heard the evidence. You werenāt.
January 6, 2022
Millions saw the crime…
January 7, 2022
As the jury have now defined it, it never was a crime, any more than a fireman breaking down a door with an axe to extinguish a fire would be.
January 7, 2022
Then you better hope no political opposition of yours take an axe to your front door claiming they have a right to do it
January 6, 2022
Agree
January 6, 2022
The Colston verdict was a digrace and the defendants need to be tried again, on another charge (as you cannot try people on the same charge twice), such as riotous assembly. It should be noted that the jury in the original trial was split, so the defendants were cleared on a majority verdict. It is clear that the jury must have been very carefully selected to be as sympathetic to these (people Ed)as possible.
January 6, 2022
āThe Colston verdict in Bristol is nothing less than a green light for woke fascists to destroy all that they purport (theyāre not offended of course but feign offence as an act of politics) to find offensive.ā
Indeed – the defence seems to have been that that the statue was a āhate crimeā and they were preventing this ācrimeā – blame Blair and those others who brought in āhate crimesā perhaps? Did Blair do anything positive I am still looking.
January 6, 2022
+1
Particulary the Coulston statue which should have been removed by proper process.
January 6, 2022
I agree, but there is no effective, accessible “proper process” of which to speak.
January 6, 2022
There was a sensible proposal to add to the plaque the statement that Colston made his money from slave trading in which a number of Africans died. It was stalled because the mayor of Bristol wanted ‘trading’ replaced with ‘trafficking’ (apparently the latter was actually a crime). However a minority were allowed to enforce their will, and subsequently statues all over the country were threatened. The refusal to punish the perpetrators certainly relates to their BLM affiliation, and contrasts with the prison sentence given to a man for urinating through park railings while being kettled by the police on a non-violent protest for a cause not supported by the Establishment.
January 6, 2022
There was no clear and popular will to remove the statue. Plenty of legal and political mechanisms or legal routes had sufficient people felt it should be removed. But as the large majority would not support removal (this trying to hide and disguise the history of the city) it did not happen.
January 6, 2022
At the same time undemocratic BLM, XR, Insulate Britain – all State actors – were given support by the establishment. All of it done during the Covid crisis… along with many other assaults on our history, culture and freedom.
This was criminal damage. The verdict will lead to anarchy. Why not Churchill’s statue next ? Why not Nelson ?
One good thing.
The 80 seat majority Conservatives have shown clearly how utterly pointless they are.
It’s funny, NLH how keen you are to belittle a voting majority when it goes against you but will support crime when it does. I do not support Coulston but the greater evil is the erasure of our history and mob rule, which this is.
January 6, 2022
It wasn’t a crime.
The verdict defines it as not being so.
If you read the accounts by the expert witness, and by one of the intelligent, articulate defendants themselves, then you will see that their defence was a very good one indeed.
Even Rees-Mogg defends the jury verdict.
January 6, 2022
NLH
Thought they had a Local vote and the majority voted to keep it, about as near to democracy as you will get, that seemingly was also ignored.
So I agree, we seem to have little proper process left in the UK, or it is made so complicated and difficult to understand, it becomes almost meaningless.
January 6, 2022
Due process was applied by Bristol City Council and the people of Bristol voted to retain the Colston Statue.
January 7, 2022
There are many proper decent and non violent ways to promote and get your way in the UK
The way of the mob is always wrong.
January 6, 2022
It should not have been removed at all. There was never any majority wanting to remove it & rewrite history at all.
January 6, 2022
The plaque described the likeness as of “a most wise and virtuous” man.
THAT was the re-writing of history, the truth of which is now being told, thank goodness.
January 6, 2022
Fantastic post Dom summing up the whole political system brilliantly.
January 6, 2022
DOM
+1
January 6, 2022
I too am dismayed by the verdict. It appears vandals now decide which statues can remain, or be destroyed. Using the same argument as used to destroy Colson, then the Nelson Mandela statue should also be vandalised and thrown in the river. The statue was erected for the good things he achieved, but as he also caused much loss of life then that should override the good, as it has with Colson. This is not equality, this is minority rule. As usual, the peaceful majority get ignored and their rights trampled upon.
January 6, 2022
+1
January 6, 2022
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the damage to property, there was no violence nor breach of the peace.
So the defendants can claim to be as much a part of the “peaceful majority” as anyone else.
Criminality generally hinges on intent, and if someone damages property in the sincere belief that the damage will prevent something worse than such damage from happening, then it is not a crime.
The prosecution have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant did not believe that.
It’s not easy, and the jury made a reasonable decision on that basis.
January 7, 2022
Quite so,
The thugs are now in control in Bristol and it is a lawless place .. except for those of particular political leanings.
I wonder how this will effect the business community – I certainly won’t get involved in any activity there, who knows what the rabid left will decide is not acceptable next and the police don’t seem to offer any protection at all.
January 7, 2022
“Thugs”?
They didn’t hurt a fly, unlike those who assaulted Owen Jones, say.
January 7, 2022
Or Mr Farage and the milkshake attack eh?
January 8, 2022
i’d personally rather have a milkshake chucked over me by one youngster than repeated fists in the face from several men.
You?
January 9, 2022
Silly comment from you NHL
Both are assaults and violent acts
An assault on the democratic process.
I say let the courts and a Jury decide the appropriate outcome.
January 6, 2022
No, it was proof that trial by jury is in general a very good thing.
Yes, the defendants admitted that they did the deed, but the question was, was it beyond reasonable doubt, a criminal act?
You see, a person may damage property if it is to prevent something worse than damage to property from happening, or if the defendant believed that to be so.
The jury evidently accepted that they did believe that.
In so doing they saved the defendants from what may have been an unjust exemplary sentence, but we will not know what was in the judge’s mind.
This sets no precedent, it is not a civil matter, and does not therefore encourage recklessness on the part of others.
January 6, 2022
NHL: you have just handed some other types of extremists an excuse for vandalising or destroying a religious centre if they have reason to believe a particular sect is behaving in a way that triggers police investigation.
January 6, 2022
No, if a person had evidence that a religiously-assigned building was being used for criminal purposes – e.g. to incite crimes – then there exists a perfectly proper procedure for them to follow.
It is simply to hand that evidence to the police.
In any case it would be persons who were committing the offences, not the building.
January 6, 2022
Of course the judgement will almost certainly encourage more such actions by others. Why would it not do this?
But trial by Jury is indeed one important protection against an oppressive state. Perhaps we need to look at how they are selected?
January 6, 2022
Karl Marx was an anti semite and lead to tens of millions of deaths.
Can I pull his statue down ?
January 6, 2022
Both the defence barrister and the defendants went on to claim that the outcome of this case would reverberate around the globe.
Of COURSE it sets an precedent !
January 6, 2022
NLA, As far as I know there is only one in the UK in North Londonās Highgate cemetery and it is regularly covered in red paint. Do you want to add your own layer?
January 6, 2022
the law’s an ass, or rather jury selection is.
January 7, 2022
Haha!
Twelve people picked at random turn out not to be at least 51% bigots.
Well there’s a surprise.
January 7, 2022
in Bristol, very true.
January 7, 2022
It does set a precedent NHL
You surely realise it does.
January 6, 2022
Despite over three quarters of a million voting to rescind the honour to Tony Blair it will not be discussed in parliament.
The vote should have been set up on the government petition site – not change.org – to enable this.
So you can bet it will go nowhere.
January 7, 2022
I wonder how many of you at the time signed the petition to Stop of the War in Iraq/Afghanistan and then were among the 750,000 (number according to the police)-one million (according to the organisers) people demonstrating in London on 15 February 2003.
January 6, 2022
Our laws of precedent would suggest its now okay to openly burn the Union Flag….and pull down pictures of the queen
January 6, 2022
I agree 1,000% with Dom & Sir John.
The Conservative party has a big majority so they should start to use it by bringing in an Internal Market Bill to protect the whole of the UK from a rogue agency. We don’t need to ask anyone’s ( EU ) permission which the mindset of this Govt appears to think it needs to do. The Govt have allowed the EU to interpret the Protocol as they think fit instead of adopting a “front foot” policy of ignoring the EU altogether by saying that NI is part of the UK and this is how we will operate in the future – GB to NI and NI to GB trade is not under the jurisdiction of the ECJ and is exempt from paperwork, during negotiations on the Protocol then it was expected that 400 out of circa 4200 products would likely require a label saying For Sale only in NI but until these 400 items have been agreed then they will continue to remain exempt from restrictions, changes on ECJ involvement will begin immediately with a view to its involvement being sidelined and to working towards a digital system of border and product checks that both the UK’S and Rep of Irelands respective HMRC departments agreed was easily possible but which for politic reasons the EU would not consider. No ifs and buts. I suspect that there is enough wriggle room in the Protocol for the UK to do so. It just needs a strong Govt. It is for the UK to make that ultimate decision or the ROI, who state alongside the UK they do not want a hard border, would need to consider its position within the EU if the EU insist on a hard boarder.
Tony Blair mismanaged immigration and introduced the poorly thought out Devolved Administrations. They don’t work and create divisions. With a good majority in the Commons then this Govt should desolve the Administrations or heavily pair back their powers and this should include the Devolved Councils. Using Covid as a distraction, I don’t want to be told by the tin pot dictators that I cannot travel from one part of the UK to another . Also, I don’t want to be told that I will still be safe in London after the legalisation of cannabis and the extra criminalisation that will flow onto London streets and surrounding areas when the rest of the UK is doing its bit to keep the population healthy and safer from criminal activity. One policy, please !
The Govt payroll is vast and should, therefore, be able to operate on a simultaneous multi-policy basis and not be bogged down by the needs of Covid. Why have we not banned the huge foreign trawlers damaging a UK asset and marine life within the 6-12 mile coastal limit ? Why have we not banned the import of German and Danish bacon and sausages that as a result of the EU lowering its inspection standards is, in my opinion, no longer fit to eat ?
January 6, 2022
‘woke fascist’ is an oxymoron.
The statue was planned to be removed in any case, for reasons which are obvious to most, but maybe not to anti-woke bigots.
Possibly this was one of the reasons that contributed to the jury determining this action did not constitute ‘criminal damage’, and was in fact entirely reasonable.
The verdict also has the side effect of winding a minority section of the population up, which is quite amusing.
January 7, 2022
If it was planned to be removed how is it reasonable for the thugs to assemble during a lockdown and destroy property .. and the police to do nothing?
January 6, 2022
They have decided that a life in a gilded cage to be more preferable than one flying high.
I always thought that criminal damage was, well criminal.
January 6, 2022
It was judged by the jury not to have been criminal.
That is, their defence was accepted.
So it wasn’t criminal damage, and that is the factual position in this particular case, and in that alone.
January 6, 2022
Considering the verdict of the ‘reasonable’ people of Bristol., it has become clear that they certainly are not reasonable.
January 7, 2022
Inform yourself, as to the particulars of this case.
January 7, 2022
I and millions have watched the crime, that is quite enough.
No need for examining what smart arsed lawyers can say to twist reality.
Guilty M’lud.!
January 8, 2022
It.
Was.
Not.
A.
Crime.
That has been proven.
The.
End.
January 6, 2022
Indeed Dom. We need rid of our useless PM and his associates.
January 6, 2022
The really sad thing about Brexit is how many people just believed the nonsense they were told . They actually thought that by erecting trade barriers with our domestic market we could get richer, that we would have more to spend on the NHS. They thought that they would have cheaper housing and better paid jobs.
Few even understood the insoluble problem of a N Ireland Border that could not be there .
I doubt more than one in a 100 understood the implications of No Deal for services and I expect s many thought that every economist Banker , City analyst et all who warned them were ” calling them stupid ” and just ” experts ” to be ignored. It was only ever going to end one way and it will only get worse.,
The penny has dropped , Brexit is now regretted by the a sizeable majority and even those MPs who once sung its praises are looking at their seats and keeping quiet.
January 6, 2022
We *did* have more to spend on the NHS. Ā£1200m a week more since Boris was elected PM even before the extra Covid funding so the number on the bus was a massive underestimate. What is occurring to people actually is that giving more money to the NHS doesn’t seem to have improved it at all.
One benefit of leaving that Boris and Gove told us about was that VAT on fuel could be removed. It now seems that was just a theoretical benefit as they had no intention of doing it. It’s hardly the fault of Brexit that that hasn’t happened.
January 6, 2022
Roy, to be fair that was before covid happened and the government gave furlough. The majority wanted furlough, many lapped it up and didn’t want it to ever end with the rest of us working throughout for just 20% more. This VAT on domestic energy brings in around Ā£1.7bn tax ‘rough guess’ so who gets taxed instead of domestic residents because someone has to pay for all this test and tracing, ppe, furloughs and seiss.
January 6, 2022
No
We may have spent more money on the NHS but there was no new money out of thin air – we could always have spent more money on the NHS . The Government has to govern with facts not the rubbish they put on a bus for the gullible
That is why we have increased taxes , not reduced taxes . Brexit s also partly responsible for the inflation we are enduring as it necessitated additional borrowing and money printing. People see one problem after another, labour shortages , endless rows with France, N Ireland, increased costs, bottle necks for every conceivable,kind of export. Remember we are still importing on the old basis so there is worse to come
The best laugh is that due to the loss of growth we are now obliged to open the door to immigration everywhere but Europe .. eroding the cultural continuity so many people value .Europeans actually added to this due to their good English, education and easy mixing .
On the plus side
Nothing ..absolutely nothing and as I say it is going to get worse
January 6, 2022
The sad thing is you not realising the consequences which a Remain vote would have precipitated.
Think of the nonsense told about no EU Army by our Facebook friend now in California, no federalist state, no coercion into a single currency. By now, Cameron would be proclaiming an EU from the Atlantic to the Urals, and bringing in Turkey for good measure. After all, we have a labour shortage, don’t we? Open the doors wide! Oh and we’d have been an integral part of providing funds and skills for an EU vaccine, only to be screwed out of using it because the final decision on approval would have been made elsewhere, and they’d have wanted a Franco-German one in preference.
January 6, 2022
+1
January 6, 2022
Newmains
For you and you lot it is no difference.
If the leave had lost it would have been accepted and albeit reluctantly would have got on with life. Not keep on slagging off politicians and the like at every opportunity. Whenever I lost anything that was the result did my bit and it was not good enough and move on the next challenge.
If you honestly believe and think that if ever this country goes back in to whatever the EU is morphing into we will get anywhere near the deal and “respect” we had? We were just a cash cow to them, always have been always will. If they take us back it will be a case of revenge is a dessert best served cold. A lot of my European friends don’t want us back ever. Case of good riddance to bad rubbish, we were always considered to be a thorn when it came to their great plan.
January 6, 2022
No it wouldn’t have been accepted.
Read the article from the Mirror online from 16th May 2016. Farage is quoted as saying “In a 52-48 referendum this would be unfinished business by a long way.”
Farage may have been thinking 52-48 the other way, but in the end I guess he was right (on this, at least).
January 6, 2022
Peter, the 48% have had two opportunities in the past four years, both Labour and especially the Lib Dems pledged to revote or overturn the vote.
January 7, 2022
In the 2017 general election the Labour/Lib Dem vote was about 1.5 million more than the Conservative vote. However, the output of the UK electoral system does not reflect the general level of voter support for parties.
January 7, 2022
And the UKIP vote was about 600,000 and they got no seats, Plaid with 165,00o votes got 4 seats. Iām not a UKIP supporter at all but you canāt just discount the vote. Also the 2019 European elections with PR Brexit party got 5.2m and were the biggest party.
January 7, 2022
I don’t discount the votes. I wish every vote cast in the UK counted equally, which is why I argue for ending FPTP and why, even though I would never vote UKIP, I agree with them on elwctoral reform and consider the outcome of the 2015 general election to be one of the best illustrations of juat how fundamentally broken democracy is in the UK.
It’s worth pointing out that while, in the 2019 Euro elections did have the Brexit Party as the largest vote share at just over 30%, the 3 next largest vote shares were all for broadly pro-European parties. The LibDems, Labout and Greens polled more votes between them than the Brexit Party, the Conservatives and UKIP combined.
January 8, 2022
Peter, I thought I remember Labour changing its stance āto leaveā in the 2019 euro elections. I read a piece by Polly Toynbee that āLabour remainers at that election were stranded left high and dryā and labour remainers were voting Green or LibDem instead? So you canāt bung Labour into that! Remember people thought Corbyn was eurosceptic and the fact he thought losing was representative of the fact his people wanted Brexit delivering was the position they went into the European elections with. The Conservatives although a somewhat awful result did poll votes too.
By the way I know more Labour leavers than I know Tory leavers, the majority of Tory voters I know outside of this blog were remainers.
January 6, 2022
But for many saying that they believed all that rubbish was just an excuse, which was used to hide their true reasons for voting Leave.
They’re just niggardly, cynical, and unfriendly people.
January 6, 2022
What all 17 million voters NHL?
How do you know?
Got your broad smearing brush out again I see.
January 6, 2022
No, many others were decent reasonable people who were, I think, simply mistaken or deceived.
January 6, 2022
Yet all remain voters were perfect in their decision.
Hilarious.
January 7, 2022
Peter 2
the wide brush with no facts or figures seems to be your specilisation
January 7, 2022
Thanks for the compliment bill
I’m touched.
Looking forward to a post from you with some facts and figures.
It would be a first.
January 6, 2022
There are those to whom it was and is more important to take back control of our laws, borders and money; those things that supposedly were not to be lost by becoming members of a common market, but which latter was a superstate in the making, deliberately disguised as such by those who knew that electorates who were told the truth would not vote for it. Free even if less wealthy may be preferred to subservient but richer.
January 6, 2022
+1
January 6, 2022
Unfortunately for you a recent poll showed that only 24% now support re-joining the EU so your claim that a sizeable majority now regret leaving the EU is, at best, wishful thinking.
January 6, 2022
Not many people are perhaps as pro-European Union as am I.
However, I do not support the UK’s attempting to rejoin in the foreseeable future.
Its application would almost certainly be vetoed by more than one country anyway.
And it would be a continuing distraction from all the important work that is being done and which needs to be done there.
Leaving has been, and will continue to be, utterly abysmal, however.
January 6, 2022
Now you have clarified what you think, confirming our guess, would you kindly refrain from going on and on and on about it. Thanks ever so.
January 6, 2022
No
I think you will be a passionate rejoiner.
Come on NHL face up to it.
January 7, 2022
Carry on with all that “thinking”, Pete.
Why, it evidently works wonders…
January 7, 2022
Going for a record number of posts today I notice.
50 is it?
January 7, 2022
I will do all that I can, for as long as I draw breath, to dissuade people from giving power to those and their kind, who deceived the country into the most catastrophic act of self-harm perhaps in its history.
Thanks ever so.
January 7, 2022
People voted in the referendum in their different ways for different reasons.
Odd that you think only those who voted differently to you were “deceived”
Remain ought to have won but a very negative campaign headlined by Project Fear was a failure.
PS
Only the Lib Dems and the Greens would try to re join the EU.
Presumably you will vote for them in the future.
January 7, 2022
most catastrophic in history? Well for Germany we know who deceived the people, and for GB the Baldwin followed by Chamberlain governments dismissing the military build-up in the aforementioned.
January 7, 2022
I, like millions of others now, will vote for whomever appears most likely to prevent a Tory from winning the seat.
I would prefer that candidate to be Labour, but that is by no means sine qua non.
Reread my first comment here, and give your head a bit of a wobble maybe eh?
January 7, 2022
Labour are committed to accepting the result of the referendum NHL
Did you not know?
January 6, 2022
Indeed. Prior to the referendum I discussed the matter of Northern Ireland with a Conservative councillor and was told that he didn’t see any problems. I told him I didn’t believe him and subsequent events have shown that my position on the matter have proved to be closer to reality.
January 6, 2022
+1 very sad, but true
January 6, 2022
Please substantiate the numbers. Were they plucked out of the air ?
Anecdotal evidence suggests that businesses are getting used to operating the new trade requirements with the EU. Statistical facts indicate that trade with the EU has declined and increased with the rest of the World. The EU is only interested in big business and therefor it is likely that some small UK exporters to the EU will be experiencing difficulties. No doubt as business people they will adjust if only by exporting to the rest of the World e.g. one Scottish fisherman is now exporting to asia ( ? ) and getting his products more quickly to the new market place. If we only listen to the anti-Brexit media then the only conclusion that could be drawn from what is often fake or biased “news” is the UK plc is doomed. Stuff and nonsense.
Trade / GDP is now back up to pre-pandemic levels. I anticipate that UK plc will evolve and continue to motor onwards and upwards.
January 7, 2022
Getting products to Asia quicker than to Europe? Right. Is there no fantasy or fairy story you Brexiters won’t believe?
January 6, 2022
āThe really sad thing about Brexit is how many people just believed the nonsense they were told.ā
Glad to hear you have now woken up to all the lies told by the vote to remain side. The lies like:
-Families will be Ā£4,300 worse off if Britain leaves the EU
– Leaving will cause a stock market crash
– Interest rates will rise
– an EU army is a dangerous fantasy
– GDP will fall but GDP rose by 3.2%
– House prices will fall
– Unemployment will rise
– World War Three Will Start
– The Economy Will Crash
-āWe will need an emergency Budget to restore stability to public financesā ā George Osborne
-Leavers Are Uneducated
And all you go on about is a figure on the side of a bus which has turned out to be true.
January 6, 2022
None of those things were actually claimed though, were they?
What was said was that there could be “an increased probability” of such events.
Those are your habitual distorted caricatures.
January 7, 2022
They were “claimed” NHL.
It was a non stop Project Fear throughout the referendum campaign by Remain.
Christine lists just a few of the many predictions of doom.
Many voters had already made up their minds years before, but this negative campaign lost Remain the referendum.
January 7, 2022
You are guessing again without any source
January 7, 2022
Well give some data, facts and sources to prove you are right bill.
Or is it only one sentence posts you can manage?
January 6, 2022
The first line was a Treasury prediction in 2016 dealing with the long terms consequences of reduced trade with Europe and reduced growth (15 years ). You might argue that a mean figure applied per family is melodramatic but you could not argue with the methodology and the prediction is by no means unusual or even extreme.
The last is true – The better educated you were the more likely you were to vote remain. People have argued that allowing for Brexit voters being older this is not a good correlation .That may be fair but it does not mean that people who do not know things do know things .
The need for a European military capability has been around for decades and is no closer today than it ever has been .Perhaps you noticed when we got kicked out of Afghanistan, Europe had nothing to offer in the arena and we were , as a consequence , obliged to do as w were told by the US without even being told .I was swollen with pride !
On world war 3 I think the quote you are referring to is this one …. “No, I don’t believe that leaving the EU would cause World War Three to break out on the European continent.” ( D Cameron)
I see your point (? )
That tensions between the UK and our neighbours are much increased is undeniable , that long and sustaining relationships have been needlessly torn apart is quite clear .
Nonetheless – if the fact we are not involved in an apocalyptic war is called a success then Brexit is a success . Some would say that was setting the bar a little, low
On the economy and to what extent Brexit can be blamed for its current serious problems ..some other time .
January 6, 2022
The Protocol does NOT ācondemn diversion of tradeā. Why donāt you try reading it?
Reply I have anD it does
January 6, 2022
You should try reading this:
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9330/
“Article 16 is an emergency mechanism in the Protocol that either the UK or the EU can use to introduce temporary safeguard measures to protect its economy and society. This is only if the application of the Protocol leads to āserious economic, societal or environmental difficulties that are liable to persistā, or to ādiversion of tradeā. These measures, however, need to be targeted to directly address the problems they are trying to fix.”
Personally I would not bother with it, I would just announce that we are no longer going to carry out any of the EU mandated checks and controls on goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, or indeed from the rest of the world. But I would first pass the necessary UK laws to provide an alternative, superior, system of protection to the EU Single Market, as anticipated in the Command Paper back in July.
January 6, 2022
You want that. They don’t.
January 6, 2022
+1 – but no political will other than for a surrender NI it seems.
January 6, 2022
Indeed LL.
January 6, 2022
Far too sensible and simple a solution Denis.
The EU wants power and Control over as much of the World as they can get, and it wants to confuse, complicate, and punish us in particular for having the temerity to leave, but the majority of our foolish MP’s and their supporters in Parliament cannot see it yet.
January 6, 2022
Reply to reply: indeed the words ādiversion of tradeā appear in the Protocol, but unfortunately for Sir John there is no definition of what this diversion can be. So everyone is left to figure out what it might be ā¦ and as so often it is another case of Sir Johnās useless gesticulations.
See them on 27/12/2018, 31/12/2018, 25/02/2019, 01/04/2019, 15/04/2019, 22/10/2019, 12/10/2020 ā¦ plus certainly many I must have missed: so is it a case of the Knight of the Woeful Countenance battling the wind mills?
January 7, 2022
You may not have noticed Irish politicians publicly celebrating the diversion of trade.
January 7, 2022
What a strange comment. The Irish (politicians or not) benefit from it. Why should they not celebrate the fact? A bitty anglocentric, arenāt you?
January 7, 2022
So you agree with them that it is occurring.
January 7, 2022
Denis, it is obviously occurring, whether I agree with them or not. Strange comment ā¦ again.
January 8, 2022
In which case the conditions for invoking Article 16 have been met.
January 6, 2022
I voted to LEAVE THE EU in its entirety. I didn’t vote for this mish mash created by Remainers. Our vote to leave, which incidentally won, was interfered with by parliament, the Lords and the courts. We had a coward of a PM who just walked away, another who did nothing she promised to and now one who it would appear lies about leaving the EU and everything else in his manifesto. I firmly believe the only reason Boris hasn’t locked us down right now is because he’s afraid his back benches will throw him out. It’s got nothing to do with the welfare of the country and everything to do with saving his skin.
January 6, 2022
The Conservative manifesto in 2019 said clearly that Northern ireland would stay under EU rule. That was the oven ready deal – the ONLY difference between Boris’s deal and mrs May’s. Stop complaining! Brexit is rubbish – but it is what you voted for
January 6, 2022
Johnson was actually saying no border controls in the Irish Sea. We should just throw any such papers away. That’s what we voted for and that’s what should happen in a sovereign country.
January 6, 2022
And you believed what Johnson said? With his previous track record?
January 6, 2022
Yes people did Peter and backed those MPs that stood on the agreed manifesto. The first time with May MPs we elected turned on the people that elected, the second set we are still awaiting judgement, at the moment I am very disappointed with my elected MP.
January 6, 2022
+1
January 6, 2022
+1
Totally agree.
They are biding their time maybe? Building up strength?
When they decide to pounce Johnson will be toast.
And they need to get someone who will BEHAVE!
(But who??).
January 6, 2022
This mess is exactly what you voted for. It is not the fault of anyone who voted remain that you didnāt understand what you were voting for. You should have done your homework.
At least have the decency to own your own mess.
January 6, 2022
I think you will find this mess was not created by Brexiteers or the vote. This mess was created by remainers who refused to accept it. Especially the treacherous remainer parliament that followed the vote. Led by a remainer PM. This coupled with a completely biased remainer speaker and previous remainer Prime Ministers going to the EU (one recently honoured for his “service to the country”) briefing against the UK on how the UK and Brexit could be overturned. So its not a mess created by Brexiteers but by Remainers. You own it.
January 6, 2022
Did you actually read the ballot paper Andy?
January 6, 2022
“I firmly believe the only reason Boris hasnāt locked us down right now is because heās afraid his back benches will throw him out”.
Yes, obviously, and this proves what I have been saying here for some time: Boris will only give the backbenchers what they want if they make him AFRAID. This is why I have repeatedly said that the only way the ERG will get Boris to deliver a proper Brexit is by rebelling and sending letters to Graham Brady. One letter a day, sent openly, with the clear message that they will keep sending the letters in until Boris scraps the Protocol (the first demand – fishing can be dealt with afterwards). Boris only cares about himself. He wants to remain PM. So threatening him on this is the ONLY way to make him listen and act.
January 6, 2022
There probably was a small minority of voters at the time of the referendum who voted remain as they shared the EU’s utopian federalist vision and wanted the UK to be part of it. They were over-represented in Parliament and the media.
But the majority of remain voters simply thought that brexit would mean years of disruption to people and to businesses for little practical benefit, as it would be unlikely that any UK govt, even a Tory one, would actually transform the UK in a radical free market direction.
Whilst project fear with its absurd shroud waving has been proven to be tosh, it does unfortunately seem clear that this larger group of remain voters were right. We are seeing disruption to people and to businesses, we have damaged the UK’s relationship with many EU countries, especially France and Ireland, and the govt under this PM seems to have not the slightest intention of moving away from the EU big state, high tax, interventionist model.
Let’s give it 2022, but in the absence of a significant change of direction I think Labour / LibDem / SNP could be onto a winner at the next election by proposing moving to an EEA- Norway style model, as was in fact proposed by some brexit supporters.
January 6, 2022
“But the majority of remain voters simply thought …. it would be unlikely that any UK govt, even a Tory one, would actually transform the UK in a radical free market direction.”
How long did it take you to poll 16 million Remain voters to come to that conclusion ? Or are you just assuming a majority of the 16 million think exactly the same as you do ? It’s an interesting proposition though, Remain voters would have switched to Leave if they had been sure taxes would have been slashed and the NHS privatised as soon as we left.
January 6, 2022
Well perhaps 5% off energy bills might soon convince them… Wait until those bills are horrendous, then ditch the Protocol by referendum in NI based on being able to reduce VAT on fuel. Every cloud and all that…
January 6, 2022
It’s now four years …
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/05/18/sort-out-the-gb-northern-ireland-trade/#comment-1229829
“I can hardly believe that three and a half years on Iām still having to refer to people to this Sky report:
https://news.sky.com/video/is-the-norway-sweden-border-a-solution-for-ireland-11141058
āIs the Norway-Sweden border a solution for Ireland?ā
As far as the Irish government was concerned the answer was āNoā, because:
āWe have been very, very clear from day one, there cannot be a physical border and that means ruling out cameras, that means ruling out technology, that means ruling out anything that would imply a border on the island of Ireland, it is not an option for usā.
Later they moved on to the idea that even if checks were performed away from the border that would still amount to a hard border, and Boris Johnson was prepared to swallow that nonsense as well.”
January 6, 2022
If you want to be ruled by the EU, join the EEA.
January 6, 2022
Things between our colonies in the America’s did not go so well after they fought for independence. So must it be with this. The EU need us more than we need it. It is that ‘us’ is the little people and those in charge, at all levels, are largely pro-EU and therefore Remain.
The odds have always been stacked against us !
January 6, 2022
I know from talking to those friends of mine who voted Remain that they only did so because they believed the Project Fear scaremongering of the Treasury. That has all been proven to have been utter lies. But it is also true to say that (apart from the NHS funding pledge, which has not just been met but exceeded!) the benefits of leaving the EU have also largely not materialised, simply because Boris the Traitor has not taken advantage of our new freedoms.
It is not a failure of Brexit, but a failure of Boris. That is why he must go.
January 6, 2022
I see the unions representing Border Farce are going to call for strike action if asked to push back boats. We’ll saxk the bloody lot of them and get in our armed forces to do the job. I am fed up with the unions running the country.
January 6, 2022
What do they think they’d achieve by a strike ? Would we actually notice ?
January 6, 2022
A strike would mean that many of the chancers crossing the channel wouldn’t get their free ferry ride to the UK, so it could have a positive result.
January 6, 2022
I think there would be a lot more mass drowning incidents in the Channel without the intervention of Border Force.
January 7, 2022
I’m sorry but armed with mobiles and knowing the French are watching them, and will contact the British to rescue and bring here, the stupid economic migrants put their own lives at risk, and even the rescuers. Don’t try and put responsibility on us.
January 6, 2022
Hot air but zero action Priti Patel is still doing nothing, her new bill will also make little or no difference. She also did nothing over the college of policing and the recording of non crime hate incidents. Thank goodness we now have a sensible court ruling on this issue.
January 6, 2022
Let them strike. At least it will stop the taxi service.
January 6, 2022
You might not care if you pushed back a boat and dozens of people drowned as a result, but decent people do.
The fact that you ask that they be sacked for not Just Obeying Orders – remember that? – says plenty about you on the other hand.
January 6, 2022
NLH do I actually care what you think if me? I think not. Maybe ask what I think of you Martin.
January 6, 2022
Funny, but I thought Border Farce was actually protecting our borders and not assisting people to come without papers and invade.
January 7, 2022
Sea based FREE taxi service.
January 6, 2022
The sheer nobility of refusing to do your job, but expecting to retain it and receive taxpayers’ money . Brings tears to my eyes. What splendid people.
January 6, 2022
They shouldn’t have to push back boats, lad, just tow them back to France, having first impounded any outboard motors in the boats (and let the people-smugglers apply in person to get them back!).
And keep doing it as many times as it takes, until the migrants give up.
January 6, 2022
Strike ! Strike ! Strike !
January 6, 2022
+1
January 6, 2022
Hahaha – I wish they would go on strike, as all they do now is provide a taxi service to the xxxx invasion xxx crossing the Channel. The fewer xxx Border Farce boats, perhaps the fewer illegal immigrants reaching the UK!
As for Priti Useless, she has failed to get a grip on any of the marxist organisations she is responsible for.
January 6, 2022
I have lost faith in our political system. There are far too many undemocratic politicians who see nothing wrong in their attempts to overturn the biggest democratic vote in the UK’s history and even brag about it!
I believe we are heading towards a version of Orwells 1984, where history is rewritten (already happening), the dictionary is re-written (already happening) and people are punished for having ‘incorrect thoughts’ (already happening).
The loony, but noisy and demanding minorities are in charge and there will be NO equality, tolerance or compassion. Thank goodness I am old, but I pity future generations.
January 6, 2022
Well, we seem to have a government of a party, whose MPs are selected by a particularly loony, demanding, and noisy – despite being generally old – minority in constituency Conservative memberships.
Goodness me, does it show too.
January 6, 2022
Forgive me, but I think you are ‘generally old’ and certainly noisy – does that mean you voted Conservative?
January 6, 2022
Good enough to gain a huge 80 seat majority with your Labour party recording their worst result since 1935.
PS
Loony isn’t PC NHL
It is a pejorative term shouted towards people who have mental health problems.
January 7, 2022
So please P2, let me ask you again, what has this āhuge 80 seat majorityā been providing? Or have you already forgotten? Not that I would dare say that you have mental health problems.
January 7, 2022
Getting a bit nasty now hef
Calm down time for you I reckon.
January 6, 2022
+ 100, Shirley!
There is a fight back going on, but itās got to grow larger, and soon!
January 7, 2022
āAux armes citoyens, formez vos bataillons,
Marchons, marchons, quāun sang impur abreuve nos sillons!ā
Oops, sorry, wrong country.
January 7, 2022
do stop it, you’ll have entries here requiring translators for Polish, Rumanian, Spanish, German, Italian people I come across quite often.
January 6, 2022
Some hope from a jelly spined government. It will be a fudge sell out and the ECJ will have the ultimate say.
January 6, 2022
All governments have to compromise my friend, the world is a complicated place. Sad that you Brexiters are only now realising that all that guff about independence and taking back control was a fantasy. Sticking your fingers in your ears is no way to run a country but thatās all that Brexit is,a silly isolationist tantrum
January 6, 2022
And in other news the scrapping of the pre departure back to the U.K. demonstrates the utter futility of it in the first place which in turn showed the Governments contempt for its citizens who had booked holidays and the travel industry.
January 6, 2022
But Nig L: “The travel industry harms the planet.” I’m sure Carrie would agree, so of course Johnson does too.
With previous governmnents we had a kitchen cabinet, now we have the bedroom cabinet.
January 6, 2022
āIn threatening to invoke Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, the United Kingdom threatens to not only destabilize trade relations, but also that hard earned peace. We call on the UK to abandon this dangerous path, and to commit to implementing the Northern Ireland Protocol in full.ā
Permalink: https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/2021/11/meeks-keating-blumenauer-and-boyle-issue-statement-on-uk-s-threat-to-invoke-article-16-of-the-northern-ireland-protocol
January 6, 2022
Did anybody tell him the EU already did that once?
January 7, 2022
Yes, for a couple if hours, then the EU took it off, and since then we have been waiaiaiaiaiaiting for the UK to show some backbone ā¦
January 6, 2022
So far as transforming the UK for the better, my priorities include your proposals of scrapping the forthcoming tax on jobs seen in the NI increase and scrapping VAT on supply of domestic fuels. I was stunned and delighted to see that Jacob Rees Mogg, despite being in the Cabinet, is now calling for the former and Angela Rayner, despite being all that she is, is now calling for the latter.
Mindful that in the past this diary has sometimes proved to be magical so far as requests go, I am emboldened to ask if we can please have a Government that ceases to disappoint us all and starts to deliver what it can and should?
January 6, 2022
Angela Rayner may be calling for VAT on fuel to go, but that is the smallest part. She is certainly not calling for the loony green taxes to be scrapped, which would make the biggest difference to bills of about 20 percent of the cost. Seems like the government is going to tax us so they can pay some in the population to be able to pay the govts. taxes. Alice in Wonderland is fine and well.
January 6, 2022
Graham. Yes too much talk about helping the poor ( whatever your definition of that is) and not enough talk of a long term solution to get us out of this mess. John has identified ways of easing our situation but nobody else in government is interested.
January 6, 2022
There needs to be a bonfire of EU red tape/rules/laws/instructions/interference etc. etc.
Bojo ain’t got the bottle to do it. Elect someone who has………………..
January 6, 2022
Just identify the worst rule that you want removing.
And let’s all remember that it is the worst that you can come up with.
January 6, 2022
VAT
Checks on goods moving within the United Kingdom
That a foreign court can pass meaningful judgement upon us.
January 6, 2022
That’s not a European Union rule or law.
It is a term in a bespoke international treaty – an agreement – between this country and the European Union.
January 6, 2022
And that’s the worst, is it?
January 6, 2022
It is possible that Johnson’s commitment to Brexit was and is only skin deep, a means to the power that he has achieved. Cummings was fully committed but left No 10 after rows. It is obvious that Remainers have used every available device to frustrate the transition and continue to do so.
January 6, 2022
Johnson wrote two letters. One setting out a pro-EU argument and one against – all allegedly of course š
January 6, 2022
MarkB didn’t most of us do that – write out a list of pros and against leave or remain, I certainly did.
January 7, 2022
I didn’t – it was so bleedin’ obvious we should Leave.
January 6, 2022
If we have actually left the EU in any meaningful way why did Johnson slavishly follow the EU/globalist response to ācovidā when his initial reaction was a far more normal one?
His gut feeling that this was the flu and we should carry on as normal was so right. And look at the mess his subsequent nonsense has caused.
This country is an empty shell.
He should have stuck to his guns.
January 6, 2022
+ 1
Unions?
January 6, 2022
āSacrificing NI to the EU is a calculated political act.ā this certainly seems to be what Boris is doing. The resignation or Frost and appointment of Truss surely confirms this.
Boris mutters about abating the energy price increases and going for sustainable clean energy – but his moronic net zero policies (also supported by Labour, Libdims, SNP ā¦) are the main reasons and cause of this expensive energy. Surely even he can see this? He is indeed heading for an Iceberg as Angela Rayner said.
Allister Heath is spot on as usual today.
āInflation is out of control, taxes are being increased to their highest levels since Attlee, real wages are collapsing, migration and crime are not fixed, the schools are a mess, the NHS and social care are a bottomless, dysfunctional pit and yet Johnson seems the picture of insouciance, focusing on radical green policies that will make us even poorer.ā
Borisās abject conversion to Brownism on tax is a betrayal of Middle England
PMās refusal to cut VAT on fuel because it would help āthe richā is symbolic of a much deeper malaise.
January 6, 2022
JR, you may be interested to learn that two days ago I took it upon myself to write to Jacob Rees-Mogg, copied to Attorney General Suella Braverman, as follows:
“Dear Mr Rees-Mogg
I am writing to you in your capacity of Leader of the House to inquire about progress on the new UK laws to help protect the EU Single Market which were anticipated in paragraphs 43 and 62 of the July Command Paper “Northern Ireland Protocol: the way forward”:
āWe also stand ready to bring in new legislation to deter anyone in Northern Ireland looking to export to Ireland goods which do not meet EU standards or to evade these enforcement processes.ā
āOnce again we are also ready to put in place legislation to provide for penalties for UK traders seeking to place non-compliant goods on the EU market.ā
With due respect it seems to me that it would have been wiser to put such UK legislation in place BEFORE the government indefinitely extended grace periods on certain goods, so that it was clear to our neighbours, and the rest of the world, that even while it is not possible to apply all the checks and controls on imports into Northern Ireland that may be expected by the EU the UK still does not intend to stand idly by as enterprising traders exploit the open Irish land border as a “back door” to supply various black markets in the Republic and across the rest of the EU Single Market, but in any case it would be better late than never.
Yours sincerely
Dr D R Cooper”
I don’t suppose anything will come of it because even if Tory MPs or ministers press the Prime Minister to neutralise the protocol he values his pathetic “Canada style” trade deal with the EU far more than he values the integrity of the United Kingdom, despite such hypocritical pronouncements as this:
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2021-05-11b.23.4
āEverything we do will be done as one United Kingdom, combining the genius of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland ā joined together by blood and family tradition and history in the most successful political, economic and social union the world has ever knownā
The man makes me want to vomit; I can no longer bear to see him on TV or listen to him; his effect on me is now as bad as the nauseating effect of that incorrigible liar and deceiver Tony Blair.
January 6, 2022
He is surely far better than āSirā Tony Blair but you have a point.
January 6, 2022
The government has triggered the collapse of many energy firms because the price cap meant price rises couldnāt be passed on. It is now looking to provide loans to energy companies. Er. Loans to a business to cover losses which unless the cap is abolished or set at a pragmatic market rate, in which case whatās the purpose of the cap, will continue? No mention of one solution. Increase our production.
And in the meantime a pensioner I know whose money has been frozen has to almost instantly to find double the money merely to stay warm. Forget ripping inflation and increased food prices. And Johnson yesterday showed he didnāt care.
Utter economic and therefore political insanity like so much from Boris.
January 6, 2022
Newpaper Headline Yesterday ā Boris backed into a corner over UK energy crisis ā PM caves to Tory fury with emergency plan.
Could this plan include the ideas put forward by Sir John?
No, the plan is for the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak to dip into taxpayersā pockets to provide extra support for the low-paid.
You really couldnāt make this up.
And people think Rishi Sunak is a PM in waiting.
January 6, 2022
Christine. Agree. I just hope the definition of poor isn’t just those on universal credit as many of those receive an income that gives them a better life than those in full time employment when you consider what they don’t have to pay for.
January 6, 2022
Agreed Christine.
Whatever they do you can rest assured it will be the most complicated, the most expensive, and probably the most unfair scheme they can devise, indeed it will probably cost more to administer than they actually give out in financial help, thus upping the cost to double or triple the so called benefit.
The simple answer is to have Zero VAT on energy, not much help I agree, but simple, quick, and at little or no administration cost for the Government.
Who exactly in Government is going to decide who can be helped, why and at what level ?
They cut the triple lock quick enough !
January 6, 2022
Another aspect of Boris’s insanity is the explanation he gave as to why he has betrayed his 2016 promise to cut VAT on fuel. He now says this is a āblunt instrumentā that would result in āalso cutting fuel bills for a lot of people who perhaps donāt need the support in quite the direct way that we need to give itā. So there you have it: no support must be given to the middle classes – or even the working class – whose earnings are just above the benefits level. Since when has the Conservative Party been the party that hates those who work and are not a burden on the state? Boris Johnson is NOT a Conservative – he is a socialist. He has to go.
January 6, 2022
A short while after our ‘exit’ from the EU it was announced that to make our transition to freedom and self government much simpler and quicker, EU law was enshrined in British law and from which amendments would be easier and simpler.
I would suggest that it has done quite the reverse and played right into the hands of the hard core Remainers both in parliament and the Civil service who are now putting up every obstacle to delay any changes and diminish any advantages of Brexit. This is why we are stuck with the channel problem, have failed so far with taking control of our fishing waters and made little or progress on the NI protocol. As for paying farmers to reduce their food producing acreage, it beggars belief.
January 6, 2022
This is what Sir J R discovered in his pre-Christmas walk around the government – things are continuing pretty much as when we were still members.
I thought Rishi Sunak was meant to be heading up a work force, to wade through the old EU rules and regs etc, and amend or deleteā¦.? Whatās happened to that?
January 6, 2022
+100
January 6, 2022
Although the Conservative Party got a large majority (aided by Nigel Farage) to Get Brexit Done it remains a fact that a majority of the CONservative MPs elected were former Remainers who, at best, wanted a semi-detached relationship with the EU not a clean break. As did some of those who supported Leave including, I believe, Johnson and Gove.
Johnson was never going to leave without “a deal” ….. not least because a majority of his (former Remainer) MPs would not have supported it. Having negotiated and signed a marginally better deal than the sell-out May wanted, but betraying Northern Ireland in the process, he is refusing to do what is necessary …. ditch the Protocol …. so Lord Frost resigned.
If he was focussed on OUR priorities, he’d be taking SERIOUS ACTION to deal with the channel invasion – including scrapping/reforming the Human Rights Act which is the main source of the problem, together with demanding that international treaties agreed in the 1950s are scrapped since they are inappropriate for the 21st century or withdrawing from them. But he’s done NOTHING. Just allowed almost 30,000 undocumented and potentially dangerous chancers into the UK last year, with predictions from the usually correct Migration Watch that this year the numbers could be as high as 70,000.
January 6, 2022
Certainly this seems to be the correct.
January 6, 2022
Donna, don’t you think Farage is just an agitant who likes to prod and poke but doesn’t actually offer up solutions. He cut and ran as quick as Cameron and now likes to continue to prod and poke without being able to offer up the means to get what he expects this government to achieve.
January 6, 2022
There are too many high level bods that are now signed up to the idea of a global Parliament. Being independent and beholden to the electorate is not now allowed. I think Johnson, Gove and Sunak are threeā¦
January 6, 2022
Indeed. Raising taxes to pay for them in 4* Hotels, phones, food free health and dentistry, etc etc. How many deported???????????? Useless Government.
January 6, 2022
Boris is fudging GBD.
January 6, 2022
“The UK should instruct our Customs officials to allow free passage of goods from GB to NI as we do within the rest of the UK, if necessary confirming the instruction to them in UK legislation and making clear this is the UK interpretation of the NI Protocol. ”
You believe them? If the government believed in their cause, they could have done this from day 1, arguing that the agreement was signed under coercion. That they didn’t do that proves that they don’t. This will be left as a loose end I’m afraid.
January 6, 2022
Meanwhile with all our new found freedoms the govt is planning to rewild 741,000 acres of farmland. And paying farmers to do this.
January 6, 2022
Paying farmers to do nothing
January 6, 2022
Should twitchers (birdwatchers) have to pay for a licence? Then a tiny fraction of cost could be recovered.
January 7, 2022
I think that you will find that they are paying the landowners.
There’s a subtle difference.
January 7, 2022
I like your point – but subtlety doesn’t come into it.
Owner farmers are ignored by successive governments forcing bankruptcy, combination with others, suicides and diversification to hang on to the generations’ owned land.
Tenant farmers scratch a living, usually relying on ‘the bank’ to understand their income (cashflow might be better understood) is often only 2 or 3 times a year – survival depending on animal sales, crops surviving the obscene gamble on weather, and in more recent years the sons (usually sons) looking at the ‘all hours’ parents’ lifestyle and deciding ‘not for me’.
So the ignorant Ministers settle for importing food to the point of dependancy on those who the public wouldn’t describe as friends.
January 6, 2022
For those who aren’t aware, by happy co-incidence ConservativeHome is focusing on Brexit this week with a series of five posts on the subject. Commenters here who are interested in the subject may find interesting reading there as well.
January 6, 2022
It is not really āConservativeā Home.
I would not be surprised if David Gauke writes a piece on Brexit. They love him on that site.
January 6, 2022
I wouldn’t waste my time on ConservativeHome, as they ban all conservative posters (such as myself) without any explanation. It is now juat another left-wing site.
January 6, 2022
Back in 2016 the Brexitists wanted to leave the EU because they said leaving the EU would make our country better.
Whilst you could disagree with them on leaving, you couldnāt disagree with their initial aim – making the country better. That is why I voted Remain. It was in the best interests of my country and my countrymen. I am now very smug because I was right and you were all demonstrably not.
Your Brexit really started going wrong in 2017 – when it became clear that Brexit would not make the country better. At this point Brexitists changed from wanting to leave the EU to make the U.K. better to simply wanting to leave the EU whatever damage their Brexit caused to our country and its people.
And there is no doubt that the Brexitists have caused huge harm. From the massive new trade barriers they have erected to the tsunami of Brexit red tape the have imposed to the rights they have removed from Britons to the border they have erected in the Irish Sea. The list is their destruction is long. You have harmed an immeasurable number of peopleās lives. It is disgraceful.
In 50 years – long after we are all gone and long after your miserable failed Brexit folly has been undone – your great grandchildren will ask what went so wrong with you all that you were prepared to inflict such deliberate harm on your own country and own people. I still donāt know the answer to this. When did Brexitists go from being proud but misguided patriots to failed traitors?
January 6, 2022
I remember when the campaigning started that the leave camp (Farage) consistently told us that we would be economically & financially worse off for a number of years after leaving the EU butā¦and itās a big but ā weād be free of the EU laws and regain full sovereignty
January 6, 2022
Andy
Have you ever read The Great Deception by Christopher Booker and Richard North?
You may be surprised at what you find.
January 7, 2022
The 4th edition of August 2021 is well worth reading ā¦ together with a comment by Ken Bell on the amazon.co.uk site.
O/T: I also found āViralā by A. Chan and M. Ridley (on the origin of Covid) very informative, if at times rather (too?) technical for anybody not into biology and genetics.
January 6, 2022
Andy,
Complete nonsense.
We voted leave to retain the ability to influence our laws and policies (trade, fiscal, taxation, energy, environmental, foreign, military, immigration etc.) through keeping the right to elect and remove those who make these decisions. Unlike those who are ruled by the unelected and un-removable EU bureaucrats.
We also did not want to be part of an even larger EU āextending all the way to the Uralsā (Cameron speech Kazakhstan 2013) or include Turkey (Cameron āpave the roadā speech 2010).
Under EU membership we suffered massive levels of immigration, a Ā£20bn/YEAR gross payment (and rising) towards the EU budget and a Ā£100bn/YEAR trading deficit. Over none of which we had any control
The current Brexit exit mess was caused by a Remain PM, Parliament, civil service and judiciary doing all they could to prevent the democratic decision to leave being implemented. This fifth column fight is still a daily occurrence and as a result we are not yet able to take advantage of Brexit.
Our current PM, despite winning an 80 seat majority to deliver Brexit is, for whatever reason, a severe disappointment.
But the enormous advantage of Brexit is that we still do have the means to elect a government who will finally act in our best interests.
January 7, 2022
+1
January 6, 2022
Excuse me! You wanted to remain subservient to a supranational organisation bent on creating a European superstate, at the expense of national sovereignty, yet call us traitors?
January 7, 2022
+1
January 6, 2022
It was a year ago today that insurrectionists – goaded by outgoing and defeated President Trump – attacked the US Capitol resulting in 5 deaths.
An angry mob battering the seat of US democracy and threatening the people who were working there – including Democrat House Speaker Pelosi and Republican Vice President Pence.
The attempt by Trump to subvert democracy and overturn his election defeat failed – but he continues his dark campaign. Packing the courts, ensuring that election officials support him, changing state laws to disenfranchise people likely to vote for the other side. This is what his supporters are doing.
I love the US – its history, its culture, its politics. Iāve lived there, worked there, studied there – and I fear for what it has become. Americaās democracy is at risk. Decent Republicans like Eisenhower and Reagan must be turning in their graves.
January 6, 2022
The lack of condemnation from certain quarters in this country has been notable too, I’d say, Andy?
January 7, 2022
I love it sometimes too, when I reflect on the flag out the front proudly displayed by people who weren’t born there, the excellent steaks, the small town mainstreets, the ‘big’ everything. The gas guzzlers driven half a mile to the Mall because there are no ‘sidewalks’, the avoidance of jogging due to the risk of getting shot, The Civil War, the small wealthy proportion of people who can afford to have Medicare, the concept of ‘Homeland’ when they have not been invaded…The fentanyl epidemic.
January 6, 2022
I thought removing VAT from heating fuel was going to be lone of the benefits of Brexit, but now we are told that doing this is ‘Something of a blunt instrument’ because it might benefit some of the better off. We really do have a Socialist government now. How can any Conservative vote for its re-election when the time comes?
January 6, 2022
I suspect that had we opted to go for future trade under WTO rules, advocated by you and many of us, then no negotiation would have been necessary. No negotiation would have meant no concessions had to be considered re NI or the ECJ. We would not have been vulnerable to the malign attitude of the EU. Financially the UK would have been the nett beneficiary in terms of the tariff account as trade was. I do not argue that trade would have remained the same, but it was a sensible starting point. It didn’t happen initially because the May approach was to keep us closely tied to the EU. When it comes to end of career reward we should remember her duplicity equaled that of Blair.
One fact is for sure, the loose ends of constant negotiation re NI , Immigration, and Fishing are eroding the future even for a socialist/green so called conservative party that currently seems incapable of sorting problems that are totally in our domestic control.
January 6, 2022
This morning the max/min temperature gauge in my greenhouse recorded a hard frost last night of -5 degC . The national grid appears to have easily coped. Where were the nationwide load shedding and power cuts predicted by the anti-renewable zealots on the far right of the party?
Today wind and solar are producing 8.6GW or 21% of demand. And we are sill exporting juice to the Netherlands
January 6, 2022
Well it would cope OK at night SG
Demand is low in the middle of the night.
And industry the big energy user is only now starting up after a long holiday shutdown.
January 6, 2022
What juice do we export to Netherlands? Can’t be orange surely, perhaps apple?
January 6, 2022
As hard as you push them to do the right thing SJR, the harder our PM and his obedient lackeys dig in to keep us closely aligned to the control freaks over the channel, otherwise known as the EU. No one gets anywhere near the levers of power unless they are sympathetic to ‘the project’.
Take for example fishing. Under cover of Covid Alexander the Cautious has handed out a number of licences to the French. That’s kept them quiet! well, until the next time they make threats.
I have no doubt that there will soon be a fudge over the NI border, until the next time the EU or RI make threats. How depressing that almost the only hope of a proper Brexit is the replacement of the majority of MP’s and that may take the complete breakdown of the present system.
January 6, 2022
Sir JR
Negotiations are still taking place.
Making rash decisions on our part whilst this is still taking place, will not serve us well in the future as a nation.
You should know that as well.
We are better served with an amended NI protocol and that means not following your recommendations.
January 6, 2022
A hearty subject for a chilly Thursday, and one that we all imagined would have been done and dusted by now when we voted out.
The treachery of many has gotten us to this stuck point – But I just wish Boris had had the nerve to go for a WTO exit. He chickened that, and hence the current mess.
It appeared that he was too scared of the scare stories the remoaners had made up over a no-deal to go that way, and also failed to use that threat to get a better deal.
We always knew the EU would play dirty in every possible way, and they have exceeded expectations. Our PM should have been aware of this and dealt with it, but he seems t be so keen to be ‘friends’ with the snakes across the Channel.
Will Truss make a difference, or will Boris once more retreat from a valid confrontation and stand up for his country?
January 6, 2022
Johnson may be quite a few things, but he is not actually technically raving mad.
January 7, 2022
Merely your very amateur opinion.
January 7, 2022
Right – do you have access to some professional psychiatric assessment of the PM which says otherwise then?
January 7, 2022
It is you who should offer some professional evidence, but as you can’t and didn’t you are an amateur.
January 8, 2022
I’m sorry, old fruit, but in this jurisdiction it is for the accuser to prove their case.
I am accusing Johnson of NOTHING.
January 6, 2022
Bryan
We decided to leave and as we are a small medium power in Europe negotiating with the second biggest trading block in the world, we have very few cards to play with, whilst our economy is a mess. Wake up to reality
January 7, 2022
Our economy is growing the fastest in the G7 bill.
The UK is the world’s seventh biggest economy in the world.
Stop making things up.
January 7, 2022
Peter 2
I am not making things up you just don’t get it,. So there is no point explaining it to you.
We might grow faster now but we have been hit harder by Covid than any other G 7 country. (Economist last week)
January 7, 2022
Are my facts wrong ?
Where are your countering facts?
Hit by Covid…you were originally talking about economic figures EU versus UK.
Now lost you switch to medical matters.
Ridiculous as usual bill
January 7, 2022
commonslibrary.parliament.uk āGDP – International comparisons: Key economic indicatorsā, 23/12/2021. Please look at Figure 1, āG7 real GDP % change compared to pre-pandemic levelā.
US +1.4%, France -0.1%, Eurozone -0.3%, Germany -1.1%, Italy -1.3%, Canada -1.4%, UK -1.5%, Japan -1.9%, which shows that the UK lost more than the other countries/area.
Then Figures 2 and 3 respectively the OECD and IMF forecasts of real GDP growth: the UK is indeed showing the biggest GDP growth forecast with 6.8%. You will undoubtedly also read the additional comment: āThe UK is still forecast to see the fastest growth in the G7 this year, after seeing the largest fall in GDP in 2020ā.
So could it be that bill was not āridiculous as usualā? You are right with your fastest growth comment, but bill was correct with his āUK harder economically hitā comment.
January 7, 2022
Your figure are about changes not current figures heffy.
Our UK growth is the best of the G7
No amount of your pedantic statistical wriggling alters my statement.
But glad to keep your researching hobby going.
January 11, 2022
The problem, dear P2, is that you never produced current figures, neither did you produce changes, just your meaningless blah blah blah.
And what is clear is that you do not even understand why āthe bestā growth in the G7 over a three month period might still be the worst but one over the Marchā20-Septā21 period.
Anyway I guess youāre too (here, choose your adjective) to ever come to grips with this type of basic statistics.
But I do not want to discourage you from participating to this blog. Any circus needs some clowns.
January 7, 2022
@BB -99
A typical leftie responce, denying reality while making less of your own country – Why do you live here still?
The UK leads, still, in many technological fields – which the EU wants to take advantage of.
You forget the ace card, naturally, which is trade – and we still get far more from the EU than they buy from us. A clever use of tariffs would see us dictating more things.
January 7, 2022
The UK buys more from the whole world than it buys from the UK.
So by your “logic” the UK should rule the whole world, then.
January 7, 2022
One minute you and billy tell us the UK will be damaged by changes in trade arrangements with the EU, now you tell us we trade far more with non EU nations.
lol
January 7, 2022
Bryan Harris,
You make conclusion on my political orientation without any knowledge.
You don’t know where I live and tariffs are generally not possible with the existing deal. So all in all your response is rather embarrassing
January 6, 2022
What goods do we send into N.Ireland that cause UK manufacturers difficult EU paperwork to comply with? N.Ireland just can’t have the best of all worlds without some redtape. If they come out with us then they have paperwork between them and the EU and the rest of Ireland don’t they. My understanding is that the people of N.Ireland are pleased to have their joint passport and benefits of the CU and SM. Are you sure you’re all fighting for what the majority in N Ireland want.
If Ireland reunifies wouldn’t that remove the need for a common travel area with the RUK? This is what a vote to reunify should clarify because when Ireland went solo they retained all their existing benefits of membership including our nato cover.
January 6, 2022
The lights are going out across Europe as leaders enact increasingly desperate and absurd measures to force their citizens to submit to experimental injections for which the manufacturers have immunity from prosecution, even as evidence as to the waning efficiency of the injections mounts. We owe a debt to the 100 Tory MPs and the handful of Opposition members who put a spoke in the Government’s wheels before Christmas, otherwise we would likely have ‘papers for pints’ by now. Certainly if we were still members of the EU it would be difficult to resist a ‘harmonised’ rush towards the cliff edge.
January 6, 2022
I smiled when I saw the tartan rag had been waved and the bull duly appeared. I hope Nicola does actually try to rejoin the EU, although I think she realises the innate contradictions in the SNP’s stated aims. My sad conclusion is that Boris is all mouth and trousers. My money is on Liz Truss to finish the work that has been started. A banker will have too many connections to the EU.
January 6, 2022
I see that a Court in Bristol has in its wisdom and judgement, all but said that criminal damage is not a crime!
January 6, 2022
Not a Court, but a jury, who listened carefully to all the evidence of both prosecution and defence.
If you understand the offence of Criminal Damage, and the evidence, then you will grasp why the jury found as it did.
It in no way said that Criminal Damage is not a crime, just that the subject action was not Criminal Damage.
January 6, 2022
I read that the court jury does not agree that spraying a statue with red paint, climbing it, tying ropes round it, pulling it off its plinth, rolling it over cobbled paving and pushing it into the water is not criminal damage.
If it had been stolen, perhaps broken up -would that be ‘criminal damage’?
January 6, 2022
John, good. I’m pleased you are doing something positive there is far too much negativity around.
People say the extra money wasn’t put into the NHS from the side of the bus but three times that amount has gone into the NHS hasn’t it? Didn’t May put the Ā£350m in straight away before covid?
Some Devon fishing ports have recorded over 20% increase of landed seafood in 2021, the MD said “we’ve seen our sales to domestic markets and exports to the EU increase nicely” so if they can do it why can’t all the other fishing ports?
Cityam reported investment in London office space returns to pre-pandemic levels which is amazing isn’t it when you think working from home is now nearly two years old and people are shelling space.
I am reading that big firms like BAE and JCB are taking on record numbers of apprentices and graduates, there still isn’t sufficient support in the SME sector for this but STEM apprentices are a great thing. HQ are moving back into the UK Unilever, Shell, Heinz and Cadbury bring production back to the UK. If Aldi is bragging about looking for 100 new UK suppliers why aren’t our other supermarkets the UK owned supermarkets doing this at speed.
The UK pay rates are rising for the lowest-paid workers.
January 6, 2022
Aldi claim 77% of sales are from British made products.
January 7, 2022
MT interesting if true, Tesco is the largest supermarket chain at the moment in the UK it is still UK owned – Tesco and Sainsbury’s share 42.3% of the market I wonder what their % of British made products is. One of those stores had an opportunity to open in my town and missed it and Aldi struck. I’m sad that Morrisons isn’t UK owned any longer we keep handing over all control over essentials, remember it was a German tanker company that brought the fuel crisis on with a lack of the best-paid drivers in the Industry.
January 6, 2022
But on the other hand, returning sovereignty and giving our courts and MPs more power has resulted in criminal damage being decided that it is not illegal if you don’t like or approve of the thing you’re ripping up, get prepared for lots more statue toppling. The courts should lose the number of damage costs from their turnover.
The inability to protect our coast from anyone in a dingy whilst still checking UK citizens passports in the airports when flying to Scotland, why bother going through this farce.
January 6, 2022
Now we have our eyes back on the ball Iāll repost the Brexit questions I asked yesterday:
Iām very worried about the direction Brexit is going under Borisās leadership. He was elected to get Brexit done but under the cloak of the Christmas festivities he has agreed a new fishing deal, which the EU seems happy with, which canāt, therefore, be good for the UK, and he has allowed a new UK-EU Parliamentary Partnership Assembly (PPA) to be established.
This PPA is to look at how the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) is to be progressed.
The questions I have are:
1) Why is this needed for the EU but not for any other countries’ trade agreement?
2) How can it be fair to Brexiteers when it has 21 MPs (12 Tories, 7 Labour, 2 other parties) and 14 peers (6 Tories, 8 others) plus devolved assemblies observer status on the UK side with 35 MEPs on the EU side. As we know our opposition parties are pro-EU so this gives a large majority to the EU before we even start. What happened to Boris with his 80 seat majority taking back control?
3) We already have a Comprehensive Partnership Council with Liz Truss as our representative doing this same role, so why do we need this other body? Is she set to be undermined like David Davis was under Teresa May?
4) Why are we allowing the EU control over our country but we have no control over them?
I understand Peter Bone is fighting against this PPA but we need more big hitters to stop this in its tracks before the UK is subsumed back under EU control. The public is being kept in the dark about this development. I know some will say this group is only advisory but then it just seems a waste of taxpayer money and I can only think itās just a matter of time before we are sold out to their pro-EU ideas. They are already talking about changing the remit of this group to give it decision-making powers.
To say I am disappointed with this direction of travel is an understatement.
For those interested in more information watch Jeff Taylorās 9-minute youtube video āBoris gives up on Brexit!ā posted 2 days ago.
January 6, 2022
We will not āget brexit doneā until we have a fully fledged, leaving voting PM, Cabinet, Government and Civil Service in compliance with the wishes of the majority of the people
At some stage we need to get off the EU carousel and start behaving like a true independent sovereign country
January 6, 2022
+1
January 6, 2022
Full independent sovereign nations do not exist any more, we have as a nation signed 13. 000 international agreements
January 6, 2022
Tell Canada, America, Mexico, South Korea, South Africa, Australia and many more that independent nations don’t exist any more.
Ridiculous bill.
Agreements entered into voluntarily by nations for mutual benefits are nowhere near the same as the EU.
January 7, 2022
Peter 2
Read what I wrote and then come back with an intelligen reply
January 7, 2022
Full independent nations you wrote bill.
The nations I gave as examples are legally defined as full independent nations.
And then you said the UK has signed 13,000 agreements with other nations.
So what?
Nations deciding to sign mutually beneficial agreements, to facilitate easier trade between them for example, is completely and utterly different to having a supra national organization having powers to make laws over us.
OK for you Billy?
January 7, 2022
I wrote independent and sovereign.
So 27 nations didn’t join the EU voluntarily. You are getting increasingly amusing.
January 7, 2022
By joining the EU the 27 have given away their sovereignty and independence.
It is pooled.
If that suits the 27 then I am perfectly happy.
It is their decision.
January 6, 2022
The wishes of 26% of The People absolute tops.
And even most of those are actually reasonable people, not the obsessed minority of extreme fanatics who fill the internet with their daily ravings.
January 6, 2022
Down to 26% now NHL
You will eventually have it down to zero.
Hilarious.
January 7, 2022
must have been coached by Ferguson.
January 7, 2022
So what do you make seventeen million out of sixty-six million?
My calculator says just under 26%.
Glen, to whom I replied, did not claim that brexit was the wish of the majority who voted in the referendum, nor even, wrongly, that of the electorate.
He claimed, quite falsely, that it was the wish of the majority of the PEOPLE.
January 7, 2022
You are still being silly about votes and the electorate NHL
66 million isn’t the electorate
You have to be a citizen over 18 and voting isn’t compulsory.
Try to understand a few simple facts.
January 7, 2022
MARTIN – so you calculate 66 million voted, 17 for Leaving — then I accept your math.
No wonder the pubs, restaurants, shops, football stadia are so busy.
We’ll be treading on people lying in the streets soon.
Will you, or should I, tip off the people who order voting slips to triple their next print run?
January 7, 2022
Peter. 2
Hefner and I proved with figures that you were wrong so just pack it up, before you look even more rediculous
January 7, 2022
No you haven’t billy
I repeat
The UK has the highest growth in the G7
And is the seventh biggest economy in the world.
January 8, 2022
Peter 2
I was pleased to see tha Hef agreed with me and your comemnts on facts and figures just makes you look old fashioned and rediculous
January 9, 2022
So still no facts or data or proper arguments from you billy.
Just personal abusive comments.
I hoped for better.
January 6, 2022
Sir John, two things are clear:
1. Boris did NOT deliver the Brexit he promised us; and
2. Boris has NO INTENTION of delivering the Brexit he promised us.
Boris Johnson’s betrayal is DELIBERATE. Regardng the NI Protocol, the problem of the checks that are dividing our country in two is entirely self-made. As you say (and I have been saying here since day 1) the customs officials are British, following the instructions given to them by the British government. So it must have been the government that told them to institute these checks in the first place! And now it is saying it does not approve of them! This is madness, and clearly all a very obvious LIE- the government has zero intention of abandoning these checks. If it had it would do so TOMORROW – by simply telling its own staff to stop carrying them out. It is all so simple that only a complete idiot would fail to understand the deceit that we are being subjected to.
As to the betrayal of our fishermen, this is beyond contemptible. The British government had a wonderfully clear, simple and attractive card to play in the negotiations: EQUALITY. It should have said that it would grant EU fishermen an EQUAL catch allowance in UK waters as the EU granted British fishermen in EU waters. Nobody can say they are opposed to equality, and this would have radically cut the amount of British fish being stolen by EU fishermen. Instead Boris just gave the EU everything they wanted. The man is a stupid, useless, cowardly TRAITOR. He has to go.
January 6, 2022
Boris is keeping his head down for as long as possible. The occasional speech with the usual platitudes and no questions.
Getting rid of Boris Johnson would only be the start though not the solution to delivering a real Brexit, nor any of the other issues like Covid policy, NetZero and high government spending.
January 6, 2022
The Brexit Bypass is benifiting Ferry companies. There are now 44 direct ferry routes between the Republic of Ireland, France and the Benelux countries, up from seven before Brexit, the European affairs minister, Thomas Byrne, said last October.
Imports into Northern Ireland (NI) from GB, are benefitting; eased by threats to Customs and Excise personnel in NI. Who knows what’s going across that land border, with a free pass into GB. Probably safer not to ask.
January 6, 2022
acorn : “The Brexit Bypass is benifiting Ferry companies.”
It is also benefiting the UK, particularly those living in Kent and/or using the M25, as we now have fewer HGVs driving through the UK between the EU and Ireland.
So less wear and tear on our roads, less pollution, less traffic/holdups at the Dartford Crossing and reduced queues when the French fishermen strike and blockade Calais.
Itās a win-win for both the UK and the EU.
January 7, 2022
So the ultimate win in OR’s mind would apparently be for all trade and movement of freight in the UK to cease entirely.
January 7, 2022
nonsense it is quite simply, changing trade between Republic of Ireland and EU to go by sea, rather than via NI and UK.
WIN- WIN indeed.
January 6, 2022
The Brownite PM/Ministers and the lefty woke Blob are now controlling the agenda, despite a few true politicians trying to keep conservative values and the manifesto on track. Thank you in this regard Sir J.
Despite the 80 seat majority I fear all is really lost, no actions [with impact] to take real advantage of Leaving the EU, we could do what we like, but we don’t…. Even the Freeports were hijacked by Treasury and Rishi. No purge of the Blob. No pushback on migrants…. PCS unions now up in arms.
Maybe some innovations will come to our rescue, like sodium/potassium battery tech, fusion, quantum AI etc, but it will be by the skin of our teeth if we do [as usual].
January 7, 2022
Yes, and if we do, I guess it will not be thanks to ANY politician whomsoever.
January 6, 2022
āThe Conservative Manifesto of 2019 promisedā
And therein lies the problem John. Conservative manifesto promises are meaningless as we are about to see with the forthcoming tax rises. The Buffoon in charge has handed Labour a very big stick with which to beat them at the next election and they will. Guarantee every opposition party will already be preparing their mantra āyou canāt believe a word the Conservatives put in their manifestos, itās all liesā and they will be right. Johnson has betrayed us all – Brexit voters, Red Wall voters, Tory voters to name but a few and is clearly not fit to be PM. You know it, we know it and yet still the true Tories in the party (a minority I know) will not make a move against this fake Tory PM and his equally fake Tory useless Cabinet and so it will be them we will have to thank when England is being governed by a Labour/SNP Government. Please John, talk to your colleagues and start getting those letters in to Graham Brady. Time to put country before party for once.
January 6, 2022
Those who were really concerned voted in the Brexit referendum. The result, regardless of percentages was to leave the EU. However the result upset the status quo of the UK Establishment who like Hillary never thought they would lose. Since the day of the result, the UK Establishment along with the Civil Service are doing/have done everything within their power to delay, obfuscate and hopefully overturn the result.
Nothing will change until the whole system of government is changed however the corrupt and unaccountable EU will collapse.
January 6, 2022
Did anyone at the European Union’s Commission hand out Ā£37 billion on an apparently opaque basis to people for services, which were shown to have made “no material difference” to the progress of the covid19 epidemic?
January 6, 2022
The EU wonāt collapse. Brexitists have been confidently predicting the EU will collapse since before it was founded. You have now been wrong for 3 decades.
January 6, 2022
Sir John I hope you donāt mind, but I have published todays blog attributed to yourself of course, on Conservative Woman.
A poster puts her contribution to your blog, which you never publish, on Conservative Woman every day, complaining that āyou are confirming she is correct in her libellous allegations against others, by not posting her contributionā.
In addition, no matter how hard I try to convince some that it is the House of Commons job to hold the Executive to its Manifesto, I fail. Your blog today illustrates both issues perfectly, discussing the issue, specifying the manifesto promise and holding the feet of the Govt to the fire without casting personal abuse left right and centre.
I donāt believe this person is doing you much harm, but her persistence in posting on CW every day deriding you personally, when you have done nothing wrong, is a matter of serious regret for those of us who are instinctive Conservatives and democrats.
January 6, 2022
A parallel is the deplatforming or cancelling of particular views by the usual suspects in the mainstream media. Covid views that do not sing from the same hymn sheet are one example.
The result is those deplatformed seek other channels to get their points across.
Sir John Redwood can moderate or delete comments, but posters can then go elsewhere.
January 6, 2022
A letter printed in this week’s edition of our excellent local newspaper, the Maidenhead Advertiser.
“Not an amusing ending – nor a happy one”
“I was disappointed when I reached the end of an otherwise amusing letter from Robin Williams (Viewpoint, December 30)
How often does it need to be said that the problem of the Irish land border cannot be solved by the UK joining in a customs union with the EU?
Because that happened in 1973 when we joined the EEC or Common Market, but it was only with the advent of the EU Single Market in 1993 that routine checks and controls on goods moving across the borders between member states could be – indeed had to be – eliminated across the EU.
However, to be fair to Mr Williams, clearly Boris Johnson held a similar misconception when he pushed for a “Canada style” free trade deal with the EU as a solution.
We now have that trade deal with the EU, but we also have a new customs border in the Irish Sea, and the infrastructure of a hard border on the coast of Northern Ireland facing Great Britain, plus we have left the province behind under swathes of EU Single Market laws.
Mr Williams wonders whether I could prepare a simply phrased statement of my proposition to resolve the current difficulties, a statement which could possibly be comprehensible to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss who is now in charge of our negotiations with the EU.
Well, as it happens, I have already sent a letter to draw her attention to the suggestion I first made in February 2018, and repeatedly offered to Theresa May (Viewpoint, February 22 2018, “Easy solution to EU border conundrumā)
But as she is not my constituency MP I cannot say whether she will even see that letter, let alone consider the clear unilateral stepwise plan that I laid out.”
That February 2018 letter is still available here:
https://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/news/letters-to-the-editor/128146/easy-solution-to-eu-border-conundrum.html
January 6, 2022
I’ve just had another look at the 2019 manifesto, and I see that it says (in bold!) “We will keep the UK out of the single market, out of any form of customs union, and end the role of the European Court of Justice.” Note that it says “the UK” – not GB. So Boris LIED, and the manifesto was a LIE, as Northern Ireland is still tied to all these EU structures. Making this point at Prime Minister’s Questions would be such an easy open goal that I am amazed no Brexiteer has done so.
January 6, 2022
Thatās because they all stood for election on the basis that the deal you now criticise was a great deal. And because they all voted for it in Parliament.
January 7, 2022
Thanks for this lead.
January 6, 2022
By the way, on the subject of the 2019 manifesto, this merely committed the UK to a “target of Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050”. 2050 is, in my view, an achievable ambition, but all the problems we are experiencing today arise from the SUBSEQUENT commitment this year to “decarbonise the UKās electricity system by 2035”. This was NOT in the manifesto. Here is a genuine and serious question: WHERE DID THE HELL DID IT COME FROM???
The manifesto also said “We will consult on the earliest date by which we can phase out the sale of new conventional petrol and diesel cars”. ON WHAT BASIS WAS 2030 CHOSEN??? I do not remember being consulted!
If we had stuck to the original 2050 target we would have plenty of time to build all the nuclear (fission) power stations we will need (and probably also to develop nuclear fusion) and to develop electric and hydrogen cars that would be practical and affordable. The decision to ‘front-load’ the net zero commitments to 2030 for cars and 2035 for energy is, quite literally, both insane and treasonous, as it incurs such heavy costs that Britain and the British people are made to suffer for no reason whatsoever.
Boris has betrayed Britain and the British people. He has to go and these dates have to be put back to 2050.
January 6, 2022
As I said above, if the 2050 date had been left unchanged this would not have been unreasonable. Take battery cars, for instance. At the moment the batteries are of the Lithium-Ion variety, which are expensive (one third of the cost of the car!), and lithium are environmentally unfriendly to mine (it requires half a million gallons of water to mine one ton of lithium) and the batteries also require cobalt which is mined by children in the Congo.
But alternative batteries are being developed. Bristol University, for instance, are working on sodium, potassium and cellulose batteries, which are environmentally-friendly, cheaper and have great potential. British science should be given the time and money to develop the technology to make ‘net zero’ achievable and economic, rather than pushing an arbitrary, unrealistic date and making us all suffer.
January 7, 2022
Ask the powers-that-be to give the EPSRC some better funding? or risk seeing some originally UK start-up companies developing this technology being bought in a few years time by a much better VC endowed US company.
January 6, 2022
Government has announced first six low-carbon projects that it will support Turkey as part of an Ā£11.6 Billion spend by UK on international developed country goals for Net Zero https://www.gov.uk/government/news/climate-finance-accelerator-turkey-first-cohort-of-projects-announced–2?fbclid=IwAR1GJ4Cd9B5lNu8mMYM26AsgnG0VqX-Sqqwb7vwfLkM_GCirlO8TBgQy-mE
You could make it up ā no wonder this government is rising taxes
January 6, 2022
https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/poots-days-of-irish-sea-border-checks-are-now-numbered-and-sf-wont-stop-me-3518103
“Poots: Days of Irish Sea border checks are now numbered ā and SF wonāt stop me”
“Farming minister Edwin Poots has confirmed he now believes checks on goods entering the Province from GB are unlawful, and has pledged that their days are numbered.”
Sinn Fein may not stop him but Boris Johnson will, unless Tory MPs prevent Boris Johnson doing that.
January 6, 2022
I see that British tourists visiting Schengen will soon have to stump-up 7E. Will someone in the Commons and/or Treasury be calculating the adverse effect on our Balance of Payments? And will the government be taking reciprocal action, imposing a tourist tax on nationals from the Schengen Area arriving here?
January 7, 2022
72 m of UK visits to the EU27 in 2019, just a bit less to the 26 countries of the Schengen area, so that would be about ā¬500m to be paid after 2022. The ETIAS will be valid for three years.
About 40m foreigners visited the UK in 2019 with 60% from the EU. So if these 24m were to pay to compensate for the ā¬500m going the other way, that would require them to pay a bit more than the equivalent of ā¬20/person to come to the UK. So the question is: How many will want to do that?
January 7, 2022
Millions have come here to have a future and work, even study – whether they will want to tourist visit amongst the unemployed here, trashing and burning cars like in Paris, daily striking like in the parts of Italy, mowing down rotting flowers, watching demand for veg collapse I really couldn’t say.
January 6, 2022
Stating things on paper and acting to improve are not contiguous. I don’t believe any party is better than any other at making anything happen . The bluff has ruined this country.
January 6, 2022
I don’t know where to start with the current government, really the whole political class are just letting the country down so badly.