Free trade

My critics have complained that in recent years I have urged the UK to make and grow more of the things it needs at home. I have been accused of resiling from a belief in free trade all assumed I had. Let me reassure. I accept that free trade does increase the prosperity of all embracing it. My problem with it has always been that so few practise it. There are many countries and big companies that see a nation or company that practises free trade as weak, an opportunity to exploit. It is important not to be a naive free trader.

My own industrial experience reminded me how difficult it is to find others who play by free trade rules. When I helped take an industrial group into China to sell product there to our global customers who were establishing factories we soon found product circulating copied from ours without permission and even found a case where someone else’s product was being sold in lookalike packaging with our brand name on.Ā  When we sought to take one of our technology advances into Germany, offering to joint venture with them to gain wider access to their market there was no deal. The players bought single copies of our product to see what they could learn and apply to their own without needing our assistance or joint investment.

Many US and UK companies have had difficult experiences with China, where joint ownership structures and investment vehicles are required and used to transfer technology. Today we see how dangerous it is for countries and companies that have come to rely on Russian energy or otherĀ  necessities. There is a sudden disruption to supply brought on by bad conduct by the counter party country.

The UK promotes free trade where it can, and works closely with the WTO to bring it about. The UK also needs however to be worldly wise and cautious about trusting some foreign jurisdictions too much.Ā  If they areĀ  not themselves equally pledged to play by the rules and accept the give and take successful free trade needs we should not make it easy for them to cheat. EU managed trade was notĀ  very free or fair for us in many areas includingĀ  fish and farm products. We should promote multilateral free trade, whilst taking care to build sufficient national resilience in crucial areas that are especially prone to disruption.

133 Comments

  1. Fedupsoutherner
    March 11, 2022

    There is an urgent need at the moment to replace the grain that will be lost from the Ukraine. The enormous fields being built on with solar panels shoukd be abandoned and used for what they were intended. Growing food! Those panels won’t taste very good.

    1. Mark B
      March 11, 2022

      +1

      And stop this so called, rewilding of farmland.

    2. Ian Wragg
      March 11, 2022

      Correct. Al.ost the whole of Rutland is about to be covered in solar panels to provide power for the city of London. This is a disgrace.
      We also need to get fracking to supply the domestic demand.
      When is the NIP going to be sorted or the nonesense in Gibraltar.
      There’s work to be done John but I’m not convinced your party has the backbone.

    3. formula57
      March 11, 2022

      More grain-growing land is taken out of production by the nonsensical re-wilding scheme promoted by Defra (is it working for Putin?) than is taken by solar farms.

    4. Nottingham Lad Himself
      March 11, 2022

      So how do you propose to compel private persons to grow wheat on private property, and only to sell that to the UK market then?

      And how much do you think that the compensation for scrapped solar panels would be?

      1. Andy
        March 11, 2022

        I donā€™t know NHL but it is clearly all the fault of immigrants.

        1. John C.
          March 11, 2022

          Nonsense. It’s old people that’s to blame. You know that, stop pretending.

          1. Mickey Taking
            March 11, 2022

            He’s had a pang of guilt !

      2. a-tracy
        March 11, 2022

        NLH well if the private persons are farmers who get massive subsidies from the State you say, well you can go it alone – free marketeer but if you do no more subsidies.

      3. John C.
        March 11, 2022

        Ah, very good. Can’t do anything. We’re stuck.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          March 11, 2022

          No, I just asked how.

          And how does that sit, with your much-vaunted “libertarianism”?

          1. Peter2
            March 11, 2022

            You can set a lowest guaranteed price for farmers as we did in the 50s and 60s.
            Remember the egg milk and potato marketing boards?
            And then guarantee to buy their crop for domestic use.

          2. hefner
            March 12, 2022

            No, P2, I cannot set such a board by myself nor can you. It would need a Government decision, possibly following a Parliament vote. How close are we of this type of things happening with the present Government?

          3. Peter2
            March 12, 2022

            Where did I suggest you or I could do it?
            I referred to the previous Government agricultural marketing boards in my post as possible solutions to NHL’s question.
            Another very odd post from you hef.

          4. hefner
            March 12, 2022

            So P2 you did not write ā€˜YOU can set a lowest guarantee price for farmers as WE did in the 50s and 60sā€™.
            Incredible that you cannot even read again what you have written and see how anyone with a wicked mind can interpret it. You are a funny person, P2.

          5. Peter2
            March 12, 2022

            “You” meaning not you personally!
            NHL asked a question I said you can…..do this or you can do that…in example of a solution.
            Did you study English language?
            You just troll me and jump on any chance to pedantically respond.
            As billy says you can do better than this trivia.

      4. APL
        March 12, 2022

        Nottingham Lad Himself: “And how much do you think that the compensation for scrapped solar panels would be?”

        That’s a good trick. You get subsidised for installing ‘solar panels’, then demand you get compensated for scrapping them. And the initial subsidy and the compensation comes from the hapless tax payer.

        In other news, the recent mania about PPE for COVIE, well, the Welsh administration is just about to burn Ā£10b** worth of unused PPE

        Ten billion pounds worth!

        https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/ministers-plan-burn-mountains-unusable-23329161?fbclid=IwAR1cbI7AKa806384TCB4ZuX8uTlaPPt3iSa4prqIjo0Q3TUz4XPfu1ACRLc

        Three points:
        Ā£10bn is about what we paid for our two aircraft carriers QE & PoW, or small hospital ( take your pick ).
        Ā£10bn for Wales. God knows what the waste was over the rest of the UK.
        Burning Ā£10bn worth of plastics is not going to be very good for the environment, but oddly enough, when the government pollutes the environment, that’s OK.

        **I rounded the Ā£8.7 billion up, because you can bet your last penny, the true figure is an underestimate.

    5. a-tracy
      March 11, 2022

      FuS interesting report on gov.uk UK food production: “The UK is largely self-sufficient in production of grains, producing over 100% of domestic consumption of oats and barley and over 90% of wheat. Average yields over recent decades have been broadly stable but fluctuate from year to year as a result of better or worse weather.22 Dec 2021. United Kingdom Food Security Report 2021: Theme 2 – GOV.UKhttps://www.gov.uk ā€ŗ government ā€ŗ statistics ā€ŗ united-kin.”
      “The UK produces a significant proportion of its other crop needs, including around 60% of sugar beet, 70% of potatoes and 80% of oilseeds. ”

      “In June 2020, 71% of the UKā€™s land, or 17.3 million hectares, was used for agricultural production, of which 72% was grassland and 26% cropland, with the remainder being set-aside or fallow land. ”

      “Farm subsidies vary depending on the farm’s size but on the whole, farms receive the same payment per hectare. On average, subsidies for small farms make up 78% of profits, on medium concerns, about 61% and on the largest farms,” source agrismart

      1. a-tracy
        March 11, 2022

        sorry, on the largest farms 46%.

      2. Fedupsoutherner
        March 11, 2022

        Very interesting I’m sure Tracy but we still imported 2,366,897 tons of wheat in 21/22. We also import alot of other crops too. This land being used is farmland. Our population is expanding rapidly so it’s only sensible to use it for food production and not to make a fast buck out of it.

        1. a-tracy
          March 11, 2022

          I just looked up the reason for the unusually high imports that year and it said it was impacted on the quality of the crop because of a wet harvest the worst since 2013, so more fields wouldnā€™t have made that much of a difference, perhaps there are improvements technological wise that could be used during wet seasons.
          I to think solar panels should be on roofs not fields.

    6. APL
      March 11, 2022

      FEDUPSOUTHERNER: “The enormous fields being built on with solar panels shoukd be abandoned and used for what they were intended. Growing food! ”

      No, no! If you are not going to use the fields being covered with Solar panels, those fields should be used for ‘Socal housing’ for the hundreds of thousands of ‘migrants’, that our government has been rolling out the ‘red carpet’ for while we’ve all been under house arrest.

    7. Pauline Baxter
      March 11, 2022

      Very true Fedupsoutherner.
      Down there in the south there is a good chance to grow wheat.
      Ridiculous to use that land for solar panels.
      Or, indeed, to cover it with houses for the cross channel invaders.

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        March 11, 2022

        +1Pauline

    8. dixie
      March 11, 2022

      That is truly stupid. PV panels should be on the roofs of houses and buildings that consume the power and if that is insufficient on land that cannot be used for other purposes.

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        March 11, 2022

        Dixie. +1

    9. Bill B.
      March 11, 2022

      Agreed, Fed-up S. This is crunch time for the net zero agenda. If Johnson goes on with it, at the same time as pursuing a foreign policy that ensures the long-term disruption of this country’s energy supplies, we know we are shafted good and proper.

  2. Mark B
    March 11, 2022

    Good morning.

    Another thing that was never to our advantage whilst in the EU was Services. It always seemed that any trade deals, few though they were, always favoured the French and especially the Germans. The so called Single Market was never completed as the side in which we were strongest, services always seemed to allude us. Now that we are ‘nominally’ out we can pursue trade deals that suit only us.

    1. Len Peel
      March 11, 2022

      The EUā€™s market for services is the biggest in the world, by far. And we have left it

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        March 11, 2022

        And the UK previously had a healthy surplus in that market.

        1. Mickey Taking
          March 11, 2022

          and we stil do without the EU.

          1. Nottingham Lad Himself
            March 11, 2022

            It’s been hit.

      2. Peter2
        March 11, 2022

        Odd that City AM healine says ” Post Brexit boost for the City as Lonson takes top spot in global financial powerhouse rankings”

        The report said that against a backdrop of a challenging year,UK financial services exports increased and the UK’s trade surplus remains higher than in all other global financial centres”

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          March 11, 2022

          It recently regained that position after edging it on Amsterdam IIRC.

          However, the absolute amount of commerce is well down on pre-brexit days during which it was the continuous clear leader.

          1. Peter2
            March 11, 2022

            Thanks for agreeing
            Trade volumes are reduced for most financial markets due to Covid NHL
            But it is picking up now.

    2. Hope
      March 11, 2022

      Mark,
      Services were not part of ā€œthe dealā€ AKA sell out by Johnson.

      It is a bit difficult to have a free market when your govt is deliberately shutting down industry to follow a green religion that no sane person would entertain. India, China and Russia did not even enter the net stupid conversation as it is an act of nation self-harm.

      Steel industry forcibly closed by the govt through its energy policy and forced industry and jobs east which threatens our national security. Then the UK imports the goods back from China, India or Russia based on their good will. Same for hostile EU.

      Giving our taxes to India and Pakistan when they do not want or share our view of the world ie Pakistan did not condemn Russia at UN but did make further trade deals for wheat etc. So the UK indirectly paying Pakistan to buy from Russia with taxpayersā€™ money!! This govt is beyond help.

    3. Mitchel
      March 11, 2022

      The always interesting to read Dr Tim Morgan of Surplus Energy Economics in his #222 newsletter “The Forecast Project-Predicting the Economy of the Future” of 13 Feb has two principal conclusions:

      1.”The “financial economy”-the monetary counterpart of the real economy of material goods and services-will contract by between 35% and 40% in real terms,and on a global basis.”
      2 “Economic prosperity will continue to deteriorate while the real cost of essentials will continue to rise.”

      (surplusenergyeconomics.wordpress .com)

  3. Nig l
    March 11, 2022

    Indeed. It always makes me laugh the tosh spouted about the common market, Andy et al claiming it is the Shangri La of free competition.

    It is not, it is protectionist. I worked with an electronics manufacturer trying to sell into the German market and he was also on a joint working group looking to establish common standards.

    He never was successful because the German spec was set so high (unnecessary in terms of safety reliability etc) that only German companies could tender and the trade body was a talking shop with the German delegates changing from meeting to meeting so needing to start all over again and refusing totally to move their position at all, let alone finding common ground.

    1. Mickey Taking
      March 11, 2022

      EU – Free Competition? – – – best laugh today and I needed one.

  4. DOM
    March 11, 2022

    Free trade doesn’t even exist within the confines of the UK that was.

    Free trade. Free speech. Free society. All barbarised and neutered by the Neo-Socialist free-lunch political lackeys seeking to encourage State and inter-State dependency. This thirst for political control of all life is killing us all

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      March 11, 2022

      As the West becomes a woke wasteland I do wonder what Ukraine thought it was trying to join. Last night a Ukrainian evacuee was described by the BBC as “Yearning for the life she loved to return.” and whenever I see earlier footage of Ukraine I see an orderly, well fed, prosperous and westernised country with its punk rockers and arena gigs featuring super groups such as MUSE.

      If they’d remained neutral the Putin thug would have stayed in his box.

      No.

      The EU had to do a seductive twirl as Nato’s sugar trap. Western ways aren’t worth what they’re going through now. No way.

      This was all so easily avoided and Ukraine could have been prosperous and peaceful outside of either federations but the EU just had to meddle. Because it – and the woke-ists who support it – ALWAYS knows best.

      1. a-tracy
        March 11, 2022

        NLA – you don’t read the Guardian then, an article by Oliver Bullough from Fri 6 Feb 2015. ‘Welcome to Ukraine, The most corrupt nation in Europe. ‘ Asking can anyone clean the Country up.

        1. R.Grange
          March 11, 2022

          I think NLA meant that Ukrainians were aspiring to achieve that way of life by joining the EU, which is fair enough. The problem was that the systemic corruption in Ukraine affected not only their politics, but turned their economy into a basket case. It made it a very unattractive prospect, for Brussels/Berlin to agree to their accession to the EU. There were enough economic basket cases already in southern European countries having to be paid for, and Britain wasn’t there any more as a net contributor to the EU budget.

          1. a-tracy
            March 11, 2022

            Thank you

      2. Mitchel
        March 11, 2022

        The far more important meddling came from the US-remember Victoria Nuland’s infamous boast (around 2014) that the US had spent $5bn getting the government it wanted in Ukraine and if the EU wanted something different,then **** the EU.Nuland was brought back to the State Dept by Biden .

      3. Nottingham Lad Himself
        March 11, 2022

        As we see, all kinds of people in Ukraine, young and old, gay and straight, religious and non-believer, are all capable of, and longing to fire an AK47 or shoulder-launched anti-tank missile at their would-be destroyers, whatever the risk to themselves.

        Snowflakes they are not, and there are many millions of them.

        This is clearly a shock for Vlad The I’m Paler.

        Learn some respect eh?

        No man or woman hath greater love.

        1. Fedupsoutherner
          March 11, 2022

          NLH. Indeed, you have to admire them.

    2. glen cullen
      March 11, 2022

      NI protocol, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill and the Nationality and Borders bill all created for our safetyā€¦.smoke & mirrors

      1. glen cullen
        March 11, 2022

        ā€¦and of course the Online Safety Bill

  5. […] Read more about Free trade […]

  6. oldtimer
    March 11, 2022

    I agree 100%. It is next to pointless to attempt to sell internationally from the UK if your product can be easily copied or reverse engineered. It is also evident that UK investors do not always operate on a level playing field when buying or selling businesses. It is all too easy to short sell smaller UK quoted companies to set them up for acquisition by foreign interests. Different tax rules in foreign jurisdictions can be decisive in takeover battles; the Spanish takeover of Heathrow is an historical example. In the past week it seems that the Hong Kong owned London Metal Exchange has amended its rules to let an over leveraged Chinese business off the hook for a short position involving a margin call in the billions. Many years ago Macmillan warned about selling off the family silver and thereby losing control. He was right.

    1. oldtimer
      March 11, 2022

      The metal is nickel. The loss on the short is reported at USD 9 billion. It is why the price of nickel exploded.

      1. glen cullen
        March 11, 2022

        …as a result the price of EVs will increase – but no fear I sure our green government will increase the buying subsidy

  7. BOF
    March 11, 2022

    When one of our UK companies is really successful, all too often it is sold off to foreign ownership. Something almost never allowed to happen to e.g. French or German business. Not in the spirit of free trade at all but facilitated by our Governments over many years. Foreign ownership of utilities has also bee very harmful to UK business as well as the consumer.

    1. Shirley M
      March 11, 2022

      +1

  8. Sea_Warrior
    March 11, 2022

    Aren’t we at the point in World history where all free nations should withdraw from the WTO and set-up a competitor organisation, leaving the likes of Russia and China behind? Freeish trade with China has just enriched a country bent on World domination.

    1. glen cullen
      March 11, 2022

      WTO is a department organisation of the UN….I’m all for leaving the UN

      1. hefner
        March 12, 2022

        Yeah, way to go, letā€™s join the Holy See, Palestine, Western Sahara, Kosovo, Taiwan, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Northern Cyprus.

        1. glen cullen
          March 12, 2022

          Glad you’re supporting my idea Hefner

    2. Hat man
      March 11, 2022

      Don’t worry, SW. It’s happening, even if not quite in the way you want. Dedollarization thanks to sanctions means soon China and Russia will be leaving us behind, and trading in commodities with all the many countries in the world who don’t fancy having their assets seized any time they displease Uncle Sam.

      1. anon
        March 12, 2022

        The West use economic sanctions which break free trade and contract law.

        I do not see Russia refusing to supply long term contracted volumes of gas or oil that have been paid for. Why would they? They are still seeking to honor contracts even now. They will just find an alternative partners & market. This is not a long term strategy. We need to get a deal which avoids a further drawn out conflict and keeps Russia as a friendly trading partner. The Russian & Ukrainian strategic needs are currently being addressed via war. Was this gamed and intended?

        Are we going to sanction China for buying the ‘cheap’ gas or for other recent issues?

        So many lies have been told by our Western leaders and systems. I choose not to trust them. We need verification not bluster.

        Where are the laws and policies that put the UK and our real allies and interests first?

        Where are these free markets, transparent etc. All i see is heads you lose, tails you lose. Perhaps we should just not bother and join the dependent mass in the NWO, those still around that is.

  9. PeteB
    March 11, 2022

    One of the biggest oxymoron’s of our time: FREE TRATE AGREEMENT

    They are always restrictive trade agreements, setting out what can and cannot be done. A true free trade agreement would read “We can sell anything to you and you to use, without restrictions”.

    That said, go into negotiations with your eyes open and get what is best for your country.

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      March 11, 2022

      PeteB . So true.

  10. Denis Cooper
    March 11, 2022

    I’m still waiting for the Department for International Trade to answer my Freedom of Information request on the economic value to the UK of Boris Johnson’s “Canada style” free trade deal with the EU.

    https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/12/14/a-non-answer-to-a-simple-question/#comment-1283836

    https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/12/21/what-a-recovery-package-would-look-like/#comment-1285931

    Meanwhile I shall have to stick with the EU’s estimate that it is worth a paltry 0.75% of UK GDP:

    https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/07/22/getting-on-with-the-neighbours/#comment-1246114

    https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/11/09/global-government-elite-restrictions/#comment-1274972

    That was the price Boris Johnson was prepared to accept for selling out Northern Ireland.

  11. Giles Brennand
    March 11, 2022

    Also need to take into account the wider costs of trade.

    For example, British steel was making small losses but was supporting many communities especially in Wales.

    Now that we import most steel from China and Korea, the direct losses are gone. But so too are all the tax paying jobs. Nearly all this workers are on social welfare. A much, much greater burden on the U.K. taxpayer than the small losses of British Steel. In addition to the ruins lives and destroyed communities.

    All because Government doesnā€™t do accounting properly.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      March 11, 2022

      The same was absolutely true of coal and of other industries shut down by the Tories.

      In numerous cases those making small profits – “too small” – were also closed.

      1. Peter2
        March 11, 2022

        NHL
        1 More mines were closed under Labour
        2 The UK public and industry in these decades moved away from burning coal and wood towards gas and electric.
        3 Are you now in favour of going back to burning coal?

        1. Mickey Taking
          March 11, 2022

          Martin …Go back to burning coal? from where? How deep mined? What quality? What industries could use it? Should homes have chimneys built to burn it? Smoke free London? I thought it was pretty well exhausted – what do I know.?

          1. Hat man
            March 11, 2022

            Where? In power stations, Mickey. Not sure if NLH meant that, but I’d be in favour, at least for the time being. Things are serious.

            Of course, our eco-warrior government may by now have knocked down all the coal-burning power stations. But surely new ones could be built.

          2. Nottingham Lad Himself
            March 11, 2022

            Separate matters both.

      2. Shirley M
        March 11, 2022

        Helping industry overcome a small loss may be acceptable when it is private industry and lots of other jobs are dependent upon it. The problem with public sector and nationalised industry is that profit/loss never enters the equation and they are well capable of national blackmail to feed their greed.

  12. Atlas
    March 11, 2022

    Quote: “… whilst taking care to build sufficient national resilience in crucial areas that are especially prone to disruption”.

    Indeed so. What has been exposed recently is the downside of globalisation – which had the naive belief that with globalisation, wars could not happen.

  13. Narrow Shoulders
    March 11, 2022

    The UK government hamstrings its resident businesses with overly bureaucratic regulations, minimum wages, high energy prices and allowing profits to be moved offshore via IP and franchising agreements so we have to look elsewhere for value.

    Our businesses struggle in a free trade environment because we tie one hand behind their backs. When it is far cheaper to make goods and ship them half way round the world than to make better quality products here, there is something wrong.

    I would vote for a party that promotes self sustainability. Even if that meant tariffs applied to match the costs our legislation incurs.

    1. Narrow Shoulders
      March 11, 2022

      I would prefer less legislation and costs to be clear.

  14. Sea_Warrior
    March 11, 2022

    Off-piste but I see that Chelsea FC is now in some distress in having to find Ā£25 million A MONTH to its squad of some 70 players. (Source: R5L.) I hope that the tax-payer will NOT be contributing.

    1. alan jutson
      March 11, 2022

      Sea Warrior.

      Do not worry, the government is here to HELP CHELSEA (probably to go bankrupt) by imposing some great restrictions which do not allow supporters, home or away to be sold any more tickets for home matches, will not allow players to be transferred in or out of the Club, will not allow renewal of contracts of players, or any staff, which importantly includes youth players, to be renewed when they run out of contract!
      They have also imposed maximum expenditure limits on Club security and travel, amongst a range of other restrictive measures.
      When Abramovich purchased the Club originally (2003 when it was on the verge of bankruptcy) he was welcomed by the British Government, he went through the FA compliance as a fit person to own, and the Club has also been run under FIFA financial rules for the last couple of decades (with one infringement of spending/investing too much in the Club)
      The Club under his stewardship has won 21 trophies, are now Champions of Europe, Club Champions of the World, and its Academy system is acknowledged to be one of the best in the World for developing and bringing through young players.
      During the pandemic he put up NHS staff in his hotels for free, and supplied thousands of free meals for local hospitals, as well as supporting many other local charitable organisations, all the above at a cost to himself/Chelsea, with no cost at all to the taxpayer, indeed I can only assume HMRC took many Ā£Millions in taxes from his organisations, employees and businesses over the years, with no complaint at all !
      No he has certainly not condemned Russia for invading Ukraine, but ask yourself how many other people who have relatives, business interests, and contacts in Russia have done so , given they are all threatened with a minimum of 15 years in jail or worse.
      He has however allegedly (if it is to be believed) offered publicly, approximately Ā£3 Billion (the net proceeds of the sale of Chelsea), plus the Ā£1.5 Billion he originally invested in Chelsea, (which he does not want repaid) which appears to be about 30% of his total wealth, to be given to the victims of the war (whatever that actually means).
      I wonder how many politicians, have or will, make even a tiny pledge with their own money (not taxpayer money) to do something similar.
      In the meantime the Government will oversee any sale of the Club to another organisation, which should fill everyone with confidence, because clearly the Government is expert in all matters pertaining to running a football club, proven with its exceptional skill at running the NHS, the State Benefits and Pension schemes, Covid purchases, and how it offers support to the self employed, business and commerce, all clearly shown by the fact that the Country is now more in debt than it has ever been.
      Interested Parties please contact the Government Minister responsible for sensible chat about investing in the UK’s most successful football Club over the last 20 years.
      The reason for the above:
      He is/was an alleged, so called friend of Putin, but they did not know that 20 years ago !
      Yes it is sarcastic, it is meant to be!
      Politicians don’t you just love em !

  15. alan jutson
    March 11, 2022

    Afraid the Politicians all over the World have scuppered so called real free trade, by introducing their own sets of rules, regulations, legislation, taxes, duty, etc etc.
    Yes it’s that simple !

    1. Mark B
      March 11, 2022

      I think they have been granted a special license to keep trading and paying club wages. But long term, things are not looking good.

      The thing is, what about all the other foreign owned clubs ? What if another country and its ruler or businessman with close links to the said ruler committed war crimes in another country. Lets say Yemen. What would we do then ? Can’t have it both ways as that would be hypocritical šŸ˜‰

  16. Sharon
    March 11, 2022

    There are many sayings in lifeā€¦ but this comes to mind,
    ā€ Choose your friends carefully. It is they who will lead you in one direction or the other.ā€

    ā€œChoose your friends carefully. Your enemies will choose you.ā€

    We, as a country, seem to have become a bit sloppy over those countries we regard as as friends. Iā€™d say weā€™ve been chosen by a few enemies who are using us for their own ends( China being one). And we do seem to have been led off the path by others . (The globalists)

    We need to decide who we are.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      March 11, 2022

      The UK just chose to make the most civilised twenty-seven countries on Earth at best indifferent to it.

      1. Peter2
        March 11, 2022

        I think we might just be able carry on successfully without the “indifference” you claim all 27 European nations think about the UK.
        A few of the 27 sell hundreds of billions of pounds of goods every year into our market, creating a huge trade deficit for us.

        Maybe we should be equally indifferent to them when chosing what products to purchase.

      2. Mickey Taking
        March 11, 2022

        I thought you felt China was right up there? Posibly Canada too – Which are the other 25/26?

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          March 11, 2022

          Why?

  17. alan jutson
    March 11, 2022

    Off topic.

    Why if the oligarchs (now sanctioned) are such bad people, why on earth did we allow them to enter the UK in the first place ?
    Not only did we (the Government at the time, and others subsequently) welcome them, but encouraged them with Golden Visa’s, allowing them to bring so called alleged dirty money with them ?
    Many of them subsequently set up homes and businesses here, which I assume paid tax to HMRC (if not why not) as did their employees, so in effect HMRC was happy to accept the proceeds of what is now alleged as dirty/laundered money for years.
    If our banking system and compliance was so good, how come such proceeds were allowed to be transferred and used here ?
    I really fear we are in real danger of sliding down the slippery slope of retrospective action, particularly with the sequestration of assets due to the change in political thinking.
    It’s not just the oligarchs who should be worried by this sort of political action, we all should, in particular when no one has even been put on trial.

    1. Dave Andrews
      March 11, 2022

      These oligarchs were making large contributions to the Tory party, so they were worth affording indulgences.
      The amount of money they were bringing made the UK banks think it was worth laundering.
      Nothing like money to sweeten the conscience.

    2. alan jutson
      March 11, 2022

      Interesting report on the BBC website this afternoon with regards to the number of Russians who have been granted a Golden Visa into the UK by our Government.
      It would seem if the report is true, that 2,591 Russians have been welcomed under the scheme since 2008.
      The scheme was only terminated on 17th February 2022
      This absolutely stinks of hypocrisy.
      Russian money it would appear was ok until about 3 weeks ago !!!

  18. dixie
    March 11, 2022

    Thank you for this, I have always had issues with the free-trade camp because in practice the city has pursued unilateral free trade to our cost just so they make a jobbers turn.
    We need rational trade which means being far more stringent and following a line on enlightened self interest when it comes to foreign firms establishing here, so-called inward investment, M&A of our commercial and industrial assets and also a more restrained approach by universities to collaboration.
    I had many bad experiences with EU dealings while instead APAC (excluding China) and North America were much more positive and my investments are in those areas and the UK.
    I have now shuttered my technology business preferring to keep my ideas, inventions and developments private and for my own benefit, this chancellor and government have killed off enterprise anyway.
    I want to see a return to UK ownership of utilities so the proper maintenance and investments are made to our benefit. I wouldn’t want nationalisation though as that just swaps devils. Perhaps instead some approach that facilitates and rewards investment by UK consumers and citizens.

  19. No Longer Anonymous
    March 11, 2022

    Sergei Lavrov Foreign Affairs Minister for the Russian Federation has declared that Ukraine joining the EU is a red line. (For Nottingham Lad Himself’s information.)

    Whatever peace and free trade the EU was claiming to stand for is shattered. A world in economic turmoil, A country in ruins, 5 million people displaced and a very real likelihood of WW3, which I think has started already.

    Britain left the EU basically because there was no mandate in the 1975 referendum for it to do what it did – a march through USSR territory.

    It literally beggars belief that those who were telling us to mask up, lock down and KEEP SAFE for a disease with a 99.99% survival rate are now so gung ho about nuclear war with a 99.99% kill rate.

    I always knew they were full of shit. BLM no longer seems to matter either as Poland operates the most ghastly racial apartheid on its border.

    The only free trade the EU brought was free trade in gangsterism through the balkans right up the the forbidden Ukraine towards the ultimate gangster state (which we helped to create) which is nuclear armed.

    And still Ursula von Der Leyen says that the problem is not enough EU.

    I feel fully vindicated for voting Leave though the proof I was right will mean that any acknowledgement is likely to be posthumous.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      March 11, 2022

      I have searched and can only find references to Lavrov’s red lines re Ukraine’s joining NATO and western arms in the Black Sea, nothing about the European Union.

      Please cite your source for your claim.

    2. Mitchel
      March 11, 2022

      No,I don’t believe “we helped to create”.If you read Russian history you will,like the late Sir Fitzroy Maclean*,find that “the continuity of Russian history is positively flabbergasting.”

      It’s a Byzantine-Mongol hybrid civilization-the most formidable fusion in history-the perfect blend of the cerebral and the visceral,the martial and the diplomatic,high culture and barbarity.

      *(1911-1996)Scottish diplomat,commando,traveller,writer and Tory MP.

      His books are a good read,particularly Eastern Approaches(about operations in Yugoslavia in WWII,Holy Russia and Portrait of the Soviet Union.

  20. dixie
    March 11, 2022

    A first step must be to require all products and services to clearly declare source, ownership and financial beneficiaries in some way. Keep it simple but I want to be able to choose products and services that benefit my community and country or ones that I would like to benefit.
    If there is no benefit to the UK and territories at all just put a skull and crossbones on it – eg EU, Southern Ireland etc šŸ™‚

  21. Peter
    March 11, 2022

    Free Trade is great for a nation with something to sell. Maybe a country that has a initiated great technological change that others cannot match. Or a country with a product to sell where others have barriers to entry. Say cotton and opium for tea and porcelain.

    It is not so great – certainly for those already in business -where you already have established producers and others can flood the market with similar products at a lower cost.

    1. Mark B
      March 11, 2022

      +1

      Good post

  22. Michelle
    March 11, 2022

    I’ve always thought it to be basic common sense to be as self reliant as possible as a nation and indeed as an individual.
    No one knows what’s around the corner or who and what their designs are
    Imagine becoming completely reliant on someone untrustworthy who will exploit your dependence on them.

    Not building all over good arable land and keeping it for growing food is I am assured racist, out of touch, little England mentality.
    Manufacturing things in house wherever possible is also blasphemous.
    Educating and training your own people to high standards is not common sense so I’m told.
    I’m also told it’s not good business and not doable to use the natural resources we have surrounding us, such as fishing grounds. It is better practice to parcel that out for other’s interests.

    Perhaps such things are too naive. Perhaps such things aren’t making some people enough money.
    As I’m not a person driven by money as the prime reason for everything, I suppose I will never understand why putting self sufficiency first is such a bad thing over all other options.

    1. SM
      March 11, 2022

      +1

    2. Shirley M
      March 11, 2022

      Well said Michelle. Common sense will never catch on with this government. I don’t know what drives them, but it certainly isn’t the interests of the UK and its people.

    3. MFD
      March 11, 2022

      +1

  23. Bryan Harris
    March 11, 2022

    Critics of a policy to grow / produce more of what we need at home have got their heads on the wrong way.

    Such a policy does not go against free trade, but there is absolutely no reason to import items we can produce. There will still be plenty of things to trade, but we shouldn’t make life more expensive for ourselves by not doing what we can to keep the cost down of whatever we need most.

    That surely is common sense – you don’t shoot yourself in the foot just to appear that you are being fair!

  24. agricola
    March 11, 2022

    While I support the concept of fair trade, like you I have experienced instances of it being used to buy technology, China being the worst example.
    Those that want the latest and the best just buy the source and possibly the UK is the worst example of those who fail to protect their industrial and intellectual assets. We should firewall our companies and their products.
    The third way in is via our universities and employment for foreigners. This opens the door to theft. How many chinese are working on small modular reactors at Rolls Royce or Fusion Reactors wherever. I have no idea, but I bet those two subjects are major targets for China and a few others.
    The final way is via the internet. My instinct is that computers used on sensitive work should have no internet connection. I hope GCHQ offer guidance to those who need it.
    Fair Trade yes, but Caveat Emptor and sup with a long handled spoon.

  25. Mockbeggar
    March 11, 2022

    How about kicking China out of the WTO?

  26. David
    March 11, 2022

    Good point free trade only works if all are benign. If Europe had spent the last 20 years trying to make sure that we are independent of Russian gas – how would Putin be able to fund his war?

    I hope the our trade with China will not have the same problem

  27. John McDonald
    March 11, 2022

    Sir John , you are 100% correct but we must remember that Mrs. Thatcher started the rot in our self-sufficiency with building the economy on a Service culture rather than manufacturing. You need both not either or. Steel needs coal. No Miners, no coal mines, no manufacturing. We can’t all be IT experts in the Welsh Valleys, the North of England and Scotland.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      March 11, 2022

      Agreed.

  28. G
    March 11, 2022

    So free trade is mostly an illusion. Ruthless greed is the reality, and we as a nation have been metaphorically raped.

    Who has allowed this to happen? What did they stand to gain?

    “There is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth…..”

    Great line; perfect delivery. Hilarious!…

  29. Kenneth
    March 11, 2022

    I agree with this article.

    I believe that free trade works best with a common set of laws and within a trusted domain.

  30. Iain Gill
    March 11, 2022

    Issues with “free trade”

    1 UK businesses have to pay “green” contributions through tax & utility bills while other countries where their competitors do not have to pay similar contributions. So UK just ends up importing from those other countries and pushing up net world pollution.

    2 UK businesses have to pay for using intellectual property, software licence fees and so on, are in competition with businesses abroad that dont bother paying those licence fees.

    3 UK imposes the most expensive anti pollution and safety regime, so business shuts here and moves to countries where the same things can be done far more cheaply. Pushes up net world pollution when we import the output from those other countries.

    4 we are in competition with countries using child and slave labour, they undercut our businesses and we import from them.

    5 lots of foreign businesses just get involved with UK business in order to steal Brtiish intellectual property, and use it to undercut us. leading production techniques etc have leaked abroad and the speed of that only gets faster.

    6 we dont have a good resilience plan, we depend far too much on countries which could end up our enemies.

    etc

  31. L Jones
    March 11, 2022

    The prescient Enoch Powell was referring to armaments when he said this, but substitute the words fuel and food for ”arms” and it’s still relevant today:
    ”…..No doubt, with the oceans kept open, we can look to buy or borrow from the other continents; but to depend on the continent of Europe for our arms is suicide.”

  32. XY
    March 11, 2022

    Good piece. Interesting re the effective IP theft, even in countries like Germany.

    The problem is that so many people’s world view is entrenched (often based on no world experience in a given area whatsoever). They are effectively tribal within their own bubble of people of the same beliefs. They find it difficult to “leave their tribe”.

    I forget who said “When the facts change, people should adjust their world view, however what happens in practice is that people try to change the facts to fit their current world view”.

    And we see so many people with no understanding of science, who believe that they can challenge science with mere opinion. A key question is: how to change that underlying mindset so that common sense articles like this one, based on real knowledge and experience, will actually change minds.

  33. Pauline Baxter
    March 11, 2022

    It’s very True, what you say Sir John.
    I remember you saying that the EU had tended to entice much of our manufacturing into their territory as well as destroying our agriculture.
    Just think, back in Elizabethan times (Elizabeth the First), England was the nation practicing piracy!
    The Japanese copied, thus stealing, our technology. Then as you say the Chinese have done it on a much larger scale.
    Oddly enough, I don’t remember Russia having ever behaved so badly towards us.

    1. Mark B
      March 11, 2022

      The Atom Spies.

  34. The PrangWizard
    March 11, 2022

    I’m afraid the recital of the past experiences merely confirms how we have been failed through the naivety, the ignorance and weakness of previous leaders and business. No doubt a sense of superiority carried the view that foreigners would be decent and honest and business would be easy. Clearly not much advance research was done.

    Nothing has changed. The evidence of the same faults can be seen in government policy of encouraging ‘inward investment’ and that we are ‘open for business’. Both have meant the destruction of home businesses, either sold with the willing and greedy help of spivs in The City and frequently then dismantled, or new business set up here in direct competition with home businesses here with the intent to destroy any similar ones that exist here – they rent a few sheds here and there and then bring over their products to sell. Those that continue result in the profits and spare cash leaving the country. Good businesses which are bought and their patents acquired too means we can no longer compete on that ground by setting up new businesses.

    Our country has been betrayed by our leaders weaknesses who were and still are left standing by the astuteness of competitor countries and foreign businesses. Our decline will continue unless we change the people in control and abandon those policies; those who pretend they now ‘get it’ will be unable to make enough effort to restore the damage they, with their elite friends, have done. The ‘fairness’ of government ordering of products from overseas has been a disaster, destroying our manufacturing capacity and skill for which we are now severely suffering from.

  35. ChrisS
    March 11, 2022

    I have been alarmed at the news today that Putin is looking to bring thousands of Middle East fighters to fight in Ukraine. The idea of thousands of extreme islamic fighters appearing in Europe is frightening for the future of every democratic state on the continent. After Ukraine, they will be very likely to disappear into the wider EU and become a dangerous fifth column, undermining peace and prosperity in Europe.

    I note that Biden has not discussed and agreed any red lines with NATO allies. That means that Putin believes that he has carte blanche to conduct the war in any way he sees fit. It’s why the Ukrainians are shortly likely to face chemical weapons and possibly even battlefield nukes.

    Sooner rather than later, the West needs to tell Putin the limits of what is tolerable. I would suggest he has already exceeded the limits as far as European citizens are concerned,but, to their eternal shame, Western leaders don’t seem to agree.

    1. Mitchel
      March 11, 2022

      These mid east fighters that are being talked about are the ones that fought with Russia and Iran AGAINST ISIS,etc- they would not therefore be extreme Islamists.

    2. Original Richard
      March 11, 2022

      ChrisS : ā€œI have been alarmed at the news today that Putin is looking to bring thousands of Middle East fighters to fight in Ukraine. The idea of thousands of extreme islamic fighters appearing in Europe is frightening for the future of every democratic state on the continent. After Ukraine, they will be very likely to disappear into the wider EU and become a dangerous fifth column, undermining peace and prosperity in Europe.ā€

      We already have thousands of young men of fighting age with no ID arriving every year across the Channel, many of whom might well be ā€œextreme Islamic fightersā€, and whose trip from their homelands has been funded by Russia, or China.

      And the response from our Government, (ā€œborders are a painā€) Border Force and judiciary is to put them up in 4 star hotels, give them Ā£40/week pocket money and allow them to freely roam our streets.

      1. Jane
        March 11, 2022

        Most large hotels are now block booked. We had difficulty finding somewhere to stay on a recent journey to Scotland.

  36. Original Richard
    March 11, 2022

    As EU members we never had free trade with the EU – there were always non-tariff barriers – as evidenced by the Ā£100bn/YEAR trade deficit we had we the EU.

    The great majority were very subtle, but some were not, as demonstrated when in 1990 French farmers (subsidised by CAP payments to which the UK was a large net contributor) set fire to one truckload of live British sheep, killing 219 of them as well as poisoning, slitting throats and dousing others with insecticide.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      March 11, 2022

      That appears to have been your “Pearl Harbour” moment.

      It’s laughable.

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        March 11, 2022

        NLH. Strange sense of humour you have there. Bit sick.

      2. Peter2
        March 11, 2022

        It wasn’t laughable NHL
        It was cruelty to animals made political.
        You make fun of it if you wish.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          March 12, 2022

          It was horrible, but farmers everywhere often have little regard for animal welfare, and this was carried out by one or two hotheads among the hundreds of thousands in Europe.

          You’d consider it unfair if the world judged English parents by those who recently horrifically caused the deaths of their small children, but don’t seem to apply a balanced approach to isolated incidents if you can support your various silly cases by so doing.

          The fact that someone would also memorise the details chapter and verse for thirty years is indeed laughable.

          1. Peter2
            March 12, 2022

            NHL
            Your claim farmers everywhere have little regard for animal welfare is complete twaddle.
            But a typical smear from you on those who don’t like.

            The rest of your post is a desperate attempt to justify a dreadful attack.
            Not the only one on our farmers and fishermen by these people over many years.
            And yes, it is remembered.
            It always will be.

    2. Mickey Taking
      March 12, 2022

      the French bring a new meaning to ‘roast lamb’.

  37. agricola
    March 11, 2022

    Pauline,
    Well I do recall jet engine technology being gifted to Russia by the UK while they stole as much as they could from a defeated Germany. They undoubtedly stole atomic secrets from the USA and UK almost as the technology was created. Their rocketry was taken from a defeated Germany as was that of the USA. Concordski was a failed Russian project based on doctored intelligence stolen from the UK. I would need to be an historian in MI6 or the CIA to detail the full library of Russian theft and back engineering. For sure they are not the innocent players you infer.

  38. glen cullen
    March 11, 2022

    EU commission plan to phase out Russian gas, oil and coal by 2027 (BBC reporting)ā€¦.maybe the EU could buy British north sea oil, Lancashire fracking gas and Yorkshire coal ā€“ now thatā€™s levelling up

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      March 11, 2022

      Glen I agree.

    2. glen cullen
      March 11, 2022

      What was I talking about ā€“ Iā€™d forgotten that this Green/Tory government had banned further oil exploration, banned gas fracking and banned coal mining

  39. Original Richard
    March 11, 2022

    We should also apply the principle of reciprocity in our trading relationships.

    If UK companies are not allowed to own any companies or just specific companies in another country then companies from this country should not be allowed to own our companies.

    For instance I do not see why EDF (85% owned by the French state) and CGN (100% owned by Chinese state) should be allowed to own our nuclear power plants when we cannot own any of theirs.

    1. Shirley M
      March 11, 2022

      +1 – it has always puzzled me why the UK allows this. We are deterred from owning our own utilities, but allow foreign governments to own them. France, especially, will use any opportunity to blackmail the UK
      and Boris will just give them whatever they demand.

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        March 11, 2022

        Shirley. Two of the worst nations to do business with. Hardly friends. They will stab us in the back asap.

    2. Mark B
      March 11, 2022

      +1

    3. agricola
      March 11, 2022

      I think it was an extension of off book accounting

  40. John Hatfield
    March 11, 2022

    ” and works closely with the WTO to bring it about.”
    But not where the EU is concerned, it seems.

  41. X-Tory
    March 11, 2022

    I’m delighted to see that there is at least one Conservative MP who has not been brainwashed by the God of free trade and whose eyes are open to the abusive tactics employed by foreign countries and companies. We are in a state of permanent COMPETITION with foreign countries, and the government should be supporting ‘our team’ – ie. UK businesses. The government should be protecting and promoting British businesses, but instead betrays them by increasing their running costs (through high energy prices), increasing their taxes, failing to favour them for contracts and failing to protect them from unfair foreign competition and takeovers. Our government is led by traitors. It’s as simple as that. So stop voting for these traitors!

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