My article from Conservative Home
It is good news that Jacob Rees Mogg has been appointed minister for ensuring we take advantage of the freedoms and opportunities of Brexit.
He is going to have a struggle to do so, as he faces a Whitehall with too many senior officials at best wanting us to mirror the EU as they like what it does, and at worse determined we get no wins so they can prove their pessimism justified about the whole policy adventure.
I have found it extraordinary just how much concerted pressure amongst the official and legal establishment and the House of Lords there is still against the whole idea of Brexit.
Let us begin with the Treasury. It was Treasury officials led by the Chancellor at the time of the referendum who came up with an embarrassingly bad set of forecasts of what would happen if we dared to vote for Brexit and leave.
We now know for sure their forecasts for rising unemployment, a mass loss of City jobs, a big increase in unemployment, and a collapse of house prices were all the reverse of what happened.
In the year after we finally left the single market even the pound rose against their forecast of a fall. It had been down and up in the period after the vote. Interest rates fell instead of rising as forecast.
One of the big opportunities from Brexit was to take VAT off items we did not want to tax, or to lower the rates where the EU ones were too high. The Treasury has stuck to EU VAT rates like glue. When it was eventually talked into the obvious move of taking VAT off green products, the EU moved to claim they now would allow that in an effort to deny a Brexit win.
The UK still refuses to suspend VAT on domestic fuel which should be a no brainer given what is happening to the price of gas and electricity. It should be suspended until gas and oil prices have fallen back again.
Some in the Civil Service also think the Northern Ireland Protocol prevents us changing VAT in Northern Ireland which is used as another excuse not to change it in Great Britain either. Instead it should be a stimulus to clarifying in UK legislation that of course we can control VAT everywhere in our country now we have left the EU.
Not content with trying to stop VAT changes, the Treasury has also been keen to block proper deregulatory and tax advantages in the programme of freeports. Again this should have been an obvious win.
The Treasury, now led by a Chancellor who championed freeports as a backbencher, should have had a generous freeport package ready and working for our first day out of the EU. Instead we are still awaiting full roll out and a comprehensive set of advantages.
Over at DEFRA there is also a marked reluctance to diverge and take the wins available. Our fishing industry still remains damaged by a further, needless, transition designed to help large predatory foreign vessels.
The Government should legislate for a British fishing policy that is kinder to our fish and fishermen and women. Our fishing grounds need respite from the mega trawlers, all foreign owned, that hoover up too much fish, which we could do by banning trawlers over 100 metres and damaging equipment.
The Department should have a more active policy to support the expansion of our domestic fishing fleets, with a larger UK quota whilst allowing the rebuilding of stocks. The funds to lend and grant for larger British fleets need increasing.
Defra too does not wish to put in place a good plan to grow more food at home. The Common Agricultural Policy slashed our domestic output and made us ever more dependent on continental fruit, vegetables, dairy, and meat.
Orchards disappeared with EU grants to root out the trees. We were the one country with a milk quota smaller than our domestic demand. Our beef industry was restricted for a long period. The Dutch flower and market gardening industries gained advantage over our own and took large chunks of market share.
Defra now needs to put that right. It should have loan and grant schemes for more and better food production and for productivity.
The Business Department has been wedded to the idea that the UK should exit the fossil fuel business in order to rely on increasing amounts of energy imported from the continent. This is a particularly dangerous policy as the continent is very short of fossil fuel energy whilst we have good reserves.
In due course, we should be able to resolve the issue of how to keep the lights on when the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine through batteries, green hydrogen, pump storage and other technologies.
The reality is however that for this decade most people will still be heating their homes with gas or oil or solid fuel boilers and most people will be travelling by petrol or diesel car or van or truck. Most process industry will rely on gas.
In this circumstance it is madness to rely on imports when we can produce our own. Instead of the Energy Department being the department for importing energy, it should vigorously promote more British energy. Instead of being the ministry for more interconnectors to make us dependent on an energy-short continent, it should be the department of British energy opportunity, with pipes and cables for the domestic market linking home supply to demand.
The Business Department whilst it is about it should also become the department that promotes and helps more British industrial output instead of being the department to import more.
Importing our steel and aluminium, ceramics and cement does not save the planet by cutting world CO2 . It boosts world CO2 by the extra it takes to transport these products, and sometimes by the dirtier processes used abroad.
The economic shock of tariff free trade in the 1970s when we joined the EEC accelerated the decline of heavy industry in the UK under both Labour and Conservative governments. Now we can set our own corporation tax, carbon tax, energy taxes, rules and support schemes and the rest, BEIS should be pricing good UK-based industry back into the market.
In the wide-ranging area of regulatory standards and requirements the UK now regains her voice at the global high regulatory tables. We are in a good position to guide more world standards, and to choose standards for ourselves that protect us as needed but also allow us easier access to Asian and American markets.
We want high standards for employees, high safety standards, high standards for animal welfare. We also need to remove bad or over cumbersome regulation to allow enterprise, competition and innovation more scope to offer better deals. The Government could begin by producing a better and less bureaucratic regime for data.
The Northern Ireland Office needs to respond to the anger in Ulster over the way the EU has interpreted an ambiguous and sometimes contradictory Protocol to damage the British internal market. They need to take up the idea of mutual enforcement, offering the EU protection from non-compliant products from the UK in return for no restrictions on NI/GB trade above the checks and controls we have on trade within England or Scotland.
I could give many more wins from Brexit, but space does not allow.
April 19, 2022
I donât know about Whitehall, it seems to me that Boris Johnson is the biggest problem.
He is not interested in getting Brexit done. The Northern Ireland protocol could have been addressed ages ago. Instead we have more excuses and the blaming of recalcitrant civil servants.
Who is in charge ? There is a saying in many workplaces – JFDI.
April 19, 2022
When all things start failing, it’s the man/woman at the top who is the problem. R5L mentioned that Labour has a 10% lead over the Conservatives – and this at a time when the government should be getting a ‘rally around the flag’ bounce. Fred Scuttle is incapable of lifting his game. He has to go.
April 19, 2022
Agreed Peter. Johnson has a 80 seat majority to get Brexit done. He lied to DUP he lied to the nation about what would and would not happen post Brexit. N.Ireland annexed and taking rules from EU and UK in EU orbit. Johnson mirrored Mayâs sell out, he even gave her husband a title! Why did Frost resign? Come on, he did not like the direction of travel under Johnson.
Another pass the blame blog to make up for Johnsonâs abject failure. Who made Phillip Hammond a Lord?
April 19, 2022
+1
April 19, 2022
+1
April 19, 2022
@ Hope – Making the appalling project fear Philip Hammond a Lord is I agree totally unforgivable. Sir Philip May however surely deserves something for putting up with the appalling Theresa May for so long?
I am no fan of Boris but he is better than any realistic alternatives.
April 20, 2022
LL,
Who made Goldsmith a Lord to get him in cabinet as environment secretary! Public rejected Goldsmith. Come on, how many times have you slated the green crap agenda driven by Carrieâs mate. Frost suggested Johnson get rid of those green woke types around him to change direction. Nut nuts will not allow it. Hence Cummingsâ caricature of her.
April 19, 2022
I agree the that leadership is an issue, but alongside the policies of net-zero and the green revolution….which Boris is promoting
April 19, 2022
Indeed Boris certainly needs to ditch net zero & listen to some sensible (honest and with no vested interests or axes to grind) physicists and energy engineers and ignore his deluded Theatre Studies dope of a wife!
April 19, 2022
Or perhaps for political reasons he should just give the mad religion worthless hot air support while quietly ditching the lunacy in all practical ways. He should certainly get fracking, drilling and even mining.
April 19, 2022
Indeed, no doubt on the instructions of his globalist mates at the WEF and elsewhere.
April 19, 2022
Even during his speech today he had to included his committment to offshore wind-turbines
April 19, 2022
Drain the swamp, particularly at the Business Extinction and Import Substitution department.
April 19, 2022
It does appear that the main policy of BEIS is to restrict business and economic growth
April 19, 2022
+1
April 19, 2022
Completely agree. In any organisation the impetus comes from the very top and we have a shambolic dysfunctional leader maintained in power by people he gives jobs to or as we have seen recently, happy to accept âbribesâ like gongs or handouts to their constituencies.
We read JRM is pushing to get Civil Servants back into their offices. A union leader says the government has no right to interfere in the ârunning â of departments. So there you have it. Ministers are not expected to get involved or I guess suffer pushback.
Apparently data will be collected and colleagues not returning told they are not pulling their weight. Ooo I am so frightened.
Actually it should not be too difficult to publish performance figures based on outputs pre and post pandemic but when some Departments rely on a security guard with a clicker to capture staff entering and leaving, what chance is there?
To return to the detail of your blog, with your business background you should âhelpâ JRM define a set of measurable KPIs for each Secretary of State , publish them and subsequent performance.
The question is. Is JRM up to the job, has he such experience. Of course not. Boris gave him the job merely as a PR exercise when in trouble to fob off people like yourself.
And looming in the background is Jeremy Hunt, completely useless and hared in the NHS, but quietly working on his leadership campaign, should a vacancy arise and allegedly moving up the popularity ladder.
I believe he is a EU sell out man. Civil Servants gave taken a view that the longer they can obfuscate the more likely their beloved EU will come back to them
April 19, 2022
Yes, this is the real problem, and it’s sad that even someone who is normally as sensible as our host here cannot see it. JRM’s appointment is meaningless, since NOTHING can happen while Boris the Traitor remains PM and keeps blocking all these potential wins. Do you, or does Sir John, really imagine that these potential wins cannot be seen in Downing Street? Of course they can, so the only reason why they have not yet occured has to be that they are being deliberately BLOCKED by Boris Johnson. It is he who refuses to scrap the Protocol; it is he who refuses to scrap the carbon taxes; it is he who refuses to ban EU boats from British waters; it is he who refuses to leave the ECHR. I could go on but, as Sir John put it, “space does not allow”. Until Sir John and the other supposed-Brexiteers in the Tory party tell Boris loud and clear that if he does not do these things they will send one letter a day to Graham Brady, then NOTHING will happen.
April 19, 2022
Excellent summary.
April 19, 2022
Nonsense, sir. Boris is simply following the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement. Every single Conservative MP voted for it, and the British people aproved it as the oven ready deal at the Election. Brexit is rubbish not because of Boris. Brexit is rubbish because Brexit is rubbish
April 19, 2022
You should go on a tour of the old empire and spread the message that self-government is rubbish.
April 19, 2022
And who signed the Withdrawal Agreement against the intentions of David Frost who was aiming for WTO rules? It was your best friend Boris Johnson.
April 19, 2022
It is also about the interpretation of the Agreement by the EU Gary.
They are taking a very awkward and belligerent view which create unnecessary difficulties.
Their charter requires them to create and maintain friendly relationships with their neighbouring nations.
And they are not.
April 20, 2022
Well, friendly is the opposite of unfriendly.
Russia has now shown us what the latter means, so understanding has been calibrated accordingly.
April 19, 2022
Surely if any civil servant, official, whoever puts pressure, ideas which mirror the EU they should be told to put their concerns/ideas/ proposals etc. in writing , signed of course. Perhaps that evidence would slow them down, permanently I would hope.
April 19, 2022
Thank you for an illuminating post. It is not illuminating in the way you would wish, however. But your post does lay bare that Brexit is a set of fantasies that can never be achieved. All you have left is grievances and attempts to blame everyone except the Brexiters for why Brexit is such a disaster. Is it the civil service which has led to massive tailbacks of lorries at our ports? No, that’s Brexit. Is it remoaners who have introduced vast new red tape and paperwork for our importers and exporters? No, that’s Brexit. Is it the EU which agreed to split Northern Ireland from Great Britain? No, you Brexiters agreed to that
April 19, 2022
I am afraid that you are completely misguided
April 19, 2022
Explain how, exactly?
April 20, 2022
We are governed by our own laws and no longer under a jurisdiction where EU law is supreme; created by an unelected Commission and 5 unelected Presidents that we had no part in choosing ; cannot call to account and cannot rid ourselves
The fact that we have failed to realise all the benefits of Brexit is simply down to lethargy and poor policy decisions by the present government .I am confident that these errors will be corrected
April 20, 2022
You just keep going round the circle without ever identifying a material, substantive, feasible benefit, just like the rest.
April 19, 2022
+1
April 19, 2022
Totally negative. You clearly don’t understand the concept of self determination. Sometimes you have to pull your finger out to succeed rather than shrug your shoulders and obey the man.
April 19, 2022
That’s a completely false, binary analysis.
European Union membership gave enormous scope and freedom for the positive, energetic, and motivated to fulfil their potential in all manner of imaginative ways, and now all those doors have been slammed in their faces.
It is an utter disgrace.
April 19, 2022
+1
April 19, 2022
As an exporting company, Brexit is a minor inconvenience. The real disaster is the government and its oppressive taxes.
Much coverage about fuel bills, but our tax bill comes from a place where it was 10x our fuel bill, and the government wants to put them up!
It’s as if they feel business is some kind of social evil that must be stamped out.
April 19, 2022
Spot On DAVE
April 19, 2022
No, I suppose that there never was that much call for commemorative UK Royal Family mugs on the Mainland of Europe.
April 19, 2022
All these things are do-able. It is the Remoaners who do not accept Brexit that stop it all and a government that does not believe in Brexit. I presume they want failure so we ask to go back in on worse terms just so the nay-sayers can have something they got right. That is the point of the article. You talk total nonsense and come to a conclusion opposite of what was said, due to a warped view of what Brexit was about.
April 19, 2022
Indeed.
April 19, 2022
Spot on Gary
April 19, 2022
Brexiters are still waiting to exit the EU but sadly your hero Johnson won’t let us.
April 19, 2022
That comment sounds like the thinking of the servant of the eu. The eu is collapsing( hopefully) in its own puddle of dying autumn leaves.
Thankfully its gone as it is not worth the money.
April 19, 2022
Good morning.
So it is all someone else’s fault, and not the fault of an incompetent PM and government ?
Let us remind ourselves that it was a majority of MP’s and virtually the entire HoL that did not want BREXIT and, when we voted to Leave, did their level best to squash it. Only we the people kept faith by constantly voting at every oppotunity to show our displeasure culminating with thumping the Tories recieved at the Europarl Elections where, let us not forget, a truly Euroscpeptic party won the largest vote share of anyone. This resulted in the removal of a Remainer PM and her CS cohort’s.
It is my firm belief that neither anyone in government or in the CS want to diverge from the EU line. They cannot see beyond their own self interest and their part in what looks increasingly like Global Governance.
Pound Shop Churchill needs to be remined that, the real Sir Winston Churchill wrote in green pencil the words “Action this day !” on item that, he wanted done there and then. And I doubt very few were every brave, or stupid enough, to go against and him and drag their feet.
You ALL have had long enough !
April 19, 2022
This piece should be sung to the tune of “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life” I reckon.
Yes, there are wins from burning down your own house.
You don’t have to do the hoovering nor to clean the windows. You can cancel your utilities, saving on those bills, and Council Tax would cease to be payable.
You don’t have to entertain unwelcome visitors, and when the rubble has been cleared you can have a larger lawn.
It’s wonderful.
April 19, 2022
NLH,
An entertaining explanation.
I think it is more like coming back to find your house is on fire but refusing to either call the fire brigade or tackle it yourself.
Using a different analogy, the whole article is like the TV quiz show host telling the losing contestant:-
â…. and hereâs what you could have won.â
April 19, 2022
Great reply Peter.
April 19, 2022
Another snarky comment from the Guardian troll.
April 19, 2022
“Leaving the EU is like burning down your own house”.
Discuss.
April 19, 2022
No not really. Leaving the EU is like giving up smoking; the first four years are the worst for cravings, particularly after your third G&T.
April 20, 2022
It’s like all sorts of things in various ways.
However, it seems to have come as a shock to many Leavers, that getting divorced after a long marriage is nothing whatsoever like never having been married in the first place, but which is how the Leave campaigns tended to sell their daft enterprise.
April 19, 2022
Well said Mark B. I think election time must be coming by JRâs recent blogs. Pass the blame is catching on.
The criminal in No.10 does not have any standards and his MPs condone his criminal behaviour.
Johnson admitted his guilt by paying the fine, he could have pleaded not guilty, same for his squeeze and Sunak, and stated to the court why he is innocent from breaking his own laws that he made- note, not civil service. Today one of his ministers trying to blame the No. 10 set up!! Again, who is in charge! No one told Johnson to go on the piss several times.
Ukraine is a pure deflection to save his neck at huge cost to the taxpayer. The UK and EU still buying energy from Russia. While Gove still deciding whether to mine in Cumbria, such a hard decision, not.
April 19, 2022
Johnson and Sunak should have appealed the fine, Sunak in particular should not have paid the fine. You walk into a room for a meeting there are a few snacks on the desk, several people are wishing your boss a happy birthday what do you do?
It is NOTHING like not being able to attend a funeral or a hospital, did Boris or Sunak do that? No. Who bought in the snacks I’m damn sure those two men didn’t, who was responsible for H&S i.e. the number of people working in each room at 2m distance from each other? It all still feels like a complete set up to me.
However, once accepting you have ‘broken the LAW’ you yourselves put on everyone else, they’ve left themselves up the creek without a paddle.
April 22, 2022
AT,
He pleaded guilty to a criminal offence and accepted the outcome. No one forced him he chose to accept and made that clear himself. You are trying to distort fact and reality which both Johnson and Sunak accepted but you do not. The police threshold to prosecute must have passed their prosecution test otherwise if it were as you claimed they would not have been issued a FPN.
April 19, 2022
You must be fun to have round as a dinner guest.
April 19, 2022
I believe our so called government is going to get another thumping on 5 May. Perhaps a large enough one to ensure a return to what used to be called common sense.
April 19, 2022
I wish I could believe that, but whatever happens this government will continue to con and lie to the public by making promises they have no intention of honouring. It is becoming ‘the norm’ for politicians (of all colours) to be completely dishonest toe rags with zero respect for the electorate, or democracy!
April 19, 2022
This government will spin the results as a mid-term glitch ……and therefore they won’t change the leadership nor poolicies. In old money a dead party relying on dictatorship
April 19, 2022
People are going to be so sorry four years later James when the executives on their council all have super duper pay rises and then engage consultants to do their actual jobs for them. When all the local contracts are changed and you have to pay extra charges to park, to get a green bin collected. When your executives on over ÂŁ100,000 pa total 17 and other nearby councils with Tories in charge have half of that number and less, one just 3.
When the local plants are just cut by 80% and infrastructure is left to rot. I hope usual Tory councils electors do vote Labour just to give them a taste of what some of the poorer Boroughs get and what gets agreed for their area.
April 19, 2022
I hope so James.
April 19, 2022
Indeed. The Cons have been in office for 12 years. There are no more excuses. They have had long enough on EU law reform, fishing, Northern Ireland protocol, net zero and foolish energy policy, mass immigration and the boat people, tax reform, Human Rights legislation reform, Foreign Aid, state spending and incompetence, Lords reform, public service reform particularly with regard to recruitment and selection processes for woke/pc leaders in all our health and public services. Education to stop indoctrinating children in LBGTXYZ rubbish when its for parents to decide , not woke warriors! The list goes on and on. Oh for a CONSERVATIVE. Reform Party here we all come.
April 19, 2022
Timeaction. Agree. They have achieved a big fat net zero. Well done Boris.
April 19, 2022
Good article, Sir John. I won’t be commenting at Con Home as I am still banned more effectively than the average oligarch. But DEFRA requires the biggest of kickings by your fellow back-benchers. That the government should be paying farmers to quit the industy is beyond comprehension.
April 19, 2022
+1
The US is doing it too.
Adding 4 million acres to the Conservation Reserve Program.
Buying out farmers to take ag land out of production to save the environment!!
So another lockstep!
WEF very keen on small farms that donât impinge on habitat etc.
BUT mostly the West does not have elephant herds. Generally, with care, our wildlife can coexist with trad farming.
Just stop bloody building on farmland and overcrowding the country!!
April 19, 2022
Everhopeful. But I’m told insects are soooo tasty.
April 19, 2022
Perhaps we should ask India to abandon growing food in Punjab and rewild the state?
A brilliant contribution to our eco aware measures!
April 19, 2022
Haha – you’ve been banned by ConHome too, eh? I’ve genuinely have no idea why I am banned from there, but if they don’t want my wisdom they can get stuffed.
April 19, 2022
Why canât people who refuse to follow orders just get sacked?
In an ordinary job they would be and this is all about policy and security etc.
Home Office staff declined to implement Rwanda policy?
ps I was replying to Markâs joke in kind.
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia = fear of long wordsâŠ.like the ones he used in his joke!
.
April 19, 2022
‘Why canât people who refuse to follow orders just get sacked?’, you ask, EH. Because they are obeying more powerful people’s orders, is probably the reason.
April 19, 2022
+1
Yes.
So PM plus Ministers are sidelined?
And even then we arenât entirely certain which side they are on.
April 19, 2022
An employment contract may be varied – by employers but not by employees – subject to a bit of box ticking.
However, it if it be varied in such a way as to purport to require the employee to break law – such as to break the international law as to the treatment of asylum seekers say, then that term would be non-binding and anyone dismissed on that basis would rightly be able to claim unfair dismissal.
No doubt you will now demand that all such employee protections also be scrapped…
April 19, 2022
NLH how many people do you employ? An employer cannot just vary a contract of employment.
April 20, 2022
No.
There has to be “consultation”.
April 20, 2022
NLH there has to be a lot more than that, a contractual notice of the change, compensation for any changes, agreement etc. Perhaps you should go and look up the rules on ACAS.
A contract of employment is an agreement between employer and employee that outlines the rights and duties of both sides. At some stage, the employer or you might want to change your contract of employment. However, neither you or your employer can change your employment contract without each others’ agreement. But an employee can insist on a change if they have a legal right to it. You had to get an agreement letter signed if you wanted to put employees on furlough.
April 19, 2022
Nope, I will simply demand that Parliament ensures that its Acts on asylum make it incontrovertibly clear that in the event of any conflict between our national law and international law it will always be our national law that prevails, and that all courts and tribunals and any other bodies charged with interpreting and applying the law across the United Kingdom must always so hold, without any exception on any grounds whatsoever. But whether Boris Johnson would allow Priti Patel to do that, or she would be able to do it, is another matter.
April 19, 2022
If employment law means people can take a dinghy across the channel, enter our country illegally, be put up in 4 star hotels indefinitely and have free medical care (I have to pay for mine, the NHS goes missing in action when I need it) – then, yes, that employment law must be scrapped.
Is there ANY limit to how many people make the crossing? If 10 million do it, will that be okay with you? I assume you are a non taxpayer who lives a retired life in a nice area that doesnât get affected.
April 20, 2022
I don’t want illegal immigration any more than you do.
However, people claiming asylum here is ***not*** illegal, no matter how many times you and others here call it that.
April 20, 2022
NLH they are arriving in boats without passports and paperwork is that not illegal in itself?
April 22, 2022
In other than tyrannies, being without documentation is generally a civil rather than a criminal matter, if it is a wrong at all.
April 24, 2022
So why do we need passports at all then in your ideal world?
April 19, 2022
I think that X Tory disagrees!
April 19, 2022
Perhaps hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers could refuse to fight in Ukraine, citing that they are being forced to break International Law, ie invading another country,and seek redundancy?
April 20, 2022
If only, what?
April 19, 2022
I’ve said it many times: the only way to take control of the civil service is to allow ministers to hire and fire staff at will. Anyone who does not do as they are told should be immediately dismissed. And ministers should also appoint staff at all levels too, so that they can be sure that they recruit people who agree with their policies. In the US each incoming administration appoints its own people to run all the government offices, and this works very well for them; it would work well here too, if only we had politicians who wanted to wield real power rather than just sit in office.
April 19, 2022
+1
Agree 100%.
April 19, 2022
+Agree 100%
April 19, 2022
X-Tory. Good job they’re not all working in an important industry.
April 19, 2022
Excellent analysis and list: I hope that JRM reads it and acts accordingly
The Civil Service in this country is far too powerful and needs to be reminded that it implements the policies of the elected government .It does not determine and implement its own
I am glad JRM is looking into this and sshrinking the overmighty bureaucracy .I eagerly await his recommendations and their enforcement
April 19, 2022
DP,
I have no confidence in Jacob Rees-Mogg. He now spends his time sticking up for Boris Johnson and pretending that Partygate is not an issue. All his sensible ideas are long gone.
JRM will only circle the wagons and defend failure. He will achieve nothing on Brexit.
April 19, 2022
Sadly it does appear that JRM is the PMs new side-kick
April 19, 2022
Yes, you are quite right: JRM is doing nothing and will achieve nothing. This is because the real block to any progress is the PM, and JRM is defending Boris instead of telling him to go. JRM is just window dressing, used by the PM to con gullible Brexiteers that he intends to do something when the truth is that he intends to do NOTHING. And the sad thing is that JRM has completely sold out and goes along with this.
April 19, 2022
Conservatives are not in office to do work, but to hold power, and most importantly, to prevent anyone else from holding that office who actually might do work, and to improve the lot of the ordinary person.
April 19, 2022
@David Peddy
Civil = “relating to ordinary citizens and their concerns, as distinct from military or ecclesiastical matters”
Service = “the action of helping or doing work for someone.”
The clue is in the name.
April 19, 2022
Probably 2 years for an enquiry, then a GE so it will all be forgotten again, promises will be made and we’ll carry on as usual. Haven’t seen much progress from Moggy on his role for implementing Brexit wins. Now he’s taking over another losing strategy. The CS are permanent, politicians are transitory, Sir Humphry knows that.
April 19, 2022
Totally agree David. They know a weak Government when they see one. It turns out despite being told to go back to the office months ago, Civil Serpents are still working from home for 60% of the time and the 40% when they do actually bother to go to the office can be any time, day of their choosing. An average 7 months wait for a driving license is proof, if proof were needed, that working from home is absolutely nowhere near as productive. We all know public sector workers working from home bragging they get more done and then in the next sentence saying how much they can now multi task working from home because they can also pick the kids up, stick the washing in, get the dinner organised etc. The featherbedded public sector are doing as they please and are allowed to do so by a totally clueless and gutless Government.
April 19, 2022
Oh my God Jools. What a great post. Some one who lives near to me said as much the other day. She ‘works’ for the NHS…..Nobody’s Health Service.
April 19, 2022
It is nearly six years since the referendum.
Governments come and go whilst the Civil Service remains firmly entrenched (pun intended). The system needs a serious review.
April 19, 2022
The results of your silly vote need a serious review.
April 19, 2022
You can thank remainer David Cameron for the “silly vote”.
And review? Review by who? Not the numpty politicians that made a pig’s ear of both the leave and remain campaigns?
April 19, 2022
It didnât feel silly at the time. It felt very serious – we might, actually leave the EU. It seemed momentous – then. Since the weâve had 6 years of thwarting Brexit and have ended up in a very silly situation. Weâve had silly politicians and a silly civil service which has made no effort regarding the positive elements Brexit could deliver.
Freedom of Movement is, by definition, stupid, impractical and unworkable. Even within countries freedom of movement causes endless problems.
April 19, 2022
And yet for decades no government or political party has ever really engaged in civil service reform
April 19, 2022
Exactly right – so what does this Jacob & this government need to do to defeat Whitehall and will he get the backing needed?
We saw in the home office the opposition to the Rwanda plan from the senior civil servant who absurdly claiming it might not deter migrants from France.
April 19, 2022
The civil servants in the Home Office were not opposing this government’s ideas around Rwanda, they were doing their job, which was to point out to the Home Secretary the potential legal issues, provide a cost/benefit analysis (which happens to show that the government’s idea doesn’t add up, and they are duty bound to ensure value for our tax money, unlike the politicians), and that, as I pointed out to you in a reply in a previous article, that the effect may well not be deterrent, but to cause a change the business and operational model of the trafficking gangs.
The fact that the Home Secretary’s idea and reality are not well connected is not the fault of civil servants.
April 19, 2022
It wasn’t meant to be workable.
It was meant to be problematic, and then for the Tories to be able to blame their failure to hurt the people whom their often rather nasty voters wanted them to hurt on “lefty lawyers”, the “woke judiciary – enemies of the people”, “remoaner saboteur MPs” and all the other fictions by which they have created the cultural divide on which they so desperately depend to cling onto power.
April 19, 2022
They were trying to kill it. The claim that it will not if implemented deter many people crossing from France is absurd 0f course it will. As to the lefty legal challenges these need to be dealt with by government passing laws to stop legal obstructions. Implemented properly the costs will be significantly negative as so few will then bother crossing from France. Most will prefer France or going home to going to being flown to Rwanda.
April 19, 2022
As I said above…
April 19, 2022
They did not attempt to kill it, they simply pointed out the lack of evidence of any value for money and other factors associated with the plan.
I thought you objected to government wasting money on schemes like this. Look at the detail of how much the now abandoned scheme the Australians implemented cost them.
Priti Patel would do well to listen to David Davis and Andrew Mitchell.
April 19, 2022
Peter, did you have sight of the ‘cost-benefit analysis’? Are you in this civil service department? What were they comparing the cost to? How much it currently costs to process in the UK with full legal fees allowances, schooling, medical treatment, free rooms, free meals, allowances?
April 19, 2022
Yes, LL,
“so what does this Jacob & this government need to do to defeat Whitehall and will he get the backing needed?
We saw in the home office the opposition to the Rwanda plan from the senior civil servant who absurdly claiming it might not deter migrants from France.”
We also saw opposition and obstruction, backed up by hostile briefing, in the Education department, the Health department, the Foreign Office, and the Defence department. Things were so bad at Health that they had to outsource the important work during the pandemic. And still the Ministers stand up for their civil servants, in their gentlemanly way, as the PM has been doing over Partygate. The Director of Propriety and Ethics who was also the Deputy Cabinet Secretary, and the Director General of the Covid Task Force who wrote those infamous rules, have both let the PM down badly, and have now moved on to lucrative new positions, plus honours. Goodness knows how many index linked pensions they will collect by the end of it all.
This convention of Ministers always covering up for civil servants is now very costly to us all. What is the answer, other than a wholesale purge?
April 19, 2022
+1. Staffed by private school lefty art graduates who love pissing tax payers money down the drain when every possible.
April 19, 2022
The Home Office’s civil service response to the Rwanda plan clearly demonstrates that they have ideas way above their station. They think that they can comment on government policy. Ministers should tell their civil servants that they do not want ANY advice, just obedience. Ministers should only be advised by their own politically-appointed advisers, and any other outside specialists that they can trust. Civil servants, whose politics and agendas are not known, need to be told that they are there ONLY to carry out instructions, and NOTHING ELSE.
April 19, 2022
Good morning
This faux Breixt with the UK now splintered. With NI part of the EU internal market. Capitulation and EU compliance is obvious when even Europhile politician use phrases like ‘mutual enforcement’ and the ‘GB internal market’ which infer EU control over aspects of UK public policy regarding the EU.
When Labour is re-elected as per the normal cycle of electoral madness they will woke GB into oblivion with the help of an inward looking Tory party and then take the GB and NI back into the EU. That will happen simply because there is no opposition to it from within.
The Tory party is directly responsible for where we are. They have removed their natural opposition to Labour and their unions and given way to every one of their demands. There is now no opposition from within the body politic to forcibly oppose the EU, woke barbarity and every other aspect of the progressive authoritarian experiment we are now being exposed as per the US, Tory compliance and Labour-Obama cooperation
I’m not taken in by John’s cheery optimism as he knows as we all do that his party and his colleagues now no longer adhere to their private beliefs of how our nation should be governed
Marxism has take control and if Churchill is ‘woked into oblivion’ then that will tell me that John’s party has now become part of the racially obsessed woke experiment designed to demonise and neutralise certain identities
April 19, 2022
+many
Absolutely.
Who are we trying to kid.
Wokery has gone so far and just keeps marching on.
All with the blessing of our feeble government.
The Online Harms Bill seems to be progressing nicely.
So that which is not illegal becomes illegal online ( apparently).
April 19, 2022
Indeed.
I used to be an active member of the Church of England and a financial supporter of the RNLI and The National Trust.
Those institutions wanted me to be ashamed of being English and so I am, and have withdrawn my cash and my support.
April 19, 2022
+1
Exactly the right thing to do.
If everyone had done the same 20 years ago we might not be in this pickle.
April 19, 2022
It’s not “compliance” it’s “concordance”, dear chap.
There, that’s better isn’t it?
April 19, 2022
I agree Dom.
One man alone (Frost) could not have sorted this without the full backing of the elected government. The conservative MPs elected on Boris’ manifesto should be ashamed with the blocks and delays they put on everything. GET ON WITH IT>
April 19, 2022
+1
April 19, 2022
+1
April 20, 2022
Get on with what, exactly?
April 20, 2022
Freeports
Restrict super trawlers and support British fisheries
Help businesses to expand into worldwide markets with specialist training to producers
He could pass a law that makes it illegal for any subsequent government to join the Customs Union the EEA or reapply for re-entry for the next decade.
April 20, 2022
Actually I just read that the fishing sector in the UK have seen an estimated ÂŁ50m pa increase (even when taking into account extra paperwork costs). NFFO Sept 21. Stop the super trawlers Boris.
April 21, 2022
No Parliament can bind its successor.
April 21, 2022
NLH we are told Theresa May bound us in the Human Rights agreement and the common travel area (so according to you that can all be revoked too).
John Major bound the UK into the Maastricht Treaty.
There are plenty of examples of governments saying they were bound i.e. Gordon Brown signing the Lisbon Treaty behind closed doors how did that bind us?
April 22, 2022
Yes Parliament could annul any such previous agreement.
However, that would almost certainly cause the whole deal – and all others which were dependent on it – to collapse, not just remove the parts that you don’t like.
You see agreements require the consent of all parties…
April 19, 2022
We still have a large number of Conservative remainer MPs still trying to kick Boris out when they think they can get away with it. I am no great fan of the tax to death/climate alarmists/lockdown enthusiasts/manifesto ratters – Boris/Carrie/Sunak but they are better that all the likely alternatives. These mainly want to reverse Brexit and are climate alarmists and deluded socialists too. More election throwing, rather pathetic & deluded Theresa May types. No thanks.
April 19, 2022
LL,
âI am no great fan of the tax to death/climate alarmists/lockdown enthusiasts/manifesto ratters â Boris/Carrie/Sunak but they are better that all the likely alternatives. â
I am afraid that line of thinking does not convince me. In the local elections I will avoid Conservatives (who have a dreadful property developer as leader anyway). If it helps bring down Conservatives so much the better. Liberal Democrats will be the likely beneficiaries here but I will not vote for them either.
I have four Monster Raving Loony candidates to choose from and a Labour Party candidate with a nice-sounding name.
I could spoil the paper and still show I turned up, or I could take George Carlinâs advice and just not bother voting anyway as it only there to give the illusion of free choice.
April 19, 2022
Marvellous Sir J, it’s the manifesto I remember from the real Tory Party.
What went wrong?
It is the people whom we elected to enact these policies …and they have failed miserably.
So time for a new PM and a good clearout at the cabinet then the swivel serpents.
April 19, 2022
When did we last have a real Conservative Party/Government? Certainly not under the appalling PMs Heath, Major, Cameron or May. Even Thatcher made huge and obvious errors in further binding us to the dire EU, letting Major join the ERM, closing many grammar schools, not cutting taxes & the size of government sufficiently, her choice of daft as a brush Major as Chancellor, endless increases in red tape, continuing with the dire state monopoly NHS modelâŠ
April 19, 2022
The EU sycophants have the same mentality as the EU elite. They would rather p in their own beds than admit they were wrong. They would rather ruin the country for everyone, including themselves, than honour democracy. They would rather support a foreign government against the wishes of their electorate.
Such people should not be in politics. They should be thrown out. Nobody ever gets their own way, all of the time. We accept that pleasing the majority (via democracy) is the fairer way and is the route to peace and harmony. Just look at the hate and resentment stirred up by the remainers and coming from the EU. We have a new breed of politician that honours democracy ONLY when it gives the result they wanted.
I have no objection to ongoing campaigns to rejoin the EU, as I believe in democracy. I do have a massive problem with people who use their position and influence to try and overturn a democratic vote and who deliberately fail to uphold the wishes of the electorate.
April 19, 2022
+many
This is all very dangerous.
We might start acting like a certain country we support and clap for.
Kidnap and dispatch political opposition.
We obviously donât disapprove of such tactics.
April 19, 2022
Your comments are utterly mystifying, Shirley. The wishes of the electorate have been fully upheld. We left the EU more than two years ago. No party, not even the LibDems, thinks we can rejoin (the EU doesn’t want us anyway). Now, you might be right that Brexit is turning into an utter fiasco. But you’ve got Brexit. It’s happened, it’s done. If you’re not happy with it, I suggest you take it up with the people who promised you great things from Brexit – they, strating with Boris and adding in David Frost, Michael Gove, Jacob Rees Mogg etc, are the people who’ve been in charge of Brexit for years now
April 19, 2022
I think that some people believed that some great time machine would, at the flick of a switch, transform the country back to how it was in 1972 in some regards.
I think that others believed that their votes would destroy the European Union, and are amazed to find that it is still here, and rather more united than ever.
Others again seemed to think that because they had been granted that one wish, they should be granted everything else that they wanted too. It seems to pain them particularly that Remain voters are still here, have the same rights as them, and continue to be the successful people that they generally were too.
April 20, 2022
NLH although times were a lot simpler in 1972 I was only a child without mobile phones, internet, computers in schools, pressure of social media and keeping up with the Kardashians and other tv shows that show how the other half live. A lack of credit available so people couldnât get themselves up to the neck in credit card debt to the same degree and more had to live within their means. But no I have no wish to turn back time, why on earth do you think that which leavers have you been speaking to?
Also this statement about people wanting the EU to fail, I have never heard JR say that ever, nor has any leaver I know. If they want to hand all their decision making to a small clique then so be it. Those on the take wonât complain and Germany and France are getting enough out of it right now not to mind so much but someone is going to have to pick up the UKâs gap and pay more.
April 20, 2022
No we didnât leave the EU two years ago Gary, we were tied in until January on a withdrawal agreement, did you forget? There has also been a matter of a leaver charge on the UK that will expire later this year when we will have a lot more of our money to spend on the UK.
April 19, 2022
Well said Shirley. It’s disgraceful.
April 19, 2022
How can the govt. claim to want high standards of animal welfare when it impoverishes their owners and does away with small vet practices?
People will not be taking their animals to the vet for fear of the cost.
Nor feeding them. @ hungry cats in the garden ( now regularly fed!!).
And chipping makes everything worseâŠanimals are forcibly returned to the owners they left due to cruelty.
This government should learn to think!
April 19, 2022
The government does NOT support animal welfare (only when it gets them brownie points). If it did, it would apply UK Animal Welfare Laws to all, and not allow religious exemptions which are abused on a massive scale. The exemption and lack of adherence to the rules, has resulted in religious slaughter being massively overproduced and sold to the general public by stealth, and also forced upon ALL denominations by hospitals, restaurants, schools, etc.
April 19, 2022
+many
April 19, 2022
It was obvious that the pro-EU Senior Civil Service were going to be obstructive. Just as it was obvious that the House of Frauds would do its best to stymie any benefits from Brexit and to obstruct Johnson’s programme which the mainly left-wing members disagree with.
What ISN’T obvious is why the Government has done nothing about either of them.
Why haven’t obstructive Senior Mandarins been removed from their posts – and preferably shuffled off into retirement?
And why isn’t there at least a proposal to abolish/fundamentally reform and downsize the House of Frauds?
It’s almost seems like the Pretendy-CONs don’t want to achieve what they promised and are using the Civil Service and Upper Chamber as the excuse.
April 19, 2022
+1 Donna. Boris has an 80 seat majority. He has no excuse, other than laziness, and he can’t even find the energy (or the desire) to delegate the tasks to the thousands of minions at his disposal.
Incompetence, or deliberate damage to the country? I still believe the latter. We are being herded back into the EU, using stealth, just as the EU used stealth to grab sovereignty from its members.
April 19, 2022
Donna, you might recall Cameron allowed Clegg to ennoble about 115 Lord positions! The party was so tiny and rejected by the electorate under Clegg so Cameron gave them a voice in the never to be sacked Lords!
April 19, 2022
If you take any group of employed people then there would generally be a Remain majority amongst them, so the CS wouldn’t be an exception.
The retired were the largest single category amongst the Leave vote.
April 19, 2022
âWith age comes wisdom,â declared Oscar Wilde…. but as is usual in politics I’ll ignore the rest of the quote.
April 20, 2022
NLH.
The groups were subdivided by age. 35 – 64 being one group, which would have had a lot of working Leavers in it.
The below aged 35 survey would have had a lot of students and unemployed in it.
Face it. MOST of the UK is not productive.
April 20, 2022
They are separate matters, and have no bearing on the fact that I mention.
April 19, 2022
The House of Lords would not be a problem if there were a majority of determined Brexiteer patriots in there. So the solution to the current situation is both obvious and simple. I have said it before and will repeat it: appoint 100 hardline right-wing Tory peers. Get Conservative Central Office to nominate the 100 most right-wing constituency chairmen (both past and present) to the Lords. If they prove insufficient, then appoint another 100. The Lords must understand that they cannot block the ELECTED government. They should be allowed just one go at amending a Bill, but no more. The idea of a continuing ping-pong battle between elected representatives of the people and unelected hasbeens is totally unacceptable. Boris needs to squash them hard. Unfortunately he is too weak, cowardly and left-wing and would run a mile rather than take firm action and wield real power.
April 19, 2022
Can’t disagree with what you say Sir JR. Have you tried shouting it into the ear of the PM?
April 19, 2022
The bureaucrats and politicians love the EU because it is an organisation designed solely for their benefit.
Politicians, rejected by voters, are offered a safe haven in the EU. They are generally incompetent, so as to allow the people who really control the continent to rule unfettered.
We must assert ourselves as an independent nation. The strange people who delight in denigrating us, their fellow countrymen, should be dealt with.
April 19, 2022
Len. I think David Frost found he was banging his head on a brick wall with Boris and finally gave up. Boris has run out of puff and he should hand over to a strong Brexiteer to take up the battle.
April 19, 2022
Brexit is going so well that the man who negotiated it, Frost, resigned and ran away rather than implement it!
April 19, 2022
He didnât run away. He was forced to resign because Boris failed to keep any of his promises and took no action. Frost, as a Minister bound by collective responsibility, decided he could exert more pressure as an independent.
He would have been sacked anyway had he spoken as he now does, when still in office.
April 19, 2022
Len
Think ran away is the wrong word, eventually gave up in complete frustration after failing to get any sort of backing for meaningful action to his thoughts, ideas and proposals more like it, you can only bash your head against the proverbial brick wall for so long before you stop, because to continue would cause yourself permanent damage.
Let us be kind, Boris has allowed himself to be side tracked and has lost the Brexit plot and desire, just like all of the others before him, he either needs to re engage or get out, simples.
April 19, 2022
You can hear more about that next Wednesday.
https://policyexchange.org.uk/pxevents/the-northern-ireland-protocol-how-we-got-here-and-what-should-happen-now-keynote-speech-by-rt-hon-lord-frost-of-allenton-cmg/
“For the first time Lord Frost will give a personal account of the politics and pressures of the negotiations in 2019 that led to the agreement of the current Northern Ireland Protocol and the UKâs withdrawal from the EU. He will reflect on the reasons why the Protocol has come under such pressure since then and what this means for its future.”
April 19, 2022
I once knew a chap who was obsessed with the music of Victor Sylvester.
No matter what the topic of conversation, he would always manage to find a link to his hero, and from that point on eulogise endlessly.
You lack his joy, however, Denis.
April 20, 2022
Clearly you didn’t notice that it was Len Peel who brought up Lord Frost, not me.
April 20, 2022
No, you brought up your passion, the Northern Ireland Protocol.
April 19, 2022
Do you think us Leavers don’t know that Len? Get real. It’s you lot that are the problem. Take a look in the mirror.
April 19, 2022
I think the problem is thats a list of potential brexit wins, not actual brexit wins. 2 years until the next election and despite a brexit supporting PM Chancellor and govt there is very little sign of any of this being implemented.
The best argument against brexit was never project fear. It was that even a Conservative govt would never actually implement policies which brexit would in principle allow, and therefore that it would be disruption and hard feelings for little tangible benefit.
I think it will start to get un-wound by a labour or left-coalition govt, with moves such as rejoining the single market.
There isn’t much time now for Conservatives to demonstrate some real, actual benefits.
April 19, 2022
Unfortunately the whole grotesque business has become so divisive and toxic that proper analysis as to how to ameliorate matters is probably politically and electorally impossible.
The opposition parties might well give it a very wide berth therefore.
April 19, 2022
NLH
Divisive because people like you wonât accept the result of the Referendum
April 20, 2022
I accept it absolutely.
I have broken no law to try to overturn it.
It is utter, lamentable rubbish, however.
And that’s that.
April 19, 2022
I’d have thought with evidence being so divisive and toxic, opposition parties would relish the ability to point it all out?
April 19, 2022
Mr Rees Mogg could by now have easily announced a timetable of legislative changes
and could have already tabled statutory instruments in certain policy areas, given how soon the next general election is. Government used statutory instrument for Net Zero purposes but wonât do so, in order to ease the burden on its voters, of EU regulations. If Rees Mogg is just being used and being blocked by Boris Johnsonâs lack of Brexit commitment, as seems likely, then he shouldnât have accepted the job.
April 19, 2022
JRM is not the man for the job
April 19, 2022
Glen, no, JR is.
April 19, 2022
+1000000′
Yes JR is the man of our time the man who should be PM
April 20, 2022
+1
April 19, 2022
None of the priorities set out in this article will not be.achieved for many years.
The drive on implementing Brexit is not there.
Either Boris focuses on Brexit or he is replaced.
April 19, 2022
It’s been implemented, Bob.
This. Is. It.
Got that?
April 19, 2022
The Dutch flower and market gardening industries gained advantage over our own and took large chunks of market share.
Why? How? We were both in the EU, how did they âgain advantageâ? In the Tory shires howls of protest would accompany any building of vertical farming constructions. Look at the screams when solar panels are put on a field that otherwise just grows grass for animal feed.
Why? Has Mogg got a record of being a man of action who gets things done? Iâd love to know what a working day looks like for him.
April 19, 2022
Excellent questions, Mike.
April 19, 2022
The only way this list will be effective is as part of a manifesto for a new party. Conservative Labour, LibDems, Greens all want to either re-join or align with the EU.
April 19, 2022
Has anyone actually told Boris that no one voted for a Green Party of government or a Labour Party of governmentâŠ.but they voted for a brexit facing Conservative Party of government
April 19, 2022
You know the personal motives of around 14 million people?
People voted for all sorts of reasons, yes, including the one that you mention.
April 19, 2022
I donât know or care about the personal motives of the winning majority of voters at the last general electionâŠ.however it is generally understood that Tory, Brexit and Red Wall Labour voters only voted for Boris on a single issue ie Brexit â apart from that I donât know anything about their political intensions, beliefs or ideals
April 20, 2022
That’s an unproven claim.
You could have taken other slices from the pie chart – e.g. “because Corbyn” – of why people voted that way, and thanks to FPTP many seats would have been lost for other reasons.
April 20, 2022
yes they did. But so many commentators keep returning to’ stop immigration’, when a whole host of reasons led to LEAVE.
April 20, 2022
Brexit has simply meant that the immigration used by UK businesses from the European Union is being replaced by that from e.g. India, Bangladesh etc.
The demand is unlikely to fall, and I see no will with government to inhibit the process either.
It would be “anti-business” after all, wouldn’t it?
April 19, 2022
Good points Glen.
April 19, 2022
I see that Ukraine had handed its enormous application questionnaire to the EU. May I repeat this plea: any UK aid to Ukraine must be found from within the foreign aid budget – and spent carefully. The implication is that some other aid recipients are going to have to lose out. (Pakistan would get my vote.) The EU and Ukraine both wanted each other. But like a man on a first date, Brussels is going to have to pick up the bill.
April 19, 2022
I think that if you asked the leaders of the twenty-seven what they wanted then there’s no guarantee that they would agree with your analysis.
Some might feel morally obliged to support the application but that is not the same thing at all.
April 19, 2022
…..until gas and oil prices have fallen back again……
Why do you think prices will fall? The woeful Ofgem, who disgracefully issued energy supply licences without checking financial viability that has cost all of us ÂŁbillions, writes on their website “Right now, weâre seeing a once in a 30-year event with volatile gas prices “. How do they know that it won’t be twice in 31 years next year? These predictions can only currently be made on the assumption that when the outrageous invasion of Ukraine comes to some sort of conclusion Russia will be forgiven and welcomed back into the fold along with their supply of gas and oil.
April 19, 2022
Queues of lorries waiting to cross the channel, with perishable goods which are perishing because of the delays, UK holiday makers enduring long queues for passport control in EU countries, no EHIC health cover, countless firms either having to close down or move to an EU country because trade regulations now make it too costly to continue in the UK, students no longer able to study abroad via the Erasmus scheme, produce rotting in our fields because of a shortage of labour, and health care workers in short supply… that’s Brexit going well is it?
April 19, 2022
All of this is largely down to the EU and France choosing to be obstructive (and the P&O ferries issues). The EU can be obstructive whether we are in or out of the EU and were being so before we left.
Medical workers (both EU and worldwide) can work here if the UK choose to allow them – again nothing really to do with Brexit.
April 19, 2022
Tripe.
It is because of brexit and that alone.
April 20, 2022
A daughter and family flew to Rome yesterday….no problems here – flight left 20 mins after normal schedule as nearly always. No issues on arrival – what queue? Media and nay-sayers search for any example of disruption.
April 20, 2022
Let us know how they get on with the return trip in the “non-European Union passport-holders” queue, eh, MT?
April 19, 2022
There is only one Brexit win.
We now know it was the Tory Party all along.
April 19, 2022
Sorry but I donât recognise any brexit win
April 20, 2022
Absolutly bang on the money there mate !!!
It was ‘they’ that took us in and, it is ‘they’ that are trying to keep us locked-tied so that we can be slowly dragged back in.
April 19, 2022
I see Brandon Lewis is saying that the PM spoke what he believed to be the truth. I suggest No 10s spinning operation finds a new line.
Boris and the truth is an oxymoron. If your colleagues donât know it already, please remind them, few if any out in the country believe anything Boris says.
April 19, 2022
Most people, Nigl, are on their best behaviour at work and do not always reveal their true nature. Boris Johnson is an exception.
April 19, 2022
Yes, Sir John; but it is the Conservative Party that is responsible for the current shambles, having been in power throughout the six years since the instruction from the electorate to leave the EU and take back control of our laws, our borders and our money. It is over two years since the current government was given a renewed mandate to get that done. The failures of planning and execution that you describe are the fault of our conservative governments; or is it worse than their apparent ineptness and timidity, are they duplicitous?
The government must know that Brexit is not secure and that, if government does not act this year to make it so, it will be dangerously late, heading towards a general election and an attempt to overthrow our currently unrealised Brexit freedoms and forever bind us in servitude to Brussells.
April 19, 2022
What, to you personally, is the outstanding and specific “currently unrealised brexit freedom”?
Just confine yourself to that.
Thanks.
April 20, 2022
NLH – we have many factories and jobs coming back to the UK, the Midlands is booming. We want Boris to go further and faster, get these freeports fully operational.
Our men wanted their work back, they don’t all want to work in call centres, they wanted our dairies back and our milk back produced 100% in the UK, our cheese and butter and our local choice improved, ironically the German supermarkets have led the way openly promoting British grown products with big UK flags on the front of their stores. We want our money back to spend on our priorities, Boris lost his way thwarted at nearly every turn. This government could do an awful lot more to promote and encourage British producers.
Even saying that the Economist Intelligence Unit forecasts the UK to grow 0.5% faster than France and Italy in 2022 and 1.4% faster than Germany. The IMF says the UK economy will grow by 3.7% this year.
April 20, 2022
NI is the part of the UK which is actually booming, Tracy.
You know, the bit that is still in the SM and CU?
April 21, 2022
I think Northern Ireland is binding us when it shouldnât be. Boris isnât going to lose support because of his birthday meeting whatever the opposition thinks, Borisâ relatives werenât allowed to sit with him in hospital – it was the hospitals that wanted to stop visiting, Boris wasnât allowed to visit people in care homes – the care homes didnât want visitors coming and going with the virus understandably – Boris was meeting with people he was already working with for goodness sakes – he should never have accepted the police decision it was ridiculous (they are so worried about Boris because if they truly felt they had the public on their side theyâd leave him in place to finish the conservatives), he is losing support because Sunak didnât overturn the NI increase fast enough July is too far in the future, and because Sunak hasnât reduced the taxes he could on Energy bills.
The UK should take advantage of Northern Ireland, why not. We should stop supporting Ireland and taking so much of their imports whilst the EU is blocking us and putting up barriers. There are plenty of people who want to trade on good terms with the UK and are trading more fairly with us with less deficits.
April 19, 2022
Sir John, a true rallying cry that will go unheralded and unloved. The only hope I nurture is for a rebellion of the voters – Canada did it, why not the UK?
In the meantime why not do something positive about the UK’s carbon footprint, something everyone knows is essential. (I write that with my fingers crossed behind my back.)
First, educate everyone about earth tremors. Be seen measuring the tremors caused by transport. There’s a road in West Hampstead next to a railway line which carries very heavy freight at night – the way the house shook was a revelation. Then license a few experimental onshore fracking Wells with very generous compensation for the first few that come into full production. That will secure the natural gas needed for the next move to a low carbon economy.
Extend the gas grid to enable the replacement of oil and solid fuel heating with high-efficiency gas boilers – that must be a good thing, natural gas is a low carbon fuel. Then give grants for the conversion of petrol and diesel HGVs, buses, cars, trains and boats production to compressed natural gas engines – low NOX, low particulates and low CO2, a win, win, win.
As a side effect we will avoid the Grid crash that is perilously close when the sun does not shine and the wind doesn’t blow.
JF
April 19, 2022
Agree with Sir John.
But like others on here I am annoyed that nothing has been done. Sweeping changes of the Civil Service are long overdue from top down, with mass sackings and review of compensation. They are allowed to keep their jobs even following mass incompetence and wastage of funds. Why? I am not surprised they wanted rid of Cummings and my guess is they used Carrie to help them.
I will vote for Boris in May, and I will tell my MP and Councillor that it is because I see through this Partygate rubbish, not because I am happy with the state of affairs. It speaks volumes that those instigating the attacks, are not challenging Boris on the issues that matter most, itâs Partygate. In other words, they do not offer anything better to the nation, they simply want to put the likes of Tugendhat in place, or some other pliant remainer. It is astonishing that a few drinks at work is threatening Boris given the shenanigans of the likes of Blair et al, whose âcaseâ to support WMD caused the death of millions, it amazes me Blair walks free. No thanks, I can see through the nonsense of these chancers and their motives.
April 19, 2022
Hear Hear!
It seems to be common knowledge that the civil service is one of the biggest hurdles to getting things done by government. In a democracy this is totally unacceptable. The civil service are there to follow orders, not to make policies.
Knowing that the civil service is such a problem when are we going to see some action to put things right?
It would appear there is no stomach for ministers to pick a fight with those that are supposed to serve them – something we’ve suffered from for too many successive governments. We thought Boris and Cummings were, at last, going to solve this, but something got in the way!
Is there a way for HMG to regain control?
Perhaps our host can provide some suitable advice to ministers.
April 19, 2022
Maybe the government doesn’t want control. Maybe it doesn’t want to do any of the things it promised in it’s manifesto, but it needs a scapegoat in order to keep those votes rolling in. (Not our fault Guv, we tried!)
It just wanted power, power to slowly take us back into the EU, and is willing to be 100% dishonest in order to achieve it. It worked for Edward Heath, didn’t it, and he was very generously rewarded!
April 19, 2022
It was Boris who signed off the NI protocol, negotiated the 8 year fisheries deal with the French, sets our VAT & tax policy, who lead the Trade & Cooperation Agreement with the EU, and accepted the level playing field, and championed the UN green revolution of Net-ZeroâŠ..there will be no brexit wins while Boris is PM
April 19, 2022
Boris did all that, but Frost negotiated it, and Conservative MPs – ONLY Conservative MPs – voted for it. The rest of us thought it was a dreadful deal. So do you, now. Not Borisâs fault, blame the entire Conservative Party, who never grasped what Brexit would really mean – until it was too late
April 19, 2022
I do blame the entire conservative party MPs
April 19, 2022
“The Treasury has stuck to EU VAT rates like glue.”
Civil servants advise, ministers decide. Stop blaming the civil servants for decisions taken by the Conservative Party in government. Why do you keep claiming that everyone else other than the Conservatives are to blame for the decisions of a Conservative government?
April 20, 2022
+1
April 19, 2022
This long list of damaging action and inaction by the current Prime Minister and cabinet confirms my belief that they want to damage our country and have no intention of getting Brexit done. I would expect JRM to have a plan of action by now with weekly reports showing the progress he is making but we hear nothing.
April 19, 2022
+many, Christine.
April 19, 2022
But that would involve getting up from loafing around in the House of Commons and doing some work.
April 19, 2022
If N. Ireland is still in the single market and customs union then why isn’t it taking the supposed trading advantage over that? Surely that is in the best of all world deal that May wanted the rest of the UK to be stuck in.
April 19, 2022
It is taking advantage, most people in NI are very happy to be in both the EU and the UK markets. The UK governmnet could say “The Protocol is great, it gives NI access to the fantastic EU single market”. But that would then raise the question – well, why did the rest of us have to leave the EU single market then? What a very good question. A question that reminds us that Brexit threw away full access to the EU market, the best economic advantage this country has had in 100 years. Dear o dear, you Brexiters are only now grasping what a disaster it is
April 20, 2022
Nailed it, Gary.
April 20, 2022
Gary, we should compare region by region in five years time. Northern Ireland did get Mayâs deal but the EU are stopping GB imports, no-one every says how this is happening do you know as you seem to think you know everything, just why GB producers canât move goods into Northern Ireland freely?
I donât know why we kept the Irish common travel area open when Ireland was given its independence from the UK do you? May signed back up to it pretty sharpish when she didnât need to. When all that Country does it thwart the UK at every turn. We just keep taking shit and that is why people are getting cross with Boris, he keeps taking a beating for no good reason. He allowed the EU to put restrictions on our trade out but didnât put the same restrictions on the EU trade in, it must be quid pro quo moving forward for only then will things start to change.
April 20, 2022
Gary, responding to NLH above I highlighted several gains the UK is making with factories returning to the UK, more jobs, a booming Midlands, Brits have rising pay a 6.5% increase in the NLW pushing up differentials, an extra days holiday this year. Sunak could sort out energy he is choosing not to, I want to know why.
Irelandâs largest port Dublin recorded a rebound in freight volumes to and from the UK in the first quarter of this year. 23% up from 2021. Our road system has benefitted from the reduction in HGVs using the UK as a land bridge and not stopping over, buying fuel here, paying tolls for using our roads etc.
We have only been able to sort out our own free trade agreements since the withdrawal period ended it is moving on at a pace, Indonesia, India, Morocco, State level agreements in the States. Boris deal got us a trade deal with the EU. Now the UK trade department need to give every help to small UK producers to expand markets with markets that arenât as protective as those within the EU look at our previous trade deficits.
April 19, 2022
The time has come to make push go to shove. The government and all it entwine have been playing silly sods for the last few years a bit akin to past the parcel.
Nobody wants to take responsibility for the change the country was promised as they hide behind EU laws and mythology and personal beliefs.
Everybody involved in the process from cabinet minister to the post room clerk in the civil service is given the option to fully sign on or ship out. Introduce a clause in their job description that it is a sackable offence to hinder all new UK changes from old EU policy. Open a window where if you don’t want to be part of the journey leave now. The train has left the station and will only get faster and will not be stopping. Jumping is not advised, stay on the station.
End, better still destroy the clandestine fifth column that operates throughout the whole of government.
April 19, 2022
+1
April 19, 2022
The communist fifth column working within the civil service, quangos, judiciary and our institutions are clearly working to deny the advantages of Brexit and weaken the UK through mass immigration and Net Zero.
The question is whether our Government and Parliament is using their actions as an excuse for their intransigence and/or incompetence.
April 20, 2022
It is the private sector – e.g. that brexity pub chain – which are advertising for immigrant labour to replace that which they stupidly lost through brexit.
It is not public sector administration.
April 19, 2022
The public ( me at least ) voted for Brexit because
” they had the feeling something was not quite right with the world ” ( Matrix ).
Brexit voters, half the country, are not racist, right wing thickoes
NOR are we the disaster capitalist, hedge fund, globalist type people who pushed the Brexit line in order to make even more filthy lucre from collapse.
It’s great seeing globalism revealed inch by inch.
( sounds better than centimetre by centimetre )
April 19, 2022
We just didnât wont a monolith of a federal european government in control
April 20, 2022
And a federal monolith controlled by both France and Germany.
April 19, 2022
Indeed, the joke is visible. The trickster Boris and his failed government has deceived the country from day one of his premiership particularly on Brexit.
Sir John blames government departments who are of course subverting Brexit but why are they not instructed to act differently. It’s the Tory party loyalty that gets top billing. The country counts for nothing.
April 20, 2022
+1
April 19, 2022
âIn due course, we should be able to resolve the issue of how to keep the lights on when the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine through batteries, green hydrogen, pump storage and other technologies.â
There does not exist any non-fossil fuel backup technology.
Hydrogen :
The Royal Society in their Climate Change Briefing 4 write :
âHowever, both fuels [hydrogen and ammonia] currently face challenges that require technological advances, including in their generation, storage and use, particularly the costs involved in achieving net zero life cycle emissions.â
Batteries :
BEIS/the Government believe that backup can be provided by ev batteries [Net Zero Strategy] but for 40GW of power, our current consumption, this will require one million fully charged 40KWhr Tesla 3 batteries for each hour the wind does not blow and last month we had 7 consecutive days when the wind didnât blow.
Pump Storage :
Where are the mountains?
April 20, 2022
And other storage like raised weights or compressed air only works for short periods. A long freezing winter lull can easily last for 2 weeks or more as in 1963.
April 19, 2022
I suspect that there may have been a lack of clarity as what ministers may have wanted in terms of post Brexit policy. A situation a largely remain civil service would have taken advantage of.
There is lots of mature talent in the HoC that remains unused. Their only fault is that the believe in Brexit, wheras there is a question mark as to whether Boris does. Explain the inertia any other way.
I believe that hire and fire should be part of the civil service contract. They are there to facilitate government policy. Advise by all means, but do not create policy
April 19, 2022
There are three areas where dither and indecision predominate, fed by lots of rhetoric in place of action.
The NIP a lesson in incompetence from day one.
The need to remove the green levy and VAT on fuel used in the UK. Couple this with the lethargic exploitation of our own sources.
Tackling the legal restraints on implementing PP’s answer to the economic migrant crisis. Clear the decks now. A parasitic element of the legal profession has dined out on this for too long.
All three could consign us to political armagedon in 2024. Await the signs in May.
April 19, 2022
Brexit Wins
Surely the title of this piece is wrong. I cannot see any wins, just a catalogue of missed opportunities. Perhaps the title should be ‘Brexit Wins Missed’. Then the question of why this is the case. The obvious answer is that the government don’t want wins, they want to pave the way for re-entry to the EU so they don’t have to disturb their sleep by governing. They want to sell out completely to foreign powers to satisfy their mates at the WEF. They no longer even try to hide it, what with wanting to keep in line with the EU. What has been promised for this dereliction of duty?
April 19, 2022
Hello Sir John,
Excellent article highlighting the problem with some of our MPs, the Civil Service & House of Lords. But surely the buck stops with the PM & cabinet. Why have they not sacked the senior civil servants who oppose Brexit freedoms? Why are government departments allowed to continue shadowing EU legislation? Why has the NI protocol not been challenged & removed? Why are we not fracking as fast as we can to gain energy independence? Why has no one in government done any serious research into climate change & realized it is a completely natural event? Why are eco protestors treated with kid gloves by the police & judges? Why was a chancellor who has no idea of the ordinary family’s financial position allowed to go ahead with the shocking N.I. rise? Why take ÂŁ12 billion out of people’s pockets & then give ÂŁ9 billion back? Why has the government broken manifesto promises to pensioners & ordinary people? Why should we trust this government when your own questions revealed there is no plan in place as to how the NHS will use the extra money from the N.I. rise? Why does the PM & cabinet not insist every civil servant is back at their desks by the first of next month or they are redundant? The civil service WFH culture has clearly shown the civil service is vastly overmanned & needs drastic slimming down. The government’s major costs walk in on two legs every morning, or should do, & if they don’t they are not needed. I admire you for doing a daily diary which is hard work & gives you proper feedback, but why does no one in government listen to you?
I give one cheer for the policy of sending immigrants to Rwanda because I wonder if it will happen & I have serious doubts about the UK taking immigrants from there. I give three cheers for the support to Ukraine! But I have never known a government that seems so disconnected from the people or so lacking in simple common sense.
April 19, 2022
The Business Dept is continuing to dither over the sale of Newport Wafer Fab to the subsidiary of a Chinese company. The problem for BEIS is not that yet another company whose technology would be considered by many to be superior to the manufacture of women’s undergarments will have its potential for autonomous growth in this country curtailed, but that it will fall into the hands of a government to whom the FCO is hostile.
Needless to say, the sale of Meggitt, a large and successful English technology business is proceeding smoothly not only because its chairman is well practised in selling off successful British businesses such as Pilkington Glass to foreigners but also because the acquirer is of a country with whom the Tory Party deludes itself into thinking we have a special relationship, a relationship which in reality is that of a vainglorious odalisque in a seraglio.
There is absolutely no point in supporting British business in theory when allowing it to be dismembered and shipped abroad in practice. Furthermore the idea that businesses should be entirely controlled by its shareholders when such are foreign investment companies whose proscriptions for the companies over recruitment and ecolunacy could reasonably be considered as industrial sabotage is another example of how the business department is not up to speed, in fact, useless from top to bottom.
April 19, 2022
Sir John you have pointed out all of these abysmal failings regularly and over a very long period of time. The culprits are firstly the Europhile civil serpents for whom the European project is paramount and our interests mean absolutely nothing. A traitorous attitude.
But the Ministers of state are another matter. Too many it seems are survivors from the May government, which was entirely Europhile apart from a couple, like David Davis, placed there for show, to give credence to her pretence of leaving.
PM Johnson picked his Cabinet. He is entirely responsible for that and he gives leadership to policy and how they make policy. So long as Johnson is in place nothing will change.
April 19, 2022
Indeed BOF; we need rid of such people and the establishment of a government that is supportive of native Brits in all matters. Johnson should be one of the first to go.
April 19, 2022
Here’s a silly headline:
https://www.cityam.com/110-jobs-lost-brexit-supporting-newark-in-shock-as-largest-employer-shuts-up-shop-and-heads-for-mainland-europe/
“Brexit-supporting Newark in shock as largest employer shuts up shop and heads for mainland Europe”
I wonder what they would have said in 2005 when Mars moved production from Slough to mainland Europe.
April 19, 2022
Even worse … how many jobs lost when Ford van production was moved from the UK to Turkey, aided by the EU. Turkey wasn’t even in the EU, but obviously given priority over one of it’s largest contributory members.
April 19, 2022
….and Vauxhall (GM) moved much of its production to Spain. All with EU funded grants, of course! We’ve been at war with the EU for at least the last 20 years; it’s just that most people never realised it.
April 19, 2022
the master plan…..
April 20, 2022
Jaguar Land Rover to Slovakia 2019 with ÂŁ110m sweetener offered by Slovakia. Decision more or less made in 2015, prior to the referendum, uncertainty with Brexit was a factor but all done under EU rules. Slovakia, recipient of billions funded by the EU & thus by the UK too (DT 10/01/19)
April 19, 2022
Newark lives up to its anagram.
April 20, 2022
Or Gillette from Slough to Poland in 2006.. ten years before the vote and 16 years before we left the EU.
April 19, 2022
Wind and solar industries are certainly taking advantage of the continuing EU policies of adding renewables. Since the cost of electricity has increased they are being paid the ROC subsidy plus the sales of electricity at 5 to 6 times the market rate before the increase ie. up to ÂŁ326 per MWh. These windfalls should be taxed and the money put towards reducing the unaffordable hike arriving soon.
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/04/18/roc-windfall-profits-hit-923-million-in-december-2021/#more-56180
April 20, 2022
Stred. The ROC system was shut down in 2017. Only older smaller wind generators have ROC grandfather rights and get market prices. The modern larger wind farms are on CfD (Contracts for Difference). They are paying back to Suppliers (a negative subsidy), when their generation is above the Strike Price for their CfDs. This negative subsidy is likely to pertain well into 2023. According to energyflux.news; “Total CfD reconciliation payments to suppliers are expected to total ÂŁ353 million for Q4â21 and top ÂŁ774 million by the end of Q1â22. And it wonât stop there.”
April 19, 2022
Whichever group got Schapps to do the train video is either
1) So far removed from the every day person ( young and old ) as to be certifiable
or
2) Actively working to make the government look stupid.
My money is on 2.
It fits with the global plan .
April 20, 2022
A group is not required to produce 2).
April 19, 2022
I see the numbers of visas issued to Indian nationals is going through the roof, I dont remember that being in any manifesto
April 19, 2022
Maybe theyâre fleeing India in revolt because theyâre buying oil, gas and coal from Russia ….they want to live in a country full of wind turbines
April 20, 2022
And the Daily Express saying “Britain can now decide who it wants to come to Britain.” Whilst lauding how immigration from India and Nigeria has increased massively.
Um. I don’t think that’s what the average Brexit voter had in mind when they voted to bring back control of borders.
April 20, 2022
But they had it patiently and repeatedly explained to them by the Remain campaigns that that was exactly what would happen.
Why did they ignore that?
April 19, 2022
Sir John, given your interest in fisheries and UK food production, here is a fascinating article you might like to read if/when you have 5 minutes to spare: https://thefishsite.com/articles/frozen-food-giants-look-to-develop-farmed-shellfish-products-david-willer-cambridge
The article discusses the work being done to expand the farming of mussels, the benefits and the opportunities, but also ends with the constraints. Given the environmental benefits, as well as the obvious food ones, of this project, is there any chance you might ask Useless Eustice what he is doing to ensure that a BRITISH supply and production chain is encouraged and coordinated by the government?
April 19, 2022
“Let us begin with the Treasury. It was Treasury officials led by the Chancellor at the time of the referendum who came up with an embarrassingly bad set of forecasts of what would happen if we dared to vote for Brexit and leave.”
And one consequence of those “Project Fear” lies is that Parliament was induced to vote against leaving the EU without a deal, and that in turn is how we have ended up with a deal that leaves Northern Ireland behind under swathes of EU laws and stimulates and reinforces attempts to split it off from the UK.
Which is why an email I sent yesterday, headed “Boris Johnson instantly cowed by EU threats”, started:
“Between them George Osborne, Theresa May and Boris Johnson have got us into a right bloody mess, which quite unnecessarily threatens peace in Ireland and the integrity of the United Kingdom. Treacherous scum in Parliament, who shall remain nameless, deliberately scuppered our best option, which was to leave the EU without begging for any special trade deal, that is to say simply defaulting to the WTO treaties which were already in force and to which the UK and the continuing EU countries were all already parties.”
April 19, 2022
Any Brexit wins should have been identified and oven ready before we left the EU. Once we had left then implemented , but unfortunately they the Conservatives lack basic skill of planning and organising that many large companies would manage quite easily.
April 20, 2022
Those that make that sort of decision didn’t contemplate the vote saying a resounding LEAVE.
April 19, 2022
Based on the content of your reprised article Sir John, I would suggest that what we need is “Sunak Out, Redwood In”.
Brexit enabled a whole host of reforms. Or should have…..
A large part of the inaction has been brought about by the reluctance of most MPs and Peers to act on the instructions of the British people and to ‘get on with it’. Most politicians – and some on here like Martin-in-Cardiff (or whichever monicker he is now using) – have been actively avoiding ‘getting on with it’, perhaps in the hope that it will all ‘go-away’ and that the British people will have a change of heart at some point; realise our ‘folly’, if you will?
What have we achieved since 23rd June 2016? What have we actually done since 29th March 2019? …..merely delayed starting the reforms until 31st Dec 2019.
….. and then Coroni conveniently kicked-off, and as a consequence true reforms to UK legislation in regard to EU taxation and trade policy have been placed on-hold. Coroni ahs resulted in even more (IMO unnecessary) restrictions.
And now we have a latter-day C.21st energy ‘crisis’ .
The global situation has changed markedly since the aforementioned key dates. We cannot afford to delay any longer and we MUST now consolidate our resources, rein-in our imports and start using our domestic assets and commodities for our own citizens’ use.
What was the phrase? ….. oh yes… “mend and make do”.
And avoid waste.
Digitum extractum. Let’s now just get on with it.
April 19, 2022
Once Boris Johnson has crushed the Russians perhaps he could give our friends in the Falklands a hand.
https://www.cityam.com/brexit-felt-all-the-way-down-in-falkland-islands-as-fishing-industry-takes-a-serious-hit-all-party-chair-warns/
Tariffs on exports to the EU average of 42% for meat and between 6% and 18% for fish.
April 19, 2022
Time and time and time again the home secretary in her migration statement today kept saying that we have to stop the merry-go-round of illegal economic migrants and bogus refugees using our court system to prolong their stay in the UKâŠ..with an 80 seat majority why not just change the law rather than send illegalâs to Rwanda â or just send them back to France from whence they came. That would be a brexit win
April 19, 2022
I disagree with the first sentence of this blog. Doubtless JRM is a lovely bloke but he alienates too many. I read once that he said when young he was mistaken for his father when he answered the phone, which is presumably why he retains his affected manner of speaking.
If you listen to the young Queen’s Christmas Broadcasts, her manner of speaking has changed naturally over the years. So it’s not a posh envy thing.
If JRM has been told to do his current job or else….
then he should resign
” to spend more time with his family”.
The post should be abolished, it’s counterproductive.
Keep Boris for a bit longer.
April 20, 2022
‘Keep Boris for a bit longer.’
Every week brings a new reason not too !
April 19, 2022
More nonsense:
https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/eu-delay-brexit-import-checks-cost-of-living
“Post-Brexit Import Checks Are Set To Be Delayed For The Fourth Time”
Whatever the detail on proposed checks on imports from the EU I would ask why we should make any changes at all to the minimal checks that we were doing when we were in the EU. So when I read:
“Earlier this month, however, the British Veterinary Association (BVA) warned that further delay to EU import checks would expose the UK to the risk of importing diseases like African swine fever.”
I would like to know what the EU has or will be doing which should make us worry about an increased risk that EU companies may export diseased pigs or pigmeat to the UK. Just to spell it out: EU companies will still be operating under EU regulations, enforced by the EU, and if we were previously confident that the EU regulatory regime was good enough to justify minimal routine checks on EU imports then why should we suddenly change that because we have left the EU?
And by the same token, if we are still operating a similar regulatory regime to when we were in the EU – as we still are – then what is the EU’s objective justification for intensifying checks on our exports?
Article 7.4.2 of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, which came into force in February 2017:
https://docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/SS/directdoc.aspx?filename=q:/WT/L/940.pdf&Open=True
“Each Member shall design and apply risk management in a manner as to avoid arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination, or a disguised restriction on international trade.”
April 19, 2022
Boris hasnât increased national insurance, he hasnât broken his solemn pledge in the manifesto, he didnât authorise the chancellor to increase taxâŠhis government would never increase NI, VAT or tax, in fact his government is a government that reduces taxation â and if they did perhaps increase the tax rate just a little theyâre sorry
April 19, 2022
It did not occur to Boris that his instructions to the chancellor would result in higher taxesâŠ.sorry
April 19, 2022
There are news reports that the U.K. is planning to postpone checks
on goods arriving from the EU. This would be the 4th postponement and this time the “plan” is for indefinite delay.
Words fail me as to the level of shambolic incompetence in the government of this is true. Such a stasis would leave U.K. exporters facing the maximum barriers that pettifogging EU bureaucrats can dream up while granting unimpeded access to the U.K. market. The impression is of a government that cannot plan and cannot implement any change. Teh change here should be trivial ; apply the same procedures on goods arriving from the EU as the existing processes applied to goods arriving from anywhere outside the EU.
If the government cannot even apply existing processes to EU goods that are used today for non-EU trade it deserves to be thrown out of office as incompetent.
https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/eu-delay-brexit-import-checks-cost-of-living
April 19, 2022
The Candidate (1972 film) starring Robert Redford ended with him electioneering to become President – Potus all through the film then at the very end when cornered by the Press ask his colleague , “What do we do now?” ……
Applied to Britain recently, Boris asks Carrie , “What do we do now?”
Which is why we have not got what we voted for.
April 19, 2022
Build-More-Wind-Turbines
April 20, 2022
‘âWhat do we do now?â’
Visit a warzone, create a diversion, start another inquiry, appoint a supporter to high office….plenty of ideas.
April 19, 2022
During the Leave campaign, the public was given to expect that much more money for the N.H.S. would be an important benefit resulting from Brexit. Perhaps Jacob Rees-Mogg will ensure that those expectations are met.
April 20, 2022
I prefer less, not more money handed over for the NHS to distribute to so many achieving so little.
Until a restructure and better definition of how and where it will be allocated to which health issues – the eye-watering employment and budget numbers continue unchecked.
April 20, 2022
LL,
Goldsmith still in cabinet, Carrie still his wife. Get real.
April 20, 2022
Another day
And another 50 posts from Corbanista NHL
I thought the rule was one or two a day?