Beneath the rows and disappointments over the small boats and the Northern Ireland Protocol lies one very simple point. Can UK voters tell their Parliament they want the boats stopped and NI/GB trade restored and expect to  get their Parliament to do this? There are still so many voices and all the Opposition parties saying the Uk Parliament is not sovereign. They use international Treaties, views of foreign countries, and judges to prevent government legislating the will of a majority of the people.
It was this frustration that led many to vote to end EU law and the role of the European Court of justice in our lives, so our Parliament could then act for the people. We  are now told the Geneva Convention on refugees and the Human Rights Court prevent us stopping the boats. Meanwhile the EU seeks to interpret the Protocol in a way which imposes EU law and its Court on part of the UK again.
Parliament answers to the people. There are varying interpretations of treaty law. Countries  change their minds about Treaties and some Treaties age badly. If the UK government wants to stop the boats it has to ask the UK Parliament to make clear its treatment of illegal migrants by sea is as set out in UK law regardless of Treaties. To take control of GB/NI trade and rules we need to see through the NI Protocol Bill, approved by large Commons majorities.
Sovereignty matters. We need to exercise it to solve these problems.
March 9, 2023
Good morning.
When you sign up to various international agreements, you lose a bit of sovereignty. You agree to either do, or not do, something. These agreements, such as all those treaties we signed during our time we were officially in the EU were such and, as they were passed into UK Law the UK government had to agree to them. So the ECJ and Commissions writ ran large in the UK.
Of course, the Civil Service loves a good treaty as it takes power away from the pesky Ministers, government, parliament and people.
March 9, 2023
No country except for lunatic states like NK has anything like absolute sovereignty.
This is the fundamental delusion of the brexiters.
March 9, 2023
North Korea is a sovereign state run by a despot, and no comparison to the UK which is a parliamentary democracy. Yes the UK does have absolute sovereignty ultimately and it’s no delusion by anyone.
March 9, 2023
Iâd say lots of countries have sovereignty. China, the USA, Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Peru ⊠the list goes on and on. Those countries do not allow foreign courts jurisdiction.
March 9, 2023
Correct – I can only think of the countries within the european union that have, in recent times, lost some or all of their sovereignty (willing by politicians without referendum or consent of their own people)
March 9, 2023
They have found out that 27 others can overrule the sovereignty they formerly had.
March 9, 2023
MT â That Treaty of Lisbon is some humdinger of a treaty
March 9, 2023
How many of those countries are part of, for example, the WTO and are therefore subject to the WTO’s dispute settlement process?
March 9, 2023
Most of them. Most countries happily sign up to international Treaties because they do better co-operating with others rather than trying to go it alone. WTO, EU, ILO, UN ⊠all about co-operation under Treaties. Sadly the UK is in the grip of a Brexit fixation which assumes that Treaties are some devious plot by foreigners to hobble John Bull. I only hope they are slowly learning that shouting about sovereignty wonât stop the boats or solve any big problems that are cross-border in nature
March 9, 2023
The WTO has little ultimate legal power compared to the EU.
March 9, 2023
âSovereignty matters. We need to exercise it to solve these problems.â
Agreed.
However, a large part of the countryâs assets have been flogged off to China, The Arabs and Russian oligarchs who we are now also dependent on for key supplies.
Politicians and civil servants are reluctant to upset these people, as the recent Whatsapp messages about Hancock/Covid reveal.
The same applies to USA. The deletion of my post referring to Boris Johnsonâs three word response regarding the Americans is another example.
So unless you have someone like Viktor Orban running the show, our politicians are going to kowtow rather than insist on sovereignty.
March 9, 2023
Mark B – I am sure you are aware that the EU is a most corrupt and evil organisation along with the UN, NATO, WHO, the Council for Foreign Relations, the TRI-lateral group and MANY others.
March 9, 2023
You frustration is apparent. I wish a majority of your fellow MPs had a similar view. So do most voters.
March 9, 2023
The majority of MPs don’t give a fig for uk sovereignty, they just want to virtue signalling as too how clever they think they are if they had any sense they would stop the boats using force if necessary, they would tell Brussels where to stick the protocol. But no, they aren’t bothered what Joe public want.
March 9, 2023
Sir John always has the right opinions, I’m afraid his Party abandoned him, his views, opinions and values and have morphed into the Consocialists. I started to read an article promoting a transgender action plan from the Police Superintendents Association. Then our very young children being “educated” in this stuff. What on Earth is this about? All our public services and institutions have been taken over by hard left activists on the Tory watch. Then the sell out by the Torys on the Northern Irish protocol, the pretend action on the boat people whilst robbing us 46% blind to pay for their largesse. Just go.
March 9, 2023
… yes, and so do I …
March 9, 2023
Good post John. Personally I’m fed up with money grabbing lawyers telling government what they can and cannot do when they were voted in with an 80 seat majority to get Brexit properly done and stop illegal immigration. For the people smugglers and these lefty lawyers it’s just a big money making scam. Something constructive has to be done because we cannot carry on as we are. Stop pandering to the left and get on with it. I’m fed up just hearing words with no action. It’s a big concern that these invaders are mostly young men with no regard for our culture and no respect for women. If Parliament can pass climate laws and lock downs easily then this can’t be that difficult. Suella needs to be able to do her job.
March 9, 2023
Spot on. Time to get on with it, so far wordy words but no concrete action. The aussies pushed the boats back, how hard can it be?
March 9, 2023
A border has two sides to it. When we were in the EU we co-operated with the French under EU law, but thatâs been thrown away now. No small boats before Brexit. You voted for it
March 9, 2023
Oh, so you admit that Macron is not cooperating and is not complying with international law because he’s miffed about Brexit.
Glad we’ve got that straight.
March 9, 2023
Donna – Macron is a globalist EU puppet.
March 9, 2023
amongst a number of other descriptions.
March 9, 2023
So youâre saying the French are vindictively just waving the illegals through? And you want us to go back into the EU, under these peopleâs thumb again?
March 9, 2023
Wait for the speedboats to arrive. Story in media last day or two ‘ Criminal gangs are charging migrants euros 7000 to cross the channel now on speedboats – and selling the service on Tik Tok ‘
Interesting too that Jersey is to offer French tourists a special pass to cross to the island to boost summer tourism numbers which have declined since Brexit after Ferry companies threatening to terminate services.
March 9, 2023
The small boats phenomenon arose because the (non-member of EU) countries realised the UK was pulling up the drawbridge against the mass immigration we had suffered. Certain criminal gangs were able to ‘rob’ citizens of various countries by agreeing they could take them across the Channel thus bypassing the queue of legal applicants. Previously the illegals didn’t try the dangerous method but now learnt it was perfectly possible.
March 9, 2023
Quite. How many plane loads of safe Country Albanians has your Party deported this week? ………..zero. How much tax have you taken from us 46% to pay for your inaction this week? Part time, unqualified hot air politicos are not fit for purpose. Torys must go we need Reform.
March 9, 2023
Did you the single largest foreign contingent in our prisons are Albanians’ ?
March 9, 2023
We could leave the european council ECHRs and inform other international treaties that our laws are supreme and our politicians could write new laws excluding appeal or taxpayer funded lawyers aiding none UK people âŠit could be done tomorrow
March 9, 2023
I’m sure that tearing up the Good Friday Agreement will do wonders for the UK’s international reputation. Not.
Reply It is the EU tearing it up with its hostile interpretation of The Protocol alienating the Nationalist community.
March 9, 2023
The Protocol was Johnsons “oven ready deal” which formed part of the Conservative manifesto in 2019 on which all current Conservative MPs stood.
The implementation of the Protocol was agreed by a joint committee in which the UK played an equal part. All of the documents detailing the implementation are available on the internet, and if you read them you see that they were signed off on the UK side by Michael Gove.
Blaming the EU for things that this UK government willingly agreed to and committed to is disnengenuous.
March 9, 2023
“If Parliament can pass climate laws and lock downs easily then this canât be that difficult.” Indeed bit perhaps they only have a appitite for passing insane policies like lockdowns, net zero, tax increases, road blocking, test and trace, duff vaccines, HS2 and the only struggle with sensible policies.
Certainly rather few sensible policies arround.
March 9, 2023
LL,
Globalists want climate laws and lockdowns. So UK politicians are not stepping on the globalists’ toes but rather ingratiating themselves, with prospects of future rewards from these people after leaving office.
Asserting sovereignty requires resolute conviction and a determined mindset, which most of our politicians lack. It is easier to go along with the groupthink.
March 9, 2023
Yes, you (and Sir John) are quite right that parliament must be supreme, which in practice means that the government must be allowed to govern and give the people what they voted for. It’s called democracy. I wrote an article about this on my British Patriot blog on substack, but I won’t try our kind host’s patience by linking to it. But in essence the government needs to change the law so that it can SACK those left-wing, anti-democratic, quislings in official positions – be they civil servants, judges, police officers or whoever – who try and block the will of the people as expressed by their elected representatives.
March 9, 2023
Good Morning,
And yet our brilliant and erudite PM is once again going to visit the French to ask ever so nicely to please stop sending boat loads of young men across the channel. The ever-so trustworthy and polite President will again promise to do so, for just a miniscule more few million Euros, per year, paid in advance, and this time, it ‘certainment sera fait effective’. And no doubt our illustrious PM will return from a slap up dinner waving a piece of paper that says ‘No more illegals’ (probably) and tell us what a wonderful deal he has just done.
March 9, 2023
Let us hope it stops at that humiliation and profligacy and that he doesn’t sign us up to yet another treaty.
March 10, 2023
Would it be cynical of me to suspect the word ‘quotas’ may come into any conversation. Whitehall’s ‘reminder’ issued this week of a likely increase in legal immigration being forthcoming seems perfectly timed.
March 9, 2023
Iâm afraid that that piece of paper heâs waving will actually be an invoice from the French for an additional ÂŁ20million
March 9, 2023
glen cullen
You cannot make it up.
We are being well and truly shafted by Macron and he does it because he knows he can because our government is so weak and pathetic.
March 9, 2023
+ 1
And I wonder how these payments to France are bing audited.
March 9, 2023
At the end of the day it comes down to the people of this country and at the moment it seems to many that there is no parliament and government.
Other tails are wagging the dog whether it be the EU or the globalists.
It is time for those in both houses to wake up and smell the coffee as the vast majority of the people have had enough and that leads to the anarchy.
Let’s just start with some real honesty to where people stand about all these problems, not as party members but as people of this country. All of you want power but will the ultimate price be too high?
March 9, 2023
Exactly & certainly not a parliament that responds in any way to the voters who mainly want lower taxes, less red tape, public service that perform and deliver, cheap reliable energy, no illegal immigration, well directed law and order, health care that works & promptly, an energy policy that works…
We seem to have a government that wants to deliver the complete reverse on all the above & with an even worse Starmer & Labour Party waiting in the wings.
March 9, 2023
The police in some areas even seem to think we have blasphemy laws and nack door Sharia Law applies. A scuffed book at school is clearly a very serious matter and yet they do almost nothing about shoplifting, burglary, car theftsâŠcash cow mugging of motorists for putting a wheel in an empty bus lane or refusing to be locked down when ordered to by Hancock are clearly very high priorities to them.
March 9, 2023
Would the same furore broken out if the book was the Bible?
March 9, 2023
Thanks to the UK’s FPTP electoral system, the vast majority of voters are safely ignored by politicial parties of all persuasions.
Lynton Crosby’s first decision in the 2015 Conservative election campaign – write off 550 of the 650 constituencies as not worth bothering campaigning in and focus on just the remaining 100. If you don’t believe me, read the book on the campaign written by Tim Ross.
March 9, 2023
He decided quite logically to concentrate limited campaign funds and efforts onto those particular constituencies which were marginals.
Don’t all political parties do that?
They do here in the EU
March 15, 2023
A bit weak as a response. With any voting system a bit more proportional than the UK one (as it is in most EU countries) it is not that easy. Thatâs why there is more diversity and more potential political changes in the EU (see Macron, Meloni, Kristersson, Frederiksen, Sanchez, âŠ)
March 9, 2023
Mass immigration from chosen nations who exhibit the appropriate criteria is a weapon of political and cultural war for the Left and Labour. They will fight till their dying days to guarantee its success. The Tories appeasement of this politics is warping the very nature of reality
These imports on the south coast are not victims or asylum seekers. They’re not children. They’re not women. They’re all young, able men coming in from France. It’s a con. It’s a farce and it spits in the face of every hardworking person in the UK
And someone put Millionaire, virtue signalling Lineker back in his box. There’s lot of real victims in the UK who need a voice.
March 9, 2023
+1 but Lineker can surely say what he wants to but not while we are forced to pay his wages at the dire BBC.
March 9, 2023
He’s a sport presenter. Not a political commentator. He’s also fortunate that none of the every day problems many people have to contend with don’t affect him. No waiting for NHS care and his children privately educated with no large foreign speaking classes. It’s the same for all high earners. Let them put up illegals in their homes if they think it’s so marvellous.
March 9, 2023
Exactly, Lifelogic.
March 9, 2023
I donât pay his, or anyone elseâs, wages at the BBC. The BBC clearly have far too much money.
March 9, 2023
Well said.
I’ve had more than enough of being run by and for minority pressure groups, the so called ‘celebrities’ who are nearly all to a man of ‘the left’ (well they’d not get a job on the BBC if they didn’t spout the propaganda, would they?) constantly yapping on is becoming unbearable.
March 9, 2023
Well said
March 9, 2023
+1 for everything you say.
I continue to think several fast patrol boats equipped with loud hailers and machine guns intercepting the would-be immigrants at our marine border telling them to turnabout or risk sinking might do the trick.
March 9, 2023
Nice one Clark.
March 9, 2023
+1
Your description of current events and that of the boat people are spot on and Iâd suggest reflect the true view of the majority in the UK (less the media and parliament)
March 9, 2023
Indeed sovereignty does matter and we need to exercise it to solve these and other problems. We also need representatives that respond to voters they rarely do they respond to Party once elected.
You ask âcan UK voters tell their Parliament they want the boats stopped and NI/GB trade restored and expect to get their Parliament to do this? No would seem to be the answer.
Can UK voters get this government to ditch the pure evil of Mayâs Net Zero lunacy? Anyone in any doubt about these evils should read the report by two sensible physicists Dr. William Happer, Professor of Physics, Emeritus, Princeton University; Dr. Richard Lindzen, Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Science Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Gregory Wrightstone, a geologist and executive director of the CO2 Coalition.
The Climate Change act and Mayâs moronic Net Zero (nodded through by scientifically illiterate MPs) are totally evil, immoral, economic lunacy that will surely kill millions if actually carried through.
March 9, 2023
Ashley
Have you any links for those reports?
To your last paragraph that is what the globalists want. Smaller populations are easier to control
March 9, 2023
It comes up easily if you Google their names and CO2 Coalition.
March 9, 2023
Well, a million protesters (voters) turned up to express their reluctance to another war with Iraq. And we all know how that turned out.
March 9, 2023
+1.
An excellent podcast this week The Weekly Sceptic (and daily sceptic) yet more very worrying information on fertility (nearly 12% down timing with the vaccine rollout) in the child bearing age groups (people who never even needed these âvaccinesâand other problems caused (almost certainly) by the âVaccinesâ. Are the government investigating this are are they still trying to hide it for years to come and certainly after the next election. Hancock still has the whip but not Bridgen it seems. Why exactly?
March 9, 2023
+1 Ashley.
Interesting piece in the daily sceptic today about CO2 saturation. Various under-reported studies conclude that above a certain concentration, having more CO2 in the atmosphere makes no virtually difference to the temperature. Another reason for their being no benign purpose in striving for Net Zero.
March 9, 2023
Indeed CO2 is not a serious problem, the UK cannot even lower world CO2 sig. anyway and the solutions they push electric cars, wind farms, heat pumps, public transport, walking save little or no CO2 anyway. EV cars make it worse compaired to keeping you old car.
March 9, 2023
As I look out of my window I’m wondering what that white stuff is on the ground. You know….that stuff that over 30 years ago they told us within 10 years there would be no snow. Makes you want to weep.
March 9, 2023
Scientist Piers Corbyn has been saying the same for years at weatheraction.com
March 9, 2023
+1
March 9, 2023
Parliament is sovereign inside the UK but not outside it. Parluament cannot change an international Treaty. (If it could, no one would waste their time agreeing a Treaty with the UK). So what you are suggesting here is a straightforward breach of internatiobal law. That is very unconservative, and I hope you will withdraw your misguided suggestion
March 9, 2023
Shire Tory
A lot of these treaties are no longer relevant because the world has moved on since agreed.
In the real world people sit down apply reason and common sense and renegotiate. Those who do not want change usually are holding on to the past for their own very good reasons.
March 9, 2023
Good point, turbo. And the EU and the UK have agreed to renegotiate the Irish Protocol, a very good job of work by Mr Sunak. I wish him well, and like ShireTory I hope Mr Redwood will withdraw his profoundly unhelpful(and unconservative!) suggestion that the UK shall act unilaterally (which is in breach of international law)
March 9, 2023
If a country can’t break international law, it’s not sovereign at all and democracy is a sham.
March 9, 2023
A âshamâ well certainly it gives very weak or even non existent controls to the voters. A choice every five year between two three candidates (the least bad) or in most area just one as v. safe seats. But they never do what they promised in their manifestos once elected (read the old ones). Plus they can be blocked by the Lords, uncooperative or useless civil servants, the many global forces, or rule by Judges and the Lawyers UK or ECHR. Many are clearly bought by crony capitalism and vested interests like the green lunacy or other countries.
More direct and real democracy is clearly needed.
March 9, 2023
+1
March 9, 2023
A Treaty is an agreement.
When circumstances change disagreements occur resulting in bad agreements being remedied.
Similar changes occur at all levels from meeting times, rentals, hire purchase, marriage, political promises to even war and peace.
March 9, 2023
I thought I would find a UK reference, but this from the Netherlands came up at the top of list:
https://www.government.nl/topics/treaties/the-difference-between-signing-and-ratification
and it serves just as well.
“A number of steps need to be taken before a treaty enters into force. The states involved first conduct negotiations. Once they reach agreement, the treaty is signed. In the Netherlands, treaties require parliamentary approval. If parliament gives its approval, ratification will follow.”
“Once the treaty has been signed, each state will deal with it according to its own national procedures. In the Netherlands, parliamentary approval is required. After approval has been granted under a stateâs own internal procedures, it will notify the other parties that they consent to be bound by the treaty. This is called ratification. The treaty is now officially binding on the state.”
The crucial words there are:
“… they consent to be bound by the treaty …”,
and that consent is not necessarily permanent, it can be withdrawn at some point in the future.
March 9, 2023
When it comes to breaking international treaties, one could say that it has never hurt the Germans.
March 9, 2023
Shire Tory: Countries withdraw from treaties from time to time, but that does not change the treaty as such. The USA has pulled out of treaties, e.g. the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Paris agreement on climate change, and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. I see no reason why we cannot give notice of withdrawal from an international treaty we no longer consider to be operating properly.
March 9, 2023
You canât be held to a treaty forever and a day, we have an understanding that no government can be held to the policies of a previous government
We, the people, society, countries, communications, language, technology etc EVOLVE âŠ.and so must international treaty
Maybe we need to leave the UN and all its treaties until reform can be established
March 9, 2023
Do the whispers specify which article of the Vienna Convention the EU would cite?
Bear in mind that this would only be enabling legislation, there would be no material change until it was used.
March 9, 2023
Yohr view is very clear and is supported by Jacob Rees-Mogg as of last night on GBNews. I don’t doubt it. The ultimate and simple test is, will your party with a 70+ majority see it through the HoC. The Lords are a different matter but I hope their involvement can be minimised. If you ca re-establish the sovereignty of Parliament on both issues you will blunt Labour and establish yourselves as a party that understands the issues and does as it says. Get it right and the market for Channel crossing will close. At the same time you become electable.
March 9, 2023
Agree Agricola. Get rid of net zero and stop illegals properly and people will come back to the party. Just give us a party worth voting for.
March 9, 2023
Agricola
If the Lords get their heads back into the sunshine and identify what we the people want they might start looking credible.
If they don’t, then the ground swell will rise up to get rid of them in their present form. Would save a heck of a lot of taxpayers money.
March 9, 2023
There is only one political party that have clearly stated that they will leave the European council ECHRs âŠ..The Reform Party ….and they’d scrap net-zero
March 9, 2023
Can UK voters tell their Parliament they want the boats stopped and NI/GB trade restored and expect to get their Parliament to do this?
Iâve news for you Sir John but yes we can, and will at the next General Election, so get your government to pull its finger out and start running this once great country as the people want, youâve only months to show the tories are re-electable again and Iâm afraid itâs a steep up hill struggle
March 9, 2023
+1 for everything you say.
I continue to think several fast patrol boats equipped with loud hailers and machine guns intercepting the would-be immigrants at our marine border telling them to turnabout or risk sinking might do the trick.
March 9, 2023
Breeding swordfish that pierce dinghy rubber, or banning outboard motors would be more environmentally friendly.
Conceptually there are thousands of alternative means, less harmful than guns.
Instead of fiddling with loose ends, the UK could untie the Gordian Knot with some sharp effective ideas.
Solutions are easily devised. Difficulty occurs only in the Govt pursuing anything that works.
March 9, 2023
Machine guns? Hang on these are just harmless immigrants, not terrorists brandishing weapons. Just land them, take them into custody and return them to their home countries at the first available opportunity.
March 9, 2023
If someone arrives by aeroplane from France with an invalid visa, theyâre sent back to France âŠ.so when someone arrives by boat from France with an invalid visa, they also should be sent back to France âŠ.whatâs the difference, we operate a rule of law, if you havenât got a valid visa you wont be allowed entrance
March 9, 2023
It’s high time many in Parliament and beyond sat down and actually thought about what it is they are in effect doing and saying. That being, we are without any power to stop whoever wishes to come here.
We are already seeing the results of Labour/Conservative programme of mass immigration of people from different cultures. We have gone from a high trust society to a low trust society. It is the long standing heritage population who are always having to make the change to accommodate. No one asked for or wanted mass immigration, it serves only those on the make from it, or those who wish to see more of their own heritage group arrive.
My understanding that intent to leave the Refugee Convention is something that can be done by a mere letter of intent.
There is also an article on Migration Watch website regarding the maritime laws. My understanding of that is while we are duty bound to ensure the safety at sea and escort to a place of safety, we are not duty bound to bring a boat full of people here to claim asylum.
The people are sovereign. If those who are entrusted to take care of the country refuse to do so because of their own political/ideological wishes then it’s high time they stopped hiding behind various excuses and come out with the truth so everyone knows where they stand.
From where I’m sitting it looks very much to me as if those in positions of power here intend to ensure we become a minority in our own home of centuries. The ramifications of that for the future generations is anyone’s guess but to those who think bad things ‘can’t or won’t happen here’ to a despised minority, then think again.
March 9, 2023
And all those asylum seekers walked through numerous safe countries to get to âtheirâ country of choice
March 9, 2023
Sir John, every day you write sensible stuff which I believe most believe know to be true.
My question is this: is anyone listening?
Or, like much of the media, are you lumped in with JRM and the other “alt right” so you can be dismissed?
March 9, 2023
The Not-a-Conservative-Party wanted the UK in the EU and for decades pretended to be Eurosceptic in order to gain votes from people who did not support our subjugation into an undemocratic Supranational Bureaucracy, whilst continually supporting transfers of power (with no mandate).
Finally, enough Conservative voters got wise to the scam and stopped voting for the Not-a-Conservative-Party, sufficiently threatening its position as one of the two parties of government for Cameron to promise a Referendum which he was convinced he would win. The pro-EU Not-a-Conservative-Party, having lost the Referendum, STILL hasn’t implemented a proper Brexit.
We are in a similar situation now. The Not-a-Conservative-Party is below 30% in the polls and there is an alternative, genuinely right-wing party, which DOES care about Sovereignty, for those who refuse to be conned any more.
Lo and behold, the Not-a-Conservative-Government announces it will “do whatever it takes” to get the criminal invasion under control – except leave the ECHR of course. They can’t do that because their BRINO+ “deal” doesn’t permit it.
They didn’t want our Sovereignty restored and despite a clear instruction from the people they didn’t restore it whilst loudly proclaiming that they have.
“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”
March 9, 2023
It wasn’t Conservative voters who carried the day on the referendum to leave the EU, it was Labour voters in the North. Hence the levelling up agenda to keep them voting blue.
Most whet Conservatives and New Labour southerners are very much EUPhiles
March 9, 2023
+1 ….how soon the politicians forget
March 9, 2023
Correct, Farage courted Labour voters in the midlands and the north and when it came to the Referendum, they delivered …. but he (and most of UKIP’s leading lights and activists) were from the right and threatened Conservative MPs’ re-election more than Labour’s which is why Cameron promised the Referendum.
March 9, 2023
Yes, they went ahead with signing these treaties and agreements, and have now been rumbled. It’ll take more and more radical measures to row back on them, else we all roll over and go full left wing. But that didn’t happen when the choice was Corbyn, who was at least both honest about these things and pro-Brexit. So perhaps time to elect a proper Conservative government and hunker down to improve our situation. China rebuilt behind a wall, without being either in the EU or fully integrated into these wonderful agreements and treaties.
March 9, 2023
In a nutshell.
March 9, 2023
+1
March 9, 2023
+1. But the cats out of the bag and we all know it.
March 9, 2023
My vote goes to the Party that puts the people of this Country first – and not half of the World.
If they donât do this, then they don’t get my vote. I am not going to vote, (and pay my taxes), for the destruction of my own Country, and culture.
The next General Election may see me not voting at all. Something I have never done since the age of 21 (I am 83 years old).
March 9, 2023
You should always vote young lady. Go and pick a single issue party or spoil your paper.
Not voting can be spun as apathy but large numbers of spoiled papers or massive single issue votes can’t be ignored
March 9, 2023
Good for you.
March 9, 2023
Cheshire Girl
Cannot do anything else but agree, but it needs to put the majority view first, not the very vocal minority.
March 9, 2023
I’m sick of minority issues being prioritised over the majority. No representation for English people or heterosexuals.
March 9, 2023
Gets my support & vote Cheshire Girl
March 9, 2023
Treaties should not need to be renounced in order for Parliament to be sovereign. If treaties that have been entered into need to be announced, then they should be renounced.
March 9, 2023
And yet, if not held in check, reviewed and amended when necessary the creep of international treaty can encroach upon national sovereignty
March 9, 2023
Treaty law is inferior to Constitutional law. Our sovereignty and democratic power trumps all.
March 9, 2023
Sir JR
As long as the EU single market parts of EU law will apply.
Talking about sovereignty in this context alone is naive and just not possible on the deal Boris signed
March 9, 2023
Your comment is simple, straightforward and true
March 9, 2023
Understandable resentment from the public to this continuing wave of immigration is now starting to manifest itself in violent demonstrations. One hopes this government will take note before the country descends into anarchy.
March 9, 2023
Not just here in the UK but also in Eire
March 9, 2023
Macron asking for more money from- they have done nothing for the money already given. The cheek of them.
We must do things our way- stop the trash crissing out of French waters. If that means drownings and a fight with Macron so be it.
We must fight- just like our fathers did, destroy their scheme!
March 9, 2023
I’m sure Sunak and Macron will have a very productive discussion on the matter tomorrow. They ought to get on well: one ex-US banker talking to another.
March 9, 2023
did you mean banker?
March 9, 2023
I did, Mickey. Both worked for US banks.
But maybe you were trying to make a different point…
March 9, 2023
Quite possibly.
March 15, 2023
Just for fun: a bit of historical and present financial âresearchâ shows that the Rothschild Group is Swiss, Rothschild & Cie Banque is French (the one for which Macron worked), the Edmond de Rothschild Banque is Swiss/French or Franco/Swiss, and Rothschild Investment Trust (ftse:RIT) is British. Together they might have subsidiaries in more than 20 countries but can hardly be described as US banks.
Interestingly for history, these bankers/financiers were involved in the two sides of the Battle of Waterloo.
March 9, 2023
Bravo! And if Parliament do not wish to exercise the Sovereignty of the British people lend them, then in extremis the people will exercise their own sovereignty.
None of us want that.
So Parliament better shape up.
March 9, 2023
We decide what to accept in our own land.
What people from other countries want is a matter for them.
March 9, 2023
Yes, Sir John. Absolutely. Yes.
March 9, 2023
I have more belief in Santa Claus than I have in the will or intention of this government to stop the illegal invasion or deal with the many other problems they have caused or are causing.
March 9, 2023
With a 70+ seat majority and departure from the EU, how much more sovereignty do you want?Perhaps some of these complex problems are a bit more tricky than the easy, populist solutions that are often proposed here. If we do not work with other countries, we become isolationist and what does that do for trade, inward investment, migration issues and influence on the political stage. Blaming everyone else for our failings shows an immaturity that belies our great humanitarian tradition and parliamentary values.
March 9, 2023
An excellent post. The EU is a superb exercise in states cooperating to tackle problems like trade and migration which they cannot solve on their own – as we see every day as Brexit shows the UK has weakened itself by thinking it can go it alone
March 9, 2023
You wrote ‘cooperating to tackle problems like trade’ when you should have said ‘cooperating to create problems like trade’.
March 9, 2023
Gaddafi threatened that if we ended his rule, vast numbers of migrants would flood out of Libya into Europe.
Macron came to power in 2017 and has been punishing us in much the same way for ending our EU membership.
March 9, 2023
Grow up Sir John – we are only ‘sovereign’ in so far as we have steered clear of signing international treaties – where we have agreements and treaties in place then we are obligated.
March 9, 2023
Agree but those same international treaties can be rewritten, amended, superseded or repealed
March 9, 2023
glen cullen- yes but that is exactly what the Spanish say about Gibraltar and the treaty of Uthrecht 1713
Then there are the Irish dissenters forever sitting on the border making trouble who say the Act of Union1800 itself is a farce and means nothing because if was never agreed to or voted on by the british people or the Irish people. Neither was if ever ratified
Do you want me to continue?
March 9, 2023
All international treaties should be open to review or repeal, irrespective of who made them or when they commenced
March 15, 2023
Obviously, but as these treaties are international, they need the various parties to agree for running these reviews or at least to be properly informed for repealing them.
Do you really think that a few tens/hundreds/ possibly thousands (or even six million âTwitterâ) individuals will make the politicians âobeyâ you?
Dream on.
March 9, 2023
Cheshire Girl suggests not voting at all as a response to the Conservative Party’s failure to carry out the clearly expressed wishes of the voters. This is an option that would ensure the present political and civil service class will continue to ignore us.
We need to send a signal that the days of wine and roses are over for all of them: for the LibLabCon with their flexible principles; for the quango heads with their snouts in the trough; for the ermined lickspittles who serve anyone but the British people; for STEM-illiterate decision-makers who blindly plan to wreck our industry and freeze our vulnerable poor in pursuit of climate goals that the rest of the world will ignore.
Vote against, vote to bring them down, vote to boot out the political figure you despise most, the plump invisible exploiters, those who think that sitting in the jungle eating wombat gonads is how to serve their constituents, the ones who spend their time as an MP plotting their next career.
Those of us with a certain maturity can remember the days just before Mrs Thatcher emerged. Every day brought more noise, more stupid policies, more panic. Then it suddenly went quiet. We could do with some of that.
JF
March 9, 2023
The truth is that our politicians are intensely relaxed about mass immigration if not actively supportive. The only reason there is sudden interest after all these years of Tory rule is the forthcoming election. They hide behind excuses like lawyers, judges, the civil service, and the ECHR, but have done nothing to change laws, reform institutions, or sack obstructive individuals. Why not repeal the Blair stipulation that candidates for the judiciary must make a commitment to diversity?
We have a flashing sign on the White Cliffs saying ‘Free Stuff Here’ whilst paying French police to play a wide game with migrants along the French coastline. We should reform our own house, as demanded years ago by the Mayor of Calais, to remove the ‘pull factors’. We should tell France that what comes from France will be returned to France but we will sweeten the pill by paying a ‘handling charge’ for every migrant returned. They can then prioritise the safety of the dinghyists knowing that upon arrival they will find themselves back at their starting point minus the money they paid the smugglers. France will benefit from reduction of the activity on their north coast.
But what of the migrants in France? France is a member of the EU, which is implementing the Kalergi Plan first proposed 100 years ago to break up its nations and cultures by Third World immigration so a single government can be imposed. If the EU changes tack or France leaves we should be prepared to assist in protecting Europe’s borders.
March 9, 2023
As Michael Foot said during the debate on whether we should join the Common Market, it is a question of democracy. I think this is a better way than putting it than sovereignty. Throughout history, the ability of monarchs to legislate without representation has, in the end, led to trouble. That is the problem with the EU; we were subject to legislation without representation. The European Parliament is not a parliament in anything but name. MEPs cannot propose or amend legislation; they can only say yes or no. The power to introduce legislation does not depend on a democratic mandate; it vest solely in the Commission. Whilst the Commissioners are appointed variously by the national governments, once appointed there is no control over what they do or say. Often they are people who could not get elected to government in their own country, e.g. Neil Kinnock, or had to resign from government in disgrace, e.g. Peter Mandelson (twice resigned). It is the lack of democratic accountability that was the problem and why many voted to leave the EU.
March 9, 2023
Self hatred and loss of confidence in their own country and its history set in as long ago as the 1960s. It is now automatic in the governing class and of course the overmighty media. When the disparagement of the country first started, it was thought to be daring and clever which is why it became fashionable so quickly. Now it is taught in every school.
March 9, 2023
So T.E.Lawrence had full confidence in the UK and its history. And obviously nobody had ever questioned the role of the British in the Anglo-Boer War, the Irish War of Independence, the Jewish Insurgency in Mandate Palestine, the Indian Partition, the Mau Mau Uprising, the Malayan Emergency, the Cyprus Emergency ⊠before the 1960s.
March 9, 2023
There is no obligation to be a signatory to the Geneva Convention on refugees. Large countries which have not signed it are e.g. India, Pakistan and Indonesia. It is being abused by migrants who travel here from a safe country, so it does not seem fit for purpose and we should suspend our membership until there is clarification of what supposedly binds us to accept them.
March 9, 2023
Fully agree
March 9, 2023
Questions over the sovereignty of the UK Parliament are less of a concern that the character of its members.
Take my own MP, Theresa May. Given the task of managing our withdrawal from the EU she took the advice of the President of the EU Commission and held an unnecessary general election, in which she lost her majority:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/10/election-nicky-morgan-theresa-hard-brexit
“The Observer has learned that May took the fateful decision to call the election having been urged to do so by commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.
It is understood that Juncker had advised May to call an early general election as a result of his concerns that the 17-seat majority she had inherited from David Cameron would not be enough during the pinch points of the negotiations, including over the issue of the UKâs divorce bill, estimated to be as much as âŹ100bn.”
As there were also 10 Northern Ireland unionist MPs she could have almost always managed with that majority.
March 9, 2023
Sir John, You must admit the once great Democratic system of the UK is broken, and now become an independent MP or help to form another political Party. Whilst I am sure most of your readers very much appreciate you diary, you are really preaching to the converted. Even the US seems to have the same problem as us. Not ruled by the people for the people.
March 9, 2023
Nobody on either side of the debate yesterday identified the real reason why the boat people continue to arrive on our shores. The fact is that tremendous sums of money are involved in people smuggling, the organised criminals doing it can afford expensive inflatable craft, powerful outboard motors. And probably bribes. Even Macron is now demanding yet more money from us to patrol French beaches. Why is nobody targeting the gangs involved?
As I pointed out on this blog some time ago, the boat people are now a national security issue. The Security Service and the Secret Intelligence Service must be tasked with stopping them. It is pointless expecting the police to do it, they are convulsed with rooting out the convicted criminals and sex offenders that they have recruited.
March 9, 2023
The real reason is that our Elite are not prepared to remove the pull factors. In France you are not ushered into a four-star hotel or given a free phone. The smugglers are not shanghaiing the people in the boats, the people are seeking out the smugglers to buy their expensive and dangerous product. In the limit you don’t need a smuggler to cross the Channel, as has been shown by the poorer migrants on stolen inflatables. Obsession with smugglers is a device to avoid confronting the responsibility of the migrants themselves.
March 9, 2023
Certainly, some treaties age badly. The 1950s and 60s UN conventions on refugees were designed at a time when only a small elite group had the wherewithall to escape from wars and unrest in their own countries. Air travel was expensive and difficult, so we were able to accommodate small numbers of often highly-skilled foreigners who reached the UK. Being largely cosmopolitan, they were precisely the ones who understood and valued our way of life, and by and large they settled in well. In fact, we were lucky to get them.
Now, however, we have regimes collapsing at a greater rate, and international travel is cheap and far easier. As we have seen, almost any fit and able-bodied male can make it to the UK. These people are not the ones we ever envisaged taking in. Not only are they of little economic benefit, they often have values inimical to our culture. And importing huge numbers of people when we are supposedly facing an energy crisis, housing shortage, and cancellation of infrastructure projects is sheer insanity.
For that reason, I have pretty much given up on the Conservative Party.
March 9, 2023
S J Neale .. “regimes collapsing at at greater rate” yes all helped on by Bush and Blair ‘ never a truer few word was spoken.
March 9, 2023
Same here, SJ. The governing party seems to take every opportunity to make sure I will never vote for it again.
March 9, 2023
Yes I agree, but why does our political classes keep signing away our sovereignty ? I find it most odd that we elect MPs to act on our behalf and then they fall over themselves to sign away the powers we lent them! You might have thought Brexit was big message to them, but no what does May go and do? Sign up to the Migration Compact! They just can’t help themselves, stick an international treaty in front of them and they rush to sign it, then they turn around to public and say ‘Sorry we can’t respond to your concerns because our hands are tied’.
March 9, 2023
Ben Habid said a few days ago that putting the ECHR on statute was agreed in the talks leading up to the Good Friday Agreement, if true surely the whole of the UK should of had a vote on its implementation into English law and would surely have been against the English Bill of rights 1688/89 that was on statute at the time.
England has been stitched up and its time it stopped.
March 9, 2023
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2023/03/09/newton-emerson-stormonts-voting-system-is-almost-certainly-unlawful/
“Newton Emerson: Stormontâs voting system is almost certainly unlawful”
By which he means that it contravenes the European Convention on Human Rights, and:
“It is an extraordinary contradiction. Enacting the European Convention in Northern Ireland law is a pillar of the Belfast Agreement, which therefore fundamentally clashes with itself.
Perhaps as remarkably, it has taken a quarter of a century for this to be seriously challenged.”
Just as remarkably it is being challenged by the Alliance Party, which wants us to be ruled from Brussels.
March 9, 2023
Yes Denis – but I will go one further – I think the whole of the UK should be managed from Brussels we are making such a bags of it ourselves.
March 10, 2023
Noted.
March 9, 2023
The passage says âECHR and any Bill of Rightsâ and can therefore be interpreted any which way at that time
But youâre correct that our law makers shouldnât have included any association to any non-UK law within the agreement âŠ.it will always bite you in the arse later
March 9, 2023
Oh if only weâd had a PM with a backbone when we âleftâ the EU. Even now, tear up the treaties, and go to WTO. Who cares if imports from the EU have tariffs on them? Stuff them. Weâd soon start growing stuff ourselves. And we can live without their cars and domestic appliances. And electricity. Stuff âem. Is there no politician with some guts?
March 9, 2023
100%
March 9, 2023
The problem with the House of Commons and the House of Lords is that they are so consumed with the history, the pomp the ceremony and the well established desire to “not rock the boat” that they spend all their time looking backwards not to the future. And they are ably supported by “the blob” who since the 1970’s have maintained the belief that the UK was not only “the sick man of Europe” but still is and therefore incapable of managing itself. Meanwhile of course “Globilisation” has taken off and now “nationalism” is a bad thing which means so is “sovereignty”. So UK Governments have not been working for the future but protecting their short term results from the various polls that control their everyday thinking while “the blob” runs things and not very well and with a different agenda from the electorate. And what about “lobbyists” or bribers as they are more correctly termed. Don’t you think they should be banned as undemocratic. And the “quangos” who also want to run things and the tax payer paid for human rights “Charities”. Don’t mention the media. And don’t imagine the US or EU will care if the UK as a Sovereign nation goes down the pan, they would probably prefer it.
It seems the UK has got itself into a very dark place with the “patriotism” of those that run things essentially non-existent. Meanwhile the hard working tax payers who support this house of cards keep working and keep voting in the hope it will all turn out well. But there is a growing feeling a revolution is required and is coming that will crash the existing system and start again this time around to focus on the future. Nibbling around the edges simply won’t do.
March 9, 2023
Well said.
But Parliament has surrendered so much authority to international quangos and treaties – it is seen as feeble and unwilling to think for itself.
I don’t know if the latest WHO treaty has been signed yet by the UK – the one that gives overriding authority to the WHO to impose lockdowns and mandate compulsory medications – but this will be a disaster for our freedom of action if signed. It will also show our parliament to be nothing less than a pathetic sycophant of the international order, preferring to act like a lemming, than to protect it’s own sovereignty.
Parliamentary democracy has certainly failed us this century – unless it regains it’s purpose and responsibility it will continue to be subservient to the global technocrats, and will continue to fail us all.
March 9, 2023
Agree, the majority of the people want to be masters of their land. But those who are tied to EU apron strings. Do so because it is financially linked to the EU. When anyone blocks a decision, follow the money, as in what EU benefit do these people lose!
March 9, 2023
”Sovereignty matters”
Thats a bit of an understatement – Sovereignty is the starting point of everything, everything democratic
March 9, 2023
Politicians love international treaties as it absolves them of responsibility. No government should ever sign a treaty that binds future elected representatives. Yet what do we see but our government representative standing up in our parliament stating that the proposed WHO treaty, which would give power over British citizens to a corrupt global organisation, is a good idea.
We have been hijacked by the globalists and we have many traitors within our government and institutions. Our children are being fed propaganda with only one narrative on net zero where debate is banned. Our police aren’t fit for purpose as the recent incident in Yorkshire highlights. Our NHS wastes money on nonsense whilst failing its patients.
Can anyone think of one beneficial policy for our nation that any politician has implemented in the last few decades? I can’t. Power just swings between the Conservatives and Labour because voters are never happy. We have to end this cycle of abuse by voting for an alternative.
March 9, 2023
Too right Mate, Brexit should mean Brexit!
March 9, 2023
We live in a very much more integrated world than what it was 10 or so more years ago ; communication , trade , the UN and so on are features that have influenced the way we live and behave ; however this does not mean that we cannot decide what goes on within our own borders . We have a legal and moral right to respect and implement the votes and will of our own people irrespective of what goes on outside .
March 9, 2023
What MPs need to realise is that, in a democracy, the majority wins.
Politicians who take more notice of the media, civil service and violent protesters are likely to be thrown out.
The current government is a good example. It will be thrown out.
March 9, 2023
One of the fundamental points of having a Parliament, a Democraticaly Elected Parliment, is that arrives in that position and derives its powers, by Democratic means.
The People empower a Parliament to keep it safe and secure. The Laws, Rules and Regulations that create the framework for this and our lives are created, amened and repealed in our Parliament.
In those terms a Foreign Entity and its Court dictating to the whole of the UK what it is permitted to do in its own domain is simply rule by a Dictatorship. There is no halfway house.
The big question for every MP in Parliament is why are they there, were did they get their powers? If MPâs in the HoC believe they have to be dictated too, guided and overruled by those that the people of the UK have no say on, or how the laws, rule and regulations are created and applied, they themselves need to reassess their own personal beliefs and position.
March 9, 2023
It is weird to even be reflecting on this position of Sovereignty and Democracy. We have a Conservative Government backed by Parliament that by it very actions and the way it acquiesces inferring that an unelected, unaccountable trade body the EU Commission can dictate on how the UK works internally.
Does the EU Commission have the same powers over China, India, the US and the rest of the World of course not, yet they(The EU) have a significantly greater trade with those Countries than they do with the UK.
It is a weak Conservative Government that is refusing to manage that is to far up its own and very personal ego, coupled with a Parliament full of MPâs that believe that their own personal political beliefs are more important than that of the point of a Parliament and Democracy, that is the major stumbling block. The House of Commons doesnât believe or want to take responsibility for its own very purpose and existence.
March 9, 2023
Blimey.
https://www.rte.ie/news/2023/0309/1361100-brexit-immigration-study/
“Brexit caused major shift in UK immigration patterns – report”
“Senior Fellow at UKICE Jonathan Portes also said that the Brexit immigration plan to replace low-wage, low-skill immigration with high-wage, high-skill migrants “had worked”.”
March 15, 2023
Yes, it is worth reading the whole article.
March 9, 2023
One source of contention with our Parliament, is on its doting allegiance to the ECHR. In essence that is our Parliamentarians saying that the House of Commons and its Democratically Elected MPâs are not capable of creating Laws, Rules and Regulations to the same degree as unelected unaccountable Dictators elsewhere.
Yet perversely all other Countries in the World that count themselves as being Sovereign, Democratic and Independent wouldnât even countenance such hypocrisy from its elected members.
The UK is a failed state, because it failed to be a functioning democracy, that then is derived from the failed purpose of its MPâs, all lead by a failed Government. They are all frightened of the imposition of doing their jobs, they are conditioned to being dictated to by those that are not answerable to their people.
Why should anyone ever vote for any of this rabble when the first thing they deny is their own purpose. In that context why bother with the HoC, the HoL the whole shambles is a waste of taxpayers money.
March 9, 2023
Our esteem politicians fear the pointing finger of the international community and being labelled alongside North Korea, âŠmore than the UK votes if we leave the ECHR
March 9, 2023
@glen cullen if the premise and the intentions of the meaning of ECHR the are needed, the UK’s own parliament would have made such laws – that is their purpose and duty that voted them to office. The UK Parliament has made it clear that it is not capable to do it’s duty.
March 9, 2023
IAN B – Your government does not care one iota about the people as it is all part of the Globalist UK Establishment WEF government plan. Nothing is going happen until the WHOLE SYSTEM of government is changed and change is coming. Nothing can stop what is coming, NOTHING.
March 9, 2023
@Paul Cuthbertson +1, they forget their purpose
March 9, 2023
âParliament answers to the people.â So why does it take orders and bow down to those from the unelected and unaccountable elsewhere and then to rub its contempt for its electorate by putting those same entities above those they are answerable to?
March 9, 2023
The government is set to announce that construction of certain sections of HS2 will be delayed in an attempt to cut costs, the BBC understands. It is thought the delay will primarily affect sections from Manchester to Crewe and Birmingham to Crewe. But sources have also indicated that some of the design teams working on the Euston end of the line may be affected.Conservative MP Simon Clarke, former chief secretary to the Treasury, tweeted that delaying construction “would be a sensible decision”. “Having observed HS2’s progress as chief secretary, I have serious doubts as to value for money and cost control,” he said.
Michael Fabricant, Conservative MP for Lichfield, Staffordshire which contains part of the HS2 line, said: “I shall be asking the government whether this delay marks the end of HS2 north of Birmingham for good and whether HS2 will make good the damage already done in southern Staffordshire. He added: “Simply saying the project is delayed is not good enough. The area has been blighted by whole fields turned into construction sites.”
Last week, Mr Thurston said the impact of inflation had been “significant” in the past year, “whether that’s in timber, steel, aggregates for all the concrete we need to use to build the job, labour, all our energy costs, fuel”.
He said HS2 was working with suppliers and the government to find ways of mitigating rising costs.
“We’re looking at the timing of the project, the phasing of the project, we’re looking at where we can use our supply chain to secure a lot of those things that are costing us more through inflation,” he said.
HS2 trains are scheduled to carry the first passengers between Old Oak Common station in West London and Birmingham, between 2029 and 2033.
Euston station in London is currently scheduled to open later, by 2035. Further stretches to Crewe and then to Manchester are due by 2034 and 2041.
A little too late many of us would say.
March 9, 2023
Do you think it will ever get as far as Birmingham âŠ.maybe they need another ÂŁ100bn
March 9, 2023
will it ever get to Euston? And the plan was to integrate so that we could go to Paris etc on the one train….
You just have to laugh. We should invite the last, six is it?, PMs to comment on how the project is going.
March 9, 2023
To my mind, the problem isn’t HS2, it is incompetent project management. As Boris Johnson said, ability to complete national infrastructure projects like this is a sign of national confidence. In most countries it would have been completed several years ago without ridiculous overspend, and would no longer be an issue.
March 15, 2023
High speed train lines (presently running):
Austria 176 m
Belgium 203 m
Denmark 41 m
France 1,612 m
Germany 1,046 m
Greece 430 m
Iberian peninsula 2,251 m
Italy 834 m
Netherlands 78 m
Norway 90 m
Turkey 209 m
UK: 67 m
(High-speed rail in Europe, wikipedia)
March 9, 2023
The Home Office (“not fit for purpose”) might do some good for once by circulating copies of today’s Diary to its staff.
(I accept it would then have to anticipate many sick days as its operatives are overcome with PTSD or whatever condition is fashionable at present.)
March 9, 2023
When was a projectâs cost ever reduced by delaying it? When that project is HS2! Of course.
Costs up! Surprise, surprise!
March 9, 2023
Mike
First trains to run in 2032, good grief the Japanese would have built a complete railway system in the time it has taken us to get only 40% of the project it is suggested now complete.
All that borrowed money spent, and not even a start on the return payback for 25 years. !
March 9, 2023
The answer is no, we cannot because elected MPs can ignore what their constituents want for the next 4 to 5 years. As the post-Brexit actions of many MPs & the H.O.L. demonstrate. The Benn act being the perfect example of MPs arrogance & refusal to listen to & serve the people. We need a recall act so MPs have to pay attention to what their voters want. Preferably a Referendum on major decisions like Net-Zero.
Now off topic, the Chancellor insists corporation tax goes up from April, but he will be giving business incentives to invest in the budget. As always, do it the most complicated way!!!! The simple solution is to leave CT at 19%, or better still, reduce it. Exactly the same with the new Internet Safety bill, make it complicated & create all kinds of problems! The simple solution is to make the Internet companies publishers, so they come under the law of libel.
March 10, 2023
Thatâs not practical. Neither small companies nor giant corporates can spend the time monitoring everything someone posts on their site. Ask Mr. Redwood how much time he spends moderating this site with only a couple of dozen regular posters. Now imagine a thousand people a day posting here. Heâs need to employ a load of moderators.
March 9, 2023
The cost doubled and the build halved âŠ.what could it be, what could it be ?
It could only be that EU inspired HS2
Why oh why isnât it scrapped, or havenât we the sovereignty authority and power to cancel HS2
March 9, 2023
Only the Reform Party said theyâd scrap it
March 15, 2023
It might have been EU-inspired but is (or might be) British built by Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Costain and the Keir Group. And I am not sure the EU has anything to do with the increased prospective cost.
Furthermore the EU-illuminati might have been (in the past) keen on visiting London, but would they be on visiting farther North?
March 9, 2023
Agree the NI Protocol Bill should be passed speedily and small boats full of immigrants stopped from turning up on U.K. coast. Sovereignty of U.K. law and passing our laws speedily through Parliament is why Conservatives were voted in. The civil service should be facilitating the government not blocking its actions. Similarly the House of Lords should not be blocking or slowing down the Governmentâs wishes. Sir John, please keep writing these articles and asking questions in Parliament – I believe there are plenty of Conservative MPs as well as the general public who agree with you and are glad to see your views/questions in print as they mirror their own.
March 9, 2023
@Christine Marland +1
March 9, 2023
Symptoms and causes. Is it not the case that these people that are trying to get to Europe and some to the UK are doing so because where they live is not acceptable to what might be termed a normal way of life.
So the symptom is that they keep coming to Europe and the UK for a better life.
Do we not need to address the cause!!! if world nations can assist in improving the lives of these people in their own country then why would they want to leave!!
We need to tackle the cause not the symptom!!
March 9, 2023
Yep, we need to bring back the British Empire, and reshoulder the ‘White Man’s Burden’. With British governors ruling these Third World territories they will again be prosperous and negate the ‘need’ to migrate.
March 15, 2023
Such a brilliant idea âŠ
March 10, 2023
We canât run our own country so that people have a good life. What makes you think we could help them to run theirs? You canât fix a country remotely.
March 10, 2023
The EU believes it does run a country better the country itself. If the UK is so useless it cannot govern itself then it truly should let the EU govern it.
March 9, 2023
Now after the windsor framework has been agreed parliament then passes the NI protocol bill it will be seen as a lack of good faith on the UK’s part and in this case we can say good bye to any real cooperation with the europeans especially on the small boats problem. Worse still it could bring about the complete abandonment of the WA resulting in decades of bother bitterness and years wasted all tied up in the WTO courts. Consider then also the consequences for trade with the wider world, we’ ll be seen as the country who cannot keep it’s word who cannot be trusted. No chance for modern trade pacts then with the US or anyone else but of course every chance in trading with countries far away by WTO rules.
Reply nearly 50 years in EU and no trade treaty with USA, but we still had a good trade with them
March 10, 2023
Trade is overrated.
March 9, 2023
I submit the whole matter is (or should be) more complex than the blog suggests. It concerns true democracy.
The ‘sovereignty of Parliament’ is derivative (caused by a population in millions, not the thousands in the original Greek and Icelandic democracies) of democracy, not democracy itself. It is democracy that is paramount, not its derivative instrument, Parliament, as is shown by the people being supreme in electing their representatives to Parliament, an election no Parliament is entitled to overturn or treat as merely ‘advisory’. This needs to be asserted all the more as elections in Britain (unlike in the U.S.A. where the people still hold sway via ‘primaries’) have been rather subverted by two small organisations, Conservative Central Office and Labour Party HQ (each dominated by their Party Leader), each maintaining their position on the basis that in practice if people do not vote for one of them the other will necessarily win. So there ought to be a mechanism for referring back important questions to a Referendum of all the people, the people being sovereign and holding the final say in a true democracy.
Another key principle of democracy is that no government, still less any generation, can bind its successors. So if one government or generation chooses to make an international treaty its successors cannot in a genuine democracy be bound by that (most especially when its administrators claim their treaty arrangement as with the ECHR is a ‘living entity’ which changes in a way not originally agreed by those signing up to it!). So ‘international law’ is an undemocratic construct that is abused to further the aims of one segment of national opinion (who often, as now, lack a democratic mandate to govern).
In essence put the illegal immigration proposals to a Referendum as the final arbiter of our sovereign democracy and then the democratic result must therefore if necessary override international law.
March 9, 2023
@Geoffrey Berg +1
March 9, 2023
Yes Sir John. I think you have hit the nail firmly on the head today.
The VOTERS are sovereign – i.e. the PEOPLE.
So they elect a parliament to do what they want.
International treaties, lawyers, the media and civil servants should not prevent the elected government from fulfilling their duty of delivering on their promises to the people.
March 9, 2023
@Pauline Baxter +1
March 10, 2023
Pauline Baxter – Voters are sovereign, yes, but much more so in a republic and where there is a written constitution. What we have is a medieval style ‘first past the post’ for the Commons not truly representative of all with parliament divided by the wholly unelected Lords and then with unelected monarchy to rubber stamp – not much room here for voters. But even in our style of government parliamentarians are not free to do what they want – they have to take care and be guided by hundreds of years of law and precedent – law in fact going back to roman times.
March 15, 2023
And thatâs not accounting for the whipping system, which on most important occasions prevent the MPs from voting according to their conscience (or whatever replaces it).
March 9, 2023
“countries change their minds about treaties” – no they don”t except maybe russia and Trump.
Most honourable countries abide with their international agreements and obligations.
Every day in the Commons MPs address each other as Right Honourable but to tell the truth – I can’t say as I see much of it about these days? – I mean ‘honour’
March 9, 2023
BBC reporting âThe UN has purchased a huge ship that it hopes will prevent an environmental catastrophe off the coast of Yemen.â
The UN is acting like a sovereign country !
March 10, 2023
Last night on the Sky press review Anna Soubry said that the government’s new Bill would be “unlawful”.
Clearly she never believed in the sovereignty of the Parliament of which she was once an elected member.