Atlantic Charter and Atlantic Agreement

In 1941 Churchill and Roosevelt met on a U.S. warship to draw up the Atlantic Charter. It was before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour and slanted heavily in favour of the USA reflecting the weak position of a near isolated UK fighting the Germans. It contained some important binding truths that have united  the two countries ever since. Its terms became more important once the USA was in the war. It set out a future peace based on the self determination of peoples, the reversal of occupations imposed by force, free trade and the pursuit of peaceful resolution of conflicts.

In 2023 President Biden signed an update, a revised Atlantic Agreement, with the UK. Reflecting the modern U.S. preoccupations of the Democrats, it set out a course of future economic development with more state involvement, more subsidies and more protection. It is a partial prospectus for a divided world, where the US will lead one alliance against a China leading the main contestant grouping.  The document wants onshoring, friendshoring and western technical superiority It wishes to impose a green revolution, seeking to remove fossil fuels from the western side by 2050. It identifies quantum computing, semiconductors, smart biology, artificial intelligence and advanced communications as crucial areas to develop.

The UK will hold a conference in the autumn on regulating AI and will push for a world regulator. It is difficult seeing the Chinese bloc wanting to submit their IP and plans to such scrutiny. It is difficult to know how to regulate before you know what you are regulating. My best advice to the UK is understand there is going to be a race to expand and adopt these ideas.The UK should concentrate on creating better conditions on tax and talent to help the UK stay ahead.The USA will naturally put America first and will expect her large subsidies to buy advantage.

122 Comments

  1. formula57
    June 10, 2023

    We would do well to recognize that America is in decline, notwithstanding that better leadership might alter that, before we hitch a ride. We ought not to turn our backs on China.

    (O/T – Johnson (formerly and too briefly the people’s Blue Boris) has let us all down very badly. He did though help end May’s quisling-like regime.)

    1. IanT
      June 10, 2023

      China is having it’s own problems both economic and demographic but ultimately if we have to choose a side, then the US is the only one we can take.

    2. Peter
      June 10, 2023

      President Sunak is hoping to further ingratiate himself after delivering the Windsor Agreement.

  2. turboterrier
    June 10, 2023

    The Americans could be dropping themselves into a very big hole they are potentially digging with the removal of fossil fuels by 2050. The Chinese might nod but still ramp up their use of coal for power generation and take full advantage of the stupidity of other countries scaling back theirs.
    Your comment regarding how essential to understand what one is trying to regulate before actually introducing regulations in the light of the lemming like charge for NZ to reduce CO2 is one to for the learning. America will discover just as we have to constantly attack fossil fuel power generation in its many guises without an efficient and effective network to support it is the long road to more wasteful enterprises.
    Why the Americans and ourselves are not heavily investing in Nuclear Fusion begs belief. Whoever cracks the process and makes it economically viable will become world leaders in power generation. Properly applied it would not require the massive transmission infrastructure to compensate for drops in weather and wind conditions.
    It would impact heavily on all the associated safe environmental disposal of all the renewable components as they would become redundant over time.

  3. Mark B
    June 10, 2023

    Good morning.

    It set out a future peace based on the self determination of peoples, the reversal of occupations imposed by force, free trade and the pursuit of peaceful resolution of conflicts.

    All designed designed to break up the British, French, Portuguese and Belgium Empires. The Americans wanted free access to those colonial markets but seemed to have forgotten that, once independent, many would turn to Socialism or Communism. One such, was Vietnam, which is another story altogether, but shows the hypocrisy of the USA and its real intentions.

    I am not too happy with all these international agreements we seem to be signing. One such, which I mentioned yesterday and has been touched on by others, is the ‘Digital Heath Certificate’ by the WHO backed up by, yes you guessed it, the EU. Both are pressing for ‘Global Governance’ on world health issues. Under this Treaty we will undoubtedly be bound under we will all have to have a ‘Digital Passport’ which will be controlled by the WHO. They will know who has and who has not have what treatment, illnesses and conditions. This will allow other countries.

    When it comes to technology of any type, including AI, it is not the technology that concerns me, but the people who will be using it.

    Prisons without walls. No, not 1984, but 2019 – 2022.

  4. Bloke
    June 10, 2023

    Too many disagree with the current leaders of both the US and the UK for those two bozos to commit to any Agreement beyond their shaky time in office.

    1. MFD
      June 10, 2023

      I agree, My father told me, as a boy. “Look after number one ALWAYS!”
      And now after near eighty years I still do and will continue. It was totally right!
      Britain must stop playing second fiddle to other countries, we must put our interests first.

  5. Ken Marshall
    June 10, 2023

    AI will be regulated by one or all of the US, the EU and China. Nobody has the slightest interest in the UK’s views. Well done Brexiters, you have made us irrelevant

    1. Mickey Taking
      June 10, 2023

      How do you regulate what you cannot get agreement on?

      1. glen cullen
        June 11, 2023

        With a big stick, comrade

    2. Bloke
      June 10, 2023

      We Brexiteers made you Remainers irrelevant, and inspired President Trump’s support in US and us.

    3. Roy Grainger
      June 10, 2023

      You think China is interested in the EU’s view on AI and will agree to be regulated by them ? Ha ha. However the idea of a world regulator is even more of a joke given the example of the WHO.

    4. Wanderer
      June 10, 2023

      KM. Were we “relevant” before Brexit? I think not!

    5. IanT
      June 10, 2023

      The UK currently sits third in the AI world league but as Sir John says, that will count for nothing if the investment and research cannot flourish in a sensible commercial environment. That is within our control these days and being a leader (within Europe) in AI it is to our advantage to set our own regulation. Whether our politicians will do so is another question but at least we will not be tied down by others with no skin in the game.

    6. Original Richard
      June 10, 2023

      KM :

      Dream on if you think we had any influence on the EU bureaucrats when we were members. I think our bureaucrats would just go to Brussels on the Eurostar in the morning, sign on the dotted line and then go out for a nice tax-payer funded lunch.

      At least we can now both elect and remove those we believe are making our laws and policies and the UK is directly represented at international meetings.

      The EU empire’s expansionist greed (such as seen with Ukraine) will be its eventual downfall.

    7. Ed M
      June 10, 2023

      Brexit wasn’t terrible but bad enough to quietly screw up our country for years.
      Brexit is a great idea as long as you have the leadership, plan and finances in place to implement properly (like in business or a big military operation).

    8. glen cullen
      June 10, 2023

      How can you regulate something that doesn’t exist …AI doesn’t yet exist, technology does, but why should government regulate advancement in technology ….control

      1. Mike Wilson
        June 11, 2023

        AI most certainly does exist.

        1. glen cullen
          June 11, 2023

          Prove It …supply one example please
          From first page first para of google – ”To qualify as AI, a system must exhibit some level of learning and adapting. For this reason, decision-making systems, automation, and statistics are not AI. AI is broadly defined in two categories: artificial narrow intelligence (ANI) and artificial general intelligence (AGI). To date, AGI does not exist.”

      2. hefner
        June 11, 2023

        If you were to search for neural networks, machine learning, on the web, you might realise that there has been work (and results) with these first stages of ‘AI’ in the UK since at least 1999.
        One of the main reasons why AI is now on the news is because of ChatGPT as it is a tool that anybody can use. Before that nobody (specially the journalists) cared about it.

        Most UK science-inclined universities have had teaching of it for more than five years, eg U.Edinburgh.

      3. hefner
        June 11, 2023

        Glen, assets.publishingservice.gov.uk ‘Artificial Intelligence Sector Study’, report for DSIT, March 2023, 54pp.
        3,170 companies, £10.6 bn revenues, 50,040 people employed, £18.8 bn investment, £3.7 bn gross value added 
 not too bad 
 for ‘something that doesn’t exist’.

        1. glen cullen
          June 11, 2023

          Hollywood

          1. hefner
            June 12, 2023

            Ridiculous comment, glen: what about 


            ‘AI in medical imaging: Switching from radiographic pathological data to clinically meaningful endpoints’, The Lancet Digital, sept.2020 and the twenty references in that paper.
            ‘How AI is shaping medical imaging’, ox.ac.uk, 20/09/2022.

            ‘Thoughtfully using AI in Earth Science’, eos.org, 11/10/2019.
            ‘Deep learning for geophysics: current and future trends’, agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com, 03/06/2021.
            ‘AI advisor helps exploration geologists make better, faster prediction’, ibm.com, 27/04/2021.
            ‘AI-based geo-engineering integration in unconventional oil and gas’, sciencedirect.com, sept.2021.

            ‘The future of urban models in the Big Data and AI era: a bibliometric analysis 2000-2019’, link.springer.com, 15/03/2021.

            ‘AI for ocean science data integration: current state, gaps and way forward’, online.ucpress.edu, 15/05/2020.

            ‘Modeling the impact of AI on the world economy’, mckinsey.com, 04/09/2018.

    9. Ashley
      June 10, 2023

      Right on AI wrong on Brexit it just needs to be delivered fully rather than this pathetic circa 25% Brexit though under Sunak or Starmer this is clearly not going to happen.

      Charles Moore Today “Net zero isn’t working – but Conservatives refuse to grasp the nettle
      A vast coalition is forming against excessive green regulations. The first party that taps into it will reap electoral rewards”

      Of course it is not working – only stem-illiterates and deluded fools ever thought it could. a little more CO2 is not a problem (actually a net benefit), net zero is absurdly expensive with zero benefit, the world will never agree to net zero anyway so pointless anyway and the “solutions” pushed (wind, solar, batteries, EVs, heat pumps, Hydrogen, Walking, Public Transport
 do not even save any significant CO2 anyway. Furthermore even if CO2 were leading to a climate catastrophe (it isn’t) reducing CO2 would not even be the best way to tackle it anyway other better and far cheaper solutions and adaptations exist.

      How many reasons does one need to show the total insanity of Net Zero?

    10. a-tracy
      June 10, 2023

      We should be concentrating on regulation in the UK Ken, perhaps we want different things that work to the benefit of another Country. The World isn’t only made up from those three large conglomerates. When has having a law or regulation ever stopped someone over-riding it when they suddenly choose to. Sanctions don’t work the Russians are still operational and selling their oil and other key items. R&R only benefit large corporations and the Countries who impose them.

      That you run the UK down says a lot about you. Many of us here are proud of the UK, we may not support Sunak and Hunt or Sir Keir and Lady Angela but we love our Country and want everybody who lives here to prosper and for the Country to do well. The Tories are guilty of not spreading the positive news. I wonder why!

      1. a-tracy
        June 10, 2023

        Positive news courtesy to Robert Kimbell e.g.
        Cityam – London takes global tech capital crown from New York.
        Businesslive – Walsall90 Black Country Investment scheme will be built on 5.4 acre site.
        – Europe’s BIGGEST dedicated logistics park is now set to get even bigger 1.4m sq ft being added to Magna Park Leicestershire.
        – ÂŁ46m new performance venue in Derby creating 200 jobs and able to host more than 200 cultural and commercial events pa.
        – Nottingham College expanding with new constructions skills centre, allow up to 1000 young people access to construction training and qualifications pa.
        – White Company London looking to open five new stores.
        – Salford third tallest skyscraper in the UK planned.

        Pay is up. Tax is down for those earning less than £35k. Property prices are stabilising and balancing. The ‘LISA’ savings schemes with 25% gov top ups have helped young people to save their deposits whatever the detractors say, I personally know many people who used this to get out of rentals or whilst saving up at family members homes. The economy is growing unlike the Eurozone which has been contracting for over 6 months. This doesn’t mean that I think this government is doing really well there are businesses out there that are doing well in spite of the government.

    11. MWB
      June 10, 2023

      KM, what relevance did UK have before Brexit ?
      UK, a poor country pretending to be rich.

    12. Mark
      June 10, 2023

      Relevance comes from access to resources (physical and financial), military power and intellectual heft. All of these were run down in the last 20 years of EU membership. That was partly by design, since Brussels did not want a counterweight to itself. We see that they have also succeeded in undermining the German and French economies. The EU is now the irrelevance, with rapidly diminishing power the result of dimishing the power of its members.

  6. Clough
    June 10, 2023

    The Declaration says “We have committed in principle to establish a U.S.-UK Data Bridge to facilitate data flows between our countries”. What kind of data, I wonder. Perhaps it’s personal heath data related to the aim the Declaration set out to “promote biosafety, biosecurity, and responsible innovation in the biotechnology and life science sectors”. In other words, providing US pharmaceutical companies with British citizens’ health and genomic data that they are so keen to use for developing new vaccines and other wonderful products that our MHRA (now an “enabler” rather than a proper regulator) can be expected to wave through.

  7. DOM
    June 10, 2023

    Not only has the filth British political class imported the poison of Maoist identity politics (woke fascist) from the US we will now be forced to import this increasingly authoritarian’s nation’s technological goods and services that no doubt will be weaponised to monitor and spy on our everyday lives.

    Obama and his underlings like Biden and their racial obsessions despise our nation, its history and its indigenous people. The feeling is mutual. The US has become utterly repugnant. At least the Chinese aren’t ashamed of embracing totalitarianism

    1. Mike Wilson
      June 10, 2023

      despise our nation, its history and its indigenous people.

      What indigenous people are you talking about? Celts? Romans? Angles? Saxons? Danes? Normans? Who amongst us can claim to be indigenous?

      1. a-tracy
        June 11, 2023

        Aren’t indigenous people those that just say they’re British, not x country, y country oh and British last.

        My definition would be people that think of themselves as BRITISH first and are proud to be here and want this country to do well.

    2. Wanderer
      June 10, 2023

      Dom. +1 to your first para. Confused about your second para. The indigenous people there are native Americans, they benefit from some wokeness but are really pawns in a bigger game. If you meant the bulk of the population in the US, roughly 50% don’t agree with the woke madness and many are pushing back. Many of them also have firearms. Not folks to be despised in my view. They may even get us out of this mess.

  8. Berkshire Alan
    June 10, 2023

    I wonder if Net Zero as a policy aim was put into an AI programme, what the recommendation would be ?

    This may tell us a lot about both scenario’s, if of course the correct information and full details entered were accurate.

    1. Bloke
      June 10, 2023

      Net Zero is garbage.

    2. rose
      June 10, 2023

      A recording of Mishal Husain on Today had her asking Greta Thunberg hopefully if we would achieve “a zero carbon world”! She usually sounds educated, if thoroughly unsound.

    3. IanT
      June 10, 2023

      Logically (which is what Computers are) if they were to implemet “Net Zero” policies, they would cease all UK manufacture and fossil fuel production, stop all non-essential travel (including air travel), ban the sale of all motorised vehicles (ICE & EV) and return to a simple agri-culture existance (vegan of course).
      Imported goods would become unaffordable because we would have nothing to pay or trade for them with. This return to a pre-industrial existance would require the return to pre-industrial levels of population, namely the end of large cities and an ability to maintain reduced population levels (previously maintained by famine, disease and non-existent medical care).
      I think some people have to be careful what they wish (or ask) for…

    4. Ashley
      June 10, 2023

      Well a sensible AI system would say Net Zero is insane in climate, engineering, energy cost & economic terms. It will kill millions through starvation, economic damage or by freezing them. There is no benefit is a tiny bit less atmospheric CO2 at all. Oh and the solutions being pushed do not even reduce CO2 significantly anyway.

      I have always hugely disliked the dire, misguided and surely evil Harriet Harman – she has now given me yet another good reason to do so.

      1. Ashley
        June 10, 2023

        Also insane in political terms!

    5. a-tracy
      June 10, 2023

      I wonder if AI said:
      1. Pit one race against another frequently to weaken dominant cultures
      2. Pit one religion against another to reduce populations
      3. Push agendas and chemicals that feminise men, to reduce breeding of majority
      4. Migrate men only from other race and religions to replace feminised men
      5. Stop travel and transport over 30 minutes from home bases (other than for the elite, wealthy and political classes.)
      6. Mechanise base jobs to replace human labour, constantly tell people these jobs are worthless and beneath. them

    6. Mike Wilson
      June 10, 2023

      Well, if the worries about AI are justified, given that computers need power and don’t care about carbon dioxide, I imagine AI would say’Go for it! burn as much carbon as you can and save us the job of wiping you out.’

  9. DOM
    June 10, 2023

    Truss downed. Trump downed. Johnson downed and by an evil alliance between Tory Remainers and slime like 



.Harman. Tories conspiring with (people Ed)like Harman. God almighty, this country is utterly finished.

    If Labour become the next government these bastards will racialise GB in the way Labour are doing in Australia. You will be lawfully graded according to identity and victim status. Someone like me will probably be packed off to the Gulag, a system always admired by Labour and their Stalinist instincts

    The Tories should be exposing Labour’s evil past and evil intent but now spend their time taking revenge against their own. Weep at what we are seeing

    1. glen cullen
      June 11, 2023

      +1 however the Tories have made their own problems

      1. a-tracy
        June 12, 2023

        Have they, Glen? Covid, the war between Russia and Ukraine, the subsidised private railway workers wanting much more for fewer passenger miles so more subsidy from none train using taxpayers?

        All the time, we are told spending is down on the Military, Health, Social Services, on just about everything! Well, what is it going up on in ‘real terms’ because there have big savings started on bills from the EU since September last year?

  10. Ian+wragg
    June 10, 2023

    Instead of wanting to be world leaders in such things, how about concentrating on the here and now getting what we have working.
    Immigration contrill, NHS, reducing sky high taxes and getting inflation down.
    We don’t need another manufactured crisis. We have the stupid net zero.

    1. Ian+wragg
      June 10, 2023

      So Boris has quit. I’m going out for popcorn.
      Interesting times when the usurper to the throne Fishy gets his comeuppance

      Happy days.

      1. Mark B
        June 11, 2023

        He will be remembered for many things, usually negative but, the one thing he will probably remembered for most, was being the last Conservative (sic) PM.

        Labour are going to stitch up the election system in such a way that the Tories will never be in office again.

    2. Berkshire Alan
      June 10, 2023

      +1

    3. a-tracy
      June 10, 2023

      Ian, look at the worst ten performing NHS trusts and start there. This could be political, some Trusts were devolved to Mayors the worst performing trust one of them. Why is no-one asking are the long waiting lists deliberate to make the Tories look like they’re failing. More money than ever think about it and See Telegraph article. What if Unions are just you know encouraging slow work and work to rule, ever increasing sick leave because they want a new boss. Why isn’t Sunak’s government fighting back and identifying the blockages and more importantly which hospitals and GPs surgeries are doing well.

      They talk about stabilising GP numbers but decisions were taken years ago that not all services locally required GP visits, qualified and highly capable nurse practitioners could handle most regular appointments from High Blood Pressure check ups to issuing the contraceptive pill and regular checks required. Maternity services were nearly all put out to midwives and GP visits stopped, the papers never talk about the full picture and the successes of these changes, evening clinics for women as they require most visits and now a lot work full time, early morning opening clinics from 7am, new phlebotomy services from 7am. Where is the fight back? From anyone its odd.

    4. Ian B
      June 10, 2023

      @ Ian+wragg

      That’s dangerous, you seem to be inferring that those we elect and empower to manage the UK should give some thought to that job at hand before seeking ego stroking self satisfaction of some make believe World Stage. Best of Luck with that

    5. Mike Wilson
      June 10, 2023

      Instead of wanting to be world leaders in such things, how about concentrating on the here and now getting what we have working.

      We need Artificial Intelligence as there is so little human intelligence in the way we are governed.

  11. Donna
    June 10, 2023

    How on earth has the UK gone from the genuine Statesman, Churchill to the WEF’s pretty-boy poodle Sunak – and the USA from Roosevelt to Senile Joe? Does anyone really think they have the intelligence and ability to take on China?

    Still, Johnson’s announcement yesterday evening has made Sunak’s “Atlantic Agreement” stillborn. Four years ago the Not-a-Conservative-Party was given an 80 seat majority to deliver a REAL Brexit; to cut immigration and change the way the country is run so that wealth and opportunity were spread more fairly.

    The Remainers and LibCONs cynically and deliberately destroyed the hopes of the millions who voted for change. And in return, they are going to destroy the Not-a-Conservative-Party.

    1. Ed M
      June 10, 2023

      The most important thing to say about the Tory party is how do you recruit higher quality Tories with proper business experience?

      That’s it. This is what we should be talking about again and again and again. Including at Tory conference. Even the first words at the conference.

      You can have great ideas like Brexit but without the talent, skills and experience to implement those ideas are worth jack sh*t.

    2. glen cullen
      June 10, 2023

      Sunak passed his first stage interview for his green card i.e ‘do what we tell you’

      1. a-tracy
        June 11, 2023

        People like Sunak and his family can go anywhere, they have loose roots, they’re not the type that are interviewed 😂. He was chancellor but that wasn’t enough for him. Like Brutus he plotted and schemed for months getting his photo evidence, setting up the boss for a fall. We see him and his ilk, the Charles Walkers, they think they are winning, no good ever comes to them as they’re not ever trusted even by their new masters. Trust is something Sunak can’t afford to just buy ‘out damned spot ‘.

      2. Mark B
        June 11, 2023

        I though that too 😉

    3. martyngowerspence@gmail.com
      June 10, 2023

      I prefer CINO (Conservative In Name Only) to shorthand describe the current government.

      1. glen cullen
        June 10, 2023

        +1

    4. Wanderer
      June 10, 2023

      Donna. In reality they are taking on not just China but the rest of the world (except for the puppet western nations).

    5. a-tracy
      June 10, 2023

      Sunak is just a repeat Michael Howard, a caretaker, someone just working for his personal status, he’s got the badge now, he is wealthy enough not to be bothered if they lose, Hunt the same.

      Boris was fully visible, he was on tv all the time, the press hammered him and his family for every run in the park, when do you ever see Sunak in mainstream news discussing gains and improvements. Or Hunt thinking about it.

      If Boris does come back for Reform, he doesn’t need to win the whole Country election to get his revenge look how the SNP started.

    6. Ian B
      June 10, 2023

      @Donna Yep
 the World Socialist WEF in conjunction with their agents in the ‘Blob’ have a true believing disciple in the unelected leader of the Conservative Party – they have turned the Conservative Party to the extreme left. The Conservative Party? they don’t give a damn, the believe the electorate is to afraid of the bumbling alternatives to move their vote. It would have been nice to see a Conservative Party taking the high ground by making the UK Conservative and Prosperous as an alternative way to secure votes

    7. Mickey Taking
      June 10, 2023

      How did the American states become the United States and elect Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln with the recent ones seeming so far from the early standard? Then of course the British PMs Walpole, Pitt, Gladstone, Disraeli and now to Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak?
      A race to the bottom.

    8. Mark
      June 10, 2023

      We also have not a Labour Party and not a Liberal Democrat party. All the main party programmes now consist of Green authoritarianism. The only variations are in degree. The destruction of one increases the chances of the destruction of all.

      There is a huge gap in the market for a party opposed to Green authoritarianism. The risk for them is the institutional capture of quangos and the civil service by the Green authoritarians. The announcement that OFGEM will no longer have any remit to act in consumer interest but instead will be a net zero enforcer is an example. We are to be subjected to incompetent incoherence in consequence.

      1. Mark B
        June 11, 2023

        They’re all Watermellons

    9. mancunius
      June 10, 2023

      Sorry, half of my post was swallowed – 2) [Boris has realised that] he can get elected in pretty well any normal Tory-voting constituency, certainly in e.g. mid-Beds.

    10. hefner
      June 10, 2023

      ‘How on earth?’ easy peasy the Conservative members chose candidates, the voters elected MPs, the MPs chose the PM. Isn’t it what representative democracy is all about?

      1. a-tracy
        June 11, 2023

        No the conservative members didn’t choose PM candidate Sunak, they rejected him. They are supposed to but they got over-ridden and now we are where we are.

        1. hefner
          June 11, 2023

          Did I say the CUP members chose Sunak? And the members’ choice of the leader has only existed since 2001 (onlinelibrary.wiley.com 30/11/2023, V.Bogdanor, ‘Choosing the Conservative Leader: A view from history’).

          Many members of the Government, of the staff in No.10, and a non-negligible number of CUP MPs decided in July 2022 that PM Johnson could not continue as he had been doing over more than a year.
          ‘Johnson at 10: The inside story’, A.Seldon, R.Newell, 2023, Atlantic Books.

          1. a-tracy
            June 12, 2023

            The member’s choice to choose the leader is supposed to have existed for 22 years!
            I don’t know what CUP stands for?
            And the decision on Johnson will be their downfall, as the opposition knows that’s why they’re rubbing their hands together with glee.

    11. Your comment is awaiting moderation
      June 11, 2023

      It’s been quite evident for a number of years that the Tories have been infiltrated by a fifth column of long marchers.

  12. Sakara Gold
    June 10, 2023

    Biden is a weak and ineffectual president. Without consulting allies he withdrew US forces from Afghanistan, causing the botched evacuation of Kabul. He failed to rapidly reinforce NATO in eastern europe when it became obvious that Russia was going to invade Ukraine from Belarus. He repeatedly refused to provide Ukraine with the armour, long range artillery, warplanes etc to prosecute the war on the spurious grounds that it would be “escalatory” And even today, whilst he allows Russia to bomb Ukraine hospitals. kintergartens and air raid shelters with impunity he refuses to allow the Ukraine to attack legitimate targets inside Russia.

    America is now focused on China. The defence estabishment here is so fixated on NATO Article V that there are no UK Air Defence systems around any of our military bases. The Army has been eviscerated by repeated Conservative cuts in their capability and we could not assemble a single armoured division. The Ajax procurement disaster results in no vehicles being available until 2028 despite ÂŁbillions being spent. There are ony 50 front line Typhoon fighters airworthy on any one day and training fast jet pilots has halted as the RAF Hawk trainers have been grounded due to lack of engine maintenance. We only have a handful of F35B Lighning II jets for our aircraft carriers, one of which is currenty disabled with propulsion issues.

    All this is folly. World War 3 has clearly started and the whole situation reminds one of the “Phony War” in 1939. We must re-arm, and rapidly.

    1. hefner
      June 11, 2023

      The decision of withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan was taken by the Trump administration on 29 February 2020 in Doha (state.gov ‘Agreement for bringing peace to Afghanistan between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the United States of America’, 4 pp.)

      1. a-tracy
        June 12, 2023

        The decision may have been it was the execution of that decision that fell over its own feet.

  13. John McDonald
    June 10, 2023

    Sir John this is a bit of a revelation, seems to have escaped main stream media attention or perhaps I don’t read the right news papers/watch the right TV channels ?
    It appears to overturn the aim of the 1941 agreement and ties the UK to supporting the US war against Russia in Ukraine and anywhere else the US sees fit to start one for economic gain.
    Was there a vote in Parliament to approve this update ? Out of the EU into the US. Why don’t we just become a US State ? We would at least have a vote to remove Biden. Trump is concerned with the loss of life in Ukraine and Russia. Seems to be the only western politician that is.

  14. Stred
    June 10, 2023

    This is a WEF/KC3/UN charter signed by leaders with no democratic mandate. It will ruin European economies.

  15. DOM
    June 10, 2023

    Brexit financier Crispin Odey also targeted for neutralisation. Throw a few unfounded allegations and complaints around, demand their removal and voila, Stalinist purge success

    Brexit WILL BE REVERSED, of that I have no doubt. British democracy has become an inconvenience to the globalist filth

  16. Bloke
    June 10, 2023

    The ‘update’ lacks ability to control unknown risks from China, so attempts to catch up to compete in adversity; rather late.
    Insulation keeps a home warm but melts with a raging fire outside the door. Biden & Sunak lag.
    Better relations with China would be more worthy.

  17. iain gill
    June 10, 2023

    the real strength of relationship between the UK and USA is in the ordinary Brits who have lived and worked in the US, and the ordinary Americans who have lived and worked in the UK. the friendships developed there are far more important than the relationships at our supposed leadership and VIP levels.

  18. Narrow Shoulders
    June 10, 2023

    Any charter that increases protectionism for this country gets my vote.

    Globalisation has brought us food insecurity, gas and electricity insecurity, mass economic inactivity because it’s cheaper for companies to import labour and goods made abroad while the taxpayer subsidises their minimum wage imported employees and the economically inactive, mass immigration and overstretching of schools, health and infrastructure and generally lower quality goods.

    If we were more protectionist, the cost of necessary goods and services would be higher and better quality but our housing costs and tax burden would likely be lower. Globalisation only benefits business.

    Fewer things, better quality, longer lives.

    It’s a shame that we have to share that protectionism with another territory but it’s a start.

  19. agricola
    June 10, 2023

    In terms of financial clout, alonside the US we are a bit player politically, but far from it intellectually. We have inovative history starting with the industrial revolution. It did not stop with steam engines. Think penicillin, the jet engine, not forgetting Germany, radar, the first computers, atomic power, DNA, the World Wide Webb. No mean set of achievements for a small island that many outside it and a good few inside it would write off with a dismissive snide guardianista aside.
    All the above has been for the benefit of the World at large and largely exploited by others, not least the USA. Both the USA and UK currently suffer political decline instituted by the Left who basically expect, parasite like, to live on the backs of the enterprising. We in the UK have the means to progress, the intellectual capacity, the potential energy, all opposed by the Left who strive to make us feel guilty for our past and offer the only path to survival as being a part of undemocratic bureaucratic large entities run by a minority. A touch of 1984.
    There are two areas in which we can lead, AI and Fusion Power. One might help lead to the other. So think positive, clear out the naysayers and political usurpers, then go for it.

  20. Michael Saxton
    June 10, 2023

    I do not trust President Biden at all. His policies are incompetent and incoherent. Open borders, crime and drug fuelled cities, the weaponising of the FBI/DoJ against political opponents, massive uncontrolled debt, plus yet another overseas proxy war are all indicators of a declining society. Our Prime Minister would be well advised to treat this US President with great caution.

  21. William Long
    June 10, 2023

    What you say makes it crystal clear that our best hope is aTrump victory in the Presidential Election as I cannot see him going for this rubbish.

  22. turboterrier
    June 10, 2023

    I+W
    Great opening reply.
    When they said “know your place” the old grannies knew what they were talking about.

  23. Steve
    June 10, 2023

    Atlantic Charter and Atlantic Agreements forget about it – it’s all nonsense – we cannot even keep more recent agreements like the Withdrawl Agreement without threatening to bring the whole thing down and the Americans know this. Then witness the Boris performance yesterday when he acted like the spoilt brat he is by throwing a tantrum just like his other half Trump. Politics and political leaders on both sides of the Atlantic will have to act now to save us from these charlatans chancers

  24. Original Richard
    June 10, 2023

    “The document wants onshoring, friendshoring and western technical superiority It wishes to impose a green revolution, seeking to remove fossil fuels from the western side by 2050.”

    The “green revolution” won’t happen, because it’s impossible as well as being unnecessary.

    There is no CAGW caused by anthropogenic emissions of CO2 as will be demonstrated by China, India and Indonesia burning billions of tons each year and the level of CO2 in the atmosphere continuing to slowly rise with no demonstrable “tipping point” in the climate.

    In fact increasing CO2 will be good for plant growth and food production.

    The “green revolution “ will be thrown out by the populace when they start to feel the inevitable consequences of meagre supplies of expensive and intermittent energy.

    The proof that anthropogenic emissions of CO2 are not the cause of any climate change is the fact that instead of transitioning to affordable, abundant and reliable nuclear power the green zealots have pretended that that our modern society and current population levels can survive on impossibly low eroi energy dependent upon the weather.

  25. Sharon
    June 10, 2023

    Why on Earth did the Conservatives sign up to a Democrat policy laden charter?

    Do we have a death wish or something?

    I read so many pieces where wise people analyse what is going on in the west and how we’ve got here, and if we act swiftly we can probably survive as a country if the breaks are put on.

    Then I read articles such as yours, Mr Redwood, reporting on actions by the Conservative government and I just put my head in my hands. What is wrong with them ?

  26. Winston Smith
    June 10, 2023

    Sadly Rishi Sunak has little experience as a minister and was not a “conservative” Chancellor and is overwhelmed by the Americans and the EU. This leads to touching his forelock to them and putting the “UK at the back of the queue”. He is over promoted.

    1. Donna
      June 11, 2023

      Sunak does what he’s told to do.

      The last thing the WEF wants is an experienced British Prime Minister who thinks he will run the UK in the interests of the British people.

  27. rose
    June 10, 2023

    A very bad time for democracy when on both sides of the Atlantic legal and quasi legal processes are being abused to eliminate democratically elected leaders rather than employing rational argument at the hustings.

    1. rose
      June 10, 2023

      You were very gracious and wise in what you said on the BBC’s World Tonight. I couldn’t believe they read out the whole of Boris’s very good statement and that they barely interrupted you.

      1. a-tracy
        June 11, 2023

        Well they think they’re won Rose, that it’s over. What time and where was BBC World Tonight with JR on?

        1. rose
          June 11, 2023

          Radio 4 The World Tonight, last Friday.

  28. Stepford
    June 10, 2023

    ” Moving towards a Global Empire…etc ” on Zerohedge today

  29. Ed M
    June 10, 2023

    (And men are far more resilient – long-term – in the workplace. It’s in our genes to be like this. Plus men get more pleasure from doing well, than women – long-term, even if it is a job that many might consider just OK or boring. But women get no satisfaction out of work unless they really enjoy it or they have to work to pay the bills. But now you have all these women – millions of them – stuck in jobs they hate and can’t find the man they want (to with a man they settled into marriage with) ’cause he’s been emasculated and turned into a woman (from one degree to another). And now there’s a real crisis of young people getting married. And crisis of people getting divorced all over the place. And / or people in unhappy marriages. And this causes depression, bad health in general, and lack of productivity overall, as well as a destabilisation of society leading to crime etc – all that costs the tax-payer billions and billions and billions).

    This is why we have to focus far more on education, the media, culture and the churches etc to help improve society. Not just so that we’re happier overall. But also to save the tax payer billions and billions and billions.

  30. Kenneth
    June 10, 2023

    There is a lot of negative propaganda about AI at the moment.

    The socialists/Marxists/unelected are always keen to describe any issue as something that needs top-down control, whether that be viruses, the environment, AI etc.

    Our Prime Minister has been hijacked by this rhetoric and is being used.

    A competitive market is the only way forward for AI. Top-down control never works.

  31. Atlas
    June 10, 2023

    This Atlantic Agreement seems to be yet more pie-in-the-sky. It make me think of the tale of King Canute trying to stop the incoming tide…

  32. Bert+Young
    June 10, 2023

    The world has changed . Leadership that could once set standards is not the same today . Biden cannot rid himself of the hatred he has of the British and , as long as he is in office , it will not happen . We need a deal with the worlds biggest economy and we must do everything we can to keep and expand our own state of affairs . Sadly Sunak has got his priorities out of balance with our industry and commerce ; he is so rich that he does not understand the plight of the everyday household ; the election is not far away and voters will show their anger .
    The news today is dominated by the Boris affair . We were all exposed to a discipline regime at the time and a punishment system was established to enforce it . It was communicated to us on a weekly basis to ensure a standard of behaviour ; there were no ” ifs or buts ” about what would happen if such standards were ignored . Boris has now re-acted to a Parliamentary discipline and has chosen resignation as his way out . I am not surprised or disappointed about this .

    1. a-tracy
      June 11, 2023

      We do trade with States in America, in some of those States we are doing very well. It is hard to find good news being shared that is the problem now.

  33. XY
    June 10, 2023

    As usual with modern politicians, they take a good thing and turn it into a bad thing. Regulating and interfering everywhere, they destroy everything, or rather they constantly erode it until it is no longer useful.

    Despite the early promise, even Johnson was a poor leader, with many wrong policies (net zero by 2030) and often making fatal mistakes that were easily avoided (parties in lockdown – dense). Truss might have been better, given the chance, but now… we can only hope that the latest twist in the Johnson saga brings down the Sunak government, since that is a large part of the problem, along with Hunt and Bailey who seem to have an unerring ability to find the worst thing to do in every financial situation.

    I hope you will be part of the process of ridding us of these lefties and rebuilding the country. I wonder if a Farage-Johnson ticket could break the two-party system.

    1. a-tracy
      June 11, 2023

      Farage has done nothing for six months other than slam Boris at every turn, he’s just a quitter, he is one man I wouldn’t put an oz of trust in.

  34. Keith from Leeds
    June 10, 2023

    How did we end up with two Imbeciles as PM & Chancellor? Both have now said they would accept a recession to curb inflation. Both seem happy for Andrew Bailey to continue to fail to do his job. Neither seems to grasp the simple point that the government is too expensive & needs a real cost-cutting exercise. Neither seems to understand that cutting taxes makes the economy grow! I am afraid I would not trust Sunak to negotiate anything for the UK. Northern Ireland is still an EU colony, Brexit has still not been done properly, and Immigration, both legal & illegal, remains out of control. Where there is no vision, the people perish!

  35. John+Downes
    June 10, 2023

    “The UK should concentrate on creating better conditions on tax and talent to help the UK stay ahead.”
    Before the last three budgets, there was a chance, but it’s now obvious that that cannot happen for at least 10 years. I’m thinking of the ER35 fiasco, the Sunak Surcharge and the frozen allowances. Anybody of talent who remains living and working under the UK tax regime is a fool.

    1. a-tracy
      June 11, 2023

      The personal allowance as far as a third of the income taxes go wasn’t frozen it was aligned to £12570 pa from £9500 pa. Everyone earning less then £35,000 pa had their tax bill reduced.

  36. Mark+Thomas
    June 10, 2023

    Sir John,
    Neither Biden nor Sunak will be remembered in the same way as Roosevelt or Churchill.

    Times have changed and so has the calibre of our leadership.

    Good thing we’re not about to enter a world war.

  37. BMargaret
    June 10, 2023

    We should close our doors to all and work for ourselves with what we have.Why do we have to be in the race?

  38. Ian B
    June 10, 2023

    The talk of future World Regulation, this time for Ai, next time who knows, is a slap in the face of freedom and democracy. Imposing what amounts to an individuals own personal view or the Group Think of this clique or that clique – declares democracy to be an invalid concept.

    All laws, rules and regulations should be created amended and repealed by the democratic process. To deny that is to reinforce what the World is suffering under the weight of – Dictatorship.

    Another high cost conference by the look-at-me fraternity does nothing for the UK economy, i.e. the money creation needed to fund the UK’s needs in this ever changing World.

    Air time for ego, comes to mind

  39. Ian B
    June 10, 2023

    Sir John

    Reading, absorbing and reflecting on you appraisal of what is themed the Atlantic Charter and Atlantic Agreement, and then with the announcement from Boris Johnson on his desire to move on, there is clearly a problem with the minds of what should be World Leaders.

    In the Boris instance that also appears to reflects on the way President Biden is seeing things, everything is knee jerk sound-bite to virtual signal to the Media, but no pragmatic realistic solutions. We all want to look after the Planet we all want to stop waste, and most get on with that deed without being cajoled, for the most part that was going well without all the interference of these egos. The BJ version of NZ was it had to be a race first, a race that his self satisfying ego would win, how it would work was to be thought about by others later. In reality all the real solutions need money, lots of money, the best way to get money is to earn it, that for the UK means a strong, resilient, self-reliant economy. The BJ way still perpetuated by what after all is still his Cabinet in Power it to Punish and Control, to spend and tax, spend and tax, then compound things with the import first mantra. What there isn’t in this mindset is an economy to fund the aspiration.

    President Biden has fallen into the EU trap, spend the money collected from others to ‘weaponise trade’ and cause poverty at home. It is not hard to see why all these companies are lining up for the ‘free’ handouts, if they don’t grab them their competition will. All these moves are at the expense of the consumer with ever higher taxes, i.e. the removal of the market place to fund the future. Creating problems not solving them

    Those in high office should only get paid after they have left office then it should be related to the real gain experienced by all those that funded the ego trip. That’s how the rest of us in the World gets paid, one way or another. We no longer see ‘service’ in public life.

  40. R.Grange
    June 10, 2023

    I’ve just read Boris Johnson’s resignation letter. It seems the man has woken up at last. Now he needs to join Reform UK and stand at the next election.

    1. Stred
      June 11, 2023

      Reform vets candidates. Proven liars and cheats, Green charlatans, Brino welchers and tax money spaffers are not welcome.

  41. glen cullen
    June 10, 2023

    My only hope is that Shapps & Gove also resign

  42. mancunius
    June 10, 2023

    Shrewdly observed, Sir John!

  43. Mickey Taking
    June 10, 2023

    Well we ought to have 3 by-elections (more to come?) Dorries had 24,600 maj, Johnson had 7,200 maj, Adams had 20,000 majority. Interesting to see how the constituencies react to these developments.
    17.00

    1. a-tracy
      June 11, 2023

      We will see how wise the people are that put up new conservative candidates, will they be selected by central government? You need big names, big personalities if you want to win at such a heated time, that young man that was just ousted from the Mayoral race for Boris’ seat perhaps, I wonder if Boris would back and support him to get elected.

      I’d ask Myleen Klass to stand in Dorries seat with the offer of a key role in the British Culture department.

  44. agricola
    June 10, 2023

    The woke remain cabal have won a phyric victory in stitching up Boris. Be in no doubt the Conservative party only exists in the Commons to the extent of about 100 MPs. Conservative voters have been disenfranchised across the country and many people will be looking for a new party that is Conservative. There is only one and that is Reform. Those 100 real Conservatives in the Commons should consider their options. Conservatism is a philosophy abandoned by the party that uses its name.

    1. Donna
      June 11, 2023

      + 1

  45. Bella
    June 10, 2023

    now is your chance Sir John – time to jump ship – I say this as you’re clearly getting nowhere with Sunak?

  46. paul
    June 10, 2023

    Nothing to do with climate change, just international politics then.

    1. glen cullen
      June 10, 2023

      Well observed

  47. Zorro
    June 10, 2023

    I will be diplomatic – total nutjobs all of them including the faux 1940s style advert for The Atlantic Carter/Agreement/Whatever. Until the UK grows a pair and stops being a US poodle we will struggle. US only respects those it fears



    Zorro

    1. glen cullen
      June 10, 2023

      Its quite amazing just how similar the USA Democrats and the UK Tories are

    2. Mark B
      June 11, 2023

      Correct !!!

  48. Linda Brown
    June 11, 2023

    The Americans also loaned us money after the 2nd World War so that we would be unable to run the Empire as before and they would become the new masters. The loan has only been paid off in recent years and we need to look after ourselves from now on and not put trust in other nations. Be on the committees but look after our own interests first. Sad but true that an agreement between gentlemen (or women) does not hold anymore.

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