The UK decided to restore democratic powers by leaving the EU. We can now improve, amend or remove laws and spending programmes as we see fit. The government proposes, Parliament responds and public opinion is brought to bear on the process. If a government makes a mess of using its powers it will be replaced at the next election so the voters are in ultimate control.
Various contributors here believe that green policies and covid policies are somehow the work of hidden powerful advisers and forces. They are, on the contrary very public, and have been through substantial governmental processes. Whilst we have removed the overarching powers conferred by the EU Treaties and enforced by an active and powerful court, our country is still under a number of other important Treaties which governments of most political persuasions will observe and enforce. Anti pandemic policy has been heavily influenced by our membership of the World Health Organisation. The UK’s green enthusiasm has been locked in by the Climate Change Act enacted by the Labour government and accepted by the incoming Conservative one, and by UK agreement to the Paris and other international conference commitments made globally. I was one of just a handful of MPs who did not support the legislation.
The structure and culture of UK government is to abide by international rules and Agreements. There is no need to look for hidden influences urging these policies when they have been signed up to in a public way so the whole might of the UK official machine is bent on enforcing and complying with them. It is true the CV 19 policies are advisory. It is true the green policies require our consent and there is no strong enforcement mechanism like the European Court to make us do them, but government wishes to apply them anyway.
This means if UK citizens do wish to change these policies it is a bit more difficult. There could be arguments about “breaking international law”. When the UK ventured a different view of the Northern Ireland protocol as it needed to do some asserted this was breaking a Treaty and not allowed. I think they were wrong as a good argument can be made from the terms of the Protocol and Treaty themselves that there needs to be change to secure one of its prime objectives, the freedom of the UK single market.
In practice countries do renounce or amend Treaties by agreement, or sometimes reinterpret them . What matters is popular will and national law. Some say of course all Treaties must be obeyed, citing the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht which stated Gibraltar is a UK Crown dependency. I of course favour respecting that Treaty. The truth however is the status of Gibraltar rests with the will and views of the people who live there. It is because 99% voted to stay British that they will stay British and observe the Treaty. If they voted 99% to be Spanish of course there would be change whatever the Treaty says.
So my advice to those of you who disagree with the health or green policy, understand you need to change the policy of the government which in turn will need to amend its promises and proposals to the international community if you succeed.
April 9, 2021
You say:- “The UK decided to restore democratic powers by leaving the EU” – alas the government decided to exclude Northern Ireland hence the current & very serious troubles.
Also:- “I was one of just a handful of MPs who did not support the legislation.” Well done for that but alas nearly every other MP insanely supported Ed Miliband’s (PPE again) insane Act. I assume because most MPs have no science/engineering or understanding of business or real economics. Generally virtue signalling, emotion over brain people with degrees in PPE or Law. What chance is there of changing things, especially with the endless deluded propaganda coming from the BBC every day? Well done to Ann Widdicombe one of the only 5 who voted against the insanity of this act. This despite having read PPE at Oxford so a few can indeed survive that degree brain intact. Though I suspect the problem is more the types drawn to that degree.
This Act has lumbered the country with insane targets and the lunacy of the Committee on Climate Change, an “independent” non-departmental “public” body. But one that is alas totally wrong headed on almost every issue. Perhaps due to vested interests, lobbying or just total stupidity and a lack of real science, energy economics and logic.
Carrie please can we have the real climate realist Boris back (the can’t even blow the skin of a rice pudding one)?
April 9, 2021
LL,
I think what JR is confirming is if you vote liblabcon you get different cheeks of the same arse.
The huge flaw in JR’s view is that people and politicians can keep their word if they wish to, they can be straight with the public. Which highlights the failings of his party.
Of course Trump had no difficulty keeping his election promises! He took US out of fake Paris Agreement, China’s WHO and Iran deal! He put US first. A man of his word unlike Cameron, May or Johnson. All of whom put party before nation.
So JR is right you cannot trust the fake Tory party to honour what they say. Brexit, economy, immigration, law and order, Chinese virus, education, taxation etc etc. Not one key policy honoured, not one.
April 10, 2021
Much truth in that alas.
April 9, 2021
The Daily Mail reports crime is costing £95 billion every year. A truly eye watering number. The comments put it down to soft immigration checks, soft policing, soft justice, soft sentences and soft deportation.
Perhaps we need to interpret the law a lot stronger and looking after our own nation and own people better before giving our nations wealth away on unproven and uneconomic causes.
April 9, 2021
Just thinking that way will get you a jail sentence in Scotland…and a fine in England
April 10, 2021
The proportion of British-born to non-British born in UK prisons matches pretty well to the population outside.
Have a nice day.
April 9, 2021
Good morning.
Yes, but who created and then negotiated said treaties ? Because the issue that I have, is that governments get elected on promises made, not treaties they go sign off in the middle of the night (Theresa May MP) or when no one is looking (Gordon Brown). That’s the difference, and it is a BIG difference !
We elect Parliamentarians to the HoC to represent ‘us’ and not just sheepishly follow the Dear Leader and the Chief Whip. We elect a Legislature that should be holding the Executive to proper account. To ask good and searching questions. And we expect that the second largest party to form and effective opposition and work to hold the government also to account. Not do backroom deals, as I suspect there has been.
Name one policy that we here on this Diary / Blog complain about that was IN the Conservative Party Manifesto(s) ? Because if you told people that you would be signing a BREXIT ‘Deal’ that would not be acceptable to anyone, Leave or Remain, and effectively annexed Ulster from the UK, sold our fishermen out, then I think you would not have got anywhere near a majority instead of the 80 seats you have.
Being elected to form the next government does not give you effective carte blanche.
April 9, 2021
What’s wrong Sir John, too close to the truth – Again !
April 9, 2021
OMG Mark. You are so right over Brexit. It is not what we voted for or we were promised. It’s a shocking compromise where we are still under the thumb. Trust a politician? They make it very difficult.
April 10, 2021
MPs allowed Boris Johnson to set aside the CRAG legislation which attempts to provide for adequate scrutiny of treaties prior to approval and final ratification. Now when it’s months too late we have:
https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/69/european-scrutiny-committee/news/153667/committee-wants-more-scrutiny-of-n-ireland-brexit-issues/
“Committee wants more scrutiny of N. Ireland Brexit issues”
Except that it’s not yet too late to revoke or at least suspend the UK’s instrument of ratification.
April 9, 2021
Still some good news even the dire Biden is against vaccine passports. Alas not Boris though.
We do indeed need to change the policies of this socialist government (on tax levels, on energy, on red tape, on vaccine passports, on the size and intrusion of government, on this hugely net damaging lockdown, on the second rate monopoly healthcare and education systems and very much else) but I cannot see it happening.
Climate Alarmism is a religion, it is not easy to change people’s religions. Reasoned arguments and facts cut little ice against irrationally held beliefs. Sunak is clearly a tax borrow and piss down the drain socialist. His very first act was to cut entrepreneurs relief by 90%. The man (PPE yet again) cannot even cancel the absurd HS2 and thinks people should pay taxes to buy others (often richer others) restaurant meals!
April 9, 2021
Lifelogic, Once everyone in the UK has been offered a chinavirus vaccine, the only ones without will be those who refuse, and those who can’t have one. That makes the vaccine internal passport entirely pointless medically. So we must accept that this government is just institutionally authoritarian. Unfortunately the entire greenliblabcon party is the same.
April 9, 2021
+1
April 9, 2021
Treaties presumably state and guide intention. They do not I hope offer a detailed road map on how we achieve the desired intention. There is a world of difference between giving the motor industry emmission targets and dictating to them in detail how they will achieve those targets. It is even more dangerous when a large part of the end desired result is left in the hands of government to provide. The electrical infrastructure for instance. The delusion of PPE graduates and lawyers who clutter our Parliament that they can enact law and all is solved is prime and manifest. Due to the inherant ignorance of our legislators they are vulneable to the siren cries of interest groups and bedfellows. There is no interest group for technology and common sense.
Covid and Green are far from the same. In matters Covid, government realised its ignorance after its failure to have Personal Protection Equipment available at the outset. They had the sense to put the whole fight against it into the hands of those who knew infinitely more than they did. It now looks as if knowledge is prevailing over ignorance. On green matters everyone is an expert, mostly confused and contradictory, so we are nurturing the greatest screwup yet to be perpetrated by government and the cost to our post Brexit recovery programme will be unsustainable. It is the new religion and the zealots are in charge. The media is largely competing with itself to spread the great lie that climate is changing due to man while ignoring the prime mover, the sun.You can mitigate against climate where necessary or take advantage of it, but only fools think they can compete with the sun.
April 9, 2021
The trouble comes when there is no effective opposition in parliament to what the government is trying to do, and what they are trying to do is something that’s not to do with protecting people from this virus. They want to do something that benefits them but they or their advisors are not being straight or transparent with the people.
April 9, 2021
Compounded when university administrations, seemingly universally, adopt a policy that staff are not allowed to say anything publicly that counters government policy or that of its medical advisers. (We saw something very similar relating to climate policy). And no doubt, large media organisations are similarly coerced into toeing the government line.
That is what has led to a total breakdown of democracy on all the important issues of the day. Perhaps coercion in this manner should be very highly criminalised in order to protect free speech and democracy.
April 9, 2021
It’s the fear of being called out as a ‘climate change denier’
April 9, 2021
Fear not, climate is on the move, but not proven for the reason the zealots would have you believe. The sensible path forward is to both mitigate against, and take advantage of the changes. Cleaning up the planet is in mans hands and a whole different ball game.
April 9, 2021
‘… green policies … have been through substantial governmental processes.’ My recollection is that Mrs May bounced the ‘Net Zero’ commitment on parliament, the government and the people. There didn’t seem to much ‘supporting staffwork’, if I might use a Sea Warrior-like term. The PM seemed to scramble for some sort of ‘legacy’, and a closing chapter for an autobiography, without caring how much it cost us, the people. Do you, Sir John, feel that scrutiny of her expensive plan was adequate?
Reply No, of course it wasn’t adequate. She did not have to bounce Parliament because all the Opposition parties want more of this policy and had o intention of criticising it or voting against.
April 9, 2021
Fake Tories are an economic night mare and disaster. They cannot be trusted with the economy. Ten years of failure and blame everyone else. May told Miliband she would build on his policy!! Not the weasel words of JR as if Tories meekly went along with it. May did not cost her disastrous green proposals!
Like Johnson has not given a cost benefit analysis of his utterly stupid lockdown for the last year!! He has also not costed his utterly stupid green agenda. Time for Swiss type referenda on big economic decisions if politicians cannot be trusted, and they cannot be trusted as JR highlights.
April 10, 2021
A big, big +1 to all that.
April 10, 2021
Reply to reply
So now the new PM has an 80 seat majority he can repeal it, yes ?
April 10, 2021
With an 80 seat majority Boris can enact an green barmy idea in the next years
April 9, 2021
The international order has become national disorder in Northern Ireland. I believe Arlene Foster could settle the loyalists, but she needs something to take to her people. What she needs is a change in the application of the Northern Ireland protocol, so only non-UK vehicles are checked at the GB-NI ports.
April 9, 2021
I note there was disorder throughout the EU before there was in Northern Ireland.
Yet another cost of the CV-19 panic which is not accounted for by this (un)scientific Sage group.
April 9, 2021
Johnson is at fault for lying and signing the WA and NIP claiming it was something else!! N.Ireland was sold out by the fake Tories. It is clear and has come h9me to roost. Johnson and JR’s party need to own the mess they created instead of condemning something they created!
Foster made clear EU acted with hostility over vaccinations and s16 by EU. What did Johnson and co do? Nothing, platitudes and Gove going along with the EU. What did Johnson and Gove do over internal market bill, caved in to EU.
What has Johnson and co done to stand up to EU over vaccination block, caved in and secretly gave Australia UK vaccines that EU blocked to Australia!!
Johnson always gives in and runs away as Gove made clear in the leadership contest.
April 9, 2021
It needs to be understood that the EU will not tolerate any alternative solution that does not leave Northern Ireland under its economic thumb. It would prefer to keep the whole of the UK subject to swathes of its laws in perpetuity, as Theresa May proposed, but its minimum demand would be that it retains control over just Northern Ireland, as Boris Johnson agreed. So when at the end of this piece:
https://ukandeu.ac.uk/explainers/the-protocol-on-ireland-northern-ireland/
the question is asked “Are there alternatives to the Protocol?” the answer starts:
“During Theresa May’s premiership there were repeated searches for ‘alternative arrangements’ that would allow the UK as a whole to leave the EU’s single market and customs union without the need for checks and controls on cross-border movements. Nothing was proposed that satisfied EU requirements or that did not require exceptions to be made under international trade law.”
And that will always be the case, whether the issue is reopened now or in several years time in preparation for a vote in the Northern Ireland Assembly there will NEVER be an alternative which is acceptable to the EU, and so the only course open to the UK government is to act unilaterally.
April 10, 2021
Your last paragraph says it all – They allowed the EU to veto anything without them being told that the border was a shared responsibility and they were duty bound to offer their own solutions. I and Mike Stallard argued for EEA membership as it would have skirted around this issue. But the majority, including our kind host, just wanted to have their cake and eat it.
April 10, 2021
As repeatedly pointed out at the time staying in the EEA would not have given the Irish government its desired answer to the largely invented problem of the Irish land border, as was made very clear in this Sky broadcast of November 24 2017, which can still be watched:
https://news.sky.com/video/is-the-norway-sweden-border-a-solution-for-ireland-11141058
“Is the Norway-Sweden border a solution for Ireland?”
Note Helen McEntee, from 3 minutes in:
“We have been very very clear from day one, there cannot be a physical border and that means ruling out cameras, that means ruling out technology, that means ruling out anything that would imply a border on the island of Ireland, it is not an option for us”.
Now, over three years later, reflecting on the absurd extreme and intransigent position adopted by the Irish government it crosses my mind that her comprehensive rejection of “anything that would imply a border on the island of Ireland” must surely have encompassed rejection of the Belfast Agreement, which would obviously be a dead letter in the absence of the border.
April 10, 2021
Mark B, The EEA is the EU’s single market. It is not a customs union. So the issue of a hard customs border would not be solved by the EEA. Moreover, we were offered a national UK binary choice between remaining in the EU and leaving the EU. Not remaining partly in the EU (ie, not remaining in the EEA, or in the CU). The trouble we have now is because the people’s instruction to completely Leave was not obeyed.
April 9, 2021
Dave Andrews you are right there. Another gross betrayal of B.J.’s government. He could easily ditch the protocol. Or even the whole W.A. since E.U. has not ratified it.
And ‘No Longer Anonymous’ is right in referring to Sage as unrepresentative. Ferguson’s models have been wrong countless times and did not have to be taken notice of.
Also I believe there was already a policy in place to deal with viral pandemics which the Government could have followed.
That is presumably down to Matt Hancock’s incompetence or worse.
April 9, 2021
The. Northern Ireland Protocol was at the heart of the ovenready deal that the British people approved at the last General Election. Of course we must carry out checks on trade across the Irish Sea, it is the will of the people. Tough on Northern Ireland but that is democracy, Do not defy the British people
April 9, 2021
General Election 12 December 2019 – NI Protocol 10 December 2020
April 10, 2021
The will of the people., grossly misled by the “inveterate liar” Boris Johnson.
April 10, 2021
No, it’s the will of the English, to be inflicted on the Scots and Irish and against theirs.
April 10, 2021
No, it was a UK wide vote with a national outcome. Those were the rules. Stop being a sore loser, Martin.
April 10, 2021
That is a ridiculous argument MiC
We all live here in the United Kingdom
The referendum result was the total vote of the United Kingdom.
That was the very well undsrstood rules of the referendum.
PS
I note you said nothing regarding Wales
April 10, 2021
Lengy, It was the will of the UK electorate to Leave the EU. We’re still waiting for that to happen.
April 9, 2021
Thanks for your interpretation of the situation.
So now down to the important business, I am perhaps fortunate because you are my MP and I think I know where you stand on most things, especially on the over the top Green stuff, so I do not need to write to you about it.
But what if Mp’s refuse to listen to their constituents and act in accordance to their wishes, what are we supposed to do then, take to the streets to try and change Government policy, the details of which are rarely outlined at any election. Take the 2030 timescale for ICE vehicles for example, which at the election was set for 2040.
I would suggest most people are OK with less poisoning of the planet, increased recycling, less wastage, and everything becoming more fuel efficient, as long as it is all done in a sensible manner, over a sensible time scale, but that is not what is happening John is it, it is an unrealistic policy by taxes, price rises, fines, penalising, and banning over a short timescale which we object to and are concerned about.
April 9, 2021
Last para spot on Alan.
April 9, 2021
Agree Spot On – its about fair and reasoned choice
April 10, 2021
Agreed. That and the fact that these policies just suddenly appear AFTER a GE.
April 10, 2021
Every time I vote I will remember Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP
The day before the Dec 2019 election – Yes we will have a full review of HS2
The day after the Dec 2019 election – Yes we have signed off the go-a-head HS2
April 9, 2021
Alan: “What if MPs refuse to listen to their constituents and act in accordance with their wishes…?” – but suppose you and Mrs J and 3 teenage Js all want Wish A, but Mr and Mrs Smith and their 3 teenage S’s all want Wish X, which is diametrically opposed to your demands? How is your MP supposed to reconcile such conflict?
Left, Right or Centrist, an MP has to both support his own Party’s manifesto (to a greater or lesser extent) AND work for all his constituents, and you simply cannot keep all the people happy all the time.
April 9, 2021
+1 very good AJ.
April 9, 2021
That’s the point, Alan, “green” policies are not particularly . . . well . . . green. The promotion of diesels in the 2000s proves that. It’s because the religiously green regard CO2 as the antigod. And that’s despite the scientific fact that the slight increase in CO2 over the last century has been globally beneficial.
April 9, 2021
Correct – XR etc will only be satisfied when you’re in mud huts, eating vegan and filtering urine……and that’s the direction of these ‘green’ policies
April 9, 2021
Green policies all seem to have shades of black, grey and strange hues before they might become green for a period of time.
April 9, 2021
So if I understand well the so-called Third Agricultural Revolution (aka the Green Revolution) with its land consolidation/regrouping, increased and better use of capital and technology, development and use of high-yielding seeds, modern irrigation techniques, development and use of chemical agrofertilizers, … starting in the ‘50s and going on ever since have just been sidekicks to ‘the slight increase in CO2’ towards the global benefits.
Whoah, everyday one learns something new on this site.
April 9, 2021
Hef,
I am not sure I follow. The UK agriculture policy after the World War II was changed very differently after joining the EU in the 70’s where its agriculture policy and environmental policy completely changed what went on in the UK post war. Do you agree?
April 10, 2021
I agree you’re right wrt the UK, but I guess NickC with his ‘globally beneficial’ is taking a more … global view. I wonder what all the people and companies who work(ed) for these improvements in agriculture would make of such a comment ‘oh come on guys the benefits just came out of the slight increase in CO2’.
Furthermore the ‘greening’ of the planet observed from satellites at the margins of a number of desert areas correspond essentially to the appearance of grass and shrubs in places where practically nothing was growing before. Exceptions are where some countries (China in particular) have (re-)engineered their irrigation systems (to fight, rather unsuccessfully it appears) desertification and sand storms.
However there now are plenty of studies showing that the links between agricultural productivity and CO2 concentration are much less straightforward than thought by some contributors here. Searching for ‘agricultural productivity, increased CO2’ will give you a number of studies showing that increased productivity only happens where water is available via a proper seasonal cycle of precipitation, which is far from being geographically guaranteed …
But who am I to contradict some of the scientific summities on this blog?
April 10, 2021
Hefner said: “the ‘greening’ of the planet observed from satellites . . . correspond[s] . . . to the appearance of grass and shrubs in places where practically nothing was growing before. “.
Exactly.
April 11, 2021
And as (again) pointed in a recent paper in Nature by A. Ortiz-Bobea et al., 2021, ‘Anthropogenic climate change has slowed global agricultural productivity growth’, 11, 306-312..
April 11, 2021
Hefner, Good – at least you now accept that the very slight global warming, and the increase in CO2, since the Little Ice Age is a benefit by greening the planet.
So it is very odd that you claim agricultural plants have not benefited where wild plants have. Seriously? That would mean plants “know” whether they are cultivated or wild. How clever of them!
Historically, of course, climate warming and increasing CO2 has meant more abundant life – both for animals (including humans) and for the plants that feed us. We should be thankful for the planet’s increased bounty.
April 9, 2021
Nicky Green? Hardly green when the latest idea is to start decimating the sea bed for components for batteries now. Not content with mucking up the earth’s surface to go ‘green’ they now wanted to destroy our oceans and tge creatures that live there. It’s sickening the damage that man is doing.
April 10, 2021
You are correct, Fedup, the green rage for battery electric cars will destroy land and ocean habitats. It will be an environmental failure, just as diesels, bio-fuels, and windmills are. But then I did say that “green” policies are not actually green. And that’s because the green religion zealots understand neither science nor technology.
April 10, 2021
Correct they do indeed, on balance, seem to be beneficial in crop yields and greening the planet. Also in providing cheap energy and more prosperity, which in itself saves many lives.
April 9, 2021
Lucky you Alan. Let’s clone him so he is everyone’s M.P.
April 9, 2021
You don’t take to the streets to change govt. policy. You take to the ballot box to change the govt.
April 9, 2021
Mockbeggar.
Indeed that is an option but:
Not so easy when all Parties think similar on so many topics, then once voted in do their own thing !
April 10, 2021
There is a politician vacuum with no centre right party
I would describe the Tory party as a centre right in name only – they’re in fact the new labour with green tendencies
I would describe the Labour party as a centre left in name only – they’re in fact the new european democrats with communist tendencies
April 10, 2021
+1
April 9, 2021
My objections are to green policies based on dodgy data. I have pointed out some of it here in previous posts, notably the unreliability of the historical temperature record and the failure to parallel run the new data set established in 1990 with its predecessor. There are other, well-founded objections that have been raised in the intervening thirty years. In the meantime the political class, pushed by well funded NGOs (including funding provided by the EU itself) has introduced a series of measures that not only fail to resolve the issue they claim is causing the problem but make matters worse. The advocacy of diesel in passenger cars was stupid. The advocacy of BEVs looks as though it will be equally stupid in dealing with the claimed “problem” of man made CO2. (Once upon a time phrenology was deemed a respectable theory in medical circles; it is long since discredited). It is also worth noting the way in which the “problem” is defined has evolved from “man made global warming” to “climate change” to “climate emergency”. Shifting the goal posts, jumping on the latest band wagon is no substitute for well founded policy. The political class, with a few notable exceptions like yourself, has utterly failed in the proper exercise of its responsibilities.
April 9, 2021
The problem with trying to change Green policy is that all parties have signed up to the madness and now try to outdo each other with their green credentials, possibly as the green agenda allows them to be more authoritarian and controlling.
The UK has signed up to the cult of zero carbon, hampering its competitiveness without measuring the will of the people on the subject (much like its previous continued participation in the EU project). Without a referendum to take the population’s real temperature on the matter there is no way to exert pressure for a change and we will continue down the misguided route that has been undertaken. Until then we will continue to be labelled conspiracy theorists (Covid passport anyone) and deniers.
April 9, 2021
Nobody has yet produced a convincing argument for the evils of CO2. Most of my plants seem to love it.
April 9, 2021
Quite. And has nobody noticed even in Winter the grass is green and every blade of grass (leaf) is busily consuming CO2 in order to survive.
April 9, 2021
Carbon based lifeform makes carbon the antigod.
The propaganda has gone all one way, Narrow, not least because the more sensible scientists have been de-platformed. The cheats (as confirmed by the Climategate and “Hide the Decline” revelations) portray themselves as the saints, and are believed. No civilisation can endure the fashionably false. Our task is to turn the tide of green fascism. Otherwise we will surrender to authoritarianism – the only way to impose green policies – and waste £trillions in the process.
April 9, 2021
Well said and about time. Too many contributors completely ignore the political dynamic and make totally unachievable demands. For instance climate change, agree or not, it’s here to stay. Biden is looking to deliver a vast ‘green’ package looking to make the US carbon neutral by 2035. Again very demanding but it’s a fact so time for the deniers to move on.
Instead of doing the easy bit, firing off something from the comfort of their desktop, they need to get off their backsides, put all the work in and get elected.
In the meantime, if you do not press delete, Sir J R, mentally I do.
In other news final salary pension schemes are under threat because of a potential £15 billion deficit. Why the b***** hell have all of these not been ended as mostly.in the private sector.
And the NI secretary is calling for democracy rather than violence. Maybe he and the government should have thought about that when they ignored the democratic wishes of the people with Brexit. They are now spinning madly to blame other elements. Sow and reap, Mr Lewis.
April 9, 2021
Lewis changed consent in the Good Friday Agreement by statutory instrument. What did JR’s govt expect?
It goes to the heart of JRs last paragraph, no public mandate, acted in stark opposition to what they told the nation and sold out our nation, particularly N. Ireland to the EU. Now JR makes what appears to be a side remark towards the public who dissent with his pompous govt! Arrogance only to be expected from Tories.
April 10, 2021
Nig1, Indeed climate change is here to stay. The climate has always changed. What is in disagreement is CAGW – the political concept that unless humanity reduces the global output of CO2 the earth will be subject to a turning point where global heating will become runaway, and unstoppable.
April 9, 2021
Ian Duncan Smith was asked by Julia Hartley-Brewer about lockdown “At what point do we consider the government to be illegitimate ? And would you break the ‘law’ if you thought it an unjust government ?”
His reply was “No. I wouldn’t break the law. I.D cards went on for some time after the war and it wasn’t until courts stopped convicting people for not carrying them that the law was changed because it was unenforceable. We have to be patient and let process run its course.”
Err…. could you repeat that ???? I’m confused.
House arrest and the closure of much loved facilities is of a much higher order and urgency than I.D cards.
Whichever way we vote we’re going to get Prime Minister Whitty and his Sage cabinet and stultifying lockdown so, from what I’m seeing now, more and more people are ignoring the law and the Prime Minister (whomever that is right now) and the lockdown.
Voting is a waste of time – socialists rule whatever the result and they just LOVE lockdown.
April 9, 2021
Yes, the majority voted to enable a Tory government to get Brexit done, and avoid Jeremy’s socialist republic, No Longer. What we got was BINO and authoritarian socialism.
April 9, 2021
+1
April 10, 2021
+1
April 9, 2021
so in other words if ‘the people’ were to keep holding mass rallies including plenty of beefy angry males, the Police might soon give up policing the gatherings, rather than forcing peaceful women to the ground and handcuffing them?
So do don’t break the law – – but…you might have to to.
April 9, 2021
Who gives these international bodies the power to dictate such things as climate policy.
The CCA was a Milliband piece of ruinous socialist legislation not adopted by any other sane government.
We need to change government to get sensible policies.
April 9, 2021
‘Various contributors here believe that green policies and covid policies are somehow the work of hidden powerful advisers and forces. They are, on the contrary very public’
I think you’ll find there are widespread rejections of Government and NHS policies across the country. The shocking decisions in many cases are plainly wrong and recognised easily. Any ‘hidden powerful forces’ are possibly creating an opposite movement against what they might have been trying to achieve.
Whether International or domestic based it doesn’t matter a jot – it comes down to are things tolerable, sensible, sustainable? So many issues in front of the populace are held to be contrary and nonsense for the most part. Local elections might provide reaction that should be noted – an indicator for the bigger voting decision it seems we must wait for. If only your party had taken controlling action on this wayward thinking, perhaps controlled PM, then the Government might survive.
April 9, 2021
still holding my predictions of disaster for your party back, I see!
What strange warts and all publishing you do on here, Sir John.
(except criticism?). Idiots and their views included but rational comment – – -oh my god that won’t do at all.
April 9, 2021
Today should be celebrated for 2 really big reasons. The first is the birthday of one of my grandsons. The second is the birthday of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, born in 1806. An English civil engineer who is considered “one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history”, “one of the 19th-century engineering giants”, and “one of the greatest figures of the Industrial Revolution”.
April 9, 2021
Today is also a sad one, the Duke of Edinburgh has died and sadly we have all lost a pomposity deflater par excellance. My condolencies go to our Queen and his family.
April 9, 2021
I think your contributors see this government as a soft touch to sectoral interests, be they home grown, viz home-grown lobbyists or overseas viz the EU, climate change people, in preference to Joe or Joanne Voter. That’s because Joe and Joanne are a soft touch, no influence, no power little money, but they comprise 95% of the population. That’s your problem.
Just take the ignorance with which the population is being treated by this government under the influence of the EU- insisting that a border is placed WITHIN the UK… so between Joe and Joanne… a stupid decision which has either to be ignored or binned to avoid entrenchment of the present problems. Nothing to do with Brexit, because we have an FTA, but everything to do with a stupid and vindictive EU shooting its own citizens in the foot alongside those in the UK. Unlike with the vaccines (an exception) this government is stupidly agreeing to enact this protocol AGAINST the will of the people.
April 9, 2021
Nest there will be a “global” tax agreement… so again your government will kow-tow to and agree global minimum taxes when the people want competitive rates.
April 9, 2021
Yes the NI protocol is a monument to the insanity of every politician that had anything to do with it. For gods sake reduce the NI/EU border to the line on a map which it had been way before the EU invented itself. If the EU don’t like it, let them go hang.
April 9, 2021
While I agree with your comments Agricola, SirJ would tell us to stop asking for things we can’t have !
April 9, 2021
Asking is a wasre of time. Take what is required.
April 9, 2021
+1
So Bloody simple, and if the EU want a boarder to police goods and people in and out, then let them build one !
Why oh why do politicians always want to try and do everything the most complicated way possible, then moan about people not understanding or obeying the rules.
April 10, 2021
Theresa May sold the pass on that in her Mansion House speech, as Jacob Rees-Mogg complained.
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/01/21/my-question-during-business-questions/#comment-1205431
“R-M: The Prime Minister said in her Mansion House speech that she wasn’t going to do this. I think that is a mistake. I think it is the obvious negotiating position for us to have. Bear in mind the Irish economy is heavily dependent on its trade with the United Kingdom. It is overwhelmingly in the interests of the Republic of Ireland to maintain an open border with the United Kingdom. And I think if you’re going into a negotiation you should use your strongest cards, and just to tear one of the up and set hares running on other issues is, I think, an error.”
April 10, 2021
Unfortunately Dennis most Politicians do not think straight and act accordingly, they always seem to want to go the long way around to tackle a problem, hence the reason they end up going around and around in circles, and never ever getting to the find a solution for the original problem.
They seem to forever get side tracked, before ever getting close to any solution, so thus they create further problems for themselves and all involved, with ever more complications which were never there in the first place.
April 9, 2021
WHO is now saying that strict UK lockdown measures are what have led to falling numbers of infection…
NOT the jab!
And that the next surge is just waiting to be spread by the un-jabbed.
A little contradictory…..
But it doesn’t look as if the jab will save us after all!
April 9, 2021
“The structure and culture of UK government is to abide by international rules and Agreements. There is no need to look for hidden influences…”
In other words ignore realpolitik.
April 9, 2021
Keep bumbling along in the way that you are and the people will make you change course. The people are not hidden and you will grow to respect their influence.
April 9, 2021
One small observation on the green policies that have been derived from the Climate Change Act. It involves manifesto pledges. I will readily stand corrected, but I cannot recall Theresa May’s decision to bind the UK into Net Zero (aka the Great Leap Backward) having been placed before the UK electorate in that manner for specific express approval, nor Grant Shapps’ decision to ban the sale of new internal combustion engine cars by 2030. Does this mean – by reference to Sir John’s concluding para about the need to change the policy of the government if we disagree with it – that we are effectively stuck with the consensus of “we know best” from our elected representatives of all shades and allegiances, and does this not bring Western democratic politics into disrepute?
April 9, 2021
I certainly had no idea that we were so deeply involved in international agreements.
And then I found WHO, WEF, IMF, UN etc. websites. Wow! What eye-openers.
Talk about not being in charge of our own policies. Hollowed out.
And it seems to me that most politicians just do not care…or listen.
Because they do not appear to think they need to answer to the electorate.
April 9, 2021
Just like with the EU it was never made clear that we are ruled by global edict.
April 9, 2021
I suspect we aren’t ruled by edict so much as being held over a barrel in terms of the extent to which they might be able to impact the value of our pound sterling.
I wonder whether you might care to comment, Sir John?
April 9, 2021
“The government proposes, Parliament responds and public opinion is brought to bear on the process. If a government makes a mess of using its powers it will be replaced at the next election so the voters are in ultimate control.” (Emphases in bold, here and below, are added.)
I would be interested if you could reconcile the above comment with the following, which you wrote here little more than a year ago:
“The last Parliament submitted our constitution to a battering, as an alliance of MPs from all the Opposition parties aided by a few Conservatives who subsequently left the party worked with the Speaker and the law courts to delay or prevent Brexit. In acting in this way they opposed the decision of the majority in the referendum which most of them had previously pledged to honour. The Labour and former Conservative ones also reneged on or redefined their promise to see Brexit through, made to win the 2017 election.”
(Source: “Constitutional change?”, January 26, 2020.)
Reply Yes, and many if those who resisted Brexit lost their seats at the next election.
April 9, 2021
Inexplicably not T May
April 10, 2021
Correct, the local Tories shood her back in.
April 9, 2021
Reply to reply: So I can only conclude that there is now a Government and a majority in Parliament all working to make Brexit a success. Or isn’t it the case? And if it is not the case who is to blame? The EU? I thought the whole idea of Brexit was to get out of it. The Remoaners ? But most of them are not in any position of power. The Civil Serpents? But contrary to what keeps being said, the large majority of them are working on ideas and schemes put forward by the Ministers. The Ministers? But are they not putting into practice what had been written down in the manifesto. The PM? But was he not chosen both by the CUP MPs and the CUP members for calling a GE that he subsequently won handsomely.
So ‘all should be for the best in the best of possible worlds’, should it not?
April 9, 2021
Correct – something doesn’t add up
April 10, 2021
It adds up perfectly.
Your brexit was always going to be a a great pile of it.
It is.
You were told repeatedly and patiently.
April 10, 2021
”your brexit”
It was the majority of the voting people that freely vote for brexit – I can’t be held responsible for the actions of a democratic society
April 10, 2021
Martin, You did indeed keep repeating (though not patiently) that Brexit was a pile of it. But you never said why you think UK independence from the EU is so much worse than India’s, or Australia’s, or . . . or all the 165 non-EU countries on the planet. Neither you, nor any Remain, has accounted rationally for the Remain view that the UK – uniquely – cannot be independent.
April 10, 2021
Exactly !
10 Years in both office and power and they still cannot deliver on promises made. And Sir John wonders why some of us think that there is a hidden hand.
The hand is not hidden for a start. It is right in front of us as many here keep pointing out.
April 10, 2021
Well said – Post of the day !
April 9, 2021
Last paragraph.
Admonishing us for not holding govt to account?
A call for us to get a backbone?
Or suggesting that there is nothing we can do since govt. will not disobey global treaties?
April 9, 2021
Ah no…..a slight with govt. making a “mess of using its powers”?
Trouble at Treasury..likely to escalate?
Texts and tech that keep us surveilled…surveil all!
And cast very long shadows.
April 9, 2021
*** slight irritation.
April 9, 2021
I’m sure I and many others would love to change government policy, Sir John, in order to get out of the harmful treaties and agreements you mention. But that would mean that at the next election there was a genuine alternative on offer. With the Conservative Party now following the same Green-Left agenda as other European countries, e.g. Germany, I don’t see where this alternative option at the next election is going to come from. Unless there’s a major new party well-funded by the well-off among people likely to lose out from current policies (most of us). That was what produced a change of policy towards our EU membership. That’s what it will take this time. Yes, there could be a change of Conservative Party leadership, to someone not in bed (literally) with the Green woke tendency. But I’d be interested if anyone commenting on this blog sees better prospects from any of Johnson’s cohorts taking over instead of him. Right now I don’t.
April 9, 2021
Err . . . Philip P. I don’t ‘arf agree with your reference, to changing the leadership away from the green woke bedfellow, presently in the position.
I’m not sure about your last sentence. Would they be worse? Oh yes Gove would be and err . . Yes I see your point.
April 9, 2021
Perfectly reasonable – but how can we change these policies which will be so costly and ruinous to the country? Perhaps we need to vote for parties that will do this? Certainly not the Conservatives or Labour. How do you propose to change them from within the Conservative party?
Who or what is pushing these parties to adopt these policies? Are Conservative voters pushing for them? Really??
zorro
April 9, 2021
Nadim Zahawi today on Twitter.
Our #COVID19Vaccines saved over 10,000 lives between December and March – an incredible achievement.
Great, but it could have been 11,000+ had you not decided to discriminate against men in the vaccine priority order. This would also have saved £ billions, circa 30,000+ NHS hospital admissions, cost nothing and enabled earlier unlocking. So why did you and JCVI not follow the obvious science here? And you Nadhim are supposed to be a numerate MP with a science degree! Will you be sending apologies and condolences to their very many widows, partners and relatives?
They are largely identifiable victims of this policy by age and date of covid death after all.
Even now done Worldwide it would still save about 50,000 lives.
April 9, 2021
I don’t disagree with green policy – I question why the Tory Party have a green policy at all ???
We do, as a democractic nation, have a very real problem when even SirJ suggests that we should suck it up
If we have no choice we have no democracy
April 9, 2021
Glen – “if we have no choice” – Remember Bojo walking out with a sick smile on his face and saying ” The Great Reset “. That was a sign of NO CHOICE.
April 9, 2021
and you are mostly denied that choice and voice …even on here.
April 9, 2021
🤔 so our anti-pandemic policy has been heavily influenced by our membership of WHO, therefore there is no need to look for hidden influences urging these policies when they have been signed up to in a public way and are therefore not somehow the work of hidden powerful advisers and forces. But who funds WHO?
Some want to believe that a few billionaires have particularly favourable access to government and end up making the policies that rule us. Again, who funds WHO who heavily influence our anti-pandemic policies?
April 10, 2021
+1
Former US President Donald Trump defunded the WHO. And guess who jumped in with both feet to make up the shortfall ? PM Alexander Johnson.
April 9, 2021
Good Morning.
‘The government proposes, Parliament responds and public opinion is brought to bear on the process.’
Until the Coronavirus Act is repealed and Parliament is indeed allowed to debate and respond to the Government’s Sage-advised covid policies, full democracy cannot be restored, and UK citizens will remain suspicious.
‘ If a government makes a mess of using its powers it will be replaced at the next election so the voters are in ultimate control.’
Very true. Many of us are looking for a party that pledges not to introduce ‘vaccine passports’. As a life-long Tory voter, I will have to grit my teeth to vote LibDem on May 6th if there is no other choice.
April 9, 2021
But Lib Dem are pro EU and pro the Green, Global Warming Scam. I’ve just had a look and there are no Independents to vote for in my Tory controlled council election. It has to be ‘None of the Above’ for me.
Same for the stupid police commissioner vote. They should never have been introduced.
April 9, 2021
The problem is that all political parties have signed up to the Green Crap agenda so, short of starting up a new party, there is no alternative. A new party would take a decade or more to get anywhere near government and by then it will be too late to save IC engined cars and gas central heating.
The latter two issues are a major concern at the moment. Nobody in the Green movement or government is acknowledging the tremendous inconvenience and unrealistic limitations that these changes will impose on all of us, let alone the massive cost of the mass switch to electricity which already costs four times the cost per kW of gas.
When will the reality of the situation dawn on national governments and who is going to pay the price ?
April 9, 2021
Another rather dubious statement. If we had a voting system that at least had a passing acquaintance with democracy, that might be true. As it is we have a system of safe seats that give MPs, like your good self (Mr. Redwood), jobs for life.
Every political party, at an election, concentrates its resources on the small number of marginal constituencies that actually matter.
In terms of the number of votes cast, a party can have a substantial majority in Parliament and do what the hell it likes (like NOW) – with only a small majority of the votes cast.
The whole article again strikes a somewhat sanctimonious tone and in essence seems to be saying ‘not my fault, gov’.
April 9, 2021
this fantasy view of the world simply does not work.
all of the party candidates put up at election time come from the same small parts of society, they all broadly have similar world views across vast swathes of opinion which are often at odds with common sense, or what the majority of voters think. and that is where the same kinds of people in the media focus their attention, and thats where all the marketing spend at election time goes.
so democracy is broken because main stream views of the decent majority of voters are simply not represented. and it takes an earthquake to overturn one of the big parties, with so much inertia in the system.
there is next to no chance for new ideas to come up through the “think tanks” as again anyone outside those small parts of society are excluded.
so I dont buy this fantasy view of how the UK works.
April 9, 2021
Iain – This fantasy view is held by people who don’t exist in, nor are affected by, the rules and decisions THEY make for the rest of us. ( Bojo’s dad flying off to check on his holiday place – -and a certain man driving hundreds of miles up the country, while the rest of us are THREATENED to stay indoors or else ( while hundreds of illegals are bussed all over the country to live in hotels at our expense ).
It reminds me of the tv program Rich house Poor house – where the rich get a massive shock at how hard life can be for others. Govt is effectively the political version of this as far as I see it.
April 9, 2021
So we haven’t taken back control. The Government has gone from “we have to do this because of EU law” to “we have to do this because of UN or treaty law”. This is just a cop-out. The people of this country get no say in the sign up to international treaties. I don’t believe, for example, the majority agree with the aims of the UN Global Compact For Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.
We don’t think these policies are the work of hidden powerful advisers and forces. These people and organisations are in full view and publish their aims widely. This is how we know about them.
Voting for any of the main political parties isn’t the answer as they are all as bad as each other. What we need is a new party that will represent the people of this country, not the Globalists.
I for one am sick of signing Government petitions and writing to my MP only to receive the usual fob off. Politicians ignore the will of the people at their peril.
April 10, 2021
Christine
+1
April 9, 2021
Overall a well constructed thoughtful and comment for today
The only area I do not agree is any changes to the Northern island protocol.
However the final outcome can be determined by international court with any sanctions if UK found guilty of breaching this.
My personal opinion for resolving the NI trade and current unrest is the the whole of the UK to go into the EU EEA
I have commented many times about Brexit so will not repeat my views again
However the dark clouds are looming especially in NI and the impact could spread across to the main land.
April 9, 2021
David Brown, You may have missed it but we voted to Leave, not remain partly in the EU empire. Nothing is needed to make the open border work without the NIP except trusted trader status for all the normal import/export across the border that has existed since the creation of Eire. The EEA is the EU’s single market which therefore cannot solve the customs problems (inherent in the NIP), contrary to your claim.
April 9, 2021
Sir John
It might sound over simplistic, but the overriding principle of a free people is also a free democracy. The aim is for us all is to live in free sovereign democracy. Tradition has it that the overriding principle then is that all Laws, Rules and Regulation are created, amended and repealed by the people via their representatives.
International Law is only adhered to by a minority or those seeking to oppress others. The EU is upper mind for most of us, their Law applies to others and not their rulers.
As you say Sir John come the election is our chance to change assumed positions of the UK Government. The underlying problem here is over the years our own version of democracy has become distorted. Our Representatives are not selected by us the people, but chosen for us by gang leaders on the basis who will lend them their personal support (already creating a disconnect with the constituency). The embedded political class nowadays receives taxpayer funding making it almost impossible for the political elite to be challenged.
Then the electorate is faced with this organised gang predominately being of the left what ever banner they place themselves under, while the Country as a whole is self reliant and more than capable of taking responsibility for its self. So in essence whatever ‘party’ these appointed candidates are from they are the same – the electorate is denied choice by the system that fights the ideals of democracy
April 9, 2021
The UKs green enthusiasm.
Since adopting Millibands bill all we hear about from the majority of our politicians is what is being done to save the world.
Only a few try and highlight the damage it has done to the country and its peoples lives.
This again is the typical price of not thinking about the cause and effect of the proposals and the plan, that of course if there ever was one, to implement it. So we end up where we are all laid out for sacrifice on the alter of saving the world and still the politicians have learnt three fifths of naff all and have been blessed with blindness and deafness when some of their number try to bring common sense and reality to the arguement. Sadly where the UK goes others follow which only compounds the situation. As said on this site a few days ago: In 10 years aĺ this CO2 and green nonsense will be truly exposed for what it is. Then you will struggle to find the rank and file politicians admitting they ever supported it, it was all the others.
April 9, 2021
The UK is not a Democracy when you have processes ruled by the unaccountable. We have natured a ruling elite that is at war with it people, because in their mind they know best.
With the way the HoC has become polarised in its thinking there is no divide, vote for one you still get the other. This entrapment of thought and will has paralyzed the Countries ability to move forward. If you like they still have the EU Commission methodology in their blood – we need that taken out of the playing field of democracy and returned to the people.
The BIG instance that starts the rot is the idea that the HoL with its appointees is part of a democratic process, all the time the upper chamber is not subject the vote of the people, not held accountable to the people – you are destroying the very thought of democracy. That then reflects on the point and highlights the distortions of the HoC. The HoC is then the enemy of democracy
In fact you could go as far as saying that any entity that receives taxpayer funding, makes decisions on behalf of the people that isn’t selected by the people and is held directly accountable to the people has no place in a democracy. Thinking here along with the HoL, the Quangos, the BBC and so on.
The objective for us if we are to be free from the EU yoke(and we are not) is to be a proper fully fledge democracy. Once a Country becomes a proper Democracy others stand back for fear of being portrayed as the tyrants. If we follow the path of other dictatorships we join their collective, are seen as part of the ‘Great Reset’, and the political elite stays at war with its people.
April 9, 2021
While generally speaking this is the accepted view of how the world works, it is in face far more complex, with the added concept that Parliament is frequently not allowed adequate time to discuss new laws or treaties.
In recent years we have seen far too many instruments either rushed through Parliament with little or no discussion, or indeed without any say by Parliament.
The 2 UN treaties on immigration that May signed are but 1 example, and these have had a major impact on our lives.
As regards international bodies. Far too much trust and power has accrued in the UN for example, which now points the way, and national governments simply follow on like lemmings. The UNIPCC is but 1 element of the UN that has been shown many times to fit political decisions into a framework of scientific endeavours.
We only have to look at the antics of the IMF in how they down-talked BREXIT at every stage to realise that all is not well with international organisations, many of which actively push socialist ideology.
It is clear that western governments have agreed with the ideology developed by the UN and others, that a globalist approach to ‘every human problem’ is the way forward. The UN has even provided a pathway to the new world order, where they require a reduction in human populations and major changes to how we live. None of these things are necessary, and are a political solution to problems that do not exist. Yet OUR government takes us down this road – WHY.
Where our government is failing us is in the way it follows without due consideration, effective evaluation, nor national discussion on where they want to take us. They lead us on blindly, and are afraid to tell us what is actually ahead of us.
Globalism is a failed ideology, and should not be allowed to destroy nationhood.
April 9, 2021
I’ve just dropped a little letter to the Belfast Telegraph. I’m not expecting that this or anything else that I or anybody else may do will make the slightest difference because clearly Boris Johnson, and almost all of the other members of the “Conservative and Unionist” parliamentary party, believe it is worth breaking up the country to secure 0% – 2% of GDP economic benefit from his fantastic trade deal with the EU.
Still, here is the letter, and the attached supporting reference:
“Please could we drop the formula that “the protocol prevents a hard border on the island of Ireland” (Gareth Cross, today), when the border installations at Belfast are as hard as any that could have been installed on the border with the Republic, and Belfast is undeniably “on the island of Ireland”?
What has really happened is that Irish politicians, in collusion with Boris Johnson, have succeeded brilliantly in getting the line of the hard border, and the associated potential for violence, moved away from the international frontier to the coast of Northern Ireland facing across to Great Britain. ”
Reference:
A short BBC video:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-northern-ireland-56606751
“What it’s like driving across the new Irish trade border”.
If these new installations in Belfast are not to be considered a “hard border” then what is?
April 9, 2021
Absolutely. There was no need for us to have done anything about customs checks. As it is goods come in from Ireland to NI seamlessly, and the same could gave happened the other way. The EU chose conflict, so they should house it within their borders.
April 9, 2021
To take just one example, Theresa May signed the UN Global Compact on Migration against the known wishes of the British people and without discussion in Parliament. The response to the petition against the agreement was so derisory that the Government were ordered to reply again. Since then Boris Johnson has done nothing to rescind the signature, and you say we are bound by our ‘international commitments’. Pray tell who we should vote for or lobby to get our wishes on mass immigration heeded.
April 9, 2021
Oh dear, John.
Your party’s favourite organs have done all possible – with their multi-billion turnover – to engender a collective paranoia about the European Union, about the Labour Party and its promoters, and about enlightened movements generally in order to secure your fixatedly craved-for exits, victories or whatever.
Now you want your voters to abandon that distorted perception with regard to your party’s specific policies.
Could be a tough one – it runs through them like Blackpool rock now it seems.
April 9, 2021
Martin, Even some Remains can now see that the EU is our enemy.
April 9, 2021
Telegraph – no front page mention.
Mail – no front page mention.
Express – no front page mention.
Sun – no front page mention.
Why are the Brexitist press so reluctant to report on Northern Ireland’s Brexit riots?
It’s almost as though Brexitists are embarrassed and don’t want to talk about what’s happening.
Perhaps this is because we told them it would happen and they screamed Project Fear. And then it happened. Still at least fishing has gone well. (Oh…)
Reply They are not Brexit riots. The tensions began with the issue of attendance by the IRA at a funeral. There is no excuse for them – it is just violent behaviour by a minority mob on both sides of the divide.
April 9, 2021
I prefer to regard myself as a ‘Brexiteer’, not a ‘Brexitist’. ‘Brexiteer’ sounds more like ‘buccaneer’. We needed a buccaneering spirit to ‘get Brexit done’ in the face of undemocratic EU drones.
I am not embarrassed to mention the riots in N. Ireland. I have never understood the situation in N. Ireland and, to be honest, I don’t care about it.
April 9, 2021
Its about keeping a foot in the EU door
If we went the WTO rather than EU deal there wouldn’t have been any need for the NI protocol and therefore no issue to fight over
April 9, 2021
Good man Mike and the way things are going it won’t be Britains problem for much longer- it’ll go the same time as Scotland
April 9, 2021
Buttons. Good. It can’t come soon enough. I’m fed up with all the factions inside the UK. These devolved nations are nothing but trouble now and all working against us.
April 9, 2021
The International press is referring to it as Brexit riots and so is the USA
April 9, 2021
well they would, wouldn’t they!
April 9, 2021
Yes, the UK brexit press is only outnumbered hundreds to one.
April 10, 2021
Yes, Martin, anything where we are still beholden to the EU is a pile of it (to borrow a phrase). I wonder why that could be?
April 9, 2021
Specially for you, Andy:
https://www.cityam.com/uk-france-trade-back-at-pre-pandemic-levels-in-march/
“UK-France trade back at pre-pandemic levels in March”
“UK-France trade bounced back to close to pre-pandemic levels in March, raising hopes that the impact of Britain’s departure from the EU might not be as dramatic as feared.
Data from French customs officials showed that after a plunge in January, imports from the UK rose to 107 per cent of pre-Covid levels last month, with exports at 96 per cent.”
April 9, 2021
The Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Lewis, blamed ‘the protocol’ not working properly for the riots.
The Northern Ireland Protocol he refers to is in the Brexit withdrawal agreement which virtually every Tory MP voted for – and, which virtually every other MP voted against.
It was negotiated by unelected bureaucrat David Frost and Boris Johnson. Mrs May had no role in the protocol – indeed she said no British PM could ever agree to a border down the Irish Sea
It might make the Brexitists feel better to pretend Brexit is not to blame for the violence but they are just pretending.
April 10, 2021
Theresa May had no role in the revision of the protocol that she had agreed, as explained here:
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/brexit-deal-northern-ireland-protocol
“Brexit deal: the Northern Ireland protocol”
“The Northern Ireland protocol aims to avoid the introduction of a hard border on the island of Ireland in the event that there is a no-deal Brexit. It is a crucial part of the draft Withdrawal Agreement.
The table below describes some of the key provisions in the protocol that would apply if it came into force and how it differs to the previous version of the deal agreed by Theresa May’s government.”
April 11, 2021
Denis, the hard border is only one way at the moment from the UK into Ireland, why did Boris extend the six months extra he had given the EU to get their export licences in order into the UK? This was due to end June now December, why would the EU even consider change when it’s not affecting their exporters?
So we are where we are, the Northern Irish (and the Southern Irish for that matter) still get full common travel area into the UK, the Northern Irish still get to go into the EU to work, play or stay, can use Erasmus, sell into the EU without borders etc. The changes to make them a United Ireland happened decades ago when they started to change the population by moving more Southern Ireland and EU people into the Northern Territory. What our government needs to do is make it FREE and easy for the UK to send goods to Northern Ireland, we need to put on British freight ferry services and keep the costs the same as they used to be, extra paperwork needs government help to create for FREE until people get the hang of it and this until the end of December 2021 when Boris gave the EU advantage over our exporters.
April 9, 2021
Even if what John claims were true, when Cummings flagrantly broke covid19 rules the English did not behave as do the “loyalist” rioters in NI, though they probably had stronger cause.
No, I’m sorry, that may be a factor, but the oft-forewarned consequences of John’s brexit are a far greater one, I think.
April 10, 2021
Martin you are really struggling to find a whinge today, arent’t you?
April 10, 2021
Martin, Only you (and other authoritarians) could think that a minor infringement of a pointless lockdown rule is worthy of violent riots. Though come to think of it, didn’t you admire the BLM riots?
April 9, 2021
One of the great lessons of life: evil (I any sphere of life) is not as powerful as evil makes itself out to be. Yes, it CAN be powerful, but unconditional love with modesty – and wisdom, courage, beauty, cheerfulness, diligence, and so on, is profoundly more powerful (even though self-sacrifice is also required in defeating evil).
It’s a HERESY to exegerate the power of evil (but dangerous not to recognise its existence).
April 9, 2021
If we on the mainland feel we have been had over with the WA. Just imagine how the Unionists feel in Northern Ireland. Still in the EU with no say and disowned by the U.K. who allowed a border In the Irish Sea.
Politicians who have caused this, being distrusted by all, asking for calm is simply futile. Like telling someone to stop screaming when they are on fire. The protocol will never work and as long as it is enforced violence will increase.
If we withdraw from the protocol and it breaks international law then so be it. The EU seem to do it. The alternative is unthinkable. Before you all shout at me. I did serve in NI in the 70’s and 80’s. It was not a good place to be.
April 9, 2021
The treaty is being applied provisionally because the EU Parliament has not yet voted to approve it, so there is still time for the UK to revoke its ratification with relatively little fallout in “international law”.
April 9, 2021
Precisely Denis. But our ‘Leader’ lacks the b*lls to do it.
April 9, 2021
Sounds a good plan to me, Denis.
April 9, 2021
Wrong treaty. The Northern Ireland Protocol is in the Withdrawal Agreement – which is a legally binding international treaty.
Passed by MEPs in January 2020. Brexit Party MEPs all voted for it. A few days earlier it had been passed into U.K. law in the Withdrawal Agreement Act. Virtually every Tory MP voted for it. Virtually all other MPs opposed it – including the DUP.
What the European Parliament still has to approve is the trade and cooperation agreement. Which is not very well named as it decimates trade and ends cooperation.
April 10, 2021
Nope, the treaty in question is the Trade and Cooperation Agreement:
https://ec.europa.eu/info/relations-united-kingdom/eu-uk-trade-and-cooperation-agreement_en
“The Trade and Cooperation Agreement is provisionally applicable since 1 January 2021, after having been agreed by EU and UK negotiators on 24 December 2020.”
April 10, 2021
I’m very happy that it decimates importing trade, and cooperation? whats that?
April 10, 2021
Andy, When will you learn that international treaties can be abrogated? Especially if they are not working. And also especially if they break a previous treaty.
April 9, 2021
I’d hug you BW, without a mask on, not shout at you.
April 9, 2021
Nonsense, the General Election was clear, Northern Ireland needs to look after itself, it is no longer our concern, the British peopke have spoken
April 9, 2021
But Britain inflicted brexit on NI against its clearly expressed democratic will, as it has done with Scotland.
Now you suggest that it turns its back.
How like you.
April 10, 2021
Well, I shouldn’t interupt two Remains arguing at cross purposes, should I?
April 9, 2021
I wouldn’t shout at you. Northern Ireland is part of the UK and should be treated equal to the other parts, not some appendage like Gove would have it seen as.
April 10, 2021
Dixie, Well said. We are the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
April 9, 2021
Hello Sir John,
This is a response to a number of your recent posts, not just today. I am a daily reader but a very occasional writer. From recent diary posts, it seems that our government had made little or no preparation for us leaving the EU. Where is the bonfire of laws & regulations that you talk about? Why have the government done nothing to increase UK food production & ensure we both produce & make as much as possible here in the UK. The vaccine success shows we can do it, but we need to do so much more. The climate change agenda is being forced on us from above. We did not vote to phase out petrol & diesel cars from 2030, we did not vote to go carbon neutral by 2050. These are major decisions that will have a major cost for ordinary people. £10k for a heat pump is nothing to MPs & Millionaire’s but a fortune to people on an average salary. Why does no one in authority ask themselves why carbon at 0.04% of the atmosphere is such a problem? Why are our MPs & government so ignorant that they don’t do some basic research which would show the Earth has been warming & cooling for thousands of years. Yet you tell us today, that it is up to us to change government policy. How do you do that with an MP whose fixed view was we should Remain in the EU, whose fixed view is to vote with the government on all the lockdowns & associated laws, who has no feeling or sympathy for the private sector which has been decimated by the lockdown. How do you change the attitude of an MP who supports Overseas Aid & does not seem to understand that we are borrowing money to give away? No one minds overseas aid on a balanced budget but which MP personally borrows money to give away each year.
Yet he, all other MPs, the Sage scientists & all public employees have continued to receive full pay & pension contributions during the lockdown. There is no pain for them & sod the private sector which pays their wages.
Perhaps it should be the other way round & the government should be doing what the people want rather than making decisions without a thought for the consequences.
China, Russia, Turkey & India have no intention of reducing their carbon emissions & must be laughing at us as we handicap ourselves with all the nonsense of climate change laws & regulations.
If you, as an MP who votes against this nonsense can’t change it what chance do we have?
April 9, 2021
Good words…..everything you’ve said should be printed off and posted to every Tory MP
April 9, 2021
K f L
You should comment more often Keith, all very sensible points, and dare I say it probably a view of many, if not most of the people in the Country.
Unfortunately and frustratingly, it all seems to be falling on deaf ears.
April 9, 2021
Keith Ftom Leeds. What a fantastic post. So clear in its meaning. Thank you. You speak for most sane people on this site.
April 10, 2021
Phew – thats alarming too accurate – it’ll never catch on!
April 10, 2021
K f L
Brilliant. You should comment more often. You are saying what loads of us are thinking. Well done
April 9, 2021
You are of course correct and you set a good example yourself of initiating change in government policy. It does look a daunting task for ordinary citizens though, especially when no or very few national politicians speak for us.
April 9, 2021
The tone of SirJ writings today appear despondent and suggest that the good fight isn’t worth fighting as the deck is stacked against the common man
During the past 5 years of reading and contributing to SirJ diary I’ve been uplifted by his optimism, enthusiasm and encouragement that we as the people are sovereign and can achieve anything – that the people alone are sovereign over parliament, politician and government….but today its as though SirJ has given up !
I’d welcome a vote of conservative branch members on the 2025 ban of petrol & diesel fuelled vehicles. I’d also welcome as a comparison, a free vote of conservative MPs on the same subject ?
April 9, 2021
The 2025 ban? I thought it was 2030. Has it changed?
April 9, 2021
My mistake – 2025 Jaguar and Volve stop production of petrol & diesel cars, Norways government ban 2025 and UK government 2030….the race to appease the media and green lobby has began
April 10, 2021
It’s interesting that Jaguar and Volvo are stopping production of petrol and Diesel engined cars. I think it is fair to say that the vast majority of owners of those marques are likely to live in houses with gardens/garages so charging at home will not be a problem. They may well have executive jobs and, perhaps, they may be able to charge at work.
On the other hand maybe those marques have completely misjudged things and will see sales collapse in 2025. It will be interesting to see how it pans out.
April 10, 2021
My friends at Jaguar say its 50/50 but they’re chasing after the government money – thats where the profit is in the 5 year product life cycle of a car…they’re jumping in first to get max market share and to dictate the scale of subsidy
You heard it here first – the car manufacturers plan is to restrict supply and argue for more subsidy….don’t mention the word cartel
April 9, 2021
ask Carrie ….
April 9, 2021
Mike, You are correct about ICE cars (2030). The 2025 date is for all new houses to be deprived of natural gas. That means even if ground source heatpumps are used at least a quarter of the heating will derive from electricity. And very much more electricity for air source heatpumps in winter. Note that BEIS are not projecting any more electricity production to power these homes. It seems Andy’s toasters will be needed after all.
April 9, 2021
NickC
Perhaps most people will need to go out and purchase a diesel generator as a back up so we can fire it up when the power cuts start.
At least it would save the food in the freezer !!!
April 10, 2021
AJ : The purchase of a generator (better to have a dual fuel petrol/gas one) would appear to be a prudent idea given that we’re heading for electricity intermittancy/rationing except that I expect the government will ban them when their use becomes widespread.
April 9, 2021
Glen,
“The tone of SirJ writings today appear despondent and suggest that the good fight isn’t worth fighting as the deck is stacked against the common man”
‘The game is rigged’ as George Carlin famously stated.
I don’t claim to read SirJ’s frame of mind from the article. Maybe he has been asked to write a couple of pieces in the style of a party political pamphlet.
April 9, 2021
My children listen in wonder when I tell them that as a young chap I had a choice of 3 TV channels one of which was explicitly aimed at worthy or minority interests .
“ Really wise father …” they say ..” and people really watched old fat entertainers pretend to fight each other in their pants ? “….”Oh yes my child .. it was that or the Horse Racing “
Our last political choice, between a Brexit populist mess and Jeremy Corbyn was a similarly unappetising menu, and with most of its beneficiaries in safe seats , it is no wonder that so many devote their energies to monetising their positions.
There is no “we” and there is no choice. I want constitutional reform, fiscal sanity International order , Free Trade and smart government. Dumb or dumber is not a democracy worth having.
April 9, 2021
Remind me NM
What was this wonderful TV channel that…”was explicitly aimed at worthy or minority interests”
April 10, 2021
Newmania, I should think if Remain had won the Referendum, you would not be criticising Remain as “a populist mess”. But that might be my cynicism about Remains showing through.
April 9, 2021
That’s all fine and dandy but people do not have the freedom to mass express and promote views which are contrary to or critical of the orthodoxy. The broadcast media for example won’t allow certain viewpoints on air. There are many examples of this sort of repression. Government here is perfectly happy with this.
Democracy exists on paper only. Anyone believing things can be changed by voting lives in a world of naivety.
April 9, 2021
Precisely. One way and another Dictatorship has been imposed. We can not take to the streets to protest because – Covid.
April 9, 2021
Absolutely. It suits the Tory party as they rebrand to become woke that we the public cannot talk about the now created verboten issues.
I actually feel sympathy for Mr Redwood in that he himself is restricted in what he can and cannot say. As a libertarian he knows we now live in a most repressive environment the like we haven’t seen for generations and that repression is deliberate and both parties have worked to create it
Fearing having the ‘race card’ played against the Tory party have smashed our voice to insulate itself from harm and that is utterly despicable.
The Batley incident shows just how powerful many of these pressure groups now are and how much influence they have over how the Tory party responds to real world events regarding religion, race and gender.
It is a party that is quite happy to see repression if it suits their party position
Innocent people slandered to protect the status quo. Thanks Tories
April 9, 2021
I don’t know how I got here but your remarks on the Treaty of Utrecht 1713 caught my eye,
of course as British you would say you abide by this Treaty as it concerns Gibraltar the implication being that the views of the British are superior and that the aspirations and hopes of the Spanish people don’t count and are to be ignored, then however according to yourself the NI protocol of another international agreement can be changed at a whim- it can be changed from the UK side only because there is good UK argument for making it so. So if you continue along these lines then I can only remind you of another international treaty that was signed only a few years earlier- the Treaty of Limerick 1691- it’s very treaty Articles were completely overturned starting 1695 bringing in the Penal Laws against the Majority Irish Catholic population the consequences of which you see on the streets of Belfast to this very day- make it up as you go along but you reap what you sow
April 9, 2021
I understand what you are saying Sir John but there are a few problems at the moment.
The Tory Government in power at the moment has a very large majority because the electorate was fed up with Brexit being stymied.
The Fixed Term Parliament Act means that it would take a massive rebellion involving the Opposition as well as the governing party to bring about a general election.
On top of that the Covid19 measures in place, are preventing the normal functioning of the House of Commons.
So, however you look at it, at the moment we do not have the Representative Democracy of which we are rightly proud.
Yes, previous Administrations have signed up to International Treaties but we hold to the principle that no parliament can bind future parliaments. So in theory this parliament can opt out of those international agreements.
If the electorate wishes to disregard the W.H.O. covid19 directives and the U.N. Global Warming Agenda, which I’m sure it does, the electorate, in theory should be able to replace the government with one to it’s liking.
What with the problems I have already listed and the Lib/Lab/Con/Green strangle hold on any elections we are allowed, the fact is at the moment the sovereign people are helpless.
April 9, 2021
It seems to me the problem is that, if the govt does not have a majority, they say they cannot do what the public wants. Then, when the public gives them a decent majority, they do what they like.
That, and the court ruling Gordon Brown got to say that a manifesto commitment is, and I quote, ‘not a legitimate expectation’.
These two points, combined with what Peter Oborne called ‘the political class’ having far more in common with each other than with any of the public, means that the point of voting has largely been hollowed out.
April 9, 2021
The Spanish monarchy and people never voted to approve the Treaty of Utrecht either so still time for the Spanish to revoke its ratification- sauce for the goose
April 9, 2021
The concluding paragraph of a letter in the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/apr/09/northern-ireland-unrest-is-the-result-of-a-reckless-brexit-deal
“More than anything, the British government and Northern Irish unionists must accept the reality that the newly imposed barriers to GB-NI trade are fundamentally caused by Britain’s decision to leave the EU. The NI protocol is merely the means by which Brussels has tried to help the UK deal with the problems Boris Johnson recklessly and idly created with his very hard Brexit.”
Well, that would be kind of them if it was true, but I don’t see how it fits in with their instant dismissal of any alternative solution which was proposed, as in:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-49488844
“Brexit: Backstop plan by Sir Jonathan Faull dismissed by EU”
“EU officials have poured cold water on alternative proposals for the Brexit backstop by a former British European Commission official.
Sir Jonathan Faull had suggested the EU and UK could maintain their own customs and regulatory regimes while using their laws to protect each others’ markets.
He also proposed creating “trade centres” away from the Irish border.
This would mean goods would not have to be checked at the frontier.
One senior EU source told BBC News NI the proposals were “inadequate and not anywhere near the landing zone”.”
This is why it is necessary for the UK government to act unilaterally and just tell the EU:
“This is what we intend to do; if you have any constructive suggestions then we will listen to them and decide whether to adjust our plan, but we will decide and if you don’t like it you can lump it.”
April 9, 2021
It’s UK territory. We are acting like an occupied country. That is why the riots.
April 9, 2021
Good points, and when did any authority based regime ever accept advice? To accept advice, or even to listen to it implicitly admits that someone else might understand your situation better than you do, and that is something no system based on authority can ever do. That’s why the parts of the EU with power are not elected, and the parts that are elected have no power; any other structure might have advice forced upon it.
April 9, 2021
I am glad that you made the point about the will of the people. Although everyone pays lip service to the concept, it’s pretty clear that some important bodies simply do not “get” it past the formal acknowledgement. When the EU talks about “the letter of EU law” they might as well be saying “it does not matter what people want”.
I think that a real problem we are going to have in the next ten years is that although the UK is pretty good at bowing to popular will – how many countries have offered independence referendums to their component parts? – the EU’s instinct if to hold on to the written word of previous Treaties at all costs.
And in cases like Northern Ireland, that simply does not work, and instead you have to listen carefully and change or hold on as opinions change. Eventually the EU is going to find out that just waving a signed Treaty or Protocol in the face of discontent leads to a dead end, but they could cause everyone a lot of trouble before they do.
April 9, 2021
Th government have not been honest with the electorate about the necessity for a vaccine or the purpose to which a vaccination passport would be put long term.
If the government is coercive in nature (as it is now) and not honest with its electorate (as it is not) then it is certainly not deserving of your vote. Sad, but pretty simple really.
April 9, 2021
Good, I am allowed to choose between Coke and Pepsi. What a choice. And the bottlers go on telling us how good one has it. But what if I want a ‘menthe a l’eau’?
April 9, 2021
Well buy one.
April 9, 2021
“If a government makes a mess of using its powers it will be replaced at the next election so the voters are in ultimate control.”
If the Cons make a mess then vote in Labour who always make a mess so vote the Tories back in to make another bigger mess etc.
There is no democracy in this country because with FPTP it is virtually impossible to dislodge the liblabcon so long as they are massively funded by people for whom patriotism (for the UK) is a dirty word.
The only way to halt the destruction of the UK is to replace the FPTP unfair electoral system with a system under which every vote will have an equal weight in determining the outcome of an election. Once people realise they can vote against wars in the ME for party donors, the destruction of the economy on the alter of flawed science and the replacement of the English from the third world, they will desert the liblabcon in droves. JR knows this but will not admit because ultimately his loyalty is first and foremost to the Tory Party.
April 9, 2021
The International Order – Why are we attendees at; World Economic Forum Davos; G7, G20; Bilderberg Conference; COP21 etc ???
April 9, 2021
So, for the last four years, as long as NI was peaceful, the NIP was a wise, commonsense agreement that a benevolent EU had to impose on the unwilling politicians in the UK Government, who could not even grasp just how wise and commonsense it was, simply to protect the EU and its Single Market.
And now that violence has followed, it turns out that the NIP was actually imposed on an unwilling EU by those same UK politicians, who even managed to impose it on the Biden Administration into the bargain.
And I don’t suppose that the twisting of truth has run its course, even now.
April 9, 2021
“So my advice to those of you who disagree with the health or green policy, understand you need to change the policy of the government which in turn will need to amend its promises and proposals to the international community if you succeed.”
The current green policy has put us on course for energy rationing as the only way to reduce our CO2 output to the internationally promised levels and hence why there is such a push for EVs, smart meters and heat pumps to make this easier by being more controllable.
Just as the formation of a new political group, UKIP, became necessary to overturn our membership of the EU because it was supported by all political parties, the MSM, the corporates, the judiciary, the educational establishment etc. so I believe a new organisation to stop our ruinous green policies will arise as prices rocket upwards and rationing starts.
April 10, 2021
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/flashback-to-when-boris-johnson-dismantled-claims-of-a-hard-border-in-the-irish-sea-263786/
“Footage of Boris Johnson dismantling claims that there will be a hard border in the Irish Sea has been making the rounds on social media as tensions continue to boil over in Northern Ireland.
Despite loyalists urging their communities to desist from protest activity following the death of Prince Philip, there continued to be small pockets of unrest last night.”
Here’s the video:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1379740662623506432
April 10, 2021
A warning:
https://yorkshirebylines.co.uk/brexit-and-the-good-friday-agreement/
“The lies told by Johnson, to hide the fact that the Brexiters have sold the Unionists down the river, will never be forgiven. In particular, they will not be forgiven by the children of some of the most resolute, unforgiving, and implacable people in all of the British Isles: the Ulster Protestants. There are more than three quarters of a million of them.”
April 11, 2021
I’ve now sent a letter to the Irish News about this article, in which I pose the question:
“Suppose that the infrastructure already in place at Belfast was simply dismantled and transferred to the land border with the Republic, how would republicans react?”
The letter:
“I watched a three minute video of BBC reporter Emma Vardy hitching a lift on a truck from Leicester to Belfast, “”What’s it like driving across the new Irish trade border?”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-northern-ireland-56606751
It seemed to me that the multi-stage checks at Belfast already constitute part of a hard border on the island of Ireland. I imagine that Larne is already another part.
Calling it a border in the sea is rather misleading when the check sites are firmly on dry land. The question is no longer whether a hard border should be installed on the island of Ireland because it is already there on the Northern Ireland coast facing Great Britain, but whether the hard border which has already been created should be retained, either in its current location or anywhere else on the island.
Suppose that the infrastructure already in place at Belfast was simply dismantled and transferred to the land border with the Republic, how would republicans react? Would they say that it was fine, not what they meant when they objected to a hard border? If so, what additional features would have to be incorporated in its design so that in their eyes it became an unacceptable hard border on the island of Ireland?
It is a false dilemma to say that the choice is between a hard border on the international frontier or a hard border on the coast of Northern Ireland facing Great Britain, when a number of viable alternatives have been proposed which would circumvent the need for checks to be made at a border.
One such proposal was developed in August 2019 by a former Director-General at the European Commission, Sir Jonathan Faull, and two professors of law, and presented in a paper entitled “An Offer the EU and UK Cannot Refuse” which can still be easily found on the internet. And so can the reaction of the EU, which was to dismiss it out of hand.”
April 12, 2021
Boris was gleeful at getting a trade deal. Exactly what benefits does this ‘trade deal’ bring to British people?
Fishermen don’t seem exactly happy, despite the promise of taking back control of our waters, that doesn’t seem to have happened.
Also, why are people charged customs fees on buying even clothing from EU countries. Surely an amicable agreement should have been agreed during the process. This affects not just British people, but Europeans also. People are finding this out through personal experience as you have to search for the information, it was neer publicised.
So my question again, Sir John – what benefits exactly are we getting from Boris’s ‘trade deal’.