It is true NHS spending is up by ÂŁ1200m a week over the last two years, well ahead of ÂŁ350 m illustration on the side of the Brexit bus as we save on our contributions to the EU.
Its also true we developed and rolled out a new vaccine ahead of the EU approving and importing US vaccines, thanks to the flexibility Brexit provided.
Meanwhile we await more Brexit wins. When will the government abolish VAT on green products like heating controls and insulation which the EU made us tax?
When will they ban industrial trawlers of over 100 metres length to safeguard our fishery and help our domestic  industry?
When will they abolish the Ports Directive and introduce our new Freeports?
When will they restore the Merchant Shipping Act struck down by the European Court to help rebuild our merchant fleet?
When will we get a new Agriculture policy which redirects subsidies to stimulating more domestic food production?
There are many more Brexit wins which the government should bring forward. I spoke about these yesterday.
October 5, 2021
Good morning.
ÂŁ1.2 Billion a week ! Christ on a bike ! Where is all that ‘extra money’ going ?
—
We will have none of those things, Sir John as, if they were all in the gift of a government with an 80 seat majority, it would have been done by now. Instead, we are all going Green and we will be happy. Well, that is what our, Dear Leader and his handlers like to think.
If people are prepared to act like animals over loo-roll and petrol, just think what they will be like sitting in the dark. Unless that is they are prepared to fight over candles as well ?
October 5, 2021
John purports to want more domestic food production.
His brexit is causing crops to rot in the fields and on the trees, and pigs to be incinerated expensively and uselessly as I write. We are told to buy a turkey for Christmas now and to freeze it.
I’m sorry, but this self-evident nonsense just won’t wash.
Tory-ukip voting, self-employed white van man might just have noticed that he’s struggling to get petrol for his van and for his angle grinder too, and suspect – correctly – that he has been had. He might also find that many of his otherwise customers can’t afford him now because of ever higher fuel and food bills.
October 5, 2021
You exaggerate NLH
My visit to two local large supermarkets showed no empty shelves nor any shortages of pork products.
Where exactly are these crops rotting?
October 5, 2021
Being in the EU resulted in the UK losing thousands of local abattoirs and butchers to concentrate on large international mega abattoirs who seem to be able yank our chain whenever they choose. I said at the time this was a mistake and mega supermarkets killing off local shops was a bad idea. Now we allowing German companies to take over in size our British supermarkets, which supermarkets again have all the empty shelves and what transport companies are they using?
October 5, 2021
I read these abattoirs that are refusing to process British grown meat are still importing and processing meat from the EU, why is Boris and the Tories allowing this without the vet checks and without the restrictions the EU put on our meat exports. If you stop EU imports of meat then these mega abattoirs youâve allowed to flourish in the UK will have to process the British meat or go out of business.
Boris is allowing the Eu to walk all over us and its time we the British purchasers start to really think about what we are buying until we sort this out. Check, ask and demand British meat.
October 6, 2021
Tracy, the important thing is that the country actually works.
To you and to the rest of the Tory brexitians all that seems to matter is whether you can pin the blame for the fact that it signally no longer does on anybody but yourselves.
You’ve made a real problem whatever. It’s easy enough to scramble an egg, less so to unscramble it and to put it back in its shell.
October 6, 2021
Yet you didn’t answer my question NLH – which supermarket, in which town has the empty shelves you have seen and which transport company are they using? I never repeat gossip and don’t just go off the odd photo on Twitter.
I’m not a Tory member or even supporter, I vote for the person I think can do the best job in local elections not the colour of the rosette. I used to prefer a Conservative government and I do think they helped my generation to get out of our social start in life and get on.
Nor would I call myself a Brexitian – I didn’t work to promote Brexit, I listened to both sides, but it is time to help ourselves in the UK and stop relying on other Countries who do not have our interests at heart. We have given too much control away and it is becoming clear just how many essential services they run in the UK which has concerned me as these countries are nationalistic and will look after themselves first.
October 5, 2021
Mark,
Look at the billions, normal if not higher last year, Johnson gave EU last year. The same man who said tell them to go whistle!!
Ask JR to produce the figures against his previous blog what the UK could now do with the money. UK govt. simply canât it is still paying!
October 7, 2021
‘Look at the billions, normal if not higher last year, Johnson gave EU last year. ‘
JR – as you don’t comment on this it must be true and that you are hiding this information – it seems we can’t trust you to inform properly or am I wrong.
reply I am not hiding things. I argued against any payments after we left and lost. I do have in my memory how much we are still laying but whatever it is it is too much
October 7, 2021
Dennis, I think you will find it was over ÂŁ11 billion!! This is outside the club! I thought part of taking back control of our money was one of the mantras? Did Rees-Mogg and Johnson not call it vassalage? Accepting rules, accepting level playing field, accepting ECJ, accepting plundering of our seas, accepting annexing of N. Ireland to be part of EU control without a voice all seems vassalage to me. Johnson still perversely claims Brexit is done!!!
October 5, 2021
“ÂŁ1.2 Billion a week ! Christ on a bike ! Where is all that âextra moneyâ going?”
Well not on a half decent healthcare system is seems. Six weeks to see a GP in many areas. You might easily die before diagnosis from many conditions and many are doing as can be seen from the figures or extra non Covid deaths at home. Private hip and knee operations now exceeding state ones, so poor is the NHS (non or hugely delayed service). Must do wonders for the countries productivity.
Hugely depressing speech from Socialist/Interventionist Sunak yesterday. Tax, borrow, piss down the drain, over regulate and intervene before breakfast, lunch and dinner. Just get out of the way of the productive mate. Take the heavy state yoke off and stop strangling them with OTT regulation and the vast tax burdens you keep increasing. But no, they have the opposite agenda. Then they want to lump expensive energy and the net zero insanity on top for good measure. It will non work that is for certain.
The only way out is a larger productive sector and a much smaller state and largely parasitic one. Much parasitic activity in the private sector too due to idiotic compliance demanded by government, over complex tax and other laws and totally idiotic projects like HS2, university soft loans for duff degrees and the net zero lunacy. Michael (VAT on private school fees) Gove speech rather pathetic too.
October 5, 2021
+1
Seems to me that regulations are always about money. Our money being stolen by those in charge!
What a great wheeze to say the planet is about to overheat or whatever it is supposed to be doing and then whomp massive taxes on us to stop it.
NoteâŠWE are the ones who must stop it.
I donât remember ever owning a coal mine or steel works.
October 5, 2021
@Mark B +1 – by all accounts the money is going on the growth of the State, the employment of chums and down the drain. By the same token those that actually do the work in the NHS are now but a shadow industry when compared to the expenditure on admin on chums.
The State keeps growing, from no small state here Conservatives. The Government must keep creating new institutions to keep those unable to earn in their own right on board.
Its as if the Government has moved all the bloat of the EU Commission to the UK, and is funding from the taxpayer – because that is what they would do. No sense to it just ego at the centre
October 5, 2021
The greens can only achieve their goals with nuke power but they donât want that. So greens want the whole country to run on windmills.
October 5, 2021
Actually in the 70s power cuts they did fight over candles – I remember the news items!!!
October 6, 2021
Ah! what about the sugar shortage in the 70s.
October 5, 2021
It took 40 years for the EU to bind us hand and foot.It will take many years for us to release all the binds.
October 5, 2021
So, forty years of misery, just to get rid of a little ring of gold stars on your car number plate.
You sure know what matters in life, don’t you?
October 5, 2021
You are very naive and misguided if you think all we voted for was that NLH
October 5, 2021
But there were those who deluded themselves that with one leap we could be free …
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/05/17/the-business-of-england/#comment-935511
“… transitional provisions, which are a common feature of international treaties … ”
“… The six founding EEC countries allowed themselves twelve years to set up their common market … “
October 5, 2021
I understood from the comments of some politicians before we left the EU, that the EU would be knocking at our door to trade with us after we had left, since as we were perfectly aligned with them before leaving, we should still be after leaving.
October 5, 2021
You would have done better to read my more realistic comments on this blog.
October 6, 2021
You listened to the wrong politicians.
October 5, 2021
Indeed but this government do not seem even to have this as a priority. Their current priorities seem to be increasing taxes to absurd levels, ratting on their manifesto promises, pissing money down the drain, increasing the size of the largely parasitic state sector, pushing vaccine passports, attacking small businesses & the self employed, pushing largely worthless degrees, blocking the roads and increasing the price & unreliability of energy. Plus Socialist Sunak is pushing loads of daft schemes to âhelpâ industry. Just stop parasitising of them mate!
October 5, 2021
Bob Dixon,
This is not what I experienced in my growing sales to the EU over the period
October 5, 2021
By which stage you lot will mostly be dead – and my generation and the next will rejoin anyway as we have never wanted your Tory pensioner Brexit. The definition of pointless.
October 5, 2021
You will never live to see the day of the UK re-joining the EU!
October 5, 2021
I dunno. Lots of 65-year-olds will make 100.
October 6, 2021
Agreed, and with your self-imposed stress lots of us may outlive YOU!
October 6, 2021
s/be response to the Boy Wonder, not NLA.
October 5, 2021
Ah the rejoiners.
A new band of people who will fail to gain a majority.
October 6, 2021
Peter 2
improve the quality of your comments please
October 6, 2021
Whatever you say I will try to do.
Bit like the relationship between the EU and UK was eh Billy.
October 5, 2021
We need to pocket the Brexit wins
I thought taking control of our borders was one of the advantages of leaving the eu, look how well thatâs turning out !!!!
October 5, 2021
Wait until the 17000 or so that arrived this year claim their extended families with the salivating Human Rights lawyers at the borders just so eager to reward those that arrived here illegally. Who is going to foot that bill.
Step 1. Whatever it takes get out of the ECHR
Step 2 Draft a Bill of Rights linked to responsibility
Step 3 Stop referring to illegal migrants as asylum seekers.
Step 4 reduce, stop or cap legal aid. Per case.
Step 5 learn from the Australianâs who seem to able to deport illegals the same day
Step 6 Stop sending warships everywhere ( think of the emissions or is that just my boiler)
Step 7 Reduce the House of Lords and make the ÂŁ300 a day for a good kip and subsidised bars taxable
Just a few tips Sir John. Mind you, if the Government is not listening to you what chance does the voter have.
October 5, 2021
+1
Donât fretâŠPatel is going to war with âmiddle classâdruggiesâŠso all will be well.
I think we have been taken over by the mafia actually.
October 5, 2021
It will never happen – far too much commonsense.
October 5, 2021
The UK, like Australia does, can deport immediately unauthorised people claiming asylum from countries where there is no UN-accepted case so to do, e.g. from Thailand.
Our influx claims to come from recognised qualifying countries or regions on the other hand. So the position is not the same.
ECHR has already ruled that a right to family life does not trump a country’s right to deport criminals. The HRA simply needs a small amendment to incorporate or to recognise expressly such case law.
67 million people do not need to lose all fourteen of their human rights, though I reckon that the Tories would very much like you to lose that one to the Peaceful Enjoyment of Possessions.
There are trillions in residential equity and in pension funds after all, and this stuff about deporting criminals merely the pretext.
October 5, 2021
What ?
You think France is a dangerous country NLH?
October 5, 2021
All if, and when. They have one thing in common in that they are all totally controlled by the leadership, as history shows time and time again if the leadership isn’t right you have get nothing but problems. Like many things in life. If it looks and feels right, it is.
October 5, 2021
Are you seriously are implying NHS spending is up because of Brexit? Nurse ! Nurse !! ( oh sorry she went back to Poland with her husband the HGV Driver ).Ye gods and they said there was a clown shortage ,not so much an “in-exactitude ” more a King Size whopper with double cheese !
The UK` s net contribution,( HOC Library),in 2019, was only ÂŁ9.4 billion. Bloomberg Economics admittedly an outlier , estimated lost Growth had already exceeded all contributions by 2019. Others estimated it would take longer but no-one thinks Brexit has not cost us money , certainly not the Treasury. Brexit has meant there is less money for the NHS.
That ( lest you had forgot ) is why a vicious tax rise has , just been justified on the basis we needed an extra ÂŁ14billion for the NHS and I need hardly day , that Brexit has worsened debt anyway … which is more tax later.
The (OBR) latest estimate, based on a departure date of 31 October 2019, of the “Leaving bill “was around ÂŁ32.8bn to account for the payments (lest you had forgot again) . As the UK did not leave until 31 January 2020, this will be reduced but would mostly be paid over a 2 year period. Again less money , not more
Nigel Farrage called the claim a ” Mistake ” minutes after the referendum was over and for you to be repeating this old nonsense now I think takes the Palm as the most indefensible claim ever made on this blog
Congratulations John have a drink ..sorry I mean another drink…
October 5, 2021
Ha ha ..well I must say I am mighty impressed that you published that. enjoyed writing it never expected to see it again
Respect
October 5, 2021
Yes, I too highly commend our kind host for publishing some opinions at variance with his own.
October 6, 2021
He’s posted the equivalent of ‘War and Peace’ from Andy and Martin. Except that it is literally repetitive.
October 5, 2021
Here in the real world Poland has a greater shortage of HGV drivers than UK, around 100,000. How come if they “went home” ?
October 6, 2021
Well, one assumes that they went to better-paid and more agreeable work around their common home, the European Union, as they are very advantageously able to do.
And as Tomasz Orinsky and others explained, they won’t be coming back either.
The national shortage in places like Poland doesn’t cause the same problems as here, because they can move capacity around , er, the European Union, to ameliorate matters – you know, FOM and all that.
It is also a chronic, not an acute problem, and they have involved incentive systems to get what drivers they have to work more effectively, so you don’t see the resultant problems that the UK has.
October 5, 2021
@Newmania; “Nurse ! Nurse !! ( oh sorry she went back to Poland with her husband the HGV Driver ).”
When an elderly relation was last in hospital, well before the pandemic, well before actual Brexit, she received very good care from NHS recruited migrant doctors, nurses and orderlies, non of who had come from the EU, mostly the from countries such as Thailand, the Philippines & India. What is more she noted no difference in the nationalities of the staff since her previous stay, well before a date had been set for the Brexit referenda.
“The UK` s net contribution,( HOC Library),in 2019, was only ÂŁ9.4 billion”
Only ÂŁ9.4 billion he says,. an astonishing comment even if his understanding was correct!
The UK gross contributions were ÂŁ18.8 billion in 2014, true the EU handed back some of our own money, only trouble being they told us how to spend much of it. Fine if you accept the supranational governance of the EU perhaps but that is something the UK never accepted.
Newmania would be best to remember that old adage, there are statistics, lies and damned lies….
October 5, 2021
Just for comparison, in 2019, we made a ÂŁ12 billion net contribution to Yorkshire or ÂŁ22.7 billion net contribution to the North West of England. Yexit and Nwexit anyone?
October 5, 2021
Internal spending within the UK has been going on to the benefit of the less well off areas and the needy parts of the UK for decades.
The money doesn’t leave the UK Peter.
Do you understand the difference?
October 5, 2021
I understand the difference very well, and I hope all those on here who criticise similar transfers to the Scots do too. My point is/was that, actually, the UK’s net contribution to the EU was, in the grand scheme of the UK economy, noise (it was always the smallest element of my annual tax report from HMRC as to where my taxes get spent, and many leave voting regions are happy to keep being subsidised (and as a consequence never actually contributed to that net contribution anyway).
October 6, 2021
The EU cost us billions a year for our “free trade” together with an annual trade deficit of over ÂŁ80 billion a year.
Then the often forgotten costs of implementing thousands of EU laws, rules,regulations and directives.
But money was only a small part of the reason we have left.
October 6, 2021
For those who whinged endlessly that the UK was one of a minority of net contributors to the European Union’s budget, I would remind them that in the United States only thirteen of its fifty states are net contributors to the federal budget too.
This is entirely normal for regions within a nation, or for nations within a federation, or for any other association of varied wealth producers.
Some people appear to claim that they are entitled to resent this bitterly, if any net beneficiary does not happen to speak English as a first language, however.
October 5, 2021
@new are you one of these people who bemoans our colonial past?
If so you hold us in contempt for hoarding colonies’ people’s and resources yet advocate us shipping the EU into our country to do low paid work.
Why not cry out for more training of our own instead of worrying about Polish nurses, HGV drivers and their resource heavy kids returning whence they came.
No doubt you also think that third world refugees should up sticks, leave and come and work for us for low pay too rather than improving their lot in situ.
October 6, 2021
Insufficient young are leaving school with the necessary educational foundation – in science etc. – to do many of the jobs required. They are simply ineligible for training therefore.
October 6, 2021
More nonsense from NLH
Telling us school leavers can never be trained to do any of the hundreds of thousands of current vacancies.
October 6, 2021
Peter 2
Like your example of “free trade” costing billions without using a source or giving any figures , your statements are without any foundation and free trade has been possible even with EU membership, Just look at German and Scandinavian exports for China.
October 6, 2021
Free trade did indeed cost us the price of our membership Billy.
Why try to deny such a recorded fact?
Look it up.
October 6, 2021
NLH – do you believe the whole of the UK education system is very poor? Reducing the number of children that left school early was a target of the EU. The UK got on board early and raised the age in England to 17 in 2013 and 18 in 2015. So even after all those extra years in education, you believe ” Insufficient young are leaving school with the necessary educational foundation â in science etc.” If that is true then we the UK taxpayers need to start demanding better results, especially in science teaching during the 13 years the children are in education. What evidence do you have that a high % don’t have the necessary founding in science?
October 5, 2021
A wonderful Remain wriggle, Newmania.
The reason why it was important to put the gross amount we paid to the EU on the side of the bus was that it was the amount decided by the EU, and controlled by the EU. The Thatcher rebate was just that – a rebate from the gross amount which could be whittled away, as indeed it was when the EU cheated Tony Blair.
But the ÂŁ350m/wk was never “promised” to the NHS – that was a self-serving Remain invention. There were many suggestions (and not just on the NHS) where it would be best to spend the Brexit dividend – including reducing taxes (my preference).
Only Remains claimed that a Tory government wouldn’t spend extra on the NHS as a result of Brexit. And yet you base your diatribe on that misinformation. You see, Remains have been unable to argue on the basis of fair facts – just propaganda, and personal abuse (“thick”, “old”, “racist”, “uneducated”, etc).
Oh, and the UK did not leave the EU on 31st Jan 2020, nor even on 1st Jan 2021. We’ve got BINO – Northern Ireland remains under the control of the EU, as do our fisheries. And – surprise, surprise (not) – they’re a mess. Because, as Nigel Farage said, the EU is just a mafia protection racket, and is powered by vindictiveness.
October 5, 2021
NickC
You are getting carried away and do not forget we digned the protocol proposed and signed by Boris, so stop the emotions and live with it
October 5, 2021
It is more to do with the practical interpretation of the agreement billy.
October 5, 2021
And that bus appeared in only one or two news cycles. Remainers made a bigger thing of it than it actually was.
Nothing like ÂŁ9million of leaflets sent to every home in favour of Remain.
October 5, 2021
Or even more spent by Remain.
October 5, 2021
@NLA; “that bus appeared in only one or two news cycles”
Wriggle, wriggle, voters do not un-hear, un-see, once said it has been said. Kinnock’s “Oh Yeah” incident at that Sheffield rally only played out for one news cycle back in ’92 but it is remembered to this day!
Also whilst you might or might not be correct about the broadcast TV news cycles, many images and video of that bus remain to this day on the internet, many more will have been circulating on web pages or social media comments that remained visible until polling day.
Such is the power of advertising…it has been proved many times that a single frame of film, just 1/24th of a second, containing an single advertising image shown to a cinema audience just before the interval can influence purchases during the interval.
October 6, 2021
Cost aside – where was the lie in that pamphlet?
October 6, 2021
Was it ” this is your decision, we will implement what you decide”
October 6, 2021
Yes, and they have done exactly that.
And it’s absolutely awful, isn’t it?
Well decided.
October 7, 2021
After 5 years of deliberate delay and obstruction you mean NLH
October 5, 2021
@NickC; “But the ÂŁ350m/wk was never âpromisedâ to the NHS â that was a self-serving Remain invention.”
Nonsense, it was one of Vote Leave’s own slogans. Put the search string “Brexit Bus NHS” into a Google image search, plenty of images (from legitimate accredited sources) will be found of their big red Vote Leave bus, some with Boris pointing at the branding, some with it as his backdrop, the branding says;
It might not have been a referendum promise but it was written to look like a promise, so no surprise some have understandably taken as a promise. Stop bleating, you just make Brexiteers look like they’re pancaking.
October 5, 2021
Newmania,
Very well put and well argues. thank you
October 5, 2021
Are you suggesting we shouldn’t have paid furlough, or supported business and workers in any way? Maybe you also think we shouldn’t have increased funds to the NHS to cope with covid or created an at-cost vaccine. That would have given you plenty to gloat (and complain) about wouldn’t it! You must be really disappointed that all that money was used to benefit the UK.
October 5, 2021
Shirley M
Sorry the money spent on the UK ( you can do better than that Shirley)
October 5, 2021
All that money went to friends of friends who have influence and will repay with favours one day.
There are dozens of chalkboards up and down the country with names of people on them, who will expect payback.
October 5, 2021
+1
Champers, I imagine.
By the crate!
It must encourage delusion?
October 5, 2021
In actual fact zero/few Brexit wins just meaningless BS and hot air. Gutless Tory MPs sitting on their hands hoping for or protecting a job, so themselves not the electorate.
It is incapable of turning words into deeds and in the meantime we read the pious crap from the Conference about low taxes whilst we are all paying more at every turn.
And now I see all the shortages are businesses fault. Well if these things are nothing to do with government we might as well do without you.
October 5, 2021
@Nig l; “In actual fact zero/few Brexit wins just meaningless BS and hot air.”
Indeed, and there never will be! Brexit was and still is ill-defined, ask 100 people in a pub what it means and you’ll get 150 different answers!
“And now I see all the shortages are businesses fault.”
Well who else is responsible for not training enough UK workers, not manufacturing here in the UK, hardly the fault of either the UK govt or the EU, won’t stop some blaming our EU membership or Brexit though.
“Well if these things are nothing to do with government we might as well do without you.”
I would be more than happy to see the return of the 1945-1979 era “Big State”, when individuals and corporations were expected to turn to the State in their time of need, be that the need for Housing or training, there being a statutory requirement for companies operating in the UK to provide apprenticeships each Sept. for example. Those on the right who wanted a small state need to stop bleating now they don’t like what they see – rather than bleat, an apology might be in order…
October 5, 2021
OT; Can the govt, politicos, please step back from telling the UK judicial system how it should operate. Parliament and Whitehall merely set the laws, in the UK (and North America, Australia etc) evidence leads to a conviction. If politicos want to (further) introduce the European model of Law, were evidence leads to an aquittal, then they need to be honest with the public about the implications to our freedoms and liberties, perhaps putting such a major change to a referenda.
October 5, 2021
Evidence – for the prosecution or for the defence – leads to conviction or acquittal, as appropriate in this jurisdiction, exactly as in most others.
What do you mean?
Incidentally, there is a Scottish and an English (inc Welsh) jurisdiction, but not a UK one. Specific statutes have to be passed accordingly. NI is separate too.
October 6, 2021
@NLH; “What do you mean?”
I might ask you the same of your reply, having clearly miss understood my comment!
I was talking about the system of law found in the UK, not the laws themselves, I am fully aware that individual laws differ within the four nations, never mind Crown Dependencies. We are at risk of having certain cases go to trial not necessarily because because the prosecution have enough evidence but because some politicos want to see more people prosecuted for certain types of alleged offence. We are also in danger of having the level of proof needed to secure a successful prosecution significantly lowered, simply to obtain a higher number of convictions because some politicos want to see more people convicted of certain types of offence, doing so for political not judicial reasons.
October 6, 2021
Subsequently, UK governments were elected Jerry with ‘leave promises and aims’, eg. “no deal is better than a bad deal”. May had bold terms for Brexit we were told by the Tories. There were people elected in May’s government that refused to follow manifesto commitments made to get elected, my MP was one of them, she would not have been re-elected had she stood as she lied to get the vote.
What we should demand next time is an actual plan from the prospective government and what are red line issues that if elected in a coalition they will not do a Clegg with, so that they can’t form a coalition with antipatico parties and then deliver nothing. If the minority party wants to overturn a key majority party promise then that one core policy has to go to a vote of the public to settle the matter as in Switzerland.
October 5, 2021
@Nig l +1
October 5, 2021
I think the 10,000 people who are alive today solely due to the Brexit government not contracting out Covid vaccine procurement to the EU might disagree about “zero wins”.
October 5, 2021
and the 50,000 who avoided a horror story experience of near-killer Covid due to being able to have earlier jabs than any European country.
October 5, 2021
The UK would also have been free to pursue the course that it did as a European Union member.
October 6, 2021
if you believe that you’d believe anything.
October 5, 2021
Forget te NHS bottomless money pit.
All the subjects you list are ‘Boris’ Brexit fails because has done nothing and it seems he intends to do nothing. So they are not wins – you are distorting our language.
Boris and your party leadwrshio hopes we will remain ruled by the EU and people will just get used to it while he bluffs and blusters along.
October 5, 2021
@The Prangwizard +1
October 5, 2021
Prangwizard,
Correct. Boris is now in power and has rushed through his Brexit deal with little debate. He can now concentrate on developing contacts that will be useful to him personally in the future. So the electorate get all sorts of measures that they did not want or agree to.
The bluffing will continue. Boris will not take on the EU and US over Northern Ireland as he is a weak leader who is afraid to act.
Lord Frost is being made to look like the boy who cried wolf.
October 5, 2021
What is the problem…..Brexit vision
Where is it a problem….No 10
When is it a problem…. When real action required. Talk is not enough
How is it a problem….. No belief in leader. Too concerned with world stage.
Who is the problem……Prime Minister
Why is it a problem…..loss of trust and vision by the people
Kipling’s six serving men applied to my present perception on progress so far.
October 5, 2021
It’s much shorter than that.
The problem is your brexit.
October 5, 2021
Wish you would stop repeating that Andy.
October 5, 2021
@turboterrier +1 Oh so true but falling on deaf ears
October 5, 2021
+1
All so true!
October 5, 2021
Oh boy, Turbo, you are so right.
October 5, 2021
+1. Boris just…………….talks a good job. Priti just………..talks a good job. Reality is they are both hopeless fools. Can’t think of a good word to say about this midlife crisis immoral fool. If he spent as much time thinking and acting about strategies to make life better for the English as he does his deliberately scruffy hair, we may have better leadership. As it is, he spends more time in front of his mirror. How can anyone take him seriously?
October 5, 2021
They don’t talk a good job, wouldn’t know one it smacked them in the face.
What we have all witnessed is a complete smokescreen in a failed attempt to convince us they have done a job.
October 5, 2021
Kipling was a great writer and a wise man, as are your comments Turboterrier
October 5, 2021
turboterrier,
Talk is not enough and no longer even mollifies any disgruntled Tory voters.
The Labour Party collapsed when they lost Scotland. The North of England was just a further set back.
So change can sometimes occur when parties are denied votes. The Tories definitely need to go the same way as Labour. There should be no easy options for careerists and chancers.
October 5, 2021
Dead right. We have seen very little yet to justify the undoubted disruptions and frictions caused by brexit. Granted the govt like all govts was knocked sideways by Covid. But now The clock is ticking.
October 5, 2021
What, seriously, do you expect, in the way of measurable benefits, from leaving the enormous, wealthy, educated, cultured, civilised market, literally adjoining us?
If you ever can think of anything, then how do we get that?
October 5, 2021
But we haven’t left Europe NLH
Only the EU.
October 5, 2021
Andy I thought you had understood the use of literally but clearly not. Poor use of adjoining, what market is next to us in the sense of proximity? Go to the corner, face the wall and leave that dunce’s cap in place.
October 5, 2021
ROI adjoins the UK.
It is a member of the European Union.
October 5, 2021
And the ROI needs trade with the North.
October 6, 2021
So when did the Republic of Ireland become such a market? We are not allowed to even sell them sausages!
October 5, 2021
Richard1. Yes, agree and for God’s sake do something about these idiots that are sitting on our motorways stopping people going about their business and most appallingly stopping ambulances from getting through. I was so pleased to see the public removing these jerks from the road yesterday. They are lucky nobody has done them serious bodily harm yet. Roger Hallam, the leader of this stupid, pointless little group said even if someone were dying in the ambulance he wouldn’t get out of the way. Well, I know what I and many other think he deserves and it doesn’t involve 3 square meals in a nice warm prison. For Christs sake get a grip.
October 5, 2021
I guess it is rather apt that a party led by a bloke called Boris is funded by dodgy Russians.
This Pandora Papers joke is brought to you in association with Putin Brexit Productions.
October 5, 2021
Indeed John, and it’s only 3 years to the next election !
October 5, 2021
The SMMT have released figures showing that in August 2021 electric vehicles sales overtook (no pun intended) diesel vehicles for market share – for the first time ever.
Next year (2022) Toyota will be selling a long-range EV model powered by new ‘solid state’ battery technology – that will drastically improve driving range and shorten recharging times. To 700 miles and 10mins respectively, using ultra-fast recharge technology. BMW, Mercedes and GM are believed to be not far behind. We will soon have a few million of them on our roads, charging up overnight with cheap surplus nightside wind energy – for use when driving the next day.
Undeniably, the writing is now on the wall for the ICE car. The public seem to have recognised this.
October 6, 2021
Of course the ‘writing on the wall’ have you not heard that this government is to BAN ice cars in 8 years
October 6, 2021
Those figures released by SMMT are misleading by category, grouping both hybrids & EVs together
Let put them in their correct category for September
Fossil fuel â 104,972
Hybrids â 77,619
EV â 32,712
The message is a bit different when you analyse the numbers
October 5, 2021
Without being facetious, in response to your questions a reasonable response is âyou tell usâ as you are in close touch with ministers and are at the Conservative Party conference! Sadly the fact that you are putting these questions at all says it all about your partyâs betrayal of its principles and the interests of those who voted for it Mr Redwood. We still much appreciate all of your efforts to restore sanity though.
October 5, 2021
Leaving the EU was supposed to bring our poor government mechanisms into focus.
By continually blaming “Brexit” and not taking “Brexit wins” we are still taking too much focus away from poor government (Executive, civil service and MPs). We just want government to act for the people not for focus and pressure groups.
The inertia is shameful. Media should stop reporting on speeches and investigate delivery.
Whatever the short term effects of leaving the EU, we will be better off long term. Unfortunately long term means we need to ride out the current sclerotic administration and its grandstanding green ideals.
October 5, 2021
Yes Sir John – when will we get Brexit done? How many years on now and still not started the move to an independent democratic sovereign state. All hot air JUST TO WIN an election.
I accept the premise of extra NHS spending – but that is a war against a virus. But were are the reforms? The streamlining.
October 5, 2021
Iâve been listening to some of the speeches from the conference, the politicians seem to inhabit a parallel universe universe, taking credit for causing the problems that we face, weâre facing the highest taxes for 70 years , talk about rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic!
Meanwhile in the real world, no petrol, empty shelves in the shops, talking about yet another lockdown, vax passports being made mandatoryâŠ. Crisis, what crisis?
Labour MPâs thinking about joining the Tory party, a massive scandal about donations, ministers refusing to answer questions about it, do they think that no one has noticed?
And you Sir John seem to be part of the deception!
October 5, 2021
Lester-cynic, weâve managed to get diesel and petrol every day for the whole fortnight all over the country in multiple locations and multiple vehicles including the South East no special storage bunkers just regular filling stations. I was panicked by the news reports at the start of this and thought the worst, some garages have been better than others with good management of supply minimum and maximum buying instructions to stop the ÂŁ10 top up people filling up too regularly and the largest vehicles taking all the supply in one hit.
Which shelves near you are regularly empty every day of the week at which store in which location?
October 5, 2021
This government has squandered every advantage from Brexit and introduced more appalling disastrous policies than any in history. It’s covid mania, green mania, authoritarian power grabs massive tax hikes have done more damage than any enemy could manage. In fact politicians have shown themselves to be our enemy.
October 5, 2021
Never.
Interesting interview with the Prime Minister in TCW this morning.
October 5, 2021
Interesting interview of the PM by ex-Oxford Union Conservative Association president, Nick Robinson, on the Today program showing clearly that Johnson is a buffoon unable to align more than three words together to make a meaningful sentence.
UK the biggest growth rate of the G7? A 6.7% forecast for 2021. Yes, but the UK GDP drop in 2020 was the largest of the G7 countries (ons.gov.uk âInternational comparisons of GDP during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemicâ, 01/02/2021).
For the whole of 2021, the UK GDP today is forecasted to still be at 2.1% below its pre-Covid-19 value of February 2020.
According to commonslibrary.parliament.uk âGDP-International comparisons: Key economic indicatorsâ, 22/09/2021 at the end of Q2, UK was still at -4.4%, Italy at -3.8, France and Germany at -3.3%, Canada at -2%, Japan at -1.5%, and the USA at +0.8%.
October 5, 2021
The Government seems hell bent on ensuring there are no gains from leaving what little bits of the EU Commission rule we have left. The State is growing, the inefficiencies are growing – the taxpayer gets punished just because the Government has no intention of even ensuring the basic election promises get fulfilled.
Fishing still EU Controlled, UK territorial integrity still EU Controlled, trade with the EU still EU controlled. The EU can sell to the UK, but every barrier imaginable has been placed in the way of UK trade with them.
October 5, 2021
It is essential that constituencies of winners are created. The more winners, the more status quo bias will work to prevent crazy rejoiners (including the covert âsoft rejoinâ of dynamic alignment with EU rules we donât control)
There should be a whole department looking out for these wins. As well as those you mention, consider where EU rules harmed UK businesses eg
Clinical trials
Auctions
Agency workers
Food supplements
Insurance
Steel production
Domestic electricity supply
And areas where EU rules prevented the U.K. doing what was right:
Inhumane live animal exports
Ensuring imported pork Products are not based on welfare standards lower than our own
Particularly after Covid lockdowns have hit small businesses we need to re balance away from EU rules which favour large established producers whose lobbying helped put up regulatory barriers to entry
October 5, 2021
The civil service has always been impartial.
However, you want it to abandon that in favour of its being a PR entity, promoting a doctrinaire Tory view of this country’s relationship with the European Union.
Well, you would, wouldn’t you?
October 5, 2021
Oh and nowâŠhow helpfulâŠour so effective Home Secretary has announced a war on MIDDLE CLASS DRUG TAKERS!!
Now if that isnât divisive and discriminatory what is?
Surely we are all middle class now? Except in the Marxist mind.
I thought she had a job to do?
October 5, 2021
Everhopeful. Are you sure it’s not just white and middle class?
October 5, 2021
Gove better watch out! Was he not a self confessed middle class drug taker as a journalist? Two years ago we had MPs falling over themselves to say they took drugs, LibDem leader said she took drugs at uni and enjoyed it!
October 5, 2021
Would she care to define when Middle class is determined?
October 5, 2021
What, like on those raving it up in Aberdeen from time-to-time you mean?
October 5, 2021
“We need to pocket the Brexit wins”.
Meanwhile, the government is more interested in pocketing something else, so the Pandora Papers reveal.
October 5, 2021
What a pity neither of your two speeches yesterday were livestreamed. You need to tell your hosts to up their game!
Yes, the promised money to the NHS has been more than delivered, and the failure of the Remoaners to acknowledge this is proof of their dishonesty and is why it is not worth trying to engage with them. They will not admit the truth even when the facts are clear, so all debate with them is pointless.
As for the other benefits of Brexit, there could be so many IF ONLY we had a government willing to grasp them. But we don’t. None of the things you list has been done. Yesterday I explained how we could help solve the HGV driver shortage by abolishing EU rules, but the government refuses to do so. Basically, we have been BETRAYED by a prime minister who refuses to implement changes. Which is why the only way to “pocket the Brexit wins” is to change the prime minister. But the party won’t do that. Jacob Rees Mogg, the supposed Brexiteer, is even willing to serve in this anti-Brexit government. I have lost all hope.
October 5, 2021
As government policy must be to not give in to terrorists I think they should forget about encouraging house insulation by lower VAT and subsidy. When Insulate Britain stop their activities then maybe reconsider.
October 5, 2021
My main concern is not when we will get more “Brexit wins” – there’s plenty of time for those to unfold, just as there was plenty of time to gradually wean the economy off its addiction to cheap foreign labour rather than administering shock therapy so my wife counts herself lucky to have got some petrol last night – but when the government will sort out the problems it has created for Northern Ireland.
Despite Lord Frost belatedly saying yesterday that “The unity of the country is paramount”. Which I don’t think is actually true, as far as his boss is concerned, for whom “Boris Johnson” is far more important than anybody or anything else.
Now the promise is that there could be action by Christmas; then it will be Easter; then after the summer break; and so on … Why has Lord Frost not even published drafts of the new UK laws to protect the EU Single Market that were envisaged in the Command Paper in July?
October 5, 2021
There are no problems in Northern Ireland. They have fuel and no product shortages. Suppliers are shifting – they are now getting their products from the single market rather than from GB, because of the pointless paperwork you Brexitists have imposed. But Iâm afraid that this is what you voted for. It isnât anyone elseâs fault if you didnât read it. You were warned. Repeatedly. This is Brexit and no amount of your whinging will change it.
Amusingly, article 16 doesnât do what you think it does either. So itâll be fun to watch what happens if the Brexitists are dumb enough to invoke it. (Spoiler alert: they are dumb enough).
October 5, 2021
Who delivers the fuel in Northern Ireland the German company Hoyer?
October 5, 2021
You have no idea what I think Article 16 does.
October 5, 2021
When will the so called âgovernmentâ stop being so stupid?
They have buried all the Brexit benefits under covid and lorry drivers.
And unfettered mass immigration.
They have broken the spirit of the nation.
ManchesterâŠto quote GretaâŠ.BLAH,BLAH,BLAH!
October 5, 2021
Never.
October 5, 2021
Where are the Spartans when you need them – surely there has been enough talk and waffle and false promises. It will be no good seeing the light in the run up to the next election.
October 5, 2021
Unable to buy things in the shops due to trade frictions introduced by Brexit.
Unable to buy things from overseas suppliers I dealt with for years due to trade frictions introduced by Brexit.
Prices up due to the increased costs of trade bureaucracy introduced by Brexit (along with the delays).
Explain to me where are these Brexit wins again?
October 5, 2021
Where are you unable to buy things Peter?
Does no one want to sell to you.
How odd.
October 6, 2021
From small businesses in countries like Germany and the Netherlands. The UK Brexit paperwork those small businesses now have to deal with makes it not worth their while shipping to the UK, so they have simply stopped supplying UK customers.
October 6, 2021
This happens at times Peter.
Suppliers who refuse to supply.
Although it is unusual.
Unusual too that there is no one else in the world who can be a substitute supplier.
October 5, 2021
Peter, what âthingsâ have you tried to buy in shops due to trade frictions? What County are the shops in?
Which Overseas supplier wonât supply you? What restrictions are there are EU countries exporting to the UK? There arenât anything like the restrictions put on the UK by the EU!
But people will finally wake up and realise they need to start supporting British firms I know lots of people sourcing British products including butter, meat, and some large items.
October 6, 2021
See answer above to Peter2.
October 6, 2021
Thanks, Peter but could you give me an idea of a product that takes too much paperwork and what is the UK paperwork they have to fill in to export?
October 6, 2021
Sports equipment and sports nutrition supplies are just two examples of goods that I can no longer source from suppliers that I’d been dealing with for years up until Brexit.
Paperwork required now includes Proof of Origin statements, UK-specific licences/certifications, duties and taxes paperwork, phytosanitary requirements, dealing with VAT.
Before Brexit, a company in Germany or Holland could ship to Manchester, Munich or Maastricht, as easily as shipping to Madrid or Milan. After Brexit, that is no longer the case.
Remind me again about these Brexit wins, because I am only seeing and experiencing losses.
October 7, 2021
Thank you Peter, I’m sorry that you personally are having lots of problems.
Actually, I find that quite reassuring that the UK asks for ‘Proof of Origin statements, UK-specific licences/certifications, duties and taxes paperwork, phytosanitary requirements, dealing with VAT.’ I’d read that Boris had extended the requirement to produce all of this for goods coming into the UK. I’ll have a read up on it.
Leaving in January after the withdrawal agreement ended was bad timing in the midst of the covid pandemic and the crisis in the UK that this caused. But it has pushed up wages in the North already (without government intervention). I know people that are happy with that. If you read @FactoryNow there is good news #UKmfg. The City jobs market is bouncing back. The vaccine tax force did a good job in getting fast and efficient covid vaccines into our most at risk groups. Just to start.
October 7, 2021
All of this was done previously, but it was done either via the importer into the EU single market, or by the manufacturer and therefore did not insert itself into the relationship between the retailer and the consumer. Brexit has now caused that to happen and it has caused some trade to simply cease.
I’d be interested in seeing the response of @FactoryNow to Intel’s decision on the location of its new plant.
October 7, 2021
I talked of your comment with my husband, he was surprised you are having problems because he is purchasing health supplements without problem from a German firm with no increase in price or delays on delivery. Are you buying to sell on in large quantities?
Are the products coming in from outside of the EU into the EU? Perhaps you can get direct supply lines. Why are you excited about Intelâs decision?
October 5, 2021
When is HS2 going to be cancelled? Even with cancellation charges it will save billions. There is no business case for it now and it was an EU project anyway.
October 5, 2021
Think of all those drivers able to do something useful, and all those materials which could be usefully put elsewhere.
October 6, 2021
No, it wasn’t a European Union project.
It went with the grain of a pan-European transport strategy including many non-member countries.
There was no compulsion for any state to comply.
October 5, 2021
The following mantras are chanted daily within the government and civil service:
There’s nothing we can do
There may be something we can do
We can do something but it’s not for us to take the lead
We should have done something but it’s too late now
October 5, 2021
Then they say âHeehee!
We didnât want to do it anyway!â
October 5, 2021
Sir John, I think all of us who wish the best for our country have to look for Brexit benefits now even if some of us voted Remain. However, facts still matter so please don’t use your privileged position to mislead your readers. The huge increase in NHS spending has nothing to do with Brexit as you well know and you also ignore the so called divorce bill that offsets those reduced EU contributions; even as a member of the EU we were allowed to develop, procure and provide emergency approvals for our vaccines; freeports were not banned under EU law and we used to have freeports until a Conservative government decided not to renew their licences.
The referendum was partly won due to misinformation and this is not healthy. Many still mistakenly conflate the ECHR treaty with the EU for example and Brexiters in the public eye quietly let these myths survive.
October 5, 2021
âMrs May has promised an extra ÂŁ20.5 billion a year for the NHS by 2023-24, an annual rise of around 3.4 per cent each year for the health service in England, partly funded by a âBrexit dividendâ.â January 2019 promised before covid struck.
October 5, 2021
BBC:
“Only 127 fuel drivers apply for UK visa – PM
Boris Johnson says the slow take up of visa for fuel drivers illustrates the problem of shortages globally.”
Right, so if the Government had known about this chronic global shortage – are they seriously admitting that they did not? – then why did they act in such a blundering, offensive way as to cause scores of thousands of these precious people to quit the country and to slam the door resoundingly on their way out?
Is it because they are utterly and completely reckless and incompetent by any chance?
October 5, 2021
Perhaps NLH because the government expected the German run Hoyer to train sufficient British drivers to drive the tankers. The rates of pay are among the best in the Industry and weâre still waiting to be told exactly how many drivers Hoyer employs, how many of them were EU drivers that have returned to their home countries, how long did they work for the company, when did they leave? Do you know?
October 5, 2021
We appear to have simply swapped one set of authoritarian, anti-democrats in Brussels for another set in Westminster/Whitehall.
There are two possible reasons why none of the things Mr Redwood highlights has happened: either it’s
(a) because Whitehall and/or the Government don’t want to or
(b) they are incompetent
Although they ARE spectacularly incompetent, I tend towards (a) being the primary reason.
Johnson and Gove were never enthusiastic Brexiteers. Both wanted an arms-length relationship with the EU and saw the Referendum as a way to achieve it. They never anticipated a real Brexit and they’ve not delivered it. Everything they do is intended to achieve and maintain the arms-length relationship they always wanted.
Johnson is about to confirm that the main purpose of his Government will be to deliver the WEF’s programme under the slogan “Build Back Better” (with the peasants owning nothing and being happy) and his brand of Green Lunacy which cost British Taxpayers a fortune and achieve absolutely nothing in terms of the climate.
We voted Conservative. We’ve got left-wing Communitarianism and Green Lunacy.
October 5, 2021
Have you ever thought of a third possibility?
October 6, 2021
If I infer correctly what you mean, then I think that it will have to be spelled out, Hefner.
That is, the other possibility is that the things that brexitians want, and which they were told that they could have, are in fact, simply impossible.
October 5, 2021
Brexit hasnât happened, BRINO despite your protestations Sir John!
You continue to ignore all thatâs going on around you and the posts are becoming evermore critical, fiddling whilst Rome burns
October 6, 2021
What, because the European Union still exists, and you were led to believe that if brexit were done properly then it would be destroyed, you mean?
October 6, 2021
NLH – I think you need to find a UKIP blog. No one here that I read on a regular basis thinks the EU will be destroyed.
October 5, 2021
As I have said here repeatedly, I do not believe the problem is with ministers, it is the Remainer Civil Service that is holding up the Brexit dividend. We know that deluded fanatics like Adonis want to remain aligned with the EU as much as possible so that a Labour Government after the next election can take us back in.
For a start, Boris would have to make several catastrophic mistakes in order to lose an 8o seat majority to Starmer and co and secondly, there are at least 17.4m voters who won’t go along with the idea. Civil Servants play a long game so I believe that they are doing everything they can to hold back Brexit policy in order to stay close to the EU.
It is a pity that the government cannot simply replace the heads of departments with Brexiteers. That is what is necessary to make rapid progress. We need more ministers like Pritti Patel who are determined to enforce the policy changes they want to see and are prepared to make waves when the Permanent Secretaries don’t ensure that the work is done.
October 5, 2021
âWhen will they âŠâ. Who are âtheyâ? Please with a 80-MP majority, what are YOU waiting for?
Bloody ridiculous post.
October 5, 2021
Do you ever read posts before sounding off heffy?
Re-read what Chris said in his first sentence
October 5, 2021
P2, nothing to do with ChrisS. Obviously, you didnât read Sir Johnâs post.
You never miss an opportunity to look silly, arenât you?
October 6, 2021
Chris placed the blame on Civil Servants.
You in you haste to respond failed to understand and talked about the government majority.
The only person looking silly is you heffy.
October 6, 2021
If you say so ⊠if that makes your day, be my guest.
October 6, 2021
Peter2 – You probably thought Hefner was directing his rude comment ‘Bloody ridiculous post’ to Chris rather than Sir John Redwood after all he doesn’t have to come and visit John’s blog and read on a regular basis.
October 6, 2021
Thanks hef.
I will therefore be your guest.
October 5, 2021
Just get on with it John, tell your lazy party they have a massive majority. Make these things happen with immediate effect, we know you can make things happen quickly when you want to.
How long would it take to take VAT off green insulation, would that even have to go to a vote? Can’t Rishi just do that immediately if he wanted to?
All this time we’ve heard we can’t do this, that or the other because our hands are tied, well they aren’t now so move on it, which Tory MP or even Labour MP to come to that would vote against a VAT saving?
October 5, 2021
An off piste thought on the fear that women experience out alone at night.
We have watches that act as telephones and as GPS position locators. We have location beacons in yachts and aircraft which in emergency can be triggered to call for help and give an instant location via satellite.
So how about a watch with a red button emergency trigger that signals via satellite to an emergency service that in turn triggers an instant police response. Buyers of such watches would need to register and be made aware that wearing such carried responsibilities. We have the technology, lets do it at an affordable price.
October 5, 2021
Agricola it is a good idea but wouldnât have helped the two females in London with one put in handcuffs and the other hit over her head with a bar and knocked unconscious.
October 5, 2021
The access to cheap, imported labour facilitated by the EU, and now its decline, facilitated by Brexit, should have been planned for long ago. Witnessing the embarrassing interviews by BJ lately as he slaloms his way around the awkward questions is a depressing spectacle. Do you, Sir John, think that your Party can survive this?
October 5, 2021
As to todays diary entry, we need a complete mental reset of many politicians and their ministerial civil servants. We are a sovereign nation which means that the buck stops within our maratime limits. Decisions are no longer the business of the EU or the Biden for that matter. Resposibilities are with our politicians and their civil servants. I trust Liz Truss and I believe Dominic Rabb is thinking positively, based on what I have heard from conference. Other than that it has been a rhetoric fest with claporama support, but little of real substance. Pritti and Boris will be pivotal.
October 5, 2021
“Right guys. The boss says that we need a ‘complete mental reset’, OK? What do you think that we should tell him?”
October 5, 2021
On the 26th June 2016 over five years ago the people sent an instruction to parliamentâŠ.without trying to sound negative Iâve yet to realise, see or identify any effective changeâŠlets alone any âwinsâ
October 5, 2021
Under the UK Constitution, they did not.
They sent Advice.
October 5, 2021
And eventually despite efforts by remainers to stop it the people had their way.
October 5, 2021
When they elected two conservative governments afterwards they sent their instruction, the last time clearly with an 80 seat majority.
October 6, 2021
But not on Net Zero.
Interesting, Tracy.
October 6, 2021
NLH the net-zero in the manifesto was by 2050 it has been brought forward too quickly for the technology and facilities to be set up. I actually agree with reducing energy requirements. I hate it that foreign countries have so much control over our energy in the UK.
What you people never seem to do it look at the progress that has been made in the UK in comparison to other Countries that choose work around. Since 1983 all new homes built with a cavity have been insulated in the walls and loft, lots of people have also added extra cover doubling up. New builds have much smaller, ugly little windows now to comply. 95% of older houses with cavity walls have already been retrofitted. 90% of those older houses have loft insulation. Surveyors have confirmed this. However, around 8m Victorian terraced homes and stone built rural homes have no cavities to put insulation in what do you think should be done with them?
The UK is also moving on a pace with electric vehicles, the government could go faster only offering them in the mobility scheme and government car schemes when cheaper models from Japan and the Kia manufacturers come into the UK because the German brands are too expensive for most folk.
We need to keep the lights and heating on in the meantime, whilst we are pushing ahead with all the changes that Boris is obviously on board with and the public are getting restless to make sure this is not in reliance of the French politicians or any other Country for that matter. We have seen how petty and spiteful they are.
October 6, 2021
It was a written manifesto commitment NLH for 2050.
But now suddenly altered to 2030.
October 5, 2021
Come on you can produce a better rhetoric reply
October 5, 2021
Regret to say there are no real visible brexit wins only more delusionist nonsensense that can be excused by it coming on the back of a tory conference ‘High’. It’s quite astounding – so many intelligent people gathered together living in self-denial, all conflating the extra spending on NHS because of the pandemic with the 350 on the side of a bus ax being a good thing.
Question is since we have taken back control why are some if not all of the points listed today not been acted on already?
Then your comments about brexit wins – i don’t see it ‘ all I see are shortages, congestion in the ports with shortage of drivers and empty containers stacking up with the disastrous loss to our country of JIT
Regarding the vaccine rollout – as it turns out we are on par with other European countries not so far ahead or not so far behind – and I don’t understand what the big deal is
The Govt will not abolish VAT on greens products – or indeed anything else – you heard what was said yesterday so why go on? they are not in the mood – only civil unrest on the streets might change their minds
As regards fishing by oversized EU trawlers nothing will be done
For ‘freeports’ to work as they should – you have to have traffic of people and goods through. So where are these freeports to be located – what is the plan?
Stupid to think we are going to resurrect a merchant shipping fleet for global trade in this age when everything else regarding trade has gone so regional ie.. the Pacific countries deal, the North America deal and the EU
Ah yes ‘the new agricultural policy’? – if pigs could only fly (and am not taking about the 120,000 pigs going for slaughter and incineration this coming week).
October 5, 2021
Regarding vaccine roll out if everyone was offered a vaccine quickly and some refused then that shows the UK still allows free will. The UK was vaccinated faster, the oldest age groups made safer the quickest, the younger generations are reluctant at the moment this is still a free choice in the UK.
October 5, 2021
This is a decidedly underwhelming list of opportunities. I’m not sure quite how I’m going to explain to my eleven year-old daughter when the times comes for her to leave home and live her life that she lost her right to live and work anywhere she pleases across the European continent for this.
October 5, 2021
W in H
Sorry mate and get a life.
If your daughter achieves the right qualifications for those specific industries that are desperate for really top qualified people she will have the whole world to choose from, where she is going to work and live.
October 5, 2021
There never used to be any “if”.
It was unconditional.
October 5, 2021
Twaddle NLH, there has always been an “if”
No one has an automatic right to everything they want.
October 6, 2021
NLH
There has always been an “IF” because if you are not qualified, and or experienced, your chances are “less” no matter where you want to work, either here or abroad, being able to speak the right language also helps.
October 6, 2021
So how come the lawless end of Essex were largely able to buy homes in Spain, in their fry-up and lager ghettoes, where not a word of Spanish is spoken?
You clearly haven’t a clue what the European Union is.
October 6, 2021
You making things up again NLH?
More baseless generalisations
October 6, 2021
NLH
You are now changing the argument, from someone who is looking for employment with an employer, to those who are looking to form their own business with their own money.
The two situations are very, very different even in the UK, just as they are abroad in any country, as well as in the EU.
Sorry to disappoint but I have a very good idea what the EU was all about for the last 40 years, having travelled extensively throughout Europe and the rest of the World and having promoted and completed business abroad.
October 7, 2021
I was simply sympathising with the OC Will, re his daughter.
He made no qualification as to her future reasons.
October 5, 2021
The society of motor manufacturers & traders (SMMT) on the BBC today saying we need hundreds of thousands of new EV âcharging stationsâ
Whoâs building them, whoâs funding them and who owns them
October 5, 2021
Update
40 Free to use electric car charging points are now operational in the Wirral, a project using ÂŁ100k of taxpayers money to fully subsidise EV car users with free electricityâŠâŠ..why are we using taxpayers money like this and could this government please supply me with free petrol and free electricity for my home
Or does this subsidy only apply to those who can afford to buy an EV
Is the new green revolution deemed a brexit win
October 5, 2021
GC, What about you checking the following:
ChargePoint, ABB, BP, Shell, Webasto, Ecotricity, Hyundai, RWE, DaimlerMercedesBenz, Siemens, EVgo, EVBox, G2Mobility, Blink, Renault, SchneiderElectric, Efacec, âŠ
Most of them if not already setting up charging stations in the UK are on the march for doing it. And see how many are British companies.
October 5, 2021
Hefner which Country owns the Charge points and controls them?
October 6, 2021
In Reading, we have 1 Ecotricity, 2 Tesla, 1 InstaVolt, 1 GeniePoint, 4 PodPoint, 14 ChargeMaster charging stations, each with two to five bays.
Ecotricity is UK, Tesla is US, InstaVolt is UK, GeniePoint is French, PodPoint is UK, ChargeMaster (BP Pulse) is whatever BP is.
October 6, 2021
a-tracy, âWhich country owns the charge points and controls them?â. No need to fret, most of these companies are private so their investors (or more exactly their BoDs) are more likely to control them. The only exception might be GeniePoint, part of the Engie group in which the French State appears to still have a 30% vote right and 20+% of the capital.
October 6, 2021
hefner why shouldn’t we fret every day the French are threatening the UK public with one thing or another and I hope they are completely taken out of our UK energy provision. I love France, I love the French people, I speak French but the current French politicians are out of control.
October 8, 2021
a-tracy, it is interesting: Le Monde in its 30/09/2021 editorial âLa France, exutoire de Boris Johnsonâ presents the mirror image of what you are saying: BJ plays to his Brexitersâ gallery by pointing out bad boy Macron because he cannot use anymore âBruxellesâ for explaining his continuous mistakes.
October 9, 2021
Hefner, are you saying that our newspapers are telling Lies and Macron and his assistant are not threatening the UK or Jerseyâs fuel supplies, turkey imports and the like? Boris canât make up stories like that. I think it is more telling that Le Monde try to cover up Macronâs threats to the UK in France by blaming their bogey man Boris.
Boris is making plenty of mistakes, bringing forward net zero by 20 years is one of the biggest manifesto breaking ideas he has made as he has no plan and no ability to achieve it without the British public at the lower end of the earnings scale suffering badly. He needs to go back to the manifesto pledge he was elected on and say we are aiming to do better than 2050 but we will do so in line with the publics needs in the UK. Instead of playing for his foreign gallery. Boris is one of these people that is desperate to have a legacy to be remembered in time, net zero is an admirable ambition but needs some careful thought through policies and the technological advances on home heating so that it can be done without causing too much hardship.
October 5, 2021
Providing fuel/energy for cars is the business of private companies not local councils using taxpayers money
October 5, 2021
Glen, I don’t know the answer to your question but I do know eventually it will be bloody expensive if its renewable and only if the wind blows.
October 5, 2021
With Chairman Boris at the helm, I’d suggest never to each of your questions.
October 5, 2021
The UK can thrive outside the EU only if we are a competitive, low tax country. Unfortunately it’s going in the wrong direction.
October 5, 2021
Have you seen the price of gas? Six or seven times the price of a year ago.
It’s no good Boris blaming employers for driver shortages or world circumstances for some prices. In almost all instances the government create the conditions by law or by practice by which we live and the public react accordingly. Brexit is the ideal opportunity to create conditions for our future.
And he’s still doing it with his green agenda. Do we yet know whether China will turn up at his COP26 or will it be a cop-out for them?
Whilst pollution does nobody any good, to think humans can control climate change is bonkers. Check out the Sun, the tilt of the earth, jet streams etc.
October 5, 2021
We have been told by council letter , at extremely short notice, that because of a cycle race we can have no deliveries and no parking in the street for 24hours.
We have a drive but many houses do not and apparently any cars left in the street will be fined and towed away.
There just is nowhere for the large number of cars to go.
This is on top of incessant disruption from gas works and broadband engineering over two years.
Oh yes..and apparently the council has resources for a huge police presence, for HGVs and petrol!!
Funny how people can glue themselves to motorways with impunity!
October 6, 2021
Everhopeful, It’s Priorities, their priorities.
That is the way Councils think, that is why we still have millions of potholes, but they still install more speed humps.
They do not need to attract customers, they have your income by the right of law, no matter how poor the service they give.
October 5, 2021
The current governmentâs use of Brexit has been unsatisfactory although it has to be said that there are the mitigating circumstances of Covid and of course the 40+ years of the EUâs continuing corruption of our political elite, civil servants, institutions/quangos, MSM, educational establishment and judiciary, all of which will need to be overcome.
However, the real advantage of Brexit is that if the current government continues down the path of grand vanity projects such as HS2 or the economy destroying policy of unilateral net zero we now have the ability to dismiss the government and elect another.
October 5, 2021
And so to Pritti Patel. I am not convinced by what she has said on Channel illegal immigrants. She could ask the Royal Navy or Royal Air Force to institute 24/7 drone surveillance from the median line in the Channel. By repute this would show up any cross Channel boating preparations on shore in France. Instant information to the French Gendarmerie would remove their excuse for inaction on their part. Rubber boats should not get off the beach.
I do not recall her saying anything substantial concerning a complete rewriting of the laws relating to the ECHR. An absolutely necessary step in removing convicted immigrant criminals or in removing illegal immigrant arrivals who by definition are criminals.
The Jury (electorate) is out on Extinsion Rebellion and their offshoot Insulate. When our screens are no longer filled with their obscene behaviour I will note that she has dealt with it.
On the subject of the impossible to replace Cressida Dick she said nothing. RUBBISH. During WW2 we had Group Captains at less than 30 years of age, based on ability and survival. If the Met lacks mid rank policemen, untainted with the social science of Bramshill, incapable of accepting high rank what does it say about the quality of the the Met in its entirety.
And now we await Boris.
October 5, 2021
Well yes sir John. If you don’t know how do you expect use to know? If businesses took as long as the government to make decisions they would just go out of business. So sir John please explain to us why the government takes to long to make decisions.
October 5, 2021
This is true Stephen. They seem scared of making a decision because of how the press will treat them. Not every decision you make is the right one, but we know that if we make no decisions at all the business stagnates and it will definitely fail. They seem more worried about their future life rather than the life of the public.
October 5, 2021
Good ships.regiments, schools, and prosperous businesses get things done because they have effective and
respected captains, colonels, head teachers and CEOs.
Political parties are no different.
October 5, 2021
I’m really concerned by what Boris Johnson said in this recent interview:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-58765848
because the ‘fix’ he talks about would relate to only half of the problem, namely the EU controls on imports into Northern Ireland, and would still leave the province subject to the rules of the EU Single Market, contrary to the original purpose of Article 6 of the Act of Union.
Why would Northern Ireland have to stay under the rules of the EU Single Market? Because while some of the goods crossing the land border into the Irish Republic would have come in from outside, and so would have been checked according to EU requirements at their point of entry into the province, some other goods would have actually been produced within the province and so would not have been exposed to those EU import checks.
And there is the fundamental flaw in the present ill-begotten scheme to try to prevent the movement of non-compliant goods across the open land border into the Irish Republic and then the wider EU Single Market, which relies on import controls when it is self-evident that it should be based on export controls which would catch any contraband goods produced in Northern Ireland, as well as those brought into Northern Ireland from outside.
As for the location of those export checks and controls, everybody agrees that there should be no change at the actual land border, and is obviously not true that checks away from the border, or indeed anywhere on the island of Ireland, would somehow amount to a “hard border”, as claimed in August 2019, and as Lord Frost made clear in July it would be feasible to operate such checks without the need for any processes at the actual border:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7L7ICHjWWk&t=2622s
October 5, 2021
And you might add that even pre-Brexit NI and the Republic had different VAT rates and different currencies with varying exchange rates, and yet no land border worked perfectly well. As so often with the EU, they claim to be solving problems, but they actually introduce new problems so that they claim to solve them.
As I commented earlier, I think N 10 has finally decided that it has had enough, and that if this is going to lead to a bust-up sooner or later, it may as well be now. I used to see the sense in the NIP from the EU’s point of view, but I think their intransigence has demonstrated that they just wanted a friction point that they could exploit. They really just wanted a permanent “presence” in the UK to act as a constant irritant and an excuse for lofty and patronizing statements about how we were not cringing up to their expectations.
October 5, 2021
Interesting, if not surprising, a piece on Politico.eu website dated 30 Sept 2021 – ‘ Britain’s Civil Service merry-go-round ‘ but “responsibility for gripping a crisis ultimately lies with the prime minister …. “
October 5, 2021
Off topic. For Boris Johnson to say he’s not bothered about prices going up I find truly shocking. Then again if you are a millionaire why would you. He’s losing voters by the minute.
October 5, 2021
The very latest poll that I saw this morning had the Tories on 40% and Labour on 34%. And I can’t resist noting that this was from politico.eu.
October 6, 2021
Who like (almost) everybody knows is the European branch of the American political journalism company from Arlington, Virginia.
October 6, 2021
Yet you would accept without a problem a poll sponsored by the Guardian or independent I would guess heffy.
October 14, 2021
You would guess wrongly, but why should I waste time arguing with you? You create pseudo-arguments for the sake of putting down people who you think might not agree with you.
Rather pathetic.
October 6, 2021
Yup, prices going up everywhere, but the State Pension triple lock, instigated to protect purchasing power, removed. tells you all you need to know really.
October 5, 2021
Unelected Carrie Johnson speaking at a LGBT event at conference today reports BBC Laura Kuenssberg
I recall that partner/spouses are witnessed on stage following a PMs speech but I canât remember them giving speechesâŠ.maybe thatâs another brexit win
October 5, 2021
Well, there’s no law against it.
Do you think that there should be?
October 5, 2021
This isn’t America
October 6, 2021
She has some standing in her own right on environmental and communication matters etc.
I assume that she was speaking – at a fringe event – in that capacity.
Do you think that she should be prevented?
If so then why?
October 6, 2021
was Johnson baby-minding?
October 5, 2021
Ah, yes, those illusive Brexit ‘wins’.
October 5, 2021
Well, it never ends with the Remainers, does it? They have this massive inferiority complex about Europe and so they bang on and on about how rich and sophisticated the EU is, meanwhile Europe is going through its own energy crisis, its own driver shortage, even its own shellfish and oyster virus problem. – problems which are pretty much a mirror image of ours.
Their unemployment is twice ours, 8% versus about 4%, and it has been twice ours for over a decade. They are also gradually recovering from Covid, thanks to a vaccine the UK devloped, but their recovery is much slower, a quarter over quarter rate of 2.5% compared to the UK’s rate of 5.5%.
The Remainer story is now only one of rhetorical tropes, but even those don’t make much sense. We’re supposed to be poor and cold on the outside, but exports are actually *up* since January, UK consumer spending is also up, by about 20bn quarter over quarter.
Here’s a thought to consider. The economy simply does not *care* about your nostalgia for the EU. Businessmen are in it to make money, not to conform to your hurt feelings. Remainerism no longer has no real effects, because it can no longer make anything happen. The World goes on and Remainerism today is just a bunch of people bleating on a discussion group and changing absolutely nothing.
October 5, 2021
Most of the Remainer comments today are just repeats of the arguments that lost them the referendum. The referendum they were going to win 60/40. So it’s pretty much a waste of time to reply to dud old loser claims.
Another set of comments today could be summed up as saying that we have not yet had a real Brexit. Those are a bit more interesting, since after only six months we probably have not had all the effects working through the economy. For example, it’s becoming very clear that a lot of companies read about the end of free movement for about five years, and did nothing about it. But they will have to now, or face extinction. And so, kicking and screaming, they will and another pro-EU argument will go away.
Finally, within the next couple of weeks we will have some more “real Brexit” because the EU, which loudly claimed it would never renegotiate the NIP will be presenting its proposals for doing exactly that. And the EU “court case” that was begun with such a fanfare and then quietly shelved, will probably come back to life.
And that “court case” – EU “courts” are really just extensions of the executive, not courts at all in the Anglo-Saxon sense – will lead to a pretty sharp debate between the EU and UK about just who has jurisdiction when there are disagreements over the application of the WA and NIP.
The harsh tone of the statements at the weekend by Boris and Frost make me think that No 10 is winding up for a resolution, and it won’t be that the EU continues to rule the UK, even in NI. And what can the EU do if we kick them out? We still run a trade deficit with the euro area, so we still automatically win any tit for tat tariff wars. The next couple of weeks could be quite interesting.
And Remainers will look irrelevant, because they simply don’t keep up with stuff like this.
October 5, 2021
https://www.rte.ie/news/uk/2021/1005/1250950-talks-frost/
“Crunch point on NI Protocol will come next month, says Frost”
October 6, 2021
Future trade – Brexit wins: Following on from the Trade & Cooperation Agreement and obviously not yet finalised, it’s reported that the EU Parliament has voted overwhelmingly to send to the UK, MEPs to a new joint UK-EU parliamentary assembly. To comprise 70 members – 35 / EU and 35 / UK. To oversee and scrutinise UK/EU trade relations and having power to make formal recommendations to the UK Government and the EU Commission.
” Asked about UK Parliament preparations for the assembly, a spokesperson for the House of Commons said discussions remained ongoing but that they were as yet unable to comment on specific details ” Hope we have some details very soon.
October 6, 2021
That must be a record for one person posting in one day.
MiC sorry NLH must have managed 40 posts.
I hope they give their proceeds to a decent charity.
October 9, 2021
The brexiteers need to own the mess they’ve made.
Well all be in rags by the time the sunshine one the uplands.
Well, that’s all of us that aren’t millionaires and have benefitted from the Covid windfall from friends in high places.
We already grow so much food that the government would rather cut off its nose and spite its Brexit face. than bring in workers from Europe to pick the fruit and veg before it rots in the field. It would rather see its people starve than bring in foreign butchers and slaughter men to deal with 100000 pigs, no they would rather dump the meat.
Boris just reinforces Tory party idiotcracy. I’m sue he loves the poorly educated. I’m sure he will continue to defund education to prove his point.How are we going to be a high wage high skill economy? By closing all low skill sectors… Like shops, care homes, hospital, police forces, packing, industrial processing plants. Then we can pay all those who go through our defunded education system to sit at home watching Netflix, because all the twit nobs that went to public school will have nice high paid jobs in the high paid high skilled sectors, and pay so much tax that we will all be able to share in the bounty they generate.
Phwa, Phwa, blah, blah.