The violent invasion of Ukraine by Russia has done great harm to the people and buildings of Ukraine. ItĀ has also done grave damage to Russia’s Ā standing in the international community, hurt its domestic economy and rattled its main ally, China. The democracies are now settled on a path to remove more Russian oil and gas from their imports, end trade in many other products, cease investing, withdrawing businesses from Russia and blockingĀ access to the western payments system. The reluctance of Germany and some eastern European countries to speed the ending of Russian energy purchases owing to their substantial dependence on them makes it possible for Russia to carry on financing her war, but the direction of travel to cut Russia’s earnings from these sources is clear. The outlook for Russia with continuing sanctions is not a good one. China may in due course buy more Russian oil and gas but that will require more pipeline capacity to Asia and or more LNG capacity, requiring large investments with delays built in.
ChinaĀ must be most unhappy that President Xi signed a comprehensive pact with President Putin during the winter Olympics in Beijing in February, only to see their best ally and friend launch a military campaign four days after the Olympics which has so far badly miscarried and has awoken the West to the threat from the autocratic regimes in both Russia and China.Ā China sees the Ukraine problem through a lens trained on Taiwan. Any thought of military action against the island must now beĀ more remote. China will have seen how an independently minded people can dig in against what looks like a large military machine and inflict considerable damage on it. They will also haveĀ noted the more robust response of the West than expected which would probably be even more true of any attack on Taiwan.
China has compounded this error by sticking to its zero covid policy. As new waves of the disease hit a population with low levels of vaccination so more cases flare up. China responds with draconian lockdowns, forcing people to stay home and sending basic state food and other supplies to keep them going. Those with the disease are removed to isolation facilities they share with many others. This is resulting in more interruptions to Chinese production and transport of goods, hitting world trade. It is creating a Chinese reputation for unreliability after years of creating a good report for timely and affordable products delivered along long supply chains especially by container ship.
China could still opt for the western approach to covid of encouraging near 100% take up of the vaccines and allowing free movement in the expectation that most who catch the disease after vaccines will get mildĀ versions which can be managed. There is no current sign of President Xi wanting to try this, and reports of vaccine hesitancy by Chinese people. They have been instructed to believe this is a dangerous disease which needs to be eradicated by lockdowns of any area where there are infected people. China will be reporting poor economic figures from this April until zero covid is re established. It’s another headwind for world trade and for economic growth more generally.Ā These events force China and Russia closer together with more opposition from the West to their actions. China is notĀ getting the support of a militarily strong and shrewd ally as it hoped. Russia is not getting all the support it needs to dig itself out of the Ukraine tragedy with any success to report.
May 5, 2022
Good morning.
In other news. Apparently there is an election taking place ? I’d doubt it will change anything substantial but, at least we can express ourselves through the ballot box and give a timely shot across the bows.
Reply. Yes there is. I wrote about Councils yesterday. Important to vote today if you have not sent in a postal ballot.
May 5, 2022
Yes. Boris says he will take responsibility for any poor results. Just what form will that take exactly.
I guess it will be the usual valueless promise to do better next time.
I have a simple response. Why not better first time so no second chances.
May 5, 2022
Perhaps he will take responsibility like Gordon Brown – “I take full responsibility and I have sacked the person responsible.”
May 5, 2022
There is never the time nor the resources to get it right first time.
But there is always the time and resources to get it right the second or third time around.
May 5, 2022
Indeed Nigl. In an election there is no second chance!
May 5, 2022
While Boris wont take responsibility for todayās poor results Iād bet his solution is to build more windfarms
May 5, 2022
+many
Apart from the fact that over the years a large chunk of political opinion has been marginalised if not totally wiped out.
Had it not I wonder if our problems would be less pressing?
600 in one day.Yesterday. What are we going to do?
May 5, 2022
And to vote on local issues.
May 5, 2022
We have county council elections, London borough elections, metropolitan council elections, district elections, unitary authorities elections and parish elections ā all at differing time scales and differing number of candidates, maybe a third this year, a third that yearā¦..all designed to divide and conqueror and to keep the status que of the political parties (and thatās just England, the other parts of the union are also different)
So why canāt we all have the same councils, elected on the same timescale, with every councillor up for election
May 5, 2022
all designed to ensure the ruling party (of merely two) maintains the authority.
May 5, 2022
Reply to reply
Woulkd that be the same yesterday in which my post was stuck in moderation ? Yes you were busy.
At least you posted the above despite editing it. š
May 5, 2022
Indeed but will:- Any thought of military action against Taiwan now be more remote? Let us hope so.
George Eustice, Minister of State for Farming, Fisheries and Food, would be well advised not to tell people with incomes perhaps 1/10 of his how to economise by buying economy lines they know far better than he does. He should be getting his government to economise, scrap net zero, go for cheap reliable energy (vital for farming), kill HS2, cancel all the green crap, have a bonfire of red tape, get red diesel back, undo all the tax and NI rises, cut government back hugely and get fracking.
May 5, 2022
+many
Yes.
That had a āLet them eat cakeā flavour about it.
Especially if MA actually said ālet them eat peasant breadā as some authorities suggest.
āLet them eat own brandā.
Ohā¦.OR ā Let them eat factory-made, plant-based āmeatā?
Beefsteaks reserved for the eliteā¦like the 18th century Old Bailey judges.
May 5, 2022
Some hope of that; as far as I can see Mr Eustice is one of the biggest fans of all the pernicious items in your list!
May 5, 2022
A letter in the Telegraph today from a GP now working in A&E in central London:-
He says:- āAt least 90 per cent of the patients I am seeing have been unable to contact their GP, have not been able to get an appointment or have been sent to us with conditions that, in the past, would have been managed by their GP.ā
Why on earth can the government not get GPs to do their jobs or, if they will not do, at least stop paying them for not doing the job? They get paid anyway so doubtless many are just doing other paid work or playing golf perhaps. The ābookingā systems they operate are clearly designed to ration, delay and stop people actually making bookings. GPs should charge like vets or hairdressers for all other than the few who really cannot pay. As should A&E. The way they are remunerated is the cause of the problem – another dreadful Blair legacy?
May 5, 2022
The point is perceptions have changed. I started working as a Nurse in 1968 and am still working as an Advanced general nurse practitioner.I have worked in every aspect of surgery, gynaecology, medicine, research etc There is nothing I have not seen or cared for. 9o% of patients I see have conditions that in the past could have been treated by families themselves or the local chemist shop.The expectations ,particularly of those coming from the abroad’s is over burdensome. If patients don’t need to see a GP, then why should they?Won’t a telephone consultation do? Why introduce infection into practices to spread amongst others ? People have to be realistic .They then go to A&E and are triaged back to the general practice where I find myself doing the job of A&E. Remember care out of the UK has to be paid for and so patients are encouraged to attend .. it makes money..They have intramuscular and expensive intravenous injections which when documents are brought over , we can see that many were simply not needed. The over dependence on our services due to lack of simple knowledge is frightening. We have to explain every basic function; many of the patients cant understand. A sneeze is interpreted as flu ,simple hygiene isn’t practiced, understanding of the female body is practically non existent and you wonder why they cant get appointments . Try managing a population of 95% non English speaking people!!!!
May 6, 2022
‘understanding of the female body is practically non existent’
I had to smile – is that a reference to men, or basically women?
May 9, 2022
On Youtube, of all places, an article actually from the NHS: ”How to copy with anxiety”…. You couldn’t make it up. (It wouldn’t allow comments or I could have thought of a choice one or two.)
May 5, 2022
Lifelogic, this is a bit strange you tell us you’re wealthier than most of us yet express your opinion on all matters here every day. Wouldn’t a farmer’s son know about food, economising his farming parents obviously budgeted well as they put him through private school. Some of the best budget setters I know are wealthy people who don’t waste money, many of them started from council houses in poor areas.
Michelle Dewsbury on GB News made me laugh recently, a wealthy woman now, she said chicken pie to her when she was younger was pie filled with thickened chicken soup, my Nana did exactly the same thing and would occasionally throw in a bit of real chicken if she had any leftover from the Sunday roast and didn’t need it for a lobby. It is a great shame people like Michelle don’t get elected and had such a bad time when she ran that she wouldn’t want to do it again. If I was on 1/10th of her income would I listen to her advice, yes I would.
May 5, 2022
Hear hear. Left hand/ right hand. We are told we are obese as a nation and to eat better food and more sensibly. Then Eustace comes out and says buy cheap. Another useless minister not making any progress towards self sufficiency. Still, re-wilding, growing weeds will help no doubt.
May 5, 2022
even rabbits ignore weeds….
May 5, 2022
Eating cheaper, does not mean, it is less healthy. The cheapest foods around are fresh vegetables and at decent supermarkets are less than a pound.
May 6, 2022
Even cheaper at decent market stalls.
May 6, 2022
Unfortunately you will not find many vegetables in the fast food outlets. Supermarket vegetables with half the nutrients gone by the time you get them.
May 9, 2022
I see that the state of Victoria is to make some sort of law against citizens growing their own food. Will it catch on, I wonder. And if people won’t comply, would a ‘scorched earth policy’ be implemented? The state government hasn’t covered it self with glory so far, so why not go one step further, and suggest it to other nations?
May 9, 2022
LL – They do not care. They are not interested in you or the people.
May 5, 2022
Allister Heath:- Work-shy Britain is sleepwalking into a doom-spiral of class war and decline
The country is in denial about the calamity of zero growth, a broken NHS and a culture of entitlement
and Robert Tombs: – The EU canāt see itās a failing, second-rate power
Its reaction to the invasion of Ukraine has shown the folly of Brusselsā grand geopolitical pretensions
Both sound in the Telegraph today.
May 5, 2022
Sadly, I won’t be able to climb over the pay-wall. But I note that the Remainers who promised us ‘WW3’ if we voted for Brexit are rather quiet on the subject right now. It would be interesting to debate here how we have got to this state of tension. My own feeling is that EU expansionism is part of the complex web of causes – and hasn’t improved the lot of those countries already in the Union. I would also argue that the West’s response to the Salisbury attack now looks to have been pitifully weak.
May 5, 2022
This conflict has been a long time in the making, and indeed predictable if we had taken Putin’s speeches and writings more seriously. Certainly he thought Europe could not do without his oil and gas. However I see worse to come. According to those that know him, he will not back down, escalation is his default. If reports of his declining health are correct and he feels the scythe nearby then what does it matter to him if he kills millions and turns a large piece of euroasia into a wasteland. That will put his name in the history books, which is perhaps all he wants. Pray for the scythe to swing soon.
May 5, 2022
So do you think that Putin would have been swifter and more confident in his invasion of Ukraine if the UK were a solidaire member of the European Union today?
If so then why?
People generally avoid stating the blindingly obvious if they can.
May 6, 2022
which people?
May 5, 2022
+1000
May 5, 2022
I don’t see the country is in denial about anything. It’s the government that lives in cloud cuckoo land.
May 5, 2022
‘The EU canāt see itās a failing, second-rate power’ oh yes it can and is busy pulling up the defensive drawbridge. ‘What we have, we hold ‘ being the mantra.
May 5, 2022
Indeed. You’ll either be able to afford a heat pump or an EV car or you won’t be allowed to keep warm or drive.
We are not being provided with viable alternatives and the only green plan is to tax and punish.
May 5, 2022
This wouldn’t have happened if sleepy Joe hadn’t botched the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Pootin thought he had a clear pitch.
Thank goodness Bozo showed some spine.
Now to the NIP….
May 5, 2022
This is probably true but why, with all the military expertise available, was Biden permitted to botch this withdrawal so appallingly?
May 5, 2022
It’s not the first time the USA has done this…they have track record…
May 5, 2022
āBotchā the withdrawal and hand the country over toā¦
2.2 million will flee and become refugees.
And THAT appears to be what they want.
Cloward-Piven type strategy?
Or āLevelling upā?
Whateverā¦..
May 5, 2022
Unintended consequences ā a bit like our net-zero strategy and the spiralling costs of living rise and the massive increase of energy bills
May 5, 2022
I feel that, seeing Afghanistan crumble, Biden should have committed to defend Kabul and the necessary supply routes.
May 5, 2022
Today wind is currently delivering 2.5gw whilst gas and nuclear are contributing 74% of generation.
We have a coal fired unit on and an open cycle gas turbine running to assist.
You couldn’t make it up.
May 5, 2022
+1
May 5, 2022
Nice little earner. UK LNG (84 mcm/ day going down the interconnectors at 70 Euro / MWh and getting 106 Euro / MWh at the Dutch end.
May 5, 2022
The Boris green revolution and the policy of net-zero is the source of our energy and inflation problems
May 6, 2022
+1
May 5, 2022
Ian Wragg
“Thank goodness Bozo showed some spine”
Really ?
This isn’t over by a long shot and next to Ukraine GB is now a #1 target.
That Putin is meant to be the new Hitler is clearly baloney. At best Ukraine is going to be hideously damaged and possibly hundreds of thousands lost. Look at the map. It is clearly NATO and EU expansion that has been the problem.
May 5, 2022
Of the NIP.
Ironic that Bozo is committing our weaponry and safety – risking war with Russia – to enable Ukraine to join the EU while he’s kept us in it with Brino because the IRA might bomb us again.
May 9, 2022
IW – what was Bozo’s response to Putin’s reasonable and simple security concerns? I have heard nothing of him trying to help except in fueling more death destruction in Ukraine.
May 5, 2022
As if China cares. A ruthless totalitarian state who only objective is to keep the party in power with zero evidence of any pushback from its people. It will squash Taiwan like a fly whenever it wishes irrespective of the human cost.
As for economic sanctions from the west. Baloney. As one example, it controls and smelts most of the ārare earthā minerals needed to drive the zero CO2 agenda with its tentacles right across Africa.
Equally itās factory output enables the west to enjoy the benefits of vast low cost outputs.
We were told them getting the Beijing Olympics would open up their society/facilitate change.
Tosh then, tosh now.
May 5, 2022
Totally agree Nigl. Head in the sand approach by western leaders is simply storing up problems for the future. It’s completely obvious that more autonomy is required in all aspects of life here and we are being taken for mugs by the autocratic nations in the world.
May 5, 2022
Nigl :
Agreed.
May 5, 2022
all the while globalist fortunes are being made.
May 5, 2022
The enemy is far closer to home than Mr Redwood would care to admit so article’s like this are deliberately myopic to deflect attention away from the collapse of western democracy and freedom driven by the rancid poison of Neo- Marxism that has infected the US and other western governments
Maybe John should direct his considerable intellect to exposing the laughably titled progressive forces that now endanger the very nature of all that we have known
May 5, 2022
+1000
The enemy is embedded.
May 5, 2022
Every MP engages with social engineering, and once they taste that power & control they just canāt leave it allow ā¦they all want to shape us in their own opinion
May 5, 2022
+1
May 5, 2022
not just MPs – any run of the mill politician.
May 5, 2022
Its just amazing how quickly politicians forget the voter
May 5, 2022
Dom
Agreed!
The enemy is within, has been for several decades, and is getting stronger. Even with a growing resistance, it steam rollers on. Itās strength comes from money and indoctrination. The results are self destructionā¦which we watch helplessly.
May 5, 2022
DOM :
Agreed.
May 5, 2022
+1
And we talk as though war in Ukraine isn’t going to escalate and that sanctions aren’t going to hit us badly too.
May 5, 2022
Yes Dom ..it is worrying that many just wont accept the reality of the dripping destruction of democratic procedures and instincts . The media choose to hype silliness whilst they are frightened of speaking about the growing change to society . We are always concerned with being fair , but never to ourselves . The Brits are now scared of calling out about their own heritage as a bedrock for the UK .We have to respect everyone else but not us! This is also causing angst and making racial problems worse as some get angry for being dismissed as unimportant in their own country. These are the more minor ramifications .
May 5, 2022
Thank you for a useful and informative summary, Sir John.
May 5, 2022
Sir J, you’ve suggested China and Russia are states that will cause problems for the democratic world. That we should avoid Russian oil & gas and step up sanctions. The implication is that democratic governments should do the same if China attached Taiwan (the Uigers seemingly don’t matter).
I’d have thought China’s mistakes in managing C-19 are a positive for democracies? Surely anything which weakens that state and allows other countries to reduce reliance on China should be valued?
Reply I do not wish the people of China harm. Their cv 19 problems disrupt the world economy
May 5, 2022
Reply to reply:
While, Sir John, you quite rightly have no animus towards “the people of China” (and neither do I), surely you hate the Chinese government? They are belligerent and oppressive scum who are trying to bully all their neighbours militarily, and are tyrannising their own people. The fact that their Covid problems are disruptive to the world economy is a GOOD THING, because it exposes to the blind and the stupid the importance of reducing our reliance and exposure to China. We need to cut their vile and cancerous country out of the world economy.
As for Taiwan, we need to recognise their independence and supply them with powerful weapons. The most useful would be submarines (to disrupt China’s supply lines in the event of an invasion) and air defences.
May 5, 2022
reply to reply… disruption is caused because the world economy was a sucker for cheap, mass produced dumped inferior goods. We had it coming, but nobody stopped and thought ‘we rely on China for everything we need to use, and Russia for energy and food’.
May 5, 2022
I thought there had been trouble in that area since 2014? ( And prob before).
So why get involved now when we are on our knees and virally compromised?
Trumpās democratic election was blamed on Russia and Boris was blamed for Partygate! ( which could have finished him).
Oh but noā¦THIS is a noble, sane warā¦nāest-ce pas?
And it doesnāt help the Great Reset one little bitā¦hmmmmm!
May 5, 2022
‘They will also have noted the more robust response of the West than expected which would probably be even more true of any attack on Taiwan.’ The bedrock of any Western response to an attack by China on Taiwan would have to be American. But I would suggest that the American presidency is so hopelessly compromised by Chinese influence operations that the bedrock is more soft sand. America should be maintaining a carrier battle group off Taiwan’s coast and put a ‘combat air patrol’ over the island whenever China infringes the Taiwan ADIZ.
I was disappointed to see that the British Army has now deployed into Finland and that Wallace has now, in effect, offered to defend the country against Rusian attack. I feel that the EU, rather than NATO, should be providing that guarantee – and that British deployments in Europe should be limited to NATO countries.
BTW, within the past week Denmark, Sweden and Finland have allowed their airspace to be infringed by Russian aircraft. Warning shots fired? No. Russian ambassadors expelled? No.
May 5, 2022
Sea-Warrior
Looks like we are being once again generous with our money, equipment, and men/ women of our armed forces towards defending Europe when it is under threat, but what do we get in return, nothing but hassle during the more normal times.
It really does make you wonder if we should bother, given many of them did not even make a proper financial contribution to NATO for decades, and are still reluctant.
May 5, 2022
+ 1 Alan.
Most of the eu politicians detest us because we as a nation like our independence and are willing to fight for it.
May 5, 2022
The only Europeans who are ‘under threat’ Alan, are those deluded individuals that thought that by joining Zelensky’s foreign legion they would be fighting for freedom and democracy. Now they are at risk of not returning home alive, as Russian troops cut them off from escape. This war should be stopped now, by UN-brokered negotiation requiring concessions by both sides.
May 5, 2022
+1
May 5, 2022
Hat Man, Quite right. But Johnson has gained political kudos by helping to prolong the conflict, so he’s happy to continue it, at our expense and that of the Ukraine. No jaw-jaw for him, just so long as he can strut the stage.
May 5, 2022
I agree. The behaviour of the EU towards us since the referendum has been appalling. I hope that they might now see us as better Europeans than the Germans.
I’m not minded to do much for Finland or Sweden right now. Between them they have managed to activate a quiet sector of the West’s eastern boundary and now want NATO to import their security problems into the alliance’s in-tray. Sweden, in particular, has underspent on Defence since the end of the Cold War (when it managed a respectable 4% of GDP) and has an unimpressive plan to get up to 2%. I’ll restate my contentious view that it is the EU that should be reinforcing both countries and not NATO.
May 5, 2022
Finland and Sweden, two very rich countries, aren’t even NATO members. So why are we spending our money defending them? I’m sick to death of our government throwing money at EU countries that hate and bully us. Let the EU take care of their own.
May 5, 2022
So what kind of a life would these offshore islands have, if the entire Mainland succumbed to tyranny?
Geography is destiny.
May 5, 2022
A reversal of what has actually happened. NATO and its Trojan Horse (the EU) creeping up to Russia’s border.
May 5, 2022
NATO is an at-will, defensive association of democratic nations, not an empire imposed by extreme violence like Russia’s.
So what about sovereignty?
That is, the sovereign intent of nations to associate with whatever others they choose?
May 5, 2022
alan jutson. +1.
May 5, 2022
+1 S W. I am in full agreement.
May 5, 2022
they should have said publicly ‘cross our airspace again with military flights and we send ALL Russians home’.
May 5, 2022
It’s always so much easier to criticise others for their mistakes than admit, or rectify, your own.
May 5, 2022
+1
Yesā¦so amusing to see them twist and turn to force āfactsā to fit their narrative!
Brave little Ukraine deserves the independence, autonomy, borders and freedom that they happily deny us.
May 5, 2022
You can post comments like that here without being beaten up and thrown in prison for fifteen years where you’d do well to survive two.
Your silly claim is an insult to add to the very real injuries of those suffering so terribly.
May 5, 2022
I think that the govt. supports those who want to go out there to fight?
May 5, 2022
NLH – When even liberals such as JK Rowling or Maureen Lipman (a Labourite) say that Woke has gone too far then we can see the direction of travel. It is the rate of change that alarms me.
It is so insidious – the boiled frog analogy. I expect in a generation or two people will, indeed, be serving prison terms for having the wrong thoughts.
May 6, 2022
Pandering to self-obsessed and quite often rather nasty attention seekers is nothing to do with enlightened politics – or “woke” as you label them – and that is J.K Rowling’s point with which most people across the political spectrum, including me, agree.
May 5, 2022
Russian Regime Reset is what they are after?
May 5, 2022
EH – Just delete your question mark, and you’ve got it.
May 5, 2022
+1
Consider it deleted!š¤
May 5, 2022
Oh yes!Russia,not China,is at the heart of the emerging new financial system which will receive the support of many non-western countries-China,India,Iran,Pakistan,Turkey,Argentina,Brazil,etc and will kill the dollar as reserve currency.In the past few days the Rouble has hit a two year high against the dollar.
May 5, 2022
+1
Spot on.
May 5, 2022
because the weak are buying roubles to pay for energy.
May 5, 2022
Each country should aim at being self-sufficient, happy and peaceful, with neighbour nations acting to assist them in good time before danger emerges.
Often for relatively minor offences revenge ensues, escalating into war. He who absorbs tolerable pain with reserve may emerge the superior.
Putinās belligerence in Ukraine is so extreme; he is self-heading to his own destruction with lasting damage to Russia from the peace-loving world.
Innocence is the strongest defence when others care.
May 5, 2022
You say ‘China may in due course buy more Russian oil and gas’, but I’m afraid you seem to be – unusually – somewhat behind the curve, Sir John. Gazprom recently announced its gas sales to China increased year-on-year 60% in the first four months of 2022. In February Russia concluded oil and gas deals with China worth an estimated $117.5bn. Russia’s reorientation away from Europe is already well under way. Russians apparently realise this is an existential crisis for them, and they have to take the short-term pain of realignment. Europeans faced with a big drop in their standard of living caused by sanctions may not be so forgiving.
May 6, 2022
The reverse Peter the Great is well underway!
May 5, 2022
On an other very important subject. Liz Truss in giving more of our money away, this must stop. We are broke!! We are in debt!! Its time our Government Ministers learned.
We cannot be the crutch for the world.
Our financial recovery is the most important need for Britain now, its priority comes first!
STOP GIVING OUR MONEY AWAY
May 5, 2022
If you give a country foreign aid, that country will never develop, theyāll just expect handouts and financial aid for years after years after years, and they’ll hate us for it ā what has our foreign aid achieved during the past half century
May 6, 2022
Scotland being a prime example….I’ve ducked already.
May 6, 2022
thats brillant
May 7, 2022
What, like the Marshall Plan, you mean?
May 9, 2022
Is the Marshall Plan still operating in the last half century?
May 5, 2022
JR: “China could still opt for the western approach to covid of encouraging near 100% take up of the vaccines and allowing free movement…”
The western approach was coercion with jobs threatened or lost if not vaccinated. Free movement doesn’t exist if you haven’t succumbed to the authoritarian demand that you be vaccinated.
This has always been about controlling people not a virus – you must know this.
Are you one who have derided Sir Christopher Chope MP in his valiant attempts in Parliament to highlight the serious side effects aand deaths resulting from these vaccines and the abysmal failure of this government with regards to the ‘Vaccine Damage Payments Scheme’?
May 5, 2022
+ 100. Thank you. My concerns too.
May 5, 2022
+1 B T. Very much in agreement. Utterly disgraceful treatment of Sir Christopher.
May 5, 2022
Off topic, it seems that Boris Johnson is chickening out:
https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/brandon-lewis-move-against-ni-protocol-unlikely-in-queens-speech-3680881
“A move against the NI Protocol is unlikely to feature in the Queenās Speech, Secretary of State Brandon Lewis has intimated.”
Not surprising, as there is a lot at stake here, his trade deal with the EU worth Ā£660 billion or 30% of GDP.
But the UK legislation envisaged in last July’s Command Paper would not need the agreement of the EU, and as its purpose would be to protect the EU’s Single Market it is hard to why they should even object.
https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/opinion/letters/it-is-beyond-time-for-london-to-take-the-action-that-it-said-it-would-take-on-the-northern-ireland-protocol-3673938
“It is now nine months since July 21 2021 when the UK government issued its Command Paper on the way forward with the Northern Ireland Protocol, and that is a long time for them to āstand readyā to pass UK legislation to protect the EU single market from non-compliant goods.”
May 6, 2022
It’s not chickening out.
It is simply accepting what is legally possible and what is not.
May 8, 2022
Oh, so your espousal of Parliamentary sovereignty was only fleeting.
May 5, 2022
I don’t believe any of the propaganda coming out of China. Remember all those videos of people dropping dead in the street at the start of the pandemic that turned out to be fake. I also don’t believe in the value of a so-called vaccine that doesn’t even work. When I received my childhood vaccinations they all stopped me from getting the disease. We were told these Covid vaccines would do the same but they didn’t work. Then we were told they lessened the severity of the disease. This is very difficult to prove. A lot of people have made a lot of money from this pandemic. Where is the windfall tax on the pharmaceutical industry? Why is the vaccine damage not being talked about? Why is the Yellow-Card data being buried? It will be interesting to see how the vaccine-damage private member’s bill goes on but I doubt it will get far. Most of our MPs are too concerned with utter trivia to even try and sort out the real problems this country faces. The standard of many MPs today is utterly woeful. I blame the selection process. When voters only have a choice of one dire party over another that’s no choice at all. When Tory backbenchers are the only opposition to the Government something is sadly wrong with our politics.
May 5, 2022
A comfortable soft chair and naive view of the world, all on paper. UK is bankrupt and ruled by a PM and supporting party and members who follows an insane view of our future based on windmills. No ability or wish to understand how other harder nations can operate and what they can put up with.
In the real world Russia slowly destroys the first country in its sights with bombs, missiles and shells and can do this at its own speed. It doesn’t need to do much else. It has plenty of its own materials to make more.
We have almost nothing to defend ourselves should Putin decide to make trouble for us. He could interfere with sea trade. We have almost no maritime ships to call upon; foreign owned ships need not come to us if they don’t want to. Will the foreign owned channel crossing ships go against their national interests to carry on coming here.
Our fighting navy has a handful of big ships but no numbers of smaller ones. We are dependent on the US for aircraft on our carriers having sold the type we developed only to buy the idea back. What if they decide to stop supplying for some reason? We buy masses of supplies overseas, we have a tiny manufacturing industry, mostly foreign owned anyway. How will that help in difficulties? Foreign owners will look to their interests first and probably take away what is important to them and at risk here.
It’s hard to express how incompetent our leaders have been, detached from reality they have been for so long, living their elite lifestyles.
May 5, 2022
Russia invades Georgia 2008 and the Crimea 2014 and the UK continues today to buy fuel from them. China invades Tibet, claims Taiwan and claims the whole South China Seas building military islands and the UK continues today to buy goods from themā¦.does this government have a working policy on these matters apart from allowing the Russians to buy property in London and for the Chinese takeover of our universities ! We allow them to manipulate the UN and give them status ! Follow the money
May 5, 2022
It’s not so simple, Glen. ‘In August 2008, Georgia attempted to recapture South Ossetia, which had fought a separatist war against Georgia in the 1990s’ (BBC August 8 2018). Russia went in to defend ethnic Russians there from attack by the Georgian Army. Borders can be problematic things, as we’re discovering in NI.
May 6, 2022
Correct-although the Ossetians are not ethnic Russians but an ethnic group originally Iranian in origin that have long since identified as Russian.
May 5, 2022
Actually it was Georgia who invaded South Ossetia, the US lost that war and is losing this one too. NATO bluster has amounted to nought.
May 5, 2022
Let us not forget also that Blair and his hawkish cronies in Washington haven’t helped matters by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (Hans Blix hadn’t been given full opportunity to confirm there weren’t WMD and lots of people at time were making sensible arguments these wars would throw up more problems than they solved).
Those hawkish cronies in Washington weren’t interested in improving trade for America / the American economy or the long-term security of the USA but in the power they could wield at the time for their own self-amusement (and similar for Blair – who more than power, enjoyed the lime-light, although he enjoyed the power too).
This does NOT excuse Pootin. But nor does it help either.
May 5, 2022
And this lesson NEEDS to be learned so we don’t do something similar in 10 or 20 years time somewhere else.
Yes to war when necessary. But not when it causes more problems than it resolves.
And this is a criticism of political leaders here in UK and USA NOT the British Armed Forces who do an excellent job defending our nation. (And meanwhile, yes, we also have to deal with politicians who are Marxists / socialists / WOKE, regarding the economy and social welfare and society etc, but that’s another argument).
May 5, 2022
Why would any sensible patriot vote Conservative today? Brandon Lewis has denied that the government intends to introduce legislation to scrap the Protocol, Patel refuses to send any illegal migrants to Rwanda, and Boris gives no indication of rowing back on the costs of net zero.
The Tories have betrayed Britiain and every British citizen. I will certainly NOT vote Tory today.
May 5, 2022
What a mixture of misinformation, hypocrisy and ignorance this post is.
NATO is entirely responsible for the Ukraine war because of their continuous provocation of Russia and their refusal to stop the Ukrainian government from attacking Donbass for the last 11 years. To criticise Germany and others for not destroying their economy by halted Russia energy supplies is ridiculous.
In case you are unaware 70% of the world has put no sanctions on Russia because they understand all of the above. Russia can continue financing it’s war without the West but the West cannot survive without Russian energy and raw materials.
I didn’t notice any outrage from the current Russia critics when the West destroyed numerous countries. Nor have I heard of a halt to weapon deliveries to Saudi Arabia whose vicious Yemen war continues.
Morality only surfaces with our ruling class when it suits them.
May 6, 2022
The last time I checked, Donbass was Ukrainian territory.
May 6, 2022
Indeed, SW. It’s rather disappointing that some here who obsess in an infantile, absolutist way about the UK’s sovereignty seem to think that the Ukrainians should simply roll over and surrender every single aspect of theirs to Putin’s depraved, barbaric thugs, and that the rest of the world should just sit there and watch this happen..
May 9, 2022
S-W – America can attack and invade any country it likes without censure. Doesn’t the UK invade other countries to defend non UK citizens?
May 6, 2022
Bravo!
May 9, 2022
Alan Holmes – good points which are hardly mentioned, if at all, anywhere.
May 5, 2022
Well, that’s my civic duty done. How nice to be able to take a sunny walk along to the polling station and do that democracy stuff. And to see the only two candidates in with a chance, having an amiable chat. And to see neighbours joining in too. And to see that the cafe in which the polling station is situated – and which was nearly destroyed during the over-long lockdowns – is doing a brisk trade in post-voting coffees and cakes. And to be reminded that our imperfect democracy is far, far better than many others enjoy.
May 5, 2022
+1
Nice post.
May 5, 2022
I welcome your passion for our democracy, however I felt concerned after casing my vote today, like my referendum vote in 2016, will it achieve anything or be ignored
May 5, 2022
Even democracy is changing by virtue of a changing society , the people who are brought into the world with ideals of totalitarianism.
May 5, 2022
Democracy took a hit when the government and opposition failed to immediately enact the result of the referendumā¦..Iām not sure democracy has recovered
May 5, 2022
the epitome of complacency IMHO.
May 5, 2022
The Chinese have not been exposed to earlier variants and have therefore built up little immunity. Their vaccines are less effective and although they have licensed the Biontex mRNA technology they are not rolling it out to the general population. They also have poor vaccination rates among the elderly and at-risk groups.
So they are in no position to “live with Covid”. Omicron is so infectious that zero Covid strategies seem hopeless but they cannot afford to let it rip. Just look at the position in Hong Kong that has had one of the worst outbreaks anywhere.
May 5, 2022
Incredibly weak performance from the government in backing down over introducing legislation on the Northern Ireland protocol. You cannot even bluff about bluffing! This government has to go.
May 5, 2022
The leaders of the authoritarian Left ā Russia and China ā have absolutely no regard for human life, even when it comes to their own citizens. The ends, to remain in power, always justifies the means.
The RoW, including India, Africa and the ME do not care either and are very happy to still have good relations and trade with Russia and China. Even Islamic countries are unconcerned with Chinaās treatment of the Uyghurs. They only complain about Islamophobia in the West.
The mistakes are all those of the democracies of the West where its decadence is allowing the fifth column supporters of and activists for Russia and China to destroy us.
Economically through the forced imposition of the technologically impossible Net Zero Strategy to eliminate our CO2 emissions despite there being no global warming crisis. A plan made worse by the fact that the wind turbines and solar panels that will provide insufficient and intermittent power are all supplied by China.
Economically and culturally through diversity replacing meritocracy and the ending of free speech and thought through political correctness, cancelling, no-platforming, micro-aggressions, trigger warnings, false history and outright censorship.
120,000 Chinese āstudentsā in our universities are stealing our research and ideas and totally corrupting our educational establishment and students.
Socially and culturally by destroying the Westās culture and social stability through uncontrolled large scale immigration of economic, but not cultural, migrants and even encouraging with accommodation, money and freedom to roam as they please the immigration of large numbers of young men of fighting age with no ID and coming from hostile countries.
May 5, 2022
Nice to agree with you this time, S_W.
May 5, 2022
Interest rate rise today due to inflation
Inflation up due the costs of energy and household costs
Household costs up due to the oil, gas & coal prise rise
Oil, Gas & Coal prises up due to the banning of fossil fuels 2030/50
The banning of fossil fuels due to policy of Net-Zero
Net- Zero due to Boris green revolution
The green revolution due to adopting the Paris accord
The Paris accord adoption due to the UN IPCC target of 1.5 degree to stop oceans rising
Now you know why the BoE increased our interest rate to 1% today
May 5, 2022
glen, It is good of you to tell us the cost of energy, household costs and price caps being moved up have nothing to do with wholesale prices having increased with the huge increase in demand when Covid-19 abated nor with some small incident somewhere in the East.
Comments from experts are becoming so rare these days.
And it is not ironic sarcasm but sarcastic irony.
May 6, 2022
Strangely, Glen, you don’t mention the huge rise in gas and oil prices due to the Ukraine crisis. Perhaps you’re beginning to realise the damage to Western economies was self-inflicted.
May 6, 2022
the Ukraine war is 2 months old…the oil, gas, coal price rise is 12 months old
May 5, 2022
The best hope of getting rid of Putin is to get his own people to depose him.
We should let it be known that Russia will have to pay 100% of the costs of rebuilding Ukrainian property and infrastructure. If it refuses, sanctions will remain in place until the damage to the Russian economy is equal to or greater than the damage done to the Ukrainian economy. We should also let it be known that freezing of assets can be converted to confiscation of assets.
We should also produce (truthful) propaganda videos:
– A record of the damage done to Ukrainian civilians, hospitals, property and infrastructure
– A record of the war crimes committed by the Russian military and evidence of orders from the top
– A statement of the costs already inflicted on the Russian people by excessive military expenditure
– Etc ed
These should be distributed in Russia, for which we will need to use our ingenuity:
For example, put the videos on USBs to be distributed to Russian coastal cities by numerous cheap drones.
Use diplomatic bags to smuggle USBs into Russia
Use the dark web to distribute the videos.
People say that it is impossible to dislodge a dictator. Well, what happened to Slobodan Milosevic and Nicolai Caucescu?
May 9, 2022
‘We should let it be known that Russia will have to pay 100% of the costs of rebuilding Ukrainian property and infrastructure. If it refuses, sanctions will remain in place until the damage to the Russian economy is equal to or greater than the damage done to the Ukrainian economy. We should also let it be known that freezing of assets can be converted to confiscation of assets.’
If that had been applied to the US over their destructions etc. there would be war against those who enacted it. Note how the US threatens the ICC if they do a report on US war crimes and how they threatened Italy if they went ahead with an extradition of two CIA operatives who kidnapped an Italian citizen off the street in Italy and rendered him to be tortured in Egypt. The US is a good teacher on how to operate if desired.
May 5, 2022
Seems to be about territory in Vlad the Mad’s case?
Therefore a nice long DMZ required between Russia and the West, aka North Korea 2.0 bristling with defensive weaponry to ensure. UN peacekeeping force?
All up for grabs, UN/NATO/USA to negotiate along those lines.
May 5, 2022
Hhe mistake is the Americans, they thought they were being clever giving the Russsians no choice, they thought they could diplomatically isolate Russia and destroy their economy, jostled it is the US in trouble.
Extraordinary to see Europe committing economic suicide just so NATO could continue harming the Donbass peopeles. Hopefully we will see new leadership emerge when all this ends with the inevitable Russian victory.
May 6, 2022
The Russians have lost 25,000 and half of their top generals already, having been defeated in their main objective in very short order.
If this is victory, then I’d hate to see what defeat would look like for them.
May 5, 2022
Unfortunately Sir John, the Western approach to Covid has failed and the Chinese may be better pointed in the direction of Sweden, where their strategy did work.
Lockdowns do not work. Masks do not work and can even be harmful for the wearer. The vaccines have failed. If you can be vaccinated but still catch the virus and still pass it on, you have been conned. Everyone should take note of the Yellow Card Reporting Scheme. So far almost 2,100 deaths and hundreds of thousands of harms reported, many serious.
Why will our PM, HS and sll in government not rule out a repeat of the economically ruinous strategies, not to mention the disastrous effects on health for so many?
May 5, 2022
I see that Wallace announced, a few days ago, that we are sending BRIMSTONE missiles to Ukraine. I am appalled at his complete disregard for operational security. We are in a near-war situation and have politicians, and their Press offices, acting as of we were at peace.
May 6, 2022
The US and other countries make similar announcements.
I wonder if this is to avert Putin’s fixating on any one country as a lightning rod for his madness?
Nevertheless I share your concerns.
May 5, 2022
I hope you retain your seat John,but here locally, it is time for a change ; we need fresh eyes at existing problems.
May 6, 2022
that decision is still 2 years away, due to his and others’ belief that Johnson will be supported when a confidence vote would be run.
May 5, 2022
I can’t help thinking it is the West that has made bad decisions when it came to foreign policy in regard to Russia and its (Russia’s) backyard, and is now busy making Putin a bogeyman to take people’s minds off other much more pressing issues (inflation, immigration) and issues of much more importance to their and their children’s lives (creeping authoritarianism, Covid and Pandemic Policy, Energy Policy).
As for punishing China if they were to invade Taiwan, I think we are too dependent on China for our manufacturing to do very much. We’d be like the Germans and East Europeans are now regarding Russia, shouting slogans but all the time continuing to buy things from the miscreant. Plus the Taiwainese can’t be supplied with fresh weaponry if the Chinese were to blockade the island – to do so would lead to a direct conflict.
The Chinese delusion with zero Covid seems to be temporarily consuming all their energy, but if it backfires on the Party then a Taiwan invasion might be on the cards. All we can do is make sure we don’t sign up to the WHO Pandemic Treaty and get China influencing what our Pandemic responses will look like in the future.
Reply The USA has not ruled out a direct military response to any Chinese invasion.
May 6, 2022
I don’t think that anyone need do much to make a bogeyman of someone who systematically murders his political opponents and who has removed the most basic of rights from the entire Russian population.
May 5, 2022
It was interesting to read just now Mr Frostās article in the Daily Telegraph. He seemed to be turning his back on the government and itās policies completely. It wasnāt clear whether he was speaking for the Conservative party or himself. To be honest I didnāt really know what to make of it.
May 5, 2022
Off Topic
As the government seems unable to come to the relocating of economic migrants as being their Achilles heel that is going to destroy them as a party here is an option:
The last time I checked the Falkland Island are still British. Send all the illegals to the Falklands to do their immigration processes and vetting.
It would create a new industry for the island and if they don’t like it they will have to find a way to get onto the South American Continent.. There can be no longer any legal cases against sending them as the Islands are British.