The EU has dreamed up Made in Europe as a new protection scheme to make it more difficult for exporters to the Union. This should not apply to the UK, as the UK paid a heavy price in concessions to get a Free Trade deal when we left the EU. The UK should tell the EU the new restrictions will not apply to the UK, and we will require enforcement of the current terms and deal.
If the EU persists with its new protections then we have rights under our membership of the World Trade Organisation to retaliate. We should take proportionate similar action in response to that being taken by the EU. Meanwhile we should anyway set about reducing our excessive imports from the EU through a full throated buy British.
The government has rightly promised the Unions to do this, but so far fails to deliver. It should
- Create a new farm subsidy scheme to replace ELMs that concentrates on assisting more food produciton
- Cancel the excessive fish quotas for foreign fleets and help rebuild our own fishing fleet.
- Promote onshore fish processing based on more fish landings in home ports
- Remove high carbon taxes and the EU derived emissions trading scheme, to start to price energy intensive business back into the market
- Develop its wish to have more made in the UK under MOD contracts
- Plant more trees and encourage more private planting for sustainable forestry, to reduce the excessive timber imports
- Exploit our own oil and gas to replace more imports
- Increase usable electricity capacity to return to being self sufficient. We import far too much dear electricity when the wind drops and the sun does not shine, so we need more despatchable UK power
- Require government subsidised wind and solar farms to back and order from new UK factories to produce the needed equipment
- Negotiate with chemical and petrochemical majors over how to retain and restore lost capacity.
October 11, 2026
Made in Europe scheme presumably copying the Trump admins made in USA with quota components?
They begrudgingly relicensed the City a few years ago for a further period and will have little choice but to do so again on term expiry as they are reliant on it.
It is not looking good across the Channel with potential Bond contagion from our earnest partners France..
Labour aspire to desperately throw everything in the EU’s direction with nothing more than hope..
It cannot be difficult to see it doesn’t make sense ??
October 11, 2026
Indeed though UK bond rates are even more worrying than France’s.
JR’s 9. Require government subsidised wind and solar farms to back and order from new UK factories to produce the needed equipment.
If we stop the absurd “renewables” subsidies and force them to produce the gear in the very expensive UK almost none would make much economic sense and the largely artificial industry would virtually die out with current technology. This would be a good thing as subsidies just litter the place with duff, uncompetitive and totally misguided technology.
October 11, 2026
Liebour will do none of the common sense things John suggests particularly as we have the highest energy prices in Europe. Burnham will cave to any EU demands because he and his handlers are desperate to rejoin.
This will be done by stealth because he knows given the terms, the British people will reject it.
October 11, 2026
IW,
Correct.
October 11, 2026
@Andrew Jones – throwing everything at the EU, when there is a proven record of nothing being reciprocated.
The UK gave the EU all our Fish and control of UK Fishing grounds – what came back, what did the UK get?
The UK Taxpayer has spent around £5.8billion educating EU Students at UK Universities, while our own students are expected to pay their own way. What was reciprocated? And Burnham has now promised to fund more EU Students in a one way street
October 11, 2026
11. Ditch net zero, stop absurdly subsidising Drax to burn “bio” (imported forests of young coal).
October 11, 2026
12. Scrap soft loans for largely useless degrees about 75% of them are and teach people real practical work skills (perhaps on day release or at night school) and while earning.
October 11, 2026
Once again the fossil fuel lobby is trotting out that old winter chestnut “blackouts” They do this every autumn as the darker nights draw in, but the blackouts never happen. Regardless of the fact that our fleet of renewables gives us far greater energy security than huge Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tankers unloading “natural” gas at our completely unprotected terminals
The UK operates a network of approximately 15 to 16 major coastal and inland gas terminals that manage the import, export and regional storage of red propane and blue butane. These should not be confused with the three major (LNG) import terminals (Isle of Grain, South Hook, and Dragon LNG) which handle grid-gas, or the country’s network of roughly 600–700 public LPG refuelling stations for vehicles
The UK has ample CCGT back-up supplies of electricity, a massive pipeline importing “natural” gas from Norway, 3 LNG terminals importing gas from America and truly huge amounts of windfarm juice being produced, over 55% of electricity demand. Plus our own N Sea gas, though there is less of it these days. Not forgetting the 9 interconnectors to the EU
Last winter the wind failed to blow for a total of 5 days. The lights stayed on. Do not believe the latest “project fear” propaganda being rolled out by the Big Oil funded right wing think tanks. It’s designed to frighten gullible folk.
October 11, 2026
SG. You’re living entirely in cloud cuckoo land. NESO are paying companies not to use electricity in peak periods and are resorting to running filthy STOR diesel generators thus offsetting any theoretical CO2 savings. The lights stayed on last winter because at one stage we were paying £63,000 per mwh to import.
Norway, due to unseasonal low rainfall and low ice melt, have warned they will be rationing the amount of power they export.
Frances aging fleet of nuclear reactors are increasingly unreliable so they have less to export with priority given to EU countries.
I hope you have sufficient logs for your wood burner.
October 11, 2026
Today at 8.30am we are Importing 25.6% of our electricity at the extortionate price of £185 mwh. This is because we are desperately short of gas storage thanks to Milibrains net zero obsession.
October 11, 2026
indeed and his replacement is as mad and deluded as he was both PPE Oxon dopes.
October 11, 2026
Recently, the National Energy System Operator applied for emergency powers to carry out rolling power cuts on their own authority, across the country. At just 8 hours notice. This is a new development, and is needed, they say, in case of serious power shortages. So, SG, are we to suppose they don’t know what they are talking about, but you do?
October 11, 2026
SG: “Regardless of the fact that our fleet of renewables gives us far greater energy security than huge Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tankers unloading “natural” gas at our completely unprotected terminals”
Do you really believe that all our North Sea wind turbines and lengthy undersea cabling is more secure than our “unprotected terminals” from attack by airborne and undersea drones?
October 11, 2026
Importing electricity last year has kept the lights on. Here are the official DESNZ figures for 2025:
Imports:
Quantity: 44 TWhr (15% of a year’s total demand)
Cost: £3.1bn
Exports:
Quantity: 10 TWhrs
Value: £0.7bn
Importing so much expensive electricity is obviously not secure.
October 11, 2026
+1
October 11, 2026
Meanwhile all our energy intensive industries is leaving or planning to leave or planning to give up.
October 11, 2026
More guff in the right-wing press last week banging on about “excessive” windfarm curtailment
To eliminate wind power curtailment caused by transmission bottlenecks across the Scotland-England border, the UK is currently investing in ‘The Great Grid Upgrade.’ Managed by NESO and National Grid, this historic overhaul combines major engineering, market, and regulatory initiatives to safely deliver remote renewable energy down to high-demand southern urban centres and industrial centres in the midlands
The physical strategy hinges on building subsea High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) ‘superhighways,’ notably the Eastern Green Links 1–4, which completely bypass onshore bottlenecks by moving juice down the east coast. Onshore, SSEN Transmission is deploying a comprehensive £29 billion investment program to modernise regional substations and construct high-capacity HVDC overhead pylon lines across England and Scotland. This will eliminate transmission losses.
National Grid has launched the £9 billion Great Grid Partnership alongside seven major engineering firms to secure vital supply chains. Concurrently, the government is reviewing structural market reforms, including regional zonal pricing, to financially incentivise heavy industries to relocate closer to wind generation sources. However, rapid network deployment faces major friction; the National Audit Office warns that supply chain shortages and severe planning delays directly caused by Reform exploiting the NIMBY faction have left only 16 of the 80 critical transmission projects completed. This is “Tricky Dicky” Tice in action.
Total renewable curtailment across the UK is currently less than 10 TWh annually out of total UK electricity production of about 293.6 TWh. This wasted energy represents approximately ~3.4% of total UK electricity production across all power sources combined, highlighting the urgent economic and environmental necessity of rapidly completing these major infrastructure upgrades. It’s about £15/pa on your average £2000 energy bill, or roughly 4p a day
October 11, 2026
Rather than spend all this amount on bringing power down from the north, why not take demand up to the north? Rather than building datacentres in the south of England, site them in the Shetlands.
Water resource is over abstracted in the south of England and there is excessive traffic congestion as well, even more reason not to develop here any more.
October 11, 2026
The Great Energy Grid plan stirred up fury across areas threatened from the moment it was announced. Here is a report from July 2024: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2024/07/21/huge-backlash-to-plans-to-install-thousands-of-pylons-in-unspoilt-rural-areas-for-net-zero/
None of the five councils mentioned were at that point under Reform control, SG. (All of them were run by the Conservatives.) Another of your barbs thrown at Reform misses the target.
October 11, 2026
The Russian war criminal Putin used his phone call with Trump on October 9 to falsely blame Ukraine for the lack of peace negotiations’ progress, despite Russia’s continued unwillingness to engage in meaningful negotiations or make any concessions to end the war in Ukraine. Source; ISW
A Russian “aide” Yuriy Ushakov claimed that Putin told Trump that Ukraine’s alleged long-range strikes against Russian election infrastructure during the September 2026 Russian State Duma elections “thwarted the possibility of immediately” resuming peace negotiations — attempting to malign Ukraine as the party responsible for halting peace negotiations. There is, in fact, no evidence that Ukraine targeted Russian election infrastructure during the September 2026 Duma elections, and Russian claims that Ukraine attempted to target election infrastructure remain unfounded. Source; ISW
Putin emphasized that Russia’s commitment to achieve all its war goals and objectives — which are tantamount to full Ukrainian and Western surrender — remain unchanged. Ukraine, the United States, and Europe have repeatedly presented various ceasefires and peace proposals with concessions to Russia — all of which the Kremlin has rejected.
Moscow has insisted on painting Ukraine as the intransigent party in peace efforts despite the fact that Russia has not offered any concessions and has rejected numerous compromise proposals that the US and Ukraine have offered. Putin’s October 9 reiteration of his commitment to Russia’s unchanged war aims demonstrates the Kremlin’s continued unwillingness to accept any compromised peace proposals on any terms that fall short of fulfilling Russia’s maximalist demands of Ukraine’s complete capitulation Source; WSJ
This war has gone on long enough. Brave Ukraine has defended itself from Russian aggression for over four years, now without any military or financial support from Trump. Putin will have been delighted that Hegseth has removed American B1 bombers from RAF Fairford on the pretext of a non-existent Iran threat.
Reply So how to end it? Why do EU countries go on buying Russian gas and oil? Why doesn’t France offer more financial and military help? How far does the EU wish to extend its territory by diplomacy?
October 11, 2026
You’ve got to admit ‘Made in the EU’ is a good idea for them but also there are a lot more countries outside the EU besides Britain so for them it’s protectionism. I don’t think the WTO counts for much these days – certainly President Trump wouldn’t be bothered by any of it.
October 11, 2026
About time there was Made in the UK Label.
By that I don’t mean ‘assembled’ in the UK
That is NOT ‘xenophobia’ it is allowing those that support their community by knowing who is ‘contributing’ to it as opposed to those seeking to just profit from it.
October 11, 2026
In a EU context, if the UK just left on WTO terms then based trade arrangements with the EU as it should do all other Countries as simple reciprocal principles, this whole conversation would disappear. All the time we convince ourselves that the EU has the upper hand and keep capitulating they will take advantage of us, cost us dear in everyway
I keep repeating the same old mantra ‘we have a corrupt lazy Parliament that want to do and serve anyone but those that empower and pay them’
October 11, 2026
Another excellent summary of some the vital things that need to be done to keep the EU at bay.
How can anybody not see that this is a survival and prosperity path outlined by our host?
Anything else, any kind of EU surrender will be the total opposite.
If we ever get out of the crisis we are in, created by successive governments, then we have to recognize that dogma and socialism do not lead to better survival or prosperity – Far from it.
I would urge the next right of centre government to curtail the unions and prevent them from bailing labour out with small fortunes collected from union members. If I could I’d legislate that when a Union’s war-chest reached a certain level that 90% of it should be returned to members.
The EU, like labour, is not about long term survival nor even prosperity, so labour wishing to take us in is about pure irrational dogma. WE can be so much better than we are under a socialist regime – and that includes the EU.
October 11, 2026
Self sufficiency and reliance are the core principles of keeping the people and the country safe and secure. Something many of us thought, seemingly now wrongly, that’s why we empowered and paid our MPs.
So although, John you have outlined a scenario of common sense and logic that would allow the Nation and the People to advance and prosper, the first stage of the process is to have a Parliament that works with and not devoting all its energies to fighting everyone. This illogical ideology in Parliament has now festered to become pure ‘hate’ of the country and the people by this Government
October 11, 2026
Surely the EU will not survive in its present form while it pursues open borders and chases rainbows with its energy policies. Unfortunately, and thanks to a succession of different Party leaders with socialist tendencies, we here in GB, suffer in the same way.
Open borders have allowed a mass of unknown entities from across the globe to enter, seeking a better free life for themselves in the process.
Alas, too many of them are here pretending to be peaceful but seek to change European culture into the one they’ve just “escaped” from, and they seem endless.
Foreign visitors to London have remarked that our capital has changed over recent decades, and it is no longer a city where they can feel safe. Is it the same in EU cities, I wonder? Jews, who have been in GB for centuries, now have to be protected by our police because of the state of our Nation today.
And we are a mere reflection of the EU, still maintaining some daft EU policies when we voted to LEAVE in 2016. These policies are bankrupting Europe and taking us down with them. They MUST stop before it gets worse and, potentially, civil war breaks out. European armageddon is just over the horizon.
October 11, 2026
All valid points which I fully support but perhaps the vital , first major step should be a bonfire of the quangos. Every businessman or farmer I talk to moans about the cost of new investment due to the cost and slowness of planning and compliance. We are being suffocated by a deluge of paper . Bureauocracy is not only killing off enterprise, drive and efficiency, it is itself much too expensive. The number of civil servants must be drastically reduced.
And the next vital development is a drive to reduce the cost of power to industry. We must develop our own resources and we must develop an efficient nationwide grid. Until that gets is in place we must stop the building of remote windfarms that earn more from downtime than from production.
October 11, 2026
Although it is a Sunday and I am not religious
Some of the old sages and prophets with their parables had/have a point
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” – How is the bulk of the UK’s benefits system panning out?
Matthew 13:5-6, Mark 4:5-6, ‘Sowing seed on stony ground’ What is produced with UK Taxpayer give aways to the EU?
October 11, 2026
SG: “It’s [renewable curtailment costs] about £15/pa on your average £2000 energy bill, or roughly 4p a day”
NESO’s latest estimates for the cost of upgrading the national grid to eliminate windfarm bottlenecks is £70bn between now and 2031 (£2500/household) and a further £89bn during the 2030s (£3200/household). These estimates have increased by 50% since 2024 and are likely to increase further. The decarbonisation of our electricity, let alone our entire economy, is akin to a gambler making bigger and bigger bets in the hope of overcoming his losses. So now we have spent hundreds of £billions on Chinese supplied wind turbines and solar panels we now need to spend hundreds of £billions on grid upgrades. These NESO estimates do not include the costs of upgrading all our local grids to be able to take the power required for heat pumps and evs etc.
October 11, 2026
Our fishermen: The rising cost of marine diesel is said to be causing real problems for many of our fishermen and businesses. Often for some, not worth it to even to set out to sea while the EU’s boats are seen out there in our waters, as is our agreement. I believe both the EU’s and UK’s fishermen get subsidies. Are the UK’s targeted efficiently and correctly at this time. Fishing and farming, two of the ‘basics’ we need to support and get things right for them to thrive.
October 11, 2026
Our Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband was spotted in Kyiv last week, visiting the brave and Churchillian Ukraine wartime leader Volodymyr Zenenskyy amid the rubble that the Russian war criminal Putin has inflicted on the city
In the immortal words of the Duke of Wellington shortly before the Battle of Waterloo in 1814 “I don’t know what effect he has on the Russian high command, but, by god, he frightens me”
October 11, 2026
“Require government subsidised wind and solar farms to back and order from new UK factories to produce the needed equipment.”
Renewables, wind turbines, solar panels and all the additional kit only appear to be affordable because they are supplied by China, state BTW described by our security services as “hostile”, who use cheap coal power, slave labour and ignore all the environmental consequences of mining and toxic manufacturing tailing lakes. Offshore fixed wind turbines even import from China the concrete for their foundations and use illegally logged balsa wood for the turbine blades. If these items were made in the UK the costs would be far more. The current plan means that we will be totally reliant upon China for our electricity infrastructure.
October 11, 2026
I would question 5. MoD procurement has been a byword for profligacy, waste and incompetence on a massive scale for years. Examples are legion. Surely we want the best possible equipment available globally, supplied by allied powers. Israel and Ukraine should feature prominently in this. If the govt adopts a buy-UK strategy for defence, firstly UK defence companies will have even less incentive to deliver value for taxpayers, and secondly presumably other countries might do the same and our defence exports will suffer. Let us have faith in the market!
October 11, 2026
All very good but you are mistaken if you think Burnham’ lot will take a blind bit of notice. They hate the British, want to replace as many Brits as they can with Islamic hordes, and are intent upon subjugating UK to international socialist rule- umless their allies decide instead on Islamic rule.
October 11, 2026
Talking about the pathetic immaturity of the EU – The EU has just installed a statue of a naked Trump with a golf club in one hand sitting on some unidentified individual.
It was designed to insult.
That will not go down well, and the EU can expect more than a war of words as a result – This really does though define the EU as a pointless worthless entity who can’t be trusted or believed on any level.
October 11, 2026
Until we change our energy policy by scrapping Net Zero and the Climate Change Act we are heading for catastrophic societal decline. We urgently need to build nuclear power plants including RR Small Modular Reactors, using gas as our transition fuel, grant new licences for Rosebank and Jackdaw and encourage further exploration. Wind and solar are not the answer indeed they are causing the problem. We must develop clean reliable and affordable electricity reliable for 24/7 for fifty plus years. We must also make things again here in the UK and stop the obsession with shipping stuff from overseas eg China. Peak oil has long since passed so whilst seeking further necessary oil exploration we must remember the critical importance of oil in manufacturing eg, steel, cement, ammonia and plastics.