Brexit and peat ban on the agenda when Sir John Hayes visited Donington’s Plant365
Brexit and the forthcoming ban on peat products were discussed when Sir John Hayes visited a Donington plant nursery.
The South Holland and the Deepings MP took the opportunity to attend Plant365’s open day.
The firm’s UK sales manager, Leigh Boekestyn, said: “Sir John accepted our invitation to come and look around our nursery and to see how a local company expanded and thrived during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“He spent about 90 minutes discussing the local area being one of the largest horticultural areas and, being local, he could empathise with the challenges Plants365 faces going forward.
“It’s good to know we have someone held in such high regard in government on our side within the industry.”
Plants365 was established in 2017 and has about 15 staff.
It supplies bare root and potted fruits to national retailers, garden centres and online delivery companies throughout the UK, as well as more than 250,000 blueberry plants to continental Europe annually.
Comments | 27
- jacksoncb wrote:29/07/2023 20:35The Irish Times wrote about the EU's vaccine debacle - Germany's Die Zeit said the European Commission had unwittingly provided "the best advertisement for Brexit: it is acting slowly, bureaucratically and in a protectionist manner. And if something goes wrong, it's everyone else's fault."
Strange how the remoaners and rejoiners have started to believe their own lies and toxic disinformation - they've said it that many times about EU directive X it must surely be true, just like the world is flat and it ends at the borders of Europe...even the EU's 7 Presidents say the remoaners are lying, see below...
https:// www.irishtimes.com/ news/ world/ europe/ eu-ill-equipped-for-emergencies-of-this-magnitude-european-press-reacts-to-vaccine-row-1.4472484
https:// www.theguardian.com/ society/ 2021/ feb/ 05/ ursula-von-der-leyen-uk-covid-vaccine-speedboat-eu-tanker
https:// www.bild.de/ politik/ international/ politik-inland/ with-this-letter-by-jens-spahn-the-vaccine-disaster-in-the-eu-begann-74736986.bild.html - jacksoncb wrote:24/07/2023 23:47And to put the remoaners lies about the COVID pandemic and their legendary directive, read this:
The Irish Times wrote about the EU's vaccine debacle - Germany's Die Zeit said the European Commission had unwittingly provided "the best advertisement for Brexit: it is acting slowly, bureaucratically and in a protectionist manner. And if something goes wrong, it's everyone else's fault."
https:// www.irishtimes.com/ news/ world/ europe/ eu-ill-equipped-for-emergencies-of-this-magnitude-european-press-reacts-to-vaccine-row-1.4472484
https:// www.thetimes.co.uk/ article/ ursula-von-der-leyen-uk-is-covid-vaccine-speedboat-compared-to-eu-ship-kf77hlm85
https:// www.telegraph.co.uk/ politics/ 2021/ 02/ 05/ brexit-britain-vaccine-speedboat-says-ursula-von-der-leyen/ - jacksoncb wrote:24/07/2023 23:22Extract from Judy Dempsey's Strategic Europe Report - Germany: From Machine Guns to Broomsticks...
"That's just the tip of the iceberg, according to a report recently published by Hans-Peter Bartels, the parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces.
"The army's readiness to deploy has not improved in recent years but instead has got even worse," Bartels said. "At the end of the year, six out of six submarines were not in use. At times, not one of the fourteen Airbus A-400M could fly," he added, referring to aircraft specifically designed to transport troops and military equipment.
Just to add to this catalogue of woes, the Bundeswehr has only nine operational Leopard 2 tanks, well short of the 44 needed for the VJTF. Forget about having fourteen Marder armored infantry vehicles. There's only three to hand.
"As for the Eurofighter and Tornado fighter jets and the CH-53 transport helicopters, they can only be used on average four months a year. They are in constant need of repair. And by the way, there's a shortage of spare parts for maintenance. Just to add to the miserable state of the armed forces, the troops lack night-vision equipment and automatic grenade launchers.
"This sorry state of affairs is actually a recurrent one that raises serious problems about the ability of the Bundeswehr to modernize the armed forces. It also raises many questions about Germany's commitment to pull its weight in NATO and EU missions, as if the defense ministry wasn't aware of these shortcomings.
"Back in 2014, a year after Ursula von der Leyen became defense minister, the armed forces were lacking such essential equipment that the aircraft that was supposed to take 150 German soldiers home from Afghanistan broke down. There wasn't a back-up one available. That same year, at one stage during a NATO exercise, because they lacked machine guns, tank commanders instead used broomsticks. They had them painted black. This was not a joke.
"There are any number of reasons behind the poor state of Germany's armed forces.
"One easy explanation is that the Bundeswehr has been subject to stringent cuts over the past two decades. But that's hardly the real reason. After all, Germany spent 37 billion on defense in 2017. That's about 1.2 percent of gross domestic product. Even though it's well short of NATO's 2 percent goal, the fact that the country spends so much money must say something about how that budget is allocated. Bartels's report refers to very high maintenance costs but also the lack of focus on priorities and inadequate leadership.
"Then there is the issue of political culture. Ever since the end of World War II, Germany has adopted a non-militarist foreign policy. While it has joined NATO missions in Afghanistan and EU missions, the armed forces were subject to many caveats that placed restrictions on their movements. These are about avoiding casualties. The caveats were also about Germany's reluctance to embrace any kind of hard power.
"Yet even the country's soft power is open to question, judging from the fact that the armed forces lack basic soft power equipment such as the heavy transport aircraft to transport humanitarian relief supplies and accommodation units.
"In short, for all the talk about Germany taking more responsibility and pledging to pursue a more active foreign policy, it lacks the basic tools and credibility to deliver on any of these proclamations.
"Chancellor Angela Merkel, who rarely talks about defense, or NATO, or security issues, intends to keep von der Leyen as defense minister.
"In her second stint as minister, von der Leyen has one last chance to modernize Germany's armed forces. So far, she has tried to shake up the procurement procedures in order to create more competition and transparency. She has tried also to change the command structures and professionalize an army that abolished military conscription in 2011. But the Bundeswehr is still plagued by poor planning, argued Bartels.
"The defense ministry has tried to play down these serious shortfalls, especially Germany's contribution to the VJTF: "the Bundeswehr is ready and able to fulfill its commitments," Jens Flosdorff, defense spokesman said. The missing items, he added, "are being procured." Then it will be bye-bye to the broomsticks."
Footnote: "Von der Leyen was sacked as German Defence Minster following a national corruption scandal, no surprise then she ended up as the EU Commission President - one of seven Presidents would you believe - it is where all the EU's failed and corrupt politicians end up, in the corruption capital of Europe - Brussels. Even her own country men and women knew she was a disaster..
"The former leader of the Social Democrats (SPD) Martin Schulz described Von der Leyen as "the government's weakest minister", while his SPD colleague Sigmar Gabriel, a former vice-chancellor, called her nomination "an unprecedented act of political trickery" - clearly Von Der Leyen was the right fit for the corrupt and failing EU, where better for Germany to foist her!!
"Even Manfred Weber, the candidate that Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union had originally fielded for the top commission post, lamented a "sad day for European democracy".
"In a bizarre twist, Germany was the only one of the 28 EU member states to abstain from the vote to nominate her."
"A parliamentary committee is investigating accusations of nepotism in connection to the allocation of contracts worth hundreds of millions of euros to external consultants. One management consultancy firm awarded with jobs was McKinsey, where her son works as an associate."
See the evidence below;
https:// carnegieeurope.eu/ strategiceurope/ 75653
https:// www.euractiv.com/ section/ future-eu/ news/ von-der-leyen-admits-mistakes-denies-responsibility-in-defence-contract-scandal/
https:// www.theguardian.com/ world/ 2019/ jul/ 04/ germans-condemn-own-candidate-for-top-eu-job-ursula-von-der-leyen
https:// www.politico.eu/ article/ ursula-von-der-leyen-biography-career-inconvenient-truth/
https:// www.politico.eu/ article/ the-scandal-hanging-over-ursula-von-der-leyen/
https:// www.spectator.co.uk/ article/ failing-upwards-the-story-of-ursula-von-der-leyen/ - jacksoncb wrote:24/07/2023 22:08On the subject of Putin and the Russian Ambassador, NATO, defence and security, isn't it time that Germany and France started to meet the minimum NATO defence spend of 2% of GDP which despite repeated promises from the laggards of NATO is a very, very long way from being met. Read and weep remoaners and rejoiners!!
https:// www.forces.net/ news/ world/ nato-which-countries-pay-their-share-defence
https:// www.nato.int/ cps/ en/ natohq/ topics_67655.htm
The UK's important role in international defence was also underlined by securing the joint European HQ for NATO's research and development (R&D) centre for innovation where the alliances multi-billion cutting edge technologies will be developed; see below for more information on this major seal of approval for Global Britain...the evidence lacking from the remoaners house of cards...in defence, intelligence and security terms the EU is considered to be a minnow...
https:// www.diana.nato.int/
https:// www.gov.uk/ government/ news/ uk-to-host-wolrd-leading-nato-defence-innovation-headquarters
https:// www.ncia.nato.int/ about-us/ newsroom/ nato-cyber-security-centre-experiments-with-secure-network-capable-of-withstanding-attack-by-quantum-computers.html
https:// www.gov.uk/ government/ news/ first-nato-defence-innovation-hq-opens-in-london
https:// www.imperial.ac.uk/ news/ 235454/ imperials-white-city-campus-named-location/
Understandably, Trump handed Merkel of Germany an invoice for $300 Billion US which is the deficit of defence spending which Germany owes to the alliance. It is a national embarrassment for them that German soldiers were forced to use broom sticks instead of rifles during their deployment to the Baltic states. Worse still they are reliant on the USA, GB, and Poland to shoulder the lions share of NATO defence spending rather than shouldering their fair share.
Germany is considered to be an international laughing stock when it comes to European defence, which is why they need GB for defence so badly - see below for the facts and the evidence;
https:// carnegieeurope.eu/ strategiceurope/ 75653
https:// www.atlanticcouncil.org/ blogs/ natosource/ german-soldiers-used-broomsticks-instead-of-guns-during-nato-exercise/
https:// www.foreignaffairs.com/ articles/ germany/ 2017-08-15/ berlins-balancing-act
And as if to prove the point about how irrelevant the EU has become to European security and defence, we just have to look at the bilateral defence agreements Great Britain has signed with other EU and European countries such as Poland, Sweden, Finland, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and even Germany and France. The EU has no defence or security infrastructure, or any defence force worthy of the name - see the evidence below;
https:// www.gov.uk/ government/ news/ prime-minister-signs-new-assurances-to-bolster-european-security-11-may-2022
https:// www.theguardian.com/ world/ 2022/ may/ 11/ johnson-security-assurances-sweden-and-finland-not-just-symbolic
https:// www.gov.uk/ government/ news/ uk-and-poland-strengthen-foreign-policy-security-and-defence-cooperation?mc_cid=f3ddba21f9&mc_eid=a44ab48b55
https:// www.gov.uk/ government/ publications/ uk-denmark-joint-statement-on-bilateral-cooperation/ joint-statement-on-foreign-security-defence-development-and-bilateral-cooperation-between-the-united-kingdom-of-great-britain-and-northern-ireland
https:// www.gov.uk/ government/ publications/ uk-lithuania-joint-declaration-on-bilateral-cooperation-2022/ uk-lithuania-joint-declaration-on-bilateral-cooperation-2022
https:// ukandeu.ac.uk/ foreign-and-security-policy-bilateralisation-uk-eu/
https:// thehill.com/ homenews/ administration/ 325847-donald-trump-printed-out-made-up-ps300bn-nato-invoice-and-handed-it/
https:// www.politico.eu/ article/ donald-trump-handed-angela-merkel-outrageous-nato-bill-report/
"In prioritising NATO and bilateral links with European partners, it has also, for the moment at least, maintained its formal distance from the EU."
https:// www.kcl.ac.uk/ uk-eu-defence-cooperation
The five eyes intelligence alliance - the foremost in the world - the EU has got nothing like the UK's GCHQ or the US's NSA. The 5 eyes is led by the USA and UK, along with Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The EU is viewed by the 5 eyes - soon to be 6 - as being unsound and untrustworthy, or as the Pentagon normally says - if we want Russia or China to know something, we tell our counterparts in German and French intelligence about it, which is why the sixth eye will be Japan. The EU is so leaky it is unlikely ever to be admitted to this exclusive club. See the facts and the evidence below;
https:// ukdefencejournal.org.uk/ the-five-eyes-the-intelligence-alliance-of-the-anglosphere/
https:// www.csis.org/ analysis/ resolved-japan-ready-become-formal-member-five-eyes
https:// www.justice.gov/ opa/ pr/ landmark-us-uk-data-access-agreement-enters-force
https:// techcrunch.com/ 2022/ 07/ 05/ uk-signs-its-first-data-sharing-deal-post-brexit-with-south-korea/ ?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAC37xJI48HQ0CWkdhgHvMnutUFhuxgUA2RUoHXX_7gMzuKBq54ggVidNse-WKtZaofnRGnWHUuuKHOWPqKxFiHObtEwGiaqyh0OnA0_Ch827dgmZ8oYE8n7fsNtlToTaUjritr9NE1lqD1Dcsg_R6GSySO08JycDSsPUZCFEndb4
https:// www.smh.com.au/ world/ asia/ japan-should-join-five-eyes-intelligence-network-says-ambassador-20210420-p57kv6.html - jacksoncb wrote:24/07/2023 18:59It is also worth pointing out that despite what the remoaners say about polling suggesting we regret voting to leave, the polls are now where they were before the referendum in 2016 which showed remain leading by 10%, however the only poll that really matters is the ballot box!!
Once again presented with the facts and the evidence if another referendum takes place in 50 years, Brexit will be firmly embedded a great success and their would be little or no appetite to rejoin a failing EU which seeks to replace the nation state with a new country called the EU.
Ever closer union and the end of sovereignty for all countries in the EU - demonstrated when we wielded the national veto for the first time in 2014 and the EU chose to ignore it - demonstrates the futility of re-joining a bankrupt, anti-democratic country which the EU aspires to become. There is not much difference between the Politburos in Brussels, Moscow and Beijing, what they all have in common is blood on their hands.. - jacksoncb wrote:24/07/2023 18:47I must point out that it is NATO - which was established in 1949 - not the EU that has been the guarantor of peace in Europe for the last 75 years.
If you honestly believe that Great Britain (GB) leaving the EU would undermine the UK's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, clearly both yourself and Putin were sorely mistaken.
Now having our own independent foreign, security and defence policy the UK was able to lead NATO's response whilst the EU was busy hand wringing over how many helmets and ration packs the EU would send.
What effectively happened was that GB by acting first - months ahead of the EU yet again - and leading NATO's response to the invasion by immediately sending lethal weaponry - not body armour or ration packs like offered by Germany, we effectively shamed and embarrassed Germany, France and the EU itself into taking more robust action, even though most of the weaponry promised by Germany and France has still not arrived on the front-line.
Whilst Macron and Scholz headed off to Moscow to try and do some dirty deal such as Ukraine ceding more land in return for a ceasefire, the UK was in the vanguard of the response which also galvanised the USA into action...
So as you can see once again the facts and evidence are contrary to what the remoaners would try and convince us of otherwise. The result of GB leaving the EU has been to actually strengthen NATO as the keystone of European and wider security, the exact opposite of what JPFB is trying to suggest, or indeed the Russian Ambassador may have wishfully been thinking. Equally, both Sweden and Finland have now joined NATO.
In addition to Brexit leading to a stronger NATO and new military alliances across the globe including AUKUS which has resulted in Australia dropping its plans to buy obsolete and noisy French diesel submarines, instead opting to buy UK and US submarines using our joint nuclear technology. And there is much more to AUKUS in terms of security as well, see below for the evidence - unlike the remoaners - to back up the words...I know it makes uncomfortable reading for the ultra woke lefties like Sam, but try and open your minds if possible...
Now we are free to follow our defence and security alliances - Global Brexit Britain has global reach...
https:// bfpg.co.uk/ 2023/ 03/ aukus-future-of-uk-foreign-policy/
https:// www.defense.gov/ Spotlights/ AUKUS/
https:// www.gov.uk/ government/ news/ british-led-design-chosen-for-aukus-submarine-project
https:// www.whitehouse.gov/ briefing-room/ statements-releases/ 2022/ 04/ 05/ fact-sheet-implementation-of-the-australia-united-kingdom-united-states-partnership-aukus/
Likewise we have deepened our defence ties with Oman, Bahrain, Singapore and the other Asian defence giant Japan who are developing quantum computing, AI and the next generation of stealth jets with us - see below:
https:// www.japantimes.co.jp/ news/ 2023/ 01/ 11/ national/ politics-diplomacy/ britain-japan-troops-agreement-raa/
https:// www.gov.uk/ government/ news/ uk-and-japan-set-to-rapidly-accelerate-defence-and-security-ties-with-landmark-agreement
https:// commonslibrary.parliament.uk/ research-briefings/ cbp-9704/
https:// www.iiss.org/ research-paper/ 2022/ 06/ the-uk-indo-pacific-tilt/
https:// ukdefencejournal.org.uk/ british-littoral-response-group-ships-to-be-based-in-oman/
https:// committees.parliament.uk/ writtenevidence/ 106899/ html/
https:// www.iiss.org/ online-analysis/ / military-balance/ 2021/ 06/ uk-littoral-response-group
https:// seawaves.com/ 2022/ 09/ 27/ littoral-response-group-north-in-mediterranean/
https:// www.telegraph.co.uk/ news/ 2020/ 06/ 26/ uks-future-commando-force-radical-lethal-new-unit-fight-threats/
As we like to say when it comes to Brexit we are an outward looking global Britain with Global Reach - we are building the foundations of our security in NATO and beyond, and as the pre-eminent armed forces in western Europe with the 4th largest defence budget in the world, we are well placed to build on both old and new alliances across the world. - jacksoncb wrote:24/07/2023 18:25Sam, I am afraid I can apply very easily the same to your own lies - at least I can back up everything I have written here with the facts and the evidence to support it.
I am happy to have the debate with you any time and any place Sam, but as usual the elements within your own clique do not engage in proper debate - the only thing you seem to be able to proffer is just more of the same. You call it lies, yet I have provided links to the research from independent sources that demonstrate that it is far from lies as it is all evidence based.
Unfortunately, the best the remoan camp can offer is just more disinformation, misinformation, lie and gesture politics...fortunately my own critical thinking and comprehension of evidence based research and debate, is I would suggest light years ahead of your own.
If you just step out of your own echo chamber for a moment and step away from the confirmation bias, you may just open your eyes and the penny will drop... - Tory Crimes wrote:24/07/2023 14:55Quite frankly the majority of people who voted for Brexit did so because they are nothing but racist bigots who were either too scared of anything to do with Europe or too thick to understand the benefits of being in an union. Or just read the S*n and it's lies!
- Sam Butler wrote:24/07/2023 12:14To JPFB
Thank you for one of the most entertaining and engaging BTL spats to appear in this rag for a long time.
Please do not be disheartened, there are some around here who agree with you but no longer bother engaging with jacksoncb.
I wouldn't normally resort to giving opinion about commenters; many I disagree with, however jacksoncb is the exception.
jacksoncb's posts are full of logical fallacies. It is very easy to blow holes in all of his arguments, but as there are usually so many it would be very time consuming.
Whether he truly believes the lies and mis-information he peddles or not is uncertain. What is for certain is his poor reading comprehension and critical thinking skills, which is evident in that he is a john hayes fan-***, and seems to have swallowed the Conservative/Brexit Kool-Aid undiluted. - JPFB wrote:23/07/2023 23:40Here's another snippet you may not like: Nigel Farage named Vladimir Putin as the statesman he most admires. After the referendum Russian Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko told a fellow diplomat: "We have crushed the British to the ground. They are on their knees, and they will not rise for a very long time." At least Putin's mouthpiece knew what was being voted for, and thoroughly approved. If you voted to leave the EU you voted to split a western alliance and gave him the result he wanted. Do you think Putin had our best interests at heart?
From some of the stuff here any reasonable person might well conclude that one or more are working out of St Petersburg.
The latest polls show that 61% of people think that Brexit was a mistake and 55% would vote to re-join. Young voters are 75% in favour of re-joining. Brexit supporter Matthew Goodwin, professor of politics at the University of Kent, suggested that if you told people what re-joining would entail a large number would likely be against doing so. He then did just that, describing what we would have to accept to people in his own survey, loading the dice against re-joining so to speak. The results? 52% still in favour of re-joining, 48% against it. Obviously not the result he was expecting. He dismissed this as "barely statistically significant", which is interesting because it means that the country was allowed to make itself poorer on a referendum vote which, in his own words as a Brexiter, was "barely statistically significant".
Re-joining is absolutely inevitable, and will happen within 15 years based on demographics alone. Add in the fact that people have realised that Brexit has made them poorer, and the death by a thousand cuts to the economy, and it's a certainty. We will be poorer and our currency will be Euros and our contribution discount will be gone. Curtesy of those who swallowed the Brexit fantasy and voted to leave the best trade block on the planet to the astonishment and derision of the rest of the world. But of course they're all wrong aren't they. - JPFB wrote:23/07/2023 23:27Glad to know that Spalding is full of rich people. If you're not, here is a non-partisan view by a foreigner to help explain why you are falling into debt:
Former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers explained it well. Calling Brexit "a historic economic error", he pointed out the triple whammy of how Brexit has increased inflation:
Brexit cut the value of the pound, making all imported goods more expensive
Brexit made importing more difficult, again adding to the cost
Brexit ended free movement of labour, leading to labour shortages in key sectors
In other words, Brexit raised the prices of imports and the cost of domestic production at the same time.
Every bill you pay, be it food (an extra 6% there), energy (much gas is imported) or UK manufactured goods using imported raw materials, has an extra Brexit cost in the price you pay. That's extra inflation and that's extra on interest rates, your mortgage or rent. And Brexit continues to make the situation worse. On 31 October, the first phase of Brexit import checks is due to finally come into force. This will push up prices even higher.
However, there is another reason for higher inflation due to Brexit. EU firms now face higher costs in exporting to the UK, and this may either lead them to withdraw from the UK market altogether, or to try and recover these costs through higher prices. Either way that allows UK firms competing with EU firms in the UK market to raise their prices. - jacksoncb wrote:23/07/2023 22:06some uncomfortable facts for the anonymous remoaners and rejoiners:
https:// www.gov.uk/ government/ news/ uk-government-seizes-post-brexit-freedoms-for-fishing-industry?mc_cid=b78fa523f9&mc_eid=a44ab48b55#:~:text=New%20measures%20will%20support%20thriving%20fishing%20industry.&text=The%20UK%20Government%20has%20today,environment%20for%20generations%20to%20come.
https:// www.theguardian.com/ politics/ 2023/ jul/ 20/ rishi-sunak-criticises-eu-for-calling-falkland-islands-islas-malvinas?mc_cid=b78fa523f9&mc_eid=a44ab48b55
https:// www.gov.uk/ government/ news/ uk-strikes-biggest-trade-deal-since-brexit-to-join-major-free-trade-bloc-in-indo-pacific
https:// www.gov.uk/ government/ news/ boost-for-british-businesses-as-uk-and-indonesia-pledge-to-grow-trade-ties
https:// www.telegraph.co.uk/ business/ 2023/ 06/ 01/ services-sector-quiet-brexit-success-story/
https:// www.euractiv.com/ section/ economy-jobs/ news/ germany-heading-towards-stagflation-in-2023/
https:// www.bild.de/ politik/ international/ politik-inland/ with-this-letter-by-jens-spahn-the-vaccine-disaster-in-the-eu-begann-74736986.bild.html
https:// www.theguardian.com/ society/ 2021/ feb/ 05/ ursula-von-der-leyen-uk-covid-vaccine-speedboat-eu-tanker
https:// www.c4isrnet.com/ global/ europe/ 2020/ 12/ 11/ natos-secure-online-meeting-tools-have-some-in-the-european-union-jealous/
This is just a small smattering of what they the rejoiners do not want you to see or hear... - jacksoncb wrote:23/07/2023 20:57Below are some typical remoaner comments about Brexit from an anonymous writer who calls himself JPFB - they normally are anonymous where the hard left is concerned, so I have compiled some good news to counter the typical rejoiner narrative that all the world's woes have been caused by Brexit. Unfortunately, the average remoaner has now morphed into a remoaner, and they are in denial that the global pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, have been the cause of, not just Great Britain's current economic woes, but many of the worlds current problems. I am waiting for the same ilk to start blaming weather change, the war in Ukraine, recession in Germany and the Eurozone and Chinese threats to invade Taiwan on Brexit, I am sure you get the jist; if anything goes wrong anywhere it is easy to blame it on Brexit even if this runs counter to the facts and the evidence!!
The war in Ukraine is the largest land war in Europe since 1945 and has impacted supply chains and the cost of fuel for transport and energy for homes and businesses across the globe. It followed hot on the heals of the global pandemic, which also caused spikes in inflation and costs for transport, goods and services. All hit at the time that we left the EU, so it is an easy 'catch all' blame game that the usual suspects are trying to persuade people of - its all because of Brexit. They still believe that Leave voters are a rabble of thick, ******** peasants who do not understand what we voted for, the impact of the pandemic and war in Ukraine on our economy, or understand anything beyond our own borders. The same people believe that if they repeat their tropes often enough we will begin to believe their disinformation campaigns. However, I do know that they underestimate that actually the average Joe public voter is quite savvy and a lot more intelligent and sophisticated than the remoaners give our electorate credit for. Yes, they can continue to peddle their lies, but drill down and scratch beyond the surface we can see their duplicitous words for what they are...
Following the global pandemic and the continuing war in Ukraine, the road to independence, liberty and freedom, was going to hit some bumps along the road - the same happened when we joined the then EEC back in 1973, apparently that was not all plain sailing either. Brexit, is not set set in stone and it will evolve and adapt to the changing situations that we face both now and in the future, but whats important is that now only the UK has its hands on the steering wheel rather than the quisling Eurocrats in Brussels acting on orders from Berlin and Paris. The EU was always going to make it as difficult as possible for Great Britain to make a success of Brexit, as the eyes of many other countries are upon us and understandably are jealous of the autonomy we now have to act independently. That is despite the disinformation and misinformation of the establishment and left wing media in their efforts to sabotage Brexit and deny it has been both an economic and diplomatic success story. Boris always warned the EU would try to lash out like a wounded lover as they meted out a punishment beating. The first of many examples was the refusal to extend to the UK the same courtesy as they have to Canada and Australia what is called Mutual Recognition (MR) as part of our tariff free trade deal with the EU. We brokered a MR deal with the USA within weeks of leaving the EU and it has led to an boom in our exports to the largest economy in the world. The same courtesy from the EU would eliminate the problems they have caused in Northern Ireland and for food exports to the EU. Amazingly the EU carries out more customs checks on goods flowing between Britain and Northern Ireland, than they carry out on the borders with Turkey, North Africa or even Russia - its hard to believe, but also sadly very true as confirmed by the EU's own equivalent of the National Statistics Office (NSO) Eurostat. But as we knew would happen the EU's pig headedness is hurting them far more than it is hurting us as our exports to them continue to grow, EU exports to the UK have collapsed by a third, and that process is accelerating as we choose to buy from less troublesome and petulant partners across the world. Whilst the UK is adapting the EU is in terminal decline as its share of both global trade and GDP continues to relentlessly decline. Instead GB is forming new trading partnerships - especially in Asia and North America - with old friends and new as we begin to do what we always did best - be an outward looking, global trading nation. That is why record numbers of foreign students are flocking to the UK to study at the best universities in the world; the normal laws of supply and demand for labour have been restored and wages are increasing at their fastest rate since records began, especially in sectors where pay was suppressed by mass uncontrolled exploitable labour from the EU such as hospitality, factories, warehousing and HGV driving. Likewise, despite the false information there are record numbers of EU nationals working in the NHS, and the number of people in work in the UK has just hit an all time high. The woke remoaners blame EU nationals returning home on Brexit even though there are 5 million more of them living here permanently in the UK than the 2.5 million the same motley crew claimed during the referendum. That is right there are officially 7.5 million EU nationals living here in the UK that have decided to stay - and they are most welcome. I count a large number of them as my friends much to the chagrin of the remoaners who claim that only racists and xenophobes voted to 'Take Back Control' and leave the EU. A tiny 600,000 returned to the EU when the global pandemic struck - understandably to be close to their families as we did not know how deadly it would be when it first struck. If your parents and grandparents were many miles away, what would you have done? When they got home they found that the economies of their home countries had also changed and decided to stay. The facts are there for all to see 10% left and 90% decided to stay. Now we have a points based Australian style immigration system we pull the levers not the EU, and everybody competes on a level playing field whether they are from Africa, Australia, America or Europe - but most importantly, Whitehall decides not Brussels. That is not to say that the current number of visa enabled immigrants is not to far too high, it is, but it is within our gift to reduce those numbers to the numbers that arrived before Blair opened the floodgates in 2004. In 1997 nett immigration to the UK was a sustainable 48,000 per year, a figure that is less than the number of Albanian immigrants arriving her illegally in cross channel boats to join the drug and other organised criminal gangs. The National Crime Agency suggests that the Albanian gangs now have complete control of the heroin, cocaine and cannabis markets here in the UK - that is where these young men are heading, to work for sums beyond heir wildest dreams - and why they must be detained and deported rather than allowed to walk out of their tax payer funded hotels.
Please see my response to JPFB below;
Actually, its going extremely well, despite all the continued misinformation and disinformation peddled by remoaners and rejoiners like yourself. Unfortunately, the remoaners continue to delude themselves that there was never a global pandemic and Russia never invaded Ukraine. In their parallel universe, none of our economic problems were caused by the two biggest global events in the last 70 years, instead it is all the fault of Brexit, even though we are out-performing the EU.
First of all we have taken back control in the five key areas Leave highlighted: - Our laws, we are once again an independent, self-governing nation in control of our own destiny and we no longer have laws forced upon us by the unelected and unaccountable Eurocrats in Brussels - democracy is back in the building in Great Britain; we have taken back control of our economy and money - we would have been sending £25 Billion gross to the EU this year and then grovelled to have some it sent back but labelled as EU funding - and with plenty of strings attached; and of course our fisheries - but the French are still bleating that UK fishermen are catching an extra 10,000 tonnes a year and not selling enough of it to them; and our borders - we decide who to issue work visas for, and if we can get the flights moving to Rwanda we should be able to stop the invasion from Albania, even though last time I checked France is supposed to be safe country - NO??. Instead of having to allow anyone including murderers, paedophiles and rapists into our country, we now control who can live and work in the UK - not the EU. If we want more workers in a certain sector, we increase the number of temporary work visas we can issue and decrease it if we wish. The only people to blame now are the Government of the day as they have complete control to pick and choose, not the EU or any other country. That is called control, control which we did not have as a member of the EU.
Plus we have just joined the largest free trade area in the world - The Comprehensive Trans Pacific Partnership - which both South Korea and the USA are looking to join. Yes, you heard right even without the USA and South Korea, it is already in trade terms and population much larger than the EU, ouch that must stick in the throat for the remoaners as they said such a deal was impossible for this tiny island - something we could never do, beyond our reach and power. Now we have that trade deal under our belt, and the feather in the cap those same doom mongers are trying to undermine and denigrate this magnificent trade deal at every turn. But, as they know, this is just the beginning, for our trade aspirations. With the UK, USA and South Korea the CTPP will be double the size of the EU in terms of global trade, population and real GDP. What is really going to make them sick as EU parrots is that we are also on the cusp of agreeing a Free Trade Agreement with India - the 4th largest economy in the world. Global Britain is on a free trade roll and no amount of remoan bleating is going to stop this country becoming a global economic power house, no matter how hard they try to derail this unstoppable coming together of the world's fastest growing economies. As the EU continues its inward looking protectionism the UK is tapping into new markets the EU can only dream of, and as we are in, we can keep the Chinese out until we start to see real democratic change.
You will never hear it from the rejoin brigade and their cronies in the media, but the UK has signed more trade deals in the last 3 years than the EU managed in 70 - not bad going for what what they call a small insignificant tiny country that can not possibly survive on its own - watch and learn. Many will recall them telling us it would take us decades to replicate the deals that the EU negotiated, it made me laugh when we rolled them over within the first month, deepened some and negotiated many more that the EU has been trying to do for decades like the deals we brokered with Australia and New Zealand. It hurts that it only took GB a couple of years to seal the deal. When they negotiate with the UK they deal with one, not 28 or 29 or whatever it is for the EU and all their competing interests. We have also negotiated 4 Free Trade Agreements with states in the USA, California which has a larger economy than most countries in the world is not far off from being agreed as well - as they say when you have the freedoms Brexit allows there are "many ways to skin a cat."
It is also worth pointing out that the UK has lower CPI and core inflation than ten other EU nations, and our CPI rate is not far off that of Germany and France. That said unlike the Euro zone the UK is not in recession, the UK has avoided one, whereas Germany is in its 2nd recession since the pandemic. The German economy has shrunk such that it is now smaller than it was before the pandemic - what a way to run a country. It may be something to do with the fact that the German and EU business model was built on cheap Russian gas and oil, plus a good deal of slave labour from China. You would have thought that Germany would shy away from concentration camps and slave labour, but no, Merkel and Scholz cannot get enough free, slave labour which is why they go to see Xi so more German companies can dip their hands in the blood of the enslaved. Big German business cannot get enough parts made by enslaved Uighur Muslims in China's concentration camps - all 2.3 million of them. The Chinese do what their new best friends in Berlin used to - work and starve them to death - it is currently estimated that 30,000 men, women and children a month are dying in China's death camps. In the case of the women hundreds are being gang raped to death. They then ship these bloodied parts to the EU assemble them and label it all as made in the EU even though it should carry a health warning which says "parts used in this vehicle, machine etc are made using the blood of slave labour in Chinese concentration camps. Old habits die hard in Germany but we know Scholz and Macron would sell their grannies if the price is right. The EU doesn't mind doing deals with the devil if it provides cheap labour - slave or otherwise; just as former and current German Chancellors were happy to take cheap Russian oil and gas from Putin - even after they first invaded Ukraine in 2014 and vetoed their membership of NATO in 2008 - because cheap oil and gas was more important than standing up for a fledgling European democracy like Ukraine.
Likewise, the Pound is not on the brink of a sovereign debt and banking crisis like the Euro, and because we are not in neither we will avoid the trillion pound bail-out bill when it hits in the next couple of years. Our unemployment is also significantly less than the Euro-zone, and that of the EU's major economies, plus our youth unemployment is more than half that of many EU countries.
Lets also take a look at the leadership over Ukraine - whilst Germany and the rest of the EU was wringing its hands and arguing over how many helmets they should send to resists Russia's invasion, that's right helmets plus some body armour, Great Britain was sending lethal armaments on a round-the-clock air-lift mission. In the time Scholz had agreed to send a few thousand helmets, a dribble of body armour and some mouldy old ration packs, Great Britain had supplied 10,000 NLAW and Javelin ant-tank missiles, which stopped the Russian invasion dead in its tracks, along with as much ammunition and artillery shells as we could spare. Interestingly, our C-17s - we have the only strategic air lift capacity in Europe, the EU and its contribution to NATO is nil because it has zero - the RAF was forced to fly around German and French airspace rather than directly to Ukraine because our EU friends did not wish to upset Mr Putin. I am sure many will agree this all has a smack of appeasement , Czechoslovakia, 1938 and Munich about, it even though Putin lied about his intentions to invade. Even now very little of the military equipment promised by Germany and France has actually arrived on the frontline in Ukraine. Fortunately, GB now has its own foreign policy which was immediate and decisive with Boris Johnson, for all his faults Ukraine loves him for good reason and why so many streets and buildings have been renamed to celebrate his help when the EU dithered over what to do. Don't forget former Chancellor Gerhard Schroder is on the board of Gazprom, the Russian state oil and gas enterprise, and ordered Merkel what to do over the Nord Stream pipelines despite constant objections from both the USA and ourselves - we knew where it would lead even though the EU could not fathom it. Even now they delay and dally wherever Putin and Russia is concerned and then try to present unity, which we can all see through no matter how hard they try. The dealings with China, the EU's conniving over Brexit, the COVID vaccines and reaction to the invasion of Ukraine, not to mention the totemic corruption also unreported by the hard left press all vindicate Great Britain's decision to Leave the EU - thank god we are out of the cess pit the unelected Eurocrats are digging for themselves.
I also just touched on the vaccine roll out. That is also a significant bonus for Brexit because we unlike the rest of the EU did not have to wait for EU regulatory approval, either for the vaccine or the procurement process. As a result we were months ahead of them, which when time is of the essence and lives depend on speed, meant we were able to gain traction and vaccine that worked when it mattered. Now you will hear the remoaners say that each country in the EU had the freedom to approved the vaccines on their own under directive XXX, but as the EU Commission President herself pointed out, they chose not to do so because they act and move as one body, and not individually regardless of the scale and magnitude of the crisis the EU is facing. She said and I repeat, the EU is also a medical union, hilarious if it was not so deadly. Unsurprisingly, no EU country broke ranks and did its own thing, as a result many more EU citizens died than was necessary. Von Leyen admitted herself, that the UK's ability to act swifty meant we stole a march on the EU when it came to procuring the vaccines and their subsequent roll out - she said, and i quote: "Great Britain moved like a speedboat compared to the lumbering oil tanker that is the EU". She said because of 'Brexit' we were able to move quicker. A brave admission that even the remoaners hate to repeat.
There is more much more for the remoan and rejoin community to suck up and choke on, lots, lots more for Brexit Britain or Global Britain whichever you prefer has been enjoying something of an exports boom to both the rest of the world and the EU, especially in terms of data and professional services sales such as insurance, pensions, accountancy, legal services, data, creative arts, TV and film. We now sell double the amount of data and professional services to North America than we did before we left the EU, which is also double the amount we ever sold to the EU when we were members. Overall exports to our largest trading partner the USA are up over 25% since we took back control of our country and voted to Leave the EU, and exports to the EU are also booming. According, to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Eurostat, in July last year exports to the EU hit an all time high - yes you did hear right - a new all-time record high for any single month of exports since before, during and after our membership. It just spills off the tip of the tongue "a new record high for UK exports" which is another thorn in the side of the remoaners. This coupled with another anathema for them is the fact that the UK economy has been the best performing in the G7 for both 2021 and 2022, and is likely to confound the remoaners in 2023 with a similar performance beating the rest of the pack in terms of real GDP growth. Yes, don't believe all you hear from the hard left remoaning media, the British economy is actually in rude health compared to our EU competitors even though you will never hear them admit it. It is also the reason why the ever inaccurate forecasts by the likes of the OECD, IMF are always being adjusted upwards, because just like they got every item on Project Fear, they have also got the demise of our economy completely and utterly wrong as well.
Dont get me wrong there is nothing they would like more for it to be the UK in recession rather than the Eurozone and the likes of Germany; the national debt of France is 20% higher than the UK; industrial output in Germany is collapsing and guess what even though they are in the EU German nurses are leaving in droves, they claim they do not have enough workers, there are shortage of drivers, they have incredibly slow broadband and productivity has fallen off the edge of the cliff - despite Brexit and them being in the EU. Sweden is suffering from a housing crash and most EU countries claim that they have the wrong interest rate - set centrally by the European Central Bank - for their economies. A one-size fits all interest rate is and continues to be a disaster for every country in the Euro except the one that runs it, Germany. It is hard enough to get it right for one country like the UK never mind all those poor countries trapped in the Euro. These are just a fraction of the facts and good news stories the remoaners and rejoiners do not want you the voters to hear about. They are never reported by the woke left-wing media like the BBC, FT, NBC, CNN, LBC because they only want to report the disinformation they want you to hear when in fact there is good news waiting to be heard if you listen and look in the right places.
JPFB also mentioned the money for the NHS - the money going in is actually more than double the amount on the side of the red bus - an extra £700 million week or £38 Billion a year of new, additional money is going into the NHS, the figure on the side of the bus was £350 million a week.
I could write much more there is reams of information supported by the facts and the evidence which the remoaners and rejoiners want to ensure you do not see or hear. I can say with certainty that 99% of what the anonymous JPFB has written is factually incorrect, the remoaners continue to be in denial that in fact Brexit has been a Great British success story and when Ukraine has defeated Russia we will be able to move up the gears and show the doom mongers and doubters who do not believe we can run our own country how to turbo-charge an economy without the dead weight of the EU hanging around our necks holding us back...watch and learn remoaners we have only just started on the path to success; there will be setbacks - but as Kennedy said "do not ask what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." Whilst the wokist remoaners revel in denigrating our past, belittling our present and undermining our future, the sensible majority know it is better to be free than bow down to foreign rule whatever form that may take... - JPFB wrote:23/07/2023 14:11So how's that Brexit thing going, eh? How are those referendum-winning promises? Are you enjoying those lower food prices "immediately" on leaving (Rees-Mogg)? Are you happy at still being in the Single Market (Leadsom), at retaining full EU rights (Johnson) or do you just think it's great that there are no downsides and only upsides (Davis)? How are you doing with "flourishing" by 2121 (Hannan), and with all that "thriving" (Farage)? You must be doing OK then, while the people mentioned who pushed for it did really, really well out of it: Rees-Mogg - knighthood. Leadsom - knighthood. Hannan - peerage. Johnson - Prime Minister. Plenty of cash and kudos for them then - what's not to like. Poor old Davis must be wondering what he did wrong. Even Farage can rely on someone to buy him and his ego a drink in any pub while they reminisce about how we saved Europe and the world during WW2. Obviously not pubs in the fishing ports of course - best stay clear of those as the fishermen quickly worked out just how much they had been shafted.
But what about ordinary folk. Not so sure about those Brexit benefits? Could it be that we were lied to and conned by a small group of wealthy, mostly Tory, nationalists, fantasists and chancers? People who, as former Tory donor Guy Hands put it, pushed for an outcome that had very little to do with leaving the EU but was instead a project to transform the country into their own private fantasy, and that "what Brexit was largely about was people at the top being able to employ the rest of the country for a lot less and [have themselves] pay a lot less tax." Being one of the people "at the top" himself I guess he would know. He's promised there will be no more money for the Tories from him until Sunak goes public and admits that they lied about Brexit.
EU money for the NHS? You got higher taxes to pay for it instead. Free trade? You got less trade. Border control? You got less control and higher immigration. Less red tape? You got more, much more. Sovereignty? We now have less clout and must bend our laws to the realities of international requirements. Pick and choose EU workers? They don't want to come here and who can blame them. Tens of billions lost in taxes, much more than we paid the EU but now with no Single Market membership. 4000 EU doctors who were expected to come here haven't, while 1 in 7 NHS trained doctors have pushed off to work abroad. That's the highest number in the world. They don't see a future here outside of the EU and who can blame them. Still, it helps to explain why you can't get to see a GP doesn't it. Or a NHS dentist. Not to worry, I imagine Brexiter Hayes can afford to go private.
Did you vote for Brexit? The rich thank you. Meanwhile, take my advice and be early at the foodbank. It's our most popular post-Brexit business - three million people can't be wrong. Likely you won't see Tory Hayes down there - he can afford all the food he needs. He was knighted in 2018 by Theresa May, widely reported as a bribe to ensure that he voted with her on Brexit. Doesn't take much then does it. Who knows, maybe if that's all it takes we should all get a gong. Or at least a couple of quid to put in the meter. The Brexit fall in the pound has added to the cost of our imported gas, and everyone's gas and electricity bill. And the cost of imported food of course. Another Brexit benefit Hayes didn't shout about.
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