Forum Topic

Kudos to the government for having taken bold and early decisions about vaccine sourcing, and kudos to the NHS for the efficient administration of the vaccination programme. Praise be that the government didn't set up yet another expensive and inefficient outsourced system  for this purpose. But the idea that Johnson's administration is no more incompetent than any other European government is ludicrous. The number of deaths per million inhabitants is far higher than in any other major European country. We've now even passed Italy's deaths per capita, despite the fact that they were the first European country to face this disease, before anyone really knew anything about it.Johnson was fatally dilatory in ordering the first lockdown, and then over-eager to lift restrictions. Sunak's Eat Out, Help Out campaign was unbelievably stupid. The outsourced test and trace scheme was, and still is, an utter fiasco. Aside from the incompetence of the tracing efforts, no financial incentive was provided for poor people to remain at home during isolation. When the second wave came, it was clear that Johnson had learned nothing from his mistakes earlier in the year, as he rejected SAGE advice in September to implement a circuit-breaker lockdown. Then came the Christmas farce, and yet another last-minute u-turn. These are just some of the highlights (or rather, lowlights) in a pattern of incompetence. What they all demonstrate is that, despite his whacking majority, Johnson was always looking over his shoulder at the lunatic fringe in his own party, and too weak to give unpalatable news to the public until events overtook him. It's no good apologists for him trying to blame the irresponsibility of members of the public. This was a relatively minor factor which exacerbated the problem of control of the virus, but in any case the mixed messages regarding restrictions and the brazen defence of Cummings's lockdown breach hardly helped. No-one, but no-one, could have handled the campaign against Covid-19 as badly as Johnson. Vaccine procurement is the only argument which can be advanced in his defence.

Robert Fish ● 1155d

The chances are many of the most vocal remainers will start to find the issue of Brexit less interesting and harder to understand now it has become mainly about arcane administrative issues rather than broad principles.The idea of the pseudo-ECJ becoming weaponised by the EU is one that will not surprise anyone who trades in Europe but we cannot reasonably expect them to do anything other than act in the best interests of their own members.It is likely to be death by a thousand cuts rather than any sudden undermining of the UK's competitiveness. The firm I currently work for has in the last few days discovered two extra unanticipated administrative burdens  which in themselves are not highly material but combined with other extra hassles will add significantly to expenses. The EU now effectively has the power to introduce a range of individually insignificant but collectively crippling trade barriers on products or services they don't wish UK firms to supply to Europe.The vast majority of people who voted for Brexit weren't actively employed in a private sector firm with a big proportion them living off a pension and it was to them Boris Johnson was speaking when he said 'F^^k Business'.Brexit was never about trade it was about ending Freedom of Movement. The irony is that it may well fail in that regard as well. It has already resulted in a loss of control of our borders because we no longer have access to a key database to check the criminal records of those entering the country and every EU citizen can still come here as freely as they did before - it is just them working that has become more difficult.In the event EU citizens may retain significant rights to live and work here. Reports of the negotiations suggest that the UK side wanted to have bipartisan arrangements with EU member states so that for instance it would be easier for French and German citizens to come here than Poles and Romanians. The EU slapped them down on this.Now demands are growing from British citizens in the EU to protect their rights. Anything that we ask for from the EU on their behalf will have to be reciprocal which raises the possibiluity we will end up with de facto Freedom of Movement as well as a de facto ECJ. If you add in the extra people we will be required to allow into the country due to the obligations signed up to in new trade deals, Brexit could end up increasing immigration.

Mark Evans ● 1180d

Francis Rowe 02/01/2021 at 07.52: Francis Rowe's European-based friend is completely right. The reason why we have sacrificed the existing deal with the EU? Because 90,000 geriatric members of the Conservative and Unionist Party chose a thoroughly contemptible charlatan, Boris Johnson, to be PM over more suitable candidates.Boris Johnson is a "gold medal egomaniac" - article by Max Hasting in 2012 when Boris was Mayor of London. Mr Hastings continued:"I would not trust him with my wife nor — from painful experience — with my wallet. It is unnecessary to take any moral view about his almost crazed infidelities, but it is hard to believe that any man so conspicuously incapable of controlling his own libido is fit to be trusted with controlling the country....His chaotic public persona is not an act — he is, indeed, manically disorganised about everything except his own image management. He is also a far more ruthless, and frankly nastier, figure than the public appreciates....he is much given to making threats, bearing grudges and behaving with malice aforethought.....I would not take Boris’s word about whether it is Monday or Tuesday....He is not a man to believe in, to trust or respect save as a superlative exhibitionist. He is bereft of judgment, loyalty and discretion.Only in the star-crazed, frivolous Britain of the 21st century could such a man have risen so high, and he is utterly unfit to go higher still." Boris Johnson knows what he has given away. And he does not care.Boris Johnson is a foolish, ambitious and vain man. He is a very dangerous man. Just the person to manage a pandemic and the greatest realignment of the politics of the "United Kingdom" in the last 300 years.There is a way back to membership of the EU, but it will take 10 years. See the Twitter thread by @NickTolhurst. We must stay patient and not loose our friends in the EU. Personal friendship will, eventually, rebuild trust when Mr Johnson is gone. The article: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2215342/If-Boris-Johnson-Prime-Minister-Im-plane-Britain-says-Max-Hastings.html

Una-Jane Winfield ● 1180d

Francis Rowe's European-based friend is completely right. The reason why we have sacrificed the existing deal with the EU? Because 80,000 geriatric members of the Conservative and Unionist Party chose a thoroughly contemptible charlatan, Boris Johnson, to be PM over more suitable candidates. Boris Johnson is a "gold medal egomaniac" - article by Max Hasting in 2012 when Boris was Mayor of London. Mr Hastings continued:"I would not trust him with my wife nor — from painful experience — with my wallet. It is unnecessary to take any moral view about his almost crazed infidelities, but it is hard to believe that any man so conspicuously incapable of controlling his own libido is fit to be trusted with controlling the country....His chaotic public persona is not an act — he is, indeed, manically disorganised about everything except his own image management. He is also a far more ruthless, and frankly nastier, figure than the public appreciates....he is much given to making threats, bearing grudges and behaving with malice aforethought.....I would not take Boris’s word about whether it is Monday or Tuesday....He is not a man to believe in, to trust or respect save as a superlative exhibitionist. He is bereft of judgment, loyalty and discretion.Only in the star-crazed, frivolous Britain of the 21st century could such a man have risen so high, and he is utterly unfit to go higher still."  Boris Johnson knows what he has given away. And he does not care. Boris Johnson is a foolish, ambitious and vain man. He is a very dangerous man. Just the person to manage a pandemic and the greatest realignment of the politics of the "United Kingdom" in the last 300 years.There is a way back, but it will take 10 years. See the Twitter thread by @NickTolhurst. We must stay patient and not loose our friends in the EU. Personal friendship will, eventually, rebuild trust when Mr Johnson is gone.  The article: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2215342/If-Boris-Johnson-Prime-Minister-Im-plane-Britain-says-Max-Hastings.html

Una-Jane Winfield ● 1180d

We have left the EU, the Customs Union and the Single Market and we need to deal with the new reality. It would now be good if people who believe this is a good idea, perhaps Clare, could explain why they think this is a good idea.I had a worrying Zoom call this week with a Europe based friend who understands issue of international trade law. She quoted a report in a local newspaper which described the new arrangements for ruling on disputes as like one of the disguises adopted by Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther. The European Court of Justice has become an independent artibitration panel and this Boris Johnson tells us makes us an independent nation again.The informed European view seems to be one of shock that the thrust of British negotiation strategy was not about gaining advantage for British industry but the presentation of the successor arrangements to the ECJ.So rather than a court we have an independent arbitration panel but it is here where the Seller's false moustache is in action. Like the court the panel will be made up of judges versed in the laws governing the single market. The ECJ was already independent of the executive so this panel isn't de facto any more independent. The composition of the judges will change presumably so that there will always a British judge on the panel but he or she will see their duty to uphold the law rather than promote British interests. In other words having a home judge isn't going to allow us to ignore European law as it applies to trade.Calling the new court an independent panel means Johnson can claim to have taken back control but, like many of the boasts he has made since agreeing to this deal, this appears to be a falsehood.That this country is still subject to European law with regard to trade with Europe has not changed. However, our ability to shape that law has now been lost.Secondly the new court/arbitration panel has effectively been given much more teeth as ultimately any ruling against the UK can be backed up by the threat of tariffs something that we were protected from before.The report makes a number of predictions. Firstly, that initially the court/arbitration panel will spend much of its time enforcing the new rule regime to the detriment of British industry e.g. forcing it to scrap stock with the CE trademark.Then the European legislature will introduce a range of new measures specifically designed to put British industries at a competitive disadvantage which the new court/arbitration panel will be obliged to enforce.I am not an expert in trade matters but given the above, it seems to me that the deal agreed by Boris Johnson gives us less control not more, makes us less sovereign not more and gives the EU significant power to put us at a sustained competitive disadvantage in trade.There appears to have been no offset benefit to this as all the non-EU trade deals so far have basically confirmed trading arrangements we already had with the EU or, in the case of Japan, required us to make significant concession to secure a deal which is markedly inferior to the one we had.The Brexiteers have won. At least one of them needs to explain why the above is inaccurate and we haven't made a disasterous mistake as a nation.

Francis Rowe ● 1182d