Today’s letters provide readers with a slew of facts that can and should be used in arguments everywhere now that the summer holidays are over and we get into Conference season next month. The first letter is from David Challice who needs no introduction on these pages:
Sir,
You might be interested in a few examples of Project Fear scaremongering, and the reality afterwards. This has been cut-down from an article by Asa Bennet in the Daily Telegraph (25/8/18):
Recession by Christmas:
The Treasury (under George Osborne) predicted a Leave vote would see the economy “fall into recession with four quarters of negative growth”.
Reality: The UK has not had a single quarter of negative growth
Fear:
The Treasury predicted ministers would have to borrow £10’s of billions to plug the economic shortfall.
Reality: Government spending is currently at its lowest for 16 years.
Lower Productivity:
The Treasury used “cautious assumptions” to warn of lower productivity.
Reality: Productivity has risen 0.9% in the last quarter; the first rise since 2016 and the biggest increase since 2011.
House Prices:
George Osborne said: “The country and the people in the country are going to be poorer. The Treasury analysis shows there would be a hit to the value of people’s homes by at least 10% and up to 18%”
Reality: House prices have gone up by 7%.
Unemployment:
The Treasury predicted “unemployment would increase by around 500,000.”, adding it could be as high as 800,000.
Reality: The unemployment rate has fallen from 4.9% to 4%. The lowest for 40 years.
Youth Unemployment:
The Treasury warned that Youth Unemployment would rise to 70,000; possibly to 100,000.
Reality: Youth unemployment has fallen from 13.6% to 11.3%. The lowest level on record.
Shrinking Wages:
The Treasury warned real wages would fall between 2.8% and 4% after a Leave vote.
Reality: Latest figures from the Office of National Statistics show that real wages not only rose in the month after the Referendum, but are currently 0.8% higher than in June 2016.
The above clearly demonstrates that the Treasury has a very good record of getting it spectacularly wrong and would be better off playing “pin the tail on the donkey”. Talking of Eeeyores, the current Chancellor of the Exchequer, Phillip Hammond, recently warned of economic collapse in 15 years’ time if we have a “hard” Brexit. No Chancellor (or Governor of the Bank of England, come to that) can possibly predict anything so far ahead with any shred of accuracy. After all, would Mr Hammond have predicted the Brexit Referendum itself had he been in post in 2015? Events happen. Things change. Societies are buffeted by unexpected occurrences, some of them good, some bad.
As for Brexit, the job of Government is to prepare, not scare. The people have voted. We are leaving the EU. Now the task is to do it properly without yet more absurd Private Fraser predictions of doom. Even if Mr Hammond would prefer the vote to have gone a different way, his job now is to get on and do it. If he’s not up to it, he should hand over to someone who is.
Respectfully, David Challice, UKIP Head Office
In the next letter, our outstanding correspondent Roger Arthur also provides plain facts with which to silence remainers:
Sir,
Some people still seem to worry that jobs will be lost, as a result of Brexit. My response is below:
If UK exports to the EU were on a rising trend, then you could argue that EU membership is good for business and jobs. But they are not – they are FALLING.
Our exports to the EU have fallen to around 43%, while those to the rest of the world have continued to rise..
The list below shows just how good EU membership has been. In some cases EU (taxpayer’s) money has even been used to drive UK jobs overseas:
- Cadbury moved its factory to Poland 2011
- Ford Transit moved to Turkey 2013 with EU grant.
- Jaguar Land Rover recently agreed to build a new plant in Slovakia, owned by Tata.
- Peugeot closed its Ryton (was Rootes Group) plant and moved production to Slovakia.
- The British Army’s new Ajax fighting vehicles to be built in SPAIN using SWEDISH steel at the request of the EU to support jobs in Spain, rather than in Wales.
- Crown Closures, Bournemouth (Was METAL BOX), gone to Poland, once employed 1,200.
- Hornby, plus other toys and models, have gone abroad, along with patents.
- Gillette has gone to eastern Europe.
- Texas Instruments Greenock have gone to Germany.
- Indesit at Bodelwyddan Wales has gone
- Sekisui Alveo, Merthyr Tydfil Industrial Parkfoam plant is to relocate production to the Netherlands.
- Hoover’s Merthyr factory moved to Czech Republic and the Far East, by Italian company Candy.
- ICI integration into Holland’s Akzo Nobel with EU bank loan and within days of the merger, several factories in the UK, were closed, losing 3,500 jobs
- Boots has sold facilities to Stefano Pessin, who have based their HQ in Switzerland, avoiding tax to the tune of £80 million a year.
- JDS Uniphase bought up UK companies using EU ‘regeneration’ grants, created a pollution nightmare and closed it all down leaving 1,200 jobless.
- Many British invention patents have been passed to foreign companies, many of them in the EU.
The IMF predicts that 90% in global growth will come from outside of Europe, over the next two decades. That is where 93% of the world’s population lives and they are creating wealth at a faster rate than the EU is.
Yes there will be short term problems, but try to look at the enormous long term benefits.
Respectfully, Roger Arthur
Finally, Gerrie Williams of the UKIP Newton Abbot Branch sent in the following disquieting information:
Sir,
I do not know whether lots of people have seen this, and you have therefore had a million pointing it out. If not, then perhaps this is of interest:
It was with total incredulity, that I came across the pronouncement of a John Bache, who is the Chairman of the Magistrates Association. Apparently we are 9,000 Magistrates short, there being only 16,000 left. This has been happening over time, since younger people do not take over when Magistrates reach the age at which they must retire……a phenomenon to be found in every branch of civic society. Mr. Bache feels that the shortfall should be made up by the ethnic minorities, which would serve the more important goal of greater diversity.
It could not for an instant be thought that this is because those minorities have no interest in helping to maintain law and order. No, it is course, our fault, and the way to make them feel less alienated by the justice system, is to have those accused, for whom it is deemed suitable, to be tried by convicts.
The old adage about turning the asylum over to the lunatics would seem to be particularly relevant to this situation, but the ‘lunatics’ are surely not the prospective accused, nor the convicts, but the entire Magistrates Association if they agree with this suggestion by their Chairman. The message which that would send out, is surely nothing less than lunacy.
Respectfully, Gerrie Williams, Press and Campaigns Secretary, UKIP Newton Abbot Branch
Bryan, When you answer a comment on this site, why is it that 50% the time you are not disclosing your answers here. I have given you the benefit of the doubt over the past week or so , and you have actually said some sensible things. However today you have regressed and being silly once again. I am not going to go through this thing again explaining why a Senior District Judge is a Chief Magistrate. I have done this and its getting a tad boring now. I have given evidence in Magistrates Courts, Coroners Courts and Crown Courts, more time tan you have had hot dinners. Let’s just leave it that.
During the popular ‘Neve Trust A Tory’ discussion, available lower down the website, I informed the readership that the Tory Chief Magistrate that is married to a Tory MP gave Tory-Uber a new licence to rape and Jihad whilst she was sitting at Westminster Magistrates Court.
Every link said the Tory crook was the Chief Magistrate as seen below;
‘Emma Arbuthnot, the chief magistrate whose judgment reinstated Uber’s London licence after it was judged not a “fit and proper” private car hire operator, has withdrawn from hearing further appeals by the company after an Observer investigation raised questions into links between her husband’s work and the company.”
Your Reply (one of many).
COLIN HUSSEY
Emma Arbuthnot is a High Court Judge NOT a Magistrate, Chief or otherwise. Dear oh dear…….
Now, in reply to Roger Turnsr you say;
” in Magistrates Court the trials are presided over by a Stipendiary Magistrate or 2/3 Justices of the Peace (JP) not a judge and have no juries present. You are confusing Magistrates Courts with Crown Courts, which are two different entities altogether.”
I’d forgotten all about it until I read your previous comment. My question is;
Were you stridently wrong then or totally wrong now?
The law industry pays well even when they lose but on here you cannot be telling porkies and not get a reaction especially if you’re showing the symptons of a superiority complex.
I’m off for a hot dinner.
To Roger Arthur, thank you very much for that list, I too am sick of the Remainers’ argument that “we need to stay in the EU/single market to protect jobs” and I was looking to research such a list myself.
The sad thing there are probably many more that can be added, yet the Labour party, formerly the champion of the working class, seems hell-bent on keeping us in presumably so even more jobs can be lost.
These are important facts which UKIP should use in future campaign material, to really get the message home to disgruntled Labour voters.
The only ‘labour’ that the Labour Party is interested in is cheap imported slave labour.
One matter that wed should all have great fear about is the terms of May’s BINO deal that are looking likely to be worse every day. Nobody has mentioned what will the the terms of the break clause built into this deal We need another Article 50 but drawn up rather more in our favour. In addition the terms May will sign will be far less favourable than what she envisaged when she ‘agreed’ our £35 to £40 billion payment. A significant fly worse deal needs a pretty big discount or even zero. I do not recall Canada paying anything to the EU for a trade deal.
Thank you Roger,
With all those tens, If not hundreds of thousands of jobs being lost in the UK and given to new or possible future EU states, you’d think Unite and the TUC would be pro-British worker and anti-EU.
Also, I dislike the “43% of trade is exported to the EU” as the figure is too high.
I prefer 80% of our trade is internal and only 8.6% of our trade is exported to the EU.
I thought we were progressively “doing away” with Magistrates Courts altogether, was all part of the trend to do away with the costly system of Jury trials, particularly where it is felt the juries are not competent to understand them anyway!
Just a thought-
Why bring anything to trial if the judge is not competent in his conduct and summing up of the evidence given at the trial to convey the full intricacy and the law to the jury?
I know don
t tell me, it
s all a trick to eventually adopt the EU and continental system of Corpus Juris by the back door!Except for the fact that in Magistrates Court the trials are presided over by a Stipendiary Magistrate or 2/3 Justices of the Peace (JP) not a judge and have no juries present. You are confusing Magistrates Courts with Crown Courts, which are two different entities altogether. Magistrates Courts deal with Summary offences where the maximum prison sentence is 6 months, whilst Crown Courts deal with Indictable offences (more serious offences). This talk is perpetrated by clueless politicians who have got no idea, their sole interest in saving money. They will never ever get rid of either Magistrates Courts or Crown Courts. There are lots of targets for clueless politicians to target, like abolishing the BBC and the Licence Fee and the abolition of the House of Lords, and reducing the size of the House of Commons. We want less expensive meaningless hot air from the BBC, House of Lords and the House of Commons. All three contain in the main clueless people, who in any other job would be out on their proverbial ear.
“Except for the fact that in Magistrates Court the trials are presided over by a Stipendiary Magistrate or 2/3 Justices of the Peace (JP) not a judge”
Oops!
I’m sure you said Emma Arbothnut was a judge in a Magistrates Court and stridently, 100%, definitely, not a magistrate.
Well ,Roger, many would argue that all the transfer of jobs to EU and Turkey were done because of the threat of us leaving
@gerrie williams I was surprised to hear that those with criminal records too can become magistrates. Interesting times!
https://news.sky.com/story/people-with-criminal-records-urged-to-become-magistrates-11479016
And join the police as well as staying in the police at times it would seem.
Good points Gerrie. We might also ask why so many mature and experienced people have been consigned prematurely (in their minds) to the scrap heap
Many have resigned in protest over various directions given to magistrates and the fact you are no longer allowed to use the designation J.P. This is not new people have been leaving and have not been replaced for the last 20 years or so. Also the closure of many local courts has not helped.