Inevitably, the headlines in our Establishment MSM are again full of the Boris-Affair. It’s all very interesting, I’m sure, if you are into that sort of thing. It’s also interesting that the Remainers’ latest dahlink, Mr Jeremy Hunt, is celebrated for the inanity of proposing to spend an extra £15bn on defence (link, paywalled). He must have been promised unfettered access to that famous Money Tree kept secretly in the Treasury gardens …!
In the other corner, in a BBC interview last evening, BoJo has come out with his fabulous proposals to get us Brexit:
“In the most detailed explanation of his plans so far, Mr Johnson told the BBC that Theresa May’s Brexit deal was ‘dead’ – but insisted his ‘positive energy’, coupled with the threat of No Deal and the withholding of the £39billion divorce payment could persuade the EU to back down in key areas. The Tory leadership frontrunner said he would engage in ‘creative ambiguity about when and how’ the divorce payment is made. He insisted a new deal could be struck in time to take Britain out on October 31. And he said the EU would agree to a Brexit transition even in the event of No Deal – something Brussels has strenuously denied. But he said it was ‘common sense’ to ‘prepare confidently and seriously for a No Deal outcome’, as this was the best way of securing concessions from the EU.” (source)
I’m not sure if he is also ‘engaging in creative ambiguity’ with us and the MSM – especially the Remain MSM – or if he has some machiavellian plans hidden away, to deal with his Tory Party ‘rebels’ like Mr Grieve and Mr Kenneth Clarke.
Given this background, you might think there’s nothing happening on the EU Continent, but let me assure you, there is! Firstly, there’s our Celtic neighbour, the one with the Backstop. Have pity on them, because reality is starting to bite.
The Varadkar government has to produce a budget, and we read that this will be one where a No-Deal-Brexit is priced in. The report in The Express is based on this one in the Irish Independent:
“Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe’s next budget is “all but certain” to be based on a disorderly Brexit, his ministerial colleagues believe. The minister will tomorrow take the unprecedented step of publishing two economic outlooks on which Budget 2020 could be based. His Summer Economic Statement (SES) will present one set of figures for dealing with an orderly Brexit and another for a ‘doomsday scenario’. However, senior Government sources say if Brexit continues on the current timeline, Mr Donohoe will have little option but to base his budget on “the disaster”. “Ultimately he will have to decide in September which set of figures to use on Budget Day. At that stage it’s unlikely we’ll have clarity on Brexit so you’d have to work off the worst-case scenario,” the source said.”
Isn’t it … strange how our Remainers, how Brussels and now Ireland are bleating about a worst-case scenario should No Deal Brexit happen while the more rational ministers and civil servants in Ireland, here and in the EU member states all prepare for it!
A couple of days ago Sir John Redwood remarked in his Diary that the EU is “ready for UK exit in October without the Withdrawal treaty”, concluding shrewdly:
“This of course all goes largely unreported by the Remain facing UK media, who carry on with silly scare stories based on an imaginary exit with none of these agreements in place.”
Ah, but our MSM must spend time and resources on that titillating story, that ‘Johnson affair’! Their non-reporting of preparations made everywhere for a No Deal Brexit shows nicely that the whole uproar about cliff edges, a ‘cast-in-stone’ WA, the Backstop, is simply driven by ideology, not pragmatism.
Next there’s one (!) report about some EU member states apparently getting a bit impatient with the Irish tail wagging the EU dog:
“Ireland is facing demands from six fellow EU countries to set out detailed plans for how it will manage a no-deal Brexit as fears grow in Brussels that such an exit may be unavoidable. In the first clear sign that EU solidarity with Ireland is starting to come under strain, a gang of six states: France, Germany, Belgium, Poland, Denmark and the Netherlands; are insisting that Ireland must set out in operational detail how it will protect EU borders. It reflects growing impatience among EU member states over the refusal of the Irish government to spell out what will happen if the Irish backstop – which was designed to prevent the return of a hard border in Ireland – backfires and causes a no deal.” (paywalled link)
I don’t want to gloat, but this next bit reads as if the days of the Taoiseach’s posturing and demands without substance are coming to an end:
“Until recently, the Irish government has avoided the detail, countering that the UK has a mutual duty to help avoid a return to a hard border under the Good Friday Agreement, and threatening to not hold any EU-UK trade talks until London complies. But the decision to put pressure on Dublin reflects concerns in Berlin and Paris that if the UK does not cooperate, then Ireland will pose a risk to the integrity of the EU single market in the event of a no deal. Poland is understood to be among a minority of member states who harbour hopes that forcing Ireland to confront the difficulties of a no deal could pave the way to reopening the debate on time-limiting the backstop.” (paywalled link)
Interesting, isn’t it: at five minutes before midnight what was anathema until now can suddenly be mentioned. One wonders when our home-grown, EU-supported Remainers will cotton on to this, especially those Tory MPs in the HoC who would rather bring their own government down if there is No Deal.
However, they and the May-Replacement would do well to take note of and learn from the ‘Swiss experience’. A week ago we read that:
“Brussels is increasingly likely to cut off Swiss stock exchanges from the EU’s single market to send a “warning shot” to Bern but also to Brexit Britain.” (paywalled link)
Today there’s a report that the Swiss aren’t going to cave in but are instead retaliating:
“Switzerland will ban European Union stock exchanges from trading Swiss shares in retaliation for Brussels freezing its bourses out from the EU market. The European Commission refused to grant Swiss stock exchanges access after its patience ran out during negotiations over a long-delayed partnership treaty. “Equivalence”, the system of regulatory recognition used to govern access for financial services in non-EU countries, will now lapse on July 1. In retaliation Bern said it would withdraw recognition from trading venues in the EU from July 1 to “protect the Swiss stock exchange infrastructure in the event of non-extension. “Trading venues in the EU would thus be prohibited from offering or facilitating trading in certain shares of Swiss companies from that date,” the Swiss government said.” (paywalled link)
You might say that this is only little Switzerland, so why should we care. However, the EU has been trying to play hard ball with the Swiss explicitly to prepare the way for the UK’s agreement to stay in the Single Market thanks to May’s WA:
“Last week, an European Commission document called for a “crystal clear” message to be sent to Bern but also to Brexit Britain. “An expiry of the ‘equivalence’ may be just the warning shot across the bow they need,” the document said. […] Equivalence lies entirely in the gift of the European Commission, the EU’s civil service, and can be withdrawn at short notice and with no right of appeal. British and EU negotiators have agreed that the same system will be used after Brexit, if the Withdrawal Agreement is ever ratified by the House of Commons.” (paywalled link)
Do take note of those last sentences – do read them again and let them sink in! Then ask your MP if he or she is happy with that! It constitutes a pretty clear warning to the Remainers – but perhaps they think the City will be fine with this? Perhaps they ought to think about the following:
“It is unlikely in the short term that Brussels would attempt similar hardball tactics with the City of London because of its larger size and the EU’s greater exposure to it. But the Swiss example will serve as a warning that the EU is not willing to compromise on its red lines, even if that means a “no deal” with Bern.” (paywalled link)
Of course the EU isn’t ‘willing to compromise’, not with Switzerland, not with us. it’s only Ms May and her civil serpent negotiators who have been compromising all the way down.
Why? And why, if the Swiss can stand up to the EU, are the Remainers insisting that we’re too weak, too feeble, to stand up for ourselves?
Do the Golden Fleshpots of the EU beckon? Stay vigilant – and
KBO!
“Mr Jeremy Hunt, is celebrated for the inanity of proposing to spend an extra £15bn on defence ?? ”
That is surely a down payment to the British Army being shoe-horned into the EU Military Command Structure (another little Leaving commitment Mrs May did not want to bother us with) plus all the on-going costs. This Structure will be commanded by the French (so as to not spook the horses) until the Germans gradually take over, after all the NATO HQ is in Germany ready to run NATO’s Army until The Donald pulls his Army contribution out to let them get on with it.
Or am I being too cynical ?
Dave
-“Mr Jeremy Hunt, is celebrated for the inanity of proposing to spend an extra £15bn on defence (link, paywalled). ”
There’s “always money for war”. And that’s what anyone in the ‘West’ is referring to when they talk about ‘defence’.
The privately-owned arms and weapons manufacturers are rubbing their hands in delight, especially those corporations in the USA already gleefully rubbing their hands together in anticipation of another forthcoming conflict in the Middle East, this time with Iran as the target.
Donald Trump can only call off the hawks for so long, seems Mr Hunt is willing to put himself forward as the ‘useful idiot’, ready to blindly obey the wishes of the true USA ‘string-pullers’, and commit to propping up yet another proxy war.
why, if the Swiss can stand up to the EU, are the Remainers insisting that we’re too weak, too feeble, to stand up for ourselves”?
Why? Bribery, blackmail or bonkers.
JF
just go back to 1972 when heath took us in and came home with 10 millio, he bought a yacht a 3million mansion inn sussex and had many bank accounts will millions in, what a surprise and you wonder why these remainers are so focused on what their bank accounts no doubt
It wasn’t just one boat Passing Cloud or Morning Glory or somesuch all manned with bronzed and strapping young men in the yaght uniform. Hilarious really. Big Ponce .Incidentally I noticed he came out of the war fat.
Listening to the BBC News station there is a note of desperation at the thought of Boris Johnson becoming Prime Minister. And it seems that the Irish Backstop is seen as an act of desperation by the EU to make out that Ireland is different to France, Belgium, Holland etc where trains, boats and planes, come and go daily but seem to be of no interest to the EU.
Brexit is a disaster for the EU. And so they will do all in their power along with their friends in Parliament and the media to stop it.
“Why? And why, if the Swiss can stand up to the EU, are the Remainers insisting that we’re too weak, too feeble, to stand up for ourselves”?
Perhaps Swiss governments trust and respect their people and understand that government works for the people not the other way around as seems to be the case in the UK.
There is something rotten at the heart of the British establishment.
Another thoight for Boris.
Another equence of steps
Step 1 Democracy requires a neutral stance or no propoganda at all. or no news at all.
Step 2 All sorts of avenues are opened up. great fun
It’s a positive feast ” Creative ambiguity ” Wow
Isolated from Swiss then London. Then the world. . WE should encourage them.
” Holier than thou ” doesn’t work any more Drug money is King.
Your report surely gives a hint at how hard the dominoes are going to fall, once we leave. How many German cars and engineering products would have to be made to offset a failure in their banking system? The answer must be, not enough! The post war economic rise of Germany will mean zilch when the s**t hits the fan. Then there is their immigration problem. My understanding is that France is also in economic trouble? If all this is put together we can see a hollowing out of EU worth. The Visigrad countries will not ‘hang about’ when they see that there is no future advantage for them. The Med countries have populations that can see with their own eyes the mess being created.
Freedom is a powerful and seemingly tangible force when advancement, innovation and success is expected. How much Freedom is there in a corrupt despotic regime? Reason will eventually beat the bully.
Kim There may be a solution to the rising unrest with the EU but such is the ideological/political/corporate capital invested in the European project the whole house may have to collapse before a new order is proposed. 1992 was the beginning of the end for the European project as it moved from an economic union to a political one. Yes, we know it was always the ambition of the federalists to create a supranational state but a return to a pre-1992 economic union model and the re-writing of the Treaty of Rome to remove the ‘ever closer union’ clause may be solution worth considering.
One well known commentator on the alternative media wrote yesterday, ”the e.u is finished’. Not yet I would have thought, but like the media and the BBC the cracks are now starting to appear.
The wonderful Swiss retaliation fills me with further anger and shame at how weak and suppliant the Hag and her team have made our country look over the last three years. I hope she spends her retirement in prison with the rest of the traitors. Perhaps she and Sedwill could get up a Softball team there as they are so good at playing it.
The Hag and Lickspittles. Descriptive and accurate. A downmarket pub in Rangoon. Also a childs bedtime horror story, perhaps. A BBC flop. perhaps. I’ll happy to do cartoons badly for free.
Could also be a good name for a punk rock band: they tended to wear lots of heavy chains and spit all over their paying customers too.