Author: wordpressence

Crunch vote for the PM being taken this evening. We bring you what you – and MPs – need to know

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2023

Our exclusive report might be of interest to the MPs voting this evening on the Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda Bill

In an usual move late yesterday afternoon the Government published a summary of the legal opinion its own lawyers have provided on ‘the Rwanda Bill’ being debated today in Parliament. This document contains the extraordinary admission that :-

In fact £32m per day equates to £11.7bn per year, but numbers do not seem to be this government’s strong suit. This shocking sum is only for the cost of housing ‘Macron’s migrants’ – those who leave safe French shores illegally in small boats, heading for the UK and almost certain permanent settlement. It does not include all the other costs incurred by the UK taxpayer in respect of their welfare, daily spending money, etc. We believe this does also include housing costs for illegal migrants who came via other means.

It should be noted that this latest Home Office estimate for 2025-2026 is not far short of the sum which the United Kingdom was paying in net contributions to the EU budget while it was still a member.

The big vote today

No-one knows how the parliamentary vote will turn out today on the Government’s third attempt to legislate against illegal migration – known colloquially as ‘the Rwanda Bill’ – but it could be highly significant for the future prospects of Mr Sunak and his government.

The Government’s response to the ‘Star Chamber’ legal report yesterday

In response to all the criticism, late afternoon yesterday the Government most unusually published its legal position on the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill 2023 and accompanying measures.

One of the most shocking statements in this publication was the following :-

“The government estimates that if illegal immigration goes unaddressed, the costs of asylum accommodation alone could increase to £32 million per day by 2026 – equivalent to £11 billion per year”

In fact £32m per day equates to £11.7bn per year.

[ Sources: UK Government | Home Office | ERG Star Chamber | ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Tues 12 Dec 2023

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Before Covid, UK employment was rising fast – despite Cameron’s threats

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Even now, despite Covid, employment’s up 1.2m since the EU Referendum in 2016

As things stand, the Conservative Party led by Rishi Sunak is heading for a pasting at the next general election, if opinion polls are to be believed.

In May 2016 David Cameron and George Osborne told the public they would lose up to 820,000 jobs if they voted to leave the European Union. What do you get for misleading the British public so egregiously? The answer is a peerage and the highest office in the land after that of Prime Minister.

There are sometimes things which need to be called out very clearly, on behalf of the majority of people in the United Kingdom. One of these is the way in which the British public was misled so badly by the Cameron administration in charge immediately prior to the EU Referendum in June 2016.

On behalf of the thousands of ordinary, decent citizens of the United Kingdom who went out in all weathers to campaign for a free, sovereign, democratic and independent Britain, we ask:

“What on earth is this man doing back in Government?”

And of course the BBC lapped up Lord Cameron’s messages at the time

The threat issued to the voting public in May 2016 by the then Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer was in no way ambiguous.

We were all told in no uncertain terms that even a vote to Leave itself – to say nothing of the other, longer term consequences of Brexit – would immediately result in 500,000-820,000 job losses.

Credit : BBC 2016 / Facts4EU.Org – click to enlarge

The simple fact is that employment continued rising after the vote to Leave. Even Nissan did not leave Sunderland and has increased employment there. In the country as a whole it is now 1.2 million above where it was in June 2016 and would of course have been even higher had it not been for the disastrous effect of the Government’s Covid-19 lockdowns.

The concerted effort of the Establishment which Cameron lined up

Any EU country considering a referendum on EU membership must be aware of what they will face. Here is what we were confronted with in the United Kingdom.

“All the experts say…”

How many times did we hear these words coming from the BBC, Sky News, and ITN? It wasn’t even just the supposed economic experts they were quoting, it was the entire Establishment. Just about every ‘respected organisation’ was wheeled out to pronounce solemnly on the matter.

Every stratum of society was roped in, up to and including the Archbishop of Canterbury. And just to make sure, the Remain Establishment flew in foreigners too, such as the President of the United States who threatened the UK against voting Leave whilst standing alongside a beaming David Cameron, then the British Prime Minister.

The Fear Factor

Much is made – quite rightly – of Project Fear with its threats of massive jobs losses, etc. However there was another fear factor at work. This was quite simply the fear of admitting you were going to vote Leave.

This factor is rarely brought to the attention of the media or indeed of Remainers, by the very nature of the problem itself. Those who felt intimidated from standing up and stating they were in favour of Leave still feel the same way today. This is precisely why Remainers mostly remain in blissful ignorance of the anxiety their side has caused to millions of people.

We can cite examples, but of course they are unattributable. There is, for example, the Company owner who stood up in front of a massed meeting of his employees, telling them that if they voted Leave then they shouldn’t bother reporting for work on the following Monday morning.

He then clarified after the vote, saying that he meant that the Company’s orders would dry up and that there would be job losses. Needless to say there weren’t, and the Company continued to prosper.

We have received countless private messages in the last seven years from Leavers who dare not speak their name. Some of these messages have been hard to read.

[ Sources: Too numerous to list here ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Mon 11 Dec 2023

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Would the UK’s young people be woke Rejoiners if they were given the facts?

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Our “Dare to think differently” campaign challenges the young with official information

Today we summarise some reports of special interest to the youth of Britain. No matter how short and punchy we keep our daily reports, we’re not stupid. We know that if we want to hit young people we have to do it in a couple of sentences.

Anyone under the age of 30 is bombarded with so many messages on their smart-phones each day, they barely get time to watch “My mind’s a jumble, get me out of here” each night.

This is why we’re asking parents and grandparents to step up. Below we’ve summarised some reports from the last six months which might be of particular interest to a younger audience. These are all part of our “Dare to Think Differently” campaign.

We would of course love it if all our young people read – or at least scanned – all of our short daily reports. Realistically this is unlikely so below we’ve assembled a selection of punchy and interesting pieces which are designed to challenge Britain’s youth.

All we ask is that they have an open mind and question whether what they are being fed in sound-bites on a daily basis is in any way grounded in reality.

(Spoiler alert : It’s not.)

Imagine what we could do together….

We have the material. We have the biggest library in the world of officially-researched reports on independence, sovereignty, democracy, Brexit, and freedoms. We can summarise these into a series of two sentence posts, with links. We could get these out there across the social media platforms used by our young people : Twitter (‘X’), Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and others.

We could do this week after week, if only we had the funding. If you care about the future of our country please donate something today towards this effort. We think it matters.

[ Sources: Brexit Facts4EU.Org ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Sun 10 Dec 2023

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British teenagers better educated than those from EU’s Top 3, says OECD global study

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Even with our woke teachers, UK’s children still outperformed EU’s top countries

Every three years the OECD conducts its PISA tests, evaluating the standards of reading, maths, and science abilities of the world’s 15-year-olds. The results published last week are positive for Brexit Britain but are not good for the European Union.

PISA 2022 tested nearly 700,000 15-year-old students in 81 OECD Member countries and partner economies on mathematics, reading and science. This edition was also the first to collect data on student performance before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The United Kingdom still dominates the top EU countries

No-one can be happy with the UK’s placings in the rankings for educational attainment last year, but France, Germany, and Italy have a lot more to be worried about.

In all three core skills tested, the pupils from the United Kingdom out-performed their contemporaries in the major countries of the EU.

About PISA and why it’s important

PISA is the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment. It helps teachers to understand their 15-year-old students’ abilities, compared with their international counterparts. It provides the most comprehensive and rigorous international assessment of student learning outcomes to date.

Results from PISA indicate the quality of ‘learning outcomes’ attained around the world, and allow teachers and governments to learn from the policies and practices applied in other countries.

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines what students know in reading, mathematics and science, and what they can do with what they know.

[ Sources: OECD – PISA ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Sat 09 Dec 2023

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The most-studied language in the EU originates from a country that is no longer in the EU

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Slightly inconvenient for the French, n’est-ce pas?

Tuesday last week was the EU’s “European Day of Languages”. It must therefore have been difficult for them to publish the reality – that English is the No.1 language taught in secondary schools across the EU, by a very long way. Almost 97% of all pupils study it, as they revealed in the latest announcement.

English is of course spoken in Ireland, where it is one of two languages. It is also used in Malta.

This annual event – held since 2001 – is intended “to promote Europe’s linguistic and cultural diversity and to encourage lifelong language learning for better cultural understanding.” Below we show the reality today.

Learning English in schools

The latest data from the EU shows that in 2021, English was the most studied foreign language at the secondary school level and vocational level in the EU, with 96.8% and 78.6% of students learning it, respectively.

In terms of general education, Spanish ranked second, followed by French, German, and Italian. Russian was the second language of non-EU origin most commonly learned in the EU, especially in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Bulgaria.

Learning English in vocational studies

In vocational education, English once again came first. The German language came in a long way behind in second place, followed by French, Spanish and Russian. In the latest data, Russian was mostly learned in Latvia, Bulgaria and Cyprus.

The tower of EU Babel

Here is how the EU’s official languages have been added to over the years since the EEC was first established in 1957.

• 1958: Dutch, French, German, Italian
• 1973: Danish, English
• 1981: Greek
• 1986: Portuguese, Spanish
• 1995: Finnish, Swedish
• 2004: Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Slovak, Slovenian
• 2007: Bulgarian, Irish, Romanian
• 2013: Croatian

Multilingualism is enshrined in the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights: EU nationals have the right to use any of the 24 official languages to communicate with the EU institutions, and the institutions must reply in the same language. Meetings of the European Council and the Council of the European Union are interpreted into all official languages. MEPs have the right to use any official language when speaking in the EU Parliament.

English remains an official EU language, despite the United Kingdom having left the European Union. It remains an official and working language of the EU institutions as long as it is listed as such in Regulation No 1.

[ Sources: EU Commission ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Thurs 05 Oct 2023

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Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Extracts from our interview with the Rt Hon Sir John Redwood, MP for Wokingham

Our questions and Sir John’s answers

Firstly, how is Brexit going?

”I think it’s great that we are now an independent country. I want us to use our freedoms rather more than we have so far. I think people have been a bit nervous and haven’t understood the joys of freedom, but nonetheless we we’ve had some good wins since we left the European Union. And above all, of course, we’ve spared ourselves an awful lot of money that we would have had to pay for them for their latest budgets. And we’ve ducked the coming big liabilities, because of course now the EU is borrowing billions upon billions of money in its own name, and all that has to be backed by the member states. And as one of the richer member states, we’d have been in for a huge liability.”

What have been the primary successes? What have we managed to garner so far from our newfound independence?

“I think we’ve done a good job on trade, because we’re now joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is an exciting, fast-growing area of about 500 million people, and it’s where a lot of the action is in Asia these days, and I think it’s very important. More importantly, of course, we are a very strong service sector exporter. We’ve gone to new records in service sector exports. And when we negotiate a trade deal, unlike the European Union, we give a lot of prominence to services. So, I think the TPP will be a model for others, and I think we will add better service sector deals to the free trade deals that we inherited from the EU and have rolled over with the other countries.”

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2023 – click to enlarge

What should we be doing with our post-Brexit strategy?

“I think one of the big changes, which is coming through quite soon, is we’re going to revert from their very restrictive, code-based law to common law, and I hope it means we get closer to the US then, in terms of digital success. We’ve got this fantastic revolution being launched in artificial intelligence. The UK is very well placed to do well at that. But very important that we weren’t then locked down to saying “this is all you can do under the title artificial intelligence”, which is the way the EU seems to be going with its wish to be very prescriptive in its lawmaking. The EU wants to legislate for it before most of us have an idea of just how far it’s going to go and what its fantastic potential is. So, we can now be on the innovation fast track alongside the United States of America, which at the moment is completely dominating the digital space in the West. And it’s the U.S. that has created the great success stories, the Microsofts, the Alphabets, the Amazons, the Apples. And there is no great European company occupying that space or up with the modern age, and I think it goes back to the wrong kind of law and far too much prescriptive regulation.”

What are the opportunities that the United Kingdom has actually squandered?

“I wouldn’t say we squandered anything. I mean, the joy of being an independent country is if the politicians are too slow or haven’t done the right things, then you can put pressure on them, or you can change the politicians. I hope it’s putting pressure on them, because we’ve currently got a Conservative government. But there are certainly things they should speed up on and and do better. I’m very impatient to get on with getting the taxes down. VAT was a Europe-wide imposed tax. They imposed minimum rates on us and they imposed whole categories of goods and services we didn’t necessarily want to have it on. Well, we’ve had two little wins on that so far, because we’ve got it off female hygiene products and we’ve got VAT – for a period – off green products. I’d have liked to have taken that off domestic energy as well. It seems to me when you’ve got dear energy and an energy crisis, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to to be taxing it. That’s one of the missed opportunities that I would urge the government to reconsider.”

Brexit has been accused of all sorts of things, of causing all sorts of issues that the country has faced in in recent history. Is this just plain lies?

“Remain politicians have never understood what Brexit was all about. They seemed to think it was about fiddling around with our trade arrangements, and they then claimed that our trade arrangements would be worse, not better. But it wasn’t mainly about trade, it was about freedom to do the right things yourself, for freedom to get rid of the governments and politicians that weren’t serving you well, or the ability to pressurise them so that they did serve you well. But there was also a lot of totally misleading, bad forecasting. We had the Bank of England, the Treasury and others telling us that if we dared to vote to leave the EU, after the vote we would get a big rise in unemployment. Instead, we’ve got the other problem. We haven’t got enough people to do all the jobs, and unemployment fell, not rose.

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2023 – click to enlarge

They told us that house prices would crash, and actually house prices carried on going up, so that they’re really rather expensive for people. But it was the opposite of what what they were forecasting. And they’ve been forecasting a deep recession. Well, we didn’t get a deep recession, unlike other countries. And which country is in recession, the UK or Germany? Well, it’s Germany actually that’s in recession. But that isn’t the fault of Brexit either. It’s nothing to do with Brexit. It’s the monetary policy being followed. It’s the nature of the industrial background. It’s the fiscal stance of the government and so forth. And again, these are all things that we can now control and change.

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2023 – click to enlarge

I mean, do I think our tax system is right now? I think we want lower taxes. Do I think that the Bank of England has done a good job on controlling the money? No, it’s been as bad or worse than the European Central Bank has been for the euro area. But the joy now is we can have a good row about it in the UK, and try and get it right. Whereas all the time we were in the EU we had absolutely no chance of changing these things. I remember well, as a government minister, realising how we’d lost control of our ability to make our own decisions and our own laws. However good you were at playing the political game in Brussels, if France and Germany and the Commission had decided on something, it was extremely difficult to get anything different.”

What would Britain’s future be if it starts to make its way back into the EU’s regulatory orbit – in fact, if it even rejoins the EU?

“The more bad rules and bad economic performance you adopt from the EU, then the worse it’s going to be, isn’t it? I mean, the EU is a relatively low-growth area compared with the United States and compared with much of Asia. The EU is a very over-regulated area, which drives good investment and innovatory ideas and companies away from its shores. That is why it’s failed to have any of the giants of the great digital revolution. And if we just took ourselves more closely to that, or align even more closely to that, we miss most of the opportunities that Brexit brings. But I’d still rather be out of the EU, because at least we’re not going to be on the hook for all those huge financial liabilities which the EU is now building up at a colossal speed. Because the EU sees the way of strengthening its power over its member states is to borrow loads the money. And to use the money they borrowed, at the expense of the member states, to bribe the member states into acquiescence with their policies.”

What have been some of the the worst misconceptions that have been peddled by the other side about Brexit?

“I think it’s the relentless gloom. And whenever there is a bad economic figure then “oh, that is the fault of Brexit”. But you never are told that a good economic figure, and we’ve had quite a few of those as well, was a result of Brexit. And why isn’t it the low unemployment? It’s the result of Brexit. If they thought high unemployment was going to be the result of Brexit. I mean, it’s all full of illogicality and it’s very selective. So, any bad news is Brexit. Any good news is nothing to do with Brexit. It’s just not like that.”

There was a lot of criticism of the Brexit campaign. What would be your response to that?

“I think the central one was the famous bus. And I think the bus was very effective, because it rightly pointed out that we pay an awful lot of money into the EU. And that once we were out of the transitional period, we were not going to have to pay them all that money anymore. And it pointed out that we could then spend that on the NHS. They now say that didn’t happen. But it did. And we put in far more to the NHS, as it turns out, than the amount we saved on Brexit. That was partly to do with COVID, but it was partly to do with the choices of an independent country. But it was easier to put all that extra money into the NHS, because we didn’t have, going forwards, that huge bill to look forward to.”

What would your message be to future governments, who come into power in Brexit Britain?

“I would like them to share my enthusiasm for what freedom can bring you, and to say it’s full of opportunity. And you can manage any downsides you think are out there, but I think it’s primarily opportunity. I think the people were more sensible than many of their politicians. But they now, the people, expect the politicians to pick up the banner, to enjoy the freedoms and to make their lives better. So, strip away those taxes that don’t work. Get rid of the unnecessary regulations that block innovation, choice, greater freedom and greater prosperity. Do those bigger trade deals with the rest of the world, particularly oriented around services that we are very good at. Understand that going over to our own democratic law and common law system is an awful lot better for enterprise, as our big and successful neighbours, the United States of America, has shown very dramatically in the last 20 years.”

Observations

We are very grateful to the former Cabinet Minister, the Rt Hon Sir John Redwood, MP for Wokingham, for giving up his time to bring our readers his exclusive thoughts on all things Brexit and of the wonderful opportunities which lie ahead for the United Kingdom, given the political will to make these happen.

We hope readers found his summary interesting and uplifting.

These interviews do not come cheap

Whilst the politicians we have interviewed all gave their time free of charge, we incur not inconsiderable costs for the camera crew and post-production editing, then promotion. Please donate generously today if you can. Thank you.

We are a ‘not for profit’ team (we make a loss) and any payment goes towards the actual work, not plush London offices, lunch or taxi expenses, or other luxuries of some organisations.

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First two of these State visits were to the two main EU capitals, none to the Commonwealth

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2023

Is King Charles III’s reputation being damaged by our EU-loving, climate-change-obsessed Foreign Office?

Prior to their Majesties’ first two official overseas State visits to Paris and to Berlin, in the UK there were discontented rumblings that the new Monarch should have made his first overseas State visit to one of the Commonwealth countries, as his late Mother had done. His third State visit was of course to Dubai for COP28.

It was less widely reported that HM King Charles made his first official overseas trip to Paris, to coincide with the ‘France-UK Climate and Nature Finance Mobilisation Forum’. This Forum’s objective was to “raise more private finance for the climate transition and nature conservation”.

Credit : Elysée Palace 2023

As the Elysée Palace put it on 21 September 2023:

“Climate and biodiversity issues were one of the focuses of His Majesty King Charles III’s state visit to France.”

The ‘climate change’ agenda for HM The King’s first two State visits continued when their Majesties left Paris for Berlin, where they were welcomed by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier for yet another climate change meeting.

Credit: German President’s Office 2023

In our photo in above he is seen at the ‘Reception on energy transition and sustainability’ with the German President during his second official State visit in September (2023).

It’s the Government that ultimately decides on State visits

The Government – specifically the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) – decides on the foreign itinerary of His Majesty. The official State visits of HM King Charles III to the climate change conferences in Paris, Berlin and Dubai were therefore sanctioned by the FCDO. The FCDO is of course packed with fully paid-up members of the Blobosphere – woke, pro-EU, anti-Brexit, open borders, anti-Rwanda, climate change fanatics.

It is therefore hardly surprising they allowed – or maybe encouraged – His Majesty to make his first two official State visits abroad to the two main EU capitals, for climate change conferences. Instead they could have sent him to somewhere like Australia or New Zealand, in a part of the world where the UK’s global interests increasingly lie. Both of these countries are members of the CPTPP trade pact which the UK has joined. (No doubt NZ is now deemed unacceptable by the FCDO because it has just elected a radical new right-wing government.)

Or to the country with which the UK does most international trade, the USA. Or to India, with which the UK is negotiating an important trade deal.

“96 months left to save the world”

It is no secret that this whole area of ‘saving the planet’ is a subject that was dear to His Majesty’s heart during his decades as Prince of Wales – and clearly still is.

On 08 December 2009 HRH Prince Charles delivered the annual Richard Dimbleby lecture. Speaking to an audience of industrialists and environmentalists at St James’s Palace, he said that he had calculated that we had just 96 months left to save the world. He also attacked capitalism and our ‘consumer society’.

He warned of an “irretrievable climate and ecosystem collapse, and all that goes with it,” by the end of 2017.

“We face the dual challenges of a world view and an economic system that seem to have enormous shortcomings, together with an environmental crisis – including that of climate change – which threatens to engulf us all.”

“… for all its achievements, our consumerist society comes at an enormous cost to the Earth and we must face up to the fact that the Earth cannot afford to support it.”

HRH Prince Charles, annual Richard Dimbleby lecture, 08 Dec 2009

14 whole years have now passed since King Charles III made his apocalyptic prediction. We are now at 168 months since he said we had “96 months to save the world”.

“I’m not that stupid”

We had understood that His Majesty had pledged to avoid his previous advocacy of climate change and biodiversity issues.

Asked by programme maker John Bridcut if he would continue to speak out when he became King, HRH Prince Charles said:

“I’m not that stupid, I do realise that it is a separate exercise being sovereign. So of course, you know I understand entirely how that should operate.”

“I have tried to make sure whatever I’ve done has been non-party political”

“So, you can’t be the same as the sovereign if you’re the Prince of Wales or the heir. But the idea somehow that I’m going to go on in exactly the same way, if I have to succeed, is complete nonsense.”

– The then HRH Prince Charles, BBC documentary, Dec 2018

[ Sources: COP28 | EU Commission | Elysée Palace | German President’s Office | BBC ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Thurs 07 Dec 2023

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Rishi commits to giving EU over €2.5bn extra per year – this will only expand, like the universe

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2023

From 01 Jan next year, UK’s contributions to EU creep ever closer to pre-Brexit levels

Yesterday (05 Dec 2023) the EU Commission and UK Government announced a deal for the UK to contribute a further €2.5bn per year (approx £2.1bn per year) to participate in the EU’s bloated science project named ‘Horizon’ and its over-budget and over-deadline space project named ‘Copernicus’.

In this report we question why this decision was made, given that EU science needs UK science far more than vice versa and should be paying the UK. We further question why the UK’s innovative ‘Pioneer Scheme’ now looks set to be abandoned.

We will also remind the PM just how badly the EU’s space project ‘Copernicus’ has performed for decades. With the first rocket launch from UK soil planned for early next year, the question has to be “Why now?”

Here is what the victorious EU Commission had to say yesterday

The UK’s participation in ‘Horizon Europe’ was written into the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement. Despite this, the EU has consistently denied the UK access until now – three years later. This was a flagrant breach of the EU’s international treaty obligations.

Yesterday they finally gave in – and so did the Sunak Government.

The UK’s ongoing payments to the EU, despite Brexit

Below is an almost unbelievable indictment of Theresa May’s Divorce Bill which she agreed with the EU before being deposed.

The new £2.1bn+ annual payments to the EU for ‘Horizon Europe’ and Copernicus will only add to this.

These are the official central government expenditure figures

The figures above are official. They come from the latest release of public expenditure information and the associated statistical tables, which Brexit Facts4EU.Org has extracted.

This sum is not like the figures before 2021 when the UK was still paying into the EU budget. These are the UK’s payments under the Withdrawal Agreement.

The UK formally left the EU on 31 January 2020. During the remaining 11 months of 2020 the UK participated in the EU Budget largely as if a Member State, as was agreed by Theresa May in a ‘financial settlement’ between the UK and EU. We then left completely (except for Northern Ireland) on 31 December 2020.

[ Sources: EU Commission | UK Dept for Science, Innovation, and Technology ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Wed 06 Dec 2023

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Over 24 years of negotiations and once again the EU fails to reach a trade agreement
If the UK re-joined, it wouldn’t be able to talk to any country about trade and all UK deals would be nulled

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2023

CANCELLED: This week’s triumphant EU launch meeting with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay

On Thursday this week (07 Dec 2023) EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and her large entourage were scheduled to be jetting in to Brasilia (the Brazilian capital) to glory in the signing of a trade deal which has been 24 YEARS in the making.

Once again, however, this latest EU deal with four South American countries is now going nowhere fast – or even slowly.

The influence of the British people on the EU after the EU Referendum

In 2016 the EU experienced a cataclysmic event. One so large that even the Commission could not hide it. The British people voted to leave the EU’s empire.

Because trade had featured in the Referendum campaign, and because the EU Commission’s lamentable performance in securing international trade deals had been highlighted by Facts4EU.Org and others, the Commission suddenly became galvanised. Trade deals became all the rage.

The problem is that the Commission kept announcing deals as if they were done, when they were not. Another example of this is the EU-Australia trade deal. The Australians finally walked away from this in October, as we reported at the time.

On many previous occasions we have shown how the EU Commission has a habit of announcing the same ‘good news’ many times over, well before anything is actually watertight and agreed. Like ‘Pravda’ in Soviet times, the EU Commission only publishes good news. (“Monthly tractor production up again!”)

At the time of writing there is not one word about this new, massive set-back in South America for the EU on the news section of its website.

If the United Kingdom re-joined the EU…

On re-joining the EU the United Kingdom would immediately be prevented from having discussions on trade deals with any other country.

In addition, all the trade deals the independent United Kingdom has now struck with other countries would have to be cancelled, causing a huge amount of work as well as doing immense damage to the UK’s reputation abroad.

Even if the EU Commission does agree a trade deal…

On top of all of this, any trade deals supposedly struck by the EU Commission then have to be ratified by all the parliaments in 27 member countries. In some cases this involves two parliaments in the same country, which have what are called ‘bicameral’ parliaments. This process can take a very long time.

[ Sources: EU Commission | Mercosur ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Tues 05 Dec 2023

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In his speech he pledged an extra £3.2bn of UK money for climate change policies

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2023

Er… Is the UK really a “major emitter”, Prime Minister?

On Friday (01 Dec 2023) the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a flying visit to the COP28 conference being held in the United Arab Emirates. He was in and out within the day, which it seems would barely have made it worthwhile taking the 14-hour return flight.

In fact it appears he will have spent longer in an aircraft than he spent on the ground in Dubai. Quite what Greta Thunberg would say about this ratio of his carbon footprint to his footprints on the ground is something one can only guess at.

The Prime Minister’s address

The Prime Minister spoke to the Conference for approximately three minutes. We leave it to readers to judge whether this was worthwhile.

Er… Is the UK really a “major emitter”, Prime Minister?

Readers will note that as usual there wasn’t a single word in the PM’s speech about the biggest polluter on the planet – China – nor about the EU’s biggest economy Germany, which pumps out double the amount of CO2 as the UK does, and which has been re-activating its coal-fired power stations.

Nor was there a word about India, which has just landed a spacecraft on the moon and which is the third biggest emitter of CO2 emissions in the world.

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2023 – click to enlarge

Nor did the PM stress that the UK, despite being the sixth largest economy in the world, is responsible for only 0.93% of CO2 emissions in the world.

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2023 – click to enlarge

Instead he chose to say:

“Our 2030 target means the deepest cuts of any major emitter, and we’re determined to deliver.”

Given that the UK is demonstrably NOT a major emitter and hasn’t been for many years, this seemed an odd statement to have made in front of the world.

[ Sources: EU Commission | UK Government | Our World in Data (Oxford Univ) ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Mon 04 Dec 2023

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