Toby on Tuesday

'All Change' 

 

 

Secretary of State for Exiting the EU – David Davis

Secretary of State for International Trade – Liam Fox

Foreign Secretary – Boris Johnson

Environment Secretary (DEFRA) – Andrea Leadsom

 

They used to say that a week was a long time in politics.   Just now a minute seems like an age.   The Tony Blair era finally ended last week when the Chilcot Report passed judgment on the Iraq War and the “heirs to Blair”, Messrs Cameron and Osborne, passed into history.   And if anyone had forecast last Tuesday that we would actually have a Secretary of State for Exiting the EU and a Secretary of State for International Trade, the wise old heads would have declared “Dream On!”   Even our own Nigel Farage was moved to say, “The appointment of David Davis and Liam Fox to Brexit and International Trade roles are inspired choices.   I feel more optimistic now.”   But there they are and no one should doubt both men’s determination to achieve their goals.   David Davis is the very best sort of Yorkshire MP, highly intelligent, independent-minded and full of courage in pursuing his causes.   And no one should underestimate the scale of the challenge that he now faces.   Nearly 45 years of legislation, much of it damaging, will need to be reversed and there will be 27 other EU countries to create pitfalls and problems at every step.

 

So David Davis will have the complete support of UKIP Thirsk & Malton as he sets about his task.   The kind of issue he will face, and one in which both Andrea Leadsom’s and Boris Johnson’s departments will inevitably become involved, concerns the fishing industry.   Over the coming weeks I will write about some of the difficulties that will challenge the new Government and a major one will be the reclamation of our nation’s fisheries.   Now in a classic combination of aggressive EU legislation and weak British negotiation, French boats are allowed to fish up to six nautical miles from the British coast but EU laws prevent British vessels from fishing within 12 miles of the French coast.   As we take back our own 12 mile coastal waters and our 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone in the North Sea, it’s easy to see trouble ahead.   So our new Ministers will be able to depend on UKIP Thirsk and Malton as they seek to recover so much that has been squandered.

 

Paradoxically, these Ministers will probably receive far more support from UKIP Thirsk & Malton than from the sitting Conservative MP here.   As a Remain voting Cameron supporter, he may well not have the stomach for a fight when difficulties arise.   Among voters in Scarborough District Council, the support for Leave was 62% in the Referendum against 38% for Remain, so the imperative to reclaim our fisheries should be clear.   Yet there’ll be trouble ahead as we set out on the task.    It was the German philosopher Jean-Paul Richter who wrote that, “the French had the dominion of the land, the English of the sea and the Germans of the air,” by which he meant that Germany was the land of thinkers and philosophers.   The EU allowed France to keep its lands and Germany its ideologies (currently the EU), but our seas were taken from us and their return is vital if we are to become a maritime, open, trading nation once more.   Our own MP here may well not wish to fight for our fisheries, but UKIP Thirsk & Malton definitely does.   So our role in the years ahead will be to support David Davis, Liam Fox, Boris Johnson and Andrea Leadsom as we withdraw from the EU, to ensure that Remain-supporting MP’s like our own do not thwart them and, under our own new UKIP leader, to replace a moribund and irrelevant Labour Party in its old heartlands, particularly in the North of England.  That should be enough to keep us busy in the years ahead!

 

Until next Tuesday!

 

Toby

 Toby on Tuesday

'Weighed, Measured, And Found Wanting'

In January 2000, Council Directive 80/181/EEC passed into English law by statutory instrument without a debate in Parliament.   This made it a criminal offence to use the old Imperial system of weights and measures, imposing instead the immediate use of the Continental metric system.    The Brussels’ Commission’s argument was that the use of the Imperial system gave British exporters an unfair advantage in trading with the United States where the traditional system was also used.   Instantly, a great part of Britain’s economy was criminalised and faced prosecution.   One of the first to be brought to trial was Steve Thoburn, a market trader in Sunderland.   In February 2000, Trading Standards officers caught him selling bananas by the pound, his scales were seized, he was prosecuted for a criminal offence and found guilty of being in breach of Council Directive 80/181/EEC.   He and Neil Herron, a veteran campaigner against heavy-handed and incompetent bureaucracy, appealed, taking the case as far as the European Court of Human Rights, where the appeal was inevitably rejected.   The strain proved too much for Steve Thoburn and in March 2004, at the age of 39, he died of a heart attack with a criminal record.   At the time, Neil Herron declared, “This man had the courage to stand up and be counted and it was a pleasure to know him.   He was an ordinary person’s hero – an extraordinary ordinary person.”   While Steve Thoburn’s prosecution was underway, Tony Blair was busy taking Britain into the Iraq War but, despite Sir John Chilcot’s report, he can be confident that there will be no criminal record for him.   If you need an allegory for the sheer awfulness of the way our country has been run over the past generation, you need look no further than the contrasting fates of Tony Blair and Steve Thoburn. 

In 2003, Theresa May was Shadow Transport Secretary.  She had just achieved fame of a sort when she described the Conservative grassroots as “The Nasty Party”, which was an unusual way to make friends and influence people.   And this was the only time when I have had the doubtful pleasure of meeting her.   She would not remember the occasion at a Northern business conference in York, but I could never forget.  I asked her why it had been necessary to criminalise the use of pounds and ounces, and if it was necessary wouldn’t a civil rather than a criminal prosecution be more appropriate?   In her peremptory and charmless way, she turned to me and declared, “You (i.e. the business community) asked for it and anyway it’s a condition of our membership of the European Union!”   No doubt she thought the question an irritant and Steve Thoburn’s criminal record to be entirely deserved.   Here was Ted Heath in a dress, I thought, and nothing has happened since then to make me question that view.   And as she is now our next Prime Minister, anyone who thinks that she can be relied on to enact last month’s Referendum decision will definitely be disappointed.

The cases of the Metric Martyrs, as Steve Thoburn and others like him are known, continue to stain our legal system.   There have been so many breaches that prosecutions are rarely brought now, but when we ask for a pound of apples we are still inciting the shopkeeper or market trader to commit a criminal offence.   The brave Neil Herron continues with his campaign, saying that the Brexit vote finally gives us the opportunity to “strike down the repugnant piece of EU legislation.”   And here we come back to the immunity from prosecution that Tony Blair has always enjoyed.   In May 2000, three months after Steve Thoburn was criminally charged, Cherie Blair gave birth to young Leo Blair.   At the time, Downing Street announced that the baby’s weight was 6lb and 12 oz.   Insodoing Downing Street and the Blairs were likewise committing a criminal offence, as under the EU Directive the baby’s weight should have been given as 3.06kg.   But as we have all learned, there’s one law for the Blairs and one for the rest of us.   And as for Theresa May, she would probably say, “Don’t be so silly, if I decide something is a criminal offence or not, that should be quite good enough for you – and all those nasty people like you!”

Until next Tuesday!
Toby

Toby on Tuesday

'Trust the People'

The old Working men’s Clubs scarcely exist now, but for many years they were a vital part of Britain’s political life.   And it was in Birmingham at one of the earliest of these that on 16th April, 1884 Winston Churchill’s father, Lord Randolph Churchill, first coined the immortal phrase, “Trust the People.”   What he was saying was that the innate good sense of ordinary men and women in Britain contained far more political wisdom and insight than the advice of countless sophisticated so-called “experts”.   It was true then and it was true on 23rd June, when the majority of voters in the United Kingdom ignored Project Fear and chose finally to leave the wasteful and dysfunctional construct known as the EU.

And we have already had three specific gains from that vote.   Three major policy initiatives in Brussels had been held back until the week after our Referendum and all would have had an adverse effect on our country.   Thanks to Brexit, we have avoided the worst of their impact.   Signorina Mogherini, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, did indeed launch her report calling for a European Army, but without the possibility of British participation it fell completely flat.   Signor Monti, Chairman of the EU’s High Level Group on Own Resources, pressed on with his campaign for EU-wide direct taxation and the issue to every one of us of a “European Tax Identification Number”, but again without the prospect of compliant UK taxpayers this again became irrelevant.   And Frau Merkel pursued her campaign for Turkish EU membership and visa-free travel to the Schengen Zone, but again the UK can now avoid the direct risk that this policy entails.   So the gains from Britain’s vote are building steadily and the prospect of a safe-haven Britain, protected from many of the EU’s self-inflicted troubles, is now a realistic aim.

UKIP’s task in the coming years will be to ensure that the integrity of last month’s vote is secured and that the Remainers are not allowed to undermine our democracy.   Here in Thirsk and Malton, our pro-Remain Member of Parliament has pledged his support in the Conservative leadership election to the pro-Remain Theresa May.   The Thirsk & Malton constituency is spread over three District Councils, Hambleton, Ryedale and Scarborough.   Together they returned 84,724 votes for Leave (57.42%) and 62,819 votes for Remain (42.58%).   Our role here will be to uphold the result for which over 57% of our electors voted and to offer a home to constituents from all parties and none who, unlike their Member of Parliament, supported Leave last month.   On this strong base our Association can grow, for in Thirsk & Malton UKIP is the only party to have learned, in the words of Lord Randolph Churchill, father of Winston, to Trust the People!

Until next Tuesday!

Toby

Toby on Tuesday

'But he'll remember with advantages what feats he did that day'

Independence Day results:

National – 17,410,742 votes for Leave (51.9%) and 16,141,241 votes for Remain (48.1%)

Hambleton – 29,502 votes for Leave (53.7%) and 25,480 votes for Remain (46.3%)

Ryedale – 17,710 votes for Leave (55.3%) and 14,340 votes for Remain (44.7%)

Scarborough – 37,512 votes for Leave (62.0%) and 22,999 votes for Remain (38.0%)

Thank you to all who worked so very hard for this outcome.   In the words of Winston Churchill -

"In War: Resolution.

  In Defeat: Defiance.

  In Victory: Magnanimity.

  In Peace: Goodwill"

 
Until next Tuesday!

Toby
 

Toby on Tuesday

'This Scepter’d Isle'

In Shakespeare’s Richard II John of Gaunt declares,

 

“This royal throne of kings, this scepter’d isle,

  This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,

  This other Eden, demi-paradise,

  This fortress built by Nature for herself

  Against infection and the hand of war,

  This happy breed of men, this little world,

  This precious stone set in the silver sea,

  Which serves it in the office of a wall

  Or as a moat defensive to a house

  Against the envy of less happier lands,

  This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.”

 

Now today there are too many in both 10 and 11 Downing Street, across Whitehall, working in the BBC and throughout our so-called Establishment, who see Shakespeare’s verses as racist.   They will all be voting Remain on 23rd June.   But if like me you see them as among the greatest glories of our language you must vote Leave, and encourage all your friends to vote Leave, on 23rd June.   Only by doing so can we secure “this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England” for our children and for our grandchildren!

 

Until next Tuesday!

 

Toby

Toby on Tuesday

'A failed Utopia'

At last the Penny (or in this case the Euro) is starting to drop.   Thanks to the threat of Brexit, signs of sanity are starting to break out in the whole crazed Euro project.   Now Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, is one of the five Presidents who really run the EU.   From 2007-2014 he was Prime Minister of Poland, leading a deeply patriotic country that during the Second World War was the staunchest of Britain’s allies and without the courage of whose pilots the Battle of Britain might have been lost.   Indeed it was over Poland that we finally entered the war in 1939.   And sandwiched as they are between Russia and Germany, the Poles have learned to be cautious and circumspect.   So it is significant to say the least that during the past fortnight, Donald Tusk has made two speeches that could in large measure have been drafted by UKIP.  They are a warning shot to the Euro-zealots throughout the Continent and without our Referendum they would certainly have never been made.

 

In one he declared, “I don’t need to explain to anyone present here what dramatic consequences, also economic, would be brought about by Brexit...But we know that there are more threats, and the migration crisis has shown how difficult it is today to agree a common European answer and foster common determination in the decision process...We must and can avoid this scenario.   The condition is to depart from utopian dreams and move on to practical activities...Forcing lyrical and in fact naive Euro-enthusiastic visions of total integration, regardless of the obvious goodwill of their proponents, is not a suitable answer to our problems.   Firstly because it is simply not possible, and secondly because – paradoxically – promoting them only leads to the strengthening of Eurosceptic moods, not only in the UK.   As one of the key players of European integration Hubert Vedrine recently said, ‘You see governments and parties all over jumping up and down asking for more Europe, more Europe – if you want people to massively reject Europe, just keep on.’   An ideological drive forward can end in a disaster.”

 

And in the other, Donald Tusk again echoed UKIP when he stated, “It is us who today are responsible for confronting reality with all kinds of utopias.   A utopia of Europe without nation states, a utopia of Europe without conflicting interests and ambitions, a utopia of Europe imposing its own values on the external world.   A utopia of Euro-Asian unity.   Obsessed with the idea of instant and total integration, we failed to notice that ordinary people, the citizens of Europe do not share our Euro-enthusiasm.   Disillusioned with the great visions of the future, they demand that we cope with the present reality better than we have been doing until now.   Today, Euro-scepticism, or even Euro-pessimism, have become an alternative to those illusions....That is why let us refrain from exaggerated rhetoric, because exaggeration, in whatever direction, is a heavy sin in politics.”

 

Together these two speeches represent an astonishing concession by one of those at the very summit of the EU project.   But Donald Tusk is an historian.   He has studied how ideologies can lead to disaster, how the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the Chinese Revolution which all began in those naive visions, full of hope, led only to death, bankruptcy, tyranny, war and human misery.   And he will know that the EU project now runs the risk of the same outcome across the Continent of Europe.   The cry of “More Europe” will only deepen the abyss into which it is now staring.   The Leave campaign was the catalyst for Donald Tusk’s two speeches which received so little coverage in our press.   And a big Leave majority on 23rd June can become the catalyst for a truly reformed Europe, based on nation states working together, co-operating, trading, playing to their strengths, keeping their identities, rather than some over-arching supranational monster, sucking the life out of the once great Continent.   To save Europe from itself in this way will be the true prize in this Referendum and fulfil Britain’s historic role as the power which has always restored balance and equilibrium to the whole Continent!

 

Until next Tuesday!

 

Toby

Toby on Tuesday

'Il Principe and the Pauper'

Last week I wrote about the creation of a European Army, the logical outcome of the 2007 Lisbon Treaty’s plans for an EU defence union.   And just after this month’s Referendum Frederica Mogherini, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, will present her foreign and security strategy paper to the European Council.   We’ve a pretty good idea just what it will say, even though it is NATO and not the EU which has kept the peace in Europe since World War 2 .   And the reaction of our own heroic armed forces to being given their orders in future by an unelected Eurocrat, whose ascent to power came through Italy’s Communist Youth Federation, and not by the NATO command structure is just as easy to predict.   But today I want to write about another unelected Eurocrat, Mario Monti, former Prime Minister of Italy and now Chairman of the EU’s High Level Group on Own Resources.   His mandate is to increase the EU’s budget to deal with the Eurozone crisis, the migration crisis and the terrorism crisis.   And a fortnight ago the groundwork began for direct EU taxation across all 28 member states.

On 25th May, the EU’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee made an announcement which has received astonishingly little coverage and yet is crucial to all our futures.   For it called for every one of us to have a “European Taxpayer Identification Number” to keep track of every EU citizen.   In its own words, “Proper identification of taxpayers is essential to effective exchange of information between tax administrations.   The creation of European Taxpayer Identification Numbers (EU TINs) would provide the best means for this identification.   It would allow any third party to quickly, easily and correctly identify TINs in cross-border relations and serve as a basis for effective automatic exchange of information between member states’ tax administrations.”   In essence these EU National Insurance-style numbers would give Brussels the ability to track every EU taxpayer and lay the foundations for a new supranational direct EU Tax.   The report also calls for the EU to take over member states’ corporate taxation powers with a common corporation tax base.   The costs of the EU project are rising exponentially and Signor Monti is clearly looking to us all to bear them through some form of direct EU taxation.

And where the pure creative genius of Signor Monti’s plan lies is in its application to the Italian financial crisis, fast overtaking the Greek crisis as the point of maximum danger for the Euro project.   To say that the Italian banking system is on life support is an understatement.   17.9% of all Italian bank loans are in default, compared to 4.2% in France and 3.2% in Germany.   Italy’s largest bank UniCredit’s share price has fallen 40% so far this year and its chief executive has just resigned.   Trapped in the straitjacket of the Euro and unable to devalue, growth in the Italian economy has averaged just 0.2% a year since 1999.   Labour cost competitiveness has fallen by 30% against Germany’s since 1999.    Unemployment in much of Italy’s South is well over 50% and youth unemployment across the country as a whole is running at a tragic 37%.   Government debt is running at 134% of GDP.  Last year depositors in four small failed banks lost their life savings.   I could go on, but this is a country with an economy in disastrous freefall.   No wonder its former Prime Minister is looking to the EU, and not least to the two largest budget contributors Britain and Germany, to bail it out through some form of EU-wide direct taxation.

It was an earlier Italian politician, Niccolo Machiavelli, who declared, “If injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.”   Both Signorina Mogherini and Signor Monti seem to have taken to heart the counsel of old Machiavelli, the ultimate political manipulator.   By seeking to subsume our armed forces into an EU defence system, Britain’s capacity for self-defence will finally be made redundant.   And by imposing EU wide direct taxation to shore up the failures of the Euro in Southern Europe, the capacity of our own economy for sustained recovery will be at an end.   Of course, Italy should be allowed to restore the Lira, reschedule its debts and work its way back to growth, but that would be to question the whole Euro project itself.   Far better to call for “more Europe”, land the bill at the feet of those backsliding Brits through EU direct taxation and watch our pusillanimous politicians fall into line.   David Cameron has claimed that Britain will not have to contribute to future Euro bail-outs, but of course a system of direct EU taxation with transfers to Southern Europe would not count as a bail-out at all.   Old Machiavelli would have been hugely proud of Signor Monti – and of Signorina Mogherini – seeing them as pure geniuses in the very finest tradition of European politics.   And they have clearly learned their lessons from old Niccolo, the master himself! 

Until next Tuesday! 

Toby