Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

Well in a few hours we leave transition period and wave goodbye to a 48 year membership of the political project. I'll be having a couple of quiet drinks to celebrate. What a pity we can't get out to celebrate it properly. But at least Big Benn will be chiming at 11.00pm. I thought it might be nice to share a few videos of some Eurosceptic heroes. Ok let's start with a couple of early Eurosceptics. Made out by the establishment to be fruit cakes. But how right they turned out to be in the end. Peter Shore. Tony Benn - NOT Hilary!! Then we have a lady who campaigned to stay in 1975 but I think saw the light. We want our money back ! And then there was ..No No No. Here's Boris announcing he was going to campaign to leave. That came as a bit of s blow to PM Cameron. And here's a couple of goodies from Nigel Farage. I don't think he was too popular here. Or here. I reckon they were pleased to see the back of him. If anyone else has any favorites. Why not post them ?

The move will spark another 'power grab' row but UK sources say they do not trust nationalists to deliver a successful pro-Brexit project. Source - Daily Telegraph 30/12/20 Link SNP ministers are to be cut out of delivering a £100m scheme to modernise the UK’s fishing industry over fears that they would attempt to sabotage Brexit. The Daily Telegraph understands that the project is to be directly run by Tory ministers across the UK, despite fisheries being a devolved matter. The decision to seize control of the scheme, which will see tens of millions handed out in Scotland to revamp the fleet and fish processing industry, will outrage SNP ministers who will accuse their counterparts in London of trampling on devolution and snatching powers. It is understood that Scottish ministers have already demanded £60m of the £100m pot to run their own programme, with the figure reflecting the size of the fishing industry in Scotland, in behind the scenes talks. However, the UK will instea...

 The Centre Party's leader called for a review of Norway's EEA status. Source - Daily Telegraph 29/12/20 Link The party leading the polls in Norway has hailed the Brexit trade deal as "a better agreement" than the one that governs Norway's relations with the European Union, saying the UK has won "more freedom and more independence". Marit Arnstad, parliamentary leader of the Centre Party, said in an interview on Tuesday that the UK had shown Norway could get a better deal than what it currently has as a member of the European Economic Area (EEA). "From my point of view, the British have a better agreement than the EEA," she told the left-wing Klassekampen newspaper. "They gain access to the internal market and common trade, which is desirable, but they do not have to be part of the dynamic regulatory development that places strong limits on individual countries' national policies."   The former agrarian party last month overtook t...

As the shape of post-Brexit Britain becomes clearer, think tanks are being forced to revise their forecasts. Source - Daily Telegraph - 28/12/30 Link I'm sure it was purely pressure of space that stopped the BBC website reporting a forecast  by the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) that the UK economy will grow to become 23 per cent larger than that of France by 2035. It mentioned in passing that the CEBR has the UK growing by four per cent per year between now and 2025 and by 1.8 per cent from 2026 onwards, but only at the end of a long report about the Chinese economy overtaking the US by 2028. What it didn’t say was that the CEBR sees UK growth outstripping that of EU countries. The French economy is currently 3.5 per cent behind that of the UK. The CEBR also sees the UK economy outgrowing Germany: today, it is 43 per cent smaller but by 2035, reckons the CEBR, it will be just 10 per cent behind.   True, I don’t put much store by economic forecasts, near...

  Vaccinators are expected to be delivering at least a million jabs a week to the vulnerable by the middle of next month. Source - Daily Telegraph - 27/12/20 Link An army of more than 10,000 medics and volunteers has been recruited by the NHS to help deliver the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine, once it is given approval.  The Telegraph has learned that teams are trained and ready to begin giving the jab at sports stadia and race courses across the country, with a target of vaccinating at least a million people each week.  The Oxford/AstraZeneca jab could be approved early next week by the independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), after the final cut of data was submitted by the Government last Monday. Officials have pinpointed January 4, 2021, as the date the rollout of the mass vaccination programme will begin.   A Government source said: “At the moment, we are operationalising everything for the 4 January for the first Oxford/AstraZeneca ...

Identity politics has become the new secular religion. We need more heretics. Source - Spiked 26/12/20 Link For me, the defining image of 2020 was also the funniest: that of Democratic lawmakers in the US taking the knee, in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, draped in Ghanaian kente cloth. Watching thoroughly establishment politicians, House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer to the fore, literally kneeling before the new woke politics was striking. It provoked so many questions, not least if Pelosi and Schumer (80 and 70 respectively) would be able to rise again unassisted. But this absurd attempt at virtue-signalling – which provoked mockery rather than plaudits, even among those it was meant to impress – made one thing clear: that wokeness is the new orthodoxy, and the old elites know this. Divisive, identitarian ideas around race, gender and sexuality have of course been gaining ground in elite circles for some time. The idea that Western s...

 Eleventh-hour agreement is "huge relief", say business groups. Source - Daily Telegraph 25/12/20 Source Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal is poised to spark a dealmaking frenzy  after years of uncertainty as the country begins a new chapter as an independent nation, a top investor has said. As business groups and companies across the UK welcomed the historic accord, Richard Buxton of Jupiter Asset Management said it is likely to trigger a surge in mergers and acquisitions by firms seeking an opportunity to grow. The agreement with the European Union - the most comprehensive ever signed by the bloc - could pave the way for a radical reassessment of the country's markets by international capital, Mr Buxton said. It may also spark a long-overdue boom in business investment after companies held back cash due to fears of a turbulent no-deal exit. Sterling climbed to $1.3543 shortly before 6pm on Christmas Eve, close to its 2020 peak of $1.3624,  after the deal was finally announced...

A very Merry Xmas everyone. I hope you all have a good day. 

The President of the European Commission has described the UK as a trusted ally in Brexit trade deal announcement. Source - Daily Telegraph - 24/12/20 Link Trade The deal reached by the UK and the EU will mean neither side will impose tariffs on goods being traded, and a zero quota agreement would mean no limit on the quantity of any type of goods that could be traded. Boris Johnson likened the final deal to the “Canada plus plus” deal Brexiteers had wanted all along, as it will have the benefits of the deal the EU struck with Canada but without any of the quotas or tariffs imposed on some Canadian goods. This means Britain will not only to be able to trade freely with the EU but also will be free to strike free trade deals with other countries, meaning consumers would, over time, see prices of some goods coming down. The fact the UK will have left the customs union from Jan 1 means there will be more friction for businesses, which will face more paperwork when exporting goods, and cus...

 Like everyone else, I don't trust Downing Street an inch right now,' one prominent Tory leaver tells The Telegraph. Source - Daily Telegraph - 23/12/20 Link Boris Johnson will also be keen to be able to argue that he has managed to deliver something far superior to Theresa May's negotiation With just hours to go until Christmas, it was only natural that Downing Street would want to give the beleaguered public an early present in the form of a prospective Brexit deal. With millions more people set to be placed under Tier 4 Covid restrictions and queues of lorries at Dover prompting panic buying in supermarkets, here, finally, was a glimmer of good news. Yet as the UK and the EU continue to finalise the small print on what is expected to be an imminent agreement, it remains to be seen whether Boris Johnson will be able to sell it to a Conservative Party that has spent the last 40 years at odds over Europe. The mood among Tory Brexiteers on Wednesday night was described as ...

 MSPs are set to pass legislation which would allow ministers to keep Scottish law in line with future EU regulations. Source -BBC 22/12/20 Link In January, Holyrood will take on responsibility for a range of areas where policy is currently set in Brussels, including environmental and food standards and human rights. The bill lets the Scottish government choose where to align local standards with those of the EU post-Brexit. It also sets up a new watchdog to have oversight over environmental standards. The Scottish government says the EU "will continue to be of fundamental importance to Scotland" after the Brexit transition period is over, and that it should "do everything it can to be an active and constructive participant on EU matters". The Scottish Conservatives argue that the bill would cause regulatory divergence between Scotland and the rest of the UK, potentially endangering domestic trade and jobs, and would see Holyrood become a "passive rule-taker...

 The irony is that Britain will soon be riding to rescue the Continent. Link 21 December 2020 • 2:21pm Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Emmanuel Macron’s ban on lorries entering France wins the prize for the most pointless political gesture since the onset of this pandemic. The mutant strain B.1.1.7 is already all over Europe. British scientists spotted it early and have tracked it in real-time because the UK has carried out almost as much genome sequencing of Covid-19 as the rest of the world combined. Harvard epidemiologist William Hanage says the UK has the most advanced genomic monitoring regime on the planet. Denmark is one of the few other states in Europe that also does extensive and rapid sequencing. Lo and behold, the Danes have found the same mutation. Many countries do little or no genomic sequencing at all.  It stretches credulity to imagine that a variant picked up in samples as far back as September is not already rampant in Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and indeed Fra...

 New technologies and the collapse of outdated businesses offer hope of a giant leap forward in productivity. Source- Daily Telegraph 20/12/20 Link Hi Infection rates spiralling, a renewed and increasingly severe lockdown, a European Union trade deal once more in the balance – for the economy, things could scarcely look more grim as we head into the Christmas week. Yet sometimes it is important to look through the storms of the moment to what may lie beyond. The UK has its own particular problems for now as it struggles with the fallout from its divorce with Europe. Deal or no deal, this will inevitably mean the UK is slower to recover from the pandemic than otherwise, absent large-scale fiscal stimulus, a policy option that needs to be high on the list of considerations by Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, for post-Brexit Britain. But for the global economy as a whole, things are going to look a whole lot better a year from now with much, if not all, of the output lost to the pandemic ...

 Trawlermen have been accused of 'unlawful asset stripping,' boosting calls for the Government to ban destructive fishing after leaving EU. Source - Daily Telegraph - 19/12/20 Link Nearly all fish caught in a marine protected area off the coast of Britain ended up in the EU, an investigation has found, as trawlermen were accused of "unlawful asset stripping". A report by Blue Marine Foundation, a leading NGO, found that the UK accounted for less than five per cent of the more than 100,000 tonnes of fish that were brought to shore at Dogger Bank in the North Sea in 2017 and 2018. The data will boost calls for the Government to ban destructive fishing in the area after the UK leaves the EU on January 1.  Separate analysis by the Marine Conservation Society has found that Dogger Bank could store up to five million tonnes of carbon, equivalent to running 200,000 cars annually. The NGO says damage to the seabed from trawlers could damage £200 million worth of carbon storag...

Here is a very good little article from the blue anchor blog. I don't suppose many lefties are going to make an appearance here but there are some very good points raised. This seems to be the favourite argument from Remoaners who would like us to believe that caving in to the EU's awful demands will mean no queues. Politics today are polarised but Brexit seems to be able unite left and right leaning people who believe in our country. 18/12/20 Link   Sometimes you have to wonder whether EU supporters are even aware how silly their arguments sound. The latest one that seems to be getting a lot of air-play is that (wait for it…) Brexit could cause a traffic jam! Honestly I’m not making this shit up, here are some of the many recent Guardian articles on the subject… … so … er … If we become an independent democracy again … there might be a traffic jam in Kent. Eh? Call that an argument? Then just when it seemed that Brexit couldnt get any more hellish the Guardian reported that we...

 Authorities turned a blind eye to group-based child-sexual exploitation because of racial sensitivities. Source - Spiked 17/12/20 Link The Home Office report into group-based child sexual exploitation – more informally described as grooming gangs – has led many to conclude that the perceived prevalence of Asian or Pakistani Muslim perpetrators is a right-wing myth. But this debate glosses over what remains the greatest problem on this front: the story is not so much the ethnic composition of grooming gangs, but rather how the ethnic composition of certain gangs influences how public authorities respond to these cases. An independent review published earlier this year concluded that dozens of teenage girls thought to have been groomed and sexually abused in Manchester by groups of Pakistani-origin men were failed because police and officials feared that an in-depth investigation would destabilise race relations in the city. The report, co-authored by childcare expert Malcolm Newsam...

In blow to 'woke' agenda, Government plans to scrap 'unconscious bias' training The mandatory courses will end after official study found no evidence it works Department for Work and Pensions spent £112,500 on the training over five years Source - Daily Mail 15/12/20 Link Ministers have ordered Government departments to scrap controversial 'unconscious bias' training after an official study found no evidence it works. In a significant blow to the 'woke' agenda in Whitehall, the Cabinet Office will today announce plans to end mandatory courses in tackling unconscious bias for civil service managers. The trendy training works on the assumption that most managers are biased against minorities without even realising it – and teaches them strategies to overcome their unconscious prejudices. In recent years, the training has spread like wildfire through Whitehall.  In a significant blow to the 'woke' agenda in Whitehall, the Government plans to scrap ...

 Agreement on a Covid bailout masks deep divisions over the fundamental purpose of the EU   The coronavirus crisis has enabled a big Brussels power grab   Two fundamentally opposite - and irreconcilable - ways of seeing the world are emerging Source CAPX - 15/12/20 Link Crisis averted! This seemed to have been the general mood in Brussels last week when an agreement on the EU’s economic response to Covid-19 was finally reached. But as deep divisions remain, not just on funding but over the very principles on which the EU was founded, that joy may be premature. The saga of the Covid recovery fund is just the start. A deal was looking doubtful after Hungary and Poland wielded their veto over a mechanism which would withhold EU funds from member states that are deemed not to uphold the rule of law. Failing to reach an agreement would have left the EU without any money at all from 1 January, and in Brussels there was talk of the other 25 member simply leaving the two naysayer...