Nasty Neighbour ….. ‘If anyone hoped that signing a ‘deal’ with the UK would lead the EU into a period of calm, friendly cooperation with a former member state, they will have been rapidly disabused. There are deplorable signs that the EU have not given up their policy of making ‘Brexit’ as painful as possible, regardless of the pain they inflict on their own citizens.’ (Briefings For Britain, 29th Jan).
On 21st January, ‘Le Monde’ published an article by an ex-French Prime Minister, Mayors of France’s Channel ports and the Chair of the EU Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. It expresses the clear intention of hampering UK exports to Europe (in breach of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement), and of forcing other EU countries to back them in a blatant assault on the UK’s economic rights. The adopted pretext is protecting EU consumers from an unsubstantiated, demonstrably false claim of lower British agricultural standards. They gratuitously accuse the British government of adopting a dumping strategy, an accusation that applies far more to the EU itself.
Then we have the growing shambles of the EU’s CV-19 vaccine programme, which has lagged way behind that of ‘Brexit Britain’, much to Brussels chagrin. Typically the EU sees Covid-19 as a ‘beneficial’ crisis, one to be resolved by ‘more Europe’. In other words, an EU power grab to vaccinate the entire continent under Brussels direction. This created tensions with the 27 member states, particularly Germany, who can manage their own vaccination programme very well thank you. The labyrinth of disputes and difficulties in getting everyone to agree who should do what, which vaccine to use, how many to have, led to huge delays and a failure to place the necessary orders in time. Hungary got so fed up that they went ahead anyway, ordering Russia’s (92% effective) ’Sputnik 5’ vaccine instead, much to the EU’s disgust. Brussels even threatened to ban vaccine exports out of the EU, undermining the UK’s contract with Astra-Zeneca. Under cover of the Covid-19 crisis, the EU is trying to do what they always claimed ’Brexit’ Britain would do; put ‘hard’ border controls between Northern Ireland and the Republic, breaching their own Withdrawal Agreement with the UK.
We shouldn’t be too surprised …… The EU is not going to be the UK’s friend. It never has been and it certainly won’t be now. A United States of Europe dominated by Germany and France is not in the UK’s long term interests. The EU is an expansionist, ideologically-driven construct with no point of rest or return, so we can expect its enmity towards the UK to persist. All this bullying behaviour is intended to put pressure on the British public to recant ‘Brexit’ and vote in a more pliable regime to the EU’s liking. The EU cannot allow a truly independent, prosperous UK to succeed, as it would be a rebuttal of all that the EU represents. It would also be the end of the EU, by setting a positive example for other European countries to follow. National Democracy or Euro-Federalism; one or the other will prevail.
We have been here before. The UK’s position now echoes that of Tudor England after Henry VIII’s break with Rome, or Pitt the Younger, Nelson and Wellington facing down Napoleon‘s Continental System. The appointment of David Frost as Brexit and International Relations Advisor is a welcome sign of resolve. But if bullies are to be faced down, firmness needs to be sustained over a long period. The EU has shown it will ignore aspects of the Withdrawal Agreement when it suits them. So should we. Every EU ban or obstruction on our trade should be met by a UK legal case filed with the WTO.
Out of the EU; Into the World …… The stark contrast emerging already between the UK and the EU’s performance has not gone unnoticed and it has caused some European commentators to think a bit. Alexander Von Schoelenburg, the UK-based editor of Germany’s mass-circulation paper ’Bild’ has commented: ’Anyone who still doubts the wisdom of ‘Brexit’ needs only to look at the vaccine chaos unfolding across the Channel and think again’. A point underlined by the Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: ‘The UK and the US invested seven times as much public money per capita to accelerate the vaccine breakthrough, acting with war-time energy while the Commission remained stuck in its bureaucratic box-ticking subculture, catering to the lowest common denominator of 27 states. If ever there was an example of why Brussels should not be let anywhere near policies of real national sensitivity, this was it …….’ (Daily Telegraph, 27th Jan)
‘The UK will apply to join a Free Trade Area with 11 Asian and Pacific nations on 1st February …. Joining the group of fast growing nations will boost exports says the government. The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), covers a market of around 500 million people ……‘ (Teletext News, 2nd Feb)
‘Rishi Sunak is to spearhead Government moves to exploit the opportunities of Brexit for turning the UK into ‘the Singapore of Europe’. The Chancellor has pledged to emulate the dynamic Asian country by ripping up the red tape imposed by Brussels and ‘raising our eyes to look at the future’. The PM has tasked Mr Sunak, who will head a new Committee intended to shape the post-Brexit business environment, with driving ‘an ambitious programme of regulatory reform, to push the boundaries and boost creative thinking’ (Mail on Sunday, 17th Jan)
‘The UK is once again the fifth-largest economy in the world (Centre for Economics & Business Research), after the US, China, Japan and Germany. An excellent foundation on which the UK can now build for the future, if businesses can seize the available opportunities …… As an independent trading nation, there has never been a better time to accelerate efforts to grow our exports ……. According to a May 2020 report by think-tank Civitas, the UK’s fastest growing markets are now Nigeria and India (both Commonwealth countries), then Thailand and Taiwan …..‘ (Lord Bamford, City Mail, 3rd January)
Stories You Won’t Hear On The BBC ….. ‘A 0.2% cut in the foreign aid budget has appalled ‘the great and the good‘. Their outrage has been equal parts moralistic and masochistic. Not only does the cut leave us in line with other comparable countries, the idea that our moral worth hinges on an arbitrary target is ludicrous. In private, Britons are extraordinarily generous too; one global ranking rates our citizens the second-most likely to donate of any nation. As the balance sheet attests, binding targets will always spark waste and a rush to push money out of the door’ (Madeline Grant, Daily Telegraph, 29th Nov)
‘It Still Happens Here: Fighting UK Slavery in the 2020’s’ by the Modern Slavery Policy Unit, has estimated that there could be at least 100,000 victims of modern slavery in the UK, with the actual number likely to be much greater. According to the report: ‘Many thousands of children, women and men of all nationalities and backgrounds continue to be trafficked and exploited by ruthless criminal networks. They are tricked, taken and coerced into sexual slavery, crime, hard labour and servitude. Forced addictions are increasingly used as methods of control’. Despite the scale of the crimes, prosecutions have barely increased: ’Human traffickers and organised crime groups are running riot in many communities. Very few face prosecution relative to the number of victims found, and even fewer are convicted … In the year ending March 2019, there were 322 completed prosecutions for modern slavery and 219 convictions served. During the same period, 7,500 adults were identified as victims of modern slavery’ It is telling that public and private resources as well as endless media coverage is being dedicated to the issue of ’racist’ statues and historical slavery, while the plight of living, suffering modern slaves, barely interests anyone. The protestors of historic slavery could well be wearing clothes produced by the modern slaves who have no access to the equality and justice for which the protestors claim to fight’ (Judith Bergman, Gatestone Institute, 14th Aug)
Beefy Bowls the Beeb (Middle Stump) ‘Since I joined the House of Lords, a lot of people have been writing to me about the BBC. They say that it is turning against them; that it doesn’t see them, let alone listen to them. But is my inbox representative? According to a new YouGov poll, the answer is clearly yes. It found that only 4 per cent of the public thought that the BBC had improved at representing their values during 2020. A staggering 33 per cent said it had become worse. This is an organisation in big trouble. Any business facing numbers like those would take drastic action. The BBC is doing particularly badly in the countryside, from where many people write to me. They dislike how the corporation increasingly uses its programmes to promote the narrow ‘woke‘ views of its senior staff. They say it abuses its power to push these ‘urban progressive‘ ideas as if they were mainstream. They are anything but ….’ (Ian (Lord) Botham, Daily Telegraph, 11th Jan)
‘With the exception of Masterchef and the Antiques Roadshow, I’ve more or less given up watching the BBC, as it seems to be living in a parallel universe where Frankie Boyle is funny and Alastair Campbell is still running Downing Street ……Is it any wonder that its ratings are at an all-time low ? Or that a new poll (YouGov) has revealed that half of Britons now think the BBC licence fee should be scrapped ?…..’ (Sarah Vine, Mail on Sunday, 3rd Jan).
‘A BBC programme aimed at 9-12 year olds includes the claim that there are over 100 ‘gender identities‘. The film ‘Identity – Understanding Sexual and Gender Identities’ is being offered on the corporations website as part of its relationships and sex education package. The film tells children that becoming transgender is ‘a way to be happy’ while making no mention of the growing legal and medical concerns about the rising number of children saying they want to change gender’ (Daily Mail, 23rd Jan)
The BBC is planning to screen a documentary showing how teenagers could carry out DIY gender changes. The BBC3 film ‘DIY Trans Teens’, will publicise the work of a doctor who has been struck off in the UK and now operates an online firm overseas that offers gender change drugs to people in the UK ….. In December, the High Court said the effects of the drugs were unknown and may include long term harm, meaning it was very unlikely that children could give informed consent to their use, potentially exposing themselves to lasting damage …. despite such worries, the BBC is planning to continue with its plans to screen the film‘ (Mail on Sunday, 24th Jan)
‘Almost one in four people diagnosed with Covid-19 could have contracted it in hospital …… Of 10,150 patients being treated for the disease in hospital, 2,414 may have developed symptoms of the disease in wards while they were being treated for other illnesses, according to data from NHS England. In the week to December 13th there were 8,337 cases in hospitals, of which 1,787 were likely to have been hospital-acquired, an increase of 35 per cent. At one hospital, 41 per cent of Covid-19 patients developed symptoms while receiving treatment. Hospital acquired infections are rising’ (The Times, 20th Dec)
‘Labour‘s Lisa Nandy is at the centre of a row after praising a report which suggests replacing Britain‘s armed forces with a ‘gender-balanced human security corps‘. The Shadow Foreign Secretary (!) faced ridicule after launching a report by the Open Labour group, which said the main job of the forces should be to ‘dampen down violence, rather then intervene on one side or the other‘. Ms Nandy said she was ‘inspired’ by the report, which included the argument that the UK is ‘no longer a great power’ and cited countries like ‘the Scandinavians’ as role models for the UK‘s role in the world …’ (Daily Mail, 23rd Jan)
CCP: The Beast from the East .….. ‘Before the upheaval caused by Covid-19, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had created extensive influence networks in the US, Canada and Europe. The most heavily infiltrated were Britain and Germany, says Professor Clive Hamilton, co-author of ’Hidden Hand: Exposing How the CCP is Reshaping the World’:
‘The CCP has a vast network of influence agencies and personnel who have for at least two decades, systematically insinuated themselves into institutions and political processes. The enormous resources invested by the CCP in its foreign influence campaigns are essential to Xi Jinping‘s broader campaign to make China the dominant power’. Discussed in the book is The 48 Club; the work of three British Communist party members, which grew out of a trade mission to China in the early 1950’s: ‘The 48 Club quickly developed an unrivalled level of trust and intimacy with the top level of the CCP and has become over the decades, an influential pro-Beijing networking agency with links into the highest levels of Britain‘s elites’ (The Epoch Times, Oct. 20)
‘British Universities have become ‘worryingly dependent’ on tuition fees from Chinese students, according to a report published in July by the think-tank ‘Onward‘. There are fears that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has sought to undermine academic freedom and the integrity of scientific research on UK campuses. During 2018/19 total fee income from mainland Chinese students was £2.1bn; a 50% increase in just 5 years, amounting to 11% of all higher education fee income. In 16 UK universities, Chinese students make up more than 20% of total income; 12 are research-intensive universities from the elite Russell Group. Such dependence creates risks for the UK: ’We have already seen the CCP using financial dependence of universities in countries such as Australia, to try to exert political influence’. It cites growing evidence of CCP-funded activities on campuses with large Chinese intakes ‘where event holders were pressured into cancelling or changing their events, or to self-censor their discussions’ (The Epoch Times, Nov. 2020)
‘Nike, BMW, Volkwagen, Gap, Apple, Microsoft and Samsung are among 83 multinational companies linked to the use of Uighur forced labour in Chinese factories, according to a report ‘Uighurs For Sale’ by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute: ‘The Chinese government has facilitated the mass transfer of Uighur and other ethnic minority citizens from the far-west region of Xinjiang, to work in factories across the country …… Under conditions that strongly suggest forced labour, Uighurs work in factories that are in the supply chain of at least 83 well-known global brands in the technology, clothing and automotive sectors …..’ The report estimates that over 80,000 Uighurs were deported from Xinjiang between 2017-19, some being sent directly from detention camps. The actual figure is likely to be higher. ‘In factories far away from home, they live in segregated dormitories, undergo compulsory Mandarin and ideological ‘re-education‘; are subject to constant surveillance and are forbidden from participating in religious ceremonies‘ (Judith Bergman, Gatestone Institute, 31st July).
‘In October 2020, China overtook North America as the world’s largest film market, with ticket sales rising to $1.98bn ….. That is what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been working towards for at least a decade and it is bad news for Hollywood … China no longer relies on Hollywood blockbusters to fill its cinemas, but Hollywood needs the Chinese market to make its movies a financial success …..’
‘According to a 2018 US Staff Research Paper ’Directed By Hollywood, Edited by China’; ’China’s regulations and processes for approving foreign films reflect the CCP’s position that all art, including film, is a method of social control. As a result of these regulations, Hollywood producers are required to cut any scenes, dialogue and themes that may be perceived as a slight to the Chinese Communist Party. With an eye towards distribution in China, America’s filmmakers increasingly edit films in anticipation of Chinese censors sensitivities ….. increasingly envisioning the desires of the CCP in deciding what film projects to green light’ (‘China’s Influence In Hollywood,’ Gatestone Institute, 19th Dec)
Bookworm ….. One silver lining in the Covid cloud is that it has allowed time to catch up with some reading. Michael Shellenberger’s ‘Apocalypse Never – Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All’ (Harper Collins, £20), may just be a turning point against the climate change extremists. US ‘green’ politics might be obscure to UK readers, but his chapters on how the (supposedly) Green movement is harming African development are thought provoking. Thoroughly researched with hopeful and positive conclusions for the planet, this book is sure to annoy ideological greenies. It might even help some of them to think for themselves..
I love history books and Tim Bouverie’s ’Appeasing Hitler’ (Vintage, £9.99) is one the best, detailing the depth of pro-Nazi appeasement among Britain’s political establishment of the 1930s. Churchill’s ascent to glory was very much against the odds. Following on, James Holland’s ‘’The Battle of Britain – Five Months Which Changed History’ (Corgi, £12.99) is a compendious account of Britain’s epic struggle with Nazi Germany in 1940. At 800 pages long it may test some readers stamina, but the personal stories and diaries of those involved on both sides are gripping and hold your attention.
I have long been a fan of Robert Harris’s novels. The growing dependency (and vulnerability) of modern society on digital technology is something that clearly worries him, as his 2016 thriller ‘The Fear Index’. showed. He takes this idea a step further in ’The Second Sleep’ (Arrow, £8.99). What might our world be like 800 years on, if all our computer technology had suddenly collapsed ? Harris is a master at conjuring up vivid alternative realities and his vision here of a post-apocalypse England, is no exception. A really creepy read; one with echoes of our current crisis, even though it was written in 2019.
One book I will buy when shop re-open, is Douglas Murray’s ’The Madness of Crowds’. No-one is better than Murray at dissecting the insanity that has engulfed Western society in the last few years. In the meantime, watch his interview on ‘Uncommon Knowledge’, www.Hooverarchive.co.uk. As well as Murray, other brave writers are beginning to challenge the cultural tyranny of ‘woke’. ‘Irreversible Damage – Teenage Girls and the Trans-Gender Craze’ by Abigail Shrier (Swift Press, £16.99), exposes the craziness of the stampede towards transgenderism and the dire consequences for many vulnerable teenagers who follow its siren call. Some academics in the US have called for her book to be burned; all the more reason for every parent to read it as soon as possible.
Another book of great interest is ‘The Rare Metals War – The Dark Side of Clean Energy’ by Guillaume Pitron (Scribe, £16.99). Through brutal policies of neo-colonialism in Third World countries and criminally low environmental standards, the Chinese Communist Party has cornered the supply of 95% of the world’s rare earth metals; essential for virtually everything that we make and do in our digitally-dependent, supposedly (but not really) ’green’ world. That should worry us all greatly.
UKIP News …. ‘Lockdown’ has also been an opportunity to learn new skills. Although very little regular branch activity has been possible, we haven’t been idle. Many of us have been joining the recent ‘Zoom’ meetings of UKIP activists across Dorset and the South-West, chaired by Regional Organiser, Pat Bryant. They are a great way to exchange information and ideas.
It is testament to the strength of UKIP’s internal structures and the importance of our core messages, that we still exist. The constant leadership infighting over the past three years would have sunk any other political party long ago. The instability at the top of UKIP has cost us dearly in membership and support. But under the professional leadership of Neil Hamilton (UKIP Assembly Member for Wales) and the NEC, stability and unity is being restored at last. Some significant people are joining UKIP; online blogger Katie Hopkins, broadcaster Adam Garrie, former MEP Bill Etheridge and most notably, Lt-Gen Jonathon Riley, a former commander of British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, rejoined from the Brexit Party and now UKIP Defence Spokesman. The party website www.ukip.org is being updated daily and is full of common-sense articles and information.
The motivational speaker and writer, Dr Peter Gammons, is another recent recruit to join UKIP from the Brexit Party. He has been selected as UKIP Candidate for the London Mayor Elections: see his campaign video on www.ukip.org/gammonsforlondon. In our area, but there are local Council Elections to prepare for on May 6th, with two by-elections for BCP Council seats: Canford Heath, and Commons (Christchurch). Go to https://members.ukip.org/members to register.
UKIP has an exciting future so don’t let your own membership lapse. We will keep you posted locally on all local UKIP activity in our area, including meeting and socials once lockdown ends. Plus our own Branch newsletter for Mid-Dorset & Poole and the monthly UKIP Dorset Digest will keep you informed of all the political news that you won’t find in the ‘mainstream’ media.
e-mail: john.butler@ukipmiddorset.org All items in this newsletter are personal views only and do not necessarily represent the views of the UK Independence Party Mid-Dorset & North Poole
