Britain's fish will feed Europe - at a price

One key outcome of Brexit that must form a Red Line for the UK is the reclaim of our exclusive economic zone from the EU. Do not take this for granted; they don't want to give it up, and no wonder. There will be a fight over this, but in the over-riding national interest we must be implacable. No deals, no shared sovereignty - we'll have the lot back from 2019. 

A glance at the bathymetric map will reveal our advantage. French and Spanish EEZs also extend to 200 miles - but mostly over deep waters. Ours are almost wholly over the rich, fecund, warm continental shelf on which sea life thrives - if not overfished. Britain's fish resources are the richest in Europe, and currently belong to the EU. 

This is also a key reason to form a close and mutually beneficial alliance with Norway; also outside the EU; between us we own 70% of Europe's fish. Denmark, NL, Belgium, Germany and France all have inconsequential fishing waters.  

Make no mistake, we will have our waters back, no exceptions, no qualifications. And we alone will decide who may fish those waters and how much may be taken. A robust conservation policy coupled with determined and aggressive enforcement will restore these seas to a marine resource teeming with life. One thing is clear - Europe will pay far more dearly for its fish in the future than now. 

Surely now is the time to honour Farage?

Well, the electors seem to be clear; UKIP has done its job and can now retire with honour and dignity. UKIP members have seen the evolution of their party from a fringe movement to a vast steamer that garnered 4m votes and scared the stools from a complacent Tory party that previously thought Euroscepticism was manageable. It was UKIP that forced Cameron into a referendum, and Nigel Farage that won it. No mean achievements either for the leader or any of the party's members. 

Leave is now mainstream, gaining new supporters daily, helped in no small part by the undecideds seeing for the first time the brutal naked aggression of which the Brussels federation is capable. Remainers are becoming like flat earthers. Farron reminds me of the chap who used to parade a placard on the steps of the Mirror building on Old Fetter Lane declaring that meat caused sin. The whine from the Guardian is growing less shrill, and June 8th should kill off a whole cohort more of remainers, as the country shifts firmly behind Theresa May as the best champion for Britain. 

Yes, I know there are those who think May the devil in disguise and that it's all a great conspiracy to rob UKIP but I really don't think this is the case. What I do believe and believe strongly is that Nigel Farage should be recognised by his country, and perhaps now is a good time. He's achieved something extraordinary, and I'm sure we will see him limned in bronze at size-and-a-third at some stage in some prominent place. Oh, we don't give away Apsley House type gifts to our victors any more, but Farage deserves something tangible. 

More Assets, more money to come to UK from EU ..

It may just have escaped your notice that the EU's propaganda showhouse, called "The house of European History", is set to open in four days. With an architectural style of which Herr Speer would surely have approved, it lacks only naked blond corn-mädchen with laurel wreaths on the pediment. 

Of course, the museum is empty of both objects and interpretive exhibits, save for the Nobel medal for something meretricious or the other given to the EU. It is the sole exhibit. This is for two reasons. Firstly, the construction budget over-ran initial budgets by a factor of four, to a total of €137m, swallowing the exhibits budget to pay for the building. When last I built a new museum the exhibition costs (lighting, cases, interpretation, simple interactives, audio visual etc) came to £1,500/m2 for a low key delivery. You can double that for the EU museum - which has 4,000m2. 

The second reason is that the 27 can't agree how to interpret European history. What can the museum say about the Germans?  I fear any interpretation of the past is doomed to failure, but that's now the business of the 27.

The question is, what of our share? Do we ask for 12% of the cost back, or demand that they now build a detached annex, under our control, in which to display just British history?

Incidentally, I publish below the EU's own table from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/20141202IFG82334/eu-budget-explained-expenditure-and-contribution-by-member-state

If you divide the total by 52 you get, erm, €350m a week. Oh, and we also passed over 75% of €4.27bn ( €3.2bn) in tariffs for goods coming in through the UK.

Post-election Parliament must be ready for a raft of emergency Bills

The government has recently realised that our powers to impose sanctions currently arise from the EU - and that when we leave, we will need domestic legislation in place to legally do so. Legislating to remediate this situation may be no great problem. Now it is clear that we are leaving the EU, one way or another, an Act can be passed with a 'Coming into force' date co-terminous with our formal exit date. However, not all the legislation we will need will be so straightforward.

As Juliet Samuel makes clear in a cogent and compelling piece for the Telegraph;

Despite the EU’s moderation on paper, however, prospects for a smooth Brexit are currently far from rosy. The weekend’s headlines were flavoured with a classic Brussels tincture – a poisonous media briefing and a Jean-Claude Juncker soundbite. None of this would have been unleashed without Berlin’s blessing and suggests that German attitudes are hardening. Chancellor Angela Merkel appears to have bought into the idea that the EU must make an example of Britain in order to protect itself. The wrong side is winning the argument. This may be because most EU governments don’t yet believe they have much to lose. They cannot conceive that Britain would ever walk away from a deal, however unpalatable its terms. On this, they have misjudged.

Samuel makes clear that we must prepare now to walk away without a deal, and assume that this will be the outcome of the negotiations. If we manage to reach a satisfactory deal, fine. But if we don't, as seems more likely, we will be ready. 

We should not underestimate the global economic and financial shock of leaving with no deal. We must be prepared to look after the UK's interests, and if possible those of the Commonwealth and of the USA - the anglosphere. We will need emergency wartime powers and more importantly a national consensus that may mean a wartime cabinet - with opposition ministers sitting in government. Parliament needs to be ready to legislate on the hoof, reservists ready to be called up, the red duster fleet ready to serve the nation and yes, possibly even rationing systems to be devised and rolled out and temporary state control of food, fuel and power. Bills must be drafted NOW to meet an emergency.

This election is an essential fore-runner to facing a time of such emergency. The Prime Minister needs the backing of the country - the Commons will not be of one voice in the debate to reject a humiliating and wounding offer from the EU, but once the house has voted in favour of walking away, they will all be behind it or face the wrath of voters. The Lords are a different kettle of fish. We cannot allow these deeply corrupted and befouled fifth columnists to sabotage the national interest. Mrs May no doubt also has a reserve plan to deal with these foreign agents in our midst.

I do hope the Bank has been quietly buying back the nation's gold reserves so foolishly squandered by the last Labour chancellor. As the talks collapse and gold shoots past £1,400 an ounce we will need every kilo we can get. 

Herr Tirana prepares to use dirty tricks as EU buggered

Herr Tirana, one of the EU's several Presidents, confirmed today that "after a little cellar work and a touch of bastinado" all 27 EU leaders have now confessed agreed to the Brussels dirty tricks campaign to be rolled out against the United Kingdom.

"The EU must uphold democracy in Europe, which means agreeing with whatever the unelected officials want. We call it pure democracy because it is unsullied by elections, ballots and the votes of the ignorant and stupid common people.

You can never have too many boats ....

A bit of a fuss in the papers at news that Nick Serota's retirement gift from his colleagues was to be a boat. It's pretty certain that what's intended is something like the Enterprise pictured below rather than an Oyster 82.

These fun boats can still be had for about £600 - and of course you can keep it in the front garden.

Ah, such memories of idle summers spent on the river between Woodbridge Tide Mill and Felixtowe Ferry with a boom tent and a crate of Tolly

Economic war with Germany heats up

AEP in the Telegraph this morning says it all:-

(Berlin) demanded that Britain desist from tax dumping and financial deregulation that would “jeopardize the stability of the union". This demand is almost insulting. British regulators have led efforts to recapitalize banks. It is the eurozone and Germany that have dragged their feet on tougher capital rules.

There is no longer any attempt at diplomatic tact. The document states that the European Commission will "determine" when the UK has made "sufficient progress" as it jumps through the hoops, the way it handles accession talks for supplicants hoping to join. It reads like an imperial curia discussing a colony.

........ What is clear is that if the final document presented to Britain looks anything like the EU papers circulating this week, no sovereign state can accept it.

Sigh. Like the same-old same-old. Like the demands presented by Austria Hungary to Serbia in 1914, Germany's demands are impossible for the British realm to accept. Not even the softest, most accommodating Brexit negotiators could accept such national humiliation under the heel of the Hun. 

I fear it will be full blown economic warfare. 

Turks join with ISIS to attack Kurds

Turkey has launched a new offensive against the Kurds. They now face attacks from Turkey to the north and west, and from ISIS to the south and east. It has been a century since the last Islamist rulers of Turkey slaughtered the region's Armenian Christians in an act of genocide that preceded the later Holocaust, but the Kurds must surely have the Islamist capacity for mass extermination embedded in their cultural history. Their fight against the Islamists of Turkey and of ISIS is one for survival. 

The history of the Armenian genocide will be purged from Turkish history now that Erdogan can rule as a dictator. In Germany and Austria, where holocaust denial is a crime for which residents can find themselves in prison, millions of Turkish migrants who voted for Erdogan's Enabling Act will be teaching their children that the earlier Armenian holocaust never happened. Every effort of the national authorities to teach it in schools will be met with hatred, resentment and disbelief - and demands for more Islamic schools, in which such inconvenient truths can be smothered. 

But one and a half million Christians slaughtered by means as foul as any ISIS have re-invented remind us always why we must resist Islamism with every fibre of our national strength. 

French Toast

As will be apparent, France's electoral system is geared at preventing shock change and powerful leaders. Remember that the French bourgeois virtues include médiocrité, which means something a little different there to our jibe of mediocrity. And having soundly rejected the 'constitutional' parties of right and left for the Presidential election, French voters may not have the same choice for the two-stage Assembly elections on the 11th and 18th of June. Well-oiled local Republican and Socialist party machines may cement support, leaving Macron a lame duck President with no support in the Assembly.

And yes, short of some earthquake shock, Macron will be France's next president. 

Marine Le Pen is not finished - France and Britain will both go to the polls again in 2022, and in political terms that's an eon away. As for what this all means for Brexit, I'll guess little change. The Kermits still hate us and want us to suffer because we're so much more successful than they are, yet we need to co-operate even more closely militarily as the only two armed nations in Europe. It's all French toast - brittle with burnt crumbs. Hey ho.

Extra Territorial Jurisdiction

There is an interview in the Indie this morning with lawyer David Edward in which he lambastes the 'invincible ignorance' of those who think the UK can escape the jurisdiction of the ECJ. Edward sat as an ECJ judge, but perhaps not a very balanced one as his argument here is utterly distorted and deeply misleading.

"You can escape the jurisdiction of the ECJ, but you have got to comply with EU standards if you are going to export into the EU. And who decides what these standards are ultimately if there’s a problem? It’s the ECJ." Edward is quoted as saying. Uhm, yes. But EU exporters wishing to sell to the UK - by far the greater value of goods - must in turn comply with UK standards. And who will decide what those standards are if ultimately there's a problem? The UK Supreme Court and English / Scottish appeal courts. 

Never have I heard any Brexiteer suggest that British courts should exercise Extra Territorial Jurisdiction to decide what product standards within the EU should be. It's a nonsense. Edward is refuting a claim that no-one has made. His argument is specious and fallacious; in exercising our own jurisdiction over trade, competition and commercial law for all actions within UK territorial boundaries of course we escape ECJ jurisdiction. I weep for the 'invincible ignorance' of those like Edward in a state of denial over this fundamental reality. On our land, in our skies and upon our seas out to the 200 mile economic limit, British courts will exercise sole jurisdiction. British laws, British standards, British judgements and British penalties will prevail. 

And of course EU citizens will continue to enjoy access to UK courts to resolve matters within British territorial jurisdiction just as UK citizens will continue to enjoy access to the ECJ to resolve matters within EU jurisdiction. If a Polish single mum feels she is wrongly being denied a British welfare benefit, she has exactly the same recourse to our legal system as any Brit. And likewise a Brit in Europe to the ECJ. What exactly is the problem?

It's a manufactured issue, promoted by those who wish to preserve such bonds of slavery to Euro Federalism beyond Brexit. English common law never did fit well, if at all, with the Napoleonic codex approach of the mainland, yet it maintains itself as both a superior body of law and a more equitable legal jurisdiction than the 'political' fandangling of the ECJ. 

This is an economic battle between Britain and Germany

It is becoming transparently clear that Brexit is an economic battle between Britain and Germany. It is also becoming clear that EU membership is costing us way more than the headline contributions, before or after rebate. One of the EU's several Presidents, Herr Tirana, repeated yesterday in effect that they're so desperate for our wealth that they encourage voters to overturn Mrs May so we may repent and continue to bleed our nation's life blood for the vampire squid.

Germany knows the lead that a fractional advantage in GDP growth can produce over a decade. Yep, one nation grows at 1.1% and another at 1.6% and it doesn't sound much until you look at the lead after 20 years - 13% for these figures. That's been Germany's game plan since the 1970s - free riding NATO, skewing the rules, manipulating EU budgets and quiet economic sabotage to ensure their GDP growth is greater than ours. And now they're furious, they're incandescent with rage that they've been found out and that we're leaving. By doing so we ensure that our GDP takes the lead - not only will Trump make them pay an extra 1% of GDP to NATO, but they must pay 25% of the EU's budget from 2019 or see it unravel.

Hence the bullying, the threats and the attempted intimidation; we must pay €60bn, we must submit to the German European Court until 2030, we must follow their instructions. It's becoming clear that we won't do any of it, that we will walk away. So be it. Alone and ahead.

I'll miss Gisela and wish Bob well ...

There had to be casualties of course. Few regret the abandonment of his political career by Osborne; the Commons will be infinitely improved by his absence, and the housebuilders' brochure that is the Evening Standard, an organ that once was a newspaper, will no doubt benefit from his family wallpaper and soft furnishings expertise.

Gisela Stuart will be a real loss. The Labour Leave campaign leader was a boon to the cause before the referendum, and did much to counter the swivel-eyed loon barb thrown at we outers. She is transparently straightforward and shines as, well, just nice. 

Bob Marshall-Andrews is a Medway fixture and I wish him well in his move to the Lib-Dems, despite my wanting to see that party destroyed in Parliament. I can't imagine Medway without Bob; a rebel and maverick who used to publicly but pointlessly prompt the Labour leadership to give him a job. Rochester is a bit twee and has pretentions, but remains more Tesco than Waitrose, sandwiched between Emily Thornbury's white van Strood and Borstal. Chatham is as rough as a badger's arse, the home of pale, scabrous and violent Chavs, and Gillingham houses aspirational but just-coping NHS workers. Bob has done a great job there, transcending party. I wish him well.  

Game On!

Well, she's done it. And she's got the £ nudging €1.20, which is nice. And the global corporates are squeezing out a little high pressure flatus, which is also reassuring. Farron, Mandlebum, the Remoaners, the BBC, the EU and the Guardian are incandescent with rage, which is always worthwhile. All in all, it seems like the right thing to do. 

The main complaint of all those so upset by Mrs May's calling an election seems to be democracy. They are objecting to Britain's voters having a definitive say, rather than claiming to speak for us themselves. 

Oh yes. And that chap Grayling, which I always thought was a fish. If this doesn't trip him into gibbering insanity I don't know what will. So good all round, really. 

Isn't it time we re-issued 'Protect and Survive'?

There will be many homes in Britain that still have the last edition of the Home Guide to Nuclear War, issued by the government as Protect and Survive. Maybe in a telephone drawer somewhere, along with the radiator bleed key and a 1976 warranty card for the doorbell. However, whole new generations will be unaware of the simple preparations they must make if we are faced with nuclear Armageddon. Technology has also moved on, so an updated edition of this friendly guide to mass extinction may be worthwhile. 

It may be useful to remind the younger ones that iPhones are unlikely to work after an intense EM pulse, that a couple of tins of energy drink won't last long and that Facebook is unlikely to be widely available with which to share nuclear experiences. Ditto Instagram. It's also unwise to rely on take-away delivery services for food after the bomb falls, however impervious Mr Wu seems to Alpha particles. And as members of the family die and the bodies must be dealt with, Yell will not be the best source of home service providers. 

It's about time we scared the youngsters. 

Final hope for democracy in Turkey

Tomorrow's referendum in Turkey on that country's version of Germany's 1933 Enabling Act is, by all accounts, on a knife-edge. If Erdogan wins, he can exercise unrestrained executive power of a sort unseen since Nazi Germany. If he wins, Turkey also loses any chance of joining the EU, her NATO partner status will be in doubt, the migrant deal risks unravelling in time for the peak Summer travelling season and all hopes of Ataturk's secular Turkey will vanish.

Of course, if he loses, everyone expects him to to the achieve exactly the same ends by unconstitutional means. He's hardly going to put his hands up and go quietly, is he?

Sometimes the BBC's correspondents, isolated from the fake-news hothouses of Salford Keys and Broadcasting House, forget their remit and tell the truth. Mark Lowen's report here is really worth a listen. 

A young lady colleague once returned from a holiday in 'unspoilt' Turkey to report that each day a group of unshaven village grey heads, in threadbare grubby shirts buttoned to the collar and old lounge suit coats from the 1950s, would gather to keep the beach under observation. There was no direct interaction, but the visitors were all too uncomfortable to wear bikinis or to enjoy using the beach. These then are Erdogan's supporters, the illiterate bigoted Islamist peasantry of an 18th century Sultanate. God help us all.

Cameron ran a bent Referendum campaign say MPs

This won't be the headline in your MSM papers, which focus on a minor report footnote that a DOS attack may have slowed the website processing those registering to vote in the last days before the Referendum, but that this did not affect the outcome. 

However, the meat of the report is in Chapter 5 - a litany of criticisms of Cameron's misuse of public funds and of the machinery of government in an attempt to skew the result. The verdict, even clothed in the politesse of the old chums club, is damming. Cameron was bent. Never Again. 

Hmphhhh. Told you so.

Peace in Syria?

When I write 'peace in Syria' I don't of course mean the sort of peace that the West gifted to Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Libya, or indeed anywhere we've interfered in the past decade or so, where we've left a legacy of death, terrorism, economic collapse and failed governance. Only the most reality-challenged drug-addled FCO PR person could term those conditions 'peace'. So let's define our terms - what must peace mean for Syria?

No Entry to Salafism - No opportunity can be given to Salafist Islamists, the West's mortal enemies, to increase their power or influence in the region. This includes Turkey, Sunni Iraq, KSA, Kuwait, the gulf states and the various barbarian head-choppers.

Non-sectarian and tolerant society -  A future Syria must allow Shia and Sunni, Christian and Kurd, Alawite and Jew, to live in peace and freedom with no sectarian discrimination. Much as the country worked under Assad before the 'Salafist Spring', which saw deluded fools in Western government mistake Islamist uprisings for democratic urges. 

Russian influence preserved - Any settlement must preserve Russian influence and port / military facilities if the settlement is not to lead to wider causes of conflict

Self-determination - Allow the Syrian people to choose their own leaders and form of government - which may not be the same as Western forms of government and self-determination

Safe return for refugees - A safe place to which refugees currently in Jordan, Palestine and Turkey (as well as Europe) can safely return and rebuild. 

Now it might be that President Assad actually offers the best opportunity to meet these objectives. I don't know. 

However, I am sure that if the US and our own blundering, inept, mistaken FCO conspire to give us yet another Salafist-dominated failed state exporting Islamist terrorism and from which millions of refugees flee, all for the sake of global corporate oil or gas pipes, that we will hang the bastards from the lamp columns in Parliament Square. They're drinking in the Last Chance Saloon over Syria.

US now free to kill its own 'beautiful babies' in Mosul

With the PR-stunt bombardment of a vacant Syrian airbase over, US forces in the region can now re-target their cruise missiles and aircraft and carry on killing beautiful babies as well as their mothers and older children in Mosul. However, since Putin is way smarter than Trump and has normal sized hands to boot, don't be surprised at some cunning piece of counter-PR. Of course it's still possible that one of those US cruise missiles hit the base creche, and that Syria produces its own dead beautiful babies torn apart by US explosives. 

I'm really sick to the gills of the lies. Sick of the superpower slaughter fought through proxies; sick of the mendacious game playing, sick of the horror, the death, the childish destruction. I'm sick of the official distortion, invention, omission and misrepresentation of the truth. Sick of the BBC, of the MSM, of RT, of Brietbart and of the bloody lying Guardian. Sick of twisted journalism of the sort gurgitated by Con Coughlin, by other maggot-struck dags, who lie for their paymasters in claiming to be sure of events a thousand miles over the horizon. Who the Hell do they all imagine they're lying to?

Will all you fake journalists now please re-target your own interest from this fake gas circus sideshow to what is really happening in Iraq? In Kurdistan? No, thought not.

Oh Good. They've forgotten about the 'unspeakable' slaughter in Mosul.

I have no illusions about Bashir Assad's ruthlessness, and none about his commitment to regain control of Syria. His success in Aleppo, the recapture of Palmyra and even his quick reaction to the assault by the West's 'friendly' Islamist jihadis on Damascus have all given him the advantage. Meanwhile, the US-led blundering in taking Mosul, with its massive civilian casualties, makes Trump look a dick against Putin's effective siege of Aleppo. 

So I don't rule out Assad being responsible for a chemical attack in Idlib that has killed 70. But it's so / too convenient for the US led side, and such an unnecessary action for Assad, that I cannot rush to the same immediate verdict as the entire Western media seems to have done, at least without evidence. It's just too bloody convenient, particularly in silencing  the growing outrage against child and civilian casualties in Mosul, most recently as the 230 (as the Telegraph reported) child and mothers corpses were pulled from the rubble of a single Iraqi / US strike last week.

Whilst the slaughter of seventy in Idlib by poison gas is 'unspeakable', the slaughter of three times that number in Mosul by good, clean US missiles seems to be OK. Good. Glad that's clear.

NATO - Keeping the peace in Europe for 68 Years

NATO's anniversary today could not come at a more appropriate moment. NATO, and the Atlantic Alliance, has kept the peace in Europe since the Iron Curtain came down in 1949. NATO itself  arose from a 1941 meeting between Churchill and Roosevelt at which was drafted the Atlantic Charter - subsequently adopted by allies of the United Nations. No territorial aggrandisement; no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people, self-determination; restoration of self-government to those deprived of it; reduction of trade restrictions; global cooperation to secure better economic and social conditions for all; freedom from fear and want; freedom of the seas; and abandonment of the use of force, as well as disarmament of of aggressor nations. 

And why such an appropriate moment? Well, it's come at exactly the time at which the EU has demonstrated yet again that it is NOT an organisation that promotes peace, but is instead a malign nascent Empire that foments conflict, war, death and dissent. Britain's reaction to the EU's inclusion of Gibraltar in the Brexit talks was entirely predictable. One could have written the Sun's headline in advance. It is an unforgivable deliberate hostile provocation from this cabal of cynical hypocrites in Brussels geared at provoking conflict - just as they have done in Ukraine, just as they did in the Balkans. 

The EU is simply incapable of signing up to the aims of the Atlantic Charter; the Federast aim is wholly about expansion, not peace; "No territorial aggrandisement" is simply not a phrase they understand in Brussels. The aims of NATO and the EU are not the same - not the same at all. Which is why the EU now wants to fund its own military arm - one that can breach the Atlantic Charter provisons with impunity and no opposition. 

NATO needs a strong and effective leader who has the confidence of both Washington and London. Cameron, the Boden-catalogue ditherer, the kitchen supper dilettante, a collapsed souffle of a politician, is simply not that man.