Getting big decisions right is what guides the country to a better future.
Not arguments over rearranging Whitehall departmental deckchairs👇
Or bizarre No. 10
advisors claiming deep knowledge of things about which they haven’t a clue.
2015 was a Great British Catastrophe. /1.
A Conservative government (elected by minority vote) set about implementing a jaw-droppingly reckless promise.
To take the UK out of the EU if a referendum majority voted for it.
What happened to the £ after that announcement? A crash comparable to the great 2007/8 crisis. /2.
And here’s what happened to growth in UK economic output per person (GDP per capita) compared to the G7 & €-zone. (Greece is included separately as an indicator of the broad-based strength of €-zone growth since the referendum announcement - compared to the UK at least). /3.
But, the “sceptics” gasp, Canada did worse than the UK. That isn’t Brexit.
You’re right. Some places have done even worse than the UK. Rejoice! Sunlit uplands at last.
Also, they cry, that chart only shows up to 2019. What happens afterwards?
This happens afterwards 👇 /4.
Ah, those “sceptics” cry, that’s Covid. And the UK counts GDP differently, exaggerating the drop.
But it isn’t (just) Covid. It’s Brexit. Yes, the drop’s a bit exaggerated, which is why 2021 UK growth figures are exaggerated.
Here’s what the OECD reports: UK worst in G7👇/5.
And, by the way, here’s what that 2015 decision did to UK business investment.
What’s that you say? All these things are coincidences?
I know: come back in 50 years. We’ll be able to see if you’re right.
Meanwhile, stop embarrassing yourself. And wasting the country’s time./6.
Huh, the grumpy “sceptic” continues. But the EU ruined our economy over 40+ years, making it follow a bad “German” & “European” model.
Really? The UK underperformed pre-EEC. Disastrous UK policies in the 2010s created renewed failure.
Germany/ Europe outperformed the UK. /7.
But, replies the “sceptic”, that’s the past. The old models won’t work in future. “Europeans” are too stupid & lazy to work out what will. “We” are clever, agile & will be right this time.
Can’t even predict the past? But claim great foresight?
I’ll pass on that, thanks./8. End
Photo in last tweet: from YouTube,”BananaBoy 1379”.
Chart in tweet 5: OECD, November 2021
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You’re in a political party dominated by extremists, who put their brutal fantasies & mangled emotions above the security, prosperity & well-being of the country.
When will you take back control? /1.
You know the leaked WhatsApp messages aren’t the half of it.
Nothing short of the dismemberment of constitutional, liberal, representative democracy, the rule of law, fundamental rights, economic & social justice is being attempted. /2.
By around 240 government MPs, most of 200,000 Party members & a minority of the electorate. Resourced & assisted by anti-democratic, anti-constitutional, self-serving backers within & beyond the UK. /3.
The key to understanding @DavidGHFrost is ambition & self-regard.
Those can be positives, or negatives, depending on how they’re used.
He wants to reach the top. He has for decades. And he believes he’s capable of pretty much anything.
A 🧵/1.
It’s impossible to see inside a mind.
So to say for sure eg whether Lord Frost’s adherence to the great “English” philosopher Edmund Burke is genuine, is impossible.
It seems unlikely though, given the mangled version of Burke he proclaims. /2.
Fans of “Yes Minister” will recall Sir Humphrey’s horror when accused of having “beliefs” or “ideas”. Think of Lord Frost as Sir Humphrey with high political ambitions.
Though not repelled by the idea of having a “vision”, he’s never had much of one.
“We are not living in the 1930s & the Secretary of State & his team are not Nazis”.
Extraordinary @wesstreeting is left to point this out, in support of @sajidjavid, during the Covid debate in the Commons.
He’s right. He deserves our thanks.
But there’s more to it.
A 🧵/1.
To compare genuine public health measures, which of course have to weigh multiple difficult factors, with the brutal victimisation of Jews on the invented pretext that they spread disease, isn’t just wrong.
It’s vile.
And something many would see as Holocaust denial. /2.
But we shouldn’t pretend a clear & concerted assault on human & citizenship rights, protest, the rule of law, judicial independence & more, is “normal” in a decent, liberal democracy.
The Johnson-Frost Brexit - dislocating the UK from the EU customs union & single market, & putting a border between GB & NI - is supported by about two thirds of Conservative MPs (& DUP).
About one third see serious & escalating damage to the UK from it. And never wanted it. /2.
Opposition MPs (ex DUP) also oppose the Johnson-Frost Brexit, precisely because of that damage.
Having voted in favour, with a “no deal” gun to their heads, doesn’t alter that.
Combined, that’s ~390 MPs who know it has to be reversed.
Brexit - Why? And What Next? An Empire On The Brink
The puffed-up nonentities - “Spartans”, “Bad Boys”, those posing as tough negotiators & defenders of sovereignty - are corks bobbing on a geopolitical ocean. Only able to wreck.
Serious people could help save the UK.
A 🧵/1.
The EU & NATO are American projects, central to the order the US has designed, built & led for 75 years.
The modern UK has flourished within, & strongly contributed to, both. And to the other main global security & economic structures of the US order.
As has the EU. /2.
The US has always been by far the single, leading, dominant force.
Brexit, & the wider turbulence within the EU, are late warning signs of a crisis of American power, one which has been a long time coming.