A very moving 5 days in Poland, working with Conservative MPs and peers to build a playground for Ukrainian orphans who have been forced to move to Poland. The unfussy professionalism with which Poles have responded to the refugee crisis is humbling. (1)
Thanks, too, to our honorary British Tory, @GudlaugurThor, who is currently Iceland's environment minister, is one of my oldest friends in politics, and has been an unflagging friend to the UK throughout his career. (3)
And what a pleasure to be joined by that most sweet-natured of men, two times world boxing champ @amirkingkhan, whose charity helped pay for the equipment. He is pictured here on the right starting his second career as a personal trainer. (4)
Thanks, too, to my old friend @AnnaFotyga_PE for hosting us in Gdinya, where we saw British-designed warships being built for the Polish navy in a joint venture.
Finally, a great honour to lay a wreath on the anniversary of the Katyn massacre and the #Smolensk disaster, and to attend a commemorative Mass with the President, the Archbishop and families of the victims. (6)
Poles have risen heroically to the occasion. Mobile phone companies are giving away data, hotels and Airbnbs are offered free, newspapers are printing Ukrainian-language editions, schools are expanding. And Brussels chooses this moment to fine Poland! (7) olsztyn.tvp.pl/59533304/europ…
I should also thank Charlotte from @Women2Win, as well as my former European Parliament colleagues Rocío and Themi. (8)
Dziękuję Polsko!
Слава Україні
🇵🇱🇺🇦🇬🇧 (9) (ends)
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“Conservatives achieved nothing in 14 years!”
You hear it all the time. But is it quite true?
God knows they made mistakes. But they had real achievements, too.
Tragically, all those achievements are now being undone.
Let’s consider some of them. 1/6
In 2010, the Tories inherited a deficit that was higher than in Greece and an economy in deep recession. Slowly and patiently they restored order to our public finances.
Now Labour is blowing it all away again. Spending, taxes and borrowing are all on the rise. 2/6
Conservatives restored our independence, despite a Labour campaign to block Brexit. MPs actually passed a law to forbid us from leaving the EU unless Brussels was happy with the terms.
Now, Labour is offering to apply EU standards open-endedly. 3/6
#OTD 250 years ago, the Second Anglosphere Civil War began. British settlers in Massachusetts had taken up arms in defence of what they saw as their inherited rights. Regular troops were sent to disarm them. 1/4
In the skirmish that followed at Lexington, eight Patriot militiamen were killed, as was one regular soldier on the other side. 2/4
What emerged from that skirmish was the greatest republic in human history, a nation founded in the Whig traditions of personal freedom, limited government and political pluralism. 3/4
Last week, the UK announced that it was eliminating all remaining tariffs and quotas on Ukrainian imports - something it was able to do because of Brexit. The reaction from Europhiles, and even some EU officials, has been telling - and not in a good way. A thread. 🧵 (1/9)
Background. In 2014, Ukraine and the EU (then of course including Britain) signed a deal eliminating most tariffs, but leaving some in place, especially in agri-foods. Britain inherited this deal on leaving. The remaining tariff schedules are here. eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/… (2/9)
Since the Russian invasion, Kiev has been lobbying London and Brussels for the removal of the last tariffs and an easing of the more stringent border checks. This matters a lot, because Ukraine has lost its coastline. All its exports must now pass through EU territory. (3/9)
I am in awe of the unfussy generosity of the volunteers on the Polish-Ukrainian border. Here is my old friend @BrooksNewmark who has so far arranged bus transport for more than 400 people to their preferred destinations.
Here’s a team from the West Country, organised by @AlastairChambe5. They’ve brought two lorry loads and four van loads of aid, and are coming back with more next week. The brisk and practical helpfulness of both volunteers and local people in these Polish marchlands is humbling.
You probably know all this, but no one here needs extra clothes. There is still demand for nappies, baby foods, sanitary towels, paracetamol. And @alastairchambe5 wants flak jackets, of the kind journalists wear, if anyone has any spare.
It is worth restating that arms sales are a legitimate part of the international order. You might not like them, but they are in no sense unusual. Selling Polish MiGs to Ukraine for €1 each would be perfectly legal. So would allowing their pilots to accept Ukrainian passports.
Talking of arms sales, I'm guessing that not even the poorest tinpot dictatorship will want to buy Russian weaponry after this. It'll be Turkish drones all the way. 🇹🇷
What's the worst aspect of wokery?
The inconsistency? ("Respect diversity! We're all the same!")
The intolerance? ("That's an outdated word! Sack her!")
The irrationality? ("My anger trumps your facts, whitesplainer!")
For me, it's something even worse... telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/11/2…
Eton says the lecture might have breached the Equalities Act. If this is true, we need to change the law. How can it be illegal to advance a view shared by most biologists, neuroscientists and psychologists, namely that there are innate differences between male and female brains?
On this reading of the Equalities Act, Eton itself might be illegal. Not only does it exclude girls, but it seeks (or until very recently sought) to inculcate some notably masculine virtues in its boys, including chivalry, physical courage and, yes, protectiveness towards women.