My @Telegraph article this morning...



... explains why we need a 5-10 year action plan to rebuild Britain, & sets out ten policies that should be part of it: 👇telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/2… 1. Get tax and spending back down to Blair-era levels over the next 10 years. Tax, spend, and government regulation are at their highest since the Second World War, and are choking economic activity. The Blair era is hardly ancient history: we can get back there.

Well done @JamesCleverly with this long overdue first step.

We should soon go further though.

https://twitter.com/Mike_Blackley/status/1646771256300126208

1. It's not clear why Scottish Govt Ministers need make anything other than occasional overseas visits, any more than local Council leaders do. They run a local administration & international policy is specifically reserved.

Quick thoughts on the Dover travel issue:

1. If we want to control movement into the UK - which we do, as a key element in the Brexit vote - then we must expect the EU to control movement into the EU. We can't have it both ways & we should be honest about that.

However... ...

2. We were never in Schengen, and never would have been if we had stayed in the EU. UK passports were always checked at Dover by French officials.

I'm afraid I don't agree with this from @HCH_Hill via @CapX. (I'm not singling him out - I've seen others make the same argument.)

https://twitter.com/CapX/status/1630906741738160129

1. Starmer & @UKLabour are going to shuffle closer to the EU come what may, if they win - that's obvious, whatever they say now. The route may differ depending on the precise situation at the time but the goal is clear.

I have not heard anything authoritative about the possible deal on the NI Protocol from anyone in the Government.

Anyone who does may find it useful to have the following questions / tests in mind as they assess what they are told. 🧵 The technicalities that follow are important. We have learned we can't rely on EU commitments that aren't tied down or rest on good faith or the EU's acting reasonably. They need to be legally clear and enforceable. If they aren't, we will be back here again before too long.

As expected, all those who opposed our exit from the EU are out in force this morning trying to tell us it was a bad decision. Let's look at why they are wrong. 🧵 1/11 They seem to have forgotten how things were before 2016 - not just the obvious disagreement about the EU's goals, but the endless arguments, the constant need to block rules against our interests, the huge diversion of diplomatic effort.

Here is my @telegraph piece on the current situation.

Short 🧵. 1

telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/1… I am astonished by the deeply troubling events of recent days. The complete abandonment, under pressure, of any attempt to improve the structural conditions of the British economy leaves the government without any political legitimacy for its central policies. 2

Thank you to @redhistorian for his thoughtful response to my @telegraph article.

https://twitter.com/redhistorian/status/1560955963800174594?s=20&t=zy8NyQTCjt4iUBfHvvrmvw

I don’t disagree with most of his thread, but equally I don’t think it entirely addresses the points I was trying to make. Let me explain why. THREAD. One can’t say everything in a short newspaper column. It is of course obvious and correct that Scotland, Wales, & Ireland retained distinctive features of domestic governance, character, and identity, after becoming part of the UK. This feature is not unique to the UK.

A quick comment on the current situation.

The Prime Minister cannot continue because the business of government cannot continue & because it is clear that he is not supported by his Party in Parliament.

I hoped he might have reflected overnight and come to realise that. (1) If the PM insists on fighting this out then he will cause serious damage to the Party and Government, and destroy his place in history.

If he insists on waiting until another vote of MPs then the 1922 Exec should meet and facilitate one more quickly than planned. (2)

It's important to cut through the noise and spin on the Wakefield and Tiverton results.

Both are terrible for @Conservatives.

Neither is particularly good for @labour or @LibDems.

Why? (1/4) In Tiverton there was some Lab/Lib switching, but their total vote as a share of the whole *electorate* only went up from from 25% to 29%.

The Tory vote collapsed from 43% to just under 20%. Nearly 20,000 of our voters stayed at home. That's why we lost. (2/4)

Here is my speech this morning, six years on from the referendum, on Brexit and where we stand, at the annual conference of @UKandEU
today.

Main points in🧵:

ukandeu.ac.uk/lord-david-fro… "First, and crucially, Brexit is fundamentally about democracy. It’s about ensuring decisions for this country are taken in this country after proper debate. That is now beginning to happen."

I was on Good Morning Ulster @bbcradioulster just after 8am talking about the Protocol & a couple of other things. Main points follow: (1)

bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/li… The Belfast Good Friday Agreement is on life support. The Protocol that was supposed to support it is actually undermining it. In these circumstances the UK Government @trussliz not only has the right but a duty to act. (2)

I worked closely with Prime Minister @BorisJohnson over the last five years. Without his leadership in 2019-20, we would simply not have succeeded in getting out of the EU or getting a free trade agreement. I hugely admire his determination in those difficult days. (1) But the task now is to make a success of Brexit with our new-found freedoms. I said when I left the Cabinet a few months ago that I had "concerns about the current direction of travel". I still do and if anything they have been reinforced in recent months. (2)

I wouldn't normally want to use Twitter to reply to @MichealMartinTD the Taoiseach, but, as he accuses me personally of wrecking the talks last year, I feel I must respond.

irishtimes.com/news/ireland/i… 1. The suggestion the UK has not set out a 'landing zone' is simply wrong. Our July 2021 Command Paper and the legal text that followed it were a very clear landing zone, explained in significant detail.

1. This video shows (as was sadly apparent while I was a Minister) that the EU simply has not engaged with or taken seriously the UK position.

https://twitter.com/georgvh/status/1524763898355847170

2. It is not true that there have been no UK proposals. In July we proposed a renegotiated Protocol. Even before that we made proposals for a trusted trader scheme & a veterinary agreement (despite the persistent belief that we have rejected this), & much else.

1/4 Obviously, as @Annaisaac says, the customs and regulatory border between us & the Republic has to be *somewhere*.

But - and I repeat what we have said many times before:

*The border for legal purposes is not where the physical checks & processes have to take place.*

https://twitter.com/Annaisaac/status/1524268329971892224

2/4 VAT & excise rates already vary between NI and Ireland (as do many many other rules), but no-one checks goods at the border. Other processes do the job & breaking the rules is to break the law.

1 I spoke at Policy Exchange @Policy_Exchange today on the history & the future of the Northern Ireland Protocol. Thanks to @ArleneFosterUK for joining me.

Text below.

policyexchange.org.uk/pxevents/the-n… 2 The speech explains the pressures and the difficult choices we faced in the negotiations of autumn 2019, and why the Protocol ended up as it did.

I believe that if we had not taken those tough decisions we would still be in the EU now.

I had a great two days in Northern Ireland meeting with community groups, political leaders and businesses like @musgravemktpl in Belfast. Thank you also to Good Morning Ulster for the chance to talk to @SJBretty & @csbuckler bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0… 1/5 While I heard a range of views, it's clear that for many the current implementation of the Protocol continues to be very problematic. The need to find sustainable solutions is as great as ever. 2/5

1/7 I would like to set out where things stand between the UK and the EU on fisheries and related issues, and why recent French rhetoric and threats, potentially leading to a breach by the EU of its Treaty obligations, are such an important matter for us. 2 We have been in talks with the EU Commission for weeks on fisheries licensing & have granted 98% of applications. We do so in good faith & are fully delivering on our TCA obligation - to license vessels which can prove they have actually fished previously in our 6-12nm limit.

1.  I have been looking at today's trade numbers. This month's unique combination of factors made it inevitable that we would see some unusual figures this January. As @ONS has pointed out, caution should be applied when interpreting these statistics.

Why? 2. As well as changes to our trading relationship with the EU, we also saw:

Evidence of stockpiling late last year (as @ONS note). This meant less need to move goods in January.

Covid lockdowns across Europe bringing reduced demand for goods overall.

I'm very pleased and proud to have led a great UK team to secure today's excellent deal with the EU.

Both sides worked tirelessly day after day in challenging conditions to get the biggest & broadest trade deal in the world, in record time.

Thank you all who made it happen. Today's agreement does more than just deliver a zero tariffs deal. It covers areas such as services, aviation, road transport, social security, health, fisheries, and, crucially, law enforcement. And it allows us to participate in the Horizon scientific research programme.