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🇺🇦 John Robie 🇪🇺🔶🇪🇺 #FBPA #FBPPR Profile picture
🇺🇦 John Robie 🇪🇺🔶🇪🇺 #FBPA #FBPPR
@FanaticRealist
Member of the #Twitterverse, supporter of the #Twitterati.
May 24, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Here's the problem with @bbclaurak's #Panorama on #Partygate. Johnson may well be - from a Conservative perspective - politically gifted and an election winner, but the programme actually describes the character of a narcissistic sociopath… ➡️ … who is able to post-rationalise their own actions to make them appear as if they conform to the "truth" as he sees it.

That's inimical to being able to adhere to objective ethical standards in public life which the programme didn't even mention. ➡️
May 31, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
All part of a desperate attempt to reframe the UK as a great maritime power.

In 2019, the world shipbuilding industry built 65.9 million gross tonnes of ships. 🇩🇪,🇫🇷, 🇮🇹, and 🇫🇮 - the European Super League - built 1.7 million gt.

The UK built 2,014 gt Not only does the UK not build ships anymore, it doesn't owns any; P&O commercial shipping is owned by Dubai, the former P&O Nedloyd was acquired by Maersk and CP Shipping is now owned by TUI's Hapag-Lloyd. ➡️
May 28, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Such utter bullshit.

How on earth did CCHQ become involved in this if not through a request from Johnson to, presumably, the chairpersons of the Conservative Party?➡️

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi… How did the "donor" become embroiled unless informed of a cashflow issue by the afore-mentioned chairpersons, one of whom is a cabinet-level minister (Amanda Milling)? This is 'nod and a wink', "plausible deniability" bulls••t … ➡️
Aug 24, 2020 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
@Haggis_UK The stupidity of this segment is that BMW, Daimler-Benz and VAG are all perfectly capable of operating with the obstacle of tariff barriers and still do for one of their primary markets which is the US. ➡️ @Haggis_UK Hardly anybody rocks up at a BMW or an Audi showroom and puts a suitcase of used £50 notes on the desk. Most of the transactions are executed via financing which is where the residuals of German cars come into their own. ➡️
Jun 26, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
The satellites OneWeb throw into orbit weigh about 150kg.

A Galileo satellite containing - as it does - something called a hydrogen maser (the "atomic clock" at the centre of how GNSS works) weighs 750kg and is 2.5m x 1.2 x 1.1m in size (with panels folded). ➡️ Also, good luck make OneWeb's Ku-band - all the other GNSS systems work in L-band - satellite frequencies work accurately anywhere where there's rain or snow or possibly even heavy fog. ➡️
Mar 29, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Currently watching the financial crisis drama-thriller 'Margin Call' on BBC2. There's a little allegory in it which apply to the times we're currently living in. It basically tells the story of an investment bank which, having closed most of its risk assessment section,… ➡️ … discovers that its mortgage-backed securities are about to become worthless. The 'flaw' in its books are uncovered by a man who is kicked out onto the pavement with his phone disconnected just before he finalises his work. ➡️
Feb 19, 2020 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
I'm a little confused by the mythology/chronology of @patel4witham. In several articles written about her between 2012 and 2016, she claims that her family came here with nothing having been victims of the racial and sectarian chaos in Uganda. ➡️

(Daily Mail, May 2015) But Idi Amin only came to power in January 1971 and announced the expulsion of Uganda's Asian community on 4 August 1972, some four months after Priti was born in London (29 March 1972). ➡️
Feb 4, 2020 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
I notice that, since 31/01, the fantasy that the EU had to acquiesce to UK demands on a future free trade agreement or face the demise of its car industry has returned.

As is my way, I've decided to do some deeper analysis of this to see if there's truth to it. ➡️ The basis of what follows is based on industry figures from 2018 (2019 isn't uniformly available as yet), but it's unlikely to be massively different.

Firstly, some numbers on manufacturing.

In 2018, the UK manufactured 1.520 million cars and the EU-28 16.540 million. ➡️
Aug 11, 2019 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
@christopherhope @Telegraph Well, that's nonsense. What you mean is "pallets full of food and medicine". If you landed 100 fully-laden 747-400F freighters every day (one every eight minutes or so, given they'd also have to return), you'd land a maximum of 11,300 tonnes of freight. ➡️ @christopherhope @Telegraph Assuming 36 x 96" Q6 pallets or LD-3 container per incoming flight, each would require 6 x 44-tonne artics to meet them.

So that's 600 drivers and specialised ULD adapted vehicles, not including road vehicles that can also cope with reefer containers which would be critical. ➡️
May 10, 2019 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
Well, let’s deal with the inaccuracy and the partial representation of data given that Fiona Bruce couldn’t be arsed.

In 2017, the EA-19 countries was 17.1% of world GDP by constant 2010 US$ (EU-27: 19.9%), but it took in 39.2% of 🇬🇧 goods & services exports (EU-27: 44.5%).

➡️ #2) Farage states that ‘WTO rules are the basis on which you begin’; well, that would be fine if twenty-odd countries - inc. 🇺🇸, 🇨🇳, 🇦🇺 and 🇳🇿 -hadn’t objected to the terms under which the 🇬🇧 would become a fully independent member of the WTO. ➡️

independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…
Sep 24, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Where's the punishment?

• UK government choses to remove itself from EU SM and CU.
• UK gov chooses to minimise/denigrate importance of EU SM and CU in UK trade
• A bemused EU allows the UK to test its assumptions against reality

goo.gl/rVkWQK The Leavers have spent the last 30+ months saying that the EU's Single Market, Customs Union and Common Commercial Policy effectively hold back British competitiveness and innovation.➡️
Sep 23, 2018 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
@Arron_banks And now for the second part of your remedial education for today, pointless as it may be. NATO was established to guarantee the integrity of western Europe's borders against the potential for invasion by the Warsaw Pact, primarily the Soviet Union and East Germany. ➡️ @Arron_banks The establishment of the EU's predecessors - the EEC and the ECSC - was designed to prevent internal conflict in western Europe based on economic disagreements which had been the pretext for many of Europe's conflicts over the centuries. ➡️
Sep 19, 2018 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
OK, @SJKR8, let's look at this methodically.

Firstly, your statement implies that the ability to influence any given course of action is equally shared across all stakeholders and history demonstrate that is rarely (if ever) the case. ➡️ Secondly, even an equitable distribution of influence would still require a coherent and cohesive strategic plan with negotiating objectives that are acceptable to all stakeholders (UK, EU, EU-27 member nations, European Parliament) and compatible with EU law. ➡️
Sep 16, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
There are three areas of concern in Gove's statement to Marr that the Chequers 'plan' (?) wouldn't be the settled end state of the UK's relationship with the EU-17 and be subject to change at the whim of some future PM or Conservative faction. ➡️ First, the obvious one: Why should the EU and the member nations take any element of Chequers or any variant seriously? If you're already trailing the possibility that a UK government would disavow its commitments (again), that seems unlikely to encourage trust. ➡️
Sep 13, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
If some of my fellow British Jews are preparing to leave the UK in case Corbyn becomes Prime Minister whilst the current ruling Conservative government votes to support Orban's deeply anti-Semitic (and racist) Fidesz regime, they're only looking at one side. ➡️ The thing that's re-enabling anti-Semitism in this country is the resurgence of right-wing nationalism in the wake of Brexit. Labour may not be doing anything substantive to counter this, but the Conservatives are actually encouraging it because they are in power. ➡️
Sep 12, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
So, yesterday's Brexiteers want to be able to diverge away from the rules of the Single Market (or the 'common rulebook' as Chequers calls it) because that's stifling UK economic growth and the UK must be allowed to put sawdust in sausages. ➡️ But today, the risks/effects of products that are not SM-compliant crossing over the border into the Republic and (and subsequently the remaining members of the EU-27 and the EEA) are minimal and there doesn't need to be a hard customs border in between NI and the Republic. ➡️
Aug 28, 2018 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Not going to bother with countering this bilge from @BBCr4today and @hbaldwin. It's already been covered to death in the responses. Here's a thing though: This is not the first time that this nonsense has come up nor is it the first time that it's been dismantled by experts. ➡️ Last week, @JasonJHunter said - following his appearance on @BBCRADIOKENT that Remain supporters shouldn't refer to Leavers as 'liars' because they could genuinely just be under-informed. And that's a fair position to take…the first time. ➡️
Aug 19, 2018 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Well this has aged like the finest turnip brandy… Operation Brock is basically a rebranded Operation Stack with some bells and whistles. Well, some whistles. OK, actually it's a kazoo.

kentlive.news/news/kent-news…
Aug 19, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Bridgen is literally voting to ruin the economy of his constituency and most of Leicestershire and a bit of Derbyshire because - as it's pretty much the geographic centroid of the mainland UK - it's as near as damnit Ground Zero of the logistics and distribution industry. ➡️ That's why DHL and UPS use East Midlands Airport (in Bridgen's constituency) as their UK hub. EMA is also a support site for Royal Mail and TNT and - just for good measure - it's also an EU-listed Border Inspection Post for animal products. ➡️
Aug 18, 2018 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
No, it will happen because you and your band of feckless doctrinaire ideologues will suddenly return the UK to the regulatory environment of 1972 when the UK's trade as % of GDP was only 40.5% as opposed to what it is now which is 62.5%. ➡️ If you want to know when that massive increase occurred and assuming you can understand simple graphs, here's a pretty picture for you.

What do you think happened in 1973 that caused that sudden increase, @bernardjenkin ? ➡️
Aug 9, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Well, it's either not going to end well for Johnson or it's not going to end well for the body of the Conservatives and its current leadership.

But here's the thing: Given the Conservatives' current disregard for anything approaching the national interest, I don't care.➡️ Obviously, it bothers Julia because her interests are relatively narrow, ideological and - to be blunt - self-serving. An argument over Johnson would probably provoke a schism within the conservative movement that would damage Julia's personal and professional prospects. ➡️