by Louise Mclean
I don't own a mansion, nor do I have a large private pension but the proposals for new taxes by the Conservative government in the March budget make me wonder whether they are in fact socialists in disguise. Today we see that Sajid Javid has resigned as Chancellor, so perhaps these new taxes will be scrapped.
However, Conservative voters especially will be shocked by these ideas but there are many other red flags raised in the first two months of this new Government.
The decision to allow Huawei to run our 5G network is threatening our excellent relationship with the USA, who are apparently furious that Britain will be using them. We were supposed to be negotiating a trade deal with America straight after leaving the EU on 31st January but now it appears to be delayed. Starting these trade deal negotiations with the US before a trade deal with the EU would have been good strategy.
HS2, which we all had high hopes would be summarily scrapped, is now going ahead. The 100 billion could have funded a new rail network for the North, among other things. The public see it as a huge waste of money, just so that a small number of people can shave 20 minutes of their journey from London to Manchester, quite apart from the 100 ancient woodlands and countless small villages that will be desecrated.
Then there is the question of illegal immigrants turning up on our shores in droves in Kent. Far from being sent back to France, they appear to be taken to Dover. The public are desperate to know when this will stop. Twitter has been talking of nothing else. Some time back Boris said he would like an amnesty for illegal immigrants, which doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
We read that Jamaican criminals are being deported but what about all the other terrorists, murderers and rapists of foreign descent? The public would like to see these deported.
It is all very well catching 100 or so illegal immigrants coming in on dinghies across the Channel We have a nearly 8,000 mile coastline, which is unmanned and they can come in at will anywhere around it. Apparently we now have 11 patrol boats, whereas other countries like Italy have hundreds.
Of course this is not including the many illegals coming in via lorries, most of which may be undetected. Since the driver would probably be fined, if he did find stowaways in his lorry without his knowledge, he would probably let them go and keep quiet! Yesterday we learnt of a driver being sent to jail for bringing in 3 Vietnamese people.
Then there is getting rid of gas boilers and buying electric cars, which will be very expensive for people and the expensive idea of building a bridge from Northern Ireland to Scotland, which will likely go over budget.
Boris giving a peerage to arch-Remainers Philip Hammond and Ken Clarke has not gone down well with Brexiteers. Not exactly in line with his removing the whip from those 21 Remoaner Conservative MPs last autumn.
We can only pray that Boris does not backtrack on his promises regarding Brexit. We must fully regain our fishing territories, be out of the Customs Union and Single Market, remove the ECJ from rulings and run the country under our own laws. Will he allow European trawlers to have fishing quotas under licence?
The biggest red flag of all of course was last Autumn calling Mrs. May's Withdrawal Agreement with the backstop removed, 'over ready'. It was a terrible deal voted down 3 times in Parliament and should have been scrapped altogether.
We are now in for another 10 months of intense agony negotiating with the EU over a trade deal. They have already made constant demands and threats in advance of this. They are adamant they want to carry on fishing in our territorial waters, threaten that we will no longer have access to EU financial services and are still trying to make us stay part of the Customs Union, Single Market with our laws being overseen by the European Court of Justice.
Professor Alan Sked, a founder of UKIP, said on television recently that the EU has no trade deal with the USA or China yet trades with them both. What does that tell you? That this whole trade deal thing with the EU is a bit of a hoax. We don't need a trade deal with them.
The very best outcome for Britain would be to just leave on WTO terms. Under GATT 24 the EU and Britain would have up to 10 years to agree a free trade deal and could carry on trading on current terms until this is finalised.
A poll in the Daily Express yesterday asking if we should just leave on WTO rules, has reached 98% in favour.
Sadly Boris has shown no sign of wanting to do this.
Yet it would be a true Brexit, giving us everything we voted for and more. If we had left on WTO on 31st January, we could have started making trade deals with the rest of the world immediately. As it is, we can't sign any until we leave fully at the end of December this year.
In fact the EU has us in exactly the position it wants us. We have no say whatsoever in Europe, must follow all EU laws and adopt any new ones, as well as carry on paying them our membership fee. Yes, this should only be until the end of the year. That is if the EU in the next 10 months haven't found ways to keep us in this position for longer.
