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Tim Barry

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Politics

Nobody…

March 30, 2021 by Tim Barry Leave a Comment

“Nobody is safe until everyone is safe”

A pernicious lie

Filed Under: COVID-19, Politics

Mask madness

March 23, 2021 by Tim Barry Leave a Comment

Last year, when we emerged from state-mandated house arrest, we entered “the new normal” of mask-wearing and social distance to prevent the spread of Covid-19. We did all of that and it did not prevent the spread of Covid-19 – so we were all placed under house arrest again.

Emily Hill

Filed Under: COVID-19, Politics

Blair’s war on freedom

March 2, 2021 by Tim Barry Leave a Comment

Blair has rarely been one to miss the opportunity to suggest that the solution to what people fear most at any given moment is more state power.

Maajid Nawaz, Unherd

Filed Under: COVID-19, Politics

Freedom matters…

December 3, 2020 by Tim Barry Leave a Comment

How easily the UK has slipped into authoritarian ways. Who would have thought at the start of 2020 that within less than 12 months the government would have to clarify that it did not support the idea of society being split into freedom castes based on vaccination?

Paddy Hannam, Spiked

Filed Under: COVID-19, Politics

The problem with the BBC

October 15, 2020 by Tim Barry Leave a Comment

For years now complaints have been levelled at the BBC for its lack of impartiality. It never ceases to amaze me how many people form their opinion on world events through the lens of the BBC. When I suggest to them that that the BBC is perhaps not the best way to keep themselves informed, I’m sometimes met with disbelief that auntie could even be questioned.

…akin to going to the newsagent to buy a copy of The Guardian and being forced by law to buy a copy of The Telegraph…

Last year, I read The Noble Liar: How and Why the BBC Distorts the News to Promote a Liberal Agenda by Robin Aitken, which gives an insider view on this very subject. It’s a an enlightening, but sobering read because this is the body that (if you own a television) are forced to support through the punitive license fee. It’s akin to going to the newsagent to buy a copy of The Guardian and being forced by law to buy a copy of The Telegraph at the same time. The sooner the license fee is abolished, the better. In that scenario everyone wins, those who want to watch the BBC can pay for it and those who do not, are free not to pay for it.

However, railing against the license fee is not the point of this post. This morning I went to check the news and wanted to see what the BBC said about the current Coronavirus situation, so I headed over to their dedicated Coronavirus page. What’s striking is the lack of a viewpoint that questions lockdown in any way shape or form.

Just take these headlines: “I was young and fit, I thought I’d get over Covid”, “On the edge of exhaustion in the NHS”, “Everybody’s got to do their bit to beat Covid” & “Why are people breaking lockdown rules?” (this one had the sub of “There are three kinds of coronavirus rule-breakers, according to one psychologist.” the implication being, that you dear BBC reader are not one of those rule breakers…).

This is a small example of the BBC’s systemic failure to present a balanced view on important issues in order that people make up their own minds, as opposed to being told what to think. The BBC drives an agenda on Coronovirus where lockdown is good, the virus is very bad and our national duty is to protect the NHS. Furthermore Big Government is always something that the left leaning BBC will champion and COV-2 has given the BBC a golden opportunity to do just this. It’s many ways, it’s a socialist dream.

This is a problem because too many people still rely on the BBC to inform them on current events and from that people form a distorted view about what the different viewpoints on a particular subject are.

Filed Under: General, Politics

Right on the money

December 12, 2018 by Tim Barry Leave a Comment

Future historians will ask in exasperation: “Why were we so negative about our future?

Owen Paterson’s letter calling for a vote of no confidence in Teresa May is outstanding in its assessment of the situation which the United Kingdom finds itself. Teresa May has sadly squandered the golden opportunity given to her 2 years ago and we have yet to see what, if anything, will be rescued from the mess she has presided over.

Here is the letter in full:


Dear Sir Graham,

I write to inform you that I no longer have confidence in the prime minister. It would be a travesty if the democratic verdict of the 2016 referendum – the largest in British history – were not delivered, yet the prime minister’s proposed “deal” is so bad that it cannot be considered anything other than a betrayal of clear manifesto promises.

These broken promises typify more than two years of poor government decision-making. It was a mistake not to begin intense preparations for leaving on WTO terms the moment the result was delivered, approaching the negotiations with a stronger hand, positioned to walk away without a deal and consequently much more likely to secure a good one.

It was a mistake for our EU negotiations to be led by a career civil servant with no business experience when the government had on hand a vastly experienced international trade negotiator, Crawford Falconer.

It was a mistake to create a new Brexit department only to keep two secretaries of state so in the dark that they had to resign over a policy one would have thought they were overseeing.

Trying to bounce cabinet ministers into supporting her white paper on the future relationship before they had a chance to consider it fully – as the prime minister did at Chequers – is simply an intolerable way for a prime minister to govern.

It was a mistake to treat Brexit miserably as a problem to be solved rather than an exciting opportunity to be grasped. The UK is the world’s fifth largest economy. We are a key NATO member, a permanent UN Security Council member, a Commonwealth realm, a nuclear power.

We are the source of the English language, the common law and occupy the ideal time-zone for global trade. Yet from the outset we have approached these negotiations as a feeble and unworthy supplicant. As Falconer said, future historians will ask in exasperation: “Why were we so negative about our future?”

These mistakes have eroded trust in the government, to the point where I and many others can no longer take the prime minister at her word. Almost two dozen times, she has ruled out membership of the customs union, yet the withdrawal agreement’s “single customs territory” sees us locked into it in all but name.

The backstop would see the whole UK remain in a customs union with the EU, with Northern Ireland in the customs union and single market. This could see new internal UK borders in breach of the Belfast Agreement’s principle of consent and the requirement to consult the Northern Ireland Assembly.

It breaches the Acts of Union 1800. The UK would not have the unilateral right to end the arrangement. We could be locked into it indefinitely as a permanent rule-taker while paying £39bn for the privilege.

European customs experts regard the withdrawal agreement’s customs arrangements as woefully out of date, proposing physical stamps and paper systems not used for nearly 20 years. They are so vague that it would be impossible to put them into practice.

Eleventh-hour “reassurances” on this issue are mere warm words if the legal text is unchanged. In any case, there is much more besides the backstop making the withdrawal agreement unacceptable.

No amount of tinkering will yield a majority in parliament for this deal. The government needs to consider more boldly the possible alternatives which might command that support. President Tusk offered just such an alternative in March: a wide-ranging, zero-tariff free trade agreement.

That deal foundered on the question of the Northern Ireland border, but existing techniques and processes can resolve this. From my October meeting with Michel Barnier, I know that a willingness exists on the EU side to explore these possibilities more fully. The meeting also confirmed that Tusk’s offer is still on the table.

Throughout this process, I have sought to support the government. The conclusion is now inescapable that the prime minister is the blockage to the wide-ranging free trade agreement offered by Tusk which would be in the best interests of the country and command the support of parliament.

I, therefore, have no confidence in Theresa May as prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party and ask that you hold a vote of no confidence.

Owen Paterson.

Filed Under: Politics

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