"Within minutes of Liz Truss’s final, ignominous speech as Prime Minister on the steps of Downing Street last autumn, her staunch ally Jacob Rees-Mogg also resigned his post as Business Secretary.
Jumping before he was pushed by Rishi Sunak, Rees-Mogg dated his 25 October resignation letter as “St Crispin’s Day”, a reference to the Christian saint murdered by the Romans.
If he saw himself as a martyr of the low tax Trussonomics and Brexiteer cause, the former Business Secretary’s holy ghost certainly hovered over the Commons chamber later that day when the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill had its second reading in the Commons.
Although it was left to a junior minister to introduce this landmark piece of legislation, which seeks to abolish by the end of 2023 all remaining EU rules in the UK, Rees-Mogg’s name was still on the front of the bill. Before the debate even started, SNP MP Patrick Grady suggested the bill be dropped because it was “essentially a vanity project” for the departed minister.
Well, the controversial bill – which supporters said would launch “a bonfire of EU law” – survived and on Wednesday it is due to clear its remaining Commons stages. While Rees-Mogg may be gone from government, his cherished legislation very much remains.
Yet there has been a growing cross-party campaign to amend the bill, particularly to curb the sweeping powers that it will give to ministers to pick and choose which of up to 4,000 retained EU rules should be junked automatically at the end of this year."
Paul Waugh, writing in the "i"
link.news.inews.co.uk/view/626bacc9f2d729fb4f0ca9c2i0xp4.1bxe/a781c12f
Frome Town Council, which is politicallly independent, has passed a vote of no confidence in disgraced MP for Somerton and Frome, David Warburton.
www.frometimes.co.uk/2023/02/28/town-councils-vote-of-no-confidence-in-mp-david-warburton/
I agree with varian that we need a by-election in Somerton & Frome.
Eleven months ago David Warburton MP, who has been listed as a member of the ERG, was splashed all over the Sunday papers, accused of sexual harassment by three different women, taking class A drugs and having undeclared financial dealings with a very dodgy Russian.
He had brought the dodgy Russian into the House of Commons and introduced him to Rees Mogg in an effort to have him reinstated as a suitable person to be involved in financial services.
Is Warburton being protectcd by the ERG?
What do we have to do to get rid of David Warburton? It is time for a by-election in Somerton and Frome.
www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/apr/02/tories-suspend-david-warburton-amid-claims-over-sexual-harassment-and-drug-use
He claims he was a busy Cabinet Minister so needed the testing 9f his child to release him for work but I recall his idling in a horizontal position on the front bench.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, despite his claims to religious belief in doing the right thing, has demonstrated beyond any doubt that he. like Boris Johnson, thinks that the rules which govern other people, the rules he voted for, do not apply to him
I see from today's Telegraph that Rees-Mogg appears to have been given special treatment over Covid testing than the rest of us. No doubt he will have an explanation for this.
Regulations covering workers rights, parental leave, doctor qualifications, child safety and compensation for delayed flights are all at risk.
The Conservative Government’s new Retained EU Law Bill aims to remove hundreds of pieces of legislation from UK law.
This is short-sighted politics at its worst, putting political posturing above all else.
www.libdems.org.uk/news/adlib-articles/conservatives-protections-bonfire
Grantanow
Printing money leads to inflation if it is carried to extremes as it would need to be if used to fund the NHS and other services. That may not matter within an economy if wages, etc. rise in line but it does matter in respect of confidence in international dealings in trade, borrowing, etc. Also extra printed money tends to find its way into stock market speculation rather than into company investment as we have seen in the QE practiced over the past decade.
I think it's a case of 'printing money and giving it to the wrong people' leads to inflation. As you noted here:
^ Also extra printed money tends to find its way into stock market speculation rather than into company investment as we have seen in the QE practiced over the past decade.^
The original QE in 2007/8 was to put more into bank's reserve accounts to prevent them failing as a result of their depositors withdrawing their funds (as happened to Northern Rock). It was also intended to encourage banks to lend more to businesses and stimulate growth. But what happened in reality was, as you say, unintended (but possibly foreseeable if government wasn't so blinded by the completely unevidenced neo-liberal 'trickle down' ideology). If the 'printed' money had been distributed to the population it would have been spent into the economy and driven growth.
QE was intended to bolster the pound in 2016 after the disastrous referendum result, which it did, and QE in the pandemic was to tide us over while the economy ground to a halt, which it did to a certain extent with furlough and help for businesses. Of course, we subsequently discovered that huge amounts of it ended up in the hands of fraudsters and profiteers; making many of them very rich.
But, none of these 'money printing' exercises led to inflation as most of us understand it. The current bout has nothing to do with QE at all.
Printing money leads to inflation if it is carried to extremes as it would need to be if used to fund the NHS and other services. That may not matter within an economy if wages, etc. rise in line but it does matter in respect of confidence in international dealings in trade, borrowing, etc. Also extra printed money tends to find its way into stock market speculation rather than into company investment as we have seen in the QE practiced over the past decade.
The economic growth we once had under Blair has to be regained so we have enough taxation income to support the public services we need.
We do not need taxation income to pay for our public services. We have a sovereign currency; we can create as much of it as we can use while there are resources available to buy with it. And no-one can say that we don't have the resources.
Taxation just destroys the government issued money once it has worked through the economy stimulating growth and economic activity.
We are a country, not a business. We don't have to 'earn' a living, balance the books or make a profit; we just have to balance the economy to ensure our resources are used to the best advantage, for the good of all our citizens, not just a favoured few..
See www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/11/revealed-secret-cross-party-summit-held-to-confront-failings-of-brexit?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
At last someone is using their brain and hopefully without all the 'f*ck business', blaming the French, blaming the EU for decisions our Ministers voted for at Council, etc., associated with Johnson and the rest of the backwoodsmen. And without the Mogg's lunatic idea of killing all EU-derived regulation in one Act. Most of the regulations were voted for by UK Ministers at EU Councils and are sensible. They were not imposed unilaterally on the UK whatever the Brexiteers were led to believe.
It will take years to dig the UK out of the economic hole Cameron, Johnson and Truss and the Tories have dug. The economic growth we once had under Blair has to be regained so we have enough taxation income to support the public services we need. Flag waving won't pay for that.
Workers rights, health standards, safety standards, environmental protection, national security, safeguarding children, protecting our national heritage, sharing vital information in medicine, science, engineering, defense, etc etc etc.
All being sacrificed on the altar of this illusionary brexit.
Surely nobody, even the most rabid Leave voter, would ever have voted for this ouitrageous attack on the Briitish people?
One of my worries with abandoning all the EU legislation is to do with workers rights. I have the feeling that the Tories intentionally have dragged their heels in introducing the recommendations of the Taylor Report of 2017 which covered employment and workers rights. They could see in the future that the EU regulations, that they weren't in agreement with and much of which they did not bother to enforce, were going to be banished into oblivion. If that actually happens there will be no rules and regulations in existence to fall back on.
Good idea ronib
Grantanow I was given the tip to request that the issues raised would be forwarded by the mp to the appropriate minister for their consideration and comment.
Might be best to keep letters short as only half is ever addressed!
Yes, ronib. Too many Tory MPs' office staff construct the boiler plate reply without even bothering to read the constituent's letter properly as I have found myself. But MPs do worry, I think, if they get a shoal of letters expressing the same concern (unless they are real boneheads).
Most small businesses are battered by the real Brexit consequences - extra costs, more form-filling, customs delays, etc. - and abandoning a whole lot of EU derived regulations will make it even harder for them to comply with EU trade requirements. Both major Parties are terrified of the pro-Brexit, anti-immigration, flag wavers so we shall stay in the sh*t for a long time.
Grantanow Maybe there’s a knack of writing to your mp, even a Tory one, but we always get either a boiler plate reply or something like we must agree to disagree!
So good luck and phrase your letter carefully.
Everyone should read the article referenced by varian above. The consequences of the Mogg's Bill are horrendous. Write to your MP - especially Tories- and ask if they know that they are voting for? Tell them to oppose it.
Bonfire of Insanity: The unwelcome return of the Retained EU Law bill
Why Rees-Mogg’s bill to sunset EU laws is so inflammatory and what you can do about it
www.theneweuropean.co.uk/bonfire-of-insanity-the-unwelcome-return-of-the-retained-eu-law-bill/
Deregulation is a Tory old chestnut and the EU is a whipping boy.. Most regulations are there for good reason and if the Tories abolish swathes of EU derived regulations - which UK Ministers voted into existence for the most part, certainly not unelected EU officials - a lot of people are going to find protections they had will disappear. Oreo and Whitewavemark2 are quite right. Rees-Mogg is banging his usual drum and a period of silence from him would be most welcome.
Katie59 so far though we’re not deceived but cross as we delve further. Maybe some day it will dawn on all political parties that truth is more important than spin.
A law is a regulation for which there is a penalty for disobeying, even if that penalty is disregarded.
These changes are largely political to deceive us into believing that things are changing, maybe 1% will change, not always for the better. So don’t expect to keep warm for long in front of the bonfire of red tape.
Not Spaghetti maybe someone with a legal understanding of what counts as a law could explain Thompson Reuters figures.
If Thompson Reuters is correct, it is clear that we have been misled about getting rid of EU laws in the Uk. Or is it that the Uk government chooses which laws to junk?
ronib
"The British government has voted against EU laws 2% of the time since 1999"
"Official EU voting records* show that the British government has voted ‘No’ to laws passed at EU level on 56 occasions, abstained 70 times, and voted ‘Yes’ 2,466 times since 1999" (^https://fullfact.org/europe/eu-facts-behind-claims-uk-influence/^)
Logically then, we voted no 126 times and yes 2,466 times. Given this, I doubt if more than 2% of the 4,000 laws should go.
*^Sara Hagemann (2016)^ 'Government decision records from the Council of the European Union 1999-2016, dataset v. March 2016’, London School of Economics and Political Science.
oreo - I thought Statutory Sick Pay started in 1983?
I could be wrong?
I know ours is very poor compared to the rest of Europe.
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