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Showing posts from September, 2018

Brexit - An Open Letter to Theresa May 24 September 2018

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Dear Mrs May As I am someone who has been your constituent for many years, the current situation on Brexit upsets me greatly.   You are a fine  constituency MP, but in danger of becoming known as " She Broke Britain ".  Unless you change tack quickly. We met in one of your clinics, and your response across the desk was rapid and thoughtful. Your continued involvement with local matters is commendable given your Prime Ministerial responsibilities.  Which is more than can be said for some of your Tory colleagues nearby who do not have any ministerial workload. But you are now throwing all that respect and goodwill away.  Brexit and the negotiations are an unmitigated disaster.  Your legacy as Prime Minister is in danger of being “ She Broke Britain ” Looking back at some of your speeches in recent years, here you were as an MP apparently in touch with ordinary people and their concerns.  In particular your speech at the Bank of England on 28 September 2017 , almost e

Brexit - The £350m figure and the Need for Balance

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My gast was truly flabbered to hear the £350 million per day figure from the side of the red bus repeated AS IF FACT on a BBC newsbeat programme, on Radio 1 at lunchtime .  Even more so to hear it repeated at 5.45pm . This is despite the BBC itself declaring this is a gross figure, and the realistic figure is far smaller. A year ago the BBC published this assessment , pointing out that The gross figure is currently less than £350m per week This ignores the "rebate" and other monies that come back into the UK as grants etc Not am isolated report.  Slightly earlier, in August 2017, the BBC suggested a more realistic figure : "The figure of £156m is what you get if you take the gross contribution and subtract the rebate and the amount spent by the EU on funding things in the UK such as supporting farmers and regional aid." But this doesn't take into account the cost of replicating agencies and work currently paid out of the UK's contributions t