Sorry to have to say it but the Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty does not deserve the confidence of the country in deciding to vaccinate teenagers without good clinical reason. He should resign.
I am writing today to the Foreign Secretary to ask her what the UK is doing to discourage Canada from arbitrary & authoritarian measures against Canadian residents & their rights. We should do what we can to help our good friends there find a better way.
@trussliz
I am unequivocally pro-vaccine but vaccine passports and compulsion are not acceptable in a free society and counterproductive for confidence in vaccines and public health. I will vote against them. My comment piece on this in the Express yesterday is here:
Central bank digital currencies are just a tool for state control and deplatforming of citizens, Trudeau style or worse. Convince me otherwise
@RishiSunak
@BorisJohnson
🚨 Extraordinary thread - well done
@FraserNelson
for asking the Qs and
@GrahamMedley
for honest answers
2 key points:
Holding firm *is* a decision - often the right one and often the hardest
Modellers are modelling what they are asked to by policy makers (that’s Ministers…)
Reminder: vaccine passports don't actually work. They are a psy-opp to get people to get vaccinated. I'm all for vaccination. Just be straight with people about its benefits and safety - which are good - and stop playing these silly amd dangerous games.
How disgraceful for the Speaker to be colluding with a foreign power, if that indeed has happened. That is so far beyond his constitutional role, it is truly disgusting, and clearly brings the House of Commons into disrepute, which is contempt of the
@HouseofCommons
Hard to hear on the radio this morning that little Star may have missed assessments because of COVID that may have spotted her abuse. Get a grip people. Look at the encouraging numbers from SouthAfrica rather than the Govt's back of the envelope fearmongering & stop the hysteria
The Govt must not allow onshore British gas wells to be permanently capped with concrete when Putin has just cut off the gas to Western Europe spiking prices.
Oliver Letwin on
@BBCr4today
shows he does not have the first understanding that a customs union with the EU would not be frictionless, and that such would give EU complete control of our trading conditions. Not fit to be an MP, let alone one destroying our constitution.
Those wetting the bed about the constitution today were happy to see a biased Speaker change rules to enable their undermining of an elected government. Getting a positive new legislative programme set out in a Queen's Speech is by contrast both normal and excellent news.
Chinese government spy agencies have been massively funding front line Labour and Liberal Democrat political operations in the UK. Energy policy directed by Ed Davey and supported by Barry Gardiner has greatly favoured China and this needs to be addressed.
Criteria for UK Labour to remove vaccine passports juat confirmed by Amnelise Dodds would be children all being vaccinated and everyone else having been vaccinated and boosted. Make no mistake Labour are after the
#VaccinePassports
precisely because they are authoritarian
No
@BorisJohnson
this is utterly wrong. Masks should be banned in schools. The country should be getting back to normal not pandering to this scientifically illiterate guff
Polite reminder: National Insurance is not insurance, it is a tax, raised and spent in-year. Every politician knows this and it disingenuous to pretend otherwise.
The policy team mentioned here - Chris Whitty, Patrick Vallance and whoever else in the Department of Health and responsible Ministers - should be relieved of their positions for this egregious (and not first time) offence of overegging the evidence to suit their agenda.
I will not vote to surrender and defeat our country and its people. They, and my constituents by a large margin, voted to Leave the EU, not be humiliated and turned into supplicants just because the current leadership is incapable of being anything else.
So sad to see Hong Kong, the most efficient, fair & free trading rule of law jurisdiction in the world being undermined. What a waste. We should offer all HK citizens UK residence, and take on board as much of the Hong Kong ethic as we can, for similar freedoms and dynamism.
So Whitty says 1/2 children have had COVID & other 1/2 will have had it within a few months. Jabbing won't make a serious difference to this or each child's potential need for a few days off school. Idea their mental health requires jab would be laughable if it were not serious.
I hereby resign from
@Conservatives
.
It's dead. No chance of ever being electable again with its current non-Conservative Parliamentary composition
Move on. Let's do something else.
Hypocrite MPs who rammed through their Surrender Act in a day to scupper Brexit, but now whine about having 3 days to pass the implementing Bill for
@BorisJohnson
‘s deal so the country can leave the EU on 31 Oct as he promised. The country sees you.
#GetBrexitDone
The most effective counter to Russia’s aggression would be rapid development of the UK’s large shale gas reserve - serious about security & serious about our serious energy needs in transition to net zero
@BorisJohnson
.
Current policy is not serious.
Those who can't get a COVID pass will need to stay away from events where they are used if worried, as they are more likely to catch omicron COVID from those with the passport than from each other.
🤔
Not just Blair. I have personally witnessed a string of Labour, Cons & SNP MPs in meetings in Brussels & European embassies plead with EU & Member States to make things as tough as possible for UK to scare the British people into support for reversing the Referendum 🤮
Thanks to Remain grandees like Blair, Brussels believed playing hardball could overturn Brexit
Blindsided by the Brady amendment, which gave May a firm mandate to renegotiate, and the defeat of Coopers wrecking amendment, Brussels high command is reeling
Segregation, othering & a febrile irrational atmosphere fed by propaganda & fear can lead small step by step to terrible outcomes. That is the tragic lesson of history. Balance, respect, rationality and free decision making on good evidence are the antidote, & are where I stand.
Objectively, the “Benn” Act was born of breach of Standing Orders by Speaker whose constitutional role is to uphold them & gives Crown power exercised normally by Govt to treat with a foreign power (the EU) to the EU, with veto only for pro-EU MPs. The term
#SurrenderAct
is kind
Professor of History at St John’s Oxford: ‘voluntarily putting ourselves under the control of people whose interest is to make sure that we are not seen to prosper after Brexit. It is so stupid, it is almost unbelievable’.
Reminder: there was majority in the Commons for the Brady amendment; PM ignored it and never tabled the alternative arrangements we worked up; now she wants to side with a Marxist and his Communist adviser against
@Conservatives
to deliver the programme of her Communist adviser
This humble address request for officials' private communications that the Lib Dems, Labour and others are pushing for, against their rights, shows just what a disgraceful
#kangaroocourt
this rotten Parliament has become. 🦘 Time for a new one.
For the record, I won’t vote for the draft EU Withdrawal Agreement treaty, whether in a Bill or in a “Meaningful Vote”. It is not consistent with the referendum decision to leave the EU and would not as claimed give people of the UK control of their money, laws or borders.
Overheard in the Labour end of the tea room just now: "I've just heard a company is relocating production to my constituency from the EU because of Brexit - £60m investment, 115 jobs - won't be tweeting about that obviously!"
#despitebrexit
To those who say let’s just go along with the PM’s deal: this is who you would have to beg to release us from the EU’s power under it to set the UK’s trade and business conditions.
Liam Fox at the 1922 outlining masterfully why a customs union with the EU is such a bad idea for the UK, and the fact that the level of understanding of the technicalities by many MPs has been found wanting in debates of this issue in recent days.
Reports from South Africa continue to indicate that the omicron variant is having mild effect on people. Fingers crossed this continues to be the case - it could turn out to be the end of the pandemic globally if a mild but dominant strain takes over.
#COVID19
Sad to see
@AmberRuddHR
who is a nice person has such poor judgment. First recommending non-voting Remain Norway unicorn, now advocating second referendum.
@Conservatives
manifesto evidently meaningless to her. Not appropriate for her to be in the Government.
Not my headline but I set out here the need I see for more Conservativism and less socialist authoritarianism in the Government's approach. We need to lead and demonstrate solutions that champion freedom, choice and opportunity.
The data show it was definitely right to release restrictions completely on 21st June. Better late than never, do it on Monday please
@BorisJohnson
- the public's patience with health and other dirigisme is understandably at an end.
It's time to cut the SAGE lunatics out of decision making
@BorisJohnson
Please get on with opening up completely, meaning no, zero restrictions either in law or guidance, on 21st June.
The behavioural scientist wants you to wear masks and practice social distancing FOREVER. She doesn't even think it's a 'big deal'.
Behavioural scientists focus on behaviour. No big surprise. It is their raison d'être.
It is not reasonable to delay complete release from restrictions domestically on 21st June. The vast majority are vaccinated, the vaccines work, and the rest now have a vanishingly small risk of harm. If people don’t want to be vaccinated it is not up to society to shield them.
It’s obvious to anyone paying attention that the EU has been assisted by many in Parliament in “sabotage” despite the manifestos they stood on which promised to leave. It’s time to go.
#Brexit
“Here in the European Parliament, in the Belgian press, anywhere outside the UK, its common to talk about sabotaging Brexit & the Brexit process!”
“The tactic is simple; postpone, complicate, turn it into chaos & try to move British politics to another referendum!”
This BBC docco should be compulsory viewing: proves EU not in good faith & want us a colony, PM & advisors alternately useless & cynical; the result unacceptable. I'll never "dip my hands in the blood" of this, as EU say they want
Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi has published the "evidence" for pupils wearing face masks in schools.
Professor of Evidence Based Medicine Carl Heneghan says the study is "not fit for purpose" and actually shows evidence for NOT wearing masks.
@JuliaHB1
|
@carlheneghan
I welcome this inquiry. Part of moving on from COVID is dealing with the psychological impact of measures used to address it. Putting people into a state of fear & turning them against each other is very dangerous. It must be reversed now & not repeated.
It is sad to me that Rishi Sunak, a friend and a talent, has debased himself so much in this campaign.
The ludicrous scare tactics on inflation and interest rates are as wrong as they are pathetic.
Time for a grown up
Time for Liz Truss
@trussliz
#LizForLeader
It was good to speak to
@danwootton
last night on
@GBNEWS
about worrying Government use of extreme financial oppression against political opponents in Canada. For those who say this doesn’t matter, you may be next.
Understand Number 10 now seriously considering indicative votes on Brexit next week. Government source tells me there could be 7 options: PM deal, revocation, second ref, deal + customs union, deal + customs + single market, FTA or no deal
The Cabinet and PM have demonstrated again today that they are on the wrong path. There is a great future ahead but it needs courage and understanding, not fear and vacillation.
For children's sake, and since we are vaccinated and the virus is endemic, there must be an end to fear in schools now. No bubbles, no isolation based on testing. Just a few days off for each individual if they are ill.
@nadhimzahawi
@sajidjavid
M Barnier refused to meet our International Trade Committee at key moments last year, but met Remainer opposition figures repeatedly. Perhaps not interested in different, constructive views, EUCOM is in danger of being seen as working unelected with the unelected to undermine.
Confirmed by US Govt that COVID was a lab leak. This was fairly obvious from the interview with the Chinese researcher in charge which I got abuse / censorship for saying at the time. UK govt scientists running the UK response tried to cover it up.
What we should not “learn to live with” is the Labour unions telling us how to live our lives. Socialists and other purveyors of questionable theories won’t give up the leverage they think
#COVID
/ health panic gives them.
Only 133 out of 314 Conservative MPs voted for extension of Article 50 this afternoon. The Government simply does not have support for its current direction on the main purpose of its existence, inside the Parliamentary party, the party in the country, or the wider country.
Customs professional says procedures for lorries moving to and from Europe should be "super smooth". Fears of just in time supply chain interruption are overdone.
I am a member of the Conservative and Unionist Party. It appears the party leadership has forgotten what it means. I hope we will recover that understanding very soon.
Please stop schools using hand gel at every turn after 21 June
@GavinWilliamson
@MattHancock
some students are seen with red raw hands, natural immunity to many things needs to be built up, and degree of vaccination & vaccine effect in UK mean there should be no restrictions
The timeline of these events casts serious doubt over the bona fides of key scientific and medical advisors during the pandemic. Why cover up for China? And why should the public have confidence in them going forward?
The draft Withdrawal Agreement remains unacceptable because it’s a trap that would give EU control as they pointed out, “forcing” horrors such as defence and security giveaways on the UK. An unnecessary tragedy & inside job - it’s still right to resist.
Oliver Letwin’s concerns about leaving EU without a “deal” were centred on legality of Irish electricity interconnects, which IRE is now legislating to maintain.
@BBCr4today
really should not let him get away with unspecified fear to justify his antidemocratic stance.
At exactly the moment we were in the Cabinet Office in talks with Govt on alternative arrangements to get a deal passed, which they could not fault, and which our “chief negotiator” did not deign to attend, he seems to have been in Brussels asking our opponents to become Belgian
Sent to represent his country, he identifies more with the institutions and people on the other side of the table.
—
Britain’s chief negotiator Olly Robbins ‘asked to become Belgian’ | News | The Times
The story of South Somerset’s local election was that
@Conservatives
voters are frustrated and did not turn out to their previous degree, allowing our opponents to gain by default. The solution to the frustration is to leave the EU properly, not pretend to.
South African scientists were right about the mildness of the omicron COVID variant. All UK restrictions should be lifted and we must not follow the same reaction path again. Fear, propaganda and shutdowns are not a strategy for a virus that is endemic.
Brilliant article. A GP writes there is no excuse not to do away with COVID restrictions on 21st June. The NHS can cope (the original metric) and our collective health depends on opening up completely.
@BorisJohnson
Awful to think today that Communist authoritarianism has oppressed and damaged so many lives and spirits for so long. Concealment, co-option & coercion are the principal methods it uses and we've seen lots this last year. Let's be ever vigilant and stay free.
We want a deal with the EU but Parliament has undermined that in a fashion to which history will not be kind. Boris is right to insist our United Kingdom should remain intact & be independent. We were right to reject May's deal that would have given EU veto over that.
The rabble Remainer Lib Dems, Labour and useful idiots on Tory benches have raised the stakes and undermined the UK’s negotiation, in the “act of self-lacerating stupidity” which is the “Benn Act” AKA
#SurrenderAct
. Just makes it harder to agree a deal.
Theresa May has promised time and time again that she will take us OUT of the EU's customs union. She must not sign us up to an agreement which would risk trapping us in the customs union with no way out.
.
@GBNEWS
currently making a claim to be the most serious media organisation in the nation by discussing the national financial situation rationally and in detail - well done
@afneil
@LiamHalligan
I refused to have dinner In Downing Street last night and it sounds like I was right to do so, as Downing Street seem to be misrepresenting the views of those who did attend. A desperate, shameful attempt to spin their dud plan to sell out British democracy.
#ChuckChequers
It's been a fun 24 hrs down on the FBPE / 🇪🇺 troll farm. We would be so much further along if those who voted Remain focused on a positive relationship with the EU for the UK properly independent outside of it, rather than trying to undermine negotiations and democracy itself.
"Whether its 1% or 20%, I will forgive no one who doesn't accept the sovereign voice of the British People once it has spoken! Either you believe in democracy or you don't!" As said by the greatest leader of the Lib Dems Paddy Ashdown (
@joswinson
):
Let me know if you want me to come on and explain WTO / applied tariff reductions and preference/most favoured nation obligations and how to get to a positive trade situation with the EU and rest of the world
@bbcthisweek
@afneil
Bercow acting as if he has divine right, against the express order of the House. Speaker Lenthall will be turning in his grave at the disgrace. Is there no institution of this country Remainers like Grieve & Bercow will not debauch in their attempt to overturn democracy?
You have to have quite a lot of authority to be able to get away with saying what Bercow has just said, which is that he can change procedure as he pleases
It is quite absurd to characterise wanting political accountability hence to leave the EU as right or left. It is in fact a very mainstream and straightforward view, and those trying to smear it say more about themselves when they do so.
It is wrong for extreme Hard Remain politicians to suggest that supporters of a clean Brexit represent "hard right fascism" or "the more extremes of the right".
Leaving the EU is the most mainstream position there is - people across the entire political spectrum voted for it.
Strong performance by PM
@BorisJohnson
dealing with some pretty hectoring questioning from
#Marr
who didn't seem to want to admit the facts. To secure our future there's only one choice: Boris Johnson & Conservative. Chaotic terrorist sympathiser Corbyn would not keep us safe.
People’s votes have been stolen by the Lib Dems and others in Parliament, who refuse to make themselves accountable to the people. I am proud to be on the side of the people rather than this delusional rotten Parliament.