by Louise Mclean This is not a post that I particularly wanted to write because we are as far from achieving Brexit as ever and if anything, things have been getting worse. On 27th February 2023, with much fanfare, Rishi Sunak, the UK Prime Minister and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, presented the Windsor Framework at Windsor Castle. This was with the blessing of King Charles, effectively using the Royal Prerogative, which avoided a vote in Parliament.  The fact that the King endorsed the Windsor Framework, without a formal vote in Parliament and ..read more

by Louise Mclean The Conservative Political Action Conference was held this summer from 4th to 7th August in Dallas, Texas, with a big line up of speakers.   There was a great deal of excitement at the conference because Donald Trump's 43 candidate endorsements had nearly all won their primaries and the majority of people in the audience were MAGA (Make America Great Again) supporters! On Thursday 4th August, Viktor Orban took to the stage to often rapturous applause, especially when he attacked the Woke agenda by saying: 'A man is a father, a woman is ..read more

  by Louise Mclean For the past couple of years, Northern Ireland has been in limbo, due to the very restrictive rules of the Northern Ireland Protocol signed by Boris Johnson as part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement legislation.  Currently the rules which affect trade with mainland Britain are still going through a 'grace period' due to end shortly.  Over the past few months the Assembly in Stormont has been shut down by the Democratic Ulster Party, who refuse to allow it to operate until this has been sorted out. It has been effectively without an executive since Febru ..read more

by Louise Mclean Northern Ireland Parliament In 2019 Boris Johnson accepted the Northern Ireland Protocol as being part of the Brexit legislation, eventually signing it into effect in January 2020.  While the rest of Britain left the EU, the Protocol meant Northern Ireland was left behind in the Single Market and under European Union law.  Here Lord David Frost explains the full history of the Protocol. https://www.briefingsforbritain.co.uk/the-northern-ireland-protocol-how-we-got-here-and-what-should-happen-now/ In order to avoid a hard border between the North and S ..read more

We have recently been presented with a plan to deal with the huge numbers of illegal immigrants coming over in small dinghies across the English Channel from France.  Boris Johnson has made the case and Priti Patel the Home Secretary has said they will be sent to a processing centre in Rwanda, East Africa. Apparently Priti Patel signed a memorandum with Rwanda last week and will pay the country £120 million.  In the meantime, the Royal Navy will be tasked with policing the English Channel, to apprehend the small boats.   Naturally all the woke liberals are up in arms at t ..read more

by Louise Mclean On Thursday 6th May 2021 up to 100 French fishing vessels blocked the port of St. Helier in Jersey in protest against new rules. Throughout the Brexit negotiations which carried on for five years, the French were extremely angry about losing any rights to fishing in British waters, which they had been doing since we joined the European Union in 1972. Things got extremely heated at the end of 2020, when talks between the EU and their British counterparts were putting the final touches to the Brexit deal.  The French government were making threats against Britain re ..read more

by Louise Mclean Currently the people of Northern Ireland are so incensed about the way they have been sold out to the EU by the British Government, that violent nightly riots have been going on all over Northern Ireland since 29th March. Ever since Brexit finally happened at the very end of 2020, it has been a very hollow victory for its supporters, mainly because of the terms and conditions relating to Northern Ireland.  The Northern Ireland Protocol, which Unionist politicians believe should be scrapped immediately, has created a border down the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and ..read more

by Louise Mclean Boris Johnson unveiled the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement on 26th December 2020, which was signed on 30th December 2020, along with a new Bill called the European Union (Future Relationship) Act 2020, which was rushed through Parliament on that day and almost unanimously passed by 521 to 73 votes. Finally, we then formally left the European Union on 31st December 2020 but quite honestly, it is a rather hollow victory, as although on the face of it we got back our sovereignty, we won little of what we voted for in 2016 and are still joined at the hip in m ..read more

by Louise Mclean From 1st January to 31st December we have been going through a transition phase of leaving the European Union, continuing to abide by all their rules and regulations until that final date, when we are supposed to have agreed a trade deal. Since at least March 2020, the UK Brexit negotiators have been talking to the EU, looking for an agreement.  Here we are, nine months' later and that trade deal has not yet been signed. For the last few months and at least since the end of June 2020, when the deal was supposed to be agreed, four main sticking points have remai ..read more

  by Louise Mclean The ongoing sorry saga of this year's Brexit negotiations continues, despite three missed deadlines. The first was the important date of 30th June 2020, when a trade deal should have been agreed or otherwise a possible transition extension. Boris Johnson and Lord David Frost, our Brexit negotiator, stood firm however and refused to change the final transition deadline of 31st December 2020. Since then there have been other deadlines that Boris Johnson set, such as 31st July, 15th October and 15th November, when an EU Summit was taking place duri ..read more