@RichardBentall @GavinBarwell And Switzerland isn’t in the single market…
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Robert MacKay
62.3K posts
Robert MacKay
@RubiRubenstein
Scottish Tory living in London. Medical Entrepreneur. Angel Investor. Jewish. Libertarian.
London Katılım Kasım 2010
5.1K Takip Edilen3.1K Takipçiler
@RubiRubenstein @GavinBarwell Both are in the single market and Shengen.
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It's reasonably likely we will rejoin at some point given huge age skew in support for Brexit and geopolitical trends
But it's not going to happen quickly both because EU won't want us back until UK public opinion clearly in favour and neither left nor right bloc aligned on it
Daniel Hannan@DanielJHannan
Britain will never vote to rejoin - and, for all their protestations, Labour politicians know it. Me in the Telegraph. Paywall down. telegraph.co.uk/gift/ac4274f29…
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@RichardBentall @GavinBarwell I understand. They are not in the EU.
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Robert MacKay retweetledi
The climate is always changing
Has been since the dawn of time. Sometimes we get ice ages too.
The real nutters are people who think they can stop that by recycling a milk bottle
RS Archer@archer_rs
Apparently climate change is a myth.
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@RichardBentall @GavinBarwell I do understand your point. But you don’t see Switzerland and Norway scrambling to get in.
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@RubiRubenstein @GavinBarwell Please try and understand my previous answer.
All member states get back more from the EU than the (relatively small) sums they send to Brussels.
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Robert MacKay retweetledi
Much of left wing politics requires you not to understand how it would work in practice so you can maintain support in principle.
If you understood how it worked you'd have to abandon the idea.
Sam Taylor@staylorish
Three cheers for that audience member. And deft moderation by @StephenJardine. “So wait a minute… we pay the supermarkets to lower their prices… is that what you’re suggesting?” An unusually entertaining and illuminating 90 seconds from last week’s #bbcdn
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@RubiRubenstein @GavinBarwell Fiscally, EU membership is positive for all member states. The 'net contribution' is far outweighed by indirect economic benefits including increased tax revenues.
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Robert MacKay retweetledi
The economist Catherine McBride has done some arithmetic. Rejoining the Erasmus scheme (paying for student exchanges and EU propaganda) was refused by the Johnson government as too expensive, and less effective than our own Turing scheme. According to McBride’s calculations, the present Government has now signed up to pay twice as much to the EU – £810m annually from 2028 onwards. The same sum could fund free tuition for 84,900 needy UK university students.
John Longworth@john4brexit
Robert Tombs There has never, since Britain became a democracy, been such blatant contempt for a democratic vote telegraph.co.uk/authors/r/rk-r…
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@RichardBentall @GavinBarwell Are they going to be net contributors?
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@RubiRubenstein @GavinBarwell Seems unlikely. 10 countries currently want to join and the EU has shown that it can survive a member departing.
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@RubiRubenstein @GavinBarwell Yes, that's what they said would happen after Brexit - the floodgates would open and we'd be the first of many.....
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Robert MacKay retweetledi
Would it be too much to ask the right to put country first?!
Kelvin MacKenzie@kelvmackenzie
Reform 40%. Restore 7%. Burnham 43%. The Sunday Times poll for Survation at Makerfield shows the split right will bring in our most Lefty Prime Minister ever. Grateful if Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe would put down their swords and pick up the phone.
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@GavinBarwell I never predicted that. Seemed unlikely. I am thinking that the German economy may now be in long term decline and that is likely to have wider consequence.
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@RubiRubenstein Of course. The world is a volatile place at the moment
But Brexiteers have been predicting others will follow us and it hasn't happened yet. In fact, there is an increasing queue to get it
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@ArchRose90 @Daily_Ref Reform can win where Tories cannot. And vice versa. We are going to have to work together at some point. We agree on practically everything.
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In 2019, the Conservatives received 34% of the votes in Makerfield.
In 2024, they received 11% of the vote.
Now a Survation poll has them on just 2%.
This is why I find the “we’re back” narrative to be completely bonkers. Outside of London, it’s non existent.
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@LairdSummerisle I also like him. But we have to see him off. Make sure this is his last stand (other than his own seat).
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Restore are going to f*ck it for all of us.
I like Rupert Lowe, but he's letting a personal vendetta get in the way of the national interest.
Politics UK@PolitlcsUK
🚨 NEW: The first Makerfield by-election poll shows Andy Burnham will win the seat 🔴 LAB - 43% ➡️ REF - 40% 🇬🇧 RES - 7% 🟠 LD - 4% 🟢 GRN - 3% 🔵 CON - 2% ⚪ Other - 1% Via Survation, 369 sample, May 18-22
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Everyone is panicking about @RestoreBritain_ splitting @reformparty_uk vote and allowing Burnham to win.
The panic is misplaced.
The worst political outcome would be Restore stepping aside to allow Reform a victory.
With its current direction of travel, Reform offers the country no redemption. By stepping aside, Restore would concrete in Reform’s hopelessness.
Restore must fight this election and do the best it can. If it were to gain 7% of the vote, as predicted, that would send an earth quake through Reform.
Reform might then correct its ways.
A Burnham victory makes not a blind bit of difference to the country. Labour has a 156 seat majority. Whether Burnham or some other idiot from Labour becomes PM makes no difference.
And for those worried about an early general election - turkeys do not vote for Christmas. It is not happening.
Restore and Rebecca Shepherd must fight this by election tooth and nail.
I know @_AdvanceUK supporters are already in Makerfield campaigning on their behalf. I will help where I can.
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Robert MacKay retweetledi
A (polite) Reform supporter just asked me who I would vote for if I lived in Makerfield.
As a Labour member who backs SKS 100%, this was an excruciating question to even think about, let alone answer.
Interested to hear how any other SKS supporting Labour voters would vote?
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@montie @SpencerPitfield Agree. Reform must ignore Restore in Makerfield. Go for Labour and galvanise the anti Labour vote. It is a 2 horse race. Let people know what they have to do without saying anything about Restore.
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I don't often agree with Dan but this is a warning that Reform's campaign should heed. Restore may be big in its Twitter backyard but it is desperate for mainstream attention and to use that attention to begin eating into Reform's vote. If I was one of Labour's many Machiavellians I'd ensure Restore always had enough money and enough mentions so that it begins to split Britain's populist vote. Such a split is this government's last best hope of clinging on in power. C'mon @RupertLowe10. You're better than that. Aren't you?!
(((Dan Hodges)))@DPJHodges
This is what will now happen. Reform will launch a frenzied attack on Restore to try and squeeze the Restore vote. And the effect will be to dramatically increase the salience of Restore, and have the completely opposite effect.
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@JAHeale That is brilliant! Thatcher was quick on her feet.
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RIP Jeremy Hanley, local Richmond MP and inspiration for one of the great political lines after returning to parliament after the 1983 GE:
“Mrs Thatcher, I want to thank you. I won by just 74 votes and without them I wouldn’t be here. I think your visit to the constituency made all the difference. You are responsible for those 74 votes.”
“No Jeremy,” she replied gravely. “It is you who were responsible for the 74 votes. I was responsible for the 20,000.”
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@zatzi We don’t really need to stand aside. People know what to do….
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The right needs to unite to defeat the dangers of the left.
Country before party, Britain before ego.
As a Tory, I’ve said I think the Tories should not have stood in Makerfield.
Same goes for Restore.
This is not any old election. It is a very specific one where the national interest should trump other considerations.
Kelvin MacKenzie@kelvmackenzie
Reform 40%. Restore 7%. Burnham 43%. The Sunday Times poll for Survation at Makerfield shows the split right will bring in our most Lefty Prime Minister ever. Grateful if Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe would put down their swords and pick up the phone.
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