howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Weird Granny Slater
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 3,064
In the Conservative Parliamentary Party: there are plenty of candidates.
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
good grief, bloody numpty.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,070
'This is a problem in politics. One of most honest answers a person can give is "I do not know", but as a result of point-scoring such as this we encourage people to lie.' - Thomas Evans.
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Button
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 3,053
I don't mind him not knowing, although Dover being so obviously close to France you'd think it would have occurred to him to enquire further, and fair do's that he's said so now. However, the worrying point is if he devised objectives or took actions without this knowledge.
(Not my real name.)
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
so the penny has finaley droped, ker chinge
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
He is four months into the job and the biggest issue has been Dover and Calais surrounds grinding to a halt. I can't believe that our MP, DHB and the ferry companies have not been briefing him.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
lack of communication and laziness to do so.
howard mcsweeney1 likes this
Guest 1694- Registered: 24 Feb 2016
- Posts: 1,087
Hi Howard, they have.
howard mcsweeney1 likes this
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 3,053
You have a point, Mr McS, and I'm tempted to view Mr Raab more harshly. On the other hand: a) the article doesn't say when he had his revelation and b) assuming the context is 'and hence there's a risk of gridlock unless...', the only consistent voice of the 3 you mention has been, like it or not, DHB's. Even Eurotunnel (who, like the ferry operators, have shareholders) have not always publicly acknowledged the risk.
(Not my real name.)
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
Eurotunnel will retain a discrete silence on the subject. They are essentially a French company nowadays and their shareholders are predominantly French. Additionally, there is much more space available in and around Coquelles if customs checks demand it.
And who knows whether Macron will see fit to rescind the Le Touquet agreement? Either way the company will be in a more privileged position than the ferries or the ports of Calais and Dover. Jacques Gounon has a lot of political influence. That's how he got the job in the first place.
howard mcsweeney1 likes this
TheThinWhiteDuke- Registered: 7 Jul 2016
- Posts: 357
ray hutstone wrote:Eurotunnel will retain a discrete silence on the subject. They are essentially a French company nowadays and their shareholders are predominantly French. Additionally, there is much more space available in and around Coquelles if customs checks demand it.
And who knows whether Macron will see fit to rescind the Le Touquet agreement? Either way the company will be in a more privileged position than the ferries or the ports of Calais and Dover. Jacques Gounon has a lot of political influence. That's how he got the job in the first place.
I can see them retaining that discreet silence all the while we are bunging The French Government, Eurotunnel and The Ports of Calais and Dunkirk millions and millions of pounds a year to bolster their security. I can't see Le Touquet being rescinded any time soon. It'll just mean that any additional checks introduced
may be done "juxtaposed" for the time being.
Plus I think they have to give fair notice.
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
We've certainly spent millions securing the immediate area around the Coquelles terminal but I wasn't aware that money had been thrown at either Calais or Dunkirk. And you're right about the notice period for withdrawal from the Le Touquet agreement. I think it is 2 years. My sources tell me that it is under active consideration though, dependent upon how things develop.
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 3,053
If you look carefully at the Le Touquet document, you can detect that it could be put in abeyance by exchange of letters - ie. without the 2 years.
Yes, UK money went into extending security infrastructure at Calais. Juxtaposition of customs controls, by which I mean freight clearance, is something the Straits need like a hole in the head - even Eurotunnel don't have that.
(Not my real name.)
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
Thanks Button. I wasn't aware of the abeyance clause and I didn't know that the UK had subsidised the Calais security work. At the tunnel, of course, we virtually stumped up for the whole bloody lot.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Courtesy of the Times
In these dramatic times at Westminster, there are dim forces at work. None dimmer than Andrew Bridgen, the Tory MP for North West Leicestershire. You won’t have heard of him, but he is the backbench brains of the operation that has been telling journalists for weeks that the 48th letter to trigger a vote of no confidence in the prime minister is in, or about to go in, or will be once he has finished writing it. These people want to run the country, and they can’t run a stationery cupboard. My concern is that he thought he could write all 48 himself. Have you seen the price of stamps?
Only last week he claimed that Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, could destroy the letters to save May. Bridgen wanted “to see whether he has recently bought a deluxe shredding machine”. Because Bridgen is the sort of assassin who puts his weapon on expenses.
If May is ousted nobody would be more surprised than Bridgen himself, having led unsuccessful efforts to unseat David Cameron, John Bercow and Keith Vaz. His track record for predictions is like my track record for giving up alcohol. And both involve talking nonsense. Before the Tory party conference, Bridgen was quoted in one paper predicting May would be “booed” during her speech, and in another paper that she would face an “empty hall”. Booed by an empty hall? How does that work?
But then he’s not what you would call a details man. He’s one of those who thinks a trade deal could be struck “in an afternoon”. He’s also big on violent imagery: wanting to stab Cameron “in the front so I can see the expression on his face”, and saying that May had rolled a rock “over her own head”. On Thursday he rushed on to BBC Breakfast to dismiss her deal as “even worse” than Chequers. So you’ve read it, asked the presenter. “No . . . I haven’t.”Last month he claimed on TV that the “good people” of Ireland will also want to leave the EU once they see Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit “land of milk and honey”. Which I think is all we’ll have to eat then. And in a hilariously bad radio interview he boasted: “As an English person I have the right to go over to Ireland. I believe I can ask for a passport, can’t I?” No Andrew, you can’t. No passport, blue or otherwise. In recent months he has spoken to the press on the burka, the Archbishop of Canterbury, drugs, midwifery, immigration, a National Trust memorial to executed gay men, the Scottish tax system, aid for India, gagging orders, bonuses, university credit cards, uninvestigated burglaries and the BBC 6 Music presenter Cerys Matthews.
He spends his days loitering near journalists in parliament’s Portcullis House, dispensing what is known in the trade as “utter rubbish”. His ubiquity has earned him daft monikers, including “the Midlands Machiavelli”, the “dean of dissent”, and the “pre-washed potato magnate”, which refers to his vegetable prep business rather than his looks. It is why he is known by unkind Tory colleagues as “spud-u-hate” and “thick as mash”.
You might keep an eye out for him in future, but that won’t be the full picture. Sometimes his quotes are attributed to a “senior Tory MP” — which means it really is total cobblers if even Bridgen won’t put his name to it.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
The Tories are now bringing their best talent to the fore.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
