EU
Express
PROSPECTS of a Hard Brexit are terrifying German businesses who are increasingly panicked over losing access to the British market – with the head of a business association urging Brussels’ negotiating team “the clock is ticking louder”. Jan Eder, the director of the Berlin’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK) said it is “highly regrettable” that the Brexit negotiations are stalling. He added: “There aren’t even 250 days left in the countdown to the end of March 2019 and we are still facing a completely open negotiation result.
Express
THE EU has been warned to prepare for the possibility of a “chaotic no-deal Brexit” by Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt, who added the risk of it happening has been increasing recently. Both London and Brussels are hoping to agree a divorce deal at the EU Council on October 18, but diplomats think that target date is too optimistic. Speaking after a meeting with Finnish counterpart Timo Soini in Helsinki, Mr Hunt warned: “I think the risk of a no Brexit deal has been increasing recently. There is absolutely no guarantee that we will get a deal.
Guardian
Jeremy Hunt has called on the EU to change its approach on Brexit, and said the risk of failing to reach a deal has risen in recent weeks. The British foreign secretary was speaking at the start of three-day tour of continental Europe aimed at persuading member states to back Theresa May’s Brexit plan. “I think the risk of a no Brexit deal has been increasing recently,” Hunt told journalists in Helsinki. “But it’s not what anyone wants and I hope very much that we’ll find a way to avoid that.” He added: “We do need to see a change in approach by the European commission.”
Sky News
The EU needs to “change its approach” to avoid a no-deal Brexit, Jeremy Hunt has said. Speaking at the start of a three-day tour of Northern Europe, the foreign secretary called on Jean-Claude Juncker’s European Commission to show a “pragmatic approach” to negotiations. He said: “The risk of no Brexit deal has been increasing recently. The British government is doing everything it can to avoid that outcome.” He added: “We have put some serious proposals on the table. “But we do need to see a change in approach by the European Commission if we’re going to have a pragmatic approach that works for everyone.
Times
The number of European Union citizens working in Britain has fallen by the largest annual amount since records began 21 years ago. The number in jobs dropped by 86,000 to 2.28 million between April and June this year compared with the same period last year, according to official figures. The fall was driven largely by a big reduction in workers from Poland and seven other eastern European states, known as the A8 countries, but there was also a fall in those from the original EU member states such as France and Germany.
Sun
A STAGGERING 330,000 more Brits are in work than a year ago – as record numbers of EU nationals quit and go back home. Official figures yesterday revealed another surge in employment and unemployment at a 43-year low despite Brexit fears. The number of people in work rose by 42,000 in the three months to June to 32.39 million – 313,000 higher than last summer. And the Office for National Statistics showed the ‘net’ rise was almost exclusively accounted for by UK nationals getting a job. The number of UK nationals in work has jumped by 332,000 since June 2017 to almost 28.8 million.
Brexit
Westmonster
In the latest development sure to worry Brexiteers, there are now rumblings that Prime Minister Theresa May could cave in to accepting EU rules for the UK for an even longer period moving forward to secure a deal. May could accept keeping aspects of the ‘transition period’, which is currently set to last until the end of 2020 and will see the UK adhere to EU rules and regulations. The move could see Britain keep not just the EU’s tariff regime until the end of 2021, but also Single Market regulations in key areas, according to Bloomberg. Time and time again the British government have seemed fine with delaying independence and opting into EU rules.
Express
EUROSCEPTIC Tories are planning to defy Theresa May by publishing their own alternative blueprint for Brexit, it has emerged. A policy paper setting out a framework for a full break with the EU is set to be published by the European Research Group of MPs and peers next month. It is expected to set out a different vision for Britain’s post-Brexit future relationship with Brussels in contrast to the close customs links backed by the Prime Minister. Senior Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the European Research Group, is understood to be drawing up the proposals with the help of former Brexit minister Steve Baker.
Breitbart
Pro-Brexit Tories are plotting to challenge the Prime Minister directly by drawing up their own “positive” plan for a clean Brexit, including a “no deal” exit from the European Union (EU). Leading Brexiteer MP Jacob Rees-Mogg is organising the policy paper, which will outline the advantages to pulling out of the protectionist bloc on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms, The Times reports. Mr. Rees-Mogg leads the 60-strong pro-Brexit European Research Group and the paper is expecting to be backed by as many as 80 Tory MPs, ramping up the pressure on Mrs May ahead of the party conference in Birmingham.
Telegraph
The proposed Brexit outline ministers agreed at Chequers may be floundering in Brussels and Westminster, but Theresa May is refusing to let it die. Supporters of her plan say that it offers the best chance of delivering on the referendum result, while Brexiteer critics like Jacob Rees-Mogg and Boris Johnson insist that it should be torn up in favour of something much more ambitious. As strong as their criticism might be, decrying her plan as “not Brexit”, it has fallen on deaf ears in Downing Street.
Independent
Conservative Brexiteers are reportedly drawing up an alternative plan to rival Theresa May’s Chequers agreement, detailing what they claim to be the advantages of leaving the EU without a deal. The European Research Group (ERG) of backbench Eurosceptic Tory MPs – led by Jacob Rees-Mogg – is expected to publish a policy paper ahead of the Conservative party’s annual conference in Birmingham next month. The paper will challenge the prime minister’s proposals set out before the summer recess, which led to the resignations of the Brexit secretary David Davis and the foreign secretary Boris Johnson.
Guardian
British expatriates have launched a fresh legal challenge against the 2016 referendum, arguing that the result has been invalidated by the Electoral Commission’s ruling on leave campaign spending. The judicial review against the prime minister, Theresa May, has been submitted to the high court in London by the UK in EU Challenge group, which represents Britons living in France, Italy and Spain. It argues that the recent Electoral Commission findings on BeLeave and Vote Leave – which resulted in two officials being reported to the police and punitive fines being imposed – means that the referendum to leave the EU was not a lawful, fair or free vote.
Terror attack
Telegraph
A terror suspect is believed to have travelled through the night from Birmingham to stake out Westminster for more than an hour and a half before mowing down cyclists outside the Houses of Parliament, it emerged on Tuesday night. The 29-year-old man, named on Tuesday night as Salih Khater who is believed to be of Sudanese origin, waited until rush hour before swerving on to the wrong side of the road and hitting cyclists who were waiting at the traffic lights. He then crashed into barriers outside the entrance to the House of Lords.
Times
A suspected terrorist spent 90 minutes trawling the streets of Westminster before crashing into cyclists and pedestrians outside Parliament yesterday. The 29-year-old man, a British citizen of Sudanese origin, brought the spectre of terrorism back to London when he allegedly drove his Ford Fiesta into commuters and towards police officers before hitting a security barrier. The suspect had travelled to London late on Monday from Birmingham, where he had recently lived in a rented flat above a barber’s and internet café in Sparkbrook, an area that has been previously linked with terrorist plots. His name is understood to be Salih Khater.
Mail
A Sudanese immigrant known to police is thought to be behind another terror attack on Westminster after ploughing his car into 15 cyclists outside Parliament. Salih Khater, 29, veered off the road careering into pedestrians and cyclists at Parliament Square, after spending the night cruising around London. There were screams as the Ford Fiesta mounted the pavement and mowed people down at up to 50mph at 7.37am. In a chilling echo of Khalid Masood’s murderous rampage on Westminster 17 months ago, the driver, from Birmingham, sped towards the Palace of Westminster – narrowly missing two police officers guarding the access road who jumped out of his path. He then smashed into a security barrier outside Parliament.
BBC News
Police are searching three addresses in the Midlands after a man was arrested on suspicion of terrorism following a car crash outside Parliament. The 29-year-old British suspect is not believed to be known to MI5 or counter-terrorism police. A vehicle swerved into cyclists and pedestrians shortly after 07:30 BST before crashing into a barrier outside the Houses of Parliament. Two people were treated in hospital but were later discharged. A third person with minor injuries was assessed at the scene. No-one else was in the car when it crashed and no weapons were found in it.
Corbyn
Mail
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn faces fresh condemnation today after a photograph emerged of him apparently making the salute of a controversial Muslim movement. Mr Corbyn was seen making the Rabbi’ah four-fingered gesture popularised by the Muslim Brotherhood – the political movement condemned as ‘counter to British values and democracy’. The shot, which emerged in the Daily Telegraph, shows Mr Corbyn standing alongside a man in a Muslim Association of Great Britain badge at Finsbury Park Mosque in the MP’s Islington North constituency. The paper said the picture was believed to have been taken in February 2016, after he became party leader.
Telegraph
Jeremy Corbyn has been condemned for making the salute of an Islamist organisation which was described by a Government inquiry as “counter to British values and democracy”. The Labour leader was pictured making the four-fingered Rabbi’ah sign, a symbol of the Muslim Brotherhood, during a visit to Finsbury Park mosque in his Islington North constituency. The Brotherhood has been accused of engaging in terrorist activities and is proscribed across much of the Middle East and in Russia.
ITV News
Jeremy Corbyn faces further criticism after a picture emerged of him apparently making a salute linked to an Islamist organisation found to have possible connections to extremism. The photograph, published in the Daily Telegraph, shows the Labour leader making the four-fingered Rabbi’ah sign, which is used by the Muslim Brotherhood as a symbol of support for the overthrow of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi in a military coup d’etat in 2013. It comes as Mr Corbyn continues to face questions over his visit to a controversial event at a Palestinian Martyrs Cemetery in 2014.
Mail
Jeremy Corbyn faced fresh condemnation today as photographs underlined how he was standing at the foot of Munich terrorists’ graves during a wreath-laying ceremony. The photographs, revealed by the Daily Mail, show him holding a wreath by the graves of members of Black September, the terror group that massacred 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics. Mr Corbyn sighed and rolled his eyes as he faced questions about the incident in a television interview yesterday. He said there were ‘many people laying many wreaths’ during his visit to the cemetery in Tunisia where Palestinian ‘martyrs’ are buried.
Sun
JEREMY Corbyn might have been spending some time on a farm today, but it is his explanation for being at a wreath-laying ceremony for Munich terrorists which smells funny. The Labour leader can’t stop changing his line on what really happened at the cemetery in Tunis in 2014, which has seen him widely condemned. From saying he wasn’t there at all when the Black September killers were honoured, he was forced to admit he was there after pictures emerged. Mr Corbyn then admitted to being there when the wreath was laid, but claimed he “didn’t think he was involved”.
Times
Jeremy Corbyn is facing a parliamentary inquiry into claims that he failed to declare who paid for his wreath-laying trip to Tunisia. Labour admitted that Mr Corbyn had been funded by the Tunisian government to travel there in 2014, before he became party leader, along with two nights’ accommodation in a hotel. It was during the trip to attend a conference on Middle Eastern affairs that he visited the Palestinian martyrs’ cemetery in Tunis and laid a wreath near the graves of members of the terrorist group that carried out the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre.
Mail
The Labour leader faces an investigation into why he failed to register his controversial trip to Tunisia with Parliamentary authorities. Jeremy Corbyn‘s office originally refused to say who paid for his flights and accommodation as he attended a conference on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Last night a Labour spokesman revealed it was the Tunisian government. The 2014 visit was not declared in the Register of Members’ Interests at the time. The spokesman said this was because the costs fell below the threshold for declarations, which was then £660.
Guardian
Labour has hit out at what it said were “false and misleading” claims about Jeremy Corbyn’s visit to the Palestinian cemetery in Tunis and insisted he had attended an annual memorial for victims of an Israeli air attack on the Palestine Liberation Organisation headquarters in October 1985. The party offered its most complete version of events yet about Corbyn’s controversial visit in 2014, and said the commemoration for the 74 people who had died was attended by “mainstream leaders”, including a Palestinian authority minister.
Defence
Mirror
Britain must expand its military presence in the Arctic to ward off Russian expansion in the region, MPs have warned. The Commons Defence Committee says President Vladimir Putin is building up a heavy military presence along the Arctic coastline. It comes amid the Arctic ice sheet retreating, due to global warming, revealing natural resources like oil and minerals. The melt has also made the region more accessible to ships, sparking a rush to dominate the Arctic militarily and exploit its vast resources. But a new report by the Commons Defence Committee warns the UK is far behind in the race.
Times
Britain must step up its defence of the Arctic to counter increased Russian military activity, MPs have warned. The Kremlin is boosting its presence in the territory and could prompt a return to “great power competition” over it, the defence sub-committee said in a report, On Thin Ice: UK Defence in the Arctic, published today. The shrinking of the ice sheet has opened up new opportunities for shipping and the exploitation of natural resources in the Arctic, and several south and east Asian countries now claim an interest in the region.
Education
Times
The number of teenagers awarded A-levels in modern languages is expected to fall sharply tomorrow despite attempts to revive French and German by making it easier to get an A*. Initial figures published this year showed the number of pupils in England taking French A-level this summer had fallen to less than 8,000, a decline of 8 per cent in one year, and German has decreased by 16 per cent to 2,890. Numbers taking German have halved in ten years and figures for French have halved in the past 14 years. Changes to A-levels, the results of which will be received by hundreds of thousands of teenagers tomorrow, have been blamed, as have funding cuts.
Weather
Mail
Stifling heatwaves are likely to be a feature of the global climate for at least the next four years, scientists say. Both average ground and sea surface temperatures could be abnormally high, which may in turn increase the likelihood of tropical storms. The research was carried out before this summer’s heatwaves that sent temperatures in the UK and other parts of the world soaring. But the unusually hot weather was correctly predicted by the same scientists in January – who said 2018 had a ‘high probability of having a warm anomaly’, relative to the general effects of global warming.
Times
The next four years will be “anomalously warm” as natural factors amplify the effects of man-made climate change, scientists have predicted. A new, statistical forecasting method has suggested that over the next four years temperature rises attributable to cyclical natural effects could eclipse the long-term global warming trend. On the heels of this year’s heatwave, the forecast suggests that we should ready ourselves for an elevated chance of “extreme warm events” until at least 2022, and possibly longer. The findings also suggest that oceans will warm more rapidly than the air above land, potentially increasing the risk of hurricanes, typhoons and other extreme weather.
Mail
Temperatures across the UK are set to plummet this week as a gulf stream shift is set to bring an end to the hot weather in Britain, Met Office data suggests. The Met Office has warned that along with cooler air sweeping across the country, there is likely to be rain and strong winds in the next few days. Already this week, east of England and Scotland have been battered by thunderstorms and some torrential downpours. Unfortunately for Britons hoping the hot weather continues, cooler air is sweeping across the country while hot streams are being pushed back towards mainland Europe.
Apocalypse
Star
THE world will end in 2040 as over-population and pollution choke the world – according to an advanced computer programme. The end of the world prediction was made by researchers in 1973 – using the programme “World One” but has resurfaced this week. The Australian Broadcasting Company has also republished its original report on the doomsday prediction machine. The computer analysed trends such as pollution levels, population growth and the depletion of natural resources. “At around 2020, the condition of the planet becomes highly critical,” the report said. “If we do nothing about it, the quality of life goes down to zero.
It used to be thought sensible to be extra vigilant on anniversaries of Islamic terrorist attacks.
However, it is no longer sensible.
By 2017, each of the 366 possible days have been graced with at least one slaughter of the infidel.
When will we learn how the gent of Sudanese origin came to be British ? We know the Manchester bomber was picked up by the Royal Navy off Libya .
Do I sound like Boris Johnson, or is all this a job creation scheme for the intelligence services ?
Dont we have enough home grown problems ?
Fortunately, young Eugene, the lad studied at the Sudan University of Science and Technology.
If indeed his aim was to crash through an Integration Bollard, his choice of a 1.25 litre, light as a feather, 59 bhp Fiesta was… inspired.
The bollard, which had more sense than the driver, didn’t even know it had been hit.
He’s become the creater of economic growth that the pro-migration zealots promised.
Twenty police cars, a few ambulances, helicopters, police officers, solicitors, barristers, judges, prison, prison staff, the inevitable appeals, more judiciary, etc etc etc.
And Theresa May gave him a British passport so he can’t be deported.
Sparkbrook, Birmingham: this is going to be just the tip of an iceberg.
That area around the Stratford Road is “Little East Africa”: full of African men from Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia etc, sitting outside the numerous cafes all day. You see relatively few African women though… Every other shop seems to be a barbershop, cafe or internet cafe.
You never see any traffic wardens, despite some horrific parking, especially during Friday prayers at the mosque round the corner. I’ve reported taxless and MOTless vehicles parked on the streets, yet nothing is done. Despite being a 20mph zone, idiots race around the side streets. Considering Sparkbrook is supposed to be one of the most impoverished areas of the city, with high unemployment, there seems to be a disproportionate amount of Ferraris and Lamborghinis as well as other high-spec Audi and VW cars.
My point is that Sparkbrook is the kind of area where potential terrorists can hide away, be prepared and trained in secret, because the authorities just leave the area alone. Afraid of upsetting the ‘community’? Yes, that’s why the street surveillance CCTV cameras were all turned off.
Ever wonder why there hasn’t been any terror attack in Birmingham? Think of the phrase “don’t sh*t on your own doorstep”…
> You never see any traffic wardens
I do hope they haven’t all been killed.
In similar parts of London, there are swarms of “Civil Enforcement Officers”. However, they may know who it is safe to ticket, and who it is not.
A couple of years ago, one Friday lunchtime while they were all having a “jolly good pray” (my expression) round at the mosque, myself and a colleague, as well as one of our neighbours at work, watched in stunned silence as two traffic wardens walked down our road, towards where the devout worshippers had dumped their cars on double-yellow lines, as well as double-parking right at a junction. But instead of having a field day and issuing a load of parking fines, they took one look, turned around and walked back up the road. That is a true story. You’ll also like to know that I sent emails to all three (at the time) Labour councillors for the Sparkbrook ward to complain firstly about the amount of fly-tipping in the area, as well as to complain about the nuisance parking during prayer times, and I never received any reply from any of them. Perhaps I shouldn’t have mentioned the mosque, or prayer time?
The Molenbeek of the Midlands. Or one contender for that title.
I wrote as someone who, many years ago, when Molenbeek was very, very undesirable, but not utterly ruined, parked his car in the heart of Molenbeek.
The parking meters had a button to press which gave 15 (or was it 10?) minutes free parking. As I had something to do which would occupy several hours, that was no good to me; so, I started sifting through my Euro coins.
I suddenly found I had company…
I was told, in French, that this was not the way it was done. I *must* instead pay them (there was a pecking order, apparently) and they would press the free parking button for me, as often as was needed. My French is OK for touristy stuff, but inadequate for bargaining with brigands. I said I was not going to leave my car keys with anyone, but they indicated that the ticket underneath a windscreen wiper would suffice.
I conveyed (or tried to) that this might alert the traffic warden, who would surely realise what was going on. They must have understood because of the laughter my words evoked. I was given to understand that if a warden came to make trouble… my interlocutor drew his forefinger across his throat.
“Guarantee no problem.”, I was assured in English.
When in Belgium, do as the …… do.
Oh yes sparkbrook. Represented by Roy Hattesley for 33 years. Another social democrat that doesn’t believe in democracy. Hattesley wants the Brexit vote ignored just like he ignored concerns about immigration in his constituency. Now a lord and living the multicultural dream in rural Derbyshire.
Arctic / Defence
We need A LOT of small, relatively cheap frigates rather than 4 utterly useless F35b fighters at £175,000,000 a pop…. with 8 more to come by 2023 and 2 aircraft carriers which cannot be used as they have no picket ships to protect them and… to save money ( ???? ) only a 20mm CIWS for defence and of course no catapults or arrestor wires….
Might also be handy to have a few naval patrol aircraft and those frigates to protect our fisheries should we ever have the temerity to actually leave the EU.
In the meantime lets waste £99,000,000,000 on a train line to Birmingham to shave 20 minutes off the journey…
Calls for the pedestrianisation of Parliament Square will not stop terrorism.
My advice would be to remove all police protection from outside the Palace of Westminster to make it easier for new arrivals, lone wolves and the mentally ill to meet MPs and Peers as often as possible.
We have to live among them despite not being asked.
MPs and Peers invite them in from Sudan etc etc etc and then want police officers to keep them away.
Agreed. My thoughts exactly you beat me to it. Course those working in Westminster behind the security barriers are also well insulated from a population they will not listen to or credit with any intelligence. Barriers between elected and an electorate are well policed unlike our borders. An attack on Westminster every day for a year would not change immigation policy since those that know better will not listen.
Disrupt all the traffic for the next few years to ‘pedestrianise’ Parliament Square and the terrorists would have won.
Kill the terrorists instead.
Ideally before they come back to claim their council houses, but after if necessary.
Why do we spend so much money on defence and intelligence if we don’t have the intelligence to defend ourselves in the first place?
Saw someone on the news basically saying you are looking at things all wrong.
Rather than increase ‘protection’ for parliament, why not tackle the root causes of this sort of ‘terrorist’ action?
Ask yourself why these punters all advertise Ali’s Snackbar for example?
Oh, wait. Knock on door – er, sorry officer just er, just saying, er, . . .
Common Purpose Cressida Dick would ban Fiestas before banning Jihadist preachers and mosques.
Please refer to Dick Head of the met with suitable deference, Bryan.
She dismissed evidence of the existence of large numbers of paedophile rape and trafficking/sex-slaving gangs, claiming they were nothing new and had been a part of British society for centuries.
I spent hours on http://www.oldbaileyonline.org, a beautifully organised and indexed site of what came before the Old Bailey, starting in 1674.
I found nothing similar at all.
This Dick also refused to comment on the ethnicity of most modern day perpetrators in England of this most heinous of crimes, claiming it would not be politically acceptable.
Here, Dick, I’ll help you. The overwhelming majority are Pakistani-ethnicity Muslims. Despite them allegedly comprising under 2% of the UK’s population.
Well, this abomination has revealed itself for what it is. Its job description appears to be transitioning the UK into an Islamic State. So, what can be done about it? It carries out its subversion of law, order and justice with the protection of the Khan and a whole barrel-full of disgraceful London Labour MPs.
Surely you mean Dick, Head of the Met? One comma makes a big difference.
I’m sure I did. Devastated.
If her fellow lesbians were being groomed attacked and bundled in to Transits, Cressida would do someone. She may even send in cameras to film it.
‘Dick van Dyke show’
I’ll get my coat.
I’m sure I don’t understand those cultural references.
Some cruel people might well say that it suits a certain agenda if gang rape and sex slavery of young girls is allowed, through a mixture of incompetence and design. After all, Dick claimed (in December or January, if I recall right) that it’s been part of British society for centuries.
Some of these poor girls are then understandably likely to never want to be close to a man again…
’nuff said. Doesn’t bear thinking of.
Why was Operation Kratos not enough?
“My advice would be to remove all police protection from outside the Palace of Westminster to make it easier for new arrivals, lone wolves and the mentally ill to meet MPs and Peers as often as possible.”
That is a truly enlightened suggestion and meets with my full approval. I will pass this on to our Assembly members to put to Khan.
SInce you and I know the political class is not at all hypocritical, they are probably already chomping at the bit for what Gerard calls Diversity Barriers, and I call Integration Bollards, to be torn down!
thought it was axiomatic that you had to “understand” the conditions that “caused a problem” – say, deprivation, poverty, and lack of social personal progress. The usual answer being lack of “investment” and as Prof Vernon Bogadon put it
“governments only favouring the elites of all political shades, ignoring the elderly and insecure “victims of economic change , alienated from the meritocratic political establishment, the elderly white shirt working class …………….”
I diverge, we will only stop terrorism, if we do something (not just think) about the “causes” that influence terrorism generated within the population of this or indeed any country. and that starts with the consideration of the teaching and tentacles of Imams to adherents of a religion alien to the laws, and customs of the indigenous population.
When I say “doing” I mean actually “dealing”, but first there has to be an end to the conspiratorial omerta practiced by the Legacy parliamentary parties, most of the establishment and the MSM “Burying”/”ignoring” available evidence as shown by the attitude to Pakistani and other race rapists leads to outcomes and institutionalisation far worde than when the problem started, in fact often rendering it incapable of solution without drastic action (as Winston Churchill warned in the 1930`s when Nazi -ism was just gathering speed)
It’s interesting that the ‘call to ban cars’ has reared its ugly head again, rather than dealing with the actual issue. Reminds me of a video I saw on Youtube where Douglas Murray explained how the Establishment preferred to deal with ‘secondary problems’ rather than address the root cause, ie the ‘primary problem’.
It also reminds me of something I read with regards to UN Agenda 21 / Agenda 2030, where private ownership of motor vehicles was desired to be eliminated (except for the wealthy elites of course), so ways would have to be found to ‘discourage’ their use, and get people using public transport networks instead, thus preventing them from travelling freely across the country. One only has to see how this is being slowly implemented before one’s eyes (the totalitarian tip-toe, as David Icke would say), with increases in fuel pricing, road taxes, insurance price hikes, endless roadworks programmes that cause more traffic problems than they solve, congestion (or ‘clean air zone’) charges, I could go on, but its pretty clear to see now. Its getting more and more expensive to own and run a car now.